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LIBRARY

U^SPSTY 'T
MAS'""^ ETTS

;L.ST, MASS.

THE

NEW ENGLAND FARMER;

A MONTHLY JOURNAL,

DEVOTED TO

AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE,

AND THEIR KINDRED

ARTS AND SCIENCES;

AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS.

THE PRIME PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE.

1. The soil ought to be kept dry; or, in other words, free from all superfluous moisture.

2. The soil ought to be kept clean ; or, in other words, free from noxious weeds.

3. The soil ought to be kept rich ; or, in otlicr words, every particle of enriching material which can be
collected ought to be applied, so that the soil may be preserved in a state capable of yielding good crops.

Eessenden.

SIMON BROWN, EDITOR.

VOLUME XIV.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN,

lOO WASHINGTON STREET.

1862.

INDEX TO THE FOURTEENTH VOLUME.

« ■»«» >

Abortion in Cows, . - . - - 346
Account, agricultural, ... - 309

Acid, sulphuric, ------ 325

Address, by L. H. Tucker, - - - - 28

Agent, disinfecting, ----- 369

Agriculture, manual of, 18, 35, 83, 109; hints
on, 44; Mass. Board of, 238; in colleges,
270; statistics of, in Mass., 276; accounts in,
309 ; slow progress in, 339 ; department of,
at Washington, 348 ; in common schools,
352, 449, 474, 491, 509, 510, 528, 549 ; Amer-
ican, 379 ; reading about, 414 ; knowledge
of, 416; importance of, 428 ; in the Hawaiian
Islands, 435, 443; exhibitions for 1862, 437 ;
progress of, in United States, 474 ; reports

of, - 500, 517

A-going too fast, 365

America, age of States of, - - - - 54

Animals, salt for, 31 ; protecting from storms,
332 ; voices of, 358 ; care of, in winter, 543 ;
on fattening, ------ 561

Ant, dwelling of the, 413

Apple, new method of keeping, 16 ; Baldwin,
304 ; the Flanders, 478 ; superior kinds of,
504 ; best way to dry, 527 ; tree, borer, 530 ;
and pumpkin for cattle, - - - - 541
April, calendar for, - - - - - 153

Arboretum, our, 355

Ashes, of vegetables, 62 ; as a fertilizer, 98 ;
for potatoes, 128 : use of, 243 ; and night
soil, 260 ; coal, and cinders, 362 ; leashed,
415 ; hard coal, 473 ; about, - - - 546
Asparagus, how to raise, 219 ; roots of the, 285
Atmosphere, influence ot, on soil, - - 267
Atom, story of an, ... - - 520
Autumn, scenes in, - - - - - 516

Babies, American, ... - - 392
Back, keep it covered, - - - - 175

Balloon ascent, the highest, . . - 504

Bark, tan, for soils, - - - - 195, 566

Barley, steeping of, before sowing, 155, 278;
value of, 250; handsome, 261 ; for sheep, 284

Barn, sheep, plan of, 131, 192, 213, 304; and
barn cellars, 185 ; God governs the, 541 ;
largest in the country, . - - - 562

Barometer, the, 233, 289 ; is it weatherwise ?
318,363; a natural, . - - - 462

Bean, meal, for pigs, 76 ; white, culture of,
100; and a mouse, 210; a fertilizer for the,
233 ; how it climbs the pole, - - - 339

Bees, at war, 37 ; culture of, 288 ; and king-
birds, 408 ; pasturage for, . - - 453

Bells, steel amalgam, - - - - - 417

Bethel, Maine, 539

Bird, 73 ; protect the, 218 ; of New England,
252, 284, 425, 467, 523, 539, 558 ; music of,
272; migration of, 310; the bobolink, 364;

helping to build their nests, 380 ; king, and
bees, 408 ; the flight of, 423 ; against in-
sects, 455

Bleeding, how to stop, - - . . 99
Bone, cattle gnawing, 31 ; preparation of, 140;

dust for cows, 195 : how to dissolve, 244, 568
Books, new, - 164,269,298,363,486,568

Borders, how to make, - - . . 1(55

Borrowing, about, 66 ; and lending, - - 333

Bran, wheat, as a fertilizer, - . _ 264

Bread and butter machine, - - - 429

Brick, tubular, 396 : a new kind of, - - 514

Brme, poisonous properties of, - . - 97

Brown, Simon, letters from, - - 349, 431

Buckwheat, a l)ad crop for the soil, - - 419
Building, important things to know about in,
32 ; painting roofs of, 181 ; farm, as to shel-
ter and shade, 186; farm, and fences, 267;
painting and sheltei- for, 287 ; proper location
of farm, 304, 386 ; a good wash for, 438 ;

mortar for, 438 ; hints on, - . - 46O

Business in war times, . - - - 551

Burn, a cure for a, - - - - - 296

Bushes, when to cut, ----- 419

Butter worker, a new, - - . . 563

535
198

537

265
76

370
148

Cabbage, component parts of the, 396 ; heading
late,

Cakes, buckwheat, - - - - -
Calendar for Januarv, 9 ; for Februarv, 57; for
March, 105; for April, 153; for May, 201;
for June, 249 ; for July, 297 ; for August,
345 ; for September, 393 ; for October, 441 ;
for November, 489 ; for December, -
Calves, how to raise, 158, 161, 206 ; that scour,
175 ; meal for, - - - . -

Cart body, a new,

Carpets, manufiicture of, -
Case, a new propagating, . - . -
Cattle, hoven in, 19 ; to stop vomiting in, 78 ;
market reports of, 82, 104, 152, 200, 248,
296, 344, 392, 440, 488, 511, 536; foul, in
the foot in. 111; disease in, 58, 93, 154;
breeds of, 159; vermin on, 168, 290, 326; in
winter, 173; marauding, 277, 462; chewing
bones, 290; warts on, 293; shoes, 493, 497,

501,

Cellar, barn, outside, - - - - -
Cement for stoves, - - - . -

Ciiai-acter is capital,

Chilblains, cure for,

Children, punishment of, 225; sorrows of, -

China, Great Wall of,

Chrysanthemum, the,

Churn, a good, 244 ; how to make a, -
Cider, how to preserve, . - . -

Cistern water, Ill, 526

Clay, a fertilizer, 207 ; for drain tile, - - 326
Clergymen in war times, - - - - 556
Climate, 73

531
101
454
21
124
246
222
451
409
514

1 i\ JJ E X ,

Clover, cultivation of, for fodder, 365 ; and

iilastcr, 388 ; crops of, 399 ; in orchards, 403
Club, Farmer's, - - - - 106, 187, 311
Coal, hard, dust of, 326 ; how to bum, - 559
Coffee, substitutes for, 200 ; recipe for making, 243
Colt, how to feed a, 326 ; a fine, 72 ; bunch on
the iaw of a, 78 ; warts on a, 78 ; early train-
ing-of a, 210, 290

Conversation, home, ----- 107

Coral, the, 308

Correspondents, to 199

Corn, seed, 16, 125, 260 ; a good kind, 52 ; rel-
ative value of different kinds, 59, 171 ; in
Illinois, 64 ; will doves pull up ? 78, 84 ;
broom, 175; experiments with, 175; fodder,
206 ; cobs to be mixed with hay, 207 ; a
large crop of, 223 ; shrinkage of, in drying,
246, 547 ; deep and shallow culture of, - 561
Cotton, in the Free States, 102 ; culture of,

165; flax, 346, 567

Cow, garget in, 12, 478, 497 ; stables, 53 ;
extra feed to, 75 ; soiling, 77 ; bone dust for,
84, 195; a sick, 88; eating litter from ma-
nure heaps, 110; an hour with the milch, 119;
a fat, 131 ; parsnips for, in certain cases, 165 ;
that gives too much milk, 174; chewing
bones, 174; leaks her milk, 221 ; to prevent
from kicking, 260, 373 ; and ten months'
calf, 266 ; versus horses, 270 ; a good, 282 ;
health of the, 406 ; to prevent from throw-
ing fences, 427 ; abortion in, -

Courtesies, home,

Cranberry plants, setting the, 220; culture of

the, 221, 258, 519 ; vine, worm on, -
Crop, feed the, 183 ; in England, 294 ; pre-
mium on field, 354 ; the grass.
Crow, the, and robin, 269 ; the, -
Cucumbers, in pots, 117 ; and melons,
Curculio, remedy for, 265 ; the, -
Currant, how to propagate the, 246 ; cuttings
of the, 285 ; wine, how to make, 391 ; drying
the, 391 ; about the, - - - 412, 539

479
342

222

373
302
339
332

Dahlias, to preserve tubers of, 448 ; soil for,

Dairy, keeping a,

Daughiers, marriage of, - - - -
Day, John, farm of, 301 ; an autumnal,
December, thoughts suggested by,
Desert, pillars of sand in the.
Dog, wood, 293 ; power, 334 ; versus wool,
Draining, 23, 76 ; new book on, 131 ; will it
pay? 205: clay lands, 220, 256; how deep,
389, 508, 526 ; with stones and pipes.
Dress, extravagance in, - - - -
Drought and freshet, 3^5 ; spring,
Dunbarton, N. H., notice of, - - -
Dust, charcoal, as a deodorizer, - - -

Duty, home,

Dysentery and fever, - - - - 462,

Eagle, stratagem of the, . - - -
Earth, the, a burning cauldron, 85; the age of
our, --------

Economv, thoughts on, . - - -
Education, agricultural, 2G2 ; for sons, 279, 315 ;
advantages of, 397; and thinking, 442; re-
laxation in, ------

Eggs, how to pack for transportation, 124 ; how
to cook in the shell, 151 ; iiow to examine for
setting, 185 ; a Jiundred from a Python, 232,
287 ; keeping properties of, 347 ; hens cat-

i"J?. - - - ,

Elm, when to prune the, - . - -
England, what is she doing ? 142 ; Japanese in.

455
343
439
560
537
496
465

541
64
388
328
264
409
496

316

367
492

536

507
220
333

Engine, greenhouse, - - - - - 417

Esquimaux riflemen, 143; architecture of, - 538

Evergreen, how to make it grow compact, - 195

Experiment, a curious, . - . - 296

Explorer, arctic, return of, - - - - 498

Family, a pleasant and well-regulated, 173;

a birth in the, 295

Farm, small and large, 171 ; hints on buying a,
203, 316 ; roadsides of the, 237 ; labor, make
it fashionable, 331 ; engineering, 374; personal
experience in earning a, - - - - 405
Farmer, natural science for, 34, 72; want of
sociability among, 59 ; rights of the, 69 ; the
New England, 89; high school for the, 101;
timely advice to the, 163; and natural his-
tory, 361 ; and the draft, 427 ; the Massachu-
setts, 475 ; encouragement for the, - - 545
Farming, is it profitable'? 12, 21, 46, 97, 114,
123, 269, 290, 312, 338, 377, 406; contrasts
in, 27 ; rivalry in, 322; why are so few young
men fond of, 331 ; A. G. Sheldon's, - 336

Fat, use of, 133

February, calendar for, - . - - 57

Feet, educated, 152

Fence, a new, 26 ; Smith's improved, 186, 243,
257, 312; about a, 314, 351, 422, 533 ; econ-
omy of a, 546

Fever, and ague, 392 ; and dysentery, 462, 496

Fireside, winter, 110

Fish, tenacity of life in a, 141 ; and fish breed-
ing, 457

Flannel for summer and winter, - - - 428
Flax, dressing of, 38 ; culture of, 89 ; and
linen, trade of, in Ireland, 180; and fibrilia, 567

Flesh versus milk, 265

Flower, dielytra spectabilis, 168 ; early, annual,
217; and fruit, 252 ; the bur-marigold, 438;
and farming, 445 ; fresh, in winter, - - 487
Flowage, case of, 126 ; of Concord River, 254,

274, 280, 514

Fodder and manure, relation of, - - - 546
Food, qualities and changes in, - - - 563
Forests, rotation in the, - - - - 299
Fox, a story about a, - - - - - 253
French, Henrv F., letter from, - - - 323

Frog, trade in" the, 388

Frost, in the window, 68 ; and the weather, 490

Fruit, culture of, in pots, 118; garden, 233;
and flowers, 253 ; ringing for, 258 ; hints
about, 326 ; wafers, for dessert, 391 ; how to
stamp or figure wiien growing, 433 ; explana-
tion of terms used in describing, 448, 449 ;
gatherer, 467 ; ripening of, 499 ; as a medi-
cine, 515: thinning of, 531 ; analysis of, - 561
Fuel, - '- - ' 225

Garden, the vegetable, 216 ; kitchen, 242 ; sur-
face of the, 256 ; a walk in my, 293, 360 ;
]ilan of, 433 ; insects in the, 436 ; D. W.
Lincoln's, 444; a pattern, 459; flower, in
November, ------

Gas from coal.

Gate, tlie best,

Gentility, American, -

Girls, English, -

Goats, about keeping, ■

Gooseberry, the,

Grain, plowing ibr, in winter, - - -

Grammar, in rhyme,

Grajie, native, how to protect, 37 ; culture of,
51, 198, 417; vine, grafting the, 70,; vines,
pruning, 164; vine, barren, 290 ;. o])en-air,
culture of the, 336 ; house for the, 399 ; how

250,

135, 146, 186, 244,

565

548
340
391
296
261
266
430
548

INDEX

to keep the, 421, 454 ; seedlin^r^ 479 ; Brack-
ett's seedling, 535

Grass, land, seeding in the spring. 111; timo-
thy, in JSoutiiern Ohio, 157 ; seeding land
to, 174; Hungarian, 205, 503; cost of cut-
ting, 256; manures for, 405; crop of, 415;
ho|)pers, habits of, 416 ; beauty of the, - 427

Guano, American, 152, 215, 217; quantity to
be used, 198

Gypsum, ...--- 14^ 275

Habitation, lacustrine, . . - . 473

Hams and sides, how to cure, 36 ; and beef, 47

Harness, wash for, 283

Hay, stacks, covering for, 22 ; and corn, shrink-
age by drying, 246 ; to measure a ton of,
259 ; spreader and turner, 313 ; field, the,
368 : and haying, 381 ; caps for, - - 387
Healtii, brightens tilings, 279; and vigor, cause

of, 410; physical, 447

Hearthstone, musings by the, ... 354
Heat, relative, of coke and coal, - - - 236

Heifer, a fat, 207

Herd, premiums on, ... - 52, 560

Hide, raw, 76, 77, 110

Highway and repairs, 240

History, natural, study of, 330 ; progress of,

382; natural, and farmers, - - 403, 446
Hives, straw, 60, 303 ; movable, comb, - 108
Hoe, horse, Wetherell's, 244 ; a good barn,

244 ; wheel, 266

Holbrook, Gov. F., in the chair of state, - 34

Homestead, the, - 111

Homes and peo])le, ..... 46I
Hominy all the year round, ... 360

Honey, madness caused by, ... 321

Hops, culture of, 78, 259 ; crop of, for Mass., 85
Horns, shaping steers', .... 90

Horse, staggers in, 12; fine, 23; glanders in,
26; hots in, 81; founder in, 102; hair of
the, 147 ; number of, in Vermont, 184; how
to cure heaves in the, 195 ; cure of ringbone
on the, 207, 244 ; with a cough, 242 ; worms
in the, 261 ; a thorough-bred, 273 ; Morrill
Draco, 285; to care scratches in, 290; crib-
bing of the, 317 ; city, a look at the, 374 ; and
sx hat, 435; kicking, to cure, 517 ; to cure a
breachy, 522 ; feet, treatment of, 532 ; a puU-

ing-back, 533, 553

House, smoke, a cheap and good, 478 ; warm-
ing and ventilating a, - - - - 525
Hotbed, uses of a, - - - - 65, 392

Hothouse, 117, 395

Hungarian grass, .... 205, 308

Hunting, perils of chamois, ... 261

Ice, a trot on the, 250 ; berg, bursting of an,
259 ; house, a cheap, 338 ; making, by ma-
chinery, --..--- 497
Illinois, Southern, .... 108, 208
Implements, farming, preparations of, 134;

and machinery.
Insects, injurious to vegetation, 112, 357 ; of

Massachusetts, 410 ; the ladybird,
Instinct, animal, - . . -
Ireland, as she is, ...

Irishmen in Ireland and America,

Iron, new method of meltinj

sels, -
Irriji-ation,

Japan, presents from,

178 ; clad ves-

411

486

561

359

473
401

123

January, calendar for, -
Jefferson at Monticello,
July, about, ...

June, thoughts suggested by,

Kangaroo, the, and her pups,
Kentucky, natural wonders of,
Knowledge, pursuit of,
Kohl-rabi, culture of the,

9
229
297
249

438

444

482

61, 161

Labor, uses of, to man, - - - - 141

Labels, paint for making, .... 349

Ladder, hook, patent, ... - 257, 390
Lakes, great American, .... 490

Lamb, twin, ...... 284

Lampas, in horses, ..... 557

Land, ricli, that brings no crop, 89 : how to en-
rich, 93 ; moss on, 120; poor and rich, - 359

Lawns, about, - 323

Lawyers, ....... 256

Leakage, how to stop, .... 93

Leather, to prevent its soaking water, - - 53

Leaves, forest, 91 ; white and pitch-pine, 157,

use of, - - 500

Leech, culture of, 339

Legislative agricultural meeting, 86, 98, 115,

132, 138,''l56, 169, 179, 190, 196, 211, 226, 235

Lemons, trade in, 40

Life, human, singular facts in, - - - 20

Lightning, heat, what is it 1 - - - 407

Lighthouse, Eddystone, - - - - 171
Lime, oyster-shell, 19, 164; Coe's superphos-
phate of, 41, 74, 116, 157, 163, 178,220,327;
as a fertilizer, 98 ; in agriculture, 424 ; chlo-
ride of, to kill insects, .... 468
Linen and flax, trade of Ireland in, - - 180

Lucerne, about, 15

Luxuries, ancient and modern, - - - 25L:

Machine, Union mowing, 305 ; mowing, on
small farms, 319; Manny's mowing, 372;
trial of mowing, 380, 390, 418, 456 ; bread,

and butter, 429

Maine, correspondence from, 51 ; geology of, 203, 300

Mangold and carrots, 242

Man, a contented, 360; great, tools he worlcs

with, 451 ; advice to young, - - - 542
Manure, to be used in autumn or winter, 79,
124, 164; weight of, 178; concentrated, 204,
317, 340; exact statements about, wanted,
206 ; from poultry, 201, 244 ; marine, 221 ;
the best, 256 ; loss of, 370, 377 ; summer,
387, 397, 515; how to make, 414, 528; col-
lection and preparation of, 426 ; green, 461 ;
surface application of, 464, 527 ; supply of,
541 ; spreading in autumn, 543 ; and fodder,

relations of, 546

March, thoughts suggested by, - - - 105
Mares, scarcity of pure Arabian, - - 307

Market, reports of, 82 ; cattle, for January,
104 ; for Februarv, 152 ; for March, 200 ; for
April, 248 ; for May, 296 ; for June, 344 ; for
July, 392 ; for August, 440 ; for September,
488'; for October, 511,536; New York horse, 355.

Marketing, skill in, 383.

May, thoughts of the month, - - - 201;
Meadows, Sudbury, 69 ; top-dressing of, in au-
tumn, 556

Meat, scientific mode of boiling, - - 423

Mechanic, American, 223 ; productiveness of

the, 234

Mice, ravages of, on trees, - . - - 351

INDEX.

Mignonette, as a tree,

Mildew, sulphur for, - - - - -
Milli, yield of, 53; spreading, 317, 362, 390;
value of substances for producing, 344 ; ves-
sels, how to cleanse, 437 ; from three Ayrshire
cows, 451 ; maid, farewell to the,

Milking, about, 73,

Miller,"kill the,

Millennium is coming, . . - .

Millet, seed of, for hogs and hens,
Mind, how to improve the, 478, 529 ; a fettered.
Mink, the, an insect catcher, ...
Minnesota, statistics of, - - . -
Missionary, agricultural, ....
Mist, how generated, - . . - .
Molasses, fresh maple, - . - .

Money, continental, 175 ; no, about the house.
Morals, domestic, .....

Moon, what is in the, - - . - .
Moth, how to keep out the, - - - -
Mountain, Green, 134 ; in Vermont, -
Moving, .-..-..
Muck, value of, 25, 288 ; lasting effects of, on
corn crops, 53 ; how to get, 124 ; and how to
use, 206; management of, in yards, 318; and
ashes, 327, 372; and model farming, 386;
minerals in, 451, 466; where to apply, 518;
the farmer's mine, 541 ; treatment of.

263

368

561
236
311
328

39
485
365
507
155
234

78
372
199
354
335
283
472

555

Nail, nuts, &c., ....
Neighbors, pleasant, ...
Neuralgia, relief for, . . -
Newspapers, influence of, -
New Orleans, seventy miles below,
November, thoughts about, -
Norwegian, homes of the, -
Nurserymen, hints for the, -
Nut, screwing up the, - - -

405
367
562
11, 39
407
489
420
369
92

Oats, on bruising them, 22 ; quantity per acre,
as seed, 164 ; for sheep, 175 ; for horses, 400;
wheat, and corn, - . . . .

Observation and experience, . . -

October, thoughts suggested by, . - -

Office, our new, ------

Oil, springs, 64, 303 ; Kerosene, 239 ; coal, for
bedbugs,

Onion, early, wanted, 53 ; about weeding the,
63 ; raising the, 84 ; seed, scalding, 131 ; how
to raise, 279, 389 ; the potato - - 451,469

Order in evei-ytiiing,

Orientals, crinoline among, ...

Orchard, plowing the, 216 ; neglect of the,
420 ; keeping cultivated, 443, 547 : hogs in
the apple, ......

Oxen, as well as horses, 271 ; quantity of food
for, 319 ; gravel in, 418 ; bot in, - - 426

490

519

441

343

215
535

454

Paint and painting, .....
Paper, renovating old wall, 75 ; and cloth from

maize, --..--.
Paraftine for lubricating bullets, - - -
Parsnips, for cows, 165 ; for cattle, 176 ; worm

in, - - -

Pasture, about, 124; late, 424; improving old,

482 ; management of, . - . .
Patent Office, agricultural division of, 30, 92 ;

seeds from tlie, 131 ; report for 186<, 464,
Pea, sowing the, 127; with potatoes, 137, 240;

buggy,

Peaches in Minnesota, . - - -

267

556
331

263

521

553

174

Pear, orchard, an hour in, 24 ; culture of the,
29 ; tlie Buffum, 33 ; trees and hens, 260 ;
effects of winter on the, 293; tree, the Endi-
cott, 311 ; tree and slug, 313; thinning the,
379 ; ripening tlie, 404 ; tree, blight in, 404;
a fine seedling, 563 ; trees, compost for, -
Pens, about, ......

Perfume, about, -....-

Petticoat, Eugenie's, - . . - .
Phloxes, culture of the, ....

Pin, about tlie, --..-.
Pine, tribes and cultivation of, . - -
pipe, lead, bad effects of, 246 ; substitute for,

289 ; cement, .-.---
Pitcher, song of an old, ....

Plaster of Paris, - - - - - 14,

Plant, house, 63, 74; climbing, 188; planting,
care in, 268 ; gigantic pitcher, 542 ; winter

care of tender,

Pleuro-pneumonia, - - - 58, 93, 154,
Plow, is there any substitute for, 20 ; American,
70; when shall we? 177; plowing bee, 244;
Sutter's gang, 272 ; and plowing, 286 ; plow-
ing, benefits of autumn, - - - 418,
Plum, the royal Hative, 209; tree, black knot

on, 412, 415, 437 ; growing,
Pork, how to sell fresh, 91 ; how to cure, 459,
Post, to prevent being thrown by frost, 38 ; how
to set a, ----- - 165,

Potato, tar on the, 127; seed, 127; on muck
land, 184; new seedling, 200; running out
of the, 213 ; sweet, culture of the, 237, 266 ;
a novel mode of planting, 240; about the,
251 ; experiments with tiie, 275 ; cooking the,
487 ; rot in the, 490 ; digging the, -
Poultry, profit of, 22, 189, 207^, 261, 471 ; sick,
22 ; about, 39 ; nests of hens, 90 ; the
Brahma, 145; experiments with, 150; tapes
in, 168 ; Legiiorn, 195, 233, 261 ; fever, de-
cline of, 218; chickens, summer, 277; pure
blood, 282, 310; house for, 341 ; house and
yard for, 421, 518 ; vermin on, 450 ; keeping
on a large scale, 479 ; hens, eating their eggs,

507 ; dung of,

Power, horse, . - - - -
Prices, high, ----..

Prison, clearing a debtor's, - - - -
Properties, transmission of, in animals,
Proverbs from Poor Richard, . - -
Prune, best time to, 217, 245, 298, 327; prun-
ing in spring, 360 ; Saint Catherine's,
Pump, West's improved, - . . -
Pumpkin and apples for cattle, . . -

567
400
312
342
128
326
38

446
174
275

557
520

532

519
566

469

519

546
113

67
346

438

437
353
541

Quill, how to clarify,

370

Rabbits, how to keep from trees in winter.
Rags, woollen, about, - - - -
Railroad, 45 ; wonderful discovery about,

in London, - - . - .
Rain, a fine, . . . - -

Rake, Stoddard's horse,
Ram, a novel, . . . . -
Ramble in the country, - . -
Rat, afraid of powder, 48; trap. 111, 369 ;

n)ice, 390 ; a novel trap for, -
Rebellion, tlie. - . - . -
Recipes, domestic, 55, 103, 247, 248, 342,
- 391,392,424,439,440,

Rein, the check,

Richmond, Va., price current in,
Roads, mending of, . - . -
Robbery, highway, . . . -

366;

and
369,

385,

4S8,

546

401
364
366
557
431

562
293

.535
560
495
324

VII

INDEX,

Robin and crows, . . . • -
Komans, wealth of old, - - . -
Roof, moss on the, - . - - -
Root cutter and cleaner, 147, 242 ; cost of a,
Room, dark, uniicaltliy, . - . .
Rose, cuttings, simple method of striking, 25 ;
pruning a climbing, 21G; a chapter on the,

231 ; salt for,

Eye, crop, great, 131, 244 ; its power to bring a
"light soil into a condition to produce wheat,

Saint Johnswort for farmers, - - 135,

Salt and saltpetre, action of, on meat, 64 ; and
its offices, ..--.-

Sap, on the circuhition of the, - - .

Sawdust, as a fertilizer, 71; red oak, 165; for
bedding, 221,

School, agricultural, - - - - -

Scenery, Alpine, 136 ; winter, - - .

Scientific pursuits, how to enter upon,

Sea, the bed of the, - . . - .

Season, and crops, 58, 82, 314, 394, 415, 480,
496; hints for the, 102; in Vermont, 329; in
Illinois, 401 ; being in, -

Seeil, pui-e, 43 ; spring sown grass, 77 ; too
much, 85 ; foul, 119 ; exchange of, 136 ; soak-
ing the, 183; how it germinates, 202; quan-
tity and quality of, 228 ; seeding with fowl
meadow, 261, 271, 533; grass, for wet laud,
479 ; of fruit, how to manage, - - -

Sliad, habits of the, '

Sliadc, poverty of, - - - - -

Shakers, a day with the, - . . -

Shee|), rye for, 35 ; fat, 64, 74 ; skins, to dress
with wool on, 97 ; sales from, 101 ; questions
about, 112 ; barns and feeding racks, plans of,
131, 481; turnips for, 150; oats for, 175;
sales of, 214; barley for, 282 ; and lambs, and
twin lambs, 329; three Spanish merinos, 372;
and wool, 463 ; breeding of, 477 ; about.

Shingles, about, 26; whitewashing the.

Shrubbery, transplanting, - - - -

Silk, how to wash, - . . - .

Sister, be kind to your, ....

Skin, on tanning, - . . 284, 285,

Skunk, how to catch a, 316 ; a w^ord for the,
373 ; about the,

Skylark jirenching a sermon, ...

Sleep, intlueuce of, 341 ; for invalids, -

Slug, on pear-trees, - . . . .

Snow, storm, 62; the, 144; blockade, 187;
water, .......

Soap, factories, waste of, 194 ; for making hard
and soft, .......

Society, Essex County, 22, 42, 78, 525 ; United
States Agricultural, 59; Vermont State, 95,
202 ; Massachusetts Horticultural, 95, 534 ;
Hingham Agiicultural, 95, 184; Franklin
County, 95 ; Hampshire, 95 ; Berkshire, 95 ;
American Pomological, 100, 356 ; American,
101 ; Worcester, North, 120 ; Rutland Countv,
Vt., 120; Caledonia County, Vt., 131 ; Mid-
dlesex, 140, 493 ; Hampshire, Franklin, and
Hampden, 190; Rhode Island, 287; New
York State, 307 ; Worcester, 478 ; Middle-
sex South, 504 ; Brooklyn, N. Y., Horticul-
tural, 504; State bounty to agricultural, 519,

Soil, temperature of the, 466 ; materials com-
posing the,

Sorrel, al)out, ......

Siiinning jenny, idea of the, ...

Sponge, how it is gathered, ....

Squash, in pots, 117; versus pumpkin, 202;
among potatoes, 232 ; winter, 531 ; how to
raise the, .......

Squirrel, the gray, . . . _ .

269
81
204
164
437

367

408

206

555
281

259
107
1.50
395
447

548

534
413
121
349

513
377
160
470
296
290

501
452
464
313

265

385

544

517
241
427
394

.539
515

Stable, improvement in, 15 ; bedding and plas-
ter in, 157

Stains, how to remove, .... 199

Steer, how to train, 62 ; matching the horns, 90 ;
a sick, ....... 266

Stereoscope, principles of the, ... 343
Stock, premiums on, 42; winter care of, 83;
breeds of, 147 ; pure water for, 467; care of,
in November, ...... 543

Strawberry, notice of the, - - . 117, 262

Stream, the dry, 438

Style, the power of, - ... - 322
Sugar, maple, crop of, 22 ; making, 39 ; an im-
portant article of diet, 88 ; for the million, and
making, 155, 160; from beets, 162, 185, 194;

Northern, 470

Sunlight, influence of, .... 470
Swine, water for fattening, 10, 125 ; working,
31, 254 ; a wooden sow, 44 ; how to raise, 52 ;
fine, 115, 124, 125, 207; unmannerly, 112 ;
and salt, 149; white Chester County, 210;
cheap summer feed for, 283; how we caught
a, 282 ; ashes for, 545 ; cure for thumps in, 560
Symj)athy, 67

Tadpole, the wheat, ..... 12

Tan bark, as a manure, .... 335

Taste, good, ...... 300

Tea, about, 31 ; brands and their meaning, . 383
Teeth, no upper front in neat cattle, 75 ; our,
care of, ------ - 442

Telegraph, the army, - - - - - 112

Thanksgiving day, ..... 28

Theory and practice, ..... 522

Thirst, effects of, 306 ; worse than hunger, - 469
Thistle, money paid for the, 319 ; Canada, legis-
lation about, ...... 480

Tide, the, 334

Tiger killed by baboons, .... 45

Timber, time "to cut, .... 298, 445

Time, matches with, .... - 443

Tin, antiquity of, ..... 405

Tomato, grafting the, on the potato, 81 ; culture
of the, 117, 127, .539 ; about starting the, 189 ;
mulch the, 368 ; as food, - - - - 409

Tools, to prevent rusting, 98; and workshop, 268
Travelling now and then, - - . . 250
Trees, to keep rabbits from in winter, 11 ; about,
54, 73; apple, injured, 100; scraping, 149,
310; fruit, and snow, 155; freak of a dwarf
pear, 189 ; ]3roper time to prune fruit, 217,
245 ; how the Chinese make dwarf, 227 ; fruit,
look out for the, 234, 245 ; and mice, 239, 255,
313, 506; pear, and hens, 260 ; plum, 293,
360; pear, the Endicott, 311 ; cutting back
newly transplanted, 369 ; and small birds,
412 ; forest, of America, 453 ; apple, bearing
the odd years, 518 ; the Linden, 545 ; upright, 547
Trout factory in Connecticut, . . . 454
Turnip crop, culture of the, 96,254; seed, sweet
German, ....... 310

Twins, a pair of, - .... 415^ 454

Umbrella, the.

159

Veal pie, 295

Vegetables, comparative nourishment in, - 398

in Norway, rapid growth of, ... 359
Vermont, wmter in, 89 ; weather in, 189, 207 ;

state fair at, 483

Vessel, iron-clad, Nahant, - - . - 472

Vesuvius, eruption of Mount, ... 104

INDEX.

Vine, climbing, 127; grape and manure, - 539
Vinegar, in twenty-four hours, 121 ; simple rec-
ipes for making, . - . . 404, 504
Volcaao, what it cau do, - - - - 542

War, and the farmer, 49, 55 ; about the, 324 ;
lessons of the, ------ 452

Wart, cure for, 125, 293; to destroy a, on a

cow's teat, - - - 220, 221, 233, 244

Washington, a Yankee city, - - - 50

Waste not, want not, 90

Water, pipes, aqueduct, 181 ; lime, effects of,
317 ; don't drink too much, - - - 383

Wax, bees', pure, 270

Weatlier, tlie, 38 ; and crops, in Vermont, 137 ;
influence of, upon Northern soldiers, - 322

Weeder, carrot, 242

Weeds, how to kill, 414

Wedges rebounding, ----- 98

Weights and measures, - - - - 13

Wheat, experiments with, 50; versus corn
bread, 77; spring, 102; bran as a fertilizer,
114,264; cultivation of, 182; seed, 187; poi-
soned, for destroying rats and mice, 194;
spring, lime for, 220 ; when to sow, 223 ; for
horses, 244 ; fertility of, 330 ; in Ohio, 370 ;
crop, 394 ; winter, 430, 448, 456 ; fine, 447 ;
insects on, 453, 472 ; and corn and oats, - 490

Whippletree, a new, ----- 520
Wliitewashing, extraordinarj', 299 ; and varn-
ish, 543

Wife, the farmer's, 404 ; words for the, - 486

Willow, the, 40

Window, lessons from my, - - - - 327
Winter, prepare for, ----- 549
Wood, time to cut, ----- 445
Woodchucks, -.-.-. 459
Wool, sales of, 53; growing, 145, 162, 285;
fine, 158; remedy for slieep pulling, 243;
prices of, 327, 477; large fleeces of, 373;
grower's convention, - . - 433^ 493

Women, the, of a nation, 280 ; unmarried, 247,

295 ; costume for, 487

Words, heart, 477

World, the, how to be fed, - - - - 291
Worm, the armv, 79, 149 ; ring, remedy for,
103, 121, 208; the wire, 180, 306; on the
cranberry vine, 222; in horses, 261 ; the pars-
nip, 263; benefit of the angle, 352; canker,
373, 420 ; the elm-tree, - - - - 428
Work, farm, 41 ; jilanning and preparing, 106,
214 ; do your own, 397 ; fall, - - - 533

Yeast, how to make, 261 ; substitute for, - 524
Youth, department, ----- 55

ILLU STRATIONS

Synopsis of the Seasons, - . - - 30

The Patriotic Farmer's Musings, - - 50

At Twilight, 76

The Winter Time, 101

Winter, 120

The Grass, 126

Wool Growing, 145

Little Chrildren ------ 151

A Night Storm - - - - - - 173

A Spring Song, 192

New England, 225

Old Age, 265

A Plowing Song, 309

Love and the Rose, ----- 322

The Farmer's Hymn, 325

The Honey Bee's Song, - . - - 335

The May Queen, 343

The O'Lincoln Family, - - . - 365

At the Last, - ' 371

Can Fai-ming be made Profitable, - - 406

Little Kindnesses, ----- 413

A Woodland Song 424

Elegy on Poor Charley, . - - - 435

On a Wedding-Day, 439

Harvests, 466

Autumn, ---.--. 471

Rain on the Roof, 480

October, 516

The Voice of Autumn, - - - - 504

The Vintage, ------ 544

Grammar in Rhyme, 548

Hunters, ---..-. 566

POETRY.

A Country Residence, . - -

Ornamental Pear-Trees, - - -
Vaudine's Seedling Plum, - - -
Steaming or Boiling Food for Stock, -
Culture of the Turnip Crop,
Smith's Improved Farm Fence, -
Design for a Suburban Residence,
Dana's Transparent White Currants, -
A New Propagating Case, - - -
Cook's Sugar Evaporator, - . -

Initial Letter,

The Culture of the Parsnip,
The Royal Hative Plum, -
Wetherell's Horse Hoe, - . -

17 I Highways and their Repairs, - - 240, 241

33 Sutter's" Gang Plow, 272

48 The Union Mowing Machine, - . - 305

80 Design for a Country or Village Home, 320, 321

96 Open Air Grape Culture, - - - 336, 337

113, 193 West's Improved Pump, . - - - 353

128, 129 Revolving Wheel Rake, - - - . 40O

144 A Greenhouse Eimine, - - - - 417

148 Steel Amalgam Bulls, - - - - 417

160 Explanation of terms used in describing Fruits,

168 448, 449

176,177 Sheep Barn and Feeding Racks, - - 481

209 The only Ladv Bird injurious to Vlgetation, 486

224 The Apple-Trec Borer, ... - 530

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUBE ATH) ITS.KINDBED ARTS ANT) SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, JANUARY, 1862.

NO. 1.

KOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAX, Proprietobs.
Office luO Washington Street.

PIMON BROWX Emtoe.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Ebitor,

CALENDAR FOR JANTTARY.

f^ o R eleven

success ive
holiday sea-
sons we have
been permit-
ted, as Edi-
tor, to wish
the readers
of the New
E n gland
Farmer, a
JHL-iPPY New
k^Q, Yeah, and
to express a
few thoughts
suggested by
January, and
by the open-
ing of a new
volume,
ren years I How much of mingled good
and ill, of hope and fears, of resolutions and non-
performance, of success and failure, is compre-
hended in this record. At first thought, it seems
but a brief period since January, 18.52, and yet, if
we stop to measure it by events and changes of
deep interest to ourselves, individually, it vail seem
much less brief to most of us.

We love to review and contrast these years, and
to dwell upon the evidences which they afford of
progi-ess and imjjroveraent in regard to the soil
and tlae mind, to the field and the house. But
upon the commencement of this new period of
time, it is both customary and proper to confine
our thoughts, mainly, to the incoming and outgo-
ing years.

At this point in the calendar, it is sometimes
said that every body thinks ; that there is a sort
of necessity imposed on us all, to look back on the
past, and forM'ard to the future. The name of the
fii-st month of the year might imply that mankind

Elev

have always begun the year in this thoughtful way.
January beir^g derived, as the books say, from
"Janus," an old Roman Deity, who presided over
the begmiung of every thing, opening the year and
the seasons, as well as all great gates and doors,
and to whom suppHcations were addressed at dawn
of every day, and sacrifices ofTered at the beginning
of every year. This god was represented with two
faces, one looldiig back upon the year past, and
the other forward to that to come, and to him wtis
the fhst day of the year especially sacred.

Whether, then, we contemplate the events of the
old year, or look forward to those of the new, our
thoughts unavoidably centre around that topic
wliich is first and uppermost in the minds of all.

Our government is at war, but not with a for-
eign foe. From external enemies it has nothing
to fear. The past liistory of oiu* country has de-
cided two long mooted questions ; one as to the
capacity of the people to estabhsh a practicable
form of self-government ; the other, as to their
abUity to defend it against attacks and opposition
from without. A still more important question
remains for solution : Can such a government be
maintained against the intrigues of the ambitious,
the treachery of the unprincipled, and the rebellion
of the lawless, among its own citizens ? One mil-
Hon of our countrymen have risen up as dispu-
tants in this fearful controvery, which is witnessed
by an audience to whom the address of the mad-
man, "Attention, the whole world," is but a mod-
est salutation. We can hardly reahze that tliis is
no mere "war of words," but a fierce and deadly
struggle — a civil war — Avhich has already caused
"tears in the houses, as well as blood in the field."
Our hope as to its final result, is as firm as our
faith in man's capacity for self-government. We
cannot believe that the few are always to govern
the many, nor that free government has as yet
proved a failure.

This, however, is not the time to "talk poli-
tics." Our business is with the farm — the farm

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

in the midst of a New England winter. Rather
an unpromising topic, especially where one feels
that he has, year after year, given expression to
pretty much such thoughts as the same objects
will be most likely to suggest again to the same
mind.

We have sometimes thought that if editors could
agree upon some plan by which occasional "ex-
changes" might be effected with their "brethren,"
or by which they could, after the manner of the
Methodist ministry, "ride a circuit," so that no^ne
would be compelled to write for the same "people"
more than one or two years in succession, our edi-
torials might present a greater variety of thought
and novelty of expression. But in the absence of
such arrangement, we may rely on the long-tried
good nature of our readers to pardon any repeti-
tion which they may detect.

Well, then, on this New Year's Day, we shall
find, if we look into the almanac, that this earth
of ours, or, as it appears to us, the sun, com-
menced liis year's work a few days ahead of us ;
having swept around the southern curve of his
track, and passed the half-way station of winter
solstice about a week before we arrived at our
"place of beginning." The day is already a few
minutes longer than at the shortest, but the sun
is still so low in the southern sky that we do not
expect his approach towards our northern latitudes
will sensibly affect the temperature for some time
to come. Indeed, experience has taught us to ex-
pect, on the contrary, that

"When the days begin to lengthen,
Then the cold begins to strengthen."

And before the month goes out, Ave usually find
that it is full strong enough for our comfort, — or,
at least, we are apt to think so, and, perhaps, to
grumble about it. We well know that these long
winter evenings do tax the patience. Many feel
that the history of their lives might be written in
two lines :

"Worked hard all summer to raise enough to
feed themselves and cattle during winter."

But, do we not complain too much ? Is a mild-
er climate, even if at our bidding, desirable .'' For
what section of this earth, after all, would we ex-
change New England ? Since commencing this
article, we have read an extract from a work on
"The Manners of the Modern Egyptians," in which
the writer alludes to some of the effects of climate
upon character. Life at Grand Cairo, he says, is
rather passive, than active. Nine months of the
year the body is oppressed by heat ; the soul in a
state of apathy, sighs for calm tranquillity. Inac-
tion under a temperate climate is painful ; here
repose is enjoyment. The most frequent saluta-
tion at meeting or parting, is, "Peace be with you."
The American, born under an ever-varying sky, is

continually receiving new impressions, which keep
his mind as continually awake. He is active, im-
patient and agitated, like the atmosphere in wliich
he exists ; while the Egyptian, feeling the same heat,
the same sensation, two-tliirds of the year, is idle,
solemn and patient. Effeminate indolence is born
with the Egyjitian, grows as he grows, and descends
with him to the grave. It is the vice of the cli-
mate ; it influences his inclinations and governs
his actions. The sofa, therefore, is the most lux-
urious piece of furniture of an apartment. Their
gardens have charming arbors and convenient
seats, hut not a single ivalk !

Such is the testimony of northerners generally
who visit southern countries. The Rev. J. S.
Green, missionary at the Sandwich Islands, whom
our readers v^iU. remember as the writer of several
the Fanner, says the Hawaiian fields might "laugh
articles on Hawaiian agriculture, published in
Avith abundance," but are fruitful only in noxious
or useless Aveeds. "And yet we all see that the
nation is dying out and out, commerce languish-
ing, every thing and every body suffering, because
scarcely any one is willing to cultivate the earth."
After speaking of the natural indolence of the
Islanders, generally, and of the astonishment of
the natives, Avho formerly cut their grain Avith a
case-knife, at Avitnessing the velocity Avith which
one of Hussey's machines marched through a field
of AA'heat, he exclaims : "Dear old Ncav England,
land of my birth, of my childhood and youth !
Avell may thy sons be thankful that they Avere born
and cradled among thy hills, instead of first breath-
ing the balmy air of a southern climate. If I have
any hardness, any thing like endurance, I OAve it,
under God, to having felt the bracing atmosphere
of the north, and to having become inured to the
tug of labor on the hillsides and in the valleys of
Vermont."

Let us, then, enter upon a Neav Year, thank-
ful for the cold ; thankful for the rough admoni-
tions Avhich it gives us to bestir ourselves or freeze
to death !

Water for Fattening Swine. — A corres-
pondent of the Rural New-Yorker, AA'ho has tried
the experiment of fattening SAvine Avith and Avith-
out Avater, gives the result as folloAvs :

Last f;ill I saAv in the Rural that a farmer said
he had proved by experience that hogs Avould fat-
ten faster, and on a considerable less amount of
corn, Avithout drink, so I thought I Avould try the
experimeiit. I fed sixteen shoats on dry corn for
nearly tAvo months Avithout Avater. They acted
like crazy creatures, and a common rail fence Avould
not stop them. They ate but little corn, and I
think did not gain a pound. I then gave them all
the Avater they Avantcd, and I could see they com-
menced gaining immediatul}", and Avere as content-
ed as any hogs. I have proved, to my satisfac-
tion, at least, that fattening hogs require Avater.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Fnr the Keto Enffland Farmer.

nSTFLTJENCE OP WEWSPAPEKS.

Messrs. Editors: — I am now over 82 years
old, and remember the wars of this country, from
the revolutionary to the insane rebel war of the
south. I remember when there were but two
newspapers j^ublishcd that reached the country
from Boston, viz., the Independent Chronicle and
Columbian Sentinel. The Chronicle was the or-
gan of the rej^ublican party, and the Sentinel the
organ of the federal party. Their editors were
nren of talents, faithful to their parties, not spar-
ing of any invective Avhich would redound to the
glory of either cause. My father took the Chron-
icle, and I well remember the account it gave of
the struggle wliich took place at the convention of
delegates from the twelve old States while form-
ing the confederacy. The weekly Chronicle gave
us an illustration of the progress going on at the
convention by twelve pictures of prostrate pillars
at the beginning of the meeting of the delegates.
Each pillar was to represent a State ; ten of the
pillars advanced from different positions of eleva-
tion from week to week, till they arrived at an erect
posture ; the other two finally became erect after
a -sufficient course of "compromises."

What a strong impression pictures make upon
the minds of children. It is astonishing to witness
the progress Avliich newspapers have made from
that time to the present in their increase in num-
bers and vastness of circulation. As long ago as
17S7, there were but few newspapers taken in my
native town, Avliich would compare with the rest of
the towns throughout New England for the en-
couragement bestowed upon the editors of news-
papers at that time. The Chronicle or Sentinel
was taken by the clergyman, the justice of the
peace, and perhaps a few others Avho were able,
and fond of reading. Political proclivity made the
decision in the choice of newspapers. I presume
there are hundreds of newspapers now distributed
in the country where there was but one then. At
that time (1787.) and for years afterward, each sulj-
scriber had to send to the office to get his paper,
and when travelling was bad, they would lay be-
hind one or more weeks.

Libraries are useful for standard works, but they
will not compare with newspapers for spreading
light and knowledge among all classes of people.
Where people have the means of being instructed
in true knowledge, there is but little danger of
their being humbugged by demagogues or seces-
sionists for any great length of time. It has been
but a few years since an agricultural paper could
be sustained in New England ; now there are three
or more puljlished in Boston, which are eagerly
read and are exerting an influence upon the farm-
ing community wliich is invaluable ; they are do-
ing good in various ways ; they are a school of in-
struction to the whole country, except those who
are already inlallible. Knowledge wliich formerly
could be^ conveyed only from one individual to
another, is now spread broadcast at an impression.
The_ farming interest is held in much higher esti-
mation than formerly, through their means ; the
correspondents to these papers, though scattered
over the country, almost become acquainted. A
good liberal newspaper is an angel which scatters
light in all our paths. The difference between
newspapers of good influences and bad influences

is very striking ; the former is governed by the
principles of practical Christianity, which tends not
to unprofitable controversy, but inculcates the love
of peace, charily, and the exercise of good-will
among all people, without regard to sect, creed, or
denomination. The latter issues scurrility, slan-
der, misrepresentation, doctrinal theories and big-
otry, from which grow every evil work, even to
persecution for conscience sake. Such papers stir
up the evil passions of men even to warfare. Con-
tests much oftener originate from theoretical doc-
trines founded on absurdity, than from any ration-
al causes. Great is the influence of newspaper
editors for good or for evih

Free schools and free presses are great annoy-
ances to despotism, as well as the safe-guard and
defence of liberal principles. In all the States that
uphold the free school system, and lay no restraint
upon the newspaper presses, but encourage the
dissemination of useful knowledge among all class-
es of people through newspaper reading, there
will be but little danger of the predominance of
despotism over republicanism. If the free press
had even been tolerated with other free institutions
for the instruction of the ignorant in the slave
States, this calamitous and destructive war would
not have taken place. Ignorance is liable to sufi'er
all manner of imposition by shrewd, ambitious,
selfish and designing tyrants. Wliile newspapers
are allowed to cu'culate, knowledge cannot be con-
fined to self-important dictators. Success, then, to
a free press, and the means of knowledge distri-
buted to aU classes of people. Silas Brown.

North Wilmington, December, 1861.

To Keep Rabbits from Trees in Winter. —
Two years ago I found the rabbits gnawing my
choice trees severely. I had seen several remedies
recommended, such as tying on strips of lath, bark,
wrapping with straw, &c. But I thought some
kind of a wash would be much cheaper, and less
work to put it on. I took a small quantity of to-
bacco and made ^a strong tea of it ; then a thick
lime whitewash, and stirred in the tobacco. With
a brush or swab, a man can wash 1000 in a day.
It proved a remedy with me. My rabbits, although
uncivilized, are too nice to chew tobacco. If storms
wash off' the mixture, wash them again. It does
not cost much. — S. Foster, in Country Gentle-
man.

The Homestead. — This paper, published at
Hartford, Ct., has been coming to us with great
regularity for six years, and ever with sound and
cheering words. We have read it with profit, and
copied from it into our columns with pleasure.
The publisher has discontinued it, finding that,
through a "seductive, but most unwise system of
credits," he could not get back the outlay which it
cost. Its subscription list is to be merged with
that of the American Agriculturist, which excel-
lent paper is to be sent to the late readers of the
Homestead. In tliis union we hope all parties
will reap an abundant reAvard for their valuable
labors. Mr. Weld, late editor and publisher of
the Homestead, we learn, has become an associate
ditor of the American Agriculturist.

KEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

Fcr the New England Farmer.
MORE ABOUT THE WHEAT TADPOLE.

After studying tlie habits of this curious little
fellow for two months, ho looks tremendous large
to me. As the wheat has been threshed, I find it
has suffered very much from the depredations of
the tadpole and other insects this season. In many
of the mountain towns, it is an enth-e failure, and
few have more than half a crop. If one of this
class, called the Aphis, has caused so much fear in
the cotton-growing States, and called out so much
talent to investigate its nature, why are Ave not
awake ? If he progresses as fast as pests general-
ly do, we shall have famine Avith our Avar, another
year, unless Ave are trying to head him oft".

I am conversant Avith the ojiinions of many Avho
have devoted much time to the study of the Cot-
ton Apliis, his character, habits, etc., and consider
ToAvnsend Glover's description in the Patent Office
Report for 18a5, pages 68 and GO, the best of any —
still I am not satisfied Avith that even. I have seen
his lady-birds, lace-flies, syrphus and ichneumon on
many pieces of grain, before I ever saAV a Avheat
tadpole, and have seen that they were increasing
yearly. This year I saAV uncountable numbers
of tliem on the grain in various places, and Avatched
them closely for Aveeks, but I tliink only the lace-
fly preys upon the tadpole in any Avay.

The other day I stroUed up to the stock farm of

Gushing, of Belmont, situated in AVayland.

His farmer told me they raised 200 bushels of Java
v/iieat tliis season, and Avliile talliing Avith him in re-
lation to it, I made the foUoAving discovery. Said
farmer told me the things came on to their Avheat
late, and did little, or no harm. That Avhen they cut
it, there Avas not one to be found on it ; that they put
it into a moAV overhead, and about tAvo Aveeks af-
ter, he AA-as up there after hen's eggs, and, as he
supposed at the time, got completely covered Avith
lien-licc. In another Aveek he Avas up there again,
and there AA-ere bushels of the same things all over
every tiling, of all sizes and colors, Avith Avings
£>jjd without Avings ; that he Avatclied them closely,
and found them SAvarming about the AvindoAVS trj'-
ing to get out as soon as they got their Avings ;
that in four Aveeks after he first saAV them, looking
like the smallest hen-lice, the bam and everytliing
in it, Avas literally covered Avith a small, greenish
vorm, and the tilings had turned into them ; that
the Avorras were crawHng everyAvhcre, homeless
and perfectly desperate, on a small scale, like Se-
ccssia at home ; that after aAvliile, they made co-
coons out of hay, &c., and Avere drying up in them.
He gave me some of these Avorms at home, and
some Avithout homes, and I Avill send you a sample
of both. I found, upon examining the dried up
ones, two very small Avliite, or yelloAvish Avhite
Avheat tadpoles to every dried up maggot, male and
female — the farmer's hen-hce. Tliis time the mag-
got changed to male and female Avheat aphis — be-
fore the eggs hatched one Avhich Ave see mated ac-
cording to mythology — though my microscope
ain't strong enough to see the Avorm's ribs, if it has
any.

Now, Mr. Editor, arc these a secession element,
that can live and tlirive on nothing, and sent up
here to destroy oiu' "staff of life ?" I think here
is a chance for some of us "stay at home guards"
to malte ourselves useful. The farmer is backer to
all undertakint^s. thoufirh he may lie despised hy

some because he will not turn his plow into a can-
non. He is needed at home, and should be aAvake
and doing. If any impediment appears to bat-
tle Avith, study well where to strike the surest
bloAV, and then strike as none but the farmer can.
I tliink Ave ought to be getting ready to do bat-
tle Avith some of the ncAvly anived, but trouble-
some guests.

No doubt the Avheat tadpole is a relative of the
sugar maple destroyer, the apple tree leaf destroyer,
8zc., and that tlieir habits are not luioAvn, or the
extent of theii- depredations. I tliink them of dif-
ferent species from Mr. Glover's Apliis, though
they may belong to the secessia genera.

There is no doubt that the larva Avas in tlie straAV
or head on the Cusliing farm, and carried into the
barn there, and that it Avas carried in Avith all grain
Avhere the tadpole appeared, whether he did dam-
age this season or not. That particular barn may
give Mr. Cuslmig's cattle the pleuro, and Iii'a
horses the glanders, or cribbing, or some other
horrible disease — but it has brought out the tad-
poles— as his farmer said — several months before
then- time. It is a perfect unventilated hot-house,
and these miscliievous pests, or any other, can
breed and thrive there.

In most other barns the egs^ Avould have laid till
spring or early summer, and then hatched out.
NoAV, Avill anything but fire and SAVord exterminate
tliem ?

Let us think about it directly, and act. Don't
appoint a Fast and Avait Avhiie the Lord destroys
them. Take hold right and strong

Waijland, Nov. 4, 1861. k.

For the New England Farmer.

IS FARMnSTG PROFITABIiE P—GARGET —
BLIND STAGGERS.

Messrs. Editors : — I have often noticed the
folloAving questions in your valuable paper :

1. Is farming profitable ?

2. What Avill cure the disease in cows, called
"garget ?"

3. What Avill cure a SAvelled or tumefied bag, or
udder ?

The affirmative to the first question depends on
three tilings ; the price jiaid for the land — quality
of soil tilled — and tliirdly,Z*?-a('«.'?, a very necessary
accompaniment to secure success in cmy business.

I Avould call your attention to the folloAving re-
sults, from the cultivation of 3^ acres — a field no
better than fifty other acres of my farm, the Avliole
of Avhich had previously been pastured for forty
years.

In the spring of 1857, ploAved and planted to po-
tatoes (Avithout manuring) 3:i acres, and harvested
a good, fair crop. In 1858, put on forty cart-loads
barn-yard manure, planted to com, and harvested
good, fair crops. In 1859, same quantity manure,
soAved broadcast three bushels of salt, planted
corn, putting on a handful of ashes on each
hill, and raised a large crop of corn. In 1860
soAved scA'en bushels of wheat, started to clover
and herdsgrass, and took off the same fall seventy
bushels of Avheat, and three tons of good hay. I
sold the Avheat at $1 75 per bushel for seed. In
1861 I have taken offtliirteen tons, by Aveight, of
good hay. Has it not been profitable ? Beat tliia
Avho can. I cannot speak for any other farmer,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

but my farm, farmed at the halves, pays me eight
per cent.

The disease called "garget" commences in the
horns and head. Besmear the top and hack part
of the head and around the roots of the horns, Avith
■warm tar and rub thoroughly ; if it fjils to effect a
cure, report the failure, and it will be the first to
my knowledge.

To cure swollen, or tumefied udders or bag, wash
clean with warm soap-suds, then rub thoroughl!/
with pure bee honey, and a cure will be effected in
twenty-four hours generally ; sometimes it may be
necessary to repeat the operation. The above is
the venj best application for women sufi'ering as
above.

To cure the "blind staggers" in swine, make an
incision about three inches long through the skin
on the forehead ; pull up the skin on each side, fill
with fine salt, and the cure is effected immediately.

Geo. B. Green.

Windsor, Vt., Nov., 1861.

■WEIGHTS AHD MEASUUSS

OF VAFilOUS FAR:\I products AST) OTHER THINGS,
IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

In England and America grain is generally rated
by the bushel, though it is not the same measure ;
for here we use the Winchester bushel, wliich con-
tains 2,150 42-100 cubic inches. There, since 18G2,
the legal measure is called the imperial Inishel,
which contains 2,218 cubic inches ; so that 32 of
their bushels are about equal to o8 of ours.

The following are the commercial weights of a
bushel of different articles, viz : Wheat, beans, po-
tatoes and clover seed, GO pounds. Corn, rye, ilax
seed and onions, 56 pounds. Corn on the cob
weighs 70 pounds ; buckwheat, 52 ; barley, 48 :
hemp seed, 44 ; Timothy seed, 45 ; castor beans,
46 ; oats, 35 ; bran, 20 ; blue grass seed, 14 ; salt,
50, according to one account, but Onondaga salt is
56, (the real weight of coarse salt is 85 pounds to
the bushel ;) dried apples, 24 ; dried peaches, 33,
according to a table lately published in numerous
papers, but according to our experience both are
wrong. We have seen thousands of bushels sold
at 22 pounds to the bushel, wliich will measure
about thi-ee pecks.

Heaping Measures. — Potatoes, turnips, and es-
culent roots, apples and other fruits, meal, bran,
and in some States oats, are sold by heaping meas-
ure, wliich contains 2,815 cubic inches.

Barrel Measure. — Rice, 600 pounds ; flour, 196
lbs. ; powder 25 lbs. ; cider and other liquids, 30
gallons ; corn, 5 bushels, shelled. By this latter
measure crops are estimated, and corn bought and
sold throughout most of the Southern and West-
ern States. At New Orleans, a ban-el of corn is a
flour ban-el full of ears. In some parts of the West
it is common to count a huncbed ears to a bushel.

Ton Weight and Ton Measure. — A ton of hay
or any coarse bulky article usually sold by that
measure, is twenty gross hundred : that is 2,240
pounds ; though in many places that ridiculous old
fcshion is being done away and 2,000 pounds only
counted to a ton.

A ton of timber, if round, consists of 40 cubic
feet ; if square, 54 feet. A ton of wine is 252 gal-
lons.

A quarter of corn is the fourth of a ton, or eight
imperial bushels. This is an English measure, not
in use in this country, though very necessary to be
known so as to understand agi-icultural reports.

Tro!/ Weight and Avoirdupois Weight. — One
hundred and forty-four pounds avoirdupois are
equal to 175 pounds Troy — 175 ounces Troy are
equal to 102 ounces avoirdupois. All precious
metals arc bought and sold by Troy Aveight.

The kilogramme of France is 1,000 grammes,
and equal to 2 pounds 2 ounces, 4 grains avoirdu-
pois.

A chaldron of coal is 58 1 cubic feet, generally
estimated 36 bushels. A bushel of anthracite coal
weighs 80 jiounds, which makes the weight of a
chaldron 2,880.

Weights of a Cubic Foot. — Of sand or loose
earth, 95 pounds; compact soil, 124; a strong or
clayey soil, 127 ; piu-e clay, 135 ; mixture of stones
and clay, 160 ; masonry of stone, 205 ; brick, 125 ;
cast iron, 450 ; steel, 489 ; copper 486 ; lead, 700 ;
silver, 654 ; gold, 1,203 ; platina, 1,218 ; glass, 180 ;
water, 62; tallow, 59; cork, 15; oak timber, 73;
mahogany, 66 ; air, 0,0753. In the above, frac-
tions are disregarded.

A bale of cotton, in Egypt, is 90 pounds ; in
America, a commercial bale is 400 pounds, but is
put up in different States varying fi-om 280 to 720
pounds. Sea Island cotton is put up in sacks of
300 pounds.

A bale of hay is 300 pounds.

A cord of wood is 128 solid feet, usually put 8
feet long, 4 feet wide and 4 high.

A perch of stone is 25 cubic feet, jiiled, or 22 in
the v,-all.

Lime and sand to a perch of stone — three pecks
of lime, and two-thirds of a one-horse cart load of
sand.

Weight of Lime. — A bushel of limestone weighs
142 pounds ; after it is burned, if weighed directly
from the kiln, 75 pounds ; showing that 67 pounds
of carbonic acid and water have been driven off by
fire. This bushel of lime will absorb 20 pounds of
water, gradually applied during several days, and
Avill then be in a state of dry powder, weighing 93
pounds ; showing that 18 pounds of water have
been converted into a solid, dry substance.

To Measure a Ton of Hay. — One hundred cu-
bic feet of hay, in a solid mow or stack, will weigh
a ton.

Compute Weight of Cattle by Measure. — As-
certain the girth back of the shoulders, and the
length along the back, from the square of the but-
tock, to a point e\e\\ with the j'oint of the shoul-
der-blade; say the girth is 6 feet 4 inches, and
the length 5 feet 3 inches, which multiplied to-
gether, gives 31 feet. iSIultiply this by 23, the
number of pounds allowed to the foot, between 5
and 7 feet girth, and the result is 713 pounds, for
the numl)er of pounds of beef in the four quar-
ters. Girths, from 7 to 9 feet, allow 31 pounds
to the foot. Cattle must be fat and square built
to hold out weight.

To Measure Grain in 7?/?j,9, multiply the length
and width together, and that product by the height
in cubic inches and divide by 2,150, and you have
the number of bushels.

To Measure Corn in the Ear, find the cubic
inches as above, and divide by 2,815, the cubic
inches in a heaped bushel, and take two-thii-ds of

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

the quotient for the number of bushels of shelled
corn. This is upon the rule of giving three heap-
ing half-bushels of ears to make a bushel of grain.
Some falls short and some overruns this measure.

Board Measure. — Boards are sold bj^ face mea-
sure. Multiply the Avidtli in inches by any num-
ber of pieces of equal length, by the inches of the
length. Divide by 144, and the quotient is the
number of feet, for any thickness under an inch.
Every fourth-inch increase of thickness adds a
fourth to the number of feet in the face measure.

Land Measure. — Every farmer should have a
rod measure, a light, stiff pole, just 16^ feet long,
for measuring land. By a little practice he can
learn to step just a rod at five steps, which will
answer very well for ordinary farm work. Ascer-
tain the number of rods in width and length of
any lot you wish to measure, and multiply one in-
to "the other and divide by 160, and you have the
number of acres, as 100 square rods make a square
acre. If you wish to lay off one acre square, mea-
sure 13 rods upon each side. This lacks one rod
of being full measure.

Oovernment Land 3feas7ire. — A township is six
miles square, and contains 36 sections, 23,040
acres. A section, one mile square, 640. A quar-
ter section, half a mile square, 100 acres. As tliis
is 100 rods square, a strip one rod Avide, or every
rod in Avidth, is an acre. A half-quarter section
is half a mile long, north and south, almost uni-
versally, and a fourth of a mile wide, 80 acres. A
quarter-quarter section is one-fourth of a mile
square, 40 acres, and is the smallest sized tract,
except fractions, ever sold by the government.
The price is $1,25 an acre.

Measure of a Mile. — Our measure of distance
is by the standard English mile, which is 5,280
feet "in length, or 1,760 yards, or 320 rods. An
English geographical mile is equal to 2,050 yards.

Scripture Measure. — "A Sabbath day's jour-
ney" is 1,155 yards — about two-thirds of a mile.
A day's journey is 33J miles. A reed is 10 feet
IH inches. A palm is 3 inches. A fathom is 6
feet. A Greek foot is 12^ inches. A cubit is 2
feet. A great cubit is 1 1 feet.

As the superfices of all our States and counties
are expressed in square miles, it should be borne
in mind that the contents of a mile is 640 acres.

Number of Square Yards in an Acre. — ^Eng-
lish, 4,840; Scotch, 0,150; Irish, 7,840; Ham-
burg, 11,545; Amsterdam, 9,722; Dantzic, 0,050;
France, (hectare,) 11,900 ; Prussia, (morgen,)
0,053.

Manure Measure. — This is generally estimated
by the load, M-hich is just about as definite as the
phrase, "about as big as a piece of chalk." It
ought to be measured by the cubic yard or cord.
A cubic yard is 27 feet, each of which contain
1728 cubic inches. A cubic cord is 128 cubic feet.
As the most of farmers have an idea in their minds
of the size of a pile of wood containing a cord,
they would readily compare that Avith the quantity
of manure, if stated in cords. Every cart or wag-
on-box, before it leaves the maker's shop, ought
to have the cubic feet and inches it Avill contain,
indelil)ly marked upon it. This would enable the
owner to calculate the amount of his load of grain,
roots, earth, stone or manure.

Weight of Manure. — A solid foot of half rot-

ted stable manure Avill weigh, upon an average, 56
pounds. If it is coarse or dry, it will average 48
pounds to the foot. A load of manure, or 30 cu-
bic feet, of first quality, will Aveigh 2,010 pounds ;
second quality, 1,728 pounds. Weight to the
acre — Eight loads of first kind, weighing 10,128
pounds, Avill give 108 pounds to each square rod,
and less than 2.i pounds to each square foot. Five
loads will give 03 pounds to the rod. An acre
containing 43,500 square feet, the calculation of
pounds per foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily
made. — The Plow.

For the Neio England Farmer.
RETEOSPECTIVE WOTES.

Gypsum. — The attentive readers of this joiu-nal
must have noticed an article Avith this heading
Avhich appeared, first in the Aveekly issue of Sept.
21st, and subsequently in the Nov. No. of the
monthly edition. In it the reader is directed to
sprinldc a small quantity of gypsum, more com-
monly knoAvn as plaster, or plaster of Paris, every
morning, over his cattle stalls. And this direction
is foUoAved by the statement, that plaster is a good
absorbent of ammoiiia, and consequently tends not
only to economise a most valuable element of veg-
etable nutrition — namely, the ammonia — but also
to SAveeten and purify the air. These being the ob-
jects to be secured by the sprinkling of gjq^sum,
readers Avho reflect upon Avhat they read, and en-
deavor to make ajyractical application of every
fact, truth and principle Avliich may come under
their cognizance, Avill hardly fail to come to this
conclusion, namely, that if gypsum is of service in
fixing or absorl^ing the ammonia in cattle stalls,
and in purifjang and SAveetening the air of places
Avhere cattle are stabled, it must be much more
serviceable to the stalls and stables of horses, as
there is ahvays much more ammonia developed
from the urine and dung of horses than from those
of cattle.

To be convinced of this fact, that there is a much
larger amount of ammonia developed in horse-sta-
bles than in cattle-stables, one has only to com-
pare liis sensations Avhen he first enters the one and
the other, Avhen first opened in the moniing. On
first entering a close, unventilated horse-stable, he
Avill experience a disagreeable pungent smell in his
nose, and more or less of a smarting sensation in
his eyes, somcAvhat resembling that Avhich is felt
Avhen a bottle of hartshorn or of smelhng salts is
opened in close proximity to the nasal and visual
organs. On the other hand, Avhen first entering
in the morning a similarly close and unventilated
stable for coavs or cattle, very little, or none at all,
of this pungency will be felt, even though the at-
mosphere may be quite disagreeable through the .
impurities derived from the exhalations arising
from the lungs, the skin, and the excrements of
the animals confined therein. This difl'erenee is
OAving to the much larger amount of ammoniacal
vapors in the former case than in the latter.

It appears, then, that so far as the tAvo objects,
for Avliich gypsum is directed to be used, are con-
cerned, the horse-stable needs attending to still
more than the cattle-stable. Ammonia is more
largely and more speedily set free in the former
than in the latter. So let us consider both, as gen-
erally constructed and managed, much in need of

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEISIER.

having something done for them. For, certainly,
something ought to be done when the creatures
committed to man's care are shut up in stables so
ill-constructed and managed that they are obliged
to live and l)reathe in an atmosphere so foul and
unwholesome as to injure seriously their health
and constitutional vigor, and to render them much
more liable to the attacks of disease. Something
ought to be done when animals are shut up in an
atmosphere which no man could breathe in for
many whole nights in succession without an attack
of disease in his lungs or elsewhere. Something
ought to be done, too, -when ammonia — the most
valuable element in the farmer's manure — is tak-
ing to itself Avings and flying away.

When a farmer to whom thinking is not, as it is
to so many, a dread and difficulty, takes these
things into consideration, the inquuy will naturally
arise —

WlL\T OUGHT TO BE DONE TO IMPROVE OUR

Stables in this Respect ? — In a good many
agricultural pubHcations, as well as in Liebig's Ag-
ricultural Chemistry, Stockhardt's Chemical Field
Lectures, Nash's Progressive Farmer, &c., he will
find directions similar to those in the article now
under notice, assuring him that sprinkling plaster
in his stables will absorb the escaping ammonia,
converting the volatile carbonate into a fixed or
non-volatile sulphate of that valuable fertilizing el-
ement, and Avill also purify and sweeten the air.
But doubts of this assertion cannot fail to arise in
his mind when he reads in the same or other chem-
ical authorities, that dri/ plaster camiot act upon
ammonia ; that it can produce the above results
only in a state of solution, and, fiirther, that to dis-
solve plaster four hundred times its own weight of
water must be added to it. He will see at once
that if it requires four hundred pounds or pints of
■water to dissolve one pound of plaster, and thus
reduce it to a state in which alone it can act on the
ammonia escaping from his stables or his manure
heap, but a very insignificant portion indeed of the
plaster, wliich the authorities referred to have di-
rected him to sprinlde in his stables or over his
manure heap, can possibly accomplish anytliing to-
wards the desired result. These doubts will be
still farther strengthened when he finds, as he may,
in some of the best agricultural journals, both in
this country and in Great Britain, that others as
well as himself have become skeptical as to the
property usually ascribed to gypsum Avhen merely
sprinkled in the dri/ state upon the floor of a sta-
ble, or upon a manure heap. Several expressions
of such doubts or skepticism have appeared, Avith-
in a year or two, in the pages of the Countnj Gen-
tleman ; and positive denials of tliis asserted prop-
erty of gypsum have appeared in other journals.
For example, the North British Agriculturist
about a year ago asserted that gypsum "is found
in practice not to be a good fixer of ammonia in
stables, byres (cow-houses,) &c." Again, a very
good authority in matters connected with agricul-
tural chemistry says, in the volume of the Genesee
Farmer for 18u7, after stating objections to the
plans of fixing ammonia by the use of diluted sul-
phuric acid, and of a solution of copperas, that gyp-
svmi being cheap and easy of application, would be
excellent for the purpose but for this one fact, viz.,
"Plaster, unless in solution, will not convert the
carbonate of ammonia into a sulphate of ammonia.
Scattering di"y or moist plaster on the manure

heap, then, is of little use." How Liebig came to
make such a blunder is then explained, as also how
naturally it has happened that one writer has cop-
ied it after another, until now it is to be found in
almost every agricultural book and periodical in
this country.

Now, if all these statements from respectable
journals in Great Britain and in this country are
to be received as authoritative, then chemists and
farmers are once more "out at sea" in regard to the
absorption of hartshorn or ammonia in stables and
manure heaps. We are sorry that it is so, as the
sprinkhng of a little gypsum would be so easy and
so cheap a method of preventing the escape and
loss of thousands of dollars' worth of ammonia
from every State in the Union. But if farmers
have been trusting to a delusion, it is better that
they should have it pointed out to them, than that
they should continue any longer laboring under a
mistake. For, when it becomes settled, established,
and more widely known that gypsum sprinkled as
usually directed, will not absorb the ammoniacal
effluvia of stables and manure heaps, farmers and
chemists will begin anew to make search for some-
tliing that will certainly effect this object. And it
is as a contribution to this reconsideration or rein-
vestigation of the question as to what is to be done
to save the ammonia and to destroy or deodorize
the foul air of our stables, that tliis article has been
written. Copperas water or a solution of copperas
is certainly a good deodorizer, but it is open to the
objection that the presence of iron in manure Avill
occasionally, if not always, be injurious.

Dry muck and sawdust are the most efficient
absorljents of ammonia which we have tried in the
stable ; and we have seen the fumes of a manure
heap speedily arrested by sprinkling on it half an
ounce of strong sulphuric acid, diluted with a pail-
ful of water. Who will tell us of a better way ?

More Anon.

For the New England Farmer.

liUCEIllSrE.

Mr. Editor : — I was pleased to see your article
on Lucerne in your last number of the Farmer. I
think its value to our ftxrms has been overlooked.
That it is a very valuable plant in many localities,
admits not of a doubt. For soiling, I think it wiU
be found the most useful plant that we can use.
My experience with it is, however, limited. I
bought a farm in llhode Island, that had a few rods
of lucerne, mixed in with other grasses, and had
not a fair chance to grow to perfection. As it was,
it would start up much earlier than other grass,
and be ready for cutting, near three weeks sooner.
When I broke up the field, I found it almost im-
possible to plow through it, the roots were so
tough and strong. jNIost of the plants M'ould draw
through an eight-inch furrow, holding on so hard
as in many cases to cause the ploAV to sHde around
them. I dug up a single root in the garden, that
had been cultivated in a flower-bed, which weighed,
after laying through a hot June day, on the flag-
stones the south side of the barn, over twenty-
eight pounds. It was weighed by a neighbor, who
thought it would have much exceeded thirty pounds
previous to its being Avilted. There were several
hundred stalks, many of them over six feet in
length. The root at the crown was near six inches

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

through, tapering down as large as a man's arm.
It was cut off about two feet below the surface.

A gentleman at Adamsville, Little Compton, R.
L, for a number of years cultivated lucerne, and
cut it two and three times each season, according
as the moisture might be. He used it as a hay
crop, and thought it the best grass he could use.
English writers give us very precise dhections as
to the best mode of preparing the soil for the seed,
many of which are far too expensive for our adop-
tion, and I think entirely useless. If the soil has
been well worked and manured for previous crops,
and the subsoil is not too hard, I think we need
not fear but that it will grow, if not too wet a soil.
No plant will stand a long drought better, as we
have instances recorded where clover has died, and
lucerne held out and made a good crop. Mr.
Young tells us, the first use of tliis plant is that of
soihng horses in the stable ; for tliis purpose, no
other article of food agrees so well with those an-
imals ; nothing better for oxen, cows, young cat-
tle and even hogs in a farm-yard. He also thinks
it well adapted to fattening beef.

Chili clover is, I think, well v/orth experimenting
with by those who have the means of doing so. It
is near alHed to lucerne, and, in many respects, re-
sembles it. It roots deep and strong, sends out an
abundance of stalks, which, in a rich soil, will often
grow to a Avonderful length. Four years since, at
the solicitation of a seed-dealer in New Bedford, I
took off liis hands some of this Chili clover seed,
which I sowed on about one-tliird of an acre. It
did not come up Avell, owing, I tliink, to its being
damaged by the sea voyage. I plowed up the
piece, but some of the plants by the side of the
wall escaped, and have remained ever since. They
grew rapidly and matured early, and could be cut
two or three times in a season. I have no doubt
it would be a good soiling, hay, or pasture crop. I
have spoken of its stalks growing to a great length.
I will here say that, in 1850, I furnished Commo-
dore Jones with specimens of the wild oat of Cali-
fornia, and also a clover plant which I think the
same as the Chili clover. The stalks of this plant
exceeded twelve feet. The Commodore forwarded
them to the New York State Agricultural Society.

EocJuister, Mass., Nov. 18, 1861. o. K.

KEEPIlsra- APPLES— KTEW ME^rHOD.

Mr. M. R. Thompson, of Mifflin county, Penn-
sylvania, in a letter to the American Agriculturist,
describes his method of keeping choice apples,
wliich appears to be worth noticing. He packs
them in barrels or large boxes, surrounding each
apple with common dry ground gypsum (plaster
of Paris.) Tliis is readily done thus : Put into
the bottom of the barrel, or box, an inch of the
plaster and then a layer of apples, keeping them
from contact with each other, and an inch fi'om
the side all round. Sift in more plaster to fill up
the spaces and cover the whole nearly an inch.
Then add another layer of apples and more plas-
ter, and so on to the top. The plaster employed
is, we suppose, the common ground plaster for fer-
tilizing— not the calcined used for making casts,
models, etc. The former is cheap in most parts
of the country, costing from $3 to $10 per tun.
Of course the plaster is just as good for applica-
tion to the field after being used during winter for

packing apples. The plan is worthy of trial at
least, for it would appear reasonable that the fruit
thus surroimded with a compact mass of dry pow-
der, should keep almost as well as if hermetically
sealed. Mr. T. says he keeps pound pippins thus
packed, in good order until the following June.
We judge from a remark in his letter, that he does
not store them in a cellar, but in any cool room
of the dwelKng or out-house. We are not certain
whether the dry plaster would be a sufficient non-
conductor to keep frost out, if exposed to severe
cold — especially from the fruit near the outside of
barrels.

For the New England Fanner.
SEED COKlSr.

Mr. Editor : — A few weeks since, at a meeting
of the American Institute Farmers' Club, in New
York city, they had a discussion upon seed corn.
Much diversity of opinion prevailed, clearly show-
ing that the subject was involved in much uncer-
tainty, owing to the want of carefully conducted
experiments, persistently followed up, for a succes-
sion of years, or at least long enough to positively
settle the matter on a true basis. Some thought
best to reject the small end of the ear alone ; oth-
ers would include the but, and plant only the mid-
dle ; others reject the but, and use the bal-
ance ; while some prefer the small end to any and
aU the rest of the ear. There seemed to be a gen-
eral agreement that it is a good practice to select
in the field the first ripened, well matured, two
eared stalks, in order to have succeeding crops
earher, and increase the number of ears on a stalk.
One man stated that he had known the selection
of two or more ears on a stalk for seed to be per-
sisted in until the result was that a yield of six
and seven sound ears on one stalk was not unu-
sual, but with a loss to the producer, in the dimin-
ished size of the ears.

These men, as a class, are probably some of our
most extensive farmers, and above the average in
intelligence, and possess superior advantages for
observation, and yet we see what a conflict of views
are entertained respecting a question of perma-
nent importance to every corn grower in the coun-
try. It is more than probable that we have men
in our farming communities who are capable, and
have the means of carrying out experiments in
this matter to satisfactory results. None need to
suppose that it will be a money remunerating un-
dertaking, but the reverse. A higher and more
benevolent motive must prompt the act. Suppose
the gain by reason of the proper settling of this
question should be only three bushels of corn to
the acre, (I think it will much exceed that,) it would
add to the aggregate corn crop of the country mil-
lions of bushels. I have been inclined to the opin-
ion that as the small end of the ear grew last, and
was generally not so well filled as the but, that it
did not mature so well, and consequently woidd
not germinate so vigorous a plant, nor produce so
abundant a crop. Of one thing I am quite sure,
viz., that by selecting the first ripened two eared
stalks for seed, the succeeding crops will be earlier
and larger in yield. I hope this subject will be
thoroughly inA'estigated, and the true practice es-
tablished so decidedly that none can doubt or
cavil about the matter. o. K.

liochcster, Mass., 1861.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

iBUKAL ARCHITECTURE.

DESIGN FOR A COUNTRY RESIDENCE, BV GEO. E. HARNEY, LYNN, MASS.

Designed axd kngraved kxi'Kessly for the new England farmer.

In continuation of our series of hints for Rural
Improvements, v>e offer at tliis time a design and
plan for a suburban cottage of moderate size and
cost. It measures thirty-one by thirty-six feet on
the ground, and is one and a half stories high, with
square rooms below, and good airy chambers, well
ventilated, on the second floor.

Flan. — The h-ont door — the upper half of which
is glazed — opens into a vestibule, A, six feet wide.

and nine feet long. From the rear of this a pas-
sage extends to the staircase hall, F, which opens

out to the yard, or into a wood-shed, if desired.
B, the parlor, is fifteen feet square, and is well
lighted by a muUioned window in front, and a sin-
gle window at the sides. It connects by means of
a small passage with the living-room, D, (this pas-
sage might be converted into a closet — thereby en-
tirely separating the parlor from the living-room.)
This living-room is twelve by seventeen, and opens
into the staircase haU at a point convenient to the
back entrance to the house. Across the hall, and
near the head of the cellar staii\s, is a good sized
closet or store-room, a, fitted up with shelves and
cupboards, and lighted by a single window. (Owing
to a mistake in di'awing, the perspective view shows
only one window on tliis side of the house, instead
of iico, as there should be — see plan.)

The sitting-room, C, measures tliii'teen by fif-
teen, and has two doors, one opening into the ves-
tibule, and the other into the passage back of it.

The second floor is divided mainly like the first,
and comprises three chambers, a bathing-room,
and five closets — besides the haU. The chamber
over the parlor is lighted by a dormer window at
the side, and a mullioned window in the front, with
swing sashes opening out upon a pleasant balcony
shown in the perspective.

Interior Finish, <fcc. — The finish of the interior

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

of this dwelling is to be in the plain, simple cot-
tage style, with no attempt at omamentation, by
means of intricate detail work. The stock should
be of good No. 2 pine throughout. The finish of
the windows and doors is to be a plain architrave,
with a simple cap moulding above. The base in
the parlor, sitting-room and hall, is to be nine
inches liigh, with a simple moulding above — and
in the other rooms, eight inches high, beveled on
■ top.

The parlor chimney-piece may be a marble slab,
supported on neat bronze brackets — and in the
other rooms, the mantles may be of wood. The
walls are to be lathed and plastered, and finished
for papering.

All the standing finish throughout the house is
to be oUed and varnished. The kitchen floor, sink,
<S:c., closet and bathing-room floors and closet-
shelves, should have two coats of lead and oil
paint of suitable colors.

Exterior. — The exterior of this house, as will be
seen by the jjerspective view, has some ornamen-
tal features, which, though not absolutely necessa-
ry, add to the convenience, and we think heighten
the artistic eff'ect of the design. Thus — the bal-
cony— wliile it afl'ords a pleasant retreat for the oc-
cupant of the chamber to which it is attached —
serves also as a hood, sliielding the parlor windows
from the sun ; and the veranda shelters the front
entrance to the house, and fills up what would
othei"wIse be a blank, cheerless space, combining
use with ornament. Then, too, the wldely-j^roject-
ing eaves — the heavy brackets — the dormer Avln-
dows and truncated gables, are all simple methods
of giving character to the design, and, in order to
produce proper efiects, care should be taken that
these ornamental details be executed In a substan-
tial manner, of heavy stock, and not of the useless
inch board stuflf, which commonly finds its way into
such places, to the great discredit of the builders.

The outside of this house should then be painted
with at least two different tints of lead and oil
paint, the color of the trimmings being a few shades
darker than the main body, unless the main body
be quite dark — In which case the trimmings should
be lighter, the object being to obtain a contrast be-
tween the two. For this house, we would recom-
mend a fawn or a light freestone color for the ver-
tical boarding, and a darker tint like that of the
common brown freestone for the trimmings. The
window-sashes should be ch-awn bronze green, and
the outside doors grained and varnished.

The cellar is seven feet six Inches high In the
clear, the principal floor Is ten feet In height, and
the attics are also ten feet in the centre, and five
at the eaves, the posts being sixteen feet long.

The walls are to be covered with vertical board-
ing and heavy battens, and the roof with cedar
sliinsles.

Cost. — Built in the above manner, and finished
throughout, this cottage would cost from $1500 to
$1700.

For the New England Farmer.

A NEW ERA FOR CHILDREN"— THE
PROSPECT BRIGHTENING.

My Dear Sir : — Something over twenty years
ago I wrote a series of articles for the old Neio
England Farmer, on the advantages of a knoMl-
edge of the natural sciences to famiers. The time
that has elapsed since then, and the experiences I
have met, have only served to impress the facts
I then attempted to utter, more strongly upon my
mind. Many others have viewed the matter as I
have done, but how to bring the thing about, so
that young farmers could obtain a knowledge of
these sciences, has been the question. Some have
proposed agricultural coUeges, Avith learned pro-
fessors, as the best means of accomplishing the
end. In a few States, such colleges have been es-
tabHshed, and I am happy to beHeve they are meet-
ing with gratifying success.

But colleges cannot meet the wants of every
one. There always have been, and always will be,
a great many boys In the country, whose capacities
are bright, and whose desires of knowledge are
equal, and often superior, to those In more fi.vvored
circumstances, to whom the doors of the great col-
leges are closed. They cannot afl'ord the time, or
the means of obtaining education there. Then
there are the guis ; the black-eyed and the blue-
eyed, laughing girls. They are as fond of knowl-
edge as the boys, and their capacities are as bright,
and their application in the pursuit of Instruction
are often greater than that of the more daring sex.

It was a noble act In the formation of our gov-
ernment that established the common school sys-
tem of education, a system that, to a great ex-
tent, Is capable of suppljlng the necessities of so
large a portion of our population, who, without
them, would be very limited in their means of ac-
quiring knowledge.

It is one of the pleasing features of this age of
progress, the Improvements that are being made in
every department of tliose institutions which have
appropriately been denominated "the people's col-
leges." We are having better school-houses, spa-
cious, comfortable rooms, Avell ventilated, well
warmed in winter, with beautiful yards attached,
In the places of the little, cramped up, smoky, dark,
dingy rooms, located on the corner, so near the
public way, as to cause the traveller to become a
nuisance to the school, and too often the school a
nuisance to the traveller. We are having teachers
educated to their business, in the place of those
who formerly tauglit a few winters, or a few sum-
mers, just to make the most of time in portions of
their lives when this employment could be fol-
lowed without Injury to the main business of future
years, and instead of the frequent changes once so
often made hi teachers, in our best schools, the
best are obtained and retained In their position as
long as possible.

How few of our readers can follow the memory
back to tlie days when Webster's old SpcUIng-
Book, the American Preceptor, or "tlie Third Part,"
Morse's old Geography, with two maps, one of
the World, and one of North America, Webster's

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

or Murray's Grammar, and Pike's Arithmetic, con-
stituted the encyclopa>dia of ccmrmon scliool hter-
ature. These Avere all good l^ooks in their day,
and very many good scholars gained good educa-
tions in the several lirauches upon ■which they
treated, by the hard study that opened their mys-
teries. But %-hat a contrast they aftbrded to the
school-books of the present time ! I have often
thought that I would like to have the scholars of
18G1 see the books used at the commencement of
the present centur}-, a few of which, treasured by
careful hands, have fallen to my ])ossession.

Great as this improvement has been, the ball is
still rolling on, and I hope it will continue to roll
until a higher degree of excellence is attained than
the public has yet anticipated, though I must ad-
mit that an advancement in the matter of reading-
books has recently been made by Marcius Wil-
son, and published by Messrs. Harper, of New"
York, entitled the "School and Family Readers."
A great excellency of the more advanced of these
readers, is, that in the place of much of the matter
usually introduced into reading-books, of which the
scholar learns little, and cares less, they are inter-
spersed with subjects of natural history, much of
wliich comes with the every day's observations of
the pupil, and will be of benefit and interest all the
Avay tlu'ough life. For instance, the science of Hu-
man Physiology, has a place, written in an every-
da}', familiar style, and copiously illustrated. So
of Vege.table Physiology, and Botany, Ornitholo-
gy, Entomology, Ichthyology, or the science of
fishes. Geology, Philosophy, Physical Geography,
&c., all familiarly treated, and beautifully illus-
trated.

Tills work strikes me favorably, from the fact,
that while the scholar is learning to read, he is at
the same time becoming acquainted Avith his own
organization, and the natural productions of the
world in which he dwells, many of which are formed
for his benefit. Some of them are annoyances, and
all worthy of his careful study and attention.

I wish the work a general introduction into our
schools and families, from a confident expectation
that it will introduce a new and beautiful feature
in our educational system, and one of gi-eat inter-
est and practical utility to the student.

In addition to the above series of reading-books,
our young friends are blessed in the publication of
another volume by Messrs. Swan, Brewer &
Tileston, of Boston, entitled, "Manual of Agricul-
ture," a work got up expressly as a text-book for
common schools. It was a much needed work,
and its use in schools and families cannot fail
to introduce a beginning of agricultural knowl-
edge and agricultural improvement in a new and
hopeful field, the minds of children and youth. I
anticipate much good from this work. In com-
mendation of it, it is only necessary to say it Avas
prepared by Geokge B. Emerson and Chahles
L. Flint, names that carry evidence in themselves
that the book is a good one.

I should certainly rejoice to see all the above
works introduced into all of our New England
schools. They are already in some of them. But
if any school neglects to get them, I say to parents
in such districts, you cannot give your cliildren a
better holiday present, than the Manual of Agri-
culture, or a copy of Harper's School and Family
Readers. W. Bacon.

Eichmond, Nov., 1861.

OYSTER SHELL LIME.

Not being able to dress our lands last spring as
we desired to do, just before the second hoeing
time we procured a quantity of oyster shell lime
of Mr. James Gould, of this city. It did not «
arrive in season to be applied before the crop was
hoed, but was added after the lioeing had been
completed. It was then applitd to part of a field
of potatoes, at the rate of a handful to the liill, —
that is, as much as a man could gi'asp, — ^and scat-
tered in among the tops. The potatoes were all
on the same quality of land, and nearly on the
same level. We passed through the field many
times during tne growing season, but observed no
diiference in the appearance of the tojis, and rath-
er came to the conclusion that the application of
the lime had exerted little or no influence upon
the crop. Pteturning home, one evening, we found
a cart-load of potatoes at the bulkhead which were
as even in size and as fan* and beautiful in appear-
ance as any we ever saw. The potatoes were of
the variety called the "Riley," or "Dover," or what
are well known by the Irish people as the "Irish
Cup" — so called because the eyes are so deeply
indented.

"Well, Darby," said we to the man who had dug
them, "that is' a very fine load."

"Yes, sii'," he replied, "you never have seea
better."

"Was there any difi'erence in the crop between
the limed and unlimed ?"

"Yes, as many again where the lime was put."

"As many again in number, or in pomids, do
you mean ?"

"There are twice as many pounds where the
lime is."

Beside the size and fairness of the potatoes, they
are exceedingly fine flavored, though we believe
that is generally the case with the potato crop l^s
year. If we plant potatoes again, we shall resort
to the lime. We shall spread from five to twenty
bushels per acre over our old pastures, mowing
lots, and about fruit trees. From some inquiries
and investigations made, we have come to the con-
clusion that well prepared oyster shell lime is more
valuable for our lands, than stone lime.

Hoven in Cattle. — This disease is usually
brought on by cattle being removed from confine-
ment and winter feeding to the luxuriance of the
clover field. In the article on Veterinary Science
in the new Encyclojjoedia Britannica, the oils
of linseed and turpentine are stated to be nearly
a specific. For a large animal take linseed oil raw,
one pound ; oil of turpentine, from two to three
ounces ; laudanum from one to two ounces — and
after mixing, administer the whole at a dose.

Acknowledgments. — Thanks to "0. K.,"
Rochester, for liis valuable articles and good wiU.

NEAV ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

We would say to those who read the articles over
the signature "O. K.," that he is a practical farm-
er, and only writes of tilings upon v/liich he is in-
formed, unless it be in the form of inquiry.

Fur the New England Farmer.

IS THSP.E AWZ SUBSTITUTE FOB. THE
PLOW?

Friend Brown : — I find the following para-
graph in the American Agriculturist, (a valuable
paper, by the by.)

"Since the benefits of deep tillage and thorough
pulverization of the soil have been recognized, it
has become apparent that some new implement is
needed in place of the plow. With the latter it is
impracticable to reach the required depth without
great expenditure of animal power, and the work
of pulverization is imperfectly performed. . . . An
implement is needed, to work by horse or ox povr-
er, that shall at one operation invert the surface
growth, stir the soil deeply, and not make the sub-
soil still more dense. The invention of a success-
ful apparatus of this Idnd wiU bring a large fortune
to somebody."

Yes, I believe the fortune is a sure thing to who-
soever will bring out an apparatus of this kind.
But is it within the reach of possibility, is the ques-
tion with me. That it is a felt necessity, none will
gainsay. All admit, to greater or less extent, the
evils alleged against the plow as now constructed,
but all the suggestions made to obviate them, by
substituting other methods, except spading and
trenching, seem utterly impracticable for general
use, while spading and trenching are so very ex-

Eensive, that they can be adopted only to a very
mited extent. A plow with pulverizing apparatus
attached, was described recently, before the "Amer-
ican Institute Farmers' Club," which was commend-
ed by some, and regarded as utterly worthless by
others. It roots up the soil and digs it to pieces,
leaving much of the sod upon the surface, exposed
to waste, and in a wet time to grow and be trouble-
some to extirpate. Let us look at some of the evils
alleged against the plow. I may not enumerate
th^m all, but some of the most prominent. The
first and foremost is the pressure of the sole of the
plow upon the bottom of the furrows; another, the
treading of the team in the same, and the lifting of
the furrow slice in order to turn it over properly,
and again, the great amount of power requisite to
di'aw the plow.

According to some, each time the plow passes
over a field, it increases the compactness of the
subsoil, and diminishes the cha.nces for a good
crop. ' This position I am not willing to admit. If
the sod is brought u])on the surface, I care not
how many times ray fields are plov/ed previous to
being jilanted with almost all farm crops. I do
not iDelieve the pressure of the plov/, or the foot of
the team, in the bottom of the furrow, so gi-eat an
evil, as not to be very much counterbalanced by
the increased advantage of Vac more ]5erfect disin-
tegration and mixture of the soil by repeated
plowing.

As to the objection urged, that the weight of the
furrow upon the mould board adds very much to
the draught, I do not think much of it, for the rea-
son that I suppose it not so great as genei'ally
thought, upon a well constructed plow. I tliink

Ave are not to believe the pressure of the furrow-
slice upon the plow, anything like the toeirjld of
the same upon the scale. I think, according as the
team moves slow fast or, the weight is increased or
dinrinished. The fast team gives the sod or soil a
momentum that greatly relieves the plow of its
dead weight. The objection urg#d against the
plow, that it reqiures great power of draught, I
look upon as groundless, considering the work it
performs. The simple fact, that every and aU sub-
stitutes I have ever heard or seen described, re-
quire far more power to operate them than the
plov/, and at the same time not doing the requii-ed
work enough better to supersede it, is conclusive
evidence that for the quality of its work and power
necessary to do it, it has not, and probably wiU
not have very soon, a successful competitor.

That some substitute will eventually be found
for the plow, is within the range of possibihty, but
I doubt whether, with the same amount of power,
it will accomphsh better results. If we wish to do
more than our plows now Accomplish, I tliink it
must be at the expense of greater poAver. The
plow will undoubtedly undergo improvements in
the future, probably in not so great a ratio, but
quite obvious. AVe have in oiu* improved subsoil
plows a remedy for the packing of the bottom of
the furroAv by the plow and team. On some soils,
it is as really necessary to be used as the plow.
Suppose Ave take the double, or Michigan ploAv,
and follow it Avith a subsoil ploAv, Avhat better is it
possible to do, unless we resort to the ^pade, or
trenching ?

It is far from my intention to discourage the in-
vention of superior implements to those Ave now
have, but let us not overlook their merits in some
wild goose chase after a substitute. o. K.

Rochester, Mass., 186L

Singular Facts in Hum.\n Life. — The av-
erage length of human life is about 28 years.
One-quarter die previous to the age of 7 ; one-hak
before reaching 17. Only one of every 1000 per-
sons reaches 100 years. Only six of every 100
reaches the age of Go, and not more than one in
500 lives to 80 years of age. Of the Avhole pop-
ulation on the globe, it is estimated that 90,000 dae
every day ; about 3700 every horn-, and sixty ev-
ery minute, or one every second. These losses
are more than counterbalanced by the number of
births. The married are longer lived than the sin-
gle. The average dm-ation of life in all civilized
countries is greater noAv than in any anterior pe-
riod. Macaulay, the distinguished liistorian, states
that in the year 1G8J — not an unhealthy year —
the deaths in England Avere as one to 20, but in
1850 one to 40. Dupni, a Avell knoAvn French
Avriter, states that the average duration of life in
France from 1776 to 1843 increased 52 days an-
nually. The rate of mortality in 1781 AA-^as one in
29, but in 1850 one in 40. The rich men live on
an average 42 years, but the poor only 30 years.
— Free Nation.

Words are nice tilings, but they strike hard.
We Avield them so easily that Ave are apt to forget
their hidden poAver. Fitly spoken, they fall like
the sunsliiue, the dcAV, and the summer rain — but
Avlien imfitly, like the frost, the hail, and the deso-
lating tempest.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

FoT the New England Fanner.

CHABACTER IS CAPITAL— LET US PLAY
THE MAi^r.

"Are you acquainted with the H brothers ?"

asked an old provision dealer of me, in Boston,
awhile since.

"Very well so," answered I ; "their farm is lo-
cated within a couple of miles of my place, and I
often call there."

"Well, what sort of men are they ?" said he.

"Two hard worldng, thi'ifty farmers, and honest,
reliable men."

"Well, that is just my experience," exclaimed
the old man, with warmth ; "and I have traded
with them for many years ; v."hen I engage a lot
of potatoes, or cabbages, or turnips, I don't have
to worry myself about being here when they
are delivered ; I hiow I shall find everything all
right. Then there is A., a neighbor of theirs ;
he's just like them ; one of the honest and honor-
able men that I hke to trade with ; but it aint so
with Z. ; I have to look out for him ; the measure
is too short, or things don't come up to what's
promised. I most always have some trouble ■with
him."

So it is, in the long run, other things equal, the
honest man is the successful man. When the
market is but scantily suppUed, the difference be-
tween the sharper and honest dealer may not be
po distinctly drawn ; but let the market be hard,
the distinction is soon made evident. A smooth
tongue may prove a power, when brought to bear
on transient, floating customers ; but that perma-
nent patronage, which subtracts so much from the
hardships of marketing, can be won by those only
whose goods are as good as their promises. But
were there no pecuniary motives to prompt to
honest dealing, there would still remain a man's
manhood to be respected — a precious heritage,
worth more than was ever brought forth by the
sweat of the brow — the immortal right to be main-
tained, though the pocket book may seem to sufl'er.

The practice of putting the best of the potatoes
on the top of the barrel, ("deaconing," is the slang
term for this,) and the best of the load on the top
of the wagon, is a curious illustration of cunning
ovcn-eacliing itself; the practice, if I am correctly
informed, having now become universal, being re-
quired on the ])art of the purchaser, and conse-
quently anticipated by the farmer.

But the genus sharper is common to both pro-
ducer and dealer. There are men in the provision
trade in the markets of Boston, men who do busi-
ness on a large scale, too, who hold theu* promises
very lightly if a dollar is to be made by the break-
ing of it. Many an honest farmer has been taught
his lesson of the standard of manliness on the
part of such, by some such experience as this :

"I have brought that load of onions for you."

"What onions ?" exclaims the dealer, with well
afiected surprise.

"The onions that Mr. B., of your fii-m, spoke for
yesterday."

"Mr. B. had no business to speak for the onions,"
replies the dealer ; "we don't want them."

After a little sharp experience of this kind, our
farmer perceives that whenever the article has fall-
en in the market, between the time it was ordered
and the time appointed for dehvery, Mr. A. will
be very apt to declare, with -well assured passion, ;

that Mr. B. had no right to order the article ; it
was not wanted ; or vice versa, Mr. B. will in like
manner declare that Mr. A. had no right to order
the article ; it was not wanted. It is better to
keep our manhood, though there be but fourpence
in the wallet, than store tens of thousands in the
vault, by such rascality.

There are noble farmers I wot of, who have laid
down and observed a rule for themselves in rela-
tion to such sharpers, that I would that all might
follow, to the end that the genus might be extin-
guished ; viz., never after to deal with such, no
matter what inducements they might hold out.
They might thus be taught that character is cap-
ital.

The practice by some of bringing out baiTcls of
extraordinary capacity to receive onions, potatoes,
or other products purchased by the barrel, I need
not say is a mean, unmanly act. I honestly ad-
vise men who intend going through life on such a
basis of action to hang or drown themselves, or
in some way stop the record just where it is.

The efl'ect of such dealing on the relation be-
tween producer and dealer is most unfortunate.
It produces a want of healthy respect and a mu-
tual distrust, to the disadvantage of each party
concerned. In the long run, neither party gain
by it, pecuniarily, and I doubt not retire from busi-
ness pretty well satisfied, that after all, such deal-
ing is no proof of any great amount of either
sharpness or shi-ewdness.

James J. H. Gkegory.

MarbUhead, Mass., 1861.

For the New England Farmer.
THE "WHOLE THING IN" A IfUT-SHELL.

Mr. Editou : — In your comments — in a notice
of the Transactions of the Massachusetts Society
for the Promotion of Agriculture — in the New
England Farmer of Nov. 24, you "hit the nail on
the head," and state the question just as it is —
whether farming is profitable or not, and to my
mind, the statement carries its own answer. It is
not, whether this or that one makes money at the
business of farming ; but how is it on the whole,
in the aggregate, as a class, comparing them with
the same number in any other profession you
please. K, as a class, the farmer does not enjoy
better health — no small item in making up the
balance sheet of human enjoyment — have more, or
as many of the substantial comforts of life, works
no harder, comparing muscle with mind, and its
results as to wear and tear of the body, and, above
all, is the most independent being which treads the
ground he tills, or that walks on God's earth ; and,
lastly, if, as a class, they do not probate as much
property as any other, then, I confess, farming does
not pay, and men do well in seeking other employ-
ments, to secure happiness and property.

No man v.'ith any observation can justly ques-
tion the above ; they are the farmers de facto,
whatever may be said to the contrary. Look at
the "out of debt" farmer during the year 18G1,
thus far, and compare him with the other classes
of the community. See how he stands out "head
and shoulders", like an oasis in a burning desert,
ahead and above all others in financial solidity.
Surely he is the salt of the earth ; his business the
basis of aU wealth and prosperity, as well as hu-

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

man enjoyment. This is no fiction, but eternal
truth. The true farmer is like pure old brass, the
more you rub him, the brighter he sliines. The
fi-uits of his business, like the bright, morning sun,
cheers and comforts ail. His, indeed, is a noble
calKng, fit for him \vho was made in the image of
God.

Young man, don't be in haste to leave the old
farm, with its cares and labors, to the "old folks,"
until you are well convinced, the world has some-
thing more noble and glorious for you. Rest as-
sured, if you do, that in the sad hours which will
come over you, its inmates and shadows will haunt
you, while the aged folks at home will sigh and
lament that no son is near to cheer them on, as
the years come over them, and to lighten the la-
bors of the good old farm. Young man, stay at
home with the "old folks," and the farm is yours.

King Oak Hill, 1861. N. Q. T.

BO YOU BRUISE YOUR OATS YET?

The London Omnibus Company have lately
made a report on feeding horses, which discloses
some interesting information not only to farmers,
but to every owner of a horse. As a great num-
ber of horses are now used in the army for caval-
ry, artillery and draught purposes, the facts stated
are of great value at the present time. The Lon-
don Company uses no less than 6000 horses. 3000
of this number had for theii- feed bruised oats and
hay. The allowance accorded to the first, was
bruised oats, 16 lbs. ; cut hay, 7i lbs. ; cut straw,
2 J lbs. The allowance accorded to the second,
unbruised oats, 19 lbs. ; uncut hay, 13 lbs. The
bruised oats, cut hay and cut straw amounted to
26 lbs. ; and the unbruised oats, &c., to 32 lbs.
The horse which had bruised oats, with cut hay
and straw, and consumed 26 lbs. per day, could
do the same work as well, and was kept in as good
condition as the horse wliich i-eceived 32 lbs. per
day. Here was a saving of 6 lbs. per day on the
feeding of each horse receiving bruised oats, cut
hay and cut straw. The advantage of bruised oats
and cut hay over unbruised oats and uncut hay is
estimated at 2^d. per day on each horse, amount-
ing to upwai'ds of £60 per day for the company's
6000 horses. It is by no means an unimportant
I'esult with which this experiment has supplied us.
To the farmer who expends a large sum in the
support of horse-power, there are two points this
experiment clearly establishes, which, in practice,
must be profitable — first, the saving of food to the
amount of 6 lbs. per day ; and, second, no loss of
horse-power arising from that saving.

The Crop of Maple Sugar. — Hunt's Mer-
clianVs Magazine estimates the crop of maple su-
igar for the current year at 28,000 tons. The trees
are tapped h\ February to obtain the product, and
the process is usually completed by the end of
March. An intelligent judgment may, therefore,
be fairly formed at this date of the aggregate yield
by the aid of careful comparison with the ascer-
tained products of former years, and accurate ob-
servers generally concur in the opinion that the
foregoing is a moderate estimate, viz. : 28,000
tons, or 62,720,000 pounds. Maple sugar may be
fairly quoted at eight cents per pound. The ag-
gregate of tliis current crop is hence $5,017,000.

EXTRAX!TS AND REPLIES.

POULTRY.

Please publish the enclosed statement as the

result of my experience in keeping fowls, for one

year, commencing Nov. loth, 1860, and ending

Nov. loth, 1861.

I commenced Nov. 15, 1860, with 35 fowls, valued at $17,50

Cost of grain and other feed 67,73

$85,23

Have sold 127 chicken for, ,»,,, . ., 57,30

" " 12fo\vlsfor 5,75

" " 446 11-12 dozen eggs, for 97,51

$160,56
Have 84 fowls on hand, at 50c.. .» „ ^... 42,00

$202,55
Deduct the cost 85,23

Xett profit for one year $117,33

Number of dozen of eggs laid in one year 443 J

Number of chickens hatched 101

" " lost 3

" " raised 183

William Robinson.
WcdeHowih Nov. 15, 1861.

SICK hens.

Your correspondent from Marblehead says he
has several sick hens, and asks, "What is the name
of it ? Is it contagious ? What is the remedy ?"
In answer to number one, I would say it is what
is called in the books on fowls, the roup. Second,
Is it contagious ? Yes, it would affect a thous-
and fowls, if he had as many. What is the rem-
edy for it ? Charcoal. Remove the sick ones from
the other fowls as soon as they show any symp-
toms of hard breathing, the first indication of the
disease, and feed with a little finely powdered char-
coal mixed with Indian meal ; give plenty of fresh
water, and keep the fowls Avarm ; white-wash your
coop, and spread around in it cldoride of lime. If
his fowls are badly diseased, it is cheaper for him
to cut their heads off", and begin with a fresh lot.
That has been my experience. c. E.

Maiden, Nov., 1861.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ESSEX COUNTY AGRICUL-
TURAL SOCIETY.

I learn that 120 pages of this annual are aheady
printed, and that the Essays and Reports which
have been approved, will probably make 40 or 50
pages more. I have long been of the opinion that
this Society has done more to advance the cause
for which it is organized, by its annual publication,
than in any other manner. I have these publica-
tions bound in decades, from 1818 onwards, and
value them as highly as any book in my library.
Like the farmer in his frock and trowsers, they
give instruction in the natural way. The impulse
given to tliis Society by Timothy Pickering and
Ilem-y Colman, will long be remembered, as among
their most creditable labors. They were men of
original thought and determined action — none of
your kid-glove gentry. p.

November, 1861.

COVERING FOR HAY STACKS, ETC.

The "Rubber Clothing Company," No. 37 Milk
Street, Boston, maltc a tarpaulin, or stout drill,
coated with rubber. Tliis will keep stacks of hay.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

oats, or any other grain, perfectly dry for any
length of time. The tarpaulin will last for ten
years, ^vith ordinary care. They cost $1 per square
yard, and are made of any size.

HOW TO FEED A COLT.

A reader of the Farmer wants to know how to
grow a two-years old colt to its utmost sixe. I
have a thi-ee-years old colt, of the Black Hawk
breed, that weighed at 37 months old 1025 pounds.
He is said by good judges to be a good model of
the original Black Hawk, formerly owned by David
Hill, of Bridport, Vt., both in form and action, ex-
cept the colt is about 75 pounds the largest. The
feed I gave him last winter Avas as follows : — all
the hay he would eat, (which was of the best Timo-
thy and red clover,) four quarts of boiled potatoes,
together with from one to two quarts of oat meal
per daj', and all the salt he would eat. I keep him
in a box stall, without a floor. His color is a per-
fect black, except one white foot and a white spot
in the forehead ; is well broke to harness, is per-
fectly kind, and it would do any man, \voman or
clulu good to get into the sleigh or buggy and ride
after liira one mile, for it would give their blood a
good circulation. A. B. COLLINS.

West Dover, Vt, Nov., 1861.

FINE HORSES.

I have a Bullrush Morgan mare, one year and
five months old, that weighs 923 pounds. I tliinlt
this is hard to beat. I have also a horse colt of
the same age, that weighs 773 pounds, sired by
the Green JNIountain Morgan. If any one can
beat these, I would like to see the figures. These
colts have not had any extra care, except they
were kept in a warm stall last winter. s. D.

Bolton, Jonewille P. 0., Vermont.

PBEPABATION OF BONES FOB USE.

Eds. Country Gentleman : — In your paper
of Nov. 14, you ask for a practical and inexpensive
method of preparing bones for use. I AvUl give
you my Avay, Avhich is so simple that, although I
have practiced it for years, I should not have
thought of parading it in your columns, but for
your inquiry, and also because our friend Howard,
of the Cultivator, who notices and remembers
everything practical and useful, commended it in
his last week's paper. I set an old cask, with one
head, in some convenient spot back of the house,
in the spring, and of the l^ones Avhich have accu-
mulated through the winter, I thi'ow in enough to
cover the bottom ; then enough of unleached ash-
es thoroughly to cover them ; then another layer
of bones, then ashes, and so in alternate layers un-
til the cask is full. On top is placed a sufficient
covering of ashes, loam or charcoal dust, to pre-
vent the escape of any gas. I usually wet down
the ashes as I proceed, and leave the cask exposed
to the weather, that they may be kept damp. By
the next spring, when I wish to use them, the
bones are thorouglily digested, and in a fit condi-
tion to use.

By this management I preserve all the material
of the bones, and it stands to reason that they
must be more valuable than those from wliich the
animal matter has been extracated by the soap

boilers, and which are then burnt for the sugar
refineries, and then made into superphosphate.

I usually take the mixed bones and ashes, and
compost with well rotted manure, a liberal sprink-
ling of plaster, a little guano and salt, and a load
of sweepings from the blacksmith shop, of iron
scales, charcoal dust, horse hoof parings and the
manure made there. This I apply to trees, espe-
cially pears.

The growth caused by this is astonishing ; as
you perceive, this compost contains all the require-
ments, both for gi'owth and fruit, better than any
purchased superphosphate, for it has the potash so
essential to the pear, and the iron, which is very
important. I also prepared my grape border with
tliis.

I not only use the bones saved from our own
family, but buy a good many, paying Irish and
German boys for collecting, about half a cent per
pound, Avhich is the market price obtained by the
cutlery works for their refuse bones.

I have gi'eat faith in the efficacy of both ashes
and bones, and I think this combination of thera
is both cheap and useful. — James S. Grennell,
in (Joxintry Gentleman.

UNDEBDRAINING.

We have received from Messrs. C. M. Saxton,
Barker & Co., 25 Park Row, New York city, a
highly valuable work entitled "Farm Drainage,"
by Henry F. French, Esq., of Exeter, N. H. We
rejoice to have this opportunity of calling the at-
tention of agriculturists in this vicinity to this im-
portant book — satisfied that no farmer can careful-
ly read its clearly wi'itten pages without obtaining
the choicest rules upon this important subject.
We illustrate : Three years since an intelligent
young farmer in Huntington, Ct., who had been
carefully and thoughtfully examining tliis subject,
purchased for a song six acres of "worthless swamp"
in that town. There grew upon it occasional blades,
thinly distributed, of wide, coarse, swamp grass ;
a few bunches of willow and alder bushes a foot
or two high, struggling in the midst of the foul
and stagnant Avater for an existence ; the long wa-
ter moss, skeleton-like in its proportions, a fitting
emblem of death, and hosts of revelling bull-frogs.
Thus had tliis unsightly swamp been, back beyond
the memory of man, and thus did it remain up to
the time we narrate. Well, the swamp was pur-
chased at a song — the practical old farmers in the
vicinity laughed and sneered at the fanaticism of
tliis young enthusiast, but he persevered, surveyed
and underdrained the six acres at an expense of
$150. The water left liis land, so did the swamp
grass and moss, ditto hoarse-voiced frogs, and the
bushes he pulled up by the roots. He then sowed
gi"ass seed over the entire solid surface, and the
past summer sold the six acres for $117 per acre,
and the crop now averages three tons per acre.
This is only one case out of thousands where un-
derdi'aining has been wonderfully successful and
increased the value of the land more than five
hundred per cent. We assure one and all of our
readers who are interested in the soil, that .$1,00
cannot be appropriated to a better use than by the
purchase of this excellent book on drainage, and
we tender our thanks to the gentlemanly publish-
ers for the opportunity they have given us to ex-
amine its pages. — Newark Evening Journal.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

AN" HOtm IN A PEAB OBOHABD.

E recently had
had the plea-
sure of visit-
ing the Pear
orchard of W.
Bacox, Esq.,
of Roxbury,
and of fully
reaHzing some
pi of the marvel-
f=^ lous stories we
have heard, of
pear raising, in re-
lation to both trees
and fruit. Mr. Bacon was accus-
tomed to the farm in liis youth, and cultivated
there his natural taste for rural pursuits. He has
"an eye for trees," as others have for paintings,
or fine animals, or beautiful landscapes, and knows
then" names and peculiar habits, as a parent does
those of his children. But that "Divinity that
shapes our ends," called liim away from the pro-
fession which he loved, and placed liim in a dry
goods store, where forty years of devotion could
not obliterate his early tastes. Galloons and laces,
muslins, and Thibets, and collars might bring prof-
its to his till, but never could satisfy his desire for
the swelling buds, fragrant blossoms and graceful
branches of favorite trees. So at the end of more
than sixty years, he snatched an hour noAv and
then from the counter, raised a piece of land a yard
wide, from the salt marsh, di"essed it, planted liis
trees, fashioned their limbs to gratify his critical
eye, and now, one among them stands the hand-
somest DLx pear we ever saw ! Six or eight other
trees comprised his first effort. They were plant-
ed directly behind his store, which stands on the
main street in the city of Roxbury, and vvere placed
upon a sort of terrace wliich he threw up from the
marsh, and Avliich answered the double purpose of
a dike to keep out the returning tides, as well as
a bed for the roots of his favorite trees. These
eight or nine trees are now each about eight indi-
es through, and pay the interest of more money
than we dare state in this notice.

At length the old love got the mastery ; the
store and all its interests were abandoned to liis
sons, and he went forth into the cheerful light to
indulge liis early tastes, and grow young again.
lie now entered upon his plans with avidity, by
making ditches through the mai'sh, and dildng out
the salt water that returned with the flood tides.
Wliere paths were to be made, the earth was tlirov.-ii
out to the depth of three feet and its place sup-
plied with oyster shells. Over this earth was
thrown street sAveepings, old mortar, ashes, and
all similar rubbish that he could obtain. To this
was added large quantities of tan bark, and to this,

mainly, he imputes the wonderful success he has
had in producing his almost unrivalled crops of
pears ! Not that the trees find in tliis the princi-
pal ahment they require, but that it forms a soft,
moist and porous root bed, where the roots can
range without obstruction in search of other and
richer substances wliich he applies to the soil.
The land is so thoroughly di'ained, and so open
and Hght, that a fortnight's rain, he saj-s, makes
no difference in its appearance.

The piece of land we went over is sometliing
less, we should think, than one acre. On tliis he
has six hundred standard pear trees ; that is, trees
set in place and not to be removed, though most
of them are on quince stocks, — beside large num-
bers of young trees which are for sale, and plum
and peach trees, currants, gooseberries, raspber-
ries, flowers and ornamental shrubs. Between
these he manages to raise his potatoes and such
other garden stuff as he needs for his table.

Passing a tree, Mr. B. remarked that it prodiu;ed
four bushels of pears tliis season, which he sold for
forty-eight dollars ! Another near it a little less,
and a Beurre Diel, three years ago, gave him the
neat sum oi eighty-two dollars for a single crop !

The ground upon wliich all his trees stand, is
made ground — redeemed from the salt marsh, first
by digging ample ditches, and using the material
as far as it would go for filUng up, and following
with loam, leaves, street sweepings, weeds, old
mortar, decaying chips, and almost all sorts of rub-
bish which he could obtain, but, chiefly — he em-
phasised— tan hark, wliich he had appHed on tliis
small space at the rate of twenty-five cords per
year ! He dwelt upon this part of his process with
unusual earnestness and gratification. .

Passing along, we thought if the ditches could
talk, they would tell a favorable story. It seemed
to us that they partook in some measure of the
nature of common sewers, and collected at the
hands of the proprietor an abundance of the richest
materials both for ti'ees and then' crops. Be this
as it may, Mr. Bacon has achieved a success near-
er perfection than any tiling else in that direction
which we have ever witnessed. That success has
been gained, mainly, by three tilings, viz :

1. Thorough Drainage.

That the drainage in this case is perfect, is evi-
dent from the fact stated by Mr. B., that a fort-
night's rain makes no perceptible difference in the
appearance of the land. Those who understand
the philosophical principles involved in such drain-
age, win readily comprehend the advantages gained
beside that of the passage of rain water tlirough
the soil.

2. The Depth and Richness of the soil.

The depth of soil under these trees is not any-
where less than tioo feet, and probably varies from
that to three feet, and from the surface to bottom, it

1862.

NEW ENGLAKD FARMER.

is thoroughly mixed -with the rich substances which
h^\e ah-ead}- been named. This is kept light and
porous by frequent digging, so that nothing can
be more convenient or inviting to roots of any sort
of energy to run and feed in, than the bed which
is prepared for them.

3. The tliird material point is that of Shelter.
The importance of this is not yet fairly appreciated
by our gardeners, even, and by the farmer is
scarcelv thought of in connection with his fields.
Mr. Bacon's orchard is surrounded by buildings,
only separated from it by passage-ways perhaps
twenty feet wide, and by a fence next to the trees
some eight feet high. On the south corner of the
lot stands one of the largest trees in the number,
and he remarked that he "should head that down,
because the wind had too much power upon it."

It may be objected by the reader, that we can-
not imitate tliis example in all of these points.
We should not, however, plant pear trees where
we cannot avail ourselves of the first, drainage —
and the true policy is, not to set any more trees
than we have the means of providing v.'itli a root-
bed something like his, and then it will not be ex-
pensive to plant evergreens or put up fences for
shelter.

Those of us who have already planted pear trees
may find many valuable hints from Mr. Bacon's
practice. If we cannot reach liis excellence, let us,
at least, attempt to imitate it, by occupying the
entire ground with trees, say six or eight feet apart,
and keeping them enriched and cultivated in the
best manner, as far as we go. This course pur-
sued with a dozen trees, wiU give us more profit
than will thi-ee times the number managed upon
the common plan.

We saw nothing in the practice of our friend, in
regard to setting or shaping the trees, that re-
quired comment. The trees themselves were as
clean and bright as the morning face of a pretty
baby. The limbs and spurs were remarkably stout,
and of a light gray color.

In reply to the question, "when should pears be
gathered ?" he said a "little time before they are
ripe." When gathered, he places them on shelves
in single tiers, in cellars. They are well ventilat-
ed, and a little moist, and so aiTangcd that he has
considerable control over the temperature. Many
of his pears he sells himself, at jDriccs ranging from
$1 50 to $4 per dozen.

Simple Method of Stuikixg Rose Cut-
tings.— "Rusticus" describes his plan of strildng
roses in a late number of the Gardeners^ Chronicle,
as follows :

"I have been in the habit, for some years, of
striking roses in Avhat appears to me a much more
simple way than is described in your paper of the
3th inst. At any time of the year, when they are

to be procured, I take cuttings of any sorts of roses
I want to propagate, (Moss included,) and cut the
half-ripened wood into lengths of two eyes. I re-
move the bottom leaf, leaving the top one to rest
upon the surface of the bed and nourish the cut-
ting while it forms its roots. The hot-bed (a very
slight one) in which I plant the cuttings, is made
thus : On the top of a little manure, just enough
to give a slight bottom heat, I place Q inches of
earth, moistened to the consistency of mortar, then
cover with white sand, and set in the cuttings. I
have occasionally struck every cutting, while 99
out of 100 are an average result."

For the New England Farmer.
VALUE OF MEADO'W MUCK.

Mr. Editor : — Much useful information has
been received from time to time through the col-
umns of the Farmer, in relation to the valuable
properties of muck, and many farmers have, doubt-
less, been stimulated thereby to use it more freely
than formerly. An article in your issue of the
16th, from the Southern Homestead, in wMch the
writer, among other tilings, expressed his belief
that not one farmer in twenty fully appreciates its
value, induces me to state the method I have some-
times taken to use a considerable quantity of it on
our own place.

The past season has been unusually favorable
for the clearing out of old ditches and opening
new ones, and having quite a surplus on hand, af-
ter filling my yards and barn cellar, I am now
drawing at the rate of twelve to fifteen ox cart
loads per acre to all my high ground, (ten or twelve
acres,) that I intend to plow next spring, spreading
as fast as I draw it. To plow this in at once, in its
green state, I have no doubt would prove rather
injurious than otherwise to the soil ; but spread
out thinly, exposing it to the freezing and thawing
process from Nov. to April, it becomes completely
pulverized and slackened, and so rendered fit for
use. I do not, of course, depend on this alone for
a crop, but use the same amount of animal and
compost manure that I otherwise should. I tried
the same method a few years since with five or six
acres of orcharding, and still later, Avith another
piece of high gravelly soil, in both cases, I tliink,
with favorable results. It is no doubt possible to
use too much of this valuable material. To repeat
this dose every year, or even once in five years,
would not perhaps be advisable, but thorouglily
slackened by frosts, or mixed in suitable propor-
tions with animal manure, ashes, seaweed, &c., I
apprehend few farmers use it to excess.

I derive so much pleasui'e from seeing things
grow, and hel]3ing them to grow, that I frequently
purchase small quantities of plaster, ashes, guano,
or phosphate, to stimulate a certain crop that needs
a little more food than I can otherwise give it, ])ut
with the exception, perhaps, of ashes, I think I
have never realized more than dollar for dollar on
the sum expended in such fertilizers ; but decom-
posed material gathered up from our own place
costs comparatively little, and yields in my estima-
tion four fold. It is very important to make all
the manure Ave can in our yards, barn cellars, &c.,
but I apprehend some farmers waste labor by
drawing more muck into their yards than can be
saturated or mixed to advantage. Labor is so im-

NEAV ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

portant a consideration on a faiin, that we cannot
afford to haul material out of our yards, in the
same state in which we haul it in. I tliink those
who have a sui)ply of muck on hand, and liigh
lands requiring its use, Avill do well to use a part
of it in the manner I have practiced.

John F. Fkench.
North Eampton, N. H., Nov., 1861.

Remarks. — We are always gratified on finding
our friends properly appreciating the value of
meadow or swamp muck. It is capable, we have
no doubt, when properly used, of doubling the pro-
ductive power of many of our New England forms.
Standing by the side of a grass field of twenty
acres some time since, with a friend, he inquired if
we could observe a difference in the crop on any
portion of the field ? We replied in the affirma-
tive, and readily pointed out that portion where
the grass was thicker and more luxuriant than on
any other part of the lot. "Well," said he, 'Hhirty
years ago, that strip where the grass is so much
better, was heavily dressed with meadow muck,
and with that exception has always been treated
just Uke the rest of the field !" The land is a sandy
loam, and all lies on nearly the same level. The
etrip dressed with muck had annually given a bet-
ter crop than the rest of the field.

For the New Englatid Farmer.
SHINGLING.

Can I aid the readers of the Farmer by a word
or two about shingling ? Every farmer is put to
great expense for roofing. It is quite obvious that
some of the expense is needless.

In the first place, a roof should have a good
pitch. Many roofs in our country are too flat ;
tlie wet don't drain off readily. The English peo-
ple build Avith liigh peaked roofs ; more necessary
with them, on account of their damp climate. A
flat roof, if tight at first, will last but a short time ;
water will find its way under the shingles and not
dry out, and decay will at once commence.

The kind of Shingles. — I don't believe much is
saved by using cheap shingles. The labor is more
in laying them. They last from seven to fifteen
years. A good shaved pine or cedar shingle will
last forty years. A shingle should wear out, not
rot out. How often it is seen that roofs v/ith rows
of shingles of full size and tliickness, are one mass
of spongy rot.

The result of my experience is, that shaved shin-
gles are ])referable to sawed. Water has a ten-
dency to follow the grain of the wood, and often-
times a sawed shingle will soak through. The
principal reason why a shaved shingle lasts so long
is, that it does not hug down so tight to the roof
as the sawed one, and soon dries after rain. Car-
penters are often careless about the breaking of
joints. If the sliingle has but a small lap, in a few
years it will have worn off the edge, and have
shrunk so as to let in v/ct.

I have been amused at some new methods of
.shingling recommended in the Farmer. OncAvas,
to shingle right over the old roof, without disturb-
ing it ! A man who would do that v.ould make

his toilet by putting on his clean shirt over the
soiled one.

Somebody has a preparation to swab on which
will make any roof water-proof. The few who
have tried in tliis vicinity, for a short time, the
brown paper and highly fragrant coal tar, for pro-
tection from the weather, have gone back to shin-
gles again — sadder, wiser and drier men.

Wm. D. Brown.

Concord, Mass., Nov., 1861.

GLANDERS.

Although this disease has been pronounced in-
curable by Mr. Bauley, of Alfort, some cases are
reported in the Gazette dcs Ilopitaux, in wliich
the attempts at a cure proved successful. In April,
18o9, writes l)r. Joufflet, of iMontrouge, I bought
a thorough bred mare, seven years old, and appar-
ently sound. One month later ; pustules in the
legs ulcerating ; sub-cutaneous abscess, glands,
oedema of the limbs. Mr. lleynal, of ALfort, di-
agnosticated chronic glanders requiring slaughter-
ing. No running at the nose ; notliing there, nor
in the pharnyx or the mouth. I could not consent
to such a sacrifice, but instituted tliis treatment :
75 grains of sulphur twice a day, common salt,
iodine, good diet. The sub-cutaneous abscess
opened of itself; a degenerated ganglion formed
an enormous vegetation. I removed it, and to
combat suppuration, I administered the fresh leaves
of aconite. The animal was losing flesh. I con-
tinued this treatment for four months, aided by
good diet : barley, wheat, oats ; and to-day my
mare looks so well that I am beset by amateurs,
who want to buy her.

One of my friends had a horse in the same con-
dition, and was going to have it slaughtered, as it
did not cat. It was placed under the same treat-
ment : injections, tincture of iodine, sulphur at
meals. After a few days, the appetite returned,
and with it the strength, etc.

Two farmers, flither and son, contracted the
glanders from five horses affected with it. The fa-
ther fell rapidly as a victim of the disease. The
son, whose disease assumed the chronic form, was
placed by Dr. Lesur luider a mercurial treatment ;
calomel internally and cauterization of the pus-
tules with the acid nitrate of mercury. One month
after, the cure was complete. — American Medical
Times.

A NEW FENCE.

Mr. Charles R. Smith, of Haverhill, N. H.,
recently put up on our farm a few panels of a
fence which he has invented, and wliich is well
worth the attention of all our farmers who are
obhged to resort to materials of wood for their
fences. It is so constructed as not to come in con-
tact witli the ground at all, but rests upon com-
mon stones, such as may be found in most stone
wiJls between fields. It seems to us to be an
economical and durable fence, and that one well
put up and kept wliltewashed, would last at least
fifty years. We are not able to give the cost per
rod, but intend to learn what that will be, the
coming spring.

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

Fcr the New England Farmer.
CONTKASTS IN" FAKMING.

ISIr, Editor : — A trlj) over what used to be tlio
main thoroughfare for travel between Northern
Vermont and New Ilampshii-e to Boston, in the
latter jiart of October, enaliled me to sec some-
tliing of tlie farmers and tk-ir farms 5 and, as I
have notliing better to do just now, I will venture
to write down a lew observations alx)ut tliem.

Witliiu -a few j.ears, the ^enerai a])i)eara3ice of
the forms, in those -seetions of NewIIampybire and
Massachusetts through wlich I passed, has im-
proved very mucli. Neatly ])ainted houses, and
substantial, wcU finished barns, have taken the
places in many instances of those much Jess so :
and unmistakably prove tliat farming is not tiiways
"a losing business.*' But, O, tlie fences !

In speaking of houses, why do not more of our
farmers, who are about to build new ones, avail
themselves of the modern improvements in house
architecture ? Neat, tasteful and convenient
houses, like some of those designed for the Farm-
er, can be built at about the saine cost as the
square, old-fasliioned stnictures of a former age.
There is still in this enlightened age, and in our
owu New England, a great prejudice against "book
fai'raing," and, in passing along, one need not
greatly err in guessing where farmers of this stamp
live. The out-of-door as well as in-door indica-
tions that they don't afford to take agricultural pa-
pers, 37X5 too apjxirent to be mistaken. Look r4
exhausted fields, and the scanty yield of grain and
grass, and near by, immense deposits of muck un-
touched. Look at the rich swamp lands which
only need thorough drainage to make them equal
the prairies of the West. Look at the thousands
of brooks and rivulets, whose babblimg waters
might be made to irrigate tens of thousands of
acres, now paixhed and withered by every sum-
mer's sun, wliich, with a little knowledge and a
little labor, might be made to yield ten-fold.

The scarcity of public houses upon the road
made it necessary to make the acquaintance of one
of this class of farmers, Avhere we sto])ped to get
oats for our horse. The great "barny" house M'as
situated close to the road, and, after an unwelcome
salutation from a great surly dog, and a "get out"
from Ills surly master, we ventured within. Our
'•^first impressions" of the dog and his master, and
their home, were not very favorable. Although he
treated us kindly, "get out" was written all over
his hard, solid face. His liistory of "hard times,
poor crops, liired man gone to the wars, sons to
California," was in perfect keeping with the out-
door embellishments of broken carts, plows, &c.,
which lay scattered about. An almanac, an old ac-
count-book, and a newspaper of doubtful loyalty,
were the only evidences of a library, or of reading,
we could discern. Not a slii'ub, not a tree was vis-
ible to look upon, or break off the glare of the
noon-day's sun from his cheerless home. A beau-
tiful maple, spared by the woodman of another age,
he had cut down because "the plaguy birds built
their nests in its branches, and it prevented him
from seeing the cows when they got into the corn."
From youth to manhood and old age, here is no
improvement, and no more hopes of any than in a
Bedouin Arab. AVith another growl from the dog,
and another "get out" from the master, (which our
self-respect, and respect for human nature, makes

us think was intended for the dog, and not for us,)
we bade liim good-ljye.

Li striking contrast with this were the home
and character of another farmer. The neat and
tasteliil cottage situated mcU back from the road,
the beautiful lawn, the Avell-kept walks and drive-
ways, the well-built and convenient barn, the
flourishing orchard, the garden, with fruits and
fioAvers, and the work-sho]:i and library, were the
outward tokens of an intelligent farmer. The sin-
gle expression, "I cannot bear to be idle," explains
it all. The stranger, visitors, friends and kindred
find within neatness, order, elegance and refine-
ment, with true politeness M-hich springs only from
a kind and genial spirit. The birds find in him a
fnend, and build their nests close up to his very
door, and childhood, mute as to words, expresses
its consciousness of being loved, in the outbursts
of a joyous nature. Here is everything, thought I,
to make life happy, but, ah, not everything. That
priceless blessing, sound, robust health, has been
denied him.

An educated, working farmer, with the moral
and social qualities duly cultivated, is the noblest
type of manhood. Such a man writes his history
on everything about him, and its bright pages will
be read long after he has passed away from the
living. North or South, such men are never big-
ots nor traitors ; and their example is much safer
and worthier of imitation than his whose footsteps
are followed by the tramp of armies.

Farmers, "take the papers." Read, study and
experiment. "Let us improve the mind and the
soil," and the world will be the better for our hav-
ing Jived in it. s.

Haverhill, N. K, Nov., 1861.

"WHAT 'TIOIJGHING IT" MEANS.

"Roughing it" has various meanings, and the
phrase is oftentimes ludicrously mistaken by many
individuals. A friend with whom we once trav-
elled, thought he was rougliing it daily for the
space of three weeks, because he was obliged to
lunch on cold chicken and uniced Champagne, and
when it rained, he was forced to seek shelter in-
side very inelegant hotels on the road. To rough
it, in the best sense of that term, is to lie down
every night with the ground for a mattrass, a bun-
dle of fagots for a pillow, and the stars for a cover-
let. To sleep in a tent is semi-luxury, and tainted
with too much effeminacy to suit the ardor of a
fu-st-rate "Rough." Pai'kyns, Taylor, Cumming,
Fremont and Kane have told us how much supe-
rior are two trunks of trees, rolled together for a
bed, under the open sky, to that soft, heating ap-
paratus, called a bed, in the best chamber. Every
man to his taste — of course, but there come occa-
sions in life when a man must look about him and
arrange for himself, somehow. The traveller wlio
has never slept in the woods, has missed an enjoy-
able sensation. A clump of trees makes a fine,
leafy post-bedstead, and to awake in the morning
amid a grove of sheltering, nodding oaks, is lung-
inspiring. It was the good thought of a wanderer
to say, "the forest is the poor man's jacket." Napo-
leon had a high opinion of the bivouac style of life,
and on the score of health, gave it the preference
over tent-sleeping. Free circulation is a great
blessing, albeit mc tliink its eulogy rather strongly

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

expressed by the Walden-Pondist, when he says,
"I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all
to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I
would rather ride on earth in an ox-cart, with a
free circulation, than to go to heaven in the fancy
car of an excursion train, and breathe a malaria
all the way." The only objection to out-door slum-
ber is dampness ; but it is easy to protect one's
self in wet weather from the unhealthy ground, by
boughs or India rubber blankets. — Atlantic
Monthly.

AGRICDXTUBAL ADDSESS.
We have before us an address delivered by Lu-
ther H. Tucker, Esq., before the Oswego Coun-
ty Agricultural Society, New York, in September
last. Mr. T. is one of the editors and proprietors
of the Country Gentleman and Cultivator, pub-
lished at Albany, two of the best agricultural pa-
pers which we see. The address is an excellent
one, abounding in good thoughts, well expressed.
Its leading heads are, — "Low prices necessitate
better farming ;" "Are we to anticipate the con-
tinuance of low prices ?" "The course of our ag-
riculture in the past ;" "Is our farming of a pay-
ing or progressive kind ?" "Money-making in
any pursuit mainly dependent upon industry and
slvill." Under this head he says :

In speaking of the profits and pleasures of farm-
ing, we nmst put it upon the same level as we
should an occupation of any other kind. Sup-
pose I address my neighbor, the tailor, or the shoe-
maker, and ask if tailoring or shoemaking pays,
and is an agreeable Avay of life ? Suppose I turn
to the merchant or the lawyer, and inquire wheth-
er over the counter or before the court, there is
money to be made and enjoyment to be won ?
In either of these, or in any similar case, it is easy
to predict the ansv,'er, when you are questioning
a man of industry, of a reasonable degree of econ-
omy, ability and skill, who has a taste for the pur-
suit in wliich he is engaged. Indeed, with suc-
cess, there almost always comes a taste for that
which is the source of success, if, as is not impos-
sible, it may not have previously existed in a very
prominent Avay. But go, on the other hand, to a
eliiftless mechanic, a careless, credit-less merchant,
an indolent or blundering lawyer, and you Avill be
sure to learn that either of these emplyments is
an inevitably laborious and losing one, if not also
intensely disgusting and disagreeable ! It is the
bad Avorkman quarrelling Avith his tools. There
are of course exceptions, here, as to other rules.
But in farming, as in the other established occu-
pations of mankind, Ave are nevertheless obliged
to conclude that Avlien it fails to be reasonabl)- re-
munerative, the fault must be in the particular in-
dividual or cu'cumstanccs, not in the class and
pursuit to Avhich they belong.

The subjects that folloAV are, — "The deteriora-
tion of our soil and crops unsupported in fiict —
Importance of agricultural statistics ;" "The prob-
lem of maintaining the fertility of the soil ;" "An-
imal hfe becoming in timi the support of vegeta-

l-.fc

-o;irccs of ar.v so'l may be ex-

hausted, or, by good management, rendered prac-
tically illimitable ;" "Hoav nature may co-operate
in maintaining and extending these resources ;"
"Good farming the surest and cheapest." Under
this head, ISh: T. says :

Good farmuig is the surest farming, as it is also
the clieapest farminr/ ; for every additional bush-
el of gi-ain or hundred Aveight of hay Avhich is
grown upon an acre lessens the cost per bushel or
per CAvt. of all the rest — the lal)or being in propor-
tion to the surface cultivated, rather than to the
crop produced. Said a young fai-mer to me the
other day — "I only moAV one-half the number of
acres I did four or fiA-e years ago — ^liaving let a
part of my grass land for pasturage ; but, by great-
er economy of manures, my hay crop is noAV as
large as it Avas before, and I keep just as much
stock the year round." There are probal)ly simi-
lar instances Avithin the knowledge of you all — af-
fording am])le illustration of the truth 1 have been
endeavoring to enforce — that none of us liave as
yet fully tested the capabihties of our farms under
a proper system of management. IIoav many of
us, for example, in the older settled parts of the
coinitry, have in truth better and as yet untouched
farms, aAvaiting the ploAVshare and the plant-root,
aAvay doAvn underneath the ones aao have been so
long and so slialloicly cultivating on the top.

Some of the other topics discussed are, — "Bad
farming at the present day less excusable than
ever before ;" "One Avell fed acre more profitable
than three poor fed acres ;" "Average crops as es-
timated sixty or seventy years ago," and "A pros-
perous agriculture the foundation of all national
prosperity."

All these topics are discussed with a clearness
Avhich shows that the AATiter has given them much
thought and research. The address is an excel-
lent one, and cannot fail to help on the good Avork
Avherever it is generally read.

For the Neto England Farmer.
THAITKSGIVTWG DAY.

This day is connected with events of importance,
and is of great interest to the farmers Avho are more
directly dependent upon the object of its observance
than any other class of people. The NeAV England-
ers have observed it ever since its fu'st appoint-
ment by the "English fathers," as a day of thanks-
giAing ; and noAv almost every other State in the
Union have joined Avith them to celebrate its an-
nual return.

Since the causes which impelled the Pilgrims to
resort to prayer and thanksgiving, on this day,
have added so much to the moral and rehgious
character of the people of Ncav England, a brief
sketch of the events of the day may not be unin-
teresting to the readers of the Farmer.

It Avas in the year of 1621, that the colonists of
NcAV England gathered their first harvest ; and,
as soon as they had done this, they sent out four
huntsmen for fowls, and Avhen they returned, hav-
ing been successful, the Pilgrims, "after a special
manner," rejoiced together, because they had been
blessed Avith a bountiful harvest. That noble In-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMEPt.

dian chief, Massasoit, and ninety of Iiis men v,-ere
present on the occasion, and participated in the
festivities. Thus the festival of "Thanksgiving"
was instituted in New England, and those nolile
lords of the forest united with the Pilgrim fath-
ers, in peace and hai'mony, on this memorable day,

In the second j-ear after this festival, the day
was rendered more solemn and ini])ressive in con-
sequence of an almost providential dehverance of
the colonists from an impending famine.

"In 1G23," says the historian, "fears were en-
tertained for the safety of the colony, by reason of
anticipated fomine." For M-eeks and months the
colonists suffered from a severe drought. Corn
withered under the heat of the scorching sun.
Every vegetable, shrub and tree, bore signs of an-
ticipated famine. The Indians prophesied famine
for the suffering colonists, for, by starvation, they
thought they could easily conquer and subdue the
"pale faces ;" but those brave and faitliful Pilgrims
were not to be discouraged, nor dismayed. In
this fearful extremity, a day of pubhc fast was ap-
pointed, and was accordingly observed with "great
solemnity." This was the first Fast Day ever kept
in this country. The day opened with no better
prospects of rain. Nine hours, these trusting
Christians continued in prayer. At length, towards
evening, clouds began to collect, and before morn-
ing, rain descended in refreshing showers, and thus
it continued to rain for several days, until the
crops revived, and the fields were clothed in their
former verdure. A bountiful harvest succeeded.
In token of general gratitude for tliis deliverance,
a day of public thanksgiving was ordered, being
the second such day ever observed on these West-
ern shores.

This festival was originally confined in its ob-
servance to the State of Massachusetts. Now, al-
most every State in the Union, if not all, hail its
return, and join in its celebration with gratitude
and joy.

This day is productive of many pleasing reminis-
cences connected with our childhood, and with
those whose fiimihar faces we have been accus-
tomed to look upon, on this day, but who are now
gone to their peaceful rest.

When we have met around the festive board to
exchange greetings and smiles, and to enjoy the
plentiful repast before us, we should not forget
others whom misfortune has deprived of the real
comforts and blessings of life ; who are now strug-
gling for the life-blood of our nation. Let us give
our prayers for the restoration of peace, and be
thankful that we have lived to participate in a fes-
tival in token of gratitude for a bountiiul harvest.
A Green Mountain Boy.

West Charleston, Vt., Nov., 186L

Simple Method of Striking Rose Cut-
tings.— "Rusticus" describes his plan of striking
roses in a late number of the Gardeners' Chronicle,
as follows :

"I_ have been in the habit, for some years, of
strildng roses in what apjiears to me a much more
simple way than is described in your paper of the
.0th inst. At any time of the year, when they are
to be procured, I take cuttings of any sorts of roses
I want to propagate, (Moss included,) and cut tlie
halt-ripened wood into lengths of two eyes. I re-

move the bottom leaf, leaving the top one to rest
upon the surfocc of the bed and nourish the cut-
ting while it forms its roots. The hot-bed (a very
slight one) in vvhich I plant the cuttings, is made
thus : On the top of a little manure, just enough
to give a slight bottom heat, I place G inches of
earth, moistened to the consistency of mortar, then
cover with white sand, and set in" the cuttings. I
have occasionally struck every cutting, v.liile 99
out of 100 are an average result."

For the Keic Ensland Farmer.
CUIiTUIlE OI' PEABS— VARIETIES.

The great variety of pears now cultivated by
nurserymen, renders it rather a difficult matter for
an amateur, with a small garden, to make satisfac-
tory selections. Hardly two men can agree upon
the best varieties. One man's soil develops a few
kinds only to perfection, v.hile anotliers biings up
to a high state of excellence other kinds. Besides,
men's tastes differ very much. One individual
may possess an old tree which matures its fruit to
perfection ; wliile another is dissatisfied with the
same fruit grown on younger trees. The Glout
Morceau, on young standard trees, is almost
worthless ; but on matured trees, excellent. Some
soils or positions bring up the Beurre Clairgeau to
a high and beautiful color, while others leave it a
russet hue. So also with the rich coloring of the
Flemish Beauty. The Vicar of Winkfield, as a ta-
ble pear, is harshly judged from its general pro-
duct, v.'hereas, only the finest and largest are fit to
eat.

A good plan for an amateur is, to plant merely
\\Gd\l\\y stocks, for the most part — especially if he
is making additions to his collection — as in a little
time he Vviil be better able to judge for himself
what varieties do best with liim or with his neigli-
bors, and then graft the stocks accordingly. By
this process he will get large trees equally as soon
as by setting grafted varieties, and without so
great a liability of disappointment.

If a person requires a few dwarf trees, it is well
to purchase the Louise Bonne de Jerse)-, the
Duchess d'Angouleme, the Urbaniste and Flemish
Beauty, or others Avhose junction is strong and
healthy, and then re-work upon them to his fjjicy
— for all, or nearly all pears, do well double-
worked upon the quince root.

To facilitate the striking of pear roots from
dwarf trees, they should be set from two to fjur
inches below the junction, even if many of the
bottom roots are sacrificed ; and at the same time
of setting (if in the spring,) or better, in the fol-
lowing July, the bark should be raised in two or
three places, v.'ith a sharp knife, on the lovvcrcdge
of the pear stock. On the closely pruned quince
roots fibres will readily appear, and the returning
elaborated sap, or cambium, will be likely to make
deposits at the slits, from Avhich pear roots will
proceed.

Many foreign winter varieties, hard to mature
in our climate, should be planted in the Marmer
and dryer situations, but the earlier varieties will
ripen in a heavier or damper soil.

Though many of the hundreds of pears under
cultiv<(.tion are faulty or wortliless, still there are
a dozen or twenty varieties which, by general
consent, arc well worthy of extensive propagation.

NEW ENGLAND FAR5IER.

Jan

Among these may be mentioned the Rostiezer,
Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Belle Lucrative, Urban-
iste, Duchess d'AngouIeme, Glout Morceau, Law-
rence, Beurre Diel, Beurre d'Anjou and Winter
Nelis. The Beurre Clairgeau is very showy and
saleable, and though not first-rate, improves by
keeping. The Beurre Superfine I regard as more
valuable, and is a variety very liighly recommend-
ed by Mr. Field in his work on pear culture. It
answers to all the good traits of a fine fruit, and
is later than, and hence need not compete with,
the Bartlett. The Seckel is an old sort, and has
made its reputation ; but as it is slow in coming
into bearing, and requires a very high culture to
produce fruit of decent size, other kinds are now re-
garded as more profitable. Though sweet and del-
icate— too sweet for many tastes — it lacks that
sparkling, champagne flavor which now seems to
be the criterion of su]ierior excellence. And the
same may be said of the Belle Lucrative, which is
a dead sweet, and though j:)opular, does not, as far
as I have noticed, develop the great proportion of
its fruit, as many other varieties do, and is in-
clined to drop it prematurely. The Beurre Bache-
lier — a late pear which grow enormously in France
— is promising finely here, and from specimens
which I have grown the past season on a standard
tree, I regard it as an important acquisition.

Besides the above, which constitute a portion of
the good pears, many native seedlings are claim-
ing notice — among wliich prominently stand Mr.
Dana's — and probably they deserve it.

West Medford, Dec, 186L D. w. L.

AGBICULTtmAL DIVISION OF THE
PATENT OEFICE.

We learn that during the first three-quarters of
the present year members of Congress have been
supplied for distribution to their constituents with
about six hundred thousand papers, containing
one hundred and fifty-four varieties of vegetable
and two hundred and thirty varieties of flower
seeds — many of them new and very choice, and
others very old and excellent kinds, but not in
general cultivation. Some ten thousand packages
(each containing two quarts) of cereals were also
distributed to the members. These comprised
new and choice varieties of wheat, oats and barley
from France, Germany, Italy and Turkey.

Upwards of eleven hundred Agricultural Socie-
ties, in every part of the country, also received
their quota for distribution in their respective com-
munities— to an amount of three hundred thou-
sand papers of vegetables and flowers, and ten
thousand packages (two quarts each) of cereals.

In addition to the above, it is estimated that
upon personal or written application to the Agri-
cultural Division twenty thousand of our country-
men and fiur countrywomen have been supplied
with five hundred thousand papers of vegetable,
flower and field seeds during the three-quarters of
the year referred to.

The fourth quarter of the year will unquestion-
ably show an amount of labor and usefidness in
full proportion to the above. — Nationcd Intelli-
gencer.

The man whose word can always be depended
upon, is sure to be always honared.

For tfte ISetir England Fanner,
SYNOPSIS OF THE SEASONS.

ET R. F. yULI,ER.

Enter Spring.
My kind friends, good morrow ! you know who 1 am ;
And Spring does not need to tell any her name.
The flowery dresses I constantly wear.
And train of attendants, my name al? declare.
You wonder, perhaps, how a little j-oung thing-.
Like me, has dethroned old Winter, the king ?
I killed him by kindness — that's often been done j
By smiles and by sunshine his sceptre I won.
If tjou try my method, it often will prove
No force in the world is so jiotent as love J
Although you may think me a gay, laughing thing,
Just hear a good word of advice from the Spring I
Sow your seed in the evening, and sow it at morn '.
For soon will the season of seed-time be gone '.
Dear children ! now plant seeds of knowledge and tratJi:
In manhood you'll reap as you sow in j-our youth '.
Sow merrj- if may be ; but sow, though in tears ;
And joy shall be yours when ths harvest appears ! {Exit,

Enter Summer.
My name is the Summer — longer days will I bring,
Thiin those, that have left you, i' the train of the Spring.
Spring bears many blossoms, that Jade as she goes j
But I alone bring you tlie beautiful rose 1
And insects I've many, of gorgeous wing,
Who could not endure the caprices of Spring.
A thousand gay flov/ers the Summer shidl wear.
That breathe balmy sweets on the sunshiny air I
Though some days are warmer than all of you suit,
Remember, they 're needed for corn and for fruit.
My grottoes, how gratefid — raj- even and morn '.
— You '11 know how to miss me, when Summer is gone J

lExit.

Enter Autcmn.
My name is the Autujix — I know I appear
More staid than my sister, so recently here.
And some do not like me — Init such you will find.
Are those of a feeble or frivolous mind.
My lalling leaf whispers a tale so forlorn —
"The harvest is ended, and summer is gone !
And life lias its seasons" — it mournfully saith —
"Youth, manhood and age ; and, after, is death !"
But those who, in springtime and summer, have wi'ought.
Find a harvest, in Autumn, of happiest thought.
Ere dropping, how gorgeous a robe are the leaves !
V»'hat a cause for thanksgiving the shock and the sheav«s !
Though Winter is coming, and soon will be here ;
They're ready, who^'e worked in the rest of the year '.

[Exit.
Enter Winter.

How d'ye do ? Methinks that your welcome is cold.

In greeting again an acciuaintance so old '.

I hope that you have not forgotten me, yet,

Thougli favors, I know, all are prone to forget !

Why, 'tis not, I'm certain, a year quite ago,

I spread you a carpet of new-fallen snow !

Then merrily jingled the bells of the sleigh,

When lads rode with lasses, and laughed all the way.

How often I've heard jou declare, every one.

There's never a season like winter, for fan '.

And those, in my evenings the long taper burn,

All say, that in winter 's the season to learn.

And, then, too, very often, when some will complain,

And sigh for the beauties of summer again,

I've hung my bright jewels of ice on the tree.

And all have admitted, none dazzle like me.

— \ow, listen, my children ! as older yon grow.

You'll find there's great use in the ice and the snow.

Nor, could you enjoy thus the Summer and Sprino,

Except for the reign of old Winter, the King ! [Exit.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

For the New England Farmer.
SALT FOH. ANIMALS.

Mr. Editor :— It is thought by some, th?,t salt,
instead of being beneficial, is so injurious to ani-
mals as to do them more harm than good, so that
they had better be without it than with it. More
than a year ago I heard a former in this town de-
claim very earnestly against the use of salt. lie
spoke very eloquently and decidedly upon the sub-
ject, and pointed out several instances in wliich he
had known salt to be injurious to animals. I can
not remember all the particular instances he gave ;
but they were something like the following : — One
farmer "had lost a fat cow by letting her eat as
much salt as she ])leased. Another farmer, from
the same cause, had lost the use of a fine yoke of
three-year old steers which had been so injured as
to be unable to do any work for three months.
Another farmer, from the same cause, had lost a
large flock of sheep, which had become so rotten
and diseased that several died daily.

Now, this all sounded very well, though it was
somewhat alarming to some of those present. It
was uttered very smoothly and gracefully, and with
great apparent sincerity. It was roUed from the
tongue in a very flippant and tripping manner
which seemed to challenge the possibility of a
doubt ; and yet, it is now, as it was then, very evi-
dent, that the whole truth was not told ; because
it Avas not so much the salt, as the quantity of salt
that did the miscliief It is not true, that salt gen-
erally injures animals. It is only when eaten in
exorbitant quantities, that salt has an injurious
efi'ect. It is highly probable, that the same ani-
mals would have been equally injured, if they had
been fed upon any kind of grain, and allowed to
eat all they would, after they had been for a long
time without it. The truth probably is, that the
animals had not been salted for several weeks, so
that, when they had access to salt, they ate so
much as to injure them. It is true, that all ani-
mals are exceedingly fond of salt; their nature
craves it ; they eat it with the greatest avidity, es-
pecially when they have been long without it ; and,
therefore, they are liable to be injured by it. If
they are allowed to have salt every day, they will
never eat too much, or be injured by it. It is only
when they have been a long time without it, that
they devour it with so much greediness as to be
injured by it. The daily use of salt, in moderate
quantities, is exceedingly beneficial to them ; but
large quantities devoured by them, after they have
been long without it, are almost always injurious.
Besides, the daily use of salt enables animals to
take on fat faster than they otherwise would. The
salt they eat acts also as a vermifuge, destroying
many kinds of worms in the intestines of animals,
and confening a healthy tone of action throughout
the whole animal economy.

My practice is to allow animals to have daily
access to salt. They eat it moderately almost
every day, both in summer and in winter ; and
yet I never had an animal eat so much as to be in-
jured by it. I do not believe, they ever will eat
too much, if they have access to it every day. I
always keep a trough full of salt in the yard under
cover, and allow every animal to eat as much salt
as it pleases.

About two years ago, I purchased a cow that
had not been properly salted. She appeared to

be almost crazy to get at the salt-trough ; and it
was diflicult to keep her away from it. I salted
her privately every day for a week or more, giving
her a moderate quantity, but not allowing her to
go to the trough to eat as much as she would.
During all this time, she was gnawing all the old
boards, bones, rags and scraps of leather that came
in her way. After a while, she calmed down, and
became very gentle and tractable, eating only a
moderate quantity of salt, but still continuing to
gnaw the articles above mentioned. I then pur-
chased some bone meal, and fed her on that. Af-
ter eating it freely and voraciously two or three
times, she refused to eat any more, and immedi-
ately left off" gnawing those articles.

Not long since, I bought a cow of a man who
keeps a livery stable in this town. He sold the
cow, because she Avas all the time gnawing his har-
nesses, and he could not keep her from them.
When I first had her, she was as crazy and restless
as a June bug. She evidently had a craving ap-
petite for something beside her ordinary food. I
gave her a pailful of swill daily, and a moderate
quantity of salt. She ate them both greedily, es-
pecially the salt. Her appetite for salt was soon
satisfied in a degree ; she became very quiet ; and
she is now allowed to have free access to the salt
in the trough, and she never eats too much of it.
I do not think I have entirely cured her of her pro-
pensity to gnaw harnesses, because it is highly
probable that other elements beside salt are need-
ed to accomplish tliis object. But I do believe
that she will gnaw them with less avidity than
before, and that the habit of gnawing them Avas
superinduced by neglecting to give her regularly
a sufficient quantity of salt. Be tliis as it may, I
shall soon put her to the test. K she still shows a
disposition to gnaw things, I shall feed her on bone
meal, if I can obtain it in tliis neighborhood. If I
fail to obtain that, I shall sprinkle ashes with her
other food ; or, perhaps, still better, I shall give
her small doses of soap for a few days, till her ap-
petite for such things is entirely overcome.

John Goldsbuey.

Warwiclc, Dec, 1861.

Working Hogs. — The New England Farmer
says : "We do not work our hogs, either in har-
ness or on the manure heaps. An Ii-ishman can
overhaul the manure heap much cheaper than the
hogs can." This is all very well, but still we see
no objection to letting store hogs root in the barn
yard and pick up scattered grain, &c. On a farm
where much grain is fed out, a few young hogs can
be wintered in this way at a very trifling cost. —
Genesee Farmer.

Remarks. — Certainly. One objection to wo)-k-
ing hogs is, that they are kept half starved in or-
der to make them work. Tliis process is cruel to
the animals and wasteful to the owner of them.

Statistics go to prove that tea is used, more
or less, by one-half of the human race — 500,000,-
000 of people. Theine is the peculiar organic
principle which gives tea its value. Taken in
small quantities, tea is healthful ; but the extract
of one ounce taken per day, by one person, produ-
ces trembling of the limbs and wandering of mind.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

For the New England Fanner.

IMPORTANT THIK-QS TO E:]SrO"W ABOUT
BUILDING.

One of the faults of our New England people is
their great haste. No sooner is a thing conceived,
than it is produced. This is commendable in part,
and will do in some directions, but not in all.

We astonish the eyes and senses of an English-
man, A\ho may chance to call at some New Eng-
land village, when we show him round and tell him
that two years ago, there was not a building in
this jilace, except that old mill you see down yon-
der. We shall be amused as well as instructed
by his complimentary reply, which we shall per-
ceive is meant more for himself than for us. Af-
ter stretching himself up into a very significant
attitude, he says, "Well, you are a very fast peo-
ple ; you grow up wonderful quick. But Ave don't
do things after this sort in Hold Hingland. Our
cities are not built up in one year. Neither will
you see them come tumbling down the next."

It is true that many of our New England villa-
ges grow up like muskrooms, and are not much
more durable. Some men pretend that they are
doing a wonderful good thing for the poor people,
when they go into a place and stick up a cluster
of slash houses, and offer great inducements for
people of small means to purchase a new house,
very cheap, and make for themselves a nice little
home. And by fair speeches and a little putty,
many poor fellows are seduced into their clap-trap.
They buy a cheap house, pay down some two hun-
dred dollars, (all the house cost, very likely,) give
a mortgage to the builder for the balance, which,
of course, "may lie as long as you wish ;" but be-
fore another sun has set, that nice little mortgage
has slipped into the hands of a certain money-
changer, at some twenty-five or fifty per cent, dis-
count, and the builder has pocketed a smart profit,
and gone home to smoke his cigar. The poor
man, with his cheap house, soon begins to learn,
by every gust of Avind and every shoAver of rain,
hoAV badly he has been cheated, and in a few years
his nice little house is Avorthless. The result of
the Avhole operation is this : The builder made a
little money, created a nuisance, and made people
poorer. My advice is, never buy a slash built
house, no sooner than you Avould an English shod-
dy blanket.

But, Mr. Editor, this is not A\'hat I Avas going
to say. Mr. Harney, of Lynn, has contributed
draAvings of some very elegant looking mansions
and cottages. They look inviting enough to give
most any one a longing to possess one ; yet they
are lacking in many of the most essential conve-
niences tliat a farm-house needs. To make a dAvell-
ing delightful and pleasing, Ave must unite conve-
nience Avith style and beauty, or they may prove
to be like Jefferson's Avind saAV-mill on the hill.
Having had considerable experience in building, I
Avill state Avhat I deem of great importance in the
materials for building. All the lumber should be
seasoned and dry before Avorked ; as a general
thing, very little attention is paid to this, except
for the finish stock. To make a tight, durable
roof, both boards and shingles should be dry Avhcn
laid ; else the shingles Avill crack betAvecn the nail-
ing by shrinking. Nail the shingles pretty Avell
up, to keep them from the Avet. Nails driven into
unseasoned stock AviU rust off, after Avhich the sliin-

gles AA'ill giA'e themselves up to the Avinds. It is
always cheapest to use the best pine or cedar shin-
gles on a good building. When perfectly dry,
paint tAvo coats Avith Brandon red, Avhich may be
mixed Avith a cheap oil, prepared for such purpos-
es ; though the best linseed oil is most dural)le ;
add a little blacking, to give it a deep red color, if
you fancy it. A roof Avell covered in this manner,
is done for a lifetime. It is a great mistake that
people do not paint their roofs ; it is just as essen-
tial for their preservation and durability, as for the
clapboards on the sides. The boards for the side
should always be dry ; else you Avill find your clap-
boards cracking by reason of the boards shrinking.

A. Philbrick.
East Saugus, Mass., Dec, 186L

Fur the New Enqland Farmer.
CATTLE G-NAWING BONES.

Inquiries are constantly made, and many times
ansAvered, in relation to the cause and cure of this
singular habit of cattle — more particularly coavs.
CoAvs kept on white grass hay in Avinter, or in Avhite
grass pastures in summer, Avill almost inevitably
indulge in this practice. The cause is undoubted-
ly the loss of carbonate of lime in the system, from
an absence of carbon and lime in their food. Wlien
the lands of Ncav England Avere new, this phenom-
ena Avas unknoAvn. It is the natural result of an
exhausted soil. When coavs are fed upon clover,
hay or grass, or other articles of food Avhich con-
tain all the elements Avhich enter largely into the
secretion and production of milk, the instance Avill
be rare in Avhich they Avill meddle Avith chips and
bones. The great mystery of the cause lies more
immediately in the Avant of a knoAvledge of the
sciences Avhich reveal nature's process for chang-
ing earth, air and Avater into bread, milk, meat and
clothing. A sufficient quantity of milk for the
manufacture of a firkin of butter Avill require all
the caustic lime, in a crude state, that is contained
in the butter in an organized condition, and if not
supplied in the animal's daily food, Avill draAv on
the system for such supply, Avhich has been organ-
ized there for the purpose of making bone. Where
and what these materials are, and how they can be
so combined as to produce the greatest quantity of
milk Avithout destroying the vital organism of the
system, are questions Avhich interest every person
Avho OAvns a coav. Early cut clover, Timotliy and
red-top are SAveet, juicy and nutritious, and pos-
sess the poAvcr to produce milk and make bone.
So a grain of corn, for instance, possesses in a Avell-
organized arrangement, the phosphate of lime and
magnesia ; also the salts of iron, lime and starch,
Avhich enter largely into the composition of bones,
and most of the glutinous matter to be found in
lean meat, tendon, tissue, and the jelly found in
bones. Coavs fed upon these vegetable materials
can have no hankering for chips and bones.

A neighbor of mine says one-half ounce of salt-
petre, (nitre.) given in some corn meal one or tAvo
mornings, Avill effect a temporary cure. Every far-
mer Avho has none but Avhite grass pastures and
Avhite grass hay, may rest assured that his coavs
Avill give white milk, hanker for chips and bones,
and limp Avith the "bone ail." L. L. PlERCE.

East Jaffreij, N. IL, Dec, 18GL

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMEH.

ORNAMENTAL PEAR TREES.

BY -WILLIAM SAUNDERS, LANDSCAl'K OARnENER, CERMANTO"WN, PA.

[The suggestion of Mr. Saunders, that the Glout
Morceau should be used as a hedge plant, is a
somewhat novel one, and we shoidd be glad to see
it put in practice. AVith proper attention to prun-
ing and thinning out, a hedge of this kind might
be made both useful and ornamental ; the fruit,

[We are indebted to the kindness of the Pub-
lishers of the Horticulturist for this beautiful cut
of a Buffum Pear Tree. The accompanying re-
marks we also copy from the same Avork.]

There is probably no species of tree that produ-
ces greater variety in form of growth than the
pear. It would be difficult to
imagine any form in a decidu-
ous tree that is not duplicated
in some of the great variety
of tliis fruit. Those of a
spreading groM'th frequently
assume that dependent habit
so much admired in the Elm,
Linden and Silver Maple ; of
such are the Summer Bon-
chretien, Beurre de Capiau-
mont, Beurre Diel, Beurre de
Ranz and Passe Colmai'. The
round, compact form of the
Seckel is readily distin-
guished. The symmetrical
growth of Vicar of Winkfield,
Tyson, Buffum and many oth-
ers, is not excelled among de-
ciduous trees, as may be seen
from the accompanying en-
graving of the last named,
which is a faithful representa-
tion of a tree growing in the
grounds of Messrs. Ellwanger
and Barry, Ilochester. I can
vouch for its accuracy, having
accompanied the artist, Mr.
Hochstein, wliile he was tak-
ing it. This tree possesses 3&
much of that refined massive- (,'
ness of habit, and graceful
delicacy of stem, the perfec-
tion of which belongs exclu-
sively to the Sugar Maple.

There is as much beauty
and variety in the foliage of
pear-trees as there is in their
habit of growth ; the broad
deep green leaves of the Vicar
of Winkfield, Napoleon, Cha-
moisine, the Jaminette, and
particularly the beautiful
glossy foliage of Baronne de
Mello, are always admired.

The fall coloring may also
be noticed ; among the most
decidedly effective are the
White Doyenne, Doyenne
Boussouck and the Buffum,
The Glout Morceau, one of
the most beautiful of pear-
trees, retains its leaves fresh
and green after all others
fade ; indeed, this plant grows
so freely, and at the same time
so slocky, that I Avould sug-
gest its use as a hedge plant, for dividing lines in I we think, would ripen fairly, and fully repay any
the fruit garden ; few plants are better adapted to 1 extra labor that might be bestowed upon it.— Ed.]
this pm'pose.

BUFFUM PEAK TREE.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

A FARMER IN THE CHAIR OF STATE.

Below we give an article from the Providence
Journal, speaking in very complimentary terms
of onr friend and associate editor, Farmer HoL-
BROOK, of Brattleboro', Vt. The title, "His Ex-
cellency," will confer no honor upon him, that he
will not reflect back upon the title, by Iris manly
virtues and genuine worth AS A MAX ; for in
whatever position he has been tried, he has been
I found true to the convictions Mhich he has avowed.
Long and loug ago, he undoubtedly might have
occupied the Chaii- of State, had he stooped to
"barter" a little for the gilded bait ; but if the
thought ever occurred to him, it was only to be in-
stantly spurned. But when a common calamity
befel us, and political trading gave place to a pa-
triotic enthusiasm, he was first in the hearts of the
pbopie, who elected him at once to the highest
political position in their gift. He will honor that
position, and prove that the State may come to
his class more frequently for those who have the
ability to secure her interests and extend her re-
nown.

THE NEW GOVERNOR OF VERMONT.

marked abihties for legislation. His report upon
the subject of an Agricultural Bureau, made to
the Senate in 1849, was a paper of marked value;
and had not our politicians at Wasliington been
too busy with paity measures to act on its wise
suggestions, it would now be pouring treasures
intothe granaries of the country and greatly en-
riching our formers.

Gov. Holbrook's recent Inaugural Address is
characteristic of the man : modest, simple, terse,
direct, patriotic, Christian ; its whole tone and
spirit show that its author appreciates the impor-
tance and bearing of the exigency in which he has
been called to bear the responsi])ilities of ofRce,
and that he will prove liimsclf the worthy stand-
ard-bearer of a State that now, as of old, is well
sustaining her ovrn and the nation's honor, alike
at home and in the field.

For the New England Farmer.
WATURAL SCIENCE FOR FARMERS.

Vermont has honored herself in the choice o:
her new Governor — Hon. Frederick Holbrook, of
Brattleboro'. His election Avas not brought about
by political maneuvering, but was the people's
spontaneous tribute to true worth and manly hon-
esty of character in one of their own number.

Mr. Holbrook is not far from forty-five years of
age ; had the ordinary common school and aca-
demic advantages in early life ; fitted for business
with bright prospects which were suddenly dark-
ened by the disastrous failure of the concern in
which his father's large property was involved.
Thus, in his opening manhood, he Avas not only
thrown upon his own resources, but sorely ham-
pered in the pursuit of any gainful calling.

Left with the care of an aged Avido'wed mother,
he undertook the culture of the few acres which
were her dower. To the severe labor and thought
required to wrest from these a subsistence for his
growing family, Vermont, New England, and in-
deed the agricultural world, owe the advantages
they have reaped from his great improvements in
agricultural implements, and the numerous valua-
ble articles on practical farming which have made
his name widely known.

The improved plows of Ruggles, Nourse & Ma-
son, adapted to every variety of soil and work, are
largely the product of his experiments, observation
and study, as are many farming imi)lements that
bear the names of other men, but owe their exis-
tence to his practical and observing mind.

He was one of the founders of the Vermont Ag-
ricultural Society, and for the first eight years its
President. In "that capacity he probably did as
much by speech and pen as any man has done to
develop the internal resources of the State. It is
but just that she should recognize the obhgation
by this high nuirk of her confidence.

Governor Holbrook has no taste for politics "as
a trade," and has generally avoided political life.
In the Vermont Senate, however, he showed

Mr. Editor : — An ai-ticle in your last number
calling attention to the advantage of a knowledge
of natural science to farmers, touches the right
key, and I hope those farmers' boys and young
farmers, Avho have not already acquired a pretty
good knoAvledge of chemistry, philosophy and
botany, Avill take up at least one of these this
winter. The long evenings Avill aff"ord ample op-
portunity for an intelligent young man to obtain
considerable knoAvledge of one or tAvo, or even all
three of these branches, so intimately connected
Avith practical farming. The "hard Avords," or
"technical terms," Avhich are so apt to frighten the
"uninitiated," Avill quickly disappear Avhcn one ob-
tains a little knoAvledge of their derivation and the
reasons for their use.

Aside from its application to the composition of
manures, an item of no little consequence in the
present state of agriculture, a knoAvledge of chem-
istry is almost indispensable in every branch of
farm operations. Is it necessary to give medicines
to a sick animal, it aids us greatly in exhibiting
the nature and probable effect of such medicines ;
do Ave Avish to preserve the products of the farm,
it tells us the nature and process of decomposi-
tion, and Avhat is likely to arrest it ; it tells us, '
too, in the operations of the kitchen, Avhat jjrepa-
rations are deleterious or otherAvise, and in its ap-
plication to vegetable groAvth, it enables us to un-
derstand and act in accordance Avith the laAvs of
growth.

Philosophy, too, must be understood by every
farmer Avho Avould keep up Avith his profession,
especially if he Avould reap any advantage from
the improved machines and implements which so
much facilitate the labors of the farm at the pres-
ent day, and even if he uses no implement more
complicated than a common lever, some knoAvl-
edge of philoso])hical principles Avill often save
half the labor otherwise expended.

Both these branches can be pursued to advan-
tage during Avinter, and so long as man's principal
aim is "the jjursuit of happiness," it is my firm
belief that independent of their practical apphca-
tion to business, any iutelligent man Avould be am-
ply repaid for the time and labor requisite to ob-
i tain a knoAvlcdge of them, by the insight Avhich

1862.

N GLAND FARMER.

he -would thereby obtain into the operations of
nature Avhich are daily going on around him.

Botany, althou^^h not so appropriate for winter
study, and perhai^s verijini;- more toward the orna-
mental, may still come in for a share of attention,
now and then j with its pii-iciples acquired, no time
need be lost in going into the practical part when
sprinif arrives, and while it is a valuable aid to the
strictly practical farmer, and well worth the trou-
ble necessary to its acquirement, it is absolutely
indispensable to the hi_i;;hest success in horticulture
and its kindred branches. While the ])ractical ag-
ricultiuist, Avho, through ignorance of its jn-inci-

files, exposes himself to derision if not serious
OSS, by belief in such doctrines as the transmuta-
tion of wheat to chess, the mixing of potatoes in
the tubers, &c., the horticulturist and seedsman
are liable to serious mistakes at the very founda-
tion of their business, unless a knowledge of bot-
any is included in their education.

But there is another view of the subject which
I consider especially important. In every Avell
organized mind, there is more or less love of the
beautiful, and this almost exhaustless source of
innocent pleasure is more fidly brought out and
directed to its proper channel, the vegetable crea-
tion, by this study, than it can be by any other
means and at the same time, the close attention
to the minute organs of flowers, required in prac-
tical botany, tends to develop the perceptive fac-
ulties.

In this, +00, it is sufficient compensation for the
knowledge-loving student to be able to name the
plants and trees which groAv along his path, to
know their uses and their origin, habits of grov/th,
&c. William F. B.vssett.

Asl>field, Dec. 2, 1861.

RYE FOB SHEEP.
Rye is one of the most valuable of the green
feed for sheep. A friend of ours, an amateur far-
mer, Avho has liis nieans all locked up in real estate,
but who is determined to make it ])ay his expen-
ses in spite of the hard times for all the real estate
speculators, enclosed four hunch'ed acres, wliich he
rents out on shares, the most of which has been
cultivated in corn since the crash of 18j7. Begin-
ning to fear that his third of the corn crop would
not pay his taxes on some thousands of acres of
wild land, with his other expenses, he applied to
his arithmetic, which convinced him that a thou-
sand good mutton sheep would help him out ; so
after the corn was laid by, he persuaded one of Iiis
tenants to allow him to sow some tliirty acres of
rye among the corn. His thousand sheep Avere
purchased in August, herded wherever he could
find feed until the corn was ripe, Avhen they were
turned on the yoiyig rye, Avhich was their principal
feed until the first of June, wdren it was turned
under and planted to corn. A portion of the crop
was well fed doAvn, but had it not been for the
standing corn stalks, a respectable crop could have
been harvested from a part of the field. Here Avas
the large part of the feed of a thousand sheep for
eight months, costing .$12 for the seed and about
the same for labor, and returning the land in tar
better condition than it was before, no doubt to
the extent of the seed and labor. We have never
seen a lot of sheep and lambs at this season in so
good a condition as tliis rye fed flock.

The flock if* now on the prairie, and will remain
there until liis meadoAv is ready to turn into, Avheu
the rye pasture Avill be repeated. He will clear at
least $l,o()0 the first yeiu- in this operation, the
result of brains in fanriins:. — Illinois Farmer.

MAISrUAL OP AGRICUIiTTJRE.

This is a ncAV work on agriculture, especially
designed "to supply an important defect in the in-
struction of youth," but there are fcAv formers who
may not fuid in it stores of wisdom and page.n of
facts, a knowledge of which is important to success
in their business. It has been prepared by two
persons as competent as any in the State to sup-
ply such a Avork, viz : — Mr. George B. Emerson,
author of a Report on the Trees and Shrubs of
Massachusetts, and Charles L. Flint, Secretary
of the State Board of Agriculture, and author of a
Treatise on i\lilch Coavs and Dairy Farming, and
Grasses and Forage Plants, 6cc. Mr. Emerson
prepared the first thirteen chapters, and the twen-
ty-first chapter upon the Rotation of Crops, and
Mr. Flint the remainder, commencing Avith the
fourteenth chapter. We have read eveiy page of
the Avork with minute attention, and are free to
say that Ave behcA-e it to be the most vahiable
work yet published, not only for the "instruction
of youth," but for the instruction of our flmners
generally. In order to shoAV the nature of the
Avork better than Ave can show it by any explana-
tion, Ave Avill extract a few paragraphs, and begin
Avith the first three in the book.

1. Agi'i culture is the art of cultivating the earth.
It includes Avhatever is necessary for finding out
the nature of the soil, clearing up the land, ren-
dering it healthy, and ])reparing it for tillage, and
jfloAving it, and the soAving, Aveeding and harvest-
ing the crops.

2. The object of agriculture should be to enrich
the earth, and make it produce the largest crops,
of the greatest value, at the least expense of land,
time, and labor.

3. In order to attain this object, the husband-
man must have capital, — that is, money for the
necessary expenditures ; labor, or hands for the
operations required ; knoAvledge of the best Avays
of Avorking ; and intelligence, in order to dh'ect the
application of the capital and laboi\

This is sufficient to show the reader the pleas-
ant and familiar stA'le of the Avork. In clearing
the way to speak of the subjects Avhich he must in-
troduce as he advances, Mr. Emerson is obliged
to speak of that bugbear Avord science, and he does
it in so plain and attractive a manner that all Avill
be charmed, rather than repulsed by it.

"Science," he says, "is exact knoAvledge, ob-
tained by the observation and experience of many
observers."

"You see, then, Avhat is the vse of a scientific
knoAvledge of the principles of agriculture. It pre-
pares a person for the practice of agriculture."

NEW EXGLAXD FAR:MEII.

Jan.

Mr. Flint, we think, has been equally happy in
his portion of the work. The subjects which have
come under his care, are concisely and perspicu-
ously treated, and will make a great many points
plain, wliich have heretofore been surrounded with
mystery to the common farmer. His chapters on
the '"Economy of the Farm," and the "Economy
of the Household," are especially worthy of the
most careful reading.

We not only hope that the book will be intro-
duced into all the schools of New England, but
that a copy of it may also be found on the table of
every farmer. Messrs. Swan, Brewer & Tileston,
131 Wasliington St., Boston, are the pubUshers.

HOW TO CUKE HAMS AISTD SIDES.

There are many ways to cure hams, but some of
them are not desirable, unless we are satisfied to
eat poor hams in preference to good. A ham well
cured, Avell smoked and well cooked, is a favorite
dish with most people, but there are very few in-
deed who can relish ham which has been hardened
and s])oiled by salt, or tainted for the want of salt
in curing, and may be worse spoiled in cooking ;
but if ham is spoiled by too much salt, or too lit-
tle, or becomes tainted before the salt has thor-
oughly penetrated through it, I defy any cook to
make a good dish out of it. I have tried many
ways in curing hams, and have lost them sometimes
by having them become rancid and tainted in warm
weather, and also by having them so salt and hai'd
that they were unpalatable.

I have for some twenty years practiced the fol-
lowing simple recipe in curing pork hams and
shoulders, and find it preferable to any recipe I
ever tried, and when I have had any to sell they
have taken the preference of sugar cured hams
with those acquainted with them.

I trim the hams and shoulders in the usual way,
except I cut the leg off close up to the ham and
shoulder, to have them pack close, and as being
wortliless smoked ; then sprinkle a little fine salt
on the bottom of a sweet cask, and pack down the
hams and shoulders promiscuously, as they will
best pack in, and sprinkle a Utile fine salt on each
laying, just enough to make it show white ; then
heat a kettle of water and put in salt, and stir well
until it will bear up a good-sized potato, between
the size of a quarter and a half dollar ; boil and
skim the brine, and pour it on the hams boiling
hot, and cover them all over one or two inches
dee]) with the brine, having put a stone on tlie
meat to keep it down. I sonielimes use saltpetre,
and sometimes do not ; consider it useless, except
to color the meat. I now use my judgment as to
the time to take l!licm out of the brine. If the
hams are small, they will cure in three weeks, if
largo, say five weeks ; again, if the meat is packed
loose, it will take more brine to cover it, conse-
quently more salt will ])enetrate the meat in a giv-
en time than if it is packed close ; on this account
it is useless to weigh the meat and salt for the
brine, as the meat must be kept covered with the
brine, let it take more or less. Leave the casks
uncovered until cool. When the hams have been
in brine long enough, I take them out and leave
them in the cellar, if the weather is not suitable to

smoke them. I consider clean corn cobs better
for smoking meat than anything I have ever tried,
and now vise notliing else ; continue the smoke
until it penetrates the meat, or the skin becomes a
dark cherry brown. I then wrap the pieces I wish
to keep in paper, any time before the bugs or flies
have deposited their eggs on them, and pack them
dovrzi in casks with dry ashes, in the cellar, whc/e
both hams and shoulders will keep as good as
when packed, through the summer or year. Cured
in this way, it is hard to distinguish betVt'een the
shoulder and ham v.'hen boiled.

A large ham will often taint in the middle before
salt or brine wiU penetrate thi-ough.

now TO CURE SIDE PORK.

So much for smoked meat ; now if any one wish-
es to have his side pork a little better, and keep
better than any he has ever had, let him try my
way, and if he is not satisfied, let me know it
tlu-ough the Ohio Farmer.

Take out the bone and lean meat along the back,
cut and pack the pieces snugly in the barrel, put
more salt on the bottom and on each laying of
meat than Avill probably penetrate the meat ; then
boil and skim the brine (if it is sweet,) and add
enough to it to cover your meat two or three in-
ches over the top, made strong like the ham brine ;
and as soon as you pack your meat, pour the brine
on boiling hot ; it will penetrate the meat much
quicker than cold brine, and give it an improved
tiavor.

While I was making and pouring the brine on
my hams and pork just now packed, I thought the
public might be benefited by a knowledge of my
way of curing meats. I therefore pubhsh it. Try
it. — A. Aylsworth, in Ohio Farmer.

An Important Work. — Mr. Kennedy, super-
intendent of the census, is causing the preparation
of a work at Iris Bureau, which is of the greatest in-
terest. Taking some sets of large maps of States
which are in possession of the government, he
causes to be written over the spaces designating
counties the number of whites, free-colored, slaves,
and men between eighteen and forty-five years of
age in such counties ; also, valuable animals with-
in such Hmits, as horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, &c.
The quantity of leading agricultural products is
also noted, and railroads, canals, turnpikes and
high roads are accurately delineated, with distan-
ces between principal places.

The maps in question are of great military value
at tliis time, and hence Gen. McClellan has de-
tailed several competent persons to make trans-
cripts for the use of the army. Just now the work
is confined to States which are seats of Avar, but it
is intended to extend it to all the States, and in
the end to have appropriate shadings to represent
mineral regions, &.c. Szc. — Baltimore Sun.

The Horticulturist. — The December num-
ber uf this popular periodical is before us, and, as
usual, elegant in its a])pearance. It is illustrated
by beautifully ])ainted engravings of the "Senior
Wrangler," "Diophantus," and "Moor" geraniums.
The editor's leader is a continuation of his "Hints
on Grape Culture," and is upon the subject of com-
posts and manures.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

OM" PKOTECTING NATIVE GBAPSS IN
WINTER.

BY rUATIQUER.

It is our duty to profit by experience. The re-
sults of the past year have taught a lesson to be
improved by vincyardists, as a matter of ])leasure
as -well as profit. Amon;^ those who laid down
their ,£:;;rape-vines in the fall of 1860, are now, at
the fruit-ripening season, to be seen many cheer-
ful countenances, the owners pointing Mith glow-
ing satisfaction to Avell-loaded vines, bearing ripe,
delicious grapes, produced, as they firmly believe,
by their discretion in protecting the vines a year
ago, some of whom, I am hajjpy to say, have real-
ized a money value for their products which ena-
les them to say that grape culture is profitable, as
well as pleasurable. . The protection of vines in
this Nortliern climate is a necessity ; they may es-
cape five years out of six, and yet, if the crop is
lost once in that time, the grower not only loses
his crop, but very often loses his confidence, so
that he neglects to prune, cultivate, and train, and
perhaps, through carelessness and neglect, loses
his crop of future years, and ultimately the cost of
liis vineyard. When one sees a neglected vine-
yard, and inquires the reason why it is not cared
for, he is often told, "It won't pay." Why not ?
'•Because it is so much trouble to cover the vines
in winter." Let us look at this, and see if it is so.
The writer, who is an enthusiast on gi-ape culture,
dcsii'ous to try experiments, lost many of his vines
by a neglect to cover them, by leaving them tied
to the stakes and trellis, to see what Avould happen
to them, wliile the other portion, covered Avith
earth, or laid on the ground and covered with
leaves and snow, were not only in good order in
the spring, but have borne abundantly of good ripe
fruit, and have already ripened wood for another
season, ripening both fruit and wood many days
earlier for their protection. A neighbor, with a
large vineyard, producing annually many tons of
grapes, covered a part of his vines, Aviiich have
yielded bountiful crops this season ; lie has lost,
by his estimate, from two to three thousand dollars
on those left exposed, the expense of covering
which would have amoimted to a trifie less than
two hundred dollars. Omitting tliis small expen-
diture, liis unprotected vines have barely paid the
expense of cultivating the past summer ; indeed, a
part of liis vineyard has not even been plowed this
season, shoAving that he was discouraged. I could
cite many more instances, if necessary, but a Avord
to the wise is sufficient. It must be remarked,
that the v,inter of 1S60-G1 was the severest upon
many fruits that has lieeii experienced during tJie
]>rcsent century, either on this continent or in Eu-
rope. The cold was intense for perhaps twenty-
four hours at a time, and was preceded and fol-
lowed by moderate weather, with a clear winter
sun. There is good reason to believe that native
grapes would bear the severest cold if they were
not suddenly ex])osed to a bright sunshine, after
being congealed into solid ice ; it may not, there-
fore, be necessary to bury them in the ground, but
it is undoubtedly the most economical mode of
protecting them, is found to be effectual in every
instance heard of, and is doubtless attended with
less trouble than any other method of covering and
protecting known. It can be done rapidly ; with
an hour's practice, a man becomes very expert.

First, let the vines be pruned and trimmed ready
for t}'ing in the spring ; then run a plow two or
three times between the roMS, near the middle, say
about three or feet from the stakes or trellis, and
so for from the vines as to lay no roots bare ; then
let two men work together, one of v.hom gathers
the canes, and holding them together, lays them
on the ground lengthwise of the rows, while the
other throws two or three shovelfuls of earth to
anchor them, and continues to tlii'ow on more
earth, where needed, until the first is ready with
more canes from the next vine. They proceed thus
through the roAV. Returning, they each use the
shovel to complete the covering. It may all be
done in less time than the two men Avould dig a
row of potatoes. This is much easier and less ex-
pensive than covering with straw : besides, straw
beds l)ecome harboring-places for mice, Avhieli ofcen
damage the canes Avhen short of food. Another
method is to construct hurdles to lay over the
vines, but it is both troublesome and costly, except
on a small scale. Vines are sometimes well pro-
tected by laying on the ground, Avith stones upon
them, to prevent SAvaying alDout in the Avind. There
are some hardy varieties Avliich have Avithstood the
vicissitudes of our climate, and Avhich may be said
not to need any protection ; but they may live in
one location, and be Avinter-killed in another ; or,
under varying circumstances, the Avood of one may
be more perfectly ripened, and thus be able to
stand scA'erer tests. It is better to cover than all ;
they are then sure to come out all right, and Avill
bear their fruit three to five days earlier for it,
which is an item of great importance, adding more
value to the crop than all the labor and expense
of protection. In the spring, the canes may be
lifted Avith a garden fork, and alloAved to lie on the
ground until the proper time for tying to the stake
or trelhs.

Remarks. — For several years we have practiced
the mode of protecting grape vines in the Avinter
described above, and have invariably found them
to come out in the spring appearing more fresh
and vigorous than those left upon the trellises or
stakes. The labor of laying them is not much,
and, compared Avith the advantages gained, is un-
doubtedly a profitable labor. When covered, the
cultivator should not be in haste to take them up
in the spring, as the bark, by being kept moist
through the Avinter, is tender, and is in danger
of being injured by a night or tAVO that is colder
than is usual in the spring, if foUoAved by- hot suns
during the succeeding clays. We have sometimes
let them remain Avith advantage until the middle
of May.

The Bees at War. — A gi-eat battle of bees
recently occurred at Conneaut, Oliio. Ezra ] )ip-
ple had seventy SAvarms, about equally divided on
the east and Avest sides of his house. On the 17 th
they Avent to Avar, those on the Avest side of the
house being arrayed in battle against those on the
other side. They filled the air, covering a space
of more than one acre of ground, and fought des-
perately for tln-ee hours— not for "spoils," but for
conquest ; and Avliile at Avar, no living thing could
exist in the vicinity. They stung a large fiock of

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

Shanghai chickens, nearly all of which died, and
persons passing along the roadside were obliged
to make haste to avoid their stings. Quiet was
not restored until nightfall. Two young swarms
were entirely destroyed, and the slain literally cov-
ered the ground. Neither party was victorious,
and they only ceased from utter prostration. The
cause of this bitter outbreak among creatures so
redolent of sweetness, is quite unaccountable.

CUXTIVATION" AWD PROPAGATION" OP
THE PINE TRIBES.

A correspondent of Tloveifs Magazine wiites
concerning the propagation of the Pine and Fir
tribes, in an article rejjlete with interest, from
winch we make these extracts :

"\Vith respect to the soil and situation best adapt-
ed to the Abietinse, some inference may be dravrn
from the fact that pine and fir forests are most
generally found ui)on a soil comi)osed of the de-
bris of granite. Hence the pre^•alence of this fam-
ily of trees near the summits of high mountains,
and over large portions of North America M'here
the different forms of granite distinguish the geo-
logical character of the soil. A sandy loam and a
cold subsoil seem to be the most favorable condi-
tions for the growth of coniferous trees. Our
white pine requn-es a richer soil than the other
American species, and the larch excels all the oth-
ers in a mean soil. The native habitats of the hem-
lock are very wet, and often partly submerged in
Nvater, yet these conditions arc not necessary to it.
In fine, tliere are but few of the conifers that will
not do well in almost any soil after they have been
successfully transplanted and raised to a growing
condition.

The usual method of propagating all the species
IS by seeds, immense quantities of winch are annu-
ally collected in tlifferent parts of the world, by
coiicctors of Great Britain. It is common with us
to ti-anspiant the White Pine from the woods ; but
very fev.' other sjiecies will bear tlris process, un-
less they M-ere raised from the seeds ni a planta-
tion. The most certain and economical mode of
obtaining a plantation of conifers is to purchase
them from the; nurseries. The artificial treatment
they have received from the first, under the hand
of the cultivator, modifies their nature, so that any
s]iecics, even the hemlock, may always be success-
fully removed from the nurseries, under the right
circumstances of time and season.

In England, it is no unusual thing to propagate
certain species by cuttings ; but the pines cannot
be treated in tliis way. Cuttings are taken from
th.e lateral branches when the recent shoots are
beginning to ripen ; they are planted in sand and
covered with a glass. This is usually done on the
last of August, or a little later ; the cuttings are
ke]:)t in a frame and protected from the frost, and
will be found to have struck then.' roots on the
next May or June.

They may aftenvards be transplanted in the au-
tumn. The Silver Fir, tlie Spruce and the Larch,
are found to bear this ]n-occss Avell ; but the prac-
tice is not likely to be followed to any considera-
ble extent in this country. Grafting has also been
successfully ]n-acticed with several species.

The method of raising by seeds is, hoM'cver, the

most practicable ; and in the gathering and plant-
ing of seeds a great deal of judgment and experi-
ence is required. The cones of -some species ripen
in one year, in others not until the end of two
years. It is advisable to collect the cones a little
while before they are perfectly ripe, when they are
liable to drop their seeds. In the European trees
the seeds usually drop from the cones in March ;
here the time varies with our latitude and climate,
and with the difi'erent species.

The cones of the Hemlock are mature in the
autumn, when they begin to shed their seeds, con-
tinuing to do so all winter ; those of the Pitch
Pine are mature at the end of the second autumn ;
those of the White Pine require also two years for
then.' maturity, and ripen in the autumn. Hence
the }3roper time to gather the cones of our native
species is during the fall of the leaf.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.

DRESSING UP FLAX.

I wish to inquire through the Farmer, if there

is macliinery for getting out flax, either rotted or

unrotted, as tlie raising of flax is profitable, if the

cost of dressing it was not so much ?

Chelsea, VL, Dec, 18GL Eli Camp.

Re^l^rks. — There is. A cheap process has been
discovered whereby flax may be prepared for the
"brake" in the course of a few hours, — and then it
is run through a machine at the rate of a ton per
hour, perhaps, completely separating the fibre from
the Avoody part of the stem. With these facilities
for dressing, and the constant demand of the seed
for its oil and as feed for cattle, it seems to us that
flax-raising might be made profitable on many of
our New England lands.

TO PREVENT POSTS BEING THROWN BY FROST.

Last spring there was much complaint about
fence posts being thrown out of the ground by the
frost, and a request to know what would prevent
it. Several things were proposed, such as setting
the fence with stone, Ike.

There is one thing that I think will prevent it,
if not too expensive, which is as follows : Put
about a pint of coarse salt around each post, or
enough to ])revent the ground from freezing, and
the post will not be disturbed. There will be an-
other advantage from the salt. The post will last
tM'ice as long as without it. It should be put
about the post about the first of December each
year. The fence between the posts must not rest
on the ground. X.

TIIE WEATHER.

Nov. 28 — Thanksgiving. — Weather is fine and
moderate ; but little snow, not enough for sleigh-
ing. Jack Frost, however, has rendered his stay
so far serviceable as to ])ave the ways and by-ways,
so that wheeling is very good.

Nov. 29 — Morning. — Snowing finely. P. M. —
Cloudy and moderate. Two or three inches new
snow ; enjoyed the first slcigh-ride of the season.

Dec. 1 — A. M. — Quite moderate ; cloudy. P.
!M. — Snowing, though damp. Eve. — prospect of
sleiglung.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAR^ESR.

Dec. 2 — Morn. — Cooler, sLx inches new snow.
A. M. — Cooler still. "Old nor' wester" begins to
exhibit itself among the newly laid snow-tlukes.
P. M. — Wind cold and blowing — later, real March
bluster !

Dec. 3 — Weather clear and cold, mercurj' 20°
below freezing point. Quite a sudden change.
Young winter is really quite lioiilsh ; hope he
may deem it best to exhibit to his subjects more
lamblike qualities after he has become more ac-
customed to his thi-onc, and the novelty of his ele-
vated position has worn away.

Lyndon, Vt. I. W. Sanborn.

MILLET SEED FOR HOGS AND HENS.

Will you please state, m your next number, the
good qualities of millet for feeding hogs and hens ?
Will you state how much, per bushel, I should ])ay
in order to feed it to hogs, &.C., so as to make a
profit above buying meal ? G. E. M.

Somcrville, Bee, 1861.

Remarks. — AVe have never known millet seed
fed to hogs or hens. It would, no doubt, be good
for either, but what its value is, compared with
other grains, we are unable to say.

QUERIES ABOUT POULTRY.

I notice that Wm. Robinson, of Watertown,
gives us a very good and profitable account of his
poultry business. Will he not give us a descrip-
tion of the manner he kept them ? Did he keep
them cooped ? How large a coop he had ? What
kinds of food he gave them ? How he managed
his chickens when small , Sec. ? 13. F. T.

South Oroton, Dec, 1861.

BRONZE TURKEYS.
Can you, or some of your readers, inform me
where and at what price I can obtain a pair of
full blood large bronze turkeys ?

R. GOODELL.

Antrim, N. IL, Dec. 2, 1861.

CROPS IN MICHIGAN.
"Wheat light, particularly the best quality of
white Minter. Corn very good. Oats light. Po-
tatoes, a good yield, but rot very bad. Apples
and other fruit and vegetables plenty. X.

Influence of Newspapers. — In an article in
another column, under this caption, the writer.
Doctor Silas Brown, states that he is "now over
eiglity-two years old," and yet his manuscript,
which now lies before us, is written in a clear, bold
hand, and scarcely needs the touch of the pen be-
fore sending it to the printer ! It is refresliing to
receive such interesting facts of the past, clothed
in appropriate language, and so plainly recorded.
What the Doctor says of Editors we believe to be
just. But who make up the newspapers ? It is
not editors alone, — for, when properly conducted,
they must owe a certain portion of theii- value to
the ^ratings of good men who contribute to their
columns. In a cheerful, intelligent and vigorous
old age, the Doctor's life is illuminated by kind

acts and the dissemination of fects and principles
which certainly tend to make the world better.
We are always glad to see his familiar hand, and
send abroad the sound doctrines which he ex-
presses so well.

For the New En!;land Farmer.
THOUGHTS ABOUT SUGAR MAKLN"G.

In perusing your paper of Nov. 1, I was much
interested in a piece written by Mr. Bassett, on
sugar making. I M'ell remember, thirty years ago,
my father and others made the whitest of sugar,
without any trouble, and coals and ashes were
continually flying into the kettle.

I have made thousands of pounds of veiy poor,
and also of good sugar. I have came to the con-
clusion that nine-tenths of the poor sugar is made
by sourness in buckets and store tubs. Therefore,
too much pains cannot be taken : peo])le are apt
to think store tubs, washed at the beginning and
end of sugaring, is sufficient. But sourness will col-
lect much quicker than in buckets, and they should
be cleansed every few days. I admire Jilr. Bas-
sett's views in speaking of boiling, cleansing, arch,
grate, &c. His heater is nev.' to me — I think it
must be a great improvement, and hope to gain by
it. He also speaks of a syphon to cai'ry the sap
from one pan to the other, with ends turned up.
I tried it to my satisfaction in eveiy way and
shape, calculating it would keep the sap in the
pans on a level ; but when the sap boiled hard, it
would fill with steam and stop. I also tried to
draw sap from the pan while boiling hard, into a
pail, with the syphon ends turned up. It would
run two or three jiails full and stop, therefore I
could not place any dependence upon it. So you
see in my plan that you published Nov. 24, 1860,
the syphons all extended back to the heater, wliich
seldom boils, there being four pans to draw from
it. Let every farmer make an estimate of store
tubs and a cistern.

First, the sap in store tubs is subject to the warm
air, which causes it to sour. Now a cistern, being
in the ground, keeps the sap cool like well water,
and being covered up, nothing can get into it, ex-
cept Avhat passes through the strainer. The cost
of a cistern to hold 300 pails full is —

1 barrel of cement $3.50

To dnuTin.? sand 1,00

To dunging a hole for cistern 75

To mason work, laving 1,50

Tending ." 1,00

Cost $7,75

Now add 10 store tubs holding 30 pails full each,
which cost here $2,50 each, $l*o,00. If any one
should use the self-acting faucet one season, I
think they would not wisli to be deprived of it.
They cost about tAventy-five cents apiece, besides
the lead pipe. If you wish to be absent, instead
of letting your fire go down so as not to burn up
your sap, build as hot a fire as you please, and
when you come back you will find your pan full
as when left, and boiling well ; there is no filling
up to do — it takes care of itself I should prefer
an India rubber hose attached to the bottom of
the boiler, as I described to you, Nov. 24, 1860,
and then liook up at the top, rather than a tin sy-
]ihon which you must fill with sap, and turn over
into the hauler, holding on to both ends v,ith wet

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

hands. I prefer buckets largest at the top, on ac-
count of ice, which we cannot always avoid. Peo-
ple in this vicinity prefer the tin spout ; those that
have given it a thorough trial, say they can get
more sap. I use a half round tapering bit, so I
can tap over by taking off a small shaving a doz-
en times if I wish, and then not exceed five-eighths
of an inch. They are manufiictured by our black-
smiths. Several have tried the experiment here,
and ha^e become satisfied that they can get as
much sap from a one-fourth inch hole, as from a
three-fourths or one inch hole, as it cuts off the
same number of grains. Erastus Way.

West Burke, Vt., Dec, 1861.

■WILLOW.

This tree is extensively cultivated in some
countries, on account of its rapid grov.th, and the
remarkable facility with wliich it accommodates
itself to almost any modification of climate, and
every variety of soil •wlrich possesses the capa-
bility of nourishing vegetable life. When large
and full-grown, it presents a venerable and som-
bre appearance, being more densely foliaged than
any other tree, and of a form often singularly fan-
tastical and picturesque. The timber is not much
valued, except when young. It is then wrought
by the country people into various kinds of ozier
or wicker work, such as baskets, the coverings of
demijohns, &c. As fuel, the wood possesses nearly
the value of white pine, being light and highly
combustible, but possessed of little durability.
Like most wood of rapid growth, it soon decays,
especially Avhen exposed to the atmosphere. Used
for rafters, or other purposes where it is kept con-
tinually dry, it has some value, possessing the
power of holding nails as firmly, almost, as oak.
The weeping willow, around Avhich there cluster in
most minds, none but most gloomy associations,
is an importation from Europe, where it is said to
have been first cultivated by the poet Pope, who
discovered a slip of it in a basket or package wliich
had been sent to him from China. Some assert
that tlie ordhiary willow, if its position be reversed,
will be changed into a weeping willow. The foli-
age of the willow possesses nutritive properties,
and in some countries is gathered the same as
corn shucks, and cured as a winter feed for horses
and neat stock.

It is to be regretted that a greater degree of at-
tention is not paid to the embellishment of our
country residences and villages, by the transplant-
ing of ornamental trees. Nothing adds more to
the beauty and desirableness of a dwelling than a
plantation, tastefully managed, of ornamental trees.
No matter how splendid and elegant in architectu-
ral design and finish a dwelling may be, if it
stands exposed, unembellished and unprotected by
ti'ecs and shrubbery, it must ever revolt the eye of
taste ; there is a nakedness about it which is re-

pulsive, a something which requires filling up.
And there is a pleasure in planting which all keen-
ly feel who are not utterly callous to the beautiful
in nature. "You can have no idea of the exquis-
ite delights of a planter," says Sir Walter Scott ;
"he is like a painter laying on his colors, — at every
moment he sees his effects coming on. There is
no art or occupation comparable to this ; it is full
of past, present and future enjoyments. I look
back to the time when there was not a tree here —
only barren heath. I look round, and see thou-
sands of trees growing up, all of which I may say
have received my personal attention. I remember,
five years ago, looking forward with the most de-
lighted expectation, to this very hour, and as each
year has passed, the expectation has gone on in-
creasing. I do the same, now. I anticipate what
tliis plantation, and what that one Avill be, if I only
take care of it, and there is not a spot of wliich I
do not watch the progress."

The time will come when necessity will compel
us to accord more attention to this business, and
before long, too.

THE LEMON TRADE.

The most delicate varieties of lemons known in
the export trade are the Poncine, incomparable,
the Naples, the sweet lemon, the Imperial, the Ga-
eta, the large fruit and the Vi-ax lemon. The most
delicious, however, are the hot house productions,
which are known only in the conservatories of the
wealthy. The peculiar nature of the lemon tree,
on M'hich may be seen at the same time the blos-
som and the fruit in all stages of growth, continues
the supply through every month of the year, but
in greater abundance in the spring. The importa-
tions, which continue during the year are largest
from January to June, in wliich month thej' seem
to culminate. The scarcity of the supply at pres-
ent is variously accounted for, but may be safelv
attributed to the general interruption to commerce
occasioned by the rel)eIlion of the Southern States.
The supply in the market is not always governed
by the clcmand, as there are but four houses in
New York who import on their ovrn account, all
other shipments being made on account and at the
risk of producers. It will thus be seen that the
trade is of a precarious character, and not likely to
tempt investment. The number of boxes brought
to this country from September, 1860, to August,
1861, according to the most reliable figures, is, to
New York, one hundred and twenty-five thousand ;
to Boston, thirty-five thousand ; to Philadelphia,
thirty-one thousand ; and to Baltimore, Avhere the
season closed earlier than usual, only eight thou-
sand. This is less by fifty thousand boxes than
the importations of the previous year. No natural
production varies in price so much as lemons, or-
anges, and Mediterranean fruits. Ten days ago
lemons were worth twelve dollars a box, and this
week they are six. Last year the price ranged
from fifty cents to seven dollars a box. The price
is governed by the immediate supply, as they are
purchased for immediate consumption. — Scientific
American.

For the New England Farmer.
OOE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME.

Having heard and read a great deal about the
fertilizing properties of Coe's superphosphate of
lime, I determined last spring to make a trial of it
myself, and -will now give the result.

I bought only one bag, containing 125 pounds,
which cost me three dollars, delivered at the farm.
The phosphate was applied to corn, potatoes,
squash and pumpkin vines, and cabbages. The
soil in which the corn was planted is a light loam,
of medium depth and quality. About fifteen ox-
loads of manure from the barn-j\ard — a large por-
tion of which was meadow muck, carted in the pre-
vious year — was applied to the acre after the land
was plowed, and thoroughly harrowed in. I will
here state what I have learned from a neighbor the
present year ; that tlie cultivator is a much better
nnplement than the harrow, for covering manure
spread on the furrow, for it not only covers better,
but leaves the ground much lighter. The land was
then very lightly furrowed both ways, and the corn
planted ; nothing being put into the liill except on
that portion where the phosphate was used, which
was about one-fourth part of the field. On this
portion of the field a table spoonful of phosphate
was dropped in the hill, and thoroughly mixed
with the soil, a pronged hoe being used for the
purpose. And here let me say that very many
farmers receive no benefit, but much injury, both
fi'om the phosphate and guano, simjjly because
they do not take pains to thoroughly mix these fer-
tilizers with the soil. They tlii-ow a handful into
the hiU, kick a little dirt over it, plant the corn on
the top, and expect it will grow and flourish in the
burning stimulant. The result is, that one-half,
or more, of the corn is burnt up, and the other
half receives such a powerful dose, that it resem-
bles, all through the season, a person who is al-
ways taking physic. At difterent places thi'ough
that part of the field where no phosphate Avas used,
and where the nature of the soil is as uniform as
possible, four rows Avere staked off', and the phos-
phate applied as above. Where the phosphate was
used, the corn came up a few days sooner, and un-
til it had nearly attained its full height, was more
than a weeks "growth lai'ger, besides being of a
much darker green than the other corn. The corn
also began to ripen about a week sooner where the
lime was appHed.

In the hurry of harvesting, I did not ascertain
the difference in the yield of corn except in one
section of the field. Eight rows through the field —
four with the phosphate, and four without, side by
side — were reserved, and each of the four rows
husked out separately. The rows to wliich the
phosphate was applied, yielded six bushels, one
peck and a half of sound ears, and three pecks of
unsound ears. The four rows without the phos-
phate yielded six bushels and one peck of sound
ears, and one bushel of unsound ears. To make
the trifling difference plain, I will state it thus :

With phosphate. . .6 bush. 3 half-pecks sound, % bush, unsound.
Witliout " ...6 " 2 " " " 1 " "

So it seems there was only one half peck more of
sound ears of corn in the rows where the lime was
used, and one peck less of unsound ears ; or, with
the good and bad together, one-half peck moi^e
com in the rows without the phosphate. But the

corn was riper, the ears longer, and the kernels
larger, where the artiflcial fertilizer was applied.

I'erhaps if I had put another spoonful of phos-
phate to each hiU after the corn was up, the differ-
ence would have been greater, and more to the
credit of the lime ; but as it was, the tlifference
was very small compared with some of the cracking
stories which I have read concerning the astonish-
ing effects of tlris fertilizer. To have made the ex-
periment more exact, the corn should have been
shelled and weighed, but as it was not sufficiently
dry at the time of husking, I did not do it.
raise the eight rowed corn, and a bushel of ears
will make a large half bushel of shelled corn.

Perhaps it may be well to mention that a hand-
ful of wood ashes were applied to every hill of corn
as soon as it was out of the ground, with the ex-
ception of seven rows tlu-ough the centre of the
field, and where no phosphate had been used. As
the corn increased in height, these seven rows
looked like a valley through the field, or like
Pharaoh's lean kine ; the corn in these rows being
very small, and of a light green or yellow color.
In the rows next to these, where the ashes had
been used, the corn was twice as large, and of a
much darker green ; and next beyond these, where
the phosphate was applied, the corn was twice as
large as it was Avliere the ashes had been used sep-
arately. This proves that ashes, although not so
powerful as the phosphate, yet are of great value
to the former, if he appKes them at the right time.
The ashes in tins instance were applied immediate-
ly after a soaldng rain ; and tliis, in my opinion, is
the best time to make use of them. At the second
hoeing, the ground being quite dry, the same quan-
tity of ashes Avere put on to each liill in the seven
roAvs, Avliich had been used in the other part of the
field ; but although it rained soon after, yet the
ashes did not seem to have the least effect upon
the corn, Avhich continued to have the same sickly
or starved appearance through the Avhole summer
— the corn being very Ught at harvesting.

As nearly all the phosphate Avhich I bought was
used upon the corn, I tried it upon only one row
of potatoes. A table spoonful was applied to each
hill, no manure being used. On each side of this
roAV, the potatoes Avere planted in the usual man-
ner, Avith one shovelful of manure to the hill. Dur-
ing the first part of the season, the potatoes plant-
ed in the phosphate Avere larger, and of a darker
green, than the plants on each side, but finally
Avere outgroAvn by the potatoes planted in the ma-
nure. Wlien the potatoes Avere harvested, the re-
sult was the foUoAving, from tAvo roAvs, each con-
taining the same number of hiUs.

Row with phosphate \% bush, potatoes.

Row without phosphate '2f^ " "

It seems that there was about a third more pota-
toes in the roAv Avhich Avas manured, and they Avere
larger ; but I have no doubt that had the manure
and phosphate been used together, the peld of po-
tatoes Avould have been greater than Avhere the
manure Avas applied separately. The phosphate
was also applied in the same manner as above, to
cabbages and squash vines, but Avithout any visi-
ble effect after the first two months. The phos-
phate, although powerful at fii'st, seems to lose its
force before the season is over, and does not fulfill
what it promises to do in the fii-st part of the sea-
son ; but I may be wrong in this conclusion as

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

to its general effects upon all kinds of land and
crops.

I forgot to mention that on that part of the
corn-field where the phosphate was used, the crop
of pumpkins was more than twice as large, and of a
much better quality, than on any other part of the
field.

A friend of mine, in North Leominster, used
some of Coe's phosphate on part of a mowing field
last spring, and the crop of hay was a third heavier
than on that portion Avhere none was applied.

I believe that Coe's superphosphate of lime, if
rightly used, is a powerful stimulant to plants, and
an aid to the farmer ; but I also believe that this,
or any other artificial fertilizer, can never take the
place (and be as beneficial to the land as well as
the growing crops,) of animal and vegetable ma-
nures, composted together in the barn-cellar, or
elsewhere. This kind of food for plants, no farm-
er can possess too much of, or be too diligent in
accumulating and heaping together.

I hope that all who have made experiments with
Coe's phosphate, will give the results to the world ;
for it is only by many different experiments upon
aU kinds of soil, that a correct estimate of its real
merits can be known. S. L. WlIITE.

South Crroton, Dec, 1861.

THE ESSEX SOCIETY.

We have before us the "Transactions of the
Essex Agricultural Society for the year 1861," in
a neatly-printed book of 200 pages. It shoAVS as
much progress, over its fellows that have preced-
ed it, in the art of printing, as has been made in
the cultivation of the soil. The fii'st paper pre-
sented is the Address of Mr. Alfred A. Abbott,
of South Danvers, and a good one it is. The re-
ports on Plowing with oxen and horses, on Work-
ing Oxen, Farm and Draft Horses, on Stallions,
Breeding Mares, Colts, Fat Cattle, Bulls, Sheep
and Swine and Milch Cows, are all very short,
scarcely venturing a remark in regard to any of
them, as to their importance to the farmer, or
dropping any suggestions that might be valuable
to him. The report on Poultry is more at length,
and presents facts that are of value to the poultry
raiser. The report on the Dairy is brief, but
closes with the following capital wish : — "We
wish that all of our young ladies, wliile they are
learning to play the piano, would also learn to
make good butter and cheese. You can please
your husband better with ordinary music and
sweet butter, than with the sweetest music and
rancid butter."

In the brief report on Pears, by Mr. John M.
Ives, he says, —

Regarding the injury to our fruit trees and
gi-ape vines, we apprehend that it took place be-
tween the last of P^ebruary and early in March.
The ground was so open in that month that some
strawberry beds were forked over and the plants
set. On Sunday morning, March 3d, the ther-
mometer, in South Salem, went up to 7.5° in the
shade, and 8o° in the sun. On the Thursday fol-

lowing, it was but 10° above nearly the whole day,
and upon the 18th, it was only 4° above at sunrise.
The MiU Pond was frozen over sufficient for
skating.

Such fluctuations of temperature, particularly
thus late, would, we think, be more disastrous
than if they had occurred in December or January.
The sudden freezing and thawing of the sap ves-
sels in winter, particularly in the grape vine,
causes tliis trouble ; and as the sap is always in
motion, at all seasons and under all circumstaiaces,
except in the presence of intense cold, as said by
that eminent physiologist. Dr. Lyndlay, can Ave
wonder at these results ? Biot, a French Avriter,
says that there is a great deal of sap in the spring,
and much less at other seasons. He has also
proved, by an ingenious apparatus, that the rate
of motion of the sap may be measured at all sea-
sons. In mild weather the sap was constantly
rising, but Avhen frost was experienced, it flowed
back again.

The report on Floicers is extended, criticises
sharply some bad practices introduced into the ex-
hibition, makes valuable suggestions, and closes
with a manly and touching appeal to the farmers
of the county, as follows : —

Perhaps our Avorthy Essex farmers are not yet
wholly rid of the idea that raising floAvers is
"Avoman's Avork." So it is ; but not the less that
of men, by any means. Woman shines in every
work of benevolence, but man honors himself in
the giving of alms as much as she. Woman is
lovely in connection Avith the education of the
young ; is not man equally Avell employed in the
same field?

"But," he says, "flowers look charmingly, but
have no usefulness ; they do no good, that I knoAV
of." Suppose it is so ; hoAv much good does the
carmine do, that you love to see mantling your
Red Astracans as Avell as any one ? Is the Bald-
Avin better for its ruby coat, or the Maiden-Blush
for the gloAv that has borroAved it a name from the
loveliest of all things ? Is the Bartlett more lus-
cious for its gold, or the Tomato for its fine crim-
son ? But the plainest farmer loves all these bet-
ter for their beautiful hues, and he knoAvs it, and
cannot help it, and still those hvies have no more
of utility about them than the tint or quilling of
an Aster. There is just as fine a vein of enjoy-
ment in the farmer's nature as in any man's ; nay,
he, of all men, is the one to have enjoyment — a
full, deep, overflowing cup of it, for his physical
system is aptest to be tuned to the true natural
harmony, vigorous and strong, and beauty ought
to rise on his vision, not in pale, diluted colors,
but glorious and Avarm as a haymaker's sunshine.

Wlio disbelieves in the culture of a fcAV floAvers
on the farm, noAv ? If there are any, there is a
prospect that they will at some time be given over
to hardness of heart. But Ave must indulge in one
more extract — and we know it Avill gratify many
a reader — and thank the gentlemen of the com-
mittee before we close : —

The groAving of lovely and perfectly formed
floAvers is as much in harmony Avith nature as any
of the operations of culture. Man is a Avorker of
changes in everything ; he has, so to express it.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

made the Apple, Peach and Pear ; he has made
the Potato and the d .. cu of roots that we think
so much of; and shall wc call hnn any more a
fool because he has doubled the Rose and Chrys-
anthemum to make them feed more vigorously
the huuii^ry life within. Surely not ; let the far-
mer cultivate flowers 5 let him raise the very best
he can, and show them for his owii credit, and to
excite a generous eompetilion in the hearts of his
brethren. They will be like a red cheek on the
sunny side of his own mellow harvest ; like the
bloom on the features of his own home-fed daugh-
ters, which enliances and testifies their worth,
though it may not cause it. In their mute elo-
quence, they shall speak to him of a life liigher
than the mere flitting present ; for his full barn
and bin only suggest the idea of ever-returning
hunger, but these can minister to a want that
bi-ead cannot satisfy, hinting still at the painless
expeiience of an immortal rest, from which they
seem like lovely premonitors, always murmuring
in the ear of him who notes them,

"O, pray believe that angels from those blue dominions,
Brought us in their white \aps domi, 'twixt their purple pinions."

The report of the committee on Cranberry Cul-
ture is brief, but very suggestive. That on Man-
ures is valuable. It contains the experiments by
Mr, Richard S. Rogers, of South Danvers, a
portion of which were commiuiicated to the Far-
mer, and published in February last. "^A'^hat he
has added, and now appears in these Transactions,
we shall copy hercafter.

The report on Root Crops is pretty full, and the
statement of Mr. H. A. Stiles abounds in sound
instruction. The report of the Committee "On
the Improvement of Pasture and Waste Lands"
shows in the clearest light the unprofitable condi-
tion of such lands, but presents no definite plan
for their reclamation. But one iu'stance is cited,
that of Oliver P. Killam, of Boxford, who cut
bushes, dug out the roots, made holes eight feet in
diameter, and put apple trees in them. This will
answer very well occasionally — but what we want,
as a general tiling, is pasturage, not orcharding.
An excellent report follows on Forest Trees, by
Jeeemlvh Spofford.

The Society voted to build a new barn on the
Treadwell Farm, and also to continue to hold their
exhibitions in different parts of the county.

The next paper, "by Wilson Flagg, is "^1 Plea
for the Birds on account of their Utility to Agri-
cidture" and is an interesting and valuable paper.
Following tliis is an "Essay on the Cultivation of
Cranberries," by Nathan Page, Jr., which is full
of excellent facts and suggestions.

Upon the whole, this volume of the Essex
Transactions fully sustains the high reputation
■which that ancient county has gained. The Sec-
retary of the Society, Charles P. Preston, Esq.,
of Danvers, is entitled to credit for the prompt-
ness Avith wliich the volume appears, and to our
thanks for the copy which we have examined.

For the New England Farmer.
FINISH UP THE WORK.

Time, with its varied and changing scenes, has
brought us almost to the close of another year ;
tills is the season which should be improved by
the farmer, and is of almost as much value to him
as the month of July. In this month he should
improve the oi)i)ortunity presented him in the
warm and pleasant dajs, to complete whatever of
lus fai-m work time may not have allowed him
to do before. Let not the fine opportunity,
wliich the open fall and tardy winter has present-
ed, be lost.

If the manure has not all been carted from the
yard, do it noAV, and as fiist as it is removed from
the jard let its jjlace be filled with muck from your
meadows. It will amply reward you for your
trouble in grass next year, even if you should en-
counter a little frost before the job is quite done.
And when the snow forbids your longer working
the soil, look to the wood-pile, — don't let the fe-
males of your household have a chance of com-
plaining about green wood, and not enough of it,
either ; and don't allow yourself to sit around in
the house, and see them bring it from the wood-
house, when you have nothing else to do.

The cattle, too, don't forget them, the kind
beasts that serve us ; don't allow them to suffer
for the want of a shelter, or sufficient food to sat-
isfy their appetites, though too lavish feeding is
bad ; but let them have enough to keep them in
good condition and still keep their appetites good.
If you have poor hay which you must feed out, do
it at the commencement of feeding, and you will
find that by cutting it up and putting upon it a
quart of meal to each creature, each day, there
will be but very little of it lost, and you Avill scarce-
ly feel the expense at all.

The horses, too, and colts, should be looked af-
ter with great care tlu-ough the cold weather. Do
not believe the former who tells you that it is bet-
ter for your colt to take tilings as they come
along, in the rough and tumble style, but look af-
ter him ; give him a warm stable, and plenty of
good hay, a few good carrots and a quart of shorts
each day, and perhaps two quarts would not hurt
him — if not, give them to him. When all the out-
door work is cared for, call upon your neighbor,
and examine your accounts for the past year, and,
by the Avay, do not make a day-book of the bel-
lows, or a ledger of the fire-frame — such memo-
randums are worthless.

Lastly, but not least, don't forget to subscribe
for the N. E. Farmer, or some other agricultural
paper equally as valuable, if you do not now take
one, for you will find it a valuable counsellor and
guide in your business. Let your evenings, which
are now long, be spent in gathering agricultural
knowledge from some standard work upon the
same, and thereby profit yourself and set a good
example before your family. E. P. L.

Ware, Mass., Dec., 1861.

Pure Seeds. — In our appropriate columns may
be found an advertisement of Mr. Sanford Ad-
ams, announcing his ability to separate at little
cost, all impurities from grain, grass and canary-
seed. He will, also, shell and clean peanuts for
confectioners or family use, and sort beans so that

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jau-

the number one will all be of the same size, free
from all broken ones or spurious seed, and appear-
ing as though they had been through some pol-
ishing operation, wliich they quite likely have. We
have seen his machines and found his sifting pro-
cesses reaUy wonderful. He has brought them to
such perfection, and will furnish the means of do-
ing the same so cheaply, that there is no necessity
for the farmer, any longer, to sow foul seeds, and
thus entail upon himself and posterity a perpetual
plague and loss.

'SMiat struck us as the most surprising in INIr.
Adams' apparatus, is the great simplicity Avith
which he accomplishes so much. He not only sep-
arates products of different sizes and shapes, but
by the application of screens to fan mills, he does
60 by their specific gravity.

For the Nmo England Farmer.
PKEMIUMS 0]!f STOCK.

Mr. Editor : — As the "Middlesex Agricultural
Society" is an old Society, having been established
a long time, must we not expect younger societies
of the same kind to look to us for an example ?
As it respects premiums for stock, have we not
been too much like the horse in the cider mill,
going the same round, year after year? Should
we not accomplish more good, if we should leave
the old track, and offer tlu-ee premiums, first, sec-
ond and third, for the best milch cow, without dis-
tinction of breed ? Then offer premiums, for the
best herd of cattle, not less than six in number.
Also, others for not less than four cows and a
bull. And still another ])remium for a herd of cat-
tle, not less than seven in number, of the owner's
raising.

In order to make this acceptable to the farmers,
suppose we pay to all those who offer a herd,
worthy of exhibition, whether successful compe-
titors or not, and who live at a greater distance
than five miles from the fair, a travelling fee of
two cents per mile, for each one of the cattle of-
fered, for every mile exceeding five from the place
of the fair ?

I think tliis would bring a better show of stock
to our fair, than we ever yet have had. I make
these suggestions, hoping they may meet the eye
of the Trustees, before their meeting, that they
may have time to tliink of it, and be ready to adopt,
amend, or reject, as they may think best.

Asa G. Sheldon,

TVilmington, Nov. 25, 1861.

Wooden Things. — If Connecticut is not care-
ful, she will lose the palm for inventing and mak-
ing "Avooden things." A farmer in Canada recently
lost a fine sow which had twelve sucking pigs, and
not caring to lose the pigs, too, he set to work
and formed a rough model of a sow m wood, be-
ing hollow in the centre, the abdomen being fur-
nished with twelve teats, cleverly formed of raw-
hide. The interior of the model is kept filled with
milk, and the whole of the young pigs suck from
the teats of this singular looking wooden sow, and
all are thriving well.

For Hie Neta England Farmer.
HINTS ON AGEICULTimE.

Tlie rule of every farm, unless in exti-aordinary
situations of fertiUty, is to expend on it two-thirds
of whatever is grown ; such a farm cannot be worn
out, but, A;ith decent management, is constantly
growing better.

Counti-ies Avhich have the largest population,
where agriculture is thoi'oughly practiced, gi-ow
more and more pi-oductivo. Belgium is the most
thickly settled country in Europe ; it has been cul-
tivated like a garden, for centuries, and its yearly
produce is constantly increasing.

There is, doubtless, a limit to the possible pro-
duction of a farm, but we doubt if it was ever
reached ; we think sixty bushels of wheat to an
acre a great yield, and so it is, com]iared with our
average harvests of ten or fifteen, but it is quite
possible, by higli cidture, to raise one hundi-ed
bushels on an acre.

Drilling saves two-thirds of the seed alone, and
often increases by one-tliird the crop ; the saving
of the seed alone, in one year on a good-sized
farm, would pay for the machine.

In broadcast sowing some of the seed is buiied
too deeply ; some lies upon the surface ; here it is
crowded together ; there it is separated too ^Aide-
1}-. The drill places the seed where it is Avanted ;
the proper de])th for wheat is one to two inches.

The time wiU come when wheat di'iiled in rows
will be cultivated as carefully as corn — ^with an
immense increase in its productiveness.

Wherever land needs manuring, it pays to ma-
nure well. Suppose ten dollars' worth of manure
on an acre of land gives you a crop worth tliii'ty
dollars, and twenty dollars' worth gives you a crop
worth only forty dollars, you ai'e still the gainer,
and will be for years to come.

A tree planted over the grave of Roger Wil-
liams enveloped his skeleton with its roots so com-
pletely as to preserve the form of the bones. In some
parts of Connecticut there are little familj'-bury-
ing grounds in the orchards, and the trees nearest
the graves flourish with a remarkable fertility. We
may have scruples about consuming or selling our
ancestors in the form of apples and cider, but it
is certain that every bone is worth its Aveight in
gold, as a manure. A few bones at the roots of a
fruit tree or gTape vine will supply it for a dozen
years with just the nutriment it requires. I'he
best wheat fields in Europe are its old battle-fields.
No man Avho has a farm or garden should ever sell
bones or ashes. Straw is worth more for manure
than it ever brings Avhen sold in market.

Our farmers tliink they do very well to get ten
dollars net ju'ofit from an acre of land, but it wovdd
be a poor acre of garden that did not pay a hun-
(bed, and Ave have orchards that pay a thousand.
There are pear trees that have paid a hundi'cd dol-
lars a year for several successive years.

Every dollar of manure on a farm is better than
five dollars in any bank, or stock, that Ave knoAV of.
It is a good stock that pays ten per cent. It must
be a badly managed farm Avhere a deposit of ma-
nure Avill not pay three hundred per cent.

We need model farms and agricultural schools ;
but Avhere these imjiortant institutions are Avanted
it Avould not be a bad plan to spend a day or two
Avith those eccentric but very benevolent people
and admirable farmers, the Shakers.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

In a Shaker community, you have the matei'ial
below the general average ; but made the most of
in certam du-ections. Agriculture and domestic
manutactures, carried out thoroughly, with the
most important objects, temperance and frugidity,
•will make them rich.

In England, farmers prefer to lease farms rather
than buy them. They prefer to expend their cap-
ital in stock, manure and labor, rather than shut
it up in the land. But the man who wants a home
for his family and his posterity, must own the land
he cultivates, and then every acre he drains, every
tree he plants, every load of manure he plows into
it, will add to its permanent riches.

At the creation, man's appointed work was the
cultivation of the earth, and tlierc are many whose
talents are inferior in this respect. I tliink it will
be so until all the other works are subordinate to
this. Canals are dug, raih'oads are constructed,
cities are buUded, warehouses, manufactories and
ships are all constructed for the sole purpose of
benefiting the lords and cultivators of the soil.
All the pursuits of civilization rest upon this one.
Perfect independence is impossible, but the old-
fasliioned farmer, who is able to produce for him-
self all the real necessaries, comes very near to it.

A bed of muck or marl on a farm is better than
a gold mine, in a long run : when the gold is ex-
hausted, that is the end of it ; but the enriched
farm will pour out crops for a century.

AVhen a fruit tree has exhausted its fruit-form-
ing material, it must stop bearing. Trv a load of
muck or ashes, bone dust, &c., dug in from six to
tAvelve feet from the trunk, and you will be satis-
fied. _ /

Every dead animal on a farm which is not eaten
as food, should be stored with loam, rotten leaves,
old plaster, poAvdered charcoal, leached ashes, or
other absorbents, so as to make a compost of ma-
nure that will be worth, in the long run, more than
it would have sold for when living.

The science of agriculture is to know how to
convert the waste and apparently valueless mat-
ters around us into the richest and most impor-
tant production of life. The business of the far-
mer is one of the greatest dignity. It is to assist
the Almighty in His work of creation. It is to in-
crease the beauty and fertility of the earth.

North Charleston, N. H. H. B.

GREAT EXPEDITION.

Our readers will perceive by the new raUroad
schedules published to-day that, actuated by a pub-
lic spirit M'hich gives them fresh claim to the grate-
ful consideration of the entire community, the sev-
eral railroad companies on the seaboard line have
united in adopting a rate of speed on then- respec-
tive roads wliich actually reduces the time of travel
between Wasliington and Boston within ticcntij
hours ! Thus, a person leaving Boston at 2 P.
M., arrives at Washington at 9i o'clock next
morning. We have heard of an ancient personage
who, in the fervor of faith, said he beHeved a cer-
tain dogma because it was impossible ; but here is
an achievement in transportation which we can
scarcely believe, although it is proved to be possi-
ble. We remember hearing a gentleman of this
city, many years ago, before the happy introduction
of railways, relate how, on entering the hall of the
Exchange Hotel, in Boston, one evening, and stat-

ing that he had left AVashington five days before
— travelling by stage and steamboat — he Avas lis-
tened to M'ith some incredulity. Was it possible ;
only five days from Washington to Boston ? What

was the world coming to ? And now . Has

any man ever tried seriously to estimate the debt
of gratitude which the world owes to the jniblic
spirit that has blessed it with railroads ? Not in
comfort alone to the traveller, or even in their in-
calculable benefits to commerce, but in the saving
of precious time. It is only those who are aged
enough to have been trundled and jolted along
three miles an hour, in the former old vehicles of
travel, that can begin to appreciate the blessings
of raikoads. — National Intelligencer.

A TIGER KILLED BY BABOOWS.

The following account of a tiger chase is ex-
tracted from the North Lincoln Sphynx, a regi-
mental paper published at Graham's town^ Cape of
Good Hope. The writer, after alluding to his
sporting experience of all kinds and in all quarters
of the globe, declares that he never witnessed so
novel or intensely interesting a chase as that about
to be described :

"Not long ago I spent a few days at Fort Brown,
a small military post on the banks of the Great
Fish river, where my friend W. Avas stationed.
One evening, as my friend and I Avere returning
home after a somcAvhat fatiguing day's buck-
shooting, Ave Avere startled by hearing the most ex-
traordinary noises not far from us. It seemed as
if all the demons in the im'ernal regions had been
unchained, and Avere amusing themselves by trying
to frighten us poor mortals by their horrid yelling.
We stood in breathless expectation, not knoAving
Avhat could possibly be the cause of this diabolical
roAV, Avith all sorts of strange conjectures flashing
across our minds.

Nearer and nearer the yelling and screaming
approached, and presently the cause became visi-
ble to our astonished eyes. Some three or four
hundred yards to our right, upon the broAV of a
small hill, a spotted leopard (commonly called in
this country a tiger, though much smaller than the
lord of the Indian jungles,) came in vieAV, bound-
ing along Avith all the energy of despair, Avhile
close behind him followed an enormous pack of
baboons, from Avhose throats proceeded the demo-
niacal sounds that had a fcAV seconds before so
startled us. Our excitement in the chase, as you
may suppose, Avas intense. On AA'ent the tiger,
making for the river, the baboons foUoAving like
avenging demons, and evidently gaining ground
upon their exhausted foe, though then- exultant
yells seemed each moment to increase his terror
and speed. They reached the stream, the tiger
still in advance, and with a tremendous bound he
cast himself into its muddy Avaters and made for
the opposite bank. The next moment his pursu-
ers, in admirable confusion, Avere struggling after
him, and as the tiger, noAV fearfully exhausted,
clambered on the land again, the largest and
strongest of the baboons Avere close at liis heels,
though many of the ])ack, (the old, the very youug
and Aveakly,) were still struggling in the Avater.

In a fcAV moments all had passed from our sight

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan,

behind the brow of the opjjosite bank ; but theii-
increased yelling, now stationary behind the hill,
told us that the tiger had met his doom, and that
their strong arms and jaws were tearing him
limb from hmb. As the evening was far advanced,
and we Avere still some miles from home, we did
not cross the river to be in at the death ; but next
morning, a few bones and scattered fragments
of flesh and skin showed Avhat had been the tiger's
fate. On our return home we were told by some
Dutch gentlemen that such hunts are not uncom-
mon when a tiger is rash enough to attack the
young baboons, Avliich often happens^ All these
creatures for miles around assemble and pursue
their enemy with relentless fuiy to his death.
Sometimes the chase lasts for days ; but it invari-
ably closes with the destruction of the tiger — a
striking instance that the idea of retributive jus-
tice is not confined to man alone."

For the New England Farmer.
IS FAKMING PROFIT ABLE?

This question has been so often asked and an-
swered, that perhaps your readers will turn away
from this article in disgust. But I do not think
the subject is yet exhausted. Other men than far-
mers are entitled to have an opinion respecting it.
Any man of common intelHgence, especially if he
is acquainted with the general condition of far-
mers, and the details of farm life, may form as
correct an opinion on the subject as the farmer
laimself. By the term "profit," perhaps, we are
apt to refer too exclusively to pecuniary results.
The great pursuit of man is said to be happiness.
But is it wise to measure the amount of happiness
by the amount of money which men acquire ?

Do observation and experience prove that the
former is necessarily or uniformly in proportion to
the latter ? Although a certain amount of wealth
undoubtedly contributes to our happiness, yet
other elements must be taken into the account.
Health, longevity and independence, certainty,
freedom from exhausting care and anxiety, and va-
rious other circumstances must be considered in
estimating the profitableness of any business.
In the first place, I tliink it will not be doubted
that farmers, as a body, enjoy a greater measure
of health than any other class of men. They are
stronger and more robust, and retain their strength
and vigor to a greater age than other men. They
live longer on an average than any other class of
men, which proves not only that their course of
life is conducive to health, but that their labor is
of a less exhausting charactei". Labor in the
open air is always more healthy than labor in
the shop, the counting-room or the study. Many
other men who live and labor in the open au', as
the hunter and the sailor, are subject to greater
vicissitudes, exposures and dangers than the far-
mer, which often exhaust their health and cut
short their lives. The circumstances under wliich
the farmer labors in the spring, the songs of the
birds, the fragrance and beauty of the flowers, the
vigorous growth of the spring crops, and in the
summer and autumn, the consciousness that he is
reaping the reward of his labor, all tend to pro-
mote cheerfulness, hope and satisfaction.

The farmer's life is more uniform than that of
most other men, and when the labors of the day

are ended, he sleeps quietly in his bed, secure from
danger and the inclemencies of the weather. He
is not subject, like the traveller and the sailor, to
changes of climate and temperature. He is ac-
customed to the climate in which he lives. His
diet is plain and substantial. It is rare that he is
required to make tmusual efforts, or, like the sol-
dier on the march or in battle, to make extraordi-
nary drafts upon his strength and powers of en-
durance. Hence, as might be expected, statistics
show that the farmer lives to a greater age than
most other men.

Farming is safer than any other business. The
navigator, the fisherman, the trader pay large sums
for insurance. Indeed, so great are their risks
that they cannot afibrd to carry on their business
without insurance. But the farmer can atford to
be his own underwriter. With reasonable skill
and diligence, he is sure of the ordinary results of
his business. It has been stated, on good authori-
ty, that ninety out of a hundred who engage in
trade in our cities fail in their business. On the
the other hand, observing fanners have estimat-
ed that not more than five per cent, of those
engaged in farming ever fail. Many of our
young men enter upon the business of farming
heavily in debt. If they take the homestead,
they have to pay legacies to their brothers and
sisters. If they purchase a farm, they j^ay a part,
and take the balance on credit. Yet in most cases
they work out of debt, and in a feAV years OAvn
their forms free of incumbrance. Is not here suf-
ficient proof of the safety and certamty of the busi-
ness of farpiing ?

I am acquainted with a farmer less than forty
years old, who is very apt to complain of the un-
profitableness of farming. Now let us look at the
facts in his case.

He inherited less than $2000, and manied a
wife Avho had about $2000. He purchased a farm
for $2000. Built a house which cost, say $1800.
Built a bam which cost as much more. Here was
an outlay of $5,600. He has now his house well
furnished, 16 cows worth $25 each, a yoke of ox-
en worth $100, two horses worth $100, a carriage
worth $100, a good stock of wagons, carts and
other farm implements, worth say $300 — making
his farm stock worth $1000. He has dug ditches,
laid walls, reclaimed swamp lands, and in various
ways improved his farm, until it is now worth, say
$8000. He has paid liis debts and is now free
from incumbrance. Here is a man who has dou-
bled the value of his property, has an excellent
wile and four promising chikben — ^has maintained
himself and his family well — has a permanent busi-
ness, knows the capabilities of his farm, and is an-
nually increasing his products. He has become
skilful in his business, has good health, and the
respect and confidence of lus neighbors, and he is
not yet forty years old ! Has not this man's busi-
ness been profitable ? And when he compares the
results he has achieved with those acliieved by
men in other vocations around him, has he any
x'eason to grumble at his want of success ?

The farmer is more independent of fashion than
others. He can live and dress as he pleases, while
the minister, the doctor, the lawyer and the mei"-
chant must dress and live in a more expensive
manner, or they will at once lose caste in the com-
munity. They must expend more money in visit-
ing and receiving company, in travelling, in sus-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

taining societies, lectures and other institutions of
the day, in books, furniture and in various other
ways, in obedience to the demands of custom.

Let us compare the results of farming with the
results of other vocations in our own community.
Our town has been settled more than two hundred
yeai's ; upon inquiry, I can hear of but one physi-
cian who became wealthy by his profession during
that period, and }et we have had many men of
learning and talents who have worked thirty or
forty years harder than any farmer among us —
have ijeen more exposed by day and night to the
inclemency of the weather — have lost more sleep
and undergone more anxiety. We have now an
intelligent physician who has labored more than
forty years most indefatigably among us. His la-
bors have been most abundant by day and night,
in season and out of season — and he has the con-
fidence of the community to as great a degree as
any man in the State.

Has his business been more profitable to him, in
a pecuniary view, than that of many of our far-
mers ? How is it with physicians of our acquain-
tance in other tOAvns ? Have they grown rich by
their profession ? How is it in our cities ? A few,
eminent by talent, or peculiarly favored by fortune,
have grown wealthy by their professional labors.
But not more than one in ten does more than gain
a comfortable livelihood. We must judge, not by
exceptional cases but by average results. Wlio
ever heard of a New England clergyman becom-
ing rich by his salary ? In former times, when
clergymen Avere settled for life, many of them
owned small farms, and labored with their hands
to eke out their salaries. As these farms were gen-
erally situated in villages, some of them realized
profit from the increased value of their lands.
Some have married Avealth. But I have yet to
hear of a clergyman who has grown even moder-
ately wealthy, by his profession alone.

A few men of superior talents do most of the
legal business. Some of these grow rich by their
professional business alone. But is it so with the
majority of our lawyers ? Are not most of them
eager to engage in extra professional business ?
They become agents of corporations. They seek
public offices. They engage in speculations. Some
of them even become fiirmers. Probably not more
than ten per cent, of them become Avealthy by
their profession. Most mechanics work early and
late. They generally obtain a comfortable living.
Some accumulate property by extraordinary skill
or diligence, but I think they do not in general
exceed farmers in this respect.

The manufacturer sometimes acquires wealth
for a time with great rapidity. But lo ! there
comes a change. The kind of goods which he is
making goes out of fashion ; the raw material rises
in value. Some new machine is invented which
will produce the same goods at a much cheaper
rate, and in order to sustain himself, he must have
an entire new set of macliinery. The tariff" is
changed, and foreign goods undersell him. If he
did not make money rapidly between the crises
that so frequently occur, he could not carry on his
business at all. When business is good, he must
put on all his force, and drive day and night. Now
think of the care and anxiety to which he is sub-
ject. And the operatives — how often are they
thrown out of work, and left in an anxious aiid
starving condition ? What farmer who owns his

hundred acres, with comfortable buildings and a
decent stock of cattle, would exchange situations
with the employer or employed in manufacturing
life?

Farming, then, tends to promote health and lon-
gevity. It is a safe and certain business when
compared with any other vocation, and its pecu-
niary results compare fovorably with the results
of and other business. All these elements should
be taken into estimation in making up the profit
and loss account. Should not the farmer, then, be
contented with his lot ? j. R.

Concord, Dec. n, 186L

For the New England Farmer.

SALTING AND PRESERVING HAMS
AND BEEP.

I notice an ai'ticle in the iV". E. Fai-mcr of the
14th, from the Ohio Fariner, on the subject of
"Curing hams and sides." It appears to me that
hams covered with salt, and in a strong pickle
three to five weeks, would be too salt to make
good bacon — it would not suit my taste. I have
followed one method more than thirty years, and
have never failed to have a good article. I pre-
pare a pickle by dissolving in boUing water as
much salt as will dissolve, and skim off whatever
rises on the top. This purified, strong pickle, I
reduce by adding an equal quantity of pure Avater.
In this reduced pickle of half full strength, when
cold, I put my hams, and keep them covered in it
till it is convenient to smoke them — five or ten
weeks will not hurt them. I never use any salt-
petre. I have sometimes put in a little saleratus
to correct any acid there may be in pork or pickle,
and I think it makes the bacon tender. I use corn
cobs to smoke it. Sometimes when I wanted to
give more flavor to bacon, I have prepared a li-
quor with brown sugar in it, and such spices as I
wished — pounded cloves, spice, pepper, (cayenne,)
&c., and after taking the hams from the pickle and
draining them, kept them basted in this liquor a
week or two before smoking.

I also put down my beef in a similar pickle. I
put my beef into a barrel, and then prepare the
pickle as for bacon, but pour it on the beef boiling
hot. It will keep well till April or May, and then
it should be repacked in stronger pickle. I keep
the barrel in a cold room above ground. It will
be good corned beef till the middle of April, or
longer, and as salt as I want to have beef. Salt-
petre would give it color and make it harder, but
beef is always hard enough for me, and I have an
impression that saltpetre does not add to its health-
fulness. Some saleratus would not hurt it, but
make it tender. I have preserved my beef in this
way for at least thirty years, and have never had
any injured for want of salt. All who have eaten
our beef and bacon call it first rate. Some would
prefer to have it a little Salter, perhaps — not much.
RuFUs McIntike.

Parsonsjield, Me., Bee, 1861.

Remarks. — From our own experience in pre-
serving meats, we believe the process stated by
Mr. Mclntire is an excellent one — and one that
will secure juicy, sweet and tender meat in all
cases where the meat itself is good.

XEW ENGLAXD FAiniER.

Jan.

VATTDrKTE'S SEEDLING PLUM.

Downing says "that the soil and climate of
the Middle States are admirablj' suited to this
fruit is sufficiently proved by the almost sponta-
neous production of such varieties as the Wash-
ington, Jefferson, Lawrence's Favorite, &c.; sorts
■which equal or surpass in beauty or flavor the
most celebrated plums of France or England."
For several years past the cultivator of the plum
has been discouraged by the destruction occa-
sioned by the curculio, and what is still worse, the
black knot, caused either by this insect or by some
widely-spread disease among the trees. No suf-
ficient remedy has yet been found for either of
these pests. The ravages of the curculio may be
prevented by a frequent jarring off of the insects
upon cloths and killing them, but the labor must
be a protracted and tedious one. The plum, how-
ever, is a delicious dessert fruit, is excellent for
sauces and preserves, and is worthy of considera-
ble effort to bring it to perfection.

The cluster of plums which is so beautifully fig-
ured above, was presented to us by Mr. Henry
Vandine, of Cambridgeport, Mass., and had a fla-
vor as excellent as the cluster was beautiful. A

few days since he sent us the following note in re-
lation to it :

Cambridgeport, Dec. 20, 18G1.
Messrs. Nourse, Eaton & Tolman: — Dear
Sirs, — I have received your letter requesting a de-
scription of the Vandine Seedling Plum. It orig-
inated on my place several years ago. It is about
the size of the Diamond Plum, of a black color,
with a heavy blue bloom. It ripens about the last
of August, and is of an excellent quality when fully
ripe. Yours, respectfully,

Henry Vandine.

Rats Afraid of Powder. — H. H. Ballard,
Owen Co., Ky., writes to the American Agricul-
turist that with one-quarter of a pound of gun-
powder he can keep every rat from his premises
for a year. "The powder is not used to drive a
bullet or shot through the animal, but is simply
burned in small quantities, say a teaspoonful in a
place, along their usual paths, and at the holes
where they come out, with the i:)roper precaution
to prevent accidents from fire." He says he has
proved its efficacy by re]5eated trials. The rat
has a keen sense of smell, and if he has sense
enough to know that he is not wanted, when he
perceives the odor of the burnt powder, the reme-
dy wiU be of great value.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

For the Neic England Farmer.

THE "WAR AWD THE FARMER.
BY JUDGE FRENCH.

We have now, in the ranks of our army, fight-
ing for the Constitution and laws of the best gov-
ernment and most prosperous people upon which
the sun ever shone, more than half a million of
men, all volunteei-s, nearly all men who, a few
months ago, were engaged in the peaceful avoca-
tions of productive industry, either in the work-
shop or on the farm. A haLf-milUon of industri-
ous men, suddenly called fi-om laboring to pro-
duce food and clothing, into a profession wliich
produces not an ear of corn nor a yard of cloth !
More than this, even ! for another large army of
men, with horses and macliinery of all kinds, are
away from their accustomed pursuits, devoting
their labor to constructing fortifications, to build-
ing sliips of war, to manufacturing guns, and
swords, and all warlike implements. All these
men are consuming the necessaries of life, and
producing nothing, and worse than tliis, because
what they consume is charged with the cost of
freight away from the place of production, and of
necessity, a considerable proportion is lost or waste-
fully consumed. Looking at these facts, wliich lie
upon the very surface, many are inquii-ing anxious-
ly as to the future. How can the loyal States
spare so many industrious men, and who is to
perform their accustomed labor at home ?

No philosopher or statesman ever yet succeeded
in adjusting these questions relating to supply and
demand, especially if the matter of tariffs and free
trade were involved, so that his theories and facts
would correspond, and we shall not attempt what
wiser men have failed to accomplish. Yet there
are some facts and considerations worthy our at-
tention, in connection with the question whether
we can spare so much labor without suffering, and
even famine ?

This is generally thought to be rather a hard
world to live in, and we in New England being
duly impressed with the Scripture idea that labor
and bread are pretty closely allied, have most of
us an impression that it is everybody's duty to
work all the time, to keep the world revolving.
Now, tliis is a great mistake ; we are laboring,
many of us, for that which is not bread, in any
sense, and it is by no means necessary for all the
world to work, that all the world should be com-
fortably provided for. We know it is not, if we
look Southward, where we see every negro, great
and small, supporting liimself, and a white man
or two besides ! and everybody knows that one
Northern farmer does more effective work than
three slaves. Read what Dr. Palcy says of the
real necessity for labor in England, and it will be
seen that an industrious people can spai-e for war.

or any other extraordinary occasion, a far larger
proportion of its active laborers than we have yet
sent away. It should be borne in mind, that only
about one-tenth the population of England is en-
gaged in agriculture, the great majority being en-
gaged in manufactures.

"Perhaps," says he, "two-thu'ds of the manu-
facturers in England are employed upon articles
of confessed luxury, ornament or splendor, in the
superfluous embellishment of some articles which
are useful in their kind, or upon others wliich have
no conceivable use or value, but what is founded
in caprice or fasliion."

Now it is obvious, that England would be none
the poorer, if it should, for five years, dispense
with all those articles of luxury, and support the
two-tliirds of her manufacturers, Avho are fit for
soldiers, in her armies. They might as well be
soldiers, as to weave laces or ribbons. It would
cost the nation no more to sujiport such weavers,
with guns on their shoulders, than at their looms,
if those who formerly bought the laces and rib-
bons, would go without them, and pay the same
amount towards the war.

In America, a far less proportion of labor is de-
voted to luxuries, than in England, but still it is
true that we can spare a very large force for the
Avar, and yet have enough to provide food and
clothing, and all other comforts of life for us all.
We can all economize as individuals, and so spare
sometliing for the soldiers. The imports of dry
goods into the city of New York alone, are fifty-
five mUHons less up to December of tliis year, than
in the same time last year. A great part of this
saving is by dispensing with mere articles of fancy,
by the women of the country. What harm comes
to anybody if the ladies who formerly did nothing
in theii' leisure hours, or worked worsted, which is
the next thing to it, now knit a half-million pairs
of socks and mittens ? Is not so much useful la-
bor created by the war ?

We have in fact had a surplus of labor on our
farms, as a whole, for some years past. More In-
dian corn has been raised in many parts of the
West, than could be properly or profitably used.
So abundant and cheap has it been in some locali-
ties, that it has been burned for fuel, wliich is a
public loss, for the fresh productive soil has been
thus needlessly sapped in its production. And
now, with no extraordinary crop the past season,
we have enough for ourselves, with our vast ar-
mies, enough to supply the demands of France
and England, and, thank God, sometliing to give
to starving Ireland when she wants help again, as
she probably will, the coming winter.

We have it stated on the authority of Pashley,
that there were in England, in 1850, 300,000 able
bodied male paupers ! and that the amount levied
for jioor rates in that country, was about $36,000,-

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

000 in the same year. Yet England is a great and
prosperous nation. We have no able bodied male
paupers, but are -we not vastly more able, for that
very i-eason, to send an army into the field, and to
maintain it there ? Less than 50,000 persons in
England are classed as landed proprietors, whUe
here, except in cities, everybody owns land.

Tliis diffusion of property is the secret of the
ability of every one to take care of himself. The
(famine of 1846 and 1847, in Lreland, was the result
; of the poverty of the people, rather than the scar-
city of food. There Avas abundance of food in
Great Britain, and ship-loads ready to go to her
ports, but the people had no means wherewith to
buy food, and so they perished by actual starva-
tion, while the granaries of capitalists and wealthy
land-holders were filled to overfloAving. Before a
sheaf of wheat was cut, in 1847, flour and meal be-
came a drug in the English market, and many deal-
ers were ruined by the sudden reduction in prices.
We have no means of knowing the surplus of our
crops tliis )'ear, but as yet, they give no signs of
exhaustion. A few cents advance in price will en-
able those who have lost or wastefully consumed
their wheat and corn, to bring it into market. The
increased demand wUl open new faciHties for trans-
portation, and stimulate those who remain at home
to increased exertion. Labor will be directed more
exclusively to the production of articles of neces-
sity, and patriotism and self-interest will both caU
upon all to sacrifice something at least of our usu-
al luxuries at home, for the comfort of our brave
sons and brothers, who are so nobly maintaining
our rights in the field.

We have no cause for discouragement. Repub-
licanism, with her equal distribution of land and
of privileges, is exliibiting a sublime spectacle be-
fore the Avorld to-day, such as kings and poten-
tates have never before beheld, and will never see
in their own kingdoms — an army of more than
500,000 freemen volunteering to fight for their
country, with abundance at home, supplying the
markets of the world Avith bread, wliile its Con-
gi'ess in the first week of its session is considering
the expediency of sending relief to the homes of
tlie brave Irishmen who have rallied so readily to
the standard of their adopted country.

Chemical Experiments with the Wheat
Crop. — From some recent and careful experiments
with wheat, on English soil, a British chemist as-
serts that, reckoning tha soil to be one foot deep,
it Avould require, of ordinary rotation Avith home
manuring and selling only corn and meat, about
one thousand years to exhaust as much phosphoric
acid, about two thousand years to exhaust as much
potash, and about six thousand years to exhaust
as much silica, as, according to the average results
of forty-two analyses relating to fourteen soils of
very various descriptions had been found to be so-
luble in dilute hydrocliloric acid.

For the Aeu> England Farmer.
THE PATKIOTIC FARMER'S MUSINGS.

BY D. TV. L.

Farmer Stubbs in his furrow trod pensive along,

Wliile the hills were all echoing melodious song ;

Uncle Sam had just bargained for Tim and for Dave,

And given them muskets the Union to save.
"Get along, Buck and Bright," and he hit them a slap,
"Out of this, boys, now, forward, kedap !"

"King Cotton, the tyrant, with lash in his hand,
May rule his slave minions of half-heathen land ;
But men of New England — they born of the rocks —
Will square off and give him a few solid knocks.

Now, stir up, my Buckeyes, you're taking your nap ;

Away with the old plow, but steady, kedap.

"The Union's a bargain for better or worse,
But broken at will, a political curse ;
The voice of her people must questions decide.
And ever remain the Republican's pride.

So move along, Buckeyes — 'twill be no mishap ;

And both pull together, now — steady, kedap.

"There's honest Abe Lincoln, a man for the times,
Who fences off slavedom in well-defined lines.
And holds up our flag with a firm, steady hand.
Resolved it shall wave o'er a united land.

Bear away, now, my darlings, or I'll hit yoii a tap ;

Haw Brigh' and White-Face, come around here, kedap.

"But men of the South, do not boast of your strength,
For the cause of mankind can but triumph at length ;
And know ye, proud rebels, whose cause is so black,
With their hands to the plow, Yankees never look back.

So push along. Buckeyes, or you'll get a slap ;

Don't play the secesh, now, but forward, kedap,

"And men of the North, from the field and the shop.
Whose young blood is pledged to the very last drop.
Let all the world know, in a quarrel so just.
You'll crush out rebellion or sink into dust.
Then root out the stubble, and make the plow snap^
A Yankee's behind ye, old sojers, kedap."
JFest Medford, Dec, 1861.

For the New England Farmer.

COBRESPONDENCE FROM MAINE.

First Snow — Sheep Manure — Sheep for Mutton and Wool — Profits
of Sheep — Matching Steers.

Snow fell so as to make quite good sleighing,
November 24, throughout the northern part of the
State. The ground Avas frozen but little in any
place, and the frost has mostly come out since it
has been so mild ; had it not snoAved repeatedly
since, the ground Avould have been bare again.
This has given sheep a longer grazing fall than Ave
are ahvays sure of, Avhich is quite an item in the
fodder designed for them.

Sheep Mania. — This year brings round another
cycle of this disease, and the cry is sheep ! sheep I
have you any sheep to sell, or lambs to let ? Since
Avool advanced in prices, nearly every one Avants
more sheep to keep, and are eager for them at
much higher prices than for years previous. Store
sheep and lambs are quick at tAvo and one-half to
three cents per pound, live Aveight, Avliich is a liigh
figure Avith us. Speculators are letting sheep for
one pound and a half of avooI, per head, and the
taker bears all the risk, and pa}'s the taxes — so I
have been informed.

It is very generally calculated here that sheep
pay the best of any stock for their keeping, upon
the amount invested, and the necessary labor re-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

quired. Many of the improved breeds are being
introduced ; some sections taldng those best for
■wool, and others those for mutton, but generally,
they are crossed upon those -which have been here
long enough to be called natives ; often, first fine
■wool and then coarse -wool, very much as is most
convenient, -with the mass of sheep-keepers ; near-
ly every farmer keeping a few sheep, and thinking
It will not pay to be to so much expense as to get
rams of their choice.

Matching Steers. — The farmers have mani-
fested quite a laudable spu-it of improvement over
any previous year, in matcliing up their steers
Avhen intending to keep them ; and, often it has
been found a good investment to pay the fair dif-
ference when designed for sale. Matched one, two,
three or four year old steers are in greater demand
than the market can supply ; and tliis demand is
yearly increasing. This seems as it should be, be-
cause it costs but a trifle more to raise them, than
it does those illy mated, while they command a
more renumerative price, which is often all that
there is in the way of profit. Mate up the steers.

Elm Tree Farm, Dec, 1861. O. W. True.

Ftyr the New England Farmer.

TESTIMONY IN FAVOR OF FARMING.

Opinions of an Aged Farmer — Stick to the Homestead — Work
with One's Own Hands — Cattle Report in N. E. Farmer — Re-
ceipt for making Brown Bread.

Mr. Editor : — I have passed the period allot-
ted to man's existence in the present life, but my
interest in the success of agriculture increases with
my years, and I wish to leave my dying testimony
of its worth. Should these lines meet the eye of
any young man who is struggling under difficul-
ties upon the paternal inheritance, I would exhort
him to stay and overcome all obstacles that pa-
tience and perseverance can surmount, and, my
experience for it, in his maturer years, he will look
back with pleasui-e upon his past life, and peace
and plenty shall crown his declining years.

I would recommend to all who wish to have the
full enjoyment of agricultural life, to labor some
with their own hands. There are but few who can-
not obtain some land to work upon, if they wish.

One word in recommendation of the A^ew Eng-
land Farmer. There has been much said and
■written about agricultural colleges, but I think the
Farmer is one already established, and endowed
■with some of the best professors that this country
and Europe afi'ord, to which all may have access
at a trifling expense. The report of the Cattle
Market for the past few iveeks, is worth the whole
price of the paper to all those who have any deal-
ings in stock.

I think my housekeeper makes the best brown
bread I have ever tasted ; the following is a re-
ceipt for making it. To six tea-cupfuls of Indian,
and three of rye meal, one table-spoon level full of
bread soda, one tea-cupful of molasses, and sour
milk sufficient to wet it to the same consistence as
brown bread, where the Indian is scalded. A loaf
of this size would require a dish Avhich would hold
thi'ee quarts. Cover the dish and place it on an
iron ring in a large iron pot, and cook by steam-
ing four hours, and then bake fifteen or twenty
minutes. If steamed a longer time, it is rather im-
proved. Thomas IL\skell.
West Gloucester, Dec. 14, 1861.

CUIiTTTRE OF THE GRAPE.

We have before us the December number of
Ilovefs Magazine, and among other good articles,
we find a leading one, by the editor, upon the
"Culture of the Grape." After si>eaking of the
late favorable season, and of the merits of several
varieties, he says :

Having thus given our estimate of the several
varieties which have been introduced somewhat
generally, as they have appeared, more ])avticularly
the present year, we proceed to inquire into the
causes which have produced tliis favorable result,
deducing therefrom a lesson which may aid us iu
the more successful cultui'e of the grajjc.

If we follow the course of the weather for the
summer, we shaU find it has been dry, warm, and
very free from long or continued dull or even damp
weather, and beyond the remembrance of cultiva-
tors extended further into the autimm — the fii'st
frost having occurred late in October. Hence the
well gi'own grapes had time to fully matm-e, aided
as they were by continuous sunsliine. How shall
we then avoid failure in ordinary years, when we
can hardly expect such as the present one to oc-
cur often ?

First, then, -we can to some extent imitate its
drjTiess, by planting only in light, sandy, thor-
oughly drained soil, avoiding by all means a hard,
damp, stiff" loam, as sure to keep up a late growth,
so that winter finds the wood immature, and the
dormant fruit buds unable to resist the effects of
cold if unprotected, and liable to danger Avheii
covered with earth. In France the vineyards al-
ways cover the hillsides or elevated grounds, —
rarely the valleys or plains, — for the obvious rea-
sons that the roots are kept dry, the late gi'owth
checked, and the wood fully matured.

It will be infen'ed from this that notliing could
be more injurious in grape culture than to make
the soil too deep and rich ; rich it may be upon
the sm-face, but not too deep, and always with a
dry bottom. The summer and autumn rains will
then leave the sm-face readily, the soil will be im-
diately warmed by the sun and air, and mildew,
so fatal to the vines, will be prevented, or at least,
greatly mitigated. Indeed, good sound judgment
will dictate that cautionary measures of tliis kind
should be taken wherever the grape is to be ex-
tensively and successfully grown.

Secondly ; though we have not the power to
bring sunshine to the vines, we can, by favorable-
ness of locality, prevent the ill effects which often
ensue from long continued wet weather. Near the
seacoast, where the easterly storms prevail, an as-
pect, sheltered in that direction should be chosen,
say one facing the south or west, or if in the open
garden, near the shelter of evergreen trees or
hedges. The direct action of a cold, easterly storm
is far different from the sifted atmosphere of a
fence or hedge. Hence the greater certainty of a
crop when the vines are trained to the south side
of a house, where they are sheltered from the
cliilly blasts and pelting rains of om* easterly
storms.

Thirdly ; pruning, judiciously performed, is a
material aid in successful grape culture. The
summer growth should not be so croAvded as to
prevent the free admission of light and air, nor so
open as to expose the fruit to alternate sun and

NEW ENGLAND FAR^NIER.

Jan.

rain. A moderate number of strong, healthy
branches, -with vigorous foliage, is better than a
quantity of -weak shoots, covered with half grown
leaves. The aim should be to avoid both ex-
tremes, and secure long, well ripened canes, with
thoroughly matured buds. A strong vine will re-
sist mildew, when a weaker one would give way
under the attack.

Lastly, winter protection is an important con-
sideration. Until we secure perfectly hardy vines,
they cannot be considered safe in our variable sea-
sons. If the wood does not suffer, the dormant
fruit buds are afl'ccted. They do not start kindly
and vigorously, and a week, often a fortnight, is
lost by their weakened energies from severe cold ;
and though the summer's growth may be vigorous
enough, the fruit still lags behind. It is a thing
which did not occur to us till close observation
made it apparent. In a more favorable climate,
like that of southern New York and Ohio, a week
or ten days is of no great importance ; but in New
England, with frosty nights the last of Septem-
ber, a week gained is often the securing of an
abundant crop.

HOW TO KAISE HOGS.
A. G. MuUins, of Kentucky, in a communication
to the Genesee Farmer, offers the following hints
on the raising of hogs :

Say we have a good stock to begin with — a stock
that matures early and fattens well. The pigs
should come from the middle of March to May.
There is a great advantage in pigs coming at this
time, as we can graze them through two summers,
and have them to keep only through one winter.
They come to be of fine size by the second fall or
winter. Hogs may be pushed into market younger,
but at more expense in grain, and they will be
smaller at fattening time, which is a great disad-
vantage.

The greatest profit in hogs is in grazing them,
and turning them upon grain fields, where they
can gather for themselves ; and having them large
and in good condition at fattening time. The sows
and pigs should be kept in good growing condition
by feeding them on Indian corn, or corn meal
made into slop. As soon as the clover begins to
blossom, or a little before, turn them upon it.
Sows and pigs should still be given some grain
wliile in the clover.

Washington a Yankee City. — Washington is
essentially a Yankee city at the present time. In
every department business is thriving to a degree
unparalleled in its history. Real estate has ad-
vanced to unexpected figures, and it is a matter of
impossibility to find suitable accommodations for
the vast influx of business now pouring in upon
us. Enterprise is now the watcliAvord, where a
short year ago inactivity and decay prevailed.
Vigorous competition has reduced the price of
many of the necessaries of life. Old monopolies
have been scattered to the winds, and the consum-
er is generally benefited by the change. The
Washington of to-day is totally difi'erent from the
Washington of 1860. Many are unacquainted with
the cause of the transformation, and look with
wondering eyes at what is only a legitimate con-
sequence.— Wasliinyton Itcpuhlican.

EXTKACTS AND REPLIES.

A GOOD KIND OF COKN,

In the monthly Farmer for June last, is an ac-
count of an excellent crop of corn, by C. L.
French, 2d, of Bedford, N. H. In connection
with this account he spoke in such liigh terms of
a variety of corn planted by him for the last 30
years, that I was induced to make further inqui-
ries concerning it. Learning that several farmers
of West Brookfield had planted corn the past sea-
son, procured of Mr. French, I wrote for informa-
tion, and received in answer a letter from Mr. A.
Keep, dated Sept. 26, from which I send you some
extracts for the benefit of others, Avho, hke myself,
may be anxious to obtain a variety, both early and
prolific.

He says : "In relation to the corn I procured
from N. IL, I can say that I planted INIay 29, on
sandy loam, manure wholly spread, and the corn
was well out of the way of an ordinary frost about
the 5th of this month, the husks on some of the
ears having turned white and started from the
ear. It is certainly early enough. One of my
neighbors planted it on a rather heavy soil on the
1st day of June, and exhibited a lot of it at our
Cattle Show on the 20th inst. ; the ears very large
and well ripened, and his crop is very heavy.

"I gave my brother, who lives in Paxton, seed
enough for perhaps 100 liills, and I saw it a few
days ago ; I think I never saw heavier corn any-
where. It is on very liigli land, where it is oftener
the corn crop fails them otherwise, but there will
be no failure in this small lot.

"I might say that most of the large ears in my
field are, and have been many days, open ; the
husks have started and the corn ripe enough to
grind."

I send the above for publication, not from any
personal motive, as I never saw Mr, French or
Mr. Keep, but because I beHeve that many far-
mers would be glad to know where they can ob-
tain a variety answering the above description.

Eoyalston, Dec. 13, 1861. J. Wood.

PREMIUMS FOR HERDS.

Friend Sheldon's notion of offering premiums
for herds of best improved animals, instead of sin-
gle animals, is worthy of much regard. I have
often known an old cow that had been strained to
her utmost capacity in the production of milk,
upon a statement being made that she had aver-
aged to give from thirty-five to forty-five pounds
of milk per day, for many months, to be awarded
the first premium at our shows ; and this with lit-
tle or no regard to the quality of the milk.

It is a law of Nature that whatever is greatly
extended in one direction, Avill come short in an-
other. Give me the snug built, little animal, with
bright eye, and milk of superior quality, in prefer-
ence to any of these overgrown monsters.

I do not perceive the propriety of j\Ir. S.'s rec-
ommendation to do away the distinction of breeds.
I had supposed these distinctions to be Avell de-
fined, and very convenient for reference. I know
there are some who say there is no such thing as
Native breed of cattle — let it be so, if you please,
so long as those bred and born on our hills will
ever have the preference of many whose judgment
is Avorthy of regard. Essex,

December 16, 1861.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

^ YIELD OF MILK.

Having been a subscriber to the N. E. Farmer
for years, I have often seen statements from per-
sons, of the quantity of milk given by cows in
stated periods. I annex a statement of the quan-
tity from one cow that I have milked for one year,
from Nov. 21, 18G0 to Nov. 21, 1861. We used
in mj- family what milk we wanted, and sold the
balance at a store in the neighborhood, at 5 cents
per quart. You Avill see she gave 4,967 quarts in
one year, being about an average of 13 G-10 quarts
daily.

She calved Nov. 15, 1860 ; commenced milking
her Nov. 21, 1860.

10 days in November sold at store 87 quarts.

December " " 30(i "

January " " 348 "

February " " 308-2 "

March " " 338-2 "

April " " 369 "

May " " 351 "

June " " 354 "

July " " 379-2 "

August " " 354 "

September " " 302-2 "

October " " 210 "

21 days in November " " 110 "

Used in family 1146 "

4967 quarts.
5 cents.

$248,35

Henky R. Congdon.
Providence, R. I. Dec., 1861.

Rem.'VRKS. — Here is a product worthy of imita-
tion.

TO PREVENT LEATHER FROM SOAKING WATER.

As the season has come when farmers are apt
to have wet feet, unless they constantly wear rub-
ber boots, — a practice which can hardly be con-
demned in too strong terms — I give you below a
method for treating leather boots and shoes, which
I know, from wearing them so treated, to be first-
rate for keeping the feet dry and maldng the boots
or shoes wear much longer than they would other-
wise. It is as follows :

Melt together in a pot over a fire, a pound of
tallow, a quarter of a pound of rosin, and an ounce
of beeswax, to which add a teaspoonful of lamp
black ; when melted and mixed, warm the boots or
shoes, and apply the hot stuff with a painter's
brush, until neither the sole nor upper leathers
will take in any more. The only caution to be
observed is, not to apply the mixture so hot as to
burn the leather. j. c. G.

Boscawen, N. H., Dec, 1861.

WOOL SALES — FINE WOOL.

Our sales, since April last, from 175 sheep, of
the same blood, have amounted to two thousand
dollars, without diminishing our numbers, while
at the same time we have improved the value of
the flock by reserving the best. Were I accus-
tomed to writing for the press, I think I could say
some things that would be a benefit to some of
my brother farmers, and I may possibly attempt
it some of these days. Nathan Bottum.

Shaftshury, Vt, Dec, 1861.

Remarks. — With the above note we had a sam-
ple of the wool alluded to, wliich is very beautiful.
The tliistle's down could scarcely be softer. We

hope our correspondent will regard the promptings
of his mind, and write for the Farmer. Our read-
ers want the facts of practical men.

AN earlier onion WANTED.

Our farmers very generally tried the flat onion
seed, sometimes called the Rhode Island onion, to
a greater or less extent, the ])ast season. The re-
sult was not at all satisflictory ; the yield l)eing
generally mixed to a considerable degree with the
red onion, and the crop, withoitt, an exception,
ripening later than our standard, the Danvers Yel-
low. Some of the seed planted came directly from
Rhode Island, — a portion was raised in the State.
Can any of your readers inform us where we can
obtain flat onion seed that is as earhj as the Dan-
vers Yellow? J. J. H. GUEGOIJY,

Marblehead, Mass., Dec, 1861.

GOV. nOLBROOK AND AGRICULTURE.

I notice in the last Farmer an article from the
Providence Journal which speaks of Gov. HoL-
brook's imnrovements in agricultural implements,
and his numerous articles on practical farming,
from which I think I have received considerable
benefit.

I constructed my cow stables in 1860 according
to Gov. Holbrook's plan, published in the Farmer
at that time, with a trench in the rear of the cows
to put muck and other absorbents in to save the
liquid manure, and I do not hesitate to say the
improvement has saved me enough to pay for the
Farmer several years. Dan Richardson.

Westfield, Vt, Dec, 1861.

Stoddard's self-oferating horse rake and

COCKER.
Can you inform me where the horse rake, no-
ticed in the November number of the monthly
Farmer, is manufactured, and by whom ?

A Subscriber.
Stratham, N. H., Dec, 1861.

Rejl\rks. — The above rake was invented, and
is manufactured, by Mr. J. C. Stoddard, of
Worcester, ^lass., and is well worth your atten-
tion, if you intend to have raking to do next sum-
mer.

For the Neiv England Farmer.

LASTINa EFFECT OF MUCK ON CROPS.

Mr. Editor : — Right in front of my house there
is a fifteen acre lot of sandy land. Forty-four
years ago, a portion of tliis lot was treated to a
heavy dressing of meadow mud. On this portion
of the lot the crops have been from one-quarter to
one-tliird greater than on the other part of the lot,
although it has all been treated alike ever since.
All my neighbors, for miles around, have noticed
the difference in the growth of the crops on this
lot, and I have explained to them the cause, and
invited them to go into their swamps and draw
out muck and make a compost, or spread it on
their land in the fall and plow it in in the spring,
in the same manner that a part of this lot was
treated, and they would have no cause to go to the
city for manure and cart it from six to ten miles.
But from all that I have shown and said to them, I

NEW ENGLAND FARMEH.

Jan.

have only persuaded two to try the experiment, as
they call it. One of them has drawn from the
swamp between five and six hundred ox-cart loads
this fall, and the other has ti'ied it on a gravelly
piece of land and by it he has doubled the fertility
of the land.

I have been digging up a piece of low swamp
land and carted on a coat of sand from the high
land that lays along the border, which I intend to
plant in the spring to different kinds of garden
vegetables on part, and slow grass on another part.
As the strawberry wants considerable moisture,
how would tliey do in such a locality ? The soil
is from four to twelve feet deep, and it is drained
eighteen inches below the surface. I intended it
for cranberries, but J find the cranberry culture has
taken a new turn ; that is, instead of setting the
vines in low swanips, people are taldng the top
soil off of their poorest high land, and setting them
in the subsoil. They say they bear as well as they
do in low land, are not quite so large, but firmer,
and not so liable to be damaged by frost.

E. Leonard.

Neiv Bedford, 12th Mo., 1861.

Remarks. — Strawberries would probably flour-
ish well on the land you described.

AGES OP THE STATES OF AMEBICA.

The following chronological table may be inter-
esting to oujf readers at the present crisis :

SETTLEMENTS,
1607 — Virginia, by the English.
1613— New York, by the Dutch.
1620 — Massachusetts, by the Puritans.
1624 — New Jersey, by the Dutch.
1628 — Delaware, by the Swedes and Fins.
1635 — Maryland, by the Irish Catholics.
1636 — Rhode Island, by Roger WilUams.
1639 — North Carolina, by the EngUsh.
1670 — South Caroliiia, by the English.
1682 — Pennsylvania, by William Penn.
1732 — Georgia, by Oglethorp.

ADMITTED INTO
1792— Vermont.
1792 — Kentucky.
1 796 — Tennessee.
1802— Ohio.
1811 — Louisiana-
is 16 — Indiana.
181 6 — Mississippi.
1818— lUinois.
1819— Alabama.
1820— Maine.
1821— Missouri.

THE UNION.

1836 — Michigan.
1 836 — Arkansas.
1845— Florida.
1845 — Texas.
1846— Iowa.
1 848 — Wisconsin.
1 850 — California.
1858 — Minnesota.
1858— Oregon.
1861 — Kansas.

Our New Dress. — The reader will, we hope,
notice the bright and beautiful dress in which the
Farmer appears, this month, — the older eyes will,
we are quite sure. We cannot .spread our di'ess
as some fair creatures do, but can present it to the
reader with a clean /ace and correct /or w, so that
it will be grateful to the eye and clear to the un-
derstanding. The publishers will spare no pains
to make the Farmer valuable in every respect.

For the New England Fanner.

SCKAPS FROM MY DIABY.

The Weather — Application of Fertilizer? — Fruit Trees in New
England — Placed Here to Learn, as Well as to Earn — Borers
— Ashes Around Fruit Trees — Market Reports.

As the winter thus far has been very open,
farm.ers have improved the time in various ways.
I see some drawing manure to their meadows, and
others into their young orchards, around the trees.
It is very amusing to me to see how the great
majority of farmers apply fertilizers to their fruit
trees. I should as soon appl)' an Indian meal
poultice to a pig's ears to fatten him.

Most of the fruit trees in New England are on
grass land. Farmers Avant to get too many kinds
of crops from the same land to ever get any good
ones ; thei'efore the more surface is fertilized, the
less grass they Avill get ; so they dig in their fer-
tilizers from the body of their trees each Avay, en-
riching about one-fourth jjart of the surface under
the tree, and the smallest fourth. They may ap-
ply what the soil wants, to keep good what the
roots have taken from it to grow the wood and
fruit of the tree ; but it will be accidental, purely,
with most of them, if they do, for they have too
much to tliink of to investigate such small mat-
ters. If Ave tell them their land Avants Avhat it can
only get from lime, ashes, or some other special
manure, they tell us they have carried on this same
farm forty years, and don't Avant any of our ad-
vice. I should knoAV they had carried it on a good
Avhile, from appearances around the premises.

After trees groAV to be eight or ten inches
through, the roots that do the most good, are
eight or ten feet from the body — the fine, fibrous
roots. NoAV if instead of caring for and supply-
ing these fine, fibrous roots Avith the various in-
gredients they Avant to groAV Avood and fruit from,
Ave cut them off or rob them of Avhat little they
Avould get from the air, &c., Avhat can we expect ?
Small profits from our land, and no profit from
our trees. It Avill be well to remember that Ave
Avere placed here to learn, as Avell as earn.

I see the borers are destroying many young ap-
ple trees about Saxonville, and Avould advise per-
sons to look Avell to their trees. I take a sharp
knife, and small Avire, a foot long, and make Avar
with them, cutting out Avhat I can, ahvays cutting
up and doAvn the tree, with the bark, and not
across it, and j^unch to death Avhat I cannot cut
out. The eggs are laid very near the surface of
the ground, under some old, loose piece of bark ;
hence the necessity of keeping the tree scraped
clean ; and a pile of ashes around the bodies,
three or four inches high, has always kept them
aAvay from my trees, I put the ashes around in
the month of May, and first of August scatter
them under the trees and put around more, the
next May and August doing the same, and until
trees are eight inches through. As for quantity,
I ncA'er have used enough to injure a tree, and
have used from four to sixteen quarts, according
to the size of tree, in a year, for several years in
succession.

A man some nineteen miles from Boston, told
me yesterday he had only had one number of the
Farmer, and Avas satisfied that only the reports of
the markets last Aveek had saved him his subscrip-
tion. He Avas a rich and intelligent man, and
Avants to improve his mind as Avell as land and

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

circumstances. Such a man takes some comfort
in living, and it does one good to meet and con-
verse with such. F. J. Kinney.

Worcester, Dec. 18, 1861.

THE SEASON.

It is rarely the case that the farmer enjoys so
favorable an opportunity for closing up his "fall
■work," as he has had the present season. The
weather for nearly the whole month of November
■was such as to enable him to engage in plowing,
ditching, gathering materials for the compost
heaps, getting out rocks, hauling out manure, or
in building, or planting or pruning trees. This
mild and dry weather has continued to the present
time, Dec. 21, and now the drought in many
places begins to pinch. Wells are dry that have
yielded a plentiful supply of water for many years
past, the small streams dre quite low, and some of
them, dignified with the term river, are much be-
low their usual stage at this season.

The mild state of the weather through the au-
tumnal months had the effect of ripening the wood
of the trees and shrubs, so that they will be quite
likely to stand the changes of the winter months
without being injured. Our losses ^ntliin a few
years past have been very severe by the sudden
and -^^'ide extremes that have taken place in the
temperature. The peach and cherry trees are
nearly all cut off, the quince has suffered, as well
as many of the shi'ubs, and last winter seriously
affected the Baldwin apple trees in many localities-
We hope these extremes will have some compen-
sations for us in the destruction of myriads of in-
sects by the changes themselves, or from the want
of food caused by the shortness of the crop.

Wherever we have visited in New England dur-
ing the fall months, we have found many farmers
busily employed in some of the items of labor
which we have enumerated, and all agreeing in
opinion that the favorable fall weather will gi-eatly
facilitate the work of the coming spring.

The winter grains, wheat, barley and rye, have
had time to get well rooted, are generally looking
•well, and will be quite likely to escape being win-
ter-ldlled. We have seen two or thi-ee pieces of
winter barley that are exceedingly fine.

"The Wak and the Farmer. — We call the at-
tention of every reader to an article in another col-
umn on this subject, and especially of those who
are incHned to be despondent and doubt our abili-
ty to crush the present rebelHon, carry on success-
fully one or two wars beside, if pushed to the wall,
and feed the starving Irish when the EngHsh peo-
ple prefer to be fighting with us rather than feed-
ing the paupers which her rapacity has made.

We see no cause for discouragement — some for
anxiety — but none for despondence — but every-

thing to cause us to "rejoice always," so long as
we strive to do right. We have the most lively
faith that "Providence is shaping our ends, rough
hew them as we will ;" — that he will carry us
tlirough this fiery trial by the unflinching energy
of our free people, and that they will show the
world that we fully appreciate our unparalleled
blessings, and are ready to sacrifice anything but
duty for them.

Let us, then, individually, seek strength and
guidance from that Fountain of all supplies,
which the President sought when he started for
Washington, and made his first addi'esses to the
people of Springfield and Indianopolis. From
that moment, we have had confidence in him as a
fitting leader for our people.

LADIES^ DEPARTMENT.

DOMESTIC RECEIPTS.
Plain Custard. — BoU a pint of milk, in which
place two ounces of sugar, the thin peel of half a
lemon ; break in a basin four eggs, beat them well
with a fork, then pour in the milk by degrees, not
too hot ; mix it well, pass it tln-ough a cullender
or sieve, fill cups with it, which place in a stew-
pan, on the fire, which contains one inch of water ;
lea^e them for about twelve minutes, or till set,
wbich is easily perceived. — Soyer.

Coffee, Cocoa, or Chocolate Custard. —

Make some veiy strong coffee, beat the eggs as
above ; put in a pan half a pint of nulk and half a
pint of made coffee, with two ounces of sugar, then
add the eggs, pass through a sieve, and proceed as
above. Chocolate and cocoa the same, only omit-
ting the lemon peel in all three. — Soyer.

Yorkshire Pudding. — ^Beat up two eggs in a
basin, add to them three good table-spoonfuls of
flour, with pint of milk, by degrees, and a little
salt ; butter the pan, bake hah" an hour, or bake
under the meat ; cut it in four, turn it, and when
set on both sides it is done. A tin dish, one inch
and a half deep and eight inches •wide, is the most
suitable for such proportion. — Soyer.

To Pickle Cauliflo-wer. — Cut it up into
small pieces ; boil in salted water till done , tlirow
it into cold water awliile, then put into your jar
of mixed pickles.

How TO Make Corn Griddle Cakes. — ^Al-
most every one is interested now in knowing how
to make corn cakes most palatable, since so much
of it will be used in these straitened times. The
following is said to be an excellent receipt : — Scald
at night half the quantity of meal you are going
to use, mix the other Avith cold water, having it
the consistency of tliick batter ; add a little salt
and set it to rise ; it will need no yeast. In the
morning the cakes will be Hght and crisp. Skim-
mings, where meat has been boUed, are best for
frying them with. Fry slo-wly.

Milk Toast. — Place the milk to heat, mix a
tea-spoonful of flour smoothly -svith a little mUk,
stir it in, and let it come just to a boil, with a
piece of butter the size of an e^^ to a quart of imlk,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jan.

and some salt. Place your toast in a deep dish,
and cover it with this gravy. Thin cream, omit-
ting the butter, makes a nicer dish for those who
are so fortunate as to have it to use.

Beef Pie. — Make a nice crust, a little richer
than for biscuit ; chop up pieces of the boiled
round of beef, when you have them cold ; season
•with salt, pepper and butter, and onions if j'ou
like ; line the basin with crust, rolled about half
an inch tliick ; fill the beef, moistened with gravy
or water ; dredge in a little flour, cover, bake half
an hour.

Cure for Earache. — An exchange paper re-
commends the following as a certain cure for the
earache : Take a small piece of cotton batting,
or cotton wool, make a depression in the centre
with the end of the finger, and fill it with as much
ground pepper as will rest on a five cent piece,
gather it into a ball and tie it up ; dip the ball into
sweet oil and insert it in the ear, covering the lat-
ter with cotton wool, and use a bandage or cap to
retain it in its place. Almost instant relief will
be experienced, and the application is so gentle
that an infant Mill not be injured by it, but expe-
rience relief as well as adults.

A distinguished physician, who died some
years since in Paris, declared : "I believe that
during the twenty-six years I have practiced my
profession in this city, 20,000 children have been
carried to the cemeteries, a sacrifice to the absurd
custom of exposing their arms and necks."

YOUTH^S DEPARTMENT.

THE TOOLS GREAT MEM" -WORK \VITH.

It is not tools that make the workman, but the
trained skill and perseverance of the man himself.
Indeed, it is proverbial that the bad workman
never yet had a good tool. Some one asked Opie
by what Monderful process he mixed his colors.
"I mix them with my brains, sir," was his reply.
It is the same with every workman who would ex-
cel. Ferguson made marvellous things — such as
liis wooden clock, that accurately measured the
hours — by means of a common ])enknife, a tool in
everybody's hands, but then everybody is not a
Ferguson. A pan of water and two thermometers
were the tools by wliich Dr. Black discovered la-
tent heat ; and a prism, a lens, and a sheet of
pasteboard, enabled Newton to unfold the compo-
sition of light and the origin of color. An eminent
foreign savant once called upon Dr. Wollaston,
and requested to be shown over his laboratory,
in which science had been enriched by so many
important discoveries, when the doctor took him
into a study, and, pointing to an old tea-tray on
the table, containing a few watch-glasses, test-
papers, a small balance, and a blow-pipe, said:
"There is aU the laboratory I have !" Stothai'd
learnt the art of combining colors by closely study-
ing butterflies' wings ; he would often saj' that no
one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A
burnt stick and a barn-door served "Wilkie in lieu
of pencil and canvas. Bewick first practiced draw-
ing on the cottage-walls of his native village,
■which he covered with sketches in chalk ; and

Benjamm AVest made his first brushes out of the
cat's tail. Ferguson laid himself down in the fields
by night in a Islanket, and made a map of the
heavenly bodies, by means of a thread with small
beads on it, stretched between his eye and the
stars. Franklin first robbed the thunder-cloud of
its lightning by means of a kite made with two
cross-sticks and a cross handliercliief. Watt made
his first model of the condensing steam-engine
out of an old anatomist's syringe, used to inject
the arteries previous to dissection. Giffbrd Avorked
his first problem in mathematics, when a cobbler's
apprentice, upon small scraps of leather, which he
beat smooth for the purpose, while Rittenhouse,
the astronomer, first calculated ecUpses on liis
plow-handle. — Smiles' Self-Hel]}.

EVIL SPEAKING.

One night, I remember it well, I received a se-
vere lesson on the sin of evil speaking. Severe I
thought it then, and my, heart rose in childish an-
ger against him who gave it ; but I had not lived
long enough in this world to know how much mis-
cliief a cliild's thoughtless talk may do, and how
often it hapjjens that talkers run ofi" the straight

line of truth. S did not stand very high in

my esteem, and I was about to speak further of
her failings of temper. In a fcAV moments my eye
caught a look of such calm and steady displeasure,
that I stopped short. There was no mistaking the
meaning of that dark, spealdng eye. It brought
the color to my face, and confusion and shame to
my heart. I was silent for a few moments, when
Joseph John Gurney asked very gravely :

"Dost thou know any good thing to tell us of
her?"_

I did not answer, and the question was more se-
riously asked —

"Think, is there nothing good thou canst tell us
of her?"

"0, yes, I knoAv some good things ; but — "

"Would it not have been better, then, to relate
those good things, than to have told of that which
would lower her in our esteem ? Since there is no
good to relate, would it not be kinder to be silent
on the evil? For charity rejoiceth not in iniquity."

A MOTHER'S KISS.

A day or two since, a ragged and dirty-looking
boy, fourteen years of age, pleaded guilty in the
Superior Criminal Court to having fired a building.
For two years past, since the death of liis mother,
he had wandered around the streets a vagTant,
without a home or human being to care for him,
and he had become in every respect a "bad boy."
A gentleman and a lady interested themselves in
his behalf, and the latter took him one side to
question him. She talked to liim kindly, but with-
out making the slightest impression upon his feel-
ing, and to all she said he manifested the greatest
indifference, until slie asked him if no one had ever
kissed him. This simple inquiry ])roved too much
for him, and bursting into tears he replied — "no
one, since my mother kissed me." That one thought
of his poor dead mother, the only being, perhaps,
who had ever spoken to liim Idndly before, touched
liim to his heart, a hardened young criminal though
he was. The little incident caused other tears to
flow than his.

DEVOTED TO AGBICTJLTTTBE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1862. ,

NO. 2.

NOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Office. . . .100 Washinoton Street.

SIMON BROWN Editor.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY,

N some ancient
calendars, Feb-
ruary occurred
last in the order
of the Months.
Being, as it al-
ways is, frac-
tional at best,
and somewhat
rregular as to
its number of
day, but, omni-
bus Ike, always
having room for
"one more," in
case the alma-
nac makers hap-
pen to have an
extra day on
hand, it might seem that the rear was the most ap-
propriate place for this month. Why it was changed
from the bottom of the column to its present
rank of second in the order of precedence, we have
forgotten, if Ave ever kneAV. One reason, howev-
er, is suggested for the adoption of the present ar-
rangement. As it now stands, the shortest month
comes in the coldest and most stormy portion of
the whole year. As Ave stamp our feet, and slap
our hands in the biting cold of a February morn-
ing, it is encouraging to think, and we often tell
the boys to remember, that February hath only
twenty-eight days, and Avill soon be gone !

The Month, then, upon Avhich Ave noAV enter,
being a short and a cold one, Avhat shall Ave do
Avith its fcAV brief days, and long, cold nights ?

Time, it has been said, is money ; and even the
poets talk of its golden sands. But time is money
to those only Avho resolutely turn it to a good ac-
count. To the bear which dens up in the fall, and
sleeps unconsciously all Avinter, or to those ants
60 often found in logs of wood at this season, stiff

and motionless, time is not money. Nor Avill time
be money to us if Ave pass the winter as these crea-
tures do. And there is danger that we may spend
this season even more unprofitably ; for, unlike
these hibernating animals, Ave cannot doze all Avin-
ter, and then wake up in the Spring as bright as
ever. Progress is the laAV of our being ; and pro-
gress, either forAvard or backward, we are making
constantly.

This season of the year, — "the dead of winder,"
as it is sometimes called, — Avhen frost and snow
have possession of our fields, and Ave find ourselves
able to do but little directly toAvards the improA-e-
ment of the soil, is a most fitting opportunity for
the prosecution of that other branch of our busi-
ness, the improvement of the mind. The very el-
ements now so fiercely Avarring without, conspire
to f'rive thought home, so that these long evenings
have been aptly termed the seed-time of the labor-
ing man's intellectual harvest. A seed-time and
a harvest, Avhich, unlike those of his fields, inter-
mingle the one Avith the other, and in Avhich men
not only reap what they sow, but «s they soav —
the grain ripe for the sickle springing up while the
seed is being planted ; scions from the tree of
knoAvledge grafted into the mind bearing-fruit even
before the stock and the branch are firmly united.

It is not because Ave fear that our readers are
insensible to the importance of mental culture that
we make these remarks. They all knoAV that
knoAvledge is power. There is not one Avho does
not desire that Avisdom should be first on the list
of his accumulations. But, by our own experience,
Ave know that after a day's exertion of the bodily
poAvers, it requires the impulse of a strong Avill to
keep the mental faculties busy Avhile the hands
rest. It is to encourage the putting forth of this
poAver of the Avill — this deteiTnination to know,
Avhich is sometimes strong enough to overcome
the fatigue of the body — that we now allude to the
subject. We believe that the force of the supposed
antagonism between the labor of the hands and

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

that of the brain is greatly over-estimated. The
celebrated Scotch stone-cutter, Hugh Miller, con-
fessed tliat he found it far more difficult to put his
mind down to hard study and to keep it there af-
ter he entered upon the duties of bank clerk, than
it was while he worked steadily at his laborious
trade. The difficulties experienced in attempting
to study, after a day's labor with the hands, arise
less from the fatigue of the body, than from the
want of the habit of systematic application. The
formation of the habit of appljing the mind stead-
ily to any given object is the great design of the
whole "course and discipline" of our highest sem-
inaries of learning. Evejy moment, then, that
the mind of the laboring man is made to grasp an
idea or a thought firmly is so much gained to-
wards making the next attempt to study easier,
and the next grasp of the mind firmer and more
continuous ; so much, in fact, — though those mo-
ments may be employed in the humble dwelling of
the farmer, — towards an education.

That it is not only the privilege, but the duty of
all, to take some time and some pains to improve
the mind, is most forcibly indicated by the well
established fact that the liability of sinking, in old
age, into that most pitiable condition known as
"dotage," or "second childhood," is pretty much
in proportion to the neglect of the exercise of the
intellectual faculties in middle life. But reading
and study alone are not enough. The current of
thought which they set in upon the mind must
flow out, or the stream becomes stagnant. We
must speak or write as Avell as read, or we tire of
the latter.

"Mind with mind must blend and brighten,"

or it becomes weak and dim. At liis creation it
was said, "it is not good for him to be alone." It
is also a law of his nature that he should give as
weU as receive, and in the former he is often more
blessed than in the latter.

Hence the necessity and advantages of social
intercourse in all its improving forms. Hence,
too, the necessity of farmers' clubs, which we have
so frequently recommended, and of that more fa-
miliar intercourse between neighbors, especially in
sparsely settled agricultural districts, which each
one probably desires, but which has been so long
neglected that all settle down in the conviction
that nothing can be done to make the neighbors
more social and friendly. Perhaps something can
be done this month to break up tliis stiff crust of
apparent indifference.

But at present our object is rather to recom-
mend that some of the spare hours of February
be employed in the vigorous exercise of "speaking
with the pen." This has advantages over oral
speech which we shall not now stop to particular-
ize, furthci- ^han to quote the following lines :

"To remember, write ; to be accurate, write ; to know your own

mind, write ;
Hast thou a thought upon thy brain, catch it, while thou canst !
The commonest mind is full of thought, some worthy of the rarest,
And could it see them once in words, would wonder at its wealth."

One of the most effectual remedies for a poor
memory, so often complained of, is unquestiona-
bly the practice of writing. Franklin fixed his
style by reading a page or two of the Spectator,
then wTiting it from memory, and afterwards com-
paring it with the original. With such a purpose
in view, we shall read carefully, and the truth will
soon be discovered that it is owing to our bad
habits of reading, rather than to a poor memory,
that we forget so much.

We believe, also, that the "commonest mind is
full of thought," and that the world has lost much
from the inability — which a little practice would
have remedied — of many a good man to put his
thoughts on paper in such a manner that the wri-
ter could see,

"Smiling upward from the scroll.
The image of the thought within the soul."

It has been observed, that to come into contact
with other minds — to move them by a silent influ-
ence— to exercise a spell over those we have never
seen and never can see, and when the hand that
wrote is still forever, — is a most wonderful prerog-
ative, and one well worth striving for.

As an application of these remarks, we Avould
urge farriiers to write for agricultural papers.
Never mind if your expressions are not quite as
elegant as you could Avish. Don't give up on that
account. Practice makes perfect. The Editor
will correct any little verbal improprieties. Give
the facts. Give your experience. Give them as
briefly as possible. The value of the New England
Farmer has always been in a great measure de-
pendent on the contributions of practical, hard-
working farmers. It still depends on them. Many
may find leisure time for tliis purpose in the
Month of February.

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

In the last number of the Marh-Lane Express,
London, the editor says that "the lung sickness
or consumptive disease is spreading among cattle
in Australia. M. Jourdier, a French agriculturist,
who has recently visited Russia professionallj-,
states that so great are the ravages committed by
this disease, that in one large village, which he
cites as a by no means uncommon instance, the in-
habitants had lost literally the Avhole of their stock
at the time of his visit. He was assured that in
1859, Russia lost upwards of 3,000,000 head of
cattle by this disease, and the official returns ad-
mitted that the loss amounted to 1,000,000 head
between January and November of that year.
M. Jourdier states that the disease may be greatly

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Eoitigated, if not altogether prevented, by inocu-
lation. The disease has also appeared in New
South Wales. AVcll may our people be grateful
that we escaped this terrible scourge with so little
loss. The prompt energy of our State govern-
ment saved a vast amount of property to our cit-
izens.

For tlie New England Farmer.

THE EELATrVE VALUE OP DIFFER-
ENT VARIETIES OF CORN".

Mb. Brown : — Corn being the subject of dis-
cussion at a late meeting of our "Farmer's Club,"
it was stated that there was a great difference in
the weight and measure of different kinds ; it was
also contended that as much could be obtained
from a bushel of ears of twelve-rowed as of eight ;
to settle the questions, a committee was chosen and
instructed to weigh and measure different samples
of corn, keep an accurate account of the same, and
make return to the club.

The committee attended to their duty faithfully,
providing themselves with a bushel basket, (not
sealed, but holding sixty pounds of potatoes when
even full,) a half bushel measure, sealed, and a set
of scales; tliey proceeded to the residences of far-
mers' in different sections of the town. Their
manner of procedure was to select sound, hand-
some corn on the ear, sufficient to fill the basket
after being thoroughly shaken down, until the corn
was even with top of rim at the sides, and slight-
ly crowning in the middle ; this was weighed, af-
ter which the weight was ascertained of the corn
carefully shelled; then the half-bushol measure
was filled with the shelled corn, which was weighed.
This result was not entirely satisfactory, as in some
instances the cobs were somewhat green and the
corn moist ; it will be repeated in April. It may
not be generally known that a measure of damp
corn will weigh less than if filled with dry.

The result of the committee's labor is here an-
nexed :

No. 1—1 bushel basket of ears 8 rowed corn weighed.... 45;!^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed t) "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 36 ?^ "

^^ bushel of " " " 29 "

No. 2 — 1 basket of ears 12 rowed Button com weighed. ..46^':^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed 9'^ "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 37 ^a "

>i bushel of " " " 28>4 "

No. 3 — 1 basket 8 rowed white and yel. mixed weighed. .43?;^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed 7?i "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 36 "

3^ bushel of " " " 29>4 "

No. 4—1 basket 12 rowed Button corn weighed 45}-^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed 8 "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 37,'|' "

■^bushel of " " " 28 >^ "

No. 5—1 basket 8 rowed "King Philip" corn weighed. . .47^^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed 9 "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 38?^ "

1^ bushel of " " " 283^"

No. 6^1 basket 12 rowed "Hyde" corn weighed 45 lbs.

Cob of same weighed 9 "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 36 "

3i bushel of " " " 28%"

No. 7 — 1 basket 8 rowed yellow corn weighed 47?^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed 8 "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 39?^"

}^ bushel of " " " 29/4"

No. 8 — 1 basket 12 rowed "Button" corn weighed 48 lbs.

Cob of same weighed 7M "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 40'.< "

« bushel of " " " 29iii "

No. 9 — 1 basket 8 rowed "Canada Improved" corn 505:^ lbs.

Cob of same weighed 8 '4 "

Whole amount of shelled corn weighed 42'^ "

3< bushel of " " " 30|^ "

Whole amount measured 22 j^ quarts.

Taking the first 8 samples the average weight
of the eight and twelve-rowed corn is as follows :

Corn on the Cob.

Four samples of 8 rowed corn, average weight 46'^ lbs.

12 " " " " 49,'i «

Whole Amount Shelled.

Four samples of 8 rowed corn, average weight 37 13-16 lbs.

" " 12 " " " " 37 13-]^ "

Half Bushel Shelled.

Four samples of 8 rowed corn, average weight 29 lbs.

" " 12 " " " " 28 13-16 "

WEiom OP CoB.

Four samples of 8 rowed corn, average weight 8 7-16 lbs.

" " 12 " " " " 8 7-16 "

It appears that the average weight of the first
eight samples is almost precisely the same, going
to prove that Avhich is not generally credited, that
twelve-rowed corn will produce as much, bushel
for bushel, on the cob, as the eight-rowed.

Sample No. 9 being of the Canada improved va-
riety, so far exceeds in product an;/ of the other
lots, that it is not included in the average.

Henry H. Peters.

Southboro% Dec. 21, 1861.

WANT OF SOCIABILITY AMONG
FARMERS.

We hear great complaints among the farmers
in our rural districts of the secluded life in which
they live for the want of that good neighborly so-
ciability to M'hich they had been accustomed in
their "old homes." This is, of all others, the last
kind of complaints that should arise ; and all that
is needed in every community to bring about the
needed reform, is for the residents in each neigh-
borhood to tlu'ow ofl" that cold formality and re-
serve, and visit each other in the true spirit of
kindness, and make known the value of social in-
tercourse. The loss to every community where
thei"e are no neighborly visits made from house to
house, cannot be computed in dollars and cents,
for not only is there a pecuniary loss to a large
amount, by reason of a non-exchange of the gen-
eral information upon farming topics, but there is
a loss of intellectual and moral wealth, and of the
highest social amenities of life that can never be
estimated, and when lost can never be recovei-ed.
It is to be hoped that those who have felt the
Avant of this liigher life, will not permit the pres-
ent winter to pass away without making an effort
to establish each in his own circle a series of fiiend-
ly family visitings. — California Farmer.

U. S. Agricultural Society. — On Thursday,
January 9, the United States Agricultural Soci-
ety, in session at Washington, re-elected Presi-
dent Hubbard, Secretary Poore, Treasurer French,
and nearly all the old Vice Presidents. The Ex-
ecutive Committee was re-organized, and consists
of Marshall P. Wilder, of Massachusetts, Fred.
Sraythe, of New Hampshire, Isaac Newton, of
Pennsylvania, Charles B. Calvert, of Maryland, Le
Grand Byington, of Iowa, J. II. Sullivan, of Ohio,
and ]M. Myers, of California.

NEW ENGLAND FABMER.

Feb.

F(jr the New England Farmer.

STRAW HIVES.

Mr. Editor : — The article with the above head-
ing, some months since, in the Farmer, called out
some remarks from Mr. Brackett, that deserve
some notice, even though it may have been nearly
forgotten in the long time since it was written. I
propose to examine the principles involved, a little
farther. I will endeavor to avoid personalities, and
hope you will have patience to hear me through.
I am not sure but what we bee-keepers ought to
be indulged to a reasonable extent in pointed
remarks, rather more than most of your corres-
pondents, seeing that we have a daily example of
short and sharp arguments in resentment of all in-
sults, real or imaginary. Even the sfinginr/
thrusts of Mr. Kidder and Mr. Brackett are not
without some benefit. Mr. Kidder, having a hive
and book, promises us, if we will read the one, and
use the other, a thousand impossible things, and
we that know no better, are induced to expend our
money, and expect in return a part at least of the
bright promise. Mr. Brackett interposes, and ex-
poses the fraud for our benefit, but in doing this,
perhaps he says a little more than is necessary.
Then it seems proper for Mr. Kidder to point out
these excesses. Now it may be, that these gentle-
men, accustomed to the sting, cannot write very
well without showing it. If this should be so, had
we not better tolerate the whole, than to refuse to
hear them altogether ? The subject being a dry
one, might not be relished without the spice.
These criticisms also serve to call attention to the
subject, and consequently promote more or less
investigation. In the straw hive that I recom-
mended, I presumed there wei-e several advantages.
Mr. Brackett saw, or thought he saw, serious ob-

i'ections, and has given them to the public. It is
lardly possible to read over the list, together with
my remarks, Avithout investigating the principles
somewhat, and be better qualified to decide
whether straw hives are an advantage, or other-
wise.

That part of Mr. Brackett's article to which I
wish to call attention, commences with these re-
marks : "Judging from an article in your paper
of the 13th, it would appear that a new and fruit-
ful field is to be opened for patent hives, and Mr.
Quinby, who has hitherto had a holy horror of pa-
tent hives, now summons to his side the innumer-
able host of inventors. He assures us that he has,
at the present time, a straw hive, adapted tc im-
proved bee-culture, and if he cannot get a better
one, he will shortly give us a description of it.
Before the country is deluged with these new pa-
tent hives, I should like to look into them, and see
in what the advantage, if any, consists. Mr.
Quinby says, 'that they are warmer in winter, and
cooler in summer.' I will leave this assertion for
some future occasion, still satisfied in my own
mind, that it is like the Irishman's grog, that kept
him warm in winter, and cool in summer, and was
good at all times." I am sorry he left to a future
occasion, the exposition of this fallacy, if it is one,
because, despite the ridicule attempted, the princi-
ple is just as tenable as before. As I intend to
give the promised description, it would have been
well for your readers to clearly comprehend all the
real objections against the hive, before any one is
induced to make it. The assertion, however, was a

quotation from Mr. Langstroth — "Hive and
Honey Bee," page 331, revised edition. "Straw
hives have been used for ages, and are warm in
winter, and cool in summer. The difficulty of
making them take and retain the proper shape for
improved bee-keeping, is an insuperable objection
to their use." It being an assertion of Mr. L.,
proves nothing further than that the principle is
more generally recognized than Mr. B. supposed.

Again, I say that straw hives absorb moisture
as generated by the bees, and save them the
warmth they have generated. Mr. B. replies, "If
tlais is true, its author has added a new chapter to
the philosophy of heat and moisture. I had sup-
posed that when a body was sufficiently porous to
allow moisture to pass freely through it, that there
was a good deal of danger that any amount of heat
inside of such enclosure would be likely to go the
same way." Now I recognize this principle as the
true one. I would suggest that the "new chapter
to the philosophy of heat and moisture" was dis-
covered long ago, and has been acted on for cen-
turies. Is it not an acknowledged fact, that solid
bodies are much better conductors of heat than
porous ? To illustrate. Handle a piece of iron
and a piece of wood. Put on a coat of India rub-
ber, or one of wool, one impervious to air and wa-
ter, the other admitting the passage of both ; one
conducts away from the body the insensible per-
spiration, and retains the warmth ; Avhile with the
other, the effect is exactly reversed, the moisture
is retained while the heat is thrown off. We rec-
ognize this principle in the rubber shoe ; instead
of using it for warmth, it is put on as a protection
against water. A garment of linen or cotton con-
ducts heat much more rapidly than one of wool.
Perhaps the fact that the fibres lie more compact,
would explain the cause. Air is considered a poor
conductor of heat. We readily succeed in warm-
ing a room, but it is when the heated particles can
move from the fire — forming a current of air — and
give place to others that become heated in turn.
But confine air, in what is called a dead air space,
as we do in the Avails of a house, or, if you please,
confine it to the little cells in a woolen garment,
and the heat is very slowly passed. Now I con-
ceive that straw, as a material for a bee-hive, will
act on the same principle ; the thousand little air-
cells are so many dead air spaces, which prevent
the escape of the warmth, and yet allow the pas-
sage of moisture. I speak comparatively, for some
warmth, of course, Avill escape, but nothing like
Avhat will go Avhen the holes in the top of a Avood
hive are opened. The moisture from the bees
must be got rid of. I can readily conceive hoAV a
hive, Avith the boards of it thoroughly Avater-soaked,
Avould conduct aAvay the heat much faster than
Avhen they became thoroughly dry. In one case,
the pores of the wood are filled with Avater, and
become a good conductor, like a Avet garment ; in
the other, the pores become filled Avith air, and the
heat passes sloAvly. When a current of air is es-
tablished, as in the Avood hive, Avhen the holes are
opened in the top, to get rid of the moisture, as a
matter of couri".e, the heat Avill move Avith it.
Hence the advar tage of some material that Avill re-
tain the one, and dispose of the other.

But Mr. B. says, "Place a SAvarm of bees in a
straw hive, and they Avill do very different from
any bees I have ever seen, if they do not line the
inside Avith propolis, a substance impervious to air

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

and moisture." Whether this objection is as ex-
tensive as apprehended, is yet to be proved. I
know that the little niches where the straws lie to-
gether, are filled with it, but whether the smooth
rounded surface of the straw is sufficiently coated
to prevent the al)sorption of moisture, is not de-
termined. But should this be the case, and the
objection remain in full force, it is so easily obvi-
ated that it amounts to next to nothintj. To re-
move it, we have only to take out the combs — they
are movable — and put them into some other hive
for a short time, and apply boiling water. Or, ,
suppose — as the advantages of straw are claimed
mostly for winter and spring — that at the begin-
ning of summer, and before any propolis is gath-
ered, we change the combs to a wood hive, and
again return them on the approach of cold wea-
ther. The top being of straAV, is unsuitable for
the surplus honey boxes, and of necessity is taken
off when they are used. This will be in proper
condition Avhenever put on in cold weather.

The only advantages that ^Mr. B. can see in a
straw hive, are its dome-like shape, and that it
cannot be easily robl)ed of its stores. The conical
shape allows the moisture, as it "condenses at the
top, to run down the sides of the hive, instead of
dropping down among the bees and comb." If its
superiority was here, it would seem that when we
opened the holes in the top of a wood hive, and let
the moisture ascend into the chamber, condense,
and pass out, it would be as effectually out of the
way of the bees, as in running down the sides of a
conical shaped straw hive. If keeping the mois-
ture from the bees and comb was all, we should
have the same thrift as with the straw liive. But
it is not here.

That bees swarm ten days earlier in straw hives,
"is not confirmed by many who have the straw
hive side by side with wood, when no boxes are
used for surplus." Here appears to be an acknowl-
edgment that they do swarm earlier than some
others. Now what is the cause ? lie says no
boxes are used for surplus. Whether it is the
room that the boxes afford, on taking the honey,
we are left to infer. If he means the room, I
woidd say that not one-half of the stocks go to
work in the boxes before swarming. If the honey
taken away, not one in a hundred is robbed before
that time. Can it be shown by experience, or any
com"se of reasoning, that when the hive is full, and
the bees clustered outside doing nothing for want
of room, that an extra box filled, and even removed
at such a time, will make any perceptible differ-
ence in the issue of the swarm ? If there should be
a difference, it would be likely to be in favor of
the earlier swarm. In good seasons, it is often the
case that too many of the brood combs are stored
with honey, instead of being filled with brood,
thereby retai'ding the increase of bees, and conse-
quently making the swarm later.

"Mr. Quinby says that the best material for a
hive is straw, and that he has clearly shown it."
I Avould like to qualify this, by saying available
material. Perhaps there are many other materi-
als better, if we could only afford them. On this
point, I would quote a little further from Lang-
sti'oth. "The lighter and more spongy the wood,
the poorer will be its power of conducting heat,
and the warmer the hive in winter, and the cooler
in summer." "A serious disadvantage attending all
kinds of wooden hives, is the ease with which they

conduct heat, causing them to become cold and
damp in winter, and, if exposed to the sun, so hot
in summer as often to melt the combs." From
these remarks, I can easily imagine that Mr. L.
would have recommended straw, if any shape
"adapted to improved bee-culture" had been sug-
gested.

Mr. B. offers his last argument thus : "I am by
no means sure that there is any real advantage in
a straw hive. Certainly not. if the form is to be
changed." I would say, certainly not, unless the
form is changed {vom the old dome to one adapted
to improved bee-culture — the surplus boxes, and
movable combs.

Mr. B. concludes Avith the following compli-
ment : "It is Avith some reluctance that I differ
with Mr. Quinby. My first ideas of bee-keeping
were derived from him, and I might still have re-
garded him as undoubted authority, had not acci-
dent thrown in my way the Langstroth hive, by
wliich I learned more in one season, than I should
have found out in a life-time, by using the twelve
by fourteen box liive. As it is, I trust Mr. Quin-
by Avill not blame me, if I am not tickled with liis
straws." By this it seems that my authority might
have yet been "undoubted," had it not been for
that Langstroth hive by which he learned so much
in one season. Now, without pretending to be in-
fallible, I would like Mr. B. to tell us wherein he
has proved my authority fallacious ? Has he not,
on the contrary, with the help of these movable
combs, verified many points that Avould tend to
establish it ? What he has discovered really new,
if he would make it public, I would be one of
many to heartily thank him for. These things I
have a right to ask. As for blaming him for not
being "tickled," I am not in the least disposed
that way. If he chooses not to use the better hive,
the consequence will be with him, not me. I shall
not gain or lose one cent, if he does, or does not
use it. I am not the interested patent vender that
will fail to make a V, if he fails to be persuaded.
Perhaps he will feel less prejudice towards this
hive, when he understands that it is still claimed
as the Langstroth hive. M. QuiNBY.

St. Joknsvillc, N. Y., Dec, 1861.

Fvr t/te New England Farmer.
CULTURE OF THE KOHL KABI.

Mr. Editor : — My boys, the past season,
sowed a few seeds of kohl rabi in a bed, and trans-
planted them in drill, about the first of August.
The weather was very dry, and the plants had a
hard struggle for life, for a number of weeks. As
soon as we had rains they revived, and when gath-
ered, the middle of November, yielded near four
times the quantity, on the same surface, as carrots
along side of them. I have not any experience
with this root. The yield is satisfactory, but I
think they will require more careful preparation or
cutting up, before feeding, than other roots, as
they appear to be very hard. If, as is alleged by
those who have fed them to milch cows, they im-
part no flavor to the milk, as turnips and cabbages
do, I shall regard the kohl rabi as an important
acquisition to our farm crops. Brother farmers,
send to the New England Farmer your experience
in the culture and use of this root. o. K.

Rochester, Mass., 1861.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

TRAINING STEERS.
A correspondent of the American Stock Jour-
nal gives his experience in the training of steers.
He says they should be —

1. Accustomed to your presence.

2. Trained to be yoked — to travel in the yoke,
and turn right and left at command.

3. Trained to Avork.

The first should be accomplished long before
"breaking," as it is termed ; if, however, it is not,
it may be very easily done by handling the animal
— if it must be by force, handle, always being de-
liberate and careful in action, and never be thrown
off your guard so much as to strike or kick. The
creature will soon learn he has nothing to fear —
now let him know he has something to gain, by
giving him a nubbin of corn, or scratching his neck,
back, etc. Whenever you undertake to handle an
animal, accomplish what you undertake ; and if
you have any doubts as to the result, do not begin
until you have force enough to be sure of success.
If you do begin, and fail at first, persevere until
you finally conquer — that's the word — conquer.

Any animal is a long time forgetting a triumph.
I would rather teach ten wild steers to handle that
have never been tampered with, than one that has
once come off "best." The most skilful man we
ever saw at handling cattle, did it with the least
expense of feeling to them, and yet, when they re-
fused to perform, he used the most imperative
force to compel obedience. An animal came from
his hands tamer and more gentle than from one
who resolves not to force. Use then force enough
— do what you attempt, but be always mild and
gentle — show no temper.

Training to the Yoke. — This is easiest and best
done in the barn-yard. Drive them quietly around
for a considerable time — mind, you drive them, if
not they scamper where they like, without per-
ceiving that you are master. After half a day of
such (Lriving, many steers will submit to be yoked,
by the cU'iver alone, and M'ild ones will soon be
so wearied as to be readily yoked. In this regard
you have to judge whether best to yoke by calling
in help, or keeping them going until you can yoke
them by yourself. When you have them yoked
be gentle with them — let them know you are mas-
ter— keep them going until weary, but very little
after.

It is easy to learn steers to turn right and left,
when you have them in the yard under your con-
trol. Touch the near one when you wish them to
go the right — the off one when to the left ; or if
you wish them to turn about, start one ahead quick
by a touch, while you motion the other back at the
same time.

Training Steers to Work. — This is by fi^r the
most critical part of "breaking steers," and should
be accomplished by gradual approaches, being
careful not to worry nor weary them. Suit their
tasks to their strength and endurance, and have
patience now, that when they are fully grown,
they may not be prematurely "old cattle." How
many pairs of so-called slow cattle, are really so ?
They are old in appearance, and slow, because
when young, their spirit Avas destroyed liy over-
work. Cattle are more unfitted than any other
animal to severe labor before attaining their full
growth and constitutional development.

In breaking steers, bear in mind that you must

subdue their wUl, but maintain unimpaii-ed their
natural animal spirits.

One year ago we trained two paii's of steers ;
one pair was wild, and had to be caught with the
lasso. Tliis pair we bad gentle and tractable in
one week, and yet one of them possessed an al-
most unconquerable will. In getting him home
we yoked laim with liis mate and could not drive
them. We then liitched a strong pan- of oxen
ahead and drew him — he part of the time sliding
on the ground, and part of the time pulling back
all he Avas able, but firm ; and in one hour he was
subdued, and we had no further trouble with him.

In training steers, use all the force necessary to
bring them under your control ; then gentle them
by being mild and gentle yourself. No animal
thinks less of you for conquering, if you do not
abuse your superiority.

THE S1SOV7 STORM.

Announced by all the trumi>ets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and, driftinj; o'er tlie fields,

Seems nowhere to alight ; the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river and the heavens

And veils the farm-house at the ganjen's end.

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet

Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

Come, see the north-wind's masonry !

Out of an unseen qviarry, evermore

Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer

Curres his white bastions with jjrojected roof

Kound every windward stake, or tree, or door ;

Speeding the myriad handed, his wild work,

So fanciful, so savage, naught cares he

For number or proportion. l[ockingIy,

On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths ;

A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn ;

Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,

Maugi'e the f irmer's sighs ; and, at the gate,

A tapering turret overtops the work ;

And when his hours are numljered, and the world

Is all his own, retiring as he were not.

Leaves, when tlie sun appears, astonished Art,

To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone.

Built in an age, the mad wind's night work,

The frolic architecture of the snow. Emerson.

THE ASHES OP VEGETABLES.

In chemistry, all elementar}^ bodies are divided
into tAvo classes, viz. : metals and metalloids, or
substances Avhich in their character are non-metal-
lic. As yet, only a very fcAV of the elements knoAvn
to chemists have been recognized in the ashes of
vegetables. Those Avhich have been detected in
the residuum Avhich remains after combustion, are,
phosphorus, chloride, iodine, silicon, sulphur, bro-
mine, potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium,
iron, manganese and fluorine. Iodine and bro-
mine are found only in the ashes of marine plants,
— ^Ivclp, scaAveed, (^-c. When found, hoAvevcrj
these substances are never in a simple, isolated
state, but in combination Avith oxygen, (Avith the
exception of iodine, chlorine and bromine,) and
from Avliich they are separated Avith much difficulty.

The distinction between metals and metalloids
"depends upon their relation to heat and clectrici-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

ty. If a substance opposes no resistance to the
diffusion of electricity through its body and over
its surface, or, as philosophers expi-ess it, is a good
conductor of heat and electricity, it is called a met-
al. If it presents characters the opposite of this,
it is called non-metallic, or a metalloid." The
salts detected in the residuum of vegetable sub-
stances submitted to the action of fire, are pro-
duced by a union of both these substances. Phos-
phorus, sulphur, iodine, bromine, clilorine and sil-
icon, as also oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and car-
bon, are classified as non-metallic bodies, while
the other elementary constituents, to wit, — sodi-
um, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron and mag-
nesium, belong to the class of metals.

When the non-metallic elements combine with
oxygen, the result is the formation of an acid, and
the same result ensues upon any of that class
combining with hydrogen ; and it is in this state
that they are recognised in the soil, as mcII as in
vegetables and their ashes.

Carbon, combined with oxygen, forms carbonic
acid.

Sulphuric acid is a combination of sulphur and
oxygen.

Phosphoric acid is produced by the chemical
union of phosphorus and oxygen, and silicic and
nitric acid are the results of the same union be-
tween silicon and nitrogen, and oxygen. Anoth-
er feature presented by these acids is their propen-
sity to form combinations with certain bases.
These bases are found almost universally on the
earth's surface, or mingled in its crassus, and in-
variably in the ashes of vegetables, and it is there-
fore by no means a matter of surprise that the
two are seldom found in an uncombined state, in
the soil, and invariably in a combined state in
vegetables and their ashes, in the form of salts.

For the Neic England Farmer.

OVER A THOUSAND MEN"

Crawling Twentt-Five Miles on their Hands and Knees —
NOT IN India, but in New England !

If we were to go into the labor market and of-
fer farm operatives sixteen dollars a month for the
working season, with the condition annexed, that
in the course of the season they should crawl twen-
ty-five miles on their hands and knees, how many
of our free Northern laborers, suppose you, would
set their hands and seal to any such arrangement?
Yet there are thousands of aljle workmen who
readily engage themselves to our thrifty market
gardeners, with the condition very clearly implied
in the contract, that each of them shall perform in
the neighborhood of twenty-five miles of liand-
and-knec crawling in the course of the season.

If any of our readers will take his pencil in
hand, and figure out the problem of the distance
to be gone over in the care of two and a half acres
of onions, which is about the average quantity al-
lowed per man, planted in rows fourteen inches

apart, and requiring three hand-and-knee weed-
ings in the course of the season, he will find, if
my pencil mistakes not, that allowing two rows
are taken each time, some twenty-six miles must
be crawled over before the job is finally finished.

However, our worthy farmers, with knees well
protected by stout woollen or leather pads, pro-
gress, tortoise-like, over the ground, and gradu-
ally wind up the season's work apparently with-
out any serious inconvenience. An onion crop
requires not only three such Aveedings, but also
one or two hand weedings, towards the close of
the season, and three hoeings in the course of it.
With such data added to the extra cost of pi'epar-
ing, manuring and planting the ground, our farm
friends who devote their acres principally to the
grains, and sigh to hear of the heavy incomes de-
rived from the culture of roots and bulbs nearer
the city, Avill be better able to fhrm some idea of
the costs of such investments.

J. J. H. Gregory.

Marblchead, Mass., Dec, 1861.

HOUSE PLANTS— ^S^ATER AND "WATER-
ING.

It is desirable that plants should be Avatered
with rain-water ; but as this cannot always be
done, Avater from Avells or pipes must, in such
cases, be used, hut should never he used in a cold
state, as a quart of boiling Avater to a gallon of
cold Avill in great measure rectify it, and save the
cultivator the mollification of seeing the leaves of
his plants turn yelloAV and drop off. So import-
ant do I consider this point, that I never give cold
spring-Avater even to kitchen garden crops ; and
Avhen in charge of a large place, had daily a copper
going to supply hot Avater for all purposes of
A\atering and syringes ; and for sj'ringing I con-
sider it should be as Avarm as one can comfortably
bear the hand in. To promote the growth of the
plants in April, May and June, syringing should
be done on the afternoon of bright days, just as
the house is losing the full force of the sun's rays
— say from three to five o'clock. The moisture
Avill then be diffused into vapor, instead of hang-
ing coldly about the plants, as it would do if giA'-
en at a later period of the day ; and to syringe in
the morning may be attended Avith danger, for the
sun striking upon the Avct foliage might disfigure
it. Syringing in a house Avill scarcely be required
excepting during the period named, Avhile the gen-
eral stock is inaldng its principal groAvth ; even
then plants in fioAver must be shunned, but the ob-
ject sought by sj-Tinging is not so much to drench
the plants as to create a soft groAving atmosphere,
which may be accomplished, if done before the
sun is AvhoUy off the house, by throAving the Avater
into the air, and upon the roof and Avails. Any
individual plant or climber, on the other hand, that
shoAvs the presence of red spider, at Avhatever sea-
son, must be soundly soused ; and this may be
best done, in the case of pot plants, by laying them
doAvn upon a bass mat, and playing the sp-inge
Avell at the under sides of the leaves ; and this
must be rejjeated often, until the spider is put to
flight.

Watering at the root is an important matter ; if
plants are not supplied Avith as much as they re-
quire they do not attain to the perfection, either

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

in statiire or flower, they are capable of, and are,
in consequence, more subject to the attacks of in-
sects. On the other hand, if supplied with more
than they require, the soil turns sour, the leaves
of the plant turn yellow, and it soon puts on any-
thing but a pleasing appearance. Then, in order
to shun these extremes, use observation, and give
water whenever the soil seems to be approaching
a state of drj-ness, and at no other time ; this may
happen twice a day, or twice a week, but give it
then, and give it effectually, so that it passes out
at the bottom of the pot. Plants that have grown
so as to fUl their pots full of roots, and plants
in active growth, will be found to require much
water in hot Aveather, but less in dull and damp
weather ; while others that have not so filled their
pots, or that are not so vigorous, would be only
ruined by a like application. The same rule holds
good in the application of liquid manure, and in
the using of pans to set the pots in ; both of the
latter do more harm than good, unless the pots are
full of roots. The best liquid manure for pot
plants is made by stee]nng horse and dry cow dung
in a tub or tairlt, so constructed that the liquid can
be drawn off" clear, for turbid manure water renders
the pots unsightly. The above is simple, and can
scarcely do harm ; but guano and other artificial
manures must be used with extreme caution, say
no more than half an ounce to a gallon of water. —
Garden Oracle, England.

ACTION" OP SALT AND SALTPETRE ON"
MEAT.

The following interesting account of the action
of salt and saltpetre on meat will doubtless be new
to many of our readers :

The manner in which salt operates in its pi-eser-
vative functions is obvious. Salt, by its strong
affinity, in the first place, extracts the juices from
the substance of meat in sufficient quantity to form
a saturated solution with the Avater contained in
the juice, and the meat then absorbs the saturated
brine in the place of the juice extracted by the salt
in the fnst place. Thus matter, incapable of pu-
trefaction, takes the place of that portion of the
meat which is most perishable. Such, hoAvever, is
not the only office of salt as a means of preserving
meat ; it also acts by its astringency in contract-
ing the fibres of the muscles, and so excludes the
action of air on tlie interior of the substance of
the meat. The last mentioned operation of salt
as an antiseptic, is evinced by the diminution of
the volume of meat to Avhich it is applied.

The astringent action of saltpetre on meat is
much greater than that of salt, and thereby renders
the meat to Avhich it is applied very hard ; but in
small quantities it considerably assists the antisep-
tic action of salt, and it also prevents the destruc-
tion of the florid or red color of the meat by the
application of salt. From the foregoing statement
of the mode of the operation of salt and saltpetre
on meat, it Avill be perceived that the application
of these matters deteriorates, in a considerable de-
gi-ee, the nutritive, and, to some extent, the whole-
some qualities of meat ; and, therefore, in tlieir use,
tlie quantity applied should be as small as possi-
bly consistent Avith the perfect preservation of the
meat. — Exchange.

FACTS AND FANCIES.

Fat Sheep. — A drove of 200 sheep was recent-
ly taken in the Noav York market at a trifle over
$4 a head. An extra fine lot of Kentucky sheep,
brought in by Levi Brine, sold 7 for $49, 11 for
$80, 10 for $75, and 10 more for $75, Avhich Avas
equal to 9c per lb. for the meat, beside the value
of the fat and pelts.

Corn in Illinois. — The Illinois Central Rail-
road runs through the Egypt of the Prairie State,
and has been the means of adding many millions
of bushels, annually, to the corn and other bread-
stuff" products of Illinois. By it the broad prairies
have been broken up, and the station, the village,
and the farm-house, noAV dot immense corn-fields
Avhere but a few years ago Avaved an unbroken
sea of grass and Avild floAvers. This company has
given notice that it Avill sell its lands and receive
corn in the ear in payment, delivered on the car at
any of the stations of the road, at eighteen cents
for seventy-five pounds. To store the corn, the
company is building eleven miles of corn cribs
along the line of their road, tAvelve miles south of
Chicago, Avith a capacity of 3,000,000 bushels !

Extravagance in Dress. — Dress may be ele-
gant and not extravagant. It should be remem-
bered that hoAvever the eye may be taken at first
sight Avith a magnificent dress, it is the loearer that
a man finally falls in love Avith. Greater economy
in dress and a fcAV other items of family expenses,
would equal the extra taxes levied upon us by Avar.

The Oil Springs. — A gentleman named Den-
ton, Avho has been investigating the matter, says
that the oil found so abundantly in Canada, Ohio
and Pennsylvania and many other localities, is not
coal oil, but co7-al oil. He says, — "Stored aAvay
in cells, forming in the aggregate immense reefs,
as it Avas collected from the impure Avaters of the
early oceans by minute coral polyps, [an aquatic
animal, that has no special organs of sense, and is
capable of multiplying by buds and artificial sec-
tions as Avell as by ova. — Ed. Far.,'] it has been
driven by heat and pressure into reservoirs and
crevices Avhere man's ingenuity is discovering it
day by day. I have in my possession many speci-
mens of this fossil coral, Avith the oil plainly visi-
ble in the cells." This is gratifying intelligence,
and seems to us rational. It has generally been
supposed that this oil came from coal, forced out
by a tremendous pressure, and found its Avay to
caverns Avhere it has been waiting — perhaps for
thousands of years — for the scientific researches of
man to brhig it to the light.

Peaches in Minnesota. — The Minnesota
Farmer and Gardener says : The peaches groAvn
about St. Paul are all protected in the Avinter by
training the branches near the ground and cover-
ing them in the Jail.

1S!62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

For the New England Farmer,
USES OF A HOT-BED
BY E. "W. BUSWELL.

Market gardeners and commercial florists un-
derstand well the absolute necessity of hot-beds
in the economy of their operations, and so also the
wealthy amateur, but to the amateur of small means
— he who cannot ■well afford to expend a dollar
except its speedy return be sure — the thoup^ht of a
hot bed, and its management, is so formidable as
to "taboo" the affair quite effectually. Now it is
to my timid brother of small means that I wish to
give a few hints that shall assist him materially in
growing his pets.

To begin, I assume three things : first, that he
considers floAvers essential to his happiness and
well being, and the more the better. Second, that
his condition precludes the possibility of his giv-
ing much time to their culture ; and thirdly, that
he is Avilling to repay the soil for its contribution
to his happiness.

Shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and the like, we
will not consider now. They know no difference
between the poor and the rich ; so, also, the more
hardy annuals do well under ordinary treatment ;
but all this don't satisfy us. We want a "show"
of the finer and more delicate growing exotics,
and icill have them.

Suppose we try fii-st to grow them in the ordi-
nary mode of open culture, and let the lumbering
hot-bed go. With great care we select the
choicest seeds, and with full confidence in our
ability to do the whole thing justice, we await the
proper time for planting. It seems as though the
ground never would be warm enough, spring is so
backward, and it takes the cold rains so long to
fill the ground and "go away ;" but at last the
bright sun has shone upon the earth for a ichole
day or more, in the seeds go, "for better, for
worse," and we "lay back" with splendid visions
of the future, to await their coming. Time is
plenty wherein to speculate on probabihties, and

lay our plans for dispensing beautiful bouquets
among our less privileged friends ; but how is
this ? why don't they come ? I know I gave to
each its proper depth according to its kind, and I
have only here and there an indication of vegeta-
ble life, except weeds, which grow without aid ;
still we watch and pray, still they don't come, and
we wait and wait, until hope is extinct ; plant
again — again the same result ; call the seedsman a
cheat, resolve to shun him in future, and fall back
upon sunflower and marigold, seeds of which toe
saved, extend our faith another twelvemonth, and
pocket our disajipointment with all the grace at
our command. So much for that system.

Now let us make a hot-bed, and see if we have
cause to regret it. We design manuring the gar-
den, so we buy stable manure in March, where-
withal to do it. No matter if it l)e coarse and
cheap, we can improve the quality before autumn,
many fold, and be richly rewarded in the process.

We begin by throwing it in a heaj), so as to pre-
sent as little surface as possible to the atmosphere,
and while fermentation is beginning its work, we
will get the frame ready. A good size for our use
isoXlO feet square, 10 inches high in front, 18
in the rear, with the ends shaped of course to.
match. Let these be cleated so as to prevent
warping, and fasten together at the corners with
hasps. Let in, flush with the edge, narrow strips

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

at proper distances for the sashes to slide on, with
a narrower one in the middle for a guide. These
will accommodate four sashes of proper propor-
tions for glass eight inches wide, which should be
inserted in grooves, rather than by the old method
of puttying, as putty soon crumbles with such
severe exposure.

We Mill now suppose the manure is ready to
move, and the time almost the first of April, long
before it would be safe to put seeds in the ground,
and when but little else can be done outside.
Now we measure a space 12X7 feet (to give a
projection of a foot all round outside the frame,)
on a spot well sheltered from cold Avinds and open
to the sun. Commence by setting boards on edge
secured by stakes, and fill in first with a layer of
straw, leaves or other similar material, and then a
layer of manure, beating it down with the fork,
but not treading it hard. Thus continue until you
have used sufficient litter to make it, with the ma-
nure, about two feet high. Put on the frame, cover
the outside bank with boards laid flat, fill in with
about four inches of tan, put on the sashes, and
while the heat is getting up, we will get ready our
seeds, Sec, and prepare materials for potting.

Here, again, is an outlay of cash for pots, but
we won't regard that when we see how useful Ave
make them before summer is gone. We shall
want some bits of charcoal for drainage, from
which we can sift the dust to mix in the soil for
potting. We last fall secured some excellent peat,
laid up a little loam, and saved a remnant of the
old hot-bed, (if we had one.) These, in equal
parts, with a generous sprinkling of the coal dust,
make a good soil for present purposes.

In about a week after the bed is made, the heat
will be up, as Ave may find by thrusting a sharp
stick into it, and Ave may noAV begin to soav in pots,
seeds of such plants as are of sIoav groAvth, or Avill
soonest bear turning out. A little practice Avill
teach us Avhen is the best time to start Avith the
various kinds. Plunge the pots to the rim in the
tan, and the bottom heat Avill do its "perfect
Avork." We see that by having the seeds in our
poAver, Ave can control heat and moisture at pleas-
ure, and Avill scarcely make a failure, luiless some
careless person leaves the glass on too long during
hot sunshine, Avhile the "husbandman" works.
Here, too, Ave Avill start such summer bulbs and
tubers^s require a season longer than ours, and of
others, a few, to secure a longer season of bloom.
Soon Ave begin to "prick out" the young plants,
and "pot oft " and "shift," so that our good time
has come indeed. Who that has no hot-bed of
his OAvn, does not envy vis our pleasure, and that
too for Avceks before he can hope to start on his
OAvn hook ?

To watch carefully to prevent burning, to Avater
as may be necessary, to give air to prevent damp-
ing ofl", and to close before nightfall, covering Avith
mats, are amongst our cares, until uoav the ground
is Avarm enough to begin to "turn out," so out
they go. Ordinary transplanting requires much
care even in cloudy, or rainy Aveather, Avhich can-
not always be had at Avill ; but wc can snap our
fingers at the Aveather, for Ave disturl) no little
spongioles in the operation. If the sun is too hot
for them, invert the pots over them, but remove
them again before the dew falls. This is another
use for the ])ot. A third use is in irrigation, Avhich
is done in this Avise, and is, by the Avay, the only

proper mode for the floAver-garden. Set the pot
right side up close by the plant, and press it firmly
doAvn so as to fill the hole at the bottom Avith
earth, then fill Avith Avater, Avhich Avill ooze so sIoav-
ly through as to be readily drunk by the earth,
thus avoiding a j^uddle, Avhich, on subsiding, leaves
a crust to shut out air and light. Refilling once
or tAvice Avill overcome the severest drought. Wash
the foHage Avith a syringe, if you Avill, but never
pour Avatcr faster than a gentle shoAver gives it, if
you Avould not injure your plants. We retain in
the bed such plants as Ave Avish to keep together
in pots, or plant it Avith vines, or use it as Ave Avill
until "pay daj'," Avhen Ave take out and save the
tan, and also a little of the rotted manure, Avhich
noAv I'esembles in appearance a mixture of the best
of loam and peat. The sashes and frame Avere
housed long since, and Ave "pay off'," by giving to
our shrubs, herbaceous perennials, bulbs, Sec,
each its share of the "fatness" to protect it through
the long Avinter, and Avhen raked doAvn in the
spring, and forked in, to nourish it in its future
groAvth. This Avhole system is recommended for
its simplicity, and the ease and lightness of its op-
erations. After the bed is once made, the AA-hole
Avork may be carried through, to planting out, by
the most delicate ladies, or young children, even,
Avith a little direction from the more experienced,
It also enables us to take the advantage of time, and
avoid the great haste otherwise consequent upon
the commencement of gardening operations, thus
accomplishing more Avithin the season, Avith more
leisnre Avherein to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Remarks. — Our correspondent is enthusiastic,
and Ave relish it greatly. We like enthusiastic
people. We could almost forgive a scamp for
fleecing us, if he did it Avith a Avill, as though he
found pleasure in it. But a see-saAv, poke-and-
go sort of a person, one Avho never sang,

"Git out of the way, ole Dan Tucker,"
reminds us of an excellent horse Ave haA^e — excel-
lent in every thing but one — he insists upon going
to sleep in the harness, and tumbling doAvn Avith us
occasionally ! But Ave only meant to say that the
uses of a hot-bed, so enthusiastically described,
are just as valuable in starting our tomatoes, rad-
ishes, cucumbers, peppers, egg plants, &:c, as they
are for floAvers. The small hot-bed Avhich is illus-
trated, has its sides constructed of masonry, and
is more substantial and costly than is necessary
for the use of a common farmer, or single family.

The Iron Rule. — Never borroAv a paper, book,
umbrella, horse, cart, plow, shovel, spade, pickax,
chain, or anything else Avhatever, if you can pos-
sibly do Avithout it, nor then either unless Avith
consent of the owner.

The Silver Rule. — Not only use the article
borroAved as carefully as if it Avere your own, but
more so, for it is not your oAvn, — nor retain it be-
yond the time agreed to, Avithout the OAvner's ver-
bal consent.

The Golden Rule. — As soon as you have done
using the thing borrowed, return it Avith thanks,
and be ready to return the favor.

1862.

NEW ENGLx\ND FAR^MER.

For the New England Farmer.
COMPLAINTS OP HIGH PRICES.

Mr. Editor. : — A mistaken notion prevails very
extensively among the mechanics and laboring
classes rivspecting the effect of high and low pi-ices
of provisions upon t4iem, pecuniarily. It is a ste-
reotype complaint with them that it costs so much
to live, they can scarce maintain themselves and
families : or, that prices of provision are so liigh it
is impossible for them to get forehanded. Sec, 8zc.
All such assertions, or notions, are based upon the
erroneous idea that if provisions were cheap their
■wages would still remain the same. Tlus can nev-
er he in the nature of the case. The cost of ])ro-
duction and tiie price of the product necessarily go
hand in hand. They as necessarily find their level
as water. I can well remember when the carpen-
ter in the country worked from sun to sun, and
even longer, for a day's work, and was content to
receive his dollar for the same. I know of many
who then could live as well as country communi-
ties usually did, and get forehanded in property.
When I was a boy, farm laborers were ])aid from
eight to eleven dollars a month, according to
qualifications. In haying time, daily wages were
from seventy-five cents to a dollar. This was the
case for several years, as many now living can tes-
tify. Provisions, of course, were low, as a general
thing : northern corn rarely a dollar a bushel, but-
ter and cheese quite low most of the time — yet
still, all farm products, as compared with price of
labor, were higher than at present.

How, then, are Ave to account for the almost
universal complaint of our mechanics and laborers
of having a hard time to get on ?

I think none will deny that most of them do
have a hard time — but is it necessarily so ? I think
it is not, and will try to make it appear. We will
look at the case of the mechanic. The evil com-
mences with him at the very outset of his appren-
ticesliip. As the hours for labor are now regulat-
ed, he has much time at his own disposal. How
it is disposed of few need to be informed. That a
majority of them fail to make a good use of it, few
will gainsay. Formerly, the master, or employer,
felt himself under obligation to see that his ap-
prentice contracted no bad habits, formed no bad
acquaintances, and conducted himself worthily on
all occasions. Lamentably is this now neglected,
to the ruin of many a promising youth. The boss
don't care to have this trouble, and the weak, in-
judicious parent fails to require it of him, so that
between them l^th the boy is left pretty much to
his own course, unguided by wise counsel, unre-
strained by judicious command. He associates
with whom he will, goes whei'e he will, and con-
tracts such habits as he "will, little dreaming of the
bitter fruit which in the end such unrestrained li-
cense is sure to produce. He is almost sure to
contract the use of tobacco in some form, and if
he escapes the use of intoxicating drinks, it is a
marvel.

If by any means he has money to use, it is usu-
ally quickly gone for some needless recreation,
amusement or extravagance. He has no idea of
its value and wise use. It is more than probable
that by the time he arrives at maturity his cigars
and other needless expenditures will amount to
nearly or quite as much as many expend on their
board. This may be an extreme case, and no doubt

is of rare occurrence, but that it does occur, many
can vouch. Let us suppose the outlay for cigars
and other needless expenses to amount to only
twenty dollars per annum, (wliich is doubtless less
than the real amount generally worse than thrown
away, by a majority of apprentices and journey-
men from sixteen to thirty, or for a period of four-
teen years,) with interest added annually, and see
if it does not give us a sum that most of our me-
chanics Avould be proud to possess.

What I have said in reference to mechanics, ap-
plies in a greater or less degree to other occupa-
tions. All complain, but I think the fault is gen-
erally to be ascribed to the grumbler liimself. Sup-
pose these classes gave their spare time to useful
study and reading, thus acquuing information that
in future life may be drawn upon for profit and
pleasure, would they not, of course, husband their
earnings, and more economically manage their af-
fairs ? Would not such a use of leism-e hours op-
crate as the great balance wheel of all their ac-
tions, leading them on to thrift and respectability ?

Allow me to say to all of you of this class who
chance to read these thoughts, that finding fault
with the prices of food anil the dullness of the
times, will do you no good ; prices, for all this,
will remain the same and the times unaltered.
Seek for the remedy within yourselves. Stop every
leak, cut off every useless and needless expendi-
ture, appro]iriate evej"y spare hour to some useful
employment, and you M'ill be sm'}:)rised at the re-
sult. You will find more money in your purse, a
hapjiier heart in your bosom. The clouds that
heretofore have enveloped you Avill quickly dis-
perse, and cheerful sunshine will illumine your fu-
ture ; contentment and hojie will be your constant
guests ; your households will rejoice with you, and
peace will surround your hearthstone.

The prices of provisions and the compensation
for labor are entirely beyond our control, and it is
useless for us to attempt it. They are govenred
by circumstances and laws that camiot, in the na-
ture of things, be abrogated. o. K.

Eochcster, Dec, 1861.

For tJie New England Farmer.
HOME SYMPATHY.

A young lady, a farmer's daughter, was asked a
few days ago, "how large a daily has your father
this wniter ?" Her answer was, "How should I
know ? I don't go to the barn once a month."

Beecher says that "no one can learn patience
except by going out to battle in the hurly-burly
world." ^^erhaps so ; yet nowhere in the "hurly-
burly world" are there so numberless occasions for
practicing patience, as in the quietude of home.
And among these home trials, not one is more
keen than the want of sympathy in your life-work
from those around you. Buttonlcss shirts, and
ventilated stockings, and late dinners, are very
good patience teachers. But what can irritate a
man more than when he sits down to explain
to his wife and girls his pet plan for a perfect
garden or orchard, or the additions and improve-
ments which he intends to make to the barn, to
see them listen with a martyr-like air of meek en-
durance, or turn away to commend Mrs. Grundy's
taste in dressing her children !

Farm-houses would not have the barren aU-for-

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

use appearance Avhich they now so often present
if farmers received due in-door sympathy. Boys
would not consider farming as coarse and undig-
nified labor, and hasten off to the city, if sisters
worked "heart and hand" with them, and would
not speak with such evident pride of the brother
who is in college, or clerk in some city store. And
young ladies, your pretty white fingers would
touch the piano keys just as gracefully, and cro-
chet and embroider just as skilfully, were they in
the habit of giving the cows a daily loving pat, or
a handful of hay. And you would lose none of
your refinement, were you so well acquainted at
the barn, that the horse would greet you with a
good-morning neigli, and the busy fowls flock
about j'ou as you enter ; or if you were able to in-
form inquirers whether or not your father "cut the
feed" for his cattle, or whether in the summer he
"turned them out to pasture," or "soiled" them.

You enjoy sympathy; why not give then, as you
■wish to recche ? HowAKD.

Dec. 18, 1861.

FROST IN THE WINDO'W.

Books have been written of painted windows,
and journeys long and expensive have been made
to see them. And without a doubt they are both
curious and more than curious ; they are admira-
ble. One such work of art standing through gen-
erations of men, and making countless hearts glad
with its beauty, is a treasure for wliich any com-
munity may be grateful.

But are we so destitute of decorated windows
as at first one might suppose ? Last night the
thermometer sank nearly to zero, and see what
business Nature has on hand ! Every pane of
glass is etched and figured as never INIoorish artist
decorated Alhambra. AVill you pass it unexam-
ined simply because it cost you nothing — because
it is, this morning, the property of so many in
common — because it was wrought by nature, and
not by man ? Do not do so. Learn rather to en-
joy it for its own elegance, and for God's sake, who
gave to frosts such artist tendencies.

The children are wiser than their elders. They
are already at the window, interpreting these mys-
tei'ious pictures. One has discovered a silent, sol-
itary lake, extremely beautiful, among stately,
wliite chffs. Another points out a forest of white
fir trees and pines growing in rugged grandeur.
There are in succession discovered mountains, val-
leys, cities of glorious structures, a little confused
in their outline by distance. There are various
beasts, too. Here a bear coming down to the wa-
ter ; birds in flocks, or sitting voiceless and soli-
tary. There are rivers flowing through plaiiis ;
and elephants, and buff^ixloes, and herds of cattle.
There are dogs and serpents, trees and horses,
sliips and men. Besides all these phantom crea-
tures, there are, shadowy ornaments of every de-
gree and beauty, simple or complicated, running
through the whole scale, from a mere dash of the
artist's tool to the most studied and elaborate
compositions.

Neither does frost repeat itself. Every Mindow
has its separate design. Every pane of glass is
individual and peculiar. You see only one ap-
pearance of anxiety in tlie artist, and that, lest
time and room should fail for the expression of the
endless imaginations wliich throng liis fertile soil.

There is a generous disregard of all fictitious
or natural distinctness of society in this beautiful
working. The designs upon the poor-house win-
dows are just as exquisite as any upon the rich
man's mansion. The little child's bed-room win-
dow is just as carefully handled as the proudest
window in any room of static. The church can
boast of nothing better than the emblazonings on
the window of the poor seamstress who lives just
by. For a few hours everybody is rich. Every
man owns pictures and galleries of pictures.

But then comes the iconoclast — the sun ! Ah,
remorseless eye ! why will you gaze out all these
exquisite figures and lines ? Art thou jealous lest
night shall make sweeter flowers in the winter than
thou canst make in all the summer time ? For
shame, envious Father of Flowers ! There is no
end of thy abundance. Around the equator the
summer never dies ; flowers perfume the whole
ecliptic. And spreading out thence, the summer
shall travel northward, and for full eight months
thou hast the teiuperate zones in thy portfolio.
Will not all the flowers of the tropics and of eight-
month zones suffice ? Will not all the myriads
that hide under leaves, that climb up for air to tree-
tops that nestle in rock crevices, or sheet the open
plains with wild efl'ulgence, that ruffle the rocks
and cover out of sight all rude and homely things
— suffice thy heart, that thou must come and rob
from our winter canvass all the fine things, the
rootless trees, the flowers that blossom without
growing, the Avilderness of pale shrubberies that
grow at night and die by day ? Rapacious sun,
thou shouldst set us a better example.

But the indefatigable frost repairs the desola-
tion. New pictures supply the waste ones. New
cathedrals, new forests, fringed and blossoming,
new sceneries and new races of extinct animals.
We are rich every morning, and poor every noon.
One day with us measures the peace of two hun-
dred years in kingdoms — a hundred years to build
up, and a hundred years to decay and destroy ;
twelve hours to overspread the evanescent j^ane
with glorious beauty, and twelve to extract and
dissipate the pictures !

How is the frost-picturing like fancy painting !
Thus we fill the vagrant hours with innumerable
designs, and paint visions upon the visionless
sphere of time, which, with every revolution, de-
stroys our work, restoring it back to the realm of
waste phantasies !

But is not this a type of finer things than ar-
rant fictions ? Is it not a mournful vision of many
a virtuous youth, overlaid with every device of
virtue which parental care could lay on, dissolved
before the hot breath of love, blurred and quite
rubbed out !

Or, shall we read a lesson for a too unpractical
mind, full of airy theories and dainty plans of ex-
quisite good, that Ue upon the surface of the mind,
fair indeed, till touched ? The first attempt at re-
alization is as an artist tries to tool these frosted
sketches, the most exquisite touch of ripest skill
would mar and destroy them !

Or, rather, shall we not reverently and rejoic-
ingly behold in these morning pictures, Avrought
without color, and kissed upon the window by the
cold lips of Avinter, another instance of that Di-
vine beneficence of beauty which suffuses the
heavens, clothes the earth, and royally decorates
the months, and scuds them forth thi'ough all

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

hours, all seasons, all latitudes, to fill the earth
with joy, pure as the Great Heart from which it
had its birth? — The Independent.

THE RIGHTS OF THE FARMER.

AVhat gives our country strength in this day of
her peril, and Avhat holds in check the nations who
desire to procure cotton from the South, is the
abundance of our farm products, by Avhich we sup-
ply not only ourselves at home and our armies in
the field, but have a vast surplus which England
and France need and must have. They can do
better without our cotton than they can without
our corn, and so we have some security that they
will not at present interfere in our family disci-
pline of the refractory states.

Manufactures are important, and to be cher-
ished at all times, but there is a market where we
can supply ourselves with clothing and arms, even,
if unable to manufacture all we need, while there is
no country in the world from which we could ob-
tain bread enough to sustain our army for a
single month.

The legislation of Massachusetts has been al-
ways partial to manufactures ; and the rights of
the farmer and the interests of agriculture have
often been sacrificed or put aside at the demand
of the factory companies, not because of any
wrongful intention, but because the manufacturers
are wealthy, and united in their movements, and
the farmers, individually, are scattered, so that
they have no concert of action.

FLOWAGE.

The best lands of the State have been convert-
ed into mill-ponds, under the Mill Act, or Flowage
Act, and it is even now lawful for any mill-owner
to raise his dam without notice, and overflow as
much land as he pleases. The only remedy of the
land-owner is by petitioning the courts for re-
dress. This is a disgrace to the Commonwealth,
and should be changed forthwith, so that no dam
shall be raised until after the land-owners have had
notice and the court have by a judgment author-
ized the flowage. We admit that private property
should be taken M"hen the public good requires it,
but let it be done as in the case of land taken for
highways after the land-owners have been fairly
heard and paid. We rejoice to see that our pa-
triotic Governor has, in his recent message, called
attention to this subject, and trust the members of
the Legislature will give heed to his words of wis-
dom, which we quote.

The subject of flowing our low lands and mead-
ows under the operation of the ^'Mill Act," has al-
so engaged the attention of the Board of Agricul-
ture. Rights already acquired thereunder are not
subject to disturbance by its modification or repeal,
but in the belief that the act has long outlived its

usefulness, I respectfully recommend its consider-
ation to the Legislature.

The tendency of thrift, economy and sound pol-
icy is toward general and systematic drainage, not
toward the drowning of the most valuable lands.
Rude and poor liirming is the usual lot of pion-
eers. It was true of those of New England. They
gradually moved down from the more barren hill-
tops to the meadows and richer lands, where cap-
ital and labor, wisely expended, are at first abso-
lutely needed, but where the ultimate return is
large and ample.

In this connection I desire also to call the atten-
tion of the Legislature to a measure of justice and
public utility which will restore to cultivation many
acres of the richest and most productive lands in
the State. There are in nearly every section of
the Commonwealth, ancient mill privileges under
which the right exists, and has existed since the
first settlement of the country, to flow back upon
the lands adjacent to the streams which supply
them. Many of these privileges are neglected,
and have been unused for years, but still the dams
remain, rendering all attempts to redeem for culti-
vation the lands above, of no avail. There should
certainly be some limit to the period when exclu-
sive rights, originally conferred upon individuals
for the common good, and which, under the
changed circiunstances of the present time, serve
only as instrumentalities of oppression, and to re-
tard the development of enterprise in the cultiva-
tion of the soil, should again revert to those pro-
prietors of lands by whom they were originally
yielded. Whether provision should not be made
by statute limitation as to the time when all such
unused and neglected mill-privileges should be-
come invalid, is worthy of your consideration.

We know how these wise suggestions of Gov.
Andrew will be met. The farmers will be told
that the mills are now making clothing for the ar-
my, and their water-power must not be disturbed.
Our answer is, food is as important as clothing,
and it can only grow on our own soil, while mills
can run by steam as well a s by water, and so we
may increase our food and not diminish our manu-
factures.

THE SUDBURY MEADOWS.

The Governor calls attention to this subject,
and we trust the rights of agriculture are not to
be further sacrificed by any new schemes of the
miU-owners on the Concord River.

By an Act of 1860, an act of strict though tardy
justice, a board of commissioners were authorized
to remove thirty-three inches of the dam at Biller-
ica. This act has been declared by the Supreme
Court to be constitutional. Under its operations,
the commissioners removed the flash-boards from
the dam. At the General Court in 1861, the mill-
owners demanded a new examination, insisting that
the dam formed no obstruction to the water. The
meadow-owners opposed this as a useless expense
and delay, but a law was passed to stay the opera-
tion of the act of 1860, one year, and a new board
of scientific commissioners was appointed to re-
port as to the extent of the flowage and the effect

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

T"EB.

of tbe dam. Their report is not yet published, but
they have stated their conclusions to the counsel,
on each side, and we know something of the re-
sult.

Their conclusions will be found to sustain the
positions for which the land-owners have always
contended, which may be briefly stated thus.

1. While the dam stands, the meadows can
never be effectually improved.

2. By removing thii'ty-tlu-ee inches of the dam,
and reasonable improvements of the channel, the
meadows may be made dry enough for cultivation.

We hear that the mill-owners are everywhere
proclaiming that the commissioners have reported
in their favor, and insisting, because the water did
not all run out of the river, Avhcn the dam Avas
opened, that removing the dam will do no good to
the land-owners. We call the attention of candid
readers to the following extract from the printed
argument of Judge French, before the Joint Com.-
mittee last year. It shows what the land-owners
then claimed, and we have no fear that the report
of the commissioners will conflict with his positions.
It was admitted that the river was full of bars
which had formed, in part, through the operation
of the dam, as bars ahvays form by deposits above
a dam. It was admitted that weeds were growing
all along, which must be cleared out, in order to
allow free passage for the water. Nobody expect-
ed the water to run off so as to effectually x'clieve
the meadows, without some labor on the part of
the owners,

Tlie, dam prevents any improvements. Being
higher than anything else in the river for twenty-
one miles, if every bar was cut out, and the chan-
nel made into a canal, the water must remain
higher than any of the bars.

The land-oivncrs expect and desire to improve
the ditmiiel, which is rapidly filling up with weeds
and deposits of sand and mud. Formerly they
coidd do this to some extent. Of late years the
greater height of water has prevented, and unless
the dam is reduced, their case will grow worse
and worse. With the great increase of water and
the ol^structed channel, and this dam higher than
any other object in the whole river, their condition
is hopeless. Jieduce the dam thirtij-tliree inches,
the icatcr wilt Jail proportionahhj on all these
bars, which maij then be cut out. and the river may
be brottr/ht and Icejit within its banks in the groic-
vig scafson.

In the report, at pp. 207-8, "Mr. Chase asked
if there was any practical difficulty in regard to
tlie removal of the natural obstructions in the
stream, bars, Hzc. Mr. Butler replied in the nega-
tive."

Mr. Franciii, their expert, fully supports our
view of this matter. lie says :

"If the fall is now four feet in the twenty-two
miles, taking out the bars might reduce it two
feet, or even more. It might be dug down so that
the water could be kept in between the banks,
like a canal, except in times of extraordinary fresh-
ets,"— p. 2jG. He sajs again : "If the fordway

were blasted out, the dam standing as now, it
would make a little relief in certain stages of the
river, but I tliink no suljstautial and general relief
would follow. / think removing the dam, the
fordicay and bars wotdd produce a material ef-
fect, but not the removal of the dam alone."

What the land-owners then asked, was that tlie
act of 18G0 should go into operation, and the dam
be reduced thirty-three inches for one year. Then,
if, by clearing out the channel, the water did not
go off, the dam could be restored. If it did no
good to the meadows to remove it, it would do
them no harm to restore it, and nobody would ob-
ject. But this would not satisfy the mill-owners,
and against all protests by the land-owners, they
procured their- stay act, and a new commission,
and after putting the Commonwealth to an ex-
pense, as we hear, of nearly twenty thousand dol-
lars, they will probably renew their attempt to
prevent this most beneficent act of 1860, by which
a part of the dam was condemned as a public nui-
sance, from going into effect, and to continue this
water-course and this controversy, with its enor-
mous expenses, for generations yet to come.

GRAFTING THE GRAPE VINE.

!My experience in grafting the vine for several
years would furnish a chapter of failures. I think
I grafted a few vines every season for about five
years, and during the whole time succeeded in
making but one grow and form a good vine ; and
this one only by disregarding the usual direction-
given by the professed experts. Instead of wait-
ing for the formation of leaves, and discontinuance
of the excessive flow of sap, I grafted this one
early, before the flow commenced. Since that time
I have grafted thousands of vines, with nearly as
good success as attends any other kind of grafting.
I have practiced saddle-gi-afting, wliip grafting,
and several fancy methods, but have found the
common cleft grafting, carefully performed, the
most reliable and successful. For large, strong
stocks, I hardly think tying necessary, though a
covering of clay or grafting wax is undoubtedly
beneficial. For smaller stocks, I use only paper
covered with grafting wax on one side. I could
not recommend copper wire in any case. I have
also grafted on various stocks, with very little dif-
ference in result using indiscriminately the wild
frost grape of the woods, the Catawba, Isabella,
Concord and some others. I do not say grafting
the vine cannot be successfully performed after the
leaves have formed ; but it is a fact that up to the
present time, notwithstanding many trials, I have
never succeeded in doing it. — Horticulturist.

American Plows. — A correspondent of the
London Mark-Lane Express says : "The Ameri-
cans have driven our plow-makers out of the Aus-
tralian, Indian and Colonial markets, by their
lighter and cheaper articles. Unless our makei's
bestir themselves here, by using steel instead of
heavy castings, they will be likely to be "beaten
on their own Jjrround."

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Fur the New England Fanner.

SAWDUST AS A FERTILIZER AND
ABSORBENT.

In a previous article I promised to say some-
thing of my experience in using sawdust as a fer-
tilizer and absorbent ; and as the time of year
I commenced drawing sawdust is approaching, and
hoping that a plain statement of facts may induce
others to commence with sleighing as I did, I will
pen them for the benefit of the readers of the
J^arvier.

On the 1st of January, 1859,1 commenced haul-
ing sawdust and fine chips, made in the manufac-
tory of clothes pins from white birch and twirl
leaf poplar, to the farm at the Green iSIountain
Hermitage, Sunderland, Vt., and I had any
amount of prejudice to combat with.

INlany of the old farmers in our neighborhood
told my father I would spoil his farm. Some even
said they had tried to use sawdust as a fertilizer,
and spoiled their land with it, <S:c.; but I was an
unbeliever, and persisted in drawing it home. I
had sustained loss in some manure by fire-fanging
before I learned how to use it.

I averaged hauling half a cord per day for nine
months, and it was a nine months' wonder what I
was doing and -going to do, with so much non-
sense.

There were two horses, seven head of cattle and
several swine on the farm, and I managed to use
100 cords in the nine months as bedding — in tliis
way.

I put the sawdust on the floors about six inches
thick, and as fast as it was saturated with urine,
shoved the cattle and hogs' bedding into the man-
ure vault, together with the manure, trampling it
as hard as possible, and the horse bedding and
manure under a shed. I soon found it must be
turned or something else done with it to keep it
from firc-fanging.

After trying various plans, I found the best was
to run water on it — enough to keep it moist and
cool — and let it remain in as solid a body as pos-
sible until I drew it out, and then put it in flat
heaps, two or three cords in a heap, and a foot
thick after it was well trod down. I put some
light meadow mud, (black earth,) behind the cows,
and the sawdust under them some of the time.

1 put a pair of steers into a yard nights ( 14 ft.
square) for two months, in the fall of 1859 ; throw-
ing sawdust under them three times a week, one-
third of a cord at a time. Tliis lay until the
spring of 1860, when my father took out 4 cords
No. 1 manure. There was but little loss in bulk
by decomposition, and he calculated it was one-
fourth heavier than the four cords green sawdust
put into the yard. There Avas a good deal of rain
fell in the two months — fall rains.

The chips and sawdust that we could not work
under our cattle for bedding, we piled up in the
barn-yard and various places, in flat piles, as be-
fore stated. In September, 18G1, I was at the
hermitage, and found those heaps that Avere the
innocent cause of so much gossip when put there
in 1859, Avere getting to be valuable manure, and
had settled but httle. There is but little danger
of getting on too much water. If it does not run
out from under the heap, never fear.

The solid manure has all got to become a liquid
or gas before the vegetable can be benefited bv it

in any way, and sawdust has a marvellous faculty of
holding on to liquids and gases. I never smelt a
disagreeable odor around our stables, Avhile using
the sawdust, only Avhen it burned, (and physiog-
nomists tell me I have a chemical nose,) and never
saw any liquid leaching out from under our heaps
on a clayed bottom, though we used water plenti-
fully, often running on two barrels to a cord at a
time. Used troughs Avith holes bored through the
bottom to run the water on Avith, and run most of
it from barn and shed eaves troughs.

I drcAV the saAvdust a mile Avith one horse, and
avei-aged an hour and a half to half a cord, di-aAv-
ing and distributing, trampling, Avatering, &c. We
had from 80 to lOCf cords of No. 2 manure made
in 1859, aside from Avhat is lying around that Avill
be good in 18G2 — say 50 cords No. 2. This same
stock in 1858 made about 15 cords No. 1 manure
that Avas saved. The cattle Avere bedded in the
common way, Avith straAV, oats, &c., very s])aring-
ly, Avhich I used in 1859. It Avas Avorth at least
as much again as manure throAvn out of a AvindoAV
to bleach and Avash in the sun and rain. I also
used what Avas made from the 1st of January to
the 1st of April, 1859, from saAvdust — some 30
cords — so had a good chance to experiment.

We put the manure side by side on various
crops and various soils. PloAved it in ; used it as
a top-dressing on ploAved land and grass land, and
for that year there was no perceivable difl'erence
except on dry land, Avliere the saAvdust manure
Avas best. I ought to say saAvdust and manure, for
the saAvdust had not changed much, only where it
had burned, and was not Avorth one-half as much,
except as a top-dressing for grass land, as it Avas
after it had lain over the summer and digested.

The next year, 1860, Old America Avas a little
ahead, lasted a little the best, Avhere ploAved in,
but only a Httle. On a cobble stone knoll of
about one acre, Avhere the gi'ass Avas run out,
and hardly Avorth the cutting in 1859, in the fall I
drcAv about eight cords of saAvdust manure and
left it in heaps till the spring of 1860, Avhen it Avas
spread. I had spread half an inch thick, and so
doAvn to a mere sprinkling. It spoke for itself im-
mediately, and the largest croAvd spoke loudest.
The grass on it Avas good in 1860, and after giv-
ing the thinnest sprinkled part another sprinkling
after the grass was off", it Avas all very good in
1861. Cut one and a half tons No. 1 hay.

I put four cords of the same kind of manure on
to one-half acre of land too stony to ploAV, and
at the same time soAved ten bushels of oyster
shell lime under it. On this piece the hay crop
Avas doubled in 1860, and quadru])led in 1861. I
have found saAvdust manure operates as Avell on
all crops as this — but except on grass land, Avould
ploAv it under.

I manured thirty-tAVO rods of worn-out sward
land AAith three cords of saAvdust manure in 1859.
PloAved in one and a half cords first Aveek in April,
and one and a-halt first Aveek in May ; broke it nine
inches deep, and ploAved it second time tAvo inches.
SoAved carrots 22d May, and Avhen they came up
soAved three bushels lime. First Aveek in Novem-
ber Ave dug 160 bushels nice carrots ; in 1860, 13
bushels shelled corn Avas raised on the bed Avith-
out more manure, and in 1861 my father put on
tAvo cords saAvdust manure and one bushel leached
Avood ashes, and took off" 16 liushels shelled corn —
NcAV Hampshire twelve-roAved. Had a piece of

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

potatoes this year, on dry sandy land, manured
with sawdust manure, and the more sawdust the
more potatoes, as everytliing else. Don't know
where the increase might end, but am convinced
that such manure will raise most soils to a very
high state of cultivation.

Had half an acre of Java wheat this year, the
first that has been raised in this section. The soil
had been fertilized Avith sawdust manure, receiving
this year — after the wheat Avas up — a top-dressing
of five bushels of wood ashes saturated with urine,
and left four weeks to digest. It yielded 1 2 bush-
els, and had it not been for the tadpole, would
have been 20.

I can hardly tell the greatest advantage arising
fi'om using sawdust and tine chips, leaves and oth-
er vegetable matter, as litter, for our stables and
to compost — that is lying all about the country,
and much of it contaminating air and water that
would otherwise be pure and wholesome for man
and beast to breathe and drink.

Wherever I have examined the roots of a veg-
etable grown Avhere sawdust, chip or leaves and
stable manure had been used, I found them em-
bracing with their delicate fibres every atom of
the vegetable matter within their reach, and draw-
ing their natural sustenance from them ; and there
is nothing I have ever tried as an assistant fertil-
izer that holds so much liquid or retains it so long,
where only the air and sun operate on it, as hard
wood sawdust ; and nothing that yields up this
embryo vegetable so readily to the petitions of the
rootlets.

There is much difference in sawdust, and I
woidd make three qualities of sawdust or leaves as
fertilizers, and therefore three qualities of muck
that is formed from decayed forest vegetables.

lat quality hard wood, hickory, oak, maple, &c.

2d quality poplar, basswood, chestnut, &c.

3<1 quality spruce, hemlock, pine, &c.

Wayland, 3Iass. F. J. Kinney.

For the New England Farmer.

BANDOM NOTES.

Fine Colts — Effects of the Mild Autumn Weather upon Vegeta-
tion— Farmers and Science.

Mr. Editor :— The remarks of "S. D.," of Bol-
ton, Vt., in the Farmer of Dec. 7th, I have just
met with respecting some fine colts of his. One
he speaks of as weighing 923 pounds, at one year
and five months old, and the other at the same
age, 773 pounds. The first he thinks is hard to
be beat, which is undoubtedly true ; but two colts
of about the same age in this vicinity, (raised and
owned by the wi-iter's father,) that are considered
by good judges to be very large and fine, I may
perhaps be allowed to mention, as they also have
been favored with but ordinary keeping. One is
one year and five months old, (sired by the "Ken-
nebunk Chief,") the other, one year and six
months, and a short time since weighed 880 pounds
each, and what is a little singular, both weighed
in the same notch, not even half a pound of dif-
ference being perceived between them. The ag-
gregate weight of "S. ]>.'s" colts is 1G96 pounds;
the weight of these, 1740 pounds. They are both
horse colts, finely built, and "'good looking."

The unusually warm weather of the past au-
tumn seems to have had a peculiar influence upon

vegetation, and in some instances appai-ently quite
injurious. Besides the late blooming of violets
in the gardens, and the untimely flowering of
strawberries and many wild flowers, its forcing in-
fluence is quite as apparent, though doubtless less
observed, upon the buds of the trees, especially
of the forest shrubs and trees ; and I fear will be
too apparent, when spring returns, upon the buds
and late growth of our fruit trees. During the
first and second weeks of November, in my ex-
cursions in the Avoods and fields, I frequently met
with buds swollen to bursting, and occasionally
expanded into leaves, in consequence of the ex-
ceedingly and uniformly warm weather of Octo-
ber. On the shrub commonly known as the shad-
berry, {Amdanchier Canadensis,) it was not un-
common to find young, tender leaves an inch or
an inch and a half in length, evidently having lost
their reckoning, and mistaken the first of Novem-
ber for the first of May ; the birches occasionally
exhibited the same phenomenon. Xhe buds of
the common Avalnut, were generally larger than I
ever saw them before at this season ; and I ob-
served several instances Avhere they Avere opening
into leaves ; Avhile the buds of oaks, maples, and
various wild forest shrubs Avere very much SAVoUen.

The scales that are produced during the autumn
as an outside covering to the buds, for their pro-
tection during the varying temperatures of Avinter
and spring, Avere often, and I think generally, spar-
ingly developed this fall, and in cases where the
young leaves Avere thus untimely developed they
Avere scarcely formed at all. From the late con-
tinued activity of the sap, it Avould appear that
even our fruit trees are less prepared for the blasts
of Avinter than usual, and should the present Avin-
ter prove a trying one, it is possible that the stim-
ulating effects of our mild autumn upon the veg-
etable Avorld may be sadly apparent in the fruit
crop another season.

Even in December there have been several days
in succession Avithout frost. But noAV the Avinter
seems to have commenced in earnest. The storm
of rain and snow that occurred two days since has
left the trees loaded heavily Avith ice, and a good
foundation of snow and ice on the ground for
sleighing. And this Christmas morning the mer-
cury has settled doAvn to the zero point ; the bells
jingle merrily as the sleighs go creaking by over
the frozen snoAV, the forest pines look dark and
gloomy, their heads bowed under the great Aveight
of ice ; the old nor'Avester has assumed his Avont-
ed wintry sAvay ; and Ave can but realize that Avin-
ter has at last assumed his regal functions. The
weight of ice noAV upon the trees is very great ;
the pliant birches are bowed to the ground, and
genei'ally the trees are bending beneath the bur-
den.

I am glad to see your correspondents calling
the attention of farmers, young and old, to the
importance of some knoAvledge of the natural sci-
ences. To the farmer, not only in a practical point
of view, Avhich is of itself a sufficient rcAvard for
any amount of attention that may be bestOAved
upon them, but as, a source of enjoyment ever
present, delightful and ennobling, they merit study
and attention. Many shrink from the task as one
of so much labor, and possibly so dry, Avhen if
they Avould but devote these long AA'inter evenings
to a thorough course of reading even, on one or
more branches of science, as agricultural chemis-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER

try or botany, they would soon, I doubt not, al-
most invariably, become deeply interested in the
-subject, and pursue the study as a jiastime, and
surprise themselves with the advancement they
would make, and the fund of knowledge they would
find themselves in possession of at the end of a
few months. Let none be discouraged at the sight
of a few hard names ; they soon become familiar
and convenient terms. But in the Farmer of
Dec. 14th, Mr. Bassktt has made further re-
marks unnecessary ; he has stated the matter in
its true light, and what he has said is in no point
exaggerated. j. a. a.

Upringfield, Dec. 25, 18G1.

For the l^etp England Farmer.

"WAYSIDE NOTES.

Cutting doira Trees — Rural Lanes — Birds — Climate — 'Weather-
Grumblers — Change Essential to our liappmess.

In renewing my subscription to the Farmer, I
am tempted to send you a few wayside notes on
rural matters.

I am son-y to see our farmers cutting down the
old apple trees around their houses, and moM'iug
or grubbing up the bushes along the lines of their
fences and lanes. Doubtless this is, in many in-
stances, desirable, in the march of agricultural im-
provement ; yet how often have I seen with regret
the charm of a pleasant rustic place destroyed,
while its productiveness was in no wise increased,
by an indiscriminate sacrifice of every tree and
shrub that did not bear- dollars. On many of our
New England farms are charming rural lanes,
winding about in the most picturesque manner, and
skirted on either side of the cart path, next to the
wall or fence, with an irregular hedge-row of oaks,
bu'ches, pitch pines, savins, bai'berry bushes, wild
cherry trees. Sec. But too often the owner, in liis
blind zeal for improvement, cuts down these beau-
tiful hedge rows, thereby destroying the rustic
beauty of his farm. Thus the old-foshioned farm-
er banishes the bu'ds from around his homestead.

Speaking of the bu-ds, can you tell us, Mr. Ed-
itor, when we are to have the new Ornithology
which we heard of so long ago as being in pro-
gress by Dr. Brewer ? You may search our book-
stores in vain for a copy of Wilson or Nuttall.
They were long ago out of print. My thanks to
your correspondent, J. A. A., for liis interesting
papers on the Birds of New England.

Every year I find myself better satisfied Avith
our New England climate. I do not think we
have any more winter than we need to make out
an agreeable variety. Certainly, no weather in
this v.-oiid can be finer than our autumn, with all
those quiet, hazy, golden days. The Indian sum-
mer loiters into December, and then we are ready
for snow and the beautiful scenery of winter : the
season of comparative leisure, of long evenings by
the fireside and lectures and social gatherings ;
and before we are tired of sleighing, we awake
some mormng to hear the robin in the garden tell
ing us spring is coming. I remember one winter
when our ponds did not freeze to their usual tliick-
ness for the ice men to cut, and so that crop was
a failure, though com never failed in the summer.
And yet, I am son-y to hear our people sometimes
complain of the winters. To such I am accus-
tomed to recommend a perusal of Dr. ICaue.

Though some, indeed, seem to make it a point to
find something uncommon, unprecedented, and
exceedingly uneomforta])le in every change of the
weather, as though they could have devised a
much better arrangement. My busy neighbor
complains of the short days, as if the long, delicious
sleej) of winter nights was of no account, and he
would have it all daif-time, if he could.

Nevertheless, I confess to an especial fondness
for summer, though I cannot say I am, on the
whole, any happier or any surer of hajjpiness in
summer than in winter. On the contrary, I am
accustomed to regard the exuberance of spirits
which most persons experience in the clear, spark-
ling days of winter, as a kind of compensation for
the loss of summer's verdure. We ai-e wont to
dream sometimes of endless summer and ever
smiling faces, forgetting tliat changes are essen-
tial to our happiness. We cannot clutch all of
beauty or pleasure at a grasp, and therein lies the
charm. When our cup of happiness is full it be-
gins to run over. We scorn common things, yet
when they grow rare we prize them. I have fan-
cied that the dandelion was once the choicest flow-
er, when first I have seen its bright face looking
up from a soft green bed of the freshest spring
grass. But I did not set out to write an essay.

Phjmouth, 1862. j. w. s.

Remarks.— We like the cheerful views of life
and beauty, and the pleasant manner in which
they are expressed. How can the writer gladden
the hearts of thousands in any easier way, than by
writing again ? We cannot inform "J. W. S."
when the new work on Ornithology will appear.

EOUGH NOTES ON MILEZNG.

The first process in the operation of milking, is
to "fondle" with the cow — make her acquaintance,
and thus give her to understand that the man, or
"maid with the milking pail," approaches her with
fi'iendly intentions in order to reUeve her of the
usual amount of lacteal secretion. It will never do
to approach the animal with combative feelings
and intentions ; should the milker swear, scold, or
kick, and otherwise abuse the cow, she may prob-
ably prove as refractory as a mule, and may give
the uncouth and unfeeling milker the benefit of
her heels — a very pertinent reward, to which he,
the uncouth milker, is justly entitled.

Before commencing to milk, a cow shouJd be
fed, or have some kind of fodder offered her, in
view of diverting her attention from the otherwise
painful operation of milking ; by this means the
milk is not "held up," as the saying is,, but is
yielded freely.

The miUvcr should be in close contact wilh the
cow's body, for in this position, if she attempts to
kick him, he gets nothing more than a "push,"
whereas, if he sits off at a distance, the cow has an
opportunity to inflict a severe blow whenever she
feels disposed to do so.

Before commencmg to milk a cow, the teats
should be washed with water, warm or cold, ac-
cording to the temperature of the atmosphere, the
object of which is to remove filth which might oth-
erwise fall into the milk-pail, to the disgust of per-
sons who love pure milk, and hate uncieanliness.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

Milkers of cows should understand the udder
and teats are highly organized, and consequently
very sensitive, and these facts should be taken in-
to consideration by amateur milkers, especially
■when their first essay is made on a young animal
after the advent of her first impregnation ; at this
period the hard tugging and squeezing which many
"dumb brutes" have to submit to, in consequence
of the application of hard-fisted and callous fingers,
is a barbarity of the very worst kind, for it often
converts a docile creature into a state of vicious-
ness, from which condition she may not easily be
weaned. — Exchange.

For tlie Hew England Farmer.
COE'S SDTERPHOSPHATE OP LIME.

After having read in the Farmer of Dec. 21
friend White's statements in relation to Coe's su-
perphosphate of lime, I concluded I would give
you, and the readers of the Farmer, a short ac-
count of my own experience with it. One year
ago, this fall, I plowed up about one acre and a
half of an old mowing field which was pretty much
bound out, as the saying is. The next spring I
carted on fifteen horse cart-loads of stable manure
and spread it evenly over the whole piece. I then
took my horse and plow and cross-cut it about
four inches deep, in order to cover the manure,
which I think is a much better way than it is to
undertake to do it with a harrow. I then harrowed
smoothly, and commenced on one side of the piece
with my hoe, and opened rows 3i feet apart with
the hills 3 feet apart, which I think is the right
distance for corn. On the first eight rows I put
about one pint of night soil and loam mixed to
each hill ; I then left one row without any fertili-
zer whatever ; in the next row I put one small ta-
blespoonful of Coe's superphosphate of lime in
each hill ; on the next row I put a handful of
compost, made of equal parts of lime, leached ash-
es and plaster, and a very little salt, in each hill. I
then commenced again with the phosphate, using
a spoonful to each hill, until I used three bags,
which nearly completed my piece, which was
finished with unleached ashes in the hill.

Now for the result : — The corn where the night-
soil and phosphate was put came up pretty well,
also the compost row ; the row without the ferti-
lizer was two or thi'ee days longer in getting up,
and after it got up, it looked as though it did not
know which way to go ; in fact, it did not go
much any way, it Iboked as though it was planted
in the dead furrow, — but that was not the case, —
the land there was as good as anywhere on the
piece. When the corn was fit to harvest I cut up
the three rows fii'st described, husked and weighed
the corn from each row, with the following result :
The row without any fertilizer had 21 pounds of
corn, about one-half of which was unsound ; the
phosphate row had 84 pounds, about all of it
sound ; the compost row had 72 pounds, mostly
sound.

I would here state that the worms injured my
corn somewhat, though less where the night-soil
was put than anywhere else, and very much worse
in the row where there was nothing, than else-
w'here. It has been claimed by some, I believe,
that worms would not work where there was phos-
phate, but that is a mistake ; for I lound them

right in among it. But notwithstanding the worms
I had a good piece of corn. Where the night-
soil was, the corn was as good, or better, than on
any other part of the piece.

I am perfectly satisfied with my experimenting,
and have come to the conclusion that any man
who has got to buy fertilizers will do better to
purchase Coe's superphosphate of lime than any-
thing else.

I would here state, that on a part of the piece,
I covered the phosphate up before dropping the
corn, and on the other part I dropped the corn
right on to the phosphate, but could see no differ-
ence in the result. Both came up well, and grew
after it came up.

I think phosphate, for squashes, is excellent, as
I raised about a cart-load right amongst my corn,
the same as many people raise pumpkins. I
planted squashes amongst my corn in order to get
rid of the stinking black bug, which I did most
effectually. I will close this article by joining with
friend White in requesting that others who have
tried Coe's superphosphate should give the results
in the Farmer. GEORGE MORRISON.

Franklin, N. H., Dec. 28, 1861.

Remarks. — We are glad to get accounts of such
thorough experiments as the above. It is through
these that we shall be able to come to well settled
conclusions as to the profitableness of using con-
centrated manures.

FACTS AND FANCIES.

Healthiness of Room Plants. — The editor
of the Horticulturist, in an article on Room Plants,
says, "It has been objected by some that it is un-
healthy to keep plants in rooms ; but their argu-
ments lacks coherence and force, and we are com-
pelled to record our experience against the posi-
tion. We believe them, on the contrary, to be
conducive to health, not only by their soothing
and cheering influence on the mind, but as purifi-
ers of the air, so that all may indulge their tastes
without the least apprehension of injury to their
health."

Fattening Sheep in Winter. — When ani-
mals are in the process of being fattened, several
things should be observed beside that of giving
them as much food as they will eat. There are
certain conditions in which the food itself may be
placed so as to make it more or less nutritious and
valuable to the animal using it. In very cold
weather its value would be enhanced if the drink
and food were warmed, or better still, if it were
cooked. If roots are fed, they are taken with less
labor, and consequently, are better digested, than
if the animal felt obliged to swallow them in large
pieces. These things should be so arranged as to
allow it to remain in a quiet condition, and so that
it may stand or lie down at pleasure. All these,
with regular feeding as to time and quantity, are
of little less importance than the quality of the
food itself. Mr. Silas Bush, of Skaneateles, N.

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Y., in speaking of fattening sheep in winter, says,
"I put them in a dry, warm place, and let them
have plenty of air ; give them one quart of oats
each, morning and evening, with hay and pure
water. I fed one in tliis way last winter, for thi'ee
months, and it was admitted by competent judges
to be as fat a sheep as they ever saw. I sold it
to a butcher for $1 1,00." The reader will not fail
to observe that the animal had a dry, warm place,
and plenty of fresh air.

Renovating Old Wall Paper. — In these
days of The Great Rebellion, when all' patriotic
persons feel like economizing their personal ex-
penses in order that they may be more able to
strengthen the government by sustaining the sol-
diers, the prudent housewife who has decided not
to re-paper the sitting-room, as desirous, will find
the old paper very much improved in appearance
by simply rubbing it well with a flannel cloth
dipped in corn meal.

An Unfortunate Cultivator. — One little
"garden patch" of ours, says a wag, has been very
profitable, very, this season. The snails ate up
the cucumbers, the chickens ate up the snails, the
neighbors' cats ate up the chickens, and we are
now in search of something that will eat the cats.
Can any of our agricultural friends aid us ?

Extra Feed to Cows. — The old plan of feed-
ing cows used to be, to see with hoio little food
the animals could be carried thi-ough the winter !
We have actually heard two farmers boasting of
their skill in this particular ; but they usually lost
a creature or two each, every spring. They seemed
to consider it quite fortunate if they lost only one
or two animals. Among good farmers, the prac-
tice now is to make the cow eat as much as she
will with good appetite. This we consider the
most profitable mode of keeping neat stock. The
rule will not apply to horses.

Some persons feed cows sparingly until within
a week or two of their time of calving, and then
give them more hay, and frequently add meal to it.
This is a bad practice. The cow needed this gen-
erous feed in the earlier stages of parturition,
which would have given both mother and calf
greater growth and strength. The practice of
feeding high, either just before or after the calf is
dropt, is injurious — but especially afterwards, as
it excites fever, the udder is more likely to be
pressed with milk and swell, and the whole sys-
tem is rather weakened than strengthened by the
extra feeding.

For two weeks before calving the cow should
be free in a roomy and dry place, with comforta-
ble bedding, — and after calving should be fed spar-
ingly for a day or two on sweet, nutritious food,
but not in large quantity. During the same time
the water given her should be slightly warm.

Neat Cattle have no Upper Front Teeth.
— The man who purchased a cow and drove her
back two miles to the house of the man he bought
her of, through a driving rain storm, because she
had no upper front teeth, probably had not his
own "eye teeth cut !"

Grain Stored on the Lakes. — Navigation
closed, leaving about a million bushels of wheat in
store in Milwaukie, and 2,480,000 bushels of
wheat and corn together, at Chicago. By far the
largest amount of grain ever in store on Lake
Michigan at the beginning of winter.

For the New England Farmer.
HETROSPECTIVE NOTES,

Calendar for DECEjfBER — Culture of
Heart and Mind in Winter. — In the leading
article of the December number of the Farmer, it
is truly gratifying to one of its readers — as doubt-
less, also, he thinks, it must be to many of them —
to find that the editor has given the precedence to
i\\Q fireside over the farm, or, in other words, has
made the suggestions which he has submitted for
the consideration of his readers, relate rather to
in-door employments and enjoyments — to the
culture of the mind and the affections — than to
out-door employments and operations, or to the
care of stock, or any other department of farm-
work. With pleasure and heartfelt satisfaction,
we have listened to his familiar "talk" upon the
sentiments which farmers should cherish in view
of the fact that December is the month of plenty,
when the store-house, the granary, the cellar and
the larder are all well filled with the good things
which a beneficent and care-taking Providence has
caused the earth to bring forth in abundance for
the sustenance and comfort both of man and beast.
He who can take his fill, or satisfy the needs and
cravings of his nature, out of the various and
abundant supplies of a kind Providence, without
gratefully recognizing the goodness of the bounti-
ful pro\'ider of them all, is a being y.'hom we must
regard as very low in the scale of created intelli-
gences, and whom higher beings must look down
upon with pity, mingled with disapprobation.
Trulj', we are the children of many mercies, and
well doth it become us all to partake of these mer-
cies with a grateful and filial recognition of the
Giver. Farmers, especially, should cherish such
sentiments, as they receive the bountiful supplies
of good things provided for the wants and com-
fort of the human family, at first hand, so to speak,
from the ever-mindful Provider, or more directly
and immediately from Him, than any other class
or portion of the great human family.

Seeing that we are all so apt to forget our in-
debtedness and our obligations to the Giver of all
the good things which we enjoy, and that we need
line upon line and precept upon precept, to arouse
us out of our forgetfulness and unthankfulness, no
suggestions could be more appropriate for a Cal-
endar for this month of plenty, when all our stores
and granaries are full, than such as are adapted
and intended to remind us of the sentiments which
we should cherish as the children of so many mer-
cies, and of the practical demonstrations which we

NEW ENGLAND FARINIER.

Fee.

should make of our gratitude and sense of obliga-
tion. Practical demonstrations, we say, for sure-
ly we should be unworthy and self-condemned, if
we did not practically demonstrate our desire to
do the things that would please so good a Father
— so bountiful a Benefactor.

With much satisfaction, also, we read the hints
which the editor has given to his readers in rela-
tion to the opportunity which is presented to the
former in December and the other winter months,
for cultivating his mind, and storing it with use-
ful knowledge. May his words fall here and there
on good soil, and arouse an ambition to become,
every year, wiser and better. By whomsoever
this ambition is cherished, the golden moments, as
they pass, will be impi-oved, and the result of well-
dii'ected study and striving will be, that he shall
become not only a nobler man, but also a better
farmer, for neither muscle, power, nor any other
power, is of so much use to one who has to manage
so complicated and many-sided a business as farm-
ing, as the highest, strongest power of all — Mind-
Power.

Undekduaining, parje 540. — Of late years
there have been so many proofs of the value of
underdraining published in this journal, as well as
in other agi'icultural periodicals, as ought to be
sufficient to stir up all cultivators of the soil — even
old fogies, and those who follow established rou-
tine— to inform themselves as thoroughly as pos-
sible as to this method of improving their lands.
No improvement will more certainly pay, when
judiciously done.

A NEW Cart Body, page 548. — If there be
among the subscribers to this journal, or among
those who borrow it of their more intelligent
neighbors, any one who is an old fogy or a blind
routinist and follower of the fashions that have
come down to us from our grandfathers, he will
find in this article a hint which might convert him
from the error of his ways, and a lesson as to the
value of making use of his own faculties, Avhich
might make him more of a man, and less a blind,
unthinking follower of the fashions of a past gen-
eration. There are many other things about a
good many farms, as well as cart bodies, which
might be improved by a little head-work.

Bean Meal for Pigs, page 554. — If the state-
ment here made as to the superior value of beans for
fattening hogs should induce any one to think, in-
quire, inform himself farther, and, finally, to make
experiments in the feeding of beans and bean-
meal to other animals as well as to pigs, he will
very certainly be led to adopt the practice of feed-
ing them far more extensively than is at present
customary among farmers. If such a one should
make researches among the agricultural periodi-
cals for a few years back, he would find that some
of the more enterprising of his farmer-brethren in
different parts of the country have been experi-
menting with beans and bean-meal as food for va-
rious kinds of stock, and have found the results so
beneficial as to encourage them to persevere. As
one among the many testimonies which he might
find of this kind, the following may be given as a
specimen : R. II. Brown informs the editor of the
Genesee Farmer that he has fed his cows early in
the spring, with three pints each per day of Indian
corn and white beans, ground together in equal
parts, and that he never liad his cows do so well

on any other food. The cows gave a large quan-
tity of milk, and the calves were the finest he ever
raised. He says he shall sell no more beans, but
feed them to his coavs. To this we can only add, at
present, the testimony of an English farmer who
keeps a hundred cows, and who says in the Oar-
dener^s Chronicle, that after having tried various
methods and various sorts of grain, he decidedly
prefers bean-meal both for quantity and quality of
milk and butter. Ground with oats or corn, they
have also been fed to cattle, hogs, horses and
poultry. We tnist more trials will be made and
reported. Try, one and all. More Anon.

Por the New England Farmer.
AT TWILIGHT.

BY JOHS CALTIS GITCHELL.

The woods are dark, yet the low west

The hidden sun is lighting still,

And shnrp against the sky, the hill
Stands, with its jagged rocky crest.

A fat sleek throng, down the green street
The herds come, driven to the yard,
Stopping at times, to crop the sward,

O'er which they pass with noisy feet.

The herd-boy loitering along,

Tosses his cap high in the air

To let the breeze play with liis hair,
Ilumming tlie while, a men-y song.

The farm-house door is open wide,
And just within, the farmer stands.
With ruddy face and sun-brown hands,

■Uliiltt his fair wife leans by his side.

By the vined-jwrch the grandsire sits.
Watching t)ie children at their plays:
And thoughts of fargone, childhood's days,

Of shade and sheen, through his mind flits.

It is a scene, where the release

From sweating toil, makes it more flair :
And all the dim surrounding air
Soems hung about with clouds of peace.
Boacaieen, N. II., ISCl.

BA"W HIDE.

How few persons know the value of raw-hide.
It seems almost strange to see them sell all of
their "deacon" skins for the small sum of tliirty or
forty cents. Take a strip of well-tanned raAV-hide
an inch wide, and a horse can hardly break it by
pulling back — two of them he cannot break any
way. Cut into narrow strips and shave the hair
ofi' with a sharp knife, to use for bag strings ; the
strings will outlast two sets of bags. Farmers
know how perplexing it is to lend bags and have
them retunied minus strings. It will outlast hoop
iron (common) in any shape, and is stronger. It
is good to wrap around a broken tliill — better than
iron. Two sets of raw-hide halters will last a man's
life-time — if he don't live too long. In some
places the Spaniards use raw-liide log chains to
work catde with, cut into narrow strips and twist-
ed together hawser fasliion. It can be tanned so
it will be soft and pliable hke harness leather.

Every man cherishes in Iris heart some object,
some shrine at which his adoration is paid unknown
to his fellow-mortals.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

WHKAT VERSUS CORIQ' BREAD.

The urgent need of money to carry us through
our political troubles, makes it a duty incumbent
upon every loyal citizen to add as much as possi-
ble to the exports of the country, which furnish
us with specie in return. Wheat is the one great
staple demanded for foreign consumption. And
every additional bushel that we can spare from
our gi-anaries will serve to alleviate the financial
difficulties of the country. i\Ir. Judd, of the
Agriculturist, Avith a view to encourage the sub-
stitution, as much as possible, of corn for wheat
flour, oftered, last month, premiums for the best
made loaves of corn bread and cake delivered at
liis office. Specimen loaves were received from
every loyal State but tMO, to the number of 250,
and placed oh exhibition last week. Hundreds of
people manifested their interest in the subject by
visiting the exhibition-room, and testing the vari-
ous loaves contributed. A committee, consisting
of competent persons, after two days' sitting, de-
cided upon their relative merits. Their report
will soon appear in the press of the city. We
are permitted to publish, at this time, the essen-
tial points which it embraces. The first prize ($10)
for the best loaf of bread, AvhoUy made of corn
meal, was aAvarded to Mrs. Jane O'Brien, of Car-
rick, Alleghany county. Pa. The following is the
recipe accompanying it :

The loaf is made up of two quarts of coi-n meal,
one pint of bread-sponge, water sufficient to wet
the whole ; and half a pint of flour, a table-
spoonful of salt. After rising, knead it well the
second time, and put into the oven, letting it re-
main an hour and a half.

The second prize of .$5 was awarded to Mrs.
Lott Cornelius, of Sullivan county, New York.
The following is the recipe for making the loaf :

ilLx two quarts of new corn meal with three
pints of warm water ; add one teaspoonful of salt,
two teaspoonfuls sugar, one large tablc-spoonfid
of hop yeast ; let it stand in a warm place five
hours to rise ; then add tlu-ee-quarters of a pint
or one and a half cupfuls of wheat flour and half
a pint of warm water ; let it rise again an hour
and a half ; have a pan well greased with sweet
lard, into which pour it, and let it rise a few min-
utes ; then bake it in a moderately hot oven one
hour and twenty minutes. It is much better hot.

Mrs, R. Franklin, of Annapolis, Md., received
the third premium of $2, for a loaf made in the
following manner :

Mix two quarts of white corn meal, one table-
spoonful of lard, one pint of hot water. Melt the
lard in the water ; stir it well, in order that it may
get thoroughly heated. Add half a pint of cold
water. When the mixture is cool enough, add
two eggs well beaten, and two table-spoonfuls of
home-made yeast. If for breakfast, make over
night. Bake an hour in a moderate oven.

The first prize ($4) for the best loaf of cake of
any kind, in which corn meal is one of the princi-
pal ingredients, was awarded to Mrs. W. II. Jen-
kins, of Williamsburgh, L. I. I'he following is
the recipe for making it :

Combine three tea-cupfuls of corn meal, one
tea-cupful of wheat flour, two table-spoonfuls of
brown sugar, two table-spoonfuls of cream of tar-
tar, one table-spoonful of salt. Mix well together
while dry, adding one teaspoonful of saleratus or

soda dissolved in warm water. Work the whole
to a thin batter, and bake in a quick oven three-
quarters of an hour.

The second prize for the best corn cake was
awarded to Mrs. II. A. Judd, of Oneida county,
New York. We are unable to give the method
of making it, as some of the visitors not only de-
voured the loaf, but stole the recipe.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.

PPllING-SOWN GRASS SEED — SOILING COWS —
BAKX STOCK.

1. Will herdsgi'ass or clover bear hay enough to
be profitable, if sowed early in the spring, or had I
better sow oats and seed together in the old way ?
taking after crops in consideration, Avliich will be
most profitable ?

2. Can I soil two cows with profit where fair
pasturing can be ])rocured at six dollars per head,
Taking increase of manure by the soiling process
into consideration ? What will cure barn itch on
cattle ? SuBScrviBER.

North Dunharton, N. H., 1861.

Remarks. — Ifherdsgrass and clover seed are
sown about the first of April on ground in good
condition, and the summer should prove a moist
one, a ton of hay per acre is sometimes obtained.
Perhaps the better way would be to sow oats or
barley Avith the grass seed, and cut them for fod-
der. This course would not materially exhaust
the soil, and the oats might in some measure pro-
tect the young grass, and give it an opportunity to
escape drought, if it should ensue. The oats, when
well made, will be nearly as valuable as the same
weight of herdsgrass hay.

We should question whether soiling on a small
scale, would be profitable, where tolerably good
pasture could be had at six dollars per head, — but
there are so many things to be taken into consid-
eration, that we can scarcely offer on opinion of
any value.

To cure the "barn itch," some persons use un-
guentum with success ; others give the animal as
much salt and soot as it will eat, and afterwards
doses of sulphur.

USE OF RAW hide.

In a late number of the Farmer you recommend
the use of raw hide. If you will tell us how to
cure hide, you will confer a favor on

Enjield, Ct., Dec. 27, 1861. Subscriber.

Remarks. — AVe gave the article as we found it,
supposing that many farmers might find it conve-
nient to use the raw hide profitably in some cases
on the farm. Two or three inquiries have been
made to the same point as the above. In the ar-
ticle we copied no intimation was given us as to
how the skins were managed. Skins may be
tanned by spreading powdered alum, or soft soap,
on the flesh side, and rolling them together to re-
main eight or ten days, if the weather is cooL

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

They must then be drawn over the edge of a board
— a board fence for instance — by two men, and
rubbed and worked upon until they are pliable.
But the raw hide, if we understand the matter, is
never very soft. It may, perhaps, be made plia-
ble by the process we have described.

CULTURE OF HOPS.

Will you, or some of your subscribers, tell me
what you think of hop raising, whether it will pro-
bably be good business for a few years, and what
kind of soil is best adapted to their growth ? How
far apart should they be set, and how many poles
to the hill ? I have started a yard the past sea-
son, but am not quite satisfied as to the best meth-
od of cultivation. If you, or some of your sub-
scribers, can give me any light on the matter, you
will confer a favor, and at some future day I will
give you the result of my first experience in the
business. Samuel Stanford.

Irashurg, Vt., Dec, 1861.

Remarks. — There is no good reason for doubt-
ing that you may make a fair profit in the skillful
cultivation of hops, provided they are properly
prepared, put up, and offered in the markets at
the right time.

The plants are usually placed on hills at the dis-
tance of five or six feet, and two or three poles are
commonly placed on a hill. The first year poles six
or eight feet long will answer, but twelve feet poles,
or even longer, will be needed afterwards. The soil
should be as dry as for Indian corn, should be
deep and rich, and can hardly be stirred too much
during the growing season.

The State of New York is the gi"eat hop garden
of the Union — that State having produced in
1859, nine million six hundred and fifty-four
'pounds ! The same year the English crop was
cut off, which caused a brisk demand for Ameri-
can hops, and 49,000 bales were shipped from the
port of New York alone. We export only when
the English crop is cut off, which, together with
the bad condition in which many of the American
hops are put up, our cultivators not taking suffi-
cient pains in that important particular, cause
great fluctuations in prices.

TO STOP VOMITING IN CATTLE.

Boil tansy and mint together ; give one quart of
tliis to the beast. K it does not stop in an hour,
give the same quantity again, and repeat it till the
vomiting ceases. I had a case of this kind which
was cured by giving two quarts of this liquid.

Danhy, Dec. 26, 1861. Lyman 11. FisK.

bunch on a colt's jaw.

I have a three years' old colt that has got a
bunch on his under jaw, al)out as big as a hen's
egg. It grows tight to the bone, like a wen that
comes on cattle. Can you, or any of your sub-
scribers, tell me of any remedy for it ?

Richmond, Dec. 21, 1861. A Subscriber.

ESSEX transactions FOR 1861.

This finely printed book of 200 pages has just
come to my hand. It contains the usual docu-
ments, together with about 50 pages of essays, by
writers of taste and experience. Among the names
appended to the Reports are many of the best ex-
perienced cultivators of the county. Notwith-
standing the Society has ever been liberal in dis-
pensing premiums, often paying out one thousand
dollars a year, it has been so managed as to secure
as a permanent fund on interest, all the money it
has received from the State, diu'ing its forty years
existence, which, together with the experimental
farm, donated by the late Dr. Treadwell, of Sa-
lem, makes its present available means not less
than $16,000. If there be any other agricultural
Society in the State that has been more discreetly
managed, I should like to be advised of it. It has
pursued the even tenor of its way, directing "its
eyehds right on, and its eyes right forward," avoid-
ing all gambHng movements and fancy improve-
ments. So may it ever be.

December, 1861.

warts on colts.

Can you, or any of your correspondents, inform
me of a remedy for warts upon colts ? I have a
yearling colt, whose nostrils and under lips are
fast getting covered with large, seedy warts. I
have applied lamp oil, but without effect.

Wuyland, Jan. 2, 1862. SUBSCRIBER.

Remarks. — Mr. A. Briggs, of Deerfield, Mass.,
says that potash dissolved to a paste, laid upon
the wart for half an hour, and then taken off and
the part washed in vinegar, wiU cure a wart on
man or beast.

will DOVES PULL UP CORN?

I have kept doves for the last fifteen years, and
have never had any com pulled up by them, al-
though my neighbors say they pull up theirs, and
damage their grain crops considerably. If this is
so, I must kill them, though I have thought they
do as much good as hurt. H. T. Gates.

Neio Worcester, Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — Doves are very destructive to the
young peas, but we have never known them to
pull up corn.

Fresh Maple Molasses. — A correspondent
of Field Notes gives the following. Maple mo-
lasses well made and put up in cans right from the
kettle, and hermetically sealed, as you would can
and seal fruits, will keep as fresh as when first
boiled from the sap, and tlais is decidedly the best
plan for keeping, as when made in cakes, if ex-
posed to the air, it will lose somewhat of the pe-
culiarly delightful flavor for which it is so prized,
and is often injured by insects. All this is obviat-
ed by canning while hot. To many ftimilies who
do not make on a large scale, this need be but lit-
tle expense, as the cans that have been emptied
through the winter can be used until autumn
fruits demand them again. Put up your best in
this way. Where large quantities are made for
market, the buyers must select and can for them-
selves.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

For the New England Farmer,
THE ABMY WOBM,

I discovered the army -vvorm in the town of
Wayland, Mass., October 12, 1861, on a small
place owned and occupied by Hon. Edward Mel-
len. I was somewhat astonished to find them in
such numbers at that late season, so watched their
motions closely.

Upon malung inquiry in the vicinity, I found
but few persons Avho had noticed them, and they
were not aware that the "army worm" was in their
neighborhood. I had seen a kind of greenish-grey
worm, striped with black, and it had eaten consid-
erably the last of the season, but there Avere so
many new things, I did not notice it particularly.
I searched the adjoining fields, but could find no
specimens except in Judge Mellen's case ; then
the question arose, how came so many on this par-
ticular piece of ground, and not one in the adjoin-
ing fields ? I can answer this question in a satis-
factory manner, to myself, at least.

The piece of land in question contained two
acres, and was bounded on the north-east and
south by rising land covered with fruit and forest
trees, and on the west by a small pond of water,
and a large tract of meadow. A half-acre of this
land was "made land," flat, and composed of sand
and muck, making a soil three feet deep, and but
a little above the level of the pond. Part of this
flat was cultivated, or had potatoes planted on it,
but for want of care, witch grass was the cultivat-
ed crop, and the army worm was trying to set man
an example by destroying it. The remainder
was mowing, and the thick aftermath offered the
worms food by day, and a warm covering by night,
until they were compelled to seek their winter
quarters. A person who has never studied ento-
mology, will hardly believe insects capable of rea-
soning, as I shall endeavor to show these worms
were.

I found them gathered around near the pond, in
great numbers — but the weather held mild for sev-
eral days, and they scattered in search of food —
October 20th, I found some in a field fifty rods
from the pond, or their camp ground. I discov-
ered them feeding on the second crop of oats
about llA A. M, and at li P. M., they were all
headed homeward ; there were a few days colder
weather, and they stopped in camp ; but when
there came a warm day, they sallied forth in com-
panies in the warmest part of the day, and back
to theii- camp ground before night. After the po-
tatoes were dug, they crossed the dug over ground,
and camped nearer the pond on grass ground,
passing and re-passing in regular order, several
companies abreast, and several deep. I examined
them with a lantern, and found them lying in the
same order, with a space about their length — \%
inches — between the companies.

November 11th, I was setting Antwerp rasp-
berries about 20 rods from the camp ground ; at
Hi A. M., I left 10 stools with 40 stalks to a
stool that I had not headed in ; there was about
one foot of top covered with green leaves, and
when I returned at 12i P. M., the leaves were
gone, and the stalks were covered with army
worms. On my appearance, they all dropped off"
from the stalks and started for home, all in the
same direction and order, some forward and others
backward, turning on the road. I had some wood

ashes handy, and scattered some in front of the
worms, and wet them Avith my sprinkler ; these
they marched over, so I scattered more and left
them dry; those puzzled the Avorms, and they "left-
faced" and started around. I let a fcAv pass, and
headed off" the remainder with ashes, scattering
them entirely around the regiment. When the
fonvard company came to the ashes the second
time, they delegated a reconnoitering party that
went the rounds and fell into place, Avhere they re-
mained and froze to death that night. I tried to
bring them to life, but could not. The ones I let
pass, steered directly for the camp. The weather
Avas AAinterish from that time, and they all disap-
])eared. I searched for them several days, and
finally found them packed away around the edge
of the pond ; they laid from eight to fourteen
inches deep, and from the Avater back six feet.
There Avas about four rods in length occupied by
them, and they Avere about the same distance from
the Avater.

Some began to Avind up after three weeks, and
others I think Avill remain dormant, as they are
not fully grown, and didn't seem inclined to
change their coats for fashion's sake. In the Agri-
cidtural Report of Ohio for 1860, second series, p.
350, is an able article by J. Kirkpatrick, Avho
thinks the natural habitat of the worm is the wild
SAvamp grasses ; and I have no doubt, from what
I have observed, that they ahvays go to some such
place as the ones above spoken of, to winter, and
that ashes scattered around them in quantities,
Avill keej) them in check, and dry ashes Avill kill
them, if properly applied. Dry slaked lime is as
good as ashes. D. J. KiNNEY.

Wayland, Jan. 1, 1862.

Autumn OR Winter Manuring the Best. — •
Neai-ly all the benefits of autumn manuring may
be secured, AA'here cattle and other animals are kept
in stables or Avarm basements, by draAving out the
manure during the comparatively leisure time of
Avinter, and spreading it at once on the land. The
Avinter rains, Avhenever they occur, and all the
spring rains, will give it a thorough Avashing, and
carry the liquid into the soil ; but such places must
be selected for this purpose as AA'ill not favor the
accumulation of Avater into brooks or streams, and
thus carry off' the manure altogether. Grass lands
are much the best for this treatment, by tending to
retain the manure. Nothing is better for gardens
that are to be enriched for spring crops, than au-
tumn or Avinter application of manure ; and ncAvly
planted trees, dAvarf pears, strawberry beds, &c.,
receive a great deal of protection against cold by
such coatings, Avhich are to be turned in, in sjjring.
— Country Gentleman.

Our New Office. — Our friends Avill please no-
tice that Ave have removed the oflfice of the Far-
mer to No. 100 Washington Street, tip stairs, and
directly oi'ier A. Williams & Co.'s Bookstore. The
location is central, and cannot be far from most
points Avhere those Avho Avish to call will have busi-
ness to transact Avhen they come to the city. We
have a pleasant room, and shall be glad to have
a fcAV moments' chat Avith any of our friends Avho
may be pleased to call.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

STEAMING OR BOILING- FOOD FOR STOCK.

Many experiments have been made in various
parts of New England, to ascertain whether the
food fed to stock could be steamed or boiled, so as
to increase its value sufficiently to make the oper-
ation a profitable one. The experiments — so far
as they have come to our knowledge — have been
made under several disadvantages, the principal
of which has been the want of a proper apparatus
with which to do the work. Some have attempt-
ed it in the use of the common boiler or cauldron,
others have made large troughs and turned boiling
water upon the feed, and two persons, with whose
experiments we are acquainted, have constructed
large boxes and supplied them with steam by the
use of somewhat expensive boilers. Under these
circumstances, the results which have been at-
tained do not agree, but have all tended to show
that where the arrangements are judicious, a very
decided advantage, or economy, may be found in
cooking, or partially cooking, the food of our ani-
mals. One gentleman, who went through the
winter with twelve cows and fed them on hay tea,
has sent us the following account :

Friend Brown : — In accordance with your re-
quest, I will give you a short sketch of my trial
with the hay tea. I first procured a portable boiler,
holding two barrels, which I placed in a shed
adjoining the barn, the boiler being so situated
that by means of troughs, I could pump directly
into it. After filling the boiler nearly full of wa-
tef, I pressed into it as much hay, unchopped, as

it would conveniently hold. Upon bringing it up
to the boiling point, I let it steep a few minutes,
and then clipped it out into troughs to cool. It
ought to steep longer, but could not on account
of the smallness of the boiler. The hay I gave to
the cows to eat, the tea for drink, not giving them
any other drink, but as much dry hay as they
would eat. I gave the tea as Marm as they would
drink it, using in it what would be equal to about
three quarts of coarse shorts a day, to each cow ;
the grain was of different kinds during the winter.
As I have told you before, I kept no strict account,
so that I cannot enter into particulars, and can
give only the general result. According to my
own observation, and that of my neighbors, the
balance was decidedly in favor of my cows, both as
to their condition, and the quantity of milk they
gave, although they consumed a much larger
amount of hay and grain. In many winters' ex-
perience of raising milk on high feed of grain,
roots and hay, taking the summer and Avinter cows
together, I found the average to be about six
quarts daily to each cow, and I have found upon
inquiry among my neighbors, that is as high as
theirs would average. My cows, fed with the hay
tea, and the same proportion of summer and win-
ter ones, averaged about ten quarts each day,
showing so decidedly in favor of the tea, as to sat-
isfy me that it is the way to raise milk. I think
where the farmer has a good manure cellar, (and
no good firmer will be long without one,) and ma-
terial to put into it, he will find this manner of
feeding a great help to the compost heap.

Another gentleman, who is entirely reliable, be-
ing a man of facts and figures, states that he kept

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER

a number of large milch cows in excellent condi-
tion tlu-ough the -winter, on an average of nine
cents per day. He also stated that with more
economical arrangements — which liis experience
had suggested, but which he had not put into
practice — he thought he could keep them well for
even less than that sum.

In looking at the great variety of agricultural
implements and machinery', recently, in the rooms
of Messrs. Parker, Gannett & Osgood, on
Blackstone Street, our attention was attracted to
a cauldron, or steamer, for cooking food for stock,
and in which we became considerably interested.
While looking at it, the Hon. Josiah Quincy, of
Quincy, came in, who stated that he had been
using one of them for several months, and had or-
dered a second one of larger size. lie is winter-
ing some eighty cows, and in using this boiler in
direct connection with them, we thought his opin-
ion of their value would enable us to judge pretty
correctly of its merits. It is as follows ;

Sosfon, Nov. 28, 1861.
Dear Sir : — "Prindle's Patent Agricultural
Boiler and Steamer," has been used on my farm,
daily, for at least six months, and has given entire
satisfaction. As a cheap generator of steam, it
appears to me to merit the high eulogiums that
ai'e contained in the printed certificates appended
to the advertisements.

I am- very truly,

Josiah Quincy, Jr.

Since the receipt of that letter, we have seen this
steamer in operation, and it seemed to possess
many points of value over any other cheap arrange-
ment that we have seen. It had cooked a barrel
of pumpkins into "squash," and was then steaming
a lot of cut hay. Dr. Eben. Wight, of Dedham,
on whose form we saw it in operation, states that
it operates efficiently and cheaply ; that it is easily
managed, and requires little fuel, compared with
the common stove cauldrons.

It seems to us that its merits must be full as
prominent in the house of the former, as connected
with the barn. Where there are cans to be washed,
or milk-pans, or hot water wanted for feeding
swine or slaughtering them, it must be exceeding-
ly convenient. So in washing clothes, warming
baths, or cooking vegetables in large quantities as
they are obliged to in hotels. It is unHke the ket-
tle, as it can be made to cook at any desired point,
in any convenient wooden vessel at hand, which is
steam tight, by the use of a flexible tube or pipe.
It is impossible to burn the substance being cooked
or heated. It dispenses with all cleaning of ket-
tles for every separate job, unless the top is re-
moved, and it is used as a common kettle for try-
ing out lard, making soap, boiling clothes, or any
of the usual purposes of a kettle.

We think those needing an article of this nature,

will do well to call at the warehouse we have men-
tioned, and look at one for themselves. As Mr.
Quincy states in liis note, it is called "Prindle's
Patent Agricultural Boiler and Steamer," and
consists of two or three sizes.

"WEALTH OF OLD EOMANS.

According to Cicero, the debts of A. Milo
amounted to above $28,000,000, federal currency ;
Julius Ca;sar, when setting out for Spain, is re-
ported to have said to himself, he was $10,000,-
000 worse than nothing. When he first entered
Rome, after crossing the Paibicon, he took from
the public treasury $5,.500,000, but at the end of
the civil war put over $24,000,000 in it. He pur-
chased the friendship of Curio with a bribe of over
$2,o00,000, and of the Consul L. Paulus, with
half that sum.

Croesus was worth in real estate over $8,000,-
000, and about as much in money, furniture and
slaves. Seneca was worth over $20,000,000.
Lentulus, the augur, over $16,000,000. Augustus
raised by the testaments of his friends over $161,-
000,000." Tiberius left at liis death nearly $100,-
000,000, which Caligula spent in less than one
year ; and Vespasian, at his succession, said that
he required for the support of the State over
$1,014,000,000. Nevertheless, though greatly en-
riched by his conquests, imperial Rome never
came into the full inheritance of the chief wealth
of the East, and the larger quantity of the pre-
cious metals must have remained excluded from
the calculations of ancient historians. — Life Il-
lustrated.

Bots — Prevention Better than Cure, — ^In
the Avinter of 18o0, I was passing through Ver-
mont, and stopped for the night at an old former's
by the name of David Ruggles. The next morn-
ing one of my horses was suffering severely from
an attack of the bots. A large dose of sage tea,
made very strong, and sweetened with molasses,
caused them to relax their hold, and I was soon
enabled to pursue my journey. Before doing so
my host informed me that he kept salt and ashes
constantly before his horses, and said he thought
it was a sure preventive.

Thinking it worthy of trial, upon my arrival
home I rigged a box in each of my stalls, and put
salt and ashes in equal proportion in them. Since
then I have had a great many different horses, but
have not had occasion to doctor for bots. Of
course, I am not certain that the above prevented
the bots, but I have no doubts on the subject.

It is harmless and cheap, and is worthy a trial
by every one that keep horses. — Country Gentle-

Grafting the Tomato on the Potato. —
"Horticola," in the Ilorticidiurist, states that he
succeeded, perfectly, in grafting a scion of the to-
mato upon the potato vine. He cut about one-
third of the potato shoot off, just above a leaf, tak-
ing care not to injure the bud at its base. The
scion, being shielded from the sun, was every day
sprinkled with a little water, and it took readily.
In the fall the tomato was loaded with ripe and
unripe fruit, and had grown to a large size.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

For the New England Farmer.
MABKET BEPOBTS.

Mr. Editor: — The statement is often made
that a certain newspaper article, or a certain mar-
ket report, is worth the whole cost of a year's sub-
scription. This is doubtless very true. I think,
myself, that some articles from the pen of the edi-
tor or associate editor of the Farmer, are worth
the price of the paper, and yet it does not always
follow, by any means, that every one can afford to
pay for it. Some farmers, who are deeply in debt,
feel that they can hardly afford to expend any
thing that does not promise a speedy return in
money value.

If there is one department of an agricultural pa-
per of more importance, in a pecuniary point of
view, to the farmer, than any other, it is reliable
market reports. The faithful record we get from
•week to week through the Farmer, of the sales^ at
Brighton market, have elicited the commendation
of several writers, and deservedly so, for they are
honest reports, (without partiality to buyer or sell-
er,) showing every farmer, at a glance, the true
market value of the different kinds of stock. In
my own judgment, Brighton market is better re-
ported in the Farmer, than is the New York mar-
ket by Solon Robinson, Esq., in the Tribune, in-
asmuch as it seems to me more in the farmer's in-
terest, or, perhaps, I should rather say, in every
one's interest, the reporter himself having no par-
ticular interest of his own, or Ids own locality, to
gratify.

But my object in writing was, not to commend
the reports of Brighton market alone, nor the va-
rious other market valuations of farming produc-
tions so fully and impartially given in the Farmer,
which are all, I doubt not, appreciated, but to
suggest what I conceive might be an improvement
in your report on hay. Since the partial failure
of the potato crop, farmers in tliis vicinity have
very generally turned their attention more to the
sale of hay, and we depend on the Farmer just as
much to give us the Boston value of that article,
as we do on the Brighton report to give us the
price of a yoke of fat oxen ; and what I wish to
suggest is, whether it would not be an improve-
ment, instead of quoting country hay so much,
and Eastern pressed so much, to specify the price
of the several qualities, as you do on beef, lumber,
&c., by first quality, second quality, hay for bed-
ding, 8zc. I find some of our farmers are at a loss
to know whether their hay goes into Boston at the
price of Eastern pressed, or country hay. I sup-
pose that country hay has reference to loose hay
drawn in from the vicinity of Boston ; still I con-
clude our first quality hay, pressed and sent in by
the cars, commands about the same price. By
giving the price of the different qualities in Bos-
ton, farmers will readily perceive its home value,
and govern themselves accordingly.

Those whose business it is to report the state
of the markets, cannot be too fully aware of their
responsible position. They act in an important
sense as agents for the whole community. How
desirable that those agents be so reliable as to give
no just cause for the remark sometimes made, that
"we can tell nothing by the papers."

Farmers should not be too sensitive to their
own interest, nor strive to obtain more for an ar-
ticle than its true market value, but they are sur-

rounded by speculators, and, as a body, go so sel-
dom to the city, that they need all the advantage
the market affords ; and an agricultural paper, of
all others, should be, (as I think the Farmer is,)
in the farmer's interest. JoHN F. FRENCH.

North Hampton, N. H., Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — We thank you for your sugges-
tions, and your good opinion of the Farmer.
The attention of the Reporter will be called to the
matter.

For the New England Farmer.
THE SEASON AND CBOPS.

Friend Brown : — ^For a long time, as often
as I have perused the pages of the Farmer, which
I always do with pleasure and profit, I have been
resolving and re-resolving that I would contribute
my mite to your columns.

I have now screwed my resolution up to the
writing point, and dipped my quill — no, we have no
quills, now-a-days, except for tooth-picks. Que-
ry— What becomes of all the quills ? Have the
geese yielded to the pressure of the times, and
stopped discounting quills, as the pigs have bris-
tles, since pegs have been substituted therefor ?

But, as I was saying, I am about to "Avrite for
the papers." Now for a theme. Your multitu-
dinous and able correspondents have raked the
ground all over, leaving less encouragement for
gleaners than was provided in Old Testament
times. But agricultural, like moral precepts, will
bear repeating, and if I should advance what has
been said, and better said, by others, my labor
may not be lost.

The season just passed has been one of uncom-
mon jjroducliveness in this region. IMost of the
staple crops gave abundant yield. Corn was nev-
er better ; hay very abundant, and got in in good
condition ; potatoes from fair to good, and little
or no rot ; oats about middling ; wheat was in-
jured by the lice — not more than half the yield
of the previous year.

Quern — Would it not be better to sow in the
fall ? Why more liable to be winter-lulled than
rye ? Or why not sow a month or six weeks lat-
er in spring, and thus come it over the varmints ?
In Wolfboi-o', N. II., I was told by a farmer, in
the winter of 1857, that he sowed wheat on the
16th of June, and harvested it on the 16th of Oc-
tober, the same yielding twenty-eight bushels per
acre. Rye has been a leading crop Mith the farm-
ers in this valley. Rye bread in summer, and rye
and Indian in winter, have been regarded through-
out the whole valley of the Connecticut as lawful
tender, from time immemorial. But Avheat is now
crowding it out. Our miller told me a few days
since that he grinds much more wheat than rye.

In fvuit we have suffered in common with all
New England. I vdsh some of your contributors
would tell us why there was such a dearth of fruit
last season. Apples, pears and grapes, next to
none ; cherries, peaches, plums, none. Was it the
cold ? A large orchard in my neighborhood pro-
duced more apples last season than in any one
year for five years previous. My Isabella, Con-
cord and Hartford prolific grap«^s did Avell, while
the natives, of which I have ten varieties, all failed.
Most of my quinces were killed down to the

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

ground, while one old shnib, which had for a long
time been battling between life and death, bore a
dozen fine quinces. Peaches are among the things
that were. AVe shall raise no more until our sea-
sons change. There is reason to fear that cher-
ries will follow in their wake. We have had none
for two seasons, and most of the trees give signs
of approaching dissolution.

But enough of this. We have other and more
formidable foes than the weevil, the curculio, the
borer, and even Jack Frost himself. The vermin
which have poisoned our political atmosphere are
now boring into the roots of the tree of liberty,
and stripping it of its foliage. Our farms should
not be neglected, and need not be ; but the prin-
cipal energies of the whole loyal portion of our
people should be concentrated upon this vilest and
most formidable enemy of the body politic.

Amherst, Jan. 7, 1862.

THE PTJZZLED ■WHEN.

I was sitting one June morning at the open win-
dow of a pleasant country-house, when I observed
a busy wren flying back and forth through the
thick boughs of a large English cherry tree, bring-
ing bits of Avood and grass to the little round hole
which she had made in the bottom of the tree, for
a place, I suppose, to hide her nest in. After a
while she came lugging a burden that looked
heavy enough for two wrens. She had been to the
wood-pile, and picked up a stick longer than she
was, and I watched her as she flew up to the hole
with it, and attempted to go in just as she had
done with her other sticks and bits. I laughed to
see how puzzled she was when her burden butted
against the sides, and pushed her back from the
entrance. She tried it again and again with the
same result, fluttering up to the hole, knocking
the stick against the sides, and then obliged to
flutter back again. It was very rude in the un-
gainly twig, she seemed to think, and the little
lady actually looked as if she felt insulted. I al-
most expected to see her give it up ; but no.
Fastening her feet firmly on the edge of the open-
ing, she placed the stick perpendicularly, and
tugged with all her might to thrust it through, but
in vain ; then she turned it and tried it horizontal-
ly, but it would not go in. At last she tried it
endwise, and I could not help clapping my hands
as it slid to the bottom of the nest, and the little
bird hopped in after it, with a kind of provoked
triumph in her manner, as if she said, "What a
fool ! Why didn't I know that before ?"

Manual of Agriculture. — We leam that this
work is already largely called for by the towns in
Massachusetts, to be placed in their schools. One
town has ordered tivo hundred copies, another one
hundred, and many others twenty-five to fifty
copies each. We learn, also, that where it has
been introduced, the pupils, both boys and girls,
are delighted with the study. We supposed that
such would be the case. Our youth will readily
comprehend the importance to them of such a
study — a study that is always highly pleasing,
while it instructs.

■WINTEK CABE OP STOCK.

In a climate so variable as that of New Eng-
land, where the extremes of the temperature
sometimes range from forty degi'ees above zero to
twenty degrees below, within twenty-four consec-
utive hours, it becomes us to provide a pretty
thorough shelter for the animals who depend upon
us, as well as for ourselves. Stock mcnj be kept
out of doors all winter, or in cold and cheerless
bams, and come out in the spring looking well, —
but it must always be at the considerable cost of
a large additional amount of nutritive food over
what would have been required, if the stock had
been warmly housed.

The body of an animal may be compared to a
stove, — place it in an ordinarily tight room, and
half a dozen pounds of fuel will heat its sides red
hot ; but Avhen set out in the open air, where cold
currents are constantly sweeping from its sides
the heat imparted to them by the fuel, two or
three times six pounds will scarcely heat it too
hot for the hand to rest upon it. The food which
the animal eats imparts heat to the system some-
thing as the fuel does to the stove. We find a
few words to the point in the Tribune. "Farmers
do not pay sufficient attention to the warmth of
their stock, but suffer them to roam about in the
open air, exposed to the inclement weather. The
amount of exercise is another most important
point to attend to. The more an animal moves
about, the quicker it will breathe, and the more
starch, gum, sugar, fat, and other respiratory ele-
ments it must have in its food ; and if ai> addition-
al quantity of these substances is not given to sup-
ply the increased demand, the fat and other parts
of the body will be drawn upon, and the animal
will become thinner ; also, as before observed,
every motion of the body produces a correspond-
ing destruction of the muscles which produce that
motion. It is, therefore, quite evident that the
more the animal moves about, the more of the
heat-producing and flesh-forming principle it must
receive in its food. Hence, we see the propriety
of keeping om* cattle in sheds and yards, and not
suffering those (particularly which we intend to
fatten) to rove about, consuming more food, and
wasting away more rapidly the various tissues of
the body already formed, and making it more ex-
pensive and difficult to fatten them."

We are perfectly aware of the fact, that it is al-
together easier to sit and talk about what is best
to be done, than it is to do the thing itself, or to
furnish the "ways and means" of doing it. Nev-
ertheless, we believe a tolerably warm i)lace can be
provided for stock in seven cases out of ten among
the farmers, and that Avithout the aid of a carpen-
ter ! We were strongly reminded of tliis the oth-
er day, while ^^siting a very old barn, by observ-
ing how completely the arrangement of the hay, a

NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

Feb,

few common boards, old shingles and laths, and a
good degree of skill, or rather tact, which is a
grade higher than skill, had shut out the storm
and wind, and provided a comfortable leanto for a
fine stock of cattle, horses and colts. The old bam
would creak and groan before the blast, but the
cattle patiently Ustened to its uproar while quietly
chewing the ''cud of contentment," and grew fat
and strong upon their fodder.

But the experiences of a "plain, practical far-
mer," will be regarded as of more value than any
theories of ours, and as we have a plenty at hand,
we give some of them below, which we find in a
New Hampshire paper for 1852.

"The barn, or building, rather, in which my cat-
tle for a number of years were sheltered, (if shel-
ter it could be called,) was in a very dilapidated
condition. Expecting from year to year to be
able to replace it with a new one, I delayed many
little repairs which I am since convinced it would
have been true economy to make several years be-
fore. I knew the animals suffered much from the
cold, and to compensate for their sufi'erings, I fed
them McU ; but while pursuing the system that
necessity compelled me to adopt, I could not
but observe, on comparing notes with my neigh-
bors, that my cattle consumed considerably more
food than theirs, while at the same time their
condition was not only no better, but scarcely as
good. However, I then attributed this fact to any
other but the right cause. Knowing that some
animals eat more than others, without improving
in an equal degree, I presumed that mine were of
tliis lean kind, and thus dismissed the subject from
my mind.

Feelinjj somewhat stronger in pocket two years
since, I built a new barn. The shelter it afforded
my cattle was, as you may suppose, better than
the old one. The feed given my cattle during the
fii'st winter was the same in quality and quantity
as that of the previous winter ; but I was sur-
prised to find in the spi'ing there was a decided
improvement in their condition over that of the
preceding spring. Last winter I found that I
could keep them on at least one-fourth less food
than ever before, and as I am satisfied that they
have not changed their natures, I cannot attribute
this saving of food to any other cause than to the
comfortable shelter provided for them in the new
barn during cold weather.

I am aware that there are scientific principles
upon which this change may be accounted for, but
aspiring to no prouder distinction than that of a
plain, practical farmer, I leave scientific explana-
tions to those more competent than myself, being
content to record the simple fact, that / save one-
fourth of my cattle^ s food, by providing them loith
comfortable shelter during the winter season."

Feeding Bone-Dust to Cows. — Your cor-
respondent "Country," says his cow's toes groAv too
long. I have had sheep's toes do the same while
stabled. Some time ago a young farmer living
some 20 mUes from me, said that he had, at dif-
ferent times, in his barn, cows whose claws would
grow too long, and occasionally one claw would
grow around the end of the other claw, and that it

was cured by feeding hone-dust. He had fed as
much as one tablespoonful each day to a cow in
cut feed, with marked effect. He acknowledged
it was full, strong feed. I generally feed one table-
spoonful twice in a week to each cow, but do not
know its effect. My reason for doing it is that
my neighborhood has been pastured these 200
years, and little or no manure put on the ground,
hence the soil is wanting in bone-making mate-
rial.— Country Gentleman.

For the New England Farmer.
PLAWTIITG CORN— KAISINQ ONIONS,

I believe that it is well for farmers to make ex-
periments in agriculture, and after so doing pub-
lish the same in some agricultural paper, whether
the results prove favorable or otherwise, so that
others may know how to be governed in such mat-
ters. Agreeably to that belief, I last spring made
the foUoM'ing experiments in raising corn and on-
ions: After spreading about 32 loads of barn
manure on grass land and turning it under, the
land Avas then well levelled and haiTowed smooth,
after which it was rowed out 3i feet apart, each
way, and planted as follows :

One portion of the field was manured with
night-soil compost, at the rate of one shovelful to
four liills, another portion with Coe's superphos-
phate, at the rate of one handful to two hills, a
third portion with Avheat bran, at the rate of one
handful to each hill. Before dropping the com
the bran was covered with soil by the foot ; the
three portions were treated alike till harvest time,
then the three parts were harvested separately,
and carefully weighed. In estimating the expense
of the phosphate and the bran, I found that I had
applied 18 per cent, more phosphate than of bran,
by actual cost, and tliat the increase was but 6 per
cent., by Aveight, above the bran, thus shoAving the
bran gave the greatest gain for the first outlay.
Ljuring all the forepart of the season, the bran
portion Avas superior to the others, both in size and
color. Thus I have experimented Avith bran for
the tAvo last years, Avith tlie same results.

NOAV FOR TUE TRIAL WITU ONIONS.

After trying for the last feAV years, Avith almost
an entire failure, I had nearly concluded to give
up in despixir of raising this much-loved vegetable,
but last spring I concluded to give them one more
trial ; consequently, after preparing my bed for
parsnips, I sowed tAvo rows lengtliAvise of my bed
of six rods in length. I soav lengthwise, because
I find it more expeditious Avorking Avith the seed-
soAver, and the hand-cultivator running betAveen
the roAvs lessens the labor of raising garden vege-
tables much. After the onions Avere up, say about
tAvo inches, I sprinlded Avliite pine saAvdust along
the roAvs so as to cover the ground completely
over, Avishing to prove whether saAvdust Avas of any
benefit. I left about four feet of one roAV without
the dust ; the consequence Avas, I had tAvo good
rows of onions, Avith the exception of the four feet
undusted, Avhich did not produce one single plant,
proving satisfactorily, to my mind, the benefit of
the dust.

Thus much, Mr. Editor, I have experimented,
and send to you for publication, should you see fit
to give it a place in your valuable paper.

Bedford, N. H., Dec, 18G1. T. G. il.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

THE HOP CHOP OF MASSACHUSETTS.

The following extracts from the annual report
of the State Inspector of Hops, Mr. Charles Car-
ter, will be of much interest, not only to the hop
growers of tliis State, but throughout New Eng-
land.

The total amount of hops inspected during the
four months ending Jan. 1, 18G2, was 117,019 lbs.,
classified as follows: — First sort, 104,801 lbs.;
second sort, 7,253 lbs.; refuse, 5,805 lbs. The re-
port continues :

The hops grown this year are better adapted to
the English market than a rich yellow hop, for the
good reason, that the best English hops grown in
the county of Kent, are a pale color, and our hops
will compare favorably with them. The hops
grown in the State of Maine, on the Androscog-
gin River, will come the nearest to the English
hop, for the good reason, the climate is the most
congenial to the culture of hops. The growers of
bops in the State of Maine, within the last seven
years, have changed their course from very coarse
picking to what at this time may be termed fine or
good picking ; not that we expect our growers to
fully compete with the English, but one thing I
can say, from letters seen from England, in reply
to hops sent forward from hops grown in the State
of Maine, that these hops would compare favora-
bly Avith the English hops, and would readily com-
mand one pound more per cwt. than ordinary
American hops. Under those favorable auspices,
we need not despair of growing hops, especially in
the State of Maine.

One year since the duty on American hops sent
to London, paid to that Government, was £2 5s ;
before the crop of 18G0 came ofi", the duty was re-
duced to £1. At the same time a further reduc-
tion was to take place on the 1 st day of January,
1802, to 15s — which is the present duty on Ameri-
can hops. I would suggest to buyers to sell their
hops the yeai" grown in, as they depreciate one-
third in price from new to old, wliich takes place
at the end of the first year.

If the growers of hops will adopt my last sug-
gestion, they may rest assured that the culture of
hops will pay a remunerative price for the labor.

The price of hops the present season, since com-
ing to market for inspection, has been from 15 to
10 cents per lb. I thinlc, with an upward tenden-
cy at this time, with a small export demand in the
absence of any hops oi the growth of 18G0, v/e
may reasonably infer that all the hops of the
gi'owth of 1861 will be used, and out of the mar-
ket before the new crop comes off. What old hops
remain in our market are from two to five years
old, consequently entirely neglected by brewers
and consumers of hops.

The Eautu a Bukning Cauldron. — In one
of his recent lectures at Manchester, England, on
"Prophecy," Rev. Dr. Gumming said he had con-
sulted Sir R,oderick Murchison as to the truth of
the statcmcat that the interior of the earth was a
burning ciuklron. Sir Roderick replied that "no
one but an ignoramus would daxe to deny it."
And when he, (Dr. Cumming,) quoted the words
of Peter, in support of his statement, Sir Roder-

ick replied, that "not only was Peter scientifically
correct, but that Job gave him, (Sir Roderick,) the
first idea of gold mines in Australia, and that Job
was the best geologist he ever knew."

For the New England Farmer.
TOO MUCH SEED.

Well tested experimental facts are worth more
than old customs and habits. Yet people love
their habits so well that they will disregard their
senses, and plant a bushel of seed potatoes where
they ought not to plant a half-bushel. I wish to
tell nothing now, only what I have chme, and seen
others do. I have seeded my potatoes largely and
sparingly on the same ground under the same
treatment, and always found the light seeding to
yield the best and most marketable potatoes. I
find the most profitable way is, to plant in drills,
putting one piece in a place, and about 8 or 10
inches apart, in rows about 2i feet apart, with one
to three eyes in a piece. I saw last season GO
bushels of very handsome, marketable Jackson
whites and Davis seedling potatoes, raised from
5 pecks of seeds planted in the above manner,
upon a little less than one-fourth of an acre of or-
dinary upland, manured in the hill moderately.
Land adjoining it, equally as good, and manured
better, but planted in the old way in liills, and
seeded largely, ilid not yield two-tliirds as much,
under as good treatment.

Near tliis patch of potatoes was a bed of turnip-
beets Avhich chose to take their own way in com-
ing up, and not more than one seed in ten made
its appearance to the sunlight. They had plenty
of room to grow, and they Occupied it to advan-
tage. The yield was enormous for the space oc-
cupied. Some of them Aveighed 13 pounds. Their
average weight was G pounds, and as good and
fine-grained for eating as ever grew. This ap-
peared to be the result of having plenty of room
to grow. Another man near by planted the same
kind of seed, which came up plentifully, and were
thinned out some, but yet stood quite thick, were
well cared for during the season, but made a light
yield. Every thing was equal in both cases, ex-
cept the one came up sparingly and yielded largely,
the other thick and produced a light yield. There
are many other cases I might name. I will refer
to only one more. This system of light seeding
holds good with small grain in good strong soil,
as far as my knowledge goes.

While travelling in New Hampshire a few weeks
ago, I fell in with a farmer in Canterbury, who
had come to the conclusion that he had been seed-
ing his land too much, especially, as it was very
strong. In laying down nine acres to grass in the
spring, he soAved oats, at the rate of a half-bushel
to the acre. The result was five hundred bushels
of oats from the nine acres. Also his wheat, when
sown thin, filled better, and yielded more. Tins
all proves something. We arc just in our infancy
in the agricultural kingdom.

I wish farmers would give us their experience
through the N. E. Farmer more than they do.
There are a great many young farmers, and not a
few old ones, that are earnest seekers after knoAvl-
edge. It may be interesting occasionally to hear
something about kingfishers, crows, hawks and
owls ; but for my part, I had much rather hear

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

our friend Holbrook discourse upon practical farm-
ing ; most any one of his articles is worth the price
of the paper for one year. Also, H. F. French,
upon the subject of draining, which I consider one
of the great subjects of the day, and ought to be
kept before the people. I should like to hear the
experience of our farmers in regard to seeding.

A. Philbrook.
East Saugtis, Mass., Dec, 1861.

Remarks. — Friend Philbrook will accept thanks
for his excellent article, and be pleased to remem-
ber that we have as many tastes to satisfy as we
have readers, and that some of the most progres-
sive and intelligent farmers are deeply enamored
with Natural HistorJ^ They desire that all the an-
imals, birds and insects common to the farm, shall
receive some attention, as well as the more import-
ant practical matters of the barn and fields. We
know of no more pleasing and attractive means
of instructing children, and of creating in them a
love of rural life and rural occupations, than the
plan we have long pursued of occasionally intro-
ducing interesting notices of the animated life on
the farm.

LEGISLATIVE AGBICITLTUBAIi SOCIETY.

[Reported for the Farmer by D. W. Lothrop.]

The First Legislntive Agricultural Meeting was
held at the Representatives' Hall on Monday even-
ing. The subject for discussion was Manures, and
the Hon, JosiAU QuiNCY, Jr., was called to pre-
side.

In assuming the chair, Mr. Quincy said he felt
honored by the committee in being thus selected,
and observed that the subject for discussion was,
to the farmer, one of the most important. As
Demosthenes said, "Action" was the first, the sec-
ond and the third rule for good oratory ; so for
good farming, the first, the second and the third
rule was, manure, manure, manure ! And the
important question was, how can we best obtain it ?
He alluded to the varied commercial or patent
manures, and to Prof. Joluison's analysis of them,
showing the worthlessness of most of them, and
said the question should be, not how we could bug
manure, but how we could make it. He alluded
to the practice and good effect of turning in green
crops, particularly in Maryland ; but after all, the
most important fertilizer was barn-yard manure,
and this, as far as possible, should be made at
home. Speaking of the manure of the cow, he
said the test of the value of her products, both as
regards milk and manure, was the quality of food
given her. You can get nothing out of her which
you do not put in. An Englishman will buy a
bullock, keep him a time for his manure, and then
sell him for what he gave, or less. Mr. Lawes, of
England, had made experiments in feeding cattle
on cotton seed meal, and found that wliile a given

quantity of voidings from the food was worth
$27,86, the same quantity produced from carrots
and turnips was worth only 86 cents ! We hard-
ly know how to produce good manure. Guano,
the speaker said, was far more valuable from the
fact that birds have no liquid passages ; yet a cow,
on certain conditions, can make good guano, or
something equivalent.

On his own farm, where he commenced farming
four years ago, Mr. Quincy stated that he had
raised his hay crop up from 150 to 400 tons. He
keeps many cows, adopts the soiling system,,
makes his own manure, and finds nothing is lost.
He alluded to Dr. Dana's experiments with the
urine and dung of the cow, showing that the liquid
voidings were worth more than the solid. Two-
thirds of muck and one-third of cow manure was
very valuable as a top-dressing. Farmers should
save urine. In Holland, the urine of a cow is val-
ued at $15 a year. The speaker said he saved it
at his farm in reservoirs and carted it out on to
his grass land. He alluded to Mr. Mechi, who
forced his out by a steam engine, through pipes
laid all over his land. But urine was best absorbed
by muck and then spread on the land. Those who
have no muck, can use anything that can be satu-
rated. In keeping cows, not simply milk should
be the object, but that of good quality, and rich
manure. In conclusion, the speaker said the
great secret of good farming was high feeding.

A gentleman, whose name was not given, in-
quired if ui'ine should be reduced before being ap-
plied ?

Mr. Quincy said no ; give the muck all it will
hold. He also inquired the views of farmers as to
the time of applying manure, and as to top-dress-
ing.

Mr. Stedman, of Chicopee,was the next speak-
er. He has a barn cellar, and mixes muck with
his manure, Avhich increases its value very much.
He had put green muck on four acres of grass
land, and in his case it produced two crops, and
he thought it better than guano, as the latter was
not lasting.

Mr. Davis, of Plymouth, had had some experi-
ence in regard to peat. Prof. Johnson spoke well
of peat. But the speaker said it was objectiona-
ble in requu-ing great labor. Barn cellars are too
much flooded, and he doubted whether they should
be tight. In the bottom of old vaults the sand was
perfectly pure ; and why not have the bottoms of
barn cellars porous, if there is no loss ? Upland
suffers very much in dry weather in his region, and
peat was a good mulcher. He had applied 128
horse-cart loads to an old pasture, but the labor
was objectionable. The soft paste at the bottom
of the peat was very valuable.

Mr. Quincy said ccUai-s should be tight, and
should receive only the urine of animals. It was

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

«7

not important what time to apply manure. It does
not lose by drying. The valuable parts of ma-
nure Avill yield only to the chemist or to plants.
Make your own manure and spread it at any time.

Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, alluded
to the dilution or extension of manure. Manure
may be so concentrated as to be injurious. Hence
urine should be diluted before being applied. Gu-
ano was usually reduced 50 per cent. He doubted
whether ^Ir. Mechi's system was the best. Heavy
soil needs straw and coarse manure, the liquid not
being so beneficial as on lighter land. Peat, as a
mulch, tends to lighten soil. Drs. Dana and Bart-
lett had discovered different kinds of muck, differ-
ing in value. Green muck was ruinous to rye,
and the muck of mosses not valuable. Dr. Da-
na's theory was that muck should have alkalies.

Mr. Roberts, of Lakeville, inquired if it was
necessary to have bam cellars perfectly dry ? He
thought not. By putting in muck it would ab-
sorb all ammoniacal waters.

A gentleman, whose name was not given, spoke
of the distinction between peat and muck. Muck
decomposes — peat does not. He takes sod and
muck from the ditches of his low land and spreads
it upon his upper grass land with great benefit.

Mr. QuiNXY spoke of the difference between
peat and muck. He had gone down twenty feet,
and found cones of pine trees, probably thousands
of years old. The upper part was peat, the lower
muck — of which kind the L-ish make cakes. Tak-
ing soil from one part of the farm and putting it
on the other was an excellent practice. The great
business of New England farmers should be in
making manure and getting it out.

A gentleman, whose name Avas not given, asked
about green manure. He had procured a great
crop of rye from turning in clover. And by tliis
process they get great crops of wheat in England
— 70 bushels to the acre being cited. He spoke
highly of !Mr. !Mechi's watering with ammoniacal
manure.

Mr. Dewitt, of Agawam, said a neighbor plowed
in buckwheat to raise rye, but thought the wheat
worth the most ! He keeps his cows in his barn
summer and winter, and this should be done where
the land is good. He observed that he owned ten
acres, and farmed it partly for profit and partly for
the fun of it. Corn stalks were a good absorbent
of urine ; they keep the land open, and are good
for potatoes. !Muck will not pay the labor.

Mr. QuiNCY alluded to sand as a bedding, or
for sprinkling the stalls. Was used in England
as an absorbent. Plowing in green crops was a
hard thing to do, though useful, as they did not
exhaust the soil till they began to form seed. He
also spoke of anthracite coal ashes for potatoes,
and cited an instance of where potatoes thus
raised were very sound.

Mr. Baker had no experience in sand, but had
used sawdust for a bedding with good results. It
pays well. He takes out muck in the winter and
leaves it till the next fall, and then drops it
through the floor into the cellar. He dug a cellar
whose soil was very hard, yet it had become satu-
rated with ammonia and phosphates. He applied
manure in the f;\ll. He steams his corn-stalks
and feeds his cattle with them, instead of using
them as bedding. Leached ashes were very valu-
able, and he had applied fifty bushels to the acre,
at eight cents per bushel, to grass land, and cut
three tons of hay to the acre. Farmers should
not buy manure, but make it.

Mr. Howes, of Marshfield, spoke of kelp, which
was very abundant in his region. Why had it not
been spoken of? It was valuable. Daniel AVeb-
ster spread fish upon his land, but it burnt up the
soil, and brought a prodigious lot of flies. For in-
sects, such as squash bugs and the like, he had
applied the putrid liquor of the fish, and found that
while they disappeared from his cucumber vines,
the latter grew enormously. Kelp and fish de-
serve more attention.

Mr. Davis spoke again of bam cellars. Barns
should be put upon sandy land. Peat will carry
off all water, and five inches of sand will clear any
dirty water.

Mr. Baker inquired how much it would purify.

Mr. Davis replied, any quantity. Green crops
turned in are beneficial to light lands, and kelp
should be composted. Fish on light soils are very
hurtful, as they consume all the vegetation, but
the remedy is composting. He spoke of different
kinds of peat, and cited Mr, Colman, that salt peat
was good for wheat.

Mr. Hood, of Somerset, said sand Avas used in
stables in Bristol county. He applies it to his
stalls once a week. He had also used fish as a
manure, and said that the flies they drew only an-
noyed people out of doors ; they never entered the
house. He keeps his cattle up, except thi-ee or
four hours a day, and has faith in the good results
of barn cellars.

The time for closing the meeting having passed,
the chairman announced that the subject for dis-
cussion on next Monday evening would be Agri-
cultural Education, and that His Excellency Gov.
Andrew was expected to preside. Adjourned.

Ignorance. — Never be ashamed of confessing
j'our ignorance, for the wisest man ujion earth is
Ignorant of many things, insomuch that what he
knows is mere nothing in comparison Avith what
he does not know. There cannot be a greater folly
in the world than to suppose that we know every
thing.

Happiness groAvs at our oAvn fii-eside, and is'not
picked in the stranger's gardens.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb,

PROVERBS FROM POOR RICHARD.

Take this remark from Richard — poor and lame ;
"whate'er begins in anger, ends in shame.

An egg to-day is better than a hen to-morrow.

Law, like cobwebs, catches small flies ; great
ones break through before your eyes.

If pride leads the van, poverty brings up the
rear.

He that would live at peace and at ease must
not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees.

He that can travel Avell afoot keeps a good
horse.

The worst wheel of the cart makes the most
noise.

He that falls in love with liimself will have no
rivals.

Against disease here the strongest fence is the
defensive virtue, abstinence.

Tart words make no friends ; a spoonful of honey
will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.

Beware of little expenses, a small leak wiU sink
a great ship.

An ounce of wit that is bought is worth a pound
that is taught.

A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentle-
man on his knees.

What maintains one \'ice will bring up two cliil-
dren.

When prosperity was Avell mounted, she let go
tlie bridle and tumbled off the saddle.

A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more
than a change of the moon.

He that has a trade has an office of profit and
honor.

A false friend and a shadow attend only while
the sun shines.

Plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you will
have corn to sell and to keep.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you
are dead and rotten, write something worth read-
ing.

Nothing dries sooner than a tear.

Scarlet, like silver and velvet, have put out the
kitchen fire.

Never take a -wife till thou hast a house to put
her in.

Hunger never saw bad bread.

The poor have little — beggars, none — the rich,
too much — enough, not one.

Old boys have their playtliings as well as young
ones. The difference is only in the price.

If a man could have his wishes, he would double
his trouble.

A SINGULAR CASE.
Mr. Moody IL Robinson, of Hancock, Vt.,
writes us that in May, 18G0, he was in the town of
Granville where he was invited by a Mr. AUbe to
see a sick heifer, which he did, accompanied, also,
by Mr. J. Hubbard. He found that the heifer
could not drop her calf, although engaged in the
effort to do so for a whole week. She swelled
badly for a time, and then her udder and body
gradually shnnik away, and she was turned off to
pasture. In the sjjring of 1861, she was turned to
pasture again and grew finely and fatted well.
On the 28th of December Mr. Robinson was called

to slaughter this heifer — she having been pur-
chased and brought to Hancock by him — and in
the presence of Mr. C. C. Hubbard, L. C. Abbott,
E. Hubbard, and Mr. AUbe and his son, he says
he took from her the calf heretofore spoken of,
which weighed 87 pounds ! It was found grown
tight to the womb. The feet and legs were rotten
to the knee joint, and the hair in some places was
off, but no disagreeable odor was perceptible ! The
weight of the heifer when dressed was 573 pounds.

He also states that he had lately butchered a
hog for Mr. Augustus Fassett, of Hancock,
whose weight Avas 777i pounds.

If the first of these stories is not fact, it is a very
lively fancy. We have no reason to doubt the
statement. It does not appear to us to be a lustis
naturce, but one of those wonderful provisions of
nature to preserve life, which sometimes occur.

SUGAR,

Sngar is not only a condiment ; it is an impor-
tant article of diet, and aid to digestion. Though
the use of sugar as an article of food seems mainly
to supply the carbon used in breathing, yet it un-
doubtedly contributes also to the production of
fat, for during the severe labor of gathering the
sugar crop in the West Indies, in spite of the great
exertion and fatigue, it is said that every negro
on the plantation, every animal, even the very
dogs, will fatten.

The conversion of starch into grape sugar, also
appears to be the first step in its digestion ; and
it is probable that the greater difficulty with which
cellulose is converted into sugar, is the cause of
its indigestibility and uselessness as an article of
food. Sugar also plays an important part in many
processes of the animal system, and appears to be
necessary to the production of bile. It has been
detected by Lehman and Bernard in the blood of
man, and in that of the cat, dog, and ox. Sugar
is also supposed to be necessary to the process of
incubation, where, by its peculiar solvent action on
the lime and phosphate of lime of the shell, it is
thought to assist in the formation of the bones of
the chick, and though this idea has not yet been
demonstrated, it appears highly probable, from the
general occurrence of sugar in the egg. As an in-
stance of the marvellous processes going forward
in the human frame, I may mention that in the
terrible disease called diabetes, all the amylaceous
food converted into sugar, instead of being assimi-
lated by the system, as in health, passes aM'ay, the
sufl'erer thus deriving no benefit from the food.

Sugar lies under a ban for injuring the teeth.
What shall we say of this ? The negroes employed
on sugai" plantations, who eat, perhaps, more su-
gar than any other class of people, liave almost
proverbially, fine, white, sound teeth, which they
retain in old age. But, on the other hand, in
England, persons employed in the sugar refineries,
who are from their occupation obliged constantly
to be tasting sugar, lose their teeth from decay af-
ter a few years. A strong solution of pure sugar
appears to have no action on teeth after extraction,
even after many months, and even when already
decayed, the action upon them is scarcely percep-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

tiblc. But sugar, in combination with a small
amount of lime, or alkali, has the property of dis-
solving phosphate of lime, which is contained in
large quantities by the bones and teeth ; a circum-
stance which may explain in some measure the
contradictory nature of the facts. Thus the infe-
rior varieties of sugar and treacle, which always
contain lime derived from the process of manufac-
ture, and many kinds of confectionary into which
lime enters as an ingredient, would be expected to
have an injurious action on the teeth, especially if
there should be a break anywhere in the outer
coating of enamel. On the other hand, fresh
honey and fruits, which contain a large per cent-
age of sugar, but in which it is not likely to occur
with lime in combination, are so far above suspi-
cion, that some fruits — as strawberries, plums, &c.,
which contain much sugar, have even been recom-
mended as aids to the securing of good teeth. —
Field Notes.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.
THE CULTURE OF FLAX.

1. Is there any treatise on flax culture, the
Btudy of which would enable one not acquainted
with the business of flax-raising to conduct it suc-
cessfully ?

2. Does New England aff'ord a market for any
considerable amount of flax ? If so, where might
it be sold, and at what price ?

3. In what condition must it be sent to market ?
I suppose it would need to be dressed at home ;
if so, what would be the cost of machinery for pre-
paring it for the market, and what the probable
cost of di'essing ? By dressing, I mean separating
the fibre from the stalk.

4. I wish, also, to learn the cost of a machine
for grinding bones into meal, and the power re-
quired to propel such machinery.

Adin Bugbee.
Snoio^s Store, Vt., Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — 1. The Farmer's and Planter's En-
cyclopedia, and the Farmer's Guide, each contain
directions for the cultivation of flax, and so has
Stephens' Book of the Farm. It is not at all dif-
ficult to cultivate, and any land that will produce
a good crop of Indian corn will bring a good yield
of flax.

2. It must be sent to market dressed, or what is
called "lint," and a gentleman who has been very
largely engaged in raising flax, informs us that
there is a steady demand in New England for
three hundred tons, annually. AVhere large quan-
tities are produced in the same neighborhood, it
might be dressed by a new process which accom-
plishes the work with great rapidity. We are not
able, however, to inform our correspondent at
what cost. Four hundred pounds, per acre, of
the lint is considered a good yield. We have no
doubt, whatever, that the culture of flax may be
made quite profitable to New England farmers, as
nearly all that is now used is imported, and as the
oil from its seed, and the cake, after the oU is ex-
tracted, are always in quick demand.

4. We have seen bones ground in a small, iron

mill, which was propelled by steam, but did not
inquire the amount of power required to carry it,
— nor do we know the cost of such a mill.

RICH LAND TILVT PRODUCES NO CROPS.

I have a piece of land containing about one acre,
that for a great many years has been manured
highly, and bore very great crops of grass, until
the meadoAV moles began to work in it, and cut the
roots of the grass ofi', and almost killed it out. In
the spring of 1860 I plowed it up, and found the
soil to be a rich black loam. I planted it with po-
tatoes, expecting a large crop, but did not get a
quarter of a crop ; last spring I sowed it with
wheat, but only got three bushels. Where the
soil is the richest, wheat did not grow at all,
neither would the weeds grow. Can you tell me
what I can put on it to secure a crop ?

Apple trees are now upon two sides of the
piece ; would young trees set out in the piece be
likely to flourish ? L. P. R.

Millbury,Dec.ZO, 1861.

Remarks. — It is difliicult to give an opinion as
to what ought to be done with such a piece of
land as is described above, from a written descrip-
tion of it. It needs to be seen, as the surround-
ings of a piece of land are often as much in fault
as the land itself. It seems to us, however, that
if 30 bushels of oyster shell lime were added to the
acre, and the land planted to corn, or laid to
grass, success would follow.

THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Having received this weekly publication ever
since it was commenced by Fessenden, more than
forty years gone by, and perused its pages every
week, I think I can speak with some confidence,
of the character of the paper. I look upon it as
one of the most agreeable and reliable of guides
in the labors of the farm. Its opinions indicate
calm consideration and enlarged observation.. It
notices such topics as particularly concern, its
readers, and carefully avoids all fancy speculations
and extravagant assumptions. Let any farmer
take it, and carefully peruse and preserve it for
occasional reference — he will find it of more value
at the close of the year, than any cow in hfs stall.
If he should not so find it, I will cheerfully pay his
subscription, if he will send me his name.

Dec. 28, 1861. J. W. Proctor.

WINTER IN VERMONT — CROPS— A FINE HOG.

Cold and dreary winter has again made its ap-
pearance, reminding us that the wheel of time is
continually moving onward. The snow is now
about half an inch in depth. During the month of
November last, the thermometer averaged at 6
A. M., 24° above zero; 12, M., 36°, and at 6
P. M., 31° above. Thus the month- averaged five
degrees colder than the month of November, 1860.
The hay crop here last summer was very good,
and hay is selling from $4 to $6 per ton. The
corn and barley crop were good, but oats and
wheat are not so good as was supposed when they
were harvested ; however, they are full an average-
Mr. Erastus Howard, of this town, killed a

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

hog 18 months old, recently, which weighed, when
dressed, 536 lbs. Who can beat this ? Even the
usually quiet mountains and valleys of Vermont
are now Avide awake by reason of the war, confi-
dently believing that right will triumph over op-
pression. . Cyrus.
EaM Hardioick, Vt., 1861.

MATCHING steers' HORNS.

I noticed in a late Farmer an article in regard
to matching steers. I would like to know if you,
or any of your subscribers, can inform me how to
match the horns of steers, in case one horn is in-
cHned to turn down? I have often asked the
question, and some say if they turn down, by
scraping them on the upper side they will turn up,
and some say on the under side ; so I am left en-
tirely without the true knowledge.

Marlboro', N. II., 1862. Clark Hill.

Remarks. — We have no knowledge in this
matter, and hope those who have will reply.

BRONZE TURKEYS.

R. Goodell, of Antrim, N. H., can obtain full
blood bronze turkeys of the subscriber. Price $4
per pair. N. B. RowE.

Laconia, N. E., Dec. 18, 1861.

HENS' NESTS.

Fowls of all kinds, when laying, like a secret
place where their fellows cannot see them. They
do not like to squat down in the hennery, sur-
rounded by a greedy flock, that are ready to pounce
into the nest as soon as an egg is laid, and devour
it. Therefore, to gratify the hen's secretiveness,
and at the same time save the eggs from being de-
voured by one of the flocks, my practice has been,
for a number of years, to make their nests in nail
kegs, not those that are very small, nor the largest
ones, but of those that will hold about one hundred
pounds of nails. In years past, I have been accus-
tomed to fill a keg about half full of straw for a
nest ; but the past winter I have sawed all the kegs
in two equal parts, knocking out the heads, and
then nail a piece of cloth over the large end of
each half keg, for a bottom. Any kind of old, or
new cloth may be tacked on with small trimming
tacks. During the winter, these half kegs are
nailed up against the side of the hennery, about
four feet from the floor. Hens that lay, will soon
leam that when they get into these nests, their fel-
lows cannot see them, as they are completely se-
cluded in their cosy little nests ; and if they them-
selves are disposed to eat eggs, they find that, if
they attempt it while standing on the edge of the
keg, they cannot reach them conveniently ; and if
they hop down into the nest, and attempt to pick
the eggs, they will roll down against their feet, and
they soon learn that they are not able to pick hard
enough in such a position to break the shell. I
find that a cloth bottom is superior to a wooden
bottom, covered with a nest of straw. As the
weather becomes warmer, so that the hens seek
nests in the yard, we make nests in secluded nooks,
or the kegs might be removed from the hennery,
and nailed against the side of the fence, and a lit-
tle roof made over them. — Anonymous.

For the Neto England Farmer.
"WASTE NOT, WANT NOT."

This was a Frankhn motto. Apply it to the
farm, and its bank deposits. Manure heaps are the
sub-treasuries of the farming interest. Waste of
manure is waste of wealth. Every miner who digs
for gold, must dig in the dirt. But the farmer first
deposits the gold in the ground, and afterwards
digs it out with increase. The gold he plants, he
gathers from the sources of consumption and de-
cay, where carelessness may leave a loss.

Wisdom is wealth; time is money; money is
money; and equally so, manure is money, to the
farmer. Where shall we dig for riches ? Where
shall we go and gather up wealth ? "Go to the
ant, thou sluggard ;" go to the squirrel, thou
spendthrift; go to the manure-composter, thou
foolish farmer, who hast nursed poverty, by work-
ing a hungry soil, and getting nothing, because
you gave nothing as a basis of production.

Gather it at the stable. Mix well the soHd
droppings of the cow with twice its bulk of meadow
muck ; money in mud. Loam will serve a good
purpose, if nothing better can be had. Pine leaves
are almost priceless in the compost. And be very
sure, if no great loss would be allowed, to put
enough dry peat, old rotten straw, or other sub-
stance suited to the purpose, to take up all the h-
quid that she voids. Take like care, also, of the
voidings of the ox and younger cattle. The noble
horse, well fed, well used, furnishes much material
to mix with muck ; three times the measure of his
solid excrements, with dry peat, saAvdust or old
straw, sprinkled with old brine, plaster, refuse salt,
to save the urine — money from many things made
into manure.

Gather a pile from the pig-pen. Piggy does
not appropriate much for muscle, from the fat of
his feeding, but pours out big bottles of ammoni-
acal liquor to magnify the manure heap. The gift
is a great one, and never to be despised by the
man of a flourishing farm. Pile the pine scrap-
ings into his pen, with old leaves, loads of loam,
and let him make his mark as a manufacturer ;
and he will do it in defiance of war or tariffs.
Piggy's first work in the world is to provide for
the corn crop, and when that comes in, in lusty
loads, he will consent to be put into pork, for the
benefit of princes, or paupers.

Gather gold from the hen-house. Pile the peat
under the hen-roost ; scatter ashes lightly over, or
old lime, and saturate it with slops from the cham-
ber, and i-epeat the same often, layer upon layer,
mixing it all well, before each fresh addition of
muck or peat. It will be cheaper than poudrette
from Lodj, and as rich as a California quartz gold
mine.

Gather gold from the sink drain. The suds and
grease that go away there, contain gold ; gather it
up for the garden grounds ; mix it with muck, or
carry it to the currant bushes, or almost anywhere
to feed the growing crops, and gold will grow out
of it.

Save the suds from the wash-room. There are
wonders of wealth in such mineral waters. They
are good for sickly cabbages, melons, pears,
squashes or tomatoes. They make all growing
things to glisten in the glory of their growth.

Save the slops from chambers. Waste is as
wicked there as anywhere. Man need not i)ride

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAR5^IER.

himself above producing his portion of the food of
plants ; he was made of earthy matter, air and wa-
ter, and wastes these daily from himself, in sub-
stance for the food of vegetation. "Waste not,
want not."

Gather from the pri\'5\ There is no use, boys,
in snuffing. This turning up the nose is of no
more value in a young man, than it is in a bloom-
ing miss. Pride is peevish, and always out of
place among the working world's nobility. Pile
in the muck, or loam, with a mixture of plaster,
much old rotten chip dirt, and drive away unpleas-
ant odors by putting on new layers often ; and
carry away a great pile to the corn-field. You
may bring it back in gold.

Gather aK the ashes. Thcj;^ will answer for
their application almost anywhere, in "words fitly
spoken — like apples of gold, in pictures of silver."

"Waste not, want not." Gather manure from
the mill, scrape up around the shop, take care of
cotton waste, waste not old woolens, tax the tan-
ner for his refuse truck, make the merchant a fair
offer for old brines, call upon the collier for liis
charcoal dust, and tax all trades that the farmer
feeds ; buy when and what jou cannot save, if it
will bring back the gold ; but, man of the muck
heap, remember, "waste not, want not."

Lee, N, IL Comings.

For the New England Farmer.

KEMOTTIM-Q LEAVES FROM THE
FOBEST.

]Mr. Editor: — Some writers recommend to re-
move the leaves from the forest, for the purpose of
bedding animals, mulcliing trees, protecting gar-
den plants, &c.

Undoubtedly they are profitable for all these
purposes, but the question naturally arises, "What
eff'ect would be produced upon the soil of the for-
est should the process of removing the leaves be
carried to any considerable extent ? Would it not
be impoverished, and the trees retarded in their
growth, just in proportion to the amount of leaves
removed .'*

I have upon my farm a slight swell of land, ex-
tending nearly from north to south, upon which
grew quite a grove of oaks and walnuts ; but after
they had attained about one-half their natural
size they remained stationary, as it were, for some
years, or at least made no perceptible growth ;
and why .-* It seems to me it was simply for the
want of food ; the leaves in the autumn being
blown by the western winds into the valley upon
the eastern side of the hill, instead of remaining
where they fell, to protect and enrich the roots of
the trees which produced them.

In conversation with an intelligent farmer of
Lunenburg, he said he had observed the same re-
sult respecting the trees upon several of the hills
of that somewhat hilly town.

It may be very well to secure and save the
leaves from shade trees by the roadside, especial-
ly in places exposed to the wind, but to deprive
the forest of the very food which nature designed
for it, for the purpose of feeding other portions of
the farm, it seems to me, so far as profit is con-
cerned, is very much like taking money from one
pocket and putting it into another.

Leominster, Jan., 1862. A. c. w.

For the Neic England Farmer.
HOW TO SELL FRESH PORK.

Whether to barrel, or dispose of in carcass, is
often a perplexing question to those farmers who
are fortunate enough to raise pork to sell. And
here, like too many other i)roblems in farming, we
are generally guilty of jumping at a conclusion,
without any positive knowledge, and using the
Yankee prerogative of guessing which is the better
way.

In arriving at a conclusion, reference must be
had to price, markets, location, &c., — although the
price of pork in the carcass, usually, for the time
being, corresponds very nearly to barrel pork.

In order to aid somewhat in throwing light upon
this matter, the writer instituted some carefully
made experiments the present season, as to the per
centage of side pork, hams, lard, head, &c., in the
carcass to which, (such as they be,) the readers of
the Farmer are welcome, and which may aid some
in determining the question referred to at the
commencement.

First Experiment — Weight of hog, dressed, 296 pounds.

Weight of side part was 166 lbs.

" "hams 55 "

" " lard 28 "

" " head 14 "

" " bony pieces, feet, shoulders 33 "

296 lbs.
Secosb Experiment — Weight of hog, 238 pounds.

Weight of side pork 126 lbs.

" "hams 49 "

" "lard 20 "

" " bony pieces, shoulders, head, &c 43 "

238 lbs.
Thirp Experiment — Weight of carcass, 258 pounds.

Weight of side pork 135 lbs.

" " Iiams 55 "

" "lard 22 "

" " head, shoulders, bony pieces, &c 46 "

258 lbs.

It will be seen from the above that, in each of
the three trials, the amount of side pork was about

00 per cent., of hams 20 per cent., of lard from 8
to 10 per cent., and showing an aggregate of 82 to
So per cent, of sides, hams and lard, (all about of
equal value,) in each animal. The hogs were, a
part of them, pure Berksliires, and a part were
a cross of Berksliires and Suff'olks ; number
2 being one of the Suffblks cross. I might also
state that the hams were cut as large as practica-
ble, consequently diminishing correspondingly the
amount of sides — and the shoulders taken out as
small as possible, being governed by the market
in so doing. I should judge that in the ordinary
way of cutting, 5 per cent, might safely be added
to the side, and the same abstracted from the
hams. But this is of slight consequence, as the
price is usually very nearly equal.

Let us look again at this, and see how it figures.

1 could have sold my pork for 6 cents, (I barrelled
it.)

Take Ko. 3, weight 258 lbs. at 6 cents $15,4S

Gave 190 lbs. sides and hams, worth say 8 cents.. $15,20

I-ard, 22 lbs., at 8 cents 1,76

Heads, &c., 46 lbs., at 3 cents 1,38

$18,34
Less 1 barrel, and 1 bushel salt 1,50

$10,84

So that, even at this calculation, I should save
something over a dollar by packing. But if I
could sell my pork without the cask, and weigh it

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

from the barrels, I should save the price of the
barrels, and possibly gain something in the weight
of the pork. And again, the price of the sides and
hams are, it -will be seen, put low in proportion to
the price in the carcass.

Thus from these figures each may be assisted
eomewhat in coming to a conclusion as to which
will be the most profitable course for him to pur-
sue ; depending wholly, of course, upon location,
markets, and the like, the object being merely
to ascertain with positiveness the proportionate
amount of each kind of meat in the carcass.

Wm. J. Pettee.

Salisbury, Conn., Jan. 8, 1862.

PATENT OFFICE BEPORTS FOR 1860.

Through the polite attention of the Hon.
Charles Sumner, we have received the Patent
Office Reports for the year 1860, — comprised in
three quite well printed volumes, two of which
are devoted to Mechanics, and the third to Agri-
cultural subjects. The second volume is entirely
made up of illustrations of the articles patented,
and contains four thousand three hundred and
sixty-two engravings, each in a very fine style of
the art. About nine hundred of these illustra-
tions relate directly to agriculture, the most nu-
merous of which are harvesters, harroivs, corn-
planters, plows and cidtivators, — there being no
less than ninety-seven of the latter.

The third volume is entirely agricultural, and
its pages embrace many important subjects. The
preliminary remarks give a brief review of the
provisions made by several countries of Europe
for the promotion of agriculture, from which it
appears that a most lively interest is taken by the
leading governments there, and that the art is
greatly facilitated by the various aids thus aff'ord-
ed it.

In the course of these remarks it is stated that
thirty-two thousand healthy Tea Plants have been
disseminated among gentlemen who had expressed
a desire to experiment with them, and that eight
thousand more will be distributed tliis Avinter.
Most of these plants were sent to persons south
of Virginia and Kentucky. The Superintendent
adds — "It is confidently hoped that by substituting
machinery and steam power for the tedious and
laborious Chinese mode of preparation exclusively
by hand, tea may be extensively manufactured
here, and even become an article of export."

In speaking of our animals, the Superintendent
quotes a portion of a communication from Col.
Daniel Ruggles, U. S. A., in rejjly to a resolution
of inquiry respecting the buflalo, submitted to
Congress, as follows :

"Perhaps no animal with which we are acquaint-
ed possesses such remarkable properties or quali-
ties. His migratory habits and fitness for great
extremes of heat and cold are the results of
'l»atural selection and the struggle for existence' i

for untold centuries, by which he has anived at
a vigor of constitution, fleetness and muscular
strength, rarely, if at all, met with in the ox tribe.
These are qualities of great value, which cannot
be disregarded, and particularly when we consider
the direct and indirect advantages that judicious
crossings of domestic animals have bestowed upon
civilization to an extent not to be calculated.

"A full grown, male bufi"alo will weigh from
1200 to 2000 pounds, and even more. In winter,
his whole body is covered with long, shaggA' hair,
mixed with much wool : on the forehead this hair
is a foot long. The Indians work the wool into
cloth, gloves, stockings, &c., which are very strong,
and look as well as those made from the best
sheep's wool. The fleece of a single animal has
been found, according to Pennant, to weigh as
much as eight pounds."

The first paper is upon the operations at the
Oovernment Experimental Garden, — then follow
papers upon Fertilizers, Notes on the Recent Pro-
gress of Agricultural Bcience, on Observations
of English Husbandry, by Judge French, on Ir-
rigation, on Grasses for the South, on Cattle Dis-
ease, or Pleuro-Pneumonia, Bee Cidture, the Cid-
ture of Fish, on Insects Injurious to Vegetation,
Wine-Malcing, Grape Culture, in the open air and
in Graperies, on the Forests and Trees of North
America, a very interesting paper on Cidture and
Manufacture of Tea, one on Notices of Chinese
Agricidture and its Principal Products, and a List
of the Agricultural Inventions or Discoveries for
the year 1860.

These articles are ably written, and perhaps oc-
cupy the space as well as anything that could have
been selected. The mechanical appearance of the
volume is superior to that of its predecessors, with
the exception that the type used is too small. Bet-
ter give us a less quantity on the good old "small
pica," or at least, "long primer" type, than crowd
in more matter on a smaller type.

Screwing on Nuts. — We have sometimes
known nuts on threshing machines, circular saws,
&c., to be found so tight that no wrench would re-
move them. This was because they had been held
in the hand till they became warm, and being then
applied to very cold screws in winter, they con-
tracted by coohng after on, and thus held the screw
with an immovable grasp. Always avoid putting
a warm nut on a cold screw ; and to remove it, ap-
ply a large heated iron in contact with the nut, so
as to heat and expand it, and it will loosen at once
— or a cloth wet with boiling water will accom-
plish the same purpose. — Country Gentleman.

To Stop Bleeding. — A correspondent of the
American Agriculturist writes that bleeding from
a wound on man or beast may be stopped by a
mixture of wheat flour and common salt in two
parts bound on with a cloth. If the bleeding be
profuse, use a large quantity, say from one to
three pints. It may be left on for hours, or even
days, if necess.irv-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

For ttte New England Farmer.
METHODS OP ENRICHING- LANDS.

I noticed an article in one of your late papers
on the best method of enriching land, recommend-
ing plowing in green crops as perhaps the best.
There are two methods the farmer may practice to
enrich the soil. One is, to plow in green crops, as
recommended in the Farmer, the other is to raise
hogs, and I am rather in favor of the latter. With
good management in raising swine, you can gener-
ally get their cost, and sometliing more, but not
always ; some years there will be a loss. Notwith-
standing this, the farmer should pursue a steady
course, year after year.

I have, in my day, had considerable experience
in raising hogs, and my practice was to select the
best breeds, raise my own pigs, feed well, and give
them a dr)-, clean bed. Cooking their food is a
good practice. Some forty years since I read in
an agricultural work a description of the method
practiced among the best farmers in Pennsylvania,
of having two vats for fermenting the meal — one
to use after it had fully fermented, the other while
it is fermenting. I have tried it but partially ; I
supposed the hogs would not relish it as well, but
found they seemed to like it the better. This
fermentation should be conducted on the same
plan as distillers adopt, carrying it to the same
point. I am inclined to think this is the cheapest
method of cooking their food.

Those who make cider may use sweet pomace
to advantage — the pomace is made worth more
than before after the cider is pressed out, by boil-
ing it and mixing meal with it. 1 mean for shoats
that are from four to six months old.

One word or two on plowing in green crops.
Any green substance is worth double put in the
ground green than it is after drying. For this
reason, I cover up all weeds when I hoe in the
garden, or in the corn or potato field ; I always
cover all my potato vines as I dig them, it is con-
siderably less work than to collect them and put
them in the hog's pen, as many farmers do.

If you get a large crop of weeds in your garden
about the middle of August, commence on one
side, make a hole four or five inches deep, pull in
the weeds and cover them two or three inches
deep, and you almost destroy your crop of weeds ;
the seed Avill all sprout but none will ripen, and
you will find your garden enriched by your great
crop of weeds. But if you suffer them to ripen,
your land is greatly impoverished.

By raising hogs and attending to them, giving
loam, horse dung, weeds, and any and all substan-
ces that can be made into manure, you can go on
increasing the value of land, I think, cheaper than
in any other way. Daniel Lel.\nd.

East Holliston, Jan. 1, 1862.

Composition to Stop Leaicage. — A corres-
pondent of the Lynn News gives a recipe for a
cheap composition with which leaks in roofs may
be effectually stopped. Having a leaky "L," he
says:

"I made a composition of four pounds of resin,
one pint of linseed oil, and one ounce red lead, and
applied it hot with a brush to the part where the
"L" was joined to the main house. It has never

leaked since. I then recommended the composition
to my neighbor, who had a dormer window which
leaked badly. He applied it, and the leak was
stopped. I made my water-cask tight by this com-
position, and have recommended it for chimneys,
windows, etc., and it has always proved a cure for
a leak."

For the New England Farmer,
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

Gentlemen : — As an article is being published
by the press, under the above caption, it seems
proper that the facts in the case should be stated.

Mr. C. C. Barnes, of Squantum, a farmer, called
Jan. 7th, at the office of Ex-Gov. Brown, stated
that he had a disease among his cattle, and re-
quested him to visit his farm, accompanied by
some one qualified to judge of the nature of the
disease. Accordingly, he called upon Mr. Secre-
tary Flint, inviting him to go with him, but he
being unable to go, immediately addressed me a
note, requesting me to "give it a full examina-
tion." The next day, Gov. Brown and myself vis-
ited the farm of Mi". Barnes, from whom Ave re-
ceived the following statements :

One of his qows was taken sick the last week
in April, and died in May, between the 1 2th and
16th ; upon opening the thorax considerable fluid
was present, and the lungs diseased. Another,
taken sick the latter part of November, died the
first Aveek in December. On the same day that
the last one died, a butcher came for a fat cow ;
while there he witnessed the diseased lungs of the
one that died, and afterwards stated to Mr. Barnes
that the fat cow's lungs were as bad as the lungs
he saw Mr. B. take out of the one that died. The
above is nearly the language used by Mr. Barnes.

I then examined four of the herd, consisting of
nine head ; one of which had been sick six weeks
since, and partially recovered, though she coughs
much ; a portion of one lung is solidified. Anoth-
er had acute disease in an aggravated form, the
left lung entirely useless, and the right also dis-
eased ; in breathing, every expiration was accom-
panied by a grunt, or moan. Another, with acute
disease, coughs much, has quickened respiration,
with loss of appetite. The remaining one I did
not like to give an oiiinion of, as she was far ad-
vanced in gestation.

As Mr. Barnes was satisfied that the second one
mentioned above could not recover, he desired to
have the lungs examined. Accordingly she was
killed. On opening the thorax, from six to eight
quarts of serum was present, and the left lung had
adhered to the costal pleura and the pericardium
by the intervention of exuded lymph. In cutting
into the lung, nearly the whole of it was solid,
presenting the peculiar appearance always found
at that stage of exudative pleuro-pneumonia. The

NEAV ENGLAND FARMEE.

Feb.

anterior portion of the right lung was also dis-
eased, and of the same character.

As Dr. Ellis had expressed a desire to see the
lungs of an animal in the acute stage, I brought
them to Boston and delivered them to him ; oth-
ers, doubtless, had an opportunity to see them.
E. F. Thater,

Veterinary Surgeon, Ko. 15, United States Hotel.
Boston, Jan. 14, 1862.

IRELAND AS SHE IS.

Ireland is not learned in a day. The English-
man who fancies that he has gi'asped the social
characteristics and pohtical necessities of the coun-
try Avhen he has made himself master of "Harry
LoiTcquer," "Castle Rack-rent," and "O'Keefe's
Farces," and digested the matter of fifty "Lenten
Pastorals" and "Tenant-right Resolutions," will be
surprised at the magnitude and the solidity of the
interests, and at the gravity and subtilety of the
character, which on a closer contemplation comes
forth, like the great headlands of our seacoast,
into stern and massive relief. He finds that the
caricatures of a dead and buried generation are
not portraits of existing men and manners, and
that the clamors of the country are not its Avants.
He fails to discover anywhere the tipsy and inso-
lent gentry horsewhipping a rack-rented tenantry,
and pistoling one another at eight paces from muz-
zle to muzzle — who figured in his dream of Ireland.

He sees little or nothing of the "squalid ape-
hood," the blundering, the drunkenness, the fatu-
ous good-nature, and indiscriminate battery and
assault, without pretext or purpose, which are de-
scribed as the amiable peculiarities of a peasantry
who will barter their last ailicles of clotliing for a
bottle of whiskey to treat you with, and then, with
a good-humored "hurroo," break your head with-
out rhyme or reason, and finally give you their
heart's dearest afiections in exchange for a good
joke or an indifferent pennyworth of tobacco. The
whole of this monstrous mirage vanishes the mo-
ment he sets his foot upon the soil of Ireland. He
beholds, instead, a gentry as intelligent, hard-
working, enterprising, thrif'ty, and, in the highest
sense respectable, as any in the empire ; and a
peasantry as industrious and temperate, receiving
a fair day's wages for a fair day's work.

He will sec a tenantry possessed of improving
farms, at reasonable rents, and of sufficient dimen-
sions ; and, above all, a vast and energetic Prot-
estant population, self-reliant and prosperous, and
altogether unlike his ideal of an Orange commu-
nity. He will find his notions of the relations of
parties, the social facts of the country, and the
wants and abuses of its domestic system, exten-
sively modified, and still more extensively demol-
ished. And if he possess (a facvdty more uncom-
mon than is supposed) the power of sim])le per-
ception and energy to thinli and conclude for him-
self, he will discard nearly all he has previously
conceived, and commence, ab initio, the study of
the grave and complicated question. — Dublin
University Magazine.

The road ambition travels is too narrow for
friendship, too crooked for love, too rugged for
honesty, and too dark for science.

HIGHWAY ROBBEKT.

This is a crime often perpetrated in New Eng-
land by men of respectability and wealth. The
plan of operation is somewhat as follows : A man
owning land bordering upon the highway, desires
to re-set his fence, or re-lay his wall. Immediate-
ly he begins to mark out the bounds and limits of
the proposed change. Eight men out of every
ten, instead of building the new fence where the
old one stands, encroach upon the road from six
inches to two feet. Such encroachments we have
■\ritnessed scores of times. The usual excuse for
thus robbing the highway, is the laudable desne
to have "the line straight." The eye for the beau-
tiful must be gratified, prohahhj. But if in "ma-
king the line straight," the location of the fence or
wall must be changed, why does it always happen
that the change is never made at the expense of
private property ? Why do men never straighten
bounds by cutting off narrow strips of land from
their own possessions ? Why must the highway
be robbed to gratify a private whim ?

The fact in the case is just here. Owners of
land are as avaricious as owners of merchandise ;
and they adopt this mean way of getting a foot or
two of soil Avithout paying for it. The plain terms
for such deeds are meanness and robbery. We
never see a fence crowded into the road in this
Avay, Avithout saying, a mean man has done it.

Then again it often happens that the rights and
convenience of the travelling public are infringed
and imposed upon by these higliAvay robberies.
The Avidth of the road is seriously diminished, ille-
gally, and by men Avho would be greatly incensed,
should they be openly accused of dishonesty. AVe
call to mind a bit of road, perhaps two furlongs in
extent, Avhere the land on both sides is OAvned by
one man. AVithin tAA'enty-five years, the fences on
either side have shoAvn a gradually increasing at-
traction for one another, and if they approximate
during the next quarter of a century as rapidly as
they have approximated during the last, they Avill
at the end of that period be united. The road Avill
be sAA-alloAved up by the greedy meanness of the
OAvner in question.

Then, too, Ave have often noticed that roadside
fences require new modelling oftener than any
others. The reason for this is not apparent. Un-
doubtedly it is to be found in the peculiarities of
the case — some especial reason for each especial
removal.

A few years ago, one of the tOAvns in this Com-
mouAvealth chose an agent at a public meeting,
Avhose duty it Avas to have all the fences in the
toAA'n, on either side of the higliAvays, moved back
to the place assigned them by laAV ; or Avhat
amounted to the same thing, this agent Avas direct-
ed to make the highAvays a legal Avidth. He en-
tered ujion his duties ; Avhen behold it AA'as found
that a large majority of the land-OAvners in toAvn,
must take doAvn their fences and Avails, bordering
on the road, and move them back, in some instan-
ces, a number of feet ! Here Avas an unlooked-for
discovery, and the agent Avas compelled, by the
same public sentiment that gave him his office, to
abandon the duties of that office. A similar ex-
periment, undertaken in almost any farming com-
munity, Avould produce similar results. Every
town ought to appoint such an agent, and then
sustain him in the faithful discharge of the Avork
assigned him.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

Mean men there are in every community. Every
form of meanness lias its own peculiar style _ of
manifestation. Tliis common custom of robbing
the highway is not only a meanness, but it is a
crime — a theft really a robbery — a taking by one
man of proi)erty which does not belong to him, but
wliich does belong to the community.

Another instance of this same class of meanness
and misdemeanors, we call to mind. It chanced,
in the construction of highwajs, years ago, that
three roads formed the tlu-ee s'ides of a triangular
piece of land, containing a little less than a quar-
ter of an acre. Tliis triangular piece of land was
regarded as "common" land ; no one held any ti-
tle to it. Such bits of "common" land are often
met in the country. This place in question was
fenced in by a wealthy man, whose farm was near
by, and cultivated as a garden. It is so cultivated
and held at this time, by a man who can show no
title to it whatever. The meanness of this act w ill
be apparent, when it is stated that the roads on all
three sides of this garden are illegally, inconve-
niently, and in some places, dangerously narrow.

So it ha])pens that wealth and respectability are
cloaks sufficiently large to "cover a multitude of
sins." — Clinton Courant.

agkiculturaii societies.

Vermont State Agricultural Society. —
The annual meeting of this Society was held at
BeUows Falls, on Friday, Jan. 3, 1862. The fol-
lowing gentlemen were elected officers for the en-
suing year :

President — H. Henry Baxter, of Ptutland.

Vice Presidents — Edwin Hammond of Middle-
bury ; J. W. Colburn, of Springfield; Henry
Keyes, of Newbury ; John Jackson, of Brandon.

Recording and Corresponding Secretary — Dan-
iel Needham, of Hartford.

Treasurer — J. W. Colburn, of Springfield.

Directors — Frederick Holbrook, of Brattle-
boro' ; E. B. Chase, Lyndon ; H. S. Morse, Shel-
burne ; D. II. Potter, St. Albans ; Henry G. Root,
Bennington ; David Hill, Bridport ; John Gregory,
Northfield ; Elijah Cleaveland, Coventry ; Nathan
Gushing, Woodstock ; George Campbell, West-
minster.

Pesolved, That the next annual Fair be held at
Rutland, on the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th days of
September next.

Col. Needham, the Secretary, made a long re-
port, full of interesting particulars and valuable
suggestions. In him the members have found an
inteUigent and energetic officer.

Massachusetts Horticultural Society. —
The Transactions of this Society for the year 1861
are before us. It has reports on Ornamental
Gardening, on Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables,
all of wliich indicate research and show progress.
A short re]5ort on the culture of Polianthus Tube-
rosa, commonly called Tuberose, by Mr. E. W,
Buswell, of Boston, is interesting, because he
tells others just how to do the thing for them-
selves, and because "he looks upon flowers in gen-
eral, and tuberoses in particular, as among the

necessaries of life, and as such is willing to labor
for them."

Hingham Agricultural and Historical

Society. — This young giant of a Society, only
having been in existence since October, 1858, now
presents us with a Book of its Transactions, of
200 pages, which — like all else it has done — is
printed so as to reflect credit upon the Art. These
Transactions have been compiled by the Rev. E.
P. Dyer, whose fine agricultural tastes have ena-
bled him to present everything in an attractive
light. Nothing is omitted that should be pre-
served, and no topic is presented at too gi-eat
length. The awards of premiums are given in a
compact form, and dinner-table speeches are con-
siderately abridged. The book sparkles with wit
and poesy, and is a model of its kind.

Franklin County Agricultltial Society.
— At the recent annual meeting of this Society,
Hon. H. W. CusHMAN, of Bernardston, was elect-
ed its President, Mr. H. W. Clapp, declining to
serve longer on account of ill health. James G.
Grennell, Esq., of Greenfield, was re-elected
Secretary and Treasurer. The Society cannot fail
to prosper under the administration of such offi-
cers.

Hampshire Society. — This Society has re-
cently erected a fine hall, which it is thought will
prove an advantageous measure. Its officers are :

President — T. G. HUNTINGDON, of Hadley ;
Secretary — H. R. Starkweather, Jr., of Northamp-
ton ; Treasurer — A. Perry Peck, of Northampton.

Berkshire Agricultural Society — The an-
nual meeting of this society took place on the
7th inst. The officers elected are :

President — Thomas Colt, Pittsfield ; Seci'etary
John E. Merritt, Pittsfield ; Treasurer — Heruy
M. Pierson, Pittsfield.

The Only Known Use of Crinoline. — The
fruit trees in my orchard-house have been much
blighted this year ; the tops of the young shoots
curl up. I havb, I think, destroyed the fly now.
Not being able to smoke the house in the ordinary
way, I have used a lady's crinoline. I bought a
cheap one covered with glazed calico, pulled it up
round a pole, making it as close as possible. It
is just the size to cover one of Mr. Rivers's minia-
ture trees. I use a fumigator, and leave on the
crinoline till the next morning. I then syringe
the trees. The fly has no chance against the to-
bacco in so small a space ; and the tree does not
appear the worse. — Cor. London ]japer.

We double all the cares of life by pondering
over them. We increase our troubles by grieving
over them. A scratch becomes a wound, a slight
an injury, a jest an insult, a small peril a great
danger, and a sUght sickness often ends in death,
by the broodino- fears of the invalid.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb

having large, entire, cabbage-like leaves, which, by
their spreading, horizontal habit of growth, speed-
ily cover the soil between the drills, prevent evap-
oration from the surface, and materially check the
gi'owth of weeds. It is very hardy, of a fine, glob-
ular shape, no neck, and rarely exhibits any ten-
dency to run to seed in autumn. It grows to a
good size, keeps well, and bears a very high char-
cter.

CULTURE OF THE TUBITIP CBOP.

It is believed by many that the culture of tur-
nips as food for stock is unprofitable. In the hope
of making it more attractive, we present the read-
er with some very beautiful engravings which we
have had executed especially for our columns, of
Laing's and Skirvinifs Improved Purple-top
Swedes, and a cut of the common White Olobe
Turnip.

Like other crops, this may not be equally advan-
tageous to all farmers, as something must always
depend on the peculiar circumstances which sur-
round each case. Under the ordinary circumstan-
ces in which our farmers find themselves, we be-
lieve that a portion of the crop of nearly every
farm, should be in turnips, of some kind. This
opinion is founded upon the personal practice of
feeding turnips to stock for mamj years, and con-
firmed by the intelligent statements of others who
have gained their opinions by a similar practice.

It is a mistaken opinion, we think, that makes
the value of the turnip to consist merely in its
amount of nutritive qualities, as compared with
hay or grain. As well might we say that salt is
unprofitable for stock, measured by the same test.
The amount of nutrition in grass is small, com-
pared with well-cured timothy or clover hay — yet
none will say that the culture of grasses is unprof-
itable for our cattle. It is as much the alterative
properties of the root that gives it value, as the
nutritive properties which it contains, and proba-
bly more.

Figure 2.

The next is called Skii-ving's Improved Purple-
top Swede. This is a well-known variety among
our farmers. It was introduced into cultivation in
England, in 1837-8. It grows fair, is a good
cropper, comes early to maturity, and keeps well,
when properly stored. The root is of an oblong
shape, and grows higher out of the ground than
the old sorts. This habit of growth renders it
more readily injured by frost when left standing in
the field too late. It is a beautiful plant while
growing, is almost as smooth as glass, and the
flesh is crisp, sweet and juicy. Cattle fed upon
them once or twice are exceedingly eager to get
them again.

The third is the common White Globe, and
when grown on new land, in a favorable season,
is as smooth as a baby's cheek. The bulb is glob-
ular, and skin perfectly white ; moderately large
head ; neck fine and small, and ta])-root slender.
The first of these turnips which we introduce, is On soils quite rich, this variety has a tendency to
Laing's Improved Purple-top Swede, which dif- develop itself to a great size, and to become
fers widely from the other varieties of Swedes, in woolly in texture. The flesh is sweet and juicy,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

having less of that pe-
culiar turnip flaA^or than
the -white, flat turnip, so
common several vears

ago.

The turnip crop is
of easy cultivation, and
usually escapes the ra-
vages of insects, the
little hlack flea-beetle,
which attacks the
young plant and eats
off" the seed leaves, be-
ing its worst enemy.
The culture of no one
plant has had so de- figures.

cidedly a beneficial in-
fluence on the agriculture of England, as that of
the turnip — and we cannot but believe, that when
more attention is given to it in this country, so
that we shall better understand its cost of produc-
tion and its effect upon the stock to which it is
fed, we shall find its extensive cultivation profi-
table.

POISONOUS PROPERTIES OP BRINE.

It may not be known to all that brine, in which
meat or fish have been salted, is poisonous to do-
mestic animals. If left in their way they will par-
take as freely of it as they will of pure salt, when
it very often proves fatal. The L^ Union Medi-
cate, a French publication, gives an account of the
researches of M. Rcynal in regard to the poison-
ous properties of brine. From a series of exper-
iments detailed, he draws the following conclu-
sions :

First, That three or four months after its pre-
paration it acquires poisonous properties.

Second, That the mean poisonous dose for a
horse is about four pints ; for the hog, one pint ;
and for a dog, four to five gallons.

Third, That in less doses it produces vomiting
in the dog and hog.

Fourth, That the employment of this substance
mixed with the food, continued for a certain time,
even in sm:Jl quantities, may be flital.

We know from experience, says the Valley
Farmer, that brine, if swallowed by hogs and oth-
er animals, will prove fotal, yet we doubt if the
subject is suscaptible of the definite results as
stated by M. Reynal, for the degree of the poi-
sonous properties of the brine depends on various
circumstances. We have known a much less quan-
tity to prove fatal than that stated above.

To Cure Sheep Skins with the Wool on.
— Take one tablespoonful of alum and two of salt-
petre ; pulverize well and mix together thoroughly.
Sprinkle this powder upon the flesh side of the
skin and fold together with the \< ool out ; hang
up in a cool place. In two or three 'tfays, as soon
as diT, take down and scrape the flesh with a blunt
edged knife till clean. This completes the process.
Such sldns make excellent saddle covers. — Mich-
igan Farmer.

For the New Englanii Fanner.
DOES FARMING PAY?

There are some things so self-evident that they
do not admit of proof. Twice five makes ten, is
a self-evident fact, and you may argue and talk
about it as much as you please, and confusion will
only be the result, and will not make the fact any
more plain than its simple statement. Now it
strikes me pretty much in the same way, in re-
gard to the profits of farming. The latter may
not be so plainly self-evident as that twice two are
four, but the fact that farmers, as a class, make a
profit, are good livers, solid men, and enjoy as
many of the rational comforts of life as any other
class, and many more than some, is so very self-
evident to any one who will investigate the mat-
ter and thoroughly inform himself on the subject,
as hardly to need comment.

In an article published in last week's Farmer, I
called the attention of its readers to this matter,
and the subject is renewed at this time because
the other day, in a conversation with one of our
farmers, he called in question its statements.
The fact is, we are so accustomed to some, very
many, of our every-day blessings, that we do not
appreciate them, or the enjoyments and comforts
wliich they aff"ord us, until we are deprived of
them. It is something so in regard to farming
and its profits. Even at the present day, in this
enlighted nineteenth century, of Rebellion and
War — when the roar of the Lion comes across
the waters to frighten fools — many farmers look
upon their calling as low and vulgar, and them-
selves as inferior to men in other callings, and are
constantly grumbling about the hard times, poor
crops and a non-paying business.

Now the fact is, all this class of men are doing
as well by farming as they would at anything else
— doubtless, far better ; as it is, perhaps they rub
and go ; they are not the kind of men to succeed
in anything and make it a successful and profita-
ble business. My friend, the farmer, brought up
the fact that during the past season he made a
visit to liis native town, Middleboro', and he vis-
ited a number of farmers, Avho, in his boyhood,
had fine, flourishing farms, but now a number of
them are deserted, run down ; and once cultivated
fields are in wood or pasture ; and the majority
are not so good, and would not bring to-day, in
money, what they would thirty or forty years ago.
And he asked the question, What is the cause of
this, if farming is profitable ; why did not the sons
of the fathers stick by the old folks and farm, in-
stead of going to other callings and getting rich ?
His answer was, Because farming was not profit-
able, or they would have continued to carry them
on.

It would take too much space and time to an-
swer my friend, and such as reason like him, and
though liis question looks fair and legitimate, yet
any one who will inform himself can see that it
really is not so, and is not a valid argument to
bring against the profitableness of the business of
farming. This question was very fully discussed
about a year ago in the columns of the Farmer.
I should be glad to have some of its intelligent
farmer readers take up the question again and dis-
cuss it in a thorough and systematic manner, that
our young men may clearly see what all progres-
sive, go-ahead farmers declare, that farming, prop-

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER

Feb.

erly carried on, will pay six per cent, on the capi-
tal invested, and not unfrequently a much larger
interest. A business which does this, a sane man
ought to be satisfied with. Suppose farmer Shel-
don take this matter up, and tell the young men
of New England how to manage a farm to have
it pay lawful interest on the cost, leaving out the
"fancies." N. Q. T.

King Oak Hill, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
ASHES OB LIME AS A PERTILIZEB.

Inquiries have been made into the causes of the
fertility and bari'enness of land, the food and nu-
triment of vegetables, the nature of soils, and the
best modes of ameliorating them with various ma-
nures.

Ashes for top-dressing operate very favorably
upon exhausted soils ; many of which produce
nothing but white top or June grass.

I have a knoll on my farm that produced a
small crop of white grass ; I thought I would try
to renovate it by top-dressing with ashes. I spread
on it at the rate of one hundred bushels of leached
ashes to the acre. The second year after spread-
ing, the white grass was completely subdued, and
its place supplied with a thick, heavy crop of clo-
ver and timothy.

White grass is of spontaneous growth, and
flourishes best where the land is most deficient in
carbon and lime. A proper proportion of ashes,
spread broadcast or plowed in, will restore it to its
original state of productiveness. Ashes is the
best fertilizer on such land, becanse it replenishes
the soil with every ingredient of which it is the
most deficient.

Lime in a heap composed of meadow muck and
animal manure, after being thoroughly pulverized,
when applied to the soil, will very nearly supply
the deficiency of salts, and produce satisfactory re-
sults. The use of lime in agriculture may be at-
tributed to its property of hastening the dissolu-
tion of all animal and vegetable matter, and of im-
parting to the soil a power of retaining a quantity
of moisture necessary for the nourishment and
vigorous growth of plants. J. W.

East Sullivan, N. H., Dec. 28, 1861.

To Prevent Tools from Rusting. — Thou-
sands of dollars are lost each year by the rusting
of plows, hoes, shovels, etc. Some of this might
be prevented by the application of lard and resin,
it is said, to all steel or iron implements. Take
three times as much lard as resin, and melt them
together. This can be applied with a brush or
cloth to all surfaces in danger of rusting, and
they can easily be kept bright. If tools are to be
laid by for the winter, give them a coating of this,
and you will be well repaid. It can be kept for a
long time, and should always be on hand, and
ready for use.

Wedges Rebounding. — Take a piece of dry
bark and set in the opening, then set in the wedge
anew, so as to split this piece of bark, and it will
prevent any further trouble. So says the Coun-
try Oentleman.

LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

[Reported for the Farmer, by D. W. Lothrop.]

The second meeting of the series was held at
Representatives' Hall, on Monday evening last.
The subject for discussion was Agricultural Edu-
cation, and His Excellency Gov. Andrew^ being
present, as was expected, was called to preside.

He observed that his studies were not compati-
ble with the culture of the earth, and, compared
with many others present, he was ignorant of
farming. ■ But he possessed a love for the soil, and
such a regard for mother earth was generally in-
nate in the hearts of all men. Men are easily
brought back to the old homestead, and youth who
come to the city or bustling town delight to retire
and contemplate the scenes of their cliildhood,
and enjoy the rich and varied beauties of nature.
Generally speaking, all men are real or prospec-
tive farmers. In alluding to the strong desire of
some young persons for general and scientific in-
formation, he spoke of a young man who sent to
him from the country for a grammar and diction-
ary of the Sanscrit language ! Passing to the soil,
the Governor spoke of farming as it was years ago,
in Cumberland county, Maine — the scene of his
early childhood — and repeated a humorous distich
of an old farmer in regard to the poorness of his
land. There were only tkree orchai'ds in the place,
and the fruit of those very poor. But the imped-
iment to farming in Maine was, that the farmers
were but half-farmers, part of their time being de-
voted to the lumber business. Hence the differ-
ence to be seen between their farms and those of
Worcester county in this State ; and he conclud-
ed that a farmer's time should not be divided. He
also alluded to a clergyman in the State of Maine,
who, with but a small and rather sterile piece of
land, containing an apple orchard, had, by dint of
attention to it, made it a source of income, and
was enabled thereby to send a son to College. But
the general features of agriculture in that State
had greatly changed for the better, as he had had
occasion to observe after an absence of twenty-five
years. Now the farmers have good fences, paint-
ed barns, more orchards, and more highly cultivat-
ed soil. And this is the result of books, news-
papers and debating clubs, where the mind is
sought to be improved as well as the crops. Noth-
ing touches life at so many points as agricultural
education, for we are all directly or indirectly
connected with the soil. That was the truest po-
litical economy which gave a large number of
farmers, without which a nation cannot be strong
in war nor independent in peace. A nation of
shop-keeper5;.*:oukl not stand against the rest of
the world. The Governor concluded by observing
that he hoped he might have excited a spirit of
discussion upon this important subject, as every
man owes a debt to the earth that sustains him.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dr. LORING, of Salem, being called upon, said
that he came as a learner, not as a teacher. He
remarked that the proper basis for agricul-
tural education in New England was the intro-
duction into our schools of some elementary work
on agriculture, and this Avould tend to make it at-
tractive to the rising generation. "VVe have done
much in New England by books, periodicals, &c.,
and they should not be lost sight of. And we
should not forget what the Commonwealth, and
what agricultural societies have done. lie com-
mended the Agricultural iManual, published by the
recommendation of the Massachusetts Agricultural
Board, and said it contained much matter for flir-
mers in a desirable form. lie was not prepared to
advocate agricultural colleges, yet they may be
serviceable in England, where capitalists require
l)ailiffs to superintend their farms. Our farming
organization is so different from that of Europe,
that such large institutions would be of doubtful
utility with us, at present, at least. He spoke of
the importance of learning from books, as farmers
were slow to give and transmit traditionally their
experience, and related some facts in illustration.
He impressed the idea that agriculture need not
be drudgery, and that it can be made superior to
all vocations, required much thinking, and was
more diiRcult to pursue than the various mechan-
ical trades.

Mr. White, Secretary of the State Board of
Education, being called upon, said he did not feel
competent to speak vipon the practical part of farm-
ing, though interested in general education. He
related the anecdote of a painter, who, when asked
what he mixed with liis colors to make them so
superior, replied "Brains !" And, said the speak-
er, this is what we should mix with manure ! Ed-
ucation underlies all that is important in life, and
introduces real wealth. Broad forms decrease with
wealth and population, and men narrow their
bounds, and by the aid of science, cultivate down-
wards— into the earth. Scratcliing the soil will
not do ; we must go deep and mix brains with oiu-
operations. He thought all the great business op-
erations of life should be begun early to be well
understood, and to secure success, and of course
farming was included. Every man owns land or
expects to, as all have an interest in it. The in-
troduction of agriculture into our schools as a study
— besides being useful otherwise — would have a
religious bearing and influence. Farming is a re-
ligious occupation — one of obvious dependence
upon God ; and the tillers of the soil should be
the best educated, as with them lay the broadeit
field, on which and with whom he hoped to ead
his days.

Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Board of Agricul-
ture, being invited to speak, said he had given the
subject much thought, and that it was no less im-

portant than broad. The practical question is,
what is the best way to educate ? Newspapers
and Societies had done very much. lie was not
opposed to an agricultural college, at a proper time,
but we must begin at the beginning. The gi-eat
utility of expensive manual labor schools and col-
leges in Europe was doubtful, and by some, these
institutions had been pronounced failures. The
agricultural colleges of this country are yet exper-
iments. For a further expression of his views,
Mr. Flint read from a report of a committee to
the State Agricultm-al Board, published in the
Massachusetts Agricultural report of 1859, page
130; also from the Ohio Fanner, showing the
importance of the introduction of agricultin-e into
our schools, the plcasme its vaned subjects would
give, the ftiilures it would prevent, »ic. This
would be beginning at the foundation.

Mr. Northrop, Agent of the INIassachusetts
Board of Education, being called upon, said agri-
culture should be taught early. In our schools
we should not give books so much as things and
facts. There was a growing thii-st for knowledge,
as stated by His Excellency the Governor, and we
should teach children to reflect. They should see
and feel the natural objects of their studies as much
as possible. Plato used to say he regi-etted the
art of writing ; and we might almost regret the
art of printing. Books were the ai-t of man — na-
ture the art of God. Farming was good educa-
tion for the mind, and best to develop the imagin-
ation.

Mr. Dewitt, of Agawam, had some views rath-
er counter to the previous speakers. He thought
the Agricultural Manual, if introduced into our
schools to be taught to boys under 16 years of age,
would fail in five years. In seminaries and with
older children, it might perhaps be of more use.

INIr. White replied that he had reference to
higher classes.

ISlr. Davis, of Plymouth, had read the Manual
carefully, and thought that all persons might be
enlightened by it. He illustrated the importance
of education in farming, by stating some facts
about the growth of timothy grass with its bulbous
root. He spoke also of the large mammoth agricul-
tural institution recommended by Dr. Hitchcock,
with more professors than Harvard College, but
said it would not do. Let us teach agriculture in
our ordinary schools, and rise by gradation, and
by and by we may attain to a county school, such
as has been by some recommended.

Mr. Sears, of Yarmouth, said he did not think
the scholars were too young in our common schools
to study agriculture, and he would have it there
taught. Young boys have more ideas of life than
we imagine.

Mr. Capen, of Boston, spoke generally and ear-
nestly upon the subject, alluding, among many

100

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

other things, to the prejudice in some of the West-
ern States against educated farmers. He thought
the farmer could find little or no useless learning,
and advocated his studying the Latin and Greek
classics, and in fact the classics of all nations, Eng-
lish, French, German, &c.

The time for closing the meeting having passed,
Gov. Andrew announced the subject for discussion
at the next meeting — Crops, and the Profits and
Economy of their Cultivation. Adjourned.

Fur the New England Farmer,
INJURED APPLE TREES.

Mr. Editor : — I saw an article in your paper
from your New Bedford correspondent respecting
the loss of his Baldwin apple trees.

He undoubtedly grew them too fast. When
they grow fast, they grow later in the fall, hence
the danger of growing them too fast.

In the winter of 1830-31, thousands of apple,
peach and cherry trees were killed. There was no
frost to stop their growing, and on the first or sec-
ond day of December it froze up tight ; the sap
being up, it started the bark and killed thousands
of the finest growing trees, and those that grew
the most suffered the most.

Some months since, your Sandy River corres-
pondent made inquiry of the reason of his apple
trees having been injured on the south side. I
have never known apple trees that were properly
cared for and judiciously managed, to be injured
on the south side. But I have known the difficul-
ty take place, and as I have supposed, from three
causes.

1. From want ot nourishment; the body of the
tree being exposed to the sun, I have supposed
the heat of the sun penetrated through the bark
and dried it so as to stop the flow of sap, and the
worms always get in.

2. Cutting off too much ; the same difficulty
takes place from an overflow of sap.

3. When the spi'outs are allowed to fill up the
top or middle of the tree, the top branches are de-
prived of nourishment, and the same difficulty
takes place. I have merely stated the reasons, as
they have appeared to me, as the cause of the dif-
ficulty spoken of, but I cannot say that I am sure
of it. Daniel Leland.

East Holliston, Dec. 26, 1861.

American Pomological Society. — We learn,
says the Journal, that the President of this na-
tional association, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, has
appointed September 17, 1862, for the commence-
ment of its ninth session, wliich is to be held in
Boston. This institution was established in the
year 1848, and has held meetings in the cities of
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and
Rochester, and has exerted a powerful influence
in systematizing and advancing the science of Po-
mology throughout the Union. In conjunction with
this appointment, the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society have ordered its annual exhibition for this
year to take place on the same week.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.

CULTURE OF WHITE BEANS.

Will some of your kind contributors be good
enough to give me a little (or a good deal) of in-
formation in regard to the cultivation of white
beans on the following points, viz :

1. Are they a tolerably certain crop ?

2. From what causes are they most liable to
suffer injury ?

3. AVhat kind of soil is best adapted to them ?

4. What is the most approved method of cul-
ture ?

5. What is the average yield from a bushel of
seed?

This, perhaps, is asking a good deal ; if so,
please excuse it. I have never taken the liberty
before, but while my hand is in,

6. I must ask you, as a further favor, to give me
the title of a standard work on farming — one that
will be a real help to a new beginner.

A Subscriber to Monthly.
Jan. 15, 1862.

Remarks. — 1. "WTiite beans are very suscepti-
ble to frost — aside from this, they are as sure a
crop as any we cultivate, when properly managed.

2. From poor land, want of manure and proper
cultivation. The almost universal practice is to
crowd the white bean crop off" to some arid sand
plain, or gravelly knoll, the poorest piece of land
on the farm, throw in a little chip dirt or some-
thing equivalent, and then expect a crop of beans !
Fortunately, such expectations are not often veri-
fied. On a proper soil, with generous manuring
and good attention, a paying crop of white beans
may always be expected. When planted early and
kept rapidly growing they will rarely be injured
by autumnal frosts — indeed, they will usually be
fit for harvesting in August. We are not aware
that they are injured by insects of any kind except-
ing the grub or cut-worm which sometimes at-
tacks them. Sometimes a slight rust takes them,
but not often, in our climate.

3. The soil best adapted to their growth is a
rich gravelly or sandy loam. In England, it is
said, strong clay soils and heavy marls are best —
and those may be good if thoroughly drained —
but here we think any of our good Indian com
land is best. The sandy barrens where they are
usually placed, are no better for beans than for
our other farm crops. If they are liighly manured,
and the season is a moist one, a good crop would
probably be the result.

4. Plant in hills or drills, and leave the rows
two and a half or three feet apart, so as to allow
of their cultivation with the horse. If the soil is
good, and well manured, great care must be ob-
served not to seed too highly. If in drill, the
])lants should not stand nearer than six inches
of each other — and if in hills, three or four plants
are enough.

5. Do not know. On such land, and with such

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

101

attention as we have spoken of, an acre ought to
bring twenty-five bushels.

6. The Farmers' mid Planters' Encyclopedia, as
a single book, is the best we are acquainted with ;
but this must be used cautiously, as much of it re-
lates to English practices and climate. Buel's
Farmer's Companion and the Manual of Agri-
culture, just prepared by Messrs, Emerson and
Flint are also excellent works.

A BARN CELLAR OUTSIDE.

I intend to build a barn on steep land, with a
cellar outside to keep roots, over Avhich I intend to
have a cart road to a high floor. Will a coating
of Avatcr-lime cement make it water proof, and save
the planks with two or three feet of earth,

Wm. F. Gibson.

Ryegate, Vt., Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — We should think not. The cement
might prevent the water from percolating through
to the planks, but the moisture of the cellar would
keep them damp — unless with a complete sys-
tem of ventilation — which would eventually rot
and ruin them. Can you not throw one or two
stone arches over the cellar, and thus make per-
manent work of it ? Would not such work be
cheaper in the end ?

SALES FROM SHEEP.

Will you please ask Mr. Nathan Bottum, of
Shaftsbury, Vt., to inform us how liis sales from
175 sheep amounted to $2000 ?

Jan. 1, 1862. WiLLLVM B. Ward.

moles and WOODCnUCKS.
I wish to ask through the Farmer, what is the
best way to get rid of moles and woodchucks ?
Eatjleld, Jan. 1, 1862.

FAKMEBS' HIGH SCHOOL.

We have before us a catalogue of the Officers
and Students of the Farmers' Hiqli School of
Pennsylvania, for the year 1861. The college
year of ten months will commence about the mid-
dle of February next. The Faculty says :

The student has an opportunity of seeing all the
practical opei'ations of the farm, garden and nurse-
ry, in the most approved manner, with the use of
the best manures, seeds, tools and implements ;
and, what is of more importance than this, he
studies in the class-room and laboratory the scien-
tific principles involved in all he does, and by be-
coming a scientific man and analytical chemist, he
is enabled to protect himself and others against
the frauds and cheats that are continually being
practised upon the uneducated, by dealers who are
themselves either ignorant of science, or use it to
impose upon the community. He learns how to
study the geology, mineralogy and chemistry of
the soil he cultivates, the botany of the plant he
grows, and the laws of health and diseases of the
animals he uses.

In a word, he is made thoroughly acquainted

with the laws and phenomena of the material world
with which he is in immediate contact, a knowledge
of Avhich is essential to their material success, or
intellectual pleasure, in the pursuit of the duties
of rural life.

Those desirous of learning more of the institu-
tion, may do so by addressing Dr. E. PUGll, Fai'm
School, Penn.

"WINTER-TIME.

Though Winter reigns, Beauty still holds her throne ;
She moulds the snow-flake to its lovely form,
And the fjw crinkled leaves that mock the storm,
And laugh and chatter while the sad winds moan,
Beauty hath stained with mingled gold and brown.
The patches of bright sky between the showers.
The robin's breast, and moss-floors of lone bowers,
For naked trees and funeral-clouds atone.
Beauty dies not, she walks through forest dim
With feathery feet, when the strange cuckoo-note
Like a friend's voice on the calm air doth float,
And lisping zephyrs chant Spring's advent-hymn ;
With the swart Summer and brown Autumn dwells ;
And marries Winter in the ice-flower dells.

AMEKICAN SOCIETY.

In America, even more than in Europe, there is
but one society, whether rich or poor, high or low,
commercial or agricultural ; it is everj'where com-
posed of the same elements. It has all been raised
or reduced to the same level of civilization. The
man whom you left in the streets of New York,
you find again in the solitude of the far West ; the
same dress, the same tone of mind, the same lan-
guage, the same habits, the same amusements.
No rustic simplicity, nothing characteristic of the
wilderness, nothing even like our villages. This
peculiarity may be easily explained. The portions
of territory first and most fully peopled, have
reached a high degree of civilization. Education
has been prodigally bestowed ; the spirit of equal-
ity has tinged with singular uniformity the domes-
tic habits.

Now it is remarkable that the men thus educat-
ed are those who, every year, migrate to the des-
ert. In Europe, a man lives and dies where he
was born. In America, you do not see the repre-
sentative of a race grown and multiplied in retire-
ment, having long lived unknown to the world,
and left to his own efforts. The inhabitants of an
isolated region arrived yesterday, bringing with
them the habits, ideas and wants of civilization.
They adopt only so much of savage life as is ab-
solutely forced upon them ; hence you see the
strangest contrasts. You step from a wilderness
into the streets of a city, from the wildest scenes
to the most smiling pictures of civilized life. If
night does not surprise you, and force you to sleep
under a tree, you may reach a village where you
will find everything, even French fashions and car-
icatures from Paris. The shops of Bufl'alo or De-
troit are as well supplied with all these things as
those of New Yoi-k. The looms of Lyons work for
both alike.

You leave the high road ; you plunge into paths
scarcely mai'ked out ; you come at length upon a
plowed field, a hut built of rough logs, lighted by
a single naiTow window ; you think that you have
at last reached the abode of the American peasant ;
you are wrong. You enter this hut, which looks

102

NEW ENGLAND FARMEIL

Feb.

the abode of misery : the master is dressed as you
are ; his language is that of the towns. On his
rude table are books and newspapers ; he takes
vou hurriedly aside to be informed of what is go-
ing oa ill Europe, aud asks you what has most
struck you in tliis country. Pie will trace on pa-
per for you the plan of a campaign in Belgium,
and will teach you gravely what remains to be
done for the prosi)erity of France. You might
take Iiim for a rich proprietor, come to spend a few
nights in a shooting-box. And, in fact, the log-
hut is only a halting place for the American — a
temporary submission to necessity. As soon as
the surrounding fields are thoroughly cultivated,
and their owner has time to occupy himself with
superfluities, a more spacious dwelling will succeed
the log-hut, and become the home of a large fam-
ily of children, who, in their turn, will some day
build themselves a dwelling in the wilderness. —
Alexis de Tocquecille.

SO'W SPBINQ WHEAT EARLY.

"My experience teaches me," says a correspon-
dent of the Wisconsin Farmer, "that we must sow
our wheat as early as possible. There is hardly
any danger of sowing too early. Two years ago I
sowed a small piece in Canada club spring wheat
on the 5th day of April. That piece yielded 33
bushels to the acre in that poor season. The ber-
ry was plump and heavy, weighing 61.^ pounds to
measured bushel. I continued to sow, as the rains
and state of the ground would allow, having but
one team, until about the first day of May, and I
must say that just in proportion to the date of
sowing were the amounts and quality of the crop,
the piece which was sown and harrowed the last
day of April being badly rusted and not yielding
over eight or nine bushels of poor shrunken wheat
per acre, while that portion of the field covered
about the 10th of the same month, turned out be-
tween twenty-five and thirty bushels of very mar-
ketable grain. The piece sown about the 18th
and 20th of April was not so good as that sown
before, yet far better than the last sown."

In connection with these remarks, we will add
that of the two wheat crops submitted last year to
the Essex County Agricultural Society, one was
sown April 7th, and the other, "when the han-ow
struck tiie frost." The premium of $8 was award-
ed to Mr. Paul Pearson, of Newbury, for his crop
of wheat, at the rate of 35 bushels to the acre.
Pretty good crop for old Massachusetts.

The ladies are introducing a new and beautiful
ornament for the parlor mantle, or centre table.
They take large pine burs, sprinkle grass seed of
any "kind in them, and place them in pots of wa-
ter. When the burs are soaked a few days, they
close up in the form of solid cones, then the little
spears of green grass begin to emerge from amongst
the lamiuiC, forming an ornament of rare and sim-
ple beauty.

ACUTE POUNDER IN HORSES.

AVe find the following in that excellent little
work. The Horse Oioner^s Guide: —

An inflammation of the laminae of the foot,
originating in too hard work, or caused by cold.
This disease is not confined to the hoof alone, but
spreads over the sensible laminae or fleshy plates
on the front and sides of the coffin bone. It is al-
ways accompanied by fever.

//. R. — Aconite — If there is inflammation, 6
drops every one, two or three hours.

Brijonia — When the limbs are stiff" and the
joints swollen, G drops every two hours. Vera-
trum, if it is brought on by violent exercise, same.

A. R. — Cold applications, and still better to put
the horse in running water. If very violent, bleed
the jugular and feet, two or three quarts.

Founder, Chronic. — This is a species of foun-
der that produces less severe lameness than acute
founder.

//. R. — Aconite, arsenicum, with increased pain.
Rhus tox., if there is a change for the Avorse after
some exertion.

We suppose the letters "H. R." and "A. R,"
mean homoeopathic and allopathic remedy.

For the New England Farmer.
HINTS FOR THE SEASON.

Mr. Editor : — Allow me to remind your read-
ers who are not prepared to use their sugar or-
chards to their full capacity, that arrangements
should now be made to procure buckets, storage,
&c., that no time may be lost when the sugar sea-
son arrives.

At present prices — and there appears to be no
prospect of any diminution very soon — there is no
more profitable branch of farming.

Don't forget to throw on a few of the best brush
for pea supports while getting the year's supply of
fuel, and have them sharpened and laid aside in a
convenient place for use next spring.

It makes winter more cheerful to hang up a few
bits of fat meat where the chicadees can feed upon
them and be safe from "puss." If there is no tree
or shrub near the window, a small spruce or fir
tree in a sheltered corner will afl'ord a double grat-
ification when stocked with such "fruit."

AVm. F. Bassett.

AsJifield, Jan. 13, 1862.

Cultivation of Cotton in the Free States.
— The Commissioner of Patents has issued a Cir-
cular, in which he says the cultivation of cotton
in the middle portion of the Free States is begin-
ning to attract attention. To prevent failures in
its cultivation, it is proper to remark that it is a
principle in vegetable phjsiology that tropical
plants can never be acclimated North, except by a
repeated reproduction of new varieties from the
seed. The attempt to grow Sea Island cotton,
such as is now brought from Hilton Head, would

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

103

prove a failure in any portion of the Free States.
The only variety capable of successful cultivation
in those sections now seeking its introduction, is
the green seed cotton, such as is now being raised
extensively in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and
portions of Kentucky, which produces the white
fibre. The seed should be obtained from these
localities. The modifications of soil and climate
will influence the size of the plant, the length and
fineness of the fibre, and the product of the crop.
No reasonable doubt is entertained of the success
of the culture in all the mild portions of the mid-
dle States, and efibrts are now making by this
division to procure the proper seed for distribu-
tion. The Commissioner further says the cultiva-
tion of sorgho the past year settles the question of
its entire jjractical success, and that one of the
difficulties presenting itself is the want of pure
seed. To meet this want, this division has ordered
seed from France for distribution tins ensuing
spring.

Remedy for Ringworms. — The North Brit-
ish Agriculturist says that the disease locally
known as ring worm or tetter, which shows itself
about the head and neck of young cattle, in the
form of whitish dry scurve spots, can be removed
by rubbing the parts affected with iodine ointment.
The disease may also be combated by the use of
sulphur and oil ; iodine ointment is, hoAvever, to
be prefen-ed. As tliis skin disease is easily com-
municated to the human subject, the person dress-
ing the cattle should wash his hands with soap
and hot water after each ointment.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

For the New England Fanner.
IMPROVEMENT IN" SOUPS.
Mr. Editor : — The Neapolitans always add
grated cheese to Bouillon, maccaroni and vermi-
celli soups, and thus very much enrich them in
flavor and nutritive value. An insipid soup may
thus be at once rendered quite palatable, and if
crumbs of toasted bread are added, quite a sub-
stantial dish may be made of it. Those of your
readers who wish to practice economy at the table,
— and I presume there are many such — will find
they can save at least half the meat they would
otherwise consume, by introducing a good soup at
their dinners. The making of soup from the
bones of the previous day's dinner is well known to
all housekeepers, though all do not know how to
make the most of these materials. We will here
merely suggest the trial of the one additional ar-
ticle above named, as it may be put in by those
who like it ; the grated cheese being placed on the
table, a comparison of the soup with and without
the cheese may be readily instituted. From one
to two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese to a plate

of soup is the proportion. Try it once, and you
will be sure to repeat the experiment. Pieces of
cheese that have become dry may be used up to
great advantage. The Neapolitans use parmesans,
but any cheese will answer — we like the Dutch,
for this purpose, as it is clry, salt and liigh-flavored.
The French highly value soups, and many of the
poorer classes have hardly any other food than
soup and bread.

One of the reasons why this diet has so little
popularity among us is, that few cooks know how
to make a good, palatable and nutritious soup, es-
pecially when they are limited to mere bones and
vegetables for a basis. The story of the delicious
soup made by a Frenchman with what appeared
to one of our countrywomen as nothing more than
a couple of pebble stones, she having loaned him
the pot and supplied him with a few bones and
condiments, illustrates what may be done with
slender means when the cook understands his or
her business. It will be remembered that the
Frenchman presented the good woman with the
pebbles, which she continued ever after to use as
the basis of the soup, for the composition of which
she was indebted to the example of her poor vis-
itor, c. T. I.

To Roast Beef. — Rib roast is that part where
the ribs commence, on the fore quarter to the back
of the ox. The first two or three are called the
first cut, the next two or three the second cut ;
these two cuts are the best to roast. Cut off" all
the bones, and saw the ribs in two places, careful-
ly peel or cut off" all soiled or dirty places, if any,
then wipe it all over with a clean cloth wrung out
of cold water. Then rub it all over with fine salt,
put it in the pan to roast with not too strong a
fire to burn it. In half an hour take it out and
drain the gravy into a bowl, baste it over Avith the
fat, and dust on flour all over the meat ; this must
be done every half hour, until the meat is roast-
ed, which will keep the gravy from being burnt.
Take up the meat, skin off" some of the fat from
the top of the bowl and pour it into the pan, dust
in some flour, let it boil, and stir it until it thick-
ens.

A roast of ten pounds will take about two and
a half to three hours to cook. If you roast be-
fore a fireplace, you can let the gravy remain in
the pan.

A sirloin of beef, or a loin of veal, can be roast-
ed in the same way. In the sirloin of beef, the
suet must not be roasted — it will spoil the gravy.

Cleaning Silk. — The following is said to be
an excellent recipe for cleaning silks : Pare three
Irish potatoes, cut them into thin shces, and wash
them well. Pour on them half a pint of boiling
water, and let it stand till cold ; strain the water
and add to it an equal quantity of alcohol. Sponge
the silk on the right side, and when half dry, iron
it on the wrong side. The most delicate colored
silk may be cleaned by this process, M'hich is equal-
ly applicable to cloth, velvet or crape.

104

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Feb.

Prolonging the Beauty of Cut Floweus.
— A recent author, E. A. Maling, states that for
keeping flowers in Avater, finely-powdered char-
coal, in which the stalks can b? stuck at the bot-
tom of the vase, preserves them surprisingly, and
renders the water free from any obnoxious quali-
ties. When cut flowers have faded, either by be-
ing worn a whole evening in one's dress, or as a
bouquet, by cutting half an inch from the end of
the stem in the morning, and putting the freshly
ti'immed end instantly into quite boiling water,
the petals may be seen to become smooth and to
resume their beauty, often in a few minutes. Col-
ored flowers, carnations, azaleas, roses and gera-
niums, may be treated in this way. White flow-
ers turn yellow. The thickest textured flowers
amend the most, although azaleas i-evive M'onder-
fuUy. The writer has seen flowers that have lain
the whole night on a table, after having been worn
for hours, which at breakfast next morning were
perfectly renovated by means of a cupful of hot
water.

Steamed Brown Bread. — Take two quarts of
sweet skim milk, one tablespoonful of saleratus,
one of salt, half a cup of molasses ; put in equal
quantities of rye and Indian meal until the dough
is as stiff as can be conveniently stirred with a
spoon, then put it in two two-quart tins. Place
sticks across the bottom of the kettle to keep the
water from the bread ; place one of the tins on
these, and the other in a tin steamer placed on the
top of the same kettle, and let it steam three hours.
Care should be taken to keep the water boiling,
while the bread is cooking. When done, put it in
a warm oven long enough to dry the top of it, not
bake it. Yeast can be used instead of saleratus,
if any prefer it, but the bread must rise well be-
fore putting it in the kettle. — Selected.

Bleaching Flowers. — Light is as much a
necessity to the healthy development of plants, as
is a due supply of heat and moisture. In darkness,
the green coloring matter, "chlorophyl," can not
be developed, Advantage is taken of this circum-
stance in the bleaching of salads and vegetables,
and the same process is now being applied to flow-
ers. It appears that in Paris there is a great de-
mand for white lilacs for ladies' bouquets in Win-
ter, and as the common white lilac does not force
well, the purple "Lilas de Morly" is used. The
flowers of this variety, Avhen made to expand at a
high temperature, in total darkness, are of a pure
white ; those of the Persian lilac will not whiten.
London lieview.

Yeast. — A baker in the army, celebrated for
his excellent bread, gives the following receipt for
maldng yeast : Boil one pound of flour, one-
fourth pound of brown sugar and a little salt, in
two gallons of water, for one hour. When milk
wami, bottle and cork it close. It will be ready
for use in twenty-four hours.

THE CATTLE MABKETS FOB JAITUAKY.

Believing that a brief summary of the weekly
reports of the cattle markets will be convenient
for reference and comparison, we publish the fol-
lowing abstract for January, and propose to give
similar tables for each month during the year.

NUMBER at market.

Catt'e. Sheep, Shoies. Lite Fat Hngs.

January 2 1053 2600 500 2500

" 9 1964 3428 230 2000

" 16 1332 3328 100 1800

" 23 1084 2058 300 2000

Total for Jan 5433 11414 1150 8300

PRICES.

Jan. 2. Jan. 9. Jan. 16. Jan. 23.

Beef cattle, ■^ B) 4iS7c 4Jg6.i 4ia6J 4.V56i

Sheep, live weight 4Jfl5| 41.it5.^ 41fT5i 4\;j5i

Swine, stores, wholesale 3 @4 SkQi^ HU^i 3\ni\

Stores, retail 4 <nb 4 g6 5 (R6 4 @6

Livefathogs 4Vg4J 4JQ4J 4 (g4J 3^g3|

Remarks. — Many more of the Western than of
the Northern cattle are thoroughly fatted, conse-
quently but few of the latter sell at the highest pri-
ces quoted, wliich are those for extra beeves. A
few, and but a few Northern oxen, were sold for
over 6c per lb. at the two last markets in January.

AVorking oxen and stores have not changed
much in price during the month, otherwise than
as their value has been aff'ected by the price of
beef, for Avhich most of this class of stock has been
purchased for the last four weeks. The range of
our quotations is from $G0 to $140.

Milch cows have sold better, perhaps, than most
other kinds of stock, but at a very wide range of
prices, say from $20 to over $50.

THE ERUPTION OF MT. VESUVIUS.
A whirlpool, some three hundred and sixty feet
in diameter, has been formed in the sea near Toitc
del Greco, by the late eruption of Vesuvius. The
sounding gave twenty-three fathoms of water, and
the plummet brought up sand and sulphur. From
a part of the circumference a tail, so to call it,
about sixty feet in width, runs away in the direc-
tion of Sorrento, and is of a beautiful light green
color. All the Avater here was tepid, had a strong
sulphurous smell, and many fish have been des-
troyed. The eruption of Vesuvius appears to be
increasing at latest dates instead of subsiding.
There are eleven craters above Torre del Greco,
all emitting sulphurous vapors, and the largest is
from seventy to eighty feet deep and one hundred
feet wide. From this point, after heavy rumblings
and heaving of the surfoce, the ground was split
open, and a fiery fissure was made almost to the
outskirts of the city, through which the dread un-
seen power passed, opening the streets and laying
bare some parts of the former buried town, and
then running into the sea. Strangers are coming
from all parts of Europe to Naples to behold Vesu-
vius in its glorious burning and devastating anger.

DEVOTED TO AGKICDTiTUEE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, MARCH, 18G2.

NO. 3.

NOURSE, EATON & TOI-MAX, rROPRiETORS.
Office... .100 Wasiiingto.v Street.

SIMON' BROWN Ki>iTOR.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

SUGGESTED BY THE MONTH OP MABCH.

"March, March, Mars was your god-father.
Therefore, betimes you can bully and bluster."

A K c n , the third
'4 i Month in the year,
according to our
■^ cilendar, had the
honor of being first
n the early Roman
c ilcndar, and it
aKo marked the
commencement of
the year in some of
vV*^ the nations of Eu-
^ «\ rope, till the eigh-
teenth century. —
The English legal
-\eiT began March
23, until the change
--^f^-Mp of stjlc in 17o2. But
^^^T^" whether counted as the

^-.AjSS^ fii'st, or as the third month of
- -' the year, its character for
^"^^ ""^ fickleness has ever been prover-
ial. With us it is the turning point of the sea-
son— a sort of battle-ground for the elements.
Cold and heat, rain and snow, strive for the mas-
tery,— now one and now the other obtaining tem-
porary dominion. The English have transmitted
to us a proverb to the effect that if March comes
in as mild as a lamb, it will go out as rough as a
lion, and vice versa. The Scotch have a saying,
when the last three days of this month are stormy,
that ;March borrows them of April, and that,

"The first it shall be wind and weet ;
The next it shall be snow and sleet ;
Tlie tliird it shall be sic a freeze,
Shall gar the birds stick to the trees."

Another proverbial slander on the character of
this month — and one of New England origin un-
doubtedly— is the accusation of its affording six ;
weeks' sledding! And yet, after all that has beeji i

or may be said against this month, we would most
heartily adopt — changing a single word, — the ex-
pression of a celebrated poet, and say,

"Old March, wiUi all thy faults, I love thee still."

It is the month in which our plans for the sea-
son's operations should be matured, and in which
all should be attempted which it is possible for us
to prepare for the brief period into which Spring's
work is croM'ded in our climate. While it is true
that more or less may generally be done that shall
directly foi-ward the important business of the ap-
proaching season, March is nevertheless the grand
make-ready month of the year, and our "good
luck" during the whole season may hinge on the
use we make of the thirty-one days that come one
after another, between February and April.

The doctors have a proverb, that "to know the
disease is half its cure." Whether it will do for
farmers to adopt a similar sentiment, by saying
to know our wants or needs is half their supply,
we all know by sorry experience, it will do for us
to say, that there is often much lost in a driving
time by want of such preparation as might have
been made at a more leisure season. Shall the
same lesson be again repeated by the same old
schoolmaster ? Has not his tuition been rather
expensive ? And had not we better try the cheaper
system of "a stitch in time saves nine," this year,
beginning, if we can find nothing better, with the
ancient problem of taking time by the forelock.

Having carefully decided not only what fields
shall be cultivated, but what crop shall be groAvn
on each lot, and how manured and worked, we
shall not be likely to forget the preparation of all
the seeds we intend to plant. Nor will the tools
and implements be forgotten. Each one should
be carefully examined, and if found out of order,
or in any way unfit for service, now is the time to
repair it, or procure a newer, and if possible, a
better one.

But by whom shall these repairs be made ?

106

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

Our attention has been directed to this subject
by reading an article recently published in one of
the most popular agricultural papers of the coun-
try, in which the writer very strongly advises farm-
ers to fit up a convenient shop, and procure the
necessary tools for making these repairs them-
selves. The main argument adduced in favor of
this course, and one several times repeated, was
to the effect that by this arrangement employment
would be furnished to the farmer and his boys
during odd hours and rainy days. This, some-
how, stirred up in our minds recollections far more
vivid than pleasant of the "odd hours and rainy
days" of our own boyhood. "We thought then,
and a slight sprinkle of gray hairs has only deep-
ened the conviction, that boys are sometimes
worked too hard upon the farm. That there al-
ways has been danger of this being done is evi-
dent from the proverb,

"All work and no play, makes Jack run away."

Another thought occurs to our mind in connec-
tion with farmers' boys and workshops. The
farmer generally speaks as though his own busi-
ness was not a trade. If one of his boys drives
pegs into a shoe, he is said to be "learning a trade ;"
while liis other sons, who work upon the farm, are
spoken of and spoken to, merely as "staying at
home." What injustice to the discipline of the
farm ! What injustice to the proficiency which
his sons are making in the mechanical or operatic
skill necessary to perform the labor of the farm !
The farmer, no less than the mechanic, serves an
apprenticeship ; and no less than the mechanic,
he has a trade. Let a city boy, or any one who
has never "learned the trade," undertake to chop,
or hoe, or reap, or mow, or "either hold or drive"
in plowing, or millv, or thresh, or bind grain, or
pitch hay, or a great many other tilings that the
farmer's son learns during his minority to do easi-
ly, and even gracefully, and it will be seen, by the
awkward motions and slow progress of the city
boy, that farming is indeed a trade, and further
experience will show him, that like all others, it
is not easily acquired in advanced life. The dif-
ficulty of performing farm work is not appreciat-
ed, because the requisite skill is gained gradually
during the whole period of minority. The prac-
tical skill acquired in learning the trade of form-
ing, says Prof. FisK, of the Agricultural College
of Micliigan, embraces an acquaintance with the
mode of handling each farm implement. It is a
knowledge of the how, including both the ideal
conception of the manner of doing and the train-
ing of the muscles for the performance of the work
in exact conformity with the mental conception.
This skill in the discharge of farm duties includes
the education of the mind, the education of the
eye and the education of the muscles for their

several offices in the practical details of agricul-
ture.

But a skilful use of implements is but a small
part of the farmer's trade. The proper manage-
ment of various soils and manures, the culture of
crops, the raising of stock, each and all demand
his thought, his labor, his sldll, his odd hours and
liis rainy days.

Reverting now to our question about repairing
agricultural implements, we leave it with the good
judgment of each individual to determine — and
]\Iarch is a good month in which to debate the
question — how many odd hours and rainy days
himself and boys shall devote to the practice of
the art and mystery of handicraft pertaining to
the business of the carpenter, the wheelwright,
the blacksmith, the shoemaker or the saddler.

For the Neiv England Farmer.
PLANNTNG A'NH PREPARHSTG "WORK.

]\Ir. Editor : — It is generally admitted, I be-
lieve, that order and system are essential to suc-
cess in every kind of business. It is especially
so in farming. It will not do for the farmer to
plod heedlessly on, day after day, and week aftei
week, trusting to fortunate and fortuitous circum-
stances, without having any previous plan or ar-
rangement in his business. To be successful in
his business, the farmer must plan and prepare
his work beforehand, so as to be ready to take it
up at the proper time, and to do it in a proper
manner. There must be order and system in all
his plans and arrangements, so as not to have one
kind of business interfere with another. Every
kind of Avork should be done at the right time,
and in a proper manner.

There are some kinds of farm work, undoubt-
edly, that may be done about as well at one time
as another, provided they be well done. There
are other kinds of work, however, that require to
be done at a particular time, or within the limits
of a particular space of time. There are several
kinds of work that cannot be done before nor af-
ter the limits of a particular space of time, with-
out failing to be successful in their results. It
will not do to plant and sow before the earth is in
a condition to receive the seed into its bosom, nor
to gather in the crops of the season before they
have come to matiu'ity. Nor will it do to plant
and sow after the appropriate season has passed,
nor to gather in the crops after they have been
wasted by the storms of the season. There is a
particular season or space of time in which all
such work should be done.

A successful farmer plans and prepares his work
beforehand for every season of the year. He
knows that cveiy season has business enough of
its own without being encumbered with what be-
longs to a different season ; that in the spring and
summer, especially, a large amount of work is ne-
cessarily crowded into a very small space of time,
which, to be done well, must be done then, or not
at all. Having planned anil prepared his work,
and made his calculations accordingly, he takes up
each particuhu-kind of work at its appropriate time,
performs it skilfully, and finishes it before engaging

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

107

in another or difFcrent kind of business. lie does
not allow himself to be interrupted in his work
by the calls of other business, such as mending
fences, repairing tools, running here and there,
doing this and that. No ; having planned and
prepared his work beforehand, he proceeds with
great regularity, and attends to everything in its
Older.

The winter is a season of comparative leisure,
in which the farmer has a plenty of time to plan
and prepare his work for the more active and en-
grossing em])loyments of spring and summer. It
is the time for study ; for reading, reflection and
discussion ; for making calculations, maturing
pLms, and jjreparing work ; and last, not least, for
cultivating the social atlections. By availing him-
self of favorable weather and circumstances, dur-
ing this inclement season, he can do much work,
too, which will advance his operations and flrcili-
tate his business during the coming season. The
same is true with regard to the autumn. Late in
the autumn, that is, after the ingathering of the
fniits of the season, the farmer enjoys an amount
of leisure which might l)c profitably employed in do-
ing such work as maybe done about as well atone
time as another, such as breaking up greensward,
ditching, hauling out muck, picking up stones,
building walls, repairing fences, Szc. If such Avork
be done in the autumn, and well done, so much
time is gained for the operations of spring and
summer work. In the spring, in preparing the
ground and sowing the seed, a great amount and
variety of M'ork is crowded into a very small space
of time, all of which must be done within the lim-
its of a very few days. It seems as though a half
a dozen kinds of work required to be done at the
same time, and Avouid not wait, the one for the
other. The same is true with regard to summer,
or the haying season. The time for cutting and
curing haj', so as to preserve its valuable proper-
ties, and to have it ])alalable and nutritious, is
short, very short ; and it should be done at the
proper time, and in a proper manner. The way
to accomplish this object, is to plan and ])repare
the work beforehand. "To make hay while the
sun shines," requires the previous preparation of
scj'thes, rakes, forks, carts, &c.

Warwick, Jan., 1862. John Goldsbury.

For the Netr England Farmer.
AGmCULTIJBAIi SCHOOLS.

We are informed by sacred history i, that when
man was created, he was placed in a garden, and
commanded to prune, and water, and care for it,
in such a way as Avould cause it to yield fruit for
his sustenance ; therefore, it would seem to us
that tilling the soil is an employment which is the
mo;it natural to manldnd, besides being pleasing
to his Maker. I would not be understood by any,
that I tlunk all men should be farmers, or that
man is iir an error when he forsakes farming, for
certainly \\c must have mechanics, and merchants,
else even the farmer would not prosper in his em-
ployment; but this I must say, f.irming is neg-
lected : it is done too much on the "one horse"
principle.

With too many, the idea is prevalent, that if
they can get in a little corn, a few potatoes, a
small piece of lye, barely enough to "keep soul

and body together" from one end of the year to
the other, why that is enough ; all that they can
expect to do. For every thing else, we have
schools, and good schools as a general tiring ; mil-
lions of dollars arc sjjcnt annually for the support
of schools to educate our chilciren in many a
branch, for which, in after life, they never realize
the value of a ten-cent piece, while an agricultural
school is hardly to be found in the country. To
be sure there arc some, but jjoor specimens at the
best, when compared with the other schools of our
land. At the present rime, when farming seems
to be the safest, and almost the only l)usiness by
which man can earn a livelihood, let us not neg-
lect it ; and while other business declines, let us
strive to make farming more profitable and pros-
perous.

Let us have schools for the farmer's benefit es-
pecially ; schools in which nothing but agricultui-e
in its various branches shall be taught. Many, to
be sure, are so prejudiced, that they would not
send a child to them, preferring rather to make liis
boy learn his lessons by sad and often costly ex-
perience, rather than from boolis which contain
the experience of wiser men. On the other hand,
there are those who would rejoice at the idea of
such a thing, and would avail themselves of every
opportunity to instruct their children in that call-
ing which is not only healthy and pleasant, but
honorable for all classes of mankind.

The prince in all his costly arra}^ is really not
so independent as the man who has a good farm,
free from debt, and especially if he has an interest
in the business, and understands it, as he will do
if he has enjoyed the privileges of an agricultural
school in his bojdiood. Then let us no longer neg-
lect them, but have some of the millions which are
annually spent in uselessness, to establish and
support these schools which we so much need, and
thcrel)y promote the prosperity and Avelfare of the
farmer. e. P. L.

Ware, Jan., 1862.

The Training of Home Conversation. — To
subordinate home training to school training, or
intermit the former in favor of the latter, is a most
palpable and ruinous mistake. It is bad even in
an intellectual point of view. To say nothing of
other disadvantages, it deprives girls of the best
opportunities they can ever have of learning that
most feminine, most beautiful of all accomplish-
ments— the noble art of conversation. For con-
versation is an art as well as a gift. It is learned
best by familiar intercourse between young and
old, in the leisure and unreserve of the evening
social circle. But when young girls are banished
from this circle by the pressure of school tasks,
talking with their school-mates till they "come
out" into society, and then monopolized entirely
by young persons of their own age, they easily
learn to mistake chatter for conversation, and
"small talk" becomes, for life, their only medium
of exchange. Hence, with all the intellectual
training of the day, there never was a greater
dearth of intellectual conversation. — Ohio Farmer.

He that puts a Bible into the hands of a child,
gives him more than a kingdom, for it gives him a
key to the kingdom of heaven. — Dr. Buchanan.

108

NEW ENGLAND FAR]^IER.

March

For the New England Farmor.
SOUTHERN" IIiLINOIS.

Mr. Editor : — I -wish to call the attention of
those desirous of settling in the West, to the supe-
rior advantages of Southern Illinois, as regards
location, facilities for market, soil, productions,
climate, &c.

The location of Southern Illinois, immediately
above the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, and the 500 miles of navigable waters on
the south, west and east boundaries, give to this
part of the State great natural advantages ; and
these, Avith its raikoads passing through from
north to south, and from east to west, afford ex-
traordinary faciUties for transporting its surplus
products to market. Other roads, noAV in process
of constioiction, will further increase these facilities.

The farmer or trader wishing to reach the best
market, is here, either by steamboat or railroad,
within six days of New Orleans, thirty-six hours
of St. Louis, and three days of Cliicago, Louis-
ville, or Cincinnati, by freight trains ; by pas-
senger or express, the time is much shorter.

The soil in this region, especially in the tim-
bered lands, is unsurpassed in j^i'oductiveness.
It is light and easily cultivated, being almost en-
tirely free from stones and other obstructions
(where the stumps are out ;) the subsoil is of
great depth and richness, capable of receiving and
retaining moisture for a long time, and as a con-
sequence, the crops are not often injured by
droughts. Winter wheat is a staple crop ; with
good culture the yield is twenty to forty bushels
per acre. Oats, rye, barley, buckwheat, millet,
red clover and timothy are excellent cro])s. In-
dian corn is grown abundantly, and with good
culture, yields from forty to eighty bushels per
acre. Cotton is grown in the southern counties,
but for domestic use only. Sweet potatoes yield
abundantly here. Apples do well, and are a cer-
tain crop in almost any situation ; many of the
most popular varieties grow much larger and finer
here than in the Eastern States.

This is the true home of the peach, which for
size and flavor is unsurpassed ; the most elevated
lands being the most desirable for peach orchards,
on account of spring frosts. There has not been
an entire failure of the peach crop for twenty
years, on elevated lands ; on medium and low
grounds, only about three crops in five years can
be expected. Pears, cherries, plums and quinces
do well. Much of the land is well adapted to the
grape, as the thousands of thrifty-growing, wild
grape-vines will testify. In the fifteen southern
counties of this State, there is but little prairie ;
the surfoce in some parts is hilly and broken, but
generally agreeably undulating. Swamps are not
found, except in the extreme south, on the low
grounds near the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

This portion of the State is covered with a mod-
erate growth of red, burr, white, black and post
oak ; poplar, hickory, ash, gum, pecan, sugar
maple, walnut, hackberry, cherry, &c., with an
undergrowth of dog-wood, sassafras, pawpaw, red
bud, &:c., Szc. Good water is generally found by
digging from twenty to forty feet.

In the hilly country, good springs are numerous.
Where good springs are not convenient, cisterns
can be cheaply made, and furnish good, whole-
some water.

The climate is temperate ; there is neither the
protracted cold of the North, nor the sultry heat of
the South. The thermometer, in the shade, rarely
indicates a higher degree of heat than 90°, or a
lower than 10° above zero. We have had no
weather as yet, this winter, colder than 10° above
zero, and last winter the temperature was not
lower than 10° above zero, except once or twice,
and then but for a few hours. We have had two
little flurries of snow tliis v/inter, which melted off
almost as fast as it fell, — so you see we have no
use for sleighs here. The ground is generally
free from frost by the first of March, and in good
plowing condition in the same month. Farmers are
sometimes seen plowing in December or February.

The direct communication we have by railroad
with Chicago, Milwaukie, Galena, Dubuque, Bloom-
ington, and other northern towns, makes this a very
desirable place for gardening, which bids fair to
become an extensive business here, as also the
growing of small fruits, such as strav.berries,
gooseberries, &c. We can have A^egetables and
fruits ready for market from four to six weeks
earlier than the Chicagoans.

Plenty of good land can be had here at from
.$5 to $oO per acre, according to location and im-
provements. Pomologically yours.

An EGYPTLiN.

Union Co., III., January, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
MOVABLE COMB HIVES.

A r.ELIABLE GUIDE EOK STRAIGHT C03IB3 WANTED.

Although these hives are a great acquisition to
very many bee-keepers, they are yet deficient in
one important particular. No one seems to have
discovered a guide for producing straight combs
that ctui be depended on in all cases. The cross-
bar hive that has strips of lath sharpened on the
lower edge, like a broad knife, and passing across
the top, just the right distance apart, has been
warranted to produce all straight combs. Yet
some swarms are perverse enough to work their
combs across these bars. The angular edge on
the under side of the top bar, of nearly all the
movable comb hives that I have seen, will, if sawed
smooth, in most cases, be followed by the bees ;
but a great many swarms paj- no regard to any of
these rules, and make their combs in all possible
directions across the hive, and render it of no
more value as a movable comb Iiive, than a flour
barrel. The edge of a narrow strip of tin, at-
tached to the frame of Underhill's hive, that prom-
ised so much, has failed to produce the results
anticipated.

The dispute between Mr. Brackett and JMr.
Kidder, relative to what I said in the Ihiral Neiv-
Yorlcer about movable combs, proved nothing as
to which was the better guide of the two, Langs-
troth or Kidder. What I said was not given
quite correctly. It was my neighbors, who had
put bees into these hives, when "two-tliirds of the
swarms worked crooked." I think I stated at that
time, that I could manage to get nearly all straight
combs. Subsequent experience has proved that
I was correct. I have not failed with one in fifty.
Any one understanding his business, and disposed
to take the trouble, would succeed equally well.
But a great manj- that keep bees are not sufficient-

18G2.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

109

ly posted in theii* habits ; others have not the ne-
cessar}- time to devote to them the necesary care ;
some are too indolent to take the pains needed,
and more will not have the means at hand — emp-
ty combs, or dividing: boards — to secure them.
Hence the importance of some method that will
induce the bees to go right every time, without
our supervision. To us who now manage to get
straight combs, it would be an acquisition ; we
cannot as it is, do it without trouble ; it would
often be a great convenience to put bees into a
hive wholly empty.

Now let 'Mi: Kidder give us a reliable guide for
straight combs ; one that everybody can prove
true ; not like the humbug of a swarm being
made to store 300 pounds in one season. Or let
Mr. Langstroth, Harbison, Underbill, Flanders,
any one of the host of the patentees of movable
comb hives, exercise their ingenuity on this point,
and give us the desired improvement. Although
a patent is repugnant to my feelings in a bee-yard,
I would tolerate one more in this case, if we can-
not have the improvement without. Variations
of the movable comb hive are unnecessary to mul-
tiply further. Let us have something in the line
needed. M. Quinby.

St. Johmville, N. P., 1862.

For the l\eic England Fanner.

MAira"AIj OF AGRICULTUKE.

Propress in the Art — State and County Societies — the Afiricul-
tural Press — Farmers' Clubs — Agricultural Libraries — Manual
of Agriculture.

My Dear Sir : — It is always a pleasure to
chronicle the progress of improvement in Avhat-
ever form it may present itself, and more especially
when it leads to a more thorough and more gen-
eral development of the agriculture of the country.
Since the commencement of the present century,
there have been many landmarks established to
show that mind, as well as bodily tod, were essen-
tial to the full, successful cultivation of the earth,
and the collateral arts. Earliest among these
was the formation of Agricultural Societies. It
was mind ; dehberate, active mind, was the origi-
nator of these. There are many now living who
treasure in remembrance the earliest buddings of
the eai'liest efforts in behalf of these institutions.
Such can well remember how great a curiosity
they awakened in the minds of some, as also the
bitter opposition they met with in the minds of
others, and among farmers, too. But early dis-
couragements, in their formation, yielded like the
ice before the cheering sunbeams ; so that now
we have a United States Agricultural Society,
State Societies in a majority of the States in the
Union, County and Town Societies almost without
number. Had the originator of the fu'st Society
had an assurance of the number of such Societies
half a century would bring forth, and the amount
of usefulness that would follow in their train, what
a noble impulse it would have given to his labors !

Next in the train came the Agricultural Press,
the engine to disseminate the knowledge that was
accumulating through the agency of associated
effort at improved husbandry. Those who recol-
lect the birthday of the old Neio England Farmer,
can remember, too, the distnist with which the
majority of farmers looked upon it. They did not
■want newspaper knowledge, for they knew better

than the papers did. This dream, too, has passed
away. The Neio England Farmer Hves on, a life
of usefulness and honor, and has begot many sons
and daughters ; so that now the agricultural press
has become a poMcrful press, not only in numbers,
but in influence ; and instead of being looked upon
with jealousy, as the innovator of strange and
fallacious doctrines, it is deemed a household ne-
cessity in every former's dwelling, especially if
that former loves and respects his calling. Their
number is now legion — their influence is inesti-
mable.

The establishment of " Farmers' Clubs " in
towns and neighborhoods, where mind meets to
hold intercourse with congenial mind, formed
another important era in agricultural progress.
The advantages that may result from these insti-
tutions are too m.any for enumeration, and cannot
be too highly appreciated.

In connection with Farmers' Clubs, the estab-
lishment of Agricultural Libraries marks a proud
era in agricultural progress. It does not require
the memory of great age to go back to the period
when such libraries were a thing unthought of,
and had their existence occupied a place in the
farmer's mind, it would have been a difficult task
to have procured suitable books to place on their
shelves. Now, such books are becoming abun-
dant, as libraries are springing up everywhere.*

But all these things have occurred for the ben-
efit of men — those engaged, or just about being
engaged, in the practical duties of active life.
They, ever hopeful and young, may, to be sure,
have been to some extent benefited by them.
But their wants were not met. Their case, of a
certainty, has been long considered, but delay suc-
ceeded delay in acting upon its claims. At last a
star, bright and beautiful, arises upon them, and it
shines for all. The rich and the poor can meet
together, and study and admire its beautiful light.

I consider the Manual of Agriculture, prepared
by ]\Iessrs. Emerson and Flint, one of the best
works on Agriculture extant, and for the purpose
for wliich it is designed, as the very best. And I
hail its introduction into our common schools as
the introduction of the golden age of agricultural
progress. It is a matter of proud congratulation
that its introduction has been so successful. May
it become universal. It has been a favorite idea
with me, for a long time, that the study of Agri-
culture should have a place in our common schools,
and I rejoice that tlris idea is so far approaching a
realization. But one thing more is needful. We
must have teachers adapted to the work, in order
to make it successful. Our Legislature, in the
name of the people, should legalize the study, and
our Normal Schools must educate their teachers
to carry out the work.

What a beautiful era it will be, when the arts ot
rural life are taught in all our schools by thorough
and efficient teachers ; when every school-house
will have its grounds cultivated by the hands of
enthusiastic pupils, and when the library and the
cabinet shall be classed among the essentials of
school-house furniture ! W. Bacon.

Itichvfiond, Jan., 18G2.

* In a communication from J. Raynolda, Esq., of Concord,
dated early in October last, he informs me that previous to that
time he had established nearly two hundred Agricultural Libra-
ries in Massachusetts. I hope and believe the number lias been
liberally increased since that time. His Catalogue embraces a
valuable list of books.

110

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Makch

For the New England Fanner.
THE WINTER FIRESIDE.

Within a few years the farmer's fireside has
undergone a marked chanije, as we all know. The
old-fasliioned open fire of logs, or blazing fagots,
has come to be too expensive a luxury, except in
backwoods settlements, where wood is the cheap-
est commodity.

But the question is, whether it was the most
profitable way of passing winter evenings, for the
household to cluster, as they used to, about that
big, generous fire ; the younger members whiling
away the hours with reveries, and jokes, and
story-tcUing, and the old folks gradually subsiding
into the embrace of "tired Nature's sweet re-
storer." To be sure, those old fireside scenes are
treasured among our pleasantest memories — and
many a man misses now the glowing hearth and
dancing flames that used to make liis face slrine
so, and his heart leap when a boy. But on the
other hand, more than one day-dreamer contracted
the habit of dreaming with his eyes open, and
building air-castles and the like, at that very fire-
side, where the singing of the tea-kettle sounded
like a syren's song, and the embers and flames
assumed as many grotesque shapes as his musings
in the fire. No doubt, bright ideas were kindled
from those live coals, and occasionally a stupen-
dous scheme rose like the Phoenix, from ashes.
Yet, after all, Avas not that old-f.xshioned fire-
place most favorable to dream-life, in more senses
than one, and was the home circle any more one
bright "golden chain," binding heart to heart,
than now P

There was, I admit, a large circulation of fresh
air through the sitting apartment then — especially
by the doors and windows, and corners of the
room remote from the cosy chimney-corner — and
plenty of exercise, too, in preparing and bringing
in wood to supply tliat generous fire. But when
a family gets together for a winter's evening, they
can do better than gather like a flock of swallows
about a chimney, or as a company of fii'e-worshi])-
jiers, that we read of. If the room be comfortably
warm — no matter by what means the warmth is
generated, provided it be healtliful, economical
and safe — whether from an open or close fire, a
furnace, or pipe from an adjoining apartment.

In the days of our forefathers, they depended on
the 0])cn fire-place, we know, to help illuminate,
as well as heat the room ; and how we loved to,
when children, watch our own shadows, looming
up so queer and tall, here and there, as thrown,
by the big, blazing fire, upon the wall opposite.
But in tliese days of " bvirning fluid " and kero-
sene oil, every farmer's sitting-room is brighter
than ever fire-light made it. And now that the
temptation of the old, open fire-i)lace is gone, we
must L)ok around and find some good substitute.
AVhy not gather around the table, all so cheerful
with t!io rays of that bright lamp in the centre ;
and while mother and daughters are sewing, let
the father and sons be reading, or drafting plans
of operations for the next season ? At any rate,
let some head-work be going on as busily as those
nimble fingers on the otlier side are plying the
needle-work. Perha])s there is a i)iano in the
house — for many farmers are introducing this
article among their household furniture — or, at
least, the melodeon, which, being much cheaper,

is likely to be more common. And perhaps the
instrument is not left alone in the cold, unfre-
quented " best room ;" but allowed to take its
place in the living-room through the winter, and
help on domestic harmony with its " concord of
sweet sounds." I, personally, have such a passion
for music that I dare not enlarge upon the subject
here, for fear I should spin out this communication
ad infinitum. Only let me throw out this closing
Ifint, for relieving the monotony of a winter
evening ; let every farmer that has the material,
encourage and cultivate music at home. No mat-
ter if it lulls one after another to sleep ; it will
keep as many more wide-awake and out of mis-
cliief. w. E. B.

Longmeadoio, Jan., 1862.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.
USE OF RAW HIDE.

In the last number of the Farmer you say that
skins (meaning hides) may be tanned by spread-
ing "powdered alum or soft soap on the flesh
side," (Sec. Now let me guess that soft soap will
take the hair from the hide or skin, if applied on
the flesh side. Alum is of a difl'erent nature, and
will act as an astringent, or tan, and with common
salt will preserve the raw hide, but soap M'ithout
the alum or salt, will surely, if appHed in quanti-
ties to preserve the hide from taint or decomposi-
tion, take the hair oflf. If the object is to take off
the hair before using the alum and salt, it would
answer the same purpose as lime — but soft soap,
without any other ingredient, will start the hair
from the hide or skin. A Tanner.

Bockingham, Vt., Jan. 13, 18G2.

Remarks. — When a boy, at home on the farm,
we used to find amusement and profit among the
grey squirrels and partridges, "when they were
ripe ;" their flesh made an excellent breakfast, and
the skins of the former were wrought into ear-
pieces for caps, or into caps themselves. Our prac-
tice was, to talvc off" the skins carefully and spread
them, flesh side down, on the top of a cask of soft
soap, being careful that the soap should not touch
the upper part of the skin. In about ten or twelve
days they were taken out, the soap washed off,
and the skins drawn over a board or back of an old
chair until they were as "soft as silk." We have
no recollection of ever spoiling one by this prac-
tice. AVe have no doubt that considerable care
must be observed in the process. The soap was
made in the family, and might not have been as
strong as is sometimes made. But of tliis we
know nothing.

We sincerely thank our correspondent for his
kind words of approbation of the Farmer, con-
tained in a private note.

cows EATING LITTER FROM MANURE HEAP.

I wish to inquire of you, or of any who can tell
me, through the Farmer, the cause of my cows
eating the straw and litter from the heap of horse
manure in preference to good clean fodder ?
Thinking it might be for the want of a sufficient

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Ill

supply of salt, I placed it by them, but still they
root over the manure like swine, and eat every
particle of litter they can find.

Is it an injury to them, and if so, what -will stop
the filthy habit"? Please give me your opinion,
and oblige A Subscriber.

Sturhrldge, Jan., 18G2.

WATER CISTERNS.

You occasionally speak of water cisterns in the
Farmer. They ought to receive more attention.
Our mode of constructing them is to make the
top round and the bottom run down to a point
like the small end of a hen's egg. The process is
as follows : — Dig some seven feet below the frost
for the bottom. The part of the country, and the
location of the cistern must guide as to frost. Dig
through the frost and make a circle 12 inches all
around the cistern hole, and then start the hole
down some two feet and put on the top ; use flag-
ging stone by all means, if they can be had from
seven to ten cents per foot, surface measure.
Leave the hole open, and then finish digging the
cistern. When dug in the proper shape, take two
barrels of water cement, and mix one part of ce-
ment to three parts of sand, which must be mixed
as it is spread, or it will get hard. The mason
must use some judgment, and temper the cement
according to its strength. Give it two coats of
cement, and for a finishing touch, mix some thin
to use as a wash ; give the whole one or two coats.

We build them here on leachy and gravelly soil,
and the water in them, from November to the last
of May, is as good as any well water. They
should be cleansed out once a year in the fall, and
always built so that frost will not reach them.

My estimate for building one of these cisterns
is as follows :

For digging $2,00

Stone covering 8,10

Hason worli 3,00

Two bbls. cement 4,00

$17,10

Dalton, Jan., 18G2. T. S. Wilson.

FINE PIGS.

I noticed at the Essex Cattle Fair held at South
Danvers, in 1860, a Mackay breeding sow and
nine pigs, five weeks old, of a litter of sixteen of
the somewhat noted stock of Byron Goodell, of
that town. Upon inquiry, I found they were kept
for breeders, except four, wliich were taken at that
age by different individuals of that town, and kept
until their average age was fourteen months and
three weeks, then slaughtered, and weighed in the
aggregate, including fat, twenty one hundred and
four pounds ! Some of them not weighing over
one hundred and fifty pounds in the spring, being
kept light through the winter. These were all fit
for the market when not weighing over two hun-
dred pounds, dressed. This is a general charac-
teristic of the breed. One of the four, fatted by
!Mr. Samuel Chandler, weighed six hundred and
nineteen, beside the fat. I'he butcher said it was
the "thinnest rind" hog he had slaughtered for the
season. These were fatted on grain, meal and
shorts. The same sow had another litter last
April, of eighteen, Avhich were kept for breeders,
and will now Aveigh from three hundred and fifty
to four hundred pounds each!'

A NUMBER ONE RAT TRAP.

As good a rat trap as I have ever used may
be made by taking a piece of 3 by 4 scant-
ling, say two feet long and about two or three
inches from each end, and at equal distance from
the sides bore two holes, and insert in an exactly
perpendicular j^osition two pieces of broom han-
dle or other round stick, and across the centre cut
a place deep enough to admit a bit of shingle for
a pan. Nail a piece of board a few inches wide on
each side, a hole being cut in one of them for the
shank of the pan. Next take a piece of scantling
of the same length as the other, l)ut a little less in
width, so as to drop readily between the side-
boards on the first, and bore two holes through it
large enough and in a position to play freely on
the uprights ; fosten two cords to this and attach
them to a roll made to rest on the uprights. To
an arm projecting a foot from the centre of the
roll attach another cord, and tie the other end to
the centre of a bit of wood fitted to notches in the
shank of the pan and the side-board in the form of
a "figure four," another notch in the shank catch-
ing on the inner side of the board. Now turn the
roll a few times so as to raise the upper scantling
a few inches and apply the catch, and you have a
trap which can remain "set" six months, if you
please, without weakening any s])rings, and being
open at both ends, is not likely to frighten the
game. W.Ai. F. Bassett.

Asltfidd, Jan., 1862.

SEEDING GRASS LAND IN THE SPRING.

In the Farmer of Jan. 11,1 noticed an inquiry
whether herdsgrass and clover are profitable if
sowed early in the spring. In the spring of 1860,
I sowed four acres as soon as the frost was out of
the ground, on land fitted for mowing the fall be-
fore, sowed eight quarts of herdsgrass and five
pounds clover seed to the acre, and cut the same
year two tons of clean hay, per acre. In 1861, 1
cut rather more than in 1860. In April, 1861,
seeded three and one-half acres, and put on one-
half bushel herdsgrass seed, per acre ; the result
Avas not as favorable for spring seeding, owing, I
think, to its being so wet through the following
month of May. The result was twenty-five hun-
dred of hay to the acre. I fitted four acres the
past fall for seeding next spring, and I shall prac-
tice this way of seeding as long as the result proves
as favorable as it has the past two yeai's.

Waterburij, Vt., Jan., 1862. s. V.

FOUL IN THE FOOT.

Can you, or any of your subscribers, inform mo
which is the best way to cure "foul in the foot" in
cattle. I. F.

Pittsfield, Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — See that the feet are kept clean,
and try them by pressure with the thumb and fin-
ger. K some spots are found very tender, open
them so as to let the corrupted matter pass out.
Then wash the feet once or twice a day in a solu-
tion of blue vitriol. Keep everything clean about
the animals, and see that they stand upon a
smooth floor — that is, a floor that is not worn in-
to ridges, or that has holes in it.

112

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

QUESTIONS AS TO SHEEP.

1. What aged wethers are best to buy in spring
to turn out through the summer for mutton ?

2. What breed is best ?

3. How much will they gain in the season Avith
good feed ?

4. How much will the May and November prices
vary, per pound, live weight ?

5. How many can be kept well on the feed of
one cow, or how many to the cow ?

Hardwick, Jan., 1862. Inquirer.

Remarks. — We hope that friend Elliott, of
Keene, George Campbell, of Westminster, or
some other person who understands this matter,
will answer these questions.

AN UNMANNERLY PIG.

I have three Chester county sows with pig, which
are kept together ; one of them is continually
rooting the others Avith her nose, to their great
annoyance and injury. I have given her salt,
bone meal, and various other foods, but fail to
check it. Can any of your readers inform me of
the cause and the remedy ? J. S. Ives.

Salem, 1862.

Remarks. — Place her in a pen by herself,
friend Ives, for a few days, and take away a por-
tion of her food, and if she is not more respectful
in her "conductions," we shall be mistaken.

THE AHmrZ TEIiEGRAPH.

The army telegraph now consists of over one
thousand miles of wire stretched through the dif-
ferent camps, from the headquarters of General
Hooker on the left, running toward the right wing
till it reaches Hancock, Md. One hundred and
ten operators are now in the employ of the govern -
inent. Mr. Eckert, the assistant superintendent
in charge of this department, has run a separate
line to the headquarters of each general command-
ing a division.

For instance. General McClellan can sit at the
table in his private house, and talk to the different
Generals, all at one and the same time, and in-
dependent of one another. When any division
moves, the line can also be extended, as each di-
vision has a corps of builders, and a supply of wires
poles and insulators always ready.

Lai'ge wagons have been provided for the opera-
tors and their batteries to travel in, with sleeping
apartments, tents, equipage and everything neces-
sary, thus making the telegraphic department the
most efficient and thorough branch in the whole
army ; and in connection Avith the balloon corps
of Professor Lowe, will, should the army move,
prove incalculable in detecting the operations of
the enemy, and the prompt transmission of their
movements to headquarters, and the conveyance
of orders to different divisions and brigades.

So effectual are the means that have been taken
to prevent accident and delay, that it will be im-
possible for more than one out of a dozen lines to
fail at once. Strong guards will be kept all along
the wires wherever they cross over exposed coun-
try, as the army moves, to prevent obstruction in
any form, and to prevent an opportunity of steal-
ing information from the wu'es. Never before, in

the history of the world, has science been enabled
to reduce to such a mathemetical certainty and re-
liability, the use of the telegraph and ballooning
as it has been brought to under the management
of Professor Lowe, Mr. A. P. Stager, and Mr.
Eckert. — Philadelphia Inquirer.

INSECTS IWJUKIOUS TO VEGETATIOW.

Through the kind attention of the editor,
Charles L. Flint, Esq., Secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture, we have before us a copy
of the new edition of Harris' Treatise on some of
the Insects of Massachusetts which are Injurious
to Vegetation. This was ordered to be printed
by a resolution of the Legislature of lSo9, and
with suitable additions and illustrations. The
care of the execution of this work was entrusted
to Mr. Flint, and well .and faithfully has he dis-
charged the task. The work does as much credit
to the arts, as to the science to which it is devoted.

In acknoM'ledging the aid which he has received
from others, the editor says :

"The drawings for the steel plates were made
by Mr. Antoine Sonrel ; those for the Avood
cuts by the Messrs. SoNREL and J. Burckhardt.
The engraving and coloring of the steel plates is
the Avork of Mr. John H. Richard ; the engrav-
ing on wood, that of Mr. Henry Marsh. The
printing has been done by Messrs. Welch, BlG-
ELOAV & Co., of the University Press, Cambridge."

It is as much pleasure to us to record the names
of persons Avho have exhibited such rare skill iu
their various professions, as it is to accord praise
to the author of a book of undoubted merit.
With our people, mechanical skill and scientific
research keep pretty even pace Avith the jjrogress
of literary acquirements. It is this, in consider-
able degree, that keeps society evenly balanced,
and makes a people strong.

The book is a credit to old Massachusetts, and
AA'ill stand as one of numerous evidences of her
liberality and enlightened discernment. The Leg-
islature that ordered it, directed that a copy of the
Avork should be sent to each toAvn in the State, —
so that provision is made for all Avho desire it to
have access to the Avork.

If Ave are pleased with one part more than
another, of this book, it is with some of the loood
cuts. They surpass anything of the kind Ave have
before seen, in beauty and elegance of execution.
It seems as though one could touch the Aving of
the Dutterfly on page 293, and rob it of some of
its down ; and so of cuts on pages 223, 410, and
indeed many others. We have long and often
referred to the former edition of the Avork, in our
labors as editor and farmer, and shall continue to
do so Avith increased pleasure, now that so many
of the insects spoken of are made plain to the
eye as Ave study their habits.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

113

^^^^^mms-z--

-^vS5>^

Por the New England Farmer.

SMITH'S IMPROVED FARM PEIyTCES,
PATEITTED OCT. 11, 1859.

NUMBER ONE.

Any field stones, of suitable size, that can be
easily drilled, are used for the foundation of these
fences. Granite cobble stones, so common in New
England, are among the best.

The posts, which are two inches thick, and
from four to six inches wide, are fastened to the
stones, and the fence is kept in position by a bolt
which holds the foot of the post, and by braces,
about twenty inches long, one on each side, nailed
at the top to the post, and at the bottom held firm-
ly to the stone, by loops of strong wire, boiled in
linseed oil to prevent them from rusting. The
posts are grooved on the sides to which the boards
are nailed, with a plane which cuts three or four
grooves at once, to prevent the accumulation of
moisture and consequent decay.

The braces are one inch thick and four inches
■wide, and sound hemlock is good enough for both
posts and braces.

The advantages claimed for this fence are :

1. Simplicity. Almost any farmer, with a little
instruction and experience, can build it.

2. It is straight. There is no zigzag about it.
New York, alone, loses 300,000 acres of land by
crooked fences.

3. It is cheap. Having stones convenient for
the foundation, it need to cost but little more than
the common post and board fence ; and the ar-
rangements of the posts and braces is adapted to
nearly all the difi"erent kinds of yard and garden
fences in use.

4. It is very j(?r?n. "When well made, few fences
are as much so, and no extra posts are necessary
for gates.

5. It covers but little land ; not more than one-
t^velvth as much as a wall three feet in width, and
the Virginia fence puts six times as much beyond
the reach of the plow.

6. It can be easily built over ledges, the solid
rock of which affords the best foundation.

7. It will resist ordinary currents of Mater.

8. It will stand on hearing soils. For these
valuable lands, the importance of this fence can
hardly be estimated. Where wall fences are tum-
bled about, and posts are thrown out by the frost,
it will stand, and stand straight and stand firm

9. It is very durable. Nc part but the stone
foundation touches the ground, and with the
grooved posts or cleats, no part of it is more ex-
posed to decay than the boards ordinarily are up-
on a barn . thus effecting an immense saving in
the cost of rebuilding and repairs. The loss to
our farmers from fence posts decaying in the
ground, and being tin-own out by the frost, is al-
most incalculable.

Remarks. — We are so much pleased with a
sample of this fence, put upon our land by INIr.
Smitit, last fall, that we are preparing materials
this winter to extend it, in preference to any other
fence we have seen. It seems to us to be prefer-
able to any other wooden permanent fence in al-
most ever}' particular, and we cannot see why one
well made and set, jmd kept constantly covered
with whitewash, should not last a hundred years.

In a week or two we shall give another pattern
of fence, quite like this, but cheaply arranged so
as to be laid down in the winter when set on lands
that are subject to being flowed. Both samples
may be seen at Concord, Mass.

Horse Power. — The power of a horse is un-
derstood to be that which will elevate a weight of
33,000 pounds the height of one foot in a minute
of time, equal to about 90 pounds at the rate of
four miles an hour.

114

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

For the New England Farmer.
"DOES FAKMIM-Q PATP"

This question, which seems to have bothered
many of your correspondents, and to have raised
your friend Pinkham to a sort of newspaper im-
mortality, got itself incidentally into our State
Legislature the other day ; and the Solons there
appeared to know as little how to dispose of it,
as though they were agricultural editors. The
"crooked stick" was introduced in this wise : The
State Alms-house at Tewksbury had applied for,
and the Committee on Finance had reported, an
appropriation of some thirteen thousand dollars,
to meet the deficiencies in the account current of
that institution for the year 1861. Mr. Parsons,
of Brookhne, raised the question, whether the in-
stitution had been economically managed — more
particularly whether the farming department
thereof did not cost more than it came to ? This
called up Mr. Fostek, of Andover, (one of the
Trustees of the Alms-house,) who, in a very
straight-forward speech, explained that the expen-
ses of the institution beyond the estimates were
occasioned solely by the largely increased number
of paupers, and that the actual cost to the State
for each pauper sent to Tewksbury, (reckoning all
the expenses of the institution,) was only a frac-
tion over and above ninety-eight cents per week.
This, I think, establishes the fact that the Tewks-
bury concern is a pretty cheap boarding-house ;
and whatever difference of opinion may exist as to
the general utility of State alms-houses, a want of
economy cannot in fairness be charged to the case
in question.

In the course of his remarks, Mr. Paksons held
that it was cheaper to purchase milk at four cents
per quart, than to jjroduce it by keeping cows at
the Alms-house. I understood him to base this
remark on the results of his own farming expe-
rience. iSIr. Foster replied, that the milk pro-
duced at the Alms-house cost the State but a frac-
tion over three cents per quart ; and when it is
considered that this milk was the product of cows
that shed rain, and that these cows must have
produced at the same time a large quantity of ma-
nure, the question of cheapness in the two cases
is pretty well disposed of. At any rate, from the
attention I have been able to give the subject, I
am satisfied that it is better for any person having
the means of keeping cows, to produce his own
milk, rather than purchase it at even two cents
per quart.

Mr. Parsons also stated that it cost more to
purchase food to fatten swine, than to purchase
pork. This may be true, under certain circum-
stances, abstractly considered ; but practically, the
question stands in the same category with other
farming interests. When it is considered how
much about a farm, (and especially about a large
alms-house,) otherwise wasted, or of but little ac-
count, may be applied to the keejnng of swine,
and how much manure these animals may assist in
manufacturing, I undertake to say that no agricul-
turist can aftbrd to dispense with the raising of
his own pork.

That farming does "pay," I think is fully estab-
lished by the fact that farmers seldom fail in busi-
ness, or depreciate in wealth. But I go further,
and maintain that every branch of farming "pays"
in the long run, if managed with good judgment

and sound economy. Crops may fail, cattle may
die, pork may be low in the market, all sorts of
casualties may from time to time disappoint the
hopes of the tiller of the soil. These form a part
of the "accidents" Avhich, as Brownson says, man
is born to triumph over. Believing that any at-
tempt to detract from the profitableness of farm-
ing, whether made in the Legislature or out of it,
has a mischievous tendency ; and further, believ-
ing that giving agricultural employment to the
inmates of our alms-houses, whether considered
from an economical or sanitary point of view, is
one of the wisest and most philanthropic features
now attached to those institutions, I hereby enter
my protest against that flippant dogmatism which
seelis to dispose of grave questions by the results
of single cases of bad management, or by the les-
sons of inexperience. The great interest which
lies at the foundation of all others, ought not thus
to be made a foot-ball for amateurs in practical
science, or egotists in practical economy.

A Looker on at the State" House.

Remarks. — If reported correctly, Mr. Parsons'
views are unsound. From a life-long experience,
as well as from facts and figures, we know that he
cannot sustain the position he has assumed.

Far the New England Farmer.
■WHEAT BHAK AS A FEBTILIZEB.

Mr. Editor : — I saw a communication from
"J. S. S." in the monthly Farmer for June, 1860,
saying he was using wheat bran as a fertilizer for
corn, and his method of applying it, and a request
that those who tried it, would note the result and
report — I suppose he meant — to the N. E. Farm-
er. I took it for granted that he Avould do what
he requested others to, and have been looking
with some degree of interest for his report, but
not having seen any from him, I have concluded
his success was not v/orth reporting. I was
pleased to see a statement from "T. G. H.," in a
late Farmer, of his experience with the bran for
corn ; that he found it to be nearly equal to super-
])hosphate, and less expensive. That being the
fact, it stands all farmers in hand to make a liberal
use of it. But his experience does not correspond
with mine. I was induced, through the recom-
mendation of a friend, to make use of the bran for
potatoes. I applied it, a single handful to a hill,
and covered it with soil before applying, as direct-
ed. The truth was, I had but very little faith in
it, that it would be any better than the same quan-
tity of sawdust, and that sawdust was of little or
no value ; the result proved it to be so. I thought
if like would produce like, it must be good for
wheat. Accordingly I applied it broadcast at the
rate of 300 pounds per acre, and harrowed in with
my wheat ; the result about tlie same as with my
potatoes. I have concluded that tlie opinion of
my better half was correct, that I had better give
the bran to the cows, and let them comjoost it
before using it for manure. j. P.

South Hampton, N. II., Jan. 24, 1862.

Remarks. — Send the article you speak of in
your private note.

1862.

NEW ENGLAXD FARMER.

315

LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTUBAL SOCIETY.

[Reported for tue Farmer bt D. W. Loturop.]

The third meeting of the series was held at the
Bepresentativcs' Hall, on Monday evening last,
and the subject under consideration was — Crops,
and tlte Economy and Cost of Cultivation. Dr.
G. B. LoniXG, of Salem, was invited to preside.

He said the subject opened a wide field for dis-
cussion, and involved the whole business of agri-
culture. Everything coming from the land, com-
merce, manufiictures, and all vocations, depend
upon its successful culture. lu respect to the
profit and economy of the various crops, there
seemed to be no law for the different localities of
the State. The farmers of Berksliire think the
small grains the most profitable, and those of Es-
sex would say the root crops were the most eco-
nomical. Then, again, others advocate the corn,
hay and fruit crops. In fact, it is impossible to
tell what is the most profitable. A contest in this
State has been waged between grass and root
crops, but has not been decided. What does it
cost to raise an acre of corn? One says $100,
another $30, &c. But the cost of a crop is not
always an index of the benefit of such crop, for the
soil and mode of cultivation affect the former, and
home consumption or markets the latter. Corn
at 25 bushels to the acre Avas of doubtful profit, but
at 100 bushels to the acre, at 35 cents per bushel,
it would pay. Generally speaking. Dr. L. thought
there was no unprofitable crop in New England,
but very much depended vipon the skill of the
cidtirator. The corn crop can always be made
profitable, and skill applied to the raising of all
farm products will meet its reward. The Englisli
think turnips the most profitable, as they are fed
down on the land in the autumn and winter by
sheep, whose droppings easily enrich the soil. In
this connection Dr. L. spoke of English fallows,
but there is no necessity of them here. Cora, po-
tatoes and grass are staple crops, and in their cul-
tivation there is no loss. But shall we introduce
new ones ? He had great faith in root crops — not
that they, like patent pills, were a remedy for
everytliing — but they greatly improve the land.
He instanced carrots, of which he could raise 35
tons to the acre, and of Swedes 18 to 22. These
he compared with the products of corn and hay,
and concluded that as they were easy of cultm-e,
and useful as an auxiliary, farmers should not
neglect them. In conclusion, he said he had
touched upon many topics of discussion, and
hoped that some of the following speakers might
disagree with him.

Mr. Stedman, of Chicopee, inquired if root
crops were profitable to the chairman in his own
case.

Dr. Lo'pJNG said he did not intend to say that
they were so much so as with some others.

!Mr. Stedman then spoke of the diversity of ex-
perience in regard to carrots. From 15 to 18 tons
per acre could be raised, and at from 5 to 8 cents
per bushel. Generally they were more profitable
to sell than to feed. Mangold wurtzels couid be
raised at the rate of 30 tons to the acre. He
thought root crops were increasing, and it was
well, as they tend to cleanse the soil. Cum is a
staple, and for a single crop it is the best.

Dr. LomxG said the yield of carrots diners very
much from different modes of culture. lie though
Iris statements were no exaggeration.

Ml*. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, being
called upon, said he had not thought much upon the
subject, but wdiere much stock is kept, ho believed
it good economy to use root crops as an auxiliary
in feeding. Turnips do not flourish as well here
as in England, neither can we feed them v\ith that
advantage. The English feed them ofi' by turn-
ing in sheep during the winter. But our winters
are too severe for this procedure. lie alluded,
however, to a gentleman in Saratoga county,
N. Y., who fed his sheep in this maimer with sat-
isfaction, but the speaker had his doubts about it.
The relative value of different crops was a desi-
deratum, and we ought to have a fund to establish
certain facts in the fcedmg of crops. Milli from
caiTots is very good, and the best for butter.

Mr. Stedjian inquired at what distance carrots
should be groAvn.

Dr. LoraxG replied ten or eleven inches apart,
lie commended the orange carrot, with a heavy
blunt root. The wheel hoe is used ia Essex coun-
ty for tilHng this crop, as well as for onions.

jNIr. Stone, of Hull, inquired what root would
produce the most milk.

Mr. Stedman replied the mangold wurtzel.

Dr. LoRlNG. "Whatever will produce food will
produce milli, though corn was regai'ded as a fat-
tening principle. Tilangolds give the best milli,
but the Sv/edes are better for fattening. Daniel
Webster used salt hay and turnips for fattening
cattle in the winter, witli an addition of meal.
Good English hay and corn meal are useful for
milk.

;Mr. McLaughlin, of Duxbuiy, v.as much
pleased with roots. Carrots were good for the
horse, and they produced richer milk from the
cow than turnips. He feeds all his cattle daily
from roots, and he finds their growth improves his
land.

Dr. LoraNG said he had computed the value of
the various grain crops, and referred to a lot of
land of 15 acres which he had prepared, conclud-
ing that if planted to corn rather than barley, the
difl'orence in favor of the former would be $250.

Mr. Davis, of Plymouth, said the solution of
some of these questions depended upon the
amount of land available, and remarked that the

116

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

March

cost of crops was very difficult to ascertain, and
cited Mr. Colman in point. There was much
vagueness about crops, and he hoped that farmers
would give us an accurate account of the net prof-
its of an acre of corn. We want all the facts
about it. In England they knew more about theii-
crops than we do here. We need experiments.
As to roots, he said he could raise turnips and
mangold wurtzels better than any other crop. The
mangolds grow well, and at half the cost of the
carrot crop, and he had grown 95 tons upon three
acres. Yet Mr. Allen — the reputed father of
farming in his county — thought root-raising a
piece of folly. Mr. Davis said he prepared his
land for the turnij) crop from the first to the tenth
of June, and could raise from 800 to 900 bushels
per acre. If turnips make more milk, it is not so
good as from the mangold. He again requested
gentlemen to give to him an actual account of the
cost of any crop.

Mr. Geary, of Oregon, being called upon by
the chair to offer a few remai-ks, said he was not a
practical farmer, but was conversant with that
country, though its aspects were difficult to de-
scribe. Oregon was five degrees north of us, yet
the winters were milder than in Massachusetts,
and farmers frequently marked their cattle and let
them provide for themselves during this season.
The valleys, and lofty mountains perpetually
capped with snow, were there very beautiful to
behold. While the Avinters were milder the sum-
mers were not so hot as with us. The cereals are
there produced in great quantity, and wheat grows
very well. It is a singular fact that there is no
lime in the soil, yet their eggs have shells and men
grow with bones ! The fine silex of the soil makes
the wheat very strong, while some of the heads
measure from 6 to 8 inches in length. The pro-
duct was about 20 bushels to the acre ; had seen
50. He had a piece of land into which he har-
rowed wheat in February, which produced from
year to year without manure, 40, 35, 40 and 45
bushels in succession. Wheat is best when sown
in June, and gathered the next year, as it makes
the best flour. Orchards grew very rapidly there,
and produced fruit five years from the bud. Pears
and plums did well also, but peaches were a fail-
ure. Indian corn, though not in a favorable po-
sition, is assimilating to the climate and soil. The
cultivated grasses grow well, but are not needed.
The land, however, was not so rich as in Illinois
and some of the Western States. Fir trees were
frequently seen 10 feet through and 100 yards
high! The timber is used fi)r spars, rails, Szc.
Pitch and turpentine are also produced. The yew
tree is very valuable for posts. Mr. G. also gave
a description of the bays, and said Oregon would
yet be one o^ the great depots of the world. In
some districts there were ashes on the soil, and

such spots were very fertile. In this connection
he instanced the fact — upon the best authority —
of a crop of 1100 bushels of potatoes to an acre !
Spots of alkalies were very common, and in-iga-
tion in some cases was needed. Gold has likewise
been discovered in some localities, but is Avorth
only from $8 to $12 per ounce, and the rivers
which contain it all flow from a certain point. In
conclusion, the speaker hoped to be excused for
wandering from the real question in what ^he had
presented the meeting.

Mr. De Witt, of Agawam, had had some ex-
perience in raising turnips, and spoke well of them.
But when fed to cows for milk, he thought some
meal should be given in advance. He also advo-
cated the raising of green corn fodder, planted
thick, for cows.

The time for adjournment having arrived, the
chairman announced the next subject for discus-
sion : Neat Stock — the adaptation of dijfcrent
Breeds to different localities and purposes. Mr.
Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, would preside.
— Adjourned.

COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME.

The following letter from Hon. Marshall P. Wil-
der, one of the most eminent agriculturists in New
England, gives a very gratifying account of some
experiments with Coe's Superphosphate of Lime :

Dorcliester, Kov. 20, 1861.
Dear Sir: — I take pleasure in enclosing, for
your examination, some facts in regard to the com-
parative vahic of tlie superphosphate of lime, pur-
chased of you last spring.

Experiments on Old Moivhig Land. '
This land was divided into three equal lots, of
one-fourth of an acre each, and dressed as follows :

Hay Product.

No. 1, with one-half cord manure, valued at $3,00 861 lbs.

No. 2, with 100 lbs. puano, " " 3,00 750 lbs.

No. 3, with 100 lbs. Coe's superphosphate of

lime, valued at $2,50 948 lbs

Experiments u-ith Carrots.
This land was old sward land, turned over last
fall, and was divided into throe equal lots of one-
eighth of an acre each.

Product..

No. 1, with l'< cords manure, valued at $8,00 75 bush.

No. 2, with 50'lbs. pfuano, " " 1,50 60 "

No. 3, with .50 lbs. Coe's superphosphate of

lime, valued at $1,25 90 bush.

Experiments on Two Acres of Old Meadow Land.
This land had probably never been plowed be-
fore. In the month of August last, the brush,
brakes, hedge, &c., were taken off, tliesod reversed,
and the surface made as level as practicable. It
was then seeded down with foul meadow and redtop
seed, with 400 pounds of your superphosphate of
lime to the acre. Tho seed came up avcII, and at
tliis time the grass is so luxuriant and thickly set,
that it attracts attention at the distance of half a
mile or more, and should the grass not be winter-
killed with ice, there will no doubt be a fine crop
next summer. In tliis instance, as in many others,
the economy of the superphosphate over common
barn-yard manure is evident, the cost of the form-
er being not more than the expense of carting

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEIVIER.

117

would have been of a sufficient quantity of stable
manure to produce a like result.

The superphosphate of lime is therefore a valua-
ble fertilizer in the reclamation and renovation of
old pasture or meadow lands, and especially so
vv'here lands like the above are located a mile or
more from the homestead.

Superphosphate of lime is a valuable article in
promoting the growth and increasing the fibrous
roots of young trees and grape vines, and when ap-
plied in liberal quantities to the roots of bearing
trees, has a beneficial influence on the size and
beauty of the fruit. It is equally useful as a ferti-
lizer for cereals, grasses and vegetables, and from
experiments made heretofore, I have hopes that it
may prove a preventive of the blast upon young
seedling pear stocks, and to the raildeAV on i)eas
and other plants sulyect to these diseases.

As a quick, and also as a durable fertilizer, I have
seen many proofs in past years. I have ever con-
sidered it as one of the most economical manures
in use. Yours respectfully,

Marshall P. Wilder.

For the Hew England Fai-mer.
NOTES FROM THE MONOMACK.

, January 22, 1862.

Fkiexd Browx : — I have not forgotten your kind
request, made long ago, that I should occasional!}'
"note" something for the e.-^pccial benefit of the read-
ers of my favorite Farmer, but other matters have, un-
til recent!}', so completely monopolized my time and
thoughts, that the thing was hardly possible. Now,
however, I can occasionally find a breathing-place,
and, unless you make haste to repent of your folly in
extending the above-mentioned invitation, and sum-
marily "cancel the bond," you are likely to hear from
rae quite often.

With this, I send along a few specimen bricks, and
if your readers don't cry "quits," you may expect "a
few more of the same sort" from

Truly yours, Saggahe-w.

Ax Hour in a ]\Iodel Hot-House. — One
year ago, (Feb., 18G1,) the writer was one of a
party of about forty members of the "Great and
General Court" of Massachusetts, who paid a fly-
ing visit to that ancient city, and celebrated water-
ing-place— Newport, E.. I. The ostensible object
of the expedition was to make a sort of popular
legislative survey of the route of a proposed
railroad extension ; while it was expected, inci-
dentally, of course, to have a right down good
time. Tlie first object was fully accomplished, as
may be seen from an examination of the legisla-
tive files ; and the latter was — "ditto," as may be
proved by the cross examination of each, either,
any, or all, of the aforesaid forty resjicctable gen-
tlemen.

While the rest of the party paid a sliivering
visit to Fort Adams, the writer, under the guide
of a mutual friend, paid his respects to the super-
intendent of the estate of Beach Lawrence, Esq.,
Mr. Alfred Chamberlain, where he was most cour-
teously received, and passed an exceedingly pleas-
ant hour. Of the many objects of interest Mhich
came under his observation at the time, I propose
nov/ to speak only of his visit to the extensive
hot-houses on the estate.

^Ir. Chamberlain, the superintendent, is a na-
tive of England, an educated gardener, and an en-
thusiastic lover of all that is in any way connected
with his profession. Among his many qualifica-

tions for the resposible post he now occupies, may
be mentioned seven years' experience in the im-
mediate employ of William Rivers, the celebrated
English gardener and horticulturist. The latter is
Avell known as the originator of a system of dwarf-
pot-culture, for fruit trees and vines. That ^Mr.
Chamberlain was no dull scholar of this distin-
guished master in the art, I had abundant oppor-
tunity for verifying upon the above occasion.

Though it was in the depth of vinter, I found
grapes, tomatoes, strawberries, pineapples, cucuni-
bers, lettuce, potatoes, &c., ike, in all the various
stages of growth, up to perfect maturity. To such
a state of perfection has this artificial system of
culture been brought, that these, and many other
kinds of fruit and vegetables, fresh from the vines,
are ready for the table every day in the year!
Among the first of these to attract my attention
were the

Tomatoes. — These were planted along the back
side of the elevated borders, and were carefully
trained to neat wire trellises, each plant occupy-
ing perhaps four feet wide, and four to five feet in
height. Mr. C. recommends that they should al-
ways be trained to an upright trellis, and pinched
back freely, as they look neater, occupy less room
laterally, will produce a gi'cater quantity of fruit,
and ripen it a fortnight earlier.

Having tried the trellis plan of training, in gar-
den culture, I have concluded that it is too trou-
blesome for ordinary out-door cultivation, in all
cases where time is any object. It is true that the
vines look neater, and, perhaps, yield more fruit,
but the value of the time consumed in tying up
the vines will usually far exceed that of the extra
crop. I prefer to spread a little coarse litter,
leaves, oi* — better still — brush, under the vines,
before they begin to lodge, and then let them run
as they please. I have also tried the plan of clip-
ping, or pincliing back the shoots, but, for the
same reasons, have discontinued the practice. I

have recently learned that our friend, jMr. L ,

whose business is solely market gardening, and
who raises at least five hundred bushels of toma-
toes annually, after trying various plans, has con-
cluded that the most economical method is to let
the vines have their own way.

Strawberkies. — Of these there were several
hundred pots, arranged principally on a shelf near
the ridgepole, where they -were flourishing with the
greatest vigor. A row of them placed over the
pipes in front, were in fruit, and would have con-
vinced any one that this delicious fruit deseiTCS
more consideration in hot-house culture. I never
saw vines more heavily laden. They were princi-
pally, W'dson^s Albany Seedlinr/, of which Mr. C.
spoke in the highest terms, for their bearing qual-
ities.

CUCUJIBERS AND SQUASHES IN POTS. — Not
the least of the many objects of interest which
met my eye upon the above occasion, M'ere the
pots of cucumbers, squashes and melons, all in a
bearing condition, Mr. C. expressed the opinion
that, for gardens, it would be economy to start
these plants in pots, under glass, and after the
ground was prepared to receive them, and the
plants were beyond the reach of bugs, to set the
pots into the ground, without disturbing the plant.
His remarks upon the subject so commended them-
selves to my mind that I tried the experiment last

118

NEW ENGLAND FAraiER.

IMarch

spring, -vvitli some marrow squashes. I took sev-
eral plants -which had been kept in five-inch flow-
er pots until they were too large to be relished by
the bugs, and transferred then to the garden. All
but one of them were carefully tipped out of the
pots, witliout breaking the ball of earth, and as
carefully set into the ground. The one pot was
simply set into the grouiid so as fairly to cover the
top of the pot. In order to make sure that no fa-
vors should be found on its side, this plant was set
in the poorest soil of the whole row. All the
plants were covered with musquito netting for a
few days, and the one in the pot was also watered
a few limes, v.'hen the boxes vrere removed, and
they were left to take care of themselves. For a
short time the bugs almost literally covered them,
but were compelled at last to abandon them unin-
jured. The single vine seemed to grow more
slowly than the others, and at no time during the
season was it a.s large. On gathering tlie fruit in
the fall, I took from this vine three well ripened
squashes, weighing together thirtij-nine j^ound-i.
This I found to be fully equal in weight to the av-
erage of the other vines, and also to -vines in the
garden planted in the usual manner. On taking
up the pot, I found that no roots had entered the
ground over the top of the pot, and but a single
root, about the size of a pipe stem, had passed
into the earth tlu-ough the hole in the bottom.
Through this single root, then, must have been
drawn all the earth nourishment for maturing both
vine and fruit. Experiments made at the same
time with cucumbers, and melons, have convinced
me that, for gardens, Mr. Chamberlain's plan is a
good one, and the coming spring I propose to treat
ail my -vines in tliis v/ay. The same plan will also
apply to flowers, and a small propagating case is
amply large to start all the flowers, melons, vines,
&c., that can find room in an ordinary garden.

DwAiiF Pot Fruit Culture. — I found Mr.
Cliamberlain to be not only completely at home
in all relating to the culture of fiiiit trees and
vines in pots, but confident that the time will soon
arrive when it will become so common as to cease
to be novel. Durii-ig his experience with Mr.
Rivers, he had not only seen the system made pos-
sible and practical, but positively pro/?f(r?//e. If
it v,-as successful in England, he was confident it
might he made successful in tiiis country, and he
Avas determined that it should be made so. He
had several hundred pear, apple, peach, cherry
and other fruit trees, and a large number of grape
vines, in pots, and in various stages of growth.
They were of various ages, from one year to six or
more years old. I saw pear' trees which had been
taken from the ground, in a common nursery row,
when four years old, and placed in a twelve or
fourtccn-inch earthen pot, and, so far as I could
judge, they were in a thriving condition before the
end of a twelvemonth. All his trees had been
purchas-.ed from ordinary nurserymen, and while
tlicy did not give him the satisfaction which those
more carefully propagated and trained would have
done, they demonstrated more forcibly the practi-
cability of his system of culture. At the time of
my visit, every tree and shrub out-doors were cov-
ered with a thick coating of ice, and I was sur-
prised to find a large number of pear trees in pots
standing on the north side of the hot-house, en-
tirely unprotected, and covered Mitli sleet like the
rest. I M'as told that they had been in that bleak

situation all winter, for want of room inside, but
no fear was expressed as to their suffering any in-
jury thereby. Inside, in the reserve-room, I saw
a large number, of various ages, waiting their turn
to be placed in the forcing-house. Their plump
fruit l)uds showed plainly that the cultivator's ex-
pectations of a crop of fruit from them, at least,
looked reasonable. In the forcing-house Avere a
vaiiety of pears, peach, cherry and plum trees, and
grape vines in pots, and showing fruit in various
stages of growth. If my judgment was not sadly
at fault, they were all in a healthy and thriving
condition.

Among the novelties in this collection, vras a
penr free tcitli endless limbs — i. e., with every limb
inarched. Some of the limbs were bent around
and ingrafted upon themselves, others were in-
grafted upon the trunk, and in several cases the
ends of two limbs had been ingrafted upon each
other. Being thus prevented from making a free
growth of wood, the whole energy of the roots was
compelled to the task of perfecting the fruit. The
tree had not, as yet, fruited, but the large and
well-formed fruit buds gave promise of success in
the novel experiment.

Fruit Baskets. — But among the many objects
of interest in this model establishment, none so
enlisted my attention and curiosity, as j\Ir. Cham-
berlain's newly invented fruit baskets. These may-
be described as baskets (of any desired form,)
made of open wire woric, with a tin dish, or pan,
inside. In this inside dish is placed a quantity of
charcoal, bone-dust, &c., in which the roots of the
tree, or vine, are planted, and they are then avcU
covered Avith moss, Avliich is, of course, kept con-
stantly moist. Further nourishment is supplied
in the form of liquid manru-e. Planted in this
manner I saAV peach, cherry, plum and pear trees,
and grape vines, flourishing in the most gratifying
manner. I took down one of these baskets from
its hook, and counted twenty-six peaches, of about
bullet size, on the tree contained in it. Grape
vines, prepared in a similar manner, exhibited
large and handsome bunches of fruit. I Avas as-
sured that not one of these baskets contained even
a spoonful of soil, or earth, and yet the trees and
vines appeared to be in a most flourishing condi-
tion. After fully explaining the construction and
philosophy of his invention, (for Avhich he has re-
ceived letters patent,) Mr. Chamberlain informed
me that at least one person, Avho claimed to have
visited his place and seen his specimens of fruit-
ing trees and vines in baskets, had gravely pro-
nounced the whole thing a humbug, and in the
columns of the Horticulturist had declared that
the specimens of peaches, grapes, &c., on these
trees and vines, were artifcialbj fastened on, to
deceive the public. Mr. C. therefore called my
particular attention to the specimens, and ex-
pressed the ho])e that I Avould expose him, if I
found any appearance of fraud or deception in the
matter. I made a rigid examination, and Avas ful-
ly convinced that there Avas no humbug about the
invention. Having since read the article referred
to, I must confess that the Avriter, if in earnest,
Avas either very blind, or purposely misrepresents.
Since my visit, ]\Ir. Chamberlain has exhibited
specimens of his trees and vines in baskets, at va-
rious horticultural exhibitions, Avhere they have
been seen and examined by many thousands of
persons, Avithout the detection of any fraud in

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER

119

them. Not only this, but many others are now
meeting with equal success in similar cultivation,
and the sale of these patent fruit baskets is al-
ready quite extensive.

AN HOUR WITH THE MIIiCH COWS.

We recently had the pleasure of visiting the
barn of Mr. Abiel II. Wheeler, of Concord, in
this State, of looking at his herd of milch cows,
and learning from him some of his ideas as to the
best stock for milking purposes, and the manner
in wliich he feeds and shelters them, in order to
secure the largest possible product of good milk.

His barn is 85X41 feet, nearly all the north-
west side being used as bay room for hay, and his
stock consists of twenty cows, two horses, two
bulls and several swine. The bulls arc pure Ayr-
shires, are matched, hardy and docile, and are
usually in the yoke whenever there is heavy work
to be done. He has pure Ayrshire cows, and
thinks this stock, for milking purposes, as good as
any of the favorite breeds among us. He cuts
about 60 tons of hay annually, and on a portion
of his land at the rate of five tons per acre. The
cattle are all confined in stancheons, in one lean-
to, and are bedded with fine, pine shavings from a
neighboring pail factory, or with pine leaves gath-
ered from the forest. The cows were all scrupu-
lously clean, no droppings or dust being allowed
to accumulate upon them — of course the floors
under them were clean and sweet.

His mode of feeding is as follows. All the va-
rious kinds of fodder, excepting corn fodder, are
cut, and the straw and different qualities of hay
are mixed, and fed dry. The cattle eat this so
readily that he says not a bushel of orts has been
left from it during the winter. Each cow also re-
ceives in grain of some kind what is equal to three
quarts of corn meal per day, v,-hich is fed by itself.
The corn fodder is fed to them uncut, from which
they take what they please, and the remainder is
worked up with other coarse litter for manure.
Under this feed the cows keep in good condition,
and yield a liberal flow of milk. He thinks this a
profitable mode of using the fodder. The cattle
are tied up at night through the year, and are al-
ways supplied with abundant manure-making ma-
terials. The barn-yard is dishing, and amply cov-
ered with litter and muck to absorb all the li-
quids that fall upon it.

His barn-cellar is of equal extent with the barn
itself — the north side being filled with the various
vehicles of the farm, and the other side with the
droppings, where a stout hand was overhauling,
pulverizing and mixing them with muck, sand,
pine leaves, or such other materials as he had
stored up for winter use.

Mr. AViiEELEK has one acre and one-fourth in
asparagus. Tliis is cultivated with care, and has

brought him in cash the sum of $500 in a single
year. The asparagus tops are deposited in the
barn-yard, in the spring. He top-dresses his grass
lands liberally in the fall and keeps them well
seeded, which may account for the product of Jive
tons per acre which he has cut.

Near the buildings he has a fine orchard of 300
or 400 young apple trees, and about 50 ])ear trees,
which greatly improve the appearance of the farm,
and which promise to be a source of future profit.
Every thing about his buildings — so far as a win-
ter view could go — appeared convenient and tidy.
The stock was warm and contented, the buildings
themselves in good repair, the wood-houses filled
with dry wood, and both wood and water so "han-
dy" as to have a strong tendency to keep all the
family in a complacent frame of mind.

Mr. Wheeler is one of the best plov/nien
probably in the States, and few, if any, have car-
ried away more prizes from the field of competi-
tion than he has. He not only superintends, but
takes a leading part in all the labor of the farm,
and during the winter has the entire charge of the
stock. Indeed, if we saw anything in wliich we
thought he should make a change, it is that he
should labor less. He is at present the President
of the Concord Farmers^ Club, where he presides
with great punctuality and promptness, and evin-
ces the same enthusiasm that he does in all that
he imdertakes.

]\Ir. W. has a son in the army, now a prisoner
at New Orleans. He was taken at Bull Ilun,
wliile remaining by the side of a sick associate.

For the Ncjc England Fanner.
DISSEMZBTATION OP FOtTL SEEDS.

Mr. Editor : — Can there not be some remedy
devised to prevent the vending of foul seeds with
the seed we wish to purchase, and also to compel
negligent, slovenly farmers, to extirpate all nox-
ious weeds and plants that are liable to be carried
by the wind and birds to the premises of adjoining
neighbors ?

1 am of the opinion, that most of our hay seeds
contain more or less foul seed, and that many a
careful former finds himself taxed with many a
weary day's work in consequence. I think this is
a grov.'ing evil, from the fact that I see many more
noxious, worthless plants than formerly, in all the
region I am acquainted with. I know of many
farms that are so overrun with wild carrot as to
diminish the rents fifty per cent., and in some
cases even more. These are, or were, valuable
lands on the south-east end of Rhode Island.
From the opposite side of the bay, many of these
farms, when the carrot is in bloom, arc as white as
if covered with snow. Plowing don't destroy it,
and mowing seems to spread it, as the root sends
out immediately numerous shoots to take the place
of those cut off. It is a kind of hydra monster.
Nothing but plucking it out by the roots will ex-
tirpate it. It is now quite common all through

120

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

this section, and if suffei-ed to increase, Avill great-
ly diminish the vahie of our forms.

I could mention several other plants that are a
great nuisance and evil, but will confine myself to
but one more, viz., Johnsv,-ort. I have been cred-
ibly informed that, in some parts of New York
State, this i)lant has so got the upper hand of the
farmers that they have given up some of then-
fields to its entu-e possession. Within sight of
where I live, is a farm that is fast coming under
its pestiferous power. The owner don't seem to
care much about it ; thinks he can get on, some-
hoM', as long as he lives, and on the principle of
"after me, the deluge," bequeaths to the coming
generation a heritage of expense and trouble.

For one, I do not believe we have aright to act,
or not act, without reference to the future. How
is it possible for any one to reconcile such a course
with moral right .-^ Each succeeding generation
should strive to excel its predecessor in all that is
calculated to promote the highest good of the pres-
ent, and of generations to come. Gratitude, and
not remorse, would then be the heritage of all, and
the world a comparative paradise. But to return
to our subject. The evil is upon us. What is the
remedy ? Will not some of your numerous cor-
respondents tell us, or at least give their views of
the matter ? Can we not have a law that will
reach this case ? Could not seed inspectors be
appointed, and licensed seed stores be established,
where the farmer could go and be sure of getting
a pure, unmixed article ? In the case of the neg-
ligent farmer, who suffers liis lands to be overrun
with weeds to liis neighbor's injury, could we not
by law require him to cease injuring his neigh-
bors ? lie has no just right to do it. Why not
restrain him by penalties ? o. K.

Rochester, 18G2.

agricultubaij societies.

WoKCESTER North Agricultural Society.
— We have before us the Transactions of this So-
ciety for the year ISGl. The annual Exhibition
took place at Fitchburg, Sept. 24, 1861, We learn
from them that the show in vegetables was far su-
perior to any before presented ; that of flowers was
brilliant ; the mechanic arts and manufactures
were also liberally displayed, as were the articles
of bread, butter, cheese, pickles, honey, preserves
and wines. There was no regular address, but af-
ter dinner appropriate remarks were made by sev-
eral i^ersons. The officers for 18G2 are :

President — L. II. Bradford, Fitchburg ; Vice
Presidents — Leonard Burragc, Leominster ; Ben-
jamin Wyman, Westminster ; Secretary — W. G,
VVyman, Fitchburg; Treasurer — F. C. Caldwell,
Fitchburg.

Rutland County Agricultural Society. —
At the annual meeting of this Society held at Rut-
land, Vt., January 1, 18G2, the following officers
■were elected :

President — Jajies M. Ketciium, Sudbury;
Vice Presidents — Jesse L. Billings, Rutland ; A.
D. Smith, Danby ; Secretary — Henry Clark,
Poultney ; Treasurer — Hon. Zirari Howe, Castle-
ton ; Auditor — H. W. Lester, Rutland.

For the New England Farmer.

■WINTEK.

BY B. F. FULLER.

Now the winter is invested

With the downy, feathery snow.
Every mountain-top is crested,

And the valley clad, below.
Winter's ermine, as a ruffle.

Leafless woodland seems to deck ;
And the pines are like a muffle

Of warm furs, around his neck.
See ! the cloud-attended morning,

All effulgent to the view ;
And the sparkling snow adorning,

Almost with a rainbow hue !
In the forest, now, I wander —

Yes ! the winter's face to see.
Every lesson I will ponder,

That the seasons show to me.
Hark ! a whistle, flute-like, airy,

Like a signal, clear, and sweet \
'Tis, perhaps, the reigning fairy

Winds her horn, in this retreat ;
"Chickadeedee !" — music cheery !

'Tis the spell of memory, then,
In the woodland, waste and weary,

Wakes the summer song again !
No ! the birdie, bounding, leaping,

Lights upon the feathery snow I
Soft the breast of winter, sleeping—

Would, for thee, 'twere always so !
Say, thou plaything of the breezes !

When the winter, wan and cold,
In the moaning forest freezes,

Where is, then, thy little hold ?
"Chickadeedce !" chants the fearless.

Flitting bird, upon the tree:
"Never would your heart be cheerless,

Had you confidence, like me !"

I will study, then, the winter,

In its ever varied phase —
When the snowy sparkles glinter

In the bright aud sunny days :
When the air-filled flake, descending,

In the day or in the night,
Seems as if the heaven, bending.

Would upon the earth alight:
When the stars shine out with pleasure,

On the mirror of the snow ;
While a galaxy of treasure

Seems the spangled bank, below !
— We have all a winter season.

When our scanty lives we close:
It is fitting we should reason

Of the winter and Uie snows !
Shall we, then, so iieaccfid slumber

As this sunny, snowy day ;
Or tlie dreams, that conscience cumber.

Frighten our repose away ?

The Moss-Lands. — The moss-lands are formed,
not by the perpetually diffused burden of mist, but
the going and returning of intermittent clouds.
All turns upon that iutermittence. Soft moss on
stone and rock ; cave fern of tangled glen ; way-
side well, perennial, patient, silent, ever thus deep,
no more, which the winter wreck sullies not, the
summer thirst wastes not, incapable of stain as of
decline, where the foUcn leaf floats undecayed and
the insect darts undcfiling. Crossed brook and
ever eddying river, lifted even in flood scarcely
above its stepping-stones, but through all sweet
summer keeping tremulous music with harji-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

121

strings of dark water among the silver fingering of
tlie pebbles. Far away in the south the river-
gods have all hasted and gone down to the sea.
AVastcd and burning, white furnaces of blasting
sand, their broad beds lie ghastly and bare ; but
here the soft wings of the sea-angel droop still
with dew, and the shadows of their plumes falter
on the hills ; strange laughings, and glittcrings of
silver streamlets, born suddenly, and twined among
the mossy heights in trickling tinsel, answering to
them as they wave. — Buskin,

VLNTEGAR IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.

The whole philosophy of the manufacture of
vinegar is included in the word oxydation, the al-
cohol contained in cider, beer, or wine, combining
with the oxygen of the atmosphere, becomes acetic
acid, which in a diluted state is vinegar.

The methods usually pursued in the domestic
manufiicture of this article are, to say the least of
them, susceptible of improvement. The conver-
sion of cider into good vinegar, by exposure to the
air in casks, requires weeks and even months to
accomplish ; because, only a small surface is ex-
posed at one time to the oxydizing action of the
atmosphere.

By exposing a larger surface of the liquor to the
atmosphere, oxydation takes place with corres-
ponding rapidity, and the process may be com-
pletde in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

The method of accomplishing this rapid acetifi-
cation, which has long been known to scientific
men and manufacturers, may be pursued without
difficulty in private houses, as follows : Take a
clean flour barrel, and bore auger holes all around
the sides, and in the bottom ; set it over a flat tub
or open cask, and fill it light with beech shavings
which have been soaked in vinegar. On top of
this barrel, which is open, lay two strips of Avood,
and resting on these, a pail filled with cider, beer,
or the like. Procure twelve or fifteen lengths of
cotton wicking, about thirty inches long : which,
after dip])ing in the liquid, arrange round the sides
of the pail at regular intervals so that one end of
each wick will be hanging in the cider, and the
other one hanging down outside, and below the
bottom of the pail. By means of these wicks, the
pail will gradually bo emptied of its contents,
which, trickling over the shavings, will be exposed
to the air, absorb oxygen, and finally be received
in the tub beneath. By returning the liquor into
the pail above, and suffering this trickling process
to be repeated two or three times, a splendid vin-
egar will be obtained. The whole secret of the
process lies in the mechanical increase of surface
accomplished by the shavings. — Scientific Ameri-
can.

Remedy for Ringworms. — The North Brit-
ish Agriculturist says that the disease locally
known as ring worm or tetter, which shows itself
about the head and neck of young cattle, in the
form of whitish dry scurve spots, can be removed
by rubbing the parts affected with iodine ointment.
The disease may also be combated by the use of
sulphur and oil ; iodine ointment is, however, to
be preferred. As this skin disease is easily com-
municated to the human subject, the person dress-
ing the cattle should wash his hands with soap
and hot water after each ointment.

For the Netc England Farmer.
POVERTY OF SHADE.

Mr. Brown : — I am so confident that you de-
sire to give only sound doctrine to the readers of
the Farmer that I venture a criticism on one of
your "replies," with the full confidence of your
willingness. In the weekly Fanner for Jan. 11th,
in answer to "Subscriber," from North Dunbar-
ton, N. H., you say, "Perhaps the better way would
be to sow oats or barley with the grass seed, and
cut them for fodder. This course would i.ot ma-
terially exhaust the soil, and the oats might, in
some measure, protect the young grass, and give
it an opportunity to escape cbought, if it should
ensue."

It is a very common idea that the shade afford-
ed in such case is more than an offset for the mois-
ture-exhaustion which it costs. But such is not the
case. While the roots can get moisture, the plants
will not dry u]) because of the power of the sun
upon them. During last summer we had a severe
drought. I had a piece of ground under my care
sowed with oats and grass seed. On a part of it
the oats were cut down by insects, so as to leave
scarcely a blade. There the grass lived through
the drought. On another part the oats stood un-
harmed by insects. There the little grass roots
all died from the severity of the drought. Cer-
tainly it was from this cause that the grass failed
there.

In a field of potatoes, also, where perhaps an
eighth of an acre had a crop of coarse weeds
which lived in defiance of the hoe, there the soil
became so extremely dry that the potatoes died
of thirst ; while the case was different on precise-
ly the same kind and condition of soil where the
weeds had been subdued. The shadow of a weed
will never pay for the moisture it steals in time
of drought, and the same principle will hold good
against oats or barley in a water-account with the
soil. The more roots there are to suck the parched
soil the sooner its moisture will be gone. Naked
soil will retain moisture beyond that which is
thickly covered with growing grass or grain. A
row of corn, skirting grass-ground, will curl up
from drought before one Avould at a distance from
where so many roots are sucking. A weedy piece
of ground will suffer worse than a clean flcld.

Lee, N. II., Jan., 1862. Comings.

Remarks. — You judge us correctly, friend Co-
mings, in supposing that Ave "desire to give only
sound doctrine to the readers of the Farmer."
Our language, you will observe, was quite guarded.
Before proceeding, let us see what the point at is-
sue is : It is not, Avhat course of culture Avill pro-
duce the largest crops of grass, but, simply, whrt'
circumstances Avill best promote the germination
of grass seed and its early growth ?

In i\iQ first place, the oats were to be cut green
— not allowed to seed — which Avould leave the sur-
face free for the young grass after it had got fair-
ly started, and not "materially" exhaust the soil
— that is, compared with the exhaustion when oats
are allowed to mature.

Secondly, oats start quick, partially cover the
surface, and thus prevent a large amount of evap-

122

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

oration, keeping moisture in store for themselves
and the young grass, by absorbing moisture from
the air, as -well as exhausting it from the soil, —
for the plants are living and bi-eathing organisms,
and a mutual action is continually going on be-
tiveen them and the soil. "They are first fed by
the food which the root procures from the earth,
and a part of the nutritive matter which is stored
up in the seed-leaves. They feed especially upon
the latter until the store is exhausted, and by the
time this happens they are clothed with leaves
which arc themselves able to feed them after the
seed-leaves have perished." This is the language
of Prof. LiNDLEY, — than whom there is no higher
authority, — and we cite it to show that the oat
plants among the grass receive a large amount of
their support from the atmosphere, and conse-
quently, do not — in their early growth — exhaust
the soil so much as they benefit it by their shade,
and the moisture they bring to it from the air.
At any rate, not so much as is stated by our cor-
respondent. Both Hales and Duiiamel — among
the very highest authorities — say that branches
imbibe moisture nearly equally by either end ; and
consequently the sap moves with equal facility
hotli upwards and downwards. M. Bonnet states
that "leaves will imbibe enough of icater to sup-
■port the vegetation of a whole branch, and the
leaves belonging to it." This does not look as
though the leaves of the oat plant were made
merely to rob the soil!

Our friend may sow the seeds of the elm, ma-
ple, birch and pine, on a piece of M?isheltered land,
and he will find that a large proportion of the
plants — if they come up at all — will perish ; but if
he goes to the forest, cuts the trees and brush,
scrapes away the leaves, stirs the soil, and sows
the same kind of seeds there, they will not only
come up, but under the genial protection of the
suiTounding trees and shrubbery, will grow and
flourish in surprising numbers. He will find tliis
piece of soil, t?i ilce forest, although no mulching
lies upon it, moist and soft, when the pastures in
the vicinity are parched and barren.

Was not our suggestion in accordance with the
almost universal practice of farmers, who sow oats
or barley with grass seed, not cntirehj because
they desire the crop of oats, but because the oats
themselves are, in some degree, a protection to
the young and tender grass plants ? A very suc-
cessful farmer informed us, a few days since, that
he invariably sows three bushels of oats per acre
■with grass seed, and that he secures the best re-
sults under this practice, Avhich has been contin-
ued through many years, because it is a success-
ful practice.

It is our practice to sow grass seed among stand-
ing corn, and we have never failed of securing fa-
vorable results under ordinary circumstances — but

always the most satisfactory where the corn stood
the thickest, although on soil of the same quality
and in the same position. We have heretofore
urged tliis as a reason for laying lands to grass
wliile the corn is standing.

We are informed that where coffee is cultivated,
it is always done under the protection of trees ;
that although the trees spread their roots far and
wide, they are condensers of moisture from the
air as well as extractors of it from the soil, and
are thus of essential benefit to the young and ten-
der plants. On the same principle, pasture lands
are much benefited by occasional shade trees scat-
tered over them, — and we believe it is generally
admitted, that such pastures afford more grass
than those entirely bare of trees. That though
the trees sap the soil, their other beneficial action
upon it is more than balanced by the drafts they
make upon the soil itself. Fourcroy — another
high authority — says : "In clearing up new lands,
the trees on the summits of hills should be left
standing. They attract the vapor that floats in
the atmosphere, and the rains, and serve as co7i-
ductors of that element to moisten the ground.
By their shade they retain the verdure and feed."
This is precisely the case.

Another advantage of the oats is, that they
chcclc the currents of wind, and thus prevent evap-
oration, in a great degree. This point needs no
argument, as all admit that hay dries much faster
when there is a wind than when it is still ; the
wind rapidly carries away the natural evaporation
of the soil, which is continually succeeded by new
moisture and carried off by fresh currents, and
thus rapidly desiccates the ground. The oats
tend to keep these currents from the young grass,
and consequently a large portion of the evaporat-
ed moisture is kept among them.

The difference of opinion entertained, seems to
us to arise from the fact that no credit is given to
plants for the absorption by them of loatcr from
the atmosphere. If they did not receive and im-
part it, how long would it be, in the absence of
rain, before the soil would become utterly unfit to
sustain a plant ? We quote Lindley again : "If
the branch of a plant is placed in a bottle of wa-
ter, and the neck of the bottle is luted to the
branch, so that no evaporation can take place,
nevertheless the water loill disappear; and this
can only happen from its having been abstracted
by the branch." This is just the action which we
ascribe to the leaves of the oat plants as they
stand among the grass.

As we have this high authority before us, let
us quote again from it: lie says — "Since a plant
does not perspire [sweat] at night, and since its
absorbing points, the roots, remain during that
period in contact with the same humid medium
[that is, the soil] as during the day, they icill at-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

123

tract fiidd into the system of the plant during the
night, and consequently the weight of the indi-
■\ddual {the plant] will be increased. In like man-
ner, if plants in the shade are abundantly supplied
with moisture at the roots, they will also gain
more than they can lose ; and as this will be a
constant action, the result must necessarily be to
render all their parts soft and watery." The oat
plants, while the grass is young — and this is the
only time which we are discussing — keep the grass
both shaded and moist, and the result follows
which Prof. Lindley has just described.

The above shows the mea^is of keeping the
ground moist, as we suggested to our Dunbarton
correspondent, and the following from the same
Ingh authority already quoted, shows its impor-
tance, viz. : "As a general rule, therefore, we are
authorized to conclude that the ground should be
abundantly supplied with naoisture when plants
first begin to grow, and that the quantity should
be diminished as the organization of a plant be-
comes completed." On this point, however, there
is probably no diversity of opinion. We find fur-
ther confirmation of our views, in Davy, Doctor
Ingenhouz, Senebier, and others.

Let us, in conclusion, revert for a moment, to
the point at issue, as, if Ave adhere strictly to that,
an agreement will be moi-e likely to take place.
It is not, what couree of culture will produce the
largest crops of grass, but, simply, what circum-
stances will best promote the germination of grass
seed and its early growth ?

Vie have thus given some of the "reasons" for
the "faith that is in us." They are general prin-
ciples,— and not the results of one or two isolated
cases, upon wliich it is never safe to build up a
theorj\

We cordially thank our correspondent for liis
criticism, so frankly and kindly expressed, and
sincerely desire to be free from all "hobbies," and
to be wedded to no theories or opinions, mere-
ly because we once entertained them. If they
cannot stand the test of fair criticism, we mean
to relinquish them, and be found on the "progres-
sive road," shoulder to shoulder with our long-
tried and intelligent correspondent, "Comings."

PRESENTS FROM JAP ATT.

The new Japanese presents just sent to the
President of the United States from the Tycoon
of Japan, are the finest that has ever been seen
in this country. A lacquered box containing a
letter thanking the President for the reception of
liis ambassadors — in most courtly phrase in char-
acters as stately as those usually found upon the
sides of a tea box, wrapped in the yellowest of
yellow silk, with plenty of gilt. A sword of ex-
quisite steel, with the handle bedded with large
pearls and mounted in the finest gold. Blocks of
crystal from the sacred Fusiyama Moiuitain, of

diamond clearness. Vases of antique bronze, ex-
quisitely sculptured in relief with tortoises and
stones of untold value. A punch bowl fit for a
Cyclops to "wet his whistle" in, so large that the
President's two sons curled up in it and the cover
was put on ; candlesticks some four feet high, gold
mounted, with vases of every variety of pattern
and shape ; an entire suite of armor quite worthy
of the middle ages. The people are anxiously
waiting to have these things sent to some place —
the Smithsonian or the Patent Office — where they
can get a glimpse at these gems of crystal, steel,
bronze or porcelain. A whole dinner set, with
hundreds of pieces of Japanese crape, silk and
brocade, forms a part of this royal present.

For the New England Farmer.
WHAT SHALL I BAISE P

Mr. Editor : — I desire, through your columns,
to inquire hov*', in these times, farming can be made
profitable ? My farm is composed, mainly, of mow-
ing and tillage land, lying in the meadows which
sldrt the banks of the Connecticut river, in Hamp-
shire county, of this State. This land is worth
from one to two hundred dollars per acre. Crops
raised in this town and vicinity consist of Indian
corn, broom corn, hay and tobacco. The price
of Indian corn the past season has ranged from
fifty to sixty-five cents per bushel, and broom corn
four to five cents per pound ; the low prices of
these commodities, I suppose to be mainly owing
to the great quantities of the same that are pro-
duced upon tlie fertile fields of the West, in con-
nection with the comparatively small outlay for
their production there. Taking the estimated
value of our land, and the price of labor, it re-
quires no argument to prove that these are not
pi'ofitable. The hay crop, so far as it is produced
for the purpose of iattening cattle for market, is,
if anything, worse for the farmer than the raising
of Indian corn and broom corn. The tobacco
ci"op is the only one that remains to be considered.
My neighbors find the raising of this article very
profitable ; but I, believing its use not only useless,
but positively injurious, choose not to raise it.

Now, Mr. Editor, will you, or some of your cor-
respondents, inform mo M'hat is the best course to
be pursued to render my farm profitable ? You
will, of course, understand that the high price
which tobacco brings in market, increases the price
of labor among us, as well as the price of land,
and consequently, those who do not raise tobacco
must pay the same wages for hired labor, as those
who do. The price of laud is also graduated upon
the price of tobacco. ILvjipshire.

Jan. 7, 1862.

Remarks. — The letter of our correspondent is
a "poser," we confess. We admire his stern prin-
ciples, and heroic determination not to yield to
"the tempter." It seems to us that land situated
as "Hampshire" describes his farm, and valuable
as he estimates it, must be capable of bearing large
crops of hay, — and perhaps root crops, — say car-
rots, ox parsnips. Hay, pressed, or the root crops,
could be sent to a distant market, if they are not
salable near by. Or, perhaps, by temporarily set-

124

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

ting a lower estimate on liis land, he could afford
to raise other crops, — Indian corn, wheat, barley
or oats — and wait patiently for better times.

If a market for them is not too far off, could he
not cultivate the small fruits, especially strawber-
ries, or asparagus, and find a fair return from
them ? The latter crop is made very profitable by
many persons living twenty or thii-ty miles from
any large market.

It is quite probable that there are some particu-
lar localities, where farming is less profitable than
it generally is ; and so it must be with the carpen-
ter, tradesman, and any other occupation.

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.

PASTURE — COMPOST HEAP — SUBSTITUTE FOR
ASHES — A LOAD OF MANURE.

1. I am clearing a piece of ground which has
been used for more than half a century as a cow
pasture ; for several reasons I do not wish to
plow it. Will you inform me through the Far-
mer if ground bone or superphosphate of lime
would be good for a top dressing, and if so, how
much to the acre ? Or what can I do to improve
it?

2. I have several cords of soil composed of yel-
low loam, clay and decayed vegetable matter;
what can I mix with it to make a good compost ?

3. I notice in the Farmer th^t ashes is frequent-
ly recommended for composting and fertilizing,
and I know that it is good — but I am situated
where coal is mostly used, and, therefore, I can
not procure wood ashes. Is there anything that
can be profitably used as a substitute ?

4. Most of the statements published in regard
to the application of manure speak of so many
loads being used. How much do farmers mean
by a load ? Would it not be more definite if
they were to say cords or bushels ?

In return for the information here asked for, I
shall be hajjpy, whenever I may be able to commu-
nicate for the benefit of your readers. c. G.

Hingliam, Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — 1. Bone dust and superphosphate
of lime are both good for the old pasture. If you
wish to be liberal with it, apply 100 lbs. of the
former and 300 lbs. of the latter, per acre, as soon
as the ground is bare. Then spread as many
bushels of the soil Avhich you speak of, as you can
afford on top of the bone dust and superphosphate.
Upon these scatter white and red clover, a little
redtop, timothy and orchard grass seeds, and har-
row thoroughly each way. You may succeed un-
der this process ; a slight dressing of fine, rich
compost would make it nearly certain.

2. Lime, ashes, bone-dust, guano, superphos-
phate, fish, sea-weed, Avash from the house and
barn, are all good. If you can find a cask of dam-
aged potash at low price, dissolve it and sprinkle
the heap, overhauling it for the purpose.

3. Stone or oyster shell lime can, in some
measure. See preceding answer.

4. A cord of manure is about 100 bushels. The
common ox-cart, even full, holds about 25 bush-
els ; heaped, about 30 bushels ; so that a cord of
light manure will usually be haided at three loads.
We think it would be better to use the term
"bushels" or "cords" in speaking of quantities of
manure.

HOW TO PACK EGGS FOR TRANSPORTATION.

I often have the question asked, "How shall I
pack eggs for transportation ?" To all such inqui-
ries I would answer, select a strong, wooden box,
fill from the bottom tAvo inches deep with bran or
shorts, then wrap every e^g in wool and place
them, point downward, upon the bran, being care-
ful to leave about half an inch between each egg.
After placing the first layer, fill in two inches
more with bran, and place the eggs as before.
When the box is full with at least three inches of
bran over the top layer, jar the box gently so as
to fill every cavity between the eggs, screw on the
cover marked "eggs," and you may send them by
express safely. I have sent eggs of the Brahma
fowls by express to every New England State. A
gentleman in New Jersey raised 8 chicks from 12
eggs which were packed and sent him by express.
I have found that eggs packed in this manner
generally succeeded well in hatching.

Salem, Jan., 1862. John S, Ives.

now TO GET AND USE MUCK.

Having seen so much said of muck in the Far-
mer, it has induced me to ask you a few questions
on the subject as to its value. Will it pay to get
it at tliis season of the year ? If procured in the
fall, how shall it be kept from freezing so that it
can be spread under cattle ?

Chester, Ct., 1862, A Subscriber.

Remarks. — It is an excellent time to haul
muck in the winter that has been previously
thrown out. Where water does not follow the
spade too rapidly, the winter is also a good time
to throw it out. Muck that is intended to be used
for bedding cattle should be thrown out in the
summer, or early autumn, and when dry, carted to
some shed, cellar, leauto, or other place of conve-
nient access to the cattle stalls.

A SURE cure for CHILBLAINS.
Soak the feet a few moments for three nights in
succession in water in which hogs have been
scalded, and it will prove a sure cure for that
troublesome complaint.

One who bas Tried it.

Remarks. — As such water as our correspon-
dent describes is not always at hand, we suggest
that the afflicted drop a pint of wood ashes into a
bucket of warm water, and wash the feet in that.

A nice hog.

Mr. PuEscoTT Young, of Sugar Hill, N. H.,
recently killed a hog of the Chester breed, about
18 months old, which weighed when dressed 025
lbs. A. Wells.

Sugar Hill, N. H., 1862.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

125

SEED CORN.

Noticing some remarks by "O. K." in the Jan-
uary number of the Farmer about seed corn, I
thought I would tell what I have done.

I have raised a small kind of yellow corn for
more than twenty years. When first raised I
could not find two ears on a stalk as often as I
can now find three or four, and, occasionally, five
to eight, good, sound ears, but some of them
small.

I have taken pains to save as many good, sound
ears on early stalks as I could for seed, wliich I
think increases the number greatly.

When first planted, I could get from forty to
sixty bushels per acre, now I get from seventy to
nearly one hundred bushels, by actual measure-
ment, on the same ground and with the same
treatment, shelling it in October. E. R.

Hardwick, Jan. 16, 1862.

WARTS — WOODCHUCKS — DOVES.

One of your readers asks for a remedy to cure
warts on a colt. I cured one on my colt by wash-
ing the warts in saleratus water. I heard it re-
commended for warts on cattle.

The best way I have tried to get rid of wood-
chucks is, to turn into the hole two or three pails
of boiling water, and take care of the animals
when they come out.

I have known doves to be very destructive in
pulling corn, but do not tliink they are apt to, if
well fed. A Subscriber.

Enfield, N. H., 1862.

A ROUSING HOG.

"While looking over your paper of Jan. 18th, I
saw an account of a fine hog killed by Mr. Eras-
tus Howard, being 18 months old, and weighing
536 lbs., and also the question — "Who can beat
this ?" I have this winter killed one 15 months
old, weighing 588 lbs. CuRTis Parker.

Bichmond, N. H., Jan. 2, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

MATCHLN-Q STEERS' HORNS.

Mr. Editor : — I have noticed an inquiry re-
cently in the Farmer, how to match the horns of
steers, if one horn grows down. In reply to that
question I Avould say that five years since I had a
very fine pair of Devon steers, nicely matched, with
most beautiful horns, except one horn on one of
them inclined to turn down, so as to look very
badly, and the question was, how to remedy the
defect, and have the horns grow alike. As I had
previously tried scraping steers' horns to change
their shape, and without any benefit in a single in-
stance, I adopted the following plan : — I fastened
a pulley to the floor directly over the steer's head,
and another pulley at a point where a weight could
safely be suspended, then passed a cord over each
pulley, putting one end of the cord on the horn
that was down, and to the other end of the cord a
weight of two pounds, kept the cord on the horn
most of the time during the winter, when my
steers were in the stable. In that way I raised
the horn so that at the close of the next autumn
my steers' horns matched perfecthj rcell ! Since
that time it has been tried repeatedly by farmers

in this vicinity, with the like success. The horns
of steers while growing, can be turned in any di-
rection, by the continued use of a weight over a
pulley, which is but very little trouble and no in-
jury to the steers. S. C. Parsons.
New Boston, Mass., Jan., 1862.

Remarks. — We are greatly obliged to our cor-
respondent for tliis timely and interesting infor-
mation.

For the New England Farmer,
RETROSPECTIVE NOTES.

Water for Fattening Swine, pa^re 10. — A
good work has been done in this brief paragraph ;
for certainly it is a good work to expose and de-
stroy the infiuence of an absurd pi'actice or propo-
sal. Some one, it appears, took it into his wise
head that swine might fatten better without water
or drink of any kind than with it, and having
"proved it by experience" — alas ! that so much of
this foolish and false ^^ experience," which consists
in twisting facts to support a whim or a theory,
should find its way into print — gets his absurd no-
tion printed in the Pairal New-Yorker. This pro-
posal, and the one-sided experience proving it,
misled one reader, and so he tries the experiment
of feeding sixteen shoats on dry corn, for nearly
two months, without water. As might have been
expected by any sensible man, "they acted like
crazy creatures and a common rail fence would
not stop them. They ate but little corn, and I
think did not gain a pound." After water was
given them, they began to eat, and act as other
hogs.

This experiment, it is to be hoped, will find its
way Avherever the proposal may have gone, and
utterly explode it, so that it may no longer have
power to mislead any one. But the bane may
travel farther than the antidote, and so others be
subjected to the cruel experiment ; for there are so
many papers now-a-days which have what is called
an agricultural department, and into which the
non-agricultural editor foists so many absurd pro-
posals and so many rion-practical items, that it is
to be feared the absurdity now exploded, may find
its way where the antidote may not be able to fol-
low it. For, in glancing at the agricultural de-
partment of some papers, I have seen more that
was absurd and likely to mislead its readers, than
of what was sensible and practically useful. I
have thought this absurdity worthy of notice,
c.hiefli/ because the admission of such into agricul-
tural papers, tends to lower their reputation, and
to strengthen the prejudices of many against them ;
and because every absurdity misleads some one
or more.

Seed Corn. — In the issue of this journal of
December 7th, of last year, and in the January
number of the monthly edition, "0. K." states
some facts which will surprise many. It appears
that at a recent meeting of the Farmers' Club,
connected with the American Institute, in New
York city, there was a discussion upon the subject
of seed corn, and that so great a diversity of opin-
ion prevailed, as to prove that this subject was
still involved in great uncertainty. This must
cause no little surprise ; for here is the most im-
portant as well as the most common crop raised

126

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

by American farmers, — raised, too, every year, by
every farmer since the first settlement of the coun-
try, and yet there are questions about it, yea, even
about the single subject of the seed, which are not
as yet settled, after an experience by millions of
farmers for upwards of two hundred years. This
diversity of opinion is certainly surprising. It is
time that the farming fraternity should consider
this want of exact knowledge as to seed corn, and
arouse themselves to such carefully conducted ex-
periments as would settle those questions. For
their own credit, if not for anything else, the mem-
bers of that Farmers' Institute, as well as the
members of all other agricultural clubs and socie-
ties, should arouse themselves, and institute ex-
periments which might settle matters which should
have been settled long ago. Surely we have men
in our farming communities, yea, even among the
readers of this journal, Avho are abundantly capa-
ble, and who have the means and time, if they
only had the will or the wish, to carry out experi-
ments in this matter to satisfactoiy results.

It is some satisfaction to find that, among the
members of the Institute, there seemed to be a
general agreement about one point, namely, that
it is a good practice to select in the field the first-
ripened, well-matured stalks, having two ears, in
order that succeeding crops may ripen earlier, and
be the more likely to have two or more well-filled
ears on a stalk. This is a point about which there
will be a general agreement among all flvrmers, as
well as among the members of the club, and yet,
notwithstanding this general agreement in tvords,
it is a fact that \hc practice of thousands of corn-
planters, in the selection of seed corn, is just such,
as if there were no general agreement about the
matter. Too generally, the practice seems to be,
in selecting seed corn, to take the best-looking
ears in the crib, or on their way to the crib, with-
out knowing whether there were one or 'more ears
on the stalk which produced it. Too generally,
the seed corn is not selected until spring, and
then, of course, there is a risk that there may have
been dampness enough about either the cob or
the kernels themselves to allow the frosts of the
previous winter to destroy the vitality of the chit
or germ. Hence, in part, the frequency of failure
in the first planting, and the necessity of planting
over again, and the consequent lateness in the
ripening of the crop, and exposure of it to the risk
of injury by frost.

But my object in noticing the article of "O. K."
was, to second his eflbrts to induce farmers to
make experiments, in order that certain questions
about seed corn may be settled, the settling of
which would add both to the credit and cash of
farmers. Moke Anon.

FLOWAGE CASE.

The trial of the action, Eastman against the
Amnskeag Manufacturing Company, at Manches-
ter, N. II., has just resulted, after a three weeks'
investigation, in a verdict for the plaintiff for
$200. The trial was designed to test the right of
the Company to maintain its dam at its present
height, the land-owners above it, on the Merri-
mac river, alleging that the dam had been illegal-
ly raised. The verdict is only for the damage

done to the plaintiffs land by three years' flow-
age. A bill in equity is already pending to com-
pel the Company to reduce their dam to its proper
level, so that this verdict, though of small amount,
is of immense importance.

The trial attracted much attention, and was
very closely contested. The closing ai-guments
were made by Hon. George W. Morrison, for
the corporation, and by Judge French, of Bos-
ton, for the plaintiff.

There is no law in New Hampshire by which
land-owners can be drowned by mill-owners, with-
out their own consent. It is time, as Gov. An-
drew suggests in liis message, that som.e change
was made in Massachusetts, by which farmers may
have some voice in the disposition of their own
land on the banks of streams and rivers. An act
by which anybody may flow another's land with-
out notice and without consent, is unworthy of
this good, old Commonwealth, or of any other
enlightened State.

For the New England Farmer.
GKASS.

ET BK. JOSEPH REYX0U)3.

It groweth everywhere. Its tender blade
Shooteth in the sunshine, arid in the shade ;
It groweth on the hill-side, and the plain,
By the sheltering hedge, in the shady lane.
It springs by the roadside, under our feet,
In the garden, where beds and borders meet.
Under the shinibs, where blooms the scented rose.
And the wild jasmine and sweet almond grows ;
It creeps up the bank, it runs down the slope,
It springs with the crocus under the cope
In the early spring, and stays in the fall
With the pansy that peeps under the wall ;
In the fresh meadow, where the waters gleam
In the clear sunlight, and the sparkling stream
Winds its course, now hidden, and now seen.
It spreads its modest, cheerful coat of green.
It groweth everj-where. On the mountain,
In the valley, by the springing fountain,
In the forest, in the field, on the beach.
Just where the daily flowing tide doth reach ;
It creepeth close by the shoi-e of the lake.
As its soft rootlets sought their thirst to slake ;
The waves that ceaseless lap its foam-crowned Sp,
Kiss the green leaflets that stoop down to sip.
The wild deer from the wood crops the smooth turf,
As early he comes to sport in the surf.
The herds of the prairies, ^v•ith the wild ass.
All find their homes in wide oceans of gi-ass ;
The droves of mustangs on SIcxican plains,
The tartar's wild horse in Afghan domains,
The goats of the Alps, that climb on the rocks,
The horned zebus, and the fleet springboks.
All ranging free as tlie birds in the skies.
Crop the sweet herbage that nature supplies.
The soft, modest grass is everywhere seen,
Spreading its carpet of beautiful green.
To cover the scars man makes in the earth.
And smooth o'er the soil tliat giveth it birth.
When hoofs of war horses trample the soil,
In the rage and strife of battle's turmoil,
When war's iron storm tears up the fair plain.
And ridgcth it o'er with graves of the slain,
The soft grass, in pity, spreads o'er the scene.
Covering it up with its mantle of green.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

127

SEASONABLE FACTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Tomato Plants in Frames. — It frequently
happens that tomato plants in frames grow so tall
before the season arrives for setting them out, that
they touch the sash, and I have frequently seen
the sash projipcd up to afford them more room.
A much better course to pursue is to cut off the
tops of the plants. Tliis causes the plant to throw
out lateral branches, and instead of a tall, lank,
top-heavy plant, you have a strong, stocky one,
that will thrive when set out.

Climbing Vines. — A neat method of support-
ing climbers is to take a strip of two-inch plank,
two inches wide, planed the full length of the
board, and painted green, which set firmly in the
ground. Next, obtain from a wooden ware or toy
store, two children's hoops, one the largest, and
the other the smallest you can find. Now sus-
pend the small one as near the top of the pole as
possible, by strings, and fasten the large one close
to the ground. Plant your seeds around the out-
side of the large hoop, and when up, run strings
of soft twine regularly from the top to the bottom
hoop. It will look better to have the hoops paint-
ed green, and the twine should be dark, and not
cotton twine.

Phloxes. — It is strange that this beautiful class
of herbaceous perennials is not more generally
cultivated. More attention is paid to the growth
of them than formerly, it is true ; but still there
are very few gardens Avhich boast of more than
the two old varieties of wfeite and pink phloxes,
known by most persons only as the "French V/il-
low." These persons may be surpi'ised to knoM'
that there are several hundred distinct varieties
now cultivated. Elwanger &; Barry, in their cat-
alogue for the present year, have one hundred and
fifty-five named phloxes. The period of flower-
ing has been gradually extending, until it reaches
from July 1st to the time of severe frosts. There
are also several sorts of cree])ing phloxes, bloom-
ing in May or June, and which propagate them-
eelves by runners.

The phlox, in all its varieties, is perfectly hardy,
and requires no care whatever, except that the
plants should be divided (either in the fall or
spring,) every three or four years.

The Phlox Drummondii is one of the most beau-
tiful annuals, (we are almost tempted to say the
most beautiful,) with which Ave are acquainted.
Grown in a mass in a border by themselves, noth-
ing can exceed them ; as they embrace every va-
riety of tint, and are in bloom for a period of at
least three months.

Ashes for Potatoes. — Rufus Brown, of Chel-
sea, Orange county, Vt., says that in an experi-
ment tried by him, the gain in the crop of pota-
toes by the use of ashes at the rate of a teacupful
to the hill, was about a bushel and a half of po-
totoes for each bushel of ashes used. The kind
of potatoes was the "English Pink-eye," and yield
200 bushels per acre. The ground was planted
May 7th, with the ashes in holes, and a little dirt
over them. It was plowed and hoed June ISth,
the rows being four feet apart and the hills three
feet. The aslies cost 12^ cents a bushel, and po-
tatoes sold at 3-5 cents, returning full oO cents a
bushel for the ashes employed.

Sowing Peas. — S. R. Elliott, of Cleaveland,
writing to the Avierican Farmers' Magazine, says :
"Some years since, I commenced sowing peas, and
covering them at different depths, varying from
one inch to one foot. I found those buried eight
inches deep appeared above the ground only one
day later than those buried only two inches ; while
those that were covered twelve inches deep were
a little over two days behind. As they grew, no
perceptible difference Avas noticed, imtil tliey com-
menced blossoming and setting, then the advan-
tage of the deep planting exhibited itself; for
those that were eight and ten inches deep contin-
ued to grow, blossom, and set pods long after
those only two to four inches commenced ripening
and decaying. If the soil is light and loamy, I
will hereafter plant my peas eight to ten inches
deep : if the soil is clayey, I would plant six inch-
es. I never earth up, but leave the ground as
level as possible."

The Michigan Farmer says "peas maybe plant-
ed on any good, dry soil at the earliest moment
after the surface is thawed out enough to give
earth sufficient to make the furrow in which to
sow them. The varieties Avhich we Avould recom-
mend to sow first would be the Early Kent, DwarJ
Blue Imperial and the large White Marrouifat.
These three varieties, if all sown on the same day,
will give a complete succession of this desirable
vegetable."

Tar on Potatoes. — A. B. Dickinson stated,
at a meeting of the New York State Agricultural
Society, that the practice with the potato was to
select out the heaviest, as the best to withstand
the blight. He tested his potatoes by putting
them in very strong brine. Those that were the
heaviest were the best to grow. He cut his pota-
toes into pieces of two eyes in each. lie also
stated that he had not planted or sown any kind
of seed for ten years without a coating of tar, and
in preparing liis potatoes for planting he dissolved
one pint of tar in three pails of boiling water, and
added four pails of water afterwards. Tliis solu-
tion he either poured over his seed potatoes, so
that each got a coating, or the potatoes were
dipped in it and then sprinkled with plaster. He
stated that he formerly had no trouble in raising
five hundred bushels per acre, but of late he could
not do this. Though one year he had raised at
the rate of fom- hundred and fifty bushels per acre,
yet he seldom averaged above three hundred bush-
els.— Michigan Farmer.

Seed Potatoes. — B. K. Williams, of Cold
Water, Mich., states that he has been experiment-
ing upon seed potatoes for several years, and ho
finds one-quarter of the seed generally used is an
improvement. From one to two eyes in a hill,
he says, will produce more potatoes, of more even
size, and less subject to decay, than any larger
amount of seed. We think our farmers general-
ly have been tending to the same theory for sev-
eral years, although they have not perhaps carried
it to that extent. The Enghsh and Irish farmers
say that Ave use three times the seed they do, and
that as a consequence Ave get more small potatoes
and less large ones than they do, and not so good
aggregate crops.

123

XEW ENGLAXD F\KMER.

^Iai:cu

KUKAIi ABCHITECTDTIE.
DESIGN FOR A SUBUEBAN RESIDENCE, WITH GROUNDS, BY GEO. E. HARNEY, LYNN, MASS.

DESIGNED AND KNGRAVKD EXPRESSLY FOB THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER

In connection with a former plan, yve ventured
a few hints regarding cottage grounds, with a
promise that at some future time we should offer
plans for laying out such grounds, showing the lo-
cation of the buildings, foot-paths and roads, and
the proper method of arranging the trees, shrub-
bery and flowers, so as to produce the best effect,
and as a favorable opportunity now offers itself,
we know of no more seasonable time for redeem-
ing the promise.

We therefore give at this time, in season for its
suggestions to be adopted this year, a design for
a simple cottage, with its plan, and the plan of
the lot on wliich it is situated.

This lot is supposed to be located either in the
suburbs of some city, or in some country village,
where a considerable population has centered — in
the neighborhood of schools, churches and stores
— facing the village green, perhaps — at all events,
in some locality where the lots are larger than the
city affords, though more circumscribed than those
we would find in the open country.

It is at the intersection of two streets, and com-
prises between an eighth and a quarter of an acre,
devoted to ornamental purposes alone, the kitchen

garden and domestic offices being in the rear, and
not included in our present plan.

The dwelling stands back thirty feet from the
street, on a slightly elevated spot, which slopes
gradually away to the boundaries. A foot-jDath,
five feet wide, starting from the front gate, passes
the front entrance, and finally terminates in the
open yard in the rear. This, with the carriage-
road, which leads from the side gate to the stable,
is the only path we have introduced on the plan,
nor is it desirable to traverse the whole lot by
gravelled Avalks, tending as they do to diminish
its apparent size by bringing the boundaries near-
er the eye, and involving a considerable outlay of
money and time in making and keeping in order.
It is, however, of great importance that what paths
we do make, should be made in a thorough man-
ner at the outset. In order to have a perfect
road, the soil, in the first place — after the curves
have been marked and the lines run — should be
excavated from eighteen inches to two feet deep,
and all the loam taken away and spread upon
some part of the garden ; then this ditch should
be about half filled with any small stones which
may be picked up here and there about the place

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

129

and the whole filled up to the desired height with the fence, are a tall Purple Lilac and a Tartarean

the best gravel that can be procured, taking care
to make it a little higher in the centre than at the
two sides — say a couple of inches in the five feet
path — in order that the surface may better shed
what water does not soak through into the drain,
and finally, the whole may have a finishing coat of
blue screened gravel, evenly spread, and well
rolled, and with proper care we shall have at all
seasons, firm, dry and clean walks.

The foundation of the ornamental portion is
smooth, green lawn, extending to the boundaries
on either side, which are hidden by plantations of
evergreens and shrubbery, with occasionally a de-
ciduous tree introduced to produce a variety, and
give character to the whole. They are mostly ar-
ranged in irregular clumps, connected together by
other shrubs and evergreens, and planted with a
view to obtain as great a diversity of outline as
possible, and heavy masses of foliage and flowers.

Honeysuckle. From this clump the range to the
stable is as follows : a row of half-a-dozen ever-
green trees of good size near the fence — two or
three deciduous trees at convenient distances, and
between, and forming the clumps, are Purple and
White Lilacs, Altheas, Honeysuckles, Syringas,
Hawthorns and Laburnums, while the foreground
is made up of specimens of the Spirea, Rose Wei-
gela, Japan Quince, Pink Mezereum and Fragrant
Currant.

Near the corner of the stable is a group of three
or four Evergreens, and between it and the corner
of the dwelling-house there is a clump made up
of a couple of Firs, an American Mountain Ash,
and in tlie shade underneath, heavy plants of the
rose-colored Kalmia and Rhododendron.

In the centre of the lawn is a single specimen of
the Larch, which will here have ample room to
show its graceful form and light, aiiy foliage to

from spring to late in the fall. The clump on the the best advantage.

right of the front gate is composed principally of Returning to the gate, we have on the left a Su-
tall growing shrubs and evergreens. In the cor- gar Maple and a Scarlet floviered Hawthorn, sur-
ner is an American Mountain Ash, the color of rounded by a white Persian Lilac, a Rose Weige-
■yvhose red berries contrasts well with the heavy i la, a St. Peter's Wreath and a Fragrant Currant.
green of the two Norway Spruces, one on each | Beyond this, and close to the fence, is another

specimen of the Scotch Larch,
and a little beyond, a Maple or
Tulip, or some other deciduous
tree of graceful form.

In the corner range, we
might have first a Venetian
Sumac or Fringe Tree — desi-
rable on account of its brilliant
yellow flowers — and near it
one or two plants of the Per-
sian Lilac, or white Mezerei«n.
A Tulip tree near the corner,
forms the central point of this
group, while beyond it, and
along the side street, are a Sy-
ringa, a red Strawberry tree^ a
Catalpa, and a mixed Althea,
besides a couple of Ever-
greens and smaller shrubs to
fill up the front.

Next comes an area of lawn
and flowers, with a view across,
into the street, from the bay
"window, and beyond tliis, ex-
tending to the carriage-road,
another group is made up of a
Larch, a broad-leaved Labur-
num, a tall Silver Maple, Per-
sian Lilacs, and a trimmed Ar-
bor Vitne tree, with a Fragrant Currant and a
Double Dwarf Almond in the foreground.

On the opposite side of the road, we have a

PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR, WITH GROUNDS

side or it. Close to the path is a largo, flowering
Syringa, and in front some low, bright flowering
shrub, such as Rose AVeigcla, Double Tree Peony
or Double Dwarf Almond, while farther back near

Rose Weigela, a white Japan Quince, a tall Ca-

130

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Makch

taljja and a couple of Evergreens. From this
group an Arbor Vitas hedge extends to the pump,
and will in a few years separate, and partialiy
hide the kitchen garden from the more ornamen-
tal portions. A tall Norway Spruce or a White
Pine should be set %Yhere indicated on the curve
of the road, as a reason for making the curve as
prominent as we have.

With tliis we have completed the arrangement
of our shrubs. The following list shows the size,
color and habits of those we have introduced upon
our plan :

Althea, Hibiscus — Flowers in August ; variety of colors, 4 to 12

foc't.
Catalpa — Flowers in July ; large white flowers, good for groups,

10 to 15 or 21) foot.
nAWTUOKX, Cratisgus — June ; white and scarlet, double, 5 to 20

feet.
Laburnum, Cyiisus — July ; rich yellow, 10 foet and upwards.
Honeysuckle, Lonicera 7'artartcu — Hay ; variety of light color,

5 to 1 0 feet.
Lilac, Common, Si/ringa vulgaris — May ; white and purple, 10

to 15 fjct.
Lilac, Persian, Syringa Persica—'M^y, white and purple, 3 to

5 foef.
Sumac, Venetian, Il!ius Coiinus — Sometimes called Fringe tree,

Aug. au'l Sept. ; briirlit yellow, 8 to 12 feet.
Stringa, I'lvtladetpkus — June and July ; white, 4 to 8 feet.

The above answer for back-ground slu-ubs. For
the foreground we have :

Double Tree Peont, Pcsonia Moutan — May ; red, white, pur-
ple, 3 to 4 feet.

Double D^'arf Almond, Amygdalus pumila — May ; beautiful
rose, 3 to 4 feet.

Japan Quince, (Jiidonia — April and May ; scarlet and white, 4 ft.

Tragrant Currant, llihes fragrans— Hay ; bright yellow, 3 to

4 foot.

IIezereum Pink, Daphne Mezeremn — April and May ; pink, 3 ft.

do. White, do. do. A'bwn — do. do. white, 3 ft.

Spirea, Double, ,V. j^runi folia plena — June ; white, 4 foot.
Spirea, DouoLAi?s,.V. Dciuglassir — August; fine rose, 3 to 4 ft.
Sr. Pe rER'.s Wreath, S. t/tahctruides— Jane, July ; small white,

profuse, about 4 feet.
P.osE Wekiela, /^. Itosca — June ; pink and rose color, 4 to 5 ft.
Common Privet, Ligustrum Fulgarc — June ; thick, close, white,

5 to 6 feet.

The following do well in shady or damp places :

Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifdia — June, July ; very rich red,

4 to (j f vet.
HoLLy, Lex tipaca — June ; scarlet berry, slow grower, near the

ground.
Rhododendron — July ; very luxuriant, rose or white, 8 to 10 ft.

All of the above named shrubs are hardy, easy
of culture, and may be procured at any of the nur-
series near Eoston. The best time to transplant
would be about the middle of JNIay, or at the time
when the new buds have just begun to grow.

We v/ould not recommend setting out all the
shrubs designated on the plan, the first year, but
rather let this year's operations be the foundation
from which to work in future.

If the buildings are already built, or their posi-
tions located, finish up the roads and paths, and
as mucli of the lawn as possible, set the hedges,
the larger trees and the principal background
shrubs. Let them get well started, and their forms
and outlines in a measure determined, and then,
by another spring, perhaps, set out the smaller
foreground shrubs, so that they may fill up the
space, left between the others, and thus form, when

fully grown, thick masses of foliage and flowers
from the trees down to the grass.

Flowers may be cultivated wherever a suitable
place offers itself. AVc have marked- the positions
of a few of the principal beds. Around the house
are four large beds of standard roses, wliich should
be selected so as to offer a variety of color and a
constant succession of flowers throughout the sea-
son, and in other spots are figures cut in the turf
and filled with attractive flowers. At the right of
the veranda are two circular beds, one for mixed
petunias and the other for mixed verbenas, and
between them is a vase for myrtle. The large oval
bed in front of the house may be filled Avith tea
roses, fuschias, balsams, asters, heliotrope and mig-
nonette, and the five beds opposite the bay win-
dow (one each,) with scarlet geraniums, amaranths,
feverfews, dwarf coreopsis and nierembergias, the
fu-st named forming the centre bed, and the yel-
low and purple of the second and fourth alternat-
ing with the wliite of the third and last ; and in
other places we may have separate beds of candy
tuft, phloxes, portulaccas, yellow lantana, migno-
nette, carnations, tulips, ageratum, &c.

For climbers for the veranda posts, bay win-
dow, and door lattices, we have the choice of the
following :

Chinese "Wistaria ; a delicate purple, and very luxuriant.
Virginia Creeper ; very hardy, wiili beautiful autumnal foliage.
Trumpet Honeysuckle ; red and yellow, flowers all season.
Prairie Uoses ; beautiful double flowers, and a variety of colors.

The house itself is an example of the simplest
rural gothic style. It is one and a half stories
in height, and contains three finished rooms below
and three chambers on the second floor.

The vestibule, A, i3 approached from the terrace
through the pointed arch and measures eight feet
by nine. The hall, B, is seven feet wide and fif-
teen feet long, and contains stairs to chambers and
collar. C is the parlor, measuring fourteen by
fifteen, the principal feature of which is the bay
window on the side opposite the door, overlooking
the small flower-beds and the side street. The
dining or living-room, D, measures also fourteen
by fifteen; it connects with the veranda by a mul-
lioned window reaching to the floor and opening
like the French window. A closet is provided at
the side of the vestibule in the front gable and for
china, &c., at the other end of the room, fimiished
with shelves and drawers. Tlie passage, E, v.liich
is also fitted with shelves, communicates directly
with the kitchen, K. This room is thirteen foet
square, and is well lighted by two windows. At
the left of the chimney a door opens into a large
store room, G, and at the right another leads to
the pantrj-, F. We here have a sink and pump,
with a closet and shelves for tin ware. A door
opens directly into the yard.

On the second floor, the two principal chambera

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

131

measure each twelve by fourteen, and the other,
in the gable, ten by thirteen.

This cottage is designed to be built of wood,
covered in the vertical and battened manner, and
finished inside and out with mouldings of a sim-
ple gothic pattern, and will cost, in the neighbor-
hood of Boston, from $1300 to $1600.

EXTRACTS ANT> KEPLIES.
CALEDONIA CO. (VT.) AGKICULTURAL SOCIETY.

At the Society's annual meeting, held in Januaiy,
the following officers were chosen for the year en-
suing:

President — Horace Fairbanks ; Vice Presi-
dents— Harley ^I. Hall, James D. Bell ; Treasur-
er— George C. Barney; Secretaries — Horace
Paddock, T. I\I. Howard.

The committee on butter reported that David
Currier, of Peacham, was entitled to the first pre-
mium. He made from nine cows (four of which
he called heifers,) 1729 lbs., being an average of
11)2 lbs to the cow.

The first premiums on field crops were awarded
as follows :

Wheat— Stephen Richardson, AVaterford, 36 4-9
bushels per acre.

Corn — George Goss, Barnet, 146 bushels of ears
per acre.

Oats — David Currier, of Peaeham, 69^ bushels
per acre.

Potatoes— Wm. D. Rollins, Waterford, 410
bushels per acre.

Turnips — David Currier, Peacham, 346 bushels
on 28 rods.

Carrots — J. B. Kinerson, Peacham, 47 bushels
on 6 rods.

Barley — J. O. Moore, Peacham, 57 bushels per
acre.

Other reports were brought before the Society,
which, together with further proceednigs of the
meeting, ai'e of less interest to the general reader.
I. W. Sanborn.

GREAT RYE CROP.

I send you the facts of a rye crop grown last
year by me on one acre and a half of ground. The
yield was so large I thought it Avorthy of notice, as
you like to hear of good crops. I sowed three
bushels and cleaned up seventy bushels by meas-
ure. I think, had it been Aveighed, it would have
overrun even that. J. C. s.

Shoreham, Vt., Feb., 1862.

RLAN OF A SUEEP BARN.

Having followed some of the valuable sugges-
tions that have appeared in your paper, I cut the
last year double the hay I did the year previous.
I value your paper very highly, and believe one of
the best ways to make farming profitable is to take
tlie Farmer, and follow its friendly advice. One
single copy to me is often worth double the price it
costs.

AVill some of your numerous correspondents
give a plan of a sheep-barn with sufiicicnt capacity
to accommodate two or three hundi'ed sheep, to be
situated on level land, with necessary details as to
apartments, sheep racks, &c. A description of
such a bam would much oblige me, for I am now

getting out lumber for one, and shall put it up in
the spring. A Subscriber.

Pomiicij, N. II., Feb., 1862.

Remarks. — We hope some of our friends will
communicate the infonnation desired in the above
communication, as it ia needed by many persons.

FAT COW.
The heaviest cow sent to market flora Old Cal-
edonia the present season was sold by Messrs. Big-
elow, of Lyndon. Its live weight was IJGO lbs.
— dressed 100.5 lbs., and had 121 lbs. of rough tal-
loAv. There are heavier ones still in the country,
waiting theii- time. \. w. s.

THE APHIS.

Will you, or your entomological correspondent,
Mr. F. G. Sanborn, fovor us throug'i the Farmer,
with a brief history so far as knomi of tlic aphis —
the insect everywhere present of the past season —
and oblige other readers as well as

Lyndon, Vt. I. AV. Sanborn.

NE"W PUBLICATIONS.

The Pp.i>-cipt,e3 axd Practice of Land DnAixAGE ; embracing
a bi-JL-fliistory of L'lirln-diMininsj ; a cletiiileJ examination of
its Operntion :in;l Ailvantas,'es ; a description of vai-iou3 kinds
of Drains, witli practical directions for (lieir construc'ion ; tlia
niani'l'icture of Drain Tile, &c. Illustrated by nearly 100
Ensravini'i. By John 11. Klippart. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke
& Co. ISGl.

Tins is an excellent work upon the subject of
drainage, written by a person conversant vdih. the
subject, and v.ho was willing to go so far into de-
tails as to give the reasons why mthdrawing water
from the soil, tends to make the soil, deeper and
ivarmer and more moist in a dry time, than an un-
drained soil. It is written in a plain, candid man-
ner, and cannot fail to be of essential service to
those who will read and practice its precepts. The
subject is one of great importance to our farmei'S,
and demands of them more attention than it has
yet received.

Items from the Patent Office. — Forty per
cent, of the letters received at the Agricultural
Bureau call for seeds of cotton, tobacco and sor-
gho. The county of Jefi"crson, in Iowa, has pro-
duced this year 75,000 gallons of sorgho molasses,
and 5000 lbs. of sugar. AA'ith this result, after
three or four years of cultivation, the agriculturists
there propose to go into the thing largely.

The same Bureau has just received a large lot
of the finest variety of tobacco seed from Havana ;
also, seeds in abundance of the finest Maryland
varieties.

Investigations concerning what is called the
"percnnictl cotton tree" do not go to establish
statements concerning it which have appeared in
New York publications.

Scalding Onion Seed. — A coiTespondent of
the American Agriculturist writes that a para-
graph has been going the rounds of the papers to
the eflect that scalding water poured upon onion
seed will cause it to germinate in a few minutes.
He tried it, and lost aU his first planting, not a
seed coming up.

132

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

Marcb

LEGISLATIVE AGRICDLTITRAL SOCIETY".

Beported for the Farmer by D. W. Loturop.

The fourth meeting of the series was held on
Monday evening last, at the Representatives' Hall,
and the subject for discussion was — Neat Stock —
the adaptation of different Breeds to different lo-
calities and purposes. Mr. Sanford Howard,
of the Boston Cultivator, was present, according
to announcement, and presided.

He observed that the subject had been frequent-
ly discussed before at these meetings, and as he
had engaged in the discussion, he was prompted
to excuse himself for speaking again. The sub-
ject was important, as no nation has attained to a
high St ate of agriculture which does not make this
a prominent division of its system. All our do-
mestic cattle are of one species, and indigenous
to Europe. In this country we have two native
species, the bison and the musk-ox. The bison is
a valuable animal and should be preserved, but he
is not a good beast of burden. The speaker al-
luded to some experiments of a gentleman in Mis-
sissippi for the domestication of this animal, but
found he could not be made serviceable ; yet by
crossing with this animal a better ox would be
produced than cow.

Most of our cattle have been derived from Eu-
rope— some from the continent, others from the
British Isles, and a few from Asia. By a law of
nature, no one breed of cattle is adapted to all lo-
calities. He cited the different breeds in Great
Britain, and observed that some of these breeds
had maintained their purity for a long while. Those
on the plains cannot subsist on the mountains,
with coarser and less abundant food. Mr. How-
ard here alluded to the various crossings of differ-
ent breeds, by cattle raisers, and observed that un-
less we take pains to breed uniformly, Avhile Ave
might produce some good accidental animals, we
could get no breed. Much could be learned by
reference to the principles of breeding in England,
where cattle are raised with an adaptation to soil
and to climate. Cattle not mixed should be re-
garded as aboriginals. In England they had two
specimens of the aboriginal or wild breed. He
had examined 100 head, belonging to the Duke
of Hamilton, which dated back over a hundred
years, and had been guarded against intermixture,
yet they have not degenerated, nor will they for
all time.

Of breeds prominent in England stand the De-
vons. They were introduced here in 181G-17,
and are divided into two kinds, the North and the
South. The South Devons are not superior for
dairy purposes, but are used generally for beef.
In New England the Devons are used for labor,
and they fatten well on light soils, and are fair
milkers. The Herefords are good for beef, but
not valuable for milk. The Long-Horns were a

breed common in some parts of England, and were
much improved by Mr. Bakewell. They were ear-
ly introduced into Maine, were good workers,
hardy and long-lived, and good for the dairy.
' The Galloways do not succeed for ordinary pur-
poses, but are fitted for a locality. They were of
good size, sometimes measuring eight and nine
feet girth, and could produce 1600 lbs. of clean
beef. Had been introduced into Canada, where
they were bred chiefly for the butcher. The West
Highlands were a hardy cattle, had long, shaggy
hair, with an under fur which protected them from
cold and rains in their native place, where they
sometimes gathered their own food. They might
do well in the Western States. The Kerries were
a valuable, small aboriginal breed common in Ire-
land, and if the people were deprived of them
would be obliged to fill their place with the goat.
They possessed great power to endure inclement
weather. Mr. A. W. Austin, of West Roxbury,
has some of this breed, whose milk is about four
quarts per day, and very rich. They weigh from
500 to 700 pounds. Another aboriginal breed in
Great Britain is the Channel Island, or Jersey cat-
tle. They give the richest milk known, and on
the Channel Island, are raised exclusively. We
have some good crosses here. The Short-Horns, or
Durhams, Mr. II. regarded as an artificial breed,
as they were produced by a mixture under the
care of Charles and Robert Collings, whose im-
proved herd sold at a great price. The improvement
upon the old Short-Horns was evident in greater
symmetry of form, richness in milk and fineness
of flesh. In fact, on fertile soils they are the very
best for beef. Mr. Howard, however, thought
that in England crossing had been carried too far,
and cited some instances. Another artificial breed
was the AjTshires. In 1780 the nucleus existed in
Ayrshire, and in 1790 it had assumed so good a
character as to be considered a breed. It is the
only dairy breed now in Scotland, is increasing in
England, and its introduction is recent here,
though some of our herds number from 20 to 70
head. The Rump cattle of India were alluded to
and recommended for the Southern States of
America, as they stand heat well. They were al-
so good in the harness, and would trot off almost
as well as a horse. Mr. 11. concluded by a re-
quest that gentlemen would give us some facts in
relation to the various breeds of cattle, and said
the meeting Avas open to remarks from any one.

Ml". Stedman, of Chicopee, spoke to the point,
how we could furnish ourselves with the cattle we
need. Our natives are "no breeds." Shall we
improve these or procure foreign breeds ? He
thought it best to cross our cows Avith the best
bulls of pure foreign stock, and said the Devon
crossed AA'ith our native stock very much improved
the latter. We should cross, and continue and

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

133

persevere in crossing, to produce good results.
He spoke of the 180,000 cows in this State in
1855, and thought that by proper intermixture of
blood such a herd might have been increased in
value as much as five dollars apiece. He deplored
the existence of bad bulls, and intimated that
they should be. "summarily treated" by law, as in
the West. The Durham cross with our natives
he regarded the most valuable — the Short-Horns
excellent for beef.

Mr. SiiELDOX, of Wilmington, being called
upon, said he had spoken much upon this subject
before, for the past twenty years, but it might bear
repeating. His knowledge now was the same.
For working oxen he thought the North Devons
the best, and for fattening, the Durhams. In re-
gard to cows for milk, he said we should pay no
regard to breed, and recommended the natives.
He spoke of some excellent ones which he pos-
sessed, and said he lost one valuable cow by try-
ing to dry her! He also alluded to the external
signs of a good ox. He should have large nos-
trils, a hazel eye, rather slim horns, toes straight
out before him, and bosom full. Rather than be
controlled by breeds, ho would sooner run his risk
bKndfolded at a market, in the selection of good
cattle, as he had great confidence in "feeling." In
speaking of liis own stock — their lack of dainti-
ness, easy feeding, &c., he said he gave some of
them to a neighbor to winter, who, mentioning
one of them, said "she was a fool, for she didn't
know the difl'erence between meadow hay and the
best herdsgrass !" Upon inquiry by Mr. Stedman
what bull he would choose, Mr. Sheldon replied,
"the best he could find !"

Mr. Howard spoke of Mr. Sheldon's stock, and
commended some of them as excellent natives.

Mr. Sheldon gave a statement of a man who
wanted him to fatten a cow, or to buy her. He
took her, gave her two bushels of turnips and four
quarts of meal per day, and English hay. Yet she
fell away in flesh and in milk ! The butcher took
her, and as she served him the same way, he made
way with her before she was still leaner ! Mr. S.
said, also, that his own young cattle were slight
eaters. He referred to the physical points of a
good cow : flat horns, lean face, hollow ribs, or
open below the last ones, medium-sized bag, and
well-shaped, though not large teats. As to color,
he preferred a light brindle.

Mr. Davis, of Plymouth, found a cow in the
woods, which seemed to possess all the good
marks of a fine animal. She had been brought up
by a Marshpee Indian, and Mr. D. bought her.
But her horns were long and tiny, and he was dis-
appointed in her. Mr. Sheldon's feature of the
"flat-horns" he thought a good one He spoke of
the importance of blood buUs, and intimated that
agricultural societies should ofi'er premiums for

them. He thought the bull had more influence
on off'spring than the cow ; a good bull produces
a good cow. The Oakes-cow heifers were worth
nothing. And he had had experience that an ex-
cellent cow was quite likely to produce a bad calf.
The cry that good bulls only benefited the fancy
farmers was unfounded. He advised those inter-
ested in such matters to look into the English
books for authority.

Mr. Sheldon said, in reply to Mr. Davis's the-
ory concerning the influence of the bull, that he
differed from him, as he had got better heifers
from good cows than from good bulls.

Mr. Wetherell, of Boston, said that in breed-
ing, the blood on one side should be full. Farmers
do not wish to breed from gi'ade sires. With a
good bull you are sure to get a good calf. The
Short-Horn improves every stock, and it is the bull
which exerts the dominant influence. There ex-
isted some good grade stock, but it has no cer-
tain identity. He alluded to "scrub bulls" run-
ning at large in Illinois, their pernicious efTect
upon stock, and the interference of the Legislature.
Our State should not allow a grade bull in its
dominions. The product of the Short-Horn is the
best, and we should have this stock for the beef.

Mr. Howard said some of our best stock were
grades. And in England, where they can main-
tain their identity, they are a breed. He cited
experiments on sheep. The Leicesters were once
a gi'ade, now a breed.

The hour for closing having now arrived, Mr.
Stedman moved that the same subject be contin-
ued for discussion at the next meeting — which mo-
tion being sustained, the meeting adjourned.

USE OF FAT,

"What is the use of fat ?" It performs several
offices ; one is to round the system and complete
the beauty of the person. Your cousin Jane's
smooth neck owes its beauty to the skilful man-
ner in which the adipose matter is packed into aU
the crevices between the muscles, veins and arte-
ries. For nature expends no small amount of la-
bor in the production of beauty. "Behold the lil-
ies of the field ; not Solomon in all his glory was
arrayed like one of these !" Another use of the
adipose matter is to serve as a reservoir of aliment
for the support of the system. In the fever which
I recently had, my stomach was in such a state
that it could digest no food, and by one of those
beautiful adjustments so common in nature, my
ap])etitc rejected it, and I did not eat a mouthfnl
for several days. The consequence was that the
heat of the body had to be kept up by burning the
fat in the system, and how rapidly this was con-
sumed ! I suppose I lost twenty pounds in the
course of three days. Hibernating animals, that
sleep through the winter, are generally as fat as
they can be, when they crawl into their nests in
the fall. Their tliick furs prevent the radiation of
heat, so that little is required to be generated ;

134

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

their breathing and circulation are shiggish, caus-
ing a slow consumption of matter, and tliis matter
is supplied by the store, of fat in the system, which
is slowly burned up during the winter, and the
animals come out in the spring as lank as Pha-
raoh's lean kinc. If you put a piece of fat on the
fire you will see that it burns with ablaze. "When-
ever any organic substance burns v.ith a blaze you
may be almost sure that it contains hydrogen.
The burning of a substance is simply its combina-
tion of oxygen. Whenever an organic substance
containing hydrogen is sufficiently heated, it is de-
composed, and, as the hydrogen is separated from
the other elements, it takes the gaseous form.
Rising in this hot state, as it comes in contact with
the oxygen in the air, it combines with it — in oth-
er words, burns ; one atom of oxygen combining
with one atom of hydrogen, and producing water.
There is phosphorus in the bones, which, when
sei^arated, will burn with a flame, but, almost in-
variably, when you see any animal or vegetable
substance burning with a blaze — the flame of a
lamp, of a kitchen fire, of a burning building — it
is hydrogen in the act of combining with oxygen,
producing watei". On the other hand, when you
see any organic substance burning with a red heat
without blaze, iike charcoal or anthracite coal, it
is carbon combining with oxygen, and producing
generally, carbonic acid. If the blaze produces
a good deal of light, you may be pretty sure that
the substance contains both carbon and hjdrogen,
the light coming principally from the iutensely-
heated carbon before it is burned.

PREPABATIOM" OI" FABMITTQ IMPLE-
MENTS.

The spring is a proper season for looking up and
putting in complete repair the various implements
required in the management of the farm. As the
late spring is a busy season, it ought to bo a stand-
ing rule with the farmer to supply himself before-
hand with the various implements necessary to
prosecute his work profitably. There are few far-
mers, probably, who are not possessed of sufii-
cient mechanical skill to supply for themselves
many of the utensils used on the farm. "Economy
is wealth," says the old adage, and it certainly is
strict economy to make numerous trifling repairs
to the common implements of the farm at home,
rather than to send them away, where the cost of
travel and delay would be more than the repair it-
self. But all trades must live, and we shall find
that community the most pi-osperous where the
different avocations are sustained by the calls upon
each other. Where such is the case, the farmer,
as well as the mechanic, the manufacturer and
merchant, are all accommodated, the wants of each
being at once supplied at home, so that the whole
community feels the quickening impulse, and
prospers upon it.

Some recommend that the farmer shall make
some of the implements himself, Avhich he uses —
such as plows, harrows, or any of the coarser im-
plements. AVe cannot think this good economy, |

because there never is a time upon a well conduct-
ed farm, when there is not plenty of work to be
done, chrectly applicable to the farm itself. The
putting of a new handle to a ralce or a hoe, slight-
ly repairing a broken plow, harrow, or wheelbar-
row, may be done by the farmer well enough, and
perhaps quicker than he could harness and take
either of them to the wheelwright or blacksmith.
This would be good economy — and such a practice
will justify the purchase of a variety of tools, and
the providing a comfortable room and bench
where they may be used.

A skill sufficient to make such repairs will some-
times enable a team to go on with the work — and
perhaps at a pressing time — when otherwise, it
might be necessary to tm-n it out and make it dif-
ficult to get it together again.

For the New England Farmer.
AMONG THE GREEN MOUNTAINS.

Messrs. Editors :— January, the first month
of the "New Year," is already numbered with the
past; February, the shortest of the twelve, is
ushered in, and" soon merry spring, the season of
birds and of flowers, will be with'us again. The
earth is quietly reposing beneath its c'omfortable
coverlid of light snow, to prepare for the increase
which is said in the promise she shall bestow on
man frum her bountiful lap, — that seed-time and
harvest may not foil those who put forth a manly
hand to secure its manifold blessings.

The cold of February may be sharp and pierc-
ing, and many of its days boisterous and uncom-
fortable, and as the poet says, of all the months
the least honored and sung'; still, it has its plea-
sures in realization as well as in anticipation, and
forms an essential link in the grand chain of
months which forms the annual round, for present
survey and usefulness, and if properly employed,
for future gain and enjoyment. Opportunity is
offered for public entertainments, readings, lec-
tures and discussions, and social, fireside chit-chats.
Reading-rooms should be frequented, public and
private libraries perused, and useful, practical in-
formation stored in the mind for future use. No
time in the year is better fitted for investigation
and study, especially with the farmer, than now.
His year's supply of wood is at the door, (or should
be,) his grain all threshed, and properly and wise-
ly stored away beyond the reach of the mischiev-
ous rat and mouse, and all his "winter work" so
well advanced as to give him time for leisure, and
rest from the fatigue of outdoor labor.

Let now these leisure hours be properly guard-
ed and cherished ; let him appropriate them to
his own advantage, by the acquisition of knowl-
edge and general intelligence — such knowledge
as will be of especial use to him in his vocation
in life, and give him a good understanding of pass-
ing events.

_ The wise and prudent farmer will, in anticipa-
tion of the approaching season of activity and
toil, now arrange, so fin- as practicable, all his plans
for the farm work of the spring ; see that his seed,
and that of the best quality, is provided ; that his
tools and teams are ready for use, and in good

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

135

condition for the work before them ; then, -when
the seed-time arrives, the seed will be ready for
the sower, the sower prepared for his labor, with
a fair prospect before liim of realizing in full the
important truth, that the work at hand well begun
is half done.

Be not idle, then, because of the cold or the
storm without. Let the mind be free and active
— continually expanding and enlarging as the re-
sult of increased thought and study. Hail the
storm-king as he whistles by our dwellings ; bid
Boreas go on his way rejoicing, and make lionish
February and March laugh right merrily, by tick-
ling their ribs with the feather of pleasantry and
good humor ; prompt them by an example of in-
dustry and humanity, and thus be enabled to wit-
ness at least the happy contrast between the rough
and frigid without, and a calm, quiet and sunny
within. I. W. Sanborn.

Lyndon, VL, 18G2.

ST. JOHN'S "WORT FOR THE FARMERS.
Every well-directed effort to promote the agri-
culture of the country, we hail with sincere pleas-
ure. We are willing, even, that some errors
should be risked, for the sake of being found on
the progressive road. The establishment of an
Agricultural Bureau at Washington might be of
some advantage, if those who manage it would as-
certain what plants are indigenous to our own
soils, and which among them are worthy of culti-
vation and which are not — as well as to explore
all the rest of the world for seeds that, perhaps,
may be as much of a blessing as has been the
chiccory or the Canada thistle ! If those who man-
age affairs at the Patent Office are not familiar
■with our native plants, as well as exotics, it is pos-
sible that their labors may prove anything but a
blessing to the farmers of the country. AVe have
been led to these remarks by noticing in the last
Patent Office Report a list of the plants wliich
were intended for distribution from that branch of
the government. We will give but one of them
for the edification of our readers, just to show
them that there is room for improvement even in
that high department. We quote as follows : —
"PLANTS FOR DISTRIBUTION.

"St John's Wort, (Hypericum corymbosum.)
This shrub, though indigenous to the Southern
States, is but little known throughout the coun-
try ; yet is has proved hardy in the District of
Columbia, and will probably succeed still further
north. It is an ornamental shrub, blooming ear-
ly in the spring. There will be a distribution of
3000 plants in the spring."

Now let us see what Darlington says of it, in
his "Weeds and Useful Plants :" "Tliis is a worth-
less and rather troublesome weed on our farms ;
and oTtglit to he diligently excluded."

If there is to be no more discrimination than
this, betAvcen the useful and the noxious plants, at
the Patent Office, its teacliings will not stand as
high authority among the farmers of New England.

For the New England Farmer.
ABOUT KEEPING GOATS.

Many persons who cannot conveniently keep a
cow would find it profitable to keep one or two
common goats. They require but little care, may
be supported at small cost, and yield a good Sup-
ply of milk of superior quality. A goat, well kept,
will yield from three pints to two quarts of milk
daily, for a large part of the year, the quantity di-
minishing in the cold weather as the time of kid-
ding approaches. It is much cheaper to keep a
goat in town than to pay a milkman, and families
everywhere will find the milk very nutritive and
wholesome, and especially good for children in
most cases. An English writer estimates that two
goats are equal to a small Shetland cow.

Goats may be very cheaply supported. If pick-
etted in a pasture in warm weather, or allowed to
be at large, they will pick up their own living, eat-
ing readily almost every sort of green thing. Grass,
Aveeds, twigs of bushes, vegetables, fruits, nearly
everytliing that grows, will suit their taste. They
are fond of dry leaves, corn-stallis, horse-chestnuts,
and even eat poisonous plants with impunity. If
confined in a yard, or in closer quarters, they will
take the scraps and waste of the kitchen. Some
persons allow them to feed out of the swill-pail,
but tliis practice cannot be commended. Cobbett
says, in his "Cottage Economy:"

"When I was in the army, in New Brunswick,
where, be it observed, the snow Hes on the ground
seven months in the year, there were many goats
that belonged to the regiment, and that went
about with it on shipboard and everywhere else.
Some of them had gone through nearly the whole
of the American war. We never fed them. In
summer they picked about wherever they could
find grass ; and in winter, they lived on cabbage-
leaves, potato-peelings, and other things flung out
of the soldiers' rooms and huts. One of these
goats belonged to me, and on an average through-
out the year, she gave me more than three half-
pints of milk a day. I used to have the kid killed
when a few days old ; and, for some time, the
goat would give nearly, or quite, tM'o quarts of
milk a day. She was seldom diy more than thi-ee
weeks in the year."

The same writer adds, that "goats will pick
peehngs out of the kennel and eat them. They
will eat mouldy bread or biscuit; fusty hay and
rotten straw ; furze-bushes, heath-thistles and, in-
deed, what will they not eat, when they will make
a hearty meal on paper, brown or white, printed
on or not printed on, and give milk all the while ?"
I may add to Cobbett's list of odd delicacies by
stating that my own goats have gnawed smooth
the rough sides of my pile of hemlock bark, and
have cleaned out all the powder-post from the sills
of the wood-shed !

But goats, like most other animals, prefer clean
food, and will not devour all the above-mentioned
things if a supply of more desirable edibles is at
hand. In the winter, it is wtII to lay in a few
hundred pounds of hay — second crop is preferable
— a few carrots and some fine feed. Indian meal
is sometimes given to them, but it is too drying.
They need water occasionally, but do not drink
much.

The goat is one of the most hardy of our do-
mestic animals, enduring easily all extremes of

136

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

March

heat and cold. It needs the shelter of a shed or
barn in wintry and stormy weather, and will lie
anywhere on the floor, prefen-ing a board to a bed.
Its natural activity and nimbleness, together with
a capricious disposition, fit this creature to enjoy a
state of freedom. When roaming wild, on its na-
tive mountains, it loves to climb the most danger-
ous and inaccessible places, clinging on the verge
of precipices by its wide-spreading and sharp-
edged hoofs, and defying the pursuit of the hunt-
er. This inclination it manifests in domestic life,
by scaling sheds, walls, Avood-piles, &:c., with great
agility. But the goat will bear confinement ex-
tremely well, contiiiuing in good health and yield-
ing the usual quantity of milk. On shipboard it
is healthier than any other domestic animal, and
is highly valued on account of its s]3ortiveness, its
familiarity, and its ability to give milk upon such
waste food as is there obtainable.

The milk of the female goat is sweet, rich and
nourishing. It has the body and smoothness of
cream, is viscid and strengthening, little produc-
tive of oil, but abundant in the matter of cheese.
In tea and coffee it is far superior to cows' milk,
and will go at least as far again in imparting color
and flavor. In all kinds of cooking it is equally
excellent. It has no peculiar or unpleasant taste
and is not aff"ected by what the creature cats. On-
ion tops have been given to the females, by way of
experiment, without imparting an oniony taste to
the mUk. I consider two pints of goat's milk to
be as good in a family, in every way, as tliree pints
of cows' milk.

For most feeble and sickly children, as well as
those in health, it is invaluable. It does not tend
to form curds in the stomach, as cows' milk does,
and is therefore frequently prescribed by physi-
cians in cases of extreme weakness. It is sold for
this purpose in Salem at twenty-five cents a quart.
Invalids abroad often resort to the mountainous
districts of Ireland and Scotland to derive benefit
from the use of this article which is there known as
"goats' whey." Mr. Colman noticed that the Irish
mountaineers, about the Lake of Killarney, kept
from one to thirty goats apiece, for the sake of the
tourists to that delightful region. In Spain and
Portugal, goats are abundant, and in Lisbon, their
milk is more commonly used than that of cows.
The goats in those countries are driven into the
cities in the morning, and milked at the doors of
the houses. The district in France most celebrat-
ed for goats is the Canton Mont d'Or, where, in a
space not exceeding two leagues (six miles) in di-
ameter, upwards of eleven thousand are kept,
chiefly to supply the city of Lyons with cheese.
There are several other interesting particulars re-
lating to the goat, which I will give in another
paper. G. L. Stueeter.

Salem, Jan., 18G2.

Exchange of Seeds. — It is a good rule in
agriculture, to eff'ect a change of seeds as often as
once in every two or three years. Why it is that
the seeds of most of our field crops or grains do
better when cultivated on lands at a slight remove
from those on which they were matured, is a ques-
tion which science has as yet been unable satisfac-
torily to solve ; but such is the undeniable fact,
and indeed is so obvious, and so clearly corrobo-

rated by all experience, as no longer to admit of
doubt. The winter and early spring are favora-
ble seasons for exchanging, as well as for procur-
ing new and improved varieties of seeds, plants
and scions.

ALPINE SCENERY.

In Switzerland there are thousands of places
and objects of interest at every turn, and yet how
few of them are seen or even heard of by that vast
array of crusaders, who, alpenstock in hand, hunt
after the magnificent ! I will take one place, for
example. Lying high back from the Lake of
Thun, is the Justis-Thal, a narrow valley of singu-
lar grandeur and wildness. On either side, walls
of rock tower perpendicularly two or thi-ee thous-
and feet ; a gushing stream pours with giddy roar
through its very heart ; a straggling chalet may be
met with here and there at long intervals ; whilst
huge boulders, torn by the action of time from the
mountain-ridges, strew the few grassy spots in
what it seems paradoxical to call a plain, and
which aff'ord scanty pasture to a drowsy flock of
goats and cows.

But the most remarkable phenomenon of this
scarred valley is the Schafloch, a huge ice-cavern,
bored, as it were, in the solid rock, nine hundred
feet above the level of the valley, apparently inac-
cessible to human approach. Neither the peas-
ants of the village, nor the mountaineers, could
give any account of the interior. The oldest inhab-
itant did believe that some bold adventurer in his
younger days had reached it, but it was a danger-
ous enterprise, forsooth, and even that exploit had
faded into tradition. Fortunately, on the out-
skirts of the town of Thun — it might have been at
Ililterfingen, whose pretty church, on a beechen
knoll, overlooks the bright waters of the lake —
there dwelt, I heard, a middle-aged man, who had
really once visited the cavern, but that was many
summers ago, and who even boasted that his mem-
ory of the track still served him well enough to
reach it once more. He would venture to act as
guide, he said, should I or my friends like to ex-
plore that isolated region. "1 will leave my wife
and children in pledge with the syndic," he added,
"if I don't bring you back again safe."

We wound slowly up out of the village by a
zigzag pathway, at first broad enough for a horse
to traverse. At last, after a four hours' ascent, we
wended our way through what seemed to be a nat-
ural gate-way of the mountain, and suddenly con-
fronted the valley of the Justis-Thal. A new scene
now opened before us. A small plateau lay at
our feet, which presented a scene of desolation it
would be as difficult to forget as it would be to
describe. In addition to the mighty boulders
which seemed scattered about by the hands of gi-
ants, or the sons of Anak, struggling in an angry
mood, it was evident that the spot had once been
a forest. Some pines, towering a hundred feet,
still stood erect ; others had been snapped off mid-
way, and their lofty heads dropped downward to
the era-th ; otliers, again, lay ])rone on the ground,
singly, or huddled together like corpses on a bat-
tle-field. But the most extraordinary ])henomcnon
was their trunks and branches, which had been
literally stripped of their bark. Some were black,
as though scarred by lightning ; others were al-
ready converted into the softest touchwood, wliich

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

137

crumbled into dust on the least handling. Eveiy-
^yhere the melancholy signs of decay and desola-
tion presented themselves ; and it required no
stretch of the fancy to make us imagine we had
reached the outakirts of nature.

At this point, the SrJiaJloch was in full view, a
mile or more in front of us ; but how was it to be
reached ? There was no beaten track ; the rock
was almost perpendicular ; the surface crumbled
beneath our feet at every step, and the slightest
mishap would precipitate us a thousand feet into
the valley beneath. We embarked upon the
crumbling debris, the dust of ages, and sank at
once deeper than our ankles in the stony detritus.
At every step, a mass of this uncomfortable and
unstable terrain was set in motion, and it was
scarcely j)ossil)le to prevent ourselves moving
downward with it. Occasionally the force of this
sliding mass would communicate a locomotive im-
petus to a huge boulder, when might be heard a
sound of something leaping and dashing from
point to point, crashing through brakes and bram-
ble, or the branches of trees, and at length plung-
ing, with a voice of thunder, into some cryptic
chasm, there to rest till doomsday. I had, "how-
ever, learned to walk the mountain side ; and not-
withstanding the almost insurmountable difficulties \
of the track we had to traverse, I contrived, by the j
use of_ the alpenstock, which served as a kind of '
Blondin's balancing-pole, as well as the exercise
of a nervous caution, to reach the entrance of the

cavern

It might be thirty feet high by forty wide, the
roof rising internally, like a domed vault, until
another twenty feet was added to the height. The
threshold for fifty feet or so was strewn with the
rough pavement of splintered rock, the sharp edges
of which cut like the blade of a knife ; or huge
boulders, so smooth and slippery M'ith perennuil
damp, that it was almost impossible to scramble
over them ; or, perhaps, a huge quadrangular slab,
polished as a glass mirror, on a gradient of fifteen
or twenty degrees, invited the foot only to betray.
Not many feet beyond us, blazed innumerable!
stars, which glistened like spangles or diamonds
in the ebon horizon. |

From the roof the water had evidently oozed
down from time immemorial. Its foil, however,
had been arrested by an icy hand, even at the roof;
as fresh streams from the' rock above penetrated
through, and trickled over the congealed surface,
icicles grew and grew till they reached the ground,
but instead of falling perpendicularly to the floor,
they formed outward and bent inward. Interlac-
ing these pro])s, as it were, of a structure built
from the top, frozen bands or branches, which in-
tersected each other, created the most perfect trel-
lis-work, or, more properly speaking, the most
deHcate filigree-work. The result was a scene of
real enchantment, and I seemed transported, as in
adream, into the midst of an Eastern paradise.
Kiosks, with innumerable minarets, or pavilions,
or painted pagodas, or wliat you will, rose before
me, vanishing away in the distance, all of the
purest crystal. My guide likened the view to a
pnie grove clad in snow ; but the illustration was
feeble. It might have been better to have described
It as a Gothic cathedral, the pillars in the nave be-
ing constructed of glass, and lit up from the inte-
rior ; but even this similitude is faint and imper-
fect.— Temple Bar.

For the New England Fanner.

WEATHER AND CHOPS IN VERMONT.

Snow in January— No Real "Hard Times"— Excellence of the
Ex')eTtea'*''''~^''"'^ ^^^ Hogs— Description of a Slieep Barn

Mr. Editor : — Having a few leisure moments
thzs stormy Saturday evening, I think I can do no
better than to have a short chat with my brother
iarmers through the medium of what is emijhati-
cally the "New England Farmer."

Up to about the middle of January there was
hardly snow enough to make it good getting
around m the woods, but now, hke a railroad train
behind tmie, it is puti ing in some of its best strides
—having snowed seven of the last eleven days—
and this Avinter will certainly be an exception if it
does not make up all lost time before the middle
of April.

Our formers, I think, have as little cause for
complaint in regard to the "hard times" as any
class of people, for most of us, at least, have
enough to eat, if it does take a bushel of oats to
buy a yard of cotton cloth ; corn plenty, oats plen-
I ty,j)otatoes plenty, wheat Ave don't mention in this
vicinity, and a good yield of barley with those who
sow it. And, Iiy the way, I think this is a grain
altogether too much neglected, in this section, at
least, tor the interest of the farmer.

Speaking of barley puts me in mind of some
hogs killed last month by Mr. R. W. Toliy, of this
town, that were fotted on barley. They were
slaughtered when 18 months and 18 days old,
Were three in number, and weighed,when dressed,
03G, 523 and 486 pounds. These hogs had no
extra keeping ; their feed the first summer beino-
milk, and through the winter two pailfuls of raw
potatoes per day. The potatoes were cut fine,
about a quart of meal to the pailful put on top of
them, and then boiling water sufficient to scald
the meal poured on. Last summer they had noth-
I ing but milk, until the milk began to fail, after
which they had barley meal.
I Mr. Toliy says he had rather have a bushel of
barley than a bushel of corn, to feed hogs. A year
ago last fall he butchered two pigs the day they
were 9 months old, one of which weighed 358 and
the other 337 lbs. I think vou must'acknowledge
that he is ".some" on pork, barley or no barley.
_ If I had time, I would like to give you a descrip-
tion of Mr. Toby's sheep barn. It is so arranged
that each sheep is by himself; there is no crowd-
ing, no treading on the fodder, each sheep gets
lis own gram and no more. The arrangement is
by no means expensive. Should you think it ac-
ceptable, I will at some future time send you a
description of it. Jake Bomsty.

Calais, VL, Jan. 25, 1862.

Remarks. — Please send us the description you
speak of. You may see an inquiry in another ar-
ticle for the plan of a sheep-barn.

Peas with Potatoes.— A letter in the Agri-
cultural Gazette, an English paper, states that a
single pea inserted into each piece of potato that
is planted, will produce a large crop of peas, and
tend tp check disease in the potato. It is a prac-
tice with some to plant peas with potatoes, here.
The potato stems answer a good purpose for the
pea vines to run upon.

138

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

LEGISLATIVE AGBICULTUKAL SOCIETY.

Reported for the Farmer by D. W. Lothrop.

The fifth meeting of the series was held on Mon-
day evening last, at the PLepresentatiA'es' Hall,
when the topic for discussion was that of the pre-
vious meeting — Neat Stock — the adaptation of
different Breeds to different localities and ptir-
poses. Mr. Stedman, of Chicopee, one of the
House Committee on Agriculture, presided.

The chairman, in making a few introductory re-
marks, said he did not advocate any one breed of
cattle, as a general thing. Undoubtedly, our stock
is susceptible of great improvement, but we need
light to guide us in its amelioration. He alluded
to the number and value of cattle in our State,
and the great increase of value by judicious breed-
ing ; and he thought the true rule was to breed
from the best males and females, without relying
much upon grade stock. Mr. S. read from the old
Neic England Farmer matters in point, of differ-
ent importers of cattle, and the good influence
their blood had upon our stock. He cited the
"Chapin oxen," one of which, when slaughtered,
weighed 1993 pounds. But beef is not the prime
object of our farmers ; the pi-oducts of the dairy
should not be overlooked. He alluded to some
grade Short-Horns of Gov. Lincoln, of Worcester,
and observed that they had fulfilled their expecta-
tions, as they were good for the dairy and the
stall. This particular crossing, too, INIr. Fessen-
den had advocated. The speaker much deprecated
grade bulls, and observed that their calves would
resemble both the sire and the dam, but would be
more of the bull. He opposed the offering of pre-
miums for such bulls, and mentioned the Plymouth
Agricultural Society, which had offered more for
grade than for blood bulls ; and the Worcester
Society had offered the sum of $24 for the same.
To show the superior influence of the male, Mr. S.
cited a case where Gorham Parsons, of Brighton,
had crossed the Angora goat with the common fe-
male, and a long-haired progeny was the result.
He also alluded to the influence of the first im-
pregnation of a cow upon all her future offspring ;
and hence the pernicious influence of scrub bulls
He did not generally favor Lynch law, but if Judge
Lynch wanted subjects for execution, he thought
these bulls the thing.

Dr. LOEING, of Salem, being called upon, said
he endorsed all that had been said in regard to the
introduction of male stock, and inquired what is
the most profitable breed of neat cattle for the
farmers of Massachusetts. He was sensible of the
good effect of blood bulls, but farmers had much
neglected to supply themselves with them. He
alluded to the valuable stock in the Connecticut
Valley, introduced by INIr. Williams. They were
grade Durhams, and were fitted for that place ; in
fact, they had done as well as in England. This

stock, introduced in Essex county by Messrs. Par-
sons, Gore and Derby, showed a tendency to de-
generate from an insufficiency of grass, and the
speaker thought that the county, in this repect,
was now about where it was then. Different lo-
calities require different breeds, yet we have no
precise law upon the subject. Animals are influ-
enced by climate ; those of the valley of the Tees,
in Scotland, are not fitted for the mountains. But
what is the animal loe need ? In England, they re-
quire high-fattening and quick-growing herds for
profit. We need a variety yielding milk, beef
and labor. Dr. L. questioned the utility of ani-
mals of large carcass, with no muscular develop-
ment. Because they eat Avell, some have thought
them good for the dairj'. But we should study
economy in the selection of stock, and he thought
the Short-Horn mixed with our native stock was
an instance of it. Dr. L. also spoke of the old yel-
low stock ofNew England, introduced by our fore-
fathers, and said it was regarded as good for milk,
labor and beef. But he seemed to think that our
farmers need a hardy breed, fitted to yield good
milk, and in Essex, where feed is not abundant,
he suggested the propriety of introducing a small-
er class of cows. For beef and labor, he admitted
the value of the Devons, but said we wanted spe-
cial milkers, and alluded to the valuable dairy
herd on the hills of Scotland — a breed not ex-
celled. He asked why the Devons had not tlu-iv-
en here? The cause may be in the climate, soil or
feeding. But the Herefords, too, he thought had
degenerated ; yet better feed would probably keep
up the good character of both. He spoke highly
of the Ayrshires, and recommended then- intro-
duction for dairy purposes.

Mr. Wetiierell, of Boston, being called upon,
spoke of the skill required to keep up the good
points of artificial breeds. Natural breeds do not
degenerate. There is great vigor in their bulls
(the buffalo, for instance,) and he advocated in
breeding the importance of procuring the most
vigorous males. Some of our bulls were not worth
castrating for workers. The seminal product in all
things was the best and most enduring in its in-
fluence when full, fair and vigorous, no less in the
animal creation than in the vegetable ; and in this
connection Mr. W. cited the acorn, with some oth-
er seeds, and said the titman in pigs was always
the smallest. We should breed only from the best
and most vigorous animals, and the sire or dam
should be of full blood. The speaker also inquired
whether the dairy was the leading interest among
farmers. Some in Hampshire county had fed for
beef, and thought they could make from $18 to $20
more on an animal than from the dairy. In the
purchase of animals, some could not discriminate
and were cheated, while others possessed the art
of "handlin"-," and were less deceived. Mr. W.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

139

also spoke of the difference between a breed and a
race of cattle. The Devons and Ilerefords \>ve-
serve then- idcntit)", but the Short-Horns are a
cross, and need reproduction for their preservation.
If Devons and Short-IIorns are fiftj- years in dif-
ferent pastures, the Short-Horns ■nill have the less
marked character. The tendency of the latter is
to run back or run out. Thus the difference be-
tween a breed and a race. The Short-Horns were
regarded as good for beef, but in England the
Devon beef Avould bring a cent a pound more ; and
the Hereford beef also took a high rank. In
speaking generally of the flesh of the ox, he al-
luded to the beef in the valley of the Connecticut,
and said that no where had he ever eaten any so
tough ! [Mr. Stedman responded, "We have sent
away our best breeds !"]

Mr. Lewis, of Framingham, spoke of premiums
offered for grade bulls. He believed in going
ahead, not downwards ; and thought it better to
breed from the grade than the native, but should
not even do so where he could get the best blood
bull. But these animals are not always at band,
and he intimated that the best and handsomest
grades should be encouraged. The cattle disease,
too, had made some farmers rather shy of foreign
stock. He spoke of tlio first impregnation, and
said it was the impregnation of the blood. He
would drive a heifer to a blood bull fh-st, and af-
terwards to grades, if necessary. Mr. L, alluded
to the production of different colors in calves, and
to Mr. Jacques's assertion of his power to accom-
plish it. Dogs sojuetimes are in circumstances to
affect the color of the cow's offspring. Bulls, he
thought, at no distant day, would be licensed.
He mentioned an instance where a gentleman
drove a native cow to a Short-Horn bull, and the
progeny would bring $300. Spealdng of the con-
fusion in breeding, and the varied ideas of neat
cattle, he said he would give $1000 to any one who
would tell him how to stock his farm ! Ohio had
expended $10,000 for bulls, and he hoped that in
every town in our State there would yet be a
good bull kept. In conclusion, he said he wanted
our foreign cattle quarantined.

Mr. HowAUD, of the Boston Cultivator, spoke of
the importation of cattle, and said that no disease
had been introduced except in the case of Mr.
Chenery. He spoke of the adaptation of breeds
to localities. The cattle introduced by Islv. Wil-
liams, were first placed on his farm in Northfield,
of tills State. But they were not adapted to that
locaHtj', and I\Ir. Lathrop, of South Hadley, took
them to the valley of the Connecticut. Some of
this stock was introduced into Essex county, and
placed on the Derby farm for milk ; but he could
now see no blood of this breed. INIr. H. alluded
to grade animals, and to the bull "Red Comet,"
and cited the mixture of his blood. This ani-

mal he praised, and said that M'hen animals were
promising they should be kept to try. We should
have some rule, and where a stock of value is in-
troduced, we should take care of it.

Mr. Stedjiax said the Phoenix bull was differ-
ent from the Red Comet. We should breed even
from the best grades, if we cannot get good blood
bulls. He suggested that the color of the Devons
might have been spotted.

Mr. Lewis cited an instance in 'Mr. Buckmin-
ster's speckled steers, though they were not full
blooded. He also spoke of some means by which
cattle might be changed or modified in color. He
related, too, a fact of a farmer having a white bull
who passed by and doNvn a street by his neighbors,
when some of their cows had white calves ! He
also observed that he could breed a speckled calf,
whatever the color of the bull.

Hon. JosiAii QuiNCY, Jr., being called upon,
spoke of bad bulls, and thought it an indignity to
any respectable cow to be compelled to come in
contact with them. In regard, however, to breeds
generally, he thought that for milch cows the se-
cret of success was more in high feeding than in
the breed ; and he would venture to repeat that in
regai-d to milk, manure or beef, you can get noth-
ing out of a cow that you do not put into her. He
had 90 cows, and could increase their milk daily
from 100 to 200 quarts by feeding. A cow is as
much a machine as a mill ; the more you put in,
the more you will get out. He thought crossing
made the best cattle, and our native stock was the
best as a basis. The intermixture of Scotch, Ger-
mans and Irish into our society had made us more
robust, and produced our nation as it is. Mr. Q.
spoke of Jacob, of Bible history, his skill in breed-
ing ; of the good beef of England, Szc, of his visit
to a cattle fair in Paris, where there was much
contrariety of oi^inion as to what were the most
profitable breeds of cattle. And so as to pigs ; the
question was about the pig that wanted somebody
to take care of him, or the one that would take
care of himself. To a question put to Mr. Quincy
in regard to breeds, he said that he thought that
the good qualities of cattle were more in individ-
ual animals than in breeds. He inquired of Dr.
Loring if there was not a great difference in cattle
of the same breed.

Dr. Loring replied, yes ; but it was the eleva-
tion of the average that gave the breed its char-
acter.

Mr. Clarke inquii-ed of ]\Ir. Quincy, if his ex-
perience had been large and well tested in regard
to his views of no great difference in breeds.

Mr. Qsincy said it had not been. To a ques-
tion in regard to feeding, Mr. Q, said he used
two tons a week of cotton-seed meal, and the man-
ure it produced was Avorth about as much as the
meal itself. He also feeds some Indian meak

140

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Maech

The hour for closing having arrived, the chair-
man announced the topic for the next discussion,
V'hich will be, Farm Buildings. Adjourned.

Correction. — In the remarks of Mr. Howard of
last week, where the South Devons are spoken of
as not superior for dairy purposes, it should have
been North Devons. And in regard to the milk
of the Kerries of Mr. Austin, the quantity should
be from 12 to 14 quarts per day.

For the Neio England Farmer.
KETROSPECTIVE WOTES.

A New Era for Children. — The communi-
cation of Mr. Bacon, with the above caption, print-
ed in the Farmer, weekly, of Nov. 30th, and in
the January No. of the monthly, is deserving of
the attention of all the readers of this paper who
are interested in the education of children, and
who wish to see them instructed in all that con-
cerns the science and practice of soil culture. We
have examined portions of the '■^School anclFavi-
ily Readers," got up by Marcus Willson, and
published by Messrs. Harper, of New York, and
the result of our examination was a persuasion
that every progress-loving parent, who should
make himself acquainted with these works, Avould
form a resolution that they should be introduced
into the schools of the district. He would resolve,
also, we felt persuaded, that they should be used
in his own fiimily, to give his children the means
of becoming acquainted with the Avorks of the
great and benificent Creator and Contriver, and
with the more interesting and useful productions
of the world in Avhich they are to live.

As to the other work — Emerson & Flint's Man-
ual of Agriculture — by the publication of which
"our young friends are blessed," as Mr. Bacon
says, I have not yet foiuid time to do more than
glance at it ; but am persuaded, from sundry no-
tices of it which have appeared in reliable journals,
that it will be found an excellent book in a farm-
er's family, if the father is intelligent enough to
use it as a text-book, and devote these winter
evenings, or other leisure time, to the hearing of
recitations by his children, and to endeavors to
increase its interest and instructiveness by apt and
familiar illustrations and remarks from his own
experience. While the older boy or boys are re-
citing and listening to their father's illustrations
and remarks, the younger children will catch now
and then an important item of information, and
pretty certainly, also, a portion of that enthusiasm
with which an intelligent farmer is likely to be in-
s])ired while thus engaged as the instructor of the
older boy or boys.

Of its value in schools, experience will soon be
able to give the most reliable testimony ; but, as
in the case of its use in the family, so too in
schools, much will depend upon the intelligence,
the tact, the inspiration or entluisiasm of the teach-
er. We hope it will be found well adapted to in-
terest children as a school text-book, for if chil-
dren become interested in tlie study of it, they will
remain interested in after life, and thus we shall
have hereafter more mind'in our ljfe-j)ursuit, and
the business of farming more dignilied, attractive
and respected.

Preparation of Bones for Use. — Of all the
methods for preparing bones for the use of the far-
mer, this, which is described by Mr. Grennell, of
Greenfield, in the Country Oenilcman, and copied
tlierefrom into this paper of Dec. 7th, and into the
Januarj' No., at page 23, seems to be the best in
several respects. The treatment with sulphuric
acid is expensive and dangerous, and requires,
moreover, the previous breaking down or grinding
of the bones. The fermentation of bones, which
was noticed in this journal last year, (see the week-
ly of Aug. 10th, or the September No. of the
monthly,) under the head of "Dissolving Bones,"
though comparatively simple, cheap and easy, is
not so much so as Mr. Grennell's process, and re-
quires the breaking or crushing of the bones, which
Mr. G.'s does not. He takes the bones as he finds
them, and packs without crushing them. This is
one of the points, perhaps the most important one,
in which Mr. G.'s method of preparing bones for
use is superior to all others : There is no part of
the process that can present any difficulty to any
fanner. For the majority of farmers this avIII un-
doubtedly prove the method Avhich Avill be pre-
ferred to all others ; and so simple and easy is it
that hereafter there can be no excuse for those who
neglect to pick up, and collect, and prepare for
use all the bones about their premises. A barrel
of bones thus prepared will be worth a quarter of
a ton o{ some superphosphates.

As Mr. Grennell, in reply to a Canadian farmer
who inquired through the Country Gentleman, as
to the state in which the bones are found after be-
ing packed a year, and as to their applicability for
turnip-manuring, has added a fow items of infor-
mation to those in the article under notice, we will
here give an abstract of such as may be useful to
those about to try Mr. G.'s method.

In Country Gentleman of Jan. 2, INIr. G. states
that he finds the bones at the end of a year in
every state of decay — that knuckles and shank-
bones are occasionally slow to yield — that he com-
monly takes the vnidigested and throws them into
a barrel for the next year, and that, as he uses the
bones chiefly for grape borders and manuring pear
and a])ple trees, it matters little about the fineness
to which they are reduced. The ashes should be
of hard wood, and fresh. More Anon.

MIDDLESEX AGEICULTUEAIi SOCIETT.

We have before us the Transactions of the
Middlesex Agricultural Society for the j'ear ISGl,
with a List of Premiums for the Exhibition in
1862. It is printed in a very handsome manner,
by Benjamin Tooian, Concord, and comprises
1 14 pages. After a brief statement of the Exhi-
bition, the first paper it contains is the Address
of Ex-Gov. Washburn, the subject of vduch is
— "TAe Connection hctween the Social and Polit-
iccd Condition of a People, and the Mode of IJold-
ing and Cultivating their Lands." AYe had the
pleasure of listening to this Address on the day
of Exhibition, and found much in it to interest
and instruct.

The ])am])hlet contains several very good re-
tvnts, — a branch in which most of our County

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

141

transactions are deficient — viz. : One on Pioad-
sters, by J. Cummin^s, Jr., of Woburn ; one on
3Iilch Heifers, by Winslow Wellington, of Lex-
ington ; one on Poultry, by E. Wood, of Concord ;
one on Bread, by Minot Pratt, of Concord ; one
on Apples, Class 1, by Saniuc4 H. Pierce, of Lin-
coln ; on Apples, Class 2, by Andrew AVcllington,
of Lexington; on Peaches and Plums, by E, H.
Warren, of Chelmsford ; one on Grapes, Frxiit
and Melons, by John B. ]Moore, of Concord ; on
the process of Wine-Malcing, by E. W. Bull, of
Concord ; on Vegetables, by James Gammcl!, of
Lexington ; on Household Muimfacturcs, by Lil-
ley Eaton, of South Reading ; on Floiccrs, by E.
W. Bull, of Concord ; on Bidls and Blood Stock,
by Peter Lawson, of Lowell. These reports are
somewhat extended, and state valuable facts, or
maiie interesting suggestions, which give the Tran-
sactions a value which they could not possess
without them. The names of the officers for 1862
Ave have given heretofore.

For the New England Farmer.
THE USES pF LABOR TO MATT.

Mr. Editor :— :Man's nature is such as to fit
him for the world which he inhabits. He was
created in the image of his Jilaker— that is, God
endowed him with mental faculties similar to his
own, only that they were infinitelv lower in the
degree of their development. These higher pow-
ers, M-ith his peculiar physical organization, distin-
guish man from the lower animals, placing him
but "little lower than the angels, crowning him
with glory and honor," and giving him dominion
over the whole earth and sea, and'all living things
that inhabit them.

Man's physical organization is such, constructed
■with its limbs, its bones and muscles, cords and
sinews, as to make it capable, under, and with the
meiital powers which guide and direct it, of ob-
taining all needed supplies for its sustenance and
comfort. But, high as is the position which man
occupies in the scale of being, labor is to him a
necessity. Without it, in both departments of his
two-fold nature, the efiects of that immutable law
are felt, according to which each faculty, not used,
degenerates and wastes away like the share of the
rusting plow. God, in His all-wise providence,
has fitted the earth for man's peculiar nature.
The riches it contains are not called forth simply
at his bidding. He is compelled to call into ac-
tion the exercise of all his faculties and suscepti-
bilities, to _ obtain the necessaries of his life, and
this exercise nut only preserves, but strengthens
and develops them. Use is the parent of develop-
ment. Thus it is evident that the necessity which
compels us to labor, is the result of one of the
most benevolent of laws. Labor was a necessity
before, as well as after the fall of our first parents,
who in the beginning tilled and dressed the gar-
den ; therefore the poet mistakes in speaking of
labor as the "primal curse softened to a blessing."
Our first parents were removed from the garden,
but outside of it, they could form and cultivate
another, and wliile earning theii- food by the sweat

of their brow, increase the health and strength of
body and mind.

_ Our food is composed of elements which repose
in earth s bosom, or float in the air and sea. Each
seed IS qualified to draw into its form the elements
which Its nature requires to start the germ and
form the plant, and grow, develop, and mature.
And at last the sun and air ripen it, and fit it for
our use.

But all the time we must obey the laws of pro-
duction which govern the growth of the iilant, bv
placing it m the right soil, in a proper manner,
and removing whatever obstacles may obstruct its
growth. It might naturally be supposed that the
less labor we were compelled to ijcrform, and the
more leisure hours we could gain, the greater
would be our mental acquisitions. But as we look
over the world and see a rough region like New
i^ngland, where severe and protracted labor is ne-
cessary, standing in an intellectual point of view
pi-e-emineut among the people of the earth, and rd
gions where a tropical sun and fertile soil remove
the necessity of labor such as we perform, among
the owest mentally, that theory is disproved.

Ihe labor doom of "honest poverty" should not
be scorned. Poverty has comjielled* many of the
mightiest intellects to develoj) those jiowers which
would otherwise have lain inert. Many of the
mightiest minds sprang into being in the home of
poverty. \\ ashington, though the son of wealthy
parents,_ surveyed in his youth among the forests
ot Virginia. AVebster was the son of a New
liampsme farmer, and labored with liis fother, in
his childhood and youth. Burns, the plow-boy
poet, first drew breath beneath a straw-thatched
cottage in Scotland, and his

"A man's a man for all that,"

was composed in consequence of sneers at his toiJ-
hardencd hands, the scorners themselves, with
their_ delicate fingers, never having performed that
ph}sical labor which disciplined and energized the
muid, and gave force to the character of Burns.
Elihu Burritt, "the learned blacksmith," Hugh
Miller, the geologist, and thousands of other ex-
amples, might be cited to prove poverty and se-
vere protracted labor to have been of great value
in bringing out the latent energies of many of the
leading minds, both of j)rcsent and past ages.

But one great fact should be kept iiAiew by
the child of wealth, and that is, riches, if iiroperly
used are a blessing. AVashington, though weal-
thy labored, and so can you. And by such labor,
with only common talents, you can rise to such a
position as to illustrate the truth of the proposi-
tion, that "those possessions which arc, when
abused, man's greatest curse, are, when iiroperly
used, his greatest blessing."

Jan., 1862. A Monthly Reader,

TEKTACITY OF LIFE TN A FISH.

It is not unusual for the dealers in fishes for
aquaria to find that some of them, the gold and
silver carp especially, have leaped out of the wa-
ter, and lie partially shrivelled up on the floor.
They return them to the water, and they resusci-
tate, without apparently having suffered injury.
AA^e have known fish to be frozen in the aquarium
for hours, and be as healthy and lively as ever
when gradually thawed out. But a most remark-

142

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Makch

able instance of tenacity of life in a fish out of its
"natural element," occun-ed under our OAvn obser-
vation a few days ago. A salt water aquarium
had to be removed some distance, and the animals
and plants, with a full supply of water, were put
into a large zinc pail for conveyance. Among the
animals was a sole, a fish which has the habit of
clinging to the sides of the aquarium or any other
perpen(licular object. Following this habit, it was
left adhering to the side of the pail Avhen its con-
tents were emptied into the aquarium. It re-
mained there, without any water, for four days and
nights. "When found, it was still living, was re-
turned to the aquarium, and for a fortnight has
continued apparently healthy. AVe have not read
of an instance of such tenacity of life in a fish out
of its element. — N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.

WHAT IS ENGLAND DOING?

We are bound, in common civility, to take some
interest in the afi'airs of foreign nations, seeing
how tenderly solicitous they all are about ours.
Indeed, it is not without some gi-ains of satisfac-
tion and complacency that we observe, in reading
the foreign journals, how large an influence our
conduct has upon the rest of the Avorld. Just now,
it is quite evident that all England, at least, is
drawing a long breath of relief at her sudden ex-
trication from danger of war with America. John
Bull is very full of what he calls '-pluck," and he
really meant war, when he politely suggested the
propriety of our releasing Mason and Shdell ; that
is to say, tlie British government had found an oc-
casion to interfere Avith our affairs, in which their
people would have supported them. The people
of England do not Avant Avar Avith us. Their sym-
pathies are Avith us, as they ahvays are Avith free-
dom, and laAV and right. But the aristocracy are
not our friends. They are jealous of our poAver,
and of our republican institutions, and Avould
gladly see us divided into several rival nations, in-
stead of composing one grand and overshadoAving
power.

And noAV that Mr. Seward, so honorably and so
adroitly, has avoided the threatened conflict, the
people of Great Britain are really glad, and the
government is obliged to pretend to be so. The
English are a fair-minded people, and pride them-
selves on ahvays doing the manly thing. We can-
not help thinking that such a people, on the
Avhole, must be a little ashamed of so A'iolent and
manifest an attempt of their government to make
trouble Arith us, just Avhile Ave Avere engaged in a
pretty severe scene of family discipline. As the
poet says :

"It don't seem lianlly rifrlit, John,

AVlien both my liiuicis were full,
To stump me to a /JKlit John,

Your cousin too, John Bull."

Everybody, everyAvhere, sees that, had Ave been
at leisure to give our undivided attention to John
just at that time, he Avould have been someAvhat

more polite, and a trifle less peremptory in his de-
mands for satisfaction. But Ave are farmers, and
our business is Avith corn and Avheat, more than
Avith great guns, yet it is surjirising to see hoTr
much the actual fighting condition of the nation
depends on its present supply of grain.

The old saying that "one cannot afford to quar-
rel Avith his bread and butter," applies Avith equal
force to nations and individuals. The great obsta-
cle to the forAvard movement of our vast armies
is, not that Ave have not men and guns enough to
march at once straight doAvn to the Gulf of jMexi-
co, but that Ave cannot transport supplies to feed
the army in a rapid march.

England has ships and soldiers enough to have
troubled us sorely, had she pounced suddenly up-
on us Avhile Ave Avere in this death-grapple Avith re-
bellion ; but her oAvn journals clearly shoAV, that
she must have had a famine at hand next spring,
such as she never felt before, had aa'c accepted the
war she proffered us.

SCARCITY OF GRAIN IN EUROPE.

The Mark Lane Express of January 20th con-
tains estimates by con-espondents, not controvert-
ed by the editors, Avhich indicate so enormous a
deficiency in the AA'heat crop, that it Avould seem
that America, Avith her best endeavors, could
hardly supply the demand, and it is quite certain,
that had her trade been cut off" by a Avar, the cry
for food in the large toAvns of Great Britain Avould
have been so loud as to have droAvned all com-
plaints for Avant of cotton. The estimate is as fol-
loAvs. We hope our readers will take the trouble

to understand it.

Bushe's.

The regular crop of wheat in Great Britian and Ire-
land is 164,000,000

Short planted for last crop '4 40,000,000

Short yield of that sown 20,000,000

Quantity shed by beinpr over-ripe 8,000,000

Extra quantity taken for seed for crop

of 1862 6,000,000

Exportfd to France from August to

December, 1861 8,000,000 — 82,000,000

82,000,000
To which add the usual importation 40,000,000

Making the requirements 122,000,000

It is admitted that France AA'ill Avant in all, for
the year, 80,000,000 bushels, and probably more,
because the chestnut crop, Avhich usually feeds tAvo
millions of people in France, failed last season,
Avhile Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium had all
of them bad harvests.

It is estimated that since September 1, 1861,
there have been imported into Great Britain and
Ireland 19,200,000 bushels of Avheat and flour,
turning the flour into grain, against o2,800,000 for
the corresponding period in 1860, and that France,
up to January 20, had imported but little more
than one-third of her necessary supply. The
granaries of Great Britain Avere probably ncA'er so
empty at this season of the year, as noAV. Yet the

1862.

NEAV ENGLAND FARMER.

143

price of wheat in London is not very high, being
about $1,90 per bushel, just about the same as it
■was in Januarj', 1847, the year of the L-ish fom-
ine ! and yet before the first of June that year the
price had advanced to $3,20 per bushel! and
through the famine that ensued, and its conse-
quences, nearly two millions of the Irish popula-
tion were swept from her naturally fertile soil !

It is difficult to see how the wants of England
and France are to be supplied. We exported, in
1847, nearly 869,000,000 worth of breadstuffs, and
in 18J4, neai-ly $66,000,000. There is a vast sur-
plus now on our hands, but it is not at the sea-
coast, nor can it be until navigation opens, and it
is a question for the old countries who need it, to
solve, how their supply is to be obtained.

We may well feel proud that with our vast army
operations in hand we have enough and to spare,
for those whose policy toward us is such that we
can maintain the friendly relations of commerce.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

Nothing strikes an American in England so for-
cibly and constantly as the spirit of conservatism.
In our country, it is a pretty good reason for chang-
ing an idea, that it is an old one, and because,
in the nature of things, there should be some im-
provement, some progress. In England, on the
contrary, Avhat lias been must be. That a horse-
railway should go tlu-ough a street in London
seems impossible to an Englishman, simply be-
cause there never was one there, while every
American sees that street-railways are just what
every great city needs. England has no system
of obtaining agricultural statistics, and nobody
knows, except by guess, how many cattle or sheep
are in the country, or the product per acre of her
crops. Constantly there are movements to induce
the government to institute measures for obtain-
ing this essential information, in some reliable
manner. Why is it not done ? Ask a former the
question, and he inquires "What good will it do ?"
One reason Avhy the farmers oppose it is this :
They occupy their land under leases, usually not
written, and not for any definite term, yet they re-
main from year to year, and are really more per-
manent in their homes than New Englanders Avho
can own their farms, but sell and exchange them
as readily as their horses, and who, in fact, rather
enjoy a change of locality once in a few years.
Now, the English farmers all fency that if their
landlords really knew how much profit they were
making, their rents would be raised. Besides that,
they are watched enough already, especially where
game is preserved, and where a game-keeper is
prowling about their farms night and day, to pre-
vent the boys from catching a hare or a partridge
on the farms where they were born. A recent
proposition that the police officers should be em-

ployed to collect agricultural statistics, was met
with a general burst of indignation by the farm-
ers, and there really seems to be no prospect that
any movement in this direction will be made. The
estimates which are given above are derived from
observations by dealers and others about the mar-
kets, and from custom house records and the like.
Very accurate statistics Avere obtained for a few
years throughout Scotland, by one of the agricul-
tural societies, but that is understood to be given
up.

There is the same jealousy in England, in the
matter of general education, many good men be-
lieving that it would be of no advantage to the la-
boring classes to be educated. Perhaps that is
true, if those laborers are to have no opportunity
to improve their condition.

We are inclined to think that the slave-holder
is right in keeping his slave in ignorance, if he in-
tends he shall remain a slave, and the same rea-
soning appHes to any mere man-machine. Yet,
there is a better spirit than this abroad in Eng-
land. The late Prince Consort, who seems never
to have been appreciated in England till his death,
was a warm advocate of education for the laboring
classes. He was, moreover, a lover of agriculture,
and an active advocate of progress, and just be-
fore his death, had accepted the position of Presi-
dent of the Ptoyal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land. He was no doubt, too, a friend to Ameri-
ca, and remembered gratefully her kind reception
of his eldest son. We may, as agriculturists and
philanthropists, join in regrets that his life so sud-
denly closed, and may offer our sincere sympathy
to Her Majesty in the loss of her nearest earthly
friend, who was indeed a friend of the poor and
the oppressed, and of progress everywhere, rather
than of the statesmen and nobles of the land, who
were too jealous of his growing influence with the
people, to accord to him in his life, the praises ia
which they now so zealously unite.

An Esquimaux Rifleman.— As we were in the
open country, and there was no tangible o])ject to
shoot at, he made a circle in the snow of about
two feetin diameter, then, stejjping in the centre,
raised his gun perpendicular from the shoulder,
and fired in the air. After firing he stepped out
of the ring, and in a few seconds, to my astonish-
ment, the bullet came down within the circle he
had made. He coolly remarked, ''we want no tar-
gets to fire at ;" and if a man can hold his mus-
ket with that precision as to cause the ball to re-
turn just where he stands, M-hat need has he of a
butt ? But the principal reason why they thus
test their shooting is an economic one. Not al-
Avays being able to get bullets, they are chary of
firing them away, and I have no doubt it is for the
same reason that so many savage people have the
"boomerang," or return missile. — Recollections of
Labrador Life by Lambert Be Boilieu.

144

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

IVIauch

DAITA'S TKANSPABENT "WHITE CUBEAITT.

BRAWN AND ENGPIAVED EXPEESSLX FOR THE N. E. FARMEK.

Among the most successful cultiva-
tors of garden fruits is Mr, Francis
Dana, of Roxbury. He has origina-
ted several pears of the best quality,
and two or three currants Avhich
promise to rank equal to any ot the
new foreign varieties. The accom-
panying illustration shows one of
these, to which Mr. Dana has given
the above name.

The bunch from which the drawing
was made was furnished us last Au-
gust by ]Mr. J W. Foster, of Harrison
Square, and is only a fair representa-
tion of the berry and cluster. The
flavor of tliis currant is excellent, size
very large color more transparent
than the White Dutch, and the berries
do not appear to fall from the end of
the bunch before ripe.

The currant is one of the hardiest
of the smaller fruits. It is very easily
propagated, will grow with but little
care, and under any ordinary cultiva-
tion, will rctui-n a large crop every
year.

THE SNOW.

The snow was proverbially called
the "poor farmer's manure" before
scientific analysis had shown that it
contained a larger per centage of am-
monia than rain. The snow serves
as a protecting mantle to the tender
herbage and the roots of all plants
against the fierce blasts and cold of
winter. An examination of snow in
Siberia showed that when the tem-
perature of the air was seventy-two
degrees below zero, the temperature
of the snow a little below the surface
was twenty-nine degrees above zero,
over one hundred degrees diiTerence. The snow
keeps the earth just below its surface in a condi-
tion to take on chemical changes Avhich would not
happen if the earth were bare and frozen to a great
depth. The snow prevents exhalations from the
earth, and is a powerful absorbent, retaining and
returning to the earth gases arising from vegetable
and animal decomposition. The snow, though it
falls heavily at the door of the poor, and brings
death and starvation to the fowls of the air and
beasts of the field, is yet of incalculable benefit in
a climate like ours, and especially at this time,
when the deep springs of the earth were failing
and the mill streams were refusing their motive
powers to the craving appetites of man. If, during
the last month, the clouds had dropped rain in-
stead of snow, Ave might have pumped and bored
the earth in vain for water ; but, Avith a foot of
snow upon the earth and many feet upon the

moimtains, the hum of the mill-stones and the
harsh notes of the saw will soon and long testify
to its beneficence. Bridges, earth-works, and the
fruits of engineering skill and toil may be swept
away, but man Avill still rejoice in the general good
and adore the benevolence of Him who orders all
things aright. The snow is a great purifier of the
atmosphere. The absorbent poAver of cajjillary
action of snow is like that of a sponge or ch.ueoal.
Immediately after snoAV has fallen, tivAt it in a
clean vessel and taste it, and you will find imme-
diately evidences of its impurity. Try some a day
or tAvo old, and it becomes nauseous, especially in
cities. SnoAV water makes the mouth harsh and
dry. It has the same eflect upon the skin, and
upon the hands and feet produces th painful mal-
ady of chilblains. The f>.dlowing easy experiment
illustrates beautifully the absorbent property of
snow : Take a lump of snow (a piece of snow

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

145

crust answers well) of three or four inches in
length, and hold it in the flame of a lamp ; not a
drop of water will fall from the snow, but the wa-
ter, as fast as formed, will penetrate or be drawn
up into the mass of snow l)y capillary attraction.
It is by virtue of this attraction that the snow pu-
rifies the atmosphere by absorbing and retaining
its noxious and noisome gases and odors. — Ex-
change.

For the New England Farmer.
"WOOL GROWUNTG.

Dear Sir : — A party of young gentlemen of the
writer's acquaintance are proposing to emigrate to
CaHfornia, for the purpose of embarking in the
wool-growing business. If the accompanying semi-
playfid, semi-serious lines, suggested by the sim-
ple fact above stated, have, in your estimation,
vigor enough in them to r/o alone outside the lit-
tle circle in which the circumstances of the case
are known, you arc at liberty to print them.

Respectfully yours, The Author.

Boston, January 30, 18G2.

ACADIA.
Away with all the Babel-war of trade, 1

With all the din by strong-limbed labor made, —
The smoke and rush which business loves to make

Where'er sharp Jonathan drives down his stake,

The train's shrill whistle ushering from afar

The panting engine, and the clattering car,

The dashing craft that scorns th' opposing wind,
Her streamers trailing like a cloud behind ;

Away with all that hints of toils and cares,

Bills, bonds, stocks, interest, merchandise and wares

Which tell the texture of the age is one
Of gold and iron, intricately spun !

Time's wheels reverse, and down the travelled track

Roll back the j-ears— by centuries roll them back !

Till earth again shall joyfully behold

Her childhood days — her age entirely gold !

What time the shepherds drove their flocks along

The silver streams, and meditated song :

Or stretched at noon beneath the greenwood shades,

Rehearsed the beauties of their sylvan maids ;

When simple pleasures discontent defied.

And wants were few, and those with ease supplied ;

Fair girls were "nymphs," and every youth a "swain,' =

All speech was song— when Pan himself did reign !

Roll back the years till men again shall view

That age of joyance — live it o'er anew !

But, nay ! there needs no rolling back of time—
Kought save the transit to one genial clime ;
And that same onward circling of the spheres
Which hatli aforetime swelled the months to years I

In that famed region of the West, whose soil
Yields mainly gold to glad the sons of toil,
There lies a vale, through which a winding stream

Doth like a thread of burnished silver gleam

Where pastoral life— believe the JIuse !— displays
To modern eyes the scenes of ancient days ;
Where dwells a colony of gentle swains
Wliose lungs the atmosphere of cities pains ;
A group of people who, on history's page.
Will doubtless shine th' Acadian's of the age ;
On whom the country will depend, to keep
The art of rearing and improving sheep •

When Spring again shall don her robes of green.
And bees and butterflies once more be seen •
When primrose blooms shall star the dales anew,
And violets lift their lips to sip the dew,

And yellow crocuses flaunt forth their gold ;—
'Twould give mirth's eye a twinkle, to behold
These "shepherds" grasp their crooks and lead along
Their milk-white flocks— throng slowly after throng. °
'Twould brighten languor into smiles, to hear
Those gentle shepherds' "songs of lofty oheer"—
Or lays expressive of their ardent loves-
Float down the vales, and echo through the groves !
O, well will they the artless strain prolong—
Their thoughts prove idyls bubbling into song !

For them propitious seasons we invoke

Upon their lambkins fall no l)lasting stroke !
The calm delights of pastoral life be theirs ;
Its blest exemption from financial cares ;
Its sheer disdain of Fashion's starch and paints j
Its glorious freedom from the town's restraints •'
May robust health that flow of spirits bring
Which makes life's prime as joyous as its spring;
Theirs be the heaven of sweet domestic bliss—
The luxury theirs of tasting childhood's kiss '
May the new race to goodly stature grow.
Without the wisdom which the marts bestow ;

Delight in Nature with her bosom bare

The pathless hills— uncarbonated air ;
Wearing no mask made up of wretched shams,
Scorning the cheatery of cant and flams ;
With scarce a cloud between them and the power
That gilds each star, and speaks in every flower ;
Walk through the years-let worldlings, sneering, smile-
As little children ignorant of guile
Until they reach— why may they not ?— at last
To something of the ancient patriarch cast ;
And like those men who lived in Time's far youth.
Through goodness' paths attain high heights of trJth !
And if the world in after times once more
Shall need, like Sodom in the days of yore,
To save it from destruction's fiery rain.
Its men whose lives appear without a stain ;
Then shall that vale, through which a winding stream
Doth like a thread of Ijurnished silver gleam, ^
Send forth its "fives," its "fifties" o'er the earth.
And save the nations with its leaven of worth ! ' * * *

Ft)r the Nezv En'jland Farmer.

THE BRAHMA FOWL.

Havnig recommended to the readers of the Far-
mer of March 2, 1861, the Brahma fowl above
all other varieties, I was pleased to find in a recent
number of the Genesee Farmer an account of the
experimental trial in France, at the Zoological
Cardens, last year, testing the laving qualities of a
large number of different breeds of fowls, result-
ing in favor of this breed. The Brahma Pootra
stootl first in the trial as the most proHfic laj-er,
which corresponds with my experience, as stated
Jefore. I have kept nearly every breed of fowls,
but nevei found one to come up to tlie Brahma,
not only in laying, but every other desirable qual-
ity requisite to a perfect breed of domestic fowl.
A neighbor of mine has 17 Brahmas in one coop
and 20 common barnvard fowls in another, fed
and cared for alike ; he tells me that he is i^etting
from ten to twelve eggs per day from the Brahmas,
and from the others he has not had an as^g for the
past month. Another gentleman informs me that
he has always been obliged to purchase eggs for
his family until this winter. He has tried many
breeds of fancy fowls, and was almost discouraged,
until induced to try the Brahmas, and this winter
his fowls have been an income instead of an out-
set, as heretofore. John S. Ives.
Salem, Jan. olst, 1SG2,

146

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

For the New England Farmer.
ABOUT KEEPING GOATS.

The goat is a very social creature, and readily
becomes attached to his protectors, and even to
animals different from himself. We have heard
complaints that a goat about the house is noisy,
but if two or more are kept together they will
soon learn to become very contented and quiet.
They are frequently kept in stables with horses,
under a belief that their peculiar smell contributes
to the health of horses, but it is probable that
■whatever benefit is derived comes from the famil-
iar companionship of the goats, for horses are fond
of company to cheer the solitude. I have a goat
which has formed an intimacy with a bantam pul-
let. The latter follows her about all day, and
roosts near her head at night, which fond atten-
tions are returned by various marks of sympath)'.
The famous friendship between Robinson CIrusoe
and his goats was as natural and sincere on their
part as on his. They will become as familiar as
dogs, and will come at the call of the voice with a
hop, f;kip and jump. "When roaming at large,
they regularly return home at night. In Switzer-
land, large flocks come down to the farm-houses
at night to be milked, and are turned out again in
the morning to browse upon the mountains. They
stand to be milked as quietly as a cow. A famil-
iar illustration of their domesticity is afforded in
their serving to draw cliildren's carriages, often
appearing to delight in their gay equipages. In
India, the children of the Hindoos who have lost
mothers were frequently suckled by goats. Trav-
ellers report that, in the countries of the Negroes,
this is very frequent. The goat comes to the
cradle where the infants lie, and manifests the ut-
most tenderness toward them.

The flesh of the older goats is said to be coarse
and ill-flavored, but that of the kids when very
young is much esteemed. It is freely eaten in Eu-
rope, and in the Southern countries it is served at
table as regularly as lamb, and by most persons is
considered the more delicate of the two. In Wales,
where goats used to be very numerous, the
haunches are frequently salted and dried, and sup-
ply all the uses of bacon, and are called "hung
venison."

The goat is a lascivious and prolific creature.
The female goes \vith young upwards of twenty
weeks, and usually produces two at a birtli, and
sometimes three and even four. She sometimes
breeds twice in the year. In the natural state, the
coupling season is in November or December, and
the kids arc then born in the spring, when the
tender herbage apiiears ; and this is the best time,
although when m'cII fed slie Avill receive the male
at any season. She is fruitful at the age of seven
months, but it is considered well that she should
not breed before the second year. The usual life
of the goat is stated to be from ten to twelve
years.

Goats in the pasture are not likely to be wor-
ried by dogs, as sheep are, for they are bold in
their own defence, putting themselves in an atti-
tude of defiance when provoked by animals, how-
ever larger than themselves. A dog that will de-
spise a ram and assail a bull, is frequently cowed
by the bold demeanor and peculiar and vigorous
butting of the goat.

There is one great objection to the keeping of

goats in town, which is, that they will devour
every plant and small shrub, and bark every tree,
within their reach. The latter form of mischief
seems to be their especial delight. They must
therefore be kept out of the garden, the orchard,
and the nursery. In AVales, and other parts of
Great Britain, Avhere goats used to be numerous,
they have been largely discarded of late years, on
account of the damage done by them in cropping
the hedges, which are there so common. So in
the wide districts of Europe, they are discouraged
on account of the injury they do the vines and for-
ests.

The history of the goat is interesting. From
the remotest times it has abounded in Europe,
Asia and Africa, and has formed a large part of
the Avealth of the common people. Its ancient his-
tory is coeval with that of the ox and the sheep,
and it is frequently mentioned in Scripture as
forming with those animals the riches of the pa-
triarchal families. His flesh was permitted by
Moses to be used as food, and he Avas employed
by the Jews as well as by the Egyptians, in re-
ligious ceremonies. His form is sculptured on
the ancient monuments. In Greece and Rome he
was valued for food and raiment. He was dedi-
cated to Jupiter, sacrificed to various divinities,
and his skin was the iEgis of the Goddess of Wis-
dom and Arms. His form was one of the attri-
butes of Pan and the Satyrs, indicating the pro-
creative power and rustic plenty. The goat was
largely cultivated by all the early nations round
the Mediterranean Sea, (where the finest kinds
now are,) and by the Celtic and Teutonic nations
in the North.

There are numerous varieties of the common
goat, determined somewhat by climate and situa-
tion. Some naturalists suppose them all to have
descended from the species ^gagrus, found Avild in
the Caucasian mountains. Others think they
came from various distinct species.. The small
Guinea goats have been naturalized in America
for a hundred years, but preserve their distinctive
peculiarities unchanged.

The uses of this animal are numerous. We
hrve spoken of its milk and flesh. The skins, as
furs, form warm clothing in the northern countries.
Without the wool, they are an important staple of
commerce, to be made into leather. From goat
skins we have the fine morocco leather for boots
and gaiters. The skin of the kid is in universal
demand for the manufacture of kid gloves. In
Eastern countries, the skin is made into bags for
water, wine and oil ; and on the Nile, the Eu-
phrates and other rivers, it is seen in the form of
buoyant sacks, on Mhich the inhabitants float
across those streams. The hair of the goat, M'hich
may be sheared like wool, makes a superior rope,
esi)ecially serviceable to be used in the water.
With ropes of this material, the hardy natives of
St. Kilda used to swing themselves over the
dreadful precipices of their coast in search of the
eggs of sea-fowls. The celebrated goats of Thi-
bet, yield a fine wood, of which the splendid and
costly Cashmere shawls are woven, with great
pains and immense labor. The Goat of Angora,
in Asia Minor, furnishf s a long, silky, wavy hair,
from which a kind of camlilet is made, much
prized for its durability. Of this material are
formed the tents of the Arabs, the Turcomans,
and all the wandering tribes of Tartary. A simi-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAR]MER.

147

lar fabric is referred to in the Scriptures, "And
thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair to be a
covering upon the tabernacle." (Ex. 26 : 7.)

Some attem])ts have been made to establish
the Thibet and Angoi'a goats in this countiy, an
account of -which at some time might be interest-
ing. G. L. Streeter.

Salem, Jan., 1862.

THE HOKSE-HAXE.

In Professor Agassiz's interestiiig paper on
"Methods of Study in Natural Histoiy," the sec-
ond of the series in the Atlantic Montlihj, -we find
this anecdote of an animal knoM-n to almost all
country boys :

A gentleman from Detroit had the kindness
to send me one of those long, thread-lilve worms
{Gordiufi) found often in brooks, and called horse-
hair by the common people. When I first received
it, it was coiled up in a close roll at the bottom of
the bottle, filled with fresh water, that contained
it, and looked more like a little tangle of black
sewing silk than anything else. Wishing to un-
wind it, that I might examine its entire length, I
placed it in a large china basin filled M'ith water,
and proceeded very gently to disentangle its coils,
when I perceived that the animal had twisted it-
self around a bundle of its eggs, holding them fast
in a close embrace. In the process of unwinding,
the eggs di-opped away and fioated to a little dis-
tance. Having finally stretched it out to its full
length, perhaps half a yard, I sat watching to see
if this singular being that looked like a long, black
thread in the water, wovdd give any signs of life.
Almost immediately it moved towards the bundle
of eggs, and, having reached it, began to sew itself
through and through the little wliite mass, passing
one end of its body through it, and then returning
to make another stitch, as it were, till the eggs
Avere at last completely entangled again in an in-
tricate net-work of coils. It seemed to me almost
impossible that this care of offspring could be the
result of any instinct of affection in a creature of
so low an organization, and I again separated it
from the eggs, and placed them at a greater dis-
tance, when the same action was repeated.

On trying the experiment a third time, the bun-
dle of eggs had become loosened, and a few of
them dropped off" singly into the water. The ef-
forts wliich the animal then made to recover the
missing ones, winding itself round and round
them, but failing to bring them into the fold Avith
the rest, because they were too small, and evaded
all efforts to secure them, when once parted from
the first little compact mass, convinced me that
there Avas a definite purpose in its attempt, and
that even a being so Ioav in the scale of animal ex-
istence has some dim consciousness of a relation
to its off'spring. I afterAvards nuAvound also the
mass of eggs, Avhich, Avhen coiled up as I first saAV
it, made a roll of Avhite substance about the size
of a cofi'ee-bean, and found that it consisted of a
string of eggs, measuring more than tAvelve feet in
length, the eggs being held together by some gel-
atinous substance that cemented them and pre-
vented them from falling apart. Cutting this
string across, and placing a small section under
the microscope, I counted on one surface of such
a cut from seventy to sevent)--five eggs ; and esti-

mating the entire number of eggs according to the
number contained on such a smface, I found that
there Avere not less than eight millions of eggs iu
the whole strinjj.

For tlie Neio England Farmer.
BREEDS OF STOCK.
In times gone by, I haA-e taken an interest in
breeds of cattle, and all discussions that tended to
illustrate Avhat classes of cattle Avere best suited to
the farms of New England. This inquirv Avill de-
pend somewhat upon the uses to be maile of the
cattle. If they are to be fed for the stall, this is
one tiling ; if they are to be kept for dnirv pui--
poses, this is anothei-. On most of our"iarms
neat cattle are kept for the milk they \d\\ jield —
therefore those Avhich 3'icld the greatest quantity,
the quality being equally good, are to bo pre-
ferred. So far as I have seen, and I haAC seen
many herds, I have never seen any that Avould
yield more milk at the same expense of feed, than
our NcAv England stock, sometimes c-alled na-
tive. For tliis reason, I have ever been an advo-
cate of om- native stock, and shall not be disposed
to abandon them until others are proved to be
superior. I know there are here and there to be
found choice animals of the imported breeds —
such as the Durham, the Devons, the Ayrshires,
the Jerseys, the Herefords, Szc, AA-luch have done
great things. But I have never seen any consid-
erable number of such animals on any one farm —
and know not noAV Avhere they are to* be found. I
had supposed om- friends Howard and Sheldon,
could tell us all about these animals. Certainly,
no men among us haA'e had more extended oppor-
tunity for observation. Mr. Howard has visited
the best herds of England and Scotland for the
express purpose of learning ail about them — and
]\Ir. Sheldon has been a man of practical experi-
ence, ever since I Avas a boy, and there is no one
Avho AviU deny him the credit of being a shrcAvd
observer — of animals and men.

The real question is, hoAv shall we select a stock
of cattle suited to our farms ? I say, choose those
Avhich yield the best product on the same expense
of feed. And from the best cows raise your OAvn
calves, ahvays taking care to use bulls that sprung
from good coavs. For in rearing stock, quite as
much depends upon the sire as upon the dam. I
remember this Avas the opinion of my old master
Pickering. j. av. p.

Feb. 10, 18G2.

EooT Cutter and Cleaner. — A writer in the
Covvtry Gentleman says :

When potatoes are fed whole, or other roots are
cut coarsely, the animal is obliged to hold its head
so high to keep the root in contact Avith its teeth,
that gravitation alone Avill pass it to the gullet,
and ordinarily it Avill pass thence unmasticated, if
not too large ; but if cut properly and mixed Avith
cut stalks, straAV or hay, as they always should be ,
they Avill be eaten Avith the head down, as in eat-
ing grass, and consequently be more thoroughly
masticated and mixed Avith other food, and all dan-
ger from choking is AvhoDy avoided ; hence the
preventive that I have used for five years, and re-
commended to others to use, is, to cut u]) the
vegetables as finely as possible with a good root
cutter and cleaner.

148

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

Fur the New England Farmer.
A NEW PROPAGATING CASE.

I have 1:0 doubt that many of the readers of the
Farmer have often wished that they had facilities
for propagating plants and flowers where bottom
heat is necessary, such as starting very early to-
mato, cabbage and lettuce plants, striking cuttings
of grajjcs, roses, &c., and starting early plants for
the flower-garden. But to start the former very
early, or to strike cuttings successfully, requires a
gentle bottom heat, and an atmosphere completely
under our control. The few who are fortunate
cnougli to possess hot-houses, have, of course, all
the facilities for such purposes; but of the many
who would like now and then to propagate a few
plants or flowers for their own use, or pleasure,
not one in one hundred have either hot-houses, or
even hot-beds. And then the latter, (hot-beds,)
are really troublesome and expensive aff"au"s, and
but few can afford either the time consumed in
making and tending them, or the expense of op-
ei'ating them.

For the possible benefit of these many, I pro-
pose to give a description of a small propagating
case I had made for my own use, and which is
now in successful operation.

It may be briefly described as a box, 33 inches ]
long, 18 inches wide, 18 inches high in front, and
24 inches high at the back. Twelve inches above
the bottom, we placed a zinc pan, or tray, two
inches deep, and as large as the case would admit
of. This pan rests on cleats, nailed to the inside
of the case. On the under side of this zinc pan,
we soldered the oval shaped co])per bottom of a
common cooking-stove wash-boiler, such as may
be found at almost any tinsmith's. (Sheet iron,
copper, or tin, may be used instead, if more con-
venient.) This forms a sort of boiler, about fif-
teen inches long, six inches wide, and two inches
deep. It is filled through a tube, from the u])per
side. F(n- convenience, this tube should be about
six inches long, and one-half or three-fourths of
an inch in diameter. On the top of the case, we

simply lay two squares of glass. To prevent the
glass from sliding off", the upper edge of the case
is halved. The boiler is filled with water, a com-
mon fluid lamp is filled with alcohol, and placed
under the copper boiler, (burning fluid will answer,
but is less clean, and is rather offensive to the
smell,) the zinc pan is covered one inch deep with
clean sand, the pots (smallest size flower-pots)
containing the seeds, or cuttings, are placed on
the sand, a small thermometer is hung inside the
case, the glass is laid on, and the miniature hot-
house is in full operation. It should be placed
near a window, where it can receive the benefit of
the sun during the day. The thermometer should
not be allowed to go below 50°, nor above 60° at
night, but may rise to 70°, and even 80°, in the
middle of the day. Care should be taken to ven-
tilate well in the day time. This is done by rais-
ing the back edge of one or both panes of glass,
according to circumstances. With these very
general hints as to temperature and ventilation,
there need be no difficulty in managing such a
case successfully.

I have found that a steady flame, tkree-fourths
of an inch high, from a single tube of a common
fluid lamp, is amply sufficient for ordinary winter
weather. (The larger the lamp,
the less trouble in filling it.)
^ ^^^ ^^y ^^^^ ^^ usually placed,

~^^*^ "^ Avhen in operation, at the kitch-

en window. It looks well
enough, howe'^er, to grace the
windows of the sitting-room,
or even parlor. Such a case
should be made of well-sea-
soned wood, be dovetailed to-
gether and thoroughly painted
inside and outside. If the win-
dow be high, the case will need
legs — or it may be placed on a
table — so as to bring the pots
near the glass. The lower half
of the back of the case is
hinged, for convenience of
managing the lamp. My first
case Avas but 12 inches deep at
the back, and 6 inches in front,
and the lamp had no protec-
tion against drafts of air. This
was found to be troublesome,
and I was obliged to box in the
lamp. Now all the heat is
saved, the lamp is secure, and
the extra room is convenient
for storing spare pots. Sec.

A« the boiler is placed in the centre of the case,
it will readily be seen that that part will be the
warmest. This is taken advantage of, by appro-
priating it to the use of such pots as need the most
bottom heat, gradually removing them toward the
edges as they need to be "hardened off'." _ If the
case is divided into two parts, by a partition, one
part can be used, at pleasure, for this hardening
off process, preparatory to placing the plants in
the ground, or elsewhere.

Tliese cases can be made of any size or style de-
sired. They are neater, easier operated, and cost
less than the ordinary hot-bed. The one above
described, though placed in a room where the fire
is never kept over night, and seldom even in the
evening, consumes but one gallon of alcohol per

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

149

month, at a retail cost of 60 cents — or two cents
per twenty-four hours. The cost of the case was
as follows :

Lumber and making, $2,2-5 ; copper boiler bot-
tom, 70 cts. ; zinc and making of pan, &c., lo cts. ;
two squares glass, 50 cts. ; lamp, 20 cts. ; paint-
ing, 50 cts. ; castors, (for convenience of moving,)
17 cts-; hinges, 6 cts.; thermometer, 37 cts.; to-
tal, $l),oO. These are city prices. In most locali-
ties they would be somewhat less.

A case of the above dimensions contains room
for fifry-four No. 7 Hower-pots. It will be readily
seen from this, that it can be made to do a great
deal of work.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN HELPED.

There is really very little that can be done for
one man by another. Begin with sense and ge-
nius, keen appetite and good digestion, and the
work goes on merrily and well ; without these, we
all know what a laborious aflair, and a dismal, it is
to make an incapable youth apply. Did any of
you ever set yourselves to keep up artificial respi-
ration, or to trudge about for a whole night Mith a
narcotized victim of opium, or to transfuse blood,
(your own, perhaps) into a poor, fainting, exani-
mate wretch ? If so, you have some idea of the
heartless attempt, and its generally vain and mis-
erable result, to make a dull student apprehend, a
debauchee interested, active, or knowing in any-
thing beyond the base of his brain, a weak, etio-
lated intellect hearty and worth anything. And
yet how many such are dragged through their
dreary cnrricula, and by some miraculous process
of cramming, and equally miraculous power of
turning their insides out, get through their exami-
nations ; and then — what then ? Providentially,
in most cases, they find their level. The broad
daylight of the world, its shrewd and keen eye,
its strong instinct of what can and what cannot
serve its purpose — puts all, except the poor ob-
ject himself, to rights. Happy is it for him if he
turns to some new and more congenial pursuit in
time. — Dr. Brown.

SixGULAE, Detection of a Thief. — A musi-
cian employed at one of the London theatres, pos-
sessed an ebony flute with silver keys. He sel-
dom used it, however, in consequence of one of
the upper notes being defective. The muscian
had for a lodger, a young man, a theatrical tailor,
and between the two there existed a considerable
friendship. Well, one night, while the musician
was away at his l)ushiess, some one stole the flute
wilh the silver kejs, and suspicion fell on an old
char-woman, who used to come to do the house-
work. However, nothing tended to show that the
old lady really was guilty, and the aflfair was
shortly forgotten. In a few months the tailor left
the house of the musician, and went to live in a
town a few miles off" ; but as the friendship be-
tween the two men still existed, they occasionally
visited each other. Nearly a year afterward, the
musician paid the tailor a visit, and was pleased to
find him in possession of a beautiful bulfinch who
could distinctly whistle three tunes. The jierform-
ance was perfect, with this exception — whenever
he came to a certain high note, he invariably
skipped it, and went on to the next. A very little
reflection convinced the musician that the note in

which the bulfinch was imperfect, was the very one
that was deficient on the flute. So convinced was
he, that he at once sharply questioned his ex-
lodger on the subject, who at once tremblingly
confessed the guilt, and that all the bird knew,
had been taught him on the stolen flute. — Beeton's
Home Pets.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.
SALT AND PIGS — SCRAPING TREES.
Being a reader of your valuable paper, I will
take the liberty to make a few inquiries.

Is salt good for young pigs ? If so, in what
manner, how often, and in how large a quantity
must it be given P I have a pig that has a cough
— is there any remedy for it ?

Is there any harm in scraping trees in the fall
or spring ? If not, when is the best time ?

A. I. Newil^ll.
East Scmgm, Feb. 8, 1862.

Remarks. — All animals, even fowls, need salt.
We know of no rule for giving it to them. Feed
a small quantity two or three times a week to the
pigs, and if they flourish under it, continue to do
so, and increase the quantity as they increase in
size.

Feed the pig with a cough on warm, nutritious
food, but not in large quantity, and give him a
dry, warm place, where he can lie and sleep with-
out being at all chilled. He will be grateful
enough to soon recover.

If trees are thickly covered with moss, they are
probably in on unhealthy condition. Scraping
will be useful to them, but breaking up the sward,
manuring and cultivating will be better. It is
doubtful whether scraping young trees is of fur-
ther use than to gratify the eye. The bark upon
a tree which has always had a healthy growth,
will sometimes be very rough — but that it does
any injury, either by harboring insects or in any
other way, we have never learned. It may be
some protection against summer suns, and perhaps
winds. We are not aware, however, that it does
any special injury to scrape away a portion of it,
if it is done with care, at any season of the year.

"WILL the army worm come again ?

Can you tell me if the army worm is sure to ap-
pear again where it was last year ? ISIany farmers
in this vicinity had fine crops completely destroyed
by them ; they seemed to relish everything "but
potatoes. So unexpected was their appearance
last season, (I never saw any before,) that we come
to you to know if they are to make their advent
again this summer coming.

I am exceedingly anxious to know, not wishing
to go to the expense and labor of sowing seed the
profits to be reaped by them.

Fishcrville, 11. 1. Caleb Congdon.

ReMjVRKS. — ^We have no doubt but the army
worm, so called, that did so much mischief last
summer, will appear next summer. But we can-
not promise this positively.

150

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

March

EXPERIMENTS WITH POULTRY.
Below I give you the result of a few experi-
ments in keeping hens. The first was with 1,3
hens and a cock. My hens are what is called the
"common fowl." I sold

172 (loze-n eggs, for $28,0S

Sold poultry .5,67

Kept 40 pullets... , 10,00

$43,75
For cost of keeping , '29,55

Profit..,. $14,20

Second experiment with 55 hens.

5203J doz. eggs antS poultry sold, with value of thos^

left for my own use, $155,70

Cost of feed, &c 101 ,2S

Profit ..$54,42

Third experiment with 159 hens. They laid in
a, year l,5o6\ dozen eggs. Average to a hen one
year, 11745-100, and thirty of them had chickens
to bring up. From Dec. 1 to June 1 average to a
hen 64 eggs.

By eggs and poultry sold $292, GO

By pullets, extra from what I commenced with 9,81

By Leghorn cocks for sale 12,00

$314,47

To cost of feed $102.74

To rent, tools, interest , 11,50— $174,24

Leaving profit of. $140,23

I now have to keep 226 hens and 1 7 cocks. I
find the Leghorn white fowls the best I have got
for laying and eating, as their flesh, being yellow,
sells better in market than the Bolton Greys,
which lay quite as well. I have the Leghorn fowls
for sale at $2,25 a pair, and eggs for hatching at
75 cents per dozen.

In trying to raise chickens without the hens
going with them, I found that v/bat I raised cost
when hatched, 7i cts. I find I have much the best
luck in raising chickens in letting the hen have
25 to 30 each, in a coop. In the above experi-
ments I have not given any credit for manure,
which will sell, I think, for about 33 cts. a hen, or
as some think, it will raise a bushel of corn, if
properly taken care of, and applied to the ground.
John M. Merrill.

Bristol, K //., Feb., 18G2.

TURNIPS FOR SHEEP.

I would like to inquire through your paper
whether the flat English turnip is good for sheep
in the winter months, when they can be raised at
a small cost ? Sulscricer.

Mechanicsville, Vt., 1862,

Remarks. — Excellent, no doubt. Cut them in-
to small pieces, and feed them once a day, a quart
or two to each sheep.

ATTACHING A SAW TO A THRESHER.

Will some of the readers of the Farmer inform
me how to attach a large saw to a common thresh-
ing machine 2 E. B. P.

Mechanicsville, Vt., 1862.

TREATISE ON THE SILKWORM.
Will some of your readers inform me what is
the title of the best treatise on the culture of the
silk-worm in New England, and where it is to be
obtained ? C.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

WINTER SCEISTES.

That old red sleigh, with its long box that never
was full, for down in the straw, wrapped in the
robes, or on one or another of the four seats it
contained, there was always room for one more !
What a grouping of bright, j'oung faces there used
to be in it — faces in hoods, in caps and in blank-
ets ; hearts that have loved since ; hearts that have
broken ; hearts that have mouldered. And away
we went over the hill and through the vale, under
the moonlight and under the cloud ; Avhen the
stars were looking down ; when the sun kindled
the world into a great, white jewel. But those
days have gone forever away, and the sweet old
necklace of bells, big in the middle of the string,
and growing small by degrees, has lost its power
over the pulses.

In that old sleigh, brides have gone away before
now — those that were married to manhood, those
that were "married unto death." Great ships
have gone over the waters with less of hope and
happiness than that rude craft has borne over the
billows of winter. Swan-like shapes now glance
along the arrow}' way, but give us, for its sweet
memories of yesterday, the old red sleigh.

Then, the days when we were "coasters," and
down the big hill, by the majale M^ood, through
the little pitches, far into the valley, we came with
merry shout, each the solitary Palinurus of his
own small craft. How like a flock of swallows
we were, dashing down the declivity, in among a
group of sleds, side by side with a rival, shooting
by like an arrow, steering in gallantry ahead like
a jockey, and on our way up with a sled in tov/,
ere the party had reached the valley below !

And then it was, when the wind had swept away
the snow from the pond and stream, and the ice
was glare, that we put on the "rockers," and dart-
ed hither and thither, and cut sixes and eights,
and curves without number, and drew the girls
we loved, and whirled them hke leaves over the
highway of crystal.

And the schools where we spelt each other dowTi,
and the schools where we sang Windham and
Mear, and the schools where we ciphered and
wrote, and "went up" — gone, all gone, teacher
and taught, like the melting snow under the rain-
bows of April.

And when, sometimes, after the great snow, the
winds came out of the north for a frolic, what
wreathing and carvings of cold alabaster there
were ! AV^hat Corinthian adornings surmounted
the fenc2 posts ! what mouldings were fashioned
beside the way! what fairy-like caves in the drifts!
what flowers of rare finish and pendants of pearls
on the trees !

Have you quite forgotten the footprints we used
to find in the damp snow, as delicate, some of
them, as a love-letter ; the mysterious paths down
to the brook or by the old hollow tree, that we
used to wonder over and set "figure fours" by, if
perchance we might catch the makers thereof?
Have you quite forgotten how sorry you were for
the snowbirds that fluttered among the flakes, and
seemed tossing and lost in the storm ?

And there, in the midst of that winter, Christ-
mas was set, that made the Thanksgiving last all
thi'ough the night of the year — and what wonder

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

151

the stars and fires burned more brightly therefor
— Christmas, Avith its gifts and its cheer, its carol
and charm, its evergreen branch and its bright
morning dreams ; Christmas, when there were
prints upon the chimney-tops, if we were only
there to see them, where Santa Claus set his foot
as the clock struck twelve ; Christmas, when stock-
ings were suspended by hearth and by pillow, all
over the land — stockings silken and Avhite — stock-
ings homely and blue, and even the Httle red sock,
with a hole in the toe ? Blessed forever be Beth-
lehem's star ! — Chicago Journal.

THE SICK IN BED.

With a proper supply of windows, and a proper
supply of fuel in open fireplaces, fresh air is com-
paratively easy to secure when your patient or
patients are in bed. Never be afraid of open
windows, then. People don't catch cold in bed.
With proper bed-clothes, and hot bottles, if ne-
cessarj-, you can always keep a patient warm in
bed. Never to allow a patient to be waked inten-
tionally or accidentally, is a sine qua non of all
good nursing. If he is roused out of his first
sleep, he is almost certain to have no more sleep.
It is a curious but quite intelligible fact, that if a
patient is Avaked after a few hours' instead of a
\q\x minutes' sleep, he is much more likely to sleep
again ; because pain, like irritability of brain, per-
petuates and intensifies itself. If you have gained
a respite of cither in sleep, you have gained more
than the mere respite. Both the probability of
recurrence and of the same intensity Mill be di-
minished, whereas both will be terribly increased
by want of sleep. This is the reason why a pa-
tient waked in the early part of his sleep, loses
not only his sleep, but his power to sleep. The
more the sick sleep, the better will they be able
to sleep. A good nurse will always make sure
that no door or window in her patient's room shall
rattle or creak ; that no blind or curtain shall, by
any change of wind through the open window, be
made to tlap ; especially will she be careful of all
this before she leaves her patient for the night. If
you wait till your patient tells yovi or reminds you
of these things, where is the use of his having a
uurse ? — Florence Nightimjale.

A Hint or Two. — To keep ice from windows,
take an ordinary paint brush or sponge, and rub
over the j^dass once or twice a day a little alcohol,
and it will keep the glass as free from ice as in the
middle of summer ; and it will also give as good
a i)olish as can be got in any other way.

Isinglass is a most delicate starch for muslins.
When boiling common starch, sprinkle in a little
fine salt ; it will prevent it sticking.

For fruit and wine stains, mix two teaspoonfuls
of water and one of spirit of salt, and let the
stained part lie in this for two minutes ; then rinse
in cold water ; or wet the stain with hartshorn.

Careful Reading. — It is not unusual that the
second reading of any work is more profitable than
the first ; and the third or fourth often results in
new discoveries of much value and profit. The
truth is, most of us read too superficially. We
study and analyze too little — in other words, we
tliink too little — don't we ? Let us reform in this
respect. — Rural New- Yorker.

How TO Cook Eggs in the Shell. — A cor-
respondent of the AgricuUurist writes :

One way to cook eggs is to drop them into boil-
ing Avater, and let them remain there three min-
utes— the water all the time boiling. This hard-
ens the white next the shell to almost leathery
toughness, Avhile Avithin it is still not cooked.
Another and preferable mode is, to pour boiling
Avater upon the eggs ; let them stand in this five
minutes ; pour off this, and add more boiling Ava-
ter, and immediately bring them to tlfe tai)le in
the ivater. Those taken out at once Aviil l)e some-
what cooked through ; and those left in five min-
utes Avill be "hard boiled," or nearly so, and thus
the taste of eveiy one may be suited, and no tough-
ness of the Avhites be observed.

YOUTirS DEPARTMENT.

LITTLE CHILDREN-.

The scattered cnimbs upon the floor ;
The rattliag playthinfrs by the door ;
The finger-marks on point and pane —
All are signals showing plain

There are little children here.

The tongs outstretched upon the floor ;
A broken ark, and shipwrecked Noah ;
A horse with tail, nor ears, nor mane —
All are signals showing plain

There are little children here.

The high chairs ranged against the wall ;
The small coat hanging in the hall ;
The little shoes, and little cane,
Add to the signals showing plain

There are little children here.

But now I must resign my pen ;
The children have come back again ;
They but ran out in mud and rain,
To bring new signals, shovring plain
There are little cliildren here.

PLAYING FOR KEEPS.

We are told that this story is real, as children
say. There are a great many little boys Avho are
in the habit of playing for keeps. We hope they
Avill not only read tliis story, but that they Avill re-
solve never to take tliis then' fii-st lesson in gam-
bling :

"See, mother, AA'hat a lot of marbles I've got !"
said John. "I Avant you to make me a great big
bag to put them in."

"Why, Avhere did you get so many, my son ?"
asked his mother.

"I Avon them from Pete Jones. See, I got his
glass taAV, too. I loaned him one of mine to jilay
Avith Avhile he put that in the ring. Isn't it pret-
ty ?" '

"HoAV much did you pay him for them ?"

"Pay him ! Nothing. He and I played for
'keeps,' and I Avas the best player, and won all his."

"How much did they cost, Peter, do you sup-
pose ?"

"If he bought them, they must have cost him
about a dollar."

"And you got them for nothing ?"

"I plaved 'upon the square,' and Pete said I got
them all'fair."

152

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Makch

"So now )'0u have got a dollar's worth of mar-
bles, for which you never paid one cent !" said his
mother, slowly and with em])hasis.

John, who Avas an honest boy, looked at her as
if he did not fully comprehend the extent of her
meaning.

"Mr. Lowly," continued his mother, "is a gam-
bler, and he wins other people's money in the same
way. He plays 'upon the square,' he says."

As the truth flashed upon John that he was a
gambler, he burst into tears, and asked his mother
wliat he must do. After showing him how little
evils cxj^anded into greater, and how persons M'ere
tempted to cheat and defraud when there was a
prospect to make anything by it, she told him to
return all Peter's marbles, and then go and ask
God to forgive him.

Peter seemed very thankful to get his marl)les
back. John left him whistling a merry tune, which
seemed just like he was saying, "Johnny an't go-
ing: to be a gambler."

EDUCATED FEET.

Who can tell to what uses the feet and toes
could be put, if a necessity arose for a full devel-
ment of their powers ? There is a way of educa-
ting the foot, as well as the hand or the eye ; and
it is astonishing what an educated foot can be
made to do. Wc know that in the time of Alex-
ander, the Indians Mere taught to draw their bows
with their feet, as well as with their hands, and
Sir J. E. Tennent tells us that this is done up to
the present time by the Rock Veddahs, of Ceylon.
And nearly all the savage tribes can turn their
toes not only to good, but bad account ; like the
aboriginals of Australia, who, while they are cun-
ningly diverting your attention with their hands,
are busily engaged in committing robberies with
their toes, with which they pick up articles as an
elephant would with his trunk. So also the Hin-
doo makes his toes Avork at the loom, and weaves
with them with almost as much dexterity as with
his fingers. The Chinese carpenter will "hold the
bit of wood he is planing by his foot, like a parrot,
and will work a grindstone with his feet. The
Banaka tribe, who are the famous canoe-men on
the West African coast, will impel their light ca-
noes— weighing only from eight to ten jjounds —
with great velocity over the Avaves, and, at the
same time, will use the foot to bail out water ; and
when they would rest their arms, one leg is thrown
out on either side of the canoe, and it is propelled
with the feet almost as fast as Avith a paddle.
There Avas also Monsieur Ducornet, Avho died only
four years ago, Avho, although he Avas born without
hands, Avas brought up as an artist, and Avho an-
nually exhibited at the Louvre pictures ])aintcd by
his feet. Then there Avas Thomas Roberts, the
armless huntsman to Sir George Barlow, Avhose
feet Avere made to ])crform the duties of his hands.
And there Avas William Kingstone, Avho Avith his
toes Avrote out his accounts, shaved and dressed
himself, saddled and bridled his horse, thrcAV
sledge hammers, and fought a stout battle, in Avhich
he came off victorious. — Cuthhert JJede's Glen-
creggan.

THE CATTLE MARKETS FOB FEBRUARY.

Tlie following is a summary of the reports for the four weeks
ending February 20 :

NUIXBER AT MARKET.

Cattle. S'leep. S.'iotes. Lire Fat Hogs.

January 30 S04 2470 400 '200

February 0 1294 3571 250 150

" 13 9S9 325S 250 50

" 20 ISIO 2502 150 —

Total 4897 11811 1050 400

PRICES.

Jan. 30. Feb. 6. Feb. 13. Feb. 20.

Beef cattle, 4P' lb 4?fi6Jc 45«6J 5(57 5 i?6J

Sheep, live weight 4'j!i6 4|i(j5J 4Vtt5J 4',?j5?

Swine, stores, wholesale.... 3irf4i 3J*f4 SJno iSfiv)^

" " retail 3J54| 4 §5 4 36 b'nG

Livefathogs 3|~ 3^ij4J 4}

At this market, prices and estimates of beeves are based on the
total weigUt of hide, tallow and dressed beef ; in Xew York, on
ttie weight of beef alone ; a difference of something like one-fifth.
Tlrat is, an animal whose four quarters weigh 100 fts. each,
would be rated in Brighton as dressing about 500 lbs., and in
New York at 400 fts., and consequently 4c iP' ft. in this market
would amount to the same sum as oc #■ tb. in \ew York. The
"fifth quarter,'' as the hide and tallow are often called, is heavi-
er, in proportion to the aieat, in very fat than in light animals.

Remarks. — The Xortliern catlle and sheep at market the past
month have been very good, many of them being really v^ell
fitted. Cut few stores have been offered for sale, and but few
have been called far.

In the price of working oxen and milch cows, there has been
but little change during the month. Our reports of sales have
not been very numerous of either class. Pretty good oxen are
sold at from $75 to $100 V pair, and cows from §25 to $45.

The cattle and sheep alluded to in the following paragraphs
were at Brighton Market, February 20:

JIammoth Cattle. — Messrs. Soollans & Flinn put five of
their Western beeves into a yard by themselves on AVednesday,
which were visited as curiosities by nearly every person on tlie
ground. They were fed by J. Dennis, Esq., of Niles, Cayuira
Co., N. Y. One pair of Durhams which liad been in his stable
for three years, weighed at Albany 6050 fts. Another five-year
old pair, of the "mooHy" or no-horned race, weiehcd at home
5000 lbs., and at Brighton 4800 lbs. But the lion of the party was
a four-year old steer, which weighed at home 2900 fts This
steer had no appearance of being over-grown or awkwardly fat,
deeply as his ribs were covered, but was well-proportioned, tidy-
looking and pretty spry, notwithstanding his great weight. The
same might he said of tlie Durham oxen, while, to my eye, the
no-horns were less comely. The whole lot were rich animals,
such as I have not been accustomed to look upon, and good .nidg-
es said, such as are seldom seen either in Brighton or N. York.
I understood they were not sold at the time I saw them, nor did
I learn the price, but it is to bo hoped that the lovers of good beef
v/ill reward Messrs. Scollans & Flinn, not only for the pleasure
they may enjoy at the dinner-table, but for that afforded to the
many admirers of "neat stock" who saw them at Brighton.

Great Sheep. — A^^aleg, Curtis & Sinclair sold to .T. AV. Hol-
lis 9 Cotswold and Lester sheep which weighed at Albany 2400
lbs., or an average of 267 lbs. each. They were all smooth weth-
ers, no horns or stags in the lot. Four of them were rai«ed in
Albany county, and 5 in Genesee. Only 1 had been slaughtered,
and that yielded 33 fts. of rough tallow, which we were told, Jlr.
llollis said was the largest amount he ever took from any one
shrej) before. Those acquainted with the kind of sheep slauch-
tered by Mr. Hollis for many years past will not need aiiyf arlljer
particulars of this lot, except that wc understood the sheep cost
about $25 each.

Comparative Value of Oats and Roots. —
Four and tAvo-thirds pounds of oats are estimated
by analysis to contain a little over one pound of
flesh, muscle and fat forming principles ; to equal
that it Avill take, of carrots, nearly nine lbs. ; of
Aberdeen turnips, near tAventy lbs. ; and of SAved-
ish turnips, near seventeen pounds. It Avill be
seen that the difiercnce is greatly in favor of oats.

DEVOTED TO AGIUCTJLTUIIB AND ITS KIUDSED ARTS AINTD SCIEUGES.

VOL. XIY.

BOSTON, APRIL, 1862.

NO. 4.

KOraSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Opficb 100 Washington Street.

SIMOX BROAVN- EwTOR.

HENRY F. TRENCn, Associate Editor.

CALENDAK FOR APRIL.

PRIL IS supposed by
scholars to have
derived its name
from the Latin
''word Aperire, sig-
nifying to open,
because in those
countries Avhere
our mouths v.ere
named, the buds
open themselves at
this season of the year.
They also tell us that Char-
lemagne, in his new calen-
dar, called it grass viontlt,
the name still given to it by the
Dutch. It is possible that if
these scholars, Charlemagne and
the Dutch, had lived in Xew
England, the christening of their Ape-
rire, or grass month, "would have been
postponed at least one new moon.
To be sure, the buds do open themselves some-
what, and the grass starts more or less before the
last blast on the horn of April is blown, but with
us both buds and grass often have occasion to re-
pent of their rashness and haste. Only last year,
(1S61,) in the first part of the month, the earth
■was covered a foot deep with snow, where it lay I
as it fell ; and from two to six feet, where drifted
by the wind. Near our own residence there was i
a drift about three feet deep, extending for rods, ,
and terminating in a pile, against an embankment j
wall, measuring eight feet in height. Highways
were blocked up, and passenger trains on the rail- '
roads delayed. This, we know, was an unusual
storm for April, but unusual chiefly in respect to
the depth of the snow. Storm and sunshine are I
the order of the month. We must dodge the one
as well as we can, and improve the other the best j
we know how. There is much work to be done I

in April. While the Italian, French, and even
the English farmer, have tln-ee or four months of
veritable spring weather, we have but two at best ;
and old winter claims a portion of one of these,
and in some parts of New England enforces her
claims for the lion's share of April.

Much as there is to do, however, in so little
time, don't drive the boys too hard at fii'st. After
studying in a warm room for tliree or four months,
it is rather tough — we remember it very well — to
face these cold winds, and to take hold of out-
door work in earnest. It may encourage some of
these tender-handed school-boys to be told that it
is not the sons of New England alone that com-
jilain of similar hardship. According to one of
the oldest of the ancient poets, those farmers who
dwelt in the comparatively warm climate of the
region bordering on the Mediterranean Sea made
a great fuss about the cold and hardship of plow-
ing time. They went so far as actually to cry, —
"bawl," the Yankees would call it, — while ploAV-
ing the ground and sowing the seed. It seems
that the poor fellows got bravely over this "crying
spell" before harvest, for they are represented as
quite jolly at reaping time. AVe make a brief ex-
tract from the poem alluded to, as some of our
readers may be glad to preserve even a small por-
tion of perhaps the most ancient agricultural po-
em extant :

"Thoy that sow in tears

Shall reap in joy :

He that goeth forth and weepeth,

Beariii!;; ])recious seed,

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

Bringing his sheaves with him."

We quote from the same author, whose writings
were probably the models of the sayings of Frank-
lin's "Poor Richard," one of the old saws with
which parents, four thousand years ago, used to
encourage their sons to brave the chills of April :

"The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold ;
Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing."

154

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

There is yet a little patch of evening left for
the boys to read. They may have left school for
the season, or for life, but their education is not
finished. Let them have a few moments with
their books, and papers, and thoughts, especially
in these days,

"For we are living, we are dwelling, in a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling — to be living is sublime."

A singular notion seems to have been harbored
in many people's heads, until it is nearly con-
densed into a proverb, something like : Learning
cmx't he lost. Therefore, when the school closes,
down go the lids of the books of their children,
to be raised only when school again opens. Yet
these same people will sometimes claim to have
forgotten more in a year than most know at one
time. The fact is, we forget so fast that almost
constant practice is necessary to keep our knowl-
edge of any branch of science or art available.
For this reason it may be cheaper to let the boys
review their lessons occasionally, evenings and
stormy days, than to neglect study entirely till
school time comes round again.

The young folks generally intend to have a lit-
tle fun on the first day of this month, which is
called "April Fools' Day,^^ not only in New Eng-
land, but wherever the English language is spok-
en. The New American Encyclopaedia says that
the custom of sending people on empty errands,
and laughing at them, is common in every coun-
try of Europe, and wherever the European races
have settled on this continent. Two accounts are
given of its origin. The Oriental scholars say
that it is derived from the liuU feast among the
Hindoos, where a similar custom prevails. The
other opinion is, that it comes from a celebration
of Christ's being sent about to and fro between
Herod, Pilate and Caiaphas. In France, the fool-
ish person is called poisson d'avril, meaning a
silly fish, like a mackerel, easily caught. Li Scot-
land, he is called gotok, which means a cuckoo.

By the first of this month, farmers in this sec-
tion hope to start the plow. This is a most im-
portant branch of our business, and we submit as
a proper subject for special thought and study
during the month of April, the principles and
practice of ploining — the whys and wherefores,
as well as the how.

Com, Oils. — The New York correspondent of
the Boston Commercial Bidlctin says : "The ker-
osene and coal oil trade is very much depressed,
the sujjply being largely in excess of the demand.
The refined oil now sells at from 28 to 30 cents,
which, at the present rate for crude stock, Avill not
pay a profit to the refiners, and the works in this
vicinity are being very generally suspended. Some
parties are buying up and storing large quantities
of the manufactured oil, in anticipation of an ex-
cise duty of ten cents per gallon, being levied up-

on the manufacture by the new revenue act about
to be passed upon by Congress. Enormous quan-
tities of the article are stored in this vicinity, and
the receipts of both crude and refined oil from the
Avells and Western factories are very heavy."

THE CATTLE DISEASE.

AVe are glad that the Board of Agriculture has
thought it proper to call attention to this matter.
There are those who believe the disease is not con-
tagious. We have seen enough to convince us
that it is, and that there is imminent danger of its
sweeping with destructive power over the whole
State. It is more than folly to neglect its en-
croachments. It is among us noxc, beyond doubt
or cavil, and every prudent measure should be
adopted to arrest it, Avhether it is contagious or
not. If those who object to action in relation to
it would visit diseased herds, examine animals
when slaughtered, and make careful inquiries into
the nature of the disease, they would be quite like-
ly to be more consistent in their opposition to
investigation and the measures to prevent its ex-
tension.

Hr.PORT ON THE CATTLE DISEASE.

The undersigned, a Committee appointed by the
Board of Agriculture to prepare a statement of facts
for publication in relation to the cattle disease, would
respectfully report that —

Having good reasons to fear that the disease known
as pleuro-pneiiraonia (so fatal in its ravages among the
neat stock of North Brooktield and vicinity in the years
1859 and 18G0) has again made its appearance in several
towns in the county of Norfolk, they feel it the duty of
this Board to warn the farmers and others, owners of
neat stock in the Commonwealth, that the time has
arrived for them to take every precaution to prevent
the spread of this scourge ; and in view of its conta-
gious nature they would urge the necessity of the
greatest care being taken by all interested in purchas-
ing or permitting strange cattle to come in contact with
their herds.

The disease now claiming our attention made its ap-
pearance in the town of Qaincy last April, breaking
out in two herds nearly simultaneously. Eight ani-
mals from one of the herds were sold to a person in
Ilandolph, m the month of September, for cight}--five
dollars for the lot. One of these animals died before
reaching the homo of the owner, and three more short-
ly after. The other four have been lost sight of. One
herd in Milton, and also one in Dorchester, have been
.ift'ected for some months. Four animals from one of
these herds, which had been sick during the summer
of last year, but had apparently recovered, were taken
to Brighton in the fall and sold. Four of the other
herd have since died or been killed — all presenting a
seriously diseased appearance. On examination hj
the veterinarians conversant with the Brooktield com-
plaint, they pronounced it identical, so far as they
could judge. There are four or live animals still left
of this herd, some of which are cither sick or showing
symptoms of contagion. There are also other cases
which have not been examined — the Selectmen of the
towns waiting the action of the Legislature in passing
a law authorizing a new commission. The law has
now been passed, and the commissioners appointed,
and we would respectfully urge upon the gentlemen
composing that commission the great importance of
immediate measures to nivestigate the disease, and, if
necessary, applying the remedies placed by the law in
their hands, that the ravages of this fearful pest, (which
there is little doubt is identical with the Brooktield
disease, and which can be traced to that neighborhood,)
may be stayed.

There still being doubters in the community as to

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

155

the existence of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, earnest
attention is called to the thorough and convincing re-
port of the first Board of Commissioners, with accom-
panying documents, published in the report of the
Secretary of the Board of Agriculture for 1860.

We believe that no person, however prejudiced he
may have been, who has been present at the examina-
tions of affected animals, has foiled to become con-
vinced of the contagiousness of the disease; and it
would seem impossible that any one can doubt this
fact who will take the trouble to examine the various
reports that have been made in Europe and in this
country on the sul^ject. (Signed)

Henry H. Peters, of Southborough,
Phineas Stedman, of Chicopce,
Freeman Walker, of North Brookficld,
Boston^ Feb, 27, 1S62. Committee.

FACTS AND FANCIES.

Sugar for the Million. — Everybody likes
sugar — and sugar likes everybody, taken in proper
quantity. It is both nutritious and healthful, to
say notliiug of its palatableness in coffee and tea,
puddings and pies. It was once supposed to be
a luxury, merely, but that time has gone by, and
the common opinion now is, that it is one of the
necessities of life.

We are glad to see attention turned to its pro-
duction in the free States. Illinois produced it
in large quantity the last season, and is undoubt-
edly capable of .securing quadruple the amount it
has already made.

Speaking of the cultivation of sugar cane (Sor-
ghum,) in the Northwestern States, the Chicago
Tribune says : "Next to the cotton crop, there
is no agricultural product that at present more
certainly demands the attention of our govern-
ment, as well as the tillers of the soil."

An Agricultural Missionary. — The Jour-
nal d^ Agriculture Pra/f'jiiC, which we receive reg-
ularly from Paris, states that an agricultural so-
ciety in Prussia has appointed a person to visit
the agricultural districts, make himself acquainted
•with leading men as well as farmers, and gather
information on every subject in connection with
the details of farming. Tlais is a step in the right
direction, and one that may be imitated with prof-
it, we think, by every agricultural society in New
England.

Look out for Shrubbery and Fruit Trees.
— The crust that now lies upon the snow will be
quite likely to break down a great deal of shi'ub-
bery and the lower limbs of pear trees, unless some
pains is taken to prevent it. It now adheres very
closely to many branches, and as the snow melts
(for it melts from below as well as from above) it
will drag the branches down and break them.
We saw one half of a beautiful pear tree taken
off in this way two winters ago. The trees should
be visited, and with a shovel, or by some other
means, the crust should be broken and removed
from the limbs. It is a nice ojjeration, and a care-
ful hand should attend to it.

Cure for Dyspepsia. — A Philadelphia gen-
tleman states that, "in a fit of despondency — I re-
solved to try bran bread and good sweet milk. I
earned my resolution into effect, and the happy
result is, that I am now perfectly well. I have
regained my flesh and strength. I sleep as sound-
ly as a rock, and feel as happy as a lark, under this
new state of affairs." lie takes but one cup of
coffee, eats few vegetables, and eschews pastry
and puddings.

Swore Three Times before he Crowed.
— A little girl went to camp-meeting, and when
she got home, she said the sisters in the various
tents told her a good many things, and asked her
questions about the Bible. On being pressed to
state what they told her, she said one thing they
told her was about Peter, "who swore thi-ee times
before he crowed."

For the New England Farmer,
MAKING SUGAR.

Mr. Editor : — There is no season of the year
so profitable to the farmer as in the time of mak-
ing sugar. Let an estimate be made, and see : In
a good season a second growth maple will make
about 4^ pounds of sugar. Five hundred trees,
at 4^ pounds per tree, will give 2250 pounds,
which at 10 cents per pound, would give $225.

Cost. — One man can tend 500 trees with ease,
say,

One man 1 month $15,00

10 cords of wood, at $3 per cord 30,00

Other necessary expenses 20,00

Total $65,00

which, deducted from the income, leaves $160 as
profit for one month's time.

I think my figures are not far from right. Every
one that can tap a tree ought to do so, because we
must be independent of all duties as far as possi-
ble. To make sugar you should have a good sap-
house and a convenient wash-shed, an arch and a
pan. Sap boiled in a jian makes 5 per cent, more
sugar than sap boiled in a kettle, and saves 12<^
per cent, of wood. The sjrup should be boUed as
thick as it can be conveniently, and when done
down to sugar, it should not be very dry ; put it
in a tin can made for the purpose, and then drain
about the first of INIaj', when you Avill have maple
sugar of the first quality. Tin buckets cost too
much to commence with ; they are liable to get
bruised and cannot be kept from rusting. Buck-
et-pails are just as good, with half the cost, and
last just as long. Joseph E. White.

Wallingford, February 10, 1862.

Steeping Barley before Sowing. — A wri-
ter in the Homestead recommends that seed barley
should be steeped before sowing in a solution of
copperas or blue vitrol, the same as is often done
for wheat, and then rolled in plaster enough to dry
it. He says it has the eftect of giving it a rapid
start, and makes it come up strong and dark col-
ored. He thinks the benefit equal to ten extra
loads of manure per acre.

156

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

LEGISLATIVE AGE.ICULTUBAL SOCIETY.

Reported for the Farmer by P. W. Lothrop.

The sixth meeting of the series was held on
Monday evening last, at the R,epresentatives' Hall,
when the subject for discussion was Farm Build-
ings. The Hon. SiMON Brown, editor of the
Neio Enr/land Farmer, was invited to preside.

The chairman thanked the gentlemen for the
position, but said he was not fully prepared to dis-
cuss the matter. Few things were more impor-
tant on a farm than the kind and location of farm
buildings. Buildings should be located as near
the centre of the land as practicable, and not many
rods apart, where it could be done without too
great sacrifices. Where they are already located,
we must make the best of it. Some farmers ob-
ject to this congregation of buildings, as increasing
the danger from fire ; but the speaker thought
this a minor consideration. Others object to the
odors from barns by their close proximity to the
dwelling. But these can be prevented or over-
come by the proper use of muck and other materi-
als as absorbents. Mr. Brown here showed a di-
agram exhibiting the position of farm buildings as
he would have them. They would be attached —
first the house, then the kitchen or dairy-room,
wood-shed, and carriage-house, following on, and
then the barn. The loss in an extra and unneces-
sary travel of six rods each time of going to the
barn, for 40 j^ears, going and retui'ning ten times
each day, would be 5,480 miles, or about 137
miles annually.

Another point in regard to farm buildings — and
one heretofore greatly overlooked — is the want of
shelter for them. If they stand out, in a bleak
and dreary landscape, they are seriously affected
by the elements that work upon them, viz : the
sun, wind, hail and snow. The effect of the sun
upon wood-work — \Yhere its rays are not softened
by a screen of some kind — is quite destructive.
The shingles on most of our roofs show it, and the
warping of outer boarding may be traced to the
same cause. In an unprotected house, the vind
is pressed tlirough every opening, bringing cold
and dampness, and making an additional cost to
keep the room comfortably warm. It is thought
that good shingles would scarcely wear away in
less than fifty years, provided they could be kejit
precisely in place all the time — while under the
combination of the sun, wind and rain, they hardly
last one-third of that time. These effects would
be greatly modified, if buildings were partially
protected by the presence of trees in their vicinity.
It requires but a narrow belt of evergreens to
form a complete barrier against the wind. The
liemlock is an admirable tree for this purpose. A
breadth of ten feet set with that tree or with the
Norway spruce alternating, efiectually shuts out
the wnds. The wliite pine, also, so common

among us, is hardy, easily removed, and is as
graceful and handsome as the hemlock or spruce.
These evergreens are not valuable merely for their
beauty of form or the protection which they afford,
but partly for the sootliing sounds that come from
tliem on a summer night, like the coming and re-
treating waves on a far-off sea-shore — or the
grander music of winter winds through their
branches, swelling into sublime anthems of atmo-
spheric power. If they are interspersed with the
rock-maple, the graceful white biz-ch, the moose-
wood or sumac, the effect will be still more jjleas-
ing.

The south should be left open. This aspect has
few liigh winds, and the windows looking out upon
it may be sufficiently protected from summer suns
by a few climbing plants, such as the Prairie
Queen, or Balti7nore Belle Roses, the Scarlet, Yel-
loxo Monthly, or the Bed or White Tartarian
Honeysuckle, Chinese Wistaria, or other climbing
plants.

From the foot of these should be a green, well-
kept lawn, if it be but twenty feet square, where
the children can take their little friends and have
a frolic.

In conclusion, he hoped farmers will listen more
frequently to the promptings of a refined taste,
and do more about their homes with reference to
beauty as well as utility. They will have a happy
influence upon the mind, habits and character ;
will light up the home with sweet affections, and
shed a fragrance over all its duties.

Hon. Albert Fearing, of Ilingham, being
called upon, said he might not be able to throw
much light upon the subject, but he thought our
farmers should cultivate three things — conveni-
ence, economy and beauty. He lived in a house
built in 1G9S, but it was conveniently arranged
and good for a farmer. He spoke of barns, and
mentioned one of his own, which was 40 by 60
feet ; but he wished to speak particularly of sheep
barns. Too little attention, he thought, had been
paid to sheep. There should be only 25 or 30 in
a flock, and they should be I^ept warm and diy.
He described a barn of liis for this purpose — 20
by 40 feet — and observed that the hay should be
where the sheep are, the pens six feet high, and
alleys for them on each end. In his, the hay
comes from the centre, and there are places for 30
sheep on each side. He also made other state-
ments respecting it, and said it cost $400. He
had another barn for sheep and cattle, with a cel-
lar under it, and sheep sheds connected therewith,
which he thought not good economy to paint. Al-
so, another one facing the west, 60 by 40 feet,
nearly in the centre of thirty-five acres. The cel-
lar is eight feet deep, stoned with granite, and ad-
mits of entrance Avith a cart ; it cost from $5000 to
$6000, and would admit tlu-ee standing loads of hay

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

157

on the floor. He spoke of tool-houses ; said all his
buildings Avere painted in front ; thought cattle
preferred soft water ; has not lost any animals ;
keeps his yards dry ; also his pig-pens, and lets his
hogs come out into the sun, which they need ;
they arc healthj', and eat well. If he should
change the structure of his buildings, they would
be a little lower, with common sheds for sheep be-
tween them. We must show the young man that
farming can be made profitable, and he thought
that sheep culture could be made so, on our poor
lands, and those just cleared of wood.

Hon. J. W. Proctor, of Danvers, being invit-
ed to speak, said he hoped to hear from some of
the legislature, as this was their meeting. He
alluded to the costly barns which had been spok-
en of, and said we should inquire what should be
the buildings of the smaller and less wealthy far-
mers. He was on a committee in Essex county,
to examine barns, and they found a great want of
proper arrangement in their structure. Many were
too long, and not sufficiently high. Gen. Sutton
had four barns a quarter of a mile from each other,
and cut from 100 to 200 acres of hay. Mr. P.
thought that barns should be from 70 to 80 feet
long and 40 feet wide, being so arranged as to
drive in ten feet above and throw the hay down.
He alluded to Mr. Newhall, Avho took a premium
for the best barn. The prevalent rage for barn-
cellars he deprecated, and said they were not
good for the cattle above them, nor necessary for
the manufacture or preservation of manure. As
to large houses for farmers, he objected to them,
but commended cottages, and advised farmers not
to waste their money in large buildings.

Mr. Browx, the chairman, said he thought
large houses necessary sometimes — more especially
for fai'mers' clubs.

Mr. Crosby, of Boston, said he had travelled
much, and had owned a farm of 1100 acres; and
thought the rule should be, a large barn and small
house.

Dr. LoRiNG, of Salem, spoke of barns. A man's
taste will guide him as to liis house — not so as to
his barn. The latter is not an easy thing to build,
and he doubted M'hether there was a model one in
the Commonwealth, though there were many very
convenient ones. In fact, our farmers cannot af-
ford to build such. He once visited Mr. Leavitt,
of Great Bamngton, who resided much of his
time in Ncav York, but had sent his son into the
country to become a farmer, and the young man
thought he must have a good barn. He com-
menced it, but before it got above the foundations,
$•±0,000 were spent. Dr. L. intimated it was a
caution. His own barn was 100 feet long, and 40
feet wide ; would hold forty cattle and ten horses.
Barns should have good cellars, glass windows,
&c., and should be convenient for cattle and men,

•w-ith good facilities for feeding. They should hold
large quantities of hay, and he thought well of the
old-fashioned barn, where you could drive into
one end and out of the other. He alluded to stor-
ing hay ; thought the platform difficult to load ;
shifted his timbers on the beams. He ties his cat-
tle with chains, and where they steal from each
other, he divides their heads. Chains are easy to
cattle, but to an extent troublesome. To give
more room behind cattle, he thought 42 feet wide
would be better. As to cellars, with proper con-
struction and ventilation of the barn, they are not
injurious, but are important in the making of ma-
nure. Frost is as injurious to manure as the sun.
Dr. L. advocated tight barns in this connection,
and said the best hay was from them. He also
spoke at some length upon the reported assertion
of Mr. Chenery, that the cattle disease, or jjJcuro-
pneumonia, was in his case caused by tight barns,
and argued earnestly that, under the circumstan-
ces, it was impossible to be so.

Hon. JosiAii QuiNCY, Jr., said that in England
and on the Continent they do not store their hay,
but stack it and feed from the stack. With prop-
er shelter for feeding cattle, he thought we might,
to an extent, adopt the plan. His own barn is 70
by 90 feet. Barns that are high are good ventila-
tors. He also alluded to the horse pitch-fork, and
observed that with one the woi'k of thirty-five
minutes with the hand-fork could be done in seven.
On a cold day he would not allow his cattle to
come out, but gives them water from within,
drawn from a flowing brook, which is always in
operation both summer and winter. Mr. Quincy
also alluded to his milk well into which he sus-
pends milk, and finds no change in the seasons.

Mr. Taylor, of Montgomery, said he had a
farm of his grandfather, the out-buildings of which
were just as they happened. These he had im-
proved. He thought the out-buildings in the vil-
lages were well kept, but in the towns of the coun-
try they were shocking. The spirit of improve-
ment had been awakened in him by hearing a lec-
ture upon this and kindred subjects, and he called
up the painter. His buildings were rough, except
the carriage house. But with a new kind uf paint
an acre of surfac» was painted for twent}' dollars'
worth of paint, and thought the improvement was
a hundred per cent. He advocated housing carts,
and said he had put up a building 18 by 24 feet
for this purpose, at a cost of twenty-five or thirty
dollars. Under such buildings carts will last twen-
ty-five or thirty j^ears. To a question by the chair-
man as to the nature of the paint used, its color,
cost, &c., he said the base was whiting, with per-
haps a little lime and oil, with colors to suit. The
cost of what he used Avas about $20 ; but with
good oil would have cost $100 or $120.

Mr. Howard said he had examined Gen. Sut-

158

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Afril

ton's barns, ■which Avere for hay, and this he sold
out at a great rate. They were tight, with cellars
underneath in nearly all of them. It was strange
he should sell his hay.

Mr. Wetherell hoped barn cellars would be
well considered, for he believed that they injured
the grain and hay, and he had no doubt a miller
could discover much injury to the grain. He ad-
vocated barns for cattle, and hay in stacks, and
had his doubts as to large barns for the latter.
He had heard of a hog-pen that cost $2,000 ! Mr.
W. also slightly touched upon a few other kindi'ed
matters before closing.

Mr. QuiNCY rose to say that he turned his cat-
tle out every day, probably excepting the severest
weather.

Mr. Proctor said Mr. Sutton's stock bam was
open on the north side ; the manure is moved out.

Mr. Moody, of Enfield, advocated barn cellars,
and said his own did not affect the hay. In liis
stables he sows plaster.

The time for closing having now arrived, Mr.
Wetherell moved that the same subject be retained
for further discussion at the next meeting, wliich
being assented to, the meeting adjourned.

For the New England Farmer.
HO-W TO BAISE CALVES.

Mr. Editor: — It is doubtless a very simple
matter to raise a good calf, if you allow him to
suck the cow six months or more, but except in
cases of thorough bred stock, which Avill command
fancy prices, this is too expensive for the majority
of New England farmers, and is, in my opinion, a
serious injury to the cow.

The opposite extreme of commencing to feed
skimmed miW, when a calf is a few days old, I
consider equally unprofitable, because good calves
are seldom raised in this way, and we can purchase
western cattle so cheaply that it does not pay to
raise a poor animal, if, indeed, it does under any
circumstances.

The object with most of us, I suppose, is, not to
raise stock to any great extent specially for beef,
for that can be done cheaper where land is worth
less for other purposes, but to keep up our stock
of cows and working oxen l)y raising our most
})romising calves, and to adapt these to our not
{dways over-luxuriant pastures, in the point aimed
at, -while, at the same time, we must avoid dwarf-
ing the animal to such an extent as to injure its
constitution.

The greatest obstacle in the way of substituting
skimmed milk, grain, Sec, for new milk, is the li-
ability to produce "scouring," and this Is so diffi-
cult to avoid, that even S. lOdwards Todd, with all
his skill and experience, abandoned that method
of raising calves, but after trying almost all ways
and kinds of feed with various success, I have at
last so far "learned the trade," that with good
stock to begin upon, I think I can raise good,
thrifty animals in nineteen cases out of twenty,
without any scouring at all, and will give my
method for the benefit of others.

I do not allow the calf to remain ■nith the cow
more than from twenty-four to forty-eight hom-s,
because I think it easier teaching him to drink,
and the cow is less likely to be uneasy. In teach-
ing him to drink, I insert my fingers in his month
and hold the kettle of milk with the other hand
for one or two feedings, after wliich I have a place
made to hold it from tipping over, and teach him
gradually to take his^fness without the finger. It
the fingers are crowded into the mouth, sometimes
he will refuse to suck them, to avoid wWch I pre-
fer to begin upon them when lying doM'n, patting
and rubbing the head gently, which generally re-
moves all fear. Perhaps I should say here that no
r on gli treatment should be allowed, even if ^jro-
voldng awkwardness is manifested. The amount
of milk given depends on the size of the calf, but
two and one-half to three quarts will do for our
common native cattle, which I gradually increase
to four or five. I prefer to tie them, because it
prevents them from sucldng each other's ears, — ^is
the first lesson in learning to lead — and they can
then be watched separately to see the eff"ect of
their food, an important item, as I shall show
presently. I feed entirely on new milk for two
weeks, and then change gradually to skimmed
milk two weeks longer, gradually increasing, but
being verij careful to majce no sudden change. A
little rowen is fed as soon as they will eat it, and a
few oats or a little oil meal is sometimes added at
five or six weeks, but I would not feed much meal
until nine or ten weeks old.

While increasing the feed, I always rvatch the
excrements carefullg, and if at all too thin, give
them a little salt pork sHced very thin (winch they
will swallow readily if put in their mouths and the
head held u^) a few moments,) and diminish the
feed. The milk should be continued until three
or four months old, and then taken away gradu-
ally. I feed but twice a day, and consider this suf-
ficient. Plenty of litter should be supplied, and a
little wood ashes and yellow earth are, without
doubt, beneficial, but not indispensable. I have
heard scouring attributed to the saltpetre collect-
ed under old buildings, and that calves could not
be raised in such places ; but although neatness is
quite important, plenty of litter wUl secm-e it al-
most anywhere.

You will perceive that the points wliich I con-
sider most important are gradual change of feed,
careful watching, and no grain except oats or oil
meal, and very Utile of that, until they are old
enough to he able to hear heavy feed.

Wm. F. Bassett.

Ashficld, Fehniary 13, 18G2.

Fine Wool. — Mr. Solomon Bixby, of War-
ren, N. H., has sent us some beautiful samples of
wool from his Spanish Merino Sheep. We have
seldom seen any of finer quality. He says, "The
Spanish Merino Is a patient and docile animal, as
well as hardy and prolific, bearing much confine-
ment without injury to health. Accurate experi-
ments show that tliis sheep requires only about
two-thirds the fodder that it does for the large
breeds. Their fleece is fine, and of good size, av-
eraging about six pounds per head."

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

159

For the New England Farmer,
CATTLE BREEDS.

Among the topics introduced and discussed at
our town and State agricultural meetings, during
the winter season, few are of more importance or
excite greater interest than those which relate to
stock-raising and the various breeds of cattle.
Judging, however, by the reports of the discus-
sions as published in the newspapers, it is plain to
see that, notwithstanding the testimony usually
advanced to support the various theories proposed,
much difference of opinion continues to prevail
upon the subject.

This is to be regretted, inasmuch, speaking gen-
erally, where there is nothing certain established,
there is no new light reflected. But, I apprehend
the difficulty is not so much one of doubt, in a sci-
entific point of view, as, that tliose circumstances
which would tend to influence a theoretic result,
are not taken into consideration. The truth is,
the rearing of a big calf is too often held to be a
fact of itself, independent of physiological condi-
tions ; and when the process of reasoning stops
there, what is to be gained by further argument ?

But, it is far from my wish to say anything to
discourage the efforts everywhere making to dif-
fuse a better knowledge of what is required to im-
prove the breeds of cattle.

Discussions upon these and kindred topics are
of the highest importance to the farmer ; and tlie
chief and only complaint that I would utter is, that
too little weight is attached to the value of true
scientific tests.

The time is not far distant, I trust, when the
different States will become convinced of the im-
portance of doing sometiiing to introduce the breed
of cattle best adapted, or, rather suited, to their
particular soil and climate.

The public treasury of any State need not be
heavily taxed for such objects. Better would it
be to educate the farmers by the cheaper method
of establishing libraries, and courses of proper sci-
entific instruction, trusting to individual enterprise
for results.

Kentucky, by the introduction of the "Improved
Durham'' or Short-Horn breed of cattle, has great-
ly increased her agricultural wealth. It is the kind
of stock exactly adapted to her rich pasture lands,
and our markets are now largely supplied with
beef from cattle grown in that State.

Massachusetts has experimented with several
breeds of foreign stock, and great praise is due the
public spirited legislators Avho had the wisdom to
project and the skill and influence to put into prac-
tical operation, a scheme of such infinite worth to
the agricultural interests of the "Old Common-
wealth," as the State Farm.

But the question is not yet settled. The farm-
ers of this State are still in doubt. Those in the
western division give the preference to the Dur-
ham ; — those of the central portion, to the Devon ;
— while those of the eastern choose the Alderney
and the Native. Few like the Ayrshire.

The State Society has imported several bulls
and heifers of this kind of stock, but they have not
done well, and have failed to give entire satisfac-
tion. The stock of Ayrshires imported expressly
for a gentleman in Southboro', by Mr. Sanford
Howard, were selected with great care, regardless
of cost, and they are said to have done Avell ; still,
they are not altogether liked.

I think it is doubtful if this breed of cattle is
well suited to our soil and chmate. So far as my
observation has extended, they are not a hardy
race, and tlu-ive only on extra feed. Their milking
qualities are not much above the average of our
native stock, and for the purposes of beef they are
no better.

It Avas my purpose, when I began, to speak of
cattle and breeds, independently of the opinions of
mere stock fanciers ; for it must be plain to every
one, that to form a correct judgment as to the
breed of cattle best suited to a particular locality,
every circumstance, materially influencing their
condition, must be taken into account.

The best and the most profitable of all, where
hay and grain are cheap, is, without doubt, the
Short-Horn.

Crossing the Short-Horn with the North Devon
stock has been tried, and good results have been
obtained ; indeed, grades of this kind are held in
high esteem both for their milking qualities and
for their beef.

But there is danger of depreciation after a few
generations, unless, as in all mixtures of the sort,
the laws governing physiological science are strict-
ly observed throughout. Breeding with the same
bull for a series of years would change the type
obtained at the start, or, technically speaking, ac-
cording to the EngHsh, the progeny would "cry
back."

What is usually called native stock can be great-
ly improved by crossing with foreign breeds of
the better descriptions. The Short-Horns or the
North Devons, depending, of course, upon the lo-
cality and soil, can be crossed with great advan-
tage to those who cannot afford the cost and out-
lay for full bloods ; — and, it is to be hoped, if such
an experiment is thought well of by our farmers,
that some systematic plan will be inaugurated, by
which a distinct native breed, combining most of
the desiralfle qualities of the approved foreign
breeds, will be secured.

The plan adopted and pursued by the late Col.
Jacques, in breeding the "Cream Pots," was gen-
erally approved by our stock growers, especially as
it was claimed that he followed the rules wliich
governed Mr. Collings in breeding for his celebra-
ted Short-Horns. But, the Colonel did not live to
perfect his breed, and there is now scarcelv a trace
left of it. '***.

West Roxhury, 1862.

The Umbrella. — The umbrella has been used
from very remote antiquity, as it is evident from
carvings and representations foimd among ancient
ruins of Persia, Arabia and China. Nevertheless
it was not used by men in England until during
the last century, and it is said that Jonas Hanway,
who died in 1786, was the first person Avho used
an umbrella in the streets of London. Even at
that late period a man carrying an umbrella was
an object of ridicule, and excited the jeers of the
people by his "effeminacy." Previous to the in-
troduction of umbrellas, the hackney-coach was
the shelter of unfortunate pedesti-ians who hap-
pened to be cauglit in a shower ; but it was cus-
tomary, after their introduction, to keep a single
umbrella at each of the coffee-houses, which, in
cases of emergency, was lent, together with a boy
to carry it.

160

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

April

For t'te Keto England Farmer.
COOK'S SUQAB EVAPORATOR.
[Sugar-making, either of maple sap or Sorghum,
has come to be a matter of much importance to
many of our subscribers, and we feel desirous to
furnish them with all the information upon the
subject that comes to our knowledge. We there-
fore give place to the cut and description here-
with presented.]

Among the most useful of late inventions is
this simple contrivance for evaporating saccharine
juices. Its construction is as follows : —

The Evaporating Pan is constructed of copper
or galvanized sheet iron, Avith wooden sides, and
so divided by ledges as to form a continuous trans-
verse channel about five inches v.ide. The pan is
placed upon a furnace made of cast iron and heavy
sheet iron, and lined within with brick. It pro-
jects about six inches over the sides of the fur-
nace, to afford cool sides. The whole is mounted
upon rockers of angle iron, thus giving a complete
portable iron and brick furnace combined, and
possessing all the advantages of either.

In operating, a stream of maple sap or cane
juice is taken at the front end and passes back and
forth through the transverse channel, and flows
out at the lower end in a continuous stream of
well defecated, finished syrup.

The mode of defecation is a beautifully philoso-
phical one. The stream of juice passes across the
heated centre uf the pan, and conies to the cool
side, when the scum rises and rests, being held
there by the transverse ledge. It cannot follow
the stream through the next channel, because the
boiling at the centre repels it. The stream thus
continues its course back and forth, depositing the
impurities at the cool sides, where they rest until
removed by skimmers. Thus, by the time the

stream is half through the pan, it is thoroughly
defecated, and arrives at the lower, or finishing
channels, in a pure state. Owing to its purity in
the finishing state, the maple syrup and sugar
made on this Evaporator are of a lighter color and
richer flavor than have ever been made in any
other Avay. No eggs, milk, lime or chemicals of
any kind are used.

By the use of a running stream, a very shallow
body of juice may be kept upon the Evaporator
■without danger of scorching, thus securing very
rapid evaporation.

The object of the rockers is to regulate the flow
of the stream to Guit the fire, so tliat it shall reach
the outlet just at the point of crystalization.

The use of the transverse channel, the projec-
tion of the pan over the furnace to secure a cool
rest for the scum and motion in the pan to regu-
late the inclination, are each and all secured by
patent to this Evaporator.

It is a great economiser of fuel, requiring only
from one-half to three-fourths of a cord of wood
to about 100 lbs. of sugar.

As a Sorgho Evaporator, it has no rival. Sor-
ghum sugar was made upon it last fall by i/te ton.
All the samples exhibited at the Illinois and Ohio
State Sorghum conventions, last January, and all
the samples yet exliibited in the Patent oflice, were
made with it.

Pamphlets, Sec, may be had on application to
Blymyers, Bates & Day, Mansfield, Ohio.

Transplanting Shrubbery. — In transplant-
ing native shrubbery, from the forest to the open
lawn, or door yard, this precaution is necessary.
Select your trees from as open and sunny an ex-
posure as you can find. Mulch the surface after
planting with saw-dust, spent tan-bark, chip ma-
nure, or something of the kind, and in very hot
days, shade with boai-ds or bushes. — Ohio Farmer.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

161

For the New England Fanner.
KETKOSPECTrVE NOTES.

Culture of the Kohl Rabi. — On page 61
of the February number of this journal, will be
found a brief article on the foregoing heading, in
the closing sentence of which O. K., of Rochester,
Mass., asks his brother farmers to send to the Ncio
Encjland Farmer their experience in the culture
and use of this plant.

In compliance Avith this request, I propose to
state some of the more important items of my
knowledge concerning it, partly obtained from a
brief experience with it, and partly gleaned in the
course of researches made in several quarters pre-
viously to making my first attempt in raising it.

It is to be desired that the request of O. K. for
information in regard to the culture and use of the
kohl rabi should be responded to by all the readers
of this journal who have had experience with it,
as in the more coinmon books of reference — Al-
len's American Farm Book, for example — there
is not a word of information to be found in regard
to it. Nor need this be wondered at, for it is only
a few years ago that it first received attention in
this country ; and only in 1857, that the attention
of English farmers was first directed to it as a
field crop or substitute for turnips. This was
in consequence of a partial failure of the tur-
nip crop in several counties of England about
that time ; but it was not vmtil 1847 that there
was any testimony in its favor which seems to hav»
commanded much attention. In that year, a Mr.
Davis stated that he had been very successful, for
some years, in raising large crops of this plant,
even upon poor soils, and commended it as supe-
rior to Swedish and common wliite turnips, of
both of which there had been again a pretty ex-
tensive foilure in consequence of a long-continued
di'ought. Even in England, so far as can be as-
certained from statistical accounts of crops there
raised, this plant is not yet extensively grown, but
from the most recent accounts it seems certain
that it is beginning to receive increased attention
as a farm crop.

One recommendation of tliis plant is that it is
in some respects better adapted to succeed in our
dry climate and hot summers, than the turnip.
The author of the "Cyclopedia of Practical Agri-
culture,"— a Avork of the highest authority, — says :
'•Kohl rabi is tlie bulb of dry summers ; heat and
drought are congenial to it, and experience has
proved that this plant grows, prospers and yields
an enormous crop, under circumstances wherein
white turnips and Swedes could barely exist."

Another recommendation of this plant is, that it
stands the cold of our winters much better than
white turnips, and better, even, than Swedes, or,
as called among us, ruta bagas. The Cultivator,
(Albany,) of 1858, quoting from the Irish Far-
mer's Gazette, says : — "The Kohl rabi is proposed
as a substitute for the turnip, as it presents us all
the qualiiics required for this purpose. It is per-
fectly hardy, and ivill stand severe frosts better,
and keep in store for a longer period than the
Swedish turnip. It also resists the attacks of the
fly and the grub." Mr. L. Norris, of Ashtabula
Co., Ohio, also bears testimony to the same efi'ect,
in said volume of the Cidtivaior, saying of the
green-stemmed, or late green variety, wliich he
got from Canada : "This ra:re vegetable is sweeter,

more nutritious and more solid than the turnip ;
produces a greater weight per acre ; it is also har-
dier, and keeps better than anij other bulb" Mi*.
N. says he has grown specimens weighing 14|
pounds. Mr. Harris, editor of the Oenesee Far-
mer, says it has been found hardier than the Swede,
and "is quite unaffected by frost, even with the
thermometer 10° below the freezing point." We
have usually buried it like potatoes, and found it
always good in spring.

Another recommendation of this bulb or root is,
that it produces a greater weight per acre than
turnips. A fair average crop of this plant, in Scot-
land, is 25 tons of bulbs to the acre, and about 8
tons of leaves. These tops are larger and better
than those of turnips for feeding to stock, resemb-
ling small cabbage leaves. Our cows have eaten
them greedily.

As to the culture of this crop, it is found to
grow on any sg*!1 fit for turnips. I have found it
do well on a clayey loam. As it requires about
six months to come to maturity, it must be sown
early. When sown in June, I have found the crop
quite small. The cultivation is the same as for
turnips.

As to the use of this plant, it is said that all
kinds of stock are fond of it. We knoio that cows
certainly are ; and for them I think it much better
than turnips, and nearly equal to cabbage. It
gives no turnip taste to the milk. Try a little ot
it, and sow early. More Anon.

For the Neta England Farmer.
PEEDOTO- CAIiVES.

Mr. Editor : — I noticed in your last a receipt,
how to raise calves. Mr. Bassett says it will not
answer to feed any kind of grain to young calves,
excepting oats or oil meal. I think he is mistaken.
I think any kind of meal can be fed to young
calves to a good efi'ect. I do not pretend that a
large quantity of raw Indian meal should be given
to a young calf; reason would teach a man better
than this. I have raised quite a number of calves
myself

In the spring of 1859, I raised thirteen calves,
and all the milk they had was what two ordinary
cows gave. I fed them on Indian meal and boiled
potatoes. I put the meal into a kettle of water
and boil it very thin, for one hour or more, until
it comes to a kind of jelly, and boil a sufficient
quantity of each to last tv/o or three days. I give
each calf four or five potatoes, well mashed up with
what meal I think the calf will bear ; turn the milk
on them, and stir them well together. In teaching
them to drink, I put tv»'0 fingers in their mouth,
leaving a space between them, so that at each draft
they can draw what they would naturally want to
swallow. I keep a tub of clean Avater and a box
of salt, where they can help themselves. My
calves are as good in the fall as my neighbors' arc,
that suck twice a day until they go awgy irom the
cow. II.

aroton, N. H., March 3, 18G2.

The Horticulturist. — The March number of
this popular journal is illustrated with a beautiful
engraving of the Adirondack Orape, and contains
many excellent articles on horticultural subjects.

162

NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER.

April

For the New England Farmer.

THE MAJSrUFACTUKE OF BBANDY AND
SUGAR FBOM BEETS.

Mr. Editor : — Some Uvo years ago, you pub-
lished an article of mine in the Farmer, on this
subject, Avliich drew out considerable inquiry from
difl'erent sections of the country ; and as the war,
and consequently the new tariff" bill, will enhance
the price of these articles considerably, I beg leave
again to trouble you with a few additional remarks
on the same important subject.

It is a well known fact, that in France and oth-
er parts of Europe, the distillation of brandy and
the manufacture of sugar from beets has been pros-
ecuted on a large scale for many years ; and that
the profits to the distillers, especially, have been
enormous ; and that many large fortunes have
been made, in an incredibly short time, by those
embarked in that branch of business, as the sta-
tistics of France do testify. Now when we learn
from our own statistics what an immense sum is
annually paid by this country to France, for beet
brandy, of a very inferior quality, those farmers
experienced in the cidtivation of that root are of-
ten led to Avondcr why we cannot manufacture our
own brandy, and by so doing create a demand for
om- produce, by keeping that large amount of
money at home.

That wonder is still increased when we find that
under proper cultivation we can produce fully one-
third more of the raw material, per acre, in many
portions of New England, than they can do in the
most favored provinces of Europe, and of decid-
edly better quality. Three bushels of beets raised
in the vicinity of Boston will produce as much
saccharine juice as five bushels raised in the vi-
cinity of Paris.

This may appear somewhat paradoxical to the
casual observer, but the matter has been tested
by actual experiments, and beet-growers of France
admit the fact, as can be seen in some of their ag-
ricultural reports. Such is the peculiar adapta-
tion of much of the soil of this State — at least to
the production of beets — that it is justly said to
be the only crop that the farmer can raise that has
no hidden or secret enemies to contend with.
Neither maggot nor mildew, nor any of the end-
less varieties of insects that infest and often de-
sti'oy other crops, has as yet interfered with the
beet in the smallest degree. Thus it would ap-
pear that the cultivation of beets in this country
can be entered upon with some sort of certainty
as to the final results ; whereas most other crops
are liable to numerous contingencies even in the
most favored portions of this frugal land. See-
ing, therefore, that such is the case, and that the
present unfortunate Avar may make it both diifi-
cult and expensive to obtain these articles ffom
aljroad, we ought to manufocture them at home,
in order to be as independent of foreign aid as
possible. The first Napoleon, as a measure of
necessity, as well as good policy, introduced the
manufacture of sugar from beets many years ago
into France ; and up to the present time, that
great nation has supplied itself with the very best
quality of that article for domestic consumption,
and could have had a large surplus for export had
not some foolish legislative enactment of the gov-
ernment retarded its progress. The amount of
revenue that France derives from the exportation

of beet brandy to different parts of the world is
too well known to the intelligent statistical reader
to require any comment in this article ; and the
people of the United States ought to learn wis-
dom from such a source.

Farmers are often heard to complain for want
of a market for their produce, and yet pay away
their hard-earned money to foreign countries for
what ought to be, and easily can be, raised on their
OM'U farms. Judging from the signs of the times,
however, at no very remote period, we may, like
Napoleon the First, of France, be compelled, by
stern necessity to manufacture our own sugar,
or go without sweetening. Beets can be raised
profitably by our farmers at eight dollars per ton,
and two tons make thirty-two gallons of double
distilled brandy of far superior quaHty to what is
generally to be found in most of the fashionable
hotels and drinking establishments in our large
cities. Now let those acquainted with the price of
foreign liquors calculate the prospective profit,
seeing the expense of the raw material and manu-
facture is inconsiderable. From ten to twelve
bushels of the proper variety of beets, one hundred
weight of the best quality of sugar can be pro-
duced ; and any one acquainted with the simple
process of making maple sugar can do it, and the
utensils required can be got at small cost. Hav-
ing had practical experience in the manufacture
of both articles from childhood, (I may say,) I can
state with confidence that fortunes can be made
from this branch of business, could people of ade-
quate capital be induced to take hold of it. Were
it not for encroaching too much on the space of
your valuable paper, I should have said much
more on the subject, but you may hear from me
again. Thomas Cruickshank.

Beverly Farms, Feb. 12, 1862.

Remarks. — Our correspondent states above,
that "from ten to twelve bushels of the proper va-
riety of beets, one liundred iceiglit of the best
quality of sugar can be obtained." This result
is so much more favorable than we had supposed
it could be, that it led us to look at some books
at hand. In the "New American Encyclopedia,"
it is stated, that "five tons of clean roots produce
about four and a half hundred weight of coarse
sugar, which gives about IGO pounds of double-
refined sugar and 60 pounds of inferior lump su-
gar ; the rest is molasses, from which spirits of
good quality are distilled."

For the New England Farmer.
WOOL-GHO\yiNG IlyT VEHMONT.

At a meeting of the Directors of the Vermont
State Agricultural Society held at Bellows Falls,
Feb. 12th, the Hon. H. Henry Baxter having
declined the office of President, on motion of
the Hon. J. W. Colburn, the Hon. Edwin Ham-
mond, of ]\Iiddlebury, was unanimously elected
President for the ensuing year.

The following preamble and resolutions were
adopted :

Whereas, harmony and concert of action among
wool-growers, is as important as among members
of other occupations ; and whereas, great losses

1S62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

1G3

occurred to the people of our State, the last yeai',
from the failure to appreciate the real value of
wool and the condition of the wool market ; and
whereas, there is a question interesting alike to
producer and manufacturer as to the manner of
preparing wool for the market ; therefore,

Mesolved, That for the purpose of discussing
these and other questions important to the wool-
growers of the State, and for the purpose of aid-
ing in the reaching of reliable conclusions with re-
gard to these matters, we recommend the hold-
ing of a WooL-GuowERs' Convention in tliis
State, some time during the present year.

Itcsolved, that the Secretary be requested to
call such a Convention, to bo held under the aus-
pices of the Vermont State Agricultural Society
at Rutland, on the afternoon of the ninth day of
September next ; said day being the first day of
the annual Fair of our Society.

Daniel Needham,

Secretary Vermont State Agricultural Society.

For the New England Farmer.

TIMELY" ADVICE TO A BROTHER
FARMER.

Mr. Editor: — The New England Farmer,
which is always a welcome guest in my family
every Saturday evening, has just been laid aside
for the pen, in order, if possible, to answer some
of the inquiries of your correspondent, "Hamp-
shire," concerning "What shall I raise, or how
shall I make farming profitable, in these times ?" I
feel more constrained to converse with him on ac-
count of the noble stand he has taken not to cul-
tivate the filthy weed, tobacco. And I extend to
him the right hand of fellowship, believing, as I do,
that the raising of that Avhich does not tend to cul-
tivate neatness and good breeding in society, does
not constitute true farming.

True fanning does not consist in placing too
much value upon dollars and cents, but rather in
returning, in some manner, to the soil, the crops
taken therefrom. Better that any farmer should
return to his farm all proceeds of it, rather than
to lay up money in banks, or invest it in any oth-
er way. Then why is not this as good a time for
the farmer as any ? If a farmer begins by laying
out the proceeds of his farm in some way upon his
farm, it will some time return to liim the interest,
and I am very firm in tlie opinion that it will re-
turn a dividend also. By a continuance in so do-
ing, he Avill, by the natural increase of his income,
be enabled more extensively and scientifically to
cultivate his farm, as each succeedhig year he
reaps the reward of his husbandry.

What should we say of the merchant, who
should lay up in some safe place, every dollar he
chanced to make, instead of laying it out to re-
plenish his stock, and thereby make his business
more prosperous, as well as more profitable. If
this is the true course for the merchant, then why
not for the farmer ? And when he has enriched,
beautified and ornamented the fiarm he now occu-
pies from the resources of the farm itself, which I
believe is possible, then let him extend the area
of his farm, and continue the true cultivation of
the earth while liis strength of body and mind
permit.

Here let me again say to your con-espondent
that I truly congratulate him in the stand he has

so nobly taken, and I take it for granted that he
is one of those firm, resolute, whole-souled men,
who will withstand the temptations of those
around him.

Let us, then, not judge of farming, as concern-
ing dollars and cents, but rather in retu.niing to
the farm all Ave can make it produce, to increase
its fertility and value, thereby maldng farming
jirofitable ahvavs. WORCESTER.

Feb. 8, 18G2.

For the i\i'ut England Farmer.
COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE.

Having seen a communication in the N. E. Far-
mer of Dec. 21st, signed by S. L. White, South
Groton, in vv'liich he speaks about using Coe's su-
perphosphate of lime without much, if any success,
I Mould say that I have used it for several years
with very satisfactory results to myself. In the
fall of 1860, in harvesting my corn,. I found I had
by measure one-third more of com where lime was
used in the liill, than where none was used ; tliis
year the odds was not as much, but nearly as fol-
lows :

The piece I have just har\ested measures 5|
acres, very nearly, on which I raised 740 bushel
baskets of ears of corn, as bright and yellow as
any one could wish to see, wliich is a little over G-1
bushels to the acre. In June, 1859, 1 plowed and
planted the piece with potatoes, corn, ruta bagas,
itc, with scarcely any manure. I put plaster in
the hill and had as good a crop as could be expect-
ed. In the spring of 18G0 I sowed the same
piece with oats, and had a very bomitifui crop,
without any further manuring. As soon after the
oats were gathered as I could attend to it, I had
the stubble plowed under ; in the spring of 1S61
I spread on about 30 ox-loads, of 30 to 2o bushels
each, of manure to the acre, and plowed it well,
(for I don't a])prove of half-plowing.) On the two
last days of May I planted it, putting in the liill
one table-spooniul of plaster and lime mixed
together about half and half ; I left two rows with-
out anything in the lull. In two rows alongside
of these I used a single handfid of wheat bran to
the hill, and two other rows alongside, I used one
spoonful of clear phosphate of lime in the hill, and
the result was as follows :

Clear lime to the row 17 bushels of ears.

Bran 16 " "

Lime and plaster 15 " "

Notliing 15 " "

The rows Avere about 220 liills long. The com
where notliing was used Avas not near as sound
and good as any of the rest, the clear phosphate
being the best. I think the corn was enough bet-
ter Avhere the phosphate and bran Avere used, to
pay all the expense, even if there had been no
more bushels. In using the bran, or clear phos-
])hatc, there should be some dirt kicked on before
dropping the corn. I shelled four baskets of my
corn and got tAvo bushels and tAvo quarts. It is
the tAvelve-roAved variety. I do not think, nor ex-
pect, the phosphate Avill ansAver in the place of
manure, but merely as a stimulant.

L. C. French, 2d.

Bedford, N. H., Dec. 30, 1S6L

P. S. — I forgot to say that I can find a good
many ears of corn among mine that have over 800
kernels to the ear. L. c. F.

164

KEW ENGLAXD FARMER.

April

For tlie New England Farmer.
COST OF ROOTS.

Mr. Editor: — I noticed through your paper
that at the discussion at the State House, the ques-
tion was asked as to the cost of roots, and as no
one seemed to know, I will give you the detaUs
for their benefit.

On the 24th of jNIay I sowed a piece of land with
mangel wurtzel ; last year the crop was Hungarian
grass and weeds — full as much of the latter as of
grass. I turned the stubble in early, and spread
at the rate of 40 loads of good manure to the acre.
Last spring it was plowed and cultivated, drilled,
and four horse-cart loads of compost manure to an
eighth of an acre was put in the drills. The drills
were three feet apart and plants nine inches. One-
eighth of an acre was kept separate, and weighed.
Now for the cost :

5 loads of manure, at §1,25 per loacT, }< spent $3,12

JI an anil Inrse plowing ami cultivating 30

2 loads put in drills, $2,00, )i spent. T 1,00

DriUinc' 25

Plantiujr 25

Cultivating 3 times 15

Following with hoe, 1}^ hours each time 67

Gathering and housing.. 1,50

Total $7,24

Total weight of roots S035 pounds, equal to 4 tons, or

42 tons to the acre, worth $S per ton $32,00

Balance in favor of roots $25,76

Or to the ton §6,44

About the first of August we began to gather
the lower leaves, and before the fifth of September
one ton v.'as gathered, and one ton more when
harvested. Full a ton was allowed to go to waste.
I think, with ]}roper care, the top can be made to
pay for cultivating and manure spent. The ground
is left in much better condition than found. One-
eighth of an acre of carrots cost four times more
to cultivate, and produced only about tAventy-two
tons. I have raised both kinds for several years,
with result similar to the above. The mangels
can be cultivated at less expense than corn, they
shade the ground so soon. L. W. Curtis.

Globe Village, Feb. 5, 1862.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The History op Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First
Settlement in 1640, to the year ISGO. By Geouge Wixgate
Chase. Haverhill: Published by the Author.

This is an exceedingly interesting book. Be-
side the minute details of the settlement of the
town itself, the author has introduced many pages
of the most interesting historical facts, though all
tending to illustrate his principal topic. The true
character of the Aborigines of New England is lit-
tle understood by our people. They have general
credit for a heroic daring and purity of purpose,
which, in our mind, is not justified by the record
of their deeds which has come down to us. Mr.
Chase says, — ''The aboriginal inhabitants of New
England held a low place in the scale of humanity.
They had no civil government, no religion, no let-
ters, no history, no music, no poetry. The French
rightly named them, Les Hommes des Bois, —
"Men Brutes of the Forest." He gives a search-

ing analysis of their character, which certainly robs
it — and justly, too — of that stern purity which has
so long been accorded to them, and declares that
"in constitution of body and mind, they were far
below the negro race." The book is handsomely
printed, and illustrated with upwards of twenty
maps, views, plans and portraits of distinguished
persons. A copy of this liistory should be in
every town library of the State.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.

MANURING — SEEDING — BEST TURNIP — PRUNING
GRAPE VINES — OYSTER SHELL LIME, ETC.

1 . In the spring, I think of turning over a piece
of greensward for planting corn and potatoes. Is
it the best way to spread manure on the grass and
then turn over the sward, or turn the sward and
then spread manure on top and harrow or cultiva-
tor it in, or is some other way better than either ?

2. In seeding ordinary planting land to grass,
how many bushels of oats is enough per acre, or
would it be better not to sow any ?

3. Would Rhode Island Bent seed be any bet-
ter to seed land with that is heavy, than any oth-
er kind, and how many bushels is 'enough jier
acre ?

4. I wish to know the best, sweetest and most
profitable Idnd of turnip to raise for the table. I
do not mean flat turnip.

5. When is the best time to prune grape vines ?

6. Can oyster shell lime be bought now in Bos-
ton or vicinity, and if so, at what price per bbl.?

7. I have a mare that has been lame by spells,
for about two months and a half, sometimes quite
lame for a while, and at other times not so much
so ; I have tried quite a number of remedies that
others have recommended without much real good ;
at last, I thought I would try Arabian Balsam. I
should have said before that the trouble appears
some like the "scratches." It is in the pastern
joint of the fore leg. The flesh cracks, and the
edges of the cracks are hard and sore ; there has
])een fever in the foot and joint, I think. I pour
the balsam into the cracks once or twice a day ; af-
ter a few days it will heal, then I stop using bal-
sam, and use the mare, and then the flesh cracks
again. Can you tell me a remedy ?

Wrcntham, Feb. 10, 1862. A Subscriber.

Remarks. — 1. Opinions and practices are divid-
ed on tliis point. Some of the best farmers in New
England always practice the former mode, while
others, equally as good, pursue the latter course,
and each has reasons in flivor of his OM'n peculiar
mode. We have tried both ways, and prefer to
plow first, then make the manure as fine as we can
— and should be glad to have it as fine as corn
meal if we could, profitably — work it under one or
two inches, strike out the field into squares, and
add some quickener to the hill, such as hen com-
post, superphosphate of lime, American guano,
night-soil compost, or some warming and quick-
ening stimulant that will push the crop along in
the early part of the season. Whatever this stim-
ulant is, it should be scattered over a space 8 or

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

165

10 inches square, and be thorouglily mixed with
the soil.

2. Farmers, such as wc have spoken of above,
vary in their practice, sowing all the Avay from one
bushel and a half to three bushels per acre. There
is no -well-settled rule about it. If the oats are to
ripen and be harvested for their seed, a less quan-
tity may answer than if they are to be cut green
for fodder.

3. It is not the practice to seed land with red-
top, or "Bent Grass," alone. Four quarts of tim-
othy, three or four pecks of redtop and 8 or 10
pounds of clover seed, make a judicious seeding
for an acre.

4. The Sweet German.

5. Prune gi'ape vines in November.

6. Oyster shell lime may be purchased of Mr.
James Gould, Boston, at 50 cts. per cask.

7. Keep the parts affected perfectly clean when-
ever the mare is not at work, and rub with some
soft, clean oil, and give her two table spoonfuls of
Epsom salts twice in the course of eight days.

SnAnXG THE nOKNS OF STEERS.

Mr. Clark Hill wishes to know how to match
steers' horns. The position of horns may be
changed by scraping them. If it is desii-ed to
turn the horn up, scrape on the under side ; if to
turn the horn out, scrape on the inside, and vice
versa — as that side of the horn scraped grows
faster than the other, thereby changing the course
or direction of the horns. But this is a slow pro-
cess, and I wiU give you a more efiectual method
of matching steers' horns. You may be aware
that horns, when young and growing fast, are ten-
der, and may be turned in almost any direction
by gently pulling them. Now, then, take a ball
and screw on to the horn tight ; then take a
small pulley, make it fast over the head in the di-
rection 30U wish to turn in the horn ; then take a
small cord, make it fast to the horn, pass it over
the pulley, and tie on a weight ; taking care not to
put on too much weight, which would turn the
horn too short. About the weight of a brick is
sufficient for a two-years old steer. Whenever he
is put into the barn, hitch on the cord and let
the v.-eight be pulling, and in the course of two
or three months there will be a decided change in
the position of the horn. C.

Groton, N. II., 1802.

Remarks. — N. S. Waterman, Orange, Vt.,
suggests the same mode, and says that oiling the
scraped portion will facilitate the process. Mi".
J. M. Fuller, of Faiiiee, Vt., gives the same di-
rection.

PARSNirs for cows in certain cases.

I frequently hear of covv's not doing v/ell after
calving. I have a cow that dropped her calf Feb.
3, but retained the after birth. I tried a number
of things but to no effect, until the 7th, when
one of my neighbors passing by, told me to give
her four quarts of parsnips. I did so, and in less
than twelve hours it Avas di-opped. I have siace

learned it had the same effect upon others. INIany
valuable cows have been lost and others ruined,
by forcing the after birth away or by letting it rot.
I was informed by the same person that one of
his neighbors, in order to liave his cows do well,
gave them parsnips a number of weeks before
their time was out, and the next morning he found
thev had dro])t their calves. S. II. WllEELER.
Maso7i Centre, N. II., 1802.

COTTON CULTURE — BORDERS.

Will you please to state in your next number of
the Fanner the modus operandi of the Cotton
Culture ? Having received seed from the Patent
Office, I desire to know how to plant and care for
the same ; I have got the necessary improvements
for starting the seed under glass, if it must be so.

Please state how to prepare the ground in bor-
ders for starting grape cuttings, rose cuttings, &c.

Subscriber.

Reil\rks. — In the Southern States, cotton
seed is sown in rows commonly four to five feet
apart, and eighteen inches apart in the rows. If
the crop is kept clean and the soil light, it will be
likely to flourish better. It ought to be sowed as
early as it can be, and escape frost. Two or three
plants in a hill or cluster, is enough. If the plant
grows rank, when it is up two or three feet high,
cut off the top, as is sometimes done with the to-
mato, and this will throw the growth into the pod,
and sensibly increase it.

To prepare borders for grape cuttings, &c.,
make a deep, fine soil, to which add manure plen-
tifully, and let a portion of it be slaughter-house
manure. Dig this in deep, and until the Avhole —
soil and manure — is thoroughly mixed.

RED OAK SAWDUST.

I am using red oak saw-dust to bed my cattle
with, my muck being frozen, but my neighbors
say I am all wrong, it being so soui- it will spoil
my manure, spoil my crops, spoil my land ! Will
you, or some of your correspondents, enlighten
me upon the subject. I use lime and salt in my
compost, and shall use the saw-dust until I learn
something more about it. I used the ash saw-
dust last winter with good effect. A. F.

West Baldwin, Me., 1862.

Remarks. — We have no doubt that even the
red oak sawdust is valuable, as you use it. I\Iixed
gradually with the droppings of the cattle, or com-
posted with lime and muck, it has considerable
value in its mechanical effects upon the soil, as
well as for its nutritive properties.

now TO SET FENCE POSTS.

Please to tell farmers who are so often inquir-
ing how to set fence posts so as not to have them
heave out by frost, to sharpen the end, make a
hole with an iron bar, drive the post in, and it will
stand fast fur ever in anv wet land.

East Burl^, Vt., 1862. S. Walter.

166

NEW ENGLAND FARISIER.

April

For the JS^ew England Farmer,

FAKMEKS' CLUBS— A FORWARD MOVE-
MENT.

Friend Farmer : — I have recently been much
interested in a forward movement by a Farmers'
Chib that I wot of, and which I think will greatly
increase its usefulness. The Club was organized
about ten years ago, and its members are wide-
awake men, deeply interested in the improvement
of themselves in knowledge of their business, and
of their farms in productiveness ; many of them
hardly missing a meeting for the whole season,
though obliged in some cases to travel, in inclem-
ent weather, from three to four miles from home.
It has been the custom of this Club at the begin-
ning of each winter to select questions for discus-
sion and fix places for the meetings for every week
during the season, and the programme is printed
and a copy given to each member. The meetings
are held at the houses of the members ; the mem-
ber at whose house they meet being expected to
■write an essay to be read as an introduction of the
subject up for discussion that evening. These es-
says are supposed to embody the best thoughts
and the ripest knowledge of the writers, the re-
sult of practical experience, and the study of books
and of nature ; and the discussions that have fol-
lowed them have always been interesting, and of-
ten intensely so. The topics discussed are usually
of a practical character, directly relating to the
business of the farm ; with occasionally one of a
broader interest, whose practical bearings on farm
management are not at fii'st sight so direct and
palpable.

It has recently been suggested that it was time
for the Club to take a step forward ; that it might
be more profitable sometimes to introduce sub-
jects that were not familiar to all — topics that Avill
reward as well as require special investigation by
the members — instead of permitting them to de-
pend on their previous knowledge or experience
for what they shall say. It was believed that all
wanted to learn sometlnng that they did not al-
ready know ; considering the Club a sort of school
for mutual instruction, where every one is able to
teach a little and learn a great deal. It has also
been suggested that the interest in, and the fruits
of our discussions would be greatly increased if
the subjects to be talked and written about were
selected and assigned a year beforehand, as op-
portunity would thus be given for special and
more thorough investigation, by examination of
common practices, and looking into the reasons
for them, while performing the labor, by experi-
ment in the fitting season, by a study of the ex-
periences and theories of other men as recorded
in books, and by careful study of the pages of Na-
ture's great book as they ai'e turned over for our
perusal. Every member is supposed to be a think-
ing man, and to be desirous to come at facts and
true theories ; and is expected to be at all times
wide-awake to observe, and free to criticise, in a
kind and truth-seeking spirit, the opinions and
practices of his neighbors as well as his own, be-
lieving that truth, though standing alone and un-
recognized, is more Avorthy of regard than error,
however venerable for age, or however highly or
numerously patronised. By using this longer
time for more thorough and exact investigation,
the members expect to be enabled to winnow out

some chaff from among their opinions, leaving the
good and reliable grain in a better condition to
sow for another crop of valuable knowledge. It
would seem that a company of men earnestly in-
terested in questions having an important bearing
on the general welfare, with these topics specially
before them for thought and inquiry during a whole
year, can hardly fail to bring out something that
would be new to each individual, as well as estab-
lish on a firmer basis such of the old notions as
may be found good. If in no other way useful,
this plan, faithfully carried out, will surely tend
to develop the spirit of inquiry, to give increased
mental activity, promote the love of knowledge,
and to some extent furnish the means of gratify-
ing that love.

I have been induced, Mr. Editor, to offer you
this statement, in the hope that other clubs may
adopt the plan proposed, unless they already have
one as good or better. m. p.

Concord, Jan. 30, 1862.

Fvr the New England Farmer,
AMERICAN GUANO.

Mr. Editor : — "Patent" or "foreign" fertilizers
have become quite an "institution" in the pursuit
of agriculture. And when it is considered that the
greatest problem which the farmer has been called
upon to solve, has been, and still is, how shall the
fertility of the farm be improved, or even kept up,
without keeping a stock of cattle sufficiently large
to consume all, or nearly all the hay and grain
raised upon the farm, we shall readily understand
why "extra" or "foreign" fertilizers have become
as much a necessity, as the improved implements
of husbandry, which enable us to accomplish dou-
ble the amount of labor in less than halt' the time
consumed in the use of the ruder implements of
the past.

A large share of the farmer's resources have
long been expended in producing means to keep
as large a stock as possible through the winter, in
order to make Ins manure heap as large as possi-
ble in the spring, whether the making of flesh or
the products of the dairy gave an adequate return
for the expenditure of the hay and grain, or not.
Fields distant from the barn, and old pastures,
have had to remain in their worn out condition,
because the faamer has felt constrained to apply
liis manure to fields more convenient, requiring, as
it Avould, even if he had barn manure to spare, a
large outlay in labor to transport such heavy and
bulky materials to more distant localities. But
the introduction of "foreign" fertilizers has done
much, and is destined to do far more, in the fu-
ture, to advance tliis important interest of the
farm.

The intelligent farmer finds that by a judicious
application of some of these fertilizers, he can
keep up, not only the fertility of liis oft cultivated
fields, but he can render fertile and productive
lands which have long been of little value. With
him, the question whether farmers can afford to
purchase such manures, has been settled aflirma-
tively. liis only concern is to know zohich special
fertilizer, among the many urged upon his atten-
tentioii, is most worthy of his patronage and con-
fidence.

In the hope of aiding in the solution of this

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

167

question, Mr. Editor, permit me to state my own
experience in the use of the American Company's
"Jarvis Island Guano," — a guano obtained from
an island in the Pacific Ocean, whose deposits
have the same origin as those at the Cliincha
Islands in Peru ; the cliief difference arising from
the fact, that the former island is situated in the
latitude of variable M'inds, wliich produce occa-
sional rains, whereas the latter are within a belt
of climate where rain is almost unknown. Peru-
vian guano is chiefly valuable for its ammonia,
while the Jarvis Island guano is surpassing rich
in phosphates — according to Prof. Hayes, of Bos-
ton, containing no less than an equivalent of 81
per cent. — an element of fertility which, above all
others, our old fields and pastures are most de-
ficient of.

I have used the American Company's guano for
the last two years with marked success. My first
trial of it was upon a half acre of old pasture —
light sandy loam — sowed with oats and grass seed,
it having "been broken up and planted with pota-
toes the previous season, with no other manure
than superphosphate in the hill — being too far
from home to think of applying barn manure —
and which had not been plowed or top-dressed for
twenty-five years. I did not expect any other re-
turn fi-om the oats, than a little feed for rny young
cattle ; but they grew so well, and became so
promising for a crop of grain, that I determined
to let them mature. Before the grain got out of
the milk, a portion became so badly lodged, that I
was obliged to cut that portion in a green state,
making a small horse load. The remainder of the
half acre'matured, and yielded twenty-one bush-
els, weighing thii-ty-four pounds to the bushel.

My second trial was upon ten rows of corn,
through a field of three acres, evenly manured
throughout with best barn manure, at the rate of
eight cords to the acre ; a small handful of the
guano was applied to each hill in ten rows, making
about twelve hundred hills. These ten rows pre-
sented a marked superiority throughout the sea-
son, and at harvest, upon careful measurement,
yielded twenty per cent, more corn than the aver-
age of the rest of the field, besides maturing ten
days earlier. My neighbors were often called dur-
ing the season to witness its appearance. I have
also used this guano as a top-dressing to old field
gi-ass with marked and profitable results. I have
used it for peas with the most gratifying success.
And as tliis guano is sold at about forty dollars
per ton, I consider it the best and cheapest foreign
fertilizer to be had, especially for pastures and old
fields. It is richer in phosphates than any other
article with which I am acquainted, and if its ef-
fects upon growing crops are not so striking or
immediate as the Peruvian guano, I am persuad-
ed that it will prove of more lasting benefit to al-
most any soil to wliich it may be applied.

Westhoro\ Jan., 1861. T. A. Smith.

Remarks. — Whsi Mr. Smith says above, cor-
roborates what we have more than once stated as
the results of our own experience in the use of
American guano. We know him well, and his
practices as a farmer. His farm is not managed
by guess-work, but is conducted systematically,
and so that he is able to give satisfactory reasons

for the results he objects. We believe that all
persons may obtain results similar to those stated
by Mr. Smith, if they use the guano as judiciously
as he did.

For the New England Farmer.
BEDDING AND PLASTER IN" STABLES.
I have just read a piece in your January num-
ber, signed "More Anon," on the use of plaster in
stables, &:c. I will tell you my plan, which I find
is not only cheap, but I think as good as any oth-
er, viz : After cleaning out my stables, I have a
half-bushel of sawdust, or a large shovelful of sand
to each horse or cow, sprinkled over the stables.
More does no harm, as it absorbs urine when the
stock is put up again.

I prefer sawdust for horse bedding to anything
I know of, and always lay in enough in fall and
winter, to carry me through. 1 generally keep a
thickness of six inches under my horses all the
time, and find it is very little trouble to keep
them clean, and the stables sweet. I see forest
leaves recommended very highly for putting in
yards, hog-pens, stables, &:c., and have no doubt
they are excellent.

WHITE AND PITCH PINE LEAVES.

Can you recommend the leaves of our common
white and pitch pines for the same use ? I have
an almost inexhaustible supply of them near by
my barn, but have not had faith to use them.

COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME.

I put Coe's superphosphate on three rows of
corn through a piece last season at planting, and
we could pick out the rows an eighth of a mile dis-
tant, from the time it came up until cutting stallis,
and even after that. I also put it on some corn at
the first hoeing, in alternate rows, where there had
been no manure at all, and it did not show itself
at all. I also tried it on alternate rows of pota-
toes on the same land, at the same time, and
could see no effect whatever. I set out one-
fourth acre of sweet German turnips about the
middle of July on some old pasture land, and put
a small handful of it in the hill, and had a fine lot
of turnips, but a small piece was left without any-
thing, and the turnips were not worth pulling. I
intend trying it more definitely another year.

North Blackstone, 18G2. J. Aldrich.

Timothy Grass in Southern Ohio. — I have
had about one hundred acres in grass on my farm,
for the last twenty years, and testing its value in
dollars and cents by a close calculation of weight,
find Timothy to be the most profitable of all grass-
es. INIy cattle prefer it to any other grown in this
climate. I find that every kind of stock that feeds
on grass, works after the Timothy more than the
other grasses, and they pull it up and destroy it,
and other grasses and weeds take its place. I can
cut my grass with a mowing machine, for fifty
cents per acre ; a good yield will average two tons
per acre. Baling it costs $1,50 per ton; the
whole cost of preparing one acre of Timothy grass
for market, is $o,50 per acre. ]My crop of hay
has sold, for the last three or four years, at the
rate of $15 and $16 per ton ; two tons per acre,
shows a profit of $24 per acre. — W. D. Kelley, in
Ohio Farmer.

168

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

VEEMIM" OjNT cattle,

XEN and cows, and especial-
ly young cattle, are very li-
able to be attacked by ver-
min, — and unless care is
^^ taken to prevent their de-
predations, they will seri-
ously impair the growth and
productiveness of the stock.
In the spring these exotics
usually show themselves the
most numerously, and for
this reason we call especial
attention to the matter now.
Applications are annually
made to us for some reme-
dy to destroy these pests, and among those sug-
gested are, —

Any clean oil, applied to the skin and thorougly
rubbed over all the upper portions of the ani-
mal,— and particularly along the line of the back
bone, between the horns and ears, and on the
shoulders and neck. The reason for covering
such large portions of the creature is, that lice
do not breathe tlirougli the mouth, but through
breathing-holes or 2^ ores in the body, and when
they come in contact with oily substances, these
pores are stopt, and they die.

Fine sand, or dry loam, carefully sifted over the
animal, and frequently repeated, will greatly an-
noy vermin, and perhaps drive them from their
places. It is probable that cattle paw the fresh
earth and throw it upon themselves, for the
same reason that fowls burrow in the ruts or
the dry garden soil.

Ashes. — Some persons apply wood ashes, and it is
good, but requires to be used with much care.
If it is applied plentifully, and the animal is ex-
posed to rain soon after, the ashes is leached,
trickles down in ley, and takes off the hair as it
passes.

Tohncco-icater is also employed by many, and is
frequently effectual. This may bo purchased in
a highly concentrated and convenient form.

Kerosene has been latterly used, and with success.
If applied too freely, it seems to set the hair and
partially tan the skin. Where it has been ap-
plied profusely, we have seen tho old coat of
hair remain on nearly through the summer,
while the skin under it was hard and dry, and
appeared to be inactive.

Yelloio Snuffis often successfully applied.

Unguentum is a certain remedy, but is a danger-
ous one in unskilful hands. Its active property
is probably quicksilver, (mercury,) and has a
j)owcrful influence u])on the skin, rendering tho
animal liable to take cold upon e.xposure.

Spirits of Turpentine is another remedy, and is
said to be a most effectual one. The mode of
using it is to take a common wool card, and pass
it over the animals until the teeth are pretty
well choked with hair, then pour on a small
quantity of spirits of turpentine, but sufficient
to moisten the hair in the card, and again pass
it over the animal's coat — applying the card first
in places Avhere the vermin "most do congre-
gate." In this way every insect will be com-
pelled, almost immediately, to "vamoose." The
operation should be repeated in the course of
three or four days, as newly-hatched lice may
supply the place of then- progenitors which have
been destroyed or driven off by the fii'st. Aa
turpentine is of a very diffusive and penetrating
nature, one wetting of the hair in the card will
be sufficient to dress off an animal of ordinary
size. This last remedy we give on the recom-
mendation of others, and not as the result of
our own experience.

DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS.

Probably nothing, among the hardy herbaceous
plants, can excel in rare value and beauty the die-
lytra. Hardy as a peony — which it resembles in
its foliage — as soon as the frost is fairly out of the
ground, it commences to push its tender and suc-
culent shoots upward to the sunlight. K is a vig-
orous and fast grower, and almost as soon as its
first delicate leaflets are fairly formed, the first
slender blossom-buds appear to give promise of
coming beauty. Planted in the border, with a
good exposure, and in good company, or by itself
on the lawn, (in either case in rich soil,) it will
command the admiration of all who see it.

When properly cultivated, it begins to blossom
in iMay, and continues in bloom during the great-
er part of summer ; the plant usually attaining a
height of about two feet. The flowers, which are
of a peculiar and beautiful shape, and of a beauti-
ful rose color, appear in long racemes, each floM'er-
stalk drooping gracefully under its burden of pen-
dulous blossoms — each blossom a perfect curiosity
in itself, which will Avell repay a close examination.

This unique plant is of Chinese origin, and was
introduced into England a few years since by For-
tune. It has proved itself capable of withstand-
ing our severe winters unprotected, but it is best
to give it a slight covering in the early part of the
winter, to ensure a vigorous start in the spring. —
The Homestead.

Tapes in Poultry. — A writer in the Country
Gentleman says he cures tliis disease in chickens
by feeding them on food described as follows :

I take of cracked corn (chicken feed,) four
quarts — four quarts coarse wheat bran — scald the
meal and bran at the same time — add two table-
spoonful of good wood ashes sifted, as also one
tablespoonful of best ground black pepper. I feed
my turkeys and chickens in the same way. I feed
often, say once every three hours.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

169

LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Reported fou the F.uimer dy D. W. Loihrop.

The seventh meeting of the series Avas held on
Monday evening last, at the Representatives' Hall,
when the subject foi* discussion was that of the
previous meeting, namely, Farm Buildings.

Mr. Stedman, of the Committee on Agricul-
ture, called the meeting to order, and observed,
that though he did not intend to preside — expect-
ing Mr. Davis, of Plymouth, to do so — he would
occupy the chair till he came. Not desiring then
to discuss the subject himself, he would call upon

Mr. Wetherell, of Boston. Mr. W. spoke
of the importance of the subject to farmers, of the
necessity of a good farm-house, with proper out-
buildings, convenient, tasty, and located near to-
gether. There was economy in this, not only for
the farmer's own vise, but also in letting them, if
occasion required. The dwelling should be of a
size convenient for the family, and should be tasty
rather than costly — and so with the other build-
ings generally. They exert a happy influence
upon the children, and the speaker contrasted
those bred in a low thatched-roof cottage with
those reared in dwellings of more architectural
beauty. The former were apt to be but little
above animals, while the latter were neat and in-
telligent. He thought the grounds around barns
should be underdrained, as a point in neatness,
and spoke of the evils of damp barns, and their
evil influence upon sheep. He also alluded to the
importance of the ventilation of barns ; the strong
scent of ammonia affecting the hay, though not
always perceptible to those frequently in the
buildings. The heat arising from the manure, al-
so, he thought bad for the cattle, especially where
occasional di"aughts of cold air were introduced.
He advocated ventilation, but it should be at the
top, and spoke of some improvements upon the
old arrangements for this purpose. The milk, too,
of cows without good air, he believed was much
deteriorated. Barns for cattle should be only of
medium warmth, as heat tends to weaken them.
He spoke well of watering stock inside of the
bam ; the room they required, their position, &c.
In regard to the disease of cattle being influenced
by tight barns, he thought there was danger, and
urged proper ventilation. Hay, in such barns, he
again intimated, was injured, and he thought it
well to keep this in one barn, and the cattle in an-
other, Avith a railway, perhaps, between them for
transporting it — laborious it might be, but he
thought well of it. He could not favor barn cel-
.ars, as he had not the slightest doubt of their
bad efl'ect upon the hay above them, as in such
barns a man's clothes would become saturated in
an hour with ammonia.

Hon. John Brooks, of Princeton, being called
upon, spoke of his experience in regaxd to barns.

They should be adapted to the immediate circum-
stances of the farmer. He had built two with some
good arrangements in each ; but he seemed to fa-
vor the old New England style, with a door at each
end. He objected to pitching hay higher than the
beams, and thought the bays should be broad.
He has a barn cellar, and formerly worked his
manure over in it the first year, but thought it in-
jured his hay, as it changed to an ash color. He
noAV carts out his manure in the spring, and sees
no discoloration of the hay ; would have a cellar
aside from his barn, and shove the manure into it,
but would not have it under the hay. He has a
cow-yard, 40 by 70 feet, which is covered, and he
tliinks the manure improved. He ventilates his
barn at the top, but none can be kept entirely
sweet. High barns were objectionable, as we
should not pitch hay more than sixteen feet. He
recommended turning out cattle for water, but we
should be careful, and not let them drink too
much, wliich they were inclined to do.

Gen. Sutton, of Salem, being called up by Mr.
Ploward, said he commenced farming thirty-five
years ago on four acres, and finding his barn not
large enough, built another 42 by 70 feet, with 18
feet posts. Has a cellar under this barn, a part
of it for vegetables and fruit, and keeps eighteen
cows, with other cattle, numbering forty. The
manure goes into the pen underneath. He has
three ventilators to his cellar, which terminate at
the eaves of the barn. The barn is ventilated by
two small windows at the gable end, and generally
contains SO tons of hay. Has three barns 100*
feet apart ; one he keeps for hay, another for oxen
and horses, and the other for macliines and farm
implements. In it there is a carpenter's shop, and
also a room for his men, whom he supplies Avith
agricultural newspapers. As to barn cellars, he
thought they should be ventilated, as they might
otherwise damage the hay. He said again, he
commenced with four acres, but now has four hun-
dred, and likes farming better and better as he
grows older. To the question as to whether he
had made money, he replied he had not lost any !
And to that of Mr. Wetherell, as to composting
his manure in his cellars, he replied that he cleaned
them out once a month, and composts it where he
uses it. As to whether he approved of barn cel-
lars, he responded to Mr. Stedman that he did,
and Avould as soon build a house without a chim-
ney as a barn without a cellar.

Mr. Brooks said Gen. S. carried out his ma-
nure, and as one side of his cellar was open, it did
not test the question as to the odor from cellars.
Even in winter ammonia would rise.

Hon. J. QuiNCY, Jr., said he moved his manure
often, and covers it with muck. He was glad to
hear that others can-ied it out in the winter, as ha
felt encouraged.

170

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Apkil

Mr. Davis, of Plymouth — after apologizing for
not being present to preside — said he could per-
ceive no evil in keeping manure in cellars from
October till spring ; but in the summer, he admit-
ted that in horse stables the ammonia might be
injurious, and he spoke of the sleighs of the Bos-
ton stable-keepers being discolored, and the var-
nish injured, by being stored in their stables dur-
ing the warm season. But we should consider
the difference between horse and cow manure.
He also complimented Gen. Sutton for the general
neatness and convenience of his farm buildings,
and particularly alluded to his tool-house, where
every little piece of iron was saved for the time
of need, which, according to the old maxim, came
once in seven years.

Mr. Stedman thought we needed system in our
farm buildings, and would have the main out-
buildings under one roof. He recommended barn
cellars, and in his own case he had not experienced
any injury to his hay, though he does not carry
off his manure in the winter. Uses muck. He
objected to tying cattle ; spoke of an ox being
thrown, and said they should not press against the
stanchions. His platform for cattle is three and
a quarter inches high, covered with additional
strips of plank a little separated, to drain off the
urine.

Mr. QuiNCY alluded to sand as bedding ; he
thought it improved the manure, and prevented
the escape of gases. His foreman thought well
of it, and it had been much used in England in
'horse stables. Mr. Q. here alluded to the great
racing-horse stable of Senator Hammond, of South
Carolina. These horses are kept in sheds, with a
little negro to attend each one. Horses need light
and air, and his own have a small window at their
heads. Darkness makes horses skittish, yet the
jockeys like it on this account. For unloading
hay, he commended the horse pitchfork, as it was
expeditious, and would take off 300 or 400 pounds
of hay at once.

Mr. Brooks thought the horse pitchforks un-
profitable, as they required a horse and three or
four persons with them.

Mr. QuiNCY replied that he recommended
them only in high pitching.

Mr. Howard observed that they had for a long
time been used in Pennsylvania, and it was only
claimed that they were important for high pitch-
ing. They would put up a load of hay in five
minutes.

Mr. Wetherell thought as the argument now
stood, the general opinion of the meeting was
against barn cellars. He regarded Mr. Brooks'
theory as the true one, of keeping the manure not
under the bai-n, but beside it.

Mr. Stedman replied that if the opinion was
against cellars, it was simply because the best

speakers were against them. He then briefly com-
mended cellars.

Mr. Hersey, of Hingham, said he had a barn
100 by 35 feet, with a cellar under it, with 10 feet
opening, but had experienced no trouble with his
hay. Had sold 50 tons at the rate of $24 per
ton. He also alluded to his keeping sheep and
cattle in his barn cellar, saying they did well.

Mr. Andrews, of West Roxbury, observed that
he had room for thirty cattle in his barn ; throws
the manure into the cellar, but perceives no bad
effect upon the hay. The cellar was ventilated,
and he used muck to absorb the urine. He
thought the sense of the meeting would be — ham
cellars well constructed.

Mr. Brooks said he would have a spout to con-
duct off his liquid manure — though muck was
good to absorb it. He had used sand ; thought
it not valuable as an absorbent, but his theory
was, that the urine decomposed the sand, and by
setting free the potash, it was useful in the man-
ure heap.

Mr. Andrews further observed, that a barn
merely for hay required no cellar ; a single roof on
four posts would be best. Hay in stacks is
bright and fresh, and cattle eat it readily.

Mr. Hersey said he had some hay packed
closely in a barn on a wharf, without any ventila-
tion, and it was the best he ever had. Air, he
surmised, was rather injurious to hay, carrying off
its aroma, and it might be ventilated too much.

Mr. Wetherell agreed with Mr. H. Hay-
barns need no ventilation.

Mr. Bird, of Watertown, alluded to the im-
portance of cheap barns, which a man of moderate
means could build. Many barns he thought cost
as much as the majority of farmers are worth. It
was important to tell these men how to build a
barn worth $500, or less ; and he spoke of one
built in Belmont for $400, with a cellar.

Mr. Stedman alluded to his barn, wliich cost
over $500.

Mr. Howard, of the Cultivator, inquired what
were the principles involved in building a barn,
and what in keeping hay, cattle, manure, &zc. The
Chinese keep their tea close to save its aroma.
Does hay need more air than tea ? It will keep
well close, if no change of temperature takes
place ; but cattle must have air. Mi-. II. here al-
luded to the English, touching their barn and
cattle ai-rangements, and said they were rather be-
hind us in this respect. Their winters, however,
were lighter than ours, and they might not re-
quire tight barns. Now, he said, the practice was
becoming common, of feeding their cattle and
keeping their hay under sheds during the winter.
Mr. II. also spoke of some other subjects in thjg
connection.

The time having arrived for closing the meeting,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

171

the chairman announced Fi'uit Culture as the
subject for the next discussion, when the Hon.
Marsh.\ll p. Wilder would preside.

For the New England Fanner.

BETBOSPECTIVE NOTES.

TiiE Relative Value of Different Vari-
eties OF Corn. — This communication, wliich the
reader will find in the issue of this journal of Jan.
ISth, and in the February number of the monthly
edition, is deserving of commendation, partly be-
cause it puts upon record the results of an impor-
tant investigation which go fiir to settle some
questions which have long been unsettled, and
gives us well-ascertained facts which will be of
great use for future reference, and partly because
it presents a most praiseworthy example of the
right mode of settling questions concerning wliich
differences of opinion are found to exist among
members of any farmers' club, or among farmers
at large — members of the great, though unorgan-
ized, Farmers' Fraternity. K the far-lamed Far-
mers' Club of the American Institute had adopted
a similar plan for the settlement of those differ-
ences of opinion as to seed corn, which O. K. so
appropriately remarked upon in the January No.
of this journal, and in the weekly issue of Dec. 7th
of last year — that is, if the members had made pro-
vision for testing their opinions and settling their
differences by a series of carefully-conducted ex-
periments, they would have done Ijetter than they
did. A great step in advance would be taken, if
all farmers' clubs would imitate the example of the
club at Southboro', and whenever differences of
opinion or practice are found to exist among the
members, some provision were made for settling
those differences by submitting them to the test of
accurate and faithful experiments. That is the true
way to settle such differences. Thanks, then, let
us all award to the Farmers' Club of Southboro',
for the praiseworthy example it has given of the
right and proper way to settle differences of opin-
ion and practice among farmers, and to advance
the interests of agriculture and agriculturists.

More Anon.

The Eddystone Lighthouse. — The Eddy-
stone Lighthouse has now withstood the storms
of a century — a solid monument to the genius of
its architect and builder. Sometimes, when the
sea rolls in with more than ordinary fury from the
Atlantic, driven up the Channel by the force of a
southwest wind, the lighthouse is enveloped in
spray and its light is momentarily obscured. But
again it is seen shining clear like a star across the
waters, a warning and a guide to the homeward
bound. Occasionally, when struck by a strong
wave, the central portion shoots up the perpendic-
ular shaft and leaps quite over the lantern. At
other times a tremendous wave hurls itself upon
the lighthouse, as if to force it from its foundation.
The report of the shock to one within is like that
of a cannon ; the windows rattle ; the doors slam ;
and the building vibrates and trembles to its very
base. But the tremor felt throughout the light-
house in such a case, instead of being a sign of
weakness, is the strongest proof of the unity and
close connection of the fabric in all its parts. —
Lives of British Engineers.

For tite New England Farmer.
SMALL AND LARGE FABMS.
BY JUDGE FRENCH.

England produces an average of about 28 bush-
els of wheat to the acre, while France produces
about half that quantity, and the United States
considerably less than France. Why is this so ?
An Englishman will aliswer at once that it is be-
cause in England the land is owned by a few large
proprietors, while in France and the United
States it is divided into small tracts among many
owners. In England, the i-eal estate of a person
dying intestate all descends to the eldest son,
while in France, as in this country, it is equally
divided among all the children. In England, the
tendency of the laws is, to increase the land of the
land-owner, to make the rich richer, and if not to
make the poor poorer, at least to keep him always
as poor as he now is.

Lavergne, in 1855, estimated that there were
about 200,000 farmers, that is, persons who occu-
py as tenants of others, in England alone, occupy-
ing an average of 150 acres each. Of these, about
one-half cultivate their farms themselves, with the
assistance of their families. In France, besides
the five or six millions of small holdings, below
twenty acres each, there are four or five hundred
thousand averaging fifty or sixty acres each, and
many very large estates, especially near Paris.
The difference between the actual extent of the
farms, as occupied, in England and elsewhere, is
usually exaggerated. A few immense land-owners
are referred to as illustrations of British agricul-
tui'e. The estate of the Duke of Sutherland, the
largest in Great Britain, contains 750,000 acres,
but this is in the North of Scotland, a wild and
rough country, which does not admit of the fine
cultivation of the lowland counties. The immense
estates of the Duke of Northumberland are situ-
ated mostly in the county of that name, one of the
most mountainous and least productive. It is not
usually on those immense estates that we find the
most profitable cultivation. The large proprietors
do not usually manage their own estates, or even
keep them much in their charge. They are divid-
ed off into farms of 100 to 1000 acres, and leased,
and the tenant or fiirmer occupies them as if they
were his own. Often, indeed usually, there is no
written lease, and the tenant goes on from year to
year for a generation, under a sort of custom, and
at his death, his widow or son continues in the
same occupation, so that the homes of English
farmers are even more permanent than those of
American farmers. Now, if each of these farmers
owned his farm, would he not cultivate it as well
for himself and the country, as he now does ?

It has been often said in England that the best
lease is that which makes the tenant most like an
owner. Yet, we observed whUe in company with

172

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

English farmers, that they supposed that a tenant-
farmer cultivated better than an owner. We were
struck with this fact, when travelling thi-ough
Lincolnshhe with some very shrewd farmers.
"There," they would say, "is a farm owned by the
occupant ; if he paid rent he could not afford to
raise such poor crops."

CAPITAL NECESSARY.

The secret of this matter seems to be this. To
cultivate land profitably, in an old, long settled
country, it must be cultivated well and systemat-
ically, and to do this requires capital. A fanner
in England, M'ho expends the most of his money
to buy a farm, has not enough left to cultivate it
liberally. A thousand-acre farm in Lincolnshire
requires about $50,000 capital, to enter upon and
stock and manage it to the best advantage, as
tenant mei'ely. It is not the extent of the farm,
but the means and skill to cultivate it in the best
manner, that make it profitable. Put upon a Lin-
colnshire farm of this extent, a farmer with small
capital, and he must ruin the farm and himself.
He cannot buy stock, tools and manure, nor em-
ploy labor requisite to make it productive. The
farmer with small capital had better remain upon
a small farm. There are certain obvious advanta-
ges in farms of not very small extent. Costly la-
bor-performing machines, such as steam-engines
for threshing, and the like, could not be owned to
advantage by small proprietors, and labor can be
better systematized on a large than a small farm.
The practical objection to the English system of
farming is not so much to its agricultural results,
as to its oppression of the laboring classes. The
laborer in England is generally poor, ignorant and
degraded, compared with any class of laborers
which we have in New England, and so long as
the present laws of property continue, he must al-
ways remain so. English agriculture is profitable
to the tenant-farmer, and to the land-owner, be-
cause the poor laborer who does the hard work
gets no just recompense for his labor.

THE ISLAND OF JERSEY.

This little island, although governed by Eng-
land, is not subject to the English laws as to inher-
itance ; but the old Norman law, by which each
child inherits equally the land of the parent, still
prevails, by a sort of custom, and has prevailed
for nine hundred years. This is the island from
which came the famous breed of Jersey cows.
The effect of their laM's has been to divide the
land into very small holdings, a farm so large as
forty acres scarcely being found on the island, and
most of the farms containing only from five to fif-
teen acres. This island, thus divided, is cultivat-
ed like a garden. It is rented at an average of
twenty to twenty-five dollars per acre annually,
and the farmers live in comparative comfort.

FRANCE.

Lavei'gne says that in France, cultivation is gen-
erally better in those districts where the small
properties predominate, and that it is the same in
Belgium and Germany, and, indeed, everywhere
else, except England. The fact is, that England,
though as a nation enormously in debt, yet has
immense resources. She is not an agricultural
nation, but a manufacturing and commercial na-
tion, and she takes the wealth realized from other
sources, and invests it in her soil, and so develops
its resources. France is more an agricultural na-
tion— she cultivates far more acres for an equal
quantity of grain, she keeps far less stock on the
same number of acres, and produces far less of
green crops in proportion to her grain. Her error
is like ours. She occupies too much land for the
capital she employs. Tliis may be excusable in
Americans at the West, on land which costs noth-
ing, but it is ruinous on old and valuable lands.

France has expended her treasures, for a half
century or more, in revolutions at home, Avhile
England has had peace within her own borders.
Like a farmer in a long law-suit, France comes
out poor ; and finds the land has suffered from
neglect, while its title was in controversy. She
is now living as she can, till she recovers her-
self, and can invest labor and capital in the culture
of her soil. She is an illustration, with her fine
soil and climate, and low agricultural state, of the
saying of Montesquieu, "It is not fertility, but lib-
erty, which cultivates a country."

Our conclusion is, then, that a well-cultivated
farm is most profitable, whether it be large or
small, and that the productiveness of land does
not necessarily depend much upon its being owned
or occupied in large tracts. It is capable of math-
ematical demonstration, that with our prices of la-
bor and of products, the EngHsh system of farm-
ing, with their rents of land, could not support it-
self, in this country. The cheapness of our land
ought, however, to nearly or quite compensate for
the higher price of our labor. Certainly, the high
price of labor is no reason for our employing it
foolishly, and it is an additional reason why we
should employ animal and steam power, and im-
proved implements, and those ought to compen-
sate for the lower cash price of our products. The
great hindrances to our agriculture are want of
capital and want of permanent occupation, or the
spirit of unrest which unsettles all our plans.

Farming is still the best business in the coun-
try, taking the average throughout, and certainly
it is the business which admits of most improve-
ment.

Value the friendship of him who stands by you
in the storm ; swarms of insects Mill surround you
in the sunsliine.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

173

For tlie New England Farmer.
2S1GHT STORM.*

BT R. P. FULLER.

Of all the year, of all the years,

It was the coldest night.
A wintry tempest stunned the ears,

And smote upon the sight ;
A cloudy pillar moved before,

The vanguard of the wind ;
Whose cohorts, with increasing roar,

A legion, rage behind.
Down to ihebulb, insensible

Before the freezing blast,
Forty degrees the mercury fell ;

And spirits sank as fast.
The cloud, that led tlie coming host,

And checked, awhile, its wrath.
Was torn to shreds, its fragments tossed

And strown along the path.
Now, like an ocean surf, around

Our rural dwelling raves
The air against the firmer ground,

With fury of the waves.
It plucks the snowy shroud away,

And bears it back to heaven ;
Clutches the pine and hemlock spray,

Before its fury driven.
Their foliage brief, though fine as hair.

Minuteness hides in vain:
The rude hands of the tempest tear

And scatter it like rain.

Grateful for shelter, as I sought

To sleep, 1' the tempest dark —
In judgment, like my house, I thought,

Will prove the Christian ark.
How will the shelterless endure

Its over-powering might f
— My God ; and how will all the poor

Bear with the storm, to-night.'
The sailor, on the frenzied sea,

Who climbs the bowing mast.
Kind Father ! we commit to Thee —

0 ! save him from the blast !
The poorly-housed and poorly-clad.

With little fire to warm —
Great God ! to think of them is sad,

In this ferocious storm I
We pray for them — we can no more.

At this inclement hour:
Shield from its fury, we implore,

Or temper, by thy power !
— And may the shelter, which we need.

Earth's tempest to abide.
To Christ, the Ark of safety, lead.

From the last storm to hide !

* Written with reference t» the gale of February, 1S61.

Fur the NeiB England Farmer.

A PLEASANT RIDE, AWD A WELL REG-
ULATED FAMILY".

Well, what of that ? Don't every body now
have pleasant rides, and is not New England full
of such families ? Not exactly so. Our ride was
peculiarly pleasant. Good company, all farmers,
good horses, good sleighing, and a good object.

On Saturday last, a few of us visited the barns
of H. H. Petkrs, Esq., of Southboro'. We were
so fortunate as to find him in his favorite element,
buperintending his beautiful herd of Ayrshire cat-
tle. He received us with his usual urbanity, show-
ing us his whole stock, and answering our numer-

ous questions as though he was perfectly familiar
with each member of his family.

His whole stock, except seven pairs of oxen,
are thorough bred Ayrshires. We were first in-
troduced to the younger members of the family.
With their mild, pleasant countenances and bright,
expressive eyes, they seemed to say, Glad to see
you, gentlemen ; we are always treated kindly,
and if you are master's friends, you are ours, and
we bid you welcome. They were tied very close
to each other, but there Avas no quarrelling, as is
the case in some families, no teasing for more or
better ; their whole deportment gave evidence of
the power of kind treatment, united with good
care and systematic feeding.

The oxen next claimed our attention — seven
pairs, from three years old and upwards, weighing
over 3600 lbs. to the pair. Next came the cows
— all handsome, round, small-boned animals, with
the marks of excellent milkers. Mr. Peters re-
marked that some of them had given 23 qts. per
day. The bulls, horses and sheep completed the
family, 100 in all, including about 10 or 12 sheep.
They are all kept on steamed food, and fed three
times per day. The steaming is performed four
times per week, at an expense of one shilling each
time for fuel. Mr. Peters is satisfied that he keeps
his stock cheaper than they could be kept in any
other way. Certainly, nothing is wasted. We
all left the premises very much gratified, and with
the impression that farmers generally, and espe-
cially the trustees and superintendents of our
State farms, might profit by a view of the perfect
neatness, order and system of the whole arrange-
ment. One of the CoiMpany.

Westhoro\ Feb. 12, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

MANAGEMENT OP NEAT CATTLE IN
"WINTER.

1, Their cribs should be so separated by par-
titions that every animal would be sure to receive
all that is fed to him, without any danger of being
robbed by others. I think this first in impor-
tance, because in feeding the animals left without
partitions you do not know which eats it, the
stronger robbing the weaker, consequently mak-
ing the weak still poorer.

2, They should be fed at regular intervals, all
they will eat up clean ; that is, they should have
their regular meals. I commence in the morning,
feeding little at a time, and keep them eating un-
til I think they have enough, and then at noon
and night, being careful to feed at the same hour
of each daj'. I had rather they would be fed but
twice, than to feed out of the regular time.

3, They should have a variet}'. Where the
feed is composed of meadow hay, wheat and oat
straw, corn fodder, &c., as it generally is through
the country, it should be fed alternately ; if a por-
tion of each kind is given them every day, they
will eat and relish it better. I can remember
when my father used to feed out all his corn fod-
der the first thing, and then the meadow hay, &c.,
feeding only one thing at a time ; consequently,
all the fodder was rejected but the leaves, and
thrown out with the manure ; but when given as
a change, they will eat it all up clean.

4, Roots are one of the best things to feed
young, growing cattle in winter. They tend to

174

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Apkil

keep them loose, and enable them to extract more
nourishment from their fodder. They should be
fed regularly each day. From my experience, I
think the ruta baga is the best to feed to young
cattle. I think they contain something that cat-
tle require that the others do not. Potatoes and
carrots are very good. I have had young cattle
fed with them gain more in the winter than they
did in the summer on grass.

5, Watering and exercise. In watering, care
should be taken that every animal drinks all he
wants. They will naturally take all the exercise
in the yard, they need at the time of drinking. I
keep them in their stalls all the time except when
out to drink. The more they are kept out in the
cold the more hay they will require, and by being
kept up all the time the manure is all saved.

The farmer cannot be too regular in tending
his stock through the winter. Anything that is
not worth doing well is not worth doing.

West Newjield, Me., 1862. J. t.

EXTRACTS AND KEPLIES,

I am anxious to learn through the Farmer the
■way of treating a cow which appears to run too
much to milk. She calved the 2d of this month,
and is quite thin of flesh, although bright and
smart ; gives a ten-quart pail full of milk in the
morning, little less at night. She was poorly fed
the first of the winter on straw, corn-fodder and
poor hay until some two weeks before calving,when
she had two quarts of barley bran, scalded, and
good hay. When I raise barley I have it bolted ;
the flour is used, and well liked in the family. I
have raised and used it for six years, and find the
value of that grain far beyond what I expected.
I like it to raise on account of its being good to
seed with, as I get a far better catch than with any
other grain. I get about half as many pounds of
fine flour as from common wheat, and find the
bran to be heavier than that of wheat, therefore I
value barley more than corn. I continue giving
this bran to my cow, but rather think it is the
barley that runs her to milk. We churned the
first week's gathering of cream, which made 11
lbs. 3 oz. of butter.

Will you, or some of your subscribers, inform
me of the cause of my cows' eating boards, &c.,
last winter, and this winter not attempting to do

80?

In regard to cows doing well in calving, if peo-
ple would feed cows extra some two weeks before
they drop their calves, as a general thing, there
wonld be no trouble ; it matters not much what
they are fed upon, but I prefer a little meal of
some kind ; if I should have my choice, I should
feed barley. T. s. F.

Felchville, Vt, 1862.

Remarks. — We know of no way to reduce the
milk but to reduce the feed. Feed on good hay
alone, for a time.

It is not well settled what it is that causes cows
to chew bones, boards, leather, &c. Some say it
is occasioned by a want of bone-making material,
the phosphate of lime, perhaps. If this habit
were confined to cattle that are poorly fed or thin
in flesh, we might suppose that it grows out of a

want of a proper quantity of nutritious food ; but
such is not the case. We have as often seen it in
thrifty and ■well-conditioned cows. It can do no
harm to mix a little bone-dust, that is, ground
bones, with meal, and feed to the animal aSected,
two or three times a week. Dr. Dadd says — "It
is well known that phosphate of lime, potass, sil-
ica, carbonate of lime, magnesiu and soda are dis-
charged in the excrements and urine of the cow.
Supposing the cow's bones to be weak, it is pos-
sible that the gelatinous elements preponderate
over those of lime, soda and magnesia."

BUGGY PEAS.

It has been often said that "It is better late
than never," to do good. In looking over the
monthly Farmer for 1860, I noticed in the July-
number an article headed "Buggy Peas." I think
I can give the writer and many others some infor-
mation that will solve the mystery as to how the
bugs got into his phial. Many years ago, I dis-
covered a small, bright red nit or egg, placed on
the outside of the pea-pod, when about half-
gro^vn, opposite each pea, and have seen the same
on the pea inside the pod. Also, when the peas
were shelled green, a small puncture on one side
of the peas ; on digging into the pea, I found a
small worm which becomes a bug after the peas
are fully ripe. The egg is, I have no doubt, de-
posited by the old bug, as I have seen them flying
among the peas in the field. The only way to
prevent peas being buggy is to sow early or very
late. I have heard it remarked that to prevent
peas being buggy, they must be sown in the old
of the moon in May. I suppose everybody knoAvs
the moon has nothing to do with the bugs. It is
evident to me that those sown early get out of the
ways before the old bugs thaw out, and that the
bugs have had their day, and are gone before the
late sown are grown. James Palmer.

South Hampton, N. H., 1862.

THE SONG OF AN OLD PITCHER.

Ijct the wealthy and great dwell in splendor and state,

I envy them not, I declare it ;
I eat my own lamb, my own chickens and ham,

I shear my own fleece, and I wear it.
I have lawns, I have bowers, I ha\e fruits, I have flowers,

The lark is my morning alarmer ;
As true freemen now, pray God speed the plow.

Long life and success to the farmer.

The above I have never seen on paper. I
learned it when a child, from an old-fashioned
French jug, now called pitcher, in my father's
house, more than sixty years ago, in the Emerald
Isle. A Female Reader.

South Oroton, 1862.

SEEDING TO GRASS.

We, the sons of the turf, who get our living by
digging in the dirt, need reminding of our duty
every month in the year. Where is the farmer,
one in a hundred, be the number of his acres
more or less, Avho can say, "I have one half acre
doing all it might do." When we manure in the
hole, the seed comes in contact with it, as it
should do ; but when we plow in manure five or
six inches deep, and then sow grain and a little
fine grass seed on the very surface, can this fash-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

175

ion be good policy ? There is no way to make so
much grass with so little manure as the following :
Plow up worn-out grass land as soon as may be
after the summer drought has past ; pulverize
well ; manure sparingly ; sow two or three sorts
of seeds, and give it a shallow covering ; thus the
little manure, neither too deep nor too shallow,
does all it can do, and no crop is lost.
Elliot, Me., Feb. 1, 1862. A. Allen.

KEEP THE BACK COVERED.
One prevalent way of taking cold, is from ex-
posure of the upper portion of the back while in
bed. We divest ourselves of the warm clothing
we have worn during the day, put on a thin night-
dress, go to sleep, and perhaps awake in the night
feeling as if an iceberg lay between our shoulders.
This is particularly the case when two persons oc-
cupy the same bed — each one facing outward, the
bed" clothes are drawn from the backs so as to ex-
pose the lower part of the neck and between the
shoulders to the cold air of the room, the lungs
being so near that part of the body as to be sensi-
bly afl'ected by its exposure. We think a great
many severe colds are taken in this way that can-
not otherwise be accounted for.

OATS FOR SHEEP — TO CURE A CALF THAT SCOURS
— DWARF BROOM CORN, ETC.
2. Will you, or some of your reader, inform
me how many oats it will do to feed to ewe sheep
at a time, and if they will hurt them ?

2. What will cure a calf that scours ?

3. If any subscriber of the Farmer purchased
the Dwarf Broom Corn Seed advertised the last
spring, will they please give the results of their
sowing ?

4. Please tell me the size of the "Farmers' En-
cyclopedia," and the number of pages it contains ?

Canterhurij, N. II., 1862. s. E.

REJLiRKS. — 1. A pint of sweet oats per day to
a sheep will be excellent for it.

2. "Scours," or diarrhoea, is not always a disease,
but an effort of nature to get rid of that which
would be injurious, and, therefore, a mild purgative
of castor oil, or something else, is good. This may
be followed with two or three messes of warm
flour gruel, at the same time not allowing the calf
to take much milk from the cow.

4. The Farmers' and Planters' Encylopedia
contains 1179 pages, royal octavo size.

SEED CORN.

We cannot give the name of our correspondent
who wrote over the initials "E. R.," upon the sub-
ject of seed corn. We have many inquiries of this
kind. It would be more pleasant and profitable,
if correspondents would give their full address
when communicating to us.

"C. T. F.," North Bridgewater, Mass., is in-
formed that we know nothing of the expedition to
go into the "wool business" at the West, beyond
what M'as published in the Farmer to which he
refers.

For the New England Farmer.
EXPERIMENTS "WITH CORN.

I saw a statement by Mr. Henry II. Peters, of
Southboro', Mass., in relation to corn, in the Far-
mer of January IS, I think. I have a kind of com
that is hard to beat, as to the amount of shelled
corn that a basket of ears will make. A few days
since I shelled some for bread meal, and selected
the best ears, as I usually do. I measured and
weighed : First I weighed out 70 pounds, which I
sup])osed would make 1 bushel of shelled corn ; I
shelled it carefully, measured up a bushel, and it
weighed 60 pounds ; then weighed the rest which
M'as left, it being 6 ounces. The cobs weighed
9 10-16 pounds. The above I took from a bin on
the east side of my corn house. I then took a
basket full from the bin on the west side, so I
picked out a bushel basket of ears which weighed
50.^ pounds ; I shelled it carefully as I did the oth-
er ; the corn I measured in sealed measiu'es, and
the amount was 23^ quarts, which weighed 44
pounds. The cobs weighed 6^ pounds, Avhich is at
the rate of about 8| pounds of cobs to 60 pounds
of shelled corn.

As to the kind of corn, I know of no particular
name for it : it is eight-rowed, yellow, rather small
in size, but the ears are good and fair length.

For years past I have seen much in the Farmer
about corn being diminished in weight by being
cut up and stooked before it is quite ripe, or hard.
I cut and stook my corn as soon as it gets fairly
glazed over, and when many of the small ears are
in the milk. I think it does not injure the com,
but is a great saving of labor, and there is much
in favor in benefiting the fodder, as, if corn is cut
and stooked in the right time, and in the right
manner, there is a great advantage over the old-
fashioned way of cutting the top stalks and letting
the corn remain in the field until husking-time.

I have shelled a bushel of corn from cobs that
weighed less than 8 pounds.

A GOOD HEIFER.

Mr. AVm. Hooper, of this town, butchered a
heifer 21 months and 10 days old, which weighed
622 pounds. H. Allbe.

Walpole, N. H., Feb., 1862.

Continental Money. — Mr. Lossing, in his
Field Book of the Revolution, gives a scale of the
depreciation of the Continental money. In Jan-
uary, 1777, the paper currency was at five per
cent, discount. In July it was at twenty-five per
cent, discount, and before the end of the year
three dollars in paper would not command a silver
dollar. In 1778 the paper currency continued to
depreciate, so that in April four dollars in paper
Avere equal to one in coin. In September the ra-
tio was as five to one, and at the close of the year
was six and a half to one. In 1779 the deprecia-
tion rapidly continued. In February the ratio
was eight dollars and a half of paper to one of
silver, in May it was twelve to one, in September
eighteen to one, and before the close of the year
a paper dollar was only worth four cents. In
March, 1780, a paper dollar was worth three cents,
in May it was worth two cents, and in December
seventy-four dollars in paper was worth one dollar
in silver. At this point the historian stops.

176

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

Figure 1.

Common Long-rooted

Parsnip.

THE PAKSNIP CEOP.

The carrot crop has justly become quite popu-
lar as a feed for stock. It is cultivated all over
New England for this purpose, but in the greatest
quantities in the neighborhood of large towns, or
cities, where a good many
horses are kept. Stable-
keepers are confident that
they are an economical food,
and purchase them by the
ton, at prices varying from
eight to twelve dollars.
This practice has attracted
the attention of many far-
mers, and they, also, now
feed their one, two, or more
horses, daily, with a mess of
carrots.

Tlie Parsnip, — though
pronounced by most persons
as far more palatable than
the carrot, — has not yet
found its way to the feeding-
troughs of the stable-keep-
ers or of our neat stock. It
strikes us as singular that a
vegetable so nutritious and delicious to the hu-
man palate, and at the same time so highly rel-
ished by our domestic animals, should not have
long ago come into popular favor. It certainly is
not because the carrot
can be more easily
cultivated than the
parsnip, — that it pos-
sesses higher nutri-
tive properties, or
that it is more eager-
ly sought for by our
stock. In all these
particulars the pars-
nip has the prece-
dence with one single
exception — the seed
does not germinate so
readily and certainly
as that of the carrot.
In other respects it
has advantages over
the carrot. It will
grow on a wider range
of soil, stand di'ought
longer, and the young
plants are so conspic-
uous as to render the
first thinning and
weeding altogether
easier than that of the figure 2

carrot. Fingers and Toes.

Compared with the turnip, the parsnip contains
about double the quantity of heat-giving and fat-
forming compounds, such as oil and starch. This
renders it particularly suitable as a food for fat-
tening purposes, or for milk-producing animals.

The keeping qualities of the parsnip are equal
to those of any other root we produce. If stored
properly in a cool, moist (not wet) cellar, they will
remain plump and brittle for seven or eight
months.

In Wilson's Fai-m Crops it is said that the pars-
nip, compared with the carrot, "presents a supe-
riority in many respects as a crop for feeding pur-
poses. It contains on an average about 5 or 6
per cent, less water than the carrot, wliich materi-
ally improves its keep-
ing qualities, the dif-
ference being made
up by an additional
proportion of solid
extractive matter, by
which its general feed-
ing qualities are pro-
portionably increased.
The flesh - forming
compounds, too, are
nearly double those
contained in the car-
rot ; while the oil,
starch, &'c., in its com-
position, would indi-
cate that for fattening
as well as for feed-
ing purposes it is of greatly superior value

Figure 3.
Ilollow-Crowned Parsnip.

SOIL AND CULTIVATION FOR THE PARSNIP.

Any rich, deep, well-drained soil, whether it be
of granite formation, or sandy or clayey loam, will
produce good crops of parsnips. A decidedly
gravelly soil would not be favorable. The soil
should be deep, because the plant loves to pene-
trate the ground with its long, tapering root, and
throw out hair-like feeders into the surrounding
soil. When it has this opportunity, and the soil
is sufficiently enriched, the parsnip will send clown
one main root, such as is illustrated in Cut No.
1 ; but without these advantages, it will be quite
likely to assume the form of Cut No. 2, dividing
itself off into numerous branches, spoiling it for
the table, and depreciating its value even for stock.
This is called running into "Fingers and Toes."

Cut No. 3 is The Ilollow-croivned Parsnip. It
is less symmetrical in shape, and has a much great-
er diameter at the crown, or top, which is slightly
concave. The root is of a yellowish-white color,
tapering from the top, and not so long as the
Long-rooted variety. No. 1.

Cut No. 4 illustrates, 1, The common flat
body moth that infests the parsnip.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

177

Figure 4.
Common Flat Body Moth.

Figs. 2 and 3, the moth at rest, and of the nat-
ural size.

Fig. 4, caterpillar of the moth.

Figs, o and 6, the pupa of natural length.

Fig. 7, the pupa rolled up in a leaf of the plant.

In cultivating a field crop of the parsnip, the
rows should be far enough apart to use a horse-
hoe or cultivator, say two and a half feet, which
will secure a crop for about one-half the cost re-
quired to work them by hand. The plants in the
rows ought not to be nearer than six or eight
inches of each other. The ground should be fre-
quently stirred, — especially if the season bo a dry
one, — and if a subsoil plow were passed through
between the rows once or twice during the sum-
mer it would considerably aid the crop. By this
process we have raised parsnips at the rate of a
tJiousand bushels to the acre, nearly every one of
which was long, smooth, and almost as white as
snow. The only difficulty in securing the crop
was in digging ; the man doing that work saying
that he "coidd dig post holes about as fast." We
hope many of our farmers will commence in a
small way to cultivate this valuable crop. If they
do, we suggest that twenty-four hours before sow-
ing the seed, they wring out a piece of cotton cloth
in warm water, and wrap the seed in it, wliich will
very much facilitate its germination. i

Singular Facts in Human Life. — The av-
erage length of human life is about 28 years.
One-quarter die previous to the age of 7 ; one-
half before reaching 17. Only one of every 1000
persons reaches 100 years. Only six of every 100
reaches the age of 65, and not more than one in
500 lives to 80 years of age. Of the whole pop-
ulation on the globe, it is estimated that 90,000
die every day ; about 3700 every hour and 60
every minute, or one every second. These losses
are more than counterbalanced by the number of

births. The married are longer lived than the
single. The average duration of life in all civil-
izccl countries is greater now than in any anterior
period. Macaulay, the distinguished historian,
states that in the year 1685 — not an unhealthy
year- — the deaths in England were as one to 20,
but in 1850, one to 40. IJupni, a well known
French writer, states that the average duration of
life in France from 1776 to 1843, increased 52
days annually. The rate of mortality in 1781
was one in 29, but in 1850, one in 40. The rich
men live on an average 42 years, but the poor
only 30 years. — Free Nation.

For the New England Fanner.
WHEW SHALL "WE PLOW?

Mr. Editor : — I find tliis question propounded,
and partly answered, in your issue of November
9, by Mr. George Campbell, of West Westminster,
Vt., who seems to favor fall plowing on account of
its forwarding the spring work M'hen farmers are
hurried, and probably killing many worms and in-
sects by exposing them to the frost, &c. He notes,
also, that the soil will be pulverized by the action
of frost and the atmosphere. Most will readily
admit his views as true, and yet not be fully per-
suaded that it is good economy to seed this fall
plowed land in the s]3ring, without again plowing
most thoroughly. Weeds and foul stufi" will be
sure to vegetate as soon as the frost is out in the
spring, and no process for putting in grain is so
efiectual an exterminator as a good plowing.
Then, again, lands lying several months after be-
ing plowed, become packed by repeated rains, and
are almost as hard in the spring as if they had re-
mained unplowed in the fall.

The plow I regard as the farmer's great fertili-
zer. It is impossible to use it too often on our
fields where the sod has decayed. Speed the plow,
should be the motto of every farmer. Nothing
like it to counteract the cff'ects of drought. Noth-
ing Kke its free use in securing a bountiful har-
vest. I say plow ! Plow in the fall — plow in the
spring — plow at all times when you can. Can't
plow too often.

As to fall plowing of sod land, very much de-
pends upon the character of the soil. A stiff clay
would undoubtedly be better for fall plowing, as
the winter's frost would greatly subdue it. But a
sandy, or vegetable loam, I think, had best be
plowed in the spring, as near the time of planting
as possible.

My reasons for this are, that they do not receive
but little advantage from winter frosts when
plowed, and do not admit of rcplowing in the
spring, as by so doing we would be liable to dis-
turb the sod and waste much of its value. If not
plowed in the spring, much more labor is required
to keep the weeds down through the sumracr.

I will here refer to a piece of meadow, of four
acres of vegetable loam, my father commenced
plowing in the foil, for the purpose of destroying
worms he knew infested it. It so happened that
frost set in when he had about half plowed the
piece, and the remainder was plowed in the
spring ; the part plowed in the fall was, as to
quality, esteemed a little the best of the field. The
spring plowing was done just before planting ; the
; whole field was thorouglily harrowed, the fall-

178

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

plowed part requiring much more labor to prepare
it, and all through the season double the time was
required to keep it clean of grass and weeds. At
hai'vest it was judged by competent men that the
fall-plowed piece would yield forty bushels to the
acre, and the sj^J'^^a'P^owed fifty — or ten bushels
more.

One of my neighbors commenced plowing early
in March on a piece of diy land, for the purpose
of testing the question as to the advantage of
plowing just before planting. He left alternate
lands or strips unplowed through the piece, until
he was ready to plant, the fu-st of May. The re-
sult was decidedly in favor of the last plowed
pieces in the crop, as well as in the care of it.
The above facts have been repeatedly verified in
my own experience, so that I have come to con-
sider them incontrovertible. I hope this subject
will not be passed by in silence by observing far-
mers, but that we shall have their views and ex-
perience to enable us wisely to answer this all
importaJit question to many — when shall we plow ?

liochester, Mass., Nov., 1861. o. K.

COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME.

During the last four or five weeks, we have been
favored with several articles upon this subject,
£i"om correspondents in various portions of the
State, giving their experience in the use of this
phosphate as a fertilizer. We have also been re-
quested to state what the results of its use have
been on our own farm.

Last spring we procured several bags of this
lime of Parker, Gannett & Osgood, and used
it upon various crops, and with such results as to
decide us to try it again, which we mean to do
the coming season. It was used, side by side,
with various other agents, such as beef scraps,
corn-meal, woolen rags, cobs soaked in urine,
guano, and a compost of night soil, and it was
not excelled by any of them, excepting the latter.
The whole field was moderately dressed Avith hen
manure. Where the night soil compost was used,
the corn was heavier than on any other portion of
the field. We used the superphosphate on peas,
beans, turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, cabbages,
and other plants, and found it answering an ad-
mirable purpose with them all. But we gained,
especially, what is most desired, an early start in
the corn crop, which is often the turning point of
profit or loss in that staple article. Where it was
properly applied to this crop it stimulated germi-
nation, brouglit the corn out of the ground with
stocky and vigorous stems, and gave it an unusual
vitality for several succeeding weeks. Any fertil-
izer that will do this, is of decided importance to
the farmer. But a serious mistake is often made
in its application. Instead of spreading it over a
surface of 12 to 20 inches, and thoroughly min-
gling it M'ith the soil, it is thrown down in a mass,
and the seed cast upon it, so that if the tender
germ is not checked, it grows away from the

phosphate into soil that has not been fertilized
by it.

During a journey into New Hampshire in the
month of June last, a good farmer invited us to
look at some experiments he was making with this
fertilizer. Side by side, on good land, he had
manured the rows, one with a common shovel full
of excellent barn manure, and the other with a
gill of Coe's superphosphate, and where the latter
was applied, the corn had made an average growth
of d.foot more than the other. In another town,
in a field of corn which we were called to look at,
the diff"erence was nearly as striking. We do not
suppose that this difference would continue through
all stages of the crop, but it ensures that early
growth which will generally secure the plants from
unseasonable frosts, and thus give us a crop.

These results so much increased our interest in
the article, that we made investigations sufficient
to satisfy us that the article is really what it pur-
ports to be, — that is, bones dissolved by sulphuric
acid, by a process so perfect as to preserve all the
animal matter contained in the bones as well as
the bone itself, — and that no other matter is in-
troduced to increase the bulk and lessen the fer-
tilizing power of the principal agents.

In November last, we applied 200 pounds to an
acre of exhausted pasture, upon which we intend
to sow clover seed as soon as the snow is off", and
harrow the ground. We have, also, applied two
quarts of the superphosphate to each of 75 young
apple trees that stand in grass land, scattering it
over a diameter of 12 feet immediately under the
tree. The results of these experiments will be
carefully -watched and reported to the reader.

New Method of Smelting Iron. — A Bel-
gian is reported to have discovered a new method
of smelting iron, which promises great results.
The essential principal consists in a process of ex-
haustion in preference to a blast. The result is
that less time is required to liquefy the metal than
in the ordinary process ; that when cast it is sur-
prisingly superior in quality to ordinary iron ; that,
bulk for bulk, it weighs much heavier ; and that
excellent cutlery can be forged at once from it,
without the intermediate process of conversion
into steel. A leading English iron master is
building a furnace for smelting on this new plan,
and specimens will ere long be in the market.

AVeigiit of Manure. — A solid foot of half-
rotted manure will weigh, upon an average, 56
pounds. If it is coarse or dry, it will average 48
pounds to the foot. A load of manure, or 36 cu-
bic feet, of first quality, will weigh 2,016 pounds ;
second quality, 1,728 pounds. Weight to the acre
— eight loads of first kind, weighing 16,128 pounds,
will give 108 pounds to each square rod, and less
than 2i pounds to each square foot. Five loads
will give 63 pounds to the rod. An acre contain-
ing 43,560 square feet, the calculation of pounds
per foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily made.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

179

LEGISLATIVE AGBICULTUIIAL SOCIETY,

Reported for the Farmer by D. Vf. Lothrop.

The eighth meeting of the series was held on
Monday evening last at the State House. The
subject for discussion had been announced to be,
Fruit Culture; but Mr. Wilder being absent and
indisposed, Mr. Flint, Secretary of the State Ag-
culturai Board, called the meeting to order, when
a motion was carried to postpone the subject of
Fruit Culture and adopt that of Sheep Husbandry.

Mr. Flint, being in the chair, made a few intro-
ductory remarks. He said sheep husbandry was
important, generally, to the farmers of New Eng-
land, and had been to those of Massachusetts ;
but in this State, within the last twenty or thirty
years, it has declined. The cause of this, he
thought, was to be found mainly in the introduc-
tion of the fine-wool Merinos, and their subse-
quent crossing with our common sheep, so that
neither fine nor coarse wool was the result. Dogs
were also a great drawback to sheep-raising ; but
now we have a stringent law for its protection.
In the eastern part of the State the raising of
mutton is a profitable branch of business, and for
this purpose he recommended the Cotswolds and
South Downs. He would not enter fully into the
description of the various breeds of sheep — leaving
that to others — but in the western part of the
State he advocated the Merinos for their fine wool.
Some farmers had thought that sheep improved
the pastures where fed, but in our western coun-
ties complaint had been made that they run them
out. Upon this point he hoped others would
speak.

Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, ob-
served that much improvement had been made in
sheep husbandry — particularly in a national point
of view. English poets had sung of the beautiful
white flocks of their land as the glory and strength
of the nation, and he thought there was much
truth in it. Lavergne, a French writer, had had
his attention arrested by the greater number of do-
mesticated animals in England than in France,
particularly of sheep, and was favorably impressed
with their economy, though some others thought
diff'erently. Throughout Great Britain — a territory
only one-third larger than some of our States —
there were fifty millions of sheep ; and they are
raised for the purpose of occupying and improv-
ing their waste lands, which abound in AVales and
Scotland. They have been kept on the same soil
for years, and it has sustained them. Mr. H.
spoke well of sheep manure, and considered the
question as to sheep running out the pastures in
this country. In England, sheep pastures are
continually increasing and improving ; but here
our summers are very hot, and sufi'er for want of
moisture, and this condition is aggravated where
thev are fed too closely, as is often the case. Nev-

ertheless, sheep have a tendency to improve the
land in spite of close feeding.

Mr. Fearing, of Hingham, observed that if the
man who made two blades of grass grow where
only one gi'ew before was a benefactor, so was he
who advanced sheep husbandry. He would look
at the subject in a moral point of view. Our
young men were leaving the towns and rushing
into the large cities for business ; yet we have now
too many merchants, lawyers and physicians, and
need more men who earn their bread by the sweat
of their brow. Small places are going down and
large ones rising. After the closing of the war,
many of our young men may feel like emigrating ;
but we must try to retain them by ofi'ering them
inducements to remain and cultivate tlie soil.
Having some land much neglected, Mr. F. ob-
served, he was induced by Daniel Webster to
place sheep upon it. Accordingly lie rebuilt his
walls, and placing two rails upon them, introduced
sheep ; his neighbors did the same. Dogs were
troublesome ; yet in Hingham they had clubbed
together and fought them out with good results.
As to the eff'ect of sheep on the pastures, he
thought well of them. He had one of twenty
acres, covered with briers and bushes, which he
burnt off and put in sheep, where they did well,
though his neighbors said they would starve ; the
briers have disappeared. He thought sheep prof-
itable ; would prefer liills for pastures ; said rain
storms injured sheep, and advocated warm barns
with good keeping. The South Downs he regard-
ed the best breed, and their wool was good. They
should be kept in flocks of twenty-five or thirty,
and liis own were healthy from good keeping.
Lambs for the butcher, about four months old,
brought him three dollars apiece — very cheap.
The wool from his South Downs ranged from six
to ten pounds. Mr. F., also, again alluded to his
sheep barn, which was 20 by 40 feet, with ten feet
posts, and an alley running through it, with sheep
each side, and their feeding arrangements so con-
structed that only one could put in his head at
once, and they were all fed from the centre.
Such a barn could be built for about $250.

Mr. Andrews, of West Roxbury, said he had
had some little experience in keeping sheep, which
might, however, be regarded as accidental. Hav-
ing planted cow cabbage and rape for thirty cows,
it was complained that the cabbage hurt the milk,
and this induced him to purchase ninety sheep to
feed it off. He spoke well of the profits of sheep
— giving some statistics — and concluded that cows
could not come up to them. They also improved
the pastures where fed, and their manure Avas very
valuable, as was shown on his own land. He closed
by reading an article upon this subject from the
Boston Cultivator, copied from the Genesee Far-
mer.

180

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

Mr. Wetherell, of Boston, alluded to a far-
mer in Hampshire County, who purchased seven-
ty-five or eighty Cotswold sheep at four cents
per pound — his object being to test sheep-feeding
over that of oxen, and he felt encouraged. He
could sell their carcasses at eight cents per pound.
Allusion was also made to another gentleman who
raised lambs of the Oxfordshire Downs, and could
sell them for $5. This breed he thought better
for raising spring lambs than the South Downs ;
but the speaker believed both were good. Why
pastures in which sheep were fed were better than
those where cattle were kept, was in a measure
attributable to the fact that the sheep were kept
in them the most of the time, and to the more
equal diffusion of the manure. Farms far from a
raih'oad or market, he observed, had been nearly
depopulated of men, and those of the best quality.
Poor land with no market was intolerable. In
such places sheep husbandry might do well ; let a
man raise hay enough to feed in the Avinter. For-
est trees are not profitable on poor land, but rais-
ing sheep might be, if the land were not too wet.
An acre of corn would buy all the coal a farmer
would use in winter. There was some profit in
growing wool, but more, in raising mutton.

Dr. LoRiNG, of Salem, admitted that sheep hus-
bandry in Massachusetts had gi-eatly declined
within half a century. But what is the cause of
it? Mr. Flint attributed it to the introduction of
fine-wool sheep, and their degeneration by cross-
ing. But the speaker thought differently, and ob-
served that sheep felt their feeding and treatment
very much. Farming declined some years ago in
Massachusetts, and sheep felt the decline first.
They became very small, and were abandoned.
Dogs, he thought, not so great an evil as some ;
sheep will flourish in spite of them. The first
question to decide is — What shall be the kind of
sheep ? And, deciding this, they should be kept
for profit and not for pleasure. The fine-wool
sheep are the best, but large sheep are profitable
in rich districts. Yet he doubted whether for the
ordinary farmer the coarse wool sheep was the
best. He spoke of the Merinos, and the Atwood
breed of Vermont. They were checply kept — 100
eating only 15 tons of hay in the winter. The fine-
wool sheep were the best, and he believed no one
could gainsay it. Allusion was made to Mr.
White, of Framingham, as to the raising of mut-
ton, which was very cheap — Mr. W. getting only
from $2,50 to $3,00 per head. Men do not live
on mutton, and the fore-quarters were unprofitable.
Nevertheless, the hind-quarters were very good.
But can we afford thus to raise mutton ? Dr. L.
spoke of a man in Essex county, who had large,
coarse sheep, which he fed at a loss during the
winter. Generally, sheep were easily kept, but too
many Cotswolds in a flock would deteriorate.

Mr. Fearing thought Dr. Loring wrong about
dogs. The loss of sheep by them was in some
places discouraging. One hundred thousand dol-
lars' worth in Ohio had been destroyed by dogs.
He thought wool and mutton should go together,
and fine wool alone he regarded as unprofitable.

Dr. Loring thought dogs a nuisance, but the
evil laid deeper. To a question as to what Merino
lambs were worth, he replied that fine-wool lambs
were not to be sold to the butcher, and mentioned
an anecdote of a little boy in Vermont who was
taking his pick from some of his father's flock,
and having done so, gave his father a ten dollar
bill ! The latter said it was a good investment.

Mr. Wetiierell again advocated the raising
of mutton, and said the fore-quarters of sheep were
as digestible as any other, and were used by in-
valids. We might as well inquire what became
of the fore-quarters of beeves. To an extent he
favored the raising of large, coarse sheep.

INIr. Roberts, of Lakeville, said he had some
Oxfordshire Downs, and likes them very much.
He sold his lambs from $3,75 to 4,50. From his
ewes he got about 8 pounds of wool, and from liis
bucks 9 to 12. They were more profitable than
crops, and he regarded his breed the best. He
did not feed his pastures close, but moved his
flock from one to another.

Mv. HoAVARU spoke of the weight of the fleece
of the J/Ierino sheep ; it was great, but there was
great shrinkage, as it secreted a large amount
of animal oil.

The time for closing the meeting having now
arrived, the chairman announced Fruit Culture as
the subject for the next discussion, when the Hon.
Marsilvll p. Wilder is expected to preside.

The Flax and Linen Trade of Ireland.
— Belfast, the great emporium of the linen trade,
exported in 18G0, 65,600,000 yards of linen, and
13,200,000 pounds of yarn and thi-ead. Next in
importance to the flax industry, is the trade in
sewed muslins, employing about half a million of
persons in Ireland. Another manufiicture, car-
ried on in Belfiist, is important in the consumption
of agricultural produce — namely, starch making
from wheat. Ten firms use nearly 240,000 bush-
els of the finest red wheat every year. The Aveaten
starch made by the old fermentative process, is
largely used by bleachers, the goods retaining
their stiffness longer than if dressed with the rice
and other starches. The whole of this businees is
at present nearly paralyzed, as America was the
best market for Irish linen goods, very limited
quantities of Avhich have been imported during the
past nine months.

The Wire Worm. — At the discussion of a far-
mers' club in Buff'alo, 111., Mr. Franklin Reed said
that the ravages of the wire worm could be pre-
vented by putting half of a fresh cob in each hill.
The Avorms Avoidd Avork into this, and leave the
corn.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

181

For the New England Farmer,
■WATEB.

Mr. Editor : — I have had a little unfortunate
experience connected with pipe-laying for an aque-
duct ; and as a relation of that experience may
save somebody from making a similar blunder, and
may possibly suggest to many how they can save
much labor by a slight expenditiu-e, I will, with
your permission, tell my story, hoping also that
some one among your scientific readers may be
able to enlighten me as to the precise nature of
my blunder. When I first came to "the place I
now occupy, there was for most of the year a
flowing spring near the foot of a hill about thirty
rods from my house, and in fact there was about
an acre of ground kept so wet by a general spring-
iness on the upper side, that none but the poorest
of water grasses would grow there. After a few
years it occurred to me that, by bringing this wa-
ter through a pipe to my barn, a double advantage
would be secured — the land would be drained, and
an easy supply of water furnished for the use of
the cattle.

A well Avas dug about eight feet deep, and a pipe
laid, with a drain to carry oiT surplus water when
it should come Avithin four feet of the surface of
the ground. Following the course of the pipe,
the land descends about fifteen feet in ten rods :
then rises again seven or eight feet, then falls
slightly till it reaches the place where the receiv-
ing tub stands. The water flows through a half-
inch lead pipe, the fall, when the water is highest,
being five or six feet in coming a distance of thir-
ty rods. With this fall, the pipe will carry at
least, four hundred gallons in twenty-four hours.
Three-fourths of this is taken aAvay by a Avaste
pipe into a drain about tAvo rods long, and three
feet deep, nearly filled Avith stones, Avhence it is
readily absorbed into the surrounding soil.

I am noAV satisfied that I made a blunder in lay-
ing the pipe so near the surface of the ground,
some parts of it being less than two feet deep. I
have mentioned that there is a small savcU in the
ground over Avhich the pipe passes. Of course,
the pipe is, for a short distance, higher there than
on either side of the savcII. Now it happens every
season, at the time Avhen the ground is Avarmest,
(and usually at the same time the fountain-head
is lowest, and the current less rapid in its flow,)
that the delivery of Avater gradually diminishes
and finally ceases altogether, even though there
are at the time tAVo feet of Avater in the Avell. But
on attaching a pump to the pipe, and pumping for
half an hour, the Avater Avill again floAV for a Avcek
or two, when the same operation has to be pei'-
formed over again. In my ignorance I can ac-
count for tliis interruption only by supposing eith-
er that some of the gases that are always mixed
with Avater, become separated by the Avarmth of
the Avater, and rise and remain in the highest part
of the pipe, accumulating there till the Avater is
entirely cut off", or else that the eSect is produced
by the accumulation there of hydrogen gas set free
in the oxidation of the lead of the pipe.

At any rate, this is the practical Avorking of the
pipe. In the latter part of summer the Avater has
uniformly stopped running, even Avith more than
two feet of water in the Avell ; Avhile at the present
time, (middle of February,) though the spring has
been, since September, loAver than I have ever be-

fore known it, the Avater continues to flow, though
so sloAvly, that it can hardly be detected, not
amounting to more than two pailfuls in tAventy-
four hours.

But even Avith this draAvback, I consider the
aqueduct among the most valuable and best pay-
ing improvements of my farm. Without any la-
bor or care, there is always ready for use a liberal
supply of good Avater. The expense in this case
has been less than the cost of a avcU and pump
Avould have been. The cash outlay Avas only about
thirty dollars.

NoAV I believe it Avould be found, on examina-
tion, that a large proportion of the barns of Ncav
England might be supplied with Avater by means
of springs and brooks. Where these ha])j)en to
be on high ground, so that the flow Avill be direct,
so much the better ; but science has given us, in
the hydraulic ram, a poAvcr that Avill enable us to
compel Avater to run up hill, and so Ave can take
advantage of streams or copious springs much
lower than the place Avhere we Avish the Avater de-
livered. And 1 believe a judicious expenditure
for this purpose would soon be repaid in the sav-
ing of labor. M. P.

For the NeiB England Farmer.
NOTES AND INQUIRIES.

Painting the Roof of Buildings. — Upon
page 32, January number, current volume New
England Fi*nner, is an article about "Important
things to knoAV about building," Avhich is sugges-
tive, and upon an important subject ; one upon
Avhich too little thought is given, in many instan-
ces, by those Avho are erecting buUdings for their
own or others' use.

It is a too true saying that a large majority of
our buildings are built for shoAV, and the present
only ; especially those built by Yankees ; but the
day of these things, it is hoped and believed, is
fast passing aAvay. But the question is. Whether
painting the roof, or sliingles upon the roof, is
useful, and as much so, as upon the Avails of a
building ?

It is claimed by many who have tried it, that
the shingles painted, instead of being "done for a
lifetime," as contended, Avill not last any longer
than if not painted, Avhere the paint is put on af-
ter the shingles are all laid, and some even con-
tend that they Avill not last so long as Avithout the
paint. I have seen shingles that had to be re-
moved, that Avere painted, because they Avere so
rotten that they Avere more like sieves, as for as
keeping the Avater out Avas concerned, than like a
shingled roof; and still to stand and look upon
the roof it Avas "fair to behold" — apparently but
little the Avorse for wear.

The reason assigned Avas, that the Avatcr came
in contact Avith the shingles above Avhere the paint
Avas applied, and followed doAvn under the paint,
where it was retained much longer than it other-
wise would have been. Consequently, they Avere
kept moist, and soon began to decay upon the
under side and in the middle, instead of di-jing,
as they would, had not the water been prevented
from evaporating by the paint upon the lower ends
only.

How does this accord with your theory and ex-
perience, Mr. Philbrick ?

The remedy is to paint each course as laid, up

182

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

above the ends of the second course, with a thick,
heavy coat of paint, and then, to finish off, paint
the portion exposed after the roof is thus finished.
Then, what water falls through the interstices will
fall upon a painted surface, and be conveyed out,
instead of following the grain of the wood down
under the paint.

Peat or Swamp Muck. — Will it pay to haul
peat two miles on a good road where a yoke of
oxen can haul half a cord, spaded up directly from
the bed ? The muck to be composted with stable
manure, or otherwise, used upon an alluvial soil
of naturally very good quality. The soil has been
much reduced in productiveness by former occu-
pants. The peat was pronounced, in 1837, by
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, "excellent peat, of a re-
markable character, it being in part bituminizcd
by the process of decomposition." It lies upon a
hard, gravelly bottom, gradually deepening to-
wards the centre. O. W. True.

Elm Tree Farm, near Phillips, Me., Jan. 31, 1862.

Remarks. — We have no doubt it will "pay," if
the work is economically done, by hauling when
other important work is not pressing.

USE OP HEN" MANURE OW CORN".
I have been in the habit of using hen manure,
applied in the hill, on corn, for a number of years,
with excellent success. I take my hen manure to
a convenient place — say a barn floor, and pulver-
ize it thoroughly — then mix two-sixths ashes and
one-sixth plaster, with an equal proportion of the
manure in bulk, of both ashes and plaster. After
preparing my ground by spreading, say twenty-
five cart-loads, of stable or other good manure on
the turf, and plowing it under, I mark out my
ground without either harrowing or bushing, and
then drop one gill of the above mixtm-e in each
hill, either planting my corn beside, or kicking on
a little dirt Avith my foot, over the mixture, and
planting directly on it. I row both ways, three
and one-half feet apart. In this way I have suc-
ceeded in getting fine crops. I generally use
about fifteen bushels of the hen manure mixture
to the acre ; but if I used no other manure to car-
ry out the crop, I would certainly use at least for-
ty bushels of the same. I think most farmers miss
it in running over too much ground to get a bush-
el of corn, when by manuring heavily, they get
the same grain on less ground, and make a saving
in labor, and leave the soil in a better condition
for stocking down. — E. Allen, PomJ'ret, Conn.,
in Country Gentleman.

Preventive of the Curculio. — Mr. A. C.
Hubbard, of Detroit, publishes in the Michigan
Fanner a statement that "common" elder bushes
tied to the bi-anches of plum trees had prevented
the operation of the curcuUo for tlu*ee years, in a
garden he recently visited. His friend had been
upon the place five years. The first two years he
tried to save his fruits by shaking the insects upon
cloths, vith but poor success. "An old French-
man" told him to put elder bushes in his trees.
He has done so for three years with the same suc-
cess— a full crop of perfect fruit. The bushes
were put into the trees every few days from the
time the fruit was set until full grown.

For the New England Farmer.
THE CULTIVATION OF WHEAT.

J. Palmer, Esq., — Sir: — Your letter of in-
quiries respecting winter wheat has been received,
in which you say "you have cultivated winter
wheat upon a small scale the two past seasons,
and that it has not been injured by the midge ;
but that you find it difficult to get the corn off the
land in season to sow wheat, and seed down to
grass ; that you cut up your corn as soon as it
will possibly answer, and remove it from the
grounds, and shock it, which is a good deal of la-
bor ; and further say, you should prefer to sow
spring wheat if jou could obtain some that the in-
sect would not injure, and ask if I know any
such?" I know of no variety of wheat, either
winter or spring, that is midge proof, though it
appears that some varieties are less injured by the
insect than others.

I have successfully grown winter wheat for the
past nine years, on my farm. Spring sown wheat
has been a very uncertain crop. If sown early, it
has usually sufi'ered badly by the depredations of
the midge. If sown late — say the last of May — it
may escape the insect, but has been pretty sure to
rust, mildew or blight. My farm lying in a val-
ley, the wheat crop is more liable to injury from
rust, midge, &c., than that grown on our hill-
farms. But as low-lying as is my farm, I have
suffered, during the period I have grown fall-sown
wheat, but very trifling loss from midge, rust, or
winter-kill. Winter wheat on my farm has been
a surer crop than that of corn, oats or potatoes.
I have usually sown between the 25th of August
and 10th of September. By early sowing, the
plants are less liable to winter-kill, and obtain an
earlier start in the spring, thereby getting ahead
of the midge, rust, &c.

The Japan Avheat you ask about is the earliest
winter wheat I know of. I cut a part of mine the
12th of last July ; it does not stand our winters
so well as some other varieties, but it never has
been injured by the midge, nor rusted in the least.
From its eai-ly ripening, it was badly injured the
past season by whole troops of yellow birds, who
shelled it badly, while the grain was in the milky
state. It is a red wheat, beardless, but makes a
very good quality of flour. I have sown the past
fall quite a patch of it, and shall know, another
harvest, whether it will be a profitable variety to
cultivate.

You ask what variety I consider the safest and
best. I have grown Gen. Harmon's "improved
white flint," the Tuscan from Michigan, Early Noe
from France," and on a smaller scale, a dozen oth-
er varieties, all of which have done well. The
past season I grew fourteen different varieties ;
two of the latest kinds were somewhat injured by
midge and rust. The white flint gives forty-seven
pounds of superior flour per bushel ; some of the
others not quite as much. The Early Noe makes
a very white flour, but bread made of it dries tip
sooner than that from some other variety. I know
nothing respecting the Java wheat you inquire
about.

I have never grown winter wheat after corn.
Cannot get the ground cleared of it early enough.
Very much depends upon early sowing ; therefore,
let oats or barley follow corn, then manure the
stubble, plow and sow wheat and grass seed. Or

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

183

plow a clover-ley in August, top-dress with guano
or fine manure, or completely invert greensward.
Last of August, roll down the furrows, manure,
harrow well, then sow wheat and grass seeds, and
clover seed in the spring. If the wheat should
happen to fail, you will be likely to get a good
field of grass. But more than three-fourths of the
wheat I have grown, has been on inverted sod, and
usually has done better than that on old ground.
I am satisfied that most of our farmers can grow
winter wheat with more certainty than they can
spring wheat, and that it would be better for them
to raise wheat for family use, than to purchase
western flour.

The varieties of wheat I have grown, as field
crops, have all, except the Japan, been "white,
bald wheats ;" these make a whiter quality of flour
than the red chafied and bearded wheats, but I am
not sure as these "white, bald sorts" are as hardy
and pi'oductive as the bearded varieties.

In August, 1860, I forwarded to Col. A. G.
Boyd, Hancock, Md., samples of five varieties of
winter wheat, which he sowed in September, 1860.
In August last I received a letter from Col. B., in
which he says : "All the varieties of wheat you
sent me last fall, I observe are smooth (bald.)
There is existing among our farmers a prejudice
against smooth wheat, and I am beginning to be
of the opinion that it is not without substantial
reasons. Certain it is, that our smooth varieties
are more subject to the ravages of the fly and oth-
er insects, and to the elemental diseases incident
to the wheat crop, and yield little or nothing,
whilst the bearded varieties, with few exceptions,
escape the insect and these diseases, and j-ield re-
munerative crops."

I have grown from 10 to 16 bushels of bald
wheat from the bushel of seed sown — and some of
our farmers have done better, getting 20 or more
to the bushel of seed. But among the dozen va-
rieties of wheats I experimented with (in drills)
the past season, four of them were bearded wheats.
While growing, and when harvested, I was satis-
fied that the bearded varieties were the most pro-
ductive, the produce of Avhich has been sown, as
well as several other varieties, (14 in all,) and an-
other season I hope to be able to test the correct-
ness of Col. Boyd's views. If the bearded varie-
ties prove decidedly the hardiest and productive,
I shall cultivate them in preference to the smooth,
or awnless sorts.

I wish I had an opportunity of forwarding you
a few heads, each, of the diff"erent varieties I grew
the past season. It would satisfy you that beau-
tiful samples of winter wheat have been grown in
the "Old Granite State" — and I am full in the
faith it can be done again. Taking a scries of ten
years, I believe we can grow winter wheat, with as
much certainty as it can be grown in any other of
the States in the Union, or out of it.
Yours, most respectfully,

Levi Bartlett.

Warner, N. H., Dec. 16, 1861,

Soaking of Seeds. — One of the best methods
of preparation of seeds for an early start is to soak
them in diluted liquid manure. Hen dung is
much recommended for this purpose. Sometimes
soaked seeds do not come forward, or rot in the
ground ; but frequently it is the case that the seeds

are not attended to, but are allowed to heat, or
sometimes to get dry, before they are sown.
Another point is to have, for small seeds, the soil
in a warm friable condition ; if the seeds are soaked
and the surface of the soil is warm, and the soil
itself is pressed down close to the seed, by rolling,
or the hoe, when the sowing is done, it will make
a material diffei-ence in the time which they will
take to sprout ; and besides this, the manure with
which their out«r coat is saturated, protects them
from the attacks of worms and insects. — Michigan
Farmer.

PEED TOUR CROPS.

Dr. Beccana, more than a century ago, re-
marked that "we are composed of the same sub-
stances which sen'e as our nourishment." The
same observation applies with equal correctness
to plants. Dr. Lee, when Principal of the Agri-
cultural School near Rochester, New York, sever-
al years ago, took considerable pains to demon-
strate this fact. "He first," says a writer, "ana-
lyzes the plant or produce, and finds out what it is
made of. He then knows what materials must be
supplied to feed it in order to obtain a good crop."
He ascertained, by a series of very ingenious and
carefully conducted experiments, that one hun-
dred pounds of Avheat ashes contained forty-seven
pounds of phosphoric acid. In one hundred
pounds of the ashes of oak wood, he found there
were two pounds of phosphoric acid. In com-
menting upon tills fact, the writer above men-
tioned says :

"Now how many pounds of drj^ oak ashes must
be applied to an acre to give a crop of wheat, both
straw and grain, equal to thirty bushels, and sup-
ply it with all the phosphoric matter needed ? In
order to solve this problem, we must remark that
thirty bushels of wheat at 60 pounds per bushel,
will weigh 1,800 pounds. One hundred pounds
of wheat, when burned, will yield 2^ pounds of
ashes. Of course, 1,800 pounds of wheat, will
contain 40^ pounds of ashes, and thus40A pounds
will contain a trifle over 19 pounds of phosphoric
acid. To one pound of wheat there is usually 2h
pounds of straw ; we shall, therefore, in order to
produce 30 bushels of wheat, have about 4,500
pounds of straw, containing 315 pounds of incom-
bustible matter, which, if burned, will he left in
the form of ashes. It has been found by experi-
ment that ] 00 pounds of ashes from wheat straw,
contain 3 and 1-lOth pounds of phosphoric acid.
This 4,500 pounds of straw will contain, therefore,
9.76 pounds of phosphoric acid, which, added to
the 19 pounds in the wheat, will make 28.76
pounds. Now, if you want to supply this phos-
phoric acid by the application of oak ashes, con-
taining 2 pounds in every 100 pounds, you will
need 1,400 pounds. A bushel of such ashes will
weigh nearly 70 pounds, so that you will want
twenty bushels of ashes."

184

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Apkil

We would here remark, that, in a large majori-
ty of cases, probably, the quantity of ashes re-
quired to feed the crop of Avheat with the requi-
site amount of phosphoric acid, would exceed this,
as it is by no means likely that all the acid would
be taken vip and assimilated by the plants for
whose especial benefit it was designed, when ap-
plied. There are a number of ways in which a
portion of it might escape, and do very little good
to soil a crop ; yet the suggestion is of value as
tending to direct us in the pursuit of right meth-
ods and fortunate results in the management of a
valuable and important crop. The analysis of
vegetables will undoubtedly prove of value to the
husbandman, and some measure ought to be
adopted to render the analyses of plants more
common and familiar to us.

It is well for the farmer to be familiar with the
experiments and theories of the chemist, as they
will sometimes lead to the most valuable results,
and always lead his mind to subjects of the most
pleasing contemplation. But there are continual
operations in nature entirely beyond the research
of either chemist or farmer. The latter may em-
ploy the amount of ashes found necessary by the
experiment of the chemist to produce a given
quantity of wheat, and yet utterly fail of producing
a crop. The farmer knows, however, that when
he uses ashes or lime upon his wheat crop, that
nine times in ten the croiJ is better for it. It is
this experience, springing up from his daily and
yearly practice, that is of the greatest importance
to the farmer. Tlie difficulty is, that he does not
digest and record it, and pass it along for the ben-
efit of those who succeed him in the same employ-
ments.

HORSES.

Col. Needham, the Secretary of the Vermont
State Agricultural Society, in his annual report
says :

"The number of horses in Vermont before the
breaking out of the rebellion, was about fifty-five
thousand, since which time it is calculated that
nearly ten thousand have been carried from the
State for army purposes. This immense levy for
horses has been made througliout tlie entire coun-
try. When it is considered that comparatively
few of these horses will find their way back ; that
the number that will die of disease, or become un-
fit for service, is twenty times as great as it would
be, were they used in other kinds of business ;
that to meet this groat want of the government, a
large proportion of the business horses in our
large cities, which have been thrown out of sei'-
vice by general prostration, have been bought up ;
it readily appears that, even during the war,
horses must advance in price ; and at its close,
when business shall revive, and trade resume its
former channels, the demand for good horses
must exceed the supply. Reasoning from these
premises, no more profitable labor can be engaged
xa, than the production of good business horses."

For the New England Farmer,
POTATOES OW MUCK LANDS.

Mr. Editor : — I have lately turned over the
last seven or eight volumes of the Farmer to see
if I could find any records of experiments with
either of the concentrated, manures upon meadow
lands. The meadow which I have under cultiva-
tion produces abundant crops of potatoes, provid-
ed each hill receives a small amount of some coarse
manure. I might state here, that while every crop
I had tried has succeeded — the potato appears, to
be the most profitable, and, further, that a coarse
manure produces larger and smoother potatoes
than compost. For good and sufficient reasons,
however, I wish to use the major part of my ma-
nure upon uplands, and would be glad to substi-
tute therefor guano, superphosphate, or something
of the sort, which, at the same time, might be so
much more conveniently applied to lands where no
animal can travel without it be shod with rackets.
I have thought to avail myself of the experience
of some of your correspondents, but find nothing
upon the subject. Have you not, Mr. Editor, some
reader who has experience in the premises and
who is in want of a subject whereon to write for
the Farmer") If so I would like to hear from him.

While looking througli the volumes of the Far-
mer, I Avas reminded of the fact that a great many
of your subscribers fail to have their Monthly
Farmers bound. They are not aware that the
twelve numbers, although they may be a little
soiled, are made into a very handsome volume by
the binder, for the small sum of twenty-five cents.
If information is desired upon any particular sub-
ject, the reader, by the aid of the index, which
accompanies each volume, can compare the views
of a score of writers. Let me advise every sub-
scriljcr to the Monthly to have his numbers bound.

Londonderry, N. II. , Feb., 1862. M. W. A.

Remarks. — We have been examining crops of
potatoes growing on muck lands, more or less, for
the last ten years. They have averaged better
crops on such soils than they have on the high
lands. Various manures have been used. Fine
crops have been produced by the aid of a handful
of Peruvian guano, without other dressing — but
at $G5 per ton, it is doubtful whether anything
can be gained by its use. So good crops have
been made by the use of ashes in the hill, or super-
phosphate of lime. A night-soil, or poultry, com-
post, on good muck lands, we tliink Vr'ould bring
profitable crops.

HiNGHAM Agricultural and IIorticultU'
RAL Society. — This young giant has issued a list
of prizes for 1862, making in the aggregate the
sum of $750. It is made up of only a single town,
but actually outstrips some county societies in
the extent and quality of its exhibitions. The of-
ficers of the Society are :

President — Albert Fearing ; Vice Presidents
— Solomon Lincoln, Charles W. Cushing, Luther
Stephenson ; Recording Secretary — De Witt C.
Bates ; Corresponding Secretary — Henry Hersey ;
Treasurer — J. H. French ; Libraiian — L. Fearing

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMEK.

185

For the New Ensland Farmer.
BABNS AWD BABKT CELLAKS.

I have been perusing your paper of March 1st,
and noticed the report of the Legislative Agricul-
tural Society at their seventh meeting. Subject
— Farm Buildings. I Avould like to make some
inquiries in regard to the ventilation of barns
■with cellars under them.

First, If a man should build a room, lay a tight
floor, double board the sides, build a good foeplace
•without any chimney in one side, and then lay a
loose floor overhead, and then cover with hay, and
build a fire in the fireplace, would he be surprised
if his hay should be smoky ? taste smoky ? smell
smoky ? or if his clothes should come in contact
with the hay, or remain in the room a short time,
■would they not smell smoky ? Is this to be ■won-
dered at ? I would ask how many barns are built
upon the principle of the room above described ?
Or how many stables are there in the country
■which are ventilated in the same way ? (through
the hay mow.) It is not to be wondered at that
people complain about ventilation in such barns
as have cellars under them ; also, about bad hay,
or yellow hay, that lays over the stable, it woidd
not be surprising if all the hay and straw that
■was in the barn should smell or taste a little strong.

Second, A barn that is 40 by 60 feet may be
properly ventilated by two pipes, viz. : Place one
of them in the vicinity of the stable, M'hich should
have a box pipe running the whole length of the
stable, with small openings as necessity would re-
quire, at the different tie-ups. Then there should
be another in the opposite end or part of the barn,
and if there should be another stable, there should
be another tul^e running the length of the stable,
to unite with the large ventilating pipe. These ven-
tilating tubes, for a barn of the size given, should
be two feet square, with a damper (af the lower
end) to turn as occasion would require. In no
case should they diminish in size towards the top
of the barn ; to contract the tube at the top would
be to stop the draft, but to enlarge the top grad-
ually would increase the draft, and they should
be placed as near the centre portion of the cellars
as convenient.

Lastly, If any man will follow this last rule,
he would not have smoky, yellow, or bad flavored
hay, providing it was got into the barn in good
condition. Natilvn Way.

West Burke, Vt., 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
EXAMIWINQ EGGS FOB SETTING.
As the time of setting hens is near at hand, a
few hints may, perhaps, be of some benefit to your
readers. Select a warm, dry, secluded place ; set
four hens, or more, if possible, at the same time,
so as to allow one hen to rear the four broods, as
it is no more trouble to take charge of forty chicks
with one hen, than one-third that number. After
setting four days take the eggs from under the
hens in the evening, hold them before a strong
light, between your hands ; if the eggs are good,
you will perceive a small, floating ball, wliich is
the eye of the chick, and the eggs will appear thick
with bloody veins passing from side to side. Re-
place such eggs carefully ; those that have not
changed can be used in the family, as they wiU

not be injured. If you first placed thirteen eggs
under each hen or fifty-two under the four hens,
you may find upon examination, perhaps, twelve
without chickens, Avhich would become what are
commonly called "rotten eggs." Place the re-
maining forty-eight eggs under the three hens, and
set the other hen with fresh eggs, and if the hens
set steadily, you may expect forty-eight chicks
from the three hens.

In selecting eggs for setting, choose those of
moderate size, and well proportioned ; thirteen
eggs is a suflicient number for one hen ; you will
get more chicks from that number than from more,
as a larger number annoys the hen, who will be
continually endeavoring to cover them, thereby
shaking and often killing the chickens in the eggs.

Salem, March, 1862. John S. Ives.

Ftnr the Nero England Farmer.
BEET SUGAK.

Mr. Editor : — In your remarks on my beet
article in last Farmer, I am glad you led me to
correct an error, either of my pen or your printer.
Instead of 10 or 12 bushels, it ought to read 10 or
12 cwt. It appears to me that the article you
quote from, in the American Encyclopedia, has
been, by the compilers, copied from Loudon, and
that he wrote when the production of sugar and
brandy from beet was in its infancy, and hence the
discrepancies with regard to quantity and results,
&c. It must also be borne in mind that the boiling
of the pomace, or pulp, before pressing, adds a
third more of syrup, and that is but of recent in-
troduction in the manufacture of beet sugar ; and
a great many still adhere to the old system of
pressing the pulp cold, as it comes from the mill.
I have seldom found two people to agree about
the quantity of the raw material required to pro-
duce a given quantity of sugar, even in the sugar-
making districts of France ; and in my own expe-
rience I have found the quantity vary from 8 to 16
cwt. of clear roots to the cwt. of sugar. Tliis va-
riation is scarcely to be wondered at in a new
branch of business however, when malted barley,
under the hands of old and experienced brewers,
often produces like variations of quantity and
quality of ale, under certain circumstances.

I have more than once seen whole pressings
of hundreds of gallons rendered almost useless by
the too liberal application of lime and sulphuric
acid, when a third part of each was only necessary,
and a few drops of the oil of violets administered
at the critical moment, would have saved the
whole mess. The quantity of molasses has also
to be taken into account. The more molasses the
less sugar, and the more sugar the less molasses,
which has to be regulated by the application of
chemical agents, upon which much depends in the
manufacture of a good article. The Avhole econo-
my of the thing consists in adapting means to ends,
and having the different departments work in per-
fect harmony. For example, the sugar manufac-
tory and the distillery ought to be united, as mo-
lasses and other refuse of the sugar is good enough
for distillery into brandy. The pulp, after being
pressed, is sold to the paper-makers, and brings a
good price, as it is found to make the best and
most durable paper, and is much in demand for
that purpose, in many parts of Europe. The Lon-

186

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

don Times, the largest journal in the world, is
printed on beet paper, of which they consume seven
tons per day, or 2o55 tons per annum, at a saving
to the proprietors of $100,000 a year.

So the beet, duly considered, is a most useful
and wonderful vegetable. Its adaptation to trans-
formation into so many articles of use to man,
seems without limit, and is, therefore, astonishing
to contemplate. Beef, pork, mutton, milk, butter
and cheese, sugar, brandy and paper, are but a
few of the articles into which this root can be
ti-ansformed, and time is only requu-ed to develop
its future usefulness in tliis wide country, to the
wants of man.

I have written to France for fresh information
regarding the quantity of roots required under or-
dinary circumstances to produce a given quantity
of sugar, &c., and when I receive an answer I will
lay it before you. And in the meantime, I remain
respectfully, Thos. Cruickshank.

Beverly Farms, March 4, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
FARM BUILDINGS.

Mr. Editor : — In a report of the Legislative
Agricultural Discussions upon farm buildings, sev-
eral very important points were brought out, and
I refer to them, hoping to elicit more valuable sug-
gestions upon the same subject.

Shall we not have the diagram of the position
of farm buildings, with explanations, hints about
size, construction, &c., presented by the Editor of
the Farmer, at said meeting, at an eai'ly day, in
the Farmer'}

I confess to a liking of farm buildings being
connected and being under as fcAV roofs, as a gen-
eral rule, as circumstances will allow, tliinking the
conveniences and economy in labor in and about
them, more than equal to the disadvantages aris-
ing from their connection, beside the saving in
walls and roofs.

In the "shelter" required for buildings, do they
not need the rays of the sun, the "balmy breezes,"
the south-east storms, modified, in the southern
aspect, as well as in any other direction, though
to, perhaps, a less amount ? And here, in reading
your remarks, the fact occurs to mind that the
pine is injured by winds more than the other ever-
greens mentioned ; (here in Maine, at least.)

It is a subject of thought, how to have a suita-
ble shelter around the buildings, and not obstruct
the view of the fields and pastures, where the
building site is nearly on a level with them, which
by some is considered one of the important requi-
sites to have a full view of the fields from the
buildings.

Would you have shade trees, which grow to a
large size, set out so near to buildings, that in
case they should be blown down, they could fall
upon the buildings ? Though no serious accident
of this Idnd is just now called to mind, yet when
seeing maples, elms, pines, and the like, growing
within a few feet of the house, a feeling of fear
would steal over me that in some of our New Eng-
land gales, sonic of the large branches, or the
whole top, might be wrenched ofi" and hurled upon
the roof with a crushing weight.

Why does Mr. Fearing think it "not good econ-
omy to ])aint" his sheep-sheds, as well as other
out-buildinc-s ?

That "new hind of paint" of Mr. Taylor's. —
Such a description as given m the report viz.,
" the base was whiting, with perhaps a little
lime and oil, with colors to suit," is, to say the
least, quite indefinite. If you know the import of
perhaps a little lime and oil, and what really made
up the bulk of the paint, with the base, I shall be
glad to receive more light. If such a paint, or
wash, as there referred to, can be procured, it is
truly a desideratum — an improvement worthy of
the nineteenth centurj- — one Mhich many a toiling
farmer will be thi'ice glad to obtain, and to test,
upon the weather-beaten walls of his buildings.

Near Fhillips, Me., 1862. O. W. True.

Remarks. — The diagram we presented was im-
provised for the occasion, and was intended only
to show the position of the buildings in their rela-
tion to each other.

Shade trees should never come so near the
buildings as to exclude all the rays of the sun,
either in summer or winter. On the north, they
may be nearer than on the other side. Elms and
maples should be fifty feet from the dwelling, and
all trees should be so arranged as not to obstruct
any prospect that is valued.

For the New England Farmer.
SMITH'S IMPBOVED FENCE.

Mr. Editor : — As you have Smith's Improved
Fences upon your farm, I -wish to inquire whether,
in your opinion, his fence No. 2 can be advanta-
geously used, as a road fence, to prevent snow-
drifts ?

The answer to this question will concern every
person who is obliged to pass over our roads in
winter. If his fence has this advantage, and no
other, I will guarantee him patronage enough in
this State to satisfy any reasonable man.

Over a great part of the State, and during the
greater part of the winter, our common roads
have been literally buried under immense snow-
drifts, and the only way to get through them has
been to dig through ; and after every driving
storm, we have been compelled to do the same
over and over again.

Thousands of dollars will not pay the cost of
keeping our roads open the past winter, and busi-
ness over them has been about as brisk, as it usu-
ally is on the coast of Greenland. Upright road
fences are the cause. Vermonter.

Burlington, Vt., March 6, 1862.

Remarks. — See cut and description of Smith's
Fence in another column.

Goats. — An article upon Goats, recently pub-
lished in the Farmer, has been extensively pub-
lished and commented upon. We did not thinli
it necessary to say at the time, that if a person has
a tree or a plant which he values, he must not al-
low goats to run at large. They are exceedingly
destructive to nearly all kinds of herbage, and will
surmount almost any obstacle to get at it.

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

187

For the New England Farmer.

SEED WHEAT — FARMERS' CLUB — A
SNOW BLOCKADE.

Mr. Editor: — In a communication in the
Farmer some months ago, either the printer or
scribe made me say just what I did not intend,
namely, that the farmers hereabouts sowed only
the largest kinds of wheat, when it should have
read the largest kernels. For a few years past the
"Canada Club" and "Scotch Fife" have been al-
most the only kinds sown, although formerly the
"China Tea" wheat and other large varieties were
raised considerably. By the use of an improved
fan-mill, which separates the largest, plumpest
and earliest ripened kernels from the smaller, as
well as from all foul seed and oats, we think we
are improving our grain crops, wheat especially,
in a perceptible degree, getting a larger yield,
earlier matured and less exposed to the midge,
and better quality. But we hope your readers
will not understand that we sow only the largest
kinds of wheat — except as we inci*ease the size of
the variety by sowing only the largest kernels.

farmers' club.
That you may be better acquainted with us, far-
mers, I will give you a little specimen of our talk
at the second meeting of the club, which was or-
ganized two weeks ago for the following objects,
as named in the 2d Article of the Constitution :

1. The acquisition and dissemination of agri-
cultural knowledge.

2. The promotion of acquaintance among neigh-
bors.

3. Improvement of its members in conversation,
composition, public reading and speaking, &c.

4. Improvement of farms, farm implements,
stock, buildings, and every department of agricul-
ture.

Our first subject for conversation was the com-
parative merits of fall and spring plowing. Mr.
G. recommends fall plowing as to economy, de-
stroying grubs, &c., enriching the soil and saving
of labor preparatory to the hnrry in getting in
spring crops — would plow greensward soon after
haying when the ground was warm — believes fall
plowing gives heavier crops — in favor of spreading
manure on the surface and harrowing rather than
plowing under very deep — thinks the little loss of
ammonia by plowing corn or grain land in the
fall more than compensated by the maniurial effect
of the stubble.

Mr. prefers to break greensward for plant-
ing after the grass has well started in May — does
not think fall plowing destroys grubs or foul
weeds any better than spring plowing — has his
doubts about getting as good crops from fall plow-
ing of stubble land — for wheat is in favor of both
fall and spring plowing — thinks if all plowing
could be done as conveniently in spring it would
be better, except plowing in greensward in August
when weather is warm, so that the rowen heats
and rots considerably before cold weather.

Mr. G. is quite confident that fall plowing de-
stroys larvae — don't think fall plowing of corn
land manured in the hill injurious — not much lost
if plowed late.

Mr. don't profess to be much of a farmer,

has some ideas — thinks we don't generally plow
enough to sufficiently pulverize the land — much in
favor of both fall and spring plowing — says far-

mers in H — k get from 75 to 100 bushels of oats
per acre, and plow old land both fall and spring —
likes breaking greensward in August — and is sat-
isfied from personal experience that the more we
plow and work over land, the better crops of every
kind.

Mr. thinks we sometimes get land pulver-
ized too much — in regard to seeding down thinks
the greater growth of straw is from spring plow-
ing, but more weight of grain from fall plowing
— never saw oats eaten up badly by worms or in-
sects on fall 2^1owed land — is in favor of breaking
greensward early in the fall — has lost new seeding
by sowing on land pulverized in the spring ; Mr.
endorses the same opinion.

Mr. thinks our crops depend more \i\wn

manure than the time of plowing — especially land
for seeding down should have been well manured
and thorouglily pulverized — is in favor of getting
muck, &c., and preparing manure instead of plow-
ing in the fall — thinks, if can plow but once, bet-
ter do it in the spring — in favor of plowing green-
sward for corn the last thing before the ground
freezes up — not generally in favor of plowing
corn stubble land in the fall for wheat the follow-
ing year.

^Ir. thinks seeding down depends more

upon the thickness of the grain sown with the
seed than on the time of plowing — in favor of
fall plowing to get of "sward-worms."

iSIr. thinks that broadcast sown grain is

less liable to rust on fall plowed land because the
sward is better decomposed — thinks in one in-
stance he raised oats on a field part plowed in fall
and part in spring, and the fall plowed yielded
one-third more grain and equal amount of straw,
seeding caught better and jn'oduced better hay
cro]3S than the other — thinks fall plowing, espe-
cially for moist land, pulverizes it better, on ac-
count of frost, &c.

INIr. is in favor of fall plowing for wheat

after corn — also for seeding down — would like
further discussion of this subject.

Thus you have, Mr. Editor, a sample of our
fii'st meeting after organizing ; do you think it ad-
visable to try to keep it up ? We have decided
to have at least one more meeting, and the sub-
ject is the "corn crop." I don't know that any
one of us ever had any experience or practice in
any other club, so that of course we are all "green,"
though as a community we don't like to be be rat-
ed more than others, or considered "below par" in
general and our jja in particular ! It is our in-
tention to have our wives and older children asso-
ciated, actively with us, and our hired help in the
club, and besides conversation, occasionally have
original essays and speeches.

THE BLOCKADE.

I don't know how you of the cities and port
towns regard it ; we in the suburbs of central Ver-
mont, are united to a man, to say nothing of the
women, in our determination to exert ourselves to
raise it by persuasion or force, hook, crook, or
shovel, if it is not removed within thirty days !
We care not whether by England or France or
Greenland the blockade is raised and lemonade
and our neighbors made accessible, and our com-
merce let loose, so be it is soon done. Why, sir,
just think of it — ninety-one inches of snow before
the fourth week in February ! And then, for the

188

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

April

last six M'eeks, Major General Boreas and all his
host have been here on furlough amusing them-
selves for the mere sport of it in piling it up in the
most inconvenient ways imaginable. Within six
feet of the room in which I wiite they have left a
pile ten feet deep before the door, and there are
many piles in the highways which would allow of
having a road cut through them sufficient for a
double team to pass out of sight a considerable
distance. Last night was the most severe within
the memory of the oldest inhabitant, the aforesaid
company doing their aivfulest, while the mercury
varied from 38° above to G° below zero. A towns-
man coming to the centre between seven or eight
o'clock in the evenins got his horse set in a drift
within ten rods of the main street, and while he
was going on for help through the flying snow,
lost the track, became exhausted and would have
perished, but for his protracted calls for assistance,
although on the corner of three streets and
houses all around. My neighbor the doctor says he
has a drift in liis garden thirteen feet deep ! Such
being the facts, shall we be branded "Secesh" if
we berate the blockade ? s.. N.

Steady-habits, Feb. 24, 1862.

CLIMBnSTG PLANTS.

There is nothing that adds so much to the ex-
ternal appearance of a city residence as a climbing
plant or two. We know of no ornament so cheap
and tasteful, and none as equally appropriate to
the mansion and the cottage. There are climbing
plants hardy enough to live and thrive without
much care, and they require so little soil that every
one who has possession of a square yard of ground
can sit under the shadow of his own vine. The
cheerless expression of walls that present only a
succession of clapboards or bricks may be relieved
by these best of nature's ornaments. The drapery
of leaf and blossom about the windows, the vine
climbing up to the very eaves and thrusting its
tendrils into every crevice, the rustic trellis at the
doorway almost hid by the rich foliage, are evi-
dances of taste that should be multiplied. Mr.
Downing beautifully says, "What summer foHage
is to a naked forest, what rich tufts of fern are to
a rock in a woodland dell, what hyacinthine locks
are to a goddess of beauty, or wings to an angel,
the drapery of climbing plants is to cottages in the
country ;" and, he might have added, to residen-
ces everywhere.

The following climbing plants will be found to
answer the requisitions in situations where hardi-
ness and vigorous and rapid growth are indispen-
sable. We rank the roses first, for no one ever
wearies of them. The Queen of the Prairies and
the Baltimore Belle are two fine varieties of the
^Michigan rose. They are remarkable for the pro-
fusion of their flowers and the rapidity of their
growth, shoots of twenty feet in length in a single
year being not uncommon. The blossoms of the
Queen of the Prairies are a deep pink with a
white stripe in the centre of each petal, and so
very double that they look like large pouting buds,
rather than full-grown roses ; those of the Balti-
more Belle are almost white, and in large clusters.
Mr. Downing recommends the common Boursalt
rose, which he says "has long purplish shoots, fo-
liage always fresh and abundant, and bright pur-
plish blossoms in June, as thick as stars in a mid-

night sky." The richest and prettiest Boursalt is
one called Amadas or Elegans.

The Chinese Wistaria is another plant admira-
bly adapted for the decorations of dwellings. It
is perfectly hardy, a rank grower, and may be
trained over the whole side of a dwelling, or twine
about a single pillar. It requires some age and a
favorable location to flower, but the flowers are
worth waiting for. They hang in clusters, like
those on a locust tree, are from six inches to a foot
in length, and of a most delicate tint, between
light purple and white. When in full bloom, it is
one of the most beautiful flowering plants.

For twining about windows, nothing is prettier
than the Chinese twining honeysuckle, {Lonicera
japonica, jlexuoso.) It blooms constantly nearly
all summer, and its fragrance is peculiarly pleas-
ant. It is not so hardy as the roses mentioned,
but may be cultivated with a little care. The red
and yellow honeysuckles, planted together, give a
very fine efiect, especially when trained on a lat-
tice. Mr. Downing speaks of the sweet-scented
clematis {C. Jlammula,) "as the very type of deli-
cacy and grace, Avhose flowers are broidered like
pale stars over the whole vine in midsummer, and
whose perfume is the most spiritual, impalpable,
and yet far-spreading of all vegetable odors."

All these climbing plants may be trained on the
sides of dwellings by an occasional fastening to the
wall. The honeysuckles, being more fragile, need
the support of strong twine. All the preparation
necessary is to dig a trench a little distance from
the wall, fill it with rich soil, (for the richer it is,
the more luxuriant wiU be the growth,) and plant
the root, the cutting, or the seed, as the case may
be, and the thing is done. These may be obtained
at a trifling expense from any of the nurseries or
green-houses, and once obtained, your stock will
never need rencAving. They will add to the beau-
ty of the most delightful residence, and impart it
to those lacking in all ornament. The old house
which you begin to talk about tearing down, will
look quite well for a year or two longer, if you
will rejuvenate it by this drapery of living green.
The blank, broad side of a building which stares
into the street, with its great expressionless face,
will wear a very difierent countenance, if you Avill
build a simple trellis over the front door, and cov-
er it with some graceful creeper.

There are situations where the European Ivy,
the American Ivy, and the trum])et creepers, {Big-
noiiias,) have a fine effect. This class of plants
help themselves in their upward course, fixing
their rootlets into the stone or brick wall. The
European Ivy is tender, but the American or Vir-
ginia creeper, and the trumpet creeper, will thrive
anywhere. They show to good advantage on the
rear of brick or stone cottages, on the side of some
old out-building which cannot be improved in any
other Avay, on a walled terrace, which often divides
the doorway from the garden, and on rude walls
and fences generally.

We trust we have not wearied our readers with
this plea for ornament. Every consideration
which should lead to giving an air of cheerfulness
and repose to the apartments of a residence, every
motive v/hich impels us to beautify the walls that
shut the cold, common air of the world out, and
the genial, peculiar air of social enjoyment in, also
urges us to make our homes externally tasteful,
beautiful and characteristic. — Buffalo Courier.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

189

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.
PROFIT AND LOSS IN POULTRY RAISING.

As you had the kindness to publish my account
for the year 1860, as to profit and loss of poultry
raising, 1 now send you the items per month for
the year 1861, and should you think it worthy of
a place in the Farmer, for the benefit of those in
terested, please make it public.

Brahma Pootra fowls and Muscovy ducks are
the breed.

Stock, First op each JIokth.

FotcU.

January 29

February....... 27

March 27

April 27

May 24

June 24

July 24

Aupust 14

September 9

October 9

November 8

December 6

Dozen

2o':i

22.8
36.8
28.8
21.4
21.6
18.11
1.3.10
15.5
15.0
9.9
25.2

249.0
153 sold.

20 Bet.

Ducks,
12
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
5
3
3
3

Dozen Young Young
Eg'js. Chicks. Ducks.

6.3

9.3
12.6

6.0

9.8

C.8

6.0

1.0

9
23
19
46
68
82

2.1

0.9

60.2
5 sold.

55.2
5.10 set.

7
16
34
39
37
33
19

76 49.4

49.4

125.4 eggs used in the family.

De.— 36 bushels corn $24,10

36 " oats 16,25

200 lbs. siftings 2,00

Meal and shorts 2,60

Scraps 1,50— $46,45

4 hens died 1 ,90

21 chicks died 1,95

19 ducks " 96— 4,81

Total cost $51,26

Ce.— 158 dozen cgps sold $85,37

77 hens and chickens 24,.'!2

25 ducks 17,51— $77,20

Food and loss 51,20

$25,94

125 J^ doz. epgs used in family, at 20c 25,06

8 fowls used in family 3,15

17 ducks " " 10,33— 38,54

$64,48

10 bbls. manure 10,00

Premium at the Fair 1,00

Profit $75,48

Stock on hand, Jan. 1, 1862 — 32 fowls, 11
ducks; and now, Jan. 27, I have 18 chickens
hatched on the 11th and 18th inst., which will
commence laying in July, and then I disjDose of
the old fowls.

Salem, Jan. 27, 1862. Jas. Buffington.

THE WE.iTIIER IN VERMONT.

We have just experienced the greatest snow
and blow that has occurred in this vicinity,
(Lyndon, Vt.,) for many years, so the "old folks"
say. During one week, about two and a half feet
of snow fell — terminating February 25, in a per-
ect bluster ! Highways and railroads were com-
pletely blockaded — so much so that the passenger
and freight trains upon the Passumpsic road were
obliged to "lay out" nearly twenty-four hours
within about four miles of Barton ; and drifts
were piled mountain high in every direction. We
mark it the great snow and blow of 1862. How
far did it extend ? I think the snow upon the

ground the present time will average four fee
deep — some say five. The winter of 1861-62 may
very properly be recorded as a season of snows,
blows and variable weather. I. w. s.

freak of A DWARF PEAR TREE.

One year ago last summer, a Duchess d'Angou-
leme gave out a bunch of blossoms at the usual
season, and three pears set ; I destroyed all but
one, the tree being very small, supposing I had
committed no outrage, nor wounded the feelings.
But quite the last of June, after the limbs had
grown three or four inches, on the end of a spur
or limb, 2A inches in length, all of which had
grown that season, appeared a blossom ; the fruit
set and matured in the fall, about four weeks after
the first, though not as large, but fair. The first
measured 12 inches one way and 11 the other.
Thus you have the freak of my pear tree.

S. W. Edson.

Feeding Hills, March, 1862.

BUFFUM and BLOODGOOD PEARS.

Can you inform me through the Farmer where
the varieties of pears known as the Bufi"um and
Bloodgood can be procured. P. Bradford.

Remarks. — Of Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Bos-
ton.

For tlie New England Farmer.
START TOUR TOMATOES.

Mr. Editor : — The tomato is now so univer-
sally relished that it is almost superfluous to urge
its claims, but the past year gave such an inferior
crop of all tree fruits and wild berries, that the
importance of some substitute becomes more ap-
parent, and taking into consideration the ease and
certainty of its production, its abundant yield, and
the fact that a relish for it can be acquued by al-
most every one, I know of nothing which can bet-
ter su])ply a deficiency in the ordinary fruit crop
than the tomato.

The only difficulty is in ripening them sufficient-
ly early, but this may be obviated by any one with
common facilities. The first aim should be to get
early varieties, and the yellow plum is among the
earliest, and to my taste, is the best flavored to-
mato I have ever tested, but the labor of peeling,
when prepared in that manner, is an objection.
The large, smooth red is nearly as early, and is a
very good variety. The perfected, about which
so much has been said, did not ripen last year in
my grounds until two months after the yellow,
and is no better in quality than other varieties.

The next important item is to get them started
properly before the season for planting out, and
in this there is often a great failure. I frequently
see them planted very thickly, in very compact
soil, and kept saturated with water, which treat-
ment, of course, causes them to grow up very tall
and "spindling," and when they are transplanted,
what few roots they have are so matted together
and so firmly fastened in the soil, that most of
them are torn off", and the plants, made succulent
and tender by shade and excess of moisture, if
they ever start at all, are so checked as to be very
little ahead of plants started in the open ground.

The best method I have ever tried, is to plant

190

NEW ENGLAND FARMEK.

April

the seeds in small flower pots, five or six inches
in diameter at top. These have an inch or two of
coarsely broken charcoal placed in the bottom,
and they are then filled with some poi-ous soil ;
that taken from an old hot-bed is good, or well
decomposed muck and sand, with a little very fine
manure, or better still, a mixture of one-half each
of leaf mould and good sand, and a few seeds
planted in each pot, and the pots placed in the
windows close to the glass. When the plants are
up strong, I thin them out with a pair of scissors
as often as there is the least appearance of crowd-
ing, taking care to leave the best plants, until all
but one are cut out ; one near the centre of the
pot being prefei'red. AVater is supplied in suffi-
cient quantity to prevent any withering, but with
care not to keep the soil very wet. The time for
planting is usually about the first of March, but
if planted April first, they viill do much better
than out-door plants. A few of these, for very
early fruit, are planted in a slight hot-bed, late in
April, and when danger from frost is past the glass
is removed. The remainder are planted in open
ground as soon as it can safely be done. My best
and most productive plants last year, were plant-
ed out in ground prepared for melons, by plowing
into a good, strong loam a liberal dressing of sand
and manure, and then preparing hills by mixing
three shovelfuls of horse and hog manure with
plenty of sand and loam — the hill when finished
being raised a few inches. When I wish to re-
move the plant from the pot I place one hand over
the surface, (with the plant, of course, between
the fingers,) and invert it, rapping the pot slight-
ly, if the plant does not drop out without, when
the whole will be found filled with roots, and if
carefully planted but little check will be given.

A little exposure to the out-door air during the
middle of the day, however, for a few days pre-
vious to planting out, is beneficial. The first fruit
which ripens should always be saved for seed, and
if two or more varieties are cultivated they should
be planted as far apart as convenient, in order to
prevent mixing. If trained on the sunny side of
a building, or fence, the fruit will be sweeter as
well as earlier. An abundant supply of sand in
the soil also produces a similar effect.

William F. Bassett.

Aslifield, Feb. 20, 1862.

Agricultural Transactions. — We have the
Transactions of the Hampshire, Franklin and
Hampden Agricultural Society for the year 1861.
It is now in the 44th year of its existence. In the
account of the last Exhibition, the Secretary states
"that in no sense have our agricultural interests
suffered in consequence of the civil war now rag-
ing, the yield of crops being fully up to the aver-
age of past years." The Address was by T. G.
Huntington, Esq., and an excellent one it is.
He touched upon several points which cannot fail
to ai'ouse some wholesome thought.

Among the Reports, there is an extended one
on Sheep, by Mr. J. E. Wight, and one on Stock
in General, by George M. Atwater, George Tay-
lor and T. P. Huntington. There are no others
of special value.

LEGISLATIVE AGKICULTUIIAL SOCIETY.

Reported fob the Farmer by D. "W. Lotheop.

The ninth meeting of the series was held on
Monday evening last at the State House. The
subject for discussion was Fruit Culture, and the
Hon. Marsilvll P. Wilder being present, ac-
cording to announcement, presided.

The chairman thanked the committee for the
position they had assigned liim, and regretted his
inability to be present at the last meeting. He
thought success in fruit culture depended, fii-st,
upon the selection of a few good hardy varieties ;
secondly, upon proper soil and location ; and
thirdly, upon the care and treatment of trees. The
adaptation of soil and position he regarded as very
important, as different soils were congenial to dif-
ferent fruits. He alluded to a convention of fruit-
growers at Albany — at which he was present —
who were desirous of selecting fruit trees adapted
to each State ; but soil and external influences
Avere so varied they found it difficult, and were
obliged to make divisions of some of the States.
Why this difference existed was not readily ex-
plained. A few varieties had a very wide range.
The Bartlett pear maintained its excellence every-
where ; it was the great market pear in London,
and even in Paris. The western slope of the
Rocky Mountains was referred to as an important
climate for fruit, superior to the eastern in most
respects, as even the foreign grapes would flourish
there.

Mr. W. also spoke of the thorough drainage of
orchards as the foundation of successful fruit-
growing. Even side hills were benefited by it,
and drainage should be the rule, not the excep-
tion. Before planting an orchard, the ground
should be thoroughly trenched, or worked over,
and the manure well intermixed. The soil need
not be deep — perhaps about 18 inches — as the cul-
tivator should aim to give the roots a lateral rath-
er than a more descending growth. With good
care, trees seven or eight years old, will have roots
ten to twelve feet long.

As to the manuring of trees, the speaker
thought it should be done in the autumn — the
manure being placed on the surface and forked in
two or three inches deep in the spring. The deep
sinking of manure is objectionable, as chemists
tell us its chemical action is in a measure de-
stroyed or entirely prevented. On or near the
surface, the external elements act upon it, it be-
comes rotten and fine, and its soluble ingre-
dients sink to the roots and are taken up.

The speaker also alluded to pruning — the object
of which is to regulate the sap and curtail the
branches. Different varieties of fruit trees re-
quire different pruning. The time for this was
when the trees or the sap was dormant — in early
spring, even now, is the best time.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

191

Mr. W. spoke, too, of the vicissitudes of fruit
culture. The last year was very bad. It was the
sudden changes of temperature in our climate
that worked the great mischief. He alluded to
the severe frost on the night of October 1st, 1800,
which stiffened our grapes and froze the buds of
his Chinese Azaleas. Also, to that on the suc-
ceeding 8th of February, when the mercury sunk
to twenty-six degrees below zero, preceded by a
mild day when it was fifty-two above — a differ-
ence of seventy-eight degrees in twenty-four
hours ! Even oaks were injured ; but the circum-
stance exhibited the hardiness of many of our
trees. And here, Mr. W. observed that he
thought some of our pear trees were hardier than
the apple tree. His Vicar of Winkfield, Louise
Bonne de Jersey, Belle Lucrative and Ui'baniste
trees had not failed to give him fruit, while his
apple trees did not yield. The effect of cold winds
in the spring he thought disastrous to fruit trees
and spoke of losing thereby a quantity of quince
stocks. As we can make our soil good, favorable
exposure of some trees as to ripening their fruit
was important, as by doing so, we may gain in
effect a degree of latitude. The Easter Beurre
needed a warm exposure. With us it does not ex-
ceed over eight ounces in weight, but in the cli-
mate of California it has reached the enormous
weight of forty ounces ! He saw wax models
of pears in Wasliington, eight inches in height
and seventeen and a half in circumference!
If we had that climate we could do the same ;
hence the importance of studying position.

The chairman also alluded to dwarf trees, and
regarded many pears as better on quince roots
than on pear. He had received a letter from Mr.
Rivers, of England, who had lately examined
some which were forty years old, and yet in good
health. Trees succeed best in the climate where
they are raised. We have a large number of new
vai-ieties, and as they promise well, the day may
come when we can have some adapted to every
position. The past season trees have grown well,
with hard and well-ripened wood, and we may
safely expect the coming season a great quantity
of fruit. *

In conclusion, Mr. Wilder spoke of fruit culture
in his day, of the vast extent and varied climate
of our country, and felt, as he always had, the
gi'eatness of such blessings ; and as the names of
Van Mons and his associates in Europe are not
forgotten, let us and our children revere the
names of Lowell, Downing, and others who have
gone before us.

Mr. Sheldon, of Wilmington, being called
upon, spoke of pruning. He thought there were
two seasons when it was best to prune — in the au-
tumn and in the spring when the days and nights
were of about equal length ; but prune even now.

His best orchard had been pruned in March ; he
had experimented upon some of his trees by saw-
ing off a limb each month, but thought the time
mentioned the best. Trees two years from the
bud, he regarded as the best for an orchard — bet-
ter than those of three. To prevent mice from
gnawing his young trees, he used sand around
them, or trod down the snow. Of varieties of ap-
ples, he thought the Baldwin the best, and it sold
well from the orchard ; the market, too, was never
clogged. The next best was the Gravenstein ; he
also praised the Green Sweeting ; it was a great
bearer, and the fruit good for stock. In this con-
nection, he alluded to a fine horse he once owned,
wliich he frequently let for parade grounds. He
became troubled with glanders, and putting him
to a doctor, the advice was at length to kill him.
But he was placed in an orchard, and as the sweet
apples fell he devoured them, and recovered, so
that after being sold, he produced progeny worth
$200 each. His most profitable apple, Mr. S.
thought, was the Red Astrachan, though they
were getting plenty, and would become less pro-
fitable. He had sold some for $6 a bushel at
the Revere House. But the Baldwin was best for
market, and as to the Northern Spy, it was out of
place on our cold New England hills.

Dr. LoRiNG, of Salem, being called up, said he
was not versed in horticulture, but would make a
few inquiries. Was it best to raise even the har-
diest pears rather than apples ?

Mr. Wilder replied that apples would succeed
well on poor land, and some varieties were even
better on such soil.

Dr. LoRiNG resumed, and observed that apples
were the farmers' general fruit. Custom frequent-
ly decides the crops of our country, and as to
English grass, that had received the sanction of
our farmers. Would it be safe to graft the suck-
ers of old orchards, or would it be better to re-
plant young trees ?

Mr. Wilder replied that he would as soon en-
graft a child on his father's head as a scion into a
sucker. Old stocks from the forest, which some
had sought, were a like curse.

Dr. LoRiNG was glad of this distinct opinion.
He then alluded to Mr. Sheldon's idea of fruit-
raising being a profitable branch of farming, wliich
called up the latter gentleman.

Mr. Sheldon spoke of planting an orchard on
a stony hill, covered previously with pitch pine,
which did not grow well. He took out a large
quantity of rock, so as to sensibly lower the field.
He had another orchard on a plain, but it was not
worth half as much as the one on the stony, rocky
soil. His neighbors said it was useless to plant
trees in Wilmington, but he had sold more apples
and potatoes than any twelve men in the place.
His townsmen did not think farming was profita-

192

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

ble, but he did, and preferred to be a farmer in
"Wilmington than anywhere else. Boston market
was good, and the Woburn very respectable.

Dr. LoRiNG observed that the question of prof-
it would decide the question of fruit raising. He
had his doubts whether orchards were as good as
crops. An apple tree was useless at fifty j'ears
old, it would bear only about thirty-five years,
and then only in alternate years, while little else
could occupy the ground of an orchard He would
not speak directly against trees, but he would
have them on land that was not suitable for other
purposes.

Mr. Sheldon again spoke, and said apple trees
would bear at twelve years, and alluded to his
own profits of fruit culture.

Mr. Howard, of the Cultivator, spoke of the
adaptation of trees to soil and climate. Varieties
fit for cultivation were few, compared with the
whole number. Natives are the best. The Green-
ing, Roxbury Russet and Baldwin were mentioned
as standards of excellence. Other varieties in the
West may be profitable, but will they answer
here ? The Tompkins County King was alluded
to as beautiful there, but not tested here. Gen-
erally, the New York apples will not flourish in
our regions — witness the Newtown Pippin and
the Esopus Spitzenberg. Mr. H. saw the former
in Europe, where they were selling at a sixpence
apiece — the best apple they knew. The best fruit
fairs in England he did not attend, but those in
France he did ; yet they did not come up to ours.
Their pears were better, but the American and
Canada apples maintain their superiority over the
world. He would not advise every farmer, bow-
er, to make fruit growing a specialty. Our ap-
ples are so good, there can be no competition in
Europe. He spoke of a single firm that had
shipped 80,000 barrels. Pear trees, he thought,
had suffered much from cold winters, and it was a
caution to us to select the most hardy.

Mr. Wilder said the Tompkins County King
indicated as well here as in New York. At a vote
of the North-western Fruit Growers' convention,
the choice apples stood as follows : — Baldwin,
Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet, Tomp-
kins County King, and the Tolman Sweet. It is
the fluctuations, rather than the cold, which in-
jure our trees. The Tartarean cherry is hardy at
home, but tender here from the revolutions of our
seasons. Inquiry being made as to digging a hole
for trees, Mr. W. said again that the soil should
be trenched about eighteen inches deep, with the
manure well incorporated, so as to encourage the
lateral growth of root^ Holes for trees were pot-
holes for water. He did not think much could be
done with old trees, but by removing the grass
and putting on ashes and lime, they might be im-
proved.

Mr. Sargeant inquired of Mr. Rogers's hybrid
grapes, and the chairman replied that they were
the first instances of the artificial crossing of the
grape ; but if the subject were continued at the
next meeting, they might be again alluded to.

Other short speeches were made, when Mr.
Wetherell moved to lay the same subject over
for discussion at the next meeting, which motion
prevailed. It is understood that grapes, straw-
berries and the smaller fruits will then be partic-
ularly discussed.

For the New England Farmer»
A SPRINO SONG.

BY JOHN CALVIK GITCHELL.

We count the hours that come and go
Between us and each hoped-for pleasure.

Impatient that they move so slow,
To make complete the dial's measure ;

But dare not note the hours that pass
Between us and a looked-for sorrow j

And only cry, alas ! alas !
Let it not come until to-morrow.

God gives us buds in the spring-time,
In summer, full-grown leaves and flowers )

And yet some deem it is a crime
To worship Flora in her bowers.

But on we move, and on we move,
And country bards will still keep singings

"The months are here for holy love.
For leaves and blooms to life are springing !"
Botcateen, N. II., March, 18G2.

For the New England Farmer.
PLAN OP A SHEEP BARN.

"Subscriber," of Rumney, N. H., wants a plan
of a sheep barn of capacity to accommodate 200
or 300 sheep, standing on level ground.

I give you a plan, according to my idea, that
may meet the approbation of some who may be
about to build for the same purpose.

The barn should be at least 40 by 60 feet ; a
floor or driveway 12 feet wide, running through
the centre from end to end, leaving 14 feet on
each side for leantos. The floor or driveway to
be elevated 2 feet, by framing in to the posts an
extra tier of timbers for the floor to rest upon.
There are two advantages gained by the eleva-
tion : first, the pitching ofl" hay from the cart, and
second, by giving a good chance for racks to feed
in, off" the side oft the floor. The racks should
run the entire length of the barn. Rack rounds
should be set 4 inches apart from centre to centre.
A crib should be made at the bottom of the rack,
about 14 inches wide, with uprights 15 or 16 inch-
es apart, going into the rack nave. If more racks
are wanted, put in short ones across the leantos,
which will, at the same time, divide the flock if
you choose. There will be a good chance for a
cellar under the floor, costing but little to dig it,
the floor being elevated. When the barn is well
underp*«\ned, then fill up the leantos, to the bot-
tom of the sills, with sand or loam, which will be
preferable to a floor, making a good place for
composting leaves, straw, &c., with the droppings
of the sheep. Subscriber.

GrotoH, N. H.y 1862.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

193

For the JSeto England Farmer,

SMITH'S IMPROVED FARM FENCE,
PATENTED OCT. 11, 1859.

NUMBER TWO.

This fence is made much in the same manner
as No. 1, except the fastenings of the posts and
braces. It is built in sections of 16 or 18 feet
each, so as to be let down flat to the gronnd, while
it is held securely to the stone foundation ; thus
adapting it to all low lands subject to floating ice
and drift wood, and also to places where snow-
drifts are troublesome in the winter. When there
is danger of the boards being trodden upon by
cattle the sections are numbered, and can be easi-
ly detached from their foundation, and piled up,
or removed to a place of safety. The stones upon
which the fence rests are placed deeper in the
ground than those for No. 1, so as to allow the
sections of the fence, when turned down, to He as
nearly flat as possible, and thus prevent it from
warping.

When it is necessary to let the fence down,
(which should be in the direction the current
runs,) a person passes along on the opposite side
of the fence, and with a hammer unfastens all the
braces from the posts on that side, and turns them
down ; which is easily and quickly done ; then,
on the other side, turns up the caps which con-
fine the outside posts of each section, at the top ;
then unfastens and turns down the braces which
support these posts, leaving the brace against the
middle post for the last. This is then unfastened,
the section let down, and a stake about 2 feet in
length is driven diagonally into the ground be-
tween the upper panels of the fence to prevent
this part of it from being lifted up by the water.

The deep snows and driving winds of the pres-
ent winter have taught us severe lessons as to the
great inconveniences of snow-drifts. From Maine
to Maryland, and from the lakes to Tennessee,
there is hardly a square mile of territory over

which a road passes, but where snow-drifts are
more or less troublesome. The roads leading
from our State capital to many of our largest
towns, for weeks together, have been, in many
places, absolutely impassable. An immense
amount of labor and steam has been expended
upon our common roads and railroads to keep
them open. Travelling over many of our roads,
in any way except on foot, at the present hour, is
unsafe if not dangerous. A single step out of
the track, and your horse flounders in the snow,
and the only chance of getting him back into the
path is to release him from the sleigh, and then,
perhaps, after a few more plunges you find youi*-
self and horse ready to repeat the experiment as
soon as j-ou meet another sleigh ! In many places
business over the road is suspended, or the roads
are abandoned, and the travel goes round through
the open field, and one is very apt "to wonder"
whether dogs and sledges would not be an im-
provement.

NoAV what are the causes oi these snow-drifts,
and is there no remedy ? The snow seldom drifts
in the open fields, or in the cuts for our common
roads or railroads. There is not a single doubt
that nineteen-twentieths of them are caused by
road fences ; and if the publishers of the Farmer
wish to know how deep the snow is in this region,
I can answer correctly. It is good 2 feet in the
open fields, and from 3 feet to 5 feet between the
road fences. A Avell built dam does not more
surely arrest the waters of a running stream than
do these fences the drifting snows of winter. Re-
move the cause, and the snow will find and keep
its level almost as well as water, except in Ioav
places, and even in those it will not be very trou-
blesome.

Now for the fence. Two men can remove the
sections of No. 2 fence, and put them back in the
spring in less time than it will take to open a road
the same distance, after a single driving snow
storm. As lawyers sometimes say, "Here we

194

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

will rest our argument." And if I fail to get a
judgment in my favor, I will not blame the court,
but mj'self.

The inventor further claims the privilege of fur-
nishing to every farmer wishing to build either or
both kinds, the right, with full directions and sam-
ples of fastenings when desired, at the low price
of $.3,00 for farms not exceeding 100 acres.

Further information may be obtained by ad-
dressing Charles R. Smith, Haverhill, N. H.

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.

WASTE OF SOAP FACTORIES.

Will you, or some of your correspondents, in-
form me through the monthly Farmer, whether
there is any value in ley, or the refuse of soap fac-
tories, as a fertilizer? If any, what is the best
method of usiug it, and to what crops is it best
adapted ? L. Taylok.

Hinsdale, N. H., 1862.

Remarks. — The waste from soap factories is a
valuable fertilizer, and ought to be carefully pre-
served. Formerly, wood ashes was exclusively
used in soap-making, and then the waste was
more valuable than now, when soda, barilla, or
common salt, are used instead. We find some
statements in the books to the point in question.
"It is the opinion of many, that ashes of soap-
boilers especially act by the potash they contain ;
but this is an error; for, in subjecting them to
chemical analysis, they were found by Sprengel to
consist of the following ingredients in 100,000
parts.

Silica 35,000

Lime, mostly in a caustic state 35,010

Manganese 2,330

Alumina 1,500

Oxide of iron 1,700

Oxide of manganese 1,840

Potash, combined with silica into a silicate 500

Soda, " " " 180

Sulphuric acid, combined with lime into gypsum 190

Phosphoric acid, combined with lime 3,500

Common salt 90

Carbonic acid, combined with lime and magnesia. . . .18,160

100,000

Of soapboilers' ashes, in a dry state, from 2000
to 3000 lbs., (40 to 60 bushels,) may ordinarily be
used on an acre of land. From 3000 lbs., the soil
would obtain about 920 lbs. of lime ; 70 lbs. of
magnesia; 15 lbs. of potash; 5 lbs. of soda; 12
lbs. of gypsum ; 230 lbs. of phosphate of lime ;
and 3 lbs. of common salt, by which it will be
seen that they owe their fertilizing properties
mostly to the caustic and carbonate of lime,
and the magnesia and phosphate of lime, as their
15 lbs. of potash, 12 lbs. of gypsum, &:c., may pro-
duce a very inconsiderable effect, particularly as
the potash Is also combined with the silica into a
substance not soluble in water.

After manuring with soaper's ashes, plants of
the clover tribe will be benefited ; and the fresher
the ashes are, the more effective they will be, as
they then contain much caustic lime, by which, es-
pecially the carbonic humus, or the organic matter

in the soil, is eff'ected and changed into humic acid.
Soils Avhich contain very little lime will always be
best improved by them ; and in this case, they will
be very useful, whether employed as a top-ckess-
ing on meadows, or applied to hoed crops or
grain. The eff"ect will be visible for six to nine
years, according to the quantity used ; Avhich,
however, will only be the case, when the soil is
deficient in vegetable or organic matter, and such
other substances of which the ashes contain but a
small quantity.

Soapers' ashes may be strewn over the crops al-
ready growing, such as clovers, lucerne, grasses,
&c., or they may be harrowed in with the seed of
winter or summer crops, on which they act partly
as leached ashes, and partly as caustic lime ; they
can also be used with some advantage on boggy
lands newly cleared, or on any moist land wliich
abounds in ve":etable loam."

POISONED WHEAT FOR DESTROYING RATS, MICE,
CROWS, ETC.

A pedlar from Brooklyn, N. Y., is now around

the country selling poisoned wheat for the extir-
pation of vermin. He sells packages containing
about one gUl to druggists, traders, <S:c., at 12^ cts.
each, to be retailed for 25 cts. The wheat Is poi-
soned by being soaked in a solution of corrosive
sublimate slightly sweetened with molasses. I
have no doubt it Is a good article for the destruc-
tion of rats and mice, and possibly for crows. But
I think farmers can get poisoned wheat or corn
for less than $64 per bushel, the price at which
the above Is retailed. I will give you a recipe on
which you may rely :

R. Corrosive sublimate one drachm.

Alcohol one pint.

Molasses one tablespoonful.

Dissolve the corrosive sublimate in the alcohol
and add the molasses. Pour this upon four
quarts of wheat In an earthen or wooden vessel.
Cover and let It stand, stirring occasionally until
the liquid Is absorbed by the grain. Then spread
and dry the wheat, and it is ready for use. This
quantity contains 32 gills, which at the retail
price would be $8. Cost, including wheat at $2,
about forty cents. Foil.

MANUFACTURE OF BEET SUGAR.

In your paper bearing date March 1st, I notice
an article written by Thomas Crulckshank In re-
gard to making sugar and brandy from beets.
Will you, or some one of your correspondents, be
kind enough to give me more Information on the
subject.

1. As to the kind of beet best suited for the
purpose.

2. The best method of pressing sugar from
them, and also brandy, with description of appara-
tus needed.

3. The cost of all the necessary apparatus.
Itockinyliam, Vt., 1802. H. E. Adams.

Remarks. — We have some further information
In relation to this subject from Mr. Cruicksiunk
which we shall find room for soon.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

195

TAN BAKK FOR SOILS.

As the questions which you were kind enough to
answer in your February number of the monthly
Farmer seem to have brought out some ideas dif-
ferent from your own, in regard to the best time
and manner of sowing grass seed, Avill you please
allow me room in your valuable paper to propose
a few more, for your own and your correspondents'
consideration ?

On my farm I have three distinct kinds of soil ;
the first is a hard, deep upland soil ; the second is
a shallow, light and much worn pine plain, and the
third a deep, heavy loam and clay, or commonly
called run land. Now I have a large quantity of
spent tan from hemlock bark, and as I believe
there must be valuable fertilizing qualities in it, I
wish to know the best way of applying the same,
and which of the three soils will receive the quick-
est and most lasting benefit from a generous ap-
plication ?

I am but a young man, and am obliged in some
respects to be guided by older and more experi-
enced persons than myself; therefore, whatever
thoughts those questions bring out will be of ben-
fit to me, and I believe to others of your readers.

North Dunbarton, N. H., 1862. P.

RemaPvKS. — We should think the tan bark, in
an old, partially decomposed state, would operate
favorably on any land, but with especial effect on
the second and third sorts you mention. At an
agi'icultural mass meeting which we attended in
the town of Marlow, N. H., some years since, it was
stated by one of the speakers that the best piece
of land then in the town was originally a barren
plain, once covered with pines, and that it had
been brought into a state of great fertility, chiefly
by the use of AemlocJc tan bark ! The piece of
land was distinctly specified, and reference was
made to other persons in the meeting who con-
fii'med the statement of the speaker.

LEGHORN FOWLS.

Although much has been said about Leghorn
fowls, I am aware there are those who do not
know what full-blooded Leghorn fowls are. A
gentleman of this city came to me and wished
to purchase some of the best Leghorn fowls he
could find, and as I did not wish to dispose of any,
I referred him to a piece I saw in a paper, where a
man spoke highly of a large flock which he had,
and advised him to send for some. He ordered
six of the best he had, or none. He received six
fowls, and wished me to see what I thought of
them. He said one of my fowls had more comb
than all of them. I said I thought they were half
grown Leghorns, or half bantams. He assured me
that some of them were shedding their feathers.
He set the coop in his hen-house, where he had a
fine Leghorn cock, who was so disgusted Avith his
company, that he made war with the coop of
fowls, and scratched himself so that he bled to
death. He returned them to the owner, and con-
cluded he did not profit much from my advice.

I have kept the pure Leghorn fowls about two
years, and think all who have tried them will
agree that they are the most profitable and the
most beautiful fowl in this country. They are

small, (weighing about 8^ lbs. per pair,) but their
eggs arc as large as hens will average. I have
never had one ofi"er to sit. They are all colors,
and have very large combs. The cocks measure
from seven to eight inclies from the top of the
comb to the extremity of the wattles, and tlie hens'
combs hang over so as to cover the eye.

ILT. Gates.
New Worcester, March, 1862.

THE WAY TO CURE THE HEAVES IN HORSES.

The above-mentioned disease has been consid-
ered incurable. About two years since, I owned
a mare which had the heaves veiy badly. The
disease was brought on by feeding her dusty hay,
raked with a Avire tooth horse-rake ; which, by the
way, should never be used to rake the hay with
that we intend to feed to horses. Dusty hay is
very injurious to their lungs, and has been the
principal cause of the heaves in many cases.

At the time I was speaking about, I saw a no-
tice in the Farmer that smart-weed would cure the
heaves ; I procured some, and gave her a strong
decoction of it several times ; and to my astonish-
ment, she was completely cured.

I gave her one quart a day of the decoction,
stirred up in wheat bran, with a Httle salt, and in
three weeks the cure was perfect.

I do not intend to say that it will cure the
heaves in all cases, but if it is given in the early
stages of the disease, I tliink it will cure ninety
cases out of a hundred.

I would like to have your correspondent, Mr.
Thomas Cruickshank, inform me through the col-
umns of the Farmer the mode of manufacturing
sugar from beets. Oliver P. Mead.

Middlehury , Vt.

Remarks. — We give another letter to-day,
from Mr. C, on the subject of sugar-making.

Feeding Bone Dust to Cows. — Your corres-
pondent "Covmtry," says his cow's toes grow too
long. I have had sheep's toes do the same while
stabled. Some time ago, a young farmer living
some 20 miles from me, said that he had, at difl'er-
ent times, in his barn, cows whose claws would
gi'ow too long, and occasionally one claw would
grow around the end of the other claw, and that it
was cured by feeding bone dust. He had fed as
much as one tablespoonful each day to a cow in
cut feed, with marked effect. He acknoAvledged
it Avas full, strong feed. I generally feed one ta-
blespoonful tAvice in a Aveek to each coav, but do
not know its effect. My reason for doing it, is,
that my neighborhood has been pastured these
200 years, and little or no manure put on the
ground, hence the soil is wanting in bone-making
materials. — Country Gentleman.

To Make an Evergreen Grow Compact. —
If you have an Evergreen, or NorAvay Spruce,
Balsam Fir, American Spruce, or any of the pines,
and desire to make it groAV more compact, just
pinch out the bud from every leading branch, all
around and over it. Repeat this process again
next year, at tliis time, and your evergreen Avill
continue thereafter to grow thickly. — Indiana
Farmer.

196

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Reported fob the Farmer by D. W. Loturop.

The tenth meeting of the series was held on
Monday evening last at the State House, -when the
continued subject of Fruit Culture was discussed.
Mr. C. M. HoVEY, editor of the Magazine of
Horticulture, being present, was invited to pre-
side.

lie accepted the position of chairman with
pleasure, and proposed to speak of the strawberry.
Small fruits had been sadly neglected in our gar-
dens ; but the strawberry was of easy cultivation,
took up but little room, was healthy and agreeable
to the system — no one being able to eat too many
— and was prominent among the small fruits much
needed in the summer. He gave a brief history
of the strawberry in this country and in Europe.
There were but few kinds generally cultivated
there, till the introduction of the American straw-
berry about a hundred years ago. When the
London Horticultural Society Avas organized, a
new interest in this fruit was awakened. Messrs.
Keen, Wilmot and Knight raised many new va-
rieties, and some of them very good. In 1824,
the London Society took steps to test the kinds in
cultivation, and out of two hundred varieties, only
fifty-four were regarded as distinct. The Amer-
ican strawberries are different from the English.
The Wood, heretofore a distinguished variety,
had not been changed or mixed. About the year
1834, another impulse was given to strawberry
culture in England, and while some of the varie-
ties did well there, they would not succeed here.

In this country, we have no definite records
upon this subject. The Virginia and the Wood
seemed to have been the first and the only varie-
ties cultivated in this country for many years. Mr.
William Prince, of New York, however, imported
many new varieties from Europe, and Keen^s
Seedling and Wilmot^s Superb were introduced
here. Mr. Hovey observed that he procured many
sorts from Mr. Prince, but was disappointed in
them, as they were not fitted for our climate. In
1833, Mr. H. commenced to raise strawberries
from the seed, and produced the well-known vari-
ety called Tlovet/s Seedling, which soon began to
supplant the old Virginia and Wood. It was the
first seedling in the country, and attracted great
attention — many amateur cultivators commenc-
ing to raise from seed, as it was an exciting and
novel matter.

Mr. H. spoke of the different species of the
strawberry ; of its classification by Linna;us with
respect to its self-fructifying power, having perfect
flowers, containing both stamens and pistils ; of
kinds that would mix and those that would not.
The Chili strawberry was large but insipid ; yet
ours are acid. By a mixture of these, many good
varieties had been produced. Strawberries of

different habits, as to running, &c., require differ-
ent treatment.

The chairman also spoke of culture, which was
simple. It should be good to produce large fruit,
but required care rather than labor. Some had
neglected the new kinds and had met with dis-
appointment. The large vai'ieties need more
room than the old, small varieties — room in pro-
portion to their size. He spoke of Mr. Knight's
method of planting vines in the spring and letting
them run in the summer to produce vines for the
next season ; they should then be dug up and a
new bed formed. Plant in rows four feet apart.
The celebrated Cobbett had taught a doctrine sim-
lar to this. As to manure, stimulating manure
was hurtful. Manure should be applied when
the bed is set out, and then again when reset.
The annual system, now practiced by our Belmont
cultivators — that is, of raising only one crop be-
fore digging up the bed — he thought the least la-
borious and productive of the best results. Plant
in rows in the spring four feet apart, and let them
grow the first summer. In October hoe out an al-
ley and cover the vines. In fifteen months, the
crop is picked. Then turn the bed over, and so
arrange the cultivation that while some beds, or
parts of beds, are forming vines, the others will be
bearing — thus yielding fruit annually. Plants of
a bushy habit should be planted in single rows ;
they are good for the amateur, but should not be
suffered to grow thick. A gentleman in Pittsburg,
Pa., cultivates these varieties with a horse culti-
vator. Guano was a dangerous manure in some
hands ; but a little wiU do for strawberries. Wa-
tering the plants in England was common, as
moist as their climate is ; yet size was produced
at the expense of flavor. Our vines in some sea-
sons need watering, but let it be done in a thor-
ough manner, not an occasional dribbling. Good,
well-rotted manure is best, laid on the soil before
the runners are planted, or dug in when the old
bed is turned under. Mr. H. recommended straw
under the vines as a mulching ; but tan was objec-
tionable, as it harbored injurious insects.

As to profits, the chairman observed, that
though large stories were often published, we
should not make the cultivator think he could get
rapidly rich. He spoke, too, of the cost of cul-
ture ; of the carelessly picked strawberries in the
Cincinnati market, Avith their hulls upon them ;
of the number of bushels to the acre which it
had been stated were raised ; of 4000 quarts per
acre by some of the Belmont cultivators, and even
greater, seven-eighths being Hovey's Seedhng.
Gathering in Philadelphia had been stated to cost
one and a half cents per box ; but in Belmont five
cents is paid to men who understand the busi-
ness. How many boxes could be picked in a day
depended upon the size and varieties. The im-

1862.

KEW ENGLAND FARMER.

197

portance of raising new kinds was alluded to ;
though some cultivators cling to the old sorts ;
yet we should be careful in introducing new vari-
eties. The late kinds were the most profitable, as
the New York strawberries were in our market in
early summer. Wilson's Alhawj was much culti-
vated, but though large and plentiful, it was de-
cidedly sour. La Constante was a large and very
superior variety. Only a few and the best should
be cultivated.

Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, being called
upon, remarked that he M'ould gladly confirm
what the chairman had said. Strawberries should
be planted in the spring ; the plants should be
strong, the ground well prepared, and receive
careful subsequent treatment. The second year
they will bear great crops ; then break up the bed
and replant. This is Avhat is called the annual or
Belmont system. Mr. W. also alluded to Hovey's
Seedling. Its production introduced a new era in
strawberry culture. It yielded the largest crop of
any sent to our market, and must be regarded as
a standard variety. All honor to Mr. Hovey.
The importance of the discovery of the sexes of
plants was referred to, and Mr. Knights' efforts at
hybridization in the production of new varieties
of fruit was extolled. This is to be the true
source of new fi-uits, but let us still sow seed from
natural hybridization. Pistillate flowers must
have staminate flowers for their impregnation,
though generally both are united in one.

The speaker, in answering an inquiry regarding
Mr. Rodgers' hybrid grapes, said these are new
varieties raised by artificial crossing of the Black
Hamburg and the Sioeetwater upon the wild
grape, ( Vitis labnisca,) of our woods. About thir-
ty varieties were produced, and while some are of
great promise, it is too early to speak distinctly of
them. This countiy, Mr. W. thought, was des-
tined to become a great grape-producing and
wine-producing part of the globe. As our grapes
do not -do well in California, nor theirs here,
seedlings become more important. The Concord
is a hardy grape, better farther south, but good
enough here. The Delaware is a small grape,
not very pleasing in appearance, but of a higher
character than the Concord. The Hartford Pro-
lific is doing well, and did not seem to fall from
the vines the last year. We need hardy grapes,
and we may yet raise some better than the Con-
cord. A hardy and earhj grape is a great des-
ideratum.

But, Mr. Wilder said, he would turn from this
subject to another, different in its nature, but not
less pleasing to dwell upon. There is a gentle-
man among us, who has attended these meetings
a long time, and participated in these discussions,
himself a thorough, practical farmer, and who
said, the other evening, "he would give more for

one day's experience than a whole year's guess-
ing," of whom he wished to speak. He referred
to Mr. A. G. Sheldon, of Wilmington. He pro-
poses to publish a small book, embracing his auto-
biography, and all the various subjects of practi-
cal farming in his experience. Mr. W. warmly
commended the project, and said the work could
be subscribed for after the meeting, at 50 to 75
cents in cloth, or $1,00 or $1,25 in calf.

Mr. AVetherell endorsed Mr. Wilder, and
hoped the work would be encouraged.

Mr. HovEY also warmly favored it. We should
have books that are books — not shadows. A book
at hand of experiences is important.

Inquiry being made as to whether tlie High
Bush Blaclchcrry was injurious to the soil or not,
by any poisonous exudations from its roots, the
chairman replied that he did not know of any such
effect. It was hardy, and occupied the ground
rapidly ; but the suckers should be cut up, and
the best canes tied to a stake. It was an impor-
tant fruit, and he had rather do without the rasp-
berry than the blackberry, as it was late. He
spoke of the Dorchester, and thought, also, that
the Lawton was a valuable acquisition. The for-
mer, he believed, would pay as a market fniit.

Inquiry being made as to whether the HucJde-
herry had been cultivated, Mr. AYilder observed
that he had received seed of a large kind, grow-
ing in Washington Ten-itory, five or six feet in
height, which he thought would be valuable in our
gardens.

Inquiiy being also made as to the Cranberry,
the chairman spoke of Sir Joseph Banks raising
it upon high land. Mr. H. thought it Avorthy of
the cultivator's attention ; and as he had seen
some very large ones from Pawtucket, R. I., he
thought of procuring the seed, and trying his hand
at seedling cranberries.

Mr. Beckwith said he had seen some very
large cranberries growing in a gentleman's garden
on dry soil, the vines being taken from a pasture
of a gravelly nature, where they had been grow-
ing for years.

Mr. Wilder spoke of the Dorchester and Law-
ton Blackberries. They are both hardy, but the
latter is not eatable till very ripe, yet is a little
larger than the former. The Dorchester Avas found
in the lower part of his town some years ago, and
he likes it best.

Mr. Hovey said the Dorchester would give the
best satisfaction, but if he could get the Lawton
fully ripe, he preferred it.

Mr. Howard, of the Cultivator, said of the
Cranberry, that we had two species, the meadow
and the mountain. He had seen the latter on
Blue Hill and in Sharon. It was common in Mas-
sachusetts and in Canada. But he intimated that
they must have moisture, whether high or low.

198

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

Mr. Sheldon said that from some facts which
he had observed, he thought sand good for the
cranberry, but they should be kept moist and oc-
casionally flowed.

Mr. Beck with, Mr. Wilder and the chairman
made a few more remarks upon this point, when
the time having passed for closing the meeting,
the subject for the next discussion was announced
to be, Farm Implements.

For the New England Parmer.
IfOTES FROM THE MONOMACK.
BY SAGGAHEW^

Grapes. — Last spring I set out nearly one
hundred grape vines, of various kinds. They were
set upon a piece of land newly trenched ; the soil
was mostly a medium sandy loam, with a subsoil
of sand and gravel. Through one part of the piece
there is a strip, or vein, where the soil was quite
thin, and the subsoil is a dry, coarse gravel. This
was trenched like the rest, about eighteen inches
deep, and, like the rest, was quite moderately ma-
nured with green cow manure. As will be re-
membered, the last season was an unusually trying
one for newly transplanted trees and vines, and as
my land was of the kind generally considered the
most susceptible to droughts, and was not in even
average condition as to manure, and, moreover,
had just been trenched, I did not expect much
growth of vine — at least, for one or two years, —
through the gravelly portion above mentioned.
Judge of my surprise, then, on finding that the
vines set in that part of the garden made the most
vigorous growth of any I had. I speak within
bounds, when I say that a Hartford Prolific, a
Concord, and a Diana, which were set in this thin,
poor and gravelly soil, made double the growth
of vines of the same age, set out at the same time,
and taken from the same lots, but which were set
in soil at least twice the depth, entirely free from
gravel, and resting upon a subsoil of clear sand.

As a single year is insufficient to justify too
strong conclusions as to which will do the best in
the long run, I make a note of the above for the
encouragement of those who may wish to set out
a few vines, but fear that their soil may be too
poor and gravelly for vines to succeed. To such
persons I would say trench your ground thorough-
ly ; put on much or little manure, — as you may
chance to have it — and set out your vines. After-
wards, you can top-dress at your leisure. K you
cannot afford to trench all the ground now, trench
at least three or four feet around each vine before
you set them out. Next year you can work over
a few feet more, and in this way you will hardly
feel the expense. Many person neglect to do any
thing, because they are not prepared now to do
everything. This is not the true policy. Rather
do a little at a time, and keej} doing.

Buckwheat Cakes. — If any one of the readers
of the Farmer are fond of buckwheat griddle cakes,
and like them all the better when light and crispy,
let them use about one-fourth part of oatmeal in
making them, serve them hot, from a wncovered
dish, and in the winter on warm plates. My word
for it, they -will decide that these liints are good
ones.

The oatmeal makes the cakes lighter, healthier,
and improves their flavor ; and the uncovered dish
prevents them from becoming sodden by steam-
ing. The best of all griddles to cook them upon
are those made of soapstone. They require less
care in cooking and not more than half as much
lard as the common iron griddles. My family
have breakfasted on buckwheat and oatmeal cakes
for the past eighteen months, without regard to
the season ; and, although personally a chronic
dyspeptic, I find them easy of digestion, and every
way satisfactory. My family of five persons con-
sume less than ten pounds of meal per week, at
an average cost of less than three cents per pound,
or less than one cent per breakfast for each per-
son. When served as above directed, with good
butter and syrup added, I doubt if a cheaper or
better breakfast can be placed on a workingman's
table. »

GUANO.

"How much guano is necessary for an acre of
corn ?" This inquiry is often made. No definite
quantity can be given in reply, because the cir-
cumstances under which it is used, will always be
variable. As a general thing, too much is expect-
ed of guano, or any of the other so-called, specific
fertilizers. Used sparingly, as they are usually
employed, their principal office is to give immedi-
ate nourishment to young plants, and enable them
to throw off vigorous roots in search of food far-
ther from home, and to push them along rapidly
in the early stages of their growth.

In order to accomplish these purposes, the opin-
ion seems to be common, that 300 pounds of
guano, or other specific fertilizer, is enough. We,
however, think this quantity too small — that it is
more profitable to add a larger amount per acre,
and go over less land, — unless the dressing from
the compost-heap is unusually large. Whatever
the amount used, we think it should be mixed
with good muck or loam — to which a little plaster
may be added with great propriety — and a quart
applied in the hill. This quantity will be sufficient
to give the plants a good start, and maintain their
growth and development until the roots shall have
had time to penetrate to the manure which has
been plowed in, or to take hold of the food natu-
rally extant in the soil. The application of Peru-
vian guano alone in the hill is not advisable, as
the ammonia in which it abounds exists in a too
concentrated state to allow of its coming into im-
mediate contact with the seed while in a state of
germination, or even with the tender roots of vege-
tation. By incorporating it with mould, muck, or
plaster, the guano will be less Hkely to cause the
mischief which is sometimes experienced by the
escape of its ammonia. We have known Peruvi-
an guano to be mixed with old, finely-pulverized
muck, early in March, in the proportion of one
part of guano to Jive parts of muck. This laid in
a mass from that time to the tenth of May, being

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

199

overhauled and thoroughly mixed two or three
times during that period. It was then applied,
about half a pint to each hill, and the corn dropt
upon it, and in a field of ten acres there were not
500 spears of corn made their appearance. Even
as we have recommended its application above, it
would always be safer to mix the muck and guano
•with the soil, before dropping the corn upon it.

The American guano, having less ammonia, may
be used by planting seeds directly upon it, but in
this case we cannot doubt but it would be better
to mix it with the soil into which the seed is
planted. This guano, however, abounds in phos-
phates, and continues to carry the crop on until it
is perfected.

Guano, purchased at fair prices, and judiciously
applied, is an economical and efficient fertilizer.
It is usually beneficial upon every description of
soil and crops.

TO OORRESPOWDENTS.

As usual, at this season of the year, we have on
hand many communications' that we cannot find
room for at once. We shall publish first those
that are adapted to the season, and then continue
with others. These articles, we suppose, are the
result of winter studies, and as the spring opens
we shall have less of them. We hope our friends
will continue to write, as the value of the Farmer
must depend in a considerable degree upon their
communications. Among the articles recently re-
ceived and not published, are, — Upon Rivalry in
Farming ; The Right Thing in the Right Place at
the Right Time ; Barns ; Why are so Few Young
Men Fond of Farming ? Patent Office Report ;
Mental Culture ; Decline of the Hen Fever ; Ro-
tation in Forests ; The Turnip Crop ; About Bees ;
Fences ; Why is not Farming Profitable ? How
Shall our Sons be best Educated ? The Roadsides
of the Farm ; Agriculture in our Common Schools ;
Southern Illinois ; Hints on Buying Farms ; Does
Farming Pay ? Dissemination of Foul Seeds ; —
Painting and Shelter for Buildings ; Agriculture
in our Colleges ; Plowing Orchards ; Farm Build-
ings ; Birds ; On Deodorizing Materials ; Ringing
Plants ; Sheep Barns ; Meadow Muck ; Wood's
Mowing Machine ; Clay as a Fertilizer ; Culture
and Uses of Kohl Rabi ; New Method of Planting
Potatoes ; QuaHty and Quantity of Seed ; AVheat
Bran as a Fertilizer ; Concentrated Manures ;
Sawdust as an Absorbent ; How to Measure Hay ;
To the Young Men ; Raising Calves ; Culture of
Leading Crops ; St. Johns Wort ; A Word about
Colts ; and The Characteristics of the Chester Co.
Breed of White Swine. In addition to these there
are letters of inquiries, all of which will be care-
fully attended to and find a place in good time.
Correspondents will please accept our thanks for

these favors. Spread out upon our fair pages, they
cannot fail of having a decided influence to ad-
vance our noble Ai't and elevate the homes of our
people.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

DOMESTIC MORALS.

"WTio shall measure the evil brought into a
school or university by one black sheep ? The
contamination is gradual, but certain, and many
characters of the weaker sort, will, by bad associ-
ation, receive that bias towards evil which was all
that was necessary for their ruin. It is so, as we
all have opportunities of seeing, among domestic
servants. Their power of injuring each other is
immense. Take the case of a small establishment,
consisting, we will say, of a coujile of servant
maids, who have been brought up from the coun-
try. They are uninitiated in the slang of the Lon-
don members of their tribe, and are contented and
happy. They can exist without followers. They
can do all the work of the house with ease and
cheerfulness. They will take what it may be con-
venient to give them for dinner and supper, rather
astonished, in fact, at fare so much superior to
what they have been accustomed to in their own
poverty-sticken homes. In short, they are good
and contented servants, and theu* mistress con-
gratulates herself with reason when she hears her
friends complaining of domestic troubles. But
how long does this last ? On some special occa-
sion of a grand cleaning, or some equally misera-
ble disturbance, "help" is sent for, and the char-
woman of discord is flung into the happy family.
This worthy lady is kind enough to enlighten the
two injured innocents to whose rescue she has
come, as to their "rights." For these she exhorts
them to stand up, as other servants do. What,
will they "put up" with cold meat ? are they sat-
isfied to be deprived of the visits of their male rel-
atives and other friends "from the country," whom
they might regale so pleasantly and cheaply with
their patron's food ? Well, they are poor-spirited
things if they allow themselves to be put upon
like that! — Dickens's All the Year Bound.

To Remove Stains. — Alcohol will wash out
stains of oil, Avax, resin and pitchy substances : so
will spu'its of turpentine, and generally without
injury to colors. The turpentine may afterward
be removed with alcohol, as it is liable to leave a
slight stain. Common burning fluid, which is a
mixture of alcohol and turpentine (or camphene,)
is an excellent solvent of oil, Avax, tar, resin, etc.,
and it soon dries off" after use.

The Paris women are excited about on electric

head-dress invented for the Empress Eugenie. It is
a crown formed of globules of glass lighted by elec-
tric light, and set with diamonds, rubies and em-
eralds. It emits such an effulgence as to light up
of itself a dark room, and if ever put into general
use, Vi'ill supersede the necessity of gas light or
wax candles. Every lady will be her own chande-
lier.

200

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

April

SUBSTITUTES POS COFFEE.

The high price of tea and coffee has caused
many to adopt substitutes for a moi-ning bever-
age. Go where you will, you hear the subject dis-
cussed, and stepping into houses, you are regaled
with the odor of burning peas, rye, barley, or
whatever is designed for a substitute. That some
of these articles will make a very palatable and
wholesome beverage we think no one will deny.
We give below some of the recipes that are float-
ing around, and have been commended :

Eye Coffee. — Take a peck of rye and cover it
with vvater, let it steep or boil until the grain swells
or commences to burst, then drain or dry it. Roast
to a deep brown color, and prepare as other cof-
fee, allowing twice the time of boiling. Served
with boiled milk.

Another. — Take some rye ; 1st, scald it ; 2d,
dry it ; od, brown it, and then mix it with one-
third coffee and two-thirds rye, and then you will
have as good a cup of coffee as you ever drank.

Sweet Potato Coffee. — Another writer, in one
of our exchanges, gives the following recipe for
the preparation of a substitute for coffee. We
give it for what it is worth, never having seen it
tiied :

"Take sweet potatoes, cut them fine enough to
dry conveniently, and when diied, grind in a cof-
fee mill ; dry them by the fire or stove at this sea-
son of the year, or by the sun when that will do
it ; grind and use, mixed with coffee in such pro-
portions as you like. Some of my neighbors omit
half of the coffee ; some more."

Barley Coffee. — Take common barley, or the
skinless if it can be obtained, roast as you would
coffee, and mix in such proportion as suits your
taste. It is very good.

Pea Coffee. — It is probably known to many that
a very Large per cent, of the ground coffee sold at
the stores is common field peas roasted and ground
with the coffee. There are hundreds of thous-
ands of bushels of peas annually used for that
purpose. Those who are in the habit of purchas-
ing ground coffee can do better to buy their own
peas, burn and grind them, and mix to suit them-
selves.

Carrot Coffee is recommended by an exchange.
Cut up, dry and grind, and mix with coffee in
quantities to suit the taste.

The Women of a Nation. — I do not hesitate
to say that the women give to every nation a mor-
al temperament, which shows itself in its politics.
A hundred times I have seen weak men show real
public virtue, because they had by their sides wo-
men who supported them, not by advice as to par-
ticulars, but by fortifying their feelings of duty,
and by dii-ecting their ambition. More frequent-
ly, I must confess, I have observed the domestic
influence gradually transforming a man, naturally
generous, noble and unselfish, into a cowardly,
common-place, place-hvmting self-seeker, thinking
of public business only as a means of making him-
self comfortable — and this simply by contact with
a well-conducted woman, a faithful wife, an excel-
lent mother, but from whose mind the grand no-
tion of public duty was entirely absorbed. —
Tocaueville.

THE CATTLE MARKETS FOB MARCH.

The following is a summary of tlie reports for the four weeks
ending March 20, 1862 :

NUMBER AT lURKET.

CatHe. Sheep. Skotes. Lire Fat Hogs.

February 27 778 2850 475 Few.

March 6 1036 4030 500 —

March 13 1559 1925 700 —

March 20 1217 1158 1040 150

Total 4690 9963 2715 150

PRICES.

Feb. 27. Mar. 6. Mar. 13. Mar. 20.

Beef cattle, 4?" ft 5 «6|c 5 ig7 5 ©6? 5 ig6|

Sheep, live weight 44S54 4jg5j 4\d.^\ 4'35j

Swine, stores, wholesale. .. .4 .§5 4j35i SjgSi 3125

" " retail 5 §6 4|g6 45^64 4^n.6

Live fat hogs 4 Jg5 4^

Rematiks. — Most of the cattle at market during the month
were offered for sale as beef. Of the 4590 cattle reported above
as the total for the four weeks, 2480, or more than one-half, were
from tlie West. During the first half of the month the market
showed an upward tendency, while for the last half it has been
downward. This change was more marked in mutton than in
beef, produced partly at least by the large arrivals of heavy
sheep from the West, at the market of March 6th. Jlilch cows
sold readily until the last week, March 20, wheu the market was
quite dull.

Chickens vs. Chinch Bugs and Plum Wee-
vils.— We see it reported in the Southern Plant-
er, that a hen and chickens placed in a coop in the
corner of a wheat field, where the chinch bug had
commenced its ravages, proved to be an effectual
check upon the insects thereabouts, though they
did considerable injury out of the range of the
chickens.

The chinch bug is only one of the destructive
insects which chickens are ever ready to pick up.
In our yard stands a black-heart cherry tree, the
fruit of which was quite wormy last year, — as is
often the case with this variety. This spring we
placed a chicken coop with its occupants near the
tree, and secured a full crop of fruit, showing no
appearance of worms. The insects, as they emerged
from the ground in winged form, were so effectu-
ally picked up that they failed to deposit their
eggs in the fruit. Of course there will be a short
crop of worms next season.

New Seedling Potatoes. — In another col-
umn, Mr. Charles W. Gleason, of Holden, in
this State, advertises several varieties of new seed-
ling potatoes, some of which we have seen, but
not tasted. They are very handsome, and espec-
ially so is the Garnet Chili. It is of medium size,
flattish, and the eyes are nearly on a level with
the general surface of the potato. This is always
a recommendation, as it is difficult to prepare a
potato for the pot where its eyes are deeply set.
Mr. Gleason has given much attention to the mat-
ter of introducing new varieties of good potatoes,
and among them we shall undoubtedly find some
that will be a valuable addition to our present
list.

DEVOTED TO AGRICUTjTUKE AND ITS KINDBED AKTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, MAY, 1862.

NO. 5.

XOUKSE, KATOX & TOLJIAX, Propribtoes.
Of?icc....100 Wasjiingtos Street.

SIMOX BROWX Ei>iT0ii.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MONTH OP MAY.

MtA ^ J AT, among the old
heathen Ilomans,
was sacred to their
god Apollo, who,
according to their
belief, presided
over music, poetry,
and the fine arts
generally ; and it
is said that with
them almost every
day in the month
was a festival. The
custom Avhich has
descended to our own
|-' times, of observing the
first day of the month, or
May-day, with festive and
floral litos, or at least by
wandering over hills and
dales in search of flowers,
is supposed to have been derived from an equally
ancient Roman festival in honor of Flora, another
of their gods, who had the especial charge of floM'-
ers and gardens. This holiday season lasted four
days, from the 2Sth of April to the first of May.

In the warmer climates of Greece and Rome,
the nurseries of our poetry and literature as well
as of our arts and sciences. May is probably enti-
tled to all the praises which have been lavished
upon it by poets, and by their imitators in our
own country, however inapplicable much of their
poetical descriptions are to the season of May day
with us.

In those countries, at the commencement of this
month, we are told that the temperature of the air,
the pure-blue of the sky, the soft green of the
leaves, the thousand delicate tints of the flowers
scattered so profusely over hill and valley, with
the perfume which they exhale, and the music

poured from every grove — all unite to fill every
sense with enjoyment. In such latitudes, tlie
"ethereal mildness" and "balmy sweets" which
breathe in song may be a literal transcript of the
im;)ressions of a May day on their inhabitants.

But with us, the first of May is too early for the
out-door amusement of a holiday, especially by
females, and those of sedentary habits. The earth
is still too damp, the air too cliill for health or
comfort, and, besides, the charms of nature are not
developed. Though scarcely a flower of the hum-
blest rank can be found during a day's ramble, the
youth of our land seem determined to perpetuate
the observance of a festival which belongs to a
more southern clime. Occasionally, indeed, the
first of May is sufficiently warm, dry and com-
fortable for out-door exercise and amusement, but
often the weather is quite unfavorable. Storms oi
rain and sleet, sometimes of snoM' even, are com-
mon, especially in the more elevated portions of
New England, during the first week in May. So
that, in our climate, the young people who decide
on a May-day ramble, must be uncertain up to the
very time of sallying forth at "peep of day," wheth-
er to dress themselves for the heat of summer, or
for the chill of Winter, — for a soft southern wind,
or for a piercing northeaster. And how often has
a sore throat or a hoarse cough the next day re-
minded a fond mother that she was wrong in per-
mitting her daughter to "go Maying" so thinly
clad and in so cold a wind.

We fear that the life of many a youth is yearly
sacrificed to the celebration of this holiday in New
England. In England, where the season of spring
Is several degrees warmer than with us, the obser-
vance of May-day seems to be falling into disuse,
although it was in old times one of the favorite
holidays of the people. Milton, Shakspeare, and
most of the old poets, have spoken of its festivities.
Old Chaucer says that on May morning,

"Forth goeth all the Court, both moste and leat«.
To fetche Um fiouree, and braunch and bloma."

202

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

Probably, the change consequent on the adop-
tion of the New Style, by which the month com-
mences about a dozen days earlier than it did in
the times of those "good, old English gentlemen,"
is one reason why its observance is becoming un-
popular. In her '^Calendar of the Seasons," Mary
Howitt says, "May-day, though still observed as
a rural festival, has often little pleasure to bestow,
except that arising from the name." In another
later English publication, a writer, referring to the
section of country in which he resides, says :
"The May-day ceremonial has died out among
us." These festivities he regards as belonging
rather to the relationship of the feudal baron and
his tenants, than to our own times, and rejoices
that the benevolence of the English land-holders
which once encouraged the observance of May-
day, is as active now as ever, though directed to
other and more worthy ones. "The school festi-
val or pic-nic, the plowing-match and the horti-
cultural show," says he, "have di'iven out May-
poles and Christmas misrule."

If this festival is to be perpetuated in New Eng-
land, its observance ought to be transferred to
the latter part of the month, when the earth is
covered with a garb of richest green, and when
our orchards present

"One boundless blu?h, one white empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms,"

and when one feels, as he walks in field or forest,
like ejaculating with Wordsworth,

"And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes."

But then this period is in the midst of the
planting season, and the farmers of New England
are so busy that we dai-e not recommend a change
that would appropriate one of these busy days to
a public celebration. May-day must, therefore,
be postponed to the fourth of July.

For the New England Farmer.

SQUASHES VERSUS PUMPKINS.

Messrs. Editors : — Crude notions exist re-
garding the above vegetables, which are constant-
ly reiterated in many of our agricultural papers.
They are classed indiscriminately as belonging to
the same genus of plants, when, in fact, they are
perfectly distinct. I am induced at this time to
forward you a few words on this subject, from
meeting in the Working Farmer of the last
month, an article on the Autumnal Marrow,
(known in New York) as the "Boston Marrow," as
a true squash. Now this vegetable, together with
the Valparaiso, Hubbard, Polk, Acorn and Cus-
tard, are as truly pumpkins, as the Connecticut
field and Hard Shell pumpkins, and will all hy-
bridize or mix, Avhile the Winter Crook-neck,
(which I take to be the true type of squashes,) will
not hybridize with the pumpkin. If it was in-
clined to this, it would have lost its normal form
and disappeared long since. Nature, as well as
observation, teaches us regarding species, but

many confound the term species with varieties,
hence some suppose that our Canada goose can
be crossed, year after year, with our domestic
goose, but this cannot be done after the first cross-
ing, any moi'e than the Jack and horse, which
stops at the mule. In the paper alluded to as
above, the writer cautions cultivators to be careful
to sow melons, cucumbers, &c., away from pump-
kins and squashes, as "they will hybridize." I
have never as yet known the crook-neck to hybri-
dize with the pumpkin, melons, cucumbers, &c.,
although planted side by side.

Yours truly, J. M. IVES.

Salem, March, 1862.

For tlie Nete England Farmer,
HOW SEEDS GERMINATE.

A seed, when ripe, possesses a large share of
carbon. This is necessary to its preservation, but
is an impediment to its development as a new
plant.

To rid itself of this principle it must convert the
carbon into carbonic acid ; for this purpose, oxygen
is necessary, which it cannot readily obtain from
the atmosphere in its dry state, but by burying it
in the soil it takes the requisite supply of oxygen
from the water, which it absorbs, fixing hydrogen
(the other element of water) in its tissue, and thus
it is enabled to form carbonic acid, which it throws
off by its respiratory organs until the proportion
of carbon is lowered to the amount best suited to
the growth of the plant. The water also causes
an expansion of the parts, many soluble parts be-
come fluid, and thus sap is formed and a circula-
tion is established, which keeps up a communica-
tion between the remote parts of the plant.

Heat aids in causing the vital principle to act,
expands the air in the microscopic cavities of the
seed, and produces a distention of all the organic
parts, which thus have their irritability excited,
never again to be destroyed except with death.

Germination being established, the parts enlarge,
and new parts are formed from a mucilaginous
saccharine secretion which the germinating seed
has the power of forming.

From this the root, or radicle, is formed, and
goes downward in search of food, the stem or plu-
mule rears itself in the air and unfolds the seed
leaves or cotyledons, which, when exposed to the
light, decompose carbonic acid, fix the carbon, be-
come green, and form the matter by which all the
pre-existing parts are solidified.

And thus a plant is born into the world.

E. W. B.

Vermont State Agricultural Society. —
The ofiicers of this Society for the year 1862 are :

President — H. Henry Baxter, Rutland ; Vice
Presidents — Edwin Hammond, Middlebury, J.
W. Colburn, Sj)ringfield, Henry Keyes, Newbury,
John Jackson, Brandon ; Recording and Corres-
ponding Secretary — Uaniel Needham, Hartford ;
Treasurer — J. W. Colburn, Springfield ; Direc-
tors— Frederick Holbrook, Brattleboro', E. B-.
Chase, Lyndon ; H. S. Morse, Shelburne, D. R.
Potter, St. Albans, Henry G. Root, Boimington,
David Hill, Bridport, John Gregory, Nortlifiold,
Elijah Cleaveland, Coventry, Nathan Cashing,
Woodstock, George Campbell, Westminster.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

203

Fur the New England Fanner,
HINTS ON BTJYINa FARMS.

One of the most difficult operations that the
young farmer has to encounter, when first setting
out in the world, is the selection and pui-chase of
a farm. Unlike buying a horse or cow, which can
be disposed of again at a slight sacrifice, if they do
not suit, the farm cannot be sold every day, if it
be a poor one, even at a sacrifice. It is necessary,
therefore, to be very cautious in getting a farm
which is probably destined to be your home for
Ufe.

In the first place, no man should buy a farm un-
less he is resolved to live on it all his days, and
having made that resolution, let him look for one
that he can be contented on, or he had best not
buy at all, for a discontented farmer is a pitiable
object.

The location of a farm must be noted, as there
is a great difference in the products of different
farms of like fertility, but differently situated. A
farm sloping to the south, or east, should be pre-
ferred to one descending to the north, or west, for
several seasons, viz : the land is warmer, and the
crops stall quicker in the spring, and mature ear-
lier in the fall, thereby escaping early frosts. The
land is generally dryer, and does not need as much
underdraining, and is not as liable to heave, as
land sloping to the north. A southern slope is
better for fruit trees and vines, as they are not so
much exposed to the bleak north winds in winter
and early spring, which prove so destructive to
fruit trees in New England and eastern New York.

The next great object sought should be good
water, and plenty of it. A farm with plenty of
springs and running streams, is worth from one-
fourth to one-third more than one on which the
water has all to be drawn from a well. Luckily,
most New England farms have running water,
which accounts for the great superioi-ity of their
stock over that in sections that are poorly watered.
Stock of any kind thrive a great deal better when
they have an unlimited supply of pure water, than
when their drink is di-awn from a well by a negli-
gent man ; and they sometimes get not more than
half enough, or they have to di-ink at some mud-
dy pond of standing water.

Another very important consideration is, the
buildings ; and in looking for a farm, always bear
in mind that good buildings can be bought a great
deal cheaper than they can be built ; or, in other
words, the difference in the cost of a farm without
buildings, and one with them, is not, as a general
thing, one-half enough to put on the buildings.
The young man just starting in the world, unless
he have rich relations who are willing to assist
him, cannot afford to buy a farm and then go to
building, so he must needs live in the old house,
and use the old dilapidated out-buildings, for a
great many years. So he lives on, suffering a
great many inconveniences, and subjecting his cat-
tle to exposure, and sometimes his family, also,
for the want of comfortable shelter, and perhaps
expending money enough in patching up his old
buildings every year to pay the interest on the
cost of new ones. The want of fences is another
serious drawback on a farm, especially where lum-
ber is as expensive as it is in most of the thickly
settled districts of New England and New York.

In choosing a farm, always look for a good wood

lot, so that the fire can be kept going and the fen-
ces in repair ; and if you have an occasional load
of wood to sell your neighbor who has no wood
lot, the proceeds will help pay the interest money.

In selecting a farm, be sure not to buy poor
land. Itis better to buy good land, with poor or
no_ buildings, than to buy poor land with good
buildings ; for on the good land you can soon
make the buildings, but on the poor land you can
not make the interest.

There is prevalent among farmers an erroneous
idea in regard to the price and relative property
of farms. For instance, — we will suppose two
farms for sale ; one at $40 per acre and the other
at $80 per acre, and we will suppose that the one
at $40 will produce 35 bushels of com to the acre.
Now one-half of the farmers would say, the farm
costing $80 per acre, should produce 70 bushels of
corn to be as cheap as the $40 farm. But this is
a great error. We will take the figures of one of
your contributors some years ago, which made the
cost of raising an acre of corn at $26, if I remem-
ber right, (but which I think is too high,) and see
what we make on an acre of corn which produces
35 bushels. Call the corn worth 75 cents per
bushel, and 35 bushels will come to $26,25, from
which deduct $2G, — which includes interest, taxes
and all expenses, — and we have just 25 cents pro-
fit, rather a small payment towards our $40. Now
we will suppose the other farm to yield 50 bushels
per acre, which, at 75 cents, will be $37,50, from
which deduct $26, and $2,80 interest on the extra
$40, and we have $8,70 profit to pay towards the
principal ; so it is evident that the $80 farm is
cheapest, for $8,70 per year will pay $80 sooner
than 25 cents will $40. In buying a farm, we
should see that there is not much waste land, as
that has to be paid for as well as the good, but
brings in nothing. What I mean by waste land
is, ledges and places that do not produce anything.
Swales, and swamps, even, if not too extensive, are
by no means waste, as the former produce a great
deal of feed, and the latter can be drained, and
their contents are of great worth as manure, on
uplands. Many other things are very desirable,
but not of so much importance as the foregoing, —
such as the location of the buildings, which should
be as near the centre as possible, and be near the
water. A farm with different kinds of soil is to
be preferred to one with the soil all alike, as that
renders the raising of variety of crops difficult and
unpi-ofitable. In selecting, reference must be had,
also, to the branch of farming which it is wished
to engage in ; if the dairy, then select a grass farm,
and if raising grain, a farm adapted to that, and
so on for other branches. In conclusion, I would
say, buy a good farm, put on good stock, use good
tools, and take good care of them, and you will
make a good, honest living, and soon have your
farm paid for ; after which you can take the world
a little more easy, letting your children work the
farm while you store your mind with the riches of
good books and agi-icultural papers.

Agriculturist.

Oak mil, N. T., January, 1862.

Geology of Maine. — A geological and natu-
ral history survey of Maine was commenced, last
season, by Prof. Hitchcock and Dr. Holmes. They
first explored the western border and coast to get

204

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

a base line of operations ; then, with three scien-
tific assistants and seven boatmen and guides, ca-
noes, batteaux, camp-equipage, instruments and
stores, they started up the Penobscot River for
the wilderness. They followed the river and its
branch to its head waters, and through the lakes
across the portages into the St. John Avaters ;
meantime dividing into several parties, and re-
turning by different routes. Their re])orts, which
are now being pi"inted, show the discovery of stat-
uary marble, equal to the Italian ; immense beds
of marl, some of which contain phosphate of lime,
so valuable as a manure ; indications of tin, cop-
per, etc. Indeed, native copper has been found
in the town of Carrol, Penobscot county, where
they suggested its probable existence. The State
appropriation for this survey was only $3000.

For the New England Farmer.

CONCENTBATED MAWUTIES-
THEY PAY?

-WILL

Among all the certificates and reported experi-
n>ent3 with concentrated manures that have fallen
under my observation, I have yet seen none that
sliowed the first thing that a practical farmer
wants to know, viz., AVill it pay? All agree that
guano, Mapes' and Coe's phosphate, poudrette,
and many other kinds that might be named, make
vegetation grow rapidly and produce large crops,
but if those crops cost more than they are worth,
no one that farms it for profit, or a living, can
prudently invest in that kind of fertilizer. For
the dollar invested in any concentrated fertilizer
ia the spring, should, at least, pay back 100 cents
in the fall, in crops, or the investment had better
not have been made. This is presuming that it is
all exhausted the first season, Avhich is the fact,
judging from what experience and observation I
have had.

I propose now to give the result of an experi-
ment on a small scale with Coe's superphosphate.
My experiment was on a piece of corn. The land
was planted the year before, and produced a fair
average crop for light pasture lands ; I should
judge about 35 bushels per acre. Last spring I
spread and plowed in shallow manure enough, as
I judge, to make the piece good for 40 or 43 bush-
els per acre ; planted the 18th day of May, putting
a large tablespoonful of Coe's superphosphate in
each hill, with the exception of four rows through
a level part of the piece, where I could see no ad-
vantage on either side. The frost injured my corn
the year before, and although I saved the best I
had, and thought it good, I found my mistake, for
it being cold, wet weather, not more than two-
thirds of it came up, which was an essential draw-
back on my crop. I put the phosphate in the hill,
mixed and covered it with the soil, and the corn
came just the same with it, as without it ; at least
1 could see no difference. Where I put the phos-
phate, the corn grew much the best in the first of
the season ; at the first hoeing I judged there was
near three times the heft of stalks, but after that
the weather grew warmer, and the difference grad-
ually diminished. At the first hoeing I put anoth-
er spoonful of phosphate to each hill, except four
i-ows on one side of the four unphosphated rows.
I watched the growth and progress with much in-
terest through the season, and could plainly see

that the unphosphated was gradually gaining on
the other, and at harvest time, was satisfied that
the unphosphated had about the same corn as that
once phosphated, but rather less stalk, and that
either of them had less corn, and some but little
less stalk, than the four rows that were twice phos-
phated. But to be sure, and exact, I harvested
and kept all separate, dried thoroughly, shelled
and weighed cai-efully, all the corn that would dry
sound, making but one sort. I will here state
that I weighed the phosphate put on to the eight
rows, charged it at cost in the field, and charged a
fair price for the time or extra labor of planting
and hoeing, of which I kept a strict account, and
the result was as follows :

None, 108 lbs., 5 ounces.

Once, 110 lbs., 12 oz. — gain, 2 lbs., 7 oz.; ex-
tra cost, 31.i cts. ; extra corn cost about $7 per
bushel.

Twice, 140 lbs., 14 oz. — gain, 32 lbs., 9 oz. ; ex-
tra cost, 49 cts. ; extra corn cost about 84 cts. per
bushel.

I am rather surprised at the result of my exper-
iment. That ten pounds put in the hill at plant-
ing, should make no corn, or only 2^ pounds, and
that ten pounds put in at planting, and 6^ at first
hoeing, should make 32^, is a difference that I
cannot account for under the circumstances, the
manure being plowed in, and, as I supposed, would
carry the corn out through the last of the season.
If there had been no other manure, I should have
expected the phosphate to have been exhausted,
and left the corn starving just at the time it had
got out a large growth of stalk and needed it most.
But I am satisfied that to put phosphate in the hill
at planting, is money thrown away, unless there
is more put on at some later period to carr)'
through the earing and filling out of the corn.

In conclusion, I will say that I am well satisfied
for the pains I have taken in experimenting thus
far, and intend to try it again next season, and
hope that many others will do the same, not only
with Coe's phosphate, but with all other kinds of
concentrated fertilizers, and give the result of their
experiments to the public through the medium of
the A^. E. Fanner. Thomas Ellis.

Rochester, Mass., 1862.

MOSS OH HOOPS.

There is a barn near our farm with a shingle
roof fifty years old, and the shingles appear quite
as bright, and in as good order, as most shingle
roofs at the end of the first year. When built, it
was coated with a lime wash tinted Avith ochre,
and fully charged with glue and salt. This formed
an agi'eeable C(?}or, and lasted many years ; the
lime present entirely preventing the growth of
moss, and also the development of acetic acid from
any sappy portion of the shingles. About twenty
years since, it was again re-coated, with the lime
wash tinted with amber. This is now pretty gen-
erally removed, still leaving an even color to the
roof, and to the shingles a surprising freshness of
appearance.

We suppose that lime alone put on as a white-
wash, would have answered all these purposes,
though not so agreeably to the eye, wliile the wash
tinted to resemble the color of the slungle, can
never be unsightly. — Working Farmer.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

206

Fur the New England Farmer.
"WILL UNDEBDRAINLNG PAY?"

Dear Sir : — The question has been repeatedly
asked in your paper, "Will underdraining pay ?"
and as often answered in the affirmative. Yet
there is some doubt in my mind about its being a
paying operation in all places. For one lot of
land, in a certain locality, it may pay well to drain,
while with another, equally good, but in a differ-
ent locality, it would be a losing operation. Or,
with the men of capital, it might pay well in the
end, while with the farmer, having no resources
but the income of his farm, it would be of doubt-
ful propriety. Is, or is not such the fact ?

I have a lot of land containing ten acres, which,
I doubt not, would be greatly improved by drain-
age, as it is nearly all too wet for cultivation.
About one-half of the lot was formerly a wet, miry
swamp, the mud gradually increasing in depth
from the outside to the cciitre, where no bottom
has ever been found. It has been partially
drained, the old grass roots have decayed, and the
surface rendered very easy of cultivation. The
remainder of the lot consists of a wide strip on
three sides of the swamp, of moist, loamy land.
The surface is a black, rich-looking mould. The
subsoil, in the dryer parts, is a deep brown-colored
loam. This rests upon a hardpan bottom. In
the wetter portion it is a fine, slate-colored, clayey
substance. This land is located where farms, as
they average, are worth $20 per acre, and hay
from $12 to $lo per ton. Now, taking into con-
sideration the value of the land and its quality, as
described, the worth of hay, the expense of tile
and their transportation here, (being twelve miles
from any depot,) will it pay to underdrain such
land in this locality ? Or would you advise filling
the ditches in the hard pan with small stones ?

How would strips of hemlock board nailed to-
gether, answer ? Would they be durable and less
likely to become clogged than stones? What
would be the expense of tile ? How long are the
pieces, and what is their weight, and where can
they be obtained ?

One question further. Would it be a safe op-
eration for a man without means to drain and re-
claim this land I have described, and depend upon
its production for his pay ? Il- T.

liuiland, Mass., Feb. 4, 1862.

Remarks. — It seems to us that our correspon-
dent can work out the problem for himself with-
out our help. It appears that the "wide strip on
three sides of the swamp" produces nothing now.
Suppose he reclaims one acre

At a cost of $30,00

Manure 10,00

Grass seed 2,00

$42,00

On such land, he cannot fail to pet, the first
year, 1 ton of hay, worth, after the cost
of making $12,00

The second year,l>i tons 18,00— $30 00

$12,00

At the end of the second year, instead of an of-
fensive, unproductive swamp, he has land worth
$100 per acre for agricultural purposes, which has
cost him only $12 per acre, and with proper care

will continue at that value through generations to
come. Is it, then, worth draining ?

If there is hard pan underneath, and the upper
portion is muck, it would be quite likely to wash
down and obstruct the flow of water if it were
constructed with stones. Stones will answer a
good purpose for many years in a gravelly or
sandy loam. Simple, open ditches may, possibly,
answer the purpose for a time — but they should be
dug where the tiles are to be placed, so as to pre-
vent digging again when tiles are to be laid. The
cost of tile at the factory is about $14 a thousand.
They are in pieces, each 12 inches long. If hem-
lock boards could be kept always wet, they would
last for a long time ; but where changing from
wet to dry, and dry to wet, they would soon rot
out. Mr. George Campbell, of West Westmin-
ster, Vt., says hemlock bark "is as durable as
tile, and not half as expensive."

Fur the Nete England Farmer.
HUNGARIAN GRASS, OR GRATN".

Mr. Editor : — Considerable has been said, for
tliree or four years past, about Hungarian grass ;
some against its usefulness, but more in its favor.
I have cultivated several acres each year, for four
years, and having met Avith uniform success, am
now prepared to say I entertain the same senti-
ments concerning it that I did in 1859, and again
in 1860, which were published in your paper.

I continue to cultivate it on account of the uni-
foi-m and abundant yield of both hay and grain.
Of hay, about as much as I could get of any other
kind upon the same land, (according to quality,
from Id to 4 tons per acre,) and of uniform good
quality, when I have good weather to cure it. Of
grain, from 15 to 25 bushels, weighing from 44 to
48 pounds per bushel, which is received with as
great avidity as corn and oats, by all the domestic
animals I have around me.

I harvest it as soon as the seed is mostly ripe.
At the time of cutting, it requires very much
more drying than herds grass does when cut in
bloom. With me, I can say horses and cattle are
as ready for this hay when well cured, as they are
for other good hay. By cultivating this, I have a
double crop, either of which is very satisfactory.

Several reasons exist in my mind why this
grass has not been more readily adopted by farm-
ers. Many have tried it on a email scale, having
sowed a pint, a quart, or even four quarts of seed,
as an experiment, and put the result of the har-
vest into the barn, to receive their attention when
they might find it convenient. After awliile they
find the seed mostly eaten up by a privileged set
of pilferers, ever ready to take their rations in the
sheaf, when the farmer is willing to be saved the
trouble of threshing in season, and going to mill.
This farmer, of course, thinks the result of the ex-
periment not very good. ISIy plan and practice is
a different one. I thresh it with a machine as
soon as I bring it to the barn, and then carefully
season or dry the seed before I put it in the bin.

Some have read in accredited agricultural pa-
pers, got up expressly to advance the science of

206

NEW ENGLAND FARIMER.

May

agriculture, that it is "a coarse, dry, and almost
worthless stalk ;" "a great exhauster of the soil,"
&c. ; "horses and cattle out West have died from
eating it," &c. The word coarse is enough to dis-
courage some. I have never got any too coarse
for my cows, and even the calves eat up all the
butts greedily. "Great exhauster of the soil." I
love to have the soil on my farm exhausted, by
getting three and four tons of the richest fodder
from an acre. It gives me good hope and firm be-
lief that it will never show exhaustion, if I but
feed that acre with the refuse of what was taken
from it. "Beasts have died from eating it," is
only a story of the man too indolent rightly to ap-
ply the best gifts of God for his own benefit.
Beasts have been killed outright from eating corn,
here in Massachusetts ! Yet no paper echoes the
fact. To do so would not make one hair white or
black, since we all know that such things are
brought about by mal-administration.

Some, to whom I have sold seed, with directions
not to sow it till the ground is warm, (near the
first of June here in New England,) have sowed it
in March and April on the cold sod. The result
is immediate decay in the soil, or a dwarf exist-
ence, which is even worse. From such practice I
have often been falsely accused of selling poor
seed.

I am prepared fully to testify to the good qual-
ities of Hungarian grass in all its forms, not be-
cause I wish to sell seed, as my stock of that is
nearly disposed of, but that I Avould like to have
farmers more generally help themselves to every
prominent good thing. Wm. Richards.

Richmond, Mass., March 15, 1862.

EXTBAOTS AND KEPLIES.
MUCK AND CORN FODDER.

I have a large quantity of meadow muck, and
wish to use as much as will pay. How much can
I add, with profit, to my manure that is made
from fourteen cattle, when di'awn from the cellar ?
The muck was thrown out last season, and draAvn
from the meadow this winter. Would it be advisa-
ble to spread and plow in some without being mixed,
where I intend to plant ? Is it of much service
without manure mixed with it ?

Much has been said in regard to sowing corn for
fodder ; I will add my testimony in its favor. Last
spring I planted in rows about three-fourths of an
acre ; the rows 1h feet apart — in the rows very
thick — and hoed it well ; the corn was white flat,
and grew finely. I used what was needful green ;
the rest was cut and spread on the ground before
the frost came. I let it lay one day, then tied in
small bundles and took to the barn, and hung on
poles over the floor. I managed to hang two
deep in that way, and it cured well, and my cattle
will eat it in preference to the best hay. My ad-
vice to all who have land that produces but lit-
tle grass is, to try it. ClLVRLES C. GRANT.

Auburn, N. //., 18G2.

Remarks. — On a sandy loam land, an ox-cart
load of muck may be spread to every square rod,
with advantage to the land, if the muck is of good
quality, and has been thrown out to the light and
air eight or ten months.

You may add one load of such muck to every

two loads of manure, profitably — but it should be
added gradually, as the manure is thrown into the
cellar. If it has not been mixed through the win-
ter, apply it directly to the land, and plow it in.

RAISING calves.

My method of raising calves agi-ees in the main
with that of IMr. Bassett, as given in the Farmer
for March 1. In some particulars, however, it dif-
fers, and, quite naturally, I think it diflers for the
better. In common with many other farmers in this
vicinity, I begin to give the calf hay tea as soon
as he has well learned to drink. This tea is made
by pouring boiling water on clover or herds grass,
and letting it steep without more boihng. It is
very nutritious, digests easily, and in a short time
the calf comes to like it quite as well as milk, if
not better. I begin to give them about a pint a
day mixed with their milk, and as they grow older
the proportion of tea to milk is increased.

It seems to me injudicious to feed whole oats
to a calf six weeks old. He cannot chew them
sufficiently to make them digestible, and it will be
found on examination that they pass through him
nearly or quite unchanged. I never give oats to
a calf till he has done with milk, nor do I overfeed
with oat meal or com meal, unless it be first
cooked. Oat meal is preferable to corn ; corn
meal is too heavy food for calves, except in very
small quantities. Wm. W. Frost.

Coventry, VL, March 4, 1862.

ST. JOHN'S WORT.

The Patent Office folks seem to be laboring un-
der a mistake when they say that "Ili/pericitm
corymhosum is but little known throughout the
countiy."

On the contrary, it is generally known. I copy
from two reUable works.

Oray says, "in damp places common."

"In wet meadows and damp woods, New Eng-
land to Arkansas." — Wood.

Does not Darlington refer to II. perforatum ?
"A hardy plant, prevailing in pastures and dry
soils in Canada and the IJnited States, much to
the annoyance of farmers." — Wood.

"Pastures and meadows. Introduced from Eu-
rope, but thoroughly naturalized, and too well
known everywhere as a pernicious weed, which it
is almost impossible to extirpate." — Q-ray.

Those Patent Office people are great blunder-
ers. N.

Georgetown, Mass.

exact STATEMENTS WANTED.

I notice that several of your coiTespondents, in
stating their experiments, do not make them exact-
ly right according to my notion ; that is, in put-
ting on different kinds of manure. Some would
put on a certain quantity of one kind, and so
many pounds or bushels of another, and so on,
without stating the cost of each.

Now facts are what farmers want. If ten dol-
lars' worth of one kind of manure or fertilizer will
produce more value than ten dollars' worth of an-
other kind, then it ought to be stated so in dollars
and cents, so that it can be of practical use to the
farmer. C. D. B.

Uafjield, 1862.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

207

IS CLAY DUG FROM BENEATH THE SUKFACE A
FERTILIZER ?

In digging a cellar, I threw out a quantity of
stiff, hard clay, which was exposed to the air a few
months before winter, and then was frozen and
covered with snow. In the spring I set some cab-
bage and turnip plants in it, and they grew as
well, looked as rank, and produced as much as if
set in good rich soil ; cucumbers, also, flourished
exceedingly well. If this proves clay to be a fer-
tilizer, those owning clay farms have an inexhaus-
tible source of manure, and a great inducement to
plow deep. J. H. M.

Westford, VL, 1862.

Remarks. — Clay is an important fertilizer, es-
pecially when it contains magnesia, "potash and
lime, which it sometimes does. From the investi-
gations of Mr. Thompson and Professor Way, "On
the Absorbent Power of Soils," it has been ascer-
tained that a subsoil, abounding in clay, loam, or
mould, has not only the power of arresting ammo-
nia, but of absorbing and retaining "everything
which can serve as a manure for plants." The
common, yellow earth, on the banks of the road-
side, is a fertilizer in a considerable degree and
will sometimes bring fine crops.

PROFIT OF POULTRY.

Please publish the following account that I have
kept with my hens the past year, from March 1,
1861 to March 1, 1862.

To 13 fowls $7,67

To keeping 38,63

To the use of house and land 2,00

$43,30

By 40 chickens sold $14,00

By 2484 eggs 39,34

37 fowls on hand 20,00

11 chickens % grown 3,63

5 barrels of hen manure 6,25

$83,83
Deduct the cost 48,30

Net profit $35,53

Berlin, March, 1862. W. H. Paige.

WEATHER IN VERMONT.

We have had, for a few days past, by far the
nearest approach to a thaw of anything Ave have
seen since old Sixty-One left us ; and this can
scarcely be called more than a "sign of a thaw ;"
it has, however, relieved most of the roofs of the
snow that has been accumulating upon them for
the last eight weeks ; no small amount, I can as-
sure you. The month of February was, with us,
decidedly snoAvy. Snow fell on tliirteen different
days ; the whole amount was 48.5 inches ; the
greatest fall in twenty-four hours was 13 inches, on
the 19th; the greatest consecutive fall was 14.5
inches on the 19th and 20th. We have had but
very little snow thus far this month.

I see by the last Farmer that "T. S. F.," of
Felchville, has a cow that seems to be in a very
bad way. Now to save him all further trouble
with her, (and she must be exceedingly trouble-
some in a large dairy,) I propose that he shall
send her up this way, and we will exchange with
him, as we have plenty of cows around here that

can safely be warranted never to give so great a
quantity of milk as to trouble any reasonable man.
But if this should not chance to meet the mind of
the gentleman, a friend suggests that he feed
plentifully on cob meal ; if this does not cause her
to "dry up," it may be considered a hopeless case.
Calais, VL, March 13, 1862. Jake B.

CULTURE OF LEADING CROPS.

I have thought you might advance the interests
of your readers by inviting, at this season of the
year, a series of communications on the culture of
some of our leading crops. The hay and corn
crop have always been more or less written about,
as well they should be — but we ought, as farmers,
to pay more attention to the culture of the root
crop. Allow me, then, to ask you to call for the
experience of your readers in the culture of the
beet and carrot for feeding purposes ; also, of the
turnip for same use. I mean short, pointed arti-
cles, as to kinds, manner of managing and mode
of culture. Also, the experience of our vegetable
farmers as to the best kind of early potatoes, and
their manner of raising the same.

Fall River, Feb., 1862. Alex. B. Macy.

CURE FOR RINGBONE.

Will some of the readers of the Farmer inform
me what will cure ringbone on a horse's foot ?
March, 1862. Young Farmer.

Remarics. — ^Mr. W. H. Chaffee has communi-
cated to the Bural New-Yorker the following:
"Make a bag of strong linen cloth, about two
inches broad, and eight inches long ; fill it with
copperas, and tie it on the foot just above the
ringbone, and wet it twice each day. Keep it on
about four weeks."

The Ohio Valley Farmer aa.ys, — "Dissolve 1 oz.
camphor in 8 oz. spirits of wine ; add 1 oz. of oil
of turpentine, 1 oz. of spirits of sal ammoniac, i
oz. of oil oreganum, one big table-spoonful of
liquid laudanum ; rub well in with the hand for a
quarter of an hour, four times a day, and a cure
will be effected."

FAT heifer AND HOG — CORN COBS.

Mr. A. Benton, of this village, a man seventy-
five years old, fattened and slaughtered a heifer in
December last, 25^ months old, Aveighing 710 lbs.,
dressed ; also, a hog, 18 months old, weighing
596 lbs., dressed.

Farmers wiU do Avell to save their corn cobs to
put into their hay, next hay season, as they are
valuable to absorb the moisture from hay not suf-
ficiently dry to keep avcU ; mix in the cobs with a
little salt at the same time ; it well pays.

Isaac K. Drew.

Barton Village, Vt., March 10, 1862.

pickles FOR MARKET.

Will some one of your readers engaged in rais-
ing and preparing pickles for market, give an ac-
count of their management and success in this de-
partment of husbancby ? Farmer Jim.

Deerfield, 1862.

208

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

For the New England Fanner.
SOUTHERN" IIiIilNOIS.

Mr. Editor : — Since the publication of an arti-
cle on South Illinois in your paper, I have received
a letter from one of your readers, making farther
inquiries. With your consent, I propose to an-
swer those queries through your paper. Fever
and ague is still somewhat prevalent here,»although
it is far less so than ten years ago. To persons
of correct dietetic habits, who are temperate in all
things, who keep themselves clean by frequent
bathing, (especially in warm weather,) and take
plenty of exercise and fresh air, and have pure,
soft water to drink, the ague has no teiTors, and
their liability to diseases of any kind is no greater
here than in Massachusetts or New York.

From a record of the weather kept in thia coun-
ty, I make the following quotations : For the
month of July, 1861, highest temperature in shade,
105°, on two days only ; mean temperature for the
month, 68°, January, 1862, lowest point, 2° below
zero. Mean for the month, 40° above.

The roads here arc not as free from mud in win-
ter as in New England, but they are in summer
and autumn. We have much rainy weather in
■winter, and as a matter of course, all the older
roads are more or less muddy, but never so bad as
to be impassable. The ground does not freeze
half as deep as in Massachusetts, and of course
the mud is not very deep, not as much so as in
Northern Illinois. The original settlers of Egypt
are nearly all of Southern origin, mostly from
Tennessee and the Carolinas, and are behind the
"Down Easters" in almost everything pertaining
to a highly civilized and progressive people. On
the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad,
eight years ago, the Yankees began to flock in,
and now about one-third of the population, in the
vicinity of the railroad, are from New York, Ohio
and New England, comprising teachers, profes-
sional men, mechanics, farmers, and pomologists,
many of whom would rank high in their respec-
tive callings in the Eastern States.

We have a free school system similar in some
reepects to that of Massachusetts. All the schools
must be kept in operation six months in each year
to entitle the district to its share of the school
funds, and the Directors can extend the school
term to eight or ten months, if they wish. In most
of the districts and villages along the railroad, or
near it, Eastern teachers are employed. Last year
teachers were paid from $30 to §50 per month of
20 days ; this year wages are reduced 15 per cent.

Good schools and churches are not as abundant
here as in New England, but the march of im-
provement is rapid, and the time is not far distant
when the enterprising, energetic and progressive
Yankees will have a majority here, and thousands
of bushels of luscious fruits will find their way to
a Northern market li'om this once benighted
"Egypt."

There are already some four small nurseries
here ; some of them are being enlarged, aiia will
probably be able to meet the demand, as some of
them are branches of larger nurseries in Ohio.
Wholesale prices of fruits shipped North from
here last season were about as follows : Peaches
from $1 to $2,50 per box, {h bushel.) Early
apples, from $2 to $5 per barrel, (2^ bushels.)
Early pears, such as Bartlett, $5 to $6 per bushel.

Grapes, Catawba, 10 to 15 cents per pound. To-
matoes, from $1 to $6 per box, (3 pecks.) Straw-
berries, from $4 to $8 per bushel.

It pays well to raise peaches for drying and can-
ning. In shipping North, the earliest fruits and
vegetables bring the highest price. Gardeners
generally plant tomato seed in hot-bed in Februa-
ry, and have fine large plants by April 1st.

I have never seen or heard of any winter-killing
of fruit trees or their branches. There are seed-
ling peach trees here 40 years old, and still bear-
ing beautiful crops. The hard winter of 1855-6,
which destroyed many thousand peach and tender
varieties of apple trees in North Illinois, did no
damage in South Illinois, farther than killing a part
of the peach buds. Young fruit trees, as a general
thing, will grow one-fourth more here during the
season than in the Eastern States, with same cul-
ture. The Sugar Maple is not plenty enough to be
available for sugar making. Sorghum docs finely,
making a growth of from 9 to 15 feet high.

Our long summers are just the thing for such
semi-tropical plants as sorghum, tobacco, cotton,
sweet potatoes, castor beans, etc.

In my former letter, I stated that plenty of land
could be had for from $5 to $50 per acre, accord-
ing to location and improvements. This includes
the buildings, as land which has been partly or
wholly cleared of the native forest, generally has
buildings of some kind upon it, but the older build-
ings are rough, cheap tenements. The value at
which land is rated, depends more on its proximi-
ty to a railroad depot, than the improvements on
it. For instance, at this place, (Jonesboro' Sta-
tion,) unimproved land within one mile is valued
at $40 per acre, while just as good land, which
has been partly cleared and cultivated, three miles
distant, can be had for $15 ; five miles, $5 to $10.

The cost or labor of clearing woodland here is
much less than in most of the Eastern States, the
growth of timber not being as large and dense,
except on "bottom lands."

Good springs of pure, soft water are not as nu-
merous here as at the East, although some of them
equal the springs of New England. A part of
the surface is underlaid with limestone. In the
sandstone formation, the springs furnish soft wa-
ter. Good-sized, durable cisterns can be made
for $25. We have limestone and sandstone quar-
ries furnisliing good building material. Also clay
suitable for brick and potter's ware.

I will cheerfully give any farther information in
my power to those desiring it, if they will inclose
a post paid envelope for the reply to their queries.

A, Babcock.

Anna P. 0., Union Co., III., March 5, 1862.

Remedy for Ringworms.— The North Brit-
ish Agriculturist says that the disease locally
known as ringworm or tetter, which shows itself
about the head and neck of young cattle, in the
form of whitish dry scurve spots, can be removed
by rubbing the parts affected with iodine ointment.
The disease may also be combated by the use of
sulphur and oil ; iodine ointment is however to be
preferred. As this skin disease is easily commu-
nicated to the human subject, the person dressing
the cattle should wash his hands with soap and
hot water after each ointment.

1862.

XEW ENGLAND FARMER.

209

THE EOYAIiE HATrVE PLUM.

For several years past, the plum crop in all this
region has been very light, — so light, indeed, that
few persons are now willing to devote much time
in attempting to raise it. The subject has re-
ceived the most careful attention, both from cul-
tivators and amateurs, in different sections of the
country — but as yet with little encouragement
that we shall be able to overcome the difficulties
with which we have been contending.

The chief obstacle in the way is the black knot, —
that has so far gone on in its fatal progress, and
has destroyed thousands of trees that promised to
reward the cultivator with rich harvests of deli-
cious fruit. No one yet knows how to destroy,
or even arrest, its destructive tendencies. The
opinions of the most skilful are not unanimous
upon what causes the disease, whether it be in a
vitiated circulation, or is occasioned by the opera-
tions of Insects.

If the trees escape the plague of blacK knot,
and show a fair promise of fruit, the curculio
comes, and with his sharp pincers opens a little
place in the skin and deposits a minute white eg^,
which, in due time, produces a worm that feeds
upon the young fruit until its vitality is destroyed
and it drops to the ground, the worm going with
it and secreting itself in the soil, to appear again

the succeeding year, and thus peq)etuate, forever,
this second plague.

This plum is called The Early Eoyal, and Mi-
rian, as well as by the name at the head of this
article.

The fruit from which our picture was taken
came from the grounds of our friend Vandink, of
Cambridgeport. By "some philosophy that we
have never dreamed of," he still succeeds in get-
ting good trees and good plums, in spite of curcu-
lio and black knot. Downing's account of the
Royale Hative is as follows : —

A new early plum of French origin, and the
highest excellence. It is yet very scarce with us,
having lately been received from the garden of the
London Horticultural Society. It strongly re-
sembles, both in appearance and flavor, the Pur-
ple Gage, or Reine Claude Violette, but ripens a
month earlier.

Branches very doivny. Fruit of medium size,
roundish, a little wider towards the stalk. Skin
light purple, dotted, (and faintly streaked,) with
brownish-yellow, and covered with a blue bloom.
Stalk half an incli long, stout, inserted with little
or no depression. Flesh amber yellow, with an
unusually rich, high flavor, and parts from the
stone, (adhering slightly, till ripe.) Stone small,
flattened, ovate. Begins to ripen about the 20tb
of July.

210

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

For the Sew England Farmer.
WHITE, CHESTEB COUN'TY SWINE.

Mr. Editok : — An inquiry was made in your
paper in November last, about the peculiar char-
acteristics of the Chester county white breed of
swine, and also what was their origin. Being in-
terested myself in the last inquiry, I soon after
■wTote to Mr. Thomas Wood, of Chester county,
Pennsylvania — the most extensive dealer in this
breed in my knowledge — and proposed the same
questions, with others, to him. I copy from his
reply as follows :

"They are what we call home-made hogs, having
been brought to their present condition by a long
course of judicious crossing and careful breeding
by many of our best stock men. The origin or
fii'st impulse to this improvement was the impor-
tation to this county of a pair of very fine pigs,
by Capt. James Jeffries. They were brought from
Bedfordshire, England, about forty years since.
They claim no foreign blood since. As the swine
thus imported began to have some notoriety, they
were called Chester county hogs, after the county
in which they originated, as in England the im-
proved stock is named after the shires or counties
in which they originate. The Chester has become
the most popular breed of hogs in this country.
I have been engaged in breeding thirty years, and
shipping them for eight or nine years to nearly
every State of the Union, Canada and Nova Sco-
tia, and the demand for them is constantly in-
creasing as they become known. They are a white
hog, long, square built, short head, and good ham,
and will readily fatten at any age, and we think
make more pork to the amount of feed consumed,
and in a shorter time, than any other breed. They
are easily kept, and quiet, good breeders."

In reply to my question as to their weight when
well fattened, at given ages, he says :

"I have known several to weigh 300 lbs., and
some over, at 9 months old ; also several to weigh
between 600 and 700 at 18 months old ; several
to weigh over 800 at a little under 2 years old,
and one to weigh 990 at 20 months old, dressed
weight."

My father has been breeding the Chester coun-
ty hogs for about four years, and his experience
fully confirms the opinion expressed by Mr. Wood,
that "they make more pork, according to the
amount of feed consumed, than any other breed."
They are a remarkably hearty and healthy breed,
and are the most docile and gentle mothers I ever
saw. They combine so many good qualities that
they not only are rapidly gaining in their popular-
ity, but of right, should be "the most popular
breed in this country." D. H. GOODELL.

Antrim, N. JL, March 5, 18G2.

A Natural Curiosity. — A singular instance
of the foresight of a field mouse has just been
brought under our cognizance. A person clear-
ing the garden ground of Mr. Thos. Thompson,
Dalkeith, Scotland, came upon a growing turnip,
which he pulled up by the root. Guess his aston-
ishment when he found that the turnip was com-
pletely hollowed out as neatly as if it had been
done by the chisel of a joiner, and the interior
filled by large garden beans. The work, from the
size of the hole whence the inside of the turnip

had been extracted, was manifestly that of a mouse,
and the object, no doubt, of filling the interior with
beans was to provide against hunger in the barren
winter weather. Near the place where the turnip
was growing there were several stalks of beans,
upon which some pods had been left, and it is sup-
posed that the 'cute mouse had helped itself to
these. We counted the beans in the turnip —
a small one — and found that they amounted to no
less than six dozen and two. — Scottish Farmer.

For the New England Farmer.
A WOBD ABOUT? COLTS.

An impression, and I think an erroneous one,
prevails M'ith many that colts are injured by early
training. That some colts are injured, and their
constitutions broken, by cruel and rough treat-
ment, before they have acquired their strength,
cannot be doubted ; but careful, judicious train-
ing, is as important with colts, as with steers, or
with children, even. In fact, I believe it true of
all young animals intended for domestic use, as of
a child, "Train them in the way they should go,
and when they are old they will not depart from
it."

I have two colts, one eight months old, and the
other one year and eight months. They are both
accustomed to the harness. The oldest I have
frequently used in the sleigh. On one occasion
this winter, when the sleighing was good, it has
taken me, together with my little son, to Ports-
mouth and back, a distance of nine miles, each
way, with no inconvenience or injury whatever.
Some persons who knew the age of the colt, and
the distance it travelled, remarked to me, "You
will kill that colt."

This remark induced me to write this short ar-
ticle. Without knowing the circumstances, the
reader, perhaps, would form a similar judgment —
but the colt is large of its age, in good condition
as to flesh, and high spirited ; and I required it to
walk at least two-thirds the distance each way.
It was well fed in the city, taken through streets
where it could hear various sounds, and witness
all sorts of objects — still it was not sufiered to
tire, or scarcely to sweat at all, and to every ap-
pearance was as lively and bright when I reached
home as when I started. To have forced it be-
yond its strength that distance, or half the dis-
tance, would have been injurious — but careful
training is always beneficial, and we rarely begin
too young with anything.

Lambert Maynard, Esq., of Bradford, Mass.,
the owner of one of the finest stallions in New
England, (Trotting Childers.) who has had much
experience in raising and training colts, and who
has sold some fine colts of his own raising at a
high figure, informs me that his colts are all brok-
en to the harness before they are a year old, or as
he more properly expressed it, educated. He
rarely, if ever, uses a whip. As to its injuring
them, to use them to young, he remarked that he
never exercised them so hard as they exercise
themselves when alone.

So much for early training — and now one word
about feeding and exercise. Colts should never
be forced with provender, nor stunted for want of
nourishing food. My method is to give them as
much good, sweet clover hay as they will cat clean.

862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

211

with a few little potatoes ; and with this feed I get
as much growth in the winter as, with a good pas-
ture, I get in the summer. On pleasant days,
when there is no ice to injure them, they should
always have their liberty to exercise out of doors.
It is as cruel to confine a high-spirited colt con-
stantly by his halter, as to confine a high-spirited,
ambitious child to the house.

Farmers, raise good colts, from the best of
stock ; keep them constantly growing, without
pampering; give them judicious training when
young ; allow them every favorable opportunity
lor free exercise, and we shall have what every
sensible man or woman admires, good horses.

J. F. French.

North Hampton, March, 1862.

Remarks. — Excellent. No suggestions with re-
gard to colts can be more judicious. The highest
spirited colt we ever saw, we broke in accordance
with the suggestions given by Mr. French. We
began by putting on the bridle, only, and contin-
ued through an entire month to add various parts
of the harness, until he was perfectly accustomed
to every part of it. He was allowed to stand with
the harness on from morning until noon, when it
was taken off", the colt watered and fed, and after
dinner a part or the whole harness put on again.
At the end of this time we put him to a light
wagon, alone, and drove him a mile, and had no
trouble with liim afterward.

FOWL MANTTRE.

No manure obtained by the farmer is as valua-
ble as the manure from the poultry house. Of
this there is no question, and yet we can hardly
answer the question, "In what way is it best to use
it ?" This manure is made only in small quanti-
ties, and it may be that, as a general thing, much
of it is wasted. It may be thrown with other ma-
nure, muck and refuse on the compost heap, but
our plan is to save for special purposes, and we
generally use it in the vegetable garden, where it
is not only valuable, but exceedingly convenient.
When dry, it may be sown with onion or other
seeds in the drills, at planting-time, and four or
five quarts put into a barrel of rain water makes a
most superb liquid manure for any beds of young
plants that need stimulating. In this form we use
it for our melons and cucumbers, as soon as they
appear above ground, to put them out of the way
of the "bugs," and on beds of cabbage, cauliflower
plants, &c., for the same purpose. Celery plants,
after being set out in the trenches, may be hurried
up amazingly by being watered two or three times
a week with this liquid food. If magnificent sweet
corn is wanted, half a pint of the dry hen dung,
finely scattered in each hill, will give it, and no
mistake. If you have been able to grow only
hard, hot, wormy radishes, next spring sow the
seed in very shallow drills, (not too early) in a
warm, sheltered place, then cover the bed with a
thin dressing of coal ashes, and water with the
liquid hen manure each alternate night, and if the
season is as favorable as ordinary, you will have
no cause to repent the trial. A little charcoal dust
is better than coal ashes. — Rural New-Yorker.

LEGISLATIVE AGRrCULTITBAL SOCIETY.

Reported for the Farmer by D. W. Lothrop.

The eleventh meeting of the series was held on
Monday evening last, the subject for discussion
being Farm Implements.

Hon. Wm. B. Calhoun, of Springfield, was
invited to preside ; but he observed that while the
subject was important, he was not prepared to
say much upon it. Machinery is producing a rev-
olution in agriculture, and our mechanics had been
very active, both in hands and in mind, resulting
in beneficial eflfects in all the departments of labor.
He would venture to call upon Mr. Howard, as he
had consented to speak upon this topic.

Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, re-
sponded, and believed with the Chairman, that a
revolution in farm husbandry was noM' going on,
in this country certainly, and that the ingenuity of
American mechanics was jiroverbial. They take
the lead, he thought, of the world. In some of
the inventions and improvements in farm imple-
ments we owe to America the undivided honor.
Some of these are important in the economy of
feeding the population of the world. He referred
to the Crimean War, and spoke of the scarcity of
grain in Europe at that time, and the importance
of our sowing and reaping machines in furnishing
a plentiful supply. At a later period, also, France
and England were deficient in crops of grain, yet
we had enough and to spare.

The Heaping Machine, Mr. Howard observed,
was not in its incipiency American — it originating
in England, but failing there of being perfect, the
genius of this country completed it. In 1851, Mr.
McCormick took Ms machine to England, where
it was tested under some disadvantages, on the
farm of Mr. Mechi ; yet it sustained itself, and not
only cut down the wheat, but also English preju-
dices to American machines. Yet in England it
has been somewhat modified to fit it to their
heavier crops. The Mowing Machine is an Amer-
ican invention. Allen's (with certain modifica-
tions) received the first premium of the Royal
Agricultural Society, in 1860, and the preference
was generally for American machines. The last
year, also, we took the fii'st premium in mowing
machines.

There are many other implements in which
America shines. To the American axe there is
nothing superior, and we may regard it as the em-
blem of the civilization of the western hemisphere.
Our mechanics, too, take the lead in manure and
hay forks. The old ones were very thick and
clumsy ; Partridge's are light and superior. In
this matter the English are improving. Our im-
provement in shovels has also been great : once
we had only those whose handle was driven into a
socket. Oliver Ames stands out prominently as
the inventor of the American shovel, and so of the

212

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

spade. He is independent, and still lives. In
plows, America has likewise distinguished herself.
A cast iron one was introduced from Scotland,
■when Mr. Alger, of South Boston, and Mr. Wood,
of New York, began to manufacture them, though
somewhat modified in pattern from the Scotch,
and we have maintained the lead. Mr. II. here
referred to a trial of plows under the patronage of
the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, in 1850,
w here there were 40 different ones in competition,
tlie trial lasting ten days. The result was that
Messrs. Prouty &; INIears, of Boston, took three
premiums for plows adapted to as many different
kinds of work. The results were important, and
would be permanent. There are some points,
however, in regard to plows and plowing, in which
we do not compare well with the English. We
have lost sight of the adaptation of plows to differ-
ent purposes, to an extent, and for very heavy soil,
he Ihought the Scottish, and some of the English,
superior. Their harrows, too, are superior to ours
— ours being too heavy. Seed harrows should
likewise be light. The English have a potato har-
row, and implements for cleansing the soil — root-
ing out witch grass, for instimce ; the Norwegian
harrow is one, and sometimes the English Grub-
ber is made to do this work. In this matter we
have been loo inattentive. Our horse rakes are
very good, but in England they are made with
steel tines, and are sometimes used to cleanse
their fallows.

Mr. Wktiierell, of Boston, said there was
nothing more important than the plow, as it was
our chief implement for pulverizing the soil. Our
mechanics had done Avell, but could improve. He
had heard the complaint that our plows cut too
naiTow furrows. Another objection was that they
were easily broken, and the most serious was, that
they did not perform their work so well as desired.
He spoke of a trial of plows in Elaine, where the
draught was great, and observed that it had much
to do with their economy. He alluded to Mr. Pu-
sey's opinion, that while some plows required
three horses, others required only one, and it was
found that the size was not in proportion to the
draught. The construction had more to do with
tlie plow than the weight. To Jefferson we owe
much for an improvement in this implement. Our
plows are not suited to the West ; the best he had
seen were made in Illinois. Our material is iron,
theirs is steel. Should the mould-board be con-
cave or convex ? At the trial in Maine, ours were
very hard to hold by the pressure upon the hands,
though some run very well ; and Mr. John John-
ston said this was an important matter. In fact,
our plows are defective as they rre, and he doubt-
ed whether we have one well fitted to pulverize
the soil. He considered the question of horses or
cattle for plowing. On side hills in England one

horse is used before the other. He also spoke of
the importance of using horse-carts, which he
thought the most economical, and cited trials of
Mr. Pusey, where their great value over others was
demonstrated — and we should then require less
laboring animals. Some changes are not improve-
ments. A gentleman out West had said to liira
that there had not been much improvement in
plows since Jefferson. Some farmers oppose
some of the new machines. One man would rot
have a mowing machine and horse rake because
they cut and gathered too much poor stuff. But
two farmers side by side, with different practice,
would show the good results of improved imple-
ments. Small farmers can hire a mowing ma-
chine ; and all will find that where one can be
used (by the proper preparation of the land) their
farms Avill be worth twenty-five per cent, more
than others. The speaker also commended the
Clod Crusher as important in pulverizing the soil.

Mr. Howard, by wa^ of explanation, alluded
to the Grubber, the Norwegian Harrow, and the
Clod Crusher, as used in England. As to steel
plows on the prairies of the West, their clayey
soil sticks to iron, not U) steel. Such plows would
not be important in all places.

Dr. LoRiNG, of Salem, said it was an extraor-
dinary fact, that the best farming did not always
keep pace with agricultural implements. Our ag-
riculture has not kejit up with our labor-saving
machines. The plows of Italy and Portugal are
not much better than those in the time of Virgil ;
yet those countries have improved in husbandry
to a good extent. Our mechanics have attempted
to make agriculture easy ; hence (together with
the high price of labor) our numerous machines.
Our hoes and forks are graceful in their form
and highly polished, but less substantial. Yet our
plows are better. To the ^Michigan plow there
was some objection, but for spring plowing for
corn it makes the soil easy, and is the best for sod
land for immediate seeding. The cast-iron beam
plow was also good. Dr. L. alluded to a horse-
hoe and root-grubber bought for him in England
by Mr. Howard. He gave some explanation of
them, and regarded them as very useful on a
farm. As to the Avorking power of a farm, on light
lands, he thought horse labor very good, but on
rough land ox labor was preferable. Oxen, he
believed, would do as much as horses. In regard
to cutting hay, he had used mowing machines and
a tedder. His haying was done quicker and bet-
ter by them, but not cheaper than by the scythe.
These machines must have two trained horses,
and as in connection they are liable to get out of
order, he doubted whether they were economical.
Our horse-rakes are very good. The hay-fork
was important, but there was some question
whether we had a good instrument. What we

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

213

need is strong machines. The handles to our
forks, shovels, &c., -were too brittle ; and he ob-
served that a man once said to him that a rake
was harder to winter than a cow. Our hoes are
graceful, but not strong ; and many of our plows
are constructed to sell, not to use ; and so with
other things — whiffletrees, for instance. But we
have good hay-cutters, and his best root-cutter
was procured from Chicopee — which implement
he described. We much need a good barn-hoe,
one that can be got into corners ; and a good
barn broom was certainly worth mentioning.

Mr. Andrews, of West Roxbury, spoke of the
importance of the reaper in the West ; but even
here, an attachment being fixed to it, it would be
useful in cutting rye, &c. He also spoke of Ga-
boon's seed-sower, which sows as fast as a man
can Avalk, and scatters evenly.

Mr. Wetiieeell inquired of Dr. Loring if an
acre of grass could be cut by the scythe as cheap
as by the mowing machine.

Dr. LoRiXG replied, yes. He then spoke of the
horses needed for a machine, and attendant ex-
penses, and said if we could get good mowers as
cheap as fifty years ago, it would be less expen-
sive, blowing machines were valuable where la-
bor was high.

Hon. JosiAH QuiNCY, Jr., thought mowing ma-
chines very important on large farms, but on
small ones would hardly pay. The tedder was a
useful instrument for spreading hay, as it would
do the work of ten or twelve men. On his own
farm he was obliged to avail himself of the labor
of men. There were, however, few good mowers,
especially among the Irish. At the West, mow-
ing machines must be important. He alluded,
also, to the steam boiler, for steaming food for
cattle. Prindle's was economical, and good as a
boiler or steamer.

Dr. Loring said steaming food for cattle was
of great benefit, and alluded to a gentleman who
procured a large kettle for the purpose, and made
it serve very well.

Mr. Wethereli, objected to steaming food as
useless, or worse than useless, and cited cases to
prove it — alluding also to the experience of Mr.
Peters to the same efiect. Mr. Fay's steamer,
too, was spoken of.

Dr. Loring replied that Mr. Fay's steamer was
a little thing for the steaming of roots, and as
they are not improved by the process, it was aban-
doned. Ho thought Mr. Peters would find good
results from steaming food. He himself thought
milk was improved by it, and rendered cheaper.

l\Ir. Wetiierell rejoined, advocating raw cut
food with meal as the best, while Dr. LoRiNG en-
ergetically contended for the steaming of coarse
fodder ; and the debate continued between them
till an adjournment was moved.

For tlie New England Farmer.
"HUNNINQ- OUT" OF POTATOES.

IMessrs. Editors : — You will confer a personal
favor by giving a solution to the following in your
columns, and in my view furnish an answer to an
inquiry often made by farmers.

Why is it, that Avhen we have secured some of
the best kinds of potatoes, their good qualities
will not last more tlian two or three years ?

I once selected two of the best kinds of potatoes
with which I was acquainted, and planted them,
side by side, in the same field, for three successive
years. The first year I noticed no particular
change. The second year I did, for the worse.
The third, all their good qualities were gone, by
amalgamation, and even their identity lost, so that
I abandoned them as comparatively worthless.

Once I planted three kinds, all mixed together,
for twenty successive years, without the least de-
terioration, or change whatever.

What is there in nature that brought about
these two results, so entii'ely different ?

Wm. Richards,

Richmond, Mass., March 15, 1862,

Rem.\rks. — Some wiser head than ours must
fm-nish the solution. Perhaps the potatoes you
planted were not adapted to your climate or soil,
and soon "run out." Who can tell ? We have
cultivated sweet potatoes for many years, but have
always harvested a deteriorated crop, with the ex-
ception of a single season, when it was excessively
hot and dry. Then the potatoes were nearly of
the color and flavor of those brought to us from the
South. Those potatoes, "all mixed," which you
"planted for twenty successive years," may have
been adapted to the climate and soil, and conse-
quently had nothing to do but to grow abundant-
ly, and be good. We shall be glad to receivs
some more philosophic reasons, if they exist, for
the results wliich friend Richards states.

For the New En^^land Farmer.

A PLAN OP A SHEEP BAKN.

One of your correspondents calls for a plan of a
sheep barn. I will give you my experience. I
should, in all cases, build a barn Avith a cellar, and
locate the barn on level ground, if the land will ad-
mit of it, and have the cellar 8 feet deep. Were
I to build 60 feet by 36 feet, I would have the
posts 20 feet, running from the beams to the bot-
tom of the cellar, and well board in the cellar to
the sills of the barn. This would give the cellar
8 feet, and 18 feet for storage. Set the posts to
the barn 15 feet from centre to centre — this will
leave ample room for sheep racks, and for the sheep
to move around. Locate the barn tlae longest way
east and west, doors at each end, grade off 30 feet
at an expense of $9 to each end, and you then
have a floor the whole length of the barn ; which
part may be filled, if necessity requires. On the
north side add a shed 14 feet wide, framed to
the barn, the posts to the same 15 feet, and extend
the roof to the bam, over the shed, and then we
have a cellar 60 by 50 feet. If we wish to finish
up for sheep, run a board partition from post to

214

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

post, north or soutli, with a window to slide on
the north side, and in front a door 3^ feet high, to
elevate or depress at pleasure by means of weights,
to shut the sheep in, or out, in the yards in front,
and we have in this apartment a yard 14 by 50
feet, and so on, as many yards as may be wanted,
and bring water to all the yards, on a level, to
every trough, and brought in at the bottom, and
then there will be no freezing. A barn finished
up this way will be found very convenient to haul
out manure, and the shed attached will give great
additional strength to the main structure — the
barn.

If cattle are to be kept in the cellar, the finishing
may be made to accommodate them, also, equally
well. H. G.

Walpole, N. H., Feb., 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

KETBOSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Planning and Preparing Work."— If every
reader of this joui-nal would turn to the March No.,
page 106, and read or re-read this excellent com-
munication from the pen of Mr. Goldsbury, and
then put to himself the question, do I practice all
the planmng and preparing of work which Mr. G.
here represents as essential to success and pros-
perity in the business of farming ? he would be
enabled, if he answered the question honestly, to
determine his true position as a farmer.

The purpose of the writer of the article now un-
der notice, seems to have been to persuade his
brother farmers that success in their business de-
pends vei-y much upon the earnest application, not
of their muscles, but of their minds, in planning
and preparing for the work of the busy season of
spring and summer, during the comparatively
leisure season of winter. Unfortunately, this is a
truth of which a great many seem to be either ig-
norant or regardless ; and this ignorance or neg-
lect operates not only to the injury of these indi-
viduals themselves, but tends to lower the respec-
tability of the really noble profession to which Ave
all belong. It is from this and similar neglects to
employ mind in the management of our business,
that farmers are so generally considered and called
mere clod-hoppers, and other names manifesting a
like disrespect for us and for our profession.
Hence it comes that we aU suffer in reputation on
account of the thoughtlessness and laziness of a
part. Hence, too, we derive our right to protest
against unthinking, unprogressive characteristics
of those who will neither read, nor think, nor study
to make advances in the management of their bus-
iness, but content themselves with plodding on in
the footsteps of their predecessors. Hence, too,
» it follows, that we all owe a debt of gratitude to
j such men as Mr. Goldsbury for their efforts to
convert the unthinking, and plodding routine-fol-
lowers among us from the error of their ways, and
to elevate and give a higher dignity to the profes-
sion of providers of the food of the world. Thanks,
then, to Mr. Goldsbury for his efforts to stir up
his brethren to a sense of the need which there is
of applying mind as well as muscle in the business
of farming, and to a practical recognition of the
fact that God has so ordered a/fairs that a farmer
must continually be aiming to make improvements,
must continually be aiming to do better the next

year than the last, and must plan and prepare for
his work beforehand, or in winter, so as to be
ready to take it up at the proper time, and to do
it in a proper, or the best, manner.

And now, supposing that Mr. Goldsbury's ef-
forts and ours have been successful in enkindling
in some a determination that every year shall Mit-
ness some improvement upon farm management,
it is quite probable that not a few may be at a loss
how to make the reading, thinking, planning and
other work of the mind, in the leisure of winter,
help the muscles in the busier season, in working
out higher success. For the assistance of such I
will now give a brief sketch of the way in which a
farmer of my acquaintance endeavors to make all
his reading, thinking, planning and information or
suggestions from every quarter, contribute to his
purpose of constant improvement.

First of all, he has a map of his farm on the first
page of a writing book made of several quires of
note paper stitched together. Of this book he de-
votes several pages to each of his fields, and every
year writes what he calls Historical Notes of the
crops raised, the manm-es applied, and the condi-
tion and capacity of the field generally. Another
series of pages is devoted to a record of his plans,
of the crops to be raised, the manures to be ap-
plied, the mode of culture to be adopted, &c., up-
on each field. This record he generally makes in
March of each year, which has very appropriately
been called, by the editor of this journal, the
make-ready month, when all plans should be ma-
tured for the campaign of the season. Then he
has a number of pages devoted to a record of what
he calls Intended Improvements and Projected
Experiments. And finally, he makes a record on
the remaining pages, of every suggestion that may
occur to himself or come from others, and of every
item of information he finds in his reading, which
he may think likely to be useful. These he reads
over and fixes in liis mind, and then proceeds to
make his plans, &c., for the coming season.

More Anon.

Duties on Trees, Plants and Seeds. — The
Gardener's Monthlxj, published at Philadelphia,
states that the "Massachusetts Horticultural So-
ciety have taken steps to memorialize Congress
to impose a duty of 50 per cent, on imported ag-
ricultural productions." This may be so — though
we have not heard of such action. The Concord
Farmer's Club recently petitioned Congress to
lay a duty upon imported seeds, but not upon
plants or trees, and gave what we thought a valid
reason for such a request.

1^ We learn that Mr. George Campbell, of
West Westminster, Vt., has recently bought four
ewe lambs of Wm. R. Sanford, of Orwell, at $100
per head ; fifteen young ewes of Edgar Sanford, of
Cornwall, for $1800 ; and six breeding ewes of Ed-
win and Henry Hammond, of Middlebury, at
$1400. The cost of the twenty-five sheep is
$3600. Mr. Campbell is one of the most intelli-
gent and enterprising sheep-raisers in the coun-
try.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

215

AMERICAN GUANO.

We have often stated to the reader that we
thought a judicious use of some of the specific fer-
tilizers now so common among us might be prof-
itably applied to most of our New England crops
— not as prime agents, but as auxiliaries, after the
farmer has exhausted all his skill and resources in
the accumulation of manure on his own farm.
This must always be his first aim. When he
makes his experiment, however, it should be fairly
and liberally done ; that is, expend a certain
amount of money for a fertilizer, and apply it to a
portion of some crop, leaving another portion of
the crop without it, but under circumstances pre-
cisely alike in every other respect ; then, by a
careful weighing or measurement of the crop, he
will be able to learn what the fertiHzer has accom-
plished. The error made by most persons is, that
too little of the specific manure is applied, and that
it is not spread over a sufficient space, and thor-
oughly incorporated with the soil. It should be
scattered over a square of eight or ten inches, and
intimately mingled with the soil around it.

We have reaUzed great success in the use of
the American Guano on fields of corn, and on
nearly all the garden edibles, and think others
may derive the same advantages, by using it lib-
erally, say at the rate of 400 or 500 pounds per
acre, and by taking equal pains in its application.
We are confirmed in this opinion by a statement
made by the renowned Baron Lieeig, which we
recently found in the Patent Office Reports. He
says:

I have spent two months' labor in the matter.
The Baker's Island guano contains more phos-
phoric acid than any other known fertilizer, and it
IS similar in its ingredients to natural phosphorite,
diff'ering from it, however, in the following re-
markable particulars :

Phosphorite is in a crystalized state, and is com-
pletely insoluble in water. The Baker's Island
guano, on the contrary, is amorphous, is soluble
to a considerable extent in pure water, and when
moistened, colors litmus paper red. The Jarvis
Island guano has also an acid reaction, and is
partly soluble in water. It is worthy of remark
that the Jarvis guano, although only half as rich
in earthy phosphates as the Baker's, gives to wa-
ter a greater quantity of soluble phosphoric acid.
I regard the discovery of these guano deposits as
a most fortunate event for agriculture. At the
present time the prices of fertilizers, like bones,
are now continually on the increase, and soon the
agriculturist will not be able to procure, at paying
rates, an amount sufficient for his wants. Baker's
Island guano, being of all fertilizers the richest in
phosphoric acid, will be of especial importance.
As far as chemistry can judge, there is hardly
room for a doubt that, in all cases where the fertil-
ity of a field would be increased by the use of bone
dust, the Baker's Island guano will be used with
decided advantage. The phosphate of lime in the
Baker's Island guano is far more easily dissolved
than that of bones ; and if we take the proportion

of that ingredient to be 60 lbs. in the latter, 100
lbs. in the Baker's Island guano are equivalent to
140 lbs. of bones. Thus the agriculturist would
be benefited as much by using 70 lbs. of Baker's
Island guano as by 100 lbs. of bone dust. This
guano contains in ammonia, nitric acid, and azotic
substances, nearly one per cent, of active nitrogen.
A small addition of salt of ammonia would give it
the full strength of Peruvian guano.

It seems hardly possible that tliis guano could
be employed without profit, while it contains the
well-known nutritive elements which he ascribes
to it, and at the prices for which it is now being
sold. We hope our farmers will test it in a small
way, using it liberally as far as they go, and care-
fully watching its effects upon the crops. We
shall be glad to publish reports of such experi-
ments.

For the Neio Englartd Farmer.

THE BIGHT THING IN THE RIGHT
PLACE AT THE BIGHT TIME.

Mr. Editor : — It would be well for us, and for
all mankind, if we always had the right thing in
the right place at the right time. I do not know
that this is a practicable thing for human beings ;
but if it be, we ought immediately to set ourselves
aboMt it, and reduce it to practice, because our
progress, improvement and happiness depend upon
it. This is more than the wisest and best of us
do, and perhaps more than we can do, at present ;
and, if so, it is more than can be r-easonably ex-
pected of us by others. It is perhaps more than
God himself expects us to accomplish at present ;
and yet he evidently requires us to aim at perfec-
tion, and to come as near to it as possible. It
would be well for us, therefore, to make this our
aim, our constant study and endeavor to have the
right thing in the right place at the right time.

Let us apply this motto to some of the opera-
tions in farming, and see if we cannot be excited
to greater vigilance, punctuality and promptitude.
Though there is no such thing as perfection in
farming, yet success in the business depends, not
only upon having every tiling in its right place at
the right time, but upon having every thing done
at the right time and in the best manner possible.
If we fail in either of these respects, we shall be
unsuccessful in the business. For instance, if the
tools and implements we use in farming be the old
antiquated things of a bygone age, so clumsy, un-
wieldly and cumbersome as to be inconvenient,
unhandy and unfitted for use, and ill adapted to
the purposes of husbandry, we have not the right
tools to work with ; and no skill on our part, in
the use of such tools, can ever make up for their
deficiency. So, too, if we raise the diff"erent kinds
of animals, but so small in size, so slow in growth,
and so mean in appearance, as to be unsaleable
and unprofitalile, we evidently do not keep the
right breed of animals ; and no economy on our
part can compensate for the want of a better stock
of animals. So, too, if we raise all the diff"erent
kinds of fruit, but so small and knurly and defec-
tive and ill-flavored, as to be quite useless and un-
profitable ; or, if we raise all the different kinds of
vegetables, but so stinted and diminutive in size,
and so unsavory in quality and flavor, as to be

216

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

hardly worth gathering ; or, if we raise all the dif-
ferent kinds of grain, but of so unproductive and
dwarfish a growth as to be almost worthless, wc
may be morally certain, that, in each instance, we
have not all the right things in the right place at
the right time. In all the foregoing particulars,
we have utterly failed, either because we have not
had the right things, or because we have not used
them properly at the right time and place. We
must not only have the right tools and implements
and animals to work with, but we must have the
right breed of animals, the right lands of fruit, the
right kinds of vegetables, and the right kinds of
grain ; and, to be successful in our operations, we
must have all these in the right place at the right
time, and make the best possible use of them.
What amount of wealth, what increase of the means
of doing good and of human happiness, what abun-
dant harvests, what supjilies of the necessaries and
luxuries of life, what protection to life and property,
and Vr'hat security against the accidents and ca-
lamities of life, might be effectually secured by al-
ways having the right things in the right place at
the right time, and by directing them to the ac-
complishment of their proper objects !

Warwick, 1862. John Goldsbury.

For tha Sew England Farmer,
PliOWTNO- ORCHABDS.

Much was written a few years ago, in favor of
keeping land on which orchards were set contin-
ually under the plow. If your orchard did not
bear well, plow it. If it showed signs of prema-
ture decay, plow it. Thorough cultivation was the
panacea, and scarcely a dissenting voice was heard.
Many people, taking it for granted that those who
wrote knew what they said to be practically true,
followed the directions given in the papers. Or-
chards were planted, and the land was higlily cul-
tivated. In a short time, complaints began to be
made that trees did not flourish well. Almost
every winter some died ; others were deprived of
a limb, or had a few frost-bites on their bodies.
At length, thought was awakened, and the query
arose whether so much plowing was not a cause
of decay. This led to observation, which resulted
in the conviction of many minds that too much
cultivation was a prime cause of the early decay
of so many fruit trees.

To aid in proving that this conclusion was not
groundless, 1 Avill mention a few cases that came
under my notice. In the spring of 18i33, I pur-
chased a village lot on which were a few fine ap-
ple trees, some of them six or eight inches in di-
ameter. The ground had not been very well cul-
tivated for a few years, yet the trees were healthy
and productive. Wishing to make them grow ra-
pidly, and produce more abundantly, I spaded the
ground under them thoroughly and very carefully.
They bore well that year. The next spring I
again tried spade culture, but I noticed that the
earth under tlie trees, was literally bound together
by fine rootlets, and that a great number of them
were broken at every shovelful that I turned up.
I began to reflect on the utility of these fibrous
roots. I thought them analogous to the minute
veins, absorbents, and capillaries of the human
system, every «ne of which conveyed a certain
portion of nutriment to the body, or to some or-

gan of it ; hence I concluded that the process of
constant cultivation must be injurious.

My fears were realized. In 1855 two of the
best trees died. A great many trees died that year
in various parts of the country, and the cause was
attributed to the weather. I have no doubt that
a severe winter hastened the decay, but in this re-
gion, the best cultivated orchards were most se-
verely injured. I can mention many instances in
further proof of my position, if necessary, but de-
fer it for the present. Suffice it to say, that obser-
vation and experience have confirmed me in the
belief that orchards should not he continually cul-
tivated. The roots of trees naturally run near the
surface, but plowing either cuts them off, or sends
them down into the subsoil, which, in most cases,
yields no nourishment to plants, and is generally
too hard to be penetrated by the tender roots of
an apple tree. Hence the tree, being deprived
of the requisite amount of light and heat, and of
the proper nourishment to supply its wants, lan-
guishes and dies. I believe this to be a rational
view of the case, and I doubt not that a vast
amount of experience will be found coincident
with mine.

That orchards need occasional plowing, and
that the soil should be kept in good condition by
the frequent application of manure, I do not doubt ;
but I would not recommend plowing very near tlie
trees. A space nearly as large as that covered by
the branches, should be left. Thorough annual
top-dressing will keep the soil sufficiently loose*.
K the soil around the body of the trees should be-
come too stiff, it may be carefully removed, and
its place supplied by coarse stable manure, or tho
scrapings of the chip-yard.

Let this process be adopted, and I believe our
orchards would be more hardy, more thrifty, and
consequently, more productive. L. Varney.

Bloomjield, G. W., 3 Mo., 1862.

Vegetable Garden. — In the open air, peas
and potatoes are about the first crops to be attend-
ed to. Of the former, the varieties have now be-
come so numerous that even "new grapes" will
soon have to give way in that respect. The ear-
liest are the Prince Albert, and the "Extra Ear-
lies."

Of early Potatoes, we think Fox's Seedling i«
the earliest, though in some localities the prefer-
ence is given to the Early Walnut. Beets, the
Early Six AVeek Turnip rooted, is perhaps the ear-
liest. Carrot, the Early Horn ; Cucumber, the
Early White Spine, or Early Cluster ; Lettuce,
the Silesian, or Early Curled — to cut before head-
ing ; and the Early Butter left to head, are the
first in season. Amongst the Radishes, the Old
Short Top, and Red and White Turnip are still
ahead ; and in Spinach, the old Round-leaved- —
Gardener's Monthly.

Pruning a Clijibing Rose. — In pruning a
climbing rose, all the very strong and vigorous
shoots of last year should be preserved, and all
weak and decayed ones, as well as old shoots ex-
hausted by abundant flowering, should be cut away.
It should also be an object to get good strong
shoots as low down towards the root as possible,
as the finest flowers, coming from the strongest
shoots, are thereby equally diffused over the plant*

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

217

Far the New England Farmer.

PKOPEB, TIME TO PKUNE FRUIT
TREES.

Mu. Editok: — I have derived much pleasure
and benefit from reading the different views of
writers in the N. E. Farmer pertaining to the
same branch of agriculture. For a feAV years past,
much has been -written and said by yourself and
others, in i-egard to the best season to prune fruit
trees, and from what I could gather from others,
and experiments of my own, I had become pretty
well convinced that the best time to prune was
the latter part of June, or the first of July. But
in reading the discussions of the Legislative Agri-
cultural Society, in the Farmer, recently, I confess
that I felt somewhat nonplussed to find such
thorough practical men as Marshall P. Wilder and
A. G. Sheldon pronounce March the best time for
pruning. I should have been gratified if they had
more fully given their reasons for their conclu-
sions. Mr. Sheldon said he had sawed a limb
from his tree each month, and found March the
best time. Now, Mr. Editor, I have tried the
same experiments, and have come to a different
conclusion. I have found where a limb was sawed
off in March, before it would begin to heal over
the wound, the stump would get seared so that it
would not commence to grow over immediately at
the end of the stump, but often one-fourth or one-
half inch down from the end ; but where I have
sawed them from the same tree in the same year,
and as near as possible the same size limbs, I have
found the stump or wound, where the Umb was
sawed off in June, to heal over, often in one, and
sometimes in two or three years sooner than those
cut off in March.

I think there are some arguments in favor of
winter or early spring pruning. We generally
have more leisure, can get at thfi, work easier, are
less liable to damage other crops, and perhaps a
saving of the sap which would go to nourish the
tree, lost in the limb if left until June. I have
found it to work well, on some occasions, to cut
off limbs in winter, or early spring, leaving a stump
three or four inches long, and in the following
June, saw the stump off smooth and close to the
body or main branch, always coating over the
wound with shellac dissolved in alcohol, which
can be kept in a bottle and always ready for use,
and will keep any length of time if corked up tight.
A good way is to put a small brush into the cork
so that it will be inside the bottle, and immersed
iu the liquid when corked, which will keep it from
getting dry and hard, as it soon would, if exposed
to the air.

Perhaps Mr. Wilder or Mr. Sheldon will ex-
plain more fully their reasons for coming to their
conclusions, through the columns of the Farmer,
and thereby gratify myself, and I doubt not many
others who have much confidence in their sound,
practical judgment. I know that you entertain a
different opinion upon the subject from theirs.

Ashbuniham, March, 18G2. w.

Remarks. — Sound doctrine, every word of it,
and doctrine, too, for which a sound physiological
reason can be given. We supposed the gentle-
men referred to intended that the pruning done
in March should take place early in the month,

before the sap begins to flow freely. But it is a
dangerous time, as a few warm, sunny days at
that season, will set the sap into great activity, and
if the sap vessels are cut off at that time, the sap
xoill ritn out just as certainly as that water will
run down hill. Nature, herself, indicates the prop-
er time to prune, and it is not her fault, but ours,
if we do not study her operations, and learn when
to do it. The rule is a simple one ; prune when
there is the least sap in the sap vessels or sap
wood ; that occurs about midsummer, when the
thin watery sap has visited the most remote twigs
and leaves, has become elaborated into a substance
entirely unlike that which so recently passed up,
and is going down directly under the outer bark
of the branches and stem of the tree, and plainly
increasing their diameter. This is the favorable
time to prune, because there is comparatively lit-
tle sap left in the sap vessels to run out, if they
are cut off. This period occurs not only in mid-
summer, but in the autumn, after the leaves have
fallen, and will continue imtil a few warm and ge-
nial days intervene, when the sap sensibly feels
their invigorating power, and especially if the
ground, at the time, is not frozen. There is anoth-
er reason why March pruning is dangerous.
When a Hmb is cut off, the mouths of the pores
are left open, and will not dry and contract as
they will in warmer weather, so that if warm days
ensue, and the sap is set in motion, there is noth-
ing to prevent its running out. Winter pruning
is more safe, because there is more time for the
wounds to dry and contract.

For the New England Farmer.
AMERICAN GUAWO.

Mr. Smith — Sir : — I read with interest yotir
article in the Farmer, on the use of American gu-
ano for renovating pasture lands. Will you have
the goodness to inform me, through the Farmer
or otherwise, how much should be used to the acre,
and any other facts that may be of use, as I have
some pasture that I want to improve.

How will it operate on moist land ?

Would it be beneficial to mix plaster ■n-ith the
guano r

Sturhridge, March 14, 1862.

H. Haynes, Jr.

Mr. Editor : — In answer to my friend in Stur-
hridge, and others who have addressed me, ask-
ing to be further informed through the Farmer or
otherwise, in regard to the use of American gu-
ano, permit me to say that the quantity per acre
depends on circumstances, such as whether the
land is to be plowed or not — and how often it will
be convenient to plow it. If I had pasture land
which I wished to renovate, and could plow it, I
should, after properly preparing it for grain and
grass seed, or grass seed alone ; apply from three
to five hundred pounds — thi'ee hundred pounds is
as small an amount as would be advisable. Oa
most lands I should apply at the same time about

218

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

the same quantity of plaster, either mixed with the
guano, or sown at the same time. If the land did
not admit of plowing, I should apply as large a
quantity with plaster, as a top dressing, and which
ought to be applied as early in the season as the
state of the land will permit. I have never ap-
plied the American guano to wet land. My im-
pression is that it will not pay to spend manure of
any kind on wet or moist land, until under-drain-
ing has relieved it of its surplus water. So long
as the soil or subsoil is kept cold by undue moist-
ure from above or beneath, no amount of manure
will coax a generous vegetation from its bosom.

No fear need be entertained of injuring seed of
any kind by coming in contact with the American
guano. Some persons have supposed it almost
valueless because it gives off no pungent odor, but
it must be remembered that this guano contains
very little ammonia, which alone gives the peculiar
pungency to Peruvian guano. In purchasing, be
careful to get the "American Company's Guano."

T. A. Smith.

We^thoro\ March 20th, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

PROTECT THE BIRDS.

The following thoughts, written as a school
composition by a young lady under my instruc-
tion, breathe so much kindness for the feathered
tribes, and are expressed so familiarly, that I
thought them worthy of publication ; and knowing
that the Editor of the Farmer is an able advocate
of the rights of "our mutual pets," I will entrust
it to his care. L. v.

Birds. — I have for a long time wished to com-
municate with my young friends, and bespeak their
aid in protection of our mutual pets, the birds,
that are inviting our attention and kindness by
their sweet songs, and lively, coquettish ways.
They flock around our dwellings, and, if properly
invited and noticed, accept our hospitality, and re-
pay us a thousand fold for all we bestoAv upon
them. When we take the trouble to provide a
few houses for them, how readily are they taken
possession of, and how fiercely are they guarded,
should any intruder dare attempt to rob them of
their home, showing how dear the possession is.
This also shows us that nothing is required, but
shelter and protection, to enable us to have flocks
around us suiRciently tame to be our household
friends and companions. But especial care should
be taken to guard them against the thousand dan-
gers that beset them in the shape of rude boys,
and cats, their mortal enemies. Worse than use-
less will have been all our trouble, if these deadly
foes are sufl'ered to molest them. Let us all pro-
tect the birds. s. E. c.

Bloomfield, C. W., 1862.

RvRLY Annual Flowers. — Of annuals that
may be sown early there are some that are so very
beautiful, and which do so well generally, that they
at least should be grown. These are a few of
them : Caccali coccinea. Coreopsis Drummondii,
Erysimum Perofi'skianum, Escholtzia Californica,
Malope grandiflora, jSIarvcl of Peru, Nemophila
insignis, Phlox Drummondii, Mignionctte, Whit-
lavia grandiflora, Clarkia pulchella, Gaillardia picta,

Palafoxia texana, Linum grandiflorum rubrum,
Lobelia gracilis, White and purple candy-tuft, and
Phacelia congesta. Where a hotbed can be com-
manded, many of the tender kinds can be forward-
ed under glass. — Gardener's Monthly.

For the New England Farmer,
DECLINE OP THE HEN FEVER.

It has, in fact, disappeared entirely from my
neighborhood, and hens are voted a nuisance.
The old gilt weathercock that surmounts our vil-
lage spire, is the only rooster in sight, and he owes
his continued existence to the exalted position he
has occupied for more than a half-century, as indi-
cating for everybody which way the wind blows,
and warning all not to deny their Master as Peter
did. Yet this is a farming community, where
every barn-yard used to be vocal with crowing
chanticleers, and cackling biddies, emerging from
some hidden nook where they had just deposited
a fresh treasure, innocently supposing it safe.

Only here and there will you now detect the
once familiar notes, and keeping poultry here-
abouts has come to be the exception, rather than
the general rule, because, say my neighbors, it
don't pay ; and Avorst of all, tends to scratch out
the rules of a good neighborhood. But in face of
these objections, I, for one, have persisted in main-
taining a hennery, without being conscious as yet
of any such foivl result as has constrained others
to dispense with it entirely. Every farmer, to be
sure, has his pets, and chickens have been mine ;
never, however, caring to be classed with "poultry
fanciers" that used to kindle so with enthusiasm
at sight of a shanghai rooster. To the mere mat-
ter of economy, therefore, my attention has not
been so closely directed as it might have been oth-
erwise— only I ami satisfied it has not been a Zo5-
ing business. Week after week, when eggs could
hardly be obtained by my neighbors for love or
money, my own larder has been supplied with the
genuine article warm from the nest, in midwinter,
and all through a season when folks usually imag-
ine laying hens to have suspended operations till
spring. In fact, the wonder is that so many of
them survive the cold snaps at all, Avhen you see
them skulking, chilled, away to roost, hopping
from pillar to post, and gleaning a scanty subsist-
ence in spite of wind and weather.

Nothing, after all, will so disarm the prejudice
against keeping hens, as to have them keying at a
time when, considering the high price, they may
be almost said to lay "golden eggs." And all
that is needed to secure this result, is some sort
of a hen-house where the sun conies in through a
good sized south window, and the cold is kept
out by what simple weather-boarding will answer
the purpose. Then, as the Farmer has often re-
minded its readers before, hens thus confined must
be supplied by their keeper Avith such variety of
material as when at large they provide themselves
with, to form the egg. Of course, every intelli-
gent reader understands what — a chunk of meat
that any butcher will give away, thrown in among
the biddies where they can pick it at their leisure,
and if frozen, lasting all the longer. Then pound-
ed bones and shells, or simply a box of air-slaked
lime at hand, to guard against the contingency of
an egg without a shell, or a mere abortion, for

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER

219

want of the proper supplies, that often results in
the death of the victim in the very act of laying.

In a word, let hens be cared for as an acquain-
tance with their habits and necessities will readily
indicate, and my humble testimony is cheerfully
added to the mass of evidence already furnished
by others, that have entered more largely into the
business, to prove that hens will pay their way in
fresh eggs, even through the winter. As for the
best breed, my experience has been in favor of
crossing the common variety with the Dorking,
Chittagong, or Bolton Grey ; at any rate, some
cross, rather than the native breed alone. Now,
neighbors, please give the hens a new trial, and
better chance than of old, w. E. B.

Long Meadow, 1862.

HOW TO KAISE ASPABAQUS,

"A Subscriber" would like to know what sea-
son of the year is best for setting out asparagus
beds, and the best method of doing it.

Ascntneyville, Vt., March, 1862.

Remarks. — We reply with pleasure, because
we believe that not one-half of our readers enjoy
the luxury of eating asparagus plentifully, and
receiving its healthful influences as an article of
food.

There is no mystery whatever in raising it. In
order to do it thoroughly, so that it will produce
fine crops for fifty years, select a piece of loamy
land, such as would bring a good crop of corn. It
should be drained land, or at least such as will
not retain standing water either on the surface or
in the subsoil. A piece thirty-five feet square
will produce asparagus enough for a common
sized family — say six or seven persons.

Commence on one side and throw out the earth
two feet in width, and to the depth of eighteen
inches, — or twenty-four inches will be better, —
and then throw into the ti'ench as much coarse
barn manure as you can aff'ord. Then go back
on the bed and throw two feet more upon the
manure deposited in the first trench ; but in the
meantime mingle some older manure freely with
the soil as it is thrown over. In this way con-
tinue until the bed is finished. This will give a
depth of two feet of pulverized soil, mingled with
manure, with a bed of manure for its base ; one
upon which a plant of any reasonable habits ought
to flourish exceedingly. Before planting, there
ought to be twenty-five bushels of old, rich com-
post spread on the surface and raked in.

KIND OF PLANTS, AND SETTING THEM.

The plantation may be made in the spring as
soon as the soil becomes friable and pleasant to
work. Do not attempt to raise the plants from
the seed. Let those do that who make it a busi-
ness— the farmer cannot wait for so long a pro-
cess. Do not procure plants less than two years
old, and if they ai-e three, a crop will be realized

so much the sooner. They should be fresh, and
such as have made a good, healthy growth. Such
plants may be plentifully found in Boston market,
in April and May, at a cost of from two to four
cents per root, or cluster, — for the stools have a
crown, which throws out a large number of long,
slender roots.

The ground being thus prepared and laid level,
strain your line along the bed six inches from the
edge ; then, with a spade, cut out a small trench
or drill close to the line, about six inches deep,
making that side next the line nearly upright, and
when one trench is opened, plant that before you
open another, placing the plants upright, eight or
ten inches distance in the row, and let every row
be eighteen inches apart.

The plants must not be placed flat in the bot-
tom of the trench, but nearly upright against the
back of it, and so that the crown of the plants
may also stand upright, and two or three inches
below the surface of the ground, spreading their
roots somewhat regularly against the back of the
trench, and at the same time drawing a little earth
up against them with the hand as you place them,
just to fix the plants in their due position until
the row is planted ; when one row is thus placed,
with a rake or hoe draw the earth into the trench
over the plants, and then proceed to open another
drill or trench, as before directed ; and fill and
cover it in the same manner, and so on till the
whole is planted ; then let the surface of the beds
be raked smooth and clear from stones.

Some gardeners, with a view to have extra
large heads, place their plants sixteen inches apart
in the rows, instead of twelve, and by planting
them in the quincunx manner, that is, by com-
mencing the second row eight inches from the end
of the first ; the third opposite the first ; and the
fourth even with the second, the plants will form
rhomboidal squares, instead of rectangular ones,
and every plant will thus have room to expand its
roots and leaves luxuriantly.

WINTER DRESSING OF ASPARAGUS BEDS.

About the beginning of November, if the stalks
of the asparagus turn yellow, which is a sign of
their having finished their growth for the season,
cut them down close to the earth, carry them off"
the ground, and clear the beds from weeds.

Asparagus beds must have an annual dressing
of good manure ; let it be laid equally over the
beds, two or three inches thick, after which dig
in the dung quite down to the crowns of the plants,
by which means the roots will be greatly benefit-
ed ; as the winter rains will wash the manure
down amongst them. The beds will be greatly
benefited if covered to the depth of several inches
with leaves, seaweed, or long litter from the liv-
ery stables.

220

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

The seedling asparagus should also have a slight
dressing, that is, to clear the bed from weeds, and
then to spread an inch or two in depth of light
dung over it, to defend the crown of the plants
from frost.

SPRING DRESSING OF THE BEDS.

This work should be done from about the latter
end of March to the middle of April, just before
the buds begin to rise. After clearing away all
the long litter, or whatever may incumber the
ground, spread the short dung over the whole sur-
face, and dig it in ; if the alleys be dug at the
same time, it will be very beneficial to the plants.
Care must be taken at this season not to wound
the crowns with the tines of the fork, but forking
the bed should not be neglected ; as the admit-
ting of sun and rain into the ground induces the
plants to throw up buds of superior size ; to pro-
mote such a desirable object, the ground should
be kept clear of weeds at all seasons, as these
greatly impoverish, and frequently smother the
plants.

Asparagus plants will not produce buds large
enough to cut for general use, in less than three
years from the time of planting, but in the fourth
year, when the shoots are three or four inches
high, they will bear extensive cutting, which should
however be discontinued when no large buds are
thro-wTi up. The best way of cutting, is to slip
the knife down perpendicularly close to each shoot,
and cut it off slantingly, about three or four inch-
es within the ground, taking care not to wound
any young buds coming from the same root, for
there are always several shoots advancing in dif-
ferent stages of growth.

The above directions are intended for family
gardens.

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.

SUPERPHOSPHATE — FLAX.

Will you please inform me whether Coe's Su-
perphosphate of Lime can be economically used
as a top dressing for old pastures and worn-
out mowings ? Is it lasting in its effects, or does
it act only as a stimulant ? How much superphos-
phate is equal to one cord of rotten bam-yard
manure for this purpose ? How much is equal to
one hundred pounds of poudrette ?

Can you, or any of your subscribers, answer the
following questions in relation to flax, viz.:

How much of the fibre is a fair crop, per acre ?
What is the chemical process by which the flux is
rotted, and what the cost, per hundred pounds of
fibre, of rotting by said process ? Where, and at
what prices, can the most approved machinery for
dressing be obtained ? What is the cost per hun-
dred pounds, of dressing by such machinery ?
And where, and at what price, could the fibre
probably be sold.

Much has been written within the last few years
of the profits of flax -raising, and the policy of pro-
ducing it as a substitute for cotton. There is no

doubt that much of the soil of Vermont is well
adapted to flax-raising, and many would doubtless
raise it if they knew how to dispose of it so as to
make it profitable. By answering the above ques-
tions you would enable farmers to act understand-
ingly in the matters to which they relate, and
oblige at least one subscriber. Adin Bugbee.
Snow's Store, Vt., March, 1862.

Remarks. — ^We are now experimenting on old
pastures, with Coe's superphosphate ; have had no
results yet. Nothing will restore "worn-out mow-
ing" but re-seeding, because there are few roots
there to be restored, of the kinds of grass wanted.
The superphosphate must be quite permanent in
its effects. We have not the means of answering
your other questions so as to give reliable infor-
mation.

lime for spring wheat — WHEN TO PRTTNE

ELMS — SALTING CRANBERRY PLANTS —

DITCHING CLAY LANDS.

I wish to learn through the Farmer the best
method of applying lime for spring wheat on a
piece of gravelly loam, where there was corn last
year. There are about forty young apple trees on
the piece. Would it be beneficial to the trees ?

When is the best time to prune elm trees ? I
have one of over a century's growth ; the top is
beginning to die, and it is my wish to save it for
shade, if possible. Could not the top be cut off,
say a part of the branches each year, and have it
sprout out again ?

Which is the best way to set out cranbeiTy
plants ? I have a small meadow I wish to set out
this spring, and I want to know the best way to
do it and secure a good crop in three or four yeai-s.
There have been several ways tried about here ;
some have failed, and the others have not done as
well as Avas expected, leaving us in the dark ?

How is the Avay to manage a piece of clay land
where the banks of ditches Avill not stand the
frost. Young Farmer.

Franklin, March, 1862.

Remarks. — Sow the lime at the time of sow-
ing the wheat, say from five to ten or fifteen bush-
els per acre. It will probably be as useful to the
apple trees as to the wheat.

Prune the elm when there is the least sap in
motion — in midsummer, or soon after it has shed
all its leaves next fall. The tree may be renovat-
ed by the process you speak of, if you protect
the wounds from the weather.

See an article on Planting Cranberries in an-
other column by Mr. Addison Flint.

Drain your clay lands with tile.

TO DESTROY WARTS ON A COW'S TEATS.

In answer to your East Bridgewater "Subsciib-
er" I would say that I have a young cow whose
teats last spring were covered with warts. I took
the Avater that baking beans, (common pea beans)
had been soaked or boiled in, and washed the
teats twice a day, for a week or so, using a shal-
low three-pint pan, so that I could wet all the
teats at once, leaving the water to dry on thera.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

221

The warts all disappeared in two or three weeks,
and the teats are now perfectly smooth and free
from warts. G. w. n.

Watertown, March 24, 1862.

WARTS ON cows' TEATS.

I wish to inquire of you, or any one who can in-
form rae, tlvrough the Farmer how to remove
warts on a cow's teats and bags. I have a young
heifer twenty-two months old wliich gives milk.
Her bag and teats are covered with small seed
warts, such as are usually found on the teats of

cows. A SUBSCRIBEll.

East Bridgewater, March 10, 1862.

Remarks. — Some persons tie a horse hair
around the M'art when it is well-defined, tighten-
ing it occasionally, when it will eventually drop
off. "T.," in the March number of the Farmer
for 1860, says "equal parts of lamp oil and mo-
lasses will cure the worst of warts on man or
beast." _

SAWDUST FOR BEDDING.

I have frequently seen mention in your paper
of the use of sawdust for bedding for horses. I
have used it for the last ten years for horses and
cows, and would not be without it, if I could ob-
tain it by going four miles for it. My cows go
from the barn in spring as clean as tiiey come
from the pasture in fall. I think if our milkmen
would try it, they would find a very great conve-
nience in the milking operation, and, besides,
their customers would not complain so much of
the milk having a baini taste. T. Cross.

LEAKS HER MILK.

I have a valuable cow, who for two summers
past, has leaked her milk — the milk dropping from
her most of the time, and instead of giving eight
or ten quarts, as formerly, would only yield two or
three. I have tried milking at noon without any
benefit. She is about to come in again, and I am
anxious to know of a remedy. Can you or any of
your readers aid me ? C

Ahington, March 20, 1862.

MAKINE MANimES.
A portion of the report of the Secretary of the
Maine Board of Agriculture for 1861 is devoted to
an elucidation of the value of rockweed and fish
as fertilizing agents. The matter was personally
investigated by the Secretary, who traversed the
whole length of the seaboard for the purpose.
Rockweed and musclebed have long been used to
a limited extent and with satisfactory results, but
they are too bulky and heavy for long transporta-
tion into the interior, although they prove of more
value the further inland they are carried. A more
important fertilizer is found in the migratory sort
of fish which swarm on the coast, such as menha-
den, commonly called pogies or hard heads, and
herrings, which can be taken in immense quanti-
ties. The business of catching them has of late
years assumed considerable importance in some of
the shore towns, es]iecially of Hancock county, in
the manufacture of fish oil from pogies, and many

vessel loads of oil are now annually exported and
sold to be used chiefly in the preparation of leath-
er. The fish are first boiled, and then pressed.
After pressure there remains a pumice or chum,
as it is called, which was formerly thrown away,
but has latterly been used in a rough way for ma-
nure, and mostly with good results, but not always,
as so active and powerful a substance should be
thoroughly composted or prepared and used with
care. The yield of hay on some farms in the shore
towns has, within a few years, been increased from
half a ton per acre to two tons, from the use ol
"pogy chum."

The "chum" is dried by exposure to the sun
and air, upon a platform, with a shed to protect
it from rains and fogs. It is then ground and
packed for transportation. One man at Eastport
made 150 tons of this "fish guano," as it is called,
last year, from herrings, which was sold to go to
Connecticut, where the manufacture and use of fish
guano has created a greater demand than can be
supplied by the amount made there. It readily
commands $30 per ton, which pays so well that he
is extending liis business.

Fcr the Neia England Farmer.
CRAUBERRY CULTURE.

The first requisite for success in cranberry rais-
ing is to select a piece of land which can be flowed
in the winter. The best land, in my opinion, is a
level swamp so thickly covered with trees or bush-
es as to exclude all grass and weeds ; ditch it so
that the water can be drawn off to the level of the
swamp, build a dam and cover the swamp with
water. After it has frozen, in the fall of the
year, cut the trees and bushes even with the ice.
Then by raising the water a few inches the stumps
will be covered and at the end of the next sum-
mer you Avill have a swamp "without any green
thing" growing upon it. Clear oft" or burn the
bushes, and the ground is in readiness for the
vines.

There are many advantages in spring setting,
but at whatever time they are set, the vines
should never be placed more than eighteen inches
apart, and as much nearer as time and the abun-
dance of your vines will admit ; the closer the
vines are set, so much the sooner will there be a
crop of berries, and so much the less will be the
trouble of weeding.

I have never seen vines flourish as well with the
same amount of care, as in swamp land treated as
I have above described ; weeds of all sorts will
come in, but they can be pulled out as easily as
from a carrot bed.

I have seen cranberry yards prepared by plow-
ing and cultivating meadow lands until completely
subdued ; by taking off the sward ten or twelve
inches in depth, and by covering with sand from
three to five inches in depth ; but all of these
methods I believe to be inferior in their results to
the way which I recommend.

My method has the double advantage of procur-
ing a better and surer crop, and of doing it at a
far less expense.

The most successful experiment in cranberry
raising that I have ever seen, is in a small pond-
hole, which, without any natural outlet, retained
the water so late in the season that the only vege-

222

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

MAf

tation it sustained was a soft carpet of moss. This
being drained, and set with vines, has produced a
large crop of berries, very superior in size and
color ; the location being such that they could re-
main on the vines till late in the season without
danger from frost.

CRANBERRY VINE WORM.

Last June nearly an acre of my best cranberry
vines presented an unusual appearance. The
young shoots seemed to be blighted, and I soon
found webs forming over the vines, with here and
there a worm. Wherever they went the crop was
destroyed. ' Some few of the vines were out of
water during the winter.

Can these worms live where the vines are com-
pletely covered with water during the winter ?

What is the remedy for them ?

Is late flowing sufficient ? Addison Flint.

North Beading, Mass., March 14, 1862.

VISIT TO THE GREAT "VtrAIili OF CHIWA.
Mr. Fonblanque communicates to the London
Times a graphic description of a visit to the Great
Wall of China. The following are extracts :

Accompanied by Mr. Dick, an excellent Chinese
scholar, and attached as interpreter to the Com-
missariat, I left Tien-tsin on the ISth of March,
and after a three days' ride through as uninterest-
ing a country as can well be conceived, came in
sight of the fine solid wall which encloses the
straggling mass of ruin, dirt and decay, called
Pekin.

Chinese villages are, at best, dreary and squalid
looking, but on this route, where the dogs of war
have so recently been let loose, there is something
haiTOwing in the misery and desolation of the
scene. Has grinding oppression and long sufi"er-
ing deadened the heart of the Chinese peasant to
all sense of injury ? Or has he, after all, a Chris-
tian feeling of forgiveness toward his enemies, for
which no orthodox churchman would give the
Pagan credit ? I cannot explain it, but I own to
something like a sense of shame having come over
me as we two solitary, unarmed strangers passed
through crowds of men, wemen and children,
standing by the charred ruins of their homesteads
and among their shattered household gods, with-
out being met by a single angry look or gesture
— nay, more, always receiving a ready and friendly
reply to every question. Perhaps they felt grate-
ful that we had, at any rate, spared their lives,
which is more than they can expect from their
countrymen, the rebels, when they pay them a
visit.

Some of the villages along our road were mere
heaps of rubbish : others retained more or less
the semblance of human habitations. In the larg-
er ones, such as Ho-si-woo, which it may be re-
membered was for some time in occupation of our
troops, the late enemy's inscriptions on doors and
walls seem to be piously preserved as agreeable
relics, and such familiar garrison words as "Offi-
cers' Quarters," "Canteen," "Fane's Horse," "Com-
missariat," "General Hospital," &c., meet one at
every turn ; though one cannot but remark with
regret that the buildings which appear to have af-
forded shelter to the invaders are sadly devoid of
everything in the shape of wood-work, which was

probably used as occasion required for cooking
dinners and boiling water. A celebrated and im-
posing pawnbroker's shop, which was "looted"
here, has not yet recovered itself. But let it be
borne in mind that in pillage, as in wanton de-
struction, the Chinese themselves far excel the
British or even the French soldier ; the bonds ot
restraint once removed, and a Celestial mob have
no patriotic or religious scruples as to the property
of Mandarin, priest or peasant — ^as they fully ex-
emplified at the sacking of Yuen-ming-yuen and
the Llama temple, the proceeds of which are to
this day openly offered for sale at more or less ex-
orbitant prices in the shops of Tien-tsin.

A FRENCH BISHOP IN CHINESE ATTIRE.

At Ho-si-Avoo we met a French mdssionar)' bish-
op on his way to Europe, after having passed twen-
ty-five years in China. He was dressed in the
native costume, even to the pigtail, and appeared
to 1)6 treated with great reverence by the unbe-
lieving crowd who flocked in to see the "Manda-
rin priest." The self-devotion, the zeal, and as a
very general rule, the pure and simple lives led
by the French missionaries in China, (and their
number throughout the empire and the kingdom
of Siam exceeds 1500,) are not without their ef-
fect upon the people, although this is not dis-
played by wholesale and indiscriminate conversion
to nominal Christianity.

THE GREAT WALL.

Another day's journey brought us to Chataou
— a hamlet at the foot of the Great Wall. The
road for the last fifteen miles had been so bad that
we were obliged to leave our horses at Nankan,
hiring in their place Tartar ponies. Nothing less
sure-footed than these shaggy, hardy little beasts
could have carried us through those rugged moun-
tain paths, which we would have done on foot, but
that one mile's march over the shaip rock which
forms the pavement would have left us shoeless.

At daybreak on the following morning we
climbed the highest peak of the mountain range,
and there, standing on the top of the great wall,
reflected upon the stupendous folly of this won-
derful work of human industry, which is said to
have cost the country two hundred thousand lives
from sheer physical exhaustion. The wail, which
is built of stone and brick, is twenty feet high and
fifteen feet broad, surmounted by a double parapet,
loopholed on the north side. As far as the eye
can follow the mountain range it winds over the
ridges of the precipitous black rocks like a gigan-
tic serpent crawling along, and with its bi-eath
poisoning all around ; for turn where you will,
nothing meets the view but the desolate, dreary
tract of rock, unrelieved by a blade of grass or a
tuft of moss, and huge boulders strewing the base
of the mountain sides. It was the whim of a ty-
rant to build a wall where Nature had already
built a barrier far more effectual than anything
that human art could construct. However, there
it remains, after a lapse of nearly two thousand
years — a monument of the cruel folly of one man,
and the patient industry and sufferings of many
thousands.

Having made an abortive attempt at a sketch,
and tried in vain to discover one redeeming fea-
ture in this vast scene of desolation, I secured
my brick, and descending to the pass, remounted

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

223

to proceed homeward. Our guard could hardly
believe his senses — certainly he doubted ours.
When at Nankan mine host inquired what we
were going to the Great Wall for? Our honest
answer met with no credit. Were there not walls
everywhere ? Was not the wall of Pekin much
better worth looking at ? And then, as for shoot-
ing, Avhy come so far for game when it could be
bought in the market at our very doors ? His
impression evidently was that we had some sinis-
ter project in view ; but when we returned with
the brick, the good man simply burst out laughing,
and set us down for a couple of harmless maniacs.

For the New England Farmer.
WHEN SHALL WE SOW OUB WHEAT?

Mk. Editor : — This is a question of great im-
portance, if insects appear again by millions, as
they did last year. Wheat sown in the spring is
not a very certain crop, it is so liable to be injured
by the nudge. For two years past, in this vicini-
ty, when wheat has been sown before the middle
of April, it has not been injured much by insects,
and has yielded from fifteen to twenty bushels per
acre. That which has been sown in the month of
May, in some cases, has proved an entire failure,
and in others, not more than from six to eight
bushels per acre have been harvested. The wheat
that I sowed the 14th day of April, last spring,
yielded at the rate of fifteen bushels per acre.
That which I sowed the 25th day of May, yielded
only eight bushels per acre. It was a clay soil,
favorable to the growth of wheat, and probably
would have yielded twenty bushels per acre, if the
insects had not injured it. The aphis did some
damage, but not so much as the old fashioned
midge.

I never saw insects injure late sown wheat so
much as they did last year ; I speak with reference
to that which was sown the last of May. Some
of my neighbors had good luck last year, with
wheat sown as late as the 12th day of June.

K these facts that I have stated here, ought to
guide us any for the year to come, we must sow
our spring wheat before the middle of April, if
the soil is dry enough, or sow it from the 5th to
the 12th of June.

I think the new Black Sea wheat, imported by
Messrs. Nourse, Mason & Co., about three years
since, is the least liable to be injured by insects ;
indeed, it has proved itself so in this vicinity.

WHEN SHALL WE PLOW ?

This is a question that has been often discussed
in your invaluable paper ; but I find that there is
a great diff'erence in the opinions of farmers. We,
I mean the farmers of Addison county, most all
agi'ee upon this one thing ; that is, that clay land
ought to be plowed in the fall, so that the action of
the frosts thi'ough the winter will pulverize it and
fit it for cultivation in the spring, without harrowing
over clay nubs as large as washtubs. Fall plow-
ing, also, hastens the decomposition of vegetable
matter, and the team performs the labor easier,
than it does in the spring. Gravelly or loam
stubble land, if plowed in the fall, ought to be
plowed again in the spring, for there is no danger
of plowing such land too much ; the more the bet-
ter. The more we pulverize the soil, the more

the roots will spread in pursuit of nourishment,
and the gases will enter the soil more freely.

By the experiments of the chemists it has been
ascertained that at least nine-tenths in bulk of a
plant consists of the constituents of the atmos-
phere, which enter by the roots as well as the
leaves. Now if that is so, and we have no rea-
son to doubt it, the more we pulverize the soil,
the greater reward we shall get for our labor.

MiddUbury, VL, 1862. Oliveu P. Mead.

Remarks. — We are glad our correspondent has
called attention to the early sowing of wheat, as
no doubt rests upon our mind that many a crop
is lost by being sown too late. The rule should
be to get it in just as early as the soil is sufficient-
ly dry to be finely pulverized by our common im-
plements. Mr. Elijah Wood, of Concord, said
in an article published in the Monthly Farmer for
October last, "Do not be fearful of sowing the
seed too early on account of cold. Get it in as
soon as you can possibly work the ground."

For the Neto England Farmer.
HOW TO GET A LABGE CORN CHOP.

I propose to raise a field of corn, and to that
eff'ect have turned under eight acres of green sward
on interval land, upon which it is said one hun-
di*ed bushels of shelled corn has been raised per
acre in one season. I have hauled twenty cords of
muck, of good quality, into my cellar, which has
cemented walls, upon which falls the droppings
and leakage of seventy head of cattle. I propose
to mix the muck with the manure and spread nine-
ty-six cords broadcast, which makes twelve cords
on an acre, plow in with a harrow-plow, furrow
out and plant on the ridges.

Will I be apt to succeed in raising a large crop
of corn, oats and grass with such quantity and
quality of manure, if not, wherein shall I change
my plan ? A Subscriber.

East Berkshire, VL, March 5, 1862.

Remarks. — Under the treatment you propose
to give your land, with a favorable season, you can
scarcely fail of securing seventy-five bushels of
corn per acre, perhaps more. We see nothing to
suggest but to add some quickener to the hill that
will give the corn an early start, so that it shall
be out of the way of September frosts, if they
should come. A compost of hen manure or night-
soil, or a gill of American guano or Coe's super-
phosphate of lime, would be likely to accomplish
this, if added to each hill, and thoroughly mingled
with the soil, over a space of ten or twelve inches.

American Mech.\nics. — The improvements in
farming tools are exciting compliments toward
American ingenuity and enterprise throughout the
world. One of the best authorities in these mat-
ters— the London Mark Lane Express — declares
that "the Americans have driven our English plow-
makers out of the Australian, Indian and other
colonial markets, owing to their lighter aixd cheap-
er articles."

224

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

For the New England Farmer.

■w:ethebei.l's house hoe.

Mr. Brown : — In compliance with your re-
quest, I write you my experience and views in the
use of Mr. Lorin Wetherell's Hoeing Ma-
chine. I have used one of his machines the past
three years, with the greatest profit and satisfac-

is well to stir the ground with the horse hoe or
cultivator, as you would for hoeing with the hand
hoe, for the reason that the double plow does not
enter the hard soil readily. The rows for this ma-
chine should be about three and a half feet apart,
and I contend that a man can do better work with
this machine in a potato field than he can with a
hoe ; and a man and horse, under favorable con-
ditions, can hoe eight or ten
acres in a day; therefore the
machine will pay for itself in
two or three days' work, which
is more than any other ma-
chine that I know of will do.

The price of this machine is
twenty-five dollars. It seems
a high cost, but compared with
its utility, it is the cheapest
machine that I ever bought.

It is not easily got out of
order, as mine has been in use
three years, and loaned more
or less every year, (and the
fii-st year to all my neighbors,)
since which the most of them
have bought one, and there
has been no expense yet, in re-
pairs.

The other pattern is a single
mould-board plow and one gear
wheel. It hoes one half of a
row at a time ; and as I have
been informed by those who
have used both machines, that
the single machine needs no
pi'evious preparation of the
soil, as the plow is so con-
structed that it readily enters
ordinary soil, and does its own
digging and hoeing at the same
time. As it hoes but half a row
at a time, it is adapted to rows
of any width.

In the experience of those
that have used them both,
(which I have not,) the prefer-
ence is with the single ma-
chine, the cost of which is fif-
teen dollars.

Horace Ware.
Marhlehead, April, 1862.

Remarks. — In a conversa-
tion with Mr. Ware upon the
use of labor-saving implements
upon the farm, he spoke of the
horse hoe, of which he has
given an account above. We
had examined the implement
tion of any machine or implement that I ever ^^..^j.^! times, but had never seen it at Avork so
used on my tarm. 1 have used mowmg machines ^ i. • • c -^ -^ ht itr .

the last eight years, and intend to obtain and use : ^' ^o form an opinion of its merits. Mr._ Ware s

all implements that are profitable in the saving of
labor.

Mr Wetherell, of Worcester, is the inventor
and manufacturer of this machine of which he has
two patterns. The double machine, as repre-
sented in the cut above, has two sets of gear
wheels and a double mould-board plow, and does
the work on one half of two rows at a time. It

great experience and skill in his profession ena-
bles him to judge accurately of the value of any
implement used on the farm. Our impression is
that he had, last season, some ten acres in car-
rots, as many more in beets, cabbages and other
vegetables, and twelve or fifteen in early potatoes!
He not only superintends the labor necessary to

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

225

carry on these large operations, but takes a lead-
ing part in tlie labor himself, and is, therefore,
competent to judge of the value of the tools he
uses. While he enjoys the advantages to be found
in the use of this Tiorse hoe, he desires that his
brother farmers may also reap the same them-
selves.

NEW ENGLAND.

Home of the good, the brave, the wise,

Belli youth 3fiA beauty bright.
The sun, as on his course he hies,

Beholds no lovelier sight.
Italia's vales with perfume glow

From every flowery tree,
But ne'er those lovely valleys know

The breath of Liberty.

Bright beams the sun on Syria's plains,

Where ancient prophets trod.
And held, in Nature's forest fanes.

High converse with their God.
But holier are the hills that bind

Thy stormy ocean's shore.
For there the sacred human mind

Knows its own strength once more.

There, in the cottage and the hall,

As bursts the morning ray.
The hymn of praise ascends from all

To Him who gives the day.
There, as the evening sun declines,

They join in harmless glee ;
On all the beam of pleasure shines.

For all alike are free.

S. G. BcLFWCn.

PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.
In the March number of the Atlantic Monthly
the "Country Parson" has a charming little essay
on "The Sorrows of Childhood," in the course of
'which he makes these remarks :

An extremely wicked way of punisliing children
is by shutting them up in a dark place. Dark-
ness is naturally fearful to human beings, and the
stupid ghost stories of many nurses make it espe-
cially fearful to a child. It is a stupid and wicked
thing to send a child on an errand in a dark night.
I do not remember passing through a greater trial
in my youth than once walking three miles alone
(it was not going on an errand) in the dark, along
a road thickly shaded with trees. I was a little
fellow ; but I got over the distance in half an hour.
Pait of the way was along the wall of a chui-ch-
yard — one of those ghastly, weedy, neglected, ac-
cursed looking spots where stupidity has done
•what it can to add circumstances of disgust and
horror to the Christian's long sleep. Nobody ever
supposed that this walk was a trial to a boy of
twelve years old, so little are the thoughts of chil-
dren understood. And children are reticent — I
am telling now about that dismal walk for the very
first time. And in the illness of childhood chil-
dren sometimes get very close and real views of
death. I remember, when I was nine years old,
how every evening, when I lay down to sleep, I
used for about a year to picture myself lying dead,
till I felt as though the coffin were closing round
me. I used to read at that period, with a curious
feeling of fascination, Blair's poem, "The Grave."
But I never dreamed of telling anybody about

these thoughts. I believe that thoughtful children
keep most of their thoughts to themselves, and in
respect of the things of which they think most,
are as jirofoundly alone as the Ancient Mariner
in the Pacific. I have heard of a parent, an im-
portant member of a very strait sect of the Phar-
isees, whose child, when dying, begged to be
buried not in a certain foul old hideous church-
yard, but in a certain cheerful cemetery. Tliis re-
quest the poor little creature made with all the
energy of terror and despair. But the strait Phar-
isee refused the dying request, and pointed out
with polemical bitterness to the child that he must
be very wicked indeed to care at such a time where
he was to be buried, or what might be done with
his body after death. How I should enjoy the
spectacle of that unnatural, heartless, stupid wretch
tarred and feathered ! The dying child was car-
ing for a thing about which Shakespeare cared ;
and it was not in mere human weakness, but "by
faith," that "Joseph, when he was a-dying, gave
commandment concerning his bones."

FUEL.

It is a common mistake among farmers to burn
wood the same year it is cut. Two cords of dry
wood will give more heat than three cords in an
unseasoned state.

When the moisture in the burning wood is be-
ing evaporated, it has the power of taking up
heat ; its own bulk is increased one-five-hundredth
part for every degree of heat added, and it travels
up the chimney or stove-pipe with the heat. If
wood be cut two years before its use, it will be
found much more economical ; all the heat will he
radiated in the room, or at least a very much lar-
ger portion than when it is accompanied by mois-
ture.

When under steam boilers, green wood will not
make steam, at least in the boiler, for the heat is
used in converting the w|iter of the wood itself
into steam ; it passes through the flues into the
chimney, without heating the boiler.

This is true not only of the wood, but also in
degree of coal, especially bituminous coal, which,
when wet, radiates but little heat, the majority
passing up the chimney. Even anthracite coal
is capable of holding some water. It should al-
ways be carted on a dry day, and placed under
cover for winter's use. — Working Farmer.

Rhubakb Wine. — Messrs. George Skilton
& Son, of Charlestown, manufacture a wine from
rhubarb which we have tasted on two or three oc-
casions, and which we consider an excellent arti-
cle for those who need its tonic or other influen-
ces. We are informed that it is made and pre-
served without the aid of spirit of any kind. The
manufacturers have the certificates of several well-
known physicians, who state that they have used
this wine with very pleasant results in cases of
debility and sickness. It is limpid and clear,
light-colored, and has a fine, rich flavor.

Benefit your friends, that they may love you
still more dearly ; benefit your enemies, that they
may become your fiiends.

226

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

IiEGISIiATIVE AQBICULTURAIi SOCIETY.

[Reported for. the Faemer by D. W. Lothrop.]
The twelfth meeting of the series was held at
the State House, on Monday evening last, when
the subject for discussion was — Tlie Breed of
Horses best adapted to Massachusetts. Dr. LoR-
ING, of Salem, was invited to preside.

The chairman observed that we all understood
the value of horses, as they were not only a luxury
in civilized life, but a necessity in various depart-
ments of labor, particularly so to the farmer. In
regard to the best breeds or kinds, it was pretty
certain to him, negatively, that the large, or the
thorough breeds, were neither of them the proper
and economical kinds for general use in Massa-
chusetts. He had often expressed his objections
to large animals, such as cattle, sheep, &c., and he
would do the same in respect to horses. One is
astonished in looking at large Cleveland Drays,
weighing 1500 or 1600 pounds or more ; but for
ordinary purposes, the Suffolksand Black Hawks,
■weighing 1000 pounds or less, were superior to
thera. They were light and elastic, compact in
organization, and the kind which Youatt would
recommend. They are of the class we need, as
they never tire, and can do as much work as the
larger ones. So as to the Morgan horses ; they
are firm, compact, active, good roadsters, and are
not surpassed for farming purposes generally.
Their strength is proverbial. Dr. L. also spoke of
the less expense of feeding these smaller horses,
and said that in their construction, too, there
were no such horses as we have. For the present
war, the horses from Vermont, weighing from 900
to 1000 pounds, are the best, and in fact our finest
horses come from that State ; and we in New
England should congratulate ourselves that we
have such a race. These excellent horses are in-
digenous or native to our soil — not even the Mor-
gan breed has any thorough blood now. The
coarse horses of Maine are not so good as those
more compact ones from Vermont. For ordinary
purposes, he believed, we had a better race of
horses than we could import. In fact, some of
our Black Hawk mares, worth $1000 each here,
have doubled their price in England.

Of thorough breeds, their mechanism is not so
good and hardy as others. They are almost
useless in England ; they break down, are not fit
for roadsters, plowing, &c., and we violate the
rules of sound mechanism by their importation and
in-breeding. Dr. L. here alluded to the osteolog-
ical formation of a good trotting horse in regard
to the humerus and scapula, giving him the pow-
er to raise his fore legs with ease, grace and agili-
ty. The thorough-breeds, on the contrary, are a
shuffling, daisy-cutting race, and had been found
so in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, and some
other States. Proof to this eflfect was cited from

a medical man from one of the above-named
States. Herbert once advocated thorough breeds,
and he says they are poor on the road, and are not
designed as trotters. The speaker said they had
not the element or power of trotting well, but the
American horse is a trotting horse, and has the
proper mechanism for it, also for the farm. On
the track it had been said that Patchen was a
thorough-breed ; and some said Trustee was, for
whom it was claimed that he could trot twenty
miles in an hour. The old Messenger in Maine
was no trotter, hardly making five miles the hour.
Flora Temple, however, was unquestionably a
Yankee horse, with no thorough blood ; and Ethan
Allen, Black Hawk and Lady Suffolk, though all
great trotters, are equally good for the New Eng-
land farm. Dr. O. W. Holmes the speaker ob-
served, would as soon breed dice boxes as thor-
ough breeds. In a visit to Vermont to see its cat-
tle. Dr. L. said he found a horse at Avork in a ci-
der-mill. The owner wanted to sell him, and tak-
ing a ride together, he went twelve miles an hour
easily. He was a mixture of the Morgan and
Norman blood, between 700 or 800 in weight, and
the speaker bought him, and finds him good on
the road for ten miles an hour. Horses like this
we cannot find in the other States, or out of New
England. Here is the place for the farmer to pur-
chase, and he should not trouble himself about
importations, for Ave have a consolidated stock un-
surpassed, if not unequalled. •

Mr. Wetiierell said farmers had a deep inter-
est in this subject. On the whole, horse-breeding
does not pay. Stonehenge said breeding was like
a lottery — it being rare that you got a good ani-
mal. Of thorough breeds, if they are not good,
how many of the Black Hawks are poor trotters ?
The best trotters have no Morgan blood in thera.
As to the term indigenous, he did not understand
it. [Dr. Loring explained as to their domestic
identity.] But neither our horses or cattle are
indigenous ; they all came from abroad. He did
not like the discarding of thorough breeds. What
are the best looking and most dignified horses ?
Look at the Arabian. Some say the horse is from
Egypt, or Africa ; but he thought he Avas from
Asia. These horses had improved the English,
and they were thorough breeds. If the thorough
breed is no better than had been stated, then the
rules in regard to breeding cattle are set at naught.
The Arabian breeds only from his OAvn best stock,
and his horses are kept in a pure state. Mr. W.
advocated thorough breeds, and Avas surprised that
they should be so taken doAvn. Stonehenge says
that 300 thorough-bred stallions had been import-
ed here, and the Morgan and Black Hawk races
Avould have been Avorthless Avithout their blood.
The osteological mechanism is the same for trot-
ting as for racing. Flora Temple and Lady Suf-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

227

folk were no doubt of large thorough blood, and
the effect of Morgan on his stock is also proof of
this. He spoke of the natural gait of the horse,
which was a canter. When a horse is made to
trot he goes diagonally, two feet up at once, and
then changes. Flora Temple sometimes had no
foot on the ground. She earned $50,000. He
gave her pedigree. Good thorough blood was on
both sides. [Dr. Loring said Lancet beat her.]
Mr. W. replied that horses win that are made to.
Trustee was three-fourths thorough-blood, and
Bob Logic, a thorough-bred stallion, could also
trot his 20 miles an hour. Shaw's Balrownie, look
at him, how fine ! In fact, the thorough-bred
horse is to the farmer of the utmost importance.
Mr. Alexander, of Kentucky, is trying to raise
some for trotters, or for roadsters.

Education has much to do with the horse, as he
can be taught to trot, run or amble. Our Puritan
forefathers religiously opposed race horses, but
learned their own to trot. If the farmer would
improve his horses, let him take thorough breeds
— breeding from the best, as in cattle.

Dr. LoRiNG inquired of the last speaker, if he
didn't understand him to say that "no Morgan or
Black Hawk blood was found in a good trotter ?"
Mr. Wetherell admitted that the Morgan can
trot pretty well, even good. He said, when up
before, that the best trotters have no Morgan
blood in them.

Dr. LoRiNG wanted to show that we have a
roadster that had developed the best stock of
horses. He thought we had got ahead of thorough-
breeds. We have a farming and travelling horse
which is capable of transmitting his formation,
and this has been encouraged.

Mr. Wetherell responded, and observed that
he advocated the Morgan, and that these horses
were excellent because of their thorough blood.

Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, said
the great question is, "What are the best traits of
the horse ?" The thorough-breed in England is a
runner and nothing else. The term "thorough-
breed" is liable to mislead. It was one of conve-
nience. The so-called thorough-breed is much
mixed by the Spanish, the Persian, the Arabian
and the English stock. "Thorough-breed" is in-
definite— a clap-trap. Let us look at the mech-
anism of the English horse. He is not so good as
some others. The Morgan is different in confor-
mation from the race horse. If the Morgan is full
blood, let it be shown. Will the colts of Mr. Al-
exander become good trotters by breeding ? He
owned the Lexington, and no one would change a
farm horse for him. Mr. A. was a breeder of
horses for the turf; shall we breed from such, or in-
troduce the foreign ? Let us see if good trotters
can spring from Balrownie. In this matter we
should not forget fundamental principles.

Mr. Wetherell asked if there was any differ-
ence in the shoulders of Flora Temple and Lex-
ington.

Mr. Howard replied that the scapula is not
so long in Lexington.

Dr. LoRlNG here gave a description of the scap-
ula and humerus of the horse, showing the differ-
ence between those of the racer and the trotter.

Hon. Amasa Walker, of North Brookfield,
spoke of the effect of climate on men and ani-
mals. We have horses fitted to our country and
circumstances, yet some foreign stock may be well.
Four similar horses placed in different parts of
the world would all become different. We have,
however, in New England, the best horses known ;
they are Yankee, like the population. The Mor-
gan horse was a Yankee horse, and liis influence
on his progeny was marked. He is well adapted
to us and our wants.

Mr. N. Richardson, of Winchester, spoke at
some length upon the subject, and thought that if
foreign blood, or thorough blood, was useful, it
M'as to give greater endurance to our horses. He
alluded to many of our fast trotters, and thought
that colts should be fed well the first year, and
not forced much afterwards. We should be care-
ful, also, not to overdo our horses.

Mr. Stedmax, of Chicopee, thought that by in-
troducing thorough-breeds we should be much
disappointed, and concun-ed with the chaii-man.
The Morgan was the best for New England, and
he believed he had not much thorough blood in
him.

Mr. Walker again alluded to the power of the
Morgan horse of transmitting himself. He has a
mare which is said to be afac simile of the old
Morgan.

The subject for the next discussion was now
announced — How can our Agricultural Exhibi-
tions be made most benejicial to the interests oj
the Commonwealth 7

HOTV THE CHnSTESE MAKE DWARF
TREES.

We have all known from childhood how the
Chinese cramp their women's feet, and so manage
to make them "keepers at home ;" but how they
contrive to grow miniature pines and oaks in flow-
er pots for half a century, has always been much
of a secret. It is the product chiefly of skilful,
long-continued root pruning. They aim, first and
last, at the seat of vigorous gi'owth, endeavoring
to weaken it as far as may consist with the preser-
vation of life. They begin at the beginning.
Taking a young plant (say a seedling or cutting of
a cedar,) when only two or three inches high, they
cut off its tap-root as soon as it has other rootlets
enough to live upon, and re-plant it in a shallow
earthem pot or pan. The end of the tap-root is
generally made to rest on the bottom of the pan,
or on a flat stone within it. Alluvial clay is then

228

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

put into the pot, much of it in bits the size of
beans, and just enough in kind and quantity to
furnish a scanty nourishment in the plant. AVa-
ter enough is given to keep it in growth, but not
enough to excite a vigorous habit. So, likewise,
in the application of light and heat.

As the Chinese pride themselves also on the
shape of their miniature trees, they use strings,
wires and pegs, and various other mechanical con-
trivances, to promote symmetry of habit, or to
fashion their pets into odd fancy figures. Thus
by the use of very shallow pots, the growth of the
tap-root is out of the question ; by the use of poor
soil, and little of it, and little water, strong growth
is prevented. Then, too, the top and side roots
being within easy reach of the gardener, are
shortened by the pruning-knife, or seared with his
hot iron. So the little tree, finding itself headed
on every side, gives up the idea of strong growth,
asking only for life, and just growth enough to
live and look M'ell. Accordingly, each new set of
leaves becomes more and more stunted, the buds
and rootlets are diminished in proportion, and at
length a balance is established between every part
of the tree, making it a dwarf in all respects. In
some kinds of trees this end is reached in three
or four years ; in others, ten or fifteen years are
necessary. Such is fancy horticulture among the
Celestials. — Scottish Farmer.

For the New England Fanner,
QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF SEED.

Mr. Editor: — This is an important subject,
and deserves the attention and careful considera-
tion of every farmer. No one can be a successful
farmer who is careless or indifferent about the
quality or the quantity of the seed he uses. The
subject is twofold, implying good seed, and a suf-
ficient quantity. On this subject, there is a great
diversity of opinion and practice. Some appear to
be quite indifferent with regard to the quality of
their seed, whether it be good, plump, ripe seed
of the right kind, or directly the opposite, poor,
shrivelled, unripe seed of a worthless character.
They do not seem to care what the quality of their
seed is, provided it will vegetate, and it does not
cost them a high price. Others appear to be quite
indifferent with regard to the quantity of seed
they use, whether too much, or too little. In
some instances, they use more than is necessary ;
and, in others, they do not use seed enough.

With regard to the quality of seed, but little
need be said to put every one on his guard. It is
not always easy to tell good seed from bad ; but a
discrimination ought always to be made ; and bad
seed should be rejected, or what, after examina-
tion, is thought to be bad. By bad seed I mean
seed of doubtful appearance and character — seed
wanting in vitality and vegetative power — and
seed whose productions are of an inferior quality.
All such seed should be carefully rejected ; and
none but good, bright, plump, perfect seed should
be used. Good seed, the very best, is none too
good, and is always the most profitable, because
the most productive.

They who raise their own seed can easily tell
the difference between good and bad seed ; and if
they continue to use poor seed, or poor kinds of
seed, the fault and loss are their own. But they

who purchase their seed at the country seed stores,
have no certain means of telling whether the seed
be good or bad, or of the right kind, but are
obliged to rely on the honesty and fidelity of oth-
ers ; because the seed all comes done up in small
papers, less than a table spoonful in each, and is
sold at five cents a paper, which, at that price,
ought to be good seed, but frequently turns out to
be bad. In this case, the individual loss in money
is not much, but the loss in labor in preparing
and manuring the ground, and in sowing the seed,
and the loss in time in waiting for the seed to
vegetate, till it is too late to sow again, greatly in-
crease the amount of loss. These remarks apply
particularly to garden seeds, and, with certain lim-
itations, to all other kinds of seed. The best, the
earliest, the ripest should in every instance be se-
lected ; for it is a law in the vegetable, as well as
in the animal kingdom, that "like produces like,"
so that, if Ave wish to secure the continuation of
good crops, we must sow and plant good seed.

But other conditions are necessary to produce
good crops beside the use of good seed of the
right kind. There must be also a sufficient quan-
tity of seed, neither too much, nor too little ; and
it should be used at the proper time, and in a
proper manner. To tell exactly what this quanti-
ty is, in every instance, on different kinds of soil,
and at different seasons of the year, whether sowed
in the autumn or spring, early or late, is no easy
matter. It is sufficient to say, that a less quanti-
ty of seed is required to sow an acre, when sowed
early, than when sowed late, because the seed has
more time to vegetate, to take root, to spread
over the ground, and to put forth additional shoots.
It is believed, that we do not generally sow enough
seed of the cereal kinds, such as wheat, rye, oats
and barley. We do not sow as much as the Eng-
lish do, and they always have the larger crop. It
is very evident, that we do not sow grass seed
enough, nor a sufficient variety of seed. This is
especially the case on new land that has been re-
cently cleared and burned over. If we do not sow
enough seed on such land, the loss is very great ;
because the condition of the land is such that Ave
cannot plow and soav again, but are obliged to let
the land run to Avaste, on account of the stumps
and roots.

The case is somewhat different in planting corn
and potatoes, because we generally use too much
seed. When Ave plant a large, but late kind of
corn, Ave almost always use too much seed, and
plant too near together ; and the consequence is,
that, in our climate, the corn does not get ripe be-
fore it is overtaken by the frost. The smaller and
earlier kinds of corn may be planted nearer to-
gether, and with more kernels in a hill. In plant-
ing potatoes, Ave generally use too much seed,
Avhether Ave plant the great or the small, the cut,
or the uncut ; and, as a natural consequence, Ave
have a large crop of small vines and of small po-
tatoes. This is especially the case, Avhen Ave plant
small potatoes without cutting, putting two or
three in a hill. To obviate the necessity of tasing
too much seed, I usually select the fairest and best
potatoes, instead of the largest or smallest, and
plant as early as our climate Avill admit. I cut
the potatoes lengthAvise, so as to divide the seed
end, and put but one piece in a hill, a foot and a
half apart. I ahvays plant them with the cut side
up, and throAV on them a spoonful of gi-ouud plas-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

229

ter, to preserve the life and vigor of the potato.
The juice or nutriment of the potato is necessary
to the support of the young plant. This the plas-
ter absorbs and preserves as it exudes from the
cut potatoes. I afterwards throw upon each hill a
handful of ashes ; and, at the time of hoeing, I
throw upon the vines of each hill another spoon-
ful of plaster. And without using any manure, I
never fail to have good potatoes, and perfectly free
from the rot, when I plant early enough. AH the
earlier kinds of potatoes escape the rot entirely,
because the tops are all dead before the season of
the rot arrives. John Goldsbury.

Warwick, Feb., 1862.

For the New Ensland Fanner.
JEFFEESON AT MONTICELLO.
BY JUDGE FRENCH.

A book of 138 octavo pages, with the above ti-
tle, has just been published, under the authorship
of Rev. Mr. Pierson, President of Cumberland
College, Kentucky. His materials, which are said
to be entirely new, are derived mainly from Cap-
tain Bacon, who was Mr. Jefferson's "overseer"
for about twenty years of the latter part of his
life. Mr. Bacon's duty as "overseer" seems to
have been that of a sort of steward, or general
manager, to whom instructions were given as to
the conduct of all the affairs of the establishment.
We get from the volume an insight into Presi-
dent Jefferson's agricultural tastes and opinions,
which we find very interesting. He gave to his
farm affairs that minute and systematic attention
which is essential to any satisfactory results, and
which enabled him to accomplish so much in so
many and various departments of business and
science. "He always knew," says Mr. Bacon,
"everything, in every part of his gi'ounds and gar-
den. He knew the name of every tree, and just
where one was dead or missing." He wrote from
Washington, while he was President, particular
directions hoAV every servant should be employed,
and when he sent trees and shrubs, as he often
did, to be planted about his place, he wrote in-
structions where each one should be set.

In a letter of November, 1807, he directs where
to plant a great variety of trees. His heart was
evidently a', his home, and every part of the land-
scape Wiis pictured in his mind. He writes thus :
"Four purple beeches. In the clumps which are
in the south-west and north-west angles of the
house. There were four of those trees planted
last spring, two in each clump. They all died, but
the places will be known by the remains of the
trees, or by the sticks marked No. IV. in the
places. I wish those now sent, to be planted in
the same places." "Six Spitzenberg apple trees.
Plant them in the south-east orchard, in any place
■where apples have been planted and are dead."

The r)un:)lc beech, let us say, is one of the most

beautiful of trees, and why it is not more common,
seeing that 55 years ago it was known and appre-
ciated by Mr. Jefferson, is somewhat strange. We
have seen them in England, from one to two feet
in diameter, and much of the proportions of the
common beech. It has, in localities near Boston,
a somewhat peculiar habit of putting out its leaves
irregularly, some branches being in full leaf, while
others remain in the bud. If the tree is healthful,
as we presume it to be, it is worthy of a place in
all ornamental grounds.

MONTICELLO.

Capt. Bacon says, "Monticello is quite a high
mountain, in the shape of a sugar loaf. A winding
road led up to the mansion. On the very top of
the mountain, the forest trees were cut down, and
ten acres were cleared and levelled off."

The house stood on the very top. The grounds
about it were beautifully ornamented with flowers
and shrubberj', and laid out in walks. Back of
the house was a lawn of two or three acres. The
garden was on the hill-side, and full of all sorts of
fruits, including grapes and figs. There were
about 300 acres inclosed with the house, from
which Mr. Jefferson never allowed a tree to be cut
for use. Roads and walks were laid out winding
through it, where the family amused themselves at
pleasure. The whole estate comprised some ten
thousand acres of land, too rough and uneven to
be very profitable for cultivation, though finely
adapted to fruit.

Among other things, he had a flouring-mill four
stories high, and built of stone, with four run of
stones, to which water was carried in a canal three-
fourths of a mile. He had also a nail factory,
where he worked ten hands to good profit, at two
fires, supplying all the neighborhood with nails.
The flouring-mill was unprofitable, but a great ac-
commodation to the country around. He had also
a factory for making cotton cloth, in which were
three spinning machines, running in all sixty
spindles, where he manufactured much more cloth
than was used by his family.

Jefferson was enterprising in all directions.
When he wanted a new carriage, he set his men
to work, and built it on the place, from a model
that he planned himself. "The woodwork, black-
smithing and painting were all done by his own
workmen. He had the plating done in Richmond."
It is a pity the drawings are not preserved, for this
carriage must have been a curiosity, or would be
now, certainly. "When he travelled in this car-
riage," says Bacon, "he always had five horses,
four in the carriage, and the fifth for Burwell, (a
slave,) who always rode behind him. These five
horses were Dioraede, Brimmer, Tecumseh, Wel-
lington and Eagle." Mr. Bacon says tlje new
carriage and the fine blood-horses, with elegnnt

230

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

harnesses, made a splendid appearance. His horses
were not driven with reins, but a postillion rode
one of each pair, as the fashion now is in state car-
riages abroad,

LIVE STOCK.

Beside indulging, like most Virginia gentlemen,
in a taste for fine horses. President Jefferson gave
great attention to improvement in the breeds of
cattle, sheep and swine. Mr. Bacon says the first
full blood Merino sheep in all that country were
imported by Mr. Jefferson, for himself and Mr.
Madison, while the former was President. They
were sent by water to Fredericksburg, but where
they came from, we are not informed. Mr. Ba-
con's plan for getting up a flock would be worthy
the genius of a Connecticut Yankee. He put a
notice in a newspaper, that persons who wished to
improve their stock, might send two ewes, which
would be kept until their lambs were ready to
wean, and then the owner might come and take
one lamb, leaving the ewes and the other lamb.
In this way, he says, "We got the greatest lot of
sheep — more than we wanted — two or three hun-
dred, I think — and in a few years we had an im-
mense flock. People came long distances to buy
our full blood sheep. At first we sold them for
fifty dollars, but they soon fell to thirty and twen-
ty, and before I left Mr. Jefferson, Merino sheep
were so numerous, that they sold about as cheap
as common ones." Mr. Jefferson imported from
Barbary four broad tailed sheep ; but although
they made good mutton, they were not liked, and
ran out in a few years.

He and Mr. Madison imported also some swine,
called by the name of Calcutta hogs, which Mr.
Bacon describes as being black on the head and
rump, and white listed round the body. They
were very long bodied, with short legs ; would live
on grazing. He says, "They would not root much
more than an ox. With common pasturage, they
would weigh 200 at a year old, and fed with corn,
and well treated, they would weigh 300 or 400."
The object of Mr. Jefferson was to scatter his im-
proved breeds for the benefit of the country ; but
his "overseer" seems to have wisely judged, that
what is lightly won is lightly prized, and he de-
vised a plan by which he increased his herds of
swine as well as his flocks of sheep. "I told the
people," he says, "to bring three sows, and when
they came for them, they might take two and leave
one. In this way, we soon got a large number of
hogs, and the stock was scattered over that whole
country."

Jefferson never imported any cattle during the
twenty years included in this account, but "could
always procm-e remarkably fine cattle from West-
ern Virginia." In one of his letters from Wash-
ington, he speaks of divers valuables in the way

of plants, &c., sent by his servant Davy, and adds,
"He brings a couple of Guinea pigs, which I wish
you to take great care of, as I propose to get this
kind into the place of those we have now, as I
greatly prefer their size and form." The animal
now known as the Guinea pig is not of the swine
genus, and whether Mr. Jefferson referred to it,
or to something else, or was under a misappre-
hension as to what a Guinea pig is, is not quite
certain.

Jefferson was very particular in making his cid-
er. In one of his letters, he speaks of his apples.
"They are now mellow and beginning to rot. Let
them be made clean, one by one, and all the rot-
ten ones thrown away, or the rot cut out. Noth-
ing else can ensure good cider."

HIS SLAVES.

Mr. Bacon says, "No servants ever had a kind-
er master than Mr, Jefferson's. He did not like
slavery. I have heard him talk a great deal about
it. He thought it a bad system. I have heard
him prophesy that we should have just such trou-
ble with it, as we are having now." Capt. Bacon
is a stanch Union man, utterly opposed to the
whole secession movement, and seems to see, as
many of us farther North do, the true origin of
the rebellion. Some of the necessary fruits of
the system of slavery, appear in this narrative.
Gov. Thomas M. Randolph, who married one oi
Jefferson's daughters, was much embarrassed for
money, at times, and in order to raise what he re-
quired, "when he must have it, and could get it
in no other way, he would be obliged to sell some
of his negroes." On the 16th of May, 1819, he
sold to this same Mr. Bacon a little girl four years
old, described as "Edy, daughter of Fennel," for
$200, in order to meet a payment of $150, to the
United States Bank. Mr. Jefferson, while Presi-
dent, sent for Mr. Bacon to come to the White
House and take two of his servants, husband and
wife, who were quarrelsome, to Alexandria, and
sell them, but they begged and promised so hard,
that the President relented and kept them. He
gave several of his favorite slaves their freedom
by liis will, and would have freed them all, but
was so embarrassed by a loss of $20,000, as sure-
ty for a friend, and by the imposition of every-
body upon his hospitality, that he could not well
do it. On the whole, we find our favorable im-
pression of Jefferson, as a large-hearted, progres-
sive, considerate, unselfish, kindly natured man,
confirmed by this volume. It has nothing to do
with his opinions, political or religious, but gives
us an agreeable sketch of the philosopher and
statesman at home, most beloved and revered by
those who knew him best. There is no position
where a great man appears more truly noble, than
at the head of his family, on his own homestead.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

231

For the New England Farmer,

A CHAPTER ON KOSES.

BY E. "W, BUSWELL.

"Then, then, in strange eventful hour,
The Earth produced an infant flower,
Wliich sprang with blushine tinctures drest,
And wanton'd o'er its parent breast.
The Rods beheld this brilliant birtli.
And hailed the Rose — the boon of Earth."

This universal favorite has been a theme with
the poets of all ages, in all countries, and mytho-
logical writers have loved to dwell upon its charms.
It was dedicated by the Greeks to Aurora as an
emblem of youth, to Venus as an emblem of love
and beauty, to Cupid as an emblem of fugacity
and danger. By Cupid it was given to Harpocra-
tes, the god of silence, as a bribe, to prevent him
from betraying the amours of Venus ; and as an
emblem of silence, it was sculptured on the ceil-
ings of drinking and feasting rooms as a warning
to guests that what was said in moments of con-
viviality was not to be repeated. Hence the term
"s?<6 rosa."

One fable of its birth is, that Flora having found
the dead body of one of her favorite nymphs,
whose beauty was equalled only by her virtue, im-
plored the assistance of all the gods and goddess-
es to aid her in changing it into a flower which all
other flowers should acknowledge to be their
queen. Apollo lent the vivifying power of his
beams, Bacchus bathed it in nectar, Vertumnus
gave it perfume, Pomona fruit, and Flora herself a
diadem of flowers.

The Greek poets say that the rose was original-
ly white, and was changed to red by the blood of
Venus, who lacerated her feet by its thorns when
rushing to the aid of Adonis.

Its fragrance is said to be derived from a cup of
nectar thrown over it by Cupid ; and its thorns to
be the stings of bees with which the arc of his bow
was strung. Now, perhaps, some will be so scep-
tical as to disbelieve this agency of the gods in its
origin, yet none will deny that

"The hand that made it is Divine,"

The real history of the rose dates back to the
time of the earliest Avriters of antiquity. Herodo-
tus speaks of the double rose, Solomon, of the
rose of Sharon, and the plantations of roses at
Jericho. Theophrastus of the himdred-leaved
roses of Mount Pangaeus, and it appears that the
Isle of Rhoda (Isle of Roses,) received its name
from the culture of roses carried on there. The
Romans attained to a high degree of perfection in
its cultivation, and in their writings frequent allu-
sion is made to its virtues in such terms as to
show that they almost held it in sacred estimation.
From the time of the Romans, down to the time
when botany became a science, its history is but
little known, yet enough to show that through
those dark ages it was highly prized by all. Thence
to the present time, its history is well defined.

Its great desirableness has led to an almost end-
less increase of varieties by hybridization, and very
considerable works upon its cultivation are cur-
rent. It is chiefly cultivated as a floriferous shrub
wherever grown; yet in Europe, Asia and the
north of Africa it not only pleases the senses of
sight and smell, but it has become an article of
commerce in the various preparations from its
flowers, used in medicine and domestic economy.

These are the dried petals, rose-water, vinegar of
roses, spirit of roses, honey of roses, conserve of
roses, oil of roses, and attar, otto, butter or essence
of roses. A description of their mode of prepara-
tion Avould occupy too much space for this article.

Pre-eminently the queen of flowers, it is not ex-
celled by any of the many floral candidates for our
favor, and is found in greater or less variety in
every well-ordered garden, where, if the selection
has been carefully made and the plants properly
treated, they will give, even in open culture, a
"round of pleasure" from early in June to freezing
weather. To secure this end, books or descrip-
tive catalogues should be consulted for the varie-
ties, and as there seems to be a lack of general
knowledge on the mode of cultivation, a few prac-
tical hints, condensed from "book farming" and
"founded on facts," may be of some service to
those who have, summer after summer, almost
with tears in their eyes, witnessed the blasting of
their hopes and roses together.

First, then, come soil and situation. The rose
will grow in almost any common garden soil, but
to thrive well, it should have a soil naturally light
and free, and Avell enriched ; in an open and airy
situation, but little shaded, if at all, and not under
the drip of trees.

In planting, many persons think it only neces-
sary to dig a hole and bury the roots ; but to se-
cure a good growth, care should be had in prun-
ing root and top, to leave no mutilated part, and
place the roots in their proper positions, leaving no
cavity under them, but fill well with fine mould,
and press it down lightly.

Of Pruning. — As the rose blossoms on new
wood, it is desirable to have that of vigorous
growth. Hence it is necessary to cut out fireely
the Aveak shoots, and cut back well the stronger
ones, so as to induce the lower eyes to push. This
applies to dwarf or shrub roses, and not to stand-
ards or to climbers. Pillar or trellis roses usual-
ly require only the oldest wood cut away, and a
judicious heading in. The time for pruning is in
early spring, when the sap is beginning to move.
If it is desirable to retard the bloom of the per-
petual or remontant varieties, it may be done by
pinching off" the earlier blossom buds.

Insects. — Of the many insects injurious to the
rose, are the aphides, commonly called plant lice,
or green flies, frequently found in large numbers
on the tender shoots and sapping the veiy life of
the plant, and were it not for the aid of the lady-
bird, which is said to destroy them in large num-
bers, and of the small singing birds, the careless
gardener might find his bushes soon ruined.

"Reaumur has calculated that in five genera-
tions one aphis rosce may be the progenitor of
3,904,900,000 descendants, and in ordinary sea-
sons, ten generations are produced."

Another and more destructive insect is the rose
saw-fly, Selandria Rosce, whose yoimg is the
rose slug, a small "green monster," a third of an
inch in length with a dark stripe through the mid-
dle, found lying flat upon the upper surface of the
leaf, and eating away the substance, leaves only
the veins and lower surface to die and turn brown,
thus robbing the plant of its lungs, and giving it
the appearance of having been scorched. Their
ravages commence with the lower leaves soon af-
ter they are formed, and working upward with
rapid increase of numbers, they soon destroy the

232

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

vitality of the most vigorous plants. Another ugly
customer is the rose-bug, melolontha subspinosa,
a real "hard shell." With his long snout he is a
regular bore, pitching into the flower and in a very
short time destroying its beauty. Preferring as
he does the white flowers, he is often found in a
trap. The vqrious spireas, and especially the Si-
berian, and also the Valeriana phu are favorite re-
sorts of his, and if taken before he is off" his perch
in the morning (he rises with the sun) he may be
treated "hydropathically" with marked success, by
simply holding a dish of cold water under him and
make an "advance." He at once keels off", expect-
ing no doubt to land anywhere but in water, and
being chilled, cannot crawl out and fly away. A
few mornings' hunting will very sensibly diminish
their numbers. The remedy for the two first named
is also hydropathic, but differently administered,
and is also a remedy for nearly all the other and
minor troubles of the rose. It consists of a solution
of whale oil soap, at the rate of one pound to sev-
en gallons of water. This is found to be of suffi-
cient strength to destroy all insect life except hard
shells, and will not injure the foliage. The best
way is to dissolve it in boiling water, and then di-
lute to the proper strength, strain it to take out
foreign substances and insure thorough solution,
and apply with a garden syringe near or after sun-
set, being careful to thoroughly wet the foliage on
both upper and under sides. If applied with suf-
ficient force to knock the enemy off, so much the
better. The plants may be syringed with clear
water in the morning, but it is not very import-
ant. By commencing this process soon after the
opening of the leaf buds, and following it up at
intervals of four or five days, until the blossoms
unfold, a healthy foliage may be maintained, with-
out which no plant can thrive.

To protect from winter-killing, hill up late in
the autumn with old manure, and shade with ev-
ergreen boughs.

Let no one think these operations too trouble-
some, but remember that if flowers are worth hav-
ing, they are worth caring for, and also that if
"eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," so it may
be of flowers ; and as the fond mother feels the
strongest attachment to that child whose tender
years have caused her the most solicitude, so shall
those flowers that require at our hands the most
care and Avatchfulness reward us with a proportion-
ate meed of pleasure. I append a list of a few va-
rieties generally approved :

George the Fourth.

Augustic Mie.

Baronne Provost.

Giant ties Battells.

La Reine.

Leon des Combats.

rriuce Albert.

SouTcnir Levisson Gower.

Pius IX.

Jaquea LafiUe.
Count Beaumont,
llailam Plantier.
Madam Laffay.
Cristata.

FOR CLIMBEBS.
Prairie Queen.
Bourflault.
Baltimore Belle.

A Hundred Eggs from a Python. — In the
Zoological Gardens at London they have had a
large serpent of the Python species, from the West
Coast of Africa, for many years. This reptile is
nineteen feet long and twenty inches in circumfer-
ence. About three years ago another snake of the
same kind was introduced to its den, and they have
lived together ever since. On the morning of the
12th of January the men in charge of that depart-
■lent were much surprised to find that the larger

serpent had laid about a hundred eggs as large as
those of a goose. The skin of the eggs was tough
and leathery, their color, dirty yellow. When first
seen the eggs were in a heap, but the serpent laid
them all on a level, and then coiled her body over
them. During the week after she laid them, the
serpent came off" them twice for short periods*
She is covered with a blanket while thus upon her
eggs, and has not fed for the last twenty-one weeks.
This interesting fact establishes the fact that this
species of serpent hatches her young by incuba-
tion, and it is believed that she will bring some
snakes from the great nest of eggs she has laid.

SQUASHES AMONG POTATOES.

It has been generally supposed by farmers that
in order to raise good squashes, they must be
planted on ground specially prepared for them,
and then cultivated with great tenderness and
care. A piece of rich land is usually selected,
plowed and thoroughly pulverized and manured,
and the squash seeds planted in raised hills. In
this way they are cultivated in masses, and hold
out the most tempting invitation to all the bugs in
the neighborhood to come and feed upon them.
Under these circumstances the utmost vigilance Ss
necessary to preserve even one plant from de-
struction,— and those that remain with the breath
of life in them, are generally so disfigured and
poisoned as to require about half of the growing
season to recover from such blighting influences.

Attended with all this labor of the preparation
of the soil, and the subsequent care which the
squash yard requires, it is rarely the case that
squashes do not cost the farmer altogether too
much.

There is a cheaper and better way of raising
this delicious and wholesome article of food. It
may be common to others, but it came to our
knowledge through the necessity of finding some
more certain way of obtaining a crop than by tl»
"squash yard" process. Several experiments were
made, and among them one has resulted in giving
us the greatest abundance of excellent squashes,
almost without cost.

We plant our field potatoes in hills at a distance
of tliree by three and a half feet apait, and drees
these hills or holes, with strawy, unfermented ma-
nure. Into these hills we drop occasionally a
squash seed with the potato — but these are in-
tended for earli/ use — for the young Marrow at
Hubbard squash is as delicious as the true Sum-
mer squash. At the first hoeing, seeds are pushed
into the potato hills, pretty near the potato plants,
where the plants are slightly sheltered while
young and tender, and soon begin to stretch away
into the open spaces between the rows and hiUs,
and grow with great vigor and luxuriance. All
our hilling of the potato is done at the first hoe-
ing. The cultivator ia passed through the rows

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

233

afterwards, and all weeds kept down, but all this
occurs before the squash vines have extended
themselves so as to be in the way.

By this mode of cultivcting the squash, few
plants are injured by bugs, the crop is secured at
a most trifling cost, and it has invariably been a
good one. The vines should never be so close as
to run into each other — not nearer than two or
three rods. Those who try this plan will be quite
certain to abandon "squash yards," and to have at
harvest time as many high-flavored and excellent
squashes as they desire. A dozen or two of
squash seeds planted in an acre of corn, will be
likely to produce similar results — but they should
be six or eight rods apart.

EXTRACTS AKD BEFLIE3.

THE BAROMETER.

I wish to make some inquiry about barometers.
Are they to be depended on at all times, or do
they, like signs in dry weather, sometimes fail ?
dne of my neighbors has Timby's Barometer,
(manufactured by John M. Mirick & Co., Worces-
ter, Mass.,) and he speaks highly in praise of it.
He thinks it a great help to the farmer, and he in-
forms me he never knew it prove false ; often giv-
ing him notice of a storm some twenty-four hours
ahead.

Now, Mr. Editor, I want your opinion as to
whether the barometer is indeed useful to the far-
mer ? If so, I want one — if not, I do not wish to
throw away my money. Are there any rules laid
down to help one who is unacquainted with the
machine ? If so, please give them, and you will
greatlv oblige one, if not many Subscribers.

Cornwall, Vt, March, 1862.

Remarks. — On pages 16, 395 and 518 of the
monthly Farmer for 1861, may be found articles
on the use and value of the barometer ; and on
pages 159 and 470, of the volume for 1860, other
articles containing about all we know of the value
and working of the instrument. We have no
doubt it may be made valuable to the farmer who
will learn to understand it.

A fertilizer for beans.

Will you please inform me in your next your
opinion respecting the best fertilizer in the mar-
ket for white beans ? I have about 5 acres of up-
land connected with a pasture of some 70 acres.
It is my intention at some day to bring it into
mowing. Being away from my house, and not be-
ing able to put on barn-yard manure, I take this
liberty to ask your opinion as to what quantity to
put in the hill ?

The land is quite rich from the droppings of the
cattle, as they made a practice of sleeping upon it
nights, as it was the most sheltered.

Salem, April, 1862. B. Drinkwater.

Remarks. — We do not know what "the best fer-
tilizer in the market is for beans." We have used
American guano and Coe's superphosphate of lime,
«id had large crops, but the land had been dressed,

broadcast, with barn manure. We have never plant-
ed any considerable piece of land, without manur-
ing. The specific fertilizers are used as auxiliaries.
On the land you mention, however, should think
that, with light plowing and finely pulverizing the
surface, you may raise a good crop of beans with
the help of either of the fertilizers mentioned
above.

now TO destroy warts.

A subscriber wishes information with regard to
killing warts on cows' teats. I will give a receipt
which is efiectual as well as simple : take fresh
butter (unsalted) add an equal amount of sharp
vinegar ; simmer together and apply with a brush,
cloth or hand. It will kill them so effectually that
they will drop off in a few days ! Warts on cattle,
however large, may be removed by this process,
without injury.

I have tried the above, and seen it tried to my sat-
isfaction. One of my neighbors had a heifer which
had a wart on her neck which must have weighed
eight or ten pounds tried the above receipt, and in
about one week the wart dropped off without the
least injury to the heifer. Two or three applica-
tions is generally sufficient.

Stevens Lawrence, Jr.

St. Alhaiis Bay, Vt., March 24, 1862.

Remarks. — Excellent, because so simple, and
divested of all danger to the animal. Colts are
troubled with warts, and the same remedy would
probably be equally effective with them. The
same application may remove warts on the hands
of children or adults. Try it and see.

LEGHORN FOWLS.

In the Farmer of March 22, 1 notice an article
written by Mr. H. T. Gates, of New Worcester, in
regard to Leghorn fowls. Will Mr. Gates be
kind enough to give to the readers of the Farmer
more information on the subject.

1. In what paper did a man speak highly of a
large flock of fowls ?

2. Who was the author of the piece he saw in
the paper?

3. Who was the gentleman of Worcester city
that purchased the six fowls ?

Justice demands a reply to the above.
Millville, March, 1862. Subscriber.

THOROUGH-BRED HORSES.

There is a good deal said in many articles that I
read, written on the horse, about thorough-bred or
pure blood horses. Will you, or some of your
numerous readers, inform me how to breed a
thorough-bred horse, or a horse with pure blood ?

March, 1862. j. w.

Garden Fruits. — Strawberries do well on a
rich, dry, but deep soU. On banks that are not
too poor or dry, they seldom fail to do well, and
are often three weeks earlier than when on level
soil. The blackberry also will do on a dry, rich
bank. We mention this as there are often such
spots in small gardens which it is desirable to r&a-

234

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Mat

der useful. Strawberries seldom do well in low,
wet ground. Raspberries and gooseberries do bet-
ter there.

In planting raspberries, they should be cut down
nearly to the ground when planted. You lose the
crop, of course, but you get good strong canes for
next year. If you leave the canes long enough to
bear, it will probably be the only crop you will ever
get from them. Never expect anything to bear
the year after transplanting. It is generally at
the expense of the future health of the tree.

Grapes that have become weak from age may be
renewed by layering down a branch some feet just
under the surface, and then cut back, so that one
good eye only be left at the sm-face of the soil.

OUR MECHAiaCAL PRODUCTIVENESS.
The Avork of preparing the statistics of the last
national census for publication has so far pro-
gressed, as to afford valuable information to the
Committee on Ways and Means, and the Treas-
ury Department, in preparing a tax bill. The dif-
ferent branches of manufacturing industry have
expanded marvelously since the census of 1850.
In that census the cotton manufacturers were set
down at $65,500,687. The returns from New
England alone in 1860 amount to $79,000,000.
The woolen goods of the United States were esti-
mated at $39,848,557, but New England alone in
1860 returns the value of woolen goods at $32,-
,000,000. In boots and shoes the census of 1850
for the whole United States returned only $53,-
967,408 ; Massachusetts alone in 1860 estimates
her production in this branch of industry at $46,-
060,000. Philadelphia returns nearly $6,000,000.
The production of pig, bar, railroad and rolled
iron, which in 1850 was of the value of $30,823,-
374, in 1860 has reached $62,055,000, having
doubled in ten years. The malt liquors produced
in 1850 were valued at $5,728,508. In 1800 the
amount is 3,235,000 barrels, valued at $18,000,-
000, or more than three times greater. The spiritu-
ous liquors in 1850 were valued at $15,770,240;
in 1860 the production is 86,000,000 gallons,
vauled at $23,500,000. The value of the products
of industry of all branches in 1850 was computed
at $1,019,'106,616. In 1860 it will reach $1,900,-
000,000, or an increase of about eighty-seven
percent! The greatest increase since 1850 is in
agricultural implements, iron, malt liquors, ma-
chinery, clothing, cotton goods, refined sugar, gold
mining, &c.

HO^W MIST IS GEMERATED.
The production of mist is the subject of a note
by the veteran Dr. John Davy (brother of Humph-
rey) in the Edinburgh Pliilosophical Journal. The
cause usually assigned for mist is the access of
cold air and its admixture with warmer air, satu-
rated, or nearly saturated, with moisture (such as
that resting on the surface of large bodies of wa-
ter,) and strikingly exemplified in our autumnal
and winter fogs, when the water, owing to the heat
absorbed during summer, is of a higher tempera-
ture than the inflowing air. Dr. Davy, however,
refers to another cause, not so much noticed, viz.,
a mild moist air coming in contact with a cooler
air, equally humid, resting on cold surfaces, wheth-
er of land or water, about the end of winter or be-
ginning of spring. He describes mists which he

considers to have been thus formed in the lake
district of Cumberland. To a similar cause, also,
he refers the phenomenon termed sweating, which
is the precipitation of moisture on walls and
flagged floors excluded from the influence of fire.
He also attributes to a warm south wind succeed-
ing to a cold north wind, the deposition of a large
quantity of moisture in the gallery of a nobleman
in Devonshire, and quotes the saying in Homer,
.'The south wind wraps the mountain top in mist."

LOOK OUT FOR YOUR FRUIT TREES I
We have seen sad havoc among shrubbery and
fruit trees, this spring, by mice, and have heard of
it from various directions. These little creatures
have been cut off" from their usual resources in a
great degree by the ice Avliich has covered the
ground for several weeks past. This has com-
pletely shut them out from the low shi-ubs and
grass roots, and in order to preserve life they have
been compelled to go to the stems of our cultivat-
ed shubbery and fruit trees. In some cases, we
have heard of great damage done to apple trees,
where they are of eight or ten years' growth. K
such trees are gnawed mostly, or entirely, around
their stems, they will be lilcely to die, unless they
receive immediate attention — and the loss and dis-
appointment will be severe. But sldlful and pa-
tient hands may save many, by attending to tliem
at once.

The first thing to be done is, to visit each tree,
and, wherever it is mutilated, cover the wounded
part with a cloth or something else, so that it shall
not become dry. The bark should be kept fresh
and succulent until scions can be cut and placed
vertically between the lower and upper portions
of the wound ; then take scions from any vigorous
tree of the same family, and with a sharp knife
make a slanting cut of a half inch or more at each
end, but on the same side, raise the bark on the
edge of the wound a little, and place the sciofl in
so that it Avill pass under the bark at each end
about an eighth to a quarter of an inch. The
slanting cut will then rest on the alburnum or sap
wood that has been laid bare. The scions should
be set Avithin an inch of each other as far as the
wood is laid bare, and nearer still would be better.
A piece of bass matting, or if that is not at hand,
some soft twine or narrow strips of cloth should
be tied over the ends of the scions to prevent them
from moving, as a trifling misplacement would be
likely to prevent their taking. When this has
been done, the whole should be covered with a
plaster composed of equal parts of cow manure
and clay, thoroughly mixed, and tliis kept from
being washed off" by rains by a cloth or matting
tied over the whole.

This may seem a tedious process, but it will be
found to be much more rapidly done than one sup-
poses, until he engages in it. At any rate, if a

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

235

tree of eight or ten years' growth can be saved in
tliis way, it is well worth the trouble to do it. Mr.
John Gordon, of Brighton, informs us that he
has taken this course with some of his fine pear
trees that were injured by mice, aiid with entire
success. If they are gnawed quite low down, a
banking of earth about the stem after the plaster
is applied, may be sufficient.

LEGISLATIVE AGBICDLTURAL SOCIETY.

Repoeted for the Farmer by D. W. Lothrop.

The thirteenth meeting of the series was held
on Monday CN'ening last, at the State House, the
subject for discussion being — How can our Agri-
cultural Exhibitions be made most beneficial to
th-e industrial interests of the Commonwealth'}
Mr. Flint, Secretary of the State Agricultural
Board, was appointed to the chair.

He said the question in substance inquired, how
we can make our agricultural societies more use-
ful. He had observed that they are inclined to
fall into a common routine in conducting their
affairs ; though when new they were more active,
more interest was felt in them, and they did more
good. They were doing much good now, howev-
er, but not so much as they might. He thought
there should be one or two members of the County
Societies in each town, whose duty it should be to
report to the society any new facts or ideas that
might be worthy of its consideration, as affecting
its exhibitions. It would excite a wider and more
general interest. Heretofore, complaints had
been made that persons in the same town had
taken certain premiums from year to year, and it
was a matter worthy of attention and correction.
The publications of the transactions of the County
Societies, the chairman thought, should be more
general — not merely published in a ncAvspaper,
but carefully prepared in a pamphlet form, and
distributed among farmers, to an extent, who were
not members. Some of the societies had done
well in this respect — witness the Essex, the Wor-
cester North, and some others. !Mere display and
amusement for a day should not be their prime
object. The speaker would also throw out as a
suggestion that the County Societies should have a
fund for the purchase of agricultural implements,
to be distributed among its members for trial, as
many farmers have not much knowledge of them.
They should also own some grounds, he thought,
for experiments — the raising of seeds, for instance,
as great loss is sustained by those which are worth-
less. Yet he did not know that it could be satis-
factorily done. Another point, was their purchase
and keeping of stock. He alluded particularly to
the County of Dukes, Martha's Vineyard, of three
towns, whose society received $600 State bounty.
If some good Soutli Down bucks were purchased,

giving two or three to a town, the best ewes saved
and the grade males castrated, in five years the
value of sheep would be increased fifty per cent.
So of Ayrshire bulls. In five or ten years the whole
stock of the County Avould be remodelled. The
Island of Jersey has so bred from its own
stock, and kept it pure. The plan was feasible,
he thought, but he presented these ideas, not as
authoritative, but merely as suggestive.

Mr. Sheldon, of Wilmington, thought that
premiums should be given to the best cattle of
mixed herds, and not to those of particular breeds.
Unless all cattle were allowed to compete togeth-
er, he did not see how we could get at a true idea
of their worth. More good, he thought, could be
done so in five years than in twenty on the usual
plan of separation. If crossing is not worth a pre-
mium, then we should not cross. He also spoke
of premiums for plowing, and thought that the use
of four oxen should be encouraged, as they could
be trained to work well together.

Dr. LoRiNG, of Salem, thought the County So-
cieties were doing much good, as they occupy the
place of agricultural schools. The best knowledge
is from the farmers of real practice. They know
all about cattle, sheep, horses, fruit, crops, &c.,
and are the men who constitute our agricultural
societies — all of which are educational institutions.
They give a stimulus and ambition which reaches
the farmers' M'ives and daughters. Our exhibi-
tions are not mere holiday affairs, but a means of
imparting real knowledge. Those countries which
have done the most for agriculture have the most
important exhibitions. The school at Cirencester,
in England, was found too dear for the common
farmer, and it Avas the Royal Agricultural Society
which gave the stimulus, and was in fact more im-
portant than all the schools of the kingdom. So,
of the State Society of New York, and also of
ours, with its numerous branches. In our agri-
cultural reports the farmer finds the best literature
extant on the subjects treated. The writers do
not proceed upon theory, but give figures and
facts. He alluded to the broad, fundamental ba-
sis of agriculture in the progress of civilization,
and passed to consider the State Agricultural So-
ciety, which he defended from its aspersers, and
said that as it kept watch of the interests of the
farmer, it was an organization of which Massa-
chusetts should be proud, and he was glad it had
friends enough to keep its course clear.

Mr. Wetherell alluded to the exhibition of
a fine ram by Mr. Watson, of Pittsfield. He
placed him under a tree, and invited his neighbors
to come and see him. Afterward he exhibited
other stock. This Avas before the formation of
the old INIassachusctts Society, and was the germ
of agricultural exhibitions in this country. In re-
gard to theii- utility and to their reports, he

236

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

thought farmers should be more careful in speci-
fying facts rather than in dealing in general terms,
as to manuring, crops, and other matters of farm
operations. He made allusion to the State Board
of Agriculture, and spoke in its praise.

Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, said
the exhibitions of Great Britain were very difler-
ent from ours, as they were not intended as ob-
jects of amusement. And ours should be no less
so, and more for utility. He spoke of the origin
of the old Agricultural Society of Scotland. In
1760, a few gentlemen held meetings in clubs,
though under adverse circumstances, when each
member was requii-ed at the next meeting to pro-
duce a plan for its enlargement and encourage-
ment, and that influential association Avas the re-
sult.

Owing to the Legislature holding its session
late in the Representatives' Hall, and the necessity
of holding the agricultural meeting in a smaller
room, and being late in its organization, the dis-
cussion was necessarily cut short. Some remai'ks
were made in regard to holding another meeting,
but it was finally voted to present the subject of
Under draining for another meeting, in case the
Legislature should not adjourn, and there was no
announcement to the contrary-.

Correction. — Mr. Wetherell in stating ob-
jections to steaming feed, did not say that Mr.
Peters is "abandoning the practice," as some have
inferred from reading the report in the Farmer of
the 29th ult.

RELATIVE HEAT OF COAL AND COKE.

Independently of this competition, there are a
great many well-meaning people in this country,
who labor under the impression that inasmuch as
coke has ah-eady been partly burned, and deprived
of its gas, it follows that it cannot produce so in-
tense a heat as coal ; but that the reverse of this
is the fact has been proved by the best chemists.
Dr. Henry, of Edinburgh, informs us that he has
"learned that the heat produced by coke, when
compared to that produced by coal, is at least
three to two." Mr. Winsor, having made experi-
ments with the same view, found that it required
three bushels of coal to distil a given quantity of
water, and only two bushels of coke. Being rath-
er surprised than satisfied with this, he tried the
same substances by combustion, with a certain
measure of oxygen gas, but with a similar result.
This set the matter at rest in England, so far as
the relative heat was concerned ; but then it was
said that if coke made as hot a fire as coal, or hot-
ter, at least the former was not as wholesome as
the latter. This, too, the most learned chemists
and physicians pronounced a gross error. Ever
since, the demand for coke has been so great in
all the large cities of England, that the gas man-
afacturers cannot produce suflficient gas to supply
it. But in this country it is difl'erent. In spite of
•ur innumerable free schools and armies of teach-
ers, the old prejudice still prevails against coke ;

whereas, in point of fact, it is superior to coal in
every property that ougnt to recommend it for
family use, except the rapidity with which it
burns. In other words, coal lasts longer than
coke ; and this is the only sense in which the for-
mer can be said to be superior to the latter.

For the New England Farmer.
MILKXNG.

Milking is the most disagreeable work on the
farm ; at least so think a large majority of the
farmers in this vicinity. Before a person engages
work for the season, he is very particular to in-
quire how many cows are kept ? There is nothing,
to be sure, very hard about it, but it is a kind of
work that any one, however much he may be
pleased with it at fii'st, dislikes to do after a little
experience.

Your city clerks like very much to come here in
the country on vacation, and rusticate, and often
the first thing that attracts their attention, is the
cows, and they seem to think it must be very nice
fun to milk. Upon making the acquaintance of a
kicking cow, however, they soon change their tune,
and it is not strange if you hear them denouncing,
in the most emphatic terms, the whole farming
business.

Some of your city people, and I doubt not some
country people, too, would laugh at the idea of
calling milking cows a trade, and yet it comes to
very much the same thing, as every one must thor-
oughly learn the business before he can become a
proficient.

We often speak of a person as being a good
workman, and this might with just as much pro-
priety, be said of one milking cows. There is as
much difference between one person and another
in this business as in any other. I have seen boys
— yes, and men too — who had not a doubt that
they knew as much about their work as anybody,
bnt whom I would not employ under any circum-
stances, if I could possibly get along without. I
am speaking now more particularly of those who
might be appropriately termed the wasteful class.
It makes a great difference in a cow's "holding
out," whether she is "stripped" perfectly dry at
each milking, or a little is allowed to be left in the
bag. One of my neighbors told me that when he
milked his cows himself, they each gave nearly a
quart of milk a day more than they gave when he
trusted it to his hired man. Great care should be
taken to get every drop of milk ; strip as long as
any milk can be obtained.

Another important item is neatness. If people
who buy their milk, should sometimes see it before
it is strained, I fancy they would not quite as M'ell
relish their morning cup of coff"ee. At this time
of year, when cows are mostly kept in the barn,
they are very liable to get dirty, and the slovenly
milker will be pretty sure to get something in his
milk-pail which belongs in the barn-cellar. If a
little pains be taken, this can all be avoided. Al-
ways keep an old brush or broom in the barn to
brush the cows, and have a dish of water to wash
their teats, and there will not be much danger of
having dirty milk.

Kicking cows are very bad to manage. Not
unfrcqucntly the best cows for milk are very fond
of exercising their legs while a person is milldng,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

237

and in this way a great deal of milk is wasted by
the inexperienced milker. A person very natural-
ly springs back when a cow attempts to kick, which
is exactly what the cow wishes, for she can then
have full liberty of her legs ; and before you know
it, the cow's foot is in the pail. Instead of spring-
ing back, sit up as near the cow as possible, keep-
ing the pail — which should be between the knees
— as high as it will bear. In this position, there
is some danger of the cow's starting round sud-
denly, and tipping the milker over, unless the
head" be braced against the cow, so as to resist any
such movement. Some recommend tying a cow's
legs when she is fractious, putting a machine in
her nose, &c , but this should never be resorted to
except in extreme cases. Cross cows will gener-
ally become gentle by mild treatment. They will
be coaxed, but you cannot drive them much easier
than you can men.

Cows should always be milked as rapidly as
possible. A slow milker dries them up. This is
why a cow milked by a "green hand" gives such a
small mess of milk. P. Paige.

South Hampton, N. H., April 1, 1862.

For the NetD England Farmer.
THE ROADSIDES OP THE PAKM.

On passing a neighbor's the other day, I was for-
cibly reminded of the very descriptive words of the
wise man in reference to the field of the slothful,
and the vineyard of the man devoid of understand-
ing, and of their applicability to most of the road-
sides in every neighborhood. They are all grown
over with thorns, nettles have covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall thereof is broken
down. The wise man considered it well ; he
looked upon it, and received instruction. Can we
not do the same .''

How many neglect entirely the roadside adjoin-
ing their premises, and how many more not only
neglect the roadside, but their field side, and fen-
ces or walls. In numerous instances, I have seen
walls and fences so overgrown with brush, briars,
&c., that the owner, for years, probably had not
had access to them. On some farms, acres are thus
lost, so far as a profitable use is concerned, to
their owners. These bushes and briars, unless
vigorously combated, will encroach year by year
upon the field. The only sure remedy seems to
be to commence on the roadside, if the field is
thus bounded, and make thorough work of them
on both sides. I will ask you, whoever you may
be, who have such roadside fences, if it never oc-
curred to you, that every intelligent, observing
passer by of your premises would look upon
them with sorrow at their neglect, and regard you
with pity as being either devoid of understanding,
or wanting in good taste. Call to mind some
farms we know of in our several neighborhoods,
where we invariably see the fence corners piled
with brush and briars ; wall, if any, overrun with
the same, and often broken down. Old carts,
cart-wheels, plows and other farm implements,
piles of wood, boards, barrels, and sometimes
mulch of various kinds, (gathered in other places,)
all commingled in the road, within a stone's cast
from the front door of the house. Pigs, poultry,
and often other farm stock, also allowed the larg-
est liberty of the highway. Does such a state of

things indicate prosperity? "Would you not, if
going to purchase a farm, pass such an one by, as
being unworthy of your inspection ? The farm,
aside from its slovenly appearance, may be equally
as good and productive as its neater neighbor, cul-
tivated under the same cu'cumstances. But who
cares to assume the task of clearing up and put-
ting such a place in order, unless it can be pur-
chased very low ?

This brings the question to bear where I wished
in the outset, viz., that it is the interest of every
farmer to keep the roadsides of his farm neat and
clean.

Most men are moved by this motive, when all
others fail. If you don't care much how things
look about your premises, and the roads adjoining,
depend upon it, there are dollars and cents involv-
ed in the matter that must be heeded, or you suf-
fer loss. If you set to work in good earnest, to
clear up the roadside borders of your farm, you
will soon extend your operations to other parts,
and not rest satisfied until the whole is put in a
state of neatness. You will in all probability then
discover that a sphit of improvement has some-
how got hold of you, and that the farm not only
looks better, but pays better. This, however, is
not all the good you get. There is an undercur-
rent of feelings awakened that will gush up into
living springs of enjoyment. You will feel your
manhood as you never felt it before ; new strength
for the conflict of life, and greater self-respect ;
and be held in higher esteem by all who honor
you, which will give to your example greater in-
fluence, and not only bless the present, but com-
ing generations.

If such a state of things could be brought about,
we should hear less of high taxes and hard times.
Cheerful contentment would be found on every
hand. The wise man passing by, would be pleased
with the change, and instead of predicting poverty
and want to come as a strong man armed, would
regard you as being diligent to know the state of
your flocks, and looking well to your herds ; the
hay and the grass appearing for the sustenance of
the same ; the lambs for thy clothing, and the
products of thy fields and flocks for thy food, for
the food of thy household, and for the maintenance
of thy maidens. c. K.

Rochester, Mass., Dec, 1861.

For the New England Farmer.

CTTLTURB OP SWEET POTATOES.

Mr. Editor : — Why are we. New England farm-
ers, so far behind the times in the cultivation of the
sweet potato ? I know it is a prevalent opinion
with many that it is a difficult task, it being ap-
parently too far removed from its native climate.
This opinion, I admit, would hold good against
most of the many varieties grown at the South,
but I am confident, from experience, that there are
varieties that can be grown profitably throughout
the New England States. All we want is a varie-
ty that will be edible at a very early stage of
growth, cooking dry and good, when comparative-
ly immature. A variety called the Nansemond, I
think, possesses these merits, and has given good
paying crops 44° north. A very short time since;
it was thought impossible to cultivate the purple
egg plant Avith success, but we now find our cli-

238

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

mate and soil well suited for them, and where the
egg plant can be grown, there is no douht of suc-
cess with the sweet potato.

Our farmers lack only knowledge and experi-
ence to enable them to successfully cultivate this
A-aluable Southern crop. The method of growing
the sweet potato is rather peculiar to itself; in this
climate, the tubers must be sprouted in a hot-bed,
and when the sprouts or plants are sufficiently
grown, weather and soil suitable, they are separat-
ed from the potato, and planted in the field, as the
seasons are not long enough to admit of their be-
ing grown in the field directly from the potato.
Select a warm, southern exposure, of dry, mellow
soil, plow a shallow furrow, put old, well decom-
posed manure in, and throw up a ridge two feet
high over it, leaving the ridges three feet apart
from the centre of each ridge ; transplant the
sprouts on the top 12 to 15 inches apart.

I think if our farmers who have suitable lands
will but try, they will be amply paid by a profita-
ble crop. I have raised from a later variety than
the Nansemond from four to six quarts per hill
"of three plants," and from the Nansemond pota-
to I expect a much larger return.

Salem, April, 1862. John S. Ives.

AQBICUIiTTJKE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Through the polite attention of the Secretary of
the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, Ciiahles
L. Flint, Esq., we have before us the ninth an-
nual report of the Board, it being for the year
1861.

After saj'ing that "it is gratifying to be able to
state that the past year has been one of marked
prosperity for the agricultural interests of the
Commonwealth," and that "various subjects were
assigned to special committees for investigation
during the year, with the duty of presenting a re-
port upon each at the regular annual meeting," —
he introduces one from Dr. Bartlett, from the
Midddlesex North Society, on the Diseases of
Vegetation. Among these the writer speaks of a
disease which attacks the bean, and "commences
with small brown spots upon the pod, near the
back of the pod, and spreading thence toward its
front. These spots gradually work their way
through to the interior of the pod, the brown col-
or changing to black as it progresses. He says
all varieties of beans are liable to the attack of
this pest, but some are much more susceptible of
its influence than others, — the Sieva, Horticultural
and Case Knife being most commonly affected
among the pole beans. The remainder of the re-
port is principally occupied upon the recent fail-
ure of the fruit crop and suggestions upon the
modes of managing apple trees.

The next paper is that of Dr. LoniNG, upon
Cattle, Breeding and Feeding. This is a long,
interesting and valuable i-eport, illustrated by sev-
eral excellent portraits of neat stock of various
breeds. The writer sustains his positions by ex-

tracts from the works of the best authors upon
stock, and evinces a deep interest in the topics
which he handles so well. Upon the subject of
steaming food for cattle, he says he is "satisfied
from experience and from the testimony of some
f our best practical farmers, that steaming is wor-
thy of careful consideration."

Mr. R. S. Fay made a report on the Protection
of Sheep and Lambs, from which "it appears that
many of the towns have entirely neglected to en-
force the 'Dog Law,' while others have been so
remiss in their duty as to render it almost inoper-
ative." We hope the Board will institute mea-
sures that will compel the authorities in our towns
to carr}' out fully the just and wise provisions of
the law.

Mr. Gkennell, of the Franklin Society, pre-
sents a report on the Wastes of the Farm, in
which he dwells, emphatically, upon the loose, un-
certain and unsatisfactory manner in which farm-
ing is generally conducted.

Mr. Stockbridge, from the Hampshire Socie-
ty, reported upon the subject of Wheat Culture.
In speaking of the iacts which the Committee had
collected in the course of its investigations, he
says, "they abundantly warrant us in the opinion
that wheat can be successfully and profitably cul-
tivated in this State. A little more than a cen-
tury ago, it was one of the common, ordinary crops.
Sufficient was raised for home consumption, and
it was an article of export."

The next report is upon the Cattle Disease, by
Mr. H. IL Peters, from the Worcester Society.
It states that the disease again made its appear-
ance in the town of Quincy, last April, breaking
out in two herds nearly simultaneously. Some of
these animals were killed, and others were lost
sight of.

The Secretary states that constant effort has
been made during the past year to enlarge the col-
lection designed to illustrate the natural history
and material resources of the Commonwealth.
Mr. E. A. Samuels, who has made the subject a
special study, has an interesting report upon this
department.

In the department of Entomology, extensive
contributions have been made, in addition to the
collections made by Mr. Francis G. Sanborn.
This gentleman is an occasional contributor to our
columns, and is an enthusiast in the profession
which he has selected.

Some sixty pages are then occupied by reports
from the delegates who attended the exhibitions
of the several societies of the State. Then follow
extracts from agricultural addresses, essays and
reports of committees, wliich contain many prac-
tical suggestions and useful thoughts.

The volume closes with the Agricultural SfO'
tistics of Massachusetts, arranged by Towns and

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

239

Counties. Compiled from the United States Cen-
sus of 1860, and other official sources, under the
direction of the State Board of Agriculture. By
George Wingate Chase.

From this report it appears that the average
value of the forms in the State, including farm
implements, and machinery, and Live stock, is
$3,884,58. We intend to allude to these "Sta-
tistics" hereafter.

The volume is beautifully printed, and is a cred-
it to the Board of Agriculture and Secretary un-
der whose care it has been produced, and to the
State itself.

For tlie New England Fanner,
APPLE TREES— MICE.

Some valuable suggestions were given in your
last issue in relation to the treatment of trees eat-
en by mice. Hoping to elicit something further
from the same source, I make the following state-
ment and inquiries.

I have an orchard of between three and four
hundred apple trees, from twelve to fifteen years
growth. ^ly method has been to keep about one-
third of this orchard under cultivation at a time.
On the part laid down to grass, I have always
plowed strips by the trees, increasing them in
width as the trees increased in size. Until last
year I have planted those strips with beans ; ma-
nuring in the hill ; thus making it necessary to
stir the soil about the tree with a hoe. Under
this treatment the trees have made a steady growth,
and for the most part, maintained a healthy ap-
pearance. In 1860, this orchard produced one
hundred and fifty barrels of No. 1 Baldwins.

My practice does not accord with the theory of
Mr. Varney, as given in the last number of the
Farmer. I am still so much of an old fogy as to
believe in plowing orchards. It should be done,
however, by a judicious plowman, with great care
not to plow too deep any^'here ; especially should
it be very shoal about the trees. So far as my
observation extends, those are the best orchards,
and bear the fairest and best fruit, that are kept
under cultivation, provided they are plowed with
care. Last spring I plowed strips by the trees as
usual, but took no crop from them, leaving the
furrows just as the plow left them. I state this
that others may guard against a similar course.
These furrows furnished a most excellent retreat
for the mice ; and they availed themselves of it
to my great annoyance. So soon as I ascertained
the mischief they were doing, I went to work with
axes and shovels and removed the ice and snow
from nearly every tree in the orchard. I found
about seventy more or less eaten ; many of them
not enough to injure them much ; others badly,
and quite a number large enough to bear from one
to two barrels of apples to a tree, entirely girdled
to the wood.

When I had cleared away from the trees, I im-
mediately commenced plastering the wounds with
a thick coating of cow manure, put on with a trow-
el. I then carefully bound them up with woollen
cloths. The whole operation of excavating and
plastering occupied some days, during which time
several trees were seriously injured. Indeed, af-

ter we had finished them all completely, so keen
was the appetite of these little creatures, that in
many instances they gnawed off" the strings, and
through the woolen cloths and cow manure, mak-
ing a fresh wound larger than the palm of my
hand in a single night ; and it was not until I fed
them with young sprouts and small limbs sawed
from the tree and placed around the trunks, that
they stopped their depredations on the tree itself.
I have marked those trees that are entirely gir-
dled, and I wish to inquire whether the scions
should be put in immediately, or whether I should
wait until the bark starts readily from the wood ?
Can I save, in the way you suggest, such as are
eaten quite into the roots ? Is a banking of earth
or mud placed around the body of the tree in the
fall, the easiest, cheapest and best preventive for
the future ? J. F. French.

North Hampto7i, N. IL, April, 1862.

Remarks. — This is a timely and excellent letter.
Let us improve by it. Two acres of our orchard-
ing, where the principal mischief has been done
by mice, had been in grass two years, and was
broken up last fall. After the plowing had been
done, every inch of turf left by the plow was re-
versed, and nothing left on the surface but the
clear soil. But the turning over of the soil formed
the most complete harbor for mice, as it is impos-
sible to lay every furrow perfectly flat. We shall
break up no more grass land in the orchard in
autumn.

We think you have pursued precisely the right
course in covering the wounds, as if left uncov-
ered, the sap wood is likely to become dry and
crack, and the bark itself will lose some of its vi-
tality near the edges of the wound. When the
sap has moved so that the bark may be easily sep-
arated from the alburnum, then set the scions.

There is no good reason why you cannot save a
tree that is gnawed down to the roots, if the con-
nection is properly made.

A banking of earth or sand will, in ordinary
cases, prevent mice gnawing trees ; but we know
of no sure preventive when the earth is covered
with a coating of ice. Could not thousands of
these pests be destroyed by feeding to them wheat
steeped in strychnine? It might be sowed through
the orchard late in November, and occasionally
through the winter on the snow.

Hint to Housekeepers. — Every housekeep-
er who uses kerosene or well oil, knows that it af-
fords the best and cheapest light of all illumina-
ting oils ; but she also knows that the constant
expense and annoyance from the breakage of lamp
chimneys almost, if not quite, counterbalances the
advantages of its use. One who has thoroughly
tried the experiment of preventing chimneys from
cracking with the heat of the flame, says : — Put
the glass chimney in lukewarm water, heat to the
boiling point, and boil one hour, after wliich leave
it in the M'ater till it cools. The suggestion is
worth a trial. — Scientific American.

240

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

PEAS AMONG POTATOES.

Most persons are fond of green peas ; but a
great many, even among farmers, do not have half
as many as their families would use with advan-
tage to their health and good-nature. They are
often planted in the garden, on a rather light and
dry soil, and after one or two sparing messes have
been gathered, the unwelcome intelligence comes
to the family, that there are no more green peas !

In order to have a succession of this delicious
vegetable upon the table, different varieties must
be used, and planted at different times, and if the
soil is not a moist one, they should be planted
deep — say three or four inches — and after they are
fairly up an inch or two, mulched with some sub-
stance that will check evaporation from the soil
directly above them.

For later use there is a better mode than this,
viz., — Put a single pea into the potato hill at the
time of planting the latter, over a portion of the
field. A week later, go over another portion of
the field in the same way, and so on for three or
four weeks. In this manner the table may be
plentifully supplied with delicious peas as long as
they are desired, and at a cost too trifling for con-
sideration.

The potato plant is a protector to the young
pea, and when the latter has increased in stature,
it still lends its friendly aid by allowing the pea
vine to cling to it with its little tendi'ils, and thus
sustains it against storm and wind by its superior
\igor and strength.

It is much more pleasant to "pick peas" among
the potatoes than when they run up among brush.
The objection that it is too far to go to the potato
field is not an insuperable one. It is not so much
of a trial as it is to go without the peas, especially
to those who are really fond of them !

For the New England Farmer.

A NOVEL MODE OF PLANTING PO-
TATOES.

Dear Farmer : — In this remarkable time of
our country's trouble, when retrenchment is called
for in every possible way, and when much of our
laboring population is in the army, it behooves
farmers to come in for their share of retrenchment
and labor-saving, without reducing the quantity
of their products. With this in view I propose to
give you the method I adopted in planting pota-
toes last season, which resulted in complete suc-
cess.

The ground was a piece of unturned green
sward, with a soil of clayey loam. I commenced
on one side of the piece and turned a furrow in,
then dropped a row of potatoes on the grass close
to the edge of the furrow (that was turned over)
and turned another furrow against it, completely
covering the potatoes, which finished the row. I
then turned another furrow, the same as the first,
allowing the near horse to go in the last furrow,

dropped potatoes and covered as before, and pro-
ceeded in like manner until the piece was done.
I planted them in drills, with one piece in a place,
and about one foot apart.

When I dug them in the fall, I found the pota-
toes nestled very cosily among the turf, and they
turned out very smooth and nice, and produced a
bountiful crop. I think this method a great sav-
ing of labor, which in these times is a great item,
though the saving of labor was not my only object.
The uncommon wet weather of last spring pre-
vented my planting in any other way in the early
season. J. il. M.

Westford, Vt, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

HIGHWAYS AND THEIR BEPAIRS.

[While watching the operations of a new cast-
iron plow, with Mr. Mears, the conversation be-
tween us sometimes fell upon topics not immedi-
ately connected with the matter before us, and the
engravings and description now presented to the
reader are the result of one of those conversations.
Mr. Mears' name has long been before the public.
He has not only invented and made some of the
best plows the world ever saw, but he is a cheer-
ful, genial man, full of the spirit of progression,
and always earnestly seeking to do something to
promote the interest and happiness of his fellow-
men. He speaks, below, in his own quaint man-
ner, and presents in it to the reader a vivid pic-
ture of what he is doing with his "rough ashler,"
Those using this device may give the stone any
angle by shortening one of the chains by which
it is drawn.]

Friend Brown : — While engaged in the trial
of the new cast-iron plow, I said that I would re-
new the conversation on the subject of road and
other repairs, then under consideration. There-
fore, I will commence by stating that in the month
of November most of our country roads are, or
should be, in a good form, well drained, smooth
and fair travelhng condition, when the frost sets
in. They remain thus until the frost comes out,
and they are cut up by hoof and wheel, when too
soft to support the weight passing over and
through them — hence the rut, the ridge, the mud
and the standing water in the rut, softening the
road-bed and rendering it nearly impassable. As
travel cannot be kept ofi" the roads, it is well to
thoroughly underdrain with stone at the side, or
through the centre, by which the underwater will
be prevented from rising to the surface, and the
surface water can more readily evaporate and run
ofi", leaving the ruts and the ridges, &c., to harden
and dry off.

It is to this state of partial diyness that I would
call attention ; the material is all here that con-
stituted the good road of November, but it has
been put out of place ! What a change ! How
shall it be restored to its former position ? Some
fill the ruts with small stones which are constantly
working to the surface. Some, with hoes, level
the ridges into the ruts, to be cut out again by the
next heavy team. Others go over the road with

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

241

en inverted A-shaped scraper, shod with mill saw
plate, and drawn by four to six yoke of oxen with
men attendant — its operation partial and apochry-
phal. Still others have we seen, hauling on and
spreading a layer of gravel, two loads abreast, four
loads to the rod, at a cost of $5 per rod ; the ruts
remaining as troughs below to hold water to aid
the heavy teams in cutting them out again the
first wet spell.

It is easier to pull down than to build up. The
thing that is, is that which hath been ; and that
which shall be, is that that hath already been,
and though not new under the sun, I will attempt
to describe it.

In the month of April, being desirous of putting
the road in order, I applied to a stone-cutter, who
split out a rough ashler, 4 ft. G in. long, by 18 in.
wide and 9 in. deep — cost .$2, weight 900 lbs.
The smith then made two bands of tile ii-on, thus.

■with bolts to strap the stone — cost, $1.

So much for preparation — now for the modus
operandi, or way to use it. Well ! two yoke of
oxen on the timbers or forward wheels of a farm
wagon, a draft-chain extending from the transon
belt of the axle, back to another chain or bridle
hooked into the bolts on the stone, the right arm
shortest, to bring the stone at an angle of 45° with
the axle and line of ruts. Gee, Buck ! Gee,
Bright, up ! One man to drive, one to tend the
stone, one to throw out and remove loose stones,
and away we go over the gee ruts to the end of
our route ! Whoa, boys, whoa ! Well ! Let's
see. The ridges are broken down — the ruts filled
up and consolidated by the weight of the stone.

The cobble stones and loose earth are thrown to
the centre to fill up the single horse foot path
(which had been guttered out) and be removed !
Hush, Bright ! Haw, Broad, over ! And away
we go ! On the back track of the other ruts — in
like manner and efi'ect to the starting-point. Now
let us put the 'sider on — for we can look back —
not having "put our hands to the plow." The
face of the road looks as smooth and even as ever.
It is solid, too. The trough is filled up and the
stones are out of the way. Well, what is the cost ?
Three men at $1,50 per day^.*4,50 — two yoke of
oxen at 8l,50=$3,00, amounting to $7,00. Four
miles per day is 320 rodsX4=1280 rods ; $7,00

or 7000 mills-|-1280=5i mills, or i cent per rod.
"Time is money ! Gather up the fragments, that
nothing be lost ! Go thou and do likewise, and
let others follow your example, and oblige the old
Plowmaker John Mears.

South Abington, 1862.

P. S. Repeated trials with the stone render it
advisable to give more weight, which may best be
done by having it split out 12 inches instead of 9.
Also, to dispense with the bars and d*aw by ring
bolts inserted in the face sides, about 9 inches
from the ends, thus :

the wear of the bar is avoided, the draft is not so
heavy, and the movement of the stone is more di-
rect and steady. When about to be carried to a
distant place, roll it on to a log or cobble stone
and sling under the pole and axle. J. M.

SORREL.

This is one of the most troublesome pests,
wherever it has once become thoroughly rooted in
the soil, with which the husbandman can be an-
noyed. On clayey soil, however, it soon disap-
pears ; but on land of an opposite conformation
and texture, its eradication is attended with much
difficulty, and, indeed, can only be effected by the
most assiduous and persevering eff'orts. The pres-
ence of sorrel in a soil is regarded — but with how
much truth we do not know — as an indication of
acid, and hence the use of lime, or ashes, is said to be
of service in eff"ecting its extermination. By cutting
sorrel for several consecutive seasons, just before
the seed ripens, or a little earlier, say at the peri-
od of general flowering, amd applying annually a
liberal top-dressing of caustic lime, the growth of
the plant will be arrested, and perhaps overcome.
This, however, is deemed too expensive by most
farmers.

The seed of sorrel is of a nature to remain for
many years inhumed in the soil without germinat-
ing, unless the conditions essential to its develop-
ment exist about it. The pericarp, or outer in-
tegument, is so indurated that the nicest balance
of the stimulating powers of nature are requisite
to secure germination, and hence we find old pas-
ture lands, that have not been disturbed for gen-
erations, and upon which no sorrel has been seen
in the memory of man, will, upon being plowed
and exposed to atmospheric influences, become
filled with sorrel plants. The same characteristics
apply equally to mullein and a variety of other
seeds, but perhaps to none in a more remarkable

242

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

degree than to sorrel. Where it has taken com-
plete possession of the ground, by mowing it ear-
ly, before any of the seed has matured, and mak-
ing it in a grass-cock, with as little exposure as
possible to the sun, it furnishes a very good hay
for horses and sheep ; and in this way it should
be appropriated, whenever such a crop is unfortu-
nately produced.

For the New England Farmer.
THE FARMEB'S KITCHEMT GABDEN.

No part of the farm pays as well as the kitch-
en garden, if well taken care of. I do not mean
by this that every farmer can make money by rais-
ing vegetables for market, because that is impi-ac-
ticable, but it is a self-evident fact that the farmer
must procure the support of his family from his
farm, and a well conducted garden will produce
more towards this than any other part of the farm
of five times the extent.

The use of vegetables and fruit as a diet is said
by medical men to be conducive to health, and as
most people, and especially children, are fond of
garden fruits, it is policy for every farmer to pro-
vide a plentiful supply for home consumption. It
would seem that people having all the convenien-
ces that farmers have, as regards land and plenty
of leisure time to take care of a garden, would be
the ones that would consume the most of such
things ; but it is a fact that the people of cities
and villages use more vegetables than the same
number of land-owners. Take a look among the
farmers, and you find that one-half of them have
no garden at all, or at most, a little corner in the
grain field which is overrun with weeds, and as
soon as the grain is harvested the cattle are often
turned in to destroy what there is ! Others have
a place set apart for the purpose, but do not get
time to do anything in it until all the spring farm
work is done, thereby making it too late to secure
any of the kinds requiring early planting, and de-
stroying the possibility of getting early vegeta-
bles. This is a great loss, when we take into con-
sideration that such things are relished a great
deal more in the hot weather of June and July,
than later in the summer. What is more aggra-
vating than to know that your neighbor has green
peas, new potatoes, string beans, and the like, and
your own but just up, and all through your own
neglect by not planting in season !

Let me say a few words in behalf of the farm-
ers' wives and daughters, who, during the first tw'o
or three months of summer, have to i-ack their
brains to think of something to get for dinner,
which the men can eat, — for when they come in
from the field, weary with labor, their stomachs
are apt to revolt at salt pork and old potatoes !
But if there are early potatoes, peas, beans, and
other vegetables in the garden, they know just
what to get for dinner, and when the workmen
come in, they eat with a relish, and nothing does
the faithfid wife more good than to see her hus-
band eat the victuals she has cooked for him, as
if they tasted good.

The garden should be near the house, as house-
keepers do not always have time to go far ; and
if it is close by, a great many leisure moments
can be spent in weeding, &c., which could not be

done if it were far from the house. The best soil
for a garden is either a muck or sandy loam, but
as we can not always have the right kind suitably
convenient, we must make what we do have, as
nearly right as possible. If it be too moist, drain-
ing must be resorted to, and such land generally
makes good gardens. In fact, the best garden I
ever saw was a marsh, thoroughly drained, and
well manured to warm it up. The manure for the
garden should be well rotted, and if allowed to
remain in a vault or cellar through the summer,
all seeds would be killed, thus saving a vast amount
of work in weeding. Apply the manure in the
fall, and plow in immediately, plowing again in
the spring, which thoroughly incorporates it with
the soil. As soon as the weather will permit,
plant some early potatoes, peas, and all kinds of
early vegetables, which are not liable to be killed
by frost, putting in others along as the season wUl
permit, and when they come up, keep them well
hoed and free from weeds, and you will have the
satisfaction of having something good, as well as
your neighbor. At another time 1 will, if desira-
ble, give specific directions for raising various gar-
den vegetables. w. H.
Neio York, March, 1862.

EXTBACTS AND BEPLIES.

A EOOT CUTTER— CARROT WEEDER — MANGOLDS
AND CARROTS — HORSE WITH A COUGH — POOR
FARM, AND NO MONEY OR STOCK.

1. A friend of mine is very desirous of obtain-
ing a root cutter. If you know of any, please say
what kind, and whether they will cut large tur-
nips fit for sheep ; that is, cut them small enough ?

2. Do you know of any tool to cultivate and
weed carrots by horse power ?

3. Do you know upon any reliable data the rel-
ative value of an acre of carrots and the same of
mangold wurtzels, and their value for feeding
sheep and other stock ?

4. Do you know any remedy for a horse which
has a severe cough ?

5. What would you recommend a man to do
who has got a run-down farm, who has no money
and very little stock ? A few remarks on the sub-
ject may be of great value to a poor farmer. Per-
haps his Excellency, Gov. Holbrook, would give a
little advice on this subject.

John H. Constantine.
Campton Village, N. H., 1862.

Remarks. — Willard's Patent Root Cutter, fig-
ured and explained in the monthly Farmer for
January, 1859, is just the article you need. It
cuts the roots in strips about as long and as wide
as a man's forefingers, but not more than a quar-
ter of an inch thick. And this strip is broken
partly through, several times, so that sheep or
lambs have no difficulty in eating them. One
bushel of turnips a minute may be cut with one.
Price $10. Sold by Parker, Gannett & Osgood,
Blackstone Street, Boston.

2. We know of no implement precisely adapted
to the cultivation of carrots by horse power.
Mannas Vegetable Weeder might be used with
horse, but man power would be better, we tlaink.

1662.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

243

3. We do not.

4. "Horse with a covgh." But little work, a
■warm stall, with bedding a foot deep, moderate
feeding, with moist cut feed, and a little laxative
medicine.

5. "Poor farm — no money — no stock." A
hard case, truly — almost too desperate for any
remedy that we can prescribe. There are tliree
ways to be pursued, viz.:

1. To sell land enough from the farm to furnish
the means of plowing and manuring one, two or
more acres. Plant and tend them perfectly, work-
ing for others in the meantime to assist in the
family support until the crop is taken off.

2. To get the means of operating by mortgag-
ing the farm, then cultivate thoroughly and eco-
nomically, and not only make a living, but pay up
interest and principal.

3. With the aid of the family, cultivate a
kitchen garden, pasture a cow or two, and let the
rest of the farm lie idle, while you assist other
people on the best terms you can, until enough is
accumulated to purchase stock, and keep it.

We know persons who are now independent,
who began in each of these ways. Those who
mortgage the farm and get a cash capital of four
or five hundred dollars to work upon — if they are
shrewd calculators — -will generally do the best.
Our sympathies are warmly with you, brother
C, and we regret that we cannot recommend
something more easy to accomplish than anything
we have suggested.

KECEIPTS FOR ALVKING COFFEE.

The following receipts for substitutes for pure
coffee, which the writer has never seen in print,
are worthy of a place in the Ladies' Department
of the monthly Farmer.

1. Take sweet corn, sound and well ripened,
roast and grind it as you would coffee, mix two-
thirds of the corn with one-third of good quality
pure coffee.

2. Take common barley, M-ash and free it from
all foul seeds, roast, pound or grind it. Mix two
parts barley, two parts sweet corn, and one part
pure coffee.

In either of the above ways a finely flavored ar-
ticle is produced, superior in the estimation of the
writer to the best quality of ground coffee that is
usually sold in the market. The addition of a
small quantity of prepared Dandelion root or
Cliiccory is esteemed by many an improvement,
imparting to it a higher color and richness of fla-
vor. Subscriber to Monthly Farmer.

Still River, March 26, 1862.

smith's patent fence.

In your issue of Feb. 22, is a description and
recommendation of "Smith's improved farm
fences, patented Oct. 11, 1859,"

From some experience, and also from observa-
tion, I can bear testimony to the excellence of
that kind of fence. Fences were built in this vi-
cinity on essentially the same plan, several years

previous to the date of this patent. Mr. Smith,
therefore, cannot claim to be the inventor of any-
thing in reference to it, unless it be the grooving
of the posts. Hence, I suppose any one desiring
to erect such fence, by dispensing with the grooves
in the posts, need not be at the trouble and ex-
pense of obtaining permission of Mr. Smith.
South Amherst, 1862. Farmee.

Remarks. — We know nothing of this matter.
Mr. Smith will be able to vindicate his own rights.

REMEDY for SHEEP PULLING "WOOL.

I have always regarded the column of "Extracts
and Replies" as a very valuable feature of your
excellent paper, it seems so familiar and so much
like talking the matter over with our neighbors.
And I sometimes think that we get and retain
more valuable knowledge by these inquiries and
short replies than by a more extended and la-
bored essay upon some general topic.

A few weeks since I noticed an article from Mr.
Peters, of Bradford, recommending unguentum as
a remedy for sheep pulling their wool. I find that
this was designed for those cases where sheep
pulled their own wool, occasioned probably by
itching. I have one or two sheep that pull the
wool from others, and eat it, and have sprinkled
snuff on the sheep, which I hope will prevent it for
a while, but I am afraid that it will not last long.
It would be something of a task, and somewhat
expensive to apply snuff to a large flock.

Will you, or some of your readers, tell me of
something better ? s.

Fairlee, Vt., April, 1862.

Remarks. — We have no knowledge in the mat-
ter. Will some one who has, reply ?

use of ashes.

As the time for composting and using manure
will soon be upon us, I wish to ask through your
columns a little advice in using ashes. I have a
stoned cellar with a roof over it, partly in a side
hill, in which I deposit my ashes as taken from
the house, where they cannot expose buildings to
fire, and are ready for use when required. I de-
posit there annually about 100 bushels. These
ashes are made from a mixture of wood and peat.
I wish to ask which is the most judicious method
of using them ? I have for years past used them
])y applying a handful to each hill of com on the
surface of the ground, around the stalks at the
first hoeing. But I have serious doubts of its be-
ing the best way, either for the present crop or
for the land. I thought you or your correspond-
ents might give their practice, whether they use as
above described, or compost and put in the hill at
time of planting, or how they use, and on Avhat
soils they are most beneficial. I thought tliis in-
quiry might bring out views which would interest
others as well as myself. A Subscriber.

Wayland, 1862.

Remarks. — Many good farmers think ashes
applied to the hill as you describe, is a profitable
way to use them. We are inclined to think that
if they were composted with fine, meadow muck,
and a quart of the compost appHed to the liill, and
mixed with the soil, the effect would be better.

244

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

USE OF HEN MANURE — WAKTS — WHEAT FOR
HORSES.

I have some hen manure. Can you inform me
of the best way of applying it to the ground, and
to what crop ? If to corn, how should it be pre-
pared ?

A neighbor of mine has a steer on one of whose
ears is a number of large warts, one being as big
as a hen's egg. Can you suggest a remedy ?

I lately saw it stated in a book entitled "Cole's
Diseases of Animals," that wheat fed to horses
would poison them. Now that does not seem rea-
sonable to me. What is your experience in the
matter ? J. Dana Adams.

Williamsburg, Me., 1862.

Remarks. — Mix the hen manure with muck,
loam or sand, four parts of either to one of the
manure. Before dropping corn throw a handful of
this compost into the hill, and mingle it well with
the soil.

See article in this paper on dispersing warts with
fresh butter.

Wheat taken in large quantities, -will kill a horse
— so will corn. But fed judiciously, either is nu-
tritious and wholesome.

DISSOLVING bones.

Can you, or some of your correspondents, in-
form me through the columns of the Farmer the
shortest and cheapest method of dissolving, pul-
verizing or grinding bones, or the best and cheap-
est way in which they can be used on land here in
Vermont ?

I have a small farm on which my slaughter-
house stands and from it I have a great many
bones. Now I would like to know how they can be
used most advantageously with the least expense.
The land is, a part of it, light, sandy soil, and part
a sort of mucky or sandy loam. I have some
young fruit trees, set out last spring. Can I make
these bones useful about the trees ? Is Coe's su-
perphosphate of lime anything but bone dissolved
and ground ? What will a machine for grinding
cost ? Will some one experienced in bones write
on the subject ? A Subscriber.

Burlington, Vt., 1862.

Remarks. — In our last volume of the monthly
Farmer, on pages 121, 145 and 401, may be found
articles on this subject. In the number for Janu-
ary of this year, page 23, is a mode of reducing
bones by placing them on a layer of ashes, in a
cask, and so continue them. Coe's superphos-
phate of lime is nothing but bones and sulphuric
acid.

a good BARN hoe.

Some one has asked for a hoe to clean out cat-
tle stalls, one that will clean out the corners as
well as the manure. Being a blacksmith, and lik-
ing convenient tools to work with, I have made
several for my neighbors, that give good satisfac-
tion. For the benefit of some of your numerous
readers who may like one, I give you the plan.
Take a steel shovel blade, one that is worn out or
broken will answer, cut off a piece six inches wide.

leaving it the whole width of the shovel, and have
both edges straight ; punch a half inch hole one
and one-fourth inches from the edge on the thick-
est side ; draw a shank six inches long and head
in a tool. Bend the shank so as to have it stand
Uke a common hoe, put it through the hole and
rivet on the blade with four rivets. A good ash
handle is the best. Both sides can be used.
Concord, April, 1862. F. E. B.

BEST churn.

I wish you would inform me which kind of
churn is best for a dairy of four or five cows. The
Air Pressure Churn was recommended as making
ten per cent, more butter than any other in the
market. Does it sustain its reputation ? Will
you inform me where one can be obtained, and at
what price? Thomas Haskell.

West Gloucester, 1862.

Remarks. — We have been constantly using the
Air Pressure Churn, summer and winter, for two
years, and never have found any other churn
equal to it. Sold by Parker, Gannett & Osgood,
Blackstone Street, Boston.

a great crop of rye.

I saw in your paper of the 15th ult. a notice of
a great rye crop, which I think I can beat. This
gentleman raised 70 bushels from 3 bushels seed,
on 1^ acres of ground.

I had 2 acres of ground, and sowed 4 bushels
of seed, and cleared up 112 bushels of rye, as
clean as any I ever saw. A Subscriber.

Bridport, Vt., April, 1862.

goats.

I noticed in the Farmer something about goats.
Do you, or any of your readers, know where one
can be bought ? If so, please let me know thi'ough
the Farmer, and what one can be bought for.

Great Falls, N. H., 1862. s. F. A.

Remarks. — We do not know where a goat can
be purchased.

RINGBONE.

If "Young Farmer" will inform me of his name
and residence, I think I can tell him what will cure
ringbone. Samuel H. Wheeler.

Mason Centre, N. H., 1862.

A PLOWING BEE.

At a recent meeting of the Concord Farmer's
Club, it was voted to have a Plowing Bee in that
town at some time during the first half of May.
The desire is to bring together as many plow-ma-
kers, and plowmen, as may find it convenient to
attend, and to test the plows, so as to learn which
of them will do the best and most work, with the
expenditure of the least amount of power. Anoth-
er object is to bring farmers together in a social
way, and, perhaps, to hold a discussion upon the
subject of plows and plowing.

The members of the Club will receive those who
come from other towns as guests, and extend to

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

245

them such attentions and hospitality as will make
their visit agreeable.

Notice of the time and place of the trial Mill be
hereafter given by a committee appointed to su-
perintend the business of the occasion. The plan
seems to us to be a good one, and cannot fail to
establish some important questions -which are now
unsettled. We hope to see persons at the trial
from various sections of the State.

For the New England Farmer,
SAVE YOUB TREES!

Friend Brown: — I see by the papers that
great damage has been done the past winter to
fruit trees by the mice ; now, if taken in season,
the most of these can be saved. Take a sucker
from the same, or any other tree of the same kind,
and flatten the ends on one side, and insert one
end under the bark above, and the other below,
where the bark is eaten off, the same as in side
grafting, that will make a bridge to carry the sap
over the wounded part ; bind the ends tight with
a strong string, then cover with grafting wax or
day ; now cover the whole with earth, if near
enough the ground ; if not, bind up with clay, to
protect the wounded part from the sun. It is a
good plan to put in a number of these suckers, to
to be sure of one or two, and if they all live, so
much the better. "Wlien these have grown sufB-
ciently strong to support the tree the old body can
be cut out if desired, and the others will soon
close up. If this is carefully done every tree can
be saved. I have some trees that were done in
this way a number of years ago ; one of which,
whose bark was eaten otf clean for four feet, two
years ago bore four barrels of apples.

Andrew Wellington.

Winchester, April, 1862.

Remarks. — Our correspondent is a gentleman
of experience in orcharding, and we are glad he
confirms the remarks we made last week upon this
subject. Since writing that article, we find that
the destruction to fi-uit trees in this State is much
more extensive than we then supposed. Scarcely
a young orchard has escaped. We find Jiff tj trees
on our own grounds, many of them six inches in
diameter, girdled entirely. Others have a strip
of bark left an inch in width, or two or three, in
some cases. All these trees were visited late last
fall, and every spear of grass taken away from
them. The ground where most of them stand
was plowed last fall, but the plow was followed
with the spade, and every inch of the grass left
by tho plow was turned under by the spade.

We suggest, — in addition to what has been
said, — that the scion to be inserted should have a
Bcarf on the upper side two-thirds as long as that
cm the lower side. Let the upper side run under
the bark until it reaches the end of the scarf.
Another suggestion is, that scions be used, not
'^suckers."

For the JNeto England Farmer.
TIME FOB PRUNING.

Mr. Editor: — In noticing some remarks of
yours, and of your correspondent "W.," in the last
Farmer, I will venture to give some reasons why
I consider June pruning preferable to spring — say
March or April. It is generally supposed that
after the leaves are off in the fall, trees remain
idle until they leave out in the spring. It seems
to me that is not the case, especially Avhen the
ground is not frozen, and it seldom freezes to such
a depth that the extreme ends of the roots are not
at work in accumulating sap for the next season's
operations, and by March or April, if the tree is in
healthy condition, the body is full. Now the tree
needs the whole of this supply to throw out its
next crop of leaves and blossoms, and if a limb
is cut off in the spring, some part of the sap will
be pretty sure to escape, and thereby injure the
tree.

In making the leaves and blossoms, and setting
the fruit, this extra supply seems to be exhausted,
and the next operation is the making a growth of
wood ; now prune your trees, and the fruit and
growth together with the leaves, will take care of
the sap. Still, sometimes, a diseased tree will
leak ; when that is the case, it is a sure indication
of trouble somewhere.

The foregoing, I contend, is the true economy
and process of nature in the growth of trees, and
to my mind is a good reason why trees to be
transplanted should be taken up in the fall and
put in cellars, or heeled in, rather than stand in the
nursery until April or May, when they are nearly
ready to leaf out. The check they receive in
transplanting, at such a period, is hardly overcome
through the whole season, and the growth is hard-
ly perceptible, if any.

What kind of progress would a nursery man
make in digging trees in this country, at this time,
when the snow is from 3 to 6 feet deep ? Still,
there is no frost in the ground, and nature is stead-
ily performing her silent work.

Another good reason why trees should be taken
up in the fall and put in the cellar, is, they are
safe from being winter-killed, at least for one sea-
son.

I suppose pruning is, or ought to be done, in
reference to the tree, instead of the surrounding
crops, and there is a best time to do it, as there is
a best time to hoe corn or dig potatoes, and the
man who insists in hoeing his corn after haj'ing,
or digging his potatoes after Thanksgiving, would
be considered out of order, to say the least, and
any excuse, such as leisure, convenience, or crops,
is no offset to the damage that may be done by
doing it at the wrong time.

Wm. B. Hazelton.

South Strafford, Vt., April 7, 1862.

Remarks. — Please write on the subject you
speak of in a private note.

Depth of Quiet People. — Some men dawn
upon you like the Alps. They impress you vague-
ly at first, just as do the hundred faces you meet
in your daily walks. They come across your hor-
izon like floating clouds, and you have to watch a
while before you see that they are mountains.

246

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

Some men remind you of quiet lakes, places such
as you have often happened upon, where the green
turf and the field-flower hang over you and are
reflected out of the water all day long. Some day
or other, you carelessly drop a line into the clear
depths, close by the side of the daisies and daffo-
dils, and it goes down, down, down. You lean
over and sound deeper, but your line doesn't
bring up. What a deep spot that is ! you think,
and you try another. The reflected daisies seem
to smile at you out of the water, the turf looks as
green as ever, but there is no shallow spot beneath.
You never thought it, but your quiet lake is all
around unfathomable. You are none the less im-
pressed from the fact that it is a quiet lake. — Wil-
liams' Quarterly,

For tite New England Farmer.
BAD EFFECTS OF LEAD PIPE.

Mr, Editor :— Although much has been said
and written relative to the poisonous effects of lead
pipe, yet I doubt if the majority who are using
water conveyed through this material are aware of
its injurious effects upon the human system. I
have knovrn of repeated instances where members
of families have suffered from various ailments,
who have only found relief in abstaining from the
use of water conveyed through lead. A striking
case of tliis kind was recently made known in this
vicinity.

The wife and one or two other members of a
family were diseased in a manner that baffled the
skill of the medical faculty, far and near — nothing
that was done seemed to afford any permanent re-
lief ; and, in fact, relief was finally despaired of,
but little hopes being entertained of their recovery.
At last, however, it was suggested to them that
the lead pipe through which the water used by
the family was conducted, might be the cause of
their ailments. The suggestion was heeded ; pure
water adopted in its stead, and the result was the
most surprising. But a few weeks elapsed before
a sensible change was manifest in all, and in a
few months a complete restoration was effected.
And from observation, I have no doubt that many
are ignorantly suffering from similar causes. Rut
among those who have given thought to the mat-
ter, lead for aqueducts is fast going into disuse.
Guttapercha, block-tin, hydraulic cement, &c.,
all of which are free from the objections urged
against lead, are taking the place of it. The use
of hydraulic cement for aqueducts is fast taking
the place of everything else in many localities,
and especially where it has been the most used.
It seems to possess essential qualities possessed
by no other material, ]5rominent among which is
its well known purity and durability — time only
serving to harden and render it more durable —
two desirable qualities in an aqueduct; then,
again, the expense is but little more than half
as much as lead, and it is, beyond question, the
cheapest and most durable pipe that can be laid.
Several of my neighbors have had some of it laid
after the manner of Livermore's patent, and it
seems to be all that could be desired. It is tak-
ing the place of everj'thing else in this vicinity.
Block tin, too, makes a durable as well as pure
pipe, but its high cost is objectionable to the man
of limited means. I hold it to be the duty of
every one who is putting down an aqueduct, to

hesitate long before using a material, the poison-
ous qualities of which will in any manner jeopard-
ize the health of his family. Reformer,
Winchester, April 3, 1862.

HOW TO PROPAGATE CITRRANTS.

In order to raise currant bushes from cuttings
so that they may have a clean stem and but one
set of roots, and those at the lower end, like seed-
lings, I take a cutting about ten inches long, and
prepare it in the usual way, by cutting off the low-
er end square. I then cut out the buds or eyes,
excepting the three or four uppermost ones, which
are reserved to make the top. I then stretch a
line, start the cuttings by its side, eight inches
apart in the I'ow, their ends one inch in the ground,
and mould them up four or five inches in depth,
like corn hills when planted in drills. When they
become well established by having roots, which
will be in mid-summer, level the mould of earth
back to its former place. Should any roots have
started from the intended stem, clean them off and
plant them out at one year old.

The advantage of growing bushes in the above
manner is that they will not send up suckers as
those do that have been grown by setting the cut-
tings deep in the ground, and allowing two or
more sets of roots to grow. — Country Gentleman.

Hay and Corn Shrinkage by Drying. — ■
The loss upon hay weighed July 20, when cui-ed
enough to put in the barn, and again February
20, has been ascertained to be 27^ per cent. So
that hay at $15 a tun in the field is equal to $20
and upward when weighed from the mow in win-
ter. The weight of cobs in a bushel of corn in
November ascertained to be 19 lbs., was only 7^
lbs. in May. The cost of grinding a bushel of dry
cobs, counting, handhng, hauling and miller's
charge, is about one cent a pound. Is the meal
worth the money .•* — Scientijic American.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

SORROWS OF CHILDHOOD.

There are parents who deliberately lay them-
selves out to torment their children. There are
two classes of parents who are the most inexora-
bly cruel and malignant : it is hard to say which
class excels, but it is certain that both classes ex-
ceed all ordinary mortals. One is the utterly
blackguard — the parents about -s.'hom there is no
good nor pretence of good. The other is the
wrong-headedly conscientious and religious ; prob-
ably, after all, there is greater rancor and malice
about these last than about any other. These act
upon a system of unnatural repression, and syste-
matized weeding out of all enjoyment from life.
These are the people whose very crowning act of
hatred and malice towards any one is to pray for
him, or to threaten to pray for him. These are
the people who, if their children complain of their
bare and joyless life, say that such complaints in-
dicate a wicked heart, or Satanic possession ; and
have recourse to further persecution to bring
about a happier frame of mind. Yes, the wrong-
headed and wrong-hearted religionist is probably

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

247

the very worst type of man or woman on whom
the sun looks down. And, O ! how sad to think
of the fashion in which stupid, conceited, mali-
cious blockheads set up their own worst passions
as the fruits of the working of the blessed Spirit,
and caricature, to the lasting injury of many a
young heart, the pure and kindly religion of the
Blessed Redeemer ! These are the folk who inflict
systematic and ingenious torment on their chil-
dren ; and, unhappily, a very contemptible parent
can inflict much suffering on a sensitive child.

You may find parents who, having started from
a humble origin, have attained to wealth, and who,
instead of being glad to think that their children
are better ofl" than they themselves were, exhibit a
diabolical jealousy of their children. You will find
such wretched beings insisting that their childi'en
shall go through needless trials and mortifications,
because they themselves went through the like.
Why, I do not hesitate to say that one of the
thoughts which would most powerfully lead a wor-
thy man to value material prosperity would be the
thought that his boys would have a fairer and hap-
pier start in life than he had, and would be saved
the many difficulties on which he still looks back
with pain. You will find parents, especially par-
ents of the Pharisaical and wrong-headedly reli-
gious class, Avho seem to hold it a sacred duty to
make the little things unhappy ; who systemati-
cally endeavor to render life as bare, ugly and
wretched a thing as possible ; who never praise
their children when they do right, but punish them
with great severity when they do wrong; who
seem to hate to see their children lively or cheer-
ful in their presence ; who thoroughly repel all
sympathy or confidence on the part of their chil-
dren, and then mention as a proof that their chil-
dren are possessed by the devil, that their children
always like to get away from them ; who rejoice
to cut off any little enjoyment — rigidly carrying
into practice the fundamental principle of their
creed, which undoubtedly is, that "nobody should
ever please himself, neither should anybody ever
please anybody else, because in either case he is
sure to displease God." No doubt, Mr. Buckle,
in his second volume, caricatured and misrepre-
sented the religion of Scotland as a country ; but
he did not in the least degree caricature or mis-
represent the religion of some people in Scotland.
The great doctrine underlying all other doctrines,
is, that God is spitefully angry to see his crea-
tures happy — and of course the practical lesson fol-
lows, that they are following the best example,
when they are spitefully angry to see their children
happy.

Then a great trouble, always pressing heavily
on many a little mind is, that it is overtasked with
lessons. You still see here and there idiotic pa-
rents sti-iving to make infant phenomena of their
children, and recording Avith much pride how their
children could read and write at an unnaturally
early age. Such parents are fools ; not necessarily
malicious fools, but fools beyond question. The
great use to which the first six or seven years of
life should be given is the laying the foundation
of a healthful constitution in body and mind ; and
the instilling of the first principles of duty and re-
ligion which do not need to be taught out of any
books. Even if you do not permanently injure
the young brain and mind by prematurely over-
tasking them — even if you do not permanently

blight the bodily health and break the mind's
cheerful spring, you gain nothing. Your child at
fourteen years old is not a bit farther advanced in
his education than a child who began his years af-
ter him ; and the entire result of your stupid
driving has been to overcloud some days which
should have been the happiest of his life.

I believe that real depression of spirits, usually
the sad heritage of after years, is often felt in very
early youth. It sometimes comes of the child's
belief that he must be very bad, because he is so
frequently told that he is so. It sometimes comes
of the cliild's fears, early felt, as to what is to be-
come of him. His parents, possibly, with the good
sense and kind feeling which distinguish various
parents, have taken pains to drive it into the child,
that if his father should die, he will certainly
starve, and may very probably have to become a
wandering beggar. And these sayings have sunk
deep into his little heart. I remember how a
friend told me that his constant wonder, when he
was twelve or thirteen years old, was this : If life
was such a burden already, and so miserable to
look back upon, how could he ever bear it when
he had grown older? — The Country Parson.

Receipt fok Light Dumplings. — After mak-
ing up your bread the second time, take off a suf-
ficient quantity for dumplings, and set it away un-
til about an hour before dinner, then make them
up in rolls as you would biscuit ; sprinkle a little
flour over your pie-board, and put them on it, far
enough apart to allow for raising. Have ready a
boiler with sufficient boiling water to steam them,
place the steamer over it and put in some of the
dumplings, so as not to touch each other, (see that
the lid is placed on tightly,) and let them remain
ten minutes ; then remove them and put in oth-
ers. Send them to table hot, to be eaten with
cream and sugar, or butter and molasses. — House-
keeper.

French Pancakes. — Take six eggs, separate
the yolks from the whites ; beat the whites on a
dinner plate to a snow ; beat four yolks with two
tablespoonfulls of sugar, two of flour, and a tea-
cupfuU of cream ; add a little salt and a very lit-
tle carbonate of soda ; put in the whites of the
eggs and mix gently. Put one ounce of butter in
a frying-pan ; when hot, pour in the whole pan-
cake. Hold the pan a good distance from the
fire for fifteen minutes ; hold before the fire to
brown on the top. Dish on a napkin. Put any
kind of preserved fruit over it. Serve hot.

Unmabkied Women. — I speculate much on the
existence of unmarried and never-to-be-married
women, now-a-days ; and I have already got to
the point of considering that there is no more re-
spectable character on this earth than an unmar-
ried Avoman, who makes her way tlu-ough life
quietly, perseveringly, without support of husband
or brother ; and having attained the age of forty-
five or upwards, retains in her possession a well
regulated mind, a disposition to enjoy simple
pleasures, and fortitude to support inevitable
pains, sympathy with the sufferings of others, and
willingness to relieve want as far as her moans ex-
tend.— Charlotte Bronte.

248

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

May

LEG OF MUTTON BOASTED.

A leg of mutton intended for roasting should
be kept longer than for boiling ; it should be care-
fully attended to during the time it is hung up,
constantly Aviped to prevent any mustiness gath-
ering on the top and below the flap, and in hot
weather lightly dusted with flour or pepper to
keep off the flies. The kernel in the fat on the
thick part of the leg should be taken out by the
butcher, for it taints first there ; and the bloody
part of the neck should also be cut oflf when first
brought in.

Remove the thick skin very carefully ; trim off
the piece of flank that adheres to the fat, and flat-
ten the fat with a cutlet-beater or chopper ; cut
off the knuckle, and nick the cramp bone, to al-
low it to become more plump, as in haunch. Put
a little salt and water into the dripping-pan to
baste the meat at fu-st ; but then use only its own
gravy. Serve with jelly.

A leg of mutton is usually roasted whole, but
can be divided advantageously for a small family.
Cut the knuckle into a good sized joint, and boil
it until tender ; but put a coarse paste over the
lower part of the thick end to keep in the gravy,
and roast it ; or if the skin be raised gently from
the outside of the leg, to about six or seven inch-
es wide, two or three good slices may be cut off
for steaks, and the skin then fastened down with
ckewers. — Cook Book.

Steamed Brown Bread. — Take two quarts of
sweet skim milk, one tablespoonful of saleratus,
one of salt, half a cup of molasses, put in equal
quantities of rye and Indian meal until the dough
is as stiff as can be conveniently stirred with a
spoon, then put it into two two-quart tins. Place
sticks across the bottom of the kettle to keep the
water from the bread ; place one of the tins on
these, and the other in a tin steamer on the top of
the same kettle, and let it steam three hours.
The water should be kept boiling, while the
bread is cooking. When done, put it in a warm
oven long enough to dry the top of it, not bake it.
Yeast can be used instead of saleratus, if any pre-
fer it, but the bread must rise well before putting
it in the kettle.

Cleaning Dish Covers. — Dish covers should
always be wiped and polished as soon as they are
removed from the table. If this is done while
they are warm, it will be but little trouble ; but
if the steam is allowed to dry on them, you will
find much difficulty in getting the tarnish off from
the insides. When they are wiped and polished,
hang them up in their places immediately.

THE CATTLE MARKETS FOR APRIL.

The following is a summary of the reports for the four weeks
ending April 17, 1862 :

NUMBER AT MARKET,

CattJe. Sheep. Shotes. Live Fat Hogt.

March 27 1237 1773 1600 None.

April 2 1281 3454 2200 500 V

April 10 1021 1939 2000 150 i^

Aprill7 1235 3338 2500 600^*

Total 4774 10,504 8300 1250

PRICES.

Mar. 27. Ap'li. ApHlO. ApVYI.

Beef cattle, ^ ft 6 (37c 5 ig7 5 57 5 Q7

Sheep, wool on, live weight. .4^354 4i353 4.135? 4^35J

Sheep, clipped, live weight.. 3| Slgsl 3Jg3| 3>,S3|

Swine, stores, wholesale.... 3Ja6 3|i35| 3^@5J 3Jg5

" " retail 4|37 4 @7 5 {g6^ 4.i36

Dressed hogs 5 S^i 5 Q6 5Jg6 5^26

Remarks. — It will be noticed that for these four weeks no change
is made in the range of prices for beef. The market, to be sure,
has been very steady, but not quite bo uniform as this might seem
to indicate. In the weekly Farmer a full column is given to de-
tails, by which it will be seen that quality affects the market ag
well as price, and that the bulk of the sales are sometimes up
and sometimes down in the scale of prices, without exceeding
either the highest or the lowest figures.

QUARTERLY SUMMARY.

The total number of cattle, sheep, shotes and live fat hogs re-
ported for the first quarter, or the thirteen weeks ending Thurs-
day, March 27th, 1862, with the average number for each week,
is as follows:

Whole No. frr 13 weeis. Average No. per tceek.

Cattle 16,157 1243

Sheep 34,961 2689

Shotes 6,515 601

Live fat hogs 8,850 680

Of the 16,157 cattle at market during the last quarter, 9118 were
'rem the Western States, leaving 7039 as the number from the
New England States and northern New York. Of the 34,961 sheep
above reported for the quarter, 14,423 were from the West, and
20,538 from New England and the northern part of New York.

It has been found so difficult to decide upon the number of cat-
tle that shouH be reported as "stores," that no attempt is made
at classification. Many oxen, steers and heifers are sold either
for beef or for stores, as will best suit customers. During this
quarter, there has been a great demand for light beef, and prob-
ably considerable less than 100 head ^ week have escaped the
"meat-oxe" of the butcher.

13^ In one respect the recent floods in Califomfe,
have had a beneficial effect, to wit, they have de-
veloped new mines, and in many instances formed
new deposits in the gulches and river beds, long
since worked out and abandoned. The San Fran-
cisco Bulletin thinks the total damage caused by
the floods will not exceed three and a quarter mil-
lions of dollars.

DEVOTED TO AQRICULTUBE AND ITS KUTDRED AKTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV. BOSTON,

JUNE,

1862. NO. 6.

NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Office... .100 Washinqton Street.

SIMON BROWN Epitor.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editoe.

THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY JUNE.

UNE, in the climate
of New England, is
in many respects
the most pleasant
month of the year,
and, better than
any other, realizes
the "balmy sweets,"
the "ethereal mild-
ness," and the uni-
versal activity and
gladness of nature, which
foreign writers have rep-
resented as characteristic

The mornings are no longer
frosty. The north-east winds
have lost their chill. The air is balmy,
but not as yet sultry. The forests and
fields now wear their best dress — the
freshest and brightest of the year.
The grass, which has "come creeping,
creeping," everj^where, spreading as a carpet over
pasture and meadow, at once for food and repose
to the "cattle upon a thousand hills," is now
sweeter and softer than at any other time during
the season. In a word, New England is in her
glory, and to be seen to advantage, must be seen
in June — early in a June morning.

The various shades of verdure, the profusion of
flowers, the melody of bird, and insect song, are
richer in June than during any other month of the
year.

But some farmer, -whose eye has followed our
-words thus far, may be thinking, if he does not
say : "All this is fine enough for those who have
plenty of money to spend in hunting out land-
scapes, and plenty of time to stop and admire
. them, but to farmers whose backs ache and whose
limbs are stiff by attempting more work than they
ought to do, and which they do not feel able to

pay others for doing, the weeds in our fields,
whose rank growth outstrips our strength, catch-
es our eyes and blurs the beauty of the scene."

June brings to farmers long days and hard
work — so long and so hard that whatever of po-
etry there may have been in us at first, is soon
sweated out, and passes off in "invisible exhala-
tion." We know that most of the farmers of New
England necessarily work hard. But we do not
believe that it is necessary for them so to overtask
the body as to incapacitate the mind for the enjoy-
ments'of the beauties of nature. True it is, that
they have no slaves "to fan them while they sleep,
or tremble when they wake," but how many ser-
vants have they obedient to their call, how many
even of the very elements minister to their gratifi-
cation and tend to promote their comfort and hap-
piness.

Let us, borrowing something of the coloring of
another, figure to ourselves an inhabitant of some
peculiai'ly favored spot, with all the powers of na-
ture contributing to his enjoyment and pleasure,
— the clear, blue sky above his head, shaded occa-
sionally by clouds which drop down fatness in fer-
tilizing showers ; — the green earth beneath his
feet throwing from her bountiful lap a profusion of
flowers in every form of loveliness ; around him
venerable trees, full of leafy honors, stretching
wide their branches to afford him a grateful shel-
ter from the meridian heat, or bearing fruit to
gratify his taste ; hard by, the sparkling of a cool,
transparent stream, as it hastens to join the broad
river, flowing majestically through meadows of
emerald to lose itself in the distant ocoaa; — in. his
groves, bii'ds of note cheer him -with their sweet
music ; — on his lawns the lowing of cattle, on liie.
hills the bleating of sheep ; — in his stables beasts,
of draft to cultivate his fields, and of burden to.
convey him swiftly and at ease on distant journeys ;
in his store-houses, ingenious machines and im-
plements, which, like "things of life," perform in
the most expeditious and satisfactory manner

250

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

some of his most laborious and irksome tasks; —
in his dwelling are necessary comforts and conve-
niences, with many of the luxuries which commerce
has collected from distant climes and ingenuity
has prepared for his use ; — in his family a beloved
partner of his bosom and dutiful children, who
kindle while they reflect the glance of a parent's
eye, and to whose steps all paths to usefulness
and distinction are wide open.

Such is the farmer of New England ! He is
more than all this. He is a man in authority — a
part of the government whose jurisdiction he ac-
knowledges, and whose poAver he is ready to en-
force with all the energy which has been acquired
by the fixed habit of doing his own work and mak-
ing his own laws.

For the Neie England Farmer,
A TROT ON THE ICE,

A trot came off on the 14th April inst., on the
ice, between black mare Fanny Barrett, of this
town, and bay mare Green Mountain Queen, of
Bridport, Vermont. The town of Crown Point is
situated on Lake Champlain, on the New York
side, and Bridport on the Vermont side. The
trot was on Lake Champlain, between the two
places. There was a large number of people upon
the ice to witness this trot, attracted there not so
much to look upon the speed of these two beauti-
ful "nags," — but the idea of a trot upon the ice,
on the 14th day of April, excited the curiosity,
and for that reason, much interest was taken.
The mares made a good race, but the result be-
came a disputed point, and was finally left unset-
tled. Years will roll away, before the people in
this vicinity will witness a scene so novel and rare,
as a horse trot upon the ice on Lake Champlain
on the 14th of April.

The snow has been in this vicinity from 3 to 4i
feet deep, but now, before the genial rays of old
Sol, the snow is fast wasting away, and the roar
of the brook mingling with the shrill note of the
bluebird, says, all hail once again, happy spring.

W. W. MoorvE.

Crown Point, N. Y., April 17, 1862.

Old Times and New. — Compare travelling as
it is now with what it was when the apostles went
out. I could go around the earth and come home
again quicker than Paul could go from Jerusalem
to Ptome in his day. In the time that was required
to write one Bible in his day, I can print a million
now. It cost a fortune to own a book then ; now
there is not a pauper in the poor-house that is not
able to own a book. Literally, knowledge may
said to be without money and without price ; when
for a penny a man may have a newspaper that
covers the contemporaneous news of the globe, so
that he can sec more than if he were put on an ex-
ceeding high mountain — with a devil at his elbow
at that, to tempt him withal. Books are cheaper
than bread, and none are so poor that they cannot
have the reading of the events of every single day.
— H. W. Beecher.

BARLEY.

This valuable grain is now much cultivated in
many sections of our State, and is used, not unfre-
quently, as a substitute for corn and wheat. The
constituents of barley — taking the gi-ain and
haulm together — have, on burning, 7.04 per cent,
of ashes, while the straw and grain of oats leave
but 5.73 per cent. The analysis of these ashes
demonstrates the position of barley, and places it in
the category of silicious plants. The same remark
applies, also, with equal correctness to oats — the
ashes of the latter furnishing 62 per cent, of silica,
and 25 per cent, of lime salts ; the ashes of barley
25 per cent, of lime salts, and 55 of silica. We
mention these grains in connection, because some
have affected to believe that oats require an ali-
ment essentially different from that demanded by
other cereal grains.

Oats flourish on any good corn land, but barley
requires a sandy, or even gravelly loam ; a soil
that is light and warm. Very fine barley is now
brought from California, and may be purchased for
65 or 70 cents per bushel. This is probably taken
as ballast, or in preference to returning with
empty bottoms.

Barley has risen in the estimation of farmers,
and is now cultivated more freely than it has been
for many years.

THE BEST GATE.

In the Farmer of February 15th, an article on
fencing of barn-yards, etc., says : "The best gate
is made of scantling and boards ;" to which I say
as the Irishman did of his friend's dinner, which
was meat and potatoes ; "that it was just his, bai'-
rin' the meat." So this gate is just mine, barrin'
the scantling. Formerly I used scantUng, two by
three, and two by four inches, for the frame of my
gates ; but one time, now some twelve years since,
I had no scantling, and therefore built my gate,
which was ten feet long, frame with strips of board,
one by four inches for the latch end, and one by
eight inches for the hinge end of the gate ; brace,
one by six inclies. My lower board, one by eight
inches ; next above, one by six inches ; next two,
each one by four inches ; the whole secured by
wi'ought nails clinched, and hung with strap hin-
ges. This gate is now, and has been all the time
from its construction, in daily use, and has never
sagged an inch. From that time to the present, I
have always built my gates without scantling, and
have found them equally as good barriers as those
built with scantling, while they are lighter, cost
less, and do not sag. Any one can build such a
gate and hang it — the jjosts being set — in two
hours. — Cor. Ohio Farmer.

Won't Grow. — Mr. Goodale, Secretary of
the Maine Board of Agriculture, in the recent
discussions of the Board, stated that there is a
tract of land in ]Maine both south and north of
which Indian corn could be grown, but Upon which
it would not grow.

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

251

For the New England Fanner.
POTATO BEMIWISCENCES.

Messrs. Editors : — Notwithstanding the pre-
judice of Cobbet, potatoes, if not a luxuiy, are con-
sidered by most people as an indispensable article
of food, I believe, by general consent, they are
considered tlie king of roots, and that it could
have no substitute to make its place good upon
the table. Since my remembrance, a great many
varieties have succeeded each other, losing their
popularity as better varieties made their appear-
ance. Like men, and manj' other things, they
have their day, and are forgotten. In the latter
part of the last centurj', very few potatoes, com-
paratively, were used ; aged people at that time
preferred turnips to potatoes. A visitor at ray
father's was asked, at dinner, if he would be helped
.to a potato? He said, "No, I thank you, we have
enough of them at home." One of the first varie-
ties, I recollect, made a stroncf impression upon
my mind, as well as m}' stomach ; by some means
or other, it was introduced extensively in this
State, and it was cultivated in the State of Maine
in large crops as late as 1808. This variety was
called the Spanish potato, and what quality it had
to commend it, unless its prolific propensity, is
beyond my feeble comprehension. I got humbuged
by planting potatoes of that variety. They were
so strong that they were unfit for the table, and I
believe animals ate them out of a sense of duty,
rather than love. The man that fed my cattle with
them, said that they produced a drooling and dis-
charge of tears from their eyes, if I am correct.

Improved varieties soon followed. The English
White — an excellent potato, but soon run out —
had its day like a politician, and was gone. Then
the purple varieties, the Orange potato. Long
John, or Long Red, and numerous other varieties
followed in succession, and among the rest a pota-
to of formidable dimensions, called the "Negro po-
tato," was introduced. The Rohans, Jenny Linds
and "Contrabands" would rank well together, as
a coarse, unpalatable vegetable production, unfit
for human food, where better varieties can be ob-
tained. The Chenango came into notice here
more than thiity years ago, an excellent variety ;
it had its day, like all sublunary things ; old age
and the rot has nearly exterminated it from this
neighborhood, and so of the Long Red. The Ri-
ley potato was a fine-flavored, mealy potato ; but
two or three objections were sufficient to hurt its
character, viz., its sunken eyes, smallness of size,
running like beads upon its roots, and its liability
to rot. The Danvers Red, a fine looking potato,
but, like other potatoes that are yellow inside, are
hard and heavy when boiled.

I have been experimenting upon the different
varieties of potatoes for the last few years, plant-
ing only those least liable to rot. 1 repeatedly
lost my crops while trusting to the Chenangoes,
Long Reds and several other kinds, by almost a
total rot. The last few years I have planted the
Davis seedlings, the Cracker or Jackson, and a
kind resembling the old Kidney potato, I believe
by some called the St. Helena. The Davis seed-
lings have grown a good size, very fair, handsome
potatoes ; a few of them have rotted. The Crack-
ers are early to ripen, and of the finest grain, and
best mealy potatoes I have seen. They require
rich land, to get large ones. Their fault is sunk-

en eyes and an unequal surface. I have planted
the Kidneys six or seven years past. They grow
upon almost any kind of soil to a good size, are
fair, and easy to peel ; they are excellent potatoes,
although not so mealy as the Crackers. For the
number of years I have raised them, I have not
lost a half-bushel by the rot in that variety ; they
held out sound when Chenangoes and Long Reds
nearly all rotted in the same field. I have told
some of my experiences at potato raising. I can
well remember the progress of potato agriculture
for the last seventy years ; they were much more
easily raised then, than of later years. We do not
get more than one-half or a third so many to the
acre, as we did from fifty to seventy years ago. I
think, by a careful selection, the quality may have
been improved, but they have fallen off in quanti-
ty more than they have gained in quality since
that time. Potatoes are the most important of
our root crops, they rank number one as a vege-
table for culinary purposes ; they are cultivated at
less expense than many other roots, and they are
among the best roots for cattle and swine, when
they can be afforded. Silas Brown.

North Wilmington, March, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
ANCIENT AND MODERN LUXUBIES.

Mr. Editor : — We often descant upon the
progress Ave are making in agriculture during the
present century. We are apt to imagine that, m
olden times, men had but few luxuries. Especial-
ly is this true when we listen to the story of the
pioneers of our own country. But it so happens
that a certain man lived well nigh three thousand
years ago by the name of Homer. He was a per-
son on whom as much wise nonsense and as much
real learning have been displayed, and yet of whom
as little is really known as of any other man. This
much, however, we can say of him : that he had a
way of his own in descrfting matters in his day.

Now this man gives us a description of the pal-
ace and gai'den of Alcinous, King of the Phaea-
cians, which equals any in modern times. Per-
haps your Hon. M. P. Wilder may show a gi'eater
variety of pears. Aside from this, we must give
the palm to Alcinous, unless the contrary can be
shown.

After describing his palace made of brazen
walls, his doors of gold, the posts as well as the
beam over the door of silver, with images of gold
and silver, dogs wrought by Vulcan as guards to
his threshold, and so made as to be imperishable,
he then gives us an insight of its interior, with its
couches around the walls supplied with well
wrought coverings, the handiwork of women. On
these reclined the nobles, M'ho enjoyed a perpetual
feast in its halls. Golden candlesticks wrought in
the form of fair youths, stood above the altars to
give light to the guests. Fifty female servants are
employed ; 'some to grind the apple-red colored
Avheat, and others to spin and weave a cloth so
close that oil running down Avill not peneti'ate it.
The poet even boasts that as the Pha^acians excel
other nations in guiding the ship over the stormy
sea, so do their women excel all others in weaving.
Next comes the description of his garden.

Outside the hall, and near the gates, is a large
garden of four acres. Around it on all sides is a

252

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

hedge. "Within are the tall green trees. The
pear, the pomegranate and apple trees, with their
choicest fruit, the sweet figs and blooming olives,
are here. The trees abound in fruit at all seasons
of the year, in summer as well as in winter. The
gently blowing west wind causes some to be grow-
ing, and others to be ripening at the same time.
Pear ripens after pear in succession ; ap])le after
apple ; grape after grape ; and fig after fig.

In one part of the garden is the vineyard, situ-
ated on a level spot, which is accessible to the rays
of the sun, and filled with fruits. They are now
gathering some of the grapes, while they are tread-
ing out others. Some of the vines are still in
flower ; the grapes on others are unripe, while
others are dark colored, ready for the harvest.

In another place, the garden-beds are laid out
in order, where flowers grow in perennial bloom.
In the midst are two fountains, one of which sei-ves
to water the garden, spreading through it with its
cool, refreshing streams, while the other flows be-
neath the threshold of the lofty palace.

Now, what modern orator of an agricultural
fah, or what poet of modern times, has, or can
excel this description of Homer, in as few words,
and how few of the farmers of New England can
yet boast of his garden luxuries like those here so
vividly delineated in this one of four acres in a
fabulous age of the world ? n. t. t.

Beihel, Me., April, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

THE BLRDS OP NEW ENGLAND— No. 18.

WARBLERS.

Black-throated Blue VParbler — Black-throated Green Warbler —
Connecticut Warbler — Kentucky Warbler — Black and White
Creeper — Yellow-throated Warbler — Mourning Warbler.

The Black-throated Blue Warbler, {Den-
droica Canadensis, 'Qaxvd; Sylvicola Canadensis,
Swain.,) winters in Mexico and the West Indies,
gradually progressing norfhward in spring, as the
season advances. It enters South Carolina about
the first of April ; appears in Pennsylvania about
a month later, and in New York and New Eng-
land usually about the middle of May. At Spring-
field, I observed them very common for a few days
about the 22dof May,in 1861,but they are usually
considered as "wayfaring and unfrequent visitors."
They are known to breed in Nova Scotia, and are
found to exist in summer as far northward as Lab-
radoi". Doubtless a few "indificate in the north-
ern parts of New England. According to De
Kay, they have been seen in this latitude as late
as December, returning on their way southward.
In their habits they much resemble the other War-
blers, being extremely active in the pursuit of
those insects that constitute their food. Their
song is low and somewhat peculiar, but not re-
markable for melodious efi'ect.

Length, five and a half inches ; extent, seven
and a half; upper parts, wholly a light blue slate ;
throat and upper part of the breast, black, which
extends in a broad, lateral stripe to the tail ; rest
of the lower plumage, white ; tail, with white spots
on the inner veins of the exterior feathers ; a spot
of white at the base of the primaries of the wings.
The female is so differently colored from the male
as to have been described by the earlier ornithol-
ogists as a distinct species, under the name of

Pine Swamp Warbler, {Sylvia sphagnosa, Bo-
nap.) The distribution of the color is similar,
but where the male is blue the female is a deep
green olive, with bluish reflections ; lower parts,
pale greenish yellow, more dusky on those parts
which in the male are black. Wings and tail
marked with white, as in the male.

The Black-throated Green Warbler,
(Dendroica virens, Baird ; Sylvicola virens,
Swain.,) arrives from the south in May, frequent-
ing alike the blooming orchard and the deep for-
est and solitary swamj), on its fhst arrival ; feed-
ing chiefly on the insects that at this time prey
upon the opening buds and tender leaves ; a few
spend the summer here, being met with occasion-
ally in the retired forests, but the greater number
pass further northward, and in July have been met
with in Greenland. It is a very active little bird,
and like most of its congeners, is continually
searching among the foliage for its winged prey ;
its notes are not particularly remarkable, though
somewhat peculiar and pleasing. Nuttall discov-
ered its nest in the eastei'n part of this State, and
a number of specimens have been obtained in the
vicinity of Springfield, by ornithological collec-
tors, in June and July of the year last past.

Length four inches and three-quarters ; extent,
seven ; above, bright yellowish-green ; throat and
upper part of the breast, black ; streaks of the
same on the sides, under the wings ; belly and
vent, white ; two bars of white across the wings,
which are dusky ; exterior tail feathers spotted
with white on the inner veins. In the female the
colors are paler, and the black on the throat is
nearly concealed by the ashy edgings of the
feathers.

The Connecticut Warbler,) Oporornis ag-
ilis, Baird ; Sylvicola agilis, Jardine,) is one of
the rarest birds of its tribe, and comparatively lit-
tle is known concerning it. It was first seen by
Wilson, who fu-st met with it in the State of Con-
necticut, and accordingly gave to it the name by
which it is now known ; antl from its extreme agil-
ity he bestowed upon it the Latin specific name it
now bears. This untiring ornithologist met with
not more than half a dozen individuals in all his
extensive travels ; subsequently it has been seen
in various parts of the eastern portions of the
United States, but is still so rarely met with that
we have no particular knowledge of its manners.
By some it has been considered as the young of
the Mourning Warbler, {Geothlypis Fkiladel-
phia,) which it is said very much to resemble, but
is now, I believe, regarded generally as a distinct
species.

Length, five inches and a half ; extent, eight ;
whole upper parts, yellow olive ; throat soiled
white ; breast, greenish-yellow ; rest of the lower
parts, deep yellow.

The Kentucky Warbler, {Oporornis formo-
sus, Baird ; Myiodioctes formosus, Aud. ; Sylvi-
cola Jhi-mosa, 3 avd.,) is a common and even abun-
dant species in some of the Western and South-
ern States, but as far eastward as New York and
New England it is quite rare. It is described as
an extremely active and lively bird, "frequenting
low, damp woods ; it builds its nest in the mid-
dle of a thick tuft of rank grass, sometimes in
the fork of a low bush, and sometimes on the
ground." "The materials are loose, dry grass,
mixed with the light pith of weeds, and lined with

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

253

hair. The female lays four, and sometimes six
eggs," says Wilson, "sprinkled with specks of red-
dish." It hunts for its prey among bushes, and
tall weeds, and grass, seldom flying farther than
a few yards at a time, and seldom seizing its prey
on the wing. Its song is described as lively and
agreeable, resembling the words ticeedle, tioeedle,
tweedle, uttered rapidly and with emphasis.

Length, four inches and a half; alar extent, six
and a half; upper parts olive, with streaks of red-
dish on the back ; under parts, rich yellow, with
streaks of black on the sides ; spots of white on
the tail.

The Black and White Creeper, {Mniotilla
varia, Vieillot,) enters Louisiana in February
from the southward, as the buds on the trees are
expanding and unfolding into leaves, and in its
migration northward keeps pace with the advance-
ment of vegetation, and spreading over the Unit-
ed States, reaches New England about the first
of May, many still passing farther north. They
breed throughout the whole of this extensive re-
gion. In its scansorial habits this bird greatly
resembles the true Creepers, (Certhice,) but more
nearly resembles the Warblers in the form of its
bill, and in many other points. It seldom perches
on the twigs, but runs over the trunks of trees, in
every du'ection, with great facility, and traverses
the under sides of the larger limbs, back downward
with perfect ease, carefully searching the bark and
every crevice for its insect food. When it first ap-
pears in the spring, from the south, it sometimes
frequents the orchard, but generally prefers the
forest, where it spends the summer and rears its
young. Its nest is "generally found in the hole of
a tree ; and is composed of dry moss, lined with
downy substances. The eggs are four to seven,
white, with a few reddish dots disposed ai'ound
the larger end."

Length, about five and a half inches ; extent,
seven and a half. Whole plumage, alternate
streaks and spots of black and white. Female
considerably paler than the male.

The Yellow-throated Warbler, or Mary-
land Yellow-throat, (Trichas personatus,
Swain.,) is one of our most common species, ap-
pearing from the south in the early part of May,
and continuing with us through the season. It
prefers low woodlands, swamps, and swampy
hedges and thickets, where it rears its young,
placing its nest on the ground, usually concealed
in a thick tuft of grass. It is composed of fine
grass, lined with horse hair, and sometimes arched
over. The eggs are four to six, white, with a few
reddish specks around the larger end. It is not
at all shy or suspicious in its behavior, but bold-
ly scolds the intruder, especially during the sea-
son of incubation, as he chances to venture upon
its favorite, secluded retreat. Though not prop-
erly to be included among our birds of song, its
simple lay and oft repeated lohitititee are far from
disagi-eeable. It inhabits the whole eastern Unit-
ed States, and considerably to the northward, but
is said to be particularly numerous in the swampy
districts of Maryland and adjoining States.

Length, four inches and three-quarters, breadth
of wing, six and a half ; upper parts, greenish-
olive ; beneath, deep yellow, lighter on the belly ;
front, sides of the head and neck, black. The
female is somewhat paler and has not the black.

The Mourning Warbler, {Trichas Philadd-

pJiia, Aud. ; GeotJdypis Philadelphia, Baird,)
was first introduced to public notice by Wilson,
who only met with a single individual, a male,
which Wilson says "had a sprightly and pleasant
warbling song, the novelty of which at first at-
tracted my attention." So scarce is it that no
other was seen by ornithologists for several years,
and it began to be conjectured that the specimen
described by Wilson might prove to be merely
an accidental variety of some other species, as
perhaps of the preceding, {T. personatus,) to
which it is related. It has, however, been occa-
sionally met with since, in various parts of east-
ern North America, and it afi'orded me not a little
satisfaction a few months since, (Sept. 12th, 1861,)
to meet with one of these birds, though in its
autumnal or immature dress. From its excessive
rarity but little is known of its habits. The in-
dividual above alluded to was darting about with
great agility after flying insects, among the alders
and low trees in the swamp where it was obtained.

Length, five inches ; extent, eight and one-
fourth ; above, uniform greenish-olive ; cheeks,
throat and breast, buff", inclining, on the breast, to
dusky ; rest of the lower plumage, bright yellow ;
tail emarginate, and with the wings, strongly
tinged with greenish-olive. J. A. A.

Cambridge, March, 1862.

EXHIBITION OF FRUITS AND FLQ-WTEJRS.

We are glad to learn that the Concord Farmers'
Club has decided to hold an exhibition of Fruits
and Flowers in that town on the third Saturday of
June, the third Saturday of July, and the third
Saturday of August, ensuing. But this is not,
if we understand the matter correctly, to be done
exclusively by the Club, as it is expected that oth-
er citizens will be joined with the members of the
Club appointed to carry out the plans, and that
contributions to the exhibition are expected from
the citizens generally. With this view, we sug-
gest to the good people of that town to make such
preparations now as will enable them to assist in
gracing the show vnth the productions of their
flower-beds and gardens.

The occasion is to be open and free to all, either
to contribute to or to visit. We predict that these
exhibitions will be creditable to the citizens of the
town, and occasions of interest to all, but espec-
ially so to the children.

A Fox Story. — One day last week a party of
sportsmen belonging in this city and Boston went
on a fox hunting expedition to Chelmsford. On
"Thanksgiving Ground" they ran a fox into his
hole, and then commenced to dig for him. After
working smart a number of hours, they came upon
a nest of young fo«es, not having their eyes open,
one of which was brought away. One of the party
having a litter of young kittens at his house in
this city, placed this young fox with them, and it
takes its nourishment with the rest, and is now
doing M'ell. The old cat purs over the little stran-
ger, and does not seem to notice any difference
between it and her own family. — Lowell News.

254

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

June

For the New England Farmer.
"WORKING HOGS.

Mr. Editor : — I saw in your last January num-
ber a short article on working hogs. It is gener-
ally believed by farmers that hogs are valuable
stock to keep on a farm, not only for the flesh, but
for the manure they make, and for the labor which
they do on the manure heap. Now this is a grand
mistake. Hogs can never create any manure ; all
that they can do is to leave the surplus of what
you give them after taking out the nouinshment
of their bodies. As to their working on manure
heaps, I should rather they would work on their
own land, as there is nothing so injurious to a
manure heap as to keejJ digging and stirring it
over, and tliis is a work which many farmers want
their hogs to do.

It is painful to see farmers drawing out their
summer manure in the fall, and turning it down
in heaps on their plowed fields, there to take the
peltings of wind and storm through the winter,
and then in the spring draw out their winter ma-
nure and pile it on top, then dig it over two or
three times before they get it into the ground.
Did j^ou ever hear of any one offended with the
smell in digging over a heap of manure managed
in this way ? The reason is plain ; the gases go
to the four winds, and its nutritious .quality is
wasted.

My object in these remarks is to show the farm-
er the loss he sustains in exposing his manure
heap to the action of the air, sun and rain, and the
depredations of working hogs. The success of
the farmer depends very much on the amount of
manure he can procure for his farm, and the easiest
way to get it, is to furnish every animal about the
barn with a sufficient quantity of soil, muck, or
vegetable substance, to absorb all the liquid, so
that nothing will ooze out and be lost ; then keep
the manure heap as much as possible from the ac-
tion of the air and the rays of the sun, tramp it
down as hard as you please, the harder the better,
and one cord of such manure is worth two coi*ds
worked over repeatedly, and exposed to the wind
and storm.

Farmers, try the experiment. Plow in one cord
of each, side by side in your field, and you will
soon be convinced. H.

Dernj, N. H., March 20, 1862.

For the New England Farmer,

THE TURNIP CROP.

Although the turnip is raised and used extensive-
ly in Europe, as a valuable feed for milch cows and
stock in general, yet in this country they are
raised and fed very sparingly, as the prejudice
against them has arisen from the fact that they
impart an unpleasant taste to the milk. I admit
that this is the case when first fed in the flill, "for
perhaps two weeks," but continue to feed them,
and after the exph-ation of two weeks the most
particular taste cannot detect any unpleasantness
in the flavor of the milk. I have kept two milch
cows the past winter, principally upon English
turnips; they have consumed but al)nut 1200
pounds of hay, each cow having had one bushel of
turnips and one-half bushel of carrots per day.
The milk has been used in five difi'crcnt families,
without any complaint ; the cows keep in good

flesh and have given a good supply of milk. The
tuniip crop I consider one of the most valuable
for the stock farmer, as it can be raised at a veiy
trifling expense, compared with any other crop.
The turnip can be soAved after early vegetables are
taken from the land. I had about an acre of land
from which I took a good crop of English hay last
July, I then plowed and sowed it with English
strap-leaved turnip, from which I gathered the
same season upM'ards of 200 bushels, using but
320 pounds of Mapes' super-phosphate of lime.
This season I intend to sow it down with Hunga-
rian grass, therefore losing no time, and raising
the turnip at a trifling expense. J. s. I.

Salem, Feb. 12, 1862.

THE DAM AT NORTH BTT.T.ERICA.

We give below a little piece of history in rela-
tion to this dam, which is probably not generally
known. At the hearing before the Legislative
committee, in February last, one of the counsel for
the Talbots occupied a considerable portion of his
argument on the point that no complaint had been
made by the early settlers of the town that this
dam was a principal cause of the flooding of the
meadows. The following facts are incontroverti-
ble, and show what sort of agency is resorted to,
to continue this unjust and wicked oppression
upon an unofiending and long-suffering people.

There is no one thing that so disgraces the
State of Massachusetts as the law upon her stat-
ute books, that allows the private property of her
citizens to be taken from them without their con-
sent ! It is a shame upon her fair fame, and is sus-
tained, entirely, by a combination of the maniifac-
turing interests, to the great wrong of many of
our best citizens, and injury to our agricultural
prosperity. Let us see what are some of the
facts.

His Excellency, the Governor, in his last annu-
al address to the Legislature, called the attention
of that body to the subject of flowing and draining
lands in the following words : — "In this connection
I desire also to call the attention of the Legisla-
ture to a measure of justice and public utility
which will restore to cultivation many acres of the
richest and most productive lands in the State."
This subject of flowing and draining lands received
the attention of the General Court early in the
last century, and an act was passed in 1702, de-
signed to relieve wet lands of their burdens, and
to make them valuable to the colonists. The
Commonwealth might be benefited by an act of
similar import, if the provisions of it could be
faithfully carried out.

The act to which allusion has been made is
styled "An Act for appointing Commissioners of
Sewers." The preamble to this act is stated in
the following language : "Whereas, gi'eat quanti-
ties of meadows and low grounds belonging to
sundry persons in several towns, are spoiled by

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

255

the overflowing of rivers, brooks and waters, oc-
casioned by banks and stoppage in their courses,
which by industry may be removed to the benefit
and profit of the owners ; and also much meadow
and pasture land might be gained out of swamps
and other rough and unprofitable grounds by
draining the same : To the intent that the own-
ers of such lands and meadows may be encour-
aged and enabled to remove such obstructions as
occasion such overflows, and to drain and flow
their swamps, and other grounds, and thereby
bring them to meadow or pasture, that they may
be profitable to them, Be it enacted, &c., that it
shall be in the power of the Governor and Council,
from time to time, upon request to them made by
the major part of the proprietors of any such
lands, to grant commissioners of sewers to such
and so many able and discreet persons as to them
shall seem meet for the clearing and removing of
the banks and obstructions of the passage of the
waters in rivers, brooks or ponds that occasion the
overflows of and drowning of low meadows and
lands."

From this extract, the general intent of the law
is manifest. This law was not allowed to remain
a dead letter upon the statute book. Commis-
sioners of Sewers were appointed. One of the
streams which they were directed by the Governor
and Council to visit, upon the petition of land-
OAvners, was Concord river. The meadow-owners
upon this stream, about the year 1720, represent-
ed to the Governor and Council that their lands
were overflowed, and prayed to be relieved. A
commission of three were appointed and directed
to visit this stream, in order to determine by their
own observation, the condition of the river. This
commission reported to the Governor and Coun-
cil. In their report they say that they "visited
and sounded said river, or a great part of it, and
-made the best endeavor we could to find out what
and where the obstructions wei'e, that caused the
overflow of the said river, to the spoiling of the
meadows of Concord and Sudbury." They said
that one obstruction producing this efi'ect was a
dam across this stream in Billerica, erected by
Christopher Osgood. Of this dam, they say,
"which in our opinion very greatly hinders the
water's discharging itself. We have, therefore,
ordered and determined that the aforesaid dam,
stoppage or obstruction be so far pulled down and
removed as to give the said river its usual course
and channel, that being the only place to begin
the work at of clearing the said river to relieve
the complainants or petitioners, and that nothing
can be done that Avill be profitable until said ob-
struction is removed." They appointed seven
men to execute their order.

Immediately Christopher Osgood petitioned the
Governor and Council, to have the execution of

this order delaj^ed, "until a further view, examina-
tion and report be made of the said river and
the influence the said dam may have towards the
overflowing of the said meadows." In the peti-
tion, he states that he employed three men to
view his dam, who surveyed and sounded at the
dam and the ford-way above, and found the top
of the dam to be three feet lower than the bed of
the river at the fording place. Mr. Osgood's
prayer was granted. A committee was appointed
to view the premises. This committee reported
that they "having been on the spot at two several
times, once when the water was high and once
when it was low, and viewed the said mill, mill-
dam and the river as far as Concord, are of opin-
ion that the demolishing of the said mill-dam of
Christopher Osgood, will ease the said river and
help the meadows above." This report was read
in Council, when it was "ordered that the Com-
missioners of Sewers proceed forthwith in the ex-
ecution of their commission.

The Commissioners of Sewers discharged their
duty, and the dam was demolished in 1722. Those
who executed the order were prosecuted by Mr.
Osgood for trespass, on account of demolishing
his dam by "force and arms." The action was
brought in the "Inferior Court of Sessions."
The defendants answered that they acted under
an act of the Province, and that "any person ag-
grieved at any procedure" under this act may ap-
peal "to the Governor and Council for reHef." The
defence was sustained by the court, and Mr. Os-
good was ordered to pay the costs of the action.
The plaintifl" appealed to the Superior Court of
Sessions. This court sustained the decision of
the Inferior Court, and this case seems to have
ended here.

For the New England Farmer.
GIRDLED TREES.
Messrs. Editors : — I fear that the depreda-
tions of mice in young orchards, the past winter,
have been very destructive. My own observations,
and the lamentations of others over their disap-
pointed hopes, lead me to this conclusion. With
very young trees, I suppose the cheapest way is to
re-plant, if they are nearly or quite girdled ; but
larger trees, say from two to three inches through,
I think may be saved in another way, which may
not be new, but which I have seldom seen prac-
ticed. I will relate my own experience. A few
years since I had a fine, thrifty pear tree, which, in
the spring, showed evidence of deadly blight in
the bark at its foot, it being completely black and
dead for ten or twelve inches above the ground,
while the top appeared sound and well. I did not
like to lose the tree, so I went to a nursery and
procured three thrifty seedling pear stocks, about
as large round as my finger. These I cut ofi" at
the proper height by a slanting cut such as is
used in splice grafting, and planted them carefully
as near the trunk as I could conveniently, leaning
them towards it. I then, with .a sharp knife, cut

256

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

a wedge-shaped piece of bark from the trunk of
the tree opposite each stock, extending up into
the healthy bark about two inches, thus /\, then
shaping the stocks to fit the opening accurately, I
bound thera in with matting, and applying a little
grafting wax to keep out air and weather, left the
rest to nature. The result was, that I saved my
tree, and now have it in a very thrifty condition,
standing on three legs. There is no difficulty in
the operation, and the saving of a nice tree is well
worth the trial

A good deal has been said about the best time
for pruning trees. I have found no bad results
arising from pruning them at this season, always
covering the wound with grafting wax, made by
melting together equal parts of beeswax, resin and
mutton tallow ; this excludes the weather effectu-
ally, and is easily applied, and costs but little.

Worcester, April 13, 1862. M.

For the New England Farmer.
COST OP CUTTING- GRASS.

Messrs. Editors : — I have read the report of
the agricultural discussion, on Monday evening
last, with much interest. Like theological discus-
sions, it is very clear that much may be said on
both sides. How much of this discussion was
brought out by the hard-hands themselves, who
have learned their lessons in the field, under the
sweat of their own brow, I must leave for others
to estimate.

I notice an eminent farmer of Essex County
maintains, that when English grass can be cut for
one dollar per acre, by the scythe, it is not expe-
dient to use a mowing machine. Now I thought,
it had been demonstrated again and again, even
on the farm of this same gentleman, that the ex-
pense of cutting such grass, by the use of a well-
constructed and regulated mowing machine, need
not exceed half a dollar per acre. If, then, it is a
demonstrable fact, that one-half the expense of
cutting grass can be saved by the use of such a
machine, why not use it ? If gentlemen deviate
as far from the fact, on other topics, as in this,
what reliance can be placed on what they say ?

I had thought the improvements within the last
thirty years, in the plowing of land, and the cut-
ting of grass, two of the most prominent occupa-
tions on the farm, were marked and certain ; and
shall continue to think so, until I learn the con-
trary, from authority more reliable than that of

March 29, 1862. Fancy Farmers.

Lawyers. — Many persons suppose that lawyers
thrive upon the misfortunes of business men in
general. But gentlemen of the bar well know
how completely unfounded is this impression.
Their prosperity is intimately identified with that
of the other classes of society, for the increase of
proceedings of a vindictive nature but poorly com-
pensates for the great falling off in negotiations
and transfers in contests carried on in good faith
between responsible parties seeking to test doubt-
ful questions, and in the collectable proportion of
judgments. It is well that it is so, for it would be
a serious misfortune to any community to have in
its midst a numerous educated and influential class
with an interest adverse to that of the rest of so-
ciety.

For the New England Farmer.
HOW TO DRAIN—MANURES.

Your correspondent H. T., Rutland, Mass., puts
the question relative to draining a certain ten-acre
lot. I have a lot not so large, but similar to the
wettest portion of his ; in answer to him, I will give
the mode in which I treated mine. On one side
the lot was washed by a brook ; on the side oppo-
site the brook a hill, at the brow of which I caused
a ditch to be dug five feet deep ; at the bottom I
laid stones, with the upper edges together, leav-
ing a space in shape resembling the letter A, cov-
ering to the depth of two feet with small stones
and a laying of hassocks, then replaced the muck
from the head ditch, and had others to conduct
the water to the brook built in the same mode.
Five years have passed since ; the land has been
completely rid of water, and has produced first-
rate crops. I find the above used material to
be cheaper than tile or plank, and less trouble.
Most every farmer has them at hand, and wishes
to rid himself of them ; certainly there is no one
but can try it in a small way, and if so successful
as mine, will follow it.

Another correspondent asks — "Will Concentra-
ted Manure Pay ?" I find that the only dressing
that pays with me is that which is in the reach of
every farmer on his own farm, viz. : the drop-
pings of the cattle composted with muck, urine,
leaves, soap-suds and the contents ejected from
the sink spout. If the farmer who buys these high-
ly puffed fertilizers, takes the time in which he
earns the money to purchase them, devotes it to
the collecting of materials for the compost heap,
he will find that he would gain greater results
from that gathered by himself than that Avhich
he bought. For some years past I have tilled but
a small area of land, manuring it highly. I find
more profit than in a larger quantity, with less
manure to the same space of ground. I find that
after land is well seeded down to grass, it is not
best to disturb it, but to apply the dressing as a
top-dressing, saving expense of cultivating, and
getting greater return for the amount expended.

Cape Elizabeth, Me., April, 1862. s. P. M.

Surface of Gardens. — In the fine surface,
soil of old gardens, the seeds of a multitude of
plants, as well as many insects, or their ova, find a
lodgment. In order to get rid of them effectually,
it is a good plan to collect all the rubbish of the
garden in the spring, together with the prunings
from trees, and brush and weeds from pastures,
and burn them on the ground. The limbs of the
fir, spruce or hemlock, which many can command
in any quantity, or indeed, any combustible ma-
terial of little value otherwise, will answer as fuel
for this purpose, and add also to the fertility of
the soil by the ashes it leaves behind. But, of
course, this can only be done on that portion of
the garden where there are no perennial plants,
unless the soil be scraped away into little heajjs,
burnt over and returned to its place. This would
save a great amount of weeding, and destroy many
insects — so that the operation may be found prof-
itable in a great many cases.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

257

FENCES.
We do not often feel at liberty to exclude arti-
cles from our columns that question the right to
patents or improvements that are claimed, when
they are written in a kind spirit, and with an ap-
parent intention to subserve the cause of truth
and justice. With these views we published the
note from our "South Amherst" coiTCspondent,
believing that Mr. Smith would be able to defend
his interests if unjustly assailed. His statements
may be found in the letter below.

naverliill, N. H., May 5, 1852.

Deak Sir : — I read with some surprise the
communication from the South Amherst man
about my fence. As I wish to have the matter
fairly understood by you and the publishers of the
Farmer, I take the liberty of again writing you,
that strict justice may be done to all concerned,
and trust you will excuse the frequent use of the
personal pronoun, which may occur.

In the first place, I will not deny that two per-
sons, distant from each other, may devise precise-
ly the same improvement, but this is not likely to
happen.

In justice to myself, I will say that, with the
exception of three years, my life has been spent
on the farm I now occupy ; and for many years,
fences, and the improvements of them, have oc-
cupied more of my thoughts, by day and by night,
than any, if not everything else. I do believe I
never dug a hole in the ground and put a post of
wood in it, since I came to years of reflection, and
felt right about it, or satisfied in doing it. Dur-
ing my absence from home, as a teacher in Vir-
ginia, my thoughts were constantly running upon
improvements in them, and while there, I planned
two or three kinds, which I determined to try
when back again on the farm. To be brief, eight
or ten years ago, I tried the kind you have on
your farm, without the grooving or the wire hold-
fasts, and the first words I uttered, after nailing
on the braces, were, "It is a triumph !" This fence,
with the improvements, was exhibited at the New
York State Fair, (too late for a px'emium,) and
pronounced much better than any other. It was
shown at the Vermont and New Hampshire State
Fairs, and at each drew both premiums and di-
plomas. It has been built, (as at first,) on my
own farm, by the sides of the main thoroughfare
through this valley, and seen by thousands for
eight years, and never, but in a single instance,
has my claim as to its originality been denied, and
that was by a man who had to leave town for steal-
hig at a funeral ! He said he had helped to build
the same thing on the railroad. I asked how
they did it ? He replied, they laid down a sleep-
er, spiked the foot of the post to it, and nailed
boards for braces, a la mode Vandermark !

In one word, the fence, from top to bottom, is
in every sense my own, as much as the able essay
upon the value and uses of Swamp Muck in the
Patent Office Report for 1856, is yours.

When at your place, you will recollect I showed
you Munn & Co.'s letter about my patent. After
stating the claims allowed, they say, "It is certain
no one can build the fence with braces on both
sides," and also, "We think you have got all you
want."

I have MTitten to a friend to investigate the
South Amherst fences, and when heard from, wish
to send an article for the Farmer in reply. My
model was with Ex-Com. Burke more than two
years before I would let the application be made,
(wishing to perfect the fence,) and from that, or
the fences here by the roadside, I think the South
Amherst farmer got his fence ideas. Mine have
been got by an immense amount of study and ex-
periments, with some failures, and the theory is
before the farmers of New England, with every
claim as honestly and fairly mine as any work
done during my lifetime. c„arles R. Smith.

FAKRAK'S PATENT ADJUSTABLE HOOK
LADDER.

It is often said that it is the little things of life
that go to make up its great sum. This truism
applies especially to articles which are patented —
as it usually is articles that are small and cheap,
but those that are used by millions, which are
really the most useful, and that best reward the
genius and labor of the inventor. This adjustable
Hook is one of them. The inventor gives the
best account of its usefulness, and we will stand
aside and let him speak for himself. He says ; —

The inventor is aware that ladders have been
furnished with hooks permanently attached to
their sides. But hooks so attached are in the way
when the ladder is used for other purposes than
of ascending the roofs of buildings, and workmen
are often obliged to carry a hook ladder to their
places of business, or else go with an uncertainty
as to finding one.

The object of this invention is to obviate these
difficulties, and to furnish a hook which may be

258

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

easily transported separate from the ladder, and
which ma}' be applied to any ordinary ladder when
requii-ed.

The Adjustable Hook can be attached to the
ladder by clamping it to the two upper rounds,
the clamp being made adjustable so that it may
be fitted to ladders of different sizes, or in which
the rounds are different distances apart. Two of
the hooks can be attached to a ladder, but in or-
dinary cases I have found, when working on the
roof, one hook is best, as the ladder can be more
easily moved about, and one hook is sufficiently
strong for ordinary purj^oses. Another advantage
of this hook is that it can be applied to any part
of the ladder.

Farmers, and all who have buildings, will find
this hook very useful. Buildings may be often
saved from fire by having one of these hooks at
hand, as a ladder can most always be readily
found, and the hook can be applied in a moment.

For the New England Farmer.
CEAIfBEBBir CULTUBE.

Having a great love for the cranberry, thinking
it superior to any article that grows, for ordinary
sauce for the table, I am always gratified to meet
sound, practical instioiction, from sound, practical
men. Such I take Mr. Addison Flint, of Read-
ing, to be. I know he and Father Sheldon, of
Wilmington, sprung from the same meadow, and
have conned their lessons agricultui'al in much the
same manner. They are both somewhat positive
in their opinions, and rather inclined "to stick to
what they have said," be it right, or wrong. Now,
so far as this sticking is concerned, I am decided-
ly in favor of it ; for a man who will not stick to
what he says, had better say nothing. I remem-
ber hearing the great Jeremiah Mason arguing to
the Court some question of law, when the senior.,
Judge on the Bench made a remark about the
matter in hearing, when Mr. Mason turned to the
Court, and said, "Will your Honors stick to
that ?" with a shrug of his shoulders at the same
time, as much as to say, "You do not always stick
to what you say." But the question is, how is
this to be applied to cranberry culture ? Mr.
Flint thinks cranberries will be best grown, where
the land can be completely flowed, and all other
vegetation driven out by this flowage. Perhaps
it is so. The very last season, I received a bushel
of cranberries, from a man in Manchester, as
handsome as I ever saw, who obtained the first
premium of the Essex Society for the growing of
cranberries. ItAvas awarded by Mr. N. Page, Jr.,
a modest young man, who knows quite as much
about the growing of cranberries as any other
man among us, and has told what he knows, in a
sensible essay, published in Mr. Secretary Flint's
recent volume of the Agriculture of Massachu-
setts.

Since the experiment of Mr. Elias Needham, in
the growing of cranberries on the upland, I have
been accustomed to think, that none of so good
quality could be otherwise grown. Nevertheless,
it is quite certain, that the true j)osition for the
cranberry is on low, level ground, where a flow of
water can occasionally be introduced. If I do
not mistake, the culture of this delicious vegeta-

ble is destined to a great increase, and that there
will be at least ten bushels raised, where there
is now but one. p.

For the New Etii^land Farmer.
NOTES PEOM THE MONOMACK.
BY SAGGAHEW^.

RlisGlNG. — Most of the readers of the Farmer
are doubtless somewhat familiar v.ith the philoso-
phy of "ringing" fruit branches, for the purpose of
increasing the size of the fruit. It may be briefly,
though imperfectly, explained as folloAvs :

As the blood, after traversing the arteries of
the human body to their minutest extremity, is
returned to the heart through the veins, so the
sap of trees and plants is returned to the roots,
through appropriate vessels, or channels, located
beneath the outer bark. If we compress the bark
below a pear, or bunch of grapes, the sap, is
impeded in its return flow, and, as experimenta
have fully proved, it expends itself in enlarging
and perfecting the fruit below the strictui-e. The
most approved mode of performing this experi-
ment is by cutting out a narrow ring of bark just
below the fruit to be expei'imented upon — hence
the name "ringing." Fruit thus treated is much
larger, and every way finer, than that upon the
same tree, or vine, wliich has not been subjected
to this process.

While conversing Avith a townsman, some
months since, the subject of "ringing" chanced to
be mentioned, and as he had never heard of it, I
was induced to explain the operation, as Avell as
the philosophy of the thing. On concluding, he
pointed to a large apple tree standing in his gar-
den, and observed, that, although it has regularly
blossomed profusely, it for many years never ri-
pened a crop of fruit. It seemed to have a con-
firmed habit of dropping its fruit, while the latter
was quite small, and he had repeatedly almost de-
cided to cut it down, as entirely worthless. But
a few years since, he happened to read in some
newspaper that if a ring of the bark on the princi-
pal limbs was vigorously scraped, just after the
fruit had set, such trees would cease to drop their
fruit before maturity. As the proposed remedy
Avas a simple one, he tried it. The result Avas
most gratifying. For the first time in its history,
the tree matured a large crop of fine fruit. Since
that time he has occasionally given the bark of the
trunk, and the base of principal limbs, a good
scraping, and the tree has borne him regular crops.

He had never heard of the philosophy of the
process, and it Avas only Avhen Ave explained the
philosophy of "ringing" that the reason of his
success in scraping his old apple tree flashed ujjon
his mind. He observed that the simple remedy
had saved him many barrels of fine apples and
transformed a valueless tree into one of the most
productive in his Avhole garden.

Are there not many such trees still casting their
untimely fruit, and is not the hint Avhich resulted
so favorably in this instance, Avell Avorth acting
upon in all similar cases ? I think so. Will not
some of the readers of the Farmer try the experi-
ment, and note the result ? I should add that,
in obstinate cases, the scraping should be pretty
severe, so as to be sure to impede the return floAV
of the sap, and thus compel it to expend itself in
maturing the fruit.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

259

For the New England Farmer.

SA^WDUST AS AOr ABSORBENT— TO
MEASURE A TON OF HAY.

Mr. Editou : — As I have used considerable
sawdust for the last year, and with very good suc-
cess, I do not hesitate to say that it is the very
best thing to use for bedding under cattle and
horses. It is very absorbent, and will take in a
large quantity of water. Put it inulcr the cattle
and it will soak up the liquid, and keep them nice
and dry. It is also a good fixer of ammonia. Every
one knoAvs, who is familiar with the horse stable,
that on entering it he finds a very bad odor aris-
ing. If you Avould use a half-bushel of sawdust a
day, for each horse, on the sta!)le floor, it would
prevent it entirely, and add greatly to the manure-
heap.

TO MEASURE A TON OF HAY.

In the Farmer of November 30th, in an article
on weights and measures, it is said that one hun-
dred cubic feet of hay, in a solid mow or stack,
will weigh a ton. I think this is a mistake, and it
is very important that every farmer should know
how to reckon up his hay, after he gets through
haying. A mow of hay that is well stowed, will
weigh out a ton to every five hundred cubic feet,
or if it is of a very fine quality, from four to five
hundred feet will make a ton. Five hundred cu-
bic feet is as small a number as we can often reck-
on a ton of hay in. A ton of pressed hay will
measure over two hundred feet. a. l. w.

Hojje, Me., April, 1862.

Remarks. — Thank you, sir. We do not find
the article to which you refer, but if it stated 100
cubic feet for a ton, it was a mistake. We have
often given these estimates. In the monthly Far-
mer for January, 1860, we give the estimates of
several persons. One says, that "the top of a
mow, say about one-third, would require 800 cu-
bic feet to the ton ; the middle 700 feet, and the
bottom 600 feet." Another, that at the bottom of
a mow 400 feet will make a ton, and that a whole
barn full weighed out, averaged a little less than
500 feet to the ton. Another of our coiTespond-
ents states that farmers in his region estimate that
from 400 to 500 cubic feet to the ton, according to
the position in which it lies, is sufficient.

BURSTING- OF AN ICEBERG.

A few years ago, a French man-of-war Avas ly-
ing at anchor in Temple Bay ; the younger officers
resolved on amusing themselves with an iceberg,
a mile or more distant in the Straits. They made
sumptuous preparations for a picnic upon the very
top of it, the mysteries of which they were curious
to see. All warnings of the brown and simple
fishermen, in the ears of the smartly-dressed gen-
tlemen who had seen the world, were quite idle.
It was a bright summer morning, and the jolly
boat, with a showy flag, went off to the berg. By
twelve o'clock, the colors were flying from the ice
turrets, and the wild midshipmen Avere shouting
from its walls. For two hours or so, ihey hacked
and clambered upon the crystal palace, frolicked
and feasted, drank wine to the king and ladies,

and laughed at the thought of peril where all was
fixed and solid. As if in amazement at such rash-
ness, the grim Alp of the sea made neither sound
nor motion. A profound stillness watched on his
shining pinnacles, and hearkened in the blue
shadows of the caves. When, like thoughtless
children, they had played themselves weary, the
old alabaster of Greenland mercifully suffered
them to gather up their toys and go down to their
cockle of a boat and flee away. As if the time
and distance •were measured, he waited until they
could see it and live, when, as if his heart had
been a volcanic fire, he burst with awful thunders,
and filled the surrounding waters with his ruins.
A more astonished little party seldom come home
to tell the story of their panic. It was their fii'st,
and theii- last day of amusement with an iceberg.

For the Netp England Farmer.
HOP CULTURE.

In reply to Mr. Stanford's inquiry in regard to
raising hops, I Avould advise him to continue the
cultivation of his yard, as I think they will com-
mand a remunerative price, from the fact that
hops have been very low for a few years past, and
consequently, many yards have been plowed up or
neglected, so that the supply will not be as large
for a few yeai's to come as in yeai*s past. Having
lived in Otsego county, the great hop-yard of New
York, and worked in the hop-yards considerably,
I will state their mode of cultivation.

The first year, they are cultivated like corn,
no poles being set, and in the fall a shovelful of
coarse manure is thrown on each hill, to keep them
from freezing, and also to keep the land in good
condition. The next spring the poles are set, two
in each hill, as soon as they begin to show them-
selves out of the ground. The poles should be
set very firm, to resist the winds, which exert a
tremendous power on them when loaded with
vines. Poles are generally cut eighteen to tw-enty
feet long, which admits of their being sharpened
two or three times if they rot off, as they always
do in a few years. The land must be cultivated
the same as for corn, keeping the weeds down,
and hilling the hops up about the fii-st of July, the
same as corn. As soon as the hops are from two
to four feet high, they must be tied to the poles
with woolen yarn, putting two vines to the poles
and cutting off all others close to the ground.
Nothing more is necessary until picking time, ex-
cept to keep watch and fasten up vines that hap-
pen to fall down, and re-set the poles if any should
happen to blow over. The picking is usually done
by women and boys at about two cents per bushel.
Boxes made of thin, light wood, and holding from
twenty to thirty bushels are used to pick them in ;
foui- picking in a box, and having one man to pull
the poles, cut off the vines, and lay them on the
box. Large sacks are used to carry them to the
kiln where they are dried before they are market-
able.

The size of the kiln must depend on the size of
the yard. A yard of two acres would require a
kiln about fourteen by sixteen feet, and twelve
foot posts ; the lower room seven feet between
joints, and lathed and plastered, so as to be perfect-
ly tight, except overhead, where there should be
floor timbers eighteen inches apart, and a floor of

260

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

slats one and a quarter inches square, and laid one-
half inch apart, and the whole covered with a kind
of open cloth made for the purpose. On this floor
the hops are spread from four to six inches deep,
and a fire of charcoal made in the room below,
and the temperature raised to about one hundred
and twelve degrees. It usually takes about twelve
hours to dry a kiln, they being stirred up every
hour, and a teaspoon of sulphur put on the fire
about as often ; the object of which is to bleach or
whiten them. After being dried so that no mois-
ture can be extracted by squeezing them between
the thumb and finger, they are taken off and pre-
pared in bales of one hundred and fifty to two
hundred ])ounds, and sent to market.

The poles are stacked upright in piles of about
one hundred, and left until the next spring. Hops
can usually be sold in any city where there are
brewers, but I believe that New York and Albany
are said to be the best markets for them in the
United States. Any other information which I
can impart in regard to their culture will be cheer-
fully given. H.

Rensselaer County, N. Y., 1862.

EXTBACTS AND REPLIES.
PEAK TREES AND HENS.

I built me a hen-house last fall large enough for
fifty hens, and this spring I intend to fence ofi"
one-third to one-half an acre for them to run in,
and also intend they shall be kept in the yard, for
if there is anything I dislike, it is to have hens in
my barn or garden.

I am in hopes my hens will pay all expenses
and leave a little profit ; but to make sure, I intend
to set out the yard as full of trees as I can, and
have them do well. It seems to me that hens in
an orchard of any kind of fruit will be of great
benefit to the fruit and the trees ; to the fruit, by
picking up all insects that injure our fruit, if they
should be unlucky enough to fall to the ground ;
and to the trees, by keeping the land in good con-
dition. I should prefer to set standard pear trees,
twenty-five to thirty feet apart, and then fill up
with dwarfs, but do not know much about pear
trees. The soil is thin, and consists of a gravelly
loam, quite stony, on a gravelly subsoil, but it is
rather moist and bears good crops of grass. The
exposure is about south-east.

From the imperfect outline I have given, can
you recommend me to set out pear trees ?

A. J. Aldrich.

North BlacJcstone, April, 1862.

Remarks. — The land you describe is not so fa-
vorable for pear trees as a clayey loam would be,
but by enriching and deepening the soil and
mulching the trees so as to keep them moist, you
may succeed.

ashes and night soil.

It is said by some that it is wasteful to mix
ashes with the contents of the privy. Is it so ?
And if so, why, and to what extent is it wasteful ?

Farmingvillc, 1862. Inquirer.

Remarks. — It is supposed that alkaline sub-
stances mixed with green manure, set their am-
monia free, wliich escapes and is lost.

saving seed corn.

Friend Brown : — Your monthly visits to our
yeomanry make us acquainted with the opera-
tions of others in the various branches of business
employing our farmers through the country ; the
profit, or loss, or convenience realized by their
difi"erent skill, economy and perseverance evinced
in their management. Like us, having farms,
buildings, fences, stock and fruit, with all the va-
riety of soil, seeds, and culture, as well as time
and place of sowing and harvesting and marketing
or using — and the result of experience in the em-
ployment of machinery or manual labor, and all
that relates to feeding and training both the fami-
ly and the animals for the highest usefulness. A
fund of knowledge is available at our homes,
through the New England Farmer, giving our
sons a taste for reading, and writing even, that
will save the time and expense of travel for per-
sonal intercourse, or give double value to such
travel for such information. Please accept a few
words on saving seed corn.

Many years ago, I was particular to have the
ears filled out with a kernel on the top. This was
quite a saving and a gratification to me, and others,
seeing how invariably it was secured. One old
man said to me, "I have always picked the first
ripe ears from the stalk in the field, thus gaining
two or three weeks, and sometimes the ripening
before a frost, and hundreds of dollars to my in-
terest for such seed." Another man, on viewing
my field, said, "My grand object has been to get
twin ears to plant. I sometimes find three or four
upon one stalk. I can assure you it pays well,
but I never thought of the filling out and early rip-
ening in saving seed."

Since then, I have adopted all three of these
characteristics, and recommend it. The laws of
our all-wise Creator are true, "What a man sow-
eth, that shall he also reap."

Benjamin Willard.

HolyoTce, April 9, 1862.

seeding with fowl meadow.

I have a piece of land which I would like to lay
down to fowl meadow. It is low and clear from
stones ; the soil is rich and composed of black
mold. Now I would like to know which is the
best time to sow it, spring or fall ? If spring,
would it be advisable to sow any other grain with
it, and if so, what kind, and how much seed to the
acre ? Thomas Goldsmith.

Auburn, N E., 1862.

Remarks. — The common grains that we usu-
ally sow grass seed with, would scarcely succeed
on lands suitable to grow fowl meadow grass.
Sow in the spring. Some of the crop is usually
left to ripen so as to sow itself annually. It is a
fine seed, and we should think six to eight quarts
per acre would be sufficient, perhaps less.

TO prevent cows from kicking.

Put a trace chain tightly around the cow for-
ward of the hips.

I had a heifer last season that kicked so that
she could not be milked. My man put a chain
around her a few times, and it broke her entirely.

East Hardwick, Vt., 1862. P.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

261

HENS, TURNIPS, SELF-SUCKING COWS.

Will some of the readers of the Farmer give us
their experience as to the profit of keeping hens
on a larger scale than we find in almost every
number of that valuable paper, with their mode of
treatment, &c. ? I keep 400 in 8 houses, which
paid me a profit of $200 on last year. When I
have had more experience in the business, I will
give you the particulars.

Will you also inform me why my ruta baga tur-
nips (which I raised quite extensively for sheep
last year) had an inclination to run up to seed, or
had a stalk on many of them from 6 to 1 2 inches
high? I got my seed from a respectable seed store
in Boston, and supposed it to be good. Was it in
the seed, or through some mismanagement on my
part?

Also, will some one inform me how to prevent
a valuable young cow from sucking herself?

Cape Cod Farmer.

East Orleans, April, 1862.

Remarks. — We hope "Cape Cod Farmer" will
get satisfactory replies to his questions.

GOATS AND HORSES.

I wish to inquire through your paper —

1. How much of the year will a goat give milk?

2. Which is the best, to let her breed once or
twice a year ?

3. Which is the best age to let a goat begin to
breed ?

4. What is the best fodder in the winter ?

5. Will sheep and goats do well together ?

6. Which is the best, plank or ground for horse
stables ?

7. What is good for bots and worms in horses ?

A Farmer Boy.
Kensington, N. H., 1862.

Remarks. — We cannot answer the questions in
relation to goats. Wood ashes, mixed with cut
feed will destroy worms in horses.

leghorn fowls.

In reply to "Subscriber" in the Farmer of
April 12, 1 would say,

1. The piece I referred the gentleman to was in
the Neio England Farmer.

2. It might not be pleasant to the writer of the
article to have his name used in this connection.
I dare say he was perfectly honest ; but very like-
ly had never seen many Leghorn fowls, and
thought them as nice as others.

3. The gentleman who purchased the six fowls,
was C. K. Hubbard, (opposite City Hall,) Worces-
ter, who knows and keeps nice fowls.

If "Subscriber" is particular about knowing the
name of the writer of the article I referred to, he
he can ascertain by addressing

New Worcester, 1862. C. K. Hubbard.

how to make EMPTYINGS OR YEAST.

Having seen a number of receipts for making
bread, etc., in your valuable paper, I venture to
send you one for making emptyings : Make hasty
pudding, (Indian,) in the usual way; as soon as it
is cookpd odd three or four large spoonfuls of sour

milk, and a small quantity of lye, or wheat meal,
or Hour, to a quart of pudding ; and after suffi-
ciently cooled so as not to scald, stir in a little
yeast and set to rise. Emptyings made in this way
may be used, (adding a little saleratus,) to mix
bread, dumplings, &:c., with, using no other wet-
ting, thus effecting a great saving in flour. Bread
and other things, made in this way, are as good
or better than when mixed with milk.

Cheshire, N. II., 1862. Subscriber.

FINE BARLEY.

In 1860, from fifteen pounds sowing, I raised
480 pounds. It weighed from fifty-eight to sixty
pounds to the bushel. I send you 'a head or two
of the barley. H. A. Buttolph.

Shelburn, Vt., 1862.

Remarks. — This barley is very handsome.

MACKAY swine.

Will you, or some of your correspondents, in-
form me where I can obtain two pigs, one male
and one female, of the full-blooded Mackay breed
of hogs, and oblige a subscriber ? r. H. S.

Northfield Farms, April, 1862.

PERILS OP CHAMOIS-HUNTIWG.

Three experienced shots of Appenzell were
hunting on the Gloggeren, that lofty wall rising
south-east from the See Alp, which one passes on
the way from Weissbad over the Meglis Alp. One
of them went by thiii lower path, a second higher
up over Marwies, and the third hunter over a nar-
row grassy ledge on the rocky wall between the
two first mentioned. The chamois were driven
along this grassy ledge. The highest and lowest
had easier going, and came earlier to the place
where the combined shooting was to begin. The
first saw the beasts coming to him, coming direct-
ly towards his rifle, and waited, looking out con-
stantly for the third, Avho was driving them along
the grass ledge. The chamois came gradually
nearer ; he is afraid of losing his shot, lies in a fe-
verish state of excitement, fires, and, frightened at
the report, the beasts turn and fly hurriedly along
the ledge the same way that they had come. Just
at a narroAV sloping place, scarcely broad enough
for a man to pass where it bends round a project-
ing rock, they came in their wildest flight upon
the hunter climbing toilsomely upwards. If the
two parties had met upright on this giddy rim of
the rock, the hunter must infallibly have been
dashed over a clift" sinking for more than 100 feet,
as the chamois would instinctively in the agony of
despair have tried to squeeze themselves between
the rock and the hunter. The man prudently ob-
served this, and to save his life, threw himself
down and let the whole herd rush at a flying leap
over him. Another hunter in Glarus, in a similar
position at a critical place, thought that he might
secure his booty by a quick resolve, and cowered
down sitting, wedged firmly against a rock, and
shot. The charge missed, the chamois jumped
over him, but touched him in his bounding elastic
spring with one of his hind hoofs on the jacket,
and tore its highest button-hole ; a hesitation
would have infallibly sent both over a crushing
Ml— -"The Alps," hy II. Berelepsch.

262

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

For Hie Neic England Farmer,
AGKICITLTTJIIAL EDUCATION".

Mr. Editor : — I hope I shall not be under-
stood to be opposed to the study of agricultui'e
itself, because I have opposed its introduction as
a study into our common schools and colleges.
There is need enough of the study of agriculture,
but this is no reason why it should be introduced
into our common schools and colleges which were
designed and established for the purpose of giv-
ing instruction in other branches which are abso-
lutely indispensable to the public welfare. Be-
sides, these institutions have already as many
studies as the)t can attend to and teach success-
fully ; and they ought not to be perverted to other
purposes.

Neither our common schools, nor our colleges,
as at present constituted and conducted, can teach
agriculture successfully, because they are not
adapted to the purpose, and have not the means
of doing it. They have not the land to cultivate,
nor the means of cultivating it. The time and
attention of the pupils, in both institutions, are
necessarily devoted to other studies, so that any
attempt to introduce the study of agriculture
would utterly fail of success, and not only injure
these institutions, but injure the interests of ag-
riculture, also, by creaLiug a strong prejudice
against it, as a useless and unnecessary study.
No ; agriculture cannot be successfully taught in
these institutions. They have not the means of
showing the best way and manner of doing all
kinds of farm work. This can be taught only on
the farm, and under the personal supervision of a
good farmer, who is able to teach by precept and
example. And it is to be learned only by labor
and application, by following the instruction and
example of others, and by reading, reflection and
study.

The only substitute for family instruction on
the farm, is that of farm schools, established and
endowed for the purpose. They are usually fur-
nished with all the means of teaching all the
branches experimentally and practically. They
have all the means, including the necessary funds
and teachers, to do it with. At home, on the
farm, the scholar can learn no more of farm ope-
rations, than he is taught by the family and by
the example of everyday laborers, and also by
reading agricultural books and papers. But at
the farm school he will enjoy additional advan-
tages. He will not only be taught how to do ev-
ery particular kind of farm M'ork, but also the rea-
son why it should be done thus and so, and not
in a different way and manner. He will have an
opportunity of witnessing all kinds of agricultvu-al
experiments, and of having the nature and opera-
tion of every process fully explained. Theoreti-
cal and practical lectures will be given in connec-
tion with every kind of farm work, so that the
young farmer will be made to understand his
business.

But after all, it is said, that scientific lectures
are not adapted to the capacities of the young,
and are liable to be misunderstood by them. That
this is sometimes the case is very evident from
the following example : A certain boy went to
hear a celebrated minister lecture on the subject
of Peter's denying his Master. The boy was very
much pleased with the minister's beautiful lec-

ture, so elegant and so eloquent ; and being urged
to tell what the minister said that pleased him so
much, "Why," said he, "the minister said that Pe-
ter swore three times before he crowed !" Such,
however, is not the effect of scientific lectures
when delivered in connection with farm schools,
because they are always accompanied with visible
illustrations and practical examples which make
them intelligible and instructive. Still, it is un-
doubtedly true, in some degree, that those only
who have prepared their minds by previous study,
can profit much by scientific lectures. It is non-
sense to think of pouring out knowledge upon
those who are not prepared to receive it, and who
make no efibrt to understand and reduce it to
practice. To obtain a correct knowledge of the
business of agriculture in its most minute details,
requires study, thought and reflection, and a ready
and willing mind to reduce to practice the lessons
of experience. There is work to be done, and it
must be done by those who would learn how to
do it. The work must be done scientifically and
correctly, as explained and exemplified by the
teacher. No farm school can prosper, or be use-
ful, which does not teach by example, as well as
by precept. John Goldsbury.

Warwick, Mass., 1862.

THE STBA-WBERRY.

(FRAGARIA VESCA.)

There are many varieties of this fruit, all of
which are more or less valuable. The common
native strawberry of our fields is but little culti-
vated, but it is nevertheless equal in value to many
of the foreign and "improved" varieties. Being
indigenous, it is necessarily more hard)', and with
proper cultivation, is even more prolific. The
fruit is not so large, but of superior flavor. The
plants should be set in August, in rich, mellow
soil, in rows two feet asunder, and about one foot
apart in the rows. Compost, formed of putres-
cent vegetable matter, house ashes and plaster
should be well worked in, and the plants frequent-
ly watered with soap suds, or water from the barn-
yard. A cask, filled with old muck, into which a
few pounds of guano has been mingled, will form
an excellent reservoir, by filling it with water.
This may be drawn into a watering-pot and put
upon the plants in the evening with great advan-
tage. The water drawn from this mass should
be quite weak, but if the season is at all dry, should
be applied every evening.

The runners, of which many will appear the
following season, should be removed, and the
ground kept light and clear of weeds. As soon
as the fruit is fairly formed, the spaces between
the plants should be covered with straw or tan, to
prevent the fruit, in its ripe state, from coming in
contact with the dirt, and to prevent the growth
of weeds and excessive evaporation. This cover-
ing may be kept in place by sticks or stones, or
by throwing a little loose earth upon it, and need
not be removed until the next spring. These re-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

263

commendations are suggested for application where
only a small portion of land is occupied, and -where
it is desired to secure the largest possible product.
On a large scale, for market purposes, it is ques-
tionable whether this course would be the most
profitable.

The strawberry, more than most other plants,
needs a large amount of water, — and some culti-
vators who have been quite successful, state that
they produce heavy crops on indifferent soils, by
the use of large quantities of water alone. The
best course is, to set the plants on a soil that would
bring fifty bushels of corn per acre, supply water
plentifully and keep the soil light and clear.

Fur the New England Farmer.
THE PARSNTP WORM.

Mr. Editor: — In the April number of the
Farmer you give quite a long account of the pars-
nip ; speaking of the value of that root and the
carrot as feed for stock. You figure a tortrix
moth with the chrysaHs and caterpillar, but only
refer to it, without giving any of its history. I
think that pui-e science and the application of sci-
ence to use ought to assist each other ; and often
if you should give the history of a pernicious in-
sect, it would help on agriculture, and at the same
time furnish useful material to the scientific man.
If you can, I should like to have you write the
history of tliis moth.

In raising any crop, it is of great importance to
consider what will endanger it ; as sometimes a
crop is completely lost, by neglecting to foresee
and provide against its enemies. Very conspicu-
ous among the enemies of our crops are the in-
sects which feed upon them ; and I think any in-
formation about them is valuable. The most im-
portant insect feeding upon the parsnip lives on
other plants of the same family — the carrot, cele-
ry, caraway, parsley, &c. It is a caterpillar, at
first of a black color with two wide white bands
encircling it, afterwards it changes its color with
successive moultings, and becomes green, with
cross bands of black spotted with yellow, one stripe
to each segment. When full grown they measure
about an inch and a half in length, tapering from
the fourth ring towards the head and tail. When
disturbed they thrust out two orange-colored
horns, of a soft substance, which diffuse a disa-
greeable odor, probably protecting them from mo-
lestation. The first brood of these caterpillars come
to maturity about the middle of July, and change
to chrysalides after suspending themselves by the
tail, and a loop around their body, to a fence or
anything that will give them support and protec-
tion. The chrysalis is generally of a straw-color,
spotted with green and black. After remaining
in this state about a fortnight the chrysalis bursts
open and the butterfly appears. It is black, with
two rows of yellow spots on the margin of the
wings ; the inner row often being absent on the
fore wings of the female. Between the rows of
yellow spots on the hind wing there is a row of
blue ones, with a deep orange one on the inner
margin. They expand about three and a half
inches. These lay their eggs, which form a brood

of caterpillars in September and October, changing
into the chrysalis state in October, to remain thus
through the winter, coming out in the spring to
lay eggs for the summer brood. A full descrip-
tion of the insect can be found in Harris' "Trea-
tise on Insects Injurious to Vegetation," under the
name of "Parsley-worm ;" the scientific name is
Papilio Asterias.

L)o the best we can, our efforts would be of lit-
tle avail in checking these insects, but we are not
left alone to do the work of extermination ; this
caterpillar is attacked by an ichneumon of a brick
red color with black wings, about three-fourths of
an inch long and ex]:)anding an inch and one-
fourth, which lays one e^g in a caterpillar ; which
egg contains a grub that, as soon as hatched, feeds
upon the caterpillar, eating at first the fat and
other parts not necessary for the life of the cater-
pillar, but after that has thrown off its skin and
become a clu-ysalis, it devours all the rest, leaving
nothing but an empty shell. When the time for
the butterfly to come forth has come, the ichneu-
mon eats through the wing of the chrysalis and
goes forth to destroy other caterpillars in its turn.
To show how much aid these ichneumon flies are
to the farmer, I will state that out of sixteen
chrysalids I obtained last fall, two have come out
butterflies and fourteen have come out ichneu-
mons ; take off a few such checks, and the results
would be a host of caterpillars next summer, al-
most equal to the army worm of the last season.

But to secure the present crop, it will be seen
that we must search for the caterpillars and des-
troy them ourselves, for the ichneumon do not kill
them until they have done all the mischief they
can ; they prevent them from increasing the num-
ber next brood. Harris does not speak of this
ichneumon in his book, so I thought some of your
readers would like to know its history, and I de-
scribed the butterfly for those who did not have ac-
cess to the book at all.

Carleton a. Shurtleff.

BrooMine, April, 1862.

MIQlSrONETTE AS A TREE.

Buy a pot of ordinary mignonette. This pot
will probably contain a tuft composed of many
plants produced from seeds. Pull up all but one ;
and, as the mignonette is one of the most rustic
of plants, which may be treated without any deli-
cacy, the single plant that is left in the middle of
the pot may be rigorously trimmed, leaving only
one shoot. Tliis shoot you must attach to a slen-
der stick of white osier. The extremity of this
shoot will put forth a bunch of flower-buds, that
must be cut off entirely, leaving not a single bud.
The stalk, in consequence of this treatment, will
put out a multitude of young shoots, that must be
allowed to develop freely until they are about three
inches and a half long. Then select out of these
four, six, or eight, according to the strength of the
plant, with equal spaces between them. Now,
with a slender rod of white osier, or better, with a
piece of whalebone, make a hoop, and attach your
shoots to it, supported at the proper height.
When they have grown two or three inches long-
er, and are going to bloom, support them by a
second hoop like the first. Let them bloom ; but
take off the seed pods before they have time to
form, or the plant may perish. It will not be long

264

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

before new shoots will appear just below the pla-
ces where the flowers were. From among these
new shoots, choose the one on each branch which
is in the best situation to replace what you have
nipped off. Little by little, the principal stalk,
and also the branches, will become woody, and
your mignonette Avill no longer be an herbaceous
plant, except at its upper extremities, which will
bloom all the year without interruption. It Avill
be truly a tree mignonette, living for an indefinite
period ; for, with proper treatment, a tree mig-
nonette will live twelve to fifteen years. I have
seen them in Holland double this age. — Parlor
Gardener.

Fur tlte New England Farmer.
WHEAT BBAM' AS A FERTILIZER.

Mr. Editor : — A communication in the week-
ly Fariner of Feb. 22, 1862, from J. P., states
that he has tried the experiment with wheat bran
as a fertilizer for corn, and that it has failed. Now
I must say that I am surprised at the result of his
experiments with it in regard to corn ; but with
potatoes not, for it has been demonstrated in this
vicinity to be worthless for them.

I quote from memory, but I think that I con-
veyed the idea in the said communication to which
he refers, that it was practicable and profitable ; at
least, the fact was so established in my mind, by
experiments tried by me the preceding year. And
in the year 18G0 I used it more extensively, side
by side with Coe's superphosphate of lime, and
was unable to detect the difference by the appear-
ance in the growing crop. "J. P." himself would,
had he seen it, have been obliged to "acknowledge
the corn," and also acknowledge that it was better
than sawdust, even after being composted by the
cows, if he had seen a few rows that were left, by
way of experiment, in which no fertilizer was used,
— the opinion of his better half, to the contrary
notwithstanding. The present year I intend to
use it more extensively than heretofore, if possible.

The winter of 1861 was a very hard season for
farmers, as forage for stock brought a very high
price, and was very scarce at that, consequently,
everything that would do for fodder was used to
keep the stock alive, and another consequence was
the scarcity of money with poor farmers. The re-
sult of this was the using of fertilizers to a less ex-
tent, which was the case with the writer of this
article. I am not alone in the belief of the utility
of wheat bran as a fertilizer for corn. Besides the
statement of "T. G. H." in proof of this, I could
get a list of names from this vicinity that would
astonish "the natives." But it may be with this,
perhaps, as with some other fertilizers, that in dif-
ferent kinds of soil it may have a different effect.
Thus with gypsum or plaster of Paris, it has a
much better and lasting effect on clay soil than on
sandy soil.

Thanks to "J. P." I would be glad to have
others go and do liliewise, with regard to their ex-
perience.

WILVT KIND OF SAW.

Will "E. B. P.," of Mechanicsville, Vt., say
what his saw is, Avhether it is circular or cross cut,
as there is a difference in the application of the
power to each. j. s. s.

Vermont, 1862.

Fur the New England Fanner.
CHARCOAL DUST AS A DEODORIZER.

Messrs. Editors : — The recent discussion in
your paper respecting the use of various deodoriz-
ing materials to absorb the ammonia and other
gases generated in stables, has recalled to my
mind some experience of my own.

Several years since, I was preparing in my cel-
lar enriching matter in a fluid shape for my green-
house plants, but the effluvia arising therefrom
became offensive. To counteract that annoyance,
I applied a small quantity of charcoal dust. The
effect was magical, and the compound became at
once entirely inodorous. I then tried the dust in
a large cask for rain water for use in my furnace,
and in which the Avater would have an unpleasant
smell. Here, too, the effect was all I could wish.

Previous to that time, my cistern water had
caused me much annoyance. Whether because of
the dust from the street in front, one of the most
frequented of the city, but watered daily through
the season, or from the surrounding trees and
vines, or perchance because of the impurities of a
city atTnosphere deposited upon my roofs, the wa-
ter in my cistern, even after repeated washings
and scourings, would be dark colored, odorous,
and offensive. Very naturally, therefore, I pro-
ceeded a step farther, and applied some four to six
quarts of the charcoal dust to my cistern ; first
wetting it thoroughly in a pail, and pouring it in
througb the water pipes. The effect was immedi-
ate ; and the result far beyond my expectation.
The water became clear, pure and sweet as when
it fell from the sky.

Not being disposed to keep to myself a matter
so simple, and which added so much to the com-
fort and health of my family, I wrote a short arti-
cle upon the subject, which was published in the
April number, 1850, of the Horticulturist, and
was very extensively copied through the whole
country.

A few days after the publication, a learned pro-
fessor suggested to me, that I had undoubtedly
made a valuable discovwy, but I might have put
it in a more scientific shape ; that I ought to take
pieces of charcoal, heat them thoroughly, and
throw them while hot into the cistern, and in that
way I should effect a more favorable result in a
truly scientific manner. My reply was, that the
method I suggested was so perfectly simple, that
people generally would derive more benefit from
it than from a more scientific course, which in-
volved greater trouble, nor could I see how any
other mode could be more effectual. To the hon-
or of that professor be it stated, that, some time
after, he said to me, "I tried my plan for the use
of charcoal, and then yours. Li my mode of ap-
plication, the charcoal had not the slightest effect ;
in yours, it acted like a charm, and seemed to ren-
der the water as clear and pure as if it had been
distilled." The same professor travelled exten-
sively in the AVest, that season, and on his return,
in his own friendly manner, said to me, "You have
acquired immortality more easily than any other
person I ever knew. \n all my journeying at the
West, the first inquiry proposed to me, wherever
it became known that I was from New Haven,

was, "Who is that Mr. R , Avho has made the

great discovery respecting the use of charcoal dust
for puiifying cisterns ?"

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

265

A learned judge of our city, when the article
appeared in our papers, called upon me to inquire
as to the precise mode of procedure. He said
that his cistern had been repeatedly cleaned and
scoured, and yet the water was dark colored and
offensive, and for months they had been compelled
to use bay rum with it, to overcome its oflensive
features. A few days afterwards, in answer to my
inquiries, he said, "It worked like a charm. In
three days, the water was sweet, and in a week,
perfectly clear and pure."

All this is probably of little interest, or impor-
tance to your readers, except in so far as it may
impress upon their minds the value of the mode
proposed for purifying water. Most families use
charcoal, and from the bottoms of their bins, can
obtain, with a little care, enough of the dust to
answer all their needs. It ought to pass through a
sieve to remove the coarser particles, which are of
little value, and may impede the action of the
pump.

Recently, I have used dust from cinders emptied
from locomotives at our railroad station. These
cinders are prevented from escaping, by the wire
gauze on the top of the chimney, but from these
can be sifted out some so fine as to answer the
purpose admirably. These raih-oad cinders are
now used very considerably here as deodorizers in
the removal of night soil, and undoubtedly would
prove the very best article for use in stables, for
the absorption of all offensive gases. They are
exceedingly cheap. I pay a cartman for them, de-
livered at my house, about one cent per bushel.

Some three years since, I covered the surface of
my rose and flower-beds, in the early part of Sep-
tember, as a protection against frost, since by their
color, they attract and absorb more heat from the
sun's rays, thus causing the more perfect ripening
of the wood of my plants, and at the same time af-
fording a farther protection, in that they covered
the ground and prevented sudden evaporation,
which carries off heat with such great rapidity.
The experiment was entirely successful. Helio-
tropes, and other tender plants, remained un-
touched in the open ground until November, while
in adjoining gardens, there were abundant evi-
dences that frost had done its work.

If these cinders could be ground fine at a rea-
sonable expense, they would be the ne plus ultra
for use in stables. Indeed, as they come from the
locomotive, they are probably by far the best sub-
stance that can be obtained for that purpose.
Thus used, and then mixed with muck, or with
pulverized peat, they would be invaluable.

Charles Robinson.

New Haven, Feb. 17, 1862.

OLD AGE.

You will look long to find a better description
of extreme age than the following, which is taken
from a play written in the year 1860, by Nathan-
iel Lee :

"Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
But fell like autumn iruit that mellowed long, —
Even wondered at because he dropt no sooner ;
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years,
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more,
Till, like a deck, tcorn out with eaiinf^ time,
The tcheeli of weary life at last stood still.^'

For the New England Farmer.

VARIOUS NOTES.

In your weekly of March 1st, I find two articles
in strong contrast — the first on the production of
the sugar beet for sugar and brandy, the other, in
response to inquiries, taking a bold stand against
tobacco. I am glad to know that we have some
farmers whose consciences will not allow them to
raise products, not only useless, but positively
deleterious to the consumer ; but it is with some
surprise, as well as regret, that I find a correspon-
dent of the Farmer holding up the inducement of
great profits and large fortunes, as incentives to
the production of an article, which, though it may
indeed yield large money profits to the distiller
and seller, must, if he has any regard for the wel-
fare of others, do it at the expense of his own
peace of mind, while its inevitable effects on the
public at large are poverty and crime.

SNOvr.
In the same number, an article from an ex-
change, after some very correct remarks on the
advantage of a covering of snow for the earth, con-
tains the statement that snow-water makes the
skin harsh and dry, which any one who lives in
the country will tell you is incorrect. The cause
of this trouble (except in disease,) is often the use
of hard water, or soap, or both, while snow-water
is soft, and I find it the best remedy for roughness
of the hands, &c. Some other items in the same
article, I think, are contrary to the facts in the case,
but as I have not yet proved them to be so, I let
them pass.

FLESH OR FAT versUS MILK.

"T. S. F." wishes to knoAv how to treat a cow
that gives so much milk as to keep her low in
fiesh. I infer from his remarks, that she did not
give milk in the winter, and that advantage was
taken of this to keep her cheaply. My advice
would be, to adopt a contrary course, and after
drying her off in the fall or winter, to take this op-
portunity to improve her condition. There will be
no loss in doing so, because less food is required
for a fleshy animal, and the milk will be more
abundant, and richer in quality through the sum-
mer, than it would be from cows poor at the com-
mencement of the milking season.

REMEDY FOR CURCULIO.

An extract from the Michigan Farmer, recently,
recommends common elder as a specific for eurcu-
lio. No harm will result from trying this, if it
does not lead to the neglect of other and more ef-
fectual remedies, but I am of the opinion, that ex-
emption from the curculio in this case was the re-
sult of some accident not observed by the fortu-
nate orchardist. I have tried the same remedy for
the striped bug, for which it has been recommend-
ed, with no effect, but to afford them convenient
shelter in rough weather.

FEEDING MEAL TO CALVES.

In reply to my article on the above suhject,,
"H." says reason would teach a man better, than
to give "young calves a large quantity of com
meal." One would think that this would be so,
but I have seen enough to convince me that some
words of caution are not superfluous ; probably
because many persons do not reahze how small a
quantity, comparatively, is required by a young

266

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

calf. I think if your readers generally adopt
"H.'s" plan of feeding potatoes, they will not al-
ways be as successful as he claims to have been,
although he may have equalled his neighbors
without any great success, after all. I have tried
various methods of feeding, and have raised two
or more calves to each cow, but my experience and
observation, as well as reading, have convinced me
that it is not profitable to raise any inferior, or
even medium stock, and that every animal should
be kept gaining n\\ti\ fully grown, or until sold for
beef; and that the best way to do this, is to de-
pend mainly upon milk for the first three months,
and to begin with the lighter grains, leaving the
heavier and more heating kinds, like corn meal, to
finish off with. Wm. F. Bassett.

Ashjield, March 17, 1862.

EXTBACTS AND REPLIES.
A SICK STEER.

You will oblige me by stating the symptoms of
the cattle disease. I have a four-year old steer
that coughs a good deal, and rattles at the lungs
some. He took cold, and I don't know whether
the cough arises from that or the cattle disease.
Geokge Jennings.

Remarks. — The marked symptoms of the dis-
ease called pleuro-pneumonia are a short cough,
particularly in the morning, or when the animal
rises or is allowed to drink. Appetite slight and
variable. Short and unequal breathing. The an-
imal rarely lies down, or only for a short time,
either upon the affected side or on the breast
bone, with the fore feet beneath them or stretched
out in front. The hair upon the chest and neck
loses its lustre and stands up. The skin is dry,
and is more firmly attached to the withers and
walls of the chest than to other parts. Water
excites cough, and is taken with difficulty. From
the dry mouth, there flows more or less viscid,
dirty, offensive fluid or a frothy saliva. The urine
is dark brown, has a strong odor, and is passed
with difficulty.

WHEEL HOE AND SWEET POTATO.

I notice the inquiry of John H. Constantine, of
N. H., in the last week's Farmer, for an imple-
ment to weed carrots by horse power. I do not
think the Yankee is yet born who is to invent a
machine that can discriminate between a weed and
a carrot top ; indeed, it is more than careless
hands always do. And until this is done, (though
we now have many excellent machines for culti-
vating between the rows,) we shall be necessitated
to go through the back-breaking process of hand-
weeding, which is the great drawback in raising
this invaluable esculent. I have a wheel cultiva-
tor, made in New York city, which works very
close to the rows, not leaving, if carefully used,
over two inches in width, to be weeded by hand.

I noticed in the same number of the Farmer an
article recommending the growing of sweet pota-
toes in our latitude. A word of caution, brother
farmers, from one who has seen this elephant, and
just allow the Jersey and Delaware people, with

their warm light soils, and more suitable climate,
a monopoly of this article, and not endeavor to
cultivate a semi-tropical plant in New England,
and possibly make yourselves a laughing-stock to
your neighbors. Look well to the source from
which the advice to raise them comes, and see if
you can discern any dull implement near by which
needs edging. w. J. p.

Salisbury, Conn., April 25, 1862.

TANNING SKINS — MANGOLDS.

Will you, or some of your correspondents, infoi'm
me through the next number of the Farmer, and
by so doing, you will confer a great favor —

1. What is the modus operandi of tanning
skins of wild animals such as coons, foxes, &c.,
with the fur on, so that it may be suitable for
robes, coats, &c.

2. Should I set mangold wurtzel for seed whol-
ly under ground, or partly out of ground, as they
grew ? A Reader.

Lempster, N. H., 1862.

A FACT AND A SUGGESTION.

Mr. Ellsworth Sawyer, of Templeton, in-
forms us that he has a cow that carried her calf
ten months and/bwr days before dropping it. He
also states that it is the opinion of intelligent and
observing persons that, if male and female animals
come together in the morning, or before noon, the
progeny will be males — and if at night, females.

THE GOOSEBERRY.

(RIBE3 GROSSULARIA.)

This is one of our most common indigenous
fruits, and one that admits of easy cultivation.
There are also some improved and imported vari-
eties of great excellence, but it is Avith the native
kind that we have now to do. The gooseberry
should never be set in shady situations, or where
it Avill not at all times have the advantage of a
fi-ee circulation of air. It is true that its position
in the woods and swamps precludes this advan-
tage in a great measure, but nature obAaates the
necessity of this, by restricting the development of
foliage, which a richer soil, and the energizing ef-
fects of careful cultivation, promote. If we exam-
ine a plant in its original condition, we shall find
that its foliage is less abundant and profuse than
in plants set out in cultivated lands, and this cir-
cumstance secures it the benefit of free air, of
which, in the latter situation, it is often injudi-
ciously deprived. By setting plants m open situ-
ations, and covering the surface about the roots
with salt hay, or common meadow hay, or straw,
wet with a solution of salt in water, and keeping
the tops thinned so as to admit the air and light,
the gooseberry will rarely be injured by rust or
mildew. Frequent irrigation at noon-day, with
strong soap suds, has a very sanatory and invigo-
rating effect upon this plant.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

267

For the A'etc England Farmer.
FAKM BTTIIiDINGS AND FENCES.

Mr, Editor : — I have been much interested
in your State Legislative agricultural discussions,
particularly those upon farm buildings. Every
farmer knows the importance of good barns ; thase
that will not only keep the hay and grain, but fur-
nish suitable protection for our stock ; and they
should be adapted to the kind of stock we intend
to keep.

For many years to come, undoubtedly, sheep-
raising will be the leading interest in much of
New England, and some pails of the West. An
immense national debt, the sure result of this ini-
quitous rebellion, will create the necessity for a
high tariff for half a century, at least, and in this
way may benefit this large class of our farmers.
In tliis business we need barns and sheds which
will shelter every animal, and also afford perfect
ventilation. I would much sooner my sheep would
go without food for tvventy-four hours than be ex-
posed to one rain storm in the winter. Some of
our Vermont farmers understand this so well, that
they will not let them be exposed at other seasons
of the year. With their wool soaked with water,
and then frozen for several days, no wonder some
of them die. Protection and good air, as well as
good keeping, are absolutely necessary for success
in this business. No stock pays better for a rea-
sonable allowance of grain through the whole win-
ter, and grinding is not necessary. In feeding
oats, with good racks, even threshing can, in a
great measure, be dispensed with ; and some of
our farmers have fed boiled potatoes to their sheep
with better advantage than to any other stock.

In keeping sheep, I have found that wall fences
■without anything on their tops, will not sto]) them.
Except where stones are very abundant and lum-
ber scarce, I should prefer a board fence, if it can
be made durable. Smith's fences (one of which
has been illustrated in the Farmer) were shown
at our county and State fairs in 1860, and as to
durability I think them as much better than other
■wooden fences, as a house or barn well up on a
stone foundation is better than one with the posts
standing in the ground. Almost the only objec-
tion there can be to them is, they cannot be used
•where there are no stone, as on the prairies at the
West. His fence No. 2, put upon our roads and
railroads, would save thousands of dollars every
year, in keeping our roads open on account of
snow drifts. A Subscriber.

Chelsea, VL, 1862.

PREPARINQ PAINT AND PAINTING.

The best, most durable and neatest kind of
paint for any kind of tools or implements, is a
light blue. Tliis is far better than red, as blue
■will reflect more of the heat of the sun than red.
Consequently, the wood which is painted, will be
heated and sun-checked less when painted blue.
During the warm days of March, let tools and im-
plements be washed clean, and painted blue. To
prepare blue paint that will dry soon, procure
good boiled oil, which will cost about ten cents
more per gallon than the unboiled. Procure a
quart or more, according to the amount of paint-
ing to be done, of liquid drier or laquer. Then
take one pint of oil, half a pint of drier, and min-

gle, by stirring in with a stick, enough white lead
to make it about as thick as cream. Zinc white
is the best, unless a man has an apparatus for
grinding the lead. Zinc will require no grinding,
but must be thoroughly stirred, and all the lumps
mashed. Now put in one or two, or three table-
spoonfuls of Prussian blue, and stir it thoroughly,
But a small quantity of blue will be necessary to
make a handsome blue paint. If it appears too
light colored, put in more blue. Paint, prepared
a few hours before it is used, will work better than
that just prepared. If the oil and drier are good,
paint prepared according to the foregoing direc-
tions, will dry in from one to two days, although
it should be allowed from one to two weeks to be-
come hard. For green paint, let the white lead or
zinc, and oil and drier be prepared in the same
way as for blue, and put in green, instead of blue.
Continue to put in green until the shade is dark
enough to suit the fancy. Yellow paint may be
prepared in the same manner by using clrrome yel-
low with the white lead. — Country Gentleman.

For the New England Farmer.
INFLUENCE OF ATMOSPHERE ON SOIL.

The above subject was discussed in the Concord
Farmers^ Club, on the evening of the 16th of Jan-
uary, 1862. I send you my recollections of the
remarks of one of the members. Although aera-
tion of the soil, or the bringing of the particles of
the atmosphere and the particles of the soil into
contact, and the chemical and fertilizing effects re-
sulting from tliis contact, are in themselves dis-
tinct subjects, yet, practically, the two subjects
must be considered together. Without bringing
the particles of air and soil into contact, no chem-
ical effect can be produced. Indeed, our principal
work in relation to this matter is, by all the means
we can devise, to bring about this contact. The
laws of nature will set up and carry on the chemi-
cal actions, over which we can have very little
control. One effect of draining is, to admit air in
the place of water. This renders the soil light
and porous, and enables the gases given off in the
soil by the decomposition of manurial substances,
to permeate through the soil, like the carbonic
acid from yeast in bread. The atmosphere and
gases thus introduced into the soil keep it in such
a condition that the roots of vegetables can trav-
erse it in search of nutriment. Without the pres-
ence of the oxygen of the atmosphere, putrefaction
and fermentation cannot go on, as oxygen is the
great agent in decomposition.

There are elements in the soil which have an af-
finity for elements in the atmosphere, and when
they are brought into contact, they act on each
other, and form food for plants, or stimulants
which plants need. Frequent stirring of the soil
brings these elements into contact. Alkalies and
other salts, present in the soil, attract moisture
from the atmosphere, and thus enable plants to
endure drought. Plants in a rich soil, as experi- "
ence proves, endure drought better than in a poor
soil ; and in a rich soil, salts of different kinds are
always present. These salts are mostly deliques-
cent, or naturally attract moisture from the air,
and dissolve. Hence in a dry time, soils should
be frequently stirred. Draining, subsoiling and

268

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

deep culture, all contribute to bring the air and
soil into contact.

This is, then, a practical subject. Plants, as
well as animals, breathe. They cannot live with-
out air ; elements necessary to their growth are
furnished to them through the medium of the soil,
also. The atmospheric ocean by which we are
surrounded, is the great storehouse of nutrition
for them as well as for animals. Jethro Trull be-
lieved that plants derived all the elements of their
growth from the atmosphere and water. In this
he was probably mistaken. But it is undoubted-
ly true that soil hermetically sealed from the air
cannot yield nutrition to plants. Organic sub-
stances closed from contact with the air, do not
decay, and consequently, cannot be converted in-
to food for plants. This is a broad subject, and
these few remarks are suggestive of thought. They
show us how the teachings of science and the re-
sults of the best practice perfectly agree. Careful
experience confirms the lessons of science.

J. E.

For the Neio England Farmer.
WOBK SHOP AND TOOLS.

Mb. Brown : — Being at present laid up for re-
pairs, and not allowed the ''liberty of the yard," I
propose to make a few comments upon some items
in your last issue. I am quite tenacious about
disagreeing with one point in your editorial, viz.:
workshops and common bench-tools for every far-
mer who is not independent enough to afford to
pay some mechanic. I do not propose to argue
for rich farmers, unless they have boys, in Avhich
case I must class them and their poorer neighbors
together. I will not speak particularly of the
profit, or saving, often resulting to farmers near
or remote from mechanics, or of our mutual obli-
gations to support their trades.

My own observations, which have been some-
what extended among Yankee farmers, are, that, as
a general rule, the men who have poor tools and
learned the use of them in boyhood to some ex-
tent, furnish the mechanics a greater amount of
work than those who do no mechanical work at
home. The cause is obvious. Such a man is ac-
customed to do little jobs in repairing and improv-
ing his tools, «S:c., and if, (as is usually the case,) he
sees more such work needed than he has time to
do himself, he cannot rest satisfied till he has em-
ployed another to put his little job in order. And
this for the reason that the genteel hatter notices
your hat and the boot-maker your boots quicker
than the opposite. The result is, that you will
find his tool more handy, his contrivances to save
labor and thereby expedite his farm work more
to your mind, than those who either go to the
shop, or as is more often let alone, the various
little jobs so often needing attention. Such men
Avill use natural crooks and the old sled long after
their time is out, because they can't go off to get
it done at the shop. They will take down and
put up two sets of bars for every load or hay or
manure, where two hours and a hammer, axe and
auger, will make a good substantial gate. Can't
spend time to go off.

But this is not the main point. It is the moral
effect of such workshops on farmers' boys. You,
sir, speak of unpleasant recollections of those
"rainy days." Your experience and mine differ

essentially. In all my boyhood, along with a
baker's dozen of urchins, those rainy days v/ould
not come often enough.

Don't you remember the boats, and ships and
houses, the saw-boys, the up-and-down saw-mills
for the little brook, the water-wheels and wind-
powers, the paring machines and tip-tops to amuse
the little ones, the hand-sleds and the larger
sleds that we used to make at Nod ?

I do not argue that we were made richer in af-
ter life, as I might show, but I do affirm that for
many a day we were contented to go out to the
shop, instead of going to the village to associate
with boys, who like ourselves, were ready to lead
or be led into wrong practices and ultimately bad
habits.

Now, sir, if I may be allowed a space in the
Farmer, let me urge every farmer, whether rich or
poor, who has boys, either his own or others'
children, to have some tools, as many as he can,
a turning-lathe if possible, and a place to use
them, and let the boys have some of these rainy
days, and see if the boys don't improve, — to say
nothing of the additional care he will bestow up-
on his own farm implements. P. j.

Vermont, March 6, 1862.

Remarks. — Happy boy ! And that often makes
a happy man. We think we agree with you en-
tirely. You were judiciously directed. Had op-
portunity to make things which your own taste
prompted, instead of being obliged to delve every
hour of every rainy day in patching up old har-
rows and ox-carts. We are decidedly in favor of
the tools and the work-shop, and supposed we
wrote so with clearness.

For the New England Farmer.
CARE IN PLANTING.

Messrs. Editors : — I have recently met Avith
several farmers who used Coe's superphosphate
of lime last season on corn and other crops.

In some instances the corn failed to come up.
In others it came up, and when 10 to 15 inches
high, it assumed a sickly appearance and ceased to
grow. My attention was called to a case of this
kind last August. On examination, it was found
that the phosphate had been dropped in the hill
all in one place, covering not more than 2 or 3
square inches, a little earth placed over it and the
corn dropped on it. The corn sprouted, and as
the root extended dowuAvards, it soon entered the
phosphate, which was too strong for the tender
root, and this caused the failure.

In using this powerful fertilizer there should be
no more than two-thirds of a gill used in a liill at
one time, and this should be spread over a sur-
face of 4 or 5 inches and should be mixed Avith
the soil. Many persons have used a table-spoon
to measure and put it on with.. It can be more
evenly distributed with the fingers.

Where it has beci. used and no failure from
this cause, it is almost universally spoken of as
having produced the best effect both in increasing
the quantity and hastening the maturity of the
crops. John R. Howard.

North Easton, April 21, 1862.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

269

For the New England Farmer.

WHY PARMINO IS NOT PROFITABLE—
CROWS AND ROBINS— BOOKS.

Mr. Editor : — When I was a school-boy I had
a copy set in my writing-book that read thus :
"Many men of many minds." I find this to be a
great truth in relation to almost any subject, and
especially in relation to the subject of farming. In
regard to the profits of farming, I have a word to
say. My father was one of the old-fashioned sort
of farmers, and he managed to accumulate as long
as he was able to labor. He had a family of elev-
en children, all of which, but one, lived to grow
up. He, unlike most farmers of the present day,
made his own carts, plows, yokes, sleds, harrows,
and mended his broken chains and harnesses,
patched and shingled his buildings when needed,
did his own and others' butchering in the fall of
the year, and in fact, turned his hand to almost
anything that was useful and needful.

His boys were not allowed to idle away their
time in running over the fields with gun in hand
to shoot the little birds that sang so sweetly upon
the tree-tops, nor were they allowed to be off to
the ponds a-fishing every day ; but their lot was
to assist on the farm. The stones were to be
picked up that were in the top-dressing, so that
the keen edge of the scythe should not be taken
off ; manure was to be hauled on to the fields,
and the ground must be plowed and planted, and
the boys must drop the corn and pumpkin seeds,
and help in every department of farming opera-
tions. The girls were useful in-doors in assisting
their good mother in cooking, washing and mend-
ing, making soap, carding, spinning and weaving ;
they also prepared the swine's food, and helped
the boys to milk the cows, and fed the hens and
chickens, brought in the eggs from the coop, and
did not feel it above their dignity to take a rake
in hand if there was a prospect of a shower to wet
the new-made hay.

I am not going to say that my father's mode of
farming was the best, but I do say that it would
be well for modern farmers to imitate his example,
by bringing up their children to be industrious,
economical and useful, and then they can depend
upon it that their boys will make farming profita-
ble. It is a great fact that cannot be denied, that
the young of the present age are brought up to
cherish extravagant notions in relation to all mat-
ters of life, and thus it is the farmer is not able to
lay up, or even to meet, his demands, for the rea-
son that he tries to have his children indulged in
the extravagances of the times. Young man, if
you would succed in farming or any other avoca-
tion, save that dime in the corner of your pocket-
book, and not spend it for that vile stuff, tobacco,
which is undermining your health as well as your
purse; if you do not join the sons, show to the
world that you are temperate in all things ; dress
neatly but not extravagantly, cultivate your moral
nature, that you may reverence all that is good,
and the consequences will be that man will praise,
and God will bless you.

Let me say that I love farming — it is the joy of
my life. I can hardly wait for the season of birds
and flowers to come. What soul is not touched
by the voice of the blue-bird and robin ? If there
is anything that will elevate our hearts to our
Heavenly Father, it is the return of spring, with

its ten thousand melodious voices, which are ring-
ing all about us,'with one universal shout of praise
to God.

I see that some of the contributors to the Far-
mer are opposed to the killing of the crow. They
say he is our friend, because he destroys many
grubs, &c., and the same arguments are used in
favor of the robin. They forget to tell us that the
crow destroys every robin's nest that he can lay
hold on. The crow is so bold that he comes in my
orchard close by the house and robs every bird's
nest that comes to his view. Now which do'the far-
mer the most good, the crow or the smaller birds ?
I leave it to your readers to decide. My views
are, that everything that is made answers life's
great pm-pose. One species of life answers for
food for another. We see this to be true, and no
reasonable man will deny it. Who will deny that
it is unnatural for a cat to catch a mouse, or a
crow a robin, or a robin a grub. If, then, they de-
stroy one another for the purpose of sustaining
life, why has not man a right to destroy them, in
order to save his fruits and grains from their dep-
redation ? We must decide this question by tak-
ing into consideration the good and damage they
do us, and acting accordingly.

Some six weeks ago, while examining my young
apple trees, I found some caterpillars' nests. I
took them and put them into a vial, and set it on
the mantel-shelf, being about one foot from the
stove-pipe. Some of them have since hatched,
but not having any food, they have died, i infer
from this circumstance that the requisite tempera-
ture to develop the apple tree buds into leaves
hatches the caterpillar's eggs. It seems, then,
that the apple tree leaves are the natural food of
the caterpillar. Now, because that is so, shall we
abandon our fruit trees to their use ? God made
the caterpillar as well as the crow and robin, and
if it is right to destroy the one, why not the other ?

As I have before said, we are governed by the
necessity of the case. One man devotes his atten-
tion to the raising of fruits ; the birds are his
sworn enemies, and he is bound to exterminate
them. Another cultivates the grains and grasses ;
he, consequently, is not troubled much with the
birds, so he is willing to let them live. So it is
as my copy reads, "Many men of many minds."

One word relative to patent manures. They,
like patent medicines, claim to cure all, no matter
how poor your land. A table-spoonful put in the
hill will insure a good crop. No doubt there is
fertilizing matter in these manures, but the ques-
tion is, does it pay for the farmer to buy them at
the prices now asked for them ? I think not. It is
one very important part of a farmer's business to
make the manures that are to be used on his farm.
Let him see to it, that there is a sufficient quanti-
ty of meadow or swamp mud by his pig-sty, so
that he may replenish it when needed. Put some
under the hen roost and in the barn cellar and
under the cattle and horses. If he has no mud on
the farm, use the best soil that he can spare, that
is on the farm. If he lives near old ocean's shore,
let him draw the kelp that comes ashore in some
of those north-east storms that we are subject to,
and spread it upon his grass lands, or comjiost it.
There are good farmers in the town of Marsh-
field, and they know the value of kelp, I should
judge, by the numbers drawing it off when it
comes ashore.

270

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

JUPTE

The farmer needs very much to have access to
agricultural reports, both State, and national, and
every town should have a town library, and they
should be entitled to one or more volumes, so
that every farmer can have access to them. I
know that many farmers laugh at the idea of book
farming, and say that they want something that is
more practical. They forget that among a multi-
tude of counsellors there is wisdom. I know that
farmers can obtain much information by reading
agricultural matter, and they are those who profit
by it. Let me say, as I close, that the monthly
Farmer is to me an indispensable household ar-
ticle, and I greet its monthly visits with great
pleasure. Otis P. Josselyn.

Pembroke, Feb., 1862.

Remarks. — Thank you, sir.

COTT^S VERSUS HORSES.

At a plowing match held on the estate of the
Right Hon. Earl Ducie, Crummel Park, we no-
ticed, says Bell's Messenger, a team of cows, en-
gaged in plowing at one end of the field ; and as
they appeared to exact a tolerable amount of at-
tention, we thought it worth while to make a note
or two on the spot. The animals were polled
cows in full milk, and belonged to Mr. John Ev-
ans, of Woodford, Gloucestershire, who is, we be-
lieve, a small enterprising farmer. Two of the
cows were rather old ; the hindmost one, the own-
er assured us, had been worked regularly during
the last seven years, has had a calf every year,
and one season was worked up to the day previous
to calving. The middle cow was a three year old,
and this was her second season, the owner putting
his cows to the plow at two years old. Our read-
ers must bear in mind that these cows were in full
milk, being milked twice every day ; on very hot
days it was found necessary to milk them three
times.

Mr. Evans assured us that the cows gave more
and richer milk when they were regularly worked,
and that the goods were larger in amount, as well
as better in quality ; to use his own words, when
there was a less quantity of goods made, his wife
would tell him that he had not worked the cows
so much, which was invariably the fact. Our
readers will, of course, imagine that the cows
were, and ought to be, well fed ; hay, oil-cake,
bran and chaff, we were told, was the food given
them during their working time. We give no
opinion as to the policy of working dairy cows as
above, leaving our readers to draw their own con-
clusions. We must say it was rather slow work,
although the plowing was pretty well done, and
there seemed no lack of strength or will on the
part of the cows.

Pure Bees-Wax. — Messrs. Stimson, Valen-
tine & Co., 36 Lidia Street, Boston, sent us a
sample of refined bees-wax, the other day, which
surpasses in clearness and purity any Ave have ev-
er before seen. Those who desire wax for house-
hold or for grafting purposes, can obtain it of
them of the best quality. They are, also, dealers
in paints, oils and varnishes, and sell at moderate
profits. Call and see them.

For the New England Fanner.
AGRICUIiTTTRE IN OUR COLLEGES.

Mr. Editor : — In a former article I endeavored
to show that agricuitui'e could not be successfully
taught in our common schools. In this communi-
cation I propose to offer a few reasons why I
think it can not be successfully taught in our col-
leges. To be taught successfully, it must, in ray
opinion, be taught in the family and on the farm,
or in farai schools provided expressly for the pur-
pose.

Our colleges were established for the sole pur-
pose of educating young men for the learned pro-
fessions. All the college studies prove this, from
the study of the dead languages to the higher
branches of mathematics and metaphysics. They
were designed to teach all the higher branches of
science and ai-t, and lay a solid foundation for fu-
ture eminence and usefulness in the different pro-
fessions. Thus far, they have done this, and done
it well. They are still doing it faithfully and im-
partially, taking young men from all the walks of
life, and training them for the higher fields of use-
fulness.

But our colleges cannot teach everything ; and
it is more than ought to be expected of them.
They have enough to do to teach and explain the
general principles of science and art, without at-
tempting to teach the particular principles of sci-
entific agriculture which is so foreign from their
general object and instruction. They cannot, if
they would, teach agriculture, and teach it well,
because they have not the means of doing it. Ag-
riculture is an art, as well as science, and it re-
quires not only theoretical but practical instruc-
tion, such as can be given only on the farm and in
the field. Our colleges cannot do this. They can-
not go out into the fields and teach all the various
branches of agriculture by example. They cannot
bring together the young farmers in the State, nor
can they reach, influence and benefit them. They
cannot teach by precept and example. Every one
at all acquainted with college life and studies, and
with what is daily going on there, must be fully
convinced that agriculture cannot be thoroughly
taught there, without interfering with the college
exercises and studies. Besides, college students
engaged in the study of other languages, and of
the higher and more obstruse branches of philoso-
phy and mathematics, can have but little sympathy
in common with the student in agriculture, because
their tastes, their habits, their ideas, their intellec-
tual improvements, are so diflerent. There would be
a great gulf between them on the subject of their
studies, their views and feelings; and a small
prospect of harmony in their daily intercourse. It
is easy to see that our colleges, designed and in-
stituted for literaiy purposes, are not the right
place for the education of the young in agricul-
ture. Crops, soils, manures, the rearing and feed-
ing of animals, and the management of the dairy,
cannot be conveniently or successfully taught
there. These must be taught in the family and
on the farm, or in farm schools established for the
purpose, where everything may be taught by ex-
ample.

Either agriculture does not need schools, or the
right kind has not yet been established. Students
in agriculture should be under the instruction of
a teacher who is at once scientific and practical —

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

271

capable on the one hand of directing their studies,
and on the other, of showing them the best sam-
ples of all kinds of farm-work, done by himself.
A portion, at least, of his lectures, should be in
the open field, with the hoe, spade, scythe or axe
in hand. His language to his pupils should be,
"This is the way to do the work ; follow my ex-
ample— do as I do." He should be able to do
anything that is to be done on a farm, and to give
a reason for its being done in the right way. He
should explain the different kinds of crops, the
modes of culture, the nature of soils, and point
out the practical excellences and defects of far-
mers. AH his instruction should be at once sci-
entific and practical.

After all, the great body of j'oung farmers must
be educated, if educated at all, not so much by
learned and scientific lectures, as by the example
and practice of others, by reading agricultural
books and papers, and by their own effort at self-
improvement. Our State, county and town soci-
eties, as well as our farmers' clubs, have all the
characteristics of a school of the highest order, in
which all may be learners as well as teachers,
where practice instead of theory, and facts instead
of conjectures, are the best authority. This is the
best system of agricultural education for us to
adopt for the present, till we have the means of
establishing farm schools in every county in the
State. John Golusbury.

Warwick, March, 1862.

For the New England Farmer,
"DISSEMINATION OF FOUL SEEDS."
Mr. Editor : — Under the above heading, "O.
K." calls for the views of your correspondents,
suggesting remedies for this growing evil. The
subject is an important one, and doubtless much
improvement might be effected, but there are many
difficulties in the way of such laws and regula-
tions as your correspondent suggests, and I think
each individual must depend mainly upon his own
skill and care.

If our country were all under cultivation, like
some European countries, we might exterminate
almost any plant we chose ; but with our large
tracts of uncultivated and uncultivable land, which
the owners do not, and cannot examine carefully
once in five years, the case is quite different, be-
cause a few seeds ripened in some out-of-the-way
corner are often sufficient to place a weed almost
beyond the control of ordinary farmers.

In my opinion, the best remedy, aside from our
own watchfulness, is to do all in our power to in-
duce farmers to obtain some knowledge of botany,
or in other words, to become so familiar with the
plants growing in their own vicinity, that any new
plant will attract notice immediately, and not be
allowed to spread, until its character is ascertained.
A familiarity with the appearance of different seeds
is also necessary to enable the farmer to select
that which is free from noxious weeds, and he
should, as far as possible, deal with seedsmen who
have this knowledge, and are honest enough to
give him the benefit of it.

Much has been done, and much more may be
done, by agricultural books and periodicals, by
giving illustrated descriptions, including the seed
of various weeds, especially such as are most like-
ly to be diffused where they do not already exist.

There are several plants which I have reason to
think are at present becoming too common in
some sections, where they can be eradicated if at-
tended to before spreading any farther, and I will
give some description of them.

RuDBECKiA HiRTA. — This has been recently in-
troduced in grass seed, and is sometimes called
yellow daisy. It has quite a resemblance to the
daisy, but the leaves are entire or nearly so, (that
is, not notched or cut like the daisy,) and the pet-
als of the flower are yellow, with a purple cone in
the centre, in the form of an old-fashioned straw
beehive. This has been removed to the garden by
some, but should be extirpated from both garden
and field, as it is becoming quite troublesome in
some places.

Chiccory. — This plant, which is very common
in the vicinity of Boston, I have never seen in the
Western part of the State, until quite recently I
found a single plant of it growing in a newly-seed-
ed field, and my farm assistant told me that he
saw such a plant in a similar situation on his fath-
er's farm. Evidently, these were introduced in
grass seed, and judging from its appearance else-
where, I think it cannot too soon be banished.
"A stitch in time saves nine." This plant, before
throwing up its seed stalk, has some resemblance
to the dandelion, and when in flower, is easily
known by the unequal length, notched edges, and
pale blue color of its petals.

Spurry. — This plant was also introduced with
grass seed on my farm a few years since, and has
given me considerable trouble. It bears some re-
semblance to a plant sometimes called "horse-
tail," but is much more succulent, and is an annu-
al. The leaves are linear, thickened or fleshy, and
grow in whorls. The flowers are white, and rath-
er insignificant, and followed by a round seed cap-
sule little more than an eighth of an inch in di-
ameter. I believe this is sometimes called "pine
weed," and although recommended by some to be
grown for "turning under," is too dangerous to be
admitted to our fields.

I neglected to state that Rudbeckia and Chic-
cory are both perennial plants.

Ashfield, 1862. Wm. F. Bassett.

GOOD FOR OXEN AS WELL AS HORSES.

At the New York State Agricultural Fair at
Watertown, was a boy of sixteen, who controlled
cattle with as much skill as Rarey controlled
horses, and by using the same law, the law of
kindness. He trained and handled six steers not
two years old as easily as an experienced driver
would a single pair in yoke, and yet he had no
yoke nor rope ; he did not speak to them in a loud
voice, and only occasionally struck them a slight
blow. A spectator describing his movements, says
he would bring up a single pair as if yoked to-
gether, then two, and then tlu-ee pairs ; then he
would mismatch them, putting odd ones together,
and then bring them in a line like a platoon of
soldiers ; then he would train them around by
twos and threes, or drop one and order him to a
new place, all by a motion of his little whip. Be-
ing asked if he could manage eight as well as six,
he said he could if his whip was a little longer.
He tried, and succeeded with ease, impressing
upon all who saw him, the great benefit of kind-
ness and determination in the treatment of cattle.

272

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

SUTTER'S GANG PLOW.

This is a combination of from two to six, or
more, plows, easily managed, and requiring only
the attendance required for the single plow. We
have never seen the implement itself, but have ex-
amined a model with much interest, and at the
solicitation of the patentee, we publish the follow-
ing description. The celebrity now attached to
the steam plow arises from merits which are like-
wise due to "Sutter's Plow," and the latter has
this advantage, that all farmers have their horses
and oxen, and none have steam machines to plow
with. The principal merits of the New Gang Plow
are, that it will do the work of two to eight single
plows, being capable of breaking up from four to
twenty acres of land per day, requiring the atten-
dance of but one man, saving both time and labor,
and at the same time doing very thorough and su-
perior work. By a very simple device, the angle
of the shares can be instantly regulated by the at-
tendant.

The height of the plow from the shares up to the
beams is 21 inches; the length of the shortest
"beam is 6 ft. 2 in. ; and every succeeding beam in-
creases 16 inches. The plow rests in front on
wheels, independent of each other, and capable of
turning in every direction, just as the team moves.
The wheels are placed in a line, parallel with the
line of shares. On the top of the plow is a long
seat for the driver, running parallel with the same,
near which the mechanism is attached to work the
shares, so as to lead the same in and out of the
ground, and to regulate the position of the shares
to cut the required depth of furrows. In case
there should be some hard places in the field, the
driver has only to move a little backwards on the
seat, which will increase the pressure on the
shares, forcing the same through the hard places,
and gain thereby the required depth without al-
tering the position of the shares.

Every description of shares can be used and ap-
plied to this Gang Plow, the same as in single

plows. The usual pressure of the single plow to-
wards the land side is by this combination quite
prevented, as the shares for single plows stand a
few inches towards the land side, to keep them in
the furrows, which naturally causes a great pres-
suj-e and an unevenness of the ground, whUe the
shares in Sutter's Gang Plow stand straight to the
plow, saving thereby much of the draught power.

The teams may consist of from two to ten
horses, or from two to six yoke of oxen, according
to the size of the plow.

The plow has been proved in several cases, and
its work was of the most satisfactory character.
Joseph Sutter.

112 Pleasant Street, Boston.

For the New England Farmer,
BIBD MUSIC.

Now lav'rocks wake the merry morn,

Aloft on dewy wing ;
The merle, in his noontide bower,

Makes woodland echoes ring ;
The mavis wild, wi' many a. note,

Sings dowsy day to rest ;
In love and freedom they rejoice,

Wi' care nor thrall opprest. — Burns.

Who has not felt a thrill of pleasure and delight
while listening, on a warm spring morning, to the
notes of the newly arrived bluebird, robin, or
song-sparrow ? Although these birds are inferior
in power of song to many of the birds which visit
us later in the season, yet as their music is the
first which greets our ears after the silence of win-
ter, it has a peculiar charm. During the winter
the shrill cry of the blue jay, the caw of the crow,
and the soft whistle of the chickadee, are pleasant
to hear ; but on the arrival of the spring birds the
voices of the crow and jay seem harsh and discor-
dant, and the little chickadee's tune sounds faint
and monotonous. The flute-like notes of the blue-
bird and robin, and the clear twinkling sound of
the sparrow's song, also lose much of their attrac-
tiveness when the wood thrushes, blackbirds, ori-
oles, or golden robins, bobolinks, and warblers
make their appearance.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

273

The red-winged blackbird is one of our earliest,
and, in my estimation, one of our best musicians.
Although his song when alone is not remarkably
musical, yet, when a large flock sing in concert, as
they generally do in the early spring, there is a
great richness in their lively and gushing melody.
Flocks of these birds often sing during a rainy
day in March or April, and their sweet chorus
mingling with the rushing sound of the waters in
the swollen streams, with the pattering of the
rain-drops upon the roof, with the whispering of
the warm south wind among the swelling buds of
the trees and flowers, falls

"Upon the spirit like a dream
Of music on the hour of sleep."

No discordant notes are heard in that bird-choir,
for all have correct, musical ears, and they ap-
pear to "sing with the heart," if not "with the un-
derstanding."

It is about the first of May ; and as we wander
forth on a calm evening between sunset and dark,
sounds of melody fall upon our ears. They come
from yonder wood-covered hill. All other sounds
are hushed but the peeping of the frogs in the
distant marsh, or the ringing sound of the soaring
night-hawk's wings as he, at intervals, makes a
sudden swoop towards his mate far beneath him.
Hark ! those melodious strains are heard again,
and they seem like a voice from the spirit land !
It is the song of the wood thrush. Heard when
all nature is sinking to repose ; when the floating
clouds above the western horizon are tinged with
purple, crimson and gold ; when everything in the
outward world is giving evidence that winter is
over, and that another summer, with its fruits and
flowers is just before us ; the voice of this little
songster has a charm, a fascination, which has
been sought for but never found in the song of
any other American bird.

What Isaac Walton says of the English night-
ingale's song may be applied with equal force to
the music of the wood thrush, or American night-
ingale. "But the nightingale, another of my airy
creatures, breathes such sweet, loud music out her
instrumental throat, that it might make mankind
to think that miracles had not ceased. He that
at midnight, when the very laborer sleeps secure-
ly, should hear, as I have very often, the clear
airs, the sweet accents, the natural rising and
falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice,
might well be lifted above earth, and say, — 'Lord,
what music hast thou provided for the saints in
heaven, when Thou affordest bad men such music
on earth !' "

The cheerful voice of a larger species of the
thrush family — the red mavis, or "brown thrash-
er," as he is frequently called — begins to be heard
when the husbandman is preparing his grounds, or
dropping the seed for a future crop. Perched
upon the top of a tall tree near the field, he pours
forth liis song of love and gladness for the espec-
ial benefit, it would seem, of the farmer. What a
happy world this would be, if the song of this, and
every other feathered musician, brought to the
mind of the listener thoughts of a still sweeter
voice, the voice of a loved and chosen companion !
If all could sing from the heart the words of that
beautiful and well-known song, "Mary of Argyle."

While Nature is enrobing herself with a mantle
of green, and decking her fair bosom with flowers,

while the air is filled with fragrance, with the hum
of insects and with innumerable sounds of life and
activity, the birds continue to arrive. Every day
the winged orchestra receives new additions, un-
til the band is full ; and now the fields, groves and
woodlands resound with silver-toned, enchanting
harmony. The larks and bobolinks in yonder
meadow sing as if they were in a perfect ecstacy of
delight ; the mellow notes of the golden robin and
the loud voice of the woodpecker are heard in the
orchard ; the M^arblers, thrushes and other birds
of song enliven the woods and groves with their
joyous strains.

"Music awakes,

Tlie native voice of un-lissernbled joy ;

And thick around tlie woodland hymns arise."

How much pleasure a person loses who cannot
appreciate or take any interest in the music of the
feathered choir ; and how deficient in knowledge
and refinement those individuals must be who
consider that birds are more of a curse than
blessing ; and who, instead of endeavoring to in-
crease their numbers, and their love of man, use
various means to destroy these useful creatures,
and drive them from human abodes !

What a void there would be in nature during
the spring and summer ; what a strange silence
would brood over all the fair landscape, if the
birds should cease to visit us ! Their absence
would be felt more than the loss of the flowers,
with all their beauty and fragrance.

South Oroton, April, 1862. S. L. White.

For the Neto England Farmer.
THOROUGH-BKED HORSES.

In the May number of the Farmer, "J. W." in-
quires how to breed a thorough-bred horse ? A
thorough-bred horse is one whose pedigree can be
traced without a flaw, in both lines, paternal and
maternal, to Oriental blood ; that is, to such
horses as Godolphin, Darley, or Wellesley Arabi-
an; or, it would be sufficient to entitle a horse to
be called thorough-bred, if his pedigree could be
traced clearly to some well-known racer, like
Eclipse, or Flying Childers.

To raise a thorough-bred, then, it is necessary
that both sire and dam be of pure unmixed blood.
It does not follow because a horse is imported,
that he is thorough-bred ; it all depends upon the
clearness of his pedigree. Nor can there be any
such thing as a thorough-bred Morgan, or
thorough-bred Black Hawk, for they all necessa-
rily possess other strains of blood.

If "J. W." will call upon me, I will show him a
thorough-bred, whose blood I can trace without a
stain, through the space of over one hundred years.

Littleton, May, 1862. J. A. Harwood.

The Horticulturist. — The May number of
this popular journal is embellished Avith a fine rep-
resentation of Rogers'" Hybrid Grape, No. 4, and
its pages are crowded with useful and interesting
horticultural matter. Its editors are capable and
industrious, and are giving the work a popular
character.

Never hire a man to do a piece of work, which
you can do yourself.

274

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

THE DAM AT NOKTH BILLERICA.

We offer no apology for continuing the history
of the unjust usurpation of power in rebuilding
the dam at North Billerica, and the loss and dis-
tress which it has caused to hundreds of the in-
dustrious farmers of the State. We have an un-
shaken faith in the justice of our people, and that
future legislators will see how shamefully the elec-
tions have been corrupted by a combination of
moneyed power, and the rights of a large number
of our citizens trampled under foot. But this
state of things cannot last. When the history of
this oppression is better understood, the public
voice will demand its suppression, and we trust
compel the oppressors to compensate the farmers
for the damage done to their property. We be-
lieve the determination to repeal the act of 1859-
60, to remove thii*ty-three inches of the dam, was
a foregone conclusion by the last Legislature, on
the day that it first met. Such had been the in-
fluence exerted on the elections in every part of
the State. We knew of this, as we Avere repeat-
edly notified, during the summer and fall, that one
or more persons were visiting various portions of
the State, and it was supposed were forestalling
the public mind in this matter. The result jus-
tifies the supposition.

We recently gave one chapter in the early his-
tory of the controversy still going on between the
owners of meadow land on Concord and Sudbury
rivers, and now continue it a step or two farther.
This dam was first erected about the year 1710.
It was removed in 1722, by order of the Governor
and Council, under the act establishing a "com-
mission of sewers." This removal ends the first
chapter in the history of the long controversy be-
tween these meadows and this dam.

In a second report of the Commissioners of
Sewers, dated January, 1723, we learn that the
dam was found built again, within two months af-
ter its removal. The Commissioners promptly ap-
pointed responsible men to repair to Billerica,
"and if they found any mill-dam, to inquire who
erected it, and to take notice of the height and
dimensions of it, that His Excellency and Council
might be truly informed of the matter of fact."
This report was either never made, or has been
lost. The existence of the new dam, however, is
well established.

When the existence of the new dam was known
to the meadow-owners, with the prompt energy
for which the inhabitants of Concord valley have
always been noted, they at once adopted mea-
sures to bring an action against Mr. Osgood, un-
der an act passed in 1709. This act is enti-
tled, "An act to prevent hedges, weirs, and other
incumbrances, obstructing the passage of fish in
rivers." It provides that whoever "obstructs the
usual passage of fish in the spring, or proper sea-

sons of the year without approbation or allowance
first had and obtained for the same, in manner as
in and by this act is du'ected," shall be regarded
as creating a "common nuisance," and declares
that this "nuisance shall be demolished and pulled
down, not to he again repaired or amended ; and
that on complaint made to the General Sessions
of the Peace," &c.

We may remark in this connection, that large
quantities of shad and alewives were formerly
taken from this stream, even so far as twenty-five
miles from the dam. The inhabitants of the
towns bordering upon the river held their fishing
privileges in high estimation, even within the
memory of many persons who are now living. It
was natural, therefore, that an obstruction which
impeded the flow of the water, and prevented the
natural course of the fish, should be regarded with
aversion, by men with intelligence enough to know
their rights, and with determination enough to
assert them.

It is worthy of remark, that the meadow-own-
ers complained of the first dam for two reasons ;
because it kept back the fish, and because it flowed
back the water over their lands. Against the new
dam they brought only the first complaint. We
naturally infer, therefore, that while the new dam
obstructed the passage of the fish, it was not liigh
enough to cause the meadows to be overflowed.
It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that this
dam was not so high as the first one.

In May, 1723, the town of Sudbury, at a legal
town meeting, chose a committee, and empowered
them to prefer a petition to the General Sessions
of the Peace, "that the stoppage and obstructions
upon Concord and Sudbury rivers may be re-
moved, which is a hindrance to the free passage
of the fish." This Committee prepared and pre-
sented a petition as they were directed, asserting
that "they humbly conceive that the said dam is a
nuisance, being so far from being lawfully and or-
derly made as that it was placed there in direct
opposition to the order of the Commissions of
Sewers."

In July of the same year, the selectmen of Con-
cord, five in number, presented a petition to the
Court of General Session, in conjunction with the
petition from Sudbury. The following extract
from this petition presents the cause of complaint
in a clear and forcible manner. After alluding to
the existence of the above mentioned "Nuisance
Act," the petitioners say : "The ancient town of
Concord hath ever, from the first settlement there-
of, enjoyed the privilege and benefit of the fish
coming up Concord River, without any incum-
brance or obstruction, until sometime in or about
the year 1709, at which time there was a mill dam
erected across the said river, in the township of
Billerica, in the county of Middlesex, to accommo-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIHER.

275

date Christopher Osgood's mills, which, some time
in the month of September, 1722, was pulled
down and demolished by order of Commissions
of Sewers, for the relief and benefit of the mead-
ows and low lands above said dam ; since which
time, another dam hath been erected across said
river, in, or near, the same place, where the form-
er was made for the accommodation of Christopher
Osgood's mills, without any order or leave from
authority, the which dam almost wholly stops the
natural and common course and passage of the fish
up said river, which (if not obstructed as afore-
said by mill dam) would be of great advantage
and benefit, not only unto the inhabitants of Con-
cord, but also unto the inhabitants of several
neighboring towns."

These petitions asked for "speedy relief by the
removal and demolishment of said obstruction."
In the Superior Court of Sessions, in December,
they were considered, together with the answer of
Mr. Osgood, who was notified that they had been
presented. "Both parties being fully heard, the
Court considering thereof, do declare the said dam
to be a common nuisance, and order that the Sher-
iff do demolish and pull down the same by the
first day of April next following." From this de-
cision Mr. Osgood appealed to the Superior Court
of Judicature, and gave bonds to prosecute his
appeal according to law. As the proceedings in
this Comt upon the appeal were both extended and
interesting, we shall defer an account of them till
another paper.

kins, Meight 90 pounds ; 10 small ones ; 2 large
marrowfat squashes, weight 12 pounds, and lots of
green ones.

Now, brother farmers, I am 73 years old, and if
any of you dare compete with me in farming, let
me know it. Daniel Spaulding.

Fitzioilliam, N. H., April, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
TWO EXPERIMENTS "WITH POTATOES.

In the spring of the year 1860, 1 had a few bush-
els of coarse horse manure, and about a peck of
small potatoes. None of the potatoes would weigh
more than an ounce or two, each. I own a few
acres of poor, sandy land, covered partly with
June grass, and ]iartly with shrub and white birch.
About the last of May I loaded the manure, pota-
toes, a small horse-plow, a shovel and myself and
an old one-horse wagon, and went about two miles
to the land before described, and climbed to the
top of the highest knoll where the sand was cov-
ered with a kind of woolly grass, spread the ma-
nure and dropped the potatoes about one foot apart,
till I had dropped 40 ; parallel with this row, and
three or four feet from it, I dropped another row,
and the potatoes were so small, I made five rows 40
potatoes long — 200 potatoes to the peck. Then I
took the plow and turned a thin furrow each way
on the potatoes, covering them under the sod
about three inches, leaving the grass between the
rows to do whatever it pleased till October. I then
made them a visit, and took from under the sods
four bushels of good-sized, good-looking and good-
eating potatoes.

In 1861, I repeated the experiment with three
little loads of manure, one bushel of potatoes and
four times the quantity of ground.

Besidt : — 10 bushels potatoes ; 3 large pump-

For the New England Fanner.
GYPSUM.

Mr. Editor : — I noticed an article upon this
subject under the heading of "Iletrospective
Notes," which appeared in the weekly issue of
Nov. 30th. The Avriter says that farmers are "out
at sea," and plaster is of no benefit in fixing am-
monia, (according to Liebig,) in stables, unless
mixed with four hundred times its weight of wa-
ter. Farmers will never use plaster in a soluble
condition, and there is no need of it, as I will soon
show. "We have seen the fumes of a manure
heap speedily arrested by sprinkling on half an
ounce of strong sulphuric acid diluted with a pail-
ful of water. Who will tell us of a better way?"
Study Liebig's works thoroughly ; put the practi-
cal part into active operation, and let the theoret-
ical part alone ; and work, think and study by the
light of practical science, and you will have the
right way. A part of plaster is sulphuric acid, and
I should think it would have the same effect as
when applied alone. Scatter plaster upon your
stable floors, and from the great amount of urine
voided by the cattle, much of the plaster will be
dissolved, and after the manure is put upon the
fields the plaster is being dissolved as wanted by
every rain. It is only on the decomposition of
nitrogen that ammonia is formed, and if plaster
is mixed with manure, the sulphuric acid combines
with the ammonia, and the lime with the carbonic
acid, forming compounds which are not volatile,
and consequently destitute of all smell.

Experiments by Dr. Voelcker, upon a heap
of manure, showed that the ammonia remained
undiminished from November 3d to April 30th,
while during the hot summer months all the most
valuable matter had undergone diminution.

Take courage, brother farmers, put plaster with
the manure, and when you have applied it to the
land, the plaster will prove a faithful servant, as
the rain descends. Liebig states that "the evi-
dent influence of gypsum upon the growth of
grasses, the striking fertility and luxuriance of a
meadow upon which it is strewed, depends only
upon its fixing in the soil the ammonia of the at-
mosphere, which would otherwise be volatilized
with the water which evapoi-ates." Here is a wise
provision of Nature ; as the water evaporates it
dissolves a portion of the plaster which retains
the ammonia for the plant.

"In order to form a conception of the effect of
gypsum, it may be sufficient to remark that 110
lbs. of gypsum fixes as much ammonia in the soil
as 6880 lbs. of horse urine would yield to it.
AVater is absolutely necessary to effect the decom-
position of the gypsum, on account of its difficult
solubility, (one part of gypsum requu-es 400 parts
of water for solution,) and also to assist in the
absorption of the sulphate of ammonia by plants ;
hence it happens that the influence of gypsum is
not observable on dry fields and meadows. The

276

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

decomposition of gypsum by carbonate of ammo-
nia does not take place instantaneously ; on the
contrary, it proceeds very gradually, and this ex-
plains why the action of the gypsum lasts for sev-
eral years."

All this talk, I understand to be about gypsum
•u'hen applied to land, and there you have water
enough, except in dry seasons, and if convenient
in these seasons, you can irrigate, and perhaps it
will pay.

Put plaster upon your stables, and a portion of
it will be dissolved, enough for all practical pur-
poses, because, as I have shown, only a small por-
tion of ammonia is set free, and only a small
amount of dissolved plaster is required. Mix
plaster with night soil, and the scent will be re-
tained ; then add some pure lime, and the odor
will be thrown out again. "Put fresh urine and
plaster into a cask ; in the course of a few days
there will be on the surface of the mine a thin,
ice-like pellicle ; this, when taken off and tested
by an acid, will be found to be carbonate of lime,
showing plainly that some of the plaster has been
decomposed ; the quick lime, in its eagerness for
carbonic acid, rises to the surface, and when it has
obtained a certain thickness, it breaks and falls to
the bottom, and doubtless the acid that was sep-
arated from the lime combines with the ammonia,
forming an impure sulphate of ammonia."

Sulphuric acid is worth about six cents per
pound. The same in plaster a trifle over one
cent. The acid in copperas at two cents a pound,
would cost over six cents. Now farmers, which
of these will you use ? I shall use the plaster.
The water in animal excrement is sufficient to dis-
solve a portion of the plaster, so that it will re-
tain nearly all of the ammonia, but when the ma-
nure is applied to the land, there will be need of
more water to assist the plants to take up ammo-
nia. This is done by the water in the ground
and by rains. All the gypsum gradually disap-
pears, but its action upon the carbonate of ammo-
nia continues as long as a trace of it exists.

Lyndeboro', N. H., 1862. L. G. B.

For the New England Farmfr.

NOTES FBOM. THE MONOMACK.

BY SAGGAIIEW.

STATISTICS OF THE AGllICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

The following table shows the number of farms,
&c., in this State, as exhibited by the official re-
turns of the United States census for 1860 :

Farms 35,519

Farmers 45,522

Farm laborers 18,039

Improved land, acres 2,213,315

Unimproved land, do 1,192,296

Value of farms $122,645,221

Value of farm implements and machinery.. $3,804,385

Horses 47,679

Asses and mules 51

Mitch cows 134,475

Working oxen 37,989

Other cattle 96,563

Sheep 113,279

Swine 74,843

Value of live stock $12,525,200

Wheat, bushels 120,294

Rye, do 389,610

Indian corn, do 2,084,040

Oats, do 1,148,081

Tobacco, pounds 3,22*1,941

Wool, do 373,789

Peas and beans, bushels 43,206

Irish potatoes, do 3,202,391

Sweet potatoes, do 909

Barley, do 133,488

Buckwheat, do 113,408

Value of orchard products $928,140

Wine, gallons 21,854

Produce market gardens $1,383,178

Butter, pounds 8,168,980

Cheese, do 5,509,614

Hay, tons 668,628

Clover seed, bushels 453

Grass seed, do 4,894

Hops, pounds Ill ,309

Flax, do 175

Flax seed, bushels 7

Maple sugar, pounds 1,011,569

Maple molasses, gallons 15,425

Beeswax, pounds 3,457

Honey, do 59,420

Value of slaughtered animals $3,046,861

From the above table the following table of av-
erages is prepared :

Average number of acres of land per farm 95

" " " improved land per farm 60

" " " unimproved land per farm 35

Average value of farms $3,453

Average value of farm implements and machinery per

farm $107,10

Average value of live stock per farm $355,45

Yearly value per acre of orchard products (fi-uit) $4,53

" " " farm " " " $26,13

As may be seen from the annual report of the
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul-
ture for 1861, (for which these, and similar tables,
were prepared by the writer,) there is a great
discrepancy between the returns of the above
census, and the returns of the assessors of
the several cities and towns of the same year.
And as it is self-evident that the latter must be
much nearer the truth, we are led to doubt wheth-
er any reliance can be safely placed in the former.
As a specimen of these wide differences in the two
returns, we give the following :

Assessors,
1860.
Yearly produce of hay, tons. . . .702,285

Acres of imjiroved land 3,373,458

Acres of unimproved land 996,149

Males 20 yrs. old and upward... 298, 830
Number of horses 90,712

" cows 160,982

" sheep 115,671

♦' Bwine 57,241

The difference in the returns of hay, horses,
cows and sheep alone, by the census marshals and
the assessors, (both taken in the same month and
year,) amounts to a total of $4,656,844 in the
State ! Surely, we can have but little confidence
in our census figures, if this is a sample of them.

The returns of the assessors of the above year
contain much valuable information in relation to
agriculture in the State, as the following items
will show :

Acres of orcharding of all kinds of fruits 41,812

" " mowed 25,380

Yearly tons of hay in orchards mowed 24,011

Acres of l.ind annually tilled, excluding orcharding

tilled 265,570

Acres of upland mowing, excluding orcharding mowed.. 550,183

" fresh meadow 156,359

" salt marsh 38,543

" pasture land, excluding orcharding pastured. .1,344,914

" woodland, excluding pasture land enclosed 976,071

" unimproved land 767,019

" land unimprovable 229,130

" land used for roads 109,940

" land covered with water 198,254

" land (total) from actual survey 4,857,497

It will be remembered by many that our last
State Valuation Committee recommended a change
in our method of taking the State valuation, which
was adopted by the Legislature. One of the feat-

Census,

1860.

Difference.

668,628

33,657

2,213,315

1,160,143

1,192,296

196,147

47,679

43,033

134,475

26,507

113,279

2,392

74,843

17,602

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

27T

ures of the new plan is the annual publication of
the "aggregates" of the valuation of the several
cities and towns in the Commonwealth, as re-
turned by the assessors. The first of these inter-
esting documents has recently made its appear-
ance, and from it we copy the following valuable
table:

b:^ 'g

< o

£. 3

§'g5.2-S5S32reS-'^3

" =■: &

n- F

03Wk-*to' ^ ^ ^>J ^—^".^

S j» O 3> J-* O 00 to j» -I (-> O to 05

^ O- ^ (O O 10 ,fc O to -1 CI •*- Ci CO

c> c;' to »tk. ■M k-» to »-• c?» 05 to — *

01*^*40tOOi^COMOl-»Oi O JO

"o^^"^^ -^~^^^-^ **"-j"to'a>"rf^

WW>-'OoO*t..OCOC.'iCO*-^JCOH-i
tv0O>4k(O^^~*— ^OOOOOJ^

^o^oOQo<0Cocoa>otoc;*w

to O to M M CO *»

WOOOt0000>C0C0hJ|-'O^O

Ci »— • CK 0 -D to
CO to 00 QO o^

. O ii KJ CJ -J CO I

O p to tO-»ftOMCOOtnj^OOO

O CO CO ^^ ^^ CJ *». ^
on to ^ GO ^ ^ O V
«5 to 0< to ^ J" to !

. CO ^ ^-t »^ to o
. O 10 to c;' en to
I to 1^ to cpi o a>

«■

0^wTfcO--».tOl-»tOt-i-J

~1 O CO O <J> *— ' CO to to to I— • wJ ^' l-J
to O to 0»^J^ CO 0 -J^' ^^J»JO

■ci^^"^ '-^ o"b>~o y^ —1^ CO -^ to

to -1 ci o CO to a> 4^ o *- c;» -J 00 00
CO -■ l-J CJ> O O' o 35 to o> 00 to to o<

itooococj^otocr-o^oow

1. 00 *>. o> o 10 i h^ CJ I-" (-• -' to

r^Stooo,

€»

* CO Oi to >^

_ ., ^ » co^j» -^^j^ tojp"^

"co "h-» CI ^ l>o ^ "o H-i 'co "c;« CO 1 o "'-' "co

a'rf».tO>^tO»-'»-*tOCl*.>f*C7iQp— *
00 O 00 Ci ^ to CO GO_** c^ ^ 00 O 10

"*fc"^"'ci^^"to^"eo^ ^"rf^"^"^'^ *"
en c-T ^1 00 Oi to *• t^ CO v-1 CJ

to 00 to O )

"to "O "to CO H-t "^"ci "p ^o
tOtOC^C^C31-*03H-»

-J I tOtOi-'l-' W to M

"h-* I "o''h-*"^i'c» co":^^o^"^i"x oo'ci'*»."o

«Ol C0)-*^t0t0C0O^:.'C0l0C0O''O

ifk| ooo'a5i-*^c;«>-*aii*kOototoc>oo

00 I W M _

00 t(^v>jj^ 00 _c-i 01 cfi ^'^ a> ^ to

lo "cO o'co"*. to"^"to"*^^c;'^ 00"— »^"h-*

to -^ CI to c-i h- C3 CO ^-* -1 ^ Ci to CO CO

to I iU*100c;»tOOtOCOOOCJ"COOOCO**

> tp>-> i-JI-" to

> «tO KOt-ir-'V-' tOOCO
3 o"V^ rfi-"a'"tO^^^ ^^"ci Co"*;.-!

> -1 to J^ 2 O to O O Oi i' 4- -1 to
>*-*tOCOO-^tOtOCO&OtOOStOf-'

"ot "co io"to"^"c;'"oi'^l"^i"'--i"o'tp-"c>
~I *..4^'O^Cn4k00Oe0K-.00h-*
^4*Oo4iotOrf*i-ih^OH-*)+»..:/TtO

to CO to lU CO OS CO to CO on l-J

I—' Ci*-^-*COIO- lC:.;a.>-»(^c?i

0»Ocn-^-^tOC300Cni7iOO -J^ J^

C) "co "-J "co C) "cj I0 "o-' oi *■ "v' 00 ■'►-' 03

-•I O to '-* to — * -1 to CO o to C^ O 01
tOC>Cit>-ttOOOCOtOC;iC}<QOOOtOO

Total number of
Polls.

Total Tax on
Polls.

Total Value of
Personal Estate.

Total Value of
Real Estate,

Total Tax for
state, County,
City and Town
purposes, in-
ckiciing High-
way Tax.

Total Valuation,
May 1, 1S61.

Total number of

D«'elling-house3

Total number of
Horses.

Total number of
Cows.

Total number of
Sheep.

Total number of
Acres of Land
taxed in the
County.

MaPvAUDing Cattle. — Cattle may be educated
into almost anything.

A quiet cow may be converted into a skilful
jumper in a single season. The first requisite for
such training is short feed, resulting from over-
stocking. The second is low fences ; and the
third, tempting crops of corn beyond these low
fences. In the spring grass is usually good, and
corn and other crops are small and uninviting ;
but during some midsummer periods, when pas-
ture is dried up, the process often begins. One
or two rails are accidentally knocked or bloAvn
from the fence ; the quiet and orderly animals
stretch their heads over to reach a morsel of the
tall grass ; they throw down accidentally two or
three more rails, and finally leap over. The owner
drives them out as soon as they have learned the

diflerence between delicious food on one side and
short commons on the other, and puts up a rail.
They have already learned to leap a little, and the
next day they improve and go a rail higher.
Another rail is added, and the process is repeated
until they become quite expert.

It is now a very busy season, but the farmer
should not neglect his fences ; if rails are thrown
down, replace them before cattle find it out ; keep
fences high at all times ; and if the animals should
actually break through, add rails enough to make
the barrier entirely impregnable at once.

SUMMER CHICKI3NS.

Those who bring out chickens in April, or ear-
lier, do it at the risk of making considerable loss,
as that month is usually a cold, wet and windy
one. AVhen successful, however, they bring a high
price, sometimes when marketed in July, as high
as fifty cents per pound. This has prompted many
to get broods as early as the last of March, and
the first of April.

We copy the following article from the London
Cottage Gardener, and think it worthy of atten-
tion by those who do not care to send chickens to
market, but only to provide themselves with an
annual stock.

There is an old proverb in some parts of the
country that summer chickens never thrive. It
runs thus in parts of Hampshire :

"Chicks that are hatched when there's making of hay,
Will never grow up, but pine away."

All those who wish to rear poultry without
much trouble choose the month of May for doing
so. Sometimes a hen deserts a few days before
hatching ; sometimes she dies upon it. If we
listen to the above tradition there is no remedy.
But we believe there is, and a simple one ; set
more eggs, and be not deterred by fables. We
go on hatching till August, and we are successful.
The London market is only supplied by this pro-
cess with the poultry for which it is so justly cel-
ebrated. Fowls of the same age can be had all
the year round because the work of hatching nev-
er ceases. If we were to tell such of our readers
as require instruction on the subject, that any ex-
pensive or very troublesome process was necessa-
ry, they might, perhaps, say, that of two troubles,
they thought waiting was the less. But it is not
so ; and Ave confess, it seems to us that the idea
can only be supported by that undeniable argu-
ment, "I do not know how it is, but I know that
it is so."

Another large class of poultry breeders say they
do not believe in the saying; but June is too late
for chickens. Well, if you say it is too late, Ave
Scty — prove it. The nights are shorter in June
than in May ; the weather is warmer. Nearer to
the Avinter you say ; but you have four months to
the end of October, all good, growing, genial
weather, and at that age, your chickens Avill stand
anything. They are three weeks or a month later,
that is all. It may be said there must be some
foundation for the proverb ; the sun is too hot
and scorching, and if chickens are entirely ex-
posed to it, they Avill die. Put the rip, with the

278

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

hen into it, in a shady place, but near the sun.
A/5 in April you gladly turn it to the sun wher-
ever you can find it, so in June turn it away. Let
it be near covert for the chickens, shrubs, arti-
chokes, pears, anything that produces shade and
hai'bors insects. You will find your chickens live
thei-e a great part of the day, and always when
the sun is most powerful. They find there the
insects that have deserted the parched grass. Let
them be well and frequently supplied with fresh
and cool water. If you can do it, or have it done,
you will find a great advantage in having a few
pails of water scattered every evening on the
ground they use in the day. It freshens it, and
keeps it cooL To sum up ; give your chickens
shade, clean and cool water, with a run affording
them covert ; and we promise you, you shall say
and prove that the prejudice against June chick-
ens is a popular error.

For the Neic England Farmer,
BETROSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Steeping Barley before Sowing." — The
little item with this heading, on page 155 of the
Farmer for April, and in the weekly issue of March
15th, may, it seems not improbable, lead some be-
ginner in farming, or some one of limited experi-
ence, into expenditures of time, labor, and money,
for Avhich the returns will be very trifling indeed,
and far short of the expectations which the last
sentence of tliis quoted item would be likely to
excite in farmers of large credulity and small ex-
perience. In this last sentence it is assiled that
a writer in the Homestead thinks that the benefit
or increase of crop, from steeping seed barley, be-
fore sowing, in a solution of copperas or blue vi-
triol, and then rolling it in plaster, would be as
great as that which might be obtained from ten
extra loads of manure per acre.

Seeing, then, that this item, quoted from the
ffomestead, is liable to mislead young and inex-
perienced farmers, and that it is objectionable for
other reasons, it seems proper that some one of
the members of the Neio England Farmer Mutu-
al Improvement Club should utter a word of cau-
tion in regard to it, for the benefit of the younger
and less experienced members. The caution
needed, in this case, is just such a one as an old
farmer, who had given up the care of his farm to
his son, or to a tenant, might be supposed to ad-
dress to either of these, if his opinion were asked
in relation to it, and an inclination manifested to
believe the statement made, and to treat some
seed barley, or other seed, in accordance with the
statement. Such a one, in such circumstances,
would be likely to say that the recommendation in
the Homestead was of little value, inasmuch as
the amount of the copperas, or blue vitriol to be
used, was not mentioned, nor the strength of the
solution in which the seed was to be steeped.
Another defect in this recommendation is, that
the length of time during which the seed must be
steeped, in order to produce the same eff"ect as ten
extra loads of manure, is not mentioned. "Be as-
sured," he would say, "that if you are to get as
much increase of crop from steeping your seed in
a solution of copperas or blue vitriol, as you would
get from ten extra loads of manure, you will have
to be loondrously particular about the exact num-

ber of ounces or pounds of these salts to be put
into your solution, as well as about the exact
length of time during which the seed must remain
in this marvel-working solution." Until the writer
of the article referred to informs you and the pub-
lic as to these points, so essential to success in
making such an experiment, I would advise you
to regard that writer's recommendation as one of
the many inexact and untested opinions, whims,
notions, or guesses as to what might be in certain
circumstances, which are to be met with occasion-
ally, not merely in common conversation, but also
in print. I would give more for one experiment
conducted with care and exactness, and accurately
reported, than for all the loose, inexact observa-
tions, whims, suppositions, guesses and such like,
which I might hear and read from June to Janu-
ary.

On page 183 of the April number the reader
will find another item — "Soaking of Seeds." As
to steeping seed in general, before sowing, it may
be said that, except in the case of such seeds as
those of the carrot and beet, there are scaixely
any, for field crops, which can be steeped long
enough to forward germination, without some risk.
For sowing in gardens, seeds may be steeped long
enough to forward germination and the growth of
plants several days, without much risk ; but in
the case of the seed of field crops, there is always
a risk from rains or something else happening to
prevent the sowing of the seed at the proper stage,
or without delay. And if there should l)e a delay
of several days, the germinating process must eith-
er go on, and go too far, or must be arrested for
want of moisture, in which last case the vitality of
the seed — of some seeds at least — would almost
certainly be destroyed. Then, again, in the case
of a drouth, and the ground becoming exceedingly
dry before the seed shall have been steeped long
enough, there is a great risk — almost a certainty
— that seed just commencing to sprout shall die,
if put into ground so drj' that it can find no mois-
ture.

Upon the Avhole, then, it may be said, that the
soaking of seeds for field crops is a process which
requires the exercise of much good judgment, and
a knowledge of the laws or conditions of germina-
tion, as without these, there is fully more likeli-
hood of damage than of advantage from the pro-
cess. Nevertheless, there is an advantage which
may be secured by the adoption of this process of
soaking seeds, especially when the steep is one
which contains some highly fertilizing ingredients,
as that mentioned on page 183 of the April num-
ber, in an item quoted from the Michigan Farm-
er. The celebrated German agricultural chemist,
Liebig, in his "Letters on Modern Agriculture,"
states that no Chinese farmer ever sows or plants
a seed before it has been soaked in some liquid
manure, or in a solution of some manurial matter
in water, and has begun to germinate ; and that
experience has taught the Ciiinese farmers that
this operation tends not only to promote the more
rapid and vigorous growth and development of
plants, but also to protect the seed from the rava-
ges of worms and insects.

A few items of our own experience in soaking
seeds before sowing, may be of service, either as
guidance, or as warnings, and with these we will
leave this useful, but somewhat risky operation, to
the consideration and the cautious trials of our

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

270

brother-readers of the N. E. Farmer. As to seeds
that germinate slowly, such as the carrot and the
beet, we have usually mixed them with sand or
sandy loam, stirring them well together, keeping
the mixture moist, and on the south side of the
house, between a week and two weeks, and taking
the box into the kitchen, or protecting it when the
nights threatened to be cold. When carrot seed
is prepared in this way, the mixture moistened
with a solution of hen manure, and some gypsum
added just before sowing, we get the carrots to
start before the weeds, and so avoid one of the
greatest troubles in raising this crop. If ever we
should raise tobacco, we would treat this slow-
sprouting seed in the same way, keeping it in
moist sand, and in a warm place, two weeks before
sowing it. Our trials in soaking corn have some-
times succeeded in giving the plants an earlier and
more vigorous start ; and in one instance, when
the ground became exceedingly dry before the
whole of the seed corn could be sprouted, the
young sprouts died in the dry ground, and a sec-
ond planting became necessary. MoEE Anon.

CURIOUS PHENOMENON.

"How is it that you raise such large and nice
onions ?" I asked of an Iowa farmer, as I was sit-
ting at table with him, and observing some on the
table.

"Well," said he, "we sprout the seed with boil-
ing water, and then plant it early and in good
ground."

"Sprout the seed in boiling water ?" I ex-
claimed, inquiringly. "What do you mean, sir,
by that ? Won't boiling water kill the seed ?"

"Not at all," he replied ; "but it will sprout
them, in one minute's time."

"It will? It looks incredible," I replied, with
surprise.

"Well, you try it," he replied, "when the time
comes to plant, and you'll find it just as I tell
you."

And, sure enough, when spring came, and my
neighbor was planting his onion seed, being pres-
ent, I said :

"Jewell, last winter, there was a man in Iowa
told me that to pour boiling water on black onion
seed would sprout it in one minute. Suppose you
try it?"

"Very well," said he. And taking the teakettle
from the stove, he poured the boiling water on
the seed, which he had in a saucer. Looking
closely at it for a moment, he exclaimed, "You
have told rightly. Only look there."

I looked, and behold, the little sprouts about as
large as horse hairs were shooting out of the
opened ends of the seeds ! He did not retain the
water on the seed above three seconds, and in less
than one-half minute after it was poured off, the
sprouts were projecting from the seeds.

My Iowa friend assured me that this process
would advance the growth of the onion two or
three weeks beyond the ordinary method of plant-
ing without sprouting.

that happens to him ? One man, whose health is
depressed, sees his own fii'eside, that used to burn
so cheerily, only colored with gloom and sadness.
Another, of a bright and joyous mind, in the full
vigor of health, will go forth, and the very desert
to that man's eye will rejoice, and the very wilder-
ness to his view will blossom as the rose, and the
saddest strains in nature will sound to him the
most joyous and brilliant. A sufferer goes out
and looks on nature, and its roses all become
thorns, its myrtles all look like briars, and the
sweetest minstrelsy of the grove and forest sounds
to him like a wild wailing minor running through
all the sounds of nature.

How Health Brightens Things. — God has
so knit the mind and body together, that they act
and re-act upon each other. Who has not felt that
the state of health gives a coloring to everything

For the Netc England Farmer.

HOW SHALL OUB SONS

BE BEST EDUCATED FOR THE OCCUPATION OF
THE FARMER?

This is a question of deepest interest to the
State, and to every individual in it ; and well may
it engross the attention of its Executive head. I
do not claim to be much of a farmer myself, for 1
never felt that I had the body for the work of a
farm — for to farm advantageously, demands en-
ergetic and continued labor. The farmer must
rise with the lark — "he must keep his eyes right
on, and his eye-lids right forward" — he must be
intent on his business, and let other callings alone.
Not that he should not understand enough of oth-
ers, to guard against being imposed upon, but his
ambition should ever be, to be an intelligent and
successful farmer. To be this, he must know the
nature of the soil he cultivates, and the uses to be
made of the crops he grows. He must soon learn
how to make both ends meet. Farming, good
farming, is not a fancy business ; but it should be
entered upon as the means of living. The best
farmers I have ever known, are those who have
sprung up and matured on the farm — under the
guidance of fathers, who were not ashamed to
work. One of the greatest embarrassments to
any pursuit, is feeling above one's business. The
farmer-boy should ever feel that he is as good as
any other, and no better, and never should feel
above his business. He should never be ashamed
of the dress that is best suited to his employment,
but should stand up straight in it, and let others
perceive that he feels himself equal to the best, and
in no manner degraded by his occupation. Shall
this kind of instruction be acquired on the form,
or at the school ? I say on the farm. I would as
soon think of making a boy a skilful navigator,
without his ever going upon the water, as to make
him a good fanner, without his working upon the
land.

I have thought the Reform School at West-
boro' might advantageously be converted into a
school for instruction in agriculture. Here are
three hundred hoys, whose services can be con-
trolled for a period oi seven years, until they arrive
at the age of twenty-one. Here is abundance of
land, centrally situated, and if it be possible by
school instruction to teach boys to be farmers, this,
with suitable guides to their labor, and a suitable
plan of operation, would seem to be the plan. The
same may be said of the schools of reform, in our
cities and counties. By such a plan of manage-
ment, these institutions, instead of being a tax

280

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

and burden upon the community, would become a

blessing.

Will it be said that boys who are fit subjects
for such institutions, are less capable of learning
than others ? Far otherwise is the fact. Their
physical ability is as great or greater, than the
same number of any other class of boys ; all they
need is intelligent direction to their labor, and
strict discipline. Let it be understood that they go
there to serve an apprenticeship at farming, and
not to do penance for offences against society ;
and let there be intelligent supervisors of the State
farms, and they will not only become instructed,
but they will soon earn their own support.

So. Danvers, 1862. J. W. Proctor.

THE DAM AT NOBTH BILLERICA.

With the brief remarks which follow, we shall
close what we have to say, at present, in regard to
this legalized oppression. We believe its sup-
porters Avill live to see the day when they will have
painful remembrances of their eff"orts to destroy
the property of their fellow-citizens, for the sake
of a little ungodly gain, and crush their best en-
deavors to obtain an honest and comfortable sup-
port. We do not hesitate to denounce it as a
wicked oppression, because it nullifies and destroys
the great rule of right left us by the Master, —
that "Whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them." It is no justifi-
cation to them to do wrong, because it is legal-
ized by a Legislature whose judgment was cor-
rupted by untimely and unfair representations. It
is contended that slavery is legalized, and that
therefore slavery is right ; yet no man with a quick
conscience would absolve himself from the crime
of slavery, if all the world beside himself should
justify it. But we proceed with the history.

When the new dam, erected by Mr. Osgood,
across Concord river, at North Billerica, was con-
demned under the Nuisance Act, by the Inferior
Court of Sessions, Mr. Osgood "appealed from
the judgment of this Court to the next Court of
Assizes, and General Jail delivery." This Court
was the Superior Court of Judicature. The ap-
peal of Mr. Osgood was not tried in this Court.
A new method was adopted for settling the con-
troversy between the mill-owners and land-own-
ers. A committee of three was appointed by the
Court "to repair to Billerica as soon as conven-
iently may be, in order to view the mills and mill
dam of said Christopher Osgood, in said town, to
consider what method may be necessary or con-
venient to ease the said river of any obstructions
and incumbrances, so as that there may be a free
and sufficient passage or course for the fish up and
down the said river, in the proper season thereof."
This committee was ordered to report their doings
to the Court which appointed it.

The eff"orts of the meadow-owners to obtain re-
dress for the overflowing of their lands by this

dam were successful. The first dam was removed
by the authority of the Province. They were now
engaged in new efforts to obtain a remedy for a
grievance by which they were deprived of the nat-
ural benefits of the habits of a valuable fish. Of
these benefits they were deprived by the new dam
erected "without authority," where the old one
stood at Billerica. These efforts were successful,
as will presently appear.

This committee reported that they were of opin-
ion "that forty feet or thereabouts of the dam of
the said Christopher Osgood be taken down from
top to bottom, by or before the thirteenth day of
March next, and to be left down or open until the
thirteenth day of May next ensuing, and so annu-
ally from year to year, that the fish may freely go
up and down."

When the Court heard this report, the Sherifif
of the county was ordered to attend the committee
to Billerica, "in order to inquire and see whether
said Christopher Osgood has eased Concord river
of the obstructions and incumbrances, which he is
complained of by the appellees, and whether he
has performed what was proposed" by the last
committee.

This Sheriffs committee immediately attended
to their duty, and soon reported that Mr. Osgood
had pulled down his dam, as proposed by the first
committee.

The Court took these reports into consideration,
and after "a full hearing of both parties," accepted
them. Apparently, the difficulty was settled, the
dam was required to be kept down two months in
the year, and no more complaints against it would
have been preferred, had Mr. Osgood acted in
good faith. He, however, neglected the very next
year to comply with the recommendation of the
committee of investigation. The next spring two
citizens of Concord visited Billerica and soon made
the following affidavit before a Justice of the
Peace : "They being at Mr. Christopher Osgood's
mill dam in Billerica, they saw his saw mill going,
and observed that his mill dam was entirely up
and standing from end to end ; and that therefore
they asked said Christopher Osgood why part of
his mill dam was not pulled down, that so the fish
might have a free passage up the river according
to the committee's report ; and said Osgood an-
swered that it was not pulled down, neither should
it be this year, for he was not obliged to do it."

The meadow owners immediately commenced
new efforts for the establishment of their rights.
The appeal of Mr. Osgood from the judgment of
the Inferior Court was not tried in the Superior
Court, but the question was settled in another
manner, as has been indicated. This settlement
was not regarded by Mr. Osgood. The land
owners endeavored to have this appeal tried in the
Superior Court of Judicature. This effort was

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

281

unavailing on account of a "law usage or custom."
Mr. Osgood, however, seeing the determination of
the men whom he was injuring, finally complied
with the report of the committee sent out by the
Superior Court, and kept his dam open two
months in the spring. Soon after a general law
of the Province was passed, requiring owners of
mills to keep their dams in a condition to allow
fish to run up and down freely in the spring.
After the passage of this act, with the penalty for
its violation, no further complaint was made
against tliis dam until it passed into the hands of
the Middlesex Canal Corporation, in 1794.

ON THE CIRCULATION' OF SAP.

BY MR. CHARLES REESE, BALTIMORE, MD.

What is the true theory of the circulation of
the sap in exogenous trees and plants ?

There is scarcely a subject in the whole range
of botanical science upon which there is such a
diversity of opinion as upon this. All writers ad-
mit that it is of great importance, and yet no two
precisely agree in the conclusions drawn from ex-
periments upon it ; and after a patient and care-
ful examination of the best authors, we are left
as much in the dai-k as ever.

The most popular theory of the day, and one
which we find advocated by many wise and learned
men, is that, at the fall of the leaf, the sap in the
branches and trunk of the plant gradually de-
scends to the roots, and lodges there until the re-
turn of spring, when, by some unexplained pow-
er, it is forced upward, filling all the branches, and
causing the leaves to put forth again, and the tree
to grow. A majority of men, influenced mainly
by impressions received in childhood, and evident-
ly without reflecting much upon the subject, be-
lieve this to be the truth, and rest there, without
wishing to pursue the subject any further ; whilst
others, seeing great objections to this theory, have
discarded it, and set forth a new one, with this as
the main feature, viz. : That all the sap remaining
in the tree in the autumn becomes changed into
wood, and is thus finally disposed of; consequent-
ly, that which rises in the following spring is a new
supply. In the "Encyclopedia Britannica" — arti-
cle Botany, page 111 — we find "Walker, Burnett,
and others made incisions into the bark and wood
of trees in spring and summer, and marked the
points where the sap made its appearance. In
this way, they endeavored to trace the course of
the fluids in the stem. Walker concludes from
his experiments that the spring sap begins to jlow
at the root, that it ascends slowly upwards, and
bleeds successively as it ascends to the very ex-
tremity of the tree."

On the other hand, in "Carpenter's Vegetable
Physiology," page 148, we have : "K a vine be
growing on the outside of a hot-house, and a sin-
gle shoot be trained within, in the midst of win-
ter, the warmth to which the latter is exposed will
cause its buds to swell and unfold themselves ;
whilst those on the outside are quite inactive. A
demand for fluid will thus be occasioned along
this particular branch ; and this will be supplied
by that existing in the vessels below. When
these are emptied, they will be again supplied by

the pai-ts below them ; and thus the motion will
be propagated to that division of the roots whose
fibres are connected with those of the vegetating
branch. These will absorb fluid for its support,
whilst all the rest are completely at rest. In the
spring of the year, when the cheerful rays of the
sun call the whole of the buds into activity, the
whole of the roots are similarly aff'ected ; and that
the sap begins to move in the upper branches be-
fore it commences ascending in the trunk has been
shown by experiment — notches having been cut
at intervals, by which the period of its flow could
be ascertained in each part."

When doctors disagree, &c., &c. Here we
have testimony precisely opposite. Of course,
both are right in their own estimation.

In the hope of finding the truth amongst the
intelligent contributors who adorn your pages, I
have been induced to make the inquiry at the head
of this article. Will you give it a spare corner,
ann let us hear from them on the subject ?

My attention was first called to it by witnessing
the operation of striking cuttings of the vine, cut
from the parent stem long after the sap had all
"descended to the roots," or had been "changed
into wood." As soon as the sun poured his flood
of golden light upon them, and the little brown
buds felt his genial warmth, they began to swell
and give signs of a new life. In a short time, a
thin, clear fluid began to trickle down their sides,
and form a rim around the base of each, from
which, in a few days more, a dozen white rootlets
peeped forth, and pushed down into the earth, as
if to bring up hidden treasures ; and almost im-
mediately the buds broke and came out into full
leaf. Here was a new revelation to me, and I be-
gan to question my new teachers :

Whence had you this power ? Your life was
drawn from you last fall, and you have no great
reservoir at your base, with powerful engines to
send the crystal fluid through your veins at the
approach of spring, and yet you grow almost as
if still attached to the parent vine. Calling to
mind the words of the poet about "sermons in
stones, and books in the running brooks," &c., I
sat down to reflect awhile. Surely, said I, here
is food for thought. The fall of an apple led Sir
Isaac Newton to the discovery of the laws of grav-
itation ; and why may not as simple a physiologi-
cal fact as the striking of a cutting lead to the
true theory of the circulation of the sap ?

From the teachings of the wisest and best man
the world has ever known, I have been led to per-
ceive that all things in the material world are the
eff"ects of spiritual causes. Wherever there is a
germ of life, or an organization receptive of life,
there is into that, through the medium of the light
and heat of the outward sun, an influx from the
Creator, a constant eff'ort to bring forth all things
good and beautiful ; and the more I investigate,
the more clearly I perceive this truth, that in all
the works of Infinite Wisdom there are ceilain
generals, composed of particulars, in each of which,
although they may be the smallest into which mi-
croscopical science has yet been able to divide'
them, there are a thousand particulars, each as.
full and perfect in its character as the first. How-
true this is, every department of the vegetable
kingdom testifies. But most clearly of all it is
exemplified in the vine, that beautiful symbol of
Divine truth. In each little rootlet, every tiny

282

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

seed, and in each delicate bud, there is a germ,
which, under certain circumstances, will produce
a full and perfect vine. Now, it appears to me
this could not be the case, unless there was, be-
sides the general circulation of the sap in the
whole plant, a particular circulation in each of
these parts belonging to it individually, and act-
ing independently, although forming a part of the
whole general circulation. In each of these sep-
arate individual circulations or systems dwells all
the fulness of the vine. Each power, function,
property and characteristic of the parent is there ;
and if, by some catastrophe, the entire vine, with
the exception of one single bud, should be de-
stroyed, from that a vine in every respect identi-
cal with the other could be raised.

The strawberry plant is another beautiful illus-
tration of this principle. In the bud which slow-
ly creeps out of the bosom of the parent, and
grows until its own weight bends the long and
slender stem to the earth, is the delicate frame-
work of a new life. As soon as the eager roots-
lets establish a telegraphic communication with
the soil, the new system is complete. The pla-
centa is severed, and a new creation stands before
us. But why multiply instances familiar to all.
If this principle of separate circulation in the dif-
ferent parts is established, will it not lead us to a
truer knowledge of the general system ?

Now, I do not pretend to say that I have made
one step in advance towards the attainment of
that object ; nor do I think I ever shall ; but what
I have to say may set others to thinking, and in
the end truth may be evolved.

All plants, whether good and useful, or noxious
and hurtful, are in the constant effort to repro-
duce their species, and, as this is their legitimate
business in life, every faculty is directed to that
object. Every bud, within which is the germ of
a new life, is an especial object of maternal care
and solicitude. Safely lodged at the base of the
petiole, and securely wrapped in its tiny cradle, it
is rocked to sleep by the gentle breezes, and fed
every morning with the sparkling dewdrop. The
purest and best portions of the elaborated sap,
fresh from the laboratory of the leaf, is devoted
to it, invigorating and strengthening every part,
and each day adding just what is needed for its
support.

At the close of the year, the change in the col-
or, and finally the fall of the leaf, announces that
it's task has been completed ; the organization of
the new life is full and perfect, and the happy pa-
rent goes to her rest to prepare for new offspring
with the new year.

Here is the corner-stone and key to the whole
superstructure. Every bud so formed becomes
the centre of a new system, and whether cut from
the parent stem and planted alone, or conjoined
to another vine, or left where it originally grew,
has Avithin itself the capacity to grow and impart
to its offspring every peculiarity of form and color
which characterized the pai-ent vine. Now, let us
inquire, if the sap is "all changed into wood" at
the fall of the leaf, or is "evaporated," or "de-
scends to the roots," what is this mysterious sub-
stance upon which the light and heat of the sun
in spring has such an influence ?

I have not been able to satisfy my mind fully
upon this point ; but so far as my experiments
have gone, they have fui'nished me with conclu-

sive proof that the sap does not descend to the
roots in the autumn, in greater quantities than it
does during the growing season ; but on the con-
trary, as soon as the fall of the leaf indicates that
the new buds are perfected, the general circula-
tion of the plant becomes more and more ob-
structed by congregations of albumen, starch, sug-
ar, &c., in the alburnum and cellular tissues of
the medullary rays, the spiral canals in the med-
ullary sheath, and pith of the newly formed wood,
and finally becomes congealed by the action of
frost, so as to appear entirely motionless. This
takes place first in the extremities, then in the low-
er parts of the branches, and sometimes through-
out the trunk, when the plant may be said to pass
into a state corresponding to that which plants of
another kind find so necessary once in every twen-
ty-four hours. During this period, cut a vine
where you please, and you can not make it part
with its sap. The duration of this sleep varies,
of course, with different plants ; Avith some, not
more than one month elapses before they are '
awakened ; with others, two, three, six months,
regulated by the degrees of cold to which they
are subjected, and the peculiar nature of the plant.

Now, as I have repeatedly observed — and I find
my experiments confirmed by Carpenter and oth-
ers— as the sap in the young and tender stems on
the extremities was the first to become congealed
and solid (if I may use the term) in the autumn,
so it was the first to become liquified and active
again in the spring. Now commences Avhat I have
called the particular circulation in each of the buds
or new systems. The warm rays of the sun, act-
ing upon the cellular tissue of the young bark
around the bud, dissolve the congealed fluids, and
they pass downwards, enter the medullary rays to
the spiral vessels in the medullary sheath, through
which they ascend, and flow outwards through the
medullary rays again to the bark, thus forming a
complete circle. Whilst this is going on, the con-
gealed mass in the alburnum also feels the influ-
ence of the sun's rays, and becoming liquified,
presses upon the thickened mass in the cells next
below them, and they in their turn upon those ad-
joining them, and so on until a communication is
opened with the roots, when instantly a new actor
steps upon the stage, a stranger whom the school-
men call Endosmose. The entire upper cells of
the plant being now filled to repletion with thick,
gummy matter, the general circulation goes on
very slowly at first, until by means of this new
agent, the delicate walls of the root-cells are
opened, and in a thousand streams, the rains and
melted snows of the past winter, holding in solu-
tion mineral ingredients necessary for the support
of the plant, rush into the alburnum, converting
stai'ch into sugar, tempering, absorbing, and dis-
persing the obstructions in the sap-cells, and pro-
ducing all over the plant that abundant flow which
has no doubt given birth to the theory of the "as-
cent of the sap from the roots." Sometimes this
goes on for weeks and months before the opening
of the leaf and flower buds.

I have known these fluids to be circulating free-
ly in a grape vine in February, and yet the leaves
and blossoms not unfold before May. Well, now,
suppose there Avas no descent of sap through the
cellular tissues of the bark to the roots, no depos-
it of cambium on the exterior of the alburnum,
what amount of sap, think you, would rise in two

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

283

months at the ordinary^ speed of ascension ?_ Why,
more than the whole vine would contain if it were
composed entirely of sap.

It is during this period that new roots are
formed very rapidly. The separation and distri-
bution of the albuminous and starchy matters,
caused by the end osmotic entrance of new fluids
fi-oni the fruitful earth, furnish abundant material
for these ; and the delicate fibres now push out
in great numbers, and preparations go on through-
out the whole plant for the new work before it

This is the reason why late fall or early spring
planting of fruit trees is more successful than
summer planting. As soon as the leaves appear,
the whole energies of the plant are directed as
before — first to the young and tender buds, next
to the formation of new wood and roots, and last-
ly to the development of the luscious fruits. The
circulation of the sap now goes on regularly and
orderly, the general system supplying from its in-
exhaustible fountains support to athousand par-
ticular systems till the close of the season.

Now, sir, there may be errors here mixed up
with some ti-uth. To me, at least, it appears to
be truth ; but as we cannot trust to appearances
I wish to have it tried in the great crucible of
practice, by careful experiment. — Gardener's
MontMy.

WASH FOB HARNESSES.

Take Neat's Foot Oil, and Ivory, or Patent
Black — the latter well pulverized, or to be made
so before using. Mix thorouglily — adding the
black until the oil is well colored, or quite black.
In cool weather the oil should be warmed some-
what before mixing. With a sponge apply a light
coat of the mixture — only what the leather will
readily absorb, unless the harness is dry — which
will be in from two hours, to a half or a Avhole day,
depending upon the weather and previous condi-
tion of the leather — wash thoroughly with soap
suds. In making the suds, use good Castile soap
and cold rain water — (warm water should never
be used on harness leather.) Apply the sponge.
Rub off >vith buckskin. This will give the harn-
ess a nice, glossy surface, and the leather will re-
tain a good color, and continue pliable for months.
If it becomes soiled with mud or sweat, an appli-
cation of soap and water, as above directed, (with-
out oiling,) will be sufficient to give it a bright ap-
pearance.

Two applications of this oil and black mixture a
year (or once every six months,) will be sufficient
to keep harness, as ordinarily used, in good order.
It may be necessary for livery men, and others
who use harness constantly, to apply the oil oftener
— but in most cases two oiHngs a year, and wash-
ing with suds when soiled, will keep a harness in
good trim for sight and service. Tliis process ■will
pay a large dividend in extra service and durabil-
ity, to say nothing of improved appearance. Al-
derman Baker assures us that the same, or a sim-
ilar application is just the thing for carriage tops
which are made of top leather. The only differ-
ence in treatment, that less oil should be used, or
rather a lighter coating applied — and it should be
washed off before drying in, top leather being
thin, and much more penetrable than harness.
Of course, the mixture would not answer for enam-
elled leather, of which some carriage tops are con-
structed.— Exchange.

For the New England Farmer,
AMOWa THE GREEN" MOUNTAINS.

The Weather — "Sugaring" — Farminf; — Snow Drifts — Thunder
Showers— Hi fzh Water — The I'rospoct — Sheej) and Lambs —
How Fed — Jlanagement of Stock — Mark of a Good Farmer.

Mr. Editor : — It is Monday, the 5th day of
May. The weather is fine, and really spring-like.
The three short weeks of sugaring — all we have
enjoyed the present season — are past, and about
half the amount of sugar usually made, we have
stored away as the "sweets" of our labor. Very
little has been done yet at farming ; the ground
is wet and cold, and occasionally spotted with
banks of drifted snow. The streams are now quite
high, and the Passumpsic meadows, as seen from
my window as I write, are well overflowed, the re-
sult of warm weather, rains and thunder showers,
the latter of which visited us during the afternoon
of Saturday last — being the first of the season.

Grass looks well, and the soil which has lain
well protected beneath four or five feet of light
snow, for nearly five months, without receiving a
single draught of the needful by way of rains or
showers, till about two weeks ago, is now well
watered, and preparing to receive the seed ready
and waiting to be bestowed upon it, with a prom-
ise of a liberal return.

The spring, previous to the middle of April, was
dry and moderate, afi"ording fine weather for sheep,
and especially early lambs. 1 have one lot of 26
ewes, wliich have raised 38 lambs — 24 of them be-
ing twins. The sheep are fed on hay, clover and
herdsgrass, with an additional daily allowance of
eight quarts of a mixture of oats and beans. (A
good preventive of ticks.)

I do not allow my sheep, or stock of any kind,
to leave the yard until they can make their living
on grass ; feeding fields during the spring, or even
late in the fall, after the late rains begin to soften
the sod and soil, is veiy injurious to the grass-
roots, especially if the land is lately seeded ; and
the stock will do quite as well, safely enclosed in
the yard, and fed on good hay — and such should
always be reserved for spring feeding — with such
additional etceteras as may be provided for them.

Stock of all kinds should receive extra care and
keeping during the spring months. The "old
coat" should be started while at the barn — the
earlier, the better — by means of a few roots, or a
little grain, in addition to a full allowance of good
hay, that they may be all ready to feed and "grow
fat," when turned to grass. I am better pleased
with the term "spring fat," than "spring poor."
The skeleton may be an object of interest, and
perhaps profit to the anatomist ; but to the agri-
culturist, or stock-grower, such an olyect moving
within the enclosure of his barn-yard is of little
interest, and of less profit. Our creatures should
come out in the spring in good condition, exhibit-
ing a healthy and thriving appearance ; flesliier, if
possible, than when they came to the barn in the
fall ; it speaks well for the farmer ; it is a mark
of a successful stock-grower, with whom farming
will pay ! I. W. Sanborn.

Lyndon, Vt., May, 1862.

Cheap Summer Feed for Hogs. — A corres-
pondent of the Homestead gives the following as
an economical manner of summer feeding hogs,

284

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

practiced by one of his neighbors. We have prac-
ticed this plan for many years, and find it an ex-
cellent one.

"A few rods of grass-plat convenient to the pen
is reserved for this purpose, and is manui'ed by
the weekly suds from the wash-room. Commenc-
ing at one side of the plat, a large basket of the
thick short grass is mowed each morning while
the dew is on, and a part given to the swine at
each feeding, three times a day. By the time the
last portion of the grass is cut, the first is ready
to be cut again, and in this way the ground is
mowed over many times during the summer, while
the grass is kept short, thick, tender and sweet.
It keeps the hogs in a healthy growing condition —
they are fed with as much as they will eat every
day, and but little additional food is requii-ed be-
sides the slops from the kitchen.

EXTKACTS AND REPLIES.
HOW WE CAUGHT THE PIG.

A drove of pigs came rooting their way into
our village, the other day, and the neighbors gen-
erally selected one each, for their solitary pens.
The drove had moved on but a short distance,
when out jumped one of the new purchases, and
threatened to join his late companions. The fam-
ily, being without their head, — a laborer, gone to
his work — were in great trouble. The pig Avas
certainly lost. Drive him into the pen again !
He faced square up to the simple neighbors, who
tried it, with great obstinacy and sly dodges.

Could we catch him ? He was slippery as an
eel — would dart through a man's legs Hke an ar-
row. Finally, wlien we had left for a plan but
about the boy's last resort — putting salt on his
kinky tail — a smart mechanic brought out some
corn and a new, strong, cotton clothes line. He
made a noose as large as a table, and threw down
some corn within it, and then stood off" some dis-
tance with one end of the line in hand.

Of course, it was a hard job to make the pig
see that corn, but when he "put his foot in it,"
jerk went the cord, and the pig was surprised by
the fore leg. Ho flew around with great activity,
while the long line was being drawn in, taking the
legs from under some of his captors ; but the
chase was over and the pig secured.

Moral. — Make a pen about as you would for
poultry, for a Brighton pig. If he gets out — get
him in again. w. D. B.

Concord, Mass.

A GOOD COW.

As several have given the results of products
of cows and growth of calves, I will try my hand
at it. My cow dropped her calf Jan. 30, 18G1. I
commenced saving milk, Feb. 5, 18G1 ; from that
time to Feb. 5, 1862, she being farrow, we made
3G6 lbs. of butter. We used a quart a day in the
family. The skim milk was given to the calf two
months, then one-half of it one month more, mixed
with 75 ct3. worth of fine feed made into porridge,
and then grass, up to her eyes in clover. Since the
calf came to the barn, she has had good hay and
three cents' worth of waste of the flour mill, per
day. The calf is now 15 months old, girths 5 ft.
3 in., and is 5 ft. 9 in. from roots of horns to
rump.

The skim milk from April 3 to Oct. 27 was giv-
en to a pig one month old, weighing 14 lbs., and
cost $3,00. When dressed, Oct. 27, he weighed
302 lbs. The cow had good feed in summer and
about two cents' worth of waste a day, and since
she came to the barn, foddering thi'ee times a day
of corn stocks or hay, and about four cents' worth
of waste. John M. Merrill.

Bristol, N. H., April 29, 1862.

PURE blood poultry — BARLEY FOR SHEEP.

Presuming upon the acquaintance formed by a
constant perusal of the monthly Farmer, I ven-
ture to trouble you or your correspondents with a
question or two, which I would like answered in
the monthly, as I do not see the weekly.

Will Mr. Ives, Buffington, Gates, or some other
fowl-fancier, tell me how I can keep pure-blooded
fowls year after year, otherwise than by breeding
in-and-in, as it is called ? Suppose I should pro-
cure, of Mr. Gates, eggs from pure blood Leghorn
fowls, and upon trial like them, and wish to keep
the stock pure ; I cannot see how I am to do it,
otherwise than by breeding in-and-in. No one
else in the vicinity has them, and, of course, I
cannot every year be at the trouble of hunting a
cock from a distance ; and I am told that a few
yeais breeding in-and-in Avill spoil the stock. My
neighbor spoiled his turkeys in that manner.

Is bar-ley injurious to sheep ? I can raise bar-
ley more easily than other grain, but am told it is
not good for sheep. J. C. Shattuck.

Marlboro', N. IL, 1862.

TWIN LAMBS.

Having seen in the Boston Journal an account
of 32 lambs raised from 20 ewes, by our enterpris-
ing townsman, C. F. Haskell, I wish to correct an
error too common among om* farmers, that is, that
raising twins is profitable.

I cannot in too strong terms condemn the
breeding as having a tendency to rapidly ran
down a flock of sheep. The tax of the ewe to
grow two lambs is such as causes double the drain
of the system, which proportionally shortens the
length of life and consequent usefulness of a flock
of sheep, besides the amount of wool grown is
proportionally less. Not only so, but the size of
sheep is from generation to generation diminished
and will eventually run a flock down in this way :
twins run into triplets — triplets into quadruples —
a case of the latter recently come under my no-
tice in this way : a ram, from a triplet ewe, was
put to another triplet ewe, and the result was four
lambs or quadruples. Nature discountenances
this in cattle, when one of the twins is male and
the other female, by rendering the female ban-en,
or in other words a "Free Martin."

I would discourage the practice of saving twins
for breeders ; in so doing, the British have, to-
gether with judicious management, increased the
weight of their sheep and cattle since 1030 over
one hundred per cent. (See i-ecords of Smithfield
market — ^IcCuUoch's Dictionary of Commerce.)

Stanstead, C. E. Geo. Bachelder.

on tanning skins.
I notice the inquiry of "A Reader" for a receipt
for tanning skins. I can give him one that I have
used to tan wild animals' skins ; it is a simple pro-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

285

cess. Take two parts of saltpetre and one of al-
um ; pulverize finely, mix them and sprinkle even-
ly over the flesh side of the skin ; then roll the
skin tightly together, and let it remain a few days,
according to the weather, then scrape the skin till
it is soft and pliable. I have tanned skins in this
way so that they would be as soft and white as
buckskins. A Subsckiber.

Shelburne, VL, 1862.

ANOTHER MODE.

"A Reader" wishes to know the mode of tan-
ning coon and fox skins with the fur on. I will
give him my mode of operation.

If the skin is green from the body, scrape all
the flesh from it, then pulverize equal parts of
saltpetre and alum and cover the flesh part of the
skin with it : put the flesh in in such a manner as
to hold the brine when dissolved, then lay it away
in a cool place, — say the cellar — and let it lay
four or six days ; then cover the flesh part with
soft soap, and wash off" clean with water. Dry in
the shade, roll and pull occasionally while drying ;
then roll and pull until soft and pliable.

Orange, Vt., 1862. A Tanner.

ASPARAGUS ROOTS — CURRANT CUTTINGS.

Will asparagus plants from a bed ten years old
do well to transplant to form a new bed, when
younger plants cannot be obtained ?

When should cuttings be taken from currants
and gooseberries ? p.

Orfordville, N. IT., May 5.

Remarks. — We know of no reason why aspara-
gus roots ten years old should not be good for
transplanting.

Gooseberry and currant cuttings should be cut
before they start their leaves in the spring. They
are so hardy, however, that they will probably live
even if they have started a little.

STOCKING LAND WITH GRASS.

I have a piece of land which is self-stocked with
white clover. I wish to knoAV how it would do to
sow timothy seed and roll it in ? Should I get as
good a crop as if I were to plow and stock anew ?

Shelburne, VL, 1862. A Subscriber.

Wool Growing. — The Secretary of the Ver-
mont State Agricultural Society, Daniel Needham,
in his annual report, has the following remarks
upon the important subject of wool growing :

The price of wool for the next few years, rea-
soning from analogy, must be high. The cotton
crop will not be planted extensively at the South
as it has been in years past ; and if the blockade
is not raised by the first of April next, in many
States it will not be planted at all. Should the
rebellion not be suppressed 'wathin another year,
as very likely it may not be, very little of the cot-
ton crop of 1861 will find its way to market for
the next eighteen months ; and when we consider
that the people must be clothed ; that the use of
woollen fabrics during the present high price of
cotton goods is much more economical ; that the
million of men in the field wear and destroy, in
weight, a third more of clothing than in the peace-

ful avocations of life ; that at the South all the car-
pets have been cut up into blankets and that very
little of the worn out stock will be supplied until
peace is restored — from the fact that the South
has not even the raw material to replenish with —
the whole seceding States not producing as much
wool as the State of Ohio alone ; it can be seen,
that not only during the war, but at its close, when
the million of men in the army return to their
former employments, discard their military cloth-
ing, and dress as they were wont in broadcloth
and doeskins, the price of wool must continue
above the average price for the last five years. In
time of war, the quality of wool is a matter of
no small consequence. Vermont has limited her-
self to the production of the finest wools. But
the wool most in demand now, and bringing the
highest prices, is a coarser grade. The query may
well be made, whether it will not be equally prof-
itable for us to turn our attention to the produc-
tion of a somewhat coarser staple, and at the same
time furnish richer and higher priced mutton for
the market.

For the New England Farmer.
THE MORBLLL HOKSB, DBACO.

This fine stallion, though possessing a world-
wide reputation on account of his great speed, is
so nearly up to the standard of perfection for a
horse of general use, that he deserves a passing
notice. He is black, with a slight orange tinge
around the muzzle and under the flanks. Stands
nearly 16 hands high, and weighs 1175 pounds.
He has a powerful muscular system, and a coun-
tenance at once indicating intelligence and strong
nervous sensibilities, coupled with calmness and
docility. His form is perfect, and he has as good
feet and limbs as can be given to a horse. In har-
ness he moves with that ease and regularity which
mark the real trotter, 3'et with such commanding
strength as to give the rider an idea that he has a
horse fit for any emergency. His blood is such as
to warrant the belief that the popular reputation
he bears as a stock horse is a real one.

Although his speed is not his most desirable
excellence, it is a fact that he has trotted a full
mile in public, in two minutes and thirty-one sec-
onds, when only seven years old, and he has made
a breeding season every year since he was two
years old, and has never been trained at a track
ten days at a time in his life.

It is not our pm-pose to write a eulogy on this
horse. But seeing him advertised to make a sea-
son so near us as Cambridge, and his terras at the
low price of $25, we were induced to state these
facts, so that our breeders may go and see him,
and patronize him. . SiGMA.

Framingliam, May 6, 1862.

Remarks, — We have seen Draco, and are sat-
isfied that the praise bestowed upon him by our
correspondent is none too high. With an exquis-
ite symmetry of body, he has limbs of wonderful
muscular power, and in our judgment must pos-
sess extraordinary abilities of endurance, as well
as speed, Mr. Tucker, his owner, is an intelli-
gent and upright man, and entitled to the confi-
dence and patronage of the public.

286

NEW ENGLAND FARMEK.

JUTfE

For the New England Farmer.
BEPOKT OIT PLOWS AND PLOWING.

At a meeting of the Concord Farmers' Club last
■winter, it was voted to invite plow-makers, and
others interested, to meet at Concord some day
early in spring, and give the farmers of the neigh-
borhood a practical illustration of the good quali-
ties of their plows. A committee was appointed
to carry this vote into effect ; and the 6th of May
was finally fixed upon for the exhibition. On that
day a numerous company of persons interested in
the sale and use of plows assembled on the farm
of Mr. J. Hurd, now leased by Mr. Elijah Wood.
A committee of the club, consisting of Mixox
Pratt, Edwin Hosmek, E. E. Bige'low, L. W.
Bean, Hiram Jones, J. B. Mooke, Abiel
Wheeler and N. H. Warren, was appointed to
examine and report upon the plows and their per-
formances. This committee have endeavored to
perform the task assigned to them in an impartial
manner. They felt that their business, for the
time was, to know the plow, and its capacities,
rather than the plow-maker. They do not claim
infallibility of judgment, and may have erred in
opinion, but they believe the following statement
of the performances of the day is mainly correct.

The committee, in coming to their conclusions,
confined their examinations chiefly to two points.
The first, and most important, relates to the qual-
ity of the work performed, or the condition in
which the plow leaves the soil ; the second, to the
amount of force necessary to produce the desired
result, on the part of the plowman as well as of
the team. In the latter respect there was greater
diflerence than in the quality of the work, though
in this there was considerable diversity. They
would have the plow-maker give his attention first
to the discovery of that form of the implement
which will leave the field in the best condition for
the use to which it is intended to devote it, and
then to such modifications as will reduce the re-
sistance as low as can be, without impairing the
work. The trial took place on a rather stiff"
clayey loam, of as nearly even quality as could be
found. There were eight plows tried.

The first tried was exhibited by Mr. G. H.
Morse, of Boston, Iluribert's patent, with cast
iron beam. No. 3. This did good work, but was
heavy, and hard to hold, having a tendency to run
out. The beam was thought by some too short
for steadiness and uniformity of depth. The point
had a too strong tendency downward, and the
turn of the mould-board Avas too abrupt for ease
of draft. To turn a furrow slice 8 inches deep by
14 inches wide, it required a force, as shoAvn by
the dynamometer, of 725 lbs.

Messrs. Smith & Field, of Greenfield, Mass.,
tried their cylinder plow, Gibbs' patent. No. 2. It
turned the sod over handsomely, with ease to the
team. It was thought by some to hold hard,
though it several times went without holding for
nearly the whole length of the land plowed. The
point is nearly straigiit with the shoe, and is made
broad so as to cut under on the land side about
an inch. The slope of the mould-hoard is unusu-
ally gradual, by which it is enabled to slide along
through the soil with less resistance than any
other plow on the field. Furrow 8 l)y 1 5 inches ;
force required, 475 lbs. Several of the committee
thought this plow did not leave the soil in quite

so fine a condition as some others. It did its
work in so quiet and gentle a manner as hardly
to disturb the relative position of the particles of
the sod. The mould-board did not appear wide
enough for deep work, the loose dirt running over
the top at times when plowing only 7^ inches
deep. With the skim plow attached, its perform-
ance was not so good. The committee are under
obligation to Mr. Smith, the exhibitor, for active
and valuable assistance rendered them in many
ways.

Mr. Timothy B. Hussey, of North Berwick,
Me., exhibited his No. 4 plow, with wooden beam.
This was a well-made and apparently strong plow,
and did its work well. The mould-board Avas
rather low for deep plowing. Furrow 8 by 15
inches. Force requii-ed, 687 lbs. It runs steady
and holds easy.

Mr. Joel Nourse, of Boston, exhibited his
new iron beam Univei-sal Plow, No. 4. This plow
is light, simple, of beautiful form, holds easy, and
did its work remarkably well. It is made entirely
of iron, with the exception of the ends of the
handles, which are of wood, as being more pleas-
ant to take hold of. It was exhibited in an un-
finished state, (being a new pattern,) and some
slight changes are intended in its construction.
Judging from its appearance to the eye, there
seemed to be no suflScient reason for its requiring
a greater force to move it than did the cylinder,
unless it is made of softer iron, which would cause
greater friction. It did its work well, both single
and with the skim plow attached, leaving the sur-
face in fine condition. Furrow 7^ by 14 inches.
Force required 587 lbs. With skim plow attached,
same depth and width of furrow, draft 725 lbs.,
making a difference of 138 lbs. No doubt the dif-
ference in power required between the single and
the Michigan plow would vary considerably in dif-
ferent soils, being less in loose, sandy land, than
where there is a stiff, rooty soil, as the skim plow
has to cut through the toughest part of the sod.

Mr. J. S. Doe, of Boston, exhibited a level sand
and side-hill plow. Doe's patent, which turned the
sod well for a side-hill plow ; but it appeared, too
complicated in its construction. And there seemed
to be strong grounds for the opinion expressed,
that it should have been invented in the ante-
diluvian times, when, as we are told, "there wei'e
giants on the earth," or that the giants should
have descended to the present time ; for surely
no common man could handle this plow all day,
unless on large fields whei-e there would be little
turning. Furrow 8 by 14. Force required 725.

Messrs. Wheeler & Garfield, of Concord,
Mass., exhibited a side-hill Michigan plow, of a
new pattern, which performed good work, with ap-
parent ease to the team ; but, unfortunately, in
consequence of a flaw in the iron, the beam broke
before it was tried by the dynamometer, and so
its comparative ease of draft could not be ascer-
tained. The Committee were led to believe that
the plow will prove a success.

Mr. J. B. Moore, of Concord, put in an old
Nourse plow. Eagle 20, which did excellent work,
but it required a force of 750 lbs. to turn a furrow
8 by 15 inches.

Mr. J. Harrington, of Concord, tried his
Nourse plow. Eagle No. 2, flat, which laid the
furrow over very flat. Furrow 8 by 13 ; force re-
quired, 625.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

287

Several of the ])lows exhibited are furnished
•with various mould-boards, &c., easily changed,
so as to adapt them to different qualities and con-
ditions of soil. This enables the farmer to have a
plow suited to all circumstances, at much less cost
than would be necessary to supply himself with a
separate plow for each sort of work.
For the Committee,

MiNOT Pkatt, CiMirman.

For the Kcto England Farmer.

PAINTINQ AND SHELTER FOR BUILD-
INGS.

I recently met with a statement, the purport of
which was somewhat startling to me, viz. : That
"it required from five to ten per cent, of the orig-
inal cost of a house once in five or six years to
paint it." This was more than I had generally
supposed the cost of painting to be, but it set me
to thinking upon the matter. It costs nearly
double to keep an unsheltered house painted, that
it does one that is sheltered. The force of the
winds cause rain, hail and sleet to batter with
great force upon an unsheltered house, and wheth-
er it l)e painted or not, does far more damage to
it tlian if surrounded by houses, as in a city, or
well protected by trees in the country. It is a
prevailing opinion upon our sea-coast that the
saltness of the sea winds slacks the paint and
causes it to come off much sooner than it would
in localities remote from its influence. This may,
in a small degree, be true. But I think in this
case the general absence of protection to the build-
ings is more to be regarded than the saline action
of the wind. Let us look at this question respect-
ing the cost of painting and see if we can afford to
do it.

If a plain two-story house of ordinary dimen-
sions costs three thousand dollars, and put the es-
timated cost of painting at five per cent, on this
outlay once in six years, we have an outlay of one
hundred and fifty dollars every six years. As we
are not in this estimate painting for the looks of
things, but for economy, and only using paint to
preserve the house from decay, we will see what
the cost of covering the house will be at the out-
set. We will call the house thirty-two by forty
feet, which is as large as can well be built for the
price we have named ; posts seventeen feet ; roof
three-fifths pitch. It will require about eighteen
thousand of first quality shaved shingles for the
walls, costing five and a half dollars per thousand,
labor and nails added will make up the cost about
one hundred and twenty-five dollars, or twenty-
five dollars less than the cost of painting. If these
estimates are correct, who is going to paint for the
profit of it ? Cut down, if you please, the cost of
painting one-half of the above estimates, and how
then stands the account ? Paint once in six years
will cost seventy-five dollars, and the shingles cost-
ing one hundred and twenty-five dollars. On the
sides of a house they will last forty years.

Here Me have a very simple question in arith-
metic— paint for forty years, five hundred dollars,
and shingles for same period one hundred and
twenty-five dollars, or three hundred and seventy-
five dollars less. If economy is our object, paint
must go by the board, or some cheaper method
must be resorted to. I should, by all means, keep
windows and frames, doors and casing, corner-

boards and other trimmings, well painted, as it is
very expensive rei)lacing them. If I did not like
the looks of a dingy, weather-beaten house, I
would resort to some of the many washes made
of lime as their basis. Any desired color can
readily be had. Pi-operly made, and Avell put on,
they will last almost as long as paint.

In the beginning of this article I have alluded
to the effects of shelter upon paint and buildings.
No man wlio claims to be governed by economy,
can overlook the fact that proper shelter for his
buildings is of great importance.

Plant evergreen and other trees at proper dis-
tance from your buildings, (none less than thirty
ty to forty feet,) they will last longer, and if paint-
ed it will save you fifty per cent, annually in that
article. This is not all. Every one is aware that
a house exposed to the full force of our New Eng-
land winter winds is a very uncomfortable house
to live in, and that the fires are continually crying
out for more wood, and the household how cold
it is. Place around such a house the protection I
have spoken of, and how great the change ! The
wind is broken of its force, and greatly mollified in
passing the barrier we have reared, so that, by the
time it reaches the dwelling, this roaring, bluster-
ing monster is almost entirely shorn of its strength.
If we are farmers, and have domestic animals un-
der our care, could they speak, no doubt their
first utterance would be of gratitude for our
thoughtfulness for their welfare in shielding them,
as well as ourselves, from the furious blasts of
winter. Whether we paint or not paint, can we
afford to have our buildings unprotected by trees,
if exposed to the full force of the wind ?

Dorchester, Mass. o. K.

The Python Again. — All hopes of hatching
the eggs of the great serpent at the Zoological
Gardens in London are now at an end. The fre-
quent removals of the blanket in uncovering the
eggs, and the occasional partial uncoihngs of the
snake, caused too numerous sudden changes of
temperature for the proper development of the
young. The effects of these disturbances attained
a climax in the lengthened period of the snake's
absence in shedding her skin, during which the
eggs became completely cold. The necessity for
their removal \\ as not only apparent from the bad
state they were in, but the impoverished condition
of the python, diminished in bulk by at least one-
third of her former dimensions, and her long ab-
sence from food, thirty-two weeks, naturally led to
anxiety as to her ultimate safety, if she were al-
lowed to hopelessly continue her sitting. The
snake behaved spitefully during the operation.

The Rhode Island Society. — We have be-
fore us the "Transactions of the Rhode Island So-
cety for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry,
for the year 1861." It contains many interesting
papers, and among them several containing remi-
niscences of leading inventors and mechanics who
have taken an active part in the manufacturing
interests in that State. There is, also, a paper on
Hog Cholera, by Dr. Edwin Snow, of Provi-
dence. The pamphlet contains 150 pages, and is
handsomely printed.

288

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

cdTjTtjke op bees.

Within the six mouths just passed, we have no-
ticed more said in our agricultural exchanges in
relation to the culture of bees, than we have ever
before seen in three times that period. When
well informed on the subject, bee keeping is found
to be not only a pleasant and attractive recreation,
but a profitable one to the owner. A cheap, but
tasty bee house, or a hive set here and there among
the shrubbery about the house, has a wonderful
home-like and interesting appearance. The curi-
ous habits of the bee, and the lusciousness of its
products, have a charm for children which they
never forget, if they have once visited the farm
and enjoyed them.

A swarm soon becomes acquainted with those
who have the care of them, and will cover the flow-
ers of the garden or the farm in search of honey,
and scarcely ever molest any one who is careful
not to injure them. In picking raspberries and
strawberries, it is rarely the case that any one is
stung, though hundreds of bees may be visiting
the blossoms for their rich treasures, at the same
time.

We visited a bee master recently who informed
us that he took 07ie hundred pounds of honey
from a single swarm, last fall. This swarm win-
tered well, while several others standing near were
utterly ruined by mice.

The greatest drawback, however, in bee-keeping,
is the destruction occasioned by the accumulation
of then* own breath and the exhalations of their
bodies. These are much greater than many sup-
pose, so that the stronger and more numerous the
swarm is, the more danger there is to them from
then- own vapor. It is quite common to hear bee-
keepers say, they have lost iJieir strongest and
best sioarm, and the loss arises from the cause we
have just stated, or, in other words, from the want
of proper ventilation. Three-fourths of all the
swarms lost, die from this cause.

For two years past we have used the Maine
State Bee Hive, invented by Mr. R. S. Totirey,
of Bangor, Me., and we have not only had no
losses, but have realized a profitable product from
their labor. The inventor seems to have been
guided in his efforts by the habits of the bee in a
state of nature, and has constructed for them a
hive, which, in effect, scarcely varies from the
hollow tree to which they usually resort. The ven-
tilation is ample, and their vapor is collected and
led outside of the hive as fast as it is condensed.

Another great merit of this hive is the cheap
and simple mode of feeding the bees when a weak
swarm requires it, or when transfers are made and
honey and combs are taken from them. Near the
top of the hive are several troughs, into which
short tin tubes are inserted, through which honey
or sugar and water are poured. The combs are

attached to the under side of these troughs, so
that it is only a few inches fi'om the centre of the
mass of comb to the top of the troughs. A glass
is inserted over the feeding places, which enables
the operator to see all that is going on.

The hive is so constructed that mice cannot get
into it, and it has a simple and efficacious moth-
trap, which any one can understand and use, — and
it costs nothing.

Mr. Torrey devotes his whole time to the cul-
ture of bees, and is an intelligent enthusiast in his
profession. He began the hunting and study of
bees in boyhood, and often explored the forests of
Maine, bringing home with him rich treasures of
honey and swarms of bees from their native
woods. The construction of his hive has grown
out of his ample experiences with these interest-
ing insects, both in a wild and cultivated condi-
tion, and seems to us to afford the bee all the
convenience and safety necessary for it to work
with facility and success.

For the New England Farmer.
VAIiUE OP MUCK.

A subscriber inquires if it will pay to draw muck
at this time of the year ? (the winter.) In answer,
I would say that it has always paid me to get muck
at any season of the year, when I can get at it.
A little preparation is necessary to make it very
convenient to draw it in the winter, and when this
is done, the winter is the very best time to draw
it, as then we have plenty of leisure time. It is
far easier loading, and we can draw larger loads,
when the ground is frozen and covered with snow.
I have been in the habit of drawing out from one
to two hundred loads annually, and at all times
of the year, when most convenient. Of late years
I have di'awn considerable in winter, for the rea-
son that it does not cost as much to do it then,
and I have more time to attend to it.

We usually have a period of dry weather be-
tween the finishing of haying and winter, when I
have the muck thrown into heaps as near the
hard ground as possible, where the water will leach
out of it. By the time that sledding comes, it is
considerably dry, and as soon as I begin to fodder
cattle in the yard or stable I draw it into the yard,
spreading a coat all over the whole surface, also
put a quantity in a small room, built off from the
stable for the purpose, which I use for bedding
the cattle in the stable. As soon as that in the
yard becomes covered with straw and manure, I
draw in another coating and so keep doing all
winter. In this manner the manure is pretty well
mixed, and all thoroughly saturated with the li-
quid manure, thus saving a great deal that would
otherwise drain off. The heaps which I leave un-
til winter I cover Avith weeds, buckwheat straw, or
any refuse matter to keep them fi-om freezing. I
have sometimes applied the clear muck, with
marked benefit, but think it is better to compost
it with other manure. It may be applied clear on
slaty or gravelly land, at the rate of twenty-five
or thirty loads to the acre, and the increase of the
first crop will not be as large as it would from the

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

289

Bame amount of barn-yard manure, — but its effects
will be more lasting.

In 1850, I put about forty loads on a slaty knoll
of about one and a quarter acres, and it can be
discerned to this day just how far it was applied,
by the difference in the growth of any crop planted
or sown on it. As far as my experience goes, I
think I am justified in asserting that manure com-
posed of one-half muck, and the rest barn-yard or
stable manure, will last double the length of time
when applied to slaty or gravelly land that clear
manure wll. I am not philosopher enough to ex-
plain why it is so, but that it is true, I have de-
monstrated to my own satisfaction by experiments
for several years past. The cost of it is but a tri-
fle, compared with other manure, the cartage be-
ing the only expense, and that can be reckoned
but little if done in winter. I also keep the hog-
pen well supplied with it, and generally make
about three times the manure from that source
that I should otherwise get. The hen manure I
mix Avith the muck, about one bushel to three, and
use it to put in the hill for corn, &c. Every spring
and fall I draw six or eight loads and put in a
pile at the back of the house, on which all the
wash-water, brine and refuse of the kitchen is
thrown, and about once in a month I shovel it
over, and occasionally throw on a little slacked
lime or plaster and ashes, and thus make a plenty
of manure for the garden, which is superior to any
other kind for that purpose.

I should like to say a great deal more on the
subject, for, like some of our muck beds, it is ex-
haustless, but as space in the Farmer is precious,
I will leave the subject to abler pens. At anoth-
er time I will give the results of some experiments
which I have been making the past six years.

Bensselaer, N. Y., 1862. ii.

SUBSTITUTE FOB LEAD PIPE.

AVe had occasion, a year or more ago, in an arti-
cle on water pipes, to allude to the India Rubber
pipe manufactured by the Boston Belting Compa-
ny. We have nearly every week inquiries in re-
gard to some needed substitute for lead pipe,
which all are willing to concede is deleterious, but
which is generally adopted even with the prejudi-
ces which exist against it.

The reader will find, in its proper place, an ad-
vertisement of this Semi-Elastic Pipe, and as the
following letter from Mr. McBurney gives a fuller
description of the article than the advertisement,
we give it a place here :

Messrs. Editors : — I would call attention to
my patented "Substitute for Lead Pipe," adver-
tised in your columns. It possesses every proper-
ty requisite as a conduit of water in any and every
place or position ; unobjectionable in every way ;
is entirely free from any deleterious substance in
its composition, and only needs to be known, to
be universally used. It is, in fact, a real substi-
tute for lead pipe. It may be used underground,
or exposed in any way, and has been thoroughly
tested in every position. It is not a hastily got
up thing, nor was it produced at a mere thought.
I experimented nearly five years, at various times,
before a promising sample was produced. I then

tested it for three years before offering it for sale.
"Apothecaries seldom take their own compounds,"
and "A prophet is not without honor," &c., but I
have used my own pipe to conduct water for the
use of my family and myself for over five years,
and I have the certificates of immediate friends
and neighbors, who have used it for one, two, and
some three years, and they would not now willing-
ly give it up. I have also two lines of 3-inch pipe,
containing 7000 feet each, buried undergi-ound,
which have been in use seven years, conducting
water from a brook to a cistern to supply steam-
boilers, which still continue good. It costs but
very little more than lead pipe per running foot,
and can be united by various simple and inexpen-
sive methods. Chas. McBurney.
Roxbury, Mass., March 27, 1862.

For tlw New England Farmer.
BAROMETERS.

Mr. Editor : — A subscriber from Cornwall,
Vt., inquires in the last week's Farmer whether
"Barometers are to be depended upon at all times,
or do they, like signs in dry weather, sometimes
fail ?" Now, if I knew the true address of "Sub-
scriber," I would not trouble you, but write direct
to him, and say that I have had a barometer some
four years, and watched it with interest, by the
directions of Jas. W. Queen, and I have come to
the conclusion that they are really of very little
practical use to the farmer, as all I can make of it
is a sign of fair weather when it is rising, and a
sign of rain when it is falling. Like all other
signs, it fails very often, and generally, the indi-
cations precede the change of weather so short a
time, that it can hardly be said to have fore-
knowledge, and that is all that would make it of
any account. True, it will commence falling
twenty-four hours before a storm, sometimes, and
then it will frequently fall as much, and no storm
follow, or it will begin its fall with the rain, simul-
taneously. Its indications are to be taken in com-
bination with so many circumstances of wind, &c.,
that, like phrenology, none but experts can make
anything of it. I have been pained to see articles
from the pen of men of the wonderful influence of
Henry Ward Beecher, or Simon Brown, which in-
dicated that there would be no danger of any farm-
er getting his hay wet, if he had a barometer, as
it would give him seasonable notice. But that is
a mistake. I have known it to rise a tenth of an
inch one day, and a rain storm commence before
sunrise the next, and I consider it simply robbing
the farmer of his hard-earned money to induce
him to buy a barometer. A. G. Dewey.

Quechee, Vt., April 16, 1862.

Remarks. — ^We have always been guarded in
what we have said of the barometer. Have no •
recollection of ever saying "That there would be
no danger of any farmer getting his hay wet if
he had a barometer." We do not think of any
thing we have said, or written, in relation to the
barometer, that we desire to recall. And yet, if
we have said, or written any thing that should
tend to deceive the farmer, or that should, in the
slightest degree, misrepresent facts, it would give

290

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Jtjne

us pain. While we think our correspondent has
mistaken us in the matter, we sincerely thank him
for the vigilance he exerts for the protection of
the farmer.

We have plenty of evidence that the barometer
is a valuable help to the farmer, and we believe
valuable to the extent of several times its cost.
Wliile looking over our exchanges, we came across
the following :

Use of a Barometer in Farming. — John Un-
derwood, Esq., of Aurelius, says the Auburn Ad-
•vcYiiser, secured his entire crop of hay last summer
by consulting the harometer. The morning on
which he began cutting his hay, looked cloudy and
felt like rain, still the barometer pointed unerring-
ly to dry weatlier, and on the strength of that he
sent in his Kirby. The hay was cut, cured and se-
cured, before any rain made its appearance. But
for the barometer, the hay would have been entire-
ly ruined. Who doubts that the instrument paid
for it itself by that one item of information ?

An elderly gentleman, a progressive farmer, has
just left us, who remarked, voluntarily, on seeing
a barometer hanging in our room, "I use one of
these, but I can't always rely upon it. But it pays
for itself every year, and I should not think of
parting with it." We consider this a fair judg-
ment. The instrument is not infallible, at least,
not in our present knowledge of it, and yet, may
be such an indicator as to save the farmer many
times its cost.

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.
LICE ON CATTLE — CATTLE CHEWING BONES, &C.

I wish to inquire through your columns if any
of your numerous readers can inform me of a safe
and certain way of killing lice on cattle. I have
fifteen head, all of which are more or less afflicted
with them.

I have tried several remedies, none of which
have proved satisfactory. Some are not effectual
in killing all the lice ; others it is nearly impos-
sible to apply extensively enough to accomplish
the object desired, and still others would kill both
animal and louse.

What we want is, a remedy that is safe, certain
and practicable.

My cattle, also, have a habit of gnawing sticks,
boards, chips, and, in particular, bones, and pieces
of leather, when they can find them. What is the
cause .'' and cure ? Yeo>l\n.

Laconia, N. H., 1862.

Remaiiks. — A judicious use of the mercurial
ointment, called unguentum, will certainly destroy
the lice, and will not endanger the health of the
animals. It must be used sparingly, and patiently
rubbed down to the skin. For some days after
its application the cattle should not be exposed to
storms, or become chilled. Farmers do not ex-
amine their stock sufficiently often. If they did,
and would apply a little oil or grease when ver-
min first make their appearance, they would sel-
dom find cause of complaint.

We have said about all we can, in former num-
bers of the Farmer, about cattle gnawing bones.
It is because they feel the need of something they
do not get. Give them a little bone-dust. If you
cannot get that ground in a mill, dry a few bones
and reduce them as fine as you can with sledge
or hammer, and feed to them. Give them access
to wood ashes, to the bare ground, to salt, and to
as much good hay, water and grain as they need,
and they will be quite likely to cease chewing
bones and old leather.

TANNING SKINS.

While on a visit to my friends at Lempsler, N.
H., your interesting and valuable sheet of May 3
was carefully perused by me. I candidly confess
I was much gratified that a paper could be so ar-
ranged as to convey to all classes reading matter
of the first importance, not only to the farmer,
but mechanic, merchant, men of leisure and of
study, questions on various topics, calculated to
interest the mind of its readers in morals, and
science of every kind.

A receipt is asked for by one of its readers for
a tanning for skins, and retain the fur.

Iteceipt No. 1 . — Take 1 lb. sal soda, 1 oz. cop-
peras, 4 oz. sulphuric acid, dissolve in 2 quai'ts of
warm soft water.

No. 2. — 1 gallon lye, 1 oz. sugar of lead, 1 oz.
copperas, 1 oz. prussiate of potash, dissolve in 2
gallons soft warm water.

Apply to the flesh side. No. 1, from 5 to 10
minutes ; No. 2, twice as long, according to the
thickness of the skin or pelt.

to cuke scratches on horses.

Take 1 lb. mutton tallow, 2 oz. beeswax, 1 oz.
calomel, simmer them together, then wash the an-
imal on the affected part with castile soap, after
api^lying a little weak lye ; this has proved almost
a universal remedy.

The above receipts may prove of some benefit
to your many readers. One of my relatives, Gor-
ham Pollard, Esq., of East Lempster, has been a
subscriber to your paper, for some seven years ;
he says he finds as correct, early, and late reading
news as in any publication extant. H.

Lempster, N. H., 1862.

BARREN GRAPE VINES.

I have two grape vines that blossom imperfect
blossoms. How are they to be treated ? D.

Remarks. — Dig them up and replace them with
fruitful plants. They are lacking the pistil, or fe-
male organ of the blossom, and can never be made
productive.

Training Colts. — Lambert Maynard, owner
of "Trotting Childers," who has had much experi-
ence in raising and training colts, states that "his
colts are all broken to the harness before they are
a year old, or as he more properly expressed it,
educated. He rai-ely, if ever, uses a whip. As
to its injuring tliem to use them so young, he re-
marks that he never exercises them so hard as
they exercise themselves when alone."

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

291

For the Nezc England Fanner.
DOES FARMIWG PAY?

If, as Sii- Humphrey Davy says, "Agriculture
is an art to which we owe our means of subsist-
ence," then the above question, from one point of
view, is the most absurd one which can be imag-
ined. For, if it pays to keep body and soul to-
gether, it certainly jjays to provide the food by
wliich we are enabled to perform this daily mira-
cle. If all the inhabitants of the earth should to-
day resolve not to cat or drink anything which is
produced by agriculture, or earth-working, how
long would it be before famine and starvation
would overtake them ? They might possibly ex-
ist one, two or three years on the flesh of wild
animals and birds, on fish, and the fruits which
grow spontaneously, but when these kinds of food
became scarce, as they would very soon, in some
localities, what would they do ? They must either
perish with hunger, or return to the cultivation of
the ground. If those who pretend to consider
farming an improfitable business, and are inclined
to look down upon the poor earth -worker, would
try to live and "keep house" entirely independent
of the farmers' labors, it would not be many months
before their tune would be changed from a major
to a minor key.

Agriculture is the art which sustains human
life ; it must therefore be profitable to every indi-
vidual whose life is not devoted to evil doing, in
which case existence itself is more of a curse than
blessing. But is the farming business profitable
in a pecuniary sense ? This is a question of much
imjjortance, but not so great as many others
which might be proposed concerning the farmer's
occupation. Facts prove that with the same
amount of capital, the same amount of exertion,
energy, patience, wisdom and knowledge, farm-
ing is as good a business by which to make
money as any other. But in this, as in every
other pursuit, some persons will become wealthy,
while others, with equal advantages, will come
to poverty. There are two men within the circle
of my acquaintance who are an illustration of the
truth of this assertion. One of these men com-
menced farming with a farm worth $2500, with
$1000 at interest, but in a few years he succeed-
ed in getting rid of the whole of his property, by
ignorance and indolence. The other man bought
a farm worth $4000, and was in debt $1600. In
four years he made enough, by hard labor upon
the farm, to pay all the debt, and is now a rich
man. There are others with whom I am acquaint-
ed, who have acquired a handsome property by
farming, and others still, who have remained poor,
or have become so while engaged in the same
business. But in every instance which I can call
to mind, the degree of success in acquiring prop-
erty by farming, has been in proportion to the
amount of determination, industry, economy, good
judgment and knoM'ledge which has been mani-
fested in the undertaking ; and it is just so in all
kinds of business.

I think it may be laid down as a rule, that suc-
* cess in amassing wealth depends not so much on
the kind of employment which a person may be
engaged in, as upon certain qualities of the mind,
with which some individuals are much more large-
ly endowed than others. Phrenologists say, that
a large bump of acquisitiveness, with a proper

combination of some of the other organs of the
mind, will enable a man to become rich in circum-
stances wherein others, who have not the organi-
zation, will soon become candidates for the alms-
house.

I do not consider that a money-making charac-
ter is one to be coveted, for very frequently, the
possessors of such a character have faculties for
nothing else but hoarding up treasures of gold
and silver. There are other objects of life, the
pursuit of which confer far gi-eater and more last-
ing happiness upon the individual and the world,
than the mere accumulation of dollars and cents,
although this is important in its place.

South Oroton, 1862. S. L. White.

For the New England Fanner.

HOW IS THE ■WOHLD TO BE FED ?

BY JUDGE FRENCH.

It seems to be agreed among those who know
most about the matter, that the Union army now
in actual service, exclusive of wounded and dis-
charged soldiers, and those held as prisoners by
the rebels, exceeds a half million of men. The
most of these are from the classes of laboring men>
and a very large proportion of them from the
farms. The rebel army numbers probably two-
thirds as many, comprising,, in the language of
Tom Moore,

"Christians, Mohawks, Democrats and all
From the rude wigwam to the Con^ess-Hall,
From man the savage, whether slaved or fiee.
To man the civilized, less tamed than he."

Although the Southern army is not composed
so exclusively of working men as the Northern,
yet the effect of raising it is probably to distm-b
the system of agricultural labor more than it is
disturbed by the departure of our own volunteers.
The white men are away from their plantations,
and the slaves, if they remain, are of course idle
and reckless. Freemen of all classes have been
forced into the ranks, leaving their business, what-
ever it might be, to destruction. Slaves have been
taken under military requisition, wherever they
could be made useful, and set to labor on the for-
tifications, and even to work the guns. Besides
this, in all Virginia, all along the coast, in all the
region where either army has encamped, or near
where it has marched, all is barren as a desert.
No man plows or plants where he has no assur-
ance that he can gather liis harvest, and we can
hardly suppose that much provision for the future
can have been made, anywhere in the Southern
States.

Who then is to feed this country, with all the
South running riot and destroying her own sub-
stance ; with nearly a million of men in arms, con-
suming wastefully the necessaries of life, and with
agriculture thus deprived of so large a portion of
her labor ? We are not of the croaking kind, and
we have great faith in the productive capacity of

292

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

the great West, yet we know that none of the sta-
ple crops, of corn, wheat or roots used for food,
are spontaneous, and therefore that the amount
raised the present year must fall vastly short of
the usual product. No doubt, the fiat of the re-
bel Congress and Governors, by which planters
have been forbidden to raise more than a limited
amount of cotton, will increase the product of corn
in some localities, yet this can by no means com-
pensate for the wide-spread desolation brought
upon their land by this wicked rebellion.

We have daily accounts even now of the vast
quantities of wheat and corn in store at the West.
Only a few days ago, an article went the rounds
of the papers containing calculations as to the
comparative cheapness of coal and Indian corn as
fuel! and we have before us now, a paper in
which it is demonstrated by a Western farmer,
that it is cheaper to feed out corn to sheep, than to
sell it at ten cents a bushel, because it costs forty
cents a bushel to transport it from the far West
to New York, whereas forty cents worth of wood
can be sent there for half a cent.

Such statements must seem to readers in the
Old World like fairy tales. Indeed, the stories of
Sindbad, the sailor, are hardly more wonderful
than these accounts of the wealth of our country
in corn ; and if we should add to this, a history
of a part of the country where it is almost unsafe
to dig a hole in the ground, lest oil should spout
up and drown you before you could get out of the
way, we ought hardly to expect to be believed !

With all allowance, however, for Nature's prod-
igality, we venture to predict in the course of
next winter much suffering for want of food in
this country. The North and West can feed
themselves, and will have a surplus for those who
can buy. The insane course of the South, in de-
stroying her cotton and tobacco, and the general
disorganization of all her business, will render it
impossible for her to buy. If we desired to humil-
iate the planters of the South, and render them
powerless for years, we could do it in no way so
effectually as to make them poor, for a man in
debt, a large family, white or black, dependent on
him for daily bread, with no means to supply their
wants, is a pitiable object, and none the less so, if
his own folly has brought his sufferings upon him.

The cotton planters are always in debt to about
the amount of one crop. This rebellion found
them in that condition. The crop which should
have paid that debt is wasted and burned, and no
other crop is growing to replace it. Their sub-
stance is dissipated, their labor disorganized, their
currency ruined, their debts are overwhelming. A
national bankrupt act will, by and by, pay their
debts, and Northern men will lose the amount, but
then the planters will have neither money nor cred-
it, even if land and slaves remain. The question is

not, now, however, as to the remote future, but
how is the South to be fed next winter ? We say
it in no spirit of boasting, but we believe that
Northern charity will be invoked to their aid.
There may be food enough in the South even, for
all. There was food enough in Ireland, when
millions were starving, to feed her whole popula-
tion, but it was sold to those who had money
wherewith to buy, and not distributed, with the
even hand of charity, to all.

So must it be at the South. The half million
of men in arms or otherwise, concerned there in
this rebellion, discharged utterly destitute, from
the ranks of the army, and from labor on the pub-
lic works — how are they and their families to be
fed?

With their farms well tilled by the boys who
have staid at home, and their purses well filled
with the wages so nobly earned in their country's
service, our soldiers will find their homes set in
order for their return, but desolation and poverty
must meet the returning rebels.

It is idle to think of finding a market at the
South, as our Northern traders are finding at
Nashville, where everything is wanted, but there
is nothing to pay with but confederate scrip. We
should give them corn for cotton, but these fire-
worshippers have sacrificed their King to their
new Moloch, and wiU have little cotton to spare,
so that we can do little for them in the way of
trade.

How much surplus food this country has here-
tofore produced, nobody will ever know. We
have supplied ourselves and our animals, and all
foreign demand, and the granaries of the West are
yet full. It is stated in a paper of May 10th that
"over 2,000,000 bushels of grain arrived at Buf-
falo between Friday night and Monday morning
last. It was the largest grain fleet that ever ar-
rived at that poi't." This quantity would supply
an army of half a million men with nearly a bar-
rel of flour each ! The accounts from England
thus far are not encouraging for their growing
crop of wheat, and they will probably draw on us
for a large amount.

The prospect, on the whole, is, that somebody
will want all that we can raise upon our farms. If
the South are in want, they will look in vain across
the sea to their sympathizing friends for succor.
The charity of the British government, which
would gladly have seen this rebellion prosper till
it divided into two feeble rival nations the great
republic of the West, will grow cold towards de-
feated rebels, and we shall be sneeringly told to
feed our citizens, now that we have conquered
them. We believe that day will come, before an-
other year, when the North will respond as nobly
to the call of the South for bread, as she respond-
ed to the call of liberty and law, to arm in their

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARJklER.

293

defence ; and the world will see that we are as
ready and as able to feed the hungry, even in the
States now in rebellion, as we are to strike down
treason and to defend the right.

For the NetB England Farmer.
LITTIiE THINGS:
OR, A WALK IN MY GARDEN.

It is said by some one of Peter the Great, that
"nothing is little to a great man." The mind is
exhausted by infinity when it examines a pebble,
as when it explores a world. Much of our success
in life depends upon the observance of little
tilings. The teacher who would be successful in
his calling, must be critical in everything. The
farmer who suffers little things to pass unnoticed
about his premises, is sure to be an unsuccessful
farmer. I was meditating upon these things,
while walking in my garden this morning over
snow-banks ten feet high, and looking at the tops
of my

PLUM TREES.
The present winter has been very destructive to
the smaller trees and shrubbery in this State. It
was so last winter. The labors and hopes of many
wei'e in ruins as spring approached. The idea of i
low dwarf pear trees, in this vicinity, is out of the !
question. They are stripped to pieces unless tied I
up in the most careful manner. Had I attended
to this little duty, I might possibly have saved
them. While looking at the prospect before me,
one of my boys joined me, and wanted to inquire |
about the poisonous properties of the shrub known
as

DOG-WOOD.

He said that he once had a couple of young
deer, and at a certain time he gave them some
branches of dog-wood to browse, from the effects
of which they died. I have since been told that
this shrub is poisonous to most animals. Is this
fact generally known ?

THE REBELLION.

There is one little thing to be thought of in re-
gard to the course the South will take after the
rebellion is crushed. How will they act ? I think
that if they cannot do quite as well as the North,
they must do as well as they can. It reminds me
of an old colored man who once lived in Pem-
broke, N. H., and who was known by the name
of Eben. It happened once on a time that his
wife got intoxicated, and laid down by the fence in
the road where many people M'ere passing by.
Eben felt a little mortified, and tried to make her
rise up, which she was not inclined to do. "Git
up," said he. "Git up, and 'have yourself. If you
cannot 'have as well as I do, 'have yourself as
well as vou can." N. T. T.

Bethel, Me., April 12, 1862.

Warts on Cattle. — A correspondent of the
Genesee Farmer gives the following remedy for
warts on cattle : Slake a piece of lime the size of
a hen's egg, add four table-spoonfuls of soft soap,
stii" the same until well mixed. Apply the same
to the warts. They will disappear in a few days,
and the skin become smooth.

For the New Eneland Farmer.
ABOUT PEAKS.

Many cultivators of fruit, in this part of the
country, as I learn from conversation with them,
have become somewhat discouraged in th^ir at-
tempts to raise pears. It really seems to me, that,
for a period of several years, the winters, with the
exception of the one just now past, have been un-
usually severe for pear trees, in common with
some other fruits. I commenced the cultivation
of fruit some twenty years ago, and since that
time have tried about seventy-five different vari-
eties of the pear, making out my lists from the re-
commendations of distinguished cultivators, horti-
cultural societies and the pomological Congress.
Of that number — very small it is too, when com-
pared with the number under cultivation by such
men as INIr. Wilder, Mr. Hovey, Mr. Barry, and
many other amateurs — the varieties upon which
a moderate .share of reliance can be placed, for
people hereabouts to cultivate, are, indeed, "like
angels' visits, few and far between."

I have been cherishing the hope — delusion, as
some of our good people about here would proba-
bly call it— of finding out some few varieties that
can be successfully cultivated, away up here in
New Hampshire, among the rocks and hills ; for
I have never had a doubt but there are such vari-
eties, and if nothing comes of my own attempts,
I hope some more fortunate worshipper at the
shrine of Pomona will find the desired ones, and,
"when found, make a note of it." I have some
crude notions of my own — vagaries, if that word
suits better — in regard to the selection of varie-
ties, and methods of cultivation ; and I intend at
some future time, Mr. Editor, to give you, or
somebody's else readers, a moi-e extended result
of my observation and experience, when they shall
have become more fully matured, unless the pro-
cess blow all my preconceived notions and theo-
ries "higher than a kite."

If I were asked the question, "What pear, if
limited to one variety, would you select for culti-
vation, as far North as you are ?" I should unhes-
itatingly name the Flemish Beauty. It stands the
winter admirably. I purchased a tree in 1845 for
the Beurre Bosc, which proved to be the Flemish
Beauty. This is the oldest tree I have of that va-
riety. This tree, as well as all those propagated
from it, has never suffered any injury from the
winter, except in two instances — the winter of
1856-'7, and the one a year ago, that of 1860-'61.
It now seems to be in perfect health. A neighbor
of mine has a splendid tree of this kind, not so old
as mine by a number of years, that produces boun-
tiful crops of superb fruit. A friend of mine liv-
ing in an adjoining town, who had quite a collec-
tion of pear trees, told me a few days ago, that,
the winter before the last, he lost every pear tree
he had, with the exception of the Flemish Beauty.

The Urbaniste, in point of hardiness, stands de-
cidedly at the head of all pears 1 have as yet in
my collection. It is of slower growth than the
Flemish Beauty, and more tardy, in coming into
bearing. Should this variety prove sufficiently
productive, it will be a great acquisition to the list
of hai'dy pears. From my own experience, I can
see no reason, why these two varieties, so far as
the growth and health of the trees are concerned,
may not be cultivated, with as much success, and

294

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

June

\vith as little risk, as the apple. I think either of
them, is hardier than some varieties of the apple,
the Baldwin, for one.

I have thought a plan of this kind would be a
good one, and I think it might well be tried by
those persons, if there are any such, who are in-
terested in the cultivation of this fruit, and who,
not having met with as good success as they ex-
pected, have become somewhat discouraged, and
have about come to the conclusion that pear cul-
ture is a failure. Select a piece of ground that
has not been continually cultivated. A square rod
or more, acording to the number of trees you wish
to put out, near the gate where you turn your cat-
tle into the pasture, which has been enriched by
their continual droppings, would be an excellent
spot. Prepare this, or any other piece of good,
new land, as you would for any valuable crop, cab-
bages, for instance. Procure young and healthy
trees of one year's growth from the bud or graft,
twice as many as you may need — the overplus,
will be wanted by some of your neighbors, — and
set them in rows, to suit your convenience, say 3^
feet between rows, and two feet or more between
trees. Put no manure among the roots. You can
manure on the surface as much as you please.
Keep the ground mellow, and free of weeds, by
constant cultivation, or the whole surface thorough-
ij' mulched. If you think your ground needs far-
ther enriching at any time, the best way, and the
best season, is to spread a coat of manure, with a
sprinkling of ashes, on the surface, late in autumn,
and let it lie all winter. It may be removed in the
spring, or forked in near the suiface. If there is
danger of the trees being thrown out by the frost,
a heavy coat of mulch Avill remedy that. If they
stand where the snow would be likely to break
them down, train them in single shoots, stick a
small stake perpendicularly, close to them, and tie
them in several places fast to it. Let the trees
remain till of suitable size for their final removal
to the garden, or orchard.

In pursuing this course, several advantages will
readily occur to the mind. The original cost and
transportation will be small. They are more like-
ly to live and grow well than larger trees, where
they have to be procured from a distance. You
can train them in a form to suit yourself, with
branches high or low, by preserving or cutting back
the leading shoot. When of suitable si^e to re-
move, you can select a good time for that purpose
— a dull or mistj^ day — can remove them one at a
time, as convenient, without exposing the roots to
drying weather, and you will have no breaking
and bruising of the limbs by the rough handling
on railroads. You will get better roots, for pear
trees, as they are usually managed, with only one
transplanting, that from the seed-bed to the nur-
sery rows of a rich, deep trenched soil, are in-
clined, oftentimes, to grow with long, naked roots.
Every removal promotes the gi-owth of healthy,
fibrous roots.

I have great confidence in setting young trees,
and am preparing myself to supply the demand,
should there be any market for them hereafter.
The trees I now have growing, will be worth more
to me, to grow a year or two longer. I will, how-
ever, supply a few for trial, of some good varieties,
that succeed well here, such as Flemish Beauty,
Urbaniste, Beurre d'Amalis, Rostiezer, &c. I
have a few Bartletts, but would not recommend

them except to those living in a favorable locality.
They will do nothing with me ; are very tender,
and exceedingl}' liable to winter-kill. I can raise
small trees because they are usually protected by
the snow, which now, (AiirillS,) covers my nurse-
ry, in many places, from one to two feet deep.
Wakefield, N. H., April 18. John Copp.

Remakks. — We shall be glad to hear from our
correspondent again.

PBOSPECT OP CHOPS IN E]SrGLAND.

The following articles are from the Mark Lane
Express, a paper published at London, and devot-
ed, exclusively, to the agricultural interests. These
articles indicate that a very large amount of our
agricultural products will be needed in England
and France, so that there is every reason why our
farmers should engage earnestly in seeding and
cultivating. This, added to the fact that large
numbers of our productive men ai"e in the army,
and consequently withdrawn from the cultivation
of the soil, ought to be a sufficient stimulus for us
to produce all we can.

The paragraph which follows is from the Ex-
press of April 14, and certainly presents rather a
gloomy prospect for our transatlantic brethi-en :

The increasing wetness of the past week looked
very ominous for the entire season. March hav-
ing been rainy, it was to be hoped that the pres-
ent month would have been genial and drier than
usual, but the soil has now become flooded in low
situations, and so generally saturated, that field
lal)ors were impracticable : warm and dry weather
is seriously wanted. The grass and early sown
corn have indeed been rapidly growing, but the
latter is in danger of running into straw, and the
wheat that was most forward was getting rank and
spindly. But the weather has lately gone round
to the other extreme, and much harm may now
result from the sharp frost. We have, therefore,
become much more dependent on foreign supplies,
and there is already a greater firmness in the trade,
notwithstanding good stocks and heavy arrivals,
more especially of American flour.

The following, a week later, does not seem to
promise much more for the crops than the fore-
going :

The past week has varied, the opening being
cold and harsh, followed by a heavy rain, and
closing with a more genial temperature. The ef-
fects of the late changes have plainly told upon the
growing crops, much of the wheat having become
yellow and unhealthy in appearance ; but, on the
whole, a check to its luxuriance may be servicea-
ble. More wire-Avorm has, however, been com-
])lained of, as well as misplant, and the first severe
frost after so much rain, must have cut the pear
blossoms and earlier fruit.

In the last number of the Express which we
have received, and dated Api-il 28, we find the
paragraph which follows. This looks a little more
encoui'aging, but still leaves room for some anxie-
ty in regard to the crops in Europe :

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

295

The past week has been highly favorable to the
growing crops as well as to all field labors. The
sowing of Lent corn has proceeded rapidly, and,
though late in the ground, in this uncertain cli-
mate the last sown, may, in point of yield, be^ first.
But the changeable character of the season is ex-
hibited in the appearance of the young wheat. The
clays in low situation having been swamped by
the wet, look yellow and sickly. In the light soil
there is much misplant through wireworm, while
the medium soils well in heart are yet full of prom-
ise, and the ripening of such may be early. The
reduction of stocks, however, in farmers' hands
becomes more evident, and the scanty provision
sent by the near counties to the London market
looks very much like exhaustion, as prices, con-
sidering the deteriorated condition of samples, are
not low. Nor is London alone in limited sup-
plies : many of the country markets have been
getting very thin, insomuch that several have
noted an advance of Is. per qr.

LADIES^ DEPARTMENT.

A BIRTH IN THE FAMILY.

It is strange how, while one soul is passing out
of this world, another enters, all unconscious of
the strange scenes of confusion which it is to wit-
ness, of the hand-to-hand struggle in which it is
to be engaged. For some time, various small
preparations and signs have given token of an ex-
pected event ; a pair of bright, dark eyes have
grown soft and thoughtful, crochet and brilliant-
colored double zephyr have been thrown aside for
tiny strips of cambric, fine soft flannel and white
silk floss, the last of which the delicate hands
weave into charming imitations of leaves and flow-
ers. Very recently a small dainty bed, enveloped
in the fleecy folds of a transparent canopy, wliich
only half conceals marvellous frills and a perfectly
mii-aculous quilt, (the work of Aunt Deborah, who
once took a prize at the State Fair, for the hand-
somest coverlet on exhibition,) has taken its place,
timidly, at the foot of the imposing mahogany, evi-
dently awaiting for an occupant. This very morn-
ing it has found one, a tiny, rosy morsel, so done
up in soft, warm wrappings, that no one can but
just get a glimpse of a little red nose, and the
twinkle of something like eyes. Everybody says,
however, that it is a "beautiful baby," and the de-
lighted papa astonishes a small boy who has rung
the front door-bell for cold victuals, by giving him
a quarter, instead of a cuff", as usual.

The dark eyes which but lately flashed so mis-
chievously are now closed Avearily, curtained by
long lashes, which lay still on the white cheek.
Friends have congratulated ; the proud father is
full of tenderness and devotion ; cherished hopes
are realized. Yet at intervals a large tear forces
its way down through the tightened eyelids, show-
ing that one heart at least can hardly yet recog-
nize its joy. Who shall fathom the depth of a
young mother's thoughts as she holds for the first
time, the child she has borne, to her breast ? Who
shall tell the profound emotion with which she
dimly sees in her anticipated toy, the plaything, a
human soul, a future man, whose strong will and
fiery nature it is hers to mould for good or ill ?
Now, for the first time, she feels that she has be-

come a woman ; that with a woman's crown, she
has received the woman's cross, which she is
henceforth to bear with enduring love and faith
unto the end. Now prays she with the fervor of
her youthful heart, though it may be perchance
for the first time, for with the birth of her child a
new element has entered her heart, a new spnit
has been born unto God. — Jennie June, in N. Y.
Sunday Times.

WOMAN.

Place her among flowers, foster her as a tender
plant, and she is a thing of fancy, waywardness
and sometimes foUy — annoyed by a dew-drop, fret-
ted by the touch of a butterfly's wing, and ready
to faint at the rustle of a beetle ; the zephyrs are
too rough, the showers too heavy, and she is over-
powered by the perfume of a rose-bud. But let
real calamity come, rouse her affections, enkindle
the fu-es of her heart, and mark her then ; how
her heart strengthens itself — how strong is her
purpose. Place her in the heat of battle — give
her a child, a bird — anything she loves or pities,
to protect — and see her in a relative instance, lift-
ing her white arms as a shield, as her own blood
crimsons her upturned forehead, praying for life
to protect the helpless.

Transplant her in the dark places of earth, call
forth her energies to action, and her breath be-
comes a healing, her presence a blessing. She
disputes, inch by inch, the stride of the stalking
pestilence, when man, the strong and brave, pale
and affiighted, shrinks away. Misfortune haunts
her not ; she wears away a life of silent endurance,
and goes forward with less timidity than to her
bridal. In prosperity she is a bud full of odors,
waiting but for the winds of adversity to scatter
them abroad — pure gold, valuable, but untried in
the furnace. In short, woman is a miracle — a mys-
tery, the centre from wliich radiates the great
charm of existence.

VEAL PIE.

Take about two pounds of veal from the loin,
fillet, or any odd pieces you may have. Parboil
enough to clear it of the scum. If it is to be done
in a pot, make a very light paste, roll it out rather
thick, and having your pot well greased, lay it
round the sides, cutting out pieces to prevent thick
folds, as the circle diminishes. Put in a layer of
meat, with salt and pepper. Enrich it with butter,
or slices of salt pork, and dredge in a little flour.
So proceed until you have put all in. Cover with
paste, and cut a hole in the top for the escape of
the steam. Pour in a portion of the water in which
the meat was boiled. Set it over a slow fire ;
watch that it does not burn ; and if it gets too
dry, add more of the same water, thi-ough the hole
in the top. If you wish the crust brown, cover
the pot with a heater or bake-pan cover. It will
be done in an hour and a half.

If the pie is baked, make a richer ci*ust, in the
proportion of a pound of butter to two pounds of
flour ; put it in a pan, in the same manner as
above ; notch the edges of the paste handsomely,
and bake about the same time.

To make the paste spoken of above, take three
pounds of flour, to which allow a pound and a half
of butter, or other shortening. Divide the butter
in equal parts, and rub one portion into the flour.

296

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

June

As soon as you put the water in, stir it up quick-
ly ; and having sprinkled flour on your board,
turn it out, sprinkle flour on the top, and roll it
out, pressing the rolling-pin equally, so as to make
it of equal thickness. Cut the butter in thin
shavings and spread over the Avhole surface ; di'edge
with flour and roll it up. Roll out again ; and
proceed as before, until all the butter is used ; but
see that you have taken it all in thi-ee times — for
that is enough. This makes an excellent paste,
and can be used to advantage in other dishes,
where a like article is required. — Oook's Manual.

Stopped Worrying and Began to Laugh.
— A clerical friend, at a celebrated watering-place,
met a lady who seemed hovering on the brink of
the grave. Her cheeks were hollow and wan, her
manner listless, her step languid, and her brow
wore the severe contraction so indicative both of
mental and physical suffering, so that she was to
all observers an object of sincerest pity.

Some years afterward he encountered this same
lady, but so bright, and fresh, and youthful, so
full of healthful buoyancy, and so joyous in ex-
pression, that he questioned himself if he had not
deceived himself with regard to identity.

"Is it possible," said he, "that I see before me
Mrs. B., who presented such a doleful appearance
at the Springs, several years ago ?"

"The very same."

"And pray tell me, madam, the secret of your
cure ? What means did you use to attain to such
vigor of mind and body, to such cheerfulness and
rejuvenation?"

"A very simple remedy," returned she, with a
beaming face. "I stopped worrying, and began
to laugh ; that was all."

Scalds and Burns. — The best, most instanta-
neous and most accessible remedy in the woi-ld, is
to thrust the injured part in cold water, send for
a physician, and while he is coming, cover the part
an inch or more deep with common flour. The
water gives instantaneous relief by excluding the
oxygen of the air ; the flour does the same thing,
but is preferable, because it can be kept more con-
tinuously applied, with less inconvenience, than
by keeping the parts under water. As they get
well, the flour scales ofi", or is easily moistened and
removed. If the injury is at all severe, the patient
should live mainly on tea and toast, or gruels, and
keep the bowels acting freely every day, by eating
raw apples, stewed fruits, and the like. No bet-
ter and more certain cure for scalds and burns has
ever been proposed.

The English girl spends more than half of her
waking hours in physical amusements, which tend
to develop and invigorate and ripen the bodily
powers. She rides, walks, drives, rows upon the
water, runs, dances, plays, sings, jumps the rope,
throws the ball, hurls the quoit, draws the bow,
keeps up the shuttle-cock — and all this without
having it pressed forever upon her mind that she
is thereby wasting her time. She does this every
day, until it becomes a habit which she will foUow
up through life. Her frame, as a natural conse-
quence, is large, her muscular system in better
subordination, her strength more enduring, and
the whole tone of her mind healthier.

THE CATTLE MARKETS FOB MAT.

The following is a summary of the reports for the five weeks
ending May 24, 1862 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

Cattle. Sheep. Veals. Shotes. FatHogt.

April 25 1015 1778 150 2800 300

Mayl 1728 3984 500 2000 700

Mays 980 2470 250 1600 1200

May 15 1518 2113 400 400 400

May 22 1200 1535 250 1300 500

According to these figures there were at market during the
last five weeks 6441 cattle. Of these, 4846 were from the West,
or purchased in Albany, leaving only 1595, or less than one-
fourth of the whole, as the number from New England and the
Northern part of New York. Most of the cattle from the West
are well-fatted beeves. Some thirty milch cows are, however,
included in the number of Western cattle reported for the last
three weeks.

PRICES.

April 2i. Mayl. MaijS. May 15. May 22,

Beefcattle, 4? lb 5 (g7 5h's^ 5537 63fl7 SJS^J

Sheep, wool on, live wt.4.|g5J 4.^06^ 4^a5i 4|35J 5 (g6

Sheep, clipped, live wt..3i'ff4 3 ig3J 3 {g3| 3J@3J 3i@4

Swine, stores, wh'sale.. 3 ®5 3}g5 3^5 4(36 3|(35

" " retail.... 4 @6 41561 41.56 4iS7 4|'ga

Livehogs t§ 4 (g4| 3lSi\ 3f34J (g4

Dressed hogs @ 5 QSJ 4ij35j 5 @5J (gS

Veal calves $3S8 $3^35^ $2|35J $25a5| $3g5

A Curious Experiment. — Take a piece of
paste-board about five inches square, roll it into
a tube with one end just large enough to fit around
the eye, and the other end rather smaller. Hold
the tube between the thumb and finger of the
right hand (do not grasp it with the whole hand ;)
put the large end close against the right eye, and
with the left hand hold a book against the side of
the tube. Be sure to keep both eyes open, and
there will appear to be a hole through the book,
and objects seen as if through the hole, instead of
through the tube. The right eye sees through
the tube, and the left eye sees the book, and the
two appearances are so confounded together that
they cannot be separated. This is one way to see
through a millstone. The left hand can be held
against the tube instead of a book, and the hole
will seem to be through the hand.

Be Kind to Your Sisters. — Boys, be kind
to your sisters. You may live to be old, and nev-
er find such tender, loving friends as these sisters.
Think how many things they do for you ; how pa-
tient they are with you ; how they love you in
spite of your ill temper or rudeness, how thought-
ful they are for your comfort ; and be you thought-
ful of theirs. Be ever ready to oblige them, to
perform any little office for them that lies in your
power. Think what you can do for them, and if
they express a wish, be ready to gratify it, if pos-
sible. You do not know how much happiness
you will find in so doing. I never knew a hajjpy,
respectable man who was not in his youth kind to
his sisters.

IJF' A large number of Germans are about to
emigrate to this country, and will settle in Illinois,
Wisconsin and Minnesota. This immigrating par-
ty consists principally of wealthy land-owners, and
among them are several barons. About twenty
thousand acres of land have already been pur-
chased for them in the three States named, and it
is expected they will arrive by the middle of July.

DEVOTED TO AGiUOTJLTURE AUD ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, JULY, 1862.

NO. 7.

XOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAX, Proprietors.
Office... .100 Washington Street.

SIMOX BROWX EniTOE.

HEXRY F. FREXCPI, Associate Editor.

/ L- — — — generally is

^^*y Kjvf^ \\ liie case m Ji,ur(

V- T^a''''^L \ ^H'foie its nai
t^p\ ' '^^ cl an-ed in hone
y^W^ ' / great C esar, July was ca;

JULY.

Loud is the summer's busy song,

The smallest breeze can fiml a tongue

While insects of each tiny size

Grow teazing with th'-ir melodies,

Till noon burns with its blistering breath

Around, and day lies still as death. jonv fT art

ULY is a busy time
with the farmers
of New England.
It is the great hay-
ing season here, as
it is also with the
farmers in many
countries of the old
^ world. Indeed, so
this
the case m Europe, that,
name was
lonor of the
great C esar, July was called Ileu-
Cv-^i I Vfionat, or the mowing month, a
*,v^ name far more appropriate, it would
" seem, than one -which was chosen

merely to honor an individual whose
birth is said to have occurred in this
month.
If any thing could perpetuate a man's
memory, or confer immortality upon a hu-
mon being, surely to have his name borne down
to posterity by one of the twelve months of the
rolling year must be sufficient. But hoM' signally
has even this f:\iled ! Though the name of July
is borne by the seventh month, how few of the
living millions who speak or write that word are
reminded of the dead monarch from whose title it
was originally taken! Poor old Julius Ctesar,
though your name may be pronounced by our
lips or written by our pens, it has no power to
"keep your memory green" in our hearts. It does
not remind us of you, but of a certain round of
work -which has become associated in our minds
with July — prominent amons: which are the labors

of the hay-field, with the management of the
mowing machine, the horse rake, &c. &c., which
are doing the drudgery, among us, that was per-
formed by the human machines Avhich, under
taskmasters, gathered the harvests of old Rome,
in your day, most noble July-us !

And this suggests a pleasant practictil tnougnt
— tlie missiun of machinery. We say a pleasant-,
thought, because, in the first place, we look uponi
macliinery as the most effective of all emancipa^-
tors. "Slavery and the slave trade," says Baa-
croft, "are older than the records of human soei-
ety ;" yet both historj' and observation show that
slave labor has always been, and still is, confined
to that class of work which requires physical
strength rather than mental energy, or ta those
kinds of service which may be constantly s.uperin-
tended by master and mistress, or by their hired
overseers. Slaves have never been, to any extent,
employed in any branch ol business in which cal-
culation, thought, foresight or responsibility are
. necessary. Tliis principle is so well understood,
and so generally acted upon by slaveholders, that
laws have been enacted to prohibit the education
of slaves, and, even in our own country, women
have been imprisoned for teaching slaves their let-
ters ! No, slaves are machines, and when their
tasks can be more promptly and cheaply executed
by the soulless engine, then, indeed, shall the op-
pressed go free. Slave labor, already driven from
the manufacturing centres of the world, seems to
have made its last stand on the broad fields of the
plantation. A machine once introduced there,
that shall harvest cotton as the McCormick on-
Buckeye does -wheat, would soon Avhistle the-
death-knell of human servitude, provided the "ne-
cessities of war" do not anticipate the inevitable
destiny of hot air and steam.

In the second place, it is pleasant for us to think
of machinery as the improver and elevator of the
laboring classes generally. Especially at this sea-
son of the vear. when the phvsical system is weak-

298

NEW ENGLAND FARMTTl.

July

ened bv the tropical heat of the July sun, or our
strength seems insufficient for the work which
presses upon us, we love to think of the good
time coming when wheels and cranks, levers and
pulleys, of wood and iron, and other unconscious
material, are to relieve overtasked human sinews
on the farm, as they already have done to so great
an extent in the shop and factory.

We do not suppose that all farmers will agree
with U5 in these pleasant anticipations. There
are now, as there always have been, many good
men, especially among the laboring classes, who
look upon the introduction of new machinery, and
indeed, upon all new modes and improvements
with fear and jealousy. The first saw-mill in Eng-
land, it is said, wr.s demolished. And probably
there is no machine in use whose introduction was
not objected to and opposed by some individuals,
often with the plea that its employment would de-
prive honest men and Avomen of the means of
support. But this objection genei-ally proves
groundless. The old copyists who made books
with the pen, in the city of Paris, mobbed the man
who first ofi'ered printed books for sale ; yet the
invention of printing has increased bookmakers
many hundred fold.

For our own part, we like to listen to the clat-
ter of a mowing machine as it moves along
through the meadow, and to the l)usy click of the
sewing machine as it assists the women folks in
their labor.

We rejoice at all these evidences of the union,
even upon the farm and in the farm-house, of
Mind with Hand.

in Minter and early spring than in summer, when
the leaves have carried off a part. The wood is
also rather less watery after midsummer than be-
fore, and dries better, and makes harder seasoned
stuff. It is, therefore, not quite so well to cut it
till rather after midsummer.] — Country Gent.

TIME TO CUT TIMBER.

When is the best season to cut building timber
other than evergreens — say oak, ma]3le, beech,
basswood, &c., to be cured in the old-fashioned
way after it is in the frame ? Our people differ
very much u]5on the subject ; some say M'hen the
leaf is off; others when it is on — some say when
the bark will run ; others prefer the winter in
February. Another class, that when the sap is
out of the wood, which they claim to be in sum-
mer, Avhile others maintain that that time is in
February. I have had but little ex])erience, but
that little leads to the time when the bark will
peal, which is generally in the early summer.
What say you? It is of importance to me just
now, and I should like to know. — G. Clarke,
East Springfield, March, 1862.

P. S. — I notice in many of our frames, much of
the oak has powder-posted. That ought not to be.
I am a great lover of oak on account of its strength,
but don't want a powder-posted building. I don't
mean white oak ; that has all left long ago.

[Summer is the best time to cut timber, chiefly
because it seasons rapidly at that time. It should,
of course, be left in the logs as short a time as
practicable. Timber cut in winter is long drying,
and inci]:)ient decay commences before the process
is completed. There is rather more sap in a tree

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Open Air Grape Culture ; A Practical Treatise on the Garden
and Vineyard Culture of the Vine, and the Manufacture of Do-
mestic Wine. Designed for the use of Amateurg and others in
the Northern and Middle States. Profusely Illustrated with
new Engravings fi'om carefully executed DesiRns, verified hy
direct practice. By Joiix PniN, Author of Essay on Open-
Air Grape Culture, to which was awarded to first premium of
the American Institute. To which is added a Seleotioa of Ex-
amples of American Vineyard Practice, and a ciirefully pre-
pared description of the celebrated Thomcry System of Grape
Culture. New York: C. M. Saxton, Af?ricultural Book Pub-
lisher ; Boston: A.Williams & Co. 1 vol. 12mo, 375 pp.
Price $1.

This is a valuable work for the common cultiva-
tor. It has full directions in relation to the pre-
paration of the soil by draining, trenching and ma-
nuring, the time and mode of planting the vines,
and the subsequent care necessary to be devoted
to them in order to secure compensating crops. It
has a chapter, also, on the various modes of propa-
gating the vine, and, indeed, upon every particular
point of information which those unacquainted
with grape culture may require. The work is
beautifully printed on large type, and will be found
a valuable help to those who consult its pages.

What we need, however — and what no book
can supply — is a grape that is sufficiently hardy
to withstand the rigor of our climate unprotected,
and that will perfect itself during our short sea-
sons of growth. We shall have such a grape, un-
doubtedly, but it has not made its appearance yet.
In the meantime, let us consult the book before
us, and press on to greater success.

THE BEST TIME TO PRUNE.

An old clergyman is quoted as defining this
time to be "when your knife is sharp." He was
certainly half right, for a smooth, clean cut is very
essential to the healing of the wound. But there
is very great difference in the healing of wounds
on account of the season in which tliey are made.
Pruning done in INIarch and April, especially if
large limbs are removed, often injures an orchard
for life. The sap oozes from all the pores and
runs down the bark, discoloring it and oftentimes
destroying it — called scalding. Without other
protection, decay begins, and in a few years you
have a hollow limb.

We like the month of June for pruning better
than all others. If the work is done soon after
the new wood begins to form, the wounds made
by the removal of small limbs will be nearly cov-
ered over the same season they are made. The
leaves make such a demand upon the wood for
sap that none of it escapes from the wounded
pores. It is also a favorable time for thumb-
pruning. By watcliing the growth of the shoots
u])on young trees they may be brought into sym-
metrical shape without much use of the knife. —
American Ayriculiurid.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARjVIER.

299

For the JSeic England Farmer.
BOTATION IN" FORESTS.

Messrs. Editors : — Stupidity must rule in the
cranium of the man that does not feel a degree of
enthusiasm, or an elevated reverence for that Be-
ing who administers the laws of nature, as demon-
strated to the sight of every farmer who has eyes
to behold "God's handiworks." Every man who
has seen half a century or more, and has spent all
or part of his days in the country, in the neigh-
borhood of forests, and has be^n a careful obser-
ver of the progress and productions of nature,
has seen a succession of the diflerent species of
forest trees, or the varieties of the same species
succeed each other on the same tract of land,
without man's aid or interference. When the first
settlers took possession of the soil which we now
occupy, they found it in some places covered witli
the different kinds of oak, and other hard wood,
and in other places with the pine varieties, or oth-
er evergreens. After the removal of the original
growth of hard wood, I have found it succeeded
by evergreens. If evergreens composed the orig-
inal growth, it was succeeded by some of the va-
rieties of hard wood, or of a different variety of
the evergreen from the original growth.

In the State of Maine, I have seen, on the re-
moval of a heavy growth of beech, birch and ma-
ple, dense crops of hemlocks springing up, and in
my own neighborhood, on chopping off an oak
growth, a pitch pine one has succeeded, and on
cutting that off, white pines have sprung up in
multitudes. Every kind of soil has a constant
tendency to production ; even our most grain-
worn fields, on suffering them to lie without crop-
ping, are soon filled with young pines, which
spring up in such numbers as to surprise us. The
Almighty formed the soil for activity, as well as
the animals which inhabit it, and its being destitute
of the fertilizing power which produces grain, is
no hindrance to the growth of the pine varieties.

The above remarks suggest that every vegeta-
ble, and every distinct species of tree, with all
their varieties, flourish in consequence of a sj^ecifie
fertilizing principle imbibed from the earth by a
peculiar set of absorbent vessels adapted to the
nature and wants of each, which cause their grad-
ual growth and ultimate maturity. On the ex-
haustion of the nutriment which produces one dis-
tinct species of vegetable, or tree, the nutritive
principle which is required for the growth of other
species is left unimpaired in the soil, to be applied
when called for by others, and the earth, while in
the progress of exhaustion by the production of
one species of trees, or other vegetal)les, is accu-
mulating a supply of nutrition which will be re-
quired by trees and vegetables of other species to
promote their growth. The nourishing, elemen-
tary principle which produces the hard wood va-
rieties, has no affinitv for the evergreens, and.
therefore, the evergreens will flourish after the
hard wood is done growing, in consequence of the
soil being exhausted of that element v.hich pro-
duced it, and so one variety of evergreens will
succeed another for the same cause.

We frequently hear complaints of the "running
out," as it is called, of many kinds of vegetables,
and the deterioration is supposed to be owing to
a degeneracy of the seeds sown, M'hen, in fact, it
is caused by the want of the knowledge of rota-

tion, and putting this knowledge into practice.
We are taught the doctrine of rotation by nature
herself, in the arrangement which she makes in
the natural forests, if we would but observe her
laws. All vegetables exhaust the soil in propor-
tion to the nourishment which they afford. Oats,
which are so nourishing to horses, exhaust the
soil more than any root crop with which I am ac-
quainted. I have seen four or five good crops of
corn and rye grow upon pine plains, in succession,
without manure, where a heavy growth of wood
had been recently cut off, and but little brush left
on the ground to make ashes, which is evidence
sufficient to convince us that the same kind of
food which feeds the forest, is not the favorite of
the various kinds of grain. Thus it seems that
every kind of vegetable extracts some peculiar
principle of nutrition from the earth congenial to
its own wants, and differing from that required by
others, and this accounts for the necessity of ro-
tation in raising our crops, if we would wish to
realize the greatest ]n'ofit from our labor.
Wilmington, 1862. Silas Brown.

"WHITE-WASHING EXTRAOBDINAIfSr.

The Rev. James Williams, the well-known and
philanthropic missionary, so long resident in the
South Sea Islands, taught the natives to manufac-
ture lime from the coral of their shores. The
powerful effect produced upon them, and the ex-
traordinary uses to which they applied it, he thus
facetiously describes :

"After having laughed at the process of burn-
ing, which they believed to be to cook the coral
for their food, what was their astonishment, when
in the morning they found his cottage glittering in
the rising sun, M'hite as snow. They danced,
they sung, they shouted and screamed with joy.
The whole island was in a commotion, given up to
wonder and curiosity, and the laughable scenes
Avhich ensued after they got possession of the tub
and brush, baffled description. The high-bred
immediately voted it a cosmetic and kalydor, and
superlatively happy did many a swarthy coquette
consider herself, could she but enhance her charms
by a daub of the white brush. And now party
spirit ran high, as it will do in more civihzed
countries, as to who was and who was not best
entitled to preference. One party urged their su-
perior rank ; one had the brush and was deter-
mined at all events to keep it ; and a third tried
to overturn the whole, that they might obtain
some of the sweepings. They did not even scru-
ple to rob each other of the little share that some
had been so happy as to secure. But soon new
hme was prepared, and in a week not a hut, a do-
mestic utensil, a war club or a garment, but was
as white as snow ; not an inhabitant but had a
skin painted with the most grotesque figures ; not
a ])i<T but what was similarly wliitened : and even
mothers might be seen in every direction, caper-
ing with extravagant gestures, and yelling with
delight at the superior beauty of their white-
washed infants."

Barometers. — If our correspondent, writing
from Enosburgh, Vt., will send us the facts to
which he alludes, in relation to the barometer, w©
will publish them for the benefit of the p.tiic.

300

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MAINE.
We find in the New York Journal of Com-
merce the annexed synopsis of the results of a
partial geological survey of the State of Maine,
made under direction of the Legislature by E.
Holmes, of Winthrop, Me., naturalist, and C. H.
Hitchcock, of Amherst, Mass., geologist. Many
interesting and important facts are brought to
light by the survey :

Late in the season of 1861, these two gentle-
men with a number of assistants and a flotilla of
canoes, explored a large district, known previous-
ly only to lumbermen. They went up the east
branch of the Penobscot its whole length, ex-
plored the vicinity of Mount Katahdin, examined
the country around the Allequash Lakes, descend-
ed the Allequash river, explored the St. Francis
river to the State line, travelled down the St. Jolin
river from Number Eleven, or the latitude of Que-
bec, to Woodstock, N. B., and explored the Eagle
Lakes in the north-cast part of the State, making
in all over 800 miles travelled in birch canoes.
Besides these routes, they have also explored the
whole of the eastern boundary. The results of
these labors are given in an octavo volume of 400
pages. The following ai-e some of the most in-
teresting results of these explorations :

1. There is a fine agricultural region in this new
country. The eastern parts of Aroostook county
are said to be the finest portions, while no part of
the whole region examined can be said to be poor ;
good farms can be found anywhere north of civil-
ization. The rank vegetation of some townshii)
reservations reminded the explorers of tropical
luxuriance.

Some have supposed that the climate was too
severe to permit Indian corn to flourish in the
northern part of iMaine. But these ex])lorers saw
fields of it above the latitude of Quebec, nearly
ready for harvesting. They discovered some in-
dications of a milder climate in the extreme north.
There is a bolt of country from thirty to fifty miles
wide in which sub-arctic plants were found, indi-
cating cold climate. But north of this cold zone,
and embracing the greater portion of the territo-
tory, were found a number of plants which no
botanists had ever seen before as fur north as New
England or Massachusetts. Hence the agricultu-
ral region of Northern Maine Avas found to pos-
sess advantages over the West. Tlie climate per-
mits the cultivation of all the important products,
and the communication with the markets is ten-
fold easier. Moreover, new .settlers are never
troubled with the Western fevers. It is one of
the healthiest regions in the country, being visited
in the winter by consumptive invalids even, with
benefit.

A number of large beds of natural fertilizers
were discovered in the eastern part of Aroostook,
chiefly beds of marl, with some indications of gyp-
sum. Many of those northern townships are held
by private parties, who are opposed to the pro-
gress of civilization, because of the injury result-
ing thereupon to the timber lands. But the State
still owns a large part of the finest agricultural
districts, and it encourages emigration by grant-
ing to new settlers one or two townships every
year.

2. Valuable quarries, of mai'ble and other min-

erals, were found. The marble, in particular, is
very abundant, and occurs in a belt of land sev-
eral miles wide, running north-east and south-
west, perhaps f jr a hundred miles. The marble
is pure white, of the statuary variety. Specimens
of it were shown to experienced sculptors, who
declared it to be superior to the best imported
marl:)le.

Quarries of limestone for the manufacture of
quick lime, and of roofing slate, were found to be
abundant. A few opportunities for the smelting
of iron are described. The extreme north-west
part of the State, or on the upper St. John river,
is pronounced to be a gold region, whose value
was not determined for want of time. Sugges-
tions are made that in the eastern part of Aroos-
took and the northern part of Washington county
valuable ores of copper may be found.

In another part of the State this report states
that a large mass of tin ore has been discovered,
and that the indications for a tin mine are better
than anything yet discovered in the country. It
is to be hoped that this indication will bring a
good tin district to light, since all our suppUes of
this metal are foreign.

3. Numerous important geological discoveries
are noticed in the report, which are mostly of
technical interest. The ex])lorers found a highly
fossiliferous region,where unfossiliferous rocks had
previously been supposed to predominate. One of
the new localities of fossils is said to have attract-
ed much attention from savans already. The new
belts of rocks discovered are partly equivalent of
the Lower Helderberg Group and the Oriskany
sandstone of New York.

The operations of the survey will be carried on
vigorously the coming season. As soon as the
snow is gone, an examination will be made of the
wild lands bordering on Canada, from the New
Hampshire line to the latitude of Quebec, a re-
gion as unknown to science and the public gener-
ally, as the Russian American possessions. Later
in the season a vigilant search Avill be made in
Wasliington and Aroostook counties for copper
ore. Meanwhile a party of naturalists will cruise
oft" the seacoast the whole season, collecting spec-
imens of marine animals by dredging and with
lines, as well as visiting many points and islands
rarely explored.

GOOD TASTE.

Good taste is the "luminous shadow" of all the
virtues. It is social discretion, it is intellectual
kindness, it is external modesty and propriety, it
is apparent unselfishness. It wounds no feelings,
it infringes on no decorums, it respects all scru-
ples. A man thus gifted, even though he be not
a wit, spreads a genial influence about him from
the trust he inspires. The stift' man can unbend,
the cold can thaw, the fastidious can repose on
him. No one is committed to more than he choos-
es— no ungenerous use is made of an unusual or
transient impulse. Good taste is practical, though
not deep, knowledge of character ; it is jiorceptiou
of the distinctive points of every occasion ; and
thus it reconciles and harmonizes where bad taste
perpetuates differences and necessitates separa-
tions. And yet we by no means wish to make good
taste a synonym either for virtue or intellect — it
is rather that quality which sets ofi" both at their

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

301

best. It is an affair, in some degree, of social
training — it is one aspect of knowledge of the
world. Those who are little in general society —
who confine themselves to family intercourse or to
that of a set or clique, whatever the position,
■whatever the intellectual or moral pretensions of
that clique — are almost sure to fail in it in new
scenes. All persons of a single idea, engrossed by
one object, are perpetually infringing on the rules
of good taste. If they are religious, they are
pragmatical and intolerant, regardless of sensibil-
ities. If they are useful, they do their work with
unnecessary fuss. If they are learned, or deep, or
clever, they make these good gifts unpopular. If
they are merry, we are kept on thorns — if they are
grave, they are a check and restraint. They fail
in every social crisis. In every difficulty they take
the wrong way. They are forward when they
ought to be retiring — their diffidence is constantly
misplaced. There is no knowing where such peo-
ple are — to what lengths an emergency or excited
spirits will drive them. It is the cause of half the
seeming injustice of society. The man of bad
taste cannot comprehend why things are not tol-
erated in him which are alloMed in others. He is
the last to see that the presence or absence of a
correct taste makes the same practice or amuse-
ment agreeable or repugnant — that nothing can
be judged fairly without taking the manner of do-
ing it into consideration. He is therefore for ev-
er grumbling at the inconsistencies of mankind.
The fact is, every hinge, with some people, grates
and creaks, at each turn jarring on sensitive
nerves ; while good taste is the oil which keeps
the machinery of society, with the least wear and
tear, noiselessly and profitably at work. — London
Saturday Bevieic.

Fvr tlte New England Farmer.

NOTES FROM THE MONOMACK.
BY SAGGAUEW.

Sparks from a Locomotive Farmer. — A
short time since the writer enjoyed an hour's rail-
road ride with that well known and well to do Es-
sex farmer, Mr. John Day, of Boxford. Wheth-
er or not the hour was well improved, let the read-
er judge, after glancing at the following 'sparks."

•How HE Started. — Mr. Day commenced as
a farmer by taking a small farm to "carry on at
the halves." He commenced without any capital
whatever, except his own hands and brains. For
twenty years he gave particular attention to rais-
ing grass for the market, and during all this time
he annually sold nearly his entire hay crops.
Notwithstanding this exhaustive process, his land
actually improved year by year, so that where he
at first cut only ten tons of hay per year, he has
for the past twelve years averaged o)ie hundred
tons a year !

How HE DID IT. — In the first place, he annu-
ally used, and still uses, large quantities of peat
muck. This he composts with anything and ev-
erything he can get hold of that will assist in its
decomposition. He has it constantly in his barn-
yard, in his pig-pen and in his barn-cellar. He
adds two cords of muck to every cord of manure
dropped by his stock ; one cord to every four
bushels of wood ashes he can collect ; large quan-
tities to the contents of his privy and his hennery ;

and in this way he annually collects pretty large
heaps of manure. But not satisfied with this, he
is constantly purchasing manure, and also the va-
rious other fertilizers, such as lime, gypsum, su-
perjihosphate of lime, guano, ashes, &c.

How HE Manures.— He adopts the plan of a
four years' rotation of crops — first year, corn or
potatoes; second year, grain; third and fourth
years, grass — and applies twenty cords of manure
per acre to the planting crops. He thinks that
one-third muck and two-thirds stable manure
makes the best fertilizer for general purposes he
ever used. He had rather have a cord of muck
well composted with four to six bushels of wood
ashes than the same bulk of clean stable manure.
He thinks that no farmer, who has muck within
reasonable distance, can afford to sell his wood
ashes for less than one dollar per bushel, or leached
ashes for less than fifty cents per bushel. He
values coal ashes very highly, as an absorbent.
He values sawdust at one dollar per cord, for the
same purpose. He can't aftbrd to shovel loam
for compost, if he can get muck instead.

His Crops. — For twelve years he has averaged
from eighty to eighty-three bushels of shelled
corn per acre. He nov/ plants only the twelve-
rowed corn, as he has found by experience tliat
the same land and labor that will give him eighty
bushels per acre of the twelve-rowed, will not give
him above sixty bushels of the eight-rowed varie-
ty, and he thinks twenty bushels bonus worth
having. He has now under cultivation only thir-
ty-nine acres of tillage land, and he keeps twen-
ty-five cows, six oxen and two horses. He raises
and feeds on his place about 1000 bushels of grain
annually. He can't afford to sell it. (He sells
large quantities of milk.) He don't think mead-
ow hay is worth harvesting. It is only fit for
bedding, and he had rather have sawdust for that
purpose.

Breeds of Cows. — He has tried various breeds
and crosses for milk, and has concluded that as a
general rule the half-blood Durhams are decided-
ly the best for milk sellers. They give a large
quantity, and of a good color. The Jerseys he
thinks are an excellent kind for a single family
cow. The Ayrshires are desirable where a great
quantity of milk is wanted.

Milk versus Water. — He found by actual
measurement the past winter that during a period
of two Aveeks, in which his cows were not once
allowed out of the barn, they drank an average
of forty-six quarts of water per day each ; while
for the week following, during which they were
daily allowed several hours in the yard, the con-
sum])tion of water was not more than one-half as
much, and the gross product of milk was four
gallons less per day. One reason for this difler-
ence, he thinlvs, is found in the fixct that when his
cattle are in-doors, they are quiet, warm and con-
tented ; but when turned out, they are apt to be
restless, cold, and perhaps worrying one another.
Under the latter circumstances they seem to eat
more, but drink less. He allows his cattle free
access to salt at all times. Both coarse and fine
salt are kept constantly within their reach.

Sorghum. — He thinks that our New England
farmers will in time make all their own molasses.
He has proved that he can make as good an arti-
cle as he can buy, and at a cost not exceeding
twenty-five cents per gallon. At first, he was

302

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

troubled about grinding the cane, but he has now
a mill, of his own make, which works perfectly.
With such a mill he could grind all the cane for
a large number of flirmers, and at a lower price
than they could do it themselves. He doubts if
we can make much sugar from the cane so far
north as this, except in very favorable seasons.

For the Neiv England Farmer,
CROWS— CBO"WS.

"Those intelligent, interesting, and mischievous black rogues.'''

We often hear the remark made that crows do
more good to the farmer, than they do harm ; and
sometimes we find the same idea expressed in
print. It is said they destroy insects ; and they
feed on the bodies of dead animals, thus prevent-
ing them from putrefying, and poisoning the air.
Now I think there is no good excuse, in this part
of the country, at least, for the body of any dead
animal to lie on the surface of the ground ; it
should always be buried. Perhaps where the
country is sparsely inhabited, and Avild animals
abound, which may die, or be killed, they may
have been of some benefit. The damage done by
the crow to the farmer's corn crop alone, exceeds
the benefit derived from them in the destruction
of insects.

I wish to relate some experience in this line.
For a number of years previous to 18G0, right in
the face of all the scare-crowing I could do, these
black thieves did me more than ten dollars worth
of damage yearly. I tried many things to keep
them off; a bough house made of pine boughs,
with a "stuffed man" in it, which sometimes is ef-
fectual, was of no use. I hung up dead crows in
the field, and they would pull up the corn within
two rods of them ; I tried a line around the field,
fastening it to poles eight or ten feet from the
ground, and they would go down into the middle
of the field, and pull it up the faster. I was
forced, in order to keep them off, to watch the
field right in the midst of planting, when time was
worth more than money. One year I planted a
half acre rather late, and being from homo a day
or two, they dug out, and pulled up the largest
share of it. And yet they have not served me as
badly as they have some others. I know a man
who cultivated land a mile or so from where he
lived. He manured a field bountifully, and
planted it with corn. In a short time he went to
look at his sprhiging corn, as he fondly anticipat-
ed, when lo ! it was all pulled up ! He planted it
the second time, and the second time it was all
pulled up ; then it M'as late ; he must plant it with
potatoes. He was a poor man ; this was all the
corn he planted. Now let any crow-fancier have
such an experience as this, and I have no doubt it
would cure him of his partiality for the black ras-
cals.

In the spring of 1860, I planted a field of about
an acre and a half with corn ; two or three days
after finishing the planting, I went to the field, ami
found that the crows had begun to dig it out. I
took some small stakes, four or five feet long, and
run a line around the field ; also up through the
centre, then crossed it several limes on the up])er
end, where the crows had begun to work. The
next morning I went out to the field, and up flew
an old crow from between the twines at the lower I

end. There were some twenty or thirty hills dug
into. Wishing to ascertain if twine could be put
on so as to keep them off', I bought a ball contain-
ing about half a mile in length, and wove it all on ;
they did not go on to the field again.

Last year, as soon as our corn was planted, the
twine was wove on ; and although crows were
about pretty plenty, it escaped damage, being "let
alone." The crows would fly along with a "caw,
caw," in their peculiar, warning note.

I have noticed in the spring, when ci"ows pair
off, and separate from the return flock, to build
their nests, they ap])ear to have a kind of division
of the land, so that each pair have their particular
fields to themselves ; and although before they
roamed peaceal)ly over the whole, in common,
now one pair will not let another transgress their
bounds.

Crows possess some good traits ; they exercise
benevolence towards one another, as well as affec-
tion for their young. I saw one in a flock that
was disabled, and hopped on one leg ; others in
the flock would get food, and carry it to him. I
got a nest of youug^crows, one spring, from a
wood nearly a mile off; they were almost ready to
fly. Knowing that there Avas a nest in a small
piece of -svoods not far from the house, I took one
of them, tied a string to its leg, and made it fist
to a stake, out in a lot, then watched to see what
would happen. In a short time an old crow came
flying over ; the young one saw her, and cried for
help ; the old one answered, but still kept on, and
afterwards returned to her nest. The next time
slie came over, the young crow called louder than
before. The old one circled around, and lit on
the fence a short distance off, and after some ma-
nieuvreing, she went to the young crow, and tried
to liberate him by picking at the string. Not suc-
ceeding in this, she -went off, and soon returned
with something for it to eat. She continued to do
this, going four or five times to her nest, and then
rcturriing to my prisoner. I now took my gun,
went out, and lay in ambush. In a short time she
came %vith her mouth full, lit a short distance from
her charge, and ran towards it ; just before she
reached it, I fired ; she rose up, perhaps three feet
from the ground, and flew fifteen or twenty rods
directly towards her nest, and dropt dead. ' Was
I cruel? Would not the reader like to hear that
Floyd had been shot ? Well, this black rebel stole
corn right from my neiglibor's field, every kernel
being worth more than a hundred-fold to him.

Laying aside all other charges, there is one way
in which I consider that crows do the farmer more
injury, than all the good they can possibly do in
every way. That is, in their destroying the" young
of otiier l)irds. It is wqW known "that the "young
of domestic fowls are taken whenever they" come
in their way ; then just consider how many of the
young of harmless and useful little birds must
fall a prey to their rapacity, when there is hardly
a nook or corner, a tree or bush, but what they
scour in search of plunder.

Birds that Ijcat the crow, will not allow one to
come near their nests. A pair of king-birds have
built their nest on an a])i)le tree near the house
for a numl)er of years, and there are always two or
three nests of other birds on the same tree, though
there are other trees near by, that they might just
as well build on. Is it not "for greater safety that
they build there ? If a crow comes within an

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

303

eighth of a mile of this tree, you hear the warning
note of the king-bird, who immediately gives chase
and drives him off.

In destroying insects on a farm, I think that
turkeys might be kept to much better advantage
than crows. I had rather raise a dozen turkeys
on ray place, than a dozen crows ; and how differ-
ent the footing up sounds, in the fivU, of the two
investments ; in the one case the music has been
all addressed to the ear, and pitched to the tune
of innumerable "caw, caw, caws ;" in the other,
the pocket is replenished with the musical jingle
of ten or twelve dollars, and a Thanksgiving
feast into the bargain.

The flock of crows that return to this part of
the State, annually, in the spring, has been slowly
decreasing for several years ; I should think that
last year they might have numbered twelve or fif-
teen hundred ; the use of strychnine, no doubt,
accounts for this decrease in a great measure. I
should rejoice to spare ninety-nine one-hun-
dredths of the remainder. Can any man benefit
the public more by the use of twenty-five cents,
than by purchasing that worth of strychnine ?

Worcester, 18G2. L. K. E.

For the Netp England Farmer.

IMPROVED STRA-W HIVES— HOW
MADE.

Having succeeded in constructing a hive of
straw, adapted to improved bee-culture, making it
take and retain a shape suitable for movable
frames and surplus honey-boxes, I announced it
in the Farmer some months since, and at the
same time an invitation was given for some one
to gi^e us a better form, as I did not suppose that
I had the best one. Since that time, two straw
hives have been patented, but whether they are
sufficiently superior to mine to pay patent expen-
ses, is not for me to say. Both of them have
movable frames. One patented by Air. M. S til-
well, Manlius, N. Y., very much like mine ; the
material difference is in the manner of securing
the straw. Mr. S. Ide, East Shelby, Orleans
County, N, Y., has one with double walls, with an
air space between ; the inner one of straw, tlie
outer of wood, which serves to protect the straw
from the v.-eather, and as far as the sides of the
hive are concerned, M'ould do a great deal to pro-
tect the bees, and keep out the frost. It is well
made, durable, and somewhat costly. The one I
have is more simple, easier made, and probably
may answer just as well. It is made to corres-
pond in respect to heighth, length and breadth, to
a wood hive that I have, with movable combs, so
that the combs, bees, &c., may be transferred at
any time. I would suggest that any one disposed
to make the straw hive, who already has the mov-
able combs, that they make it the same size of the
wood hive, inside measure of course, as the straw
will 1k' much thicker than boards. It will be un-
necessary for me to describe the frames, manner
of supporting them, or size of the hive.

To make the hive, take strips of board, say one
inch thick by two inches wide, and make two rec-
tangular frames, halving or framing the corners
together, and keeping the under surfaces in the
same plane. These frames must be of the same
size, and of dimensions according to the size of

the liive required. On the under side of the bot-
tom one, cut a passage way for the bees, three
inches wide by three-eighths deej). Lay this on
the bench before you, and nail to it upright strips
of lath — let them be an inch wide by one-fourth
inch thick — the length corresponding to the height
of tlie hive, the lower ends being even with the
lower surface of the frame. If very smooth work
is desired, these laths may be let into the frames
juRt their thickness. AVhen to be painted, it
should be done before filling in the straw. These
laths should be about four inches apart, inside
and out, the two at the corners joining together.
Now take long, clean straw, llye straw is the
smoothest if unthrashed, the better ; get it even,
and cut off the head, wet it and lay it between the
ujn-ight pieces of lath, bending it round the cor-
ners in such a Avay as to make the walls of the
hive, and press it close. When half full, if the
hive is a deep one, ])ass some small annealed wire
around the inner and outer lath, to keep them from
spreading. Having pressed the space full, lay the
second frame upon the straw directly over the
first, nail the upper ends of the lath to it, and the
hive, with the exception of the top, is done. Such
a hive should have two tops, movable, of course,
as in all movable comb-hives ; one of wood, to be
used during the gathering of surplus honey, and
the other of straw, for winter and spring. This
straw top may be made on the same principle as
the hive. jNIake a frame of the proper size, and
two inches deep ; nail pieces of lath on the under
side, sinking them in so as to leave a level sur-
face, fill in above them with straw, and bind it
down with lath nailed above. It will be unneces-
sary to leave any passages for ventilation, and as
the wood top is used in the honey season, no holes
are necessary in the straw top, to communicate be-
tween the boxes and hive. Allow the hive to dry
out as fast as possible, and when dry, it is ready
for the bees. They may be transferred at any
time. If the weather is cold, take them into a
warm, dark room, using a candle to work by.
Such a hive, with no ventilation but that afforded
by the porous absorptive mass of straw of the side
and top, has been found free from frost, and the
bees in very comfortable condition, when the ther-
mometer stood at 10° below zero. As I have
heretofore given my views relative to the advan-
tages of straw hives in the Farmer, I will not re-
peat them here. M. Quinby.
St. Johnsville, N. Y.

Drying Up. — A letter from a gentleman visit-
ing the oil region in Pennsylvania, dated at Oil
Creek, April 13, confirms the recent reports as to
t!ie f^reat decrease in the produce of the oil wells.
On his arrival there about two mouths since, one
well flowed 1200 barrels in 21 hours. On the 12lh
inst., it yielded but oOO barrels in the same period.
Six other wells, which on his arrival yielded 400
barrels each in 24 hours, now yield respectively ItjO,
100, 80, 40, 20 ])arrels, and the sixth none. Anoth-
er well which then yielded 5.30 barrels, now pro-
duces not a drop. He says, however, that new
weils are daily being sunk further up the creek,
were it not for which, he thinks the supply would
soon give out, and as it is, he is of the opinion
that oil will soon be scarce in that region. — New
Bedford Standard.

304

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

For the New England Farmer.

PROPEK LOCATION OF BUILDINGS ON
THE PAKM.

Most of the readers of the Farmer have doubt-
less often been struck with the want of taste or
judgment displayed in the relative position of
farm-houses and out-buildings connected with
them. This is not, however, the subject I propose
to consider in this article, but leave for others to
dispose of, if it has not already been done, to
their entire satisfaction. I now wish to bring for-
ward what I consider a more important matter,
viz : The location of farm buildings so as to se-
cure the greatest economy in all our farm opera-
tions. That this is lamentably overlooked, we
have abundant evidence on every hand.

A year or two since I rode out of Boston a few
miles to look at a farm that was offered for sale,
very cheap, I thought, from the description given.
When I arrived on the jn-emises I found a noble
farm of 200 acres of excellent land, compact, and
all readily covered by the eye from the centre of
the farm, affording a fine prospect of the surround-
ing country. All that was wanting to complete
the picture, was the farm buildings, which were
located on one corner of the farm, by the high-
way, and consisted of a new house, costing over
$5000, an old barn, corn-house, carriage-house,
&c., not worth to anyone over $500, and for which
and proximity to the highway the house was lo-
cated, and the profitable working of the farm sac-
rificed.

As these buildings were located, all the teaming
to be done upon the place was at great disadvan-
tage, involving unnecessary distance, up-hill road,
and of course more strength of team. In the
case of this farm, if the buildings were placed
upon the summit, which was near the centre, the
farmer could overlook his place ; anything out of
bounds Avould be quickly known and readily at-
tended to ; his manure easily distributed, and his
crops economically gathered. All these consid-
erations seem to have been overlooked, or sacri-
ficed, for the sake of the old shanties by the high-
way, and having the house convenient to them.

in another instance, I went to view a farm of
over 100 acres, and found it extending back from
the road three-fourths of a mile, up quite a steep
grade. The road front was narrow, and the house
an old, poor thing, on a line with the road, if not
partly in it, near by which a new and expensive
barn had been built.

What judicious farmer would buy farms with
buildings located as those described above, unless
at such a price as to admit of his revolutionizing
the whole arrangement ? A great propensity pre-
vails in New England to locate houses near the
public highway. The eligibility of other parts of
the farm is ignored, and its value sacrificed for
this seeming advantage. If the road should ])ass
through near the centre of the farm, very well ;
but even in this case, have a good sjiacious lawn
and carriage-way in front, trees, shrubs, ever-
greens, &c., lor surroundings, and you add greatly
to the estimate the observer will place upon it.

But we cannot now alter our present arrange-
ment without serious cost, exclaims many. No
doubt of it, so far as most farmers are concerned.
My object is to direct the attention of those who
propose to erect new buildings to the importance

of putting them in the right place. Don't let an
old shell of a barn induce you to put a new house
near it, unless it is, all things considered, the very
best place. In the case of the two farms I in-
stanced above, I estimated the additional, need-
less expense for labor and team, as equal to that
of one man and a yoke of oxen or a span of horses.
How much this would amount to annually, all
can reckon for themselves, according to the value
of such labor in their several localities.

You who are contemplating building, ponder
these suggestions. O. K.

Hochester, 3Iass.

For the New England Farmer,
PLAN OF A SHEEP BARN.

Having seen in your columns a call for a plan
of a sheep barn to be situated on level land, and
of ample capacity to accommodate 200 sheep, I
offer the following: I would build it 32 feet wide,
and 75 feet long, and divide into bands of 15 feet
each, the divisions being made by running fod-
dering racks cross-wise the building. Each of
tliese apartments will accommodate 40 sheep, giv-
ing each, one and one-half feet while at the racks.
In the centre of the front of each of these apart-
ments there should be hung a door, from six to
eight feet wide, which may be left open or closed
at will. In the centre of the back of each apart-
ment there should be a M'indow made to slide
back and forth, which should be left open during
mild weather, but closed wlien the storms beat.
In speaking of the doors, I should have said that
the middle band requires a door as large as those
of a common barn, so that hay may be driven in
through them. A water tank should be placed
at the end of every other rack inside the build-
ing. This barn should stand fronting the south
or south-east, and there should be a separate yard
for each apartment, in which the sheep may sun
themselves. The height of the sheep-room should
be eight feet, and that of the hay-loft six feet to
the foot of the rafter. Eave spouts are required
on the front side of the barn to prevent the water
dri])ping on the sheep during a thaw or rain storm.

The prominent advantages of such a barn are
these :

1. You can feed under cover at all times.

2. The sheep and their fleeces are thereby kept
dry ; otherwise, both are greatly damaged.

3. One is put to no inconvenience in clearing
the racks of snow after a storm.

4. A greater amount of better manure can be
made ; better, perhaps, because better preserved.
Two hundred sheep kept in a barn of the above
descrijjtion, and occasionally littered down with
straw, say enough to keep them clean and dry,
will make a great amount of the very best ma-
nure. George CiiALJiERd, Jii.

Ncwhurij, Vt., 18G2.

Remarks. — We regret that a few lines connect-
ed with the above article have been lost. They
were on a separate piece of paper, and were either
not enclosed by the writer, or have been mislaid
since. They related, merely, to some of the ad-
vantages of the barn which he has described.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARISIER.

305

THE UrJIOKT MO-WirrO MACHI]SrE

This Machine was introduced to a limited de-
gree, last year, and in accordance ■with our custom
of giving our readers such information as is in our
power in regard to new implements for forward-
ing farm labor, we publish the above cut, and give
a plain description of the Union Mower.

The machine weighs about 550 pounds, sets
upon two driving wheels, either one of which op-
erates the knives when the machine is in motion.
Inside of the circumference of the driving wheel
is a smaller ring, furnished with cogs upon its in-
ner side, Avhich cogs act upon a pinion at the end
of the shaft, passing from one wheel to the other.
On the shaft nearly under the seat, is another
wheel, with cogs upon its side, by means of
which motion is communicated to the crank shaft
which carries the knife bar. The machine is
throM'n out of gear by a simple arrangement wliich
can be operated either by the foot or hand of the
driver, and the whole finger bar, with knives and
all, can be lifted by means of the lever in front of
the driver's seat, so as to pass any obstruction.
There is a hinge at the heel of the finger bar, al-
lowing it to be lifted into an upright position,
where it is held by a little catch of iron, in
which position the machine can be drawn along
the road or from field to field. The knife bar, in-
stead of sliding upon the sui-face of the finger bar,
is slightly raised from it, being supported at four
or five points by narrow pieces of steel secured to
the foce of the finger bar, — thus lessening the fric-

tion,— and the inner face of the fingers is made of
steel. The general appearance of the machine is
very much like the AVood Mower, and its weight
is about the same. Of course it has points of dif-
ference, or it could not be patented.

Of the working qualities of the Union Mower
we are unable to speak, as we have never seen it
in operation. It deserves, as 'does every machine,
a careful examination, and it will take just that
position in the estimation of the public which it is
entitled by its merits to occupy. No one should
purchase an article so costly and of so much im-
portance as a mowing machine, without carefully
setting the question in his own mind of the rela-
tive value, ybr his use, of the various machines now
before the public. The Union is advertised in our
columns, and our readers are referred to the ad-
vertisement of the manufacturers for full particu-
lars

Weight of Manure. — A solid foot of half-
rotted manure will weigh, upon an average, 56
pounds. If it is coarse or dry, it will averaj^e 48
pounds to the foot. A load of manure, or 36 cu-
bic feet, of first quality, will Aveiiih 2.016 pounds;
second quality, 1,728 pounds. A\'cight to the acre
— eight loads of first kind, weighing IG.l 28 pounds,
will give 108 pounds to each square rod, and less
than 2.J pounds to each square foot. Five loads
will give 63 pounds to the rod. An acre contain-
ing 43,560 square feet, the calculations of pounds
per foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily made.
—Plow.

306

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

Fur the New England Farmer.
THE WINTER OF 1861-2.

Messrs. Editors : — To-day Ave enter upon
April, which, according to the old calendar, is the
second month of spring. Yet we have anything
but spring. Winter holds a princely reign upon
these hills. We have had three months and ten
days, one hundred days of sleighing, with a pros-
pect of its continuance for some days. Almost
one-third of the year ! What a long period for
the ground to l)e buried in snow !

It has not been a cold winter. The lowest
point to which the mercury has fallen, was five
degrees below zero, and this only once. Last
year it sunk below that point in each of the win-
ter and the first spring months. Once, you recol-
lect, from ten or twelve degrees above freezing,
in twelve hours, it went down, down, with us, to
twenty-eight belov>' zero. This was a rapid and
extreme change, and that the coldest morning we
ever knew ; we said the fruit was used up for that
year ; so it was, and the old trees were nearly used
up, too. So fatal were its effects on them, tliat
many an old orchard has been pruned by cutting
down. This year, the trees that remain, we think,
will bear fruit. What a luxury it will be, to again
have a full supply from one's own orchard. The
visions of health and comfort lie in the idea. The
winter has approached nearer to an even temper-
ature than any we have had fV)r many years.
There has been no very cold weather — none very
warm. Our thaws have been short, and of little
effect. But very little rain has fallen, and this
has mostly congealed as it fell, so that ice on the
trees has followed. We have had several hail or
sleet storms from the east, and these were usually
attended by high winds, so the material was driv-
en into very compact drifts. Li the woods these
storms formed a crust, very annoying to teams.

The quantity of snow, hail and sleet that has
fallen has been large ; not less than four or five
feet. Much of this material still remains. The
roads are full, the fields are thickly covered, and
the quantity in the woods is anything but com-
fortable to man or beast. It is wasting away, but
not fast enough to raise the streams at all.

The season has been remarkable for high winds.
On the evening of January 1st, the wintl, after a
pleasant day, sprung up in the north-west and
blew a tempest through the night. It was a fatal
wind to some apparently strong buildings. The
27th of February was thawy from a south wind
and some rain in the early part of the day, but at
three o'clock, in the afternoon, the wind came
round to the north-west, and attended with a vio-
lent fall of snow, blew a tornado through the
night. The result was, several buildings were
blown down, and the roads and railroads block-
aded, so tliat tlie cars met with serious detention.
But two days of calm coolness elapsed, and Bore-
as started his blast again, and a new and more ef-
fectual blockade was laid, in consequence of which
the mails were delayed forty-eight liours.

We have alluded to the hundred days of sleigh-
ing. This reckoning includes it only from De-
cember 20th to the ])resent time, to which add
twelve days of sleighing the latter part of No-
vember and early in December, and we have had
one hundred and twelve days of moving on snow.
Ten days more will fill up a third of the year.

Present appearances favor its continuance for that
time.

The winter has been very favorable to all kinds
of stock, or, perhaps, I should do better to say,
that the better care f;xrmers take of their stock,
by providing them with warm and dry stables and
sheds, shows the good results of improved care in
the matter. It lias become a principle largely
carried into practice, that an animal well protect-
ed from the inclemency of the season, is not only
cheaper kept, but is more docile and less subject
to disease. Many of our best farmers, now, keep
their cattle stabled nearly all the while, unless in
warm, sunshiny days, and, in severe storms, go so
far as to carry water to their stables.

Warm stables and sheds are doing wonders for
the comfort of animals ; but in giving them the
stables we have been too apt to exclude the light,
a quality as essential to animals as it is to plants,
and we all know that plants will lose their health
and hardiness if grown in the dark. Further, a
window in the south part of a stable operates es-
sentially to modify the temperature. The days of
winter, we know, arc short, and many of them
are darkened by clouds, yet light in itself is the
herald of warmth, and a little sunshine on a shel-
tered spot improves the temperature. Then an
animal that can see what is going on in the stable
loses much of the fear that results from a noise
in the dark. It is certainly iileasanter milking
and taking the general care of animals in a light
stable than in a dark one. No stable is right
without its windows. William Bacon.

Richmond, April 1, 1862.

EFFECTS OF THIRST.

The oxen had now been four days without wa-
ter, and their distress was already very great.
Their hollow flanks, drooping heads, and low mel-
ancholy moans uttered at intervals, told but too
])lainly their misery, and went to my heart lil^e
daggers. My poor horse was no longer an ani-
mated creature, but a spectre of himself — a gaunt,
staggering skeleton. The change that had come
upon him within the last twenty-four hours was
incredible. From time to time he put his head
into the wagon into any one's hands, and looking
wistfully and languidly into his face, Avould re-
proachfully (his looks conveyed as much) seem to
say : "Cruel man, don't you see I am dying ;
why don't you relieve my burning thirst ?" The
dogs, again, ceased to recognize my caress. Their
eyes were so deeply sunken in their sockets as to
be scarcely perceptible. They glided about in
spectral silence ; death was in their faces. The
wagon was heavily laden, the soil exceedingly
heavy, the sun in the day-time like an immense
burning-glass, and the oppressiveness of the at-
mosphere was greatly increased by the tremendous
"veldt" fires which, ravaging IJie country far and
wide, made it like a huge fiery furnace. — Ander-
son's Okacancjo River.

The Wire Worm. — At the discussion of a
farmers' club in Buffalo, 111., Mr. Franklin Reed
said that the ravages of the wire worm could be
]irevented by putting half of a fresh cob in each
iiill. The worm would work into this and leave
the corn.

1SG2.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

307

NHW YORK STATE SOCIETY.

Throu!i:li the kindness of its accomplished Sec-
retary, B. P. Johnson, Esq., we have before us
the twentieth volume of the Transactions of the
New Yoi-lc State Agriadtnral Society for the
year 1860. Like many of its predecessors, it
abounds in valuable statistical information in re-
lation to the condition of agriculture, from nearly
every portion of the State, and is illusti*ited with
vrell executed engravings of animals, insects and
agricultural implements and machinery.

Among so much that gives the experiences of
practical men, it is difficult to select and com-
ment. At the evening discussions during the
State Fair a variety of subjects were discussed.
That upon the Indian corn crop is quite interest-
ing. Several of the speakers, men of large ex-
perience, stated it as their opinion that this crop
is tlte most pmfttable of any of the large farm
crops. Mr. T. C. Pkters, of Genesee, said he
had tried an experiment to determine the relative
value of corn-stalks and Timothy hay. Both were
chopped and steamed. The cows having the corn-
stalks gave the ?nost milk. He also states v/hat
we have often urged upon the reader, that the
ground and manure where we expect good crops
should both be very fine. Mr. Peters says, "The
great secret of success in corn culture is to have
the ground made very fine before planting." Li
company with two other persons, last summer —
both very observing and intelligent men — Ave ex-
amined the soil in a field of corn, and came to the
conclusion that there was scarcely an inch in the
whole field that was not a complete network of
corn roots. These roots were exceedingly small
and delicate, but so numerous as to hold the soil
together so firmly as to require some jarring in
order to shake it out. How important it is, then,
that the soil into which these delicate roots are to
run and seek support, should be fine and moist !

When the subject of sheep husbandry was dis-
cussed, Mr. John S. Pettibone, of Vermont,
said that one great secret of success was the pc?--
sonal attention given to flocks — he never knew a
man to look at his j)Ig while it was feeding unless
it was fine and fat — the man who has poor ani-
mals always gives the food and then runs away !
He always keeps his best sheep.

Mr. Baker, of Urbana, maintained that "there
is nothing like a flock of sheep to keep up the fer-
tility of the land. Says he has kept 800 sheep a
year on something less than 200 acres of land,
including the hay and pasture for them ; and has
made the land so fertile as to raise 120 bushels of
shelled corn on an acre. He feeds potatoes, beets,
or carrots, to the ewes, twenty days before lamb-
ing, and regards potatoes as the richest food, and
beets the easiest raised on his land."

Mr. Robinson, of the New York Tribune, be-

ing called on to state what sort of sheep sell the
best in the New York market, said, "South Down
sheep always outsell every other variety, to the
first-class butchers, but they are not appreciated
by the Avholesale butchers, who are mostly Irish
and Jews. The next most profitable breed for the
New York market is the long wooled, heavy car-
cass sheep." Early lambs will sell for five dollars
a head, and later ones for three dollars, if fit for
the butcher.

The next paper is upon Experiments icith Dif-
ferent Manures in Permanent Meadow Lands,
meadow here meaning our common upland mow-
ing lands. The first broad conclusion arrived at
is, "that it has been shown that the produce of
hay on permanent meadow land was more than
doubled by means of manure alone."

The reports on farms and the dairy contain val-
uable suggestions and details of practice. Under
the caption, "Abortive Cows," six or seven causes
': are stated that might cause this calamity. These
are common things, such as fright, worrying by
dogs, hooked by master cows, &c., but the con-
• elusion arrived at is, that, after an examination of
I all the facts presented, there is good reason to be-
: lieve that the cause of this disease lies beyond the
excitinsc causes above enumerated. This is a com-
paratively new habit, is altogether more extensive
! than farmers generally suppose, and is making
I sad inroads upon the profits of cows in our own
State. There ought to be a thorough investiga-
tion of the disease and its causes, by some persons
competent for the task.

This volume contains, also, the sixth report on
the noxious and other insects of the State of New
York, by AsA FiTCii, the entomologist of the
State Society.

We have been interested and instructed by
. looking over the pages of this excellent volume,
] and cannot withhold an expression of gratitude
i to the State, to the members of the Society, and
to the energetic and indefatigable Secretary for
sending to the public, annually, a volume so pro-
gressive and practical in its character.

SCARCITY OP PURE ARABIAN MARES.
The Arab's love for their mares, and the jealous
care with which such animals are treasured in the
East, have formed the subject of many an iiitcr-
esting story. There is no difficulty in obtaining
any number of Arab stallions, for example, of the
very purest blood ; but it is next to impossible to
procure an Arabian mare of very high reputation.
A modern writer on the subject tells us that it is
even considered a crime to sell one under any cir-
cumstances ; and in pi'oof of the resolute opposi-
tion to the practice, a case is related as having
lately occurred in Calcutta, where some Arabian
dealers had sold their horses, and in consequence
of a heavy bribe one was induced to part with his
mare. Some weeks after, when the dealers had

308

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

already gone home\yard, the senior of his party
was observed to have returned to the city, a dis-
tance of several hundred miles ; he lurked about
for some days ; subsequently it was discovered
that he had inquired for the stables where the
mare was kept ; she was found poisoned, and he
had disappeared.

For the New England Farmer.
HUNGARIAN GRASS.

My Dear Brown : — I notice in your paper of
March 29th, an article on Hungarian Grass, and
as all subjects have two sides, it is perfectly prop-
er that both should he presented.

This grass was introduced into our vicinity some
fev.' years since, and so loudly were its merits ])ro-
claimed that many of our farmers were induced
to test its value on their own premises. Being as
ignorant of the market ])ricc of seed as they were
of the value of the article it Avould produce, they
purchased at double the above price, and ventured
on the experiment. "Hungarian grass" was then
the idea of the day. ]Mark the change ! Last
year there were but two individuals, so far as we
were informed, engaged in its culture. One of
these had a very small patch, the other was a deal-
er in the seed. The opinions of our farmers go
to show that, in their view, it will not pay. We
have no doubt, however, but there may be circum-
stances under which it will pay. What these are,
we don't know. The farmer must find out for
himself. He is the proper judge in the matter.

But to the objections. It is an annual. Of
course it must be rcsown each spring. Conse-
quently, the ground must be ])lowed and har-
rowed— a labor that is not required for the com-
mon grasses. Mr. Richards gets "from 1.^ to 4
tons an acre." Here is quite a diflerence in yield,
probably caused by the quality of land, amount
of labor, and manure, and seed bestowed. The
plowing, sowing, harrowing and cost of seed can-
not be dispensed with. They are so many extras
for the crop. If the same quantity of manure
which is necessary to carry the quantity of crop
from 1^ to 4 tons on an acre is applied a top-
dressing on the meadow, is it not probable it will
increase the quantity of good Timothy and red-
top in about the same proportion ? ^Ve think it
would, for manure has a wonderful faculty of
making these grasses grow, and to make a beau-
tiful, fine hay, that all the cattle and sheep love,
and that they will thrive upon. We should de-
cidedly prefer this hay, for our stock, to the Hun-
garian, and so our farmers decide, who have tried
both.

Then, the seed — "from 15 to 2.j bushels, M-eigh-
ing from 44 to 48 ]iounds per l)ushel." Allowing
2j bushels to the acre, at 44 pounds per bushel, you
have 1200 pounds of Hungarian seed to an acre.
Add to this Mr. Richards' 4 tons of grass, and
you have i)200 pounds, the ])r()duct of your acre.
Eight thousand of this is stalks and leaves. We
leave it to the observing farmer to decide the
quality of this amount of stalks and leaves, taken
from an acre of land. He, too, can decide wheth-
er it would be of a quality of food satisfactory to
his animals, and what the exhausting power of
such a crop would eff:?ct on his land.

We have placed the most liberal estimate on

the produce of this crop, on an acre of land. The
lower estimates are a ton and a half of grass ;
fifteen bushels of seed per acre. Any farmer can
judge from the extremes of production of other
crops, which of these will approach nearest to an
ctverage.

"It requires much more drying than herdsgrass
does, when cut in bloom." Here, again, is extra
labor and risk of weather brought into the ex-
pense of the crop. How far all these extra ex-
penses and risks will go to diminish the value of
the crop, is a matter of consideration to the farm-
er, and should he duly estimated befoi-e he risks
too much. If the author of the article had given
us the expense of the crop, such as rent of land,
manure, seed and labor, and the value of the crop
by the ton or bushel, in comparison with herds-
grass or redtop, and the seed, as compared Avith
oats or buckwheat, he would have given your
readers a much better clue to the value of the
crop.

"His horses and cattle are as ready for this,
when well cured, as they are for other good hay."
Ours are as ready for good oat straw, when prop-
erly cured, (especially if, like the Dutchman's
wheat straw, it is very poorly threshed,) and if
fed to them in proper times, as they are for hay.
So with corn-stalks, if they are well cured and
])roperly fed, cattle will thrive on them, horses
like them, and are benefited by eating them, and
great burthens, both of the oats and corn-stalks,
can be taken from an acre. Yet we do not re-
commend them as crops for general culture for
the fodder they will produce, though we fully be-
lieve that an acre of oats, under equal circum-
stances, would give a much better return in amount
and quality of fodder, than an acre of Hungarian
grass, and we doubt not but experience would
confirm this opinion with every unprejudiced
farmer. Ax OX.

Ajii-a 1, 1862.

THE CORAL.

Prof. Agassiz discourses principally concerning
the Coral in the ]VIay number of the Atlantic, re-
lating several interesting facts : —

It is well known that all animals and plants
have the power of ap])ro])riating to themselves,
and assimilating the materials they need, each se-
lecting from the surrounding elements whatever
contributes to its well-being. The plant takes
carbon, the animal takes oxygen, each rejecting
what the other requires. We ourselves build our
bones with the lime that we find unconsciously
in the world around us ; much of our nourishment
sujjplies us with it, and the very vegetables we eat
have, perhaps, themselves been fed from some old
lime strata deposited centuries ago. We all rep-
resent materials that have contributed to construct
our bodies. Now Corals jjossess, in an extraor-
dinary degree, the power of assimilating to them-
selves the lime contained in the salt Avater around
them ; and, as soon as our little coral is established
on a firm foundation, a lime deposit begins to form
in all the walls of its body, so that its base, its
partitions, and its outer wall, Avhich in the Sea-
Anemone remain always soft, become perfectly
solid in the Polyp Coral, antl form a frame as hard
as bones. It may naturally be asked where the

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

309

lime comes from in the sea -which the Corals ab-
sorb in such quantities. As far as the living Cor-
als are concerned, the answer is easy, for an im-
mense deal of lime is brought down to the ocean
by rivers that wear away the lime deposits through
which they pass. The Mississip])i, whose course
lies through extensive lime regions, brings down
yearly lime enough to supply all the animals liv-
ing in the Gulf of Mexico.

As soon as the little Coral is fairly established,
and solidly attached to the ground, it begins to
bud. This may take place in a variety of ways,
dividing at the toj), or budding from the base, or
from the sides, till the primitive animal is sur-
rounded by a number of individuals like itself of
M'hich it forms the nucleus, and which now begin
to bud in their turn, each one surrounding itself
with a numerous progeny, all remaining, however,
attached to the parent. Such a community in-
creases till its individuals are numbered by mil-
lions ; and I have myself counted no less than
fourteen millions of individuals in a Coral mass
measuring not more than twelve feet in diameter."

Fur the New England Farmer.

PliO'WIN-G SONG,

Cheerily, brothers, lift your song,

Let us be blithe and gay !
Gladly the hours should speed along,

For we are plowing to-day.
Drawing the furrows we go,

Full, and straight, and deep ;

Mother Earth's bosom the seed will keep

Snug and warm, where the life-springs leap,
Whence a rich harvest shall grow.

Yes, we are plowing again to day, —

Hopeful, and stout, and strong ;
The years glide bj-, we are getting grey.

But in heart we are brave and young I
Steady and brisk we go.

Though the way be sharp and steep.

For mother Earth's bosom, so safe and deep,

The seed we sow will faithfully keep
Till the full harvest shall grow.

So, cheerily, boys, we'll cheerily sing.

Though we miss in our merry round
Voices that once with gleeful ring

Made the whole valley resound.
Merrily on we'll go.

Yet them in our memory keep:

Labor is light where love is deep, —

For them we'll scatter, for them we'll reap.
And theirs shall the harvest grow !

For loudly they shout as they march, to-day,

Over the battle plain,
Dauntless, untiring, amid the fray.

The patriot's proud refrain.
So steadily on we'll go.

Plowing to sow and reap ;

Labor is light where love is deep, —

God hath us all in His holy keep,
And this will the harvest show.

So, cheerily, brothers, cheerily sing,

For here shall they stand again.
When the golden autumn fair peace shall bring.

Uplifting a joyous strain.
And hopefully on we'll go.

Plowing, to sow and reap ;

Labor is light where love is deep,

tjod hath us all in His holy keep.
And this will the harvest show. Anne G. Hale.

Fur the New England Farmer.
AGRICULTUBAL ACCOUNTS.

Mr. Editor: — Almost every farmer is now
ready to acknowledge the importance of keeping
accurate accounts of his transactions, though it is
an admitted fact that they do not practice it to
that extent which its consequence demands. We
never saw a successful merchant who did not con-
duct his business in a systematic manner, and this
is the secret of his success. Without the knowl-
edge whicli may be thus obtained, it is impossible
to determine the cost of raising a certain crop, or
whether it is remunerative or not. One farmer will
tell you that it costs so much to raise a particular
crop, while another estimates the cost at nearly
double that amount. Now this is not much bet-
ter than guess-work, and neither of them knows
whereof he affirms, for the simple reason that they
both neglect to avail themselves of the only means
of coming at the facts, namely, by keeping full
and correct accounts.

But my object in writing is more particularly to
call your attention to the farm accounts which are
published in the Agricultural Reports, a notice of
which I ho])e will suggest some improvements in
future published accounts, or bring out such ex-
planation as will make the subject better under-
stood.

In Mr. Secretary Flint's excellent annual, Agri-
culture of Massachusetts for 1860, I find the fol-
lowing in a statement of a gentleman, of Hamp-
den Co., who asks a premium for his farm man-
agement, lie credits his form with —

26 tons of hay $364,00

Pasturage for 7 cows, 24 weeks 84.00

Corn fodder 14,00

Swede and flat turnips 91,00

Amounting to $o53,00

He also credits his farm with —

1200 pounds butter $300.00

Milk sold 50,00

Milk used in family oS,00

Skimmed milk sold 100,00

Amounting to §508,00

553,00

To which add hay, pasturage, &c., make $1081,00

Now, that is a very pretty item in farm profits,
but it seems to me but fair to presume that the
daily product was not effected without the con-
sumption of a portion of the crops of the farm, the
amount of which should be deducted from the
whole ; if not, it is a success in scientific and prac-
tical agi'iculture that will revolutionize the whole
system, and render it one of the most successful
callings.

The farm is credited with pork and poultry to
the amount of $180, but no charge is made for
their keep, which assists very much in making up
a good account, and is a great encouragement to
amateurs. And $150 worth of wood is credit-
ed as among the crops. Was not the value of
the land depreciated by this operation ? Thirty-
five cords of manure are used upon the place this
year, and only one-half of it was charged to the
crops, as it was presumed that the remainder went
to improve the land. But no account was made
of the exhaustion of the land where the hay crop
was taken from it, and nothing returned to the
soil. Sl8 are charged as interest on the value of

810

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

the stock, but nothing is said of the depreciation in
the vakie of horses used upon the farm. Now, as
it is necessary that farm horses should be re-
moved once in ten or twelve years, it would seem,
that the depreciation in their value would be an
item worthy of note in a well kept farm account.

Other statements to agricultural societies might
be noticed, but I will not detain you Avith any
more details of that kind at present. And per-
mit me to say, that this is not Avritten in a spirit
of fault-finding, but with a desire that these reports
may be improved, so that they may be more use-
ful to brother farmers ; and valuable as works of
reference. MEimiMACK.

West Newbury, March, 1862.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.

MIGKATION OF BIKDS.

I think it is a generally received opinion that
the birds which are so numerous in the north dur-
ing summer, go south to spend the winter. There
is a gentleman here who is quite observing about
the habits of birds, Avho says that those Avhich are
here in summer remain here through the winter.
That the robin goes into caves in the mountains,
and there remains in a dormant state till spring,
and that the swallow goes into mud or water. He
says that in the spring, a few years ago, he saw a
large number of swallows come up out of the wa-
ter in a pond in the north part of this State, s.

St. Johnsbury Centre. Vt., May 19, 1862.

Remarks. — It is clearly settled that most of
our summer birds leave us in late summer or ear-
ly autumn, for warmer latitudes, robins included.
Occasionally, a robin may be seen in New Eng-
land in the winter. Why they remain, we cannot
tell. Perhaps, because they are of a late brood,
and do not possess sufficient power of wing to
join their companions when they move south.
Those that remain may be seen of a still, sunny
day in the winter, near some thicket of pines or
cedars, and perhaps feeding on the berries of the
latter. We do not think the robin ever hiber-
nates like the woodchuck or bear.

It is an old belief that swallows go into the mud
in the bottom of shallow ponds and brooks and
pass the winter in a torpid state, but tlie more en-
lightened opinion is that they migrate, most of
them leaving New England between the last of
July and the last of August.

PUKE POULTRY.

The question of Mr. Shattuck is one on which
I woidd like information. I have heard it stated, [
that, by getting a cock ke])t out two years, and \
then ieicii i)i/n home, so mat iie will not run wiLii |
his ofl'spring, you can keep ]nu-c-blooded fowls. I \
always in' end to change cocks once a year, if 1
can without getting one inferior to my own.

1 would like to know how many years of breed-
ing in-and-in it would take to spoil the stock, if
the best specimens are kept ?

The trouulc with many farmers is, they will sell
tlicir earliest and best lambs, turkeys, chickens,
8:c., because they letch a good price. I have of-

ten heard them say, "these late ones will do to
keep over." Often they do not come to maturity
sufficiently to stand the cold weather, and, in this
way, they vrill soon run out. Perhaps this is the
case with your neighbor's turkeys. I never knew
until this spring, that hens would run out so as to
be good for nothing. I purchased four of the old-
fashioned kind of hens in March ; one of them
has laid three eggs about the size of robin's eggs,
and wanted to set. The others have not laid an
egg, to my knowledge ; although one visits the
nest frequently, and comes off cackling, I never
have been able to find an egg.

SWEET GERMAN TURNIP SEED.

Can you inform me where I can procure Sweet
German Turnip seed ? There is none to be found
in AVorcester, and I have lost, the address of Mr.
Coy, and do not know that he keeps seed for sale
now. Information would oblige a number of your
readers.

N. B. The reply to "Subscriber," in the Far-
mer of April 26, signed "C. K. Hubbard, New
Worcester," should read C. Iv. Hubbard, Worces-
ter. H. T. Gates.

yew Worcester, May 19, 1862.

Remarks. — We presume the Sweet German
Turnip Seed may be procured at the seed stores
in this city.

SCRAPING TREES.
Will you, or some of your writers, inform me
what special benefit to trees is the scraping off
the loose bark or moss from trees about twelve
years old ? If of any benefit, at what time of the
year should it be done ? A Subscriber.

Re:iIARKS. — AVhile we were engaged in repair-
ing damages to young apple trees, on Saturday-
last, occasioned by mice or moles, we had the as-
sis*-ance of a practical orchardist, whose views of
the management of trees we considered especially
sound. Among other questions put to him was
this. — What advantage is gained to the tree by
scraping it ?

The reply was, — "Not any, to my knowledge.
Some persons say that insects find a harbor under
the bark and moss, but I do not believe they hurt
the tree in the least. It seems to me that this
rough bark is provided by nature for the protec-
tion of the tree."

Ills attention was then called to the appearance
of the south side of two or three hundred trees,
and it was found that on that side, almost uni-
formly, the bark was very rough, rising in scales
from Avhere the limbs start out, to the ground —
w]n"lc on the otb.pr sides of the trees the b?.rk W2S
comparatively smooth. We cannot see how the
tree is to receive any benefit by the removal of
this bark.

^loss on the branches is usually an indication
of a slow or stunted growth. AVashing this off
with strong soap suds — cultivating about the ti'ee,
and encouraging it by the application of manure,
will be verv useful.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

311

THE ENDICOTT PEAR TREE.

I am always happy when my old friend, the
Farmer, comes to hand. I believe I have read it
every woek since it was first published by Fessen-
den — notwithstanding its variation in form. There
is something about it that commends it to the
New England farmer. There are other papers
that I like just as well — particularly the Cowifnj
Oenthman, published at Albany — always sensible
and sound ; but not quite so well adapted to my
instruction. I like the reading on the inside of
your paper : it usually gives "multum in parvo,"
and saves the drudgery of wading through many
pages of trash, for it must be admitted that much
which is written for the papers is of this character.

The temperature of my office — 78° at this mo-
ment— and the temperature of the last night,
about the same, give assurance that vegetable
growth is near at hand. I have never witnessed a
more lovely sight than is spread on the fruit trees
in our gardens and orchards. I yesterday took
occasion to pass by the Endicott pear tree, now
more than 232 years old, (the oldest fruit-bearing
tree in the United States,) and although like an
old man crippled under the weight of accumulated
years, it was still healthy and vigorous with blos-
soms. This variety of pear is known as the
'•Bon Chretien," which speaks well for those
who planted it — notwithstanding they had many
prejudices. For those who look for perfect char-
acters or perfect trees, I fear are doomed to dis-
appointment, p.

May 17, 1862. _

OYSTER SHELL LIME.

Please tell in your June number of the Farmer
where the oyster shell lime may be found.

Shall we use it on vines and bushes, such as
grape, strawberry, gooseberry, &c.? And if so,
how and when ? Subscriber.

Baco, Me., 1862.

KILL THE MILLERS.

The following, from a farmer in New Jersey,
may be of interest to many. He says: "Some
ten years ago, I purchased the property where I
now live. The former owner, being quite a man
for fruit, had set a large variety of trees. The
farm was noted for producing more fruit, and
greater variety, probably, than any other farm in
the neighborhood. At the time of my purchase,
the trees were on the decline. The cherry and
plum trees were covered with black knots, and the
fruit was wormy and worthless, so that 1 was
about to cut them down and supply their places
with shade trees ; but disliking to part with the
fruit, and observing that the enemies were at one
stage of the existence in the form of a miller, my
plan was to destroy them while in that stage.
¥.^hh th".t cbjccL iu vievr, and observing that they
were fond of a light, in the early part of the sum-
mer of ISdo, I commenced their destruction. To
do this, I elevated a brisk blaze about five feet
from the srround, in the vicinity of my trees. The
first evening, between eight and eleven o'clock,
the millers destroyed might have been counted by
hundreds, which gradually diminished, so that, at
the end of one Aveek, there were none to destroy.
I then discontinued mv fire until the latter part of

summer, Avhen I discovered another crop of mil-
lers, and again built them a blaze. I have followed
the same course whenever the candles have drawn
them, to give them a light of their own, which has
been twice in the summer. Now for the result :
my trees have gradually resumed their former rich
green ; those knots have fallen from the cherry
and plum trees ; and this year the crop of Morel-
la cherries has been probably as large as they ever
were, and that on trees that Avere considered
worthless five years since, and the fruit, both
cherries and plums, not wormy." — Essex County
Mercury.

HAVEKHILL FARMERS' CLUB.

The enterprising farmers, and others, of the
tOAvn of Haverliill, formed a farmers' club during
the past winter, and seem to have entered at once
into a most systematic and vigorous prosecution
of the labors and duties Avhich they have assigned
to themselves. We have before us a list of the
subjects they have selected for discussion during
the ensuing season. They are as follows : Fruits ;
Drainage ; Farm Implements ; Management of
Farm Stock ; Manures, — comparative value, prep-
aration and application ; Comparative Value of
Horses and 0.\en for Farm Work ; Sheep, —
breeds, management, &c. ; Small Fruits, — kinds
and culture ; Transplanting Trees and Vines ; Ap-
ples,— kinds and culture ; Is Farming Profitable ?
Pears, — kinds and culture ; Farm Stock, — com-
parative value of breeds ; Seeds, — how to raise,
preserve and select ; Milch Cows ; Grapes, — kinds
and culture ; Influence of the Atmosphere on
Soil and Crops ; Experiments that we have made ;
Poultiy, — breeds and management ; Fai-m Build-
ings,— their arrangement and construction ; Adap-
tation of Soil and Crops ; Rural Embellishments ;
Garden Vegetables, — kind and culture ; Diseases
of Trees and Vegetables ; Farm Economy ; Flow-
ers and Ornamental Trees ; Noxious Insects ;
and Are Birds more Serviceable than Injurious to
Farmers ?

The gentlemen composing this club must pos-
sess an unusual amount of zeal, if they attend
and keep up the spirit of their meetings during
the summer months. We hope they will. In
addition to these meetings, there is another fea-
ture of their organization which is new, and must
be valuable. This is in setting apart a time to
meet occasionally, at the farm of any member of
the club, Avith especial reference to an examina-
tion, on the field, of the subject assigned for the
occasion. These meetings are called Field Days.
Thus, on the fifth of May, the subject is the Pre-
paration of tlie Soil, and on the seventh of July,
the subject for examination Avill be Grasses. In
addition to these, on the eighteenth of Septem-
ber, they are to have a Market Day and Fair.

If these plans are sustained, the Farmers' Club
of Haverhill will aflbrd an example worthy of all

312

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

imitation. Some of its members, we know, are
not persons to engage in a good cause, and aban-
don it, short of obstacles that cannot be easily re-
moved.

HO"W MTJCH MONEY WILL IT
PRODUCE ?

We make the following extract from an address
upon the Agricultural prospects of New England,
delivered by the Hon. Daniel Needham, at Stan-
stead, C. E., on the 22d ult. :

"When the young man leaves his New England
home, and with wife and children emigrates to the
far West, what influences move him ? Is it not
the bold statement that the virgin soil of that dis-
tant land readily produces fifty bushels of corn
and forty bushels of wheat to the acre ? Is it not
for this prospect, that he leaves all his old associa-
tions, the land of his birth, the land of abundant
schools and churches, the land of good roads and
great comforts, to suffer privations in a new coun-
try, where school-houses, churches and roads are
to be built ? The question lie should put to him-
self is, will I better my condition by emigrating ?
If the land is more productive of corn and wheat
in Illinois, Wisconsin and other Western States,
is it more productire ofmone;)'') Admitting fifty
bushels of corn can be raised to the acre, do we
not raise that quantity on many farms in New
England ? According to the census of 1850, fifty
bushels was the average of the State of Connecti-
cut. But if you raise fifty bushels, how much
money will it bring ? At this very moment, Avith-
in sixty miles of Chicago, corn can be bought for
twelve cents a bushel. Fifty bushels at twelve
cents a bushel, will give you six dollars ; and in
order to produce this paltry sum of moneij, you
must plow, harroio, hoe, harvest, shell and market
an acre of corn. What will your acre bring you
in Vermont ? Corn is now seventy cents a bushel ;
— and if you raise fifty bushels, as you should if
you are a good farmer, your acre will produce you
thirty-Jive dollars.

How is it M'itli Avheat ? Wheat is now worth
M'ithin sixty miles of Chicago, sixty cents a bush-
el. The average crop of Illinois is less than twenty
bushels ; and for your acre you will realize less
than twelve dollars. In Vermont, our average
crop is seventeen bushels, which to-day is worth
one dollar and twenty cents a bushel, yielding for
the acre, twenty dollars and forty cents.

But suppose you convert your corn into pork,
will that hel[) the matter? Pork has been selling
this entire winter, within sixty miles of Chicago,
at two cents a pound.

The man who leaves Vermont and goes West to
get rich liy agricultural industry, makes a sad mis-
tukc. Northern men have gone West and secured
wealth, but it has been by fortunate investments
in real estate. Such men can be found in every
school district of our State, men who by fortunate
sjjcculations have amassed wealth. But the time
is far in the future, when men, by legitimate agri-
cultural industry in the West, will reach the cov-
eted goal of wealth."

Keep no more stock than you can keep in good
order, and that of the best kind.

PEBFUMES,

The chief places for the growth of the sweet
perfume-producing flowers are Montpellier, Grasse,
Nismes, Savoy, Cannes and Nice. Nice alone pro-
duces a harvest of a hundred thousand pounds of
orange blossoms, and Cannes, as much again, and
of a finer odor. Five hundred pounds of orange
blossoms yield about two pounds of pure Neroly
oil. At Cannes the acacia thrives particularly
well, and produces yearly about nine thousand
pounds of blossoms. One great perfumery distil-
lery at Cannes uses yearly about one hundred and
forty thousand pounds of orange blossoms, twenty
thousand pounds of acacia flowers, a hundred and
forty thousand pounds of rose leaves, thirty-two
thousand pounds of jessamine blossoms, twenty
thousand pounds of tuberoses, together with a
great many other sweet herbs. The extraction of
ethereal oils, tlie small quantities of which are
mixed in the flowers with such large quantities of
other vegetable juices that it requires about six
hundred pounds of rose leaves to win one ounce
of otto of roses, of course, demands a very careful
treatment.

Nice and Cannes are the paradise of violets, pro-
ducing annually something like thirteen thousand
pounds of blossoms. The variety cultivated is
generally the double or Parma violet, which is so
productive that the flowers are sold at about five
pence per pound ; and Ave all know what sort of
bouquet a pound of violets would make.

The abundance in Sicily of every floAver which
in our climate is most highly prized, recalls the
traveller in the story, who arrived in a country
Avhere the children played at pitch-and-toss and
marbles Avith diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and oth-
er precious gems : "These are, doubtless, the sons
of some powerful king," he said, and boAved re-
spectfully before them. The children, laughing,
made him soon perceive that they Avere the street-
boys, and that the gems Avere only the pebbles of
that country. In Sicily the crimson grenade and
rose trees, the peach-colored rhododendrons, and
the delicate Avhite camellias, form the country
hedges. The white and green myrtles, and pink,
Avhite, and flame-shaped and flame-colored tulips,
grow Avild. When a pleasure-garden is made, the
orange and lemon trees are taken out because
they are too common. By the same rule, veryfcAV
people trouble themselves Avith flowers — they are
too vulgar. Alphonse Karr Avas much surprised
to notice that the ladies of Nice never decorated
themselves Avith real flowers, but seemed to dis-
like them. He observes this is all the more strange
in a country Avhere it is no longer a mythological
flattery to say that flowers spring from under the
ladies' feet. The roses, violets, jessamine and
mignonette are cultivated only by the peasants for
perfumery purposes, and honored but as Ave hon-
or potatoes or cabbages.

We are now AvhoUy dependent for our finest
perfumes on France, so that Avhen the crop of a
flower fails, as did that of the jessamine last year,
it Avill put the manufacturers to serious inconve-
nience. It Avould, therefore, be the interest of
perfumers to promote the production of those floAV-
ers in other countries ; and the high price they
fetch in the market Avould make it a very ju-ofita-
ble s})eculation. It has been proposed to cultivate
floAvers in England on a large scale, for perfumery
purposes, but the climate renders this scheme to-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

313

tally impracticable. For English flowers, howev-
er beautiful in form or color, do not possess the
intensity of odor required for extraction ; and the
greater part of those used in the south of France
for perfumery ,would grow here only in hot-houses.
The one flower which might be had in abundance
would be the rose ; but the smell of it is very faint
compared with that of the southern rose. Add to
this the shortness of the flowering season, and the
high price of land and labor, and it may be safely
said that the cultivation in England of flowers for
perfumery would prove as bad a speculation as at-
tempting to make Avine from English grapes.

The most widely-known of the toilet-waters hav-
ing an alcoholic basis is the eau-de-Cologne, in-
vented in the last century by an apothecary in
Cologne. In can, however, be made just as well
anywhere else, as all the materials come from the
south of France and Italy. Its perfume consists
principally of the flowers, leaves and rind of the
fruit of the bitter orange-tree. — All the Year
Round.

Fur the Neto England Farmer.
SMITH'S PATENT FENCE.

Mr. Editor : — The Farmer for May, 1862, con-
tains a communication from some one in South
Amherst, in relation to my fences, in which he ex-
presses the opinion that the patent can be evaded
by omitting the preparation of the posts.

Even if this could be done, it would not be for
the interest of any farmer to do it, as unquestion-
ably the fence will last three times as long with
the ventilated posts, as it would without them.
But it is certain that no one can lawfully build the
fence by dodging that claim. I have the written
opinion of the ablest Patent Solicitors in the coun-
try, that the claims of my patent will give me all
the protection I shall need.

Without wishing in any way to include my
humble self among them, I will say that scarcely
any class of persons have done more to advance
the material interests of our people, and to give
our country a name and fame among the nations
of the earth, than Ameiican Inventors. And yet,
there is scarcely one who is the author of any very
im])ortant improvement, but whose rights have
been questioned, and in many cases with about as
much of justice as the rights to the tempting car-
go of any vessel are liable to be questioned by
every pirate rover of the seas.

If the gentleman is really "a farmer," and will
send me his name, I will give him the right to
build the fence, to keep him out of the way of
temptation.

INJURY TO FRUIT TREES FROM MICE.

For several years I have used shingles tied
around the trees, and when well done, have never
had a tree injured. The mice live in the ground,
and I think always begin their depredations close
to the ground, and work up, and the shingles will
prevent them from doing so. Strong twine will
last about two years ; small wire, put on loosely,
several years. A wash of cattle manure and clay,
made thin with water, and applied to the bodies
of the trees with an old broom, will prevent sheep
and calves from gnawing the bark for several
weeks. Charles R. Smith.

Haverhill, N. E., 1862.

PEABS — THE SLIMY SLUG.

One of the Avorst enemies with which the culti-
vators of the pear have to contend is the "Slimy
Slug" — {Selaudria Cerasl.) They generally make
their appearance in vast numbers, locating upon
the upper side of the leaf, and eat it until it pre-
sents the appearance of a piece of coarse muslin,
nothing but the fibres being left. Consequently
they cripple the tree, and desti-oy the fruit if not
immediately checked. In appearance they very
much resemble the tadpole, are of a dusky brown
color, and from an eighth to half an inch in length.
Downing, on page 328 of his "Fruits and Fruit
Trees of America," and Kenrick, on the 55th page
of his "Orchardist," mention this insect, and both
recommend about the same means for its destruc-
tion. Whale oil soap, applied with a garden syr-
inge, is perhaps one of the most effectual remedies
that can be applied to pear trees infested with this
enemy ; but a writer in a late paper recommends
the following as the most effectual method of de-
stroying them :

"Take a piece of very coarse cotton cloth, say
about twenty inches square, and tie up the corners
of it, enclosing one or two quarts of air-slacked
lime or unleached ashes. Make this fast to one
end of a long, light §o\e, and in the morning, while
the dew is on, elevate the sack of lime above the
topmost branches of the tree, striking the lower
end of the pole with a small mallet occasionally,
and moving the pole or sack about till every leai' '
is finely dusted over with the lime or ashes. This;
operation need not be repeated if once thorough-
ly performed. The time requisite for a full-grown
pear tree is not over five minutes."

It is an excellent plan to scrape the bark of pear
as well as apple trees early in the spring, and wash
them thoroughly after scraping with a mixture of
soft soap, ashes and green cow-manure. The
wash, however, should not be so thick as to form
a coat on the surface, as all obstructions of the
pores should be by all means avoided. Like the
human skin, the bark of trees has a very impor-
tant function to perform, and any interruption of
its natural offices will inevitably prove an injury
to the tree. If you can procure it, a few quarts
of the rubbish from the blacksmith's floor, consist-
ing of fine cinders and iron scales, will be of great
benefit to your pear trees. The soil should be
opened, and the rubbish scattered evenly aronnd'
the trunk, and in contact with it. Lime is also
beneficial. — Cor. Oermantown Telegraph.

Hay Spreader and Turner. — Mr. Moses
Mandell recently showed us a model of E. W.
Bullard's Patent Hay Spreader and Turner, and
from examination given it, we came to the conclu-
sion that it is a machine of practical utility. It is
simple in construction, portable, and may be man-
aged without difficulty by any person capable of
using a common horse rake. Several fanners, of:'
the fine farming town of New Braintree, certify
that it will perform the work of ten men, and at
the same time do the work better than it is done
by hand. We have no doubt that it is an ex-
cellent machine

314

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

THE SEASON AND PROSPECTS.

The large quantity of snow that "lingered in
the lap of spring," melted gradually away and
kept the ground saturated as long as it lasted.
Since this supply has ceased, there have been but
few spring showers, so that we began to feel the
effects of an early drought. By the twentieth of
May, the young clover began to droop in dry
places, and the dust in the streets and on high
laud fields, when harrowing, seemed to be as thick
and active as in midsummer.

The drought — we are informed by a gentleman
just from New Hampshire and Vermont — has
pinched more shai'ply there even than in Massa-
chusetts. He also states that farmers were plant-
ing in their fields, while huge snowbanks were
piled on the hillsides, or in the valleys, within
sight ! Such a scene, we presume, is not often
witnessed.

On the night of Saturday, May twenty-fourth,
there was a sharp frost in all the region about
Boston, which was quite destructive to the early
corn, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, and other tender
plants which had been brought forward by extra
care to supply a waiting market. The blossoms
and young leaves of the forest trees, were also
destroyed wherever they came within five or six
feet of the ground. On Monday, the 26th, they
presented an appearance of having fire run through
them.

On Tuesday, the 27th, there was a copious and
delightful rain, which fell steadily and slowly
through most of the day, reviving the face of na-
ture, and causing the world to look as beautifully
as the most active imagination could well con-
ceive. This gladdening of the earth went up, al-
so, to the hearts of men, so that every counte-
nance was radiant, and all for a time forgot the
discomforts of a new call "to arms," and rejoiced
in the sunshine that broke out anew upon the re-
freshed land, teeming again with new life.

The promise, now, for good crops of all our ag-
ricultural products, is cheering. The blossoming
on all our fruit trees has been profuse, and the
timely rain has aided the setting of the young
fruit, which now appears remarkably well.

Planting has steadily progressed, so that now,
Monday, June 2d, it is nearly completed, while
some of the early crops have already had a first
hoeing. A wide breadth has been occupied with
wheat, corn, barley and potatoes, and with careful
culture and the blessing of Heaven upon them,
our average products will not be decreased in con-
sequence of so many of our farmers ]:)eing absent
in the "tented field."

In England, by the latest reports in our for-
eign exchanges, the prospects still remain rather
gloomy. Heavy rains, and in some districts se-
vere storms have succeeded the early cold and

wet weather. English writers are "startled" at
the fact, "that accumulated stores in the lake ports
will enable shippers to send on greater quantities
than were last season supplied to Europe." Eng-
land ought to know us better than she appears to.
She is able to purchase maps, and study them,
and she has intelligent persons continually travel-
ling among us, — and yet, from reading the Lon-
don Times, one would suppose that its writers had
rarely seen a geography, or consulted a map of
the United States ! Is this ignorance, or a wilful
perversion, intended to mislead the readers of that
influential journal ? The "startling" intelligence
in relation to our resources in breadstuffs, is one
of the evidences that England does not appreciate
us, either in our intelligence, our resources in the
grand staples that go directly to sustain life, in
our ability almost to speak into existence the mil-
itary implements necessary to resist or repulse
any foe, or to fill the hands of seven or eight mil-
lions of freemen who love liberty better than life
without its blessings. No people on earth, prob-
ably, are so independent of all other people, as
those of the free States of this Union. God grant
that we may use our great privileges Avisely and
well, living firmly up to our doctrine, never to ag-
gress upon others, nor to yield the rights which
are clearly our own.

For the New England Fanner.
FENCES.

Much has been written about fences. I would
recommend a very cheap one, that will require as
little ground as any other, made as follows : Pre-
pare good straight stakes five feet long ; steep the
lower end in blue vitriol liquor, one pound to five
gallons water ; set the stakes one foot deep in the
ground, on a straight line or otherwise, eight
inches apart ; saw off" the tops even, and nail a strip
of board two inches wide on top ; put one nail in
each stake, and the fence is finished. If the frost
should lift the stakes, they may be easily driven
down.

There are thousands of miles of fence needed
on land where it vvould be impossible to obtain
boulders to fasten the posts of Mr. Smith's patent
fence to. I don't understand hoAV he is going to
tie his braces to the boulders with a wire. I
should think his boulders and braces must take
up at least one foot of ground on each side wliich
is too much to waste.

Another kind of cheap fence is made horse-rack
fashion, with spindles one inch square, three feet
long, and eight inches apart, the ends of the rails
halved and pinned together, and a pair of stal'.es
set at the end of each length, with a withe on top.
Set the fence on a stone or block, eight inches
from the ground ; this fence is very convenient for
removing, if necessary.

Another fence I like very much for a garden or
outside fence ; place boulders at a proper distance,
drill a hole four inches deep ; place an iron post
seven-eighths or one inch diameter, and fill with
melted brimstone ; the rails may be two by three

1862-

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

315

inches square ; bore with an augur of a suitable
size so that the bottom rail will "stay put," and
not split the rail; bore the top rail not quite
through, say minus one-half inch ; nail on slats
from one inch to four inches wide, and from two
to four inches apart ; paint the top, or saw it
square, or put on a cap. James Palmer.

South Hampton, N. H.

For the New England Farmer.

MENTAL CULTUBE.

Mr. Editor : — Your remarks upon this sub-
ject, in the calendar for February, Avere perused
with much pleasure, not only by myself, but
doubtless by all of your many thousands of read-
ers. While reading these remarks, I felt an irre-
sistible desire to write something in confirmation
of the truths therein contained.

It has always seemed to me that the practice of
writing down our own individual thoughts upon
any given subject — especially if those thoughts are
intended for publication — is one of the best, if not
iJie best means by which Ave can become thorough-
ly acquainted with that subject. For if a person
is writing an article for the public to read, he will
naturally strive to make correct and reasonable
statements, and this desire Avill cause him not on-
ly to search every nook and corner of his own
mind and experience for ideas, but everything re-
lating to the theme under consideration, whether
found in book, paper, lecture, sermon or conver-
sation, will be eagerly grasped at, and woven in
with his own thoughts, in such a manner that
it becomes, as it were, a part of his own mind,
and makes an indelible impression upon his mem-
ory. This digging out and bringing to the light
our own ideas u])on a particular subject, compar-
ing them with the thoughts of others, and treas-
uring up the observations and best thoughts of
other minds, is an exercise which greatly strength-
ens and enlarges the mental faculties. And this
discipline, either in the form of writing, public
speaking, or instructive conversation, is one which
every mind must go through, or it cannot arrive
at even a moderate degree of mental culture.

The minds of some peo])le are like a riddle-
sieve ; they are always hearing and reading, but
the facts, fancies, or whatever they listen to, leak
out as fast as they come in. Such persons are,
virtually, without any minds ; but by the simple
process above mentioned, it is within their power
to possess this important article.

There is another class whose minds are like a
stagnant pool — continually receiving the rains and
streams, but having no outlet. The above process
would also benefit this class of individuals.

There is another class still, whose minds have
no outlet or inlet ; who shut out all light and
knowledge, especially that which is derived from
books, papers, lectures, and similar modes of men-
tal improvement.

These last mentioned individuals are in a more
hopeless condition than those who belong to eith-
er of the other classes ; but a vigorous, and con-
tinued pounding upon the hard shell in which
their dark thoughts revolve, Avill finally cause it
to yield.

Although it Is evident that a large portion of
the farmers and mechanics of our land possess

great and increasing desires for knowledge and
self-improvement, yet the fact is also equally cer-
tain that another large portion have no such de-
sires, but, in many cases, a positive aversion to
everything like study, or a close and Continued
ap])lication of the mind in one direction.

By reason of their ignorance, these last named
persons usually regard the contents of books as
of little value, not knowing or considering that
the best thoughts and most valuable experience of
Avise, learned, and gifted minds are treasured up
in these storehouses of invaluable knowledge, the
destruction of Avhich Avould cause the Avorld to re-
cede backAvards many degrees in the scale of hu-
man progress. Of course, I do not mean to say
that all books are thus valuable, for many, very
many, are Averse than useless, and the sooner they
are bufned, the better, — but only those which are
strictly moral in tone, and which contain impor-
tant thoughts and useful information, Avhether in
the form of fiction or actual fact. How many
fiirmers, mechanics, and other laboring men there
are, who prefer to spend their evenings and other
spare hours at the store, bar-room, or other pub-
lic places, listening to, if not taking a part, in the
idle, coarse and vulgar talk so frequently heard
in those places, rather than to remain at home
and hold converse Avith noble and intelligent
minds through the medium of books, or write
doAvn their thoughts and observations for their
own good and the benefit of others.

Although a great many towns and villages have
purchased agricultural and miscellaneous libraries,
and much good has been done through their agen-
cy, yet, in more than one town, I have knoAvn some
of the most valuable books in those libraries to
remain for years, Avith their leaves uncut ! I hope
and believe that these are exceptions to the gen-
eral rule, but if not, it seems to me that the object
for Avhich these libraries Avere procured is not be-
ing fully accomplished.

To enable a person to make any perceptible
progress in mental culture, one or two hours of
each day should be devoted exclusively to that ob-
ject. But, says some hard-working man, how can
I find time for this purpose ? The evening is the
only part of the twenty-four hours that I am not
at work, and then the children make such a noise
that I cannot call my thoughts together ; and oft-
times a neighbor drops in and interrupts me ; or
I am too tired and sleepy to apply my mind to
any subject. Such individuals should have a study
or room by themselves, and nothing but the most
imperative duty should be alloAved to disturb them
during the hours Avhich they have set apart for
self-improvement. This plan may cause an in-
credulous smile to overspread the countenance of
some conservative farmer, and he will probably
set me down as a humburj, but the plan may be a
good one, nevertheless. Men in other professions
have their places for retirement and study ; why
should not the farmer, the mechanic, mid all '^^h/^v
men, or Avomen, Avho belong to the laboring class ?
But, says one, all cannot be learned ; the Avorking
classes must ever remain in comparative igno-
rance. That there may be some truth in this as-
sertion, I admit, but not so much as most people
imagine.

Let us look at the laboring classes In some of
the older countries of civiUzed Europe, and c:^m-
pare the amount of knowledge and mental culti-

316

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

vation which they possess, with that of the work-
ing men and women of our free States. Is there
not a vast difference ? And what has made this
difference ? It is our free schools, free libraries,
free speech ; our habits of reading, our public lec-
tures, and various other established modes of im-
parting and receiving instruction in every depart-
ment of knowledge and literature, which have
placed the laboring classes of the Northern por-
tion of this country far above, in point of intelli-
gence, the common people of every other land.

The question now arises, Have wo, as laboring
men and women, yet reached the highest round in
the "ladder of learning," which it is possible for
us to arrive at ? I, for one, think we have not.
If the "good teme coming," of which the Hutchin-
son family used to sing, ever comes to bless man-
kind, it will not be until the minds of the common
people arrive at a state of mental culture, intelli-
gence and goodness, greatly surpassing anything
which the world has yet witnessed.

South Groton, 1862. S. L. White.

He can readily be disposed of by throwing hira
into the water, and then shooting him. 1 have
taken five witliin a few nights. This is safe against
cats and other domestic animals. Try it. — Cor.
Ohio Farmer.

THE EAGLE'S STKATAGEM.

As the mountains around the Konigs Sea abound
in chamois, the eagle very naturally resorts there ;
and opportunity is frequently afforded of Avitness- !
ing his tactics, modified by circumstances. The
following account gives an instance of most cun- '
ning stratagem ; but it also shows how impotent ]
for attack the eagle is when his victim is not en-
tirely exposed. A good sized chamois buck had i
got upon a ledge of rock, and was gazing down- 1
ward and about him as these animals like to do. j
An eagle perceived him ; but as the bird could '
not approach close to the rock on account of his |
breadth of wing, he resolved to obtain the prize he
had marked as his own in another manner. So he !
sailed by the chamois on his narrow i)ath as near as
he dared come ; then again and again ; and as the
animal retreated in order to quit his perilous po- j
sition, the eagle, wheeling round in a smaller cir-
cle, met him instantly, to hem in and cut off his j
retreat. By thus rushing past within a few feet [
of him, and filling him M'ith terror, he hoped to |
bewilder the chamois, and cause him to fall over
the precipice, in which case he would have but to
descend, and carry off his booty. And in fact,
the chamois, from trepidation probably, in turn-
ing a corner, slipped with one hind foot over the
ledge. He lost his balance, and fell headlong
over the rock,as the eagle intended that he should.
But after lodging for a short time on an interven-
ing slope, the carcass rolled off, and came toppling
d.-vvn into the lake. The whole proceedings had
been watched by two persons in a boat. They
new roAved across to get the chamois ; while the
ea.ule, disappointed of his victim, wheeled above
them, w t' hing all they did. — Forest Creatures ;
by iJitavLes Boner.

How TO Catch Skunks. — Every man may
catch his own skunks. I have just discovered a
new aiid novel trap for catching these pesky an-
imals. I take an old flour barrel, tack my bait in
the bottom, and lay it on two blocks, about six or
seven inches high, one of which is near the centre;
the skunk goes in, steps over the fulcrum, and the
barrel rights up on its end, with the skunk in it.

Fur the New England Farmer.
RETROSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Hints on Buying Farms." — The article with
this heading in the number of the monthly edition
of this journal for May, and in the weekly of
March 2"Jth, is so complete in its enumeration of
the several most desirable qualities in a farm, and
so judicious in all the directions and remarks
which it contains, that to any one — especially any
young man — about to purchase a farm, its value
would be venj great indeed. Let any young man
about to select a farm, which he intends to make
his home for life, "read, mark, learn and inwardly
digest" the several hints and items of information
in this article, and he would almost certainly es-
cape making some sad blunder or oversight, wliich
might be a source of regret, loss, and annoy-
ance all liis life, and for ability or opportunity to cor-
rect or nullify which he would willingly pay perhaps
hundreds of dollars. The writer of this knows
more than one individual to whom these directions
w ould have been worth a good many hundred dol-
lars, as they would have saved said individuals
from oversights or neglects of important points in
purchasing a farm, which have been a source of
regret and much inconvenience and disadvantage
ever since their selection and purchase were made.
Probably, a good many of the readers of this jour-
nal know of similar cases among their neighbors,
or may even be so unfortunate as to be conscious
that they themselves have made blunders in the
selection of their farms, such as they might have
avoided if ihey had only had the benefit of such
hints as are furnished in this article. A copy of
these "Hints on Buying Farms" would have been
cheap to a great many, at the time of purchasing
their farms, if they could have been had at any
price from iitty to five hundred dollars. If the
oversights and neglects, or downright blunders,
made for the want of just such hints and just such
information as are furnished in this article, could
noio be atoned for or nullified by the payment of
any sum within the range just named, there would
be not a few who would be ready, at such a price
or even a higher one, to redeem their errors in the
past.

Might it not, therefore, be an undertaking of
great benefit to young farmers — though, perhaps,
of no great profit to the author or the ])ublisher —
if these "Hints," somewhat enlarged, perhaps,wore
put into a convenient form, such as a vest p )c!;et
manual, or a tract, and p.ut in some wny within the
reach of all who may soon have to encounter that
dilHcult, and often ill-executed operation, the se-
lection and j)urchase of a farm ? Every farnrer in
New England, as well as in otiier regions of coun-
try, might subscribe for a dozen or a score of cop-
ies of such a tract or little manual, and, by dis-
tributing them among his sons, hired men, and
others, be doing a large amount of good at a very
small cost. But until this article shall have been
printed separately, those disposed to confer such
a favor on any decent and deserving hired man, or
other yv- iug person, must give it to them, or refer

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

317

them to it, as we now have it, in the fourteenth
volume of the New England Farmer. This single
article is worth more than the price of a whole
volume, and may be, and will be, we trust, to some
young men, Avorth more than the price of all the
volumes of this journal which may be published
during their life-time.

Concentrated Manures — Wile they Pay?
The communication with the above heading, from
the pen of Thomas Ellis, of Rochester, Mass., is
worthy of consideration hy practical farmers, es-
pecially in these days when puffing is so exten-
sively practiced, and certificates seem to be so
i-eadily obtainable, on two accounts at least. This
communication may be found in the weekly edi-
tion of March 29th, and in the monthly for May ;
and is noteworth}-, as we have said, on two ac-
counts : First, for its candid and discriminating
estimate of the real purport and value of the mass
of certificates and reports of experiments with
concentrated manures, in regard to which Mr. E.
testifies that among all that have fallen under his
observation, he has as yet seen none which prove
the fii'st tiling wliich a practical farmer wants to be
assured of, viz., that they will pay. He admits
that they all agree that these manures will cause
vegetation to start rapidly, and usually to produce
more or less increase of crops, but fail to show
that the increase in the crops will pay back the
money invested in the fertilizer used. So far as
orclinari/ farm crops are concerned, excluding
from present consideration garden produce and
farm crops of an extraordinary kind, or in extra-
ordinary circumstances, there is just such a want
of proof that investments in manufactured fertili-
zers will pay, as is asserted by Mr. EUiSi Pru-
dent and practical men, therefore, and all who
farm for a living or for profit, ought to feel under
obligatioA to Mr. Ellis for opening their eyes so
that they may see more clearly the rather ambigu-
ous, (if not sometimes, also, the deceptive,) and en-
tirely unsatisfactory character of the most of the
certificates and reports of experiments which are
put forth so abundantly by those interested in the
sale of manufactured manures. The just inference
from the observations of Mr. E. is tliis — that it is
the dictate of prudence not to spend money for
manufactured manures until there is more satis-
factory proof that they "will pay."

The second of the reasons referred to as making
this article by Mr. E. worthy of attention, is, that
it furnishes one instance and proof of the not un-
frequent unprofitableness of applying manufac-
tured manures to ordinary farm crops. The in-
crease of corn thus obtained by Mr. E. cost him,
in one case §7 per bushel, and in another 84 cents.
There is need, then, of caution and prudence, at
least. More Anon.

The Progress, of Lyons, states that an engi-
neer has just discovered a Celtic barque sunk in the
mud in the Upper Rhone, which is supposed to
have remained there, in a bed of sand and gravel,
for several centuries. The barque is a single
piece of timber, hollowed out like an Indian ca-
noe. It measures 27 feet in length and 8 in
breadth. The wood of wliich it is composed is
completely petrified. This curious vestige of the
navigation of the AUobroges is to be placed in the
Museum of Lyons, where it will be conveyed on
one of the rafts which descend the Rhone.

For the New England Farmer.
SPREADIN-Q MILK—CRIBBLNQ.

Mr. Editor: — I have a very valuable heifer
whose milk spreads so bad that I can hardly hit
the pail. Will some one tell me a remedy for it ?
Crops in this part of the State are looking well.
Grass, for the time of year and lateness of the sea-
son, looks finely. Apple trees, big and little, all
sorts and kinds, are in full blossom, and if we have
nothing to blight them, we shall have such a crop
as will be long remembered.

I have been much pleased with the receipts that
have been given in the Farmer ; some of them
are worth the price of subscription alone, but I
think I could suggest an improvement to those
who give the receipt, to give the manner of mak-
ing and applying the remedy. The remedy may
be an effective one, yet still of no use, because we
do not know how to make and apply it. Among
all the receipts given I think I have never seen
one for

CRIBBING.

This disease originates from a sour stomach. ■
First caused by a habit of biting the crib whilst
eating, and in so doing, the horse swallows wind,
which causes the stomach to become sour. Over-
eating and drinking would aid in this disease. A
horse with this disease is the same as a person
who, after eating, belches up wind from the stom-
ach, and will, in time become a dyspeptic.

Cure. — Take one tablespoonful of pulverized
charcoal, one teaspoonful of sal soda, mix in a gill
of corn meal, and give three times a week until a
cure is effected, which will depend on the length
of time the horse has been addicted to the habit.
The horse should be fastened in the middle of the
barn floor by a rope from the beam overhead, so
that he cannot get hold of anything to bite, and
feed him from a basket fastened on the head. It
is said by those who have tried it to be a sure cure.

New ilampshire, 1862. m.

Remarks. — One leading cause of the habit of
"cribbing," is in the irregularity of feeding, and
in not satisfying the appetite of the animal. If a
horse is fed liberally and regularly, we doubt
whether he will ever contract the unpleasant hab-
it of "cribbing." Is it not the neglect of this reg-
ularity and supply that occasions the "sour stom-
ach ?"

Effects of Lime Water. — It is well known
that the water of several of the Middle and South-
ern States is largely impregnated with lime, the
efiect of which is to impair the normal action of
the alimentary canal. Already our troops have
begun to sufi'er from drinking it, as we learn from
various sources. A gentleman of this city, who
has travelled extensively in the lime-water region,
informs us that he made constant use of vinegar
with success as an antidote to its effects. He used
about a teaspoonful of vinegar to a common sized
tumbler of water. It is his opinion that any oth-
er kind of acid will have the same beneficial effect
which he realized from, the use of vinegar. We
hope our soldiers will practice upon this sugges-
tion.— Fall Bicer Netcs.

318

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

For the New England Farmer,
AKE BAROMETERS 'WEATHER-'WISE ?

Mr. Editor : — Barometers are not omniscient,
as your Vermont correspondent, A. G. Dewey,
justly intimates. All they can do is, to weigh the
atmosphere over the place where they are hung.
This indicates something, but not everything. A
sudden fall of the mercurial coluftm shows a sud-
den diminution of the atmospheric column over
it, and this implies that there will soon be a rush-
ing in of the heavier air around. This may prove
to be only a squall of wind, or it may be accom-
panied by a thunder storm. If the barometer
sinks slowly, day by day, a rain storm may be ex-
pected, if it falls considerably ; but after a slight
descent it may alter its course and go up again,
and no rain will fall. Easterly, drizzly rains on
the seacoast are not indicated by the barometer,
for they come merely from the condensed, moist
air from the ocean, and there is no change in the
atmospheric pressure necessarily preceding this
drift current.

There are other things to be considered in our
endeavors to foretell the weather, and I would ad-
vise your correspondent, and all farmers, to read
Daniels' Meteorology, so as to fully understand
the subject. After observing the barometer, a re-
cord of it being regularly kept, let him also as-
certain the dew point, or the temperature at which
the atmosphere deposits its aqueous vapor. This
may be very readily effected, by taking a silver or
a tin cup, and after first ascertaining the tempera-
tm"e of the air in the shade, let him put some wa-
ter into the cup, with a piece of ice, and stir it
until moisture begins to deposit on the outside of
the cup, when the thermometer, placed in the wa-
ter, will give the temperature. This is the depo-
sition point. Now throw out the ice, and wipe part
of the cup dry, and wait until after the deposition
of a slight film of moisture, it again disappears.
This is the vaporization point. The mean between
the deposition point and the vaporization point is
the true dew point. Compare this with the tem-
perature of the air, and note the difference. Sup-
pose it to be fifteen degrees. Then the air must
be cooled to that extent to cause it to deposit
moisture, or to rain. If the difference between
the dew point and the temperature of the air is
but a few degrees, there is a high probability that
rain will soon full.

If the observations are made in the morning,
since the heat will augment, as the sun approaches
meridian, the chances of ruin will be diminished,
by tliis increasing warmth, but if afternoon, for
opposite reasons, the probability of rain will be
much increased. Indeed, if only four or five de-
grees of difference between the dew jioint and the
temperature of the air exists, it will be almost
certain to rain.

The wet and dry bulb thermometers will answer
the same purpose, and since the wet bulb gives
the temperature of the vaporization point, and
the dry l)ulb gives that of the air, nothing more
is required than to observe them and note the dif-
ference of temperatures they indicate.

More reliance may be placed on this method
than on any observations of a barometer, but still,
it is useful to consult both sets of instruments.
The thermometers cost so little, that every farmer
can afi'ord to own a pair of them, and after a lit-

tle experience in determining the dew point, and
making his deductions, he will surprise his neigh-
bors by his weather wisdom, and also be a gainer
by saving many a load of hay.

Where no instruments can be had, by simply
observing whether a wetted and wrung out hand-
kerchief dries rapidly or not, some idea may be
gained as to whether the atmosphere is saturated
with moisture or not. When you have to wait a
long time for ink to dry on your paper as you
write, you may feel sure that the air is very moist,
and but a little cooling is required to cause it to
deposit moisture, or to rain. The spider is a
weather-wise from instinct, and does not spread
his web on the grass, or over his hole when it is
about to rain, but is an early prognosticator of
fine weather as he lays out his net on the dewy
grass of the morning.

Our senses and instincts are not so fine, and
we need the aid of instruments, but they Mill not
serve us if we don't luiderstand the philosophy of
the matter, and apply our reason to the solution
of the problem. We must have good instru-
ments, and know how to use them, or the wisdom
of the spider will put us to shame. You will see
at once, Mr. Editor, that it is knowing how to use
instruments, that renders them available, and the
farmer who rails at meteorological instruments
reminds me of the Indian, who, having seen Avhite
men observe the indications of a compass, bought
one to enable him to find his son, who was lost in
the woods, and followed the direction indicated by
the north point of the needle, in search of him.
Not finding that the instrument pointed out where
his lost son was, he indignantly dashed it to the
ground and destroyed it, calling it a liar, and vent-
ing much abuse upon it !

A man who buys a barometer, marked with
"fiiir, change, rain," &c., and coiisults its markings
without taking into consideration its elevation
above the sea, and the various causes which ope-
rate upon the mercurial column, and takes no note
of the temperature, dew point and course of the
wind, but condemns the instnnnent, Avhen he does
not know how to use it, reminds us of the Indian
above alluded to, and is equally wise. C. T. J.

Remarks. — The above is from the pen of a
close observer, both in nature and science, and
from a sincere and earnest friend of the farmer.
While it elucidates principles, it contains simple
and impressive illustrations, beautifully expressed,
in some of the most common things of the farm,
which all may observe if they will. We cordially
thank him for his appropriate and timely remai'ks.

Management of Muck in Yards. — From an
article in the Homestead, on "The New England
Barn-yard," we co])y the following :

The true manure-making period of the year, in
the open yard, is indicated by, and perhaps begins
and ends with the corn-growing season. That is,
muck does not rot in the yard while the tempera-
ture is too low to favor vegetation, and is perhaps
amelidhited more by exposure during June, July,
and August than througli all the balance of the
year. The amount of droppings from cattle is
usually the greatest during those warm months,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

319

while they are not tied in the stable at all. The
farmer who wishes to manufacture his manure of
an even quality will give as much of the month of
May as possible to the absorbents already in the
yard, and will also endeavor to clean and replen-
ish the second time as near the first of September
as practicable. By this method he may get two
crops of manure yearly.

MOWING MACHINES ON SMALL
FARMS.

In one of the Legislative Agricultural meetings
which took place at the State House in March
last, when the topic under discussion was that of
Farm Implements, one or more of the speakers
stated that they thought mowing machines were
profitable on large farms, but on small ones would
hardly pay.

We thought, at the time, that this was an erro-
neous view of the matter, and upon farther reflec-
tion, we think so still. The farmer who has a
large farm, is presumed to have capital corres-
ponding with his acres, and to devote his whole
time to the management of his estate. He is
never single-handed and alone. If sick, or disa-
bled in any way,, he has strong backs and stout
arms to depend upon, in his hired men, still to
carry on the cultivation of the crops, or to secure
the harvests. He can even visit the seashore
or the mountains, and be absent for several days
in succession, without any special detriment to his
farming operations. His corn and roots are hoed
and kept in a flourishing condition, and his hay,
and wheat, and rye crops, carefully secured, so
that he finds loaded scaffolds of golden grain, and
bursting bays of aromatic hay, all safely housed,
to gladden him on his return.

If he has used a mowing machine, all this labor
has undoubtedly been greatly facihtated, and the
crops have been economically secured. But sup-
pose he has not availed himself of this labor-sav-
ing implement — he has had, and always can have,
a force, in athletic men, equal to all the demands
upon liim. If there is any class of our farmers
who can dispense with the mowing machine, and
not most sensibly feel its absence, it is this that
we have described. This class may be indepen-
dent of the machine if it will, but not without loss.

Such, however, is not the case with the small
farmer. His whole success is centred in his own
judicious management, aided by his own muscular
power. The hard jobs, as well as the easy, and
all the duties that incessantly come, both late and
early, are also his. His sons may be in the army,
factory, or behind a counter, all but the youngest,
who is only fourteen, and yet has swung the scythe
the two previous years.

Perhaps the farmer is considerably past middle
life, and although in good health, his cheek is fur-
rowed, and grey hairs sprinkle his temples. It is

true that the grasshopper is not a burden to him
yet, but he does not feel like cutting his acre be-
fore dinner ; he stops to whet oftener than he did
twenty years ago, and rests longer in the shade of
the big apple tree ! In fact, his "mowing ma-
chine" does not work as it formerly did. There
is plenty of will, but less power, and the work pro-
gresses slowly, while he looks painfully around to
see what he can call in to his aid, to secure the
crops which beneficent Heaven has matured for
the support of his family.

The moicing machine comes to such a man as
a real blessing. It enables him to keep up with
his younger neighbors ; to cut his crops in season
and secure them without loss. He is relieved,
encouraged, and feels comparatively young again,
because he can carry on his farm as rapidly and
successfully as he did in his younger and stronger
days !

Perhaps the small farmer is in feeble health —
not really sick, but unable to take the lead in la-
borious work — but with the aid of a mowing ma-
chine and a good horse-rake, he is more than a
match for the best five men in the county. But
this is not all. Somehow, he feels better than he
did. His appetite is sharp — he has gained flesh —
stands up straighter than for many years before,
and with these blessings, another has come, more
valuable than all, in a cheerful, frnstinr/, hopeful
spirit, which brings a new sunshine and joy to his
whole homestead ! Wonderful ! And the doctor
says, "All this has come because you do not work
so hard !"

There are other reasons why the small farmer
should use a mowing machine, but we have pur-
sued the subject too far to give them now. We
have said enough to suggest many more reasons
to those who are willing to think about it, and so
we leave it at present for their own pleasant
thoughts and, we trust, judicious conclusions.

Quantity of Food for Oxen. — Frequent ob-
servations have shown that an ox will consume
two per cent, of his weight of hay per day to main-
tain his condition. If put to moderate labor, an
increase of this quantity to three per cent. Avill
enable him to perform his work, and still maintain
his flesh. If he is to be fatted, he requires about
four and a half per cent, of his weight daily in nu-
tritious food. — Michigan Farmer.

Large sums of money are paid away every
year, by the colonial governments in Australia, to
boys for the destruction of thistles. These boys,
like the rat-catchers, talvc care not to exterminate
their means of living. In order to save this ex-
pense, and effectually destroy the thistles, it is
])roposed to introduce the goldfinch, the brown
linnet, the red-poll and the German siskin into
Australia, all of which birds live on thistle seed
in the season.

320

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

kukaij architecture.

DESIGN FOR A COUNTRY OR VILLAGE HOUSE, BY GEO. E. rL\RNEY, LYNN, MASS.

DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

In this design we have endeavored to provide
accommodation for a small family of cultivated
taste, either in the country or village. The pro-
vision of a dairy would indicate that it was de-
signed for a Farm House, while it possesses some
other features which, though not out of keeping
with the uses of such a house, seem to adapt it to
some prominent situation and make it something
of a show house ; hence we think it would be es-
pecially suitable for a small milk farm, located in
the vicinity of some city or large town, to which
the owner might carry his milk every morning for
a market — a business from which, we are inclined
to think, one might reap quite a profit, besides
having the satisfaction of feeling oneself a bene-
factor— for rich, pure milk is a luxury that would
be highly appreciated by dwellers in the city, ac-
customed, as a great portion of them are, to using
a liquid that has been brought for miles in the cars,
and encountered several processes which do any-
thing but improve its quality.

This plan we think would be well suited to such
a business as that, yet by converting the dairy into
a store-room we have a convenient jjlan for a com-
mon suburban or country residence.

Accommodation. — From the drive-way in front
three easy stejis rise to the portico, A, and from
this portico we enter the hall, H. This hall meas-
ures seven feet by sixteen, and contains the front
stairs to the chambers. On the right is the par-
lor, B, a pleasant room fourteen by sixteen, and
opening out of this room on the south-eastern side
is a conservatory, G, for plants and flowers. It
measures fourteen by eighteen feet, and is fitted
up with wide shelves at the sides and a broad
stand in the centre for f;dl plants, with a passage
of three feet in width all around it.

This conservatory is designed to be heated in a
manner described by Downing as the Polmaise
system, namely : by means of a furnace made of a
common air-tight stove placed in a brick air-cham-
ber underneath the floor, the heat passing up
through a single pipe running from the top of the
chamber to the floor — while from the floor at the
farther end of the conservatory, near the door, an-
other pipe extends doNvnwards, and terminates in
the bottom of the air-chamber, thus producing a
thorough circulation of air all the time, with a
regulated supply of fresh air from out of doors
conducted by means of a box like a common fur-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

321

nace box, to the chamber. We have seen this
method tried, and can recommend it as being the
cheapest and most effective way of heating a small
green-house like this.

The six upper sashes of the roof have pulleys
and cords, by which means they may be lowered
and raised at pleasure.

At the farther extremity of the front hall, a
glazed door opens into the back entry which ex-
tends along back of the parlor and opens out upon
an umbrage, I, on the eastern side of the house.
This back entry contains stall's to the chambers
and cellar, and opens into the parlor and the
kitchen. The dining-room, C, is fourteen feet
square, and communicates with the kitchen, D, by
means of a small passage, fitted up with shelves.
On the right of the chimney is a good-sized china
closet, witii di-awers, and shelves for china. The
kitchen is twelve by seventeen — is well lighted by
thi-ee windows, and has a fire-place with an oven
and boiler. Opening out of it is a pantry, E, six feet
by eight, furnished with hooks, shelves, sink, pump.

der the shelves, and of about the same width,
closed by a board with hinges precisely like a trap
door.

Near the ceiling, and opening outwards and up-
wards on the north side of the house, is a similar
trap door three or four feet long and about a foot
wide, which an elevating stick with notches cut
into it enables an attendant to raise to any desired
degree.

When the upper ventilator is opened, the heated
air passes out by reason of its specific levity, and
the cold air from the cellar rushes in to fill its
place, in the same way that water rises in a pump
when the air is withdrawn from above. A venti-
lated space surrounds the room, (here, of about
seven inches in width, though in Mi\ Wing's it is
twelve or more,) and prevents the heating, so often
resulting from confined air in the adjacent Avails.
The shelves are not flat boards, as usually con-
structed, but are formed of two narrow strips of
board set on edge and notched into standards
placed about five feet apart, by which means we

cupboard, iS;c., and opening out upon a platform j get a free circulation of air on every side. The

strips for shelves are nine inches
apart outside, and each strip one
by two inches. The shelves are
eight inches apart, with six inch-
es of clear space between them
for pans. In the room on our
plan there are accommodations
for about eighty common pans.

The umbrage is six feet wide,
and is latticed on the eastern
side.

The second floor of the house
contains two front chambers,
each fourteen feet square ; a
kitchen cliamber, twelve by foiu'-
teen ; another chamber over the
pantry and entry, nine feet
square ; and a small room over
the dairy.

The attics are unfinished. The
at the rear of the house. A large closet opens j principal floor is ten feet high, and the second is
out of the pantry where shown on the plan. The \ nine and a half,
dairy, F, is an important feature. It is on the
eastern corner of the house ; the umbrage shield-
ing it from the sun on that side, while a window
on the north side admits cold air, and other pro-
visions for ventilating keep the air continually
fresh. The room is constructed on a principle in-
vented by Mr. Harvey Wing, of Morris, N. Y.,
and successfully applied to his own house. It is
thus described : The room is situated directly
over a cold cellar, from which the air may be taken
at pleasure by means of ventilators, for the perfect
regulation of the temperature of the room. These
ventilators consist of simple slits or openings,
running nearly the entire length of the room un-

The house is designed to be built of wood, and
covered in the vertical and battened manner ; to
be finished with white walls for papering, and a
plain wood finish for all the rooms; the kitchen,
pantry, dairy and back entry may be grained or
stained ; the rest of the house may have two coats
of paint inside and outside. Cost, about $2o00.

Madness Caused by Honey. — In Mesopota-
mia a peculiar kind of honey is found, which is
said, if eaten in any considerable quantity, to make
men mad, though only for a short time. The
noxious quality of the honey is thought to be de-
rived from the blossoms of the rhododendron,
which is abundant there.

322

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

Fur the New England Farmer.
BIVALRY IN FARMING.
Why is it that we see no more competition and
rivalry among farmers ? The mechanic, manufac-
turer, and in short those of every profession, are
always in a strife to outdo their competitors, while
the farmer goes listlessly on, not seeming to care
if his neighI)or does raise as much ag'ain as he
does on the same land, or that of better quality.
If there chance to be two mechanics in the same
village, pursuing the same branch of the trade,
they are always on the alert to see who shall do
the best work, so as to secure the most custom,
which is all right and sensible. Is it not equally
sensible for two farmers living side by side, to en-
gage in such laudable competition ? If there were
half the zeal manifested among farmers that there
is in other classes, the products of the soil would
be doubled in a short time. Agricultural editors
and societies are doing their best to bring out this
spirit, but as yet with but little success. The
manner in which premiums are ofl'ered for field
crops is, in my opinion, poorly calculated to bring
out much competition in their production. Most
of the societies now offer a premium for the larg-
est yield from an acre and half acre of ground, re-
gardless of the expense in producing it. Premi-
ums should be offered on not less than five acres
of ground, and for the greatest yield at the least
cost, taking the condition of the land before and
after the crop is taken off, into consideration.
This would give all a better chance for competi-
tion, and be productive of far greater benefits to
the farming community, than as at present con-
ducted. It would cause a greater portion of the
farm to be enriched, and also cause greater quan-
tities of grain to be raised, thereby benefiting all
classes, wliich is the professed aim of agricultural
societies. As now conducted, not more than one
farmer in one thousand competes for a premium,
and those who do, select some little piece of an
acre, or less, and put on all the manure they have,
and thus raise a great crop, costing as much again
as it is worth ! But they get a premium, and a
great name for raising the largest crop in the
County or State, as the case may be. Cannot the
managers of our agricultural societies, editors of
agricultural journals, or some of their readers, de-
vise some plan by which all farmers may be in-
duced to compete for premiums, and let the pre-
miums be offered in a manner having reference to
the permanent fertility of the soil, as well as the
production of large crops. If such a scheme can
be brought out, we may look for increased com-
petition among the formers, increased productions,
and the original design of the societies will be in
part accomplished. Brother farmers, let us hear
your sentiments on the subject, and see if we can-
not wake uj) the managers to the necessity of
some reform in this matter. li.

Western New York, 1862.

Influence ov Hot Weather upon North-
ern AND SotiTHEUN SoLUlERS. — In the medical
statistics of the army from 1837 to 1854, trans-
mitted to Hon. J. I). Bright, President of the
Senate, by Jeff. Davis, Secretary of War, July 28,
1856, on pages 609 and 621, will be found a state-
ment showing the power of endurance of a South
Cai'olina and a New York regiment, respectively.

South Carolina 1st, 1,034 men, campaign of 1847,
eighteen and a half months' service, loss by dis-
ease, 509 ; New York 2d, 1,063 men, seventeen
and a half months' service, loss by disease, 276.
From this comparison of a Northern regiment
with a Southern one, in a hot country campaign,
it appears that the Southern regiment lost by dis-
ease very nearly twice as many as the New York
regiment in about the same length of time, and
the loss from all other causes was one-third less
to the Northern than to the Southern regiment.

For tlte New England Fanner.
LOVE AND THE HOSE.

BY EDWARD BRINLET.

Hidden away in a wild-wood nook,
Where woodbines and blue balls were twining,

A rose, by the side of a murmuring brook,
Was gracefully o'er it inclining.

The brook sang on in its happy play.

But the rose drooped sadly above her ;
Unseen she had blushed from day to day.

With no eye but the brook's to love her !

A wanderer came to that wild-wood dell
And the rose looked up with gladness ;

But the limpid brook knew 'twas Love too well,
And she rippled along in sadness.

The god sprang up to the rose's look,

Down deep in her lap he hurried ;
She turned in disdain from her faithful brook,

Whilst Love in her bosom was buried !

Hidden away in her fragi-ant folds,

On his rose couch Love reposes ;
But short is the spell that the lone flower holds.

Love leaves her — for other roses !

Deep— deep in that wild-wood's nook.

The neglected rose is pining ;
Still the murmurs of Love gurgle on in that brook.
Where the woodbine and blue bells are twining !
Oak Hill, 1S62.

THE POWER OP STYLE.

Human language may be polite and powerless
in itself, uplifted M'ith difficulty into the expres-
sion of the high thoughts it utters, or it may in
itself become so saturated Avith warm life and de-
licious association that every sentence shall jxilpi-
tate and thrill with the mere fascination of the
syllables. The statue is not more surely included
in the block of marble than is all conceivable
splendor of utterance in Worcester's Unabridged.
And as Ruskin says of painting that it is in the
perfection and precision of the instantaneous line
that the claim to immortality is made, so it is easy
to see that a phrase may outweigh a library. Keats
heads the catalogue of things real with "sun, moon,
and ])assagcs of Shakspeare ;" and Keats himself
has left behind him winged wonders of expression
that are not surpassed by Shakspeare, or by any
one else who ever dared touch the English tongue.
There may be phrases which shall be palaces to
dwell in, treasure-houses to explore ; a single
word may be a window Irom which one may per-
ceive all the kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them. Oftentimes a word shall speak what ac-
cumulated volumes have labored in vain to utter ;
there may be years of crowded passion in a word,
and half a life in a sentence. — 1'. W. Higginson.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

323

b^K/r the New England Farmer.
LETTER FROM THE HOMESTEAD.
Chester, N. II., June o, 1862.

My Dear Mr. Brown : — Coming in the train
fyom Manchester, this morning, I stepped off at
Derry, about six. miles from "home," thinking a
draft of ray native air, another from the iron-
bound buck'et that hangs in the well, a glimpse of
mv beautiful trees planted in the days of my
youth, and a day with my kindred, who still re-
main, might be pleasant and good for soul and
bodv. I fancied that it would be very easy to
v.-alk across, but difficulties, unfoi'eseen, beset me
at every step. You need not pause to moralize
over the decay of my strength, or my premature
old age, for the obstacles were not in that direc-
tion. People in the country do not walk so much
as in the city, and the reasons are, that every one
in the country has a horse, and that, much of the
year, the roads are snowy, or muddy. A walk of
six miles about the city, is no great exertion even
for young ladies, but in the country, we never
thought of getting over so much space on foot. It
was difficult to convince the men about the sta-
tion, that I was really going to walk to Chester,
when I requested to have my valise sent over by
the stage. Finally, I got off, and called at the
Bank, about twenty rods on my proposed journey,
where my good friend, the Cashier, insisted on
sending me over with his horse. I declined his
civility, Avith the explanation that I really wanted
to walk over the road I had so often travelled
when a school-boy at the Derry Academy. Once
more I set forward, like the pilgrim in the Pro-
gress, and had gone about a quarter of a mile,
when a stranger gentleman in a handsome chaise
overtook me, and evidently esteeming riding far
above walking, saluted me with, "Are you going
to the village. Sir ?" and made room for me, as if
it were matter of course that no sane man would
walk, when he might as well ride. I really pre-
ferred to walk, but as I had just come out of Court,
and did not want to argue, or discuss the question,
nor yet to decline without a reason, I stepped in
and rode nearly a mile, as the easiest way of dis-
posing of the matter. Once more I was on foot,
reflecting for the moment upon the difference be-
tween the habits of city and country. I might
vv'ulk a hundred miles about Boston, and nobody
offL'r me a ride, but here every man insists on do-
ing me a kindness.

Give me country life, thought I, where people
know, and care for each other. The first man I
met after leavin? the chaise, was a gentleman
whom I had known when I was a boy, though he
was not. He greeted me very warmly, and gave
me a little specimen of the frankness of rural man-
ners, by remarking, "Your hair begins to show
that you are not so young as you once were." Tiris

was gospel truth, to be sure, and as he had intro-
duced the subject, and I recognized on his head
the same wig which was there thirty years ago, I
could not forbear to reply, that I did not see the
least change in his hair, since I first knew him !
Whereupon, with a hearty laugh, we said good-by.

The country was in its full glory. The sky was
just clearing away, after a gentle, steady, summer
rain, all night long, and every bird, and leaf, and
blade of grass, was thankful. There is a great
deal to see in such a morning. There are the birds.
I knew every one of them. They have not changed
a feather since I fu"st knew them. When I was
a boy I skinned and stuffed specimens of all that
could be found, and they are now here at the
homestead, a hundred of them, as perfect as when
first mounted. I suppose birds do not improve
much. Those that came out of the ark probably
made just as good nests, and wore just as fine
feathers, and sang just as good songs, as these
about us. Agassiz says, that an examination of
the coi'al reefs of Florida shows that they have
been in process of formation seventy thousand
years, at least, and that there has been, in all that
period, absolutely no change in the different spe-
cies of coral insects. A class of writers like the
author of "The Vestiges of Creation," insist that
species progress from one into another, so that,
bye-and-by, gorillas may become Christian men,
just as tadpoles become frogs, or worms become
butterflies. These latter, however, are not changes
of species, from generation to generation, but only
the perfection of the species in its own life.

The thrush and catbird sang this morning the
same songs, I have no doubt, that they sang in
Paradise, and though you might possibly teach
one to whistle Yankee Doodle, her descendants
would not inherit the gift. One advantage which
observers of nature possess over mere lovers of
mankind is, that the world never grows old to
them. They have the same stars by night, wheel-
ing in their constellations grandly over the firma-
ment ; the same hills, and valleys, and birds, and
trees, and flowers by their wayside, all their life
long ; while they who depend on society, see young
faces become old, or new faces take the places of
those that have vanished from sight. But we
must pass on, for there is a great deal to see in
six miles in the country in the first week in June.

A WORD ABOUT LAWNS.

In front of the farm-houses, where there are no
fences, and where cattle and horses daily crop the
grass, we see thick green turf, really better lawns
than any kept under the scythe. Indeed, there is
great difficulty in this hot, dry, unequal climate,
in keeping a lawn green and close through the hot
season. I tried to see what this roadside turf is
made of, as I walked along. It seems to be

324

NEW ENGLAND FARMEE.

July

chiefly red top or white top and white clover.
Herdsgrass is short-lived, a biennial properly, and
its bulbous root is destroj-ed by close cropping.
Two things are essential to a good lawn, — keeping
it close, and frequent rolling ; not merely frequent
mowing, but preventing the grass ever maturing
into stalks. Nature will do something, and has a
great propensity to perfect her works regularly,
first the leaf, then the flower, then the fruit, then
death forever, or for the season. Grasses follow
tliis law, and if once allowed to go beyond the
leaf, are reluctant to go back to leaf-making
again. We see the same thing in fruit trees, which
usually make little wood while full of fruit, but
which are readily diverted from their tendency to
bear fruit, into producing wood and foliage, by
taking off" their blossoms. By keeping the grass
short, as is done by constant feeding by animals,
the process of leaf-making is constantly repeated,
and then constant treading at the same time keeps
the soil compact and uniform, which seems to be j
favorable to a thick, but not to a rank growtli.

MENDING ROADS.

This is the season for "working out the taxes"
on the roads, and I, of course, stopped and ex-
changed civilities with my old acquaintances en-
gaged in this pursuit. I have no criticisms to
make on what they were doing, but in general, it
may be said, there are two or three principles that
need to be understood, on this subject. One of
these relates to the cure of wet places, Avhether
springy hill-sides or swamps. Those places are
miry and soft, not because of surface water, but
because of water below. The remedy is by draw-
ing the water out. A single three-inch tile drain,
or a stone drain, laid four feet deep along the up-
per side of the road, if it be across a hill-side,
would, in many cases, at the cost of one dollar a
rod, do more to harden the path than ten times as
much spent in hauling gravel, and in labor. The
water should be cut off" before it reaches the road,
if possible ; if not, a drain each side, three or four
feet deep, will draw away all the water from the
centre, without disturbing the road-bed, while
piling sand and gravel on to soft mud only deep-
ens it. It is merely an application to the symp-
toms, while drainage removes the disease itself.

BALDWIN ArPLES.

Chester is one of the best fruit towns in the
State, and the Baldwin apple has been a favorite
fruit here. There is an impression, as I gather
from the papers, and from private sources, that the
Baldwin has become more tender or the climate
more cruel, so that the two are not now so well
adapted to each other as formerly. I found sev-
eral first rate fruit men at work on the road, and
put the question to them, as I have to other intel-

ligent men hei'e, as to whether the Baldwin is less
reliable than formerly. I think the fair conclusion
is this, that the old orchards of fifty years' growth
and more, are dj'ing off by natural decay, and that
the old natural trees which were grafted a dozen
or twenty years ago, as most all of them were with
the Baldwin, are failing through old age and over-
bearing. Again, about 1855, many young trees
were winter-killed in all parts of New England,
and the Baldwin, which is doubtless more tender
than most varieties, suffered very much, and as it
had been long a favorite, and was largely planted,
its loss was generally observed.

I think, however, that the young orchards of
Baldwins, which escaped that severe winter, and
those since planted are here perfectly healthy, and
if I were now to plant an orchard in Chester, or
the vicinity, on high and hard land, I should, for
market purposes, plant one-half of it, at least, with
the Baldwin. The granite hills and the clear air
of old Chester are wondei-fully favorable to the
growth of fruit trees ; and by the way, I have to-
day been reminded that it is not unfavorable to
the growth of enterprising and strong-hearted
men, which leads me to say

SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAR.

As I rested a moment at the post-office, the
Manchester stage arrived, and upon it one of the
soldiers of the 2d N. H. Regiment, Joseph Morse,
who was taken prisoner at Bull Run, now on his
return from North Carolina, where he with hun-
dreds of others was paroled. He had been in the
prisons of Richmond and Salisbury about a year.
We had but a moment's conversation, as he had
not yet seen his family. To the inquiry how he
had been treated, he replied, "You can judge some-
thing of it, when I tell you that four men were
shot in the prison where I was, for looking out at
the window." He looked in good condition, al-
though he said he had suffered from various dis-
eases. I met also at the post-office Mr. Brown,
of Chester, who has five sons now in the army. I
asked him if he had any son at home. He said
yes, he had six more at home, and two of them
wanted to enlist. Chester has a population of only
about thirteen hundred, and has sent fifty soldiers
to the war, one of whom was killed at Williams-
burgh.

You perceive that my six-mile journey was by
no means barren of incident or interest. Indeed,
I have hardly begun to tell you about it. The gar-
den seeds which I planted on the 20th of May, are
well up. The frost that followed on the Saturday
after, did not venture on to the hill, and the to-
mato plants M'hich I brought from Boston are safe
and flourishing, and on the whole, I am having
quite too good a time not to share it with you and
our readers. h. f. f.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIMER.

325

For ihe New England Farmer.
FABMEBS' HYMN.

BT K. F. FULLER.

When a week of toil is o'er,

Welcome is the Jay of rest !
In those courts we come, once more,
By devotion to be blest !
Kindle, Lord, our Christian fires ;
And draw upward our desires '.

With us, when we hence depart,

And our weekly toil renew.
May Thy presence, in the heart.
Still abide in all we do !
And, whate'cr our labor be,
We will work as unto Thee !

Farmer's toil may symbolize,
And the spirit lessons teach.
If we labor to be wise
And the sense of symbols reach,
Nature's volume shall impart
Still instruction to the heart I

In the season of the year.

While to sow the seed we haste.
Life has such a seed-time here.
We remember, not to waste :
Still reminded, as we sow.
We will harvest, weal or woe.

When the tender corn we weed,

With the soft earth freshly stirred,
'T will remind us to give heed.
Lest a sin should choke the Word.
While the cherished corn wc hoe.
In our hearts the Truth shall grow !

As the stalks rejoicing rise.

In a glad and green increase,
We will watch, with anxious eyes,
For the growth within, of peace-
Has the gentle herb of grace
With the corn kept even pace .'

When, in sparkling morning hours,

Dews, like incense, soar again.
And, when soft refreshing showers
Fall, in blessings of the rain,
Father ! we will pray Thee, thus
Pour Thy spirit down on us !

When we cure the crop of hay ;

And the herb we cut, at morn.
Withers ere the noon, away —
So the life of man is shorn !
Swaths we mow shall moralize,
As the tree falls, so it lies !

When our harvests all are o'er.

And the end of summer comes,
Doubly precious is the store,
Treasured in our harvest homes :
Garners of the soul were filled.
While the busy farm wc tilled !

SULPHURIC ACID.

"A. R." asks us if sulphuric acid, when applied
bj' itself, has any value as manure ? AVe answer,
Yes ; for although its value may be materially in-
creased by availing of its chemical action on other
substances, still, used alone, it has high value.
It should always be applied, however, in an ex-
tremely dilute state, certainly never at a greater
strength than one part of acid to 1000 of water.
There are very few plants which do not contain
sulphuric acid, or its salts, in some form, and when

applied to the soil there are few of those bases
with which it combines advantageously, which do
not exist in the soil to a greater or less extent.

Sulphuric acid when aj)plied dilute to compost
heaps, prevents the escape of ammonia without
interfering with its solubility ; all free alkalies are
changed into sulphates, and with the exception of
lime, are still left soluble in water ; many of the
primaries are more acceptable to plants as sul-
phates than in their simple condition, while a large
number of the proximates have inci'eased value
being acted on by dilute sulphuric acid. — Work-
ing Farmer.

ONE CAUSE OF DROUGHTS AND
FRESHETS.

It is plain to every observer, that our countrj' is
now more subject to droughts than it was twenty
or thirty years ago. Within the last five years,
we have suflered in this respect seriously. The
loss to the farming community, and through it to
the whole population, has been many millions of
dollars. If they continue for several years more,
in frequent succession, there is reason to fear that
the "hard times" will pass away very slowly. Is
there any natural cause for droughts, or are they
sent upon us solely as special visitations of Provi-
dence for our national sins ? We would not speak
lightly of such visitations, but we are inclined to
think that our sufferings in this particular may be
traced chiefly to our own bad management. The
wide destruction of our forests doubtless has
something to do with the production of droughts,
and of these destructive floods or "freshets" which
are becoming alarmingly frequent.

If the country is widely denuded of its trees,
the land is more exposed to the burning rays of
the sun, and to the winds which cause a very rapid
evaporation. Then, too, forest trees are so many
pumps to suck uj) moisture from the depths of the
earth, and to diffuse it through their leaves into
all the surrounding atmosphere. From thence it
falls upon the surface of the ground. Perhaps
some of our readers have amused themselves with
making estimates of the amount of water evapor-
ated from the leaves of a single tree, and then of
a large forest, in a single day. To one who has
never thought about it, the subject is one of great
interest. AH readers of history know that many
of the rivers and streams of the Old World, which
once were wide and deep, have now shrunk into
much smaller dimensions ; from what cause, can
any one tell, if not that the hills and mountains
are now almost entirely bereft of trees ? Droughts
prevail all over the Eastern continent, with in-
creasing severity ; and scientific and observing
men everywhere proclaim that this is owing chiefly
to the cause of which we now speak.

Valleys and low-lands, and fertile plains, should
of course lie cleared of trees, and devoted to farms
and gardens ; but at least the rocky hills and
mountains should not be shorn of their leafy hon-
ors. Let the trees stand sacred from the desolat-
ing ax, all along our heights, to break the fury of
storms, and to condense and bring down the use-
ful vapors of the clouds upon our fields, and into
our springs and streams. It is high time that the
older States of the Union began to move in this
matter, either regulating the destruction of our old
forests, or encouraging the growth of new. We
believe that some wholesome laws touching this

326

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

matter, would both secure our posterity a good
supply of lumber, and a good degree of exception
from droughts.

All that individuals can do in this matter, is to
preserve their own forest land in just proportion,
and by underdraining, thus deepening the soil and
giving it a porous, spongy character, render the
land capable of absorbing and retaining as large a
quantity as possible of the water that falls upon it,
instead of allowing a large portion to flow off, as
is now generally the case. Our State Legislatures,
might, we think, vrith great propriety remit the
taxes for 20 years on all land devoted to high for-
est, (not low woods for charcoal and hoop poles,)
and tax land which might, but does not carry a
good groAvth of high or low woods, at the rate its
value would warrant if properly improved. — FOR-
RESTER, in American Agriculturist.

FKUIT HINTS.

I have met with decided success in using tobac-
co stems as a preventive for the peach borer.
Frequent examinations since early last spring
have revealed but one borer. I renew the supply
of stems as often as I deem advisable, and find no
injury to the roots from them. I have also acted
on Miss Morrill's hint relative to the application
of saltpetre, alum, or salt, as special manui'es for
the peach, and with promising results. I sprinkle
them on the soil to witliin about a foot of the
trunk of the tree.

My trees, which were inclined to be sickly and
of puny growth, are now in splendid condition,
and this season made very strong, healthy growth,
and from summer pruning are sending out strong,
thick branches, some sweeping nearly to the
ground, offering complete protection to the trunk
from the scorching sun.

Last season, I used Gisburst's compound for
slugs on my pear and cherry trees. This season
I have used nothing but whale oil soap, which I
find quite as effectual and more beneficial to my
trees, as it gives a healthy, bright color to the
bark, and keeps the leaves fresh-looking and free
from spots. I apply it once a week or fortnight,
as they may require, and the expense is but little
more than that of common soap, costing here five
to six and a quarter cents a pound. Instead of a
syringe, I use a "hydropult," which has great forc-
ing power, and its iiexible tube renders it far su-
perior to the syringe in application to the under
side of foliage. — H. C. Van Tyne, in Horticul-
turist.

ABOUT PIWS.

The manufacture of pins, in this country, was
first undertaken soon after the war of 1S12 ; when
in consequence of the interruption to commerce,
the value of a paper of pins was not less than one
dollar, and those were of a very inferior quality to
those now only worth six cents a paper. By the
old method of manufacture the number of distinct
processes Avas fourteen. Now they are manufac-
tured in Connecticut by a self-acting machine,
Avhich completes them by one process and sticks
them into the papers also ! The only attention
the sticking machine requires is to supply it with
jjius and paper. At the present time the total
weight of pins made in the United States, is sup-

posed to be from seven to ten tons a week. What
indeed becomes of all the pins ! When we reflect
that, up to the middle of the XIV. centurv, Eng-
lish ladies were obhged to make use of clumsy
wooden skewers, we can appreciate the abundance
and cheapness of these useful little articles. Yet
nothing is new under the sun, and pins are found
in Egyptian tombs, of much more costly and elab-
orate make than those now used. Some of these
are eight inches long and are furnished with large
gold heads. The ladies' "pin-money," in those
days, must have been quite an item in the domes-
tic expenses. ^^

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.
HARD COAL DUST.

Can you inform me Avhat this coal dust is good
for ? It collects in the flues of our chimneys. Can
it be made use of in any way for manure, or will
it be of any use to spread as a top-dressing ? Llun-
dreds of bushels can be had at very little cost for
saving and trucking. I send you a sample just as
it comes from the flue and about the chimneys.
An Old Subscriber.

Diddeford, Me., 1862.

Remarks. — The dust enclosed seems to be col-
orless and tasteless, but notwithstanding this, it
may have a valuable effect upon plants. Apply it
as a top-dressing to small patches of grass land,
and about plants that are hoed, leaving some of
the same kind of plants, ten or fifteen feet distant,
without it, and note the effect. We think it can-
not be entirely without value.

CLAY FOR DRAIN TILE

There is in this town a clay bed suitable for
making the finest quality of bricks. I wish to in-
quire if it is also suitable for making drain tile ;
that is, will the same quality of claj' make either
brick or tile ? Can you also tell me where I can
obtain machines for the manufacture of tile, and
the probable cost ? A Reader.

Snow's Store, Vf., 1862.

Remarks. — Clay that is suitable for brick, we
are informed, is just what is wanted for making
drain tile. We cannot inform you where tile ma-
chines are manufactured. Their cost is from one
to two hundred dollars.

LICE ON CATTLE.

In answer to the inquiry of "Yeoman," Laconia,
N. II., I will say that a safe, sure, simple and eco-
nomical way of killing lice on cattle is to take the
water in which potatoes have been boiled, rub
thoroughly the cattle which are afflicted in this
way once a week, for two or three weeks, or until
the nits are all hatched out, and the stock of lice
will be among the things that were. The remedy
is so simple that some will not believe until they
have tried it. It is, nevertheless, a sure cure, if
faithfully and thoroughly applied.

Another remedy is in an ounce of preventive, —
good feed, good M'ater, good clean sheds and sta-
bles, and lice will not colonize in the vicinity.

Highland Lodge, Vt., May, 1862. H. F.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

327

MUCK AND ASHES.

I see in last week's Farmer Mr. John Day, of
Boxford, is made to say that he would rather have
a cord of muck, well composted with from four to
six bushels of good wood ashes than the same
quantity of stable manure.

Now, is this really so, or is it an assertion made
at random, without careful and repeated trial,
which should characterize our experiments before
given and recommended to the public ? If Mr.
l)ay has a good foundation for his statement, (and
I certainly have no good reason to gainsay it,)
one, at least, of the readers of the Farmer would
like to be assured of it. How com])osted, and
how long must it lay before fit for using ?

Wji. J.'Pettee.

Salisbury, Ct., June 6, 1862.

Remarks. — Mr. Day will please answer for
himself. The muck and ashes would certainly
have great value, but whether to such an extent
as he states can only be determined by careful ex-
periment.

PRICES OF WOOL.

You have intimated in your paper, and I have
seen the same in the Vermont Chronicle, that
wool is higher than it has been for forty-four
years. I have raised wool about forty years, but
within a much less time I have sold mine for sixty
cents per pound, and some of my neighbors at
sixty-seven. Please inform us where we can sell
for the same prices now. JuLIUS Hazen.

Hartford, Vt., May 27, 1862.

Remarks. — Our intimations of the prices of
wool are gathered from the market reports and
from information forwarded by wool-growers. We
wish we could inform friend Hazen Avhere to get
sixty-seven cents per pound for his avooI now.

coe's superphosphate.

Will you inform me what quantity of Coe's su-
perphosphate of lime will be sufficient as a top-
dressing, per acre, for gi-ass land that is now in
pretty good ordpr ? What is the price per hun-
dred ? Do you think it a cheap manure ?

.Tames S. Hammond,

Liverpool, N. S., May, 1862.

Remarks. — Coe's superphosphate is an excel-
lent fertilizer, we have no doubt, and we think
may be profitably used in many cases. From two
to five hundred pounds per acre are used on grass
land, spread evenly on the surface, at any time.
It costs $45 per ton, or a little more than two
cents a pound.

raising turkeys.

Will you, or some of your writers, inform me
through your valuable paper the best way to raise
young turkeys, and what is best to feed them on
when young ? G. II. w.

Ripton, Vt., 1862.

Every day has its appropriate duties, attend to
them in succession.

For the New England Farmer.
LESSONS PROM MY "WINDOW.

My pillowed chair is drawn up by the open
window, for ]\Iay is here, and south winds and
bird-songs woo one away from the darkened still-
ness of the sick-room. The fruit trees are white
with flowers, and waves of fragrance are drifting
in at the casement. Tulips in grandeur, and pan-
sies in humility, are opening in the garden bor-
ders, while the seeds which winter buried, are
bursting the moist earth in resurrection. Tv.o
golden orioles are picking the boughs of the fir
tree, flashing in and out of the dark foliage like
sunbeams ; and a chorus of music comes from the
top of the old elms.

It Avould not seem so very strange to me if res-
idents of the city should have few thoughts of the
one great Creator; where nearly every object
which the eye rests upon bears the impress of art ;
where the smoothly-shaven parks, and the trees
which fain would throw their broad arms in free-
dom, are trimmed into "graceful symmetry," all
bear, in legible characters, the edict of man, "thus
far shall thou go."

A real, genuine Christian should be, and will be,
a Christian everywhere, no matter what his sur-
roundings are. Yet it seems to me that country
Christians are very blameworthy, if they have not
a deeper experience of the love of God, and con-
sequently a more overflowing love of humanity,
than is possible for one who is confined to brick
walls and pavements, with only a fragment of blue
sky overhead. Why is this world so beautiful?
The grass probably would be as acceptable prov-
ender to cattle if it were of some dull hue instead
of this soft, refreshing green. Trees might bear
fruit without their profusion of delicate bloom.
The sun might rise and go down, without baptiz-
ing the pearly clouds with all-hued glory, and yet
guide the planets on, and scatter light and heat.
Why is this wondrous beauty, if not to tell us
that a loving Father planned it all, a Father who
knows how the hearts of His children would grow
sick and faint on their earthly journey, if every
step did not give evidence of His watchful pres-
ence ?

We have that Presence. Then look up, tired
hearts, and rejoice. For He who "hath made
everytliing beautiful in his time" is "On?' Father,"
Our God.

Remarks. — And the most beautiful of all, is the
loving, gushing heart, that gives expression to gen-
uine Christian sentiments like the above.

THE BEST TIME TO PSUKTE.
An old clergyman is quoted as defining this
time to be "when your knife is sharp." He was
certainly half right, for a smooth, clean cut is very
essential to the healiug of llnj v. ijluiJ. But there
is very great difference in the healing of wounds
on account of the season in which they are made.
Pruning done in ilarch and April, especially if
large limbs are removed, often injures an orchard
for life. The sap oozes from all the pores and
runs down the bark, discoloring it and oftentimes
destroying it — called scalding. Without other
])rotection, decay begins, and in a few years you
have a hollow limb.

328

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

We like the month of June for pruning better
than all others. If the work is done soon after
the new wood begins to form, the wounds made
by the removal of small limbs will be nearly cov-
ered over the same season they are made. The
leaves make such a demand upon the wood for
sap that none of it escapes from the wounded
pores. It is also a favorable time for thumb-
pruning. By watching the growth of the shoots
upon young trees they may be brought into sym-
metrical shape without much use of the knife. —
Amcvican Agriculturist.

THS MILLENNIUM COMING.

By referring to Webster, Noah, not Daniel, we
find that the word "millennium" signifies a thou-
sand years, or a period of happiness ! An im-
pression is upon our mind — probably gained by
the early reading of an ancient book^that this
period of happiness is to be preceded by great re-
vulsions among men — by wars and rumors of wars
— by famine and pestilence, and untold hori'or and
sufi'ering occasioned by the unbridled ambition of
wicked men, and the atrocities of their deluded
followers.

The latter part of these predictions is now cer-
tainly fulfilled to the letter. The war is upon us
in gigantic proportions, — a cruel and wicked one,
waged by those who had always enjoyed Heaven's
choicest blessings, — a causeless, unnecessary war,
and intended to destroy the best government that
ever blessed mankind. On the heels of this will
follow those dire calamities always consequent
upon war, — the destruction of public property, the
devastation of private homes and scattering of
families, — the debasing influence of camp life, the
breaking up of the usual channels of business, and
the want of that commercial confidence which
must exist among business men in order to secure
national prosperity. These evils will stalk like
spectres through all the southern land, where old
men will lie down and die for want of bread, and
the wails of starving women and children will fill
the air, as with hollow eye and sunken cheek they
seek a scanty subsistence from devastated fields
and the smouldering ruins of grain stacks set on
fire bv their infatuated hate.

But we must not lose sight of the Millennium.
Although thick-gathering horrors rest upon our
deluded brethren of the South, i)lenty and pros-
perity dwell with us, in all the su])stantial wants
of Hie. The hum of industry is everywhere heard,
our granaries are abundantly supplied, labor is
everywhere rewarded, and every heart and hand
is fall of devotion to the cause of liberty, and the
special care of our sons, now in the field.

In the midst of our New England towns there
is one that is a Model Republic — a forerunner
of tlie blessed Millennium ! During the Indian,
French and Revolutionary wars, though with a

population not exceeding five hundred souls, it
sent one hundred and four soldiers into the field!
It has now a population of about ten or twelve
hundred souls, who have real estate to the amount
of a quarter of a million of dollars, and have a
million at interest ! Their taxes are about forty
cents on a hundred dollars. They also own
a fine town farm, which, for a long time, had
but one inmate, a poor soldier of the Avar of 1812.
The jjoorest man in town kills a good beef and a
hog annually for the use of his family, and keeps
one or two good cows ! There is not a lawyer or
doctor or sheriff" in the town ! They have never
dismissed a minister from the pulpit, and the peo-
ple have not had a case on the docket of their
county Court for more than ten years ! It is said
that no widoAV of this town ever had her "thirds'*
set oiT, and that wills are almost always settled by
the parties interested. There are eleven schools
in the town, usually taught by young women, and
it has always been the practice to send the boys
to college, who are "quick to learn."

The soil of this little republic is high, moist and
warm, not frosty, and during extreme cold weath-
er, the thermometer does not fall so low, by ten
degrees, as in some other towns within ten miles
of it. The people are nearly all farmers, and are
remarkably healthy. Some of its citizens have
lived to be more than one hundred years of age,
many over ninety, and the "most of them have
lived to be from seventy-seven to eighty-five !"
Truly, they have found the "elixir of life." Ma-
jor S. says he has seen three-fourths of the world,
but never found a soil so good, or a people so
healthy. No liquor is sold in the town, except as
a medicine. An agent was appointed at a salary
of .f 40, and the first year his returns showed sales
to the amount of ten dollars ! At a central point,
stand two splendid liberty poles, throwing the glo-
rious stars and stripes to the breeze. It was on
this very spot "where the boys rendezvoused and
were inspected, and with their fowling-pieces
marched to join Gen. Stauk, at Bennington, dur-
ing the Revolutionary war. They had no music to
cheer the parting from the loved ones they were
leaving behind, and must have gone in silence and
sadness, had not an old gentleman by the name of
Roach — honored be his memory — placed himself
in front, and set up such a ivhistle as electrified
the whole party, and put new mettle into their
heels as well as their hearts !

Many other virtues and graces abound in this
delectable town — this little Utopia, where the mil-
lennium is dawning. The men, of course, are ex-
cellent husbands, and the women exemplary wives.
The daughters are from a healthy race, and are
fair to l)ehold, vigorous, and not "bad to take,"
when they can be caught. The young men— ex-
cept the scholars — stick to the farms, take, and

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

329

promptly pay for the newspapers they read, keep
posted up ill the affairs of the -world, and are
brave, hardy and intelligent — true descendants of
the old stock of '76. Eureka ! What a blessed
place is Dunbarton, Merrimack County, in the
State of New Hampshire ! But Dunbarton can-
not supply the demand for girls for all New Eng-
land, and young men who are "seeking a settle-
ment for life," must govern themselves accord-
ingly.

Whatever of romance may be found in this ar-
ticle, may be charged to our old friend, David
Tenny, Esq., of Dunbarton, who thinks that if
that spot is not Paradise itself, he who resides
there will find himself on the direct road to that
desirable place.

For the Netc England Farmer.

SEASOK" IN" VERMOWT— SHEEP AND
LAMBS.

Mr, Editor: — It is now the 27th day of May.
The weather is fine. Grass looks well, as does
early sowed grain ; the season has been short
for farmers to get in their crops, yet they have not
been idle since Mother Earth has been stript of
hor white covering which has so long concealed
her from view. The farmers have got in large
crops, generally ; though there are many that have
gone to fight for their country, yet those that are
left at home with their shovels and hoes, seem to
think that they can do as much for their country
by cultivating the land, as their brothers who
have gone to the field of battle. The trees are all
leaved out, and the plum trees are in full bloom ;
the past winter has been very favorable for fruit
trees, as there was no thaw to start the sap, nor
sudden freezes, which I think have done more to
shorten the lives of the apple trees than anything
else. Vv'here were once raised 600 and 1000 bush-
els of apples, are now raised only 12, 20 and oO
bushels, and in some places not any ; there is not
an orchard within my knowledge, where there is
not more or less of the trees dead, and it will not
be long before the farmers of Vermont will de-
pend, in a great measure, on other States for their
fruit, while they have as good soil for fruit rais-
ing as any other State. The trouble is, they do
not take good care of their fruit trees ; they have
heretofore raised their own fruit, but they think it
won't pay to trim up the old orchard, in which
more than half the trees are dead.

The ground is quite dry, as there has been very
little rain since the farmers commenced work on
land. It has been a very good time for lambs
this spring. There are quite a number of sheep
in Northern Vermont ; a great many of them are
the Merinos, which produce an excellent quality
of wool, but are not large enough for mutton, and
there is a manifest degeneracy in them. They re-
quire more care and better food than the common
breed, and also require a temperate climate.

What breed of sheep is best for a farmer to
keep for wool and mutton ? The sheep-growers are
apt to let their flocks degenerate in consequence
of the bad selection of males and injudicious
crossing ; these points require unremitting atten-
tion, for it has been proved by experience that

even the best breeds lose a portion of their good
qualities, if the necessary crossing is not seasona-
bly undertaken. The separation of the flocks into
sections, or families, should be strictly observed ;
the product of each animal should be carefully
weighed, and registered from generation to gener-
ation, and as soon as it is perceived that a fleece
is diminishing in weight, or deteriorating in qual-
ity, a change in the male animal should be made
immediatelv- H. w. J.

Orleans County, VL, 18G2.

For the ISIew England Farmer.
"TWIN" LAMBS."

Mr. Editor: — Many of our farmers are of
opinion that the rearing of two lambs, yearly, from
one sheep, is more remunerative than the rearing
of one. I think this opinion is erroneous, as any
one who will take the trouble to investigate the
subject must readily see. I believe every one will
admit that it is more profitable to keep good stock
than it is to keep poor, and we certainly cannot
produce as good when one animal is suffered to
rear two, as we could if it only reared one.

For instance, to illustrate the matter, we wiU.
suppose that 100 sheep, of the value of $300, pro-
duce 100 lambs. Ten per cent, of those lambs
will probably die, leaving 90 to be reared. 90
lambs, at one year old, after being sheared, will
be worth $3 per head. They M'ill shear about 4i
pounds of wool per head, or 405 pounds.

On the other hand, if every sheep produces
two lambs, from 100 sheep we shall have 200*
lambs. Of course, these Avill not be as large and
strong as the others, consequently, a larger pro-
portion will die, undoubtedly twenty per cent, at
least, leaving 160 to be reared. These, at one
year old, being smaller and less thrifty than the
others, will not be worth over $2 per head. For
the same season they will not shear over 3 pounds
of wool each, or 1^ pounds per head less than the
first, amounting to 480 pounds. The wear and
tear on the invested capital or original stock of
$300 in the latter case must be at least fifteen per
cent, greater than in the former, amounting to
$45. The cost of keeping the surplus Iambs, 70
in number, one year, would be at least $60. The
result, as near as I can estimate it, will be as fol-
lows :

90 lambs, 1 year old, $3 per head $270

405 iwunds of wool, at 40 cents per pound 1S2

Whole amount $432

On the other hand, —

160 lambs, 1 year old, at $2 per head $320

4S0 pounds of wool, at 40 cents per pound 192

Gross proceeds $512

Deduct for extra wear and tear on capital 45

" " keeping 70 surplus lambs 60

Net i^roceeds -$407

Leaving a balance of $23 in favor of the 90 lambs.
I believe, Mr. Editor, that this is a fair and candid
estimate. If any of the advocates for rearing tvna
lambs can show a different result, I, as well as
many others interested, would like to hear from
them. A Constant Reader.

Balsm, N. Y., May 28, 1862.

330

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

For t/ie New England Farmer.
THE STUDY OP NATURAL HISTORY.

The importance of a knowledge of natural his-
tory to the agriculturist has become appreciated
to a certain extent, but not, uufortunateh', to near-
ly its true value. That the agriculturist can be
successful only ■when he knows the capabilities of
Nature, her provisions and her laws, is plainly ap-
parent, for in no calling can success be calculated
on, unless after a deliberate and careful examina-
tion and comparison of the assistances which may
be rendered to overcome obstacles which exist, de-
termining their relative and individual strength,
the one to balance or overcome the resistance of
the other.

For instance, the merchant has to overcome di-
ficulties caused by competition in the demand for
goods, of which there is an uncertain supply, by
fashion, by the uncertainties of existing national
relations, which cause fluctuations in the money
market, and more or less disturb, and sometimes
embarrass his operations, or cause them to result
disastrously. To overcome these, the merchant
carefully acquaints himself with the condition of
markets and the prices of those goods, which, to
him, are specialties ; he calculates the chances of
a great or small supply, caused by a great or small
production ; attentively watches the fluctuations
of the money market, and the various political
questions and changes which may arise, and ana-
lyzes them, to discover the value they may hereaf-
ter possess to his operations. Observing these
things, and knowing the balance to be favorable,
with an allowance for contingencies that may arise,
he is generally enabled to conduct his business
with tiiir, or even great chances of success.

The obstacles the farmer has to overcome are
numerous, but they are all presented by Nature,
and the remedies she aff'ords are sufficient to keep
the balance perfect, if they are permitted to act
vigorously, and in their proper places. It is im-
portant, therefore, that he should be acquainted
with, and not injudiciously interfere with the
beautiful laws by which she regulates the phenom-
ena \vhich are operating for, or against him, but
avail himself of those that are acting for his bene-
fit, and even stimulate them to still greater exer-
tions. There is often, among farmers, a contempt
for scientific men, or those who make a study of
Nature, but such do not reflect that no one is so
much a naturalist as they ; that every operation
on the farm is but an experiment in one of the
brandies of natural history ; its success but anoth-
er scientific triumph, its failure usually the result
of ignorance of some great law ; very seldom
caused by unforeseen or uncontrollable accident.

The means employed to maintain the equilibri-
um, in animate and inanimate Nature, are, of
course, different, but that they are adequate to
check the preponderance of any element, or its
dis])roportionate increase at the expense of others,
is plainly manifest. In inanimate Nature, the ef-
fects of difl'erent elements are modified, or coun-
teracted, by others to a degree, or entirely oppo-
site in Nature. For instance, the effects of light,
although absolutely necessary to a healthy condi-
tion of animal and vegetable life, require modifica-
tion, for the reason that constant exertion neces-
sarily attendant on the ]n'esence of light, would be
highly injurious in consequence of the exhaustion

which would follow ; therefore, the absence of
liglit (darkness) is absolutely necessary at inter-
vals to secure the rest demanded by the system
which has expended a portion of its vital power
while in activity. Carbonic acid gas, although ab-
solutely necessary to vegetable life, unless coun-
teracted by the presence of oxygen, is fatally inju-
rious to animal lite, but Nature has wisely provid-
ed that animal life shall reject carbon, thereby
furnishing food for the vegetable, which, in its
turn, rejects oxygen for the support of animal life.

In animate Nature, different tribes are employed
to destroy others which are injurious and often
prolific. That the destroyers may not increase
disproportionately to the others, they are less pro-
lific in proportion to their strength and rapacity ;
for instance, many families in the Herbivora (veg-
etable devourers,) are injurious to the farmer in
consequence of their depredations on his crops.
They are generally very prolific, and their rapidly-
increasing numbers, depending on vegetable life
for food, would, unless some check were provid-
ed, completely exhaust the supply of food which
is necessary to their existence ; but Nature has
created other animals which prey on them, and
keep them reduced within a necessary limit.

Myriads of insects are created, and their num-
bers, like the locusts of Egypt, or the army worms
of our own day, would overrun and devastate the
land, were not some check provided : but in their
own class are tribes created which prey upon them,
and of mammals and birds whose orders subsist
upon them.

How important it is, therefore, that the farmer
should know and protect those elements that are
assisting him : how necessary it is that he should
cai'efully investigate the phenomena of Nature,
and appreciate the value of even its minutest help.
Let him, therefore, observe and study ; let him
encourage the spirit of inquiry that he may see
dawning in the minds of his children, and teach
them to distinguish and protect the vilest worm, if
its life is spent in assisting him. If it is true "that
he who has made two blades of grass grow where
but one grew before, is a public benefactor," how
valuable must he be whose life's work has enabled
him to say that fertile and flourishing acres had
come where nought but a desert and Avilderness
was before. Edward A. Samuels.

Fertility of Wheat. — A Mr. A. W. Parker,
of Cheam, Surrey county, England, some years
since, instituted a very curious experiment in the
management of wheat, of which we give the fol-
lowing abstract. In July, he deposited 07ie kernel
of wheat in a common garden pot ; in August,
he divided it into four plants, and in three weeks
he again subdivided these into twelve, and so on
until November, Mhcn the whole number from
this one kernel amounted to fifty-two, when they
were all set in the open soil. In July following,
twelve were found to be dead, the remainder in
full health. On the 19th of August, the crop was
harvested, and the produce was 1972 stems, aver-
aging fifty grains to the stem — being an increase
of 98,G00 grains ! How wonderfully hardy and
prolific is this plant, so indispensable to the com-

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

331

fort and support of man ! Were it all lost, bj^
some terrible revolution, and but a single grain
left, under such a process as we have just related,
how soon could all the fields of tlw world be smil-
ing again with this golden and invaluable crop !

For the Ke/c England Farmer.

"WHY ARE SO PEW YOUNQ MEW FOND
OF FARMINGS

Mr. Editor : — Though in this country a ma-
jorit}' of persons are probably engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits, I have the impression that compar-
atively few yoinig men are really fond of farming.
Why do the sons of farmers so frequently forsake
the calling of their fathers, to engage in other oc-
cupations ? It seems to mc, one and perhaps the
principal reason may be, because parents do not
take sufficient pains to make home and the busi-
ness of fiirming pleasant and attractive. Is it
enough for them to clothe and feed the bodies of
their children, but neglect to furnish the daily
food which is necessary for the nourishment and
full development of the social as well as the intel-
lectual and moral faculties ?

Are not boj^s ujjon the farm too often driven, as
it were, to their work, instead of being so taught
as to become interested in their employment, and
thus learn to love it, and perform the labor as it
should be performed by intelligent and accounta-
ble beings?

"■Will not the sons, if rightly taught to toil,
Delight through life, to cuUivate the soil,''
And Ihougli they leave the spot which gave them birth,
Still draw their sustenance from Mother Earth ?"

Another reason to which I will allude, though
with diffidence, (for it is rather a delicate matter,)
is the influence of young ladies. Do they not
sometimes, to say the least, slight and shun the
hardy, sunburnt sons of toil, and bestow their
smiles and hearts' affections upon those with
smaller, softer hands, and alas, too oft, with cor-
responding brains !

A third reason may be the position, or place
which farmers occupy in the community. Though
not generally regarded as "mudsills," they may,
perhaps, with propriety, be compared to the firm,
substantial foundations of a building ; for upon
them the whole superstructure of civilized society
is built and depends for its support. In viewing
a public edifice, we seldom observe the plain, un-
pretending, yet essential fovmdation on which it
stands ; but take particular notice of the building
itself, upon which art and adornment may have
been lavished, almost regardless of expense. So
the learned, cultivated and refined members of
society, by being conspicuous, attract attention,
while the situation of the farmer is such that he
is sometimes considered beneath observation, es-
pecially in populous, aristocratic places, which
abor.nd somewhat with snobs and nabobs.

The impression which prevails, at least to a
considerable e.x.tent, that farming is not profitable,
might be mentioned as another reason. But as
the profitableness of farming is a "much mooted"
question, and one which some of your correspond-
ents desire to have discussed again in your paper,
I will reserve that subject as a sort of groundwork
for another communication. a. c. \{.

Leominster, 1862.

MAKE FABM LABOR FASHIOWABLE,

At the base of the prosperity of any people lies
this great principle — make farm labor fashionable
at home. Educate, instruct, encourage ; and offer
all the incentives you can offer, to give interest
and dignity to labor at home. Enlist the heart
and the intellect of the family in the support of a
domestic system that will make labor attractive at
the homestead. By means of the powerful infiu-
cnces of early home education, endeavor to invest
practical labor v.'ith an interest that will cheer the
heart of each member of the family, and thereby
you will give to your household the grace, peace,
refinement and attraction which God designed a
home should possess.

The truth is, we must talk more, think more,
work more and act more, in reference to questions
relating to home.

The training and improvement of the physical,
intellectual, social and moral powers and senti-
ments of the youth of our country, require some-
thing more than the school-house, academy, col-
lege and university. The young mind should re-
ceive judicious training in the field, in the garden,
in the barn, in the workshop, in the parlor, in the
kitchen — in a word, around the hearth-stone at
home.

Whatever intellectual attainments your son may
have acquired, he is unfit to go forth into society,
if he has not had thrown around him the genial
and purifying influences of parents, sisters, broth-
ers, and the man-saving infiuence of the family
government. The nation must look for virtue,
wisdom and strength, to the education that con-
trols and shapes the home policy of the family cir-
cle. There can be no love of country where there
is no love of home. Patriotism, true and genuine,
the only kind worthy of the name, derives its
mighty strength from fountains that gush out
around the hearth-stone ; and those who forget
to cherish the household interests, will soon learn
to look with indifi'erence upon the interests of their
common country.

We must cultivate roots — not tops. We must
make the family government, the school, the agri-
cultural fairs, the laboratories of our future great-
ness. We must educate our sons to be farmers,
artisans, engineers, geologists, botanists, chemists
— in a word, practical men. Their eyes must be
turned from Washington to their States, counties,
townships, districts, and homes. This is true pa-
triotism ; and the only patriotism that will per-
petually preserve the nation. — Gov. Wright.

Lubricators for Bullets. — Formerly, tal-
low combined with wax was generally used as the
lubricating composition for cartridges. It answered
very well, when the old brown-bess musket WdS in
general use, but since the rifle has become the
general weapon of the soldier, this lubricating
compound has proved to be unfit for cartridges.
When tallow is kept in contact with a lead bullet,
it exerts a corroding action on the metal, and a
crust forms on the bullet, thus increasing its size,
and rendering it incapable of being rammed down
with ease and rapidity in a rifle. It has been
found that paraffine does not exert any chemical
action upon the lead, and hence it is now gener
ally employed as the best cartridge lubricant. It
is one of the products of petroleum and coal oil.

332

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

OTHE CURCUIilO.

Mr. R. H. Phelps, of Windsor, Ct., after care-
fully observing the habits of this great enemy of
the fruit-grower, some time since, announced in the
Homestead his conviction that the black knot or
wart on plum trees is caused by the curculio, and
is one of the mediums by which it perpetuates its
species. Previous experimenters and observers
had demonstrated the fact that the brood which is
hatched from eggs deposited in plums and other
fruit, instead of remaining dormant until the next
year, as had been supposed to be the case, came
from the ground in some tkree weeks after leaving
the fallen fruit, perfect insects. And here, so far
as we are aware, our knowledge of the history of
the curculio ends. How do this second generation
live ? how do they perpetuate their race ? and what
becomes of them ? are questions that have been
asked, but not satisfactorily answered. Mr. Phelps
believes that, "as the second brood finds no place
for propagation after the fruit has fallen, it resorts
to the bark of the tree, and there deposits its
eggs." To meet the inquiry, how do the grubs
hatched in the knots, reach the ground ? which
might be asked by those who regard the falling of
the fruit as the natural way of descent for those
bred therein, the writer says : "They pass down to
the ground by a thread which they spin in their de-
scent, while those in the plum pass into the earth
after the fruit drops." He does not say that he
has witnessed such descent — he barely states the
fact, and then adds : "The last brood of the season
remains in the ground in the larva state thi'ough
the winter, and I now have specimens which can
be examined by any person. One of them in par-
ticular has taken a notion to spin its cocoon di-
rectly between the glass of the goblet and the
earth which it contains, affording a lucky chance
for observing its operations."

Mr. Phelps calls attention to the facts that the
black knot is seldom or never found upon the body
of a full grown tree, or where the bark is hard
and thick, but chietly on the branches and tender
twigs, where the insects can easily puncture, and
that a far greater number of knots make their ap-
pearance on the tree the latter part of the season,
as strong presumptive evidence of their being
caused by the curculio. Maggots or grubs have
beeii noticed by others in the black knot, but
whether as cause or effect has not been positively
known. Mr. Phelps found in a single knot forty-
eight grubs, and is very certain that most contain
more than one e^^Q or larva. That these are em-
bryo curculios he is quite positive, for reasons
which we give in his own words :

"On the 28th of June last, I took several worms
from the knot of a plum tree, and put them in a
cup of soil in a warm place, and in 19 days from
that time one of them turned into the chrysalis or

pupa ; in a few days more it cast off its skin, and
passed from a chrysalis to a perfect weevil or cur-
culio. This specimen had been disturbed so often
in examining it, that it formed no cocoon for its
transit. In every other instance, the gi'ub formed
a cocoon by continually turning and tM'isting its
body, thereby making a cavity adapted to its size
by gluing together the particles of dirt with a gum
or web from its mouth, with which it lined its cell,
in which it changes from the larva to the chiysa-
lis, and thence emerges the perfect weevil or cur-
culio, and ready to begin its depredations. The
difference in the period of its change appears to
depend upon the maturity of the worm, as in some
instances they changed under my own eye in one
day after entering the earth. The time occupied
in this transformation to the chrysalis was only
about one hour. On the 23d of July some worms
taken from a plum, and others from a knot on the
same limb, Avere put into two separate pans of
earth, and each labelled. One from the plum
changed to the chrysalis the 26th, and two from
the knot the 27th. These grubs were precisely alike
in appearance, being about three-eighths of an
inch long, of a yellowish white color, and with yel-
low heads. Later in the season they incline more
to a reddish color. The pupa is of a perfectly
white color, almost tnxnsparent."

This theory affords some grounds for the hope
that, by the seasonable destruction of these un-
sightly excrescences, we may diminish more or
less the numbers of an insect which threatens to
prove the worst enemy the fruit-grower has to
contend with. In common with plums, our apples
and pears suffer by the ravages of the "first brood"
of curculios ; but as the branches of these trees
show no black knot, how is the race perpetuated
in our common orchards ?

PROTECTING ANIMALS FBOM STORMS.

I believe that farmers, generally, are not aware
how much loss they sustain in the flesh of their
domestic animals, and how much they suffer du-
ring cold storms of rain in the summer, or at any
other season of the year. Warm showers never
injure animals ; indeed, they appear to have a
good relish for such a sprinkling as they frequent-
ly get, providing it is not as cold as ice. Most
animals will endure ])retty severe cold as long as
they can keep dry ; but as soon as their bodies
have been wet and kept wet, evaporation com-
mences. And as evaporation is a cooling process,
the heat of their bodies is carried away very rap-
idly ; and the sudden transition from heat to cold
chills them in a very short time, and injures them
more than a severe storm in Avinter.

Animals will endure a very sudden change from
cold to heat, with impunity ; but sudden changes
from heat to cold are often attended with very in-
jurious consequences. We are apt to think, be-
cause it is summer, or not freezing weather, that
a storm of rain will not hurt our animals. But
could they communicate to us their feelings du-
ring a storm of cold rain, there would not be so
much negligence about protecting them, especially
during the cold and stormy days and nights of
autumn.

18C2.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

333

I well remember, that about twenty years ago,
there was a severe rain storm in the month of
June ; and although our sheep had been shorn
more than two weeks we thought they ought to be
brought home to the barn. But many of them
were so cold and feeble in consequence of the rain
that it was necessary to go after them with a
wagon.

About the first of July, 1861, there was another
very cold storm of rain, which swept away hun-
dreds of sheep in the town where I reside. One
farmer lost about sixty of his choicest sheep, al-
though thej^ had been sheared several days before
the storm came on. I have heard of more than
three hundred lost during the storm.

It is infinitely better lor animals to keep them
in a stable or shed, where they cannot get a
mouthful of food for twelve successive hours, than
to allow them to be exposed for only two hours to
a storm of cold rain.

When I was accustomed to keep sheep I was
always careful to let them have a benefit of a shed,
if they needed it, iiot only in winter, but during
the summer ; and it was very unusual that our
horses and neat cattle were left for one hour in
the field during a cold storm. Cold storms not
only make horses look bad, but they do really in-
jure them, by rendering them stiff and dull ; and
they often contract severe colds, which, in many
cases. Mill superinduce catarrh and glanders.

Young calves and colts often suffer extremely
from exposure to cold storms, even in summer ;
and to shelter them, will be time and money well
appropriated. "A merciful man regardeth the life
of his beast." — S. E. T., — in Country Oentleman.

THE JAPANESE IN ENGLAND.
The London correspondent of the Manchester
Guardian wTites as follows :

The Japanese Ambassadors are the most inde-
fatigable of "lions." They are to be met every-
where, and go through their sight-seeing with a
stolid patience which does as much credit to their
strength as to their self-control. They prefer
London to Paris, as they have not been made so
much fuss about, and are allowed to see things
more in their own way, and at their own conve-
nience. Paris was done for them by official pro-
gramme. The draughtsman is really a clever fel-
low in his art, and perfectly indefatigable as a
sketcher. He carries the breastfold of his robe
filled with note books, in which he works with
gi-eat rapidity, and in outline. His drawings of
animals at the Zoological Gardens are described
to me by a friend who has seen them — for I have
not yet had that privilege — as singularly faithful
and spirited, and as showing a full knowledge of
perspective. The monkeys and the bears were his
favorite subjects, as afl'ording most scope for the
fun which evidently enters very largely into their
way of viewing things. They are not at all carried
away by the English ladies. On the contrary,
they do not scruple to say that they think us
Westerns, of both sexes, a singularly ugly race.
It is very wholesome to be reminded of the difler-
ence of tastes in this way, for of all the ugly spec-
imens of humanity, in Western eyes, the Japanese
Embassy, by universal admission here, includes
the flower.

For the New England Farmer.
BORROWING- AND LENDING.

!Mr. Editor : — The practice of borrowing and
lending may be well enough, sometimes— in fact,
may be necessary, in some cases ; but they should
both be kept within bounds, and under projjer reg-
ulations. This practice, I suppose, is nearly as
old as the creation. Society could not well sub-
sist, if neighbors M'ere not disposed to accommo-
date one another in this way. Let a man's busi-
ness or wealth be what it may, he cannot be so
independent, as at no time to stand in need of
borrowing. Unforeseen accidents may happen at
such a time, and in such manner, as to make it
impossible for liim to purchase the thing he im-
mediately wants. The thing may not be for sale
anywhere in the neighborhood, so that he is
obliged to borrow, or stop the work.

But this practice may be carried too far. It
may be carried so far as to be ]n-ejudicial both to
the borrower and the lender. It ought to be kept
under such limitations as to be mutually benefi-
cial. "The borrower," says Solomon, "is a ser-
vant to the lender." This is sometimes the case.
But it more frequently happens, that the lender
is a servant to the borrower, and is obliged to
serve him, not only in lending him what he wants
to boiTow, but in running after the things which
have not been returned. If the borrower sets out
with a determination to live by borrowing, with-
out any intention of returning, or repaying in
kind, his intention will soon be discovered, and
he will find it impossible to borrow of any who
are not slaves to his wishes. So, too, if he habit-
ually neglects to return what he has borrowed, he
will find that the lender will not endure the ser-
vitude of running after the things which have not
been returned.

They Avho lend household articles, or mechan-
ics' tools, or implements of husbandry, generally
expect to receive their own again unhurt — the
very thing, where it can be done ; where this can-
not be done, something equivalent. But if they
find that what is lent is lost, or forgotten, or brok-
en, or wilfully retained, they will soon grow weary
of obliging in this way ; more especially if they
be ill treated when they go after and ask for what
belongs to them. The longer a thing has been
lent, the more likely it is that it will never be re-
turned, without being sought for by the lender,
which is always very unpleasant business.

The lender ought always to be the judge of the
propriety of lending, or withholding his hand, let
the borrower clamor as he may. For if the lend-
er is obliged to lend whatever an unprincipled bor-
rower wants, he can Avith propriety call nothing
his own, let him possess what he may ; for there
will be borrowers enough to deprive him of all his
property. Still, it is ahvays best to cultivate an
obliging disposition. He who is altogether un-
mindful of his neighbor's interest, may expect to
be paid down in his own coin : for his neighbor
will be unmindful of him. Men grow tired of
lending to those who never think of returning.
In such cases, the borrower is worse than the beg-
gar. The beggar does not deceive, as in his case
no return is expected. The borrower may do
much injury to others ; the beggar cannot do
much harm, as he has no power.

Borrowing frequently occasions the loss of much

334

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

JtaT

time and labor to the lender. Besides, it tries his
patience to be obliged to run over to neighbor
Slack's after the tools he lent him three months
ago, and after his arrival there, to be obliged to
wait two long hours, while neighbor Slack and his
boys are rummaging all over the farm to find the
tools which were thrown down in the very place
where they were last used. No person ought to
borrow what he does not intend promptly to re-
turn. For if lenders are obliged to run after their
own tools, every time they want to use them, they
virtually become slaves to the borrower.

In money matters, they who lend money for the
accommodation of others are entitled to a prompt
return at a specified time, with interest thereon.
It is not right for a person to borrow money and
promise to pay what he knows is not in his pow-
er, and never will be. This is fraud, and in this
Avay many are ruined. It is wrong to make prom-
ises that cannot be performed, especially Avhen
there is no intention of performing them. Still,
where unexpected losses and disappointments take
place, allowances should be made. For there is
no fencing against misfortunes. But where a man
acts with fraudulent intentions, he ought to be
condemned. For many have been deceived and
ruined by fair promises and worthless securities,
when in fact the promisor had no intention of ful-
filling his engagements.

The habit of borrowing and lending farm tools,
and other articles, where there is no great neces-
sity for it, and which a little prudent forethought
might prevent, is a very bad one, because it leads
to unpleasant results, and creates much ill feeling in
the neighborhood. It makes the lender a servant
to the borrower. Whenever he misses any of his
tools he is obliged to run over to neighbor Slack's,
or to neighbor Easy's, or to neighbor Doolittlc's,
and see if he can find them. He may have forgot-
ten to which of the three he lent them. And af-
ter spending the whole forenoon in pursuit of his
tools, he returns to his work with feelings better
imagined than described. No one would be un-
willing to lend any of the common articles in use,
if he could have a reasonable assurance that they
wovdd be promptly returned. But to be obliged
to run after them every time they are wanted, is
a great trial to one's patience.

Warwick, diass., 18G2. John Goldsbuiiy.

Remarks. — Excellent. If every farmer in New-
England would read the above, and be guided by
the reasonable and incontrovertible truths which
it lays down, there would be greater prosperity
and a less amount of anxious, unhappy feeling, all
over the land.

DOG POWER.

Dog power is coming into use in New York to
a large extent. Why it has not before been ap-
plied extensively all over the Avorkl, and those
huge mastiffs allowed to lie about in the sunshine,
and consume as much food as the children of a
]50or man, passes comprehension. Tlie German
ash-mongers and rag-pickers are teaching people
wonderful lessons in the way of economizing pow-
er. Three stout dogs, harnessed to an ash-cart,
draw a load nearly equal to a horse. They work
with a will, and guided by a man — and often a

woman — in the shafts, draw a load which no indi-
vidual, unaided, could master. It is wonderful to
see their strength, and remarkable docility and
teachableness. When the master stops, they in-
stantly rest, and at the slightest signal they
straighten out their traces. Only a kind word,
often a mere look, from the brute wdio so often
kicks them, they gratefully receive. More than
that, they recompense it with eager effort and won-
derful toil at the drag rope.

THE TIDES.

These phenomena have, in all ages, excited cu-
riosity, and in many instances they have produced
W'Onder at their extraordinary height and fury.
It is related of the soldiers of Alexander the Great,
who were natives of the Mediterranean shores,
that when they reached the confines of the Indian
Ocean, and saw its waters rolling up to a great
height, and then flowing back, twice every day,
they became alarmed, and attributed the phenom-
ena to a special intei'position of the deities of the
country which they had invaded. Various re-
markable theories have been advanced regarding
the tides. Many of these are so truly absurd that
it is hardly worth while to refer to them. Per-
sons find it difliicult to understand why the tides
are higher at one time than another, and why they
rise to the height of sixty feet in the Bay of Fun-
dy ; forty feet in the ports of Bristol, England,
and St. ^lalo, France, and only rise to a few feet
in height at New York and other places, while
they are scarcely perceptible in the Baltic and
other seas. Descartes was the first philosopher
who advanced the theory that the tides were due
to the influence of the moon, but Newton was the
fu-st who worked out the problem and discovered
the true cause. Descartes believed that the moon
acted on the waters of the ocean by pressure ;
Newton demonstrated that it acted on the ocean
by attraction ; that instead of pressing the waters
it rolled them up directly under it, and also at its
antipodes at the same time, thus producing the
two tides every day. The tides are attractions of
both the sun and moon. If the earth had no
moon, the attraction of the sun would produce two
tides every day, but their ebb and flow would take
place at the same hours, not varying as they do
now ; these tides would also be much smaller than
those of the moon. Although the mass of the
sun is tar greater than that of the moon, and
though attraction is in proportion to the mass, yet
it is also invorselv as the square of the distance.
As the sun, therefore, is four hundred times more
distant than the moon, the attraction of the waters
of the sea towards the sun is found to be about
three times less tlian those of the moon. There
are really two ocean tides, the lunar and solar, but
the latter is absorbed l)y the former, which is
wholly observable in respect to the time, the solar
only, as it influences the height of the tidal wave.
That caused by the moon is three times greater
than that of the sun, and it follows the moon's
motion around the eaj-th, rising and falling every
t\velve hours, and each succeeding tide later by
three-quarters of an hour than tlie preceding one,
exactly in accordance with the positions of the
moon, or, as it is commonly called, its rising and
setting.

1862

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

335

THE HONEY-BEE'S SONG.

WHAT THE BEE SINGS TO THE CHILDEEN.

I am a honey-bee,

Buzzing away
Over the blossoms

The long summer day ;
Now in the lily's cup

Drinking my fill,
Now where the roses bloom

Under the hill.
Gayly we fly,
My fellows and I,
Seeking the honey our hives to supply.

Up in the morning —

No laggards are we —
Skimming the clover-tops

Ripe for the bee,
Waking the flowers

At dawning of day,
Ere the bright sun

Kiss the dew-drops away.
Merrily singing,
Busily winging
Back to the hive with the store we are bringing.

No idle moments

Have we through the day,
No time to squander

In sleep or in play ;
Summer is flying.

And we must be sure
Food for the winter

At once to secure.
Bees in a hive
Are up and alive —
Lazy folks never can prosper or thrive.

Awake, little mortals.

No harvest for those
Who waste their best hours

In slothful repose ;
Come out — to the morning

All bright things belong—
And listen awhile

To the honey-bee's song.
Merrily singing,
Busily winging,
Industry ever its own reward bringing.

pleasant odor of the cedai* is sufficiently disagree-
able to the moth to keep hira away from articles
of clothing deposited there ! Tliis is a mistake.
The strongest instinct prompts the miller to seek
the means of perpetuating its kind, and no trifling
impediment will prevent it.

But the preservation of furs, or articles of cloth-
ing, is perfectly simple, cheap and easy. Shake
them well, and tie them up in a cotton or linen
bag, so that the miller cannot possibly enter, and
the articles loill not be injured, though the bag is
hung in a woodhouse or garret.

This is cheaper than to build cedar closets, and
better than to fill the bedclothes and garments
with the sickening odor of camphor, tobacco, or
any other drug.

Moths. — A correspondent of the London Field
recommends tallow candles, (common,) done up
in paper, and put in the sack or drawer with
cloths, to prevent moths destroying the cloth.

Remarks. — Nonsense. The moth-miller cares
no more for a tallow candle than for the fifth
wheel of a coach. jNIost of our insects are very
hardy, caring little for wind or weather, and will
never "die of aromatic pain." We once packed
some small skins in the centre of a cask of tobac-
co leaf and stems, but the miller went there, de-
posited her eggs, and the furs were ruined. This
shows that they are not at all delicate, and care
nothing for tobacco, camphor, or even tallow can-
dles. Quite likely, some person had a tiglit clos-
et where there happened to be a tallow candle,
and the safety of the furs was imputed to some ef-
ficacy in the candle, rather than to the tightness
of the closet. Expensive cedar closets are fre-
quently constructed, with the idea that the rather

TAN-BAKK AS A MANURE.

^Messrs. Editors : — I have observed various
statements as to the nature and value of spent
tan-bark applied to crops or tillage land. Having
made some experiments in a small way, bearing
on the question, I will give the results.

On the 1st of July I sowed broadcast, on good
alluvial soil, well-pulverized carrots, ruta-bagas
and cabbage. I covered them with three-fourths
of an inch of tan bark, quite fresh from the tan-
nery. The growth was good, and crop as large as
the season would allow.

I also planted potatoes in the same way, cover-
ing with four to six inches of fresh tan bark.
They had no other care, the weeds not grooving.
The crop was fair under the circumstances — indi-
cating no bad eflect from the tannic acid of the
covering.

I also raised good corn where tan was mixed
with the soil in the proportion of one to four.

From these facts I have not hesitated to use it
freely as an absorbent in my stables. My cows
are bedded with it to a depth of three or four
inches. It is hoed back into the drop as fast as it
becomes wet. It then becomes thoroughly mixed
with the manure, making about double the bulk.
It is daily loaded into a cart and hauled to the
fields, where it is deposited in heaps.

The great advantages I get are a more perfect
distribution of the manure in spreading — economy
in getting all the manurial qualities on to the
ground — neatness of stables, and saving all the
trouble in plowing, drilling in seeds, and cultivat-
ing, when coarse straw manure is used, as it must
ue, or one year lost in rotting it.

Dried muck is undoubtedly the best. But I
can't get it ; and it is much more expensive in
procuring and hauling, where tan is within reach,

My land is alluvial, a little inclined to be heavy,
and I anticipate good results from the light, open
nature of the tan.

I procure my supply (about 150 loads) in dry
weather, and place in the bottom of a bay, conve-
nient for use. Frost only crusts over the toj), giv-
ing no trouble. — Country Gentleman.

The reasoning power is the corner-stone of the
intellectual building, giving grace and strength to
the whole structure.

336

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

For the New England Fanner.

MB. A. G. SHELDON'S FARMING.

Me. Editor : — Spending a few clays among the
scenes of my childhood, I visited the residence of
your correspondent, Mr. A. G. Sheldon, the
"Wihnington Farmer," whose "Practical Observa-
tions on Farming and Stock Raising" are in pro-
cess of printing, and about to be offered to the
public. I had the pleasure of looking at his
orchard, now in full bloom, from side to side, and
a more beautiful sight of the kind I never beheld.
Nature seems to be very propitious this year ; cer-
tainly she promises fair for a good crop of apples.
The trees, set in straight rows, with smooth,
healthy trunks, and well expanded tops, tell a faix"
story for the hand that reared them.

Passing through the orchard, we went through
the reclaimed swamp, and what a contrast met my
gaze. Tv/euty acres of beautiful, smooth, mow-
land, just as green as a rich lawn in spring, took
the place of the sterile, blueberry swamp that oc-
cupied the ground -when I was young. What can
not the hand of industry accomplish ? This land
promises to yield a bountiful crop for years to
come. Sure, it must be our best land in New
England.

Where this beautiful orchard now stands, was, a
few years since, a ledgy hill, full of stones and
covered with stunted pines. Taste and industry
have made it what it now is, not only beautiful to
vicAV, but generally bringing to its owner a hand-
some income. jNIy mind involuntarily came to the
conclusion, that the man who had brought about
such a change in the face of nature before me,
must, by condensing the results of his experiments
and observations, bring out a book that would be
worth double its cost to the young yeomanry of
New England.

The piggery and barn were next visited. T-wo
model sows, heavy with pig, attracted attention.
In form they were symmetrical. On inquiry, I
was informed by Mr. S. that he had named them
the "Bay State breed." He said they originated
from the "Mackay," the "Columbia County," the
"Cheshire County," and several other breeds
mixed ; that they were the best breed and cheap-
est kept of any in market. And he comforts him-
self with the hope that in a few days he shall offer
for sale some noble pigs, that have never taken a
ride in the cars, or visited the Brighton pig-pens.

In looking over the neat stock, I observed three
pairs of heifers of different ages, as nicely matched
as you ever saw three yoke of oxen in a team.
There were one pair of blacks, bearing strong
marks of the old black Spanish, one pair of light
reds, with long horns, showing the Denmark
strongly developed ; and one pair of twins, dark
reds, resembling the Devon.

These mixtures form our "Native Stock," and
must be fine for dairy uses ; at least they appear
so, judging by the large milk sacks they carry.
The herdsman informed me he had been obliged
to reduce the keepin" of the long-horned reds to
coarse meadow hay, m order to dry them before
calving. And he likewise said of one of the blacks
that had not yet calved, he had milked her once
per day for some time, and that day twice to pre-
vent swollen udder.

I think our brother farmers and mechanics, deal-
ing in stock, would do well to select the best breed,

not only in cows, but hogs, and look well to pur-
chase those that are free from disease.
East Wilmington, 1862. E. E. Carter.

OPEN AIR GRAPE CULTURE.

In the Farmer of May 31, we noticed anew
work by Mr. John Puin, upon the subject of
Open Air Grape Culture. A further examina-
tion of the book has convinced us that some of its
pictorial illustrations and teachings may be made
very useful to a large number of our readers. We
have, therefore, sent to the Publisher and obtained
several cuts, which will be quite useful to those
not entirely conversant Avith the management of
the grape vine during the several stages of its
growth. Some of these cuts relate to the vine in
its earliest condition, and show the manner of set-
ting the plant, disposition of the roots, and raising
plants from layers. Those that Ave give to-day re-
late to the care of the vines during the first, sec-
ond and third years.

The cut which follows illustrates the author's
idea of mulching the plant. He says, "If an
abundance of grassy weeds, litter, stable manure,
or similar matters can be obtained, the best plan
is to mulch the plants deeply for at least three
feet every way from the stem," — and adds, "that,
before applying mulch of any kind to a young vine
it will always be advisable to raise the soil around
the stem to the depth to which it is intended to
lay the mulch, as represented in Fig. 1.

Laterals are small shoots which spring from
the axils of the leaves, (the point which they join
shoot.) As these laterals absorb much of the nu-
triment which would otherwise go to the increase
of the stem, they should be carefully pinched out
after they have made one or two leaves. If re-
moved before they have made some growth, the
bud at their base is very apt to push, as it is called
(that is, to grow,) Avhich should be avoided, if pos-
sible.

Fig. 2 shows a young
shoot of the current
year with a lateral (r.)
si)ringing from the base
of the leaf L. This
lateral should be
pinched off at the cross
line. If removed en-
tirely or too soon the
bud (c) will be apt to
push, and destroy our
prospects for next sea-
son.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

337

Fig. 3.

"Winter Protection of Young Vines. — At
the close of the season, the vines may either be
bent down and covered with earth in the manner
usually adopted for covering raspberries, or they
may be left upright, and tied to the stakes, a
mound of earth being raised up around each, such
mound being at least 18 inches high. The soil
of which it is made should be taken from the cen-
tre of the rows, as, if we take it from about the
plants, we only cover the stem to expose the roots.

Where the vines are left tied to the stakes, we
prefer to leave them unpruned. True, most of
the wood gets killed, but this is of little moment
since it is to be nearly all cut away at the spring
pruning.

Management during the Second Year. —
As soon as the severe frosts of winter and early
spring have passed away, uncover the young vines,
and if not already pruned,
cut them to a good bud
within 9 to 14 inches of the
ground. They should be
shaded for a few days from
the sun and cold, which may
be very well done by stick-
ing a shingle before each,
though two shingles placed
so as to form an angle in
which the vine may stand,
will be better.

Management during
the Third Season. — The
trellises having been con-
structed in such a manner,
that the lowest slat or wire
may be just below the base
of the second year's shoots,
that is from 9 to 14 inches
above the surface of the
ground, these two shoots
should be firmly, though not tightly, tied to the
lower slat, and all buds should be rubbed out ex-
cept three on each arm, (or shoot,) thus leaving
six on each vine. Each of these buds should pro

good condition and the plants
healthy and properly set out,
would reach from 12 to 25 feet
unless stopped, and as it is up-
on every second one of these
that we depend for our next
year's supply of fruit, they de-
serve and will require great care
and attention in order that they
may finally be of equal strength
and well ripened. Every sec-
ond shoot should be stopped
when it has made a growth of
about two feet, and if any of the
others should so far outstrip
their compeers as to reach the
top of the trellis much before
them, they should be stopped
also, though except in the case
of excessive growth all the
shoots had best be allowed to
grow on until the first of Sep-
tember, when they may all be
stopped at once, unless it be
deemed best to allow the weak-
est a few days' longer growth,
in which case it is surprising how soon they will
overtake their companions.

Stopping, or pinching, consists in breaking off
the end of a shoot, and its immediate efl'ect is to
arrest the further growth of the cane, or at least
its further lineal development, for the time being.

Management of Fruiting Vines. — At the
close of the third season we ought to have a vine
such as is shown in Fig. 3, consisting of a stout,
strait, clean stem, 9 to 14 inches high, from the
top or head of which springs two horizontal arms,
each bearing two well ripened canes, 8 to 10 feet
long, and two smaller shoots of from two to five
feet. The two canes ought next season to pro-
duce three to five pounds of fruit each, and their
proper care during the winter is worthy of our
best efforts.

Fig. 4.

Winter Protection of the Fruiting

Canes. — The method which we have proposed, is

to place the trellis 8 to 12 inches in advance of

the vine, the stem being brought forward beneath

duce a shoot which, if the ground has been in | the first slat or rail, and tied up as usual. It will

338

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

be readily seen that very little bending is required,
and even that is so distributed over the whole
stem that no injury can result. No practical ob-
jections that we are aware of exist to this method.

Before bending down the stem, the vine should
be pruned. This consists in cutting ofl the long
shoots to a length of four feet, (the first season,)
and the alternate short ones to the lowest good
bud. The vine so pruned is shown in Fig. 4.
Then the stem, having been bent down, it Avill be
easy to fold the flexible young canes so as to lie
compactly together, when they may be covered
with earth. The soil for this purpose must be
light and sandy, and should be so disposed that
water will not penetrate to the vines. If light soil
cannot be had, the vines may be pegged down
and covered Avith the branches of evergreens,
though it is improbable that these could be ob-
tained in sufficient quantity to protect a large vine-
yard. Leaves or straw would answer, though they
might harbor mice, which would soon destroy the
vines.

The vines should be left covered as long as pos-
sible, but must be exposed before the buds begin
to push in the spring.

A CHEAP ICE HOUSE.

I saw in the Farmer of Nov. 21st, a plan for
an Ice Stack which may be a good one, but with
your permission I will lay before your readers a
plan for an Ice House, which, for availability,
cheapness and utility is probably hard to excel.
I have tested it two years and found it to work
like a charm.

In the first place I selected a piece of ground
with a slope of one foot per rod, under the shade
of a jack oak grove; procured 45 rails 12 feet 6
inches long, then built a four square pen four rails
high, and filled it lo inches deep Avith sawdust,
then made a straight edge 12 feet long with a
transverse piece on each end of it tlu'ee feet long,
took one handle off a cross cut saw, then took a
one-half inch rod of iron and turned a right an-
gle hook six inches long on one end, cut it four
feet long and turned a ring as a hold for the hand
on the other end, took a brace and five-eighths bit,
a stout plank, two hands, and a team and sleigh,
and went half a mile to a pond — took my fixtures
and marked the ice off into squares of three feet ;
with my saw with one handle off sawed out the
squares, and bored a hole near one edge of the
blocks with the bit, and with my hook raised one
edge of the block a few inches, slipped the plank
under, gave a steady pull, and the cake was on
the sleigh in a "jiffy."

Thus we continued, until we loaded nine blocks
ten inches thick. I then built a pyramid of ice,
nine feet square in the rail pen, leaving IS inches
of space between the ice and wall ; this space I
filled up with sawdust well packed in, and put
dust 10 inches thick over the ice. My stack of
ice was nine feet square and seven feet high. In
order to keep the sawdust from sifting out at the
crevices it will be necessary to use a little straw
about it. I then, after building up my pen, cov-
ered witli sheathing boards, — the work Avas done.

I have tried the above plan two years, and saved
plenty of ice until ice was frozen the fall after-
Avards — indeed, Ave have plenty in the pen now,
Dec. 2d, put up last January.

It Avill be necessary to give it some attention
through the spring, and keep the dust packed
Avell up to it at the sides.

My ice has kept so Avell, that there has not been
Avaste enough from it to moisten the gi'ound
around the pen, although I have used the Avails of
dust tAvo years without rencAval. I last Avinter
cleared out the bottom of the pen and let the
ground freeze hard, and put in new dust beloAV
and on top of the ice. Farmers, try it, and you
Avill continue it, doubtless. Ice is so delightful in
summer, and two hands will fill a pen in tAVO days.
— P. K. HoNN, in Prairie Farmer.

For the New England Farmer.
"IS FARMING PEOFITABLE ?"

Mr. Bkoavn : — I see the above question is of-
ten asked in your journal. It might as Avell be
asked, is trade profitable ? Can commerce be so
managed, as to secure a competency to him who
invests his capital in ships and merchandise, to
send to foreign ports ? Can the laAvyer, Avith all
his hard study and diligent application of knowl-
edge to the various exigencies of Hfe, secure a liv-
ing for himself and family ? Can the mechanic,
after ceaseless labor and toil, earn his daily bread,
or anything more ?

NoAV, sir, the man Avho is incompetent for what
he undertakes Avill not succeed in either of the
above occupations, and it is the same Avith farm-
ing. He Avho would earn his bread by farming,
and anything more, must have grounds, and must
know hoAV to cultivate these grounds, — he must
knoAV Avhat kind of seed is suitable for peculiar
soils, — he must knoAV Avhen to soav, and Avhen to
plant, and Avhat preparation is necessary before
putting the seed into the ground. We not only
have the promise of "seed time and harvest," but
we have the assurance of a crop, if the right seed
is put into the right ground.

Let a man select a sterile piece of land, and,
perhaps, take the Avi'ong kind of manure, speiicl
fifty dollars in preparing an acre of ground for the
seed, and he may not find a crop thatAvill half-pay
him for his labor and expense of pi-eparation ; but
let him take a suitable piece of ground, and Avith
less than half the labor and expense, the crop will
pay him 100 per cent, on his investment. It is so
in every pursuit of life. In order to succeed in
life, a man must understand his business, and must
apply himself to Avhatever he undertakes. Some
never succeed in anything. From the Avant of
common understanding, they fail in everything,
Avhile others, Avith much less labor and bustle,
succeed in Avhatevcr they wish to pursue.

In all probability, no investment of a small
amount pays better, than Avhat is judiciously ex-
pended in farming. Every dollar rightly expend-
ed is generally sure to pay double, or treble. The
gains are slow, to be sure, but the investments are
generally light. Let a man be so situated that he
could advantageously use 8.30,000 in preparing
ground for the seed, and he would be more surely
remunerated than he would in buying merchan-
dise, and selling, for cash, and on time, as busi-
ness is usually conducted.

The farmer is often discoui'aged, because of
small gains. He forgets the small amount in-
vested. The average of those who Uvc by farm-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

339

ing in New England are not worth over one to
two thousand dolhvrs. How could a man with
$1000 support a fomily in trade, with bad debts,
losses on goods purchased, &c. &c. I think, sir,
from careful observation, that it will appear, that
more men have become rich, — I mean, what coun-
try people call rich, — from farming than from
any other pursuit. A large part of the farmers in
New England commence poor, with a family, and
work hard. How would they succeed in trade,
under the same circumstances ? Delta.

Boston, May 31, 1862.

Fur the Netv England Farmer.

THE SLOW PROGRESS OF AGRICUL-
TURE.

Many persons complain of the tardy advances
which agriculture has made. They seem to think
there is a goal of perfection which it is time it had
reached, yet have a vivid sense that it is far from
it, and despair — as well they may — that it will
ever reach it. Perfection is a useful ideal word,
yet its full significance is hard, if not impossible, to
realize. A man may Avork his fiirm fifty years in
regular succession, and ol)serve all the different
facts or phenomena which his crops jiresent, and
yet be unable frequently to avert disappointment.
The truth is, agriculture has its "dissolving
views," as well as other vocations.

There is a cause for this. Though the laws of
nature always work alike, they present themselves
in so many combinations that human sagacity
cannot foresee their results. There are self-evident
facts in agriculture, most prominent among which
is, that manure and clean culture facilitate the
growth of plants ; but as to the kind of manure to
be used, the peculiar combinations of different fer-
tilizing elements, their efi"ects upon different soils,
the various meteorological influences, &c., these
are matters of doubt, and too frequently bring dis-
appointment to the farmer, as they must always do.

Besides, men die, and much of their knowledge
goes with them, while what they leave in books
or stored in the minds of their friends, must be
learned by each succeeding generation, to become
useful facts. But comparatively few ever obtain
this knowledge. Could men live longer the world
■woidd be wiser. Columella, Cato, Pliny, &c.,
taught the leading facts of agriculture, and it is
for us to do what we can by way of improvement.
But the various soils, seasons, minds, &c., pertain-
ing to husbandry, and the doubts, hopes, preju-
dices and reactions, render it slov/ ia progress,
and place the goal of perfection beyond the pale
of reasonable hope. Nor, indeed, is it needed.
Agriculture has always subserved its purpose ; it
has always fed mankind, and ahvays will, in spite
of its irregularities and short-comings.

West Mcdforcl, June, 1862. D. w. L.

How THE Bean CLniBS the Pole. — Professor
Brewer, of Wasliington College, Pa., communi-
cates to The American Journal of Sciences and
Arts the result of some experiments made by him
on climbing vines — the hop, the Lima bean, and
the morning glory. He finds that they will climb
around a transparent glass pipe just as well as
anything else, and that they are most ardent in
their embraces when the pole is wai-mer than the

surrounding air. During the day, the vine is at-
tracted towards the light, but at night, and espec-
ially on cool nights, it turns to the pole. He
learned, also, that the color of the pole makes no
difference ; the caressing instinct of the vine has
no prejudice against any shade. The element of
constancy is very largely developed, the vine, after
it has reached its pole, showing a much stronger
tendency to wind around it than it did before to
reach it.

CURIOSITIES OP LEECH CULTURE.
Many of those who have assiduously cultivated
the leech have amassed handsome fortunes, the
trade being very remunerative. A prosperous
merchant, away in some far district of Poland or
Wallachia, will keep some two or three hundred
of the inhabitants of his district in full employ-
ment collecting for him, paying them on the best
of plans, according to their labor — namely, so
much a dozen, according to the age and quality of
the leeches which they bring to the depot. The
animals must be all gathered before the heat of
the day sets in, and at once carried home to the
capacious reservoirs provided for their reception,
where they are at once counted and paid for.
Paclicd in clay or bags, they are at certain seasons
dispatched by flett conveyances to Marseilles, or
direct to Paris, change of horses on the way being
insured, when necessary, by liberal payments. The
mode of packing the leeches for transport is much
the same in most of the breeding districts. Some
are placed in boxes — first a layer of moist, white
clay, then a layer of the little animals, and so on
till the chest is full. Some of the merchants pack
the leeches in bags as soon as they are taken out
of the marshes. Each of these bags contains about
sixteen pounds weight, and it is necessary that
they should be hung up for a period till the water
is drained out of them, and then the animal rolls
itself up into a kind of ball, and lies in a semi-tor-
pid state till it is, perhaps, revived on its journey
by a dip into some half-way pond. The boxes or
bags containing the leeches are carried in light
wagons divided into the necessary compartments.
Relays of horses and drivers are always kept in
readiness at the various stages of the journey ;
but, notwithstanding the greatest care may be
taken in their transport, immense numbers of ani-
mals are killed. Severe frost or great heat is
equally fatal to them.

CUCUMBERS AND MELONS.
"Blast the Bugs!" What is the matter, my
friend — you seem disturbed — one ought to be se-
rene and happy in such a place as this. "Matter
— disturbed, — look at my melons, cucumbers and
squashes." Look, yes, where are they? "Sure
enough, where are they — all gone to the bugs."
Well, friend, plant again, and then send to Par-
ker, Gannett & Osgood's, in Blackstone Street,
Boston, and procure their famous j^lant protector,
put it over the plants, and you will have no more
reason to ^^hlast the bugs." When the season foi
their depredations has passed, one or two hundred
of these protectors can be packed in a single floui
barrel, and preserved for future use.

340

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

July

For the New England Farmer,
BETBOSPECTIVE NOTES.

"The Best Gate." — In the weekly issue of
this journal for May 10th, and in the monthly for
June, will be found an article with the above head-
ing, which contains information as to the construc-
tion of farm gates, which may be valuable to not
a few. There must be in every town of every
State, with the customs of which we have any ac-
quaintance, a good many farmers who are tired of
the trouble, loss of time, and other inconveniences
which are the necessary accompaniments of the
use of bars in the place of gates, and who would
readily substitute the latter for the former, if only
they were made acquainted Avith a method of
making a gate without employing a mechanic, or
without paying as much for it as mechanics gen-
erally would charge. Now this article under no-
tice supplies just the information which such farm-
ers, and all, indeed, who lose a great amount of
time and patience every year with bars, are great-
ly in need of. It tells them how to make a gate
which shall be cheap, lasting, effectual as a barri-
er, light, and not likely to sag or get out of order.
This gate, too, beside all the above advantages,
possesses the still greater recommendation of be-
ing so simple and easy of construction, that it
may be made by every one who owns, and who
can use, the most common tools. "Any one can
build such a gate and hang it — the posts being set
— in two hours."

Let all, then, who need a gate, or gates, read
and inwardly digest this article. To hundreds it
would be worth, in comfort, convenience, saving
of time, &c., quite a little pile.

We have, for years, had a similar gate under
observation, and from that, and our own "idea,"
we should build any ^ate hereafter needed a little
different from that described. We should have
an upright stiffener in the middle, and a facing to
the board at the latch end, between which the
latch should play. We would use no oak or oth-
er hard wood, but only pine, or other light wood.

"Manures." — On page 2uG of the June num-
ber of the Farmer may be found a brief para-
graph from the pen of S. P. ]\I.. a Maine farmer,
in which he gives a very sensible opinion in re-
gard to home-made composts and commercial ma-
nures, which, if only heeded and acted upon by
farmers generally, would be greatly to their ad-
vantage. This brief, but pithy paragraph, — a
good specimen of the muUam in parvo, — was
called forth by the late inquiry of a correspond-
ent— "Will Concentrated INIanures Pay?" — and
gives the inquirer, and all others, to understand
that there is something which will pay far better.
What this something is, and how it may be pro-
cured or manufactured, and how well it acts on
the farm of S. P. M., he has told the readers of
this journal in so small a compass, and with a wis-
dom as condensed as that of the proverbs of some
proverbial philosophers, as to make it a vain at-
tempt to condense his wise answer any farther.
Let the reader refer to and read the two sentences
in which the answer to the above question is so
wisely and warily given, and then let him go to
work and save every particle of everything that
will fertilize or enrich his land, composting the
various materials in the most approved manner,
and his crops of grass, grain, roots, fruit, and all

else, will be more luxuriant than if he had ex-
pended fifty dollars for a ton of a much puffed
article, the real value of which has been proved
by those excellent friends of the farmer. Profs.
S. W. Johnson and E. Pugh, to be hardly one-
third of the j)rice at which it is sold.

The farmers of New England, as well as others,
are under obligations to l)r. Pugh, for his recent
exposure of the frauds which have been practiced
u\)on them by the sale of such worthless trash as
Prof. Johnson had previously shown the article
under notice to be. That the obligations of farm-
ers to these two gentlemen are as great as has
been just stated, will appear quite evident, we
think, from the following quotation from an arti-
cle by Dr. Pugh, which has been extensively cop-
ied into or noticed by our best agricultural jour-
nals. He says, after stating that the article re-
ferred to (advertised as a superphosphate) con-
tained but little valuable material, and a great
deal of worthless matter, which would very mate-
rially increase its cost to the flirrner, by increasing
the cost of transportation, — "The manufacture
and sale of such a manure, at such a price, im-
plies either gross ignorance or dishonesty, and
points out the necessity of our having some means
of protecting the farmer from the shameful impo-
sition that sales of such manures inflict. The
sale of every 100 tons of such a manure annually
would imply a loss of at least $3oOO per year to
the farmers, to say nothing of the still greater loss
of crops, resulting from the use of such a worth-
less manure. Just such worthless manures as this
flooded the English market a few years ago, but
they have been driven out by the agricultural
chemists of that country. Nothing would be
easier than to drive them out of the American
market, if farmers would insist that manufacturers
should sell manures at prices regulated by analy-
sis, and if there were suitable penalties attached
to the fraud of not giving as good an article as the
analysis called for. . . . The farmer might more
efiectually be protect'id from the frauds and igno-
rance of manure-venders by the employment of
State chemists in each State, whose duty it should
be not only to watch the manure market, but to
make themselves acquainted with all the manurial
resources of the State." The expense of employ-
ing a State chemist, and supplying him with the
auxiliaries for experimental, agricultural and sci-
entific researches, would, acccording to Dr. Pugh,
be only a fraction of what would be saved to the
farmers by the protection thus afl'orded them
against worthless manures and wicked imposters.

More Anon.

Among the other curious instruments, exhibited
in the Philosophical Instrument Department in
the London Great Exhibition, is a machine for
microscopic writing. With this machine it is stat-
ed that the words "Matthew Marshall, Bank of
England," can be written in the two and a half
millionth of an inch in length ; and it is actually
said that calculations made on this data show, that
the whole Bible can be written twenty-two times
in the space of a square inch. The words to be
written microscopically are written in pencil, in
ordinary characters, on a sheet of paper at the
bottom of the instrument. But the pencil with
which this is done, communicates by a series of

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

341

levers and gimbals with another minute pencil and
table at the top, by means of which the_ ordinary
writing of the pencil and the microscopic writing
both move in unison, though the motion of the
latter is so graduated that a stroke of a quarter of
an inch at the bottom is only a stroke of a mil-
lionth of an inch at the top, the shape and charac-
ter of both marks being nevertheless precisely
alike in outline. As a matter of course, the mi-
croscopic writing at the top is only visible under
powerful magnifiers, and the object of the machine
is to mark bank notes with certain minute signa-
tures for the prevention of forgery.

INFLUENCE OF SLEEP OVER DISEASE.
Some of our older practitioners, especially in
the country, have been in the habit of having pa-
tients wakened every ten or fifteen minutes. This
we regard as entirely wrong, and calculated but
to increase the nervous irritability, intensify dis-
ease, and prolong the recovery. In Dr. Ware's
tenth lecture on General Therapeutics, published
in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for
January IGth, a few remarks are made that have
a bearing upon the point under consideration. He
says :

"In all forms and conditions of disease, both
acute and chronic, the state of the patient as to
sleep, is an important consideration, both as re-
gards his comfort, and also as regards the satis-
factory progress of his case. The nature of this
condition of animal life we do not fully under-
stand ; we only know that it is a necessary one,
and having a vast influence on the state of the sys-
tem. Its purpose seems to be to aflbrd an oppor-
tunity, by the suspension of certain activities of
the s'ystem which require the exhaustion of those
powers that emanate from the nervous system, for
the reinforcement of those powers. It is also dur-
ing sleep that the repair of the tissues by nutrition
is provided for. Not that all nutrition is suspend-
ed during our waking hours, or that all waste is
suspended during sleep ; but that in the two states
of sleeping and waking there is respectively a large
predominance of the repair and the waste. Sleep
is not merely rest, as it has been sometimes con-
sidered, an entire rest of all the organs at once ; it
is something specifically different. It is a condi-
tion of an entirely different nature, and a condi-
tion for wliich rest is not, in any sense, a substi-
tute. The mere fact of existence, without exer-
cise, without fatigue — the simple going on of life
— implies a certain expenditure of force, which
renders necessary, at certain intervals, a suspen-
sion of those functions of the brain and nervous
system wliich are subservient to the phenomena
of mind. It is possible that ordinary rest might
afford an opportunity for the nutrition of all these
tissues, except those which are the agents of the
mind. But it seems to be necessary, for the re-
pair of these, that the functions of tlie mind should
also be suspended. Of the physical condition of
the brain in sleep, and also concerning the pecu-
liar state of the mind in sleep, notwithstanding the
many theories which have been formed concerning
them, we know nothing with certainty ; and this
is not necessary to the practical management of
the sick. What should guide us, is the knowledge
that a certain amount of sleep, at proper inter-
vals, is an absolute necessity ; and that its absence

or its deficiency is always a great evil, and to be
prevented by every possible means. In acute dis-
eases, a sufHcient amount of quiet sleep is at once
a favorable indication of the nature and issue of a
case, and also is an important agent in the promo-
tion of a favorable issue. Its absence, on the
contrary, is, pro tanto, an unfavorable indication
as to the result, and also promotes an unfavorable
issue. AVant of sleep adds to the sufferings of the
patient, and also to his exhaustion, and conse-
quently interferes with the success of the sanitary
process, and impairs the power of recovery. In
every point of view, then, the state of the patient
in this respect becomes the object of special atten-
tion. Salutary changes in tlie condition of a joa-
tient will be often found to take place during sleep,
and to manifest themselves most obviously on
awaking from that which has been sound and re-
freshing."

Dr. Ware makes another practical remark that
we know it would oftentimes be prudent to put in
practice, and yet we have reason to believe it is
seldom thought of by the physician, or urged upon
the attention of the patient.

"It sometimes happens that, after a short nap
on first going to bed, a person wakens without
any known cause, and then remains obstinately
watchful for many hours. In this case, if he rises,
washes his face, hands and feet, and walks about
briskly for awhile, and returns to bed, the cliarm
may be broken, and a continued sleep will ensue.
Or he may rise, and write or read with the same
result. — Medical Reporter of Boston.

POULTRY HOUSES.

Properly constructed poultry houses should
have a south-east aspect, sheltered by plantations
or walls from the north and west, and the yards
furnished with sheds and shrubs to shelter them
from the mid-day sun or harsh Avinds ; it sliould
be constructed so as to give as much warmth as
possible, but ventilation perfectly maintained. The
floor should be elevated and perfectly dry ; if
boarded, so much the better. Walls and roofs
air-tight ; the windows should be placed so as to
command a thorough draft in the day time in hot
weather, but one should be closed at night, as a
thorougir draft when asleep is very injurious to
them ; those windows should be covered with wire
lattice, to prevent the fowl getting in and out at
pleasure. A lean-to roof is generally best, and the
perches should rise from the floor, the first, eigh-
teen inches from the ground and one foot apart,
each perch rising a foot above the other ; nests
are made at each end, built of lime and brick. —
Irish Fariner's Gazette.

Far the New England Fanner,
EEEATA.
Mr. Editor : — Please allow me the privilege
of correcting in the columns of the N. E. Earmer
a mistake that occurred in the printing of my Es-
say "On the Utility of Birds," in the Essex Coun-
ty Transactions, which was copied into the "Agri-
culture of Massachusetts," 1SG2, for 1861. On
page 62 of the Essay printed in this Report, is the
following passage : "The far-sightedness of the
robin is equally remarkable in the hlacJcbird, who,
though he takes a large portion of his food from

342

NEW ENGLAND FARMEH.

July

the ground, always discovers it while perched on
a tree or a fence, and darts down upon it from his
perch." In my manuscript, this remark was made
of the bluebird, and is entirely incorrect as applied
to the blackbird.

Yours, truly, Wilson Flagg.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

EUGENIE'S PETTICOAT.

The Empress has just adopted a new style of
petticoat, which is the despair of nearly all the
women of moderate fortune who are ambitious of
bearing on their persons the latest novelty that is
to be found at the celebrated modistes^ of Paris.
Her imperial majesty is not ambitious to popular-
ize the agrements of the toilette. She detests
everything that is common, and lately begged of
her tirewoman to invent something in the shape
of a petticoat that could not be worn by every
bourgeois. That marvellous garment has at last
been brought out. It does not altogether super-
sede crinoline, but greatly circumscribes it, and
its peculiar virtue is, that, get it up in the cheap-
est manner, it must be as dear as seven or eight
ordinary petticoats, and cannot possibly be washed
and smoothed for less than as many francs.
Petticoats ai'e a very sacred subject, and in any
case difficult things to treat of ; but the jupon
Eugenie — -that is a subject of serious disquietude
to so many Avomen — is particularly so. Neverthe-
less, as it is destined to limit that terrible bore —
crinoline— to try and make public its peculiarities
is a task that should be attempted. Beneath a
ball dress, it produces an effect so charming as to
call forth a torrent of the most flattering adjec-
tives of which the French are capable. It certain-
ly forms a graceful contrast, when its wearer
dances, to the light skirts of some other lady,
coming in contact with the stifl" steel bars of the
cage she carries about hei*. This W'onderful petti-
coat is said in most instances to be made of cam-
bric muslin, so that washer-women cannot stifi'en
it too much. Its circumference is six yards at the
widest point, and it is covered by nine flounces of
still greater circumference. The lowest of these
flounces is by all accounts a mere frill ; the sec-
ond, a few* inches longer, and considerably wider,
completely covers the first; the third does the
same to the second, and so on, till one great
flounce falls completely over the other eight, each
one of which, to arrive at the standard of imperi-
al elegance, must be hem-stitched like a lady's
pocket-handkerchief, and the outer one in addi-
tion be nearly covered with the embroidery done
by the women of the Vosges. This invention also
sets its face against the sewing-machine, as nearly
every part of it must be hand-work. It was pur-
posely so designed to prevent an immense num-
ber of seamstresses being suddenly thrown out of
work by the increased demand for machine-sew-
ing, which is not yet capable of effecting hem-
stitching, or embroidery. The Empress's new pet-
ticoat is thus calculated to be at the same time a
very exclusive institution, and one that will give
as much employment to the poor needle-women
as the new streets and boulevards do to the
blouses. — London Herald.

ABOUT ST RAW BERRIES.

TO TRESERVE STRAWBERRIES.

To two pounds of fine large strawberries, add
two pounds of ])owdered sugar, and put them in a
preserving kettle, over a slow fire, till the sugar is
melted ; then boil them precisely twenty minutes,
as fast as possible ; have ready a number of small
jars, and put the fruit in boiling hot. Cork and
seal the jars immediately, and keep them through
the summer in a cold, dry cellar. The jars must
be heated before the hot fruit is poured in, other-
wise they will break.

TO PRESERVE STRAWBERRIES OR RASPBERRIES,
FOR CREAMS OR ICES, WITHOUT BOILING.

Let the fruit be gathered in the middle of a
warm day, in very dry weather ; strip it from the
stalks directly, weigh it, turn it into a bowl or
deep pan, and bruise it gently ; mix with an equal
weight of fine, dry sifted sugar, and put it imme-
diately into small wide-necked bottles ; cork these
firmly without delay, and tie bladders over the
tops. Keep them, in a cool place, or the fruit will
ferment. The mixture should be stirred softly,
and only just sufficiently to blend the sugar and
the fruit. The bottles must be perfectly dry, and
the bladders, after having been cleaned in the
usual way, and allowed to become nearly so,
should be moistened with a little spirit on the side
which is to be next the cork.

STRAWBERRIES STEWED FOR TARTS.

Make a sjTup of one pound of sugar and a tea-
cup of water ; add a little white of eggs ; let it
boil, and skim it until only a foam rises ; then put
in a quart of Ijerries free from stems and hulls ;
let them boil till they look clear, and the syrup is
quite thick. Finish with fine puff paste.

STRAWBERRY JELLY.

Express the juice from the fruit through a cloth,
strain it clear, Aveigh and stir to it an equal pro-
portion of the finest sugar dried and reduced to
powder ; Avhen this is dissolved, place the preserv-
ing pan over a very clear fire, and stir the jelly
often until it boils ; clear it carefully from scum,
and boil it quickly from fifteen to twenty-five min-
utes. This receipt is for a moderate quantity of
the preserve ; a very small portion Avill require
much less time.

HOME COURTESIES.

In the home intercourse it should be remembered
that each one has his place and his part. A hap-
py and pleasant home is an impossibility -where
any one slights his duty. Home is not a place
where you are to cosset your own fancies, or be
entertained by the rest. You have no right to sit
down, listless and dull, and say, "Come, amuse
me and see how pleasant you can make home."
You have no right to complain that home is un-
genial, till you are sure that you have tried your
best to make it genial. The men Avho complain
of homes are mostly those of whom the homes
complain, men whose dignity is offended at the
bare suggestion that they have something to do
toward making it pleasant. Home is not a mere
place of entertainment, a sort of tavern, and he
who turns to it for enteitainment merely deserves

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

343

to be disappointed. Hast thou nothing to do, O
man ! but to throw thj'self upon a sofa, or monop-
olize the easiest chair, and, holding back all thine
own information, demand that wife and chihh-en
amuse thee ? or wilt thou go moodily out to club
or store, declaring that thou wilt not stay where
so little is done for thee ? And shall the young
man say, "My sisters do nothing to make home
pleasant to me," when he has done nothing to
make home pleasant to them ? I do not think the
different members of a home realize how much the
pleasant, profitable intercourse of home depends
on each, or how hard it is when one and another
hang back for the rest to supply the deficiency. —
Eev. J. F. W. Ware.

Coal Oil is said to be a sure destroyer of bed-
bugs. Apply plentifully with a small brush or
feather to the places where they most do congre-
gate. The cure is effectual and permanent. Gilt
frames, cliandeliers, &c., rubbed slightly over with
coal oil, Vv'ill not be disturbed by flies.

YOUTH'S DEPARTMENT.

PKINCIPLE OF THE STEREOSCOPE.

It is generally known that, by means of the
stereoscope, the idea of solidity is given to the
eye from pictures on flat surfaces. The principle
upon which this instrument depends, so as to pro-
duce the effect in question, is thus explicable.
When a house or a landscape is looked at, it is
found to possess a quality which no copy on a flat
surface by the best artist can produce ; this is so-
lidity or distance, the appearance of objects stand-
ing immediately behind each other. In using the
term solidity it should be borne in mind that dis-
tance is the same thing, since solids are made up
of the relative distances of parts of a single ob-
ject. In perceiving this quality, the eye separate-
ly receives a picture of the same objects, the one
picture being a little diflercnt in perspective from
the other, in consequence of the difterence in the
relative position of the two eyes. One eye, in
fact, sees a little more round one side of an ob-
ject, while the other sees a little more round the
other side ; and it is the combination of these
two pictures by the faculty of sight that gives to
objects theu' solid appearance. Now, in order to
obtain the same effect from a picture, the stereo-
scope is so arranged that tv/o representations of
the same object, the one slightly differing from
the other in perspective, are placed at the bottom
of a small box, where an opening is made, through
which they are illuminated. At the upper part
of the box are two small eye-pieces, adapted one
for each of the observer's eyes. Through these
he looks at the pictures, and the appearance of
solidity is received in a very remarkable manner.
It was found very difficult to drav/ pictures with
sufficient accuracy to give good stereoscopic views
since a slight error in perspective would, to a cer-
tain extent, vitiate the resulting impression on the
eye. But the photographic art supplied this want,
for by taking two pictures with the camera, first
in the position of one eye and then removed to a
little distance to that of the other this result is
perfectly obtained, without any risk of error.

THE MAY QtTEEN.

Little Bessie awoke one morning.

And drowsily opening her eyes.
She hastily threw back the shutters,

To take a short peep at tiac skies.
But sad disappointment aw-aited

The expectant Queen of the May,
For the sky was so black and so lowering,

She knew 'twas a rainy day.

No sooner did Bessie discover

The prospect so gloomy without,
Thun, throwing herself on the pillow.

She began the day in a pout.
Soon the breakfast bell tinkled to call her

To join the kind circle below.
But she scarcely heeded its suiDmons,

So wrapped up was she in her woe.

For she and her schoolmates so joyous,

Had long been awaiting the day
When the buds, unfolding in beauty.

Should crown her the Queen of May.
And now they had found that the forest

Was arrayed in most beautiful green ;
So, with hearts overflowing in gladness,

They erected a throne for their Queen,

They had planted the May-pole so stately,

And twined it witli leaves and wild flowers,
They had said— "Kound tliis let us circle.

And dance through the soft morning hours,"
'Twas sad tlius to lose all their pleasure —

Have their plans all spoilt by the rain ;
But, sadder by far that Queen Bessie

Should her sorrow so poorly restrain.

But not long did she nurse her repining

At the desolate scene out of doors.
For she knew that the raindrops descending.

Would brighten and cheer up the flowers.
A week from that Saturday morning

Was Bessie crowned Queen of the 3fay,
And the woods were more fresh and more charming.

Because of that one rainy day. Little Pilfrim,

KEEPING A DIARY.

K a man keeps no diary, the path crumbles
away behind him as his feet leave it ; and days
gone by are but little more than a blank, broken
by a few distorted shadows. His life is all con-
fined Avithin the limits of to-day. Who does not
know how imperfect a thing memory is ? It not
merely forgets ; it misleads. Things in memory
do not merely fade away, preserving as they fade,
their own lineaments so long as they can be seen ;
they change their aspect, they change their place,
they turn to something quite different from the
fact. In the picture of the past, which memory,
unaided by any written record, sets before us, the
perspective is entirely_Avrong. How capriciously
some events seem, quite recent, vs^hich the diary
shows are really far away ; and how unaccounta-
bly many things look far away, which in truth, are
not left many weeks behind us ! A man might
almost as well not have lived at all, as entirely to
forget that he has lived, and entirely forget what
he did on those departed days. But I think that
almost every person would feci a great interest in
looking back, day by day, upon what he did and
thought upon that day twelvemonths, that day
three or five years. The trouble of writing the
diary is very small. A few lines, a few Avords,
vvritten at the time, suffice, when you look at

844

NEW ENGLAND FAHMER.

July

them, to bring all (Avhat the Yankees call) the sur-
roundings of that season before you. Many little
tilings come up again, which you know quite well
you never would have thought of again, but for
your glance at those words, and still which you
feel you would be sorry to have forgotten. There
must be a richness about the life of a person who
keeps a diary, unknown to other men. And a
million more little links and ties must bind him
to the members of his family circle, and to all
among whom he lives. Life, to him, looking back,
is not a bare line, stringing together his ])ersonal
identity ; it is surrounded, intertwined, entangled
with thousands and thousands of sHght incidents,
which give it beauty, kindhness, reality. Some
folks' life is like an oak walking-stick, straight and
varnished; useful, but hard and bare. Other
men's life (and such may yours and mine, kindly
reader, ever be,) is like that oak when it was not
a stick, but a branch, and waved, leaf-enveloped,
and with lots of little twigs growing out of it, up-
on the summer tree, and yet more precious than
the power of the diary to call up again a host of
little circumstances and facts, is its power to bring
back the indescribable, but keenly-felt atmosphere
of those departed days. The old time comes over
you. It is not merely a collection, an aggregate
of facts, that comes back ; it is something far more
excellent than that — it is the soul of days long
ago; it is the clear Auld lang-syne itself! The
perfume of hawthorn hedges is there ; the breath
of breezes that fanned our gray hair when it made
sunny curls, often smoothed down by the hands
that are gone ; the siuishine on the grass Avhere
these old fingers made daisy-chains ; and snatches
of music, compared with which anything you hear
at the opera, is extremely poor. Therefore, keep
your diary, ray friend. — London Magazine.

The Fifth Commandment — A Boy's An-
swer.— An old schoolmaster said one day to a
minister, who had come to examine the school, "I
believe the children know the Catechism word for
word." But do they understand it.'* that is the
question," said the minister. The schoolmaster
only bowed respectfully, and the examination be-
gan. A little boy had repeated the fifth com-
mandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother,"
and he was desired to explain it. Instead of try-
ing to do so, the little boy, with his face covered
with blushes, said, almost in a whisper, "Yester-
day I showed some strange gentlemen over the
mountain. The sharp stones cut my feet, and the
gentlemen saw they were bleeding, and they gave
me some money to buy me shoes. I gave it to
my mother, for she had no shoes either, and I
thought I could go barefooted better than she

THE CATTLE MARKETS FOR JUNE.

The following is a summary of the reports for the four weeks
ending June 19, 1S62 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

Cattle. Sheep. VeaJs. Stictes. Fat Hogs.

May 29 1037 2073 SOO 1942 400

June 5 1140 3021 400 1400 500

June 12 1134 2593 700 2200 1400

June 19 14S1 3109 500 1000 1500

4792 11,396 1900 6542 3S00
Tliere have also been at market some 2500 young pigs.
PRICES.

May 29. June 5. June 12. June 19.

Beef cattle, ^ ft. 5Jg7 oJfiT 6 ^7^ 5J.37

Sheep, wool on, live wt.. .5 (fi 6 6 lijO 5 (fi6

Sheep, clipped, live wt.... 4 (S4;^ 4 (a4J 4 ©4? 3jj@4i

Swine, stores, wholesale.. 3j '75 2>},nbh 3 (a4j 3'r'''T42

" " retiiil 5 (gGi ik^^Q' 4?,*/6 4.1a6

Spnngpics 11 Silih S'gll C^'ag 7 (g8|

Live fat hogs 33g4|" 3|*j4i 3ijg4 3.iS3|

Dvessedhogs 5 (g5^ 5 «5^ 4^,55^ 4ia5

Veal calves, each $3^6 $356 $4 (&6 $4 (g6

Remarks. — Of the whole number of cattle above reported,
3212 were from the West, mostly from Illinois, while only 1580
were from the North. Of the 11,396 sheep, 1776 were from the
West, and 9620 from the North. From which it appears that
during these four weeks the Western farmers have furnished the
great cattle market of New England with about two-thirds of all
the beeves on sale, and something like one-sixth of the whole
number of sheep. The average quality of beeves has been good.

Up to June 12, there was but little change in the price of beef,
although a gradual improvement might have been perceptible,
but at that time there was an advance of full }.ic ^ lb. in prices,
and something probably in the allowance for shrinkage, so that
tlie market for that week may be considered as the best for the
season, perhaps for the year. A larger supply the next week
brought prices Ijack again, so that at the close of the four weeks
they are very nearly the same as at the beginning.

The sheep market has been very quiet during the last month,
the supply being just about equal to the demand. Lambs have
gradually declined in prices. The quality of old sheep was
hardly as good the last week as the first, but there has been but
little change in prices.

Relative Value of Substances for Pro-
ducing Milk. — Several French and German
chemists estimate the relative value of several
kinds of food for milch cows according to the fol-
lowing table :

That 100 pounds of good hay are worth —
200 pounds potatoes.
460 " beetroot, with the leaves.
3o0 " Siberian cabbage.
250 " beetroot, without the leaves.
250 " carrots.
80 " hay, clover, Spanish trefoil or vetches.
50 " oil-cake, or colza.
250 " pea straw and vetches.
300 " barley or oat straw.
400 " rye or wheat straw.
25 " peas, beans, or vetch-seed.
50 " oats.

:?^©^A[M]i).

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUBE AND ITS KTKTDEED ABTS AND SCIEN-CES.

VOL. XIV. BOSTON,

AUGUST,

18G2. NO. 8.

NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAX, Proprietors.
Office 100 WASHiNCiiox Street.

PIMOX BROWX Editor.

HENRY y. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

CALENDAR FOB AUGUST.

August! Reign, thou Fire-Mouth! What canst thou do? —
Neither shalt thou destroy the earth, whom frost and ice could
not destroy. The vines droop, the trees stagger, the broad-
palmed loaves give thee their moisture, and hang down. But
every night the dew pities them. Yet, there are that look thee
In the eye, fierce Sun, all day long, and wink not. This is the
rejoicing month for joyful insects. If our unselfish-eye would
behold it, it is the most populous and the happiest month. The
herds plash in the sedge ; fish seek the deeper pools ; forest-
fowl lead out their young ; the air is resonant of insect orches-
tras, each one carrying his part in Nature's grand harmony.
August, thou art the ripeness of the year ! Thou art the glow-
ing centre of the circle 1 — H. W. Beecher.

MERICA was long ago
characterised by
some European
naturalist, as the
"land of insects."
Warmed into ex-
istence by the ex-
cessive heat of the
season, a heat that
gives us a pretty
fair experience of
the climate of
countries much
nearer the equator, insects swarm
around us, by day and by night,
in-doors and out, in earth, air
and water, in such countless
numbers that, perhaps, August, sul-
try, dog-day August, may, with some
propriety, be denominated The Month
of Insects. Plagues of Egypt ! How
they do bother. It was by a miracle, we are told,
that "a grievous swarm of flies" once entered the
royal dwelling of the hard-hearted Pharoah, but
in this our "land of insects," it would be regarded
a miracle, indeed, were our houses exempted from
such annoyance for a single week, in the month of
August. But flies are, by no means, the most
troublesome of this class of our household pests.

In many sections of our country, no pantry can be
made tight enough to exclude those extremely
"little ants" which infest some premises, in such
multitudes as to seem a veritable repetition of that
other "wonder in Egypt," by which "all the dust
of the land became lice." Troublesome, however,
as all these may be to the tidy housewife, they are
quite insignificant when compared with the myri-
ads which people our fields, and in so many ways-,
prove themselves to be "injurious to vegetation."'
From what we have read and heard about the
insects of Europe, we have always understood that
farmers there, much as they complain of their
losses by the depredations of various kinds of in-
sects on their crops, suffer much less from this
cause than we do here. This fact is very strongly
stated by Dr. Fitch, Entomologist of the New
York State Agricultural Society. In a recent ad-
dress he remarked that "the losses which we sus-
tain from these pests immeasurably surpass any-
thing of the kind to which they are subject in Eu-
rope. There, if an insect appears in their wheat
fields by which the crop is shortened an eighth or
a tenth from its average yield, whole communities
become alarmed, while here so slight a loss would
be disregarded and would pass wholly unnoticed."
It may, therefore, be assumed as probably true,
that there is something in our dry atmosphere,
hot summers, loose soils, or some other peculiarity
of our country, which is so favorable to the in-
crease and activity of this most numerous branch
of the animal kingdom, as to afford some ground
of justification for the assertion that America is
the land of insects. At any rate, we find multi-
tudes of them cutting off the young shoots of our
vegetables as they come up in the spring ; other
multitudes eat the leaves from garden plants and
vines, destroy our cherries, currants, plums, ap-
ples and pears, utterly ruin whole fields of wheat
and other grain, or saw away at the solid trunks
and limbs of trees, designed for fencing, fuel,
building purposes, and for oiu: furniture, until

346

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

——"perforated sore,
And drilled in holes, the solid wood is found,
By worms voracious, eaten through and through."

It is, also, we believe, generally supposed that
the losses which the farmers of our country sus-
tain from insect depredations are constantly in-
creasing. Tliis is certainly true of some insects.
The curcullo, for instance, which a few years ago
confined its operations to plums, has now become
so numerous as to be able to find almost every ap-
ple on every tree of many large orchards, and to
mark them unmistakably "for their heirs and
successors."

Some farmers, when they consider how numer-
ous, how minute, and yet how powerful are the
foes which assail them, and then remember how
little they can do to protect their crops when at-
tacked by insects, are ready to give up all hope,
and sit down in despair. This is cowardly. "Do-
minion over everything that creepeth upon the
earth" was given to man in the beginning, and we
have no doubt will be retained unto the end. It
is possible that we shall be obliged to understand
their habits and the history of their lives better
than we now do. The study of Natural History
may become a necessity to success in the contest
with insects in America. And in this study, per-
haps unexpectedly, we may find some compensa-
tion for our losses, in learning that even insects
are but links in the great chain of universal good-
ness which unites the creatures of our common
Father.

To show how well the humanizing efi"ect of the
study of nature was understood by one remarka-
ble reformer, we give the story of an American
entomologist — that Peter the Great, of Russia,
conceived the idea that the study of Nature would
contribute much towards the civilization and re-
finement of his barbarian subjects, and, accord-
ingly, he established, at an enormous expense, a
large Museum of Natural History at St. Peters-
burg ; and in order to induce his whiskey-loving
subjects to go there, he ordered a glass of brandy
to be presented to every visitor !

May the direct appeal which insects make to
our purses, prove at least as efficient, in promot-
ing a more intimate acquaintance with their his-
tory and habits, as did the Czar's toddy.

Abortion or "Slinking" in Cows Produced
BY Smut on Corn. — The Belgian Annals of Ve-
terinary Medicine states that the Ustilago Madis,
or parasitic mushroom, which occurs on maize or
Indian corn, as ergot does on rye, produces abor-
tion in cows fed with it. In a stable where cows
were given corn with smut on it, eleven abortions
occurred in eight days ; when the cause was sus-
pected, and the food changed, there were no abor-
tions. Stock-keepers should make a note of this
statement.

FLAX COTTON-.

We learn that the Rhode Island Agricultural
Society has sent to Washington a memorial to be
laid before Congress, asking for an appropriation
to enable the society to prosecute its experiments
in the manufacture of flax cotton. Tliose who
have given most attention to the subject are con-
fident that the difficulties in the way of manufac-
turing flax can be overcome, and that with such
facilities as the appropriation they desire would
furnish, some of our ingenious men would very
soon accomplish the object which has been so
long sought.

It may at first sight seem strange to some that
this matter should be now engaging the attention
of the society. But when justly viewed, it is seen
to have the most intimate connection with our
public aff'airs. For the want of cotton our mills
must soon stop. Many of them have already
stopped. How long they will remain idle, unless
some new material to take the place of cotton is
discovered, no one can say. And when the pro-
ductiveness of our mills is at an end, the "internal
tax" on cotton manufactures becomes nothing. If
a substitute for cotton is found, our mills may
continue their labors and pour in their quota to
the national treasury. New England and the
Middle States are of course peculiarly interested
in seeing the invention perfected for which the
society is laboring.

But there is of course a much wider view of the
question, one which we have so often presented
that we need not enlarge more upon it now, but
which every day becomes more and more worthy
of consideration. The invention of macliinery for
spinning flax satisfactorily and cheaply would at
once depose and overwhelm King Cotton, whose
throne has been so essentially shaken this past
year. The efiect upon the proud and rebellious
temper of the cotton-growing South, upon the fate
of slavery, and so upon the prosperity of our
country is manifest. These facts explain the
persistence with which the intelligent and far-
sighted members of the Rhode Island Society are
endeavoring to complete the experiments requisite
for success in the manufacture of flax cotton. —
Providence Journal.

Clearing a Debtor's Prison. — The Avork of
clearing the Queen's Bench Prison, London, of its
inhabitants is now verging toward a close. Strange
to say, it has been a very difficult task. Many of
the prisoners sternly refused to be made bankrupts,
though, by giving their consent, they could have
immediately obtained their release. The most cu-
rious case was that of Wm. Miller, who had been
in prison since July, 1814 — forty-eight years ! He
had lost all desire to go out, and would sign noth-
ing which would have the effect of making him a
free man. When at last he was absolutely forced
to acquiesce, he begged to be allowed to remain
in the prison a few days longer ; and wlien his
time was up he still lingered fondly within the
gates to bid the officials farewell, and to shake
hands over and over again. Until he passed the
outer gates of the Queen's Bench Prison, a few
weeks since, Wm. Miller, who Avas born nearly
eighty years ago, never saw a street gas-lamp, nor
an omnibus, much less a steamship or a railway.
— Bailway Exchange.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

347

For the yew England Farmer.

ON THE KEEPING- PROPEKTIES OP
EGGS.

Mr. Browx : — Having read occasionally some
contro\'crsy in the N. E. Farmer concerning the
keeping properties of producti\^ eggs?, or those
containing a germ, compared with unproductive
eggs, which are unimpregnated, I wish to commu-
nicate a few observations on the subject. Persons
who have been accustomed to raising fowls, must
have observed that, if there are several eggs left in
the nest of a h«n, after she has hatched her brood,
in frequent instances, some of these remaining
eggs, when broken, appear to be fresh and unin-
jured, while others are entirely rotten, or contain
dead chickens. Now those eggs which have not
been materially injured by the warmth of the hen's
body during the period of incubation, are such as
never contained a germ; and those Avhich are rot-
ten, are eggs that contained a germ that had per-
ished. I have always, therefore, made it a prac-
tice to examine the eggs in the nest of a setting
hen, after she has sat upon them five days, and
take away all those in which the process of incu-
bation has not commenced. This is easily deter-
mined by holding the eggs against a strong light,
which makes apparent the little net work of blood
vessels forming within all the productive eggs,
and reveals the clear transparency of the unpro-
ductive ones. By this means I save all the eggs
which are not going to produce chickens, before
they have been injured by the warmth of the hen ;
if I left them a longer time, those eggs which con-
tained a perished germ, would soon become cor-
rupted, though the eggs that never contained a
germ would bear this temperature with impunity
for several weeks.

But as the public is always better satisfied if an
individual who makes a doubtful assertion, should
establish it by the testimony of some high author-
ity, as well as by his own experience, I have made
an abstract of some remarks on this subject, con-
tained in a work "On Domestic Fowls, &c.," by
M. De Reaumur, the inventor of the French ther-
mometer. In this abstract I shall use the lan-
guage of the author, as translated, but shall con-
siderably abridge the sum cf his remarks.

The multiplication of chickens does not appear,
says M. De Reaumur, to be a more important ob-
ject than the preservation of eggs, since it is prob-
able that hens contribute more to the actual sup-
ply of man's food by the latter, than the former.
It is very easy to surmise that if all the eggs con-
sumed in one year were put into the scale of a
balance and weighed, and all the chickens, fowls
and capons eaten in the same year were weighed
likewise, the weight of the eggs would be superior
to that of the flesh of the poultry. He thinks, in
any case, however, that the preservation of eggs is
a subject of great importance.

There is a method, he continues, for having
eggs preserved a great while without corruption,
which ought to obtain public attention. It is very
remarkable that there should be, among eggs. laid
by the same hens, some that remain sound and
contract no ill taste whatever, though laid a great
while before, and kept in a warm, dry air five or
six times longer than what would be necessary to
rot any other eggs, placed in the same circum-
stances. This is an observation which he had oc-

casion to make a great many times, before he tried
methods for causing chickens to be hatched in
ovens. After eggs had been warmed for some
days together in the hatching ovens, there were
some that spread the most offensive smell in the
place if they were broken, and were entirely rot-
ten. There were others in the same place, which,
when broken, not only had no ill smell, but which
w^ere very good to eat. They differed from new-
laid eggs only in having some of their moisture
evaporated, but the yolk was an entire ball, like
that of fresh eggs.

In some of the eggs that were corrupt enough to
spread the most oflensive smell, he found a chicken
very well formed ; in some of the same eggs he
found only the remains of one, and in others he
could not perceive the least vestiges of any. In
this last case the germ had probaljly perished at
an early date, and had become dissolved ; but the
uncorrupt eggs never contained a germ. The
germ, at least a productive germ, is wanting in the
eggs of hens that live without a cock ; and those
of hens that are not deprived of cocks are not all
fruitful. Now, since the eggs that have germs in
them are liable to corruption, he was led to think
that those which keep sound a longer time, are the
unfruitful ones. The experiments necessary to re-
move all doubt on this point were too plain not
to be attempted.

He accordingly kept four hens without a cock
in a large cage, where they had every thing be-
sides in plenty ; they laid eggs there, the first of
which were of course productive ; but after these
had all been laid, by experimenting upon those
which were laid afterwards, he found that when
placed in the hatching oven, no chicken was en-
folded in them, and they did not contract any cor-
ruption. Although they loere in an air warm to the
degree that causes chickens to be hatched, they re-
mained sound there for above thirty days, and
sometimes forty or fifty days together.

Thirty or forty days in an air of the heat of a
hen's body must be equivalent in its action upon
the eggs, to a great many months of an air which
has only the common temperature of our houses.
He concluded, therefore, that eggs destitute of a
germ might be kept a long time in an ordinary
temperature without being spoiled. He then
made further experiments of another character.
He deposited some of these eggs laid by hens kept
apart from cocks, in one of the coolest places in
his house on the ground floor, after having written
upon each of them the date when it was laid. On
the third day of January, he tried those which had
been deposited there on the first of May, the pre-
ceding year ; and found them in good condition.
A great cavity had been made within them by
evaporation. They were not in the least corrupt,
though the yolk was slightly adhering to the shell.
He had these eggs dressed in different ways, and
none of those who eat them, had the least suspi-
cion that they were eight months old.

In order, then, to have eggs that would keep
fresh from spring to the middle, or even the end
of winter, we need only to deprive hens of all com-
munication with cocks. People, without knowing
this, must have owed to this circumstance the oc-
casional advantage of finding a smaller number of
spoiled eggs among those they bought. Hens
are not furnished in every farm with as many and
as good cocks as would be necessary to render all

348

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

their eggs fit to be sat on ; and the eggs of such
fowls, after being kept a long time, would contain
a large proportion Avell preserved.

Reaumur quotes some experiments of other
persons which were attended with similar results.
I think, therefore, we have reason to believe that
the eggs which are laid by hens kept entirely apart
from the male bird, are not liable to corrupt, un-
der ordinary circumstances, before the contents are
almost entirely evaporated. Eggs, on the other
hand, which contain a germ, will begin to coiTupt
immediately after the germ has perished ; and the
germ seldom retains its vitality more than seven
or eight Aveeks, unless some extraordinary atten-
tion is paid to the eggs for their preservation. In-
deed, I have no doubt that if a series of careful
experiments were performed with the two differ-
ent kinds of eggs, to ascertain their comparative
keeping properties, it would prove that the un-
impregnated eggs laid in the spring, would be
found as good in January as other eggs laid at
the same time, would be in September. But this
is conjecture : the exact difference between their
keeping properties can only be ascertained by fur-
ther experiment. Wilson Flagg.

UNITED STATES AGRICULTUBAL
DEPARTMENT.

This is the act establishing a National Agricul-
tural Department at Washington. The Commis-
sioner has not yet been appointed :

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives of the United States of America in
Congress assemljled, That there is hereby estab-
lished at the seat of Government of the United
States a Department of Agriculture, the general
designs and duties of which shall be to acquire and
diffuse among the people of the United States use-
ful information on subjects connected with Agri-
culture, in the most general and comprehensive
sense of that word, and to procure, propagate and
distribute among the people, new and valuable
seeds and plants.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That there
shall be appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, a "Commis-
sioner of Agriculture," who shall be the chief ex-
ecutive officer of the Department of Agriculture,
who shall hold his office by a tenure similar to
that of other civil officers appointed by the Presi-
dent, and who shall receive for his compensation a
salary of three thousand dollars per annum.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall
be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to
acquire and preserve, in his department, all infor-
mation concerning Agriculture, which he can ob-
tain by means of books and correspondence, and
by practical and scientific experiments (accurate
records of which experiments shall be kept in his
office,) by the collection of statistics, and by any
other appropriate means M'ithin his power ; to col-
lect, as he may be able, new and valuable seeds
and plants ; to test, by cultivation, the value of
each of them as may require such tests ; to propa-
gate such as may be worthy of propagation, and to
distribute them among agriculturists. He shall
vmnually make a general report in writing of his
acts, to the President and to Congress, in which
ke may recommend the publications of pai)ers

forming parts of, or accompanying his report,
which report also shall contain an account of all
moneys received and expended by him. He shall
also make special reports on particular subjects,
whenever required to do so by the President, or
either house of Congress, or when he shall think
the subject in his charge requires it. He shall re-
ceive and have charge of all the property of the
agricultural division of the Patent Office, in the
Department of the Interior, including the fixtures
and property of the propagating garden. He shall
direct and superintend the expenditure of all
money appropriated by Congress to the Depart-
ment, and render accounts thereof, and also of all
money heretofore appropriated for Agriculture,
and remaining unexpended. And said Commis-
sioner may send and receive, through the mails,
free of charge, all communications and other mat-
ter pertaining to the business of Iris department,
not exceeding in weight thirty-two ounces.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That the
Commissioner of Agriculture shall appoint a chief
clerk, with a salary of two thousand dollars, who,
in all cases, during the necessary absence of the
Commissioner, or Avhen the said principal ofiSce
shall become vacant, shall perform the duties of
Commissioner ; and he shall appoint such other
employees as Congress may from time to time
provide, with salaries corresponding to the sala-
ries of similar officers in other Departments of the
Government ; and he shall, as Congress may from
time to time provide, employ other persons, for
such time as their services may be needed, includ-
ing chemists, Ijotanists, entomologists, and other
persons skilled in the natural sciences pertaining
to Agriculture. And the said Commissioner, and
every other person to be appointed in the said
Department, shall before he enter upon the duties
of his office or appointment, make oath or affirm-
ation truly and faithfully to execute the trust com-
ted to him. And the said Commissioner and the
Chief Clerk shall, before entering upon their du-
ties, severally give bonds to the Treasurer of the
United States, the former in the sum of ten thou-
sand dollars, and the latter in the sum of five
thousand dollars, conditional to render a true and
faithful account to him or his successor in office,
quarter-yearly accounts of all moneys which shall
be by them received by virtue of the said office,
with sureties to be approved as sufficient by the
Solicitor of the Treasury ; which bonds shall be
filed in the ofliice of the First Comptroller of the
Treasury, to be by him put in suit, upon any
breach of the conditions thereof.

Approved May 15, 1862.

THE WORKMANSHIP OF IVOBT.

None of our manufacturers have yet reached
the consummate skill of the Chinese artists in the
workmanship of ivory, chiefly remarkable in their
concentric balls, chess pieces and models. Yet
the adaptation to useful purposes of this valuable
substance is fully understood by those who do not
undertake to rival the exquisite minuteness of
Eastern art. The manufacturers of surgical in-
struments are in the habit of rendering ivory flex-
ible for use as tubes, probes, etc., by acting on the
well-known fact that, when bones are sulyected
to the action of hydrochloric acid, the phosphate
of lime, which forms one of their component parts,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

349

is extracted, and thus bones retain their original
form, and acquire great flexibility. After giving
the pieces of ivory their acquired form and polish,
they are steeped in acid, either pure or diluted,
until they become supple and elastic, and of a
slightly yellow color. In the course of drying,
the ivory returns to its original hardness, but its
flexibility can be easily restored by surrounding it
with wet linen. It is now ascertained that the de-
cay of articles in ivory can be effectually checked,
even when its progress has advanced so far as to
cause the specimens to crumble away under the
hands. Some of the works in ivory forwarded by
Mr. Layard from Nineveh, were found, on their
arrival in England, in a state of rapid decompo-
sition. Professor Owen was consulted on the sub-
ject, and he suggested a remedy Avhich, on trial,
proved to be in the highest degree successful.
Concluding that the decay was owing to the loss
of gelatine in the ivory, he recommended that the
articles should be boiled in a solution of gelatine,
and thus treated, they became firm and solid.

PAINT FOH. MARKING LABELS.

1. In the business of the garden and orchard,
marked stakes and labels are often needed for
temporary purposes, as the designation of rows of
fruit trees, new varieties of corn and potatoes,
flowers, Szc, or rows of seed sown in hot beds.

2. The staves of an old barrel sawed in two and
sharpened at one end, answer for larger purposes,
and short pieces of hemlock lath, planed smooth
on one side, for smaller ones. Those who happen
to have blocks of cedar cut off from long posts, or
even the sound portion of cedar posts that have
failed, will find them especially useful wood for
either large or small marks and stakes.

3. For paint to mark such stakes and labels, I
have found nothing so cheap and ready as shellac
varnish, into which a little lampblack had been
worked. Whether used in making letters or fig-
ures, it should be applied with a small brush. It
is better applied to the naked wood than to a
painted surface, to which, especially if the paint
be fresh and glossy, it does not adhere Avell. .

Such paint will continue legible until the stakes
decay. Its superiority to oil paint is seen in two
facts — it dries rapidly, and it does not spread on
the wood when first applied, as does oil paint on
many surfaces, and become illegible.

So, also, this same mixture is superior for the
same reason for marking barrels, boxes and bales
of goods. — Country Gentleman.

To Cure a Film on the Eye of a Horse. —
Take of white vitriol and rock alum one part —
pulverize finely, and add clear spring water. AVith
a finely pointed camel's hair pencil or soft feather,
insert a single drop of tlus solution into the dis-
eased eye every night and morning, and in a
week the film usually disappears, and the e3'e be-
comes bright, sound and healthy. In some cases,
pulverized loaf sugar blown into the eye tlirough
a quill, will prove a remedy. Powdered glass
should never by used in such cases, although re-
commended by some, as it is much more likely to
produce injurious eflfects, than to cure them.

A DAY WITH THE SHAKERS.

Harvard, June 20, 1862.

Gentlemen : — There is always something prof-
itable to be found here among this interesting and
intelligent people. One soon catches the spirit of
quiet which pervades everything, and voice, man-
ner and passion are all chastened and calmed,
while sun-ounded by a system that never yields,
though it is never irksome or oppressive. On
their little farm of two thousand acres, always
managed so as to yield a profit, I do not fail to
find something to learn in an agricultural point of
view. A considerable portion of their land is oc-
cupied with growing wood, which covers tbe
sweeping vales and beautifully swelling hills
around me, almost as far as the eye can reach. lu
the clear sunlight of this delicious June afternoon,
the rich foliage of the forests is trembling and
glancing in the sun's rays, and giving tone to the
fresh west wind playing in the branches. Cattle
are grazing on the distant hill-side pastures, and
the new corn plants are glistening on the wide-
spread fields of brown soil, where groups of healthy
men, clad in loose and comfortable garments, are
tending the springing corn. All things seem to
be in harmony. Voice answereth unto voice in
sympathizing tones. While all nature is fresh
with new life and beauty around me, the bursting
bud or expanded flower, the young fruit and wav-
ing grass or i^romising grain, all seem in unison
with the spirit and expression of the singular and
sentient beings with whom I have been convers-
ing. And now come other tones through the or-
chard, and up the hill into the vineyard, where
bees hum, and young grape blossoms fill with fra-
grance the surrounding air ! These voices cannot
be the breath of the trees, or birds, or climbing
vines. They come mellifluous, in irregular ca-
dences, as the voices of joyous girls, though from
this bower I cannot look out upon habitation or
human face. And the voices of joyous girls they
proved, coming from the school- room, where I
joined them, and passed a most interesting hour.

In this school I found fifteen girls, between
the ages of fourteen and five — children who
came to the society with their parents, or who
have been adopted. The room was very com-
modious, and the perfection of neatness, the fur-
niture comfortable and the walls spread with such
maps and diagrams as were necessary for refer-
ence. I listened to classes in reading, parsing,
spelling, geography, and then to an exercise which
was new to me, though somewhat familiar with
schools. The teacher asked her pupils to express
"what they should like ?" when one of the older
scholars, in glowing but appropriate language, told
through what country she would "like to travel
and what to see. The others, apparently taking
the hint of their leader, all spoke of travel, and

350

NEW ENGLAKD FARIMER.

Arc.

what they should be happy to witness, even down
to the five-year old child, who would like to see
the ocean, but not to sail in ships in a storm ! She
thought she would not like the flowers of the
ocean as well as those of the land, as they would
be too slimy." Deacon Qro\Ti;snoii beckoned to
her, and she went and nestled in his lap as confi-
dently and lovingly as the babe clings to the bo-
som of its mother. There seemed to be but "one
heart, one mind, one voice," and I felt as though
it were "heaven on earth begun." The teacher
seemed to me highly accomplished, not only as a
teacher, but in all those graces which adorn wo-
man the most. Her manner and conversation
were elegant, without effort, and her sketches, sing-
ing, and her affectionate attention to the children
in her care, all told of the deep sentiment and lov-
ing heart that shone out so conspicuously in her
life. It was a model school.

There are four "families" here, as they are
called, owning the real estate in common, while
the business and pecuniary matters of each fami-
ly are entirely distinct. There are subdivisions of
these families, 1 believe, where smaller numbers
occupy a tenement, but all go to a common table,
the women being seated on one side and the men
on the other.

They have cleared large tracts of rocky and
springy lands, so that they now present smooth
surfaces and fioe crops. The first process in this
reclamation has been drainage, and the next re-
moving the rocks — the latter being used to fill
wide and deep excavations made to receive them.
They have not yet introduced tiles, and find, so
far, that their ample ditches, with the stones rest-
ing upon a gravelly bottom, answered all purpos-
es on the lands which they have reclaimed. I vis-
ited one drained field of about twenty acres, which
was covered with fine crops of clover, roots, sage.
Sec. An account of the manner of reclaiming this
field was Avritten for the Farmer by Dea. GuoVES-
NOR, and may be found in our last year's volume.
They keep, in all, about one hundred head of cat-
tle. I saw a portion of them, which were a credit
to the skill and management of their owners.

A variety of employment is engaged in on the
estate — each branch having its special and respon-
sible supei'intendent. One has charge of the
orchards and vineyards, another of the stock and
care of the barn, while a third, perhaps, sees to the
collection and drying of herbs, which a fourth
presses and packs, with such assistance as may be
requii'ed in his department. I suppose a similar
arrangement exists in regard to the field crops and
to the articles which they manufacture. I have long
enjoyed an acquaintance with several of these per-
sons, and have ever found them upright and intel-
Ugent, possessing an urbanity of manner rarely
surpassed by those in the most polite circles of life.

Neatness, order and industry are everjTvhere
visible among these people, and when I passed
from the workshop or the field to the parlor, and
in social converse there ti'ied to learn something
of their inner life, all seemed to be real and har-
monious. I have never been able to discover the
demon discord between their thoughts and their
acts. They are cheerful, though serene, often un-
bending in a quiet facetiousness which shows a
decided elasticity of mind. I have noticed this
among the women as well as men — ^perhaps more
frequently. I should be glad to speali of individ-
uals, but dare not invade the sanctity of their re-
tirement. One lady informed me that she had
been there more than forty years, and never had
found the first hour when she regretted her com-
ing, or had a desire to leave ! If "contentment
with godliness is great gain," surely they must be
a happy people, for every indication is an attesta-
tion that they are happy. I look upon this asso-
ciation as the soundest Insurance Company known
to men. It insm-es not only against fire and flood,
but against poverty, sickness and disease — against
the loss of home and reputation, and most of the
ills that flesh is heir to, and in doing this, it in-
sures long life and a serene old age. In the lan-
guage of the great Master, it says to ail — "Come
unto me, all ye that ai-e weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." To the young, the
middle aged and old — to the afflicted, disappoint-
ed, tempted, discouraged and persecuted, it says
this : — "Come Home ! The conditions are Heaven-
given, and simple. Come and earn your bread by
the sweat of your brow. Come with coffers full, if
you will, but come empty-handed if you have them
not, and the mortal body and immortal soul which
you bring, shall receive our affectionate nurture
and tender care." What need we more ?

I am under obligations to Dea. Augustus H.
Grovesnor, and, indeed, to all, men and women,
for the most polite attention to myself, wife, and
our companions. Dr. Joseph Reynolds and wife,
of Concord.

For the benefit of the inquiring reader who may
not have the information before him, I copy one
or two paragraphs from the New American Cyclo-
pccdia, in relation to these interesting- people.

"These settlements are composed of from 2 to
8 'families,' or households. A large dwelling-
house, divided through the centre by wide halls,
and capable of accommodating from 30 to 150 in-
mates, is erected f(/r each family, the male mem-
bers occupying one end and the females the other.
The societies all possess considerable tracts of
land, averaging nearly 7 acres to each member.
They believe idleness to be sinful, and hence every
member who is able to work, is employed in some
labor. They have usually very extensive gardens
connected with their settlements, and the culture
of flowers, medicinal hei'bs, fruits and vegetables
has been a favorite business with thera ; garden

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

351

and flower-seeds, and the dried herbs and medi-
cinal extracts, fluid and solid, in use by physicians,
have been largely produced by them. Of late
years they give more attention to agriculture and
to manufactures than formerly. * * *

"Their mode of worship is peculiar, as in it they
exercise both soul and body. The two sexes are
frequently arranged in ranks opposite to and fac-
ing each other, the front ranks about 6 feet apart.
There is usually an address by one of the elders
upon some doctrinal subject, or some practical
virtue, after which they sing a hymn ; tlien they
form in circles around a band of male and female
singers, to the music of whom they 'go forth in the
dances of them that make merry,' in which they
manifest their religious zeal. * * *

"They believe themselves to be frequently un-
der the immediate influence of spirit agency, both
of angels and of the departed members of their
own fraternity who have advanced further than
those still in the body in the work of the resurrec-
tion or redemption from the generative nature and
order. They have a ministry, composed of 2
brethren and 2 sisters, who have the oversight of
from 1 to 3 or 4 societies ; also each family in
every society has 4 elders, 2 brethren and 2 sis-
ters, who have charge of the family. The tempo-
ralities of each family are cared for by 2 deacons
and 2 deaconnesses. * * ♦

"Their increase during the present century has
been moderate, only 3 societies having been
formed within the last 50 years, and the growth of
those previously in existence having been slow ;
but it is a fact worthy of note, that tliey are the
only people on this continent, if not in the world,
who have maintained successfully for more than 70
years a system of living, one of the fundamental
principles of which is a community of property."

As a general thing, their crops look well — their
grass crops, especially, ai-e better than I have
seen elsewhere. Their great barn is a model, at
the "Church Family." Water is introduced from
a hill-side a mile distant, with a huge reservoir on
another hill, and from thence into all their build-
ings. But I have filled my sheet, and must stop.
Very truly yours, Simon Brown.
Messes. Nouese, Eaton & Toi.man.

F(JT the New England Farmer.
FENCES— CROWS.

Mr. Editor : — My object in the brief note sent
you some time since, was to state what was sup-
posed to be a fact that might be of some interest
to the public, viz. : that fences built on essential-
ly the same plan of Mr. Smith's patent, were erect-
ed in this vicinity several years previous to the
date of the said patent.

Since that time, two communications have been
published over his name in reference to this mat-
ter. Whether he acts the part of a gentleman in
insinuating that all who may question his exclu-
sive right to a particular principle in fence build-
ing are guilty of "stealing at funerals," and of
engaging in piratical pursuits generally, I leave
for you and your readers to judge.

Mr. Smith's offer of a right to build the said
fence is declined, for two reasons :

1. I do not wish to avail myself of the benefit of

his labors without suitable and proper compensa-
tion.

2. I am too well satisfied with fence erected be-
fore his patent was obtained, to be under the
slightest "temptation" to substitute one that is
not essentially better.

Your correspondents "L. R. E." recommends
strychnine to protect corn-fields from crows. I
think a better preventive is the coating of the seed
with tar. It has been tried by many farmers in
this place for several years with entire success.
The corn should be wet with warm water and
stirred with a stick which has been immersed in
the tar, until it is completely coated, and then a
small quantity of plaster or ashes should be ap-
plied, to prevent its sticking. Farmer.

South Amherst, June 16, 1862.

SIMPLE PREVENTIVE OP THE
RAVAGES OP MICE.

Mr. Geo. Jaques, in Hovei/s Magazine, thus al-
ludes to the destruction of trees the past winter
by the mice, and a simple means of preventing
their ravages : —

"Immense damage has been done to the apple
orchards of this country, during the past winter,
by mice. This destruction of property is the more
to be deplored, since the preventive is so simple
and sure. For years the mice have not injured
my own trees in the least. My method of defence
against them, I regard as infallibly efficacious.
Early in November I hoe or spade up around each
tree a cone of earth, covering the collar of the
tree five or ten inches deep, so that there can be
710 cavity under the snow-crust close to the trunk.
Hence, it is impossible for mice to approach that
particular point upon the tree where they perpe-
trate their mischief. Never in one single instance
has this preventive disappointed me, and I have
pi'acticed it over ten years.

Truly yours, Geo. Jaques.

Worcester, May 15, 1862.

Remarks. — The cone of earth to be placed
about the trunk of frait trees will prevent mice
from gnawing them under ordinary circumstances,
— but when the surface of the ground is covered
with ice as it was last Avinter, and deep snows or
drifts surround the trees, the mice come out and
run upon the top of the snow and gnaw the trees
several feet from the ground. We have seen re-
peated instances where they had completely ex-
coriated all the branches of a young tree, from
their junction with the stem two feet outward. Is
there not some safe wash, such as a decoction of
aloes, or a wash of tar, that would not injure the
tree, and be so unpalatable to the mice as to pre-
vent their feeding upon it ? A remedy might be
found, perhaps, in scattering about wheat, or oth-
er grain that had been impregnated with strych-
nine. This might be done in autumn after the
birds are gone, or during the winter. We are in-
clined to think that our grass crops are seriously
injured — especially the herds grass — by large num-
bers of mice feeding upon their roots.

352

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

For the New England Farmer.

AGRICULTURE IN" OUR COMMON
SCHOOLS.

Mr. Editor : — Ought agriculture to be taught
in our common schools ? lu their present state
and condition, can it be successfully taught there,
•without doing more harm than good ? I make no
apology for presenting this subject to the consid-
eration of your readers. In this communication,
I propose to offer a few reasons Avhy agriculture
ought not to be introduced, as a study, into our
common schools.

Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark at the out-
set, that our common schools were established for
the purpose of teaching reading, writing, spelling
and defining of words, grammar, or the use and
power of language, arithmetic and geography.
These branches have been, and still are taught
equally to all without distinction. The children
of the rich and the poor, of both sexes, enjoy equal
advantages. The design of their education is not
to fit them for any jjarticular calling, whether it
be that of a farmer, a merchant, a mechanic, or a
manufacturer, but, by a thorough training and
drilling in the above studies, to prepare them for
any occupation or pursuit.

Now, I object to the introduction of agriculture,
as a study, into our common schools, because I
believe it would have a tendency to divert atten-
tion from those primary and fundamental studies
which appropriately belong to them, and be a
great injury to the schools. Its effect would be
to embarrass the interests of agriculture, and to
check the progress of the schools. Our common
schools are already burdened with too many
studies ; and they are not in a condition to attend
to any new ones. We have already so great a
multijjlicity of studies in school, that a large pro-
portion of the scholars who receive all their educa-
tion from this source, are but imperfectly ac-
quainted with the first principles and rudiments
of their own language, and make a sorry work in
writing English composition, and in the spelling
and defining of words. In some of the common
branches, we sometimes meet with scholars who
are as ignorant as the boy who could cipher, but
could not read — who could do any sum in arith-
metic, as soon as it was read and explained to
him. I want scholars who know how to read, as
well as cipher. I want fewer studies, but better
scholars, in our common schools.

I object to the introduction of agriculture, as a
study, into our common schools, because our
teachers have enough else to do, and because they
are not qualified to teach it. They have more
branches to teach now than they can Avell attend
to ; and being unacquainted with the theory and
practice of agriculture, they cannot teach the sci-
ence correctly ; nor can they bring forward those
ready, but striking illustrations which assist the
pupil by securing his attention, and interesting
him in the study. To the great neglect of the
other and more important studies, the teachers
would be obliged to spend much time in the vain
attempt to impart instruction on topics whicli they
do not understand themselves, and wliich they can
not impart to others. It is a wise maxim, no lan-
tern con emit more light than it has in it. But, if
the lantern be made of tin, with a few small holes
in the* sides, the light emitted will be very small.

I object to the introduction of agriculture, as a
study, into our common schools, because our
schools are of a mixed character, and made up of
scholars of all grades and ages, and of both sexes.
In fact, most of them are quite too young to under-
stand, and to be benefited by the study. As no
one can teach more than he knows, so no one can
receive instruction which is not adapted to his age
and capacities. To teach agriculture to children so
as to make them understand it, is no easy matter,
because it embraces subjects which are entirely
above, and beyond their comprehension. To make
them understand analytical chemistry, natural his-
tory, theoretical and practical agriculture, requires
no small degree of knowledge and skill. To be
successful, the teacher should exemplify his in-
struction. He should be able to hold the plow,
to drive the team, to use the scythe, the rake, the
ax, the shovel and the hoe. There are a thousand
things to be learned, which can be learned only by
actual observation and example on the farm.
Scholars can readily do whatever they see their
teacher do, though they may not be able to under-
stand his lectures, or what is laid down in the text-
book. The way to teach agriculture to the young,
is by example, by showing the best methods of cul-
tivation, and how to do correctly, and in the best
manner possible, the various kinds of farm-work.

I repeat, that I object to the study of agricul-
ture in our common schools ; first, because it
would injure the schools by diverting the attention
of the scholars from their necessary studies, and
greatly disqualify them for future usefulness ; sec-
ondly, because our teachers are not qualified to
teach it, and have no means of explaining it ; and
thirdly, because the scholars generally are not old
enough to understand it, and have no time to de-
vote to it, without neglecting their other studies.

Warwick, June, 1862. John Goldsbury.

BENEFITS OP THE ANGLE ■WORM.

Though the angle worm yields a considerable
amount of food to the birds and fish that grace
the dinner-table, it is much more beneficial to man
as a fertilizer of the land. Subsisting on the
earth through which it burrows, with an occasion-
al meal from a decaying tuber or leaf, its pecula-
tions from the husbandman are of the smallest
nature ; whereas it lightens the earth's surface by
its burrowings, and thereby aids the spreading of
the roots of all cereals and bulbs ; and the bur-
rows also carry down water after heavy rains, that
but for them, would often gather in surface pools,
and thereby injure the crops; and they also ad-
mit the air to tlie soil to a depth which by natural
means it could not reach. The earth ejected by
them also tends to the improving of the soil ; and
instances are known whcrcl^y these droppings, or
"worm -casts," caused, in a few years, a considera-
ble increase to the depth as well as the quality of
the soil. ]Mr. Darwin, the naturalist, gives an ac-
count of a case of tiiis kind wliich he tested, and
from experiments ho clearly proved that, in an old
pasture, a layer of cinders and lime had been cov-
ei'ed witliin a few years, to the depth of an inch,
by the castings of worms. "On carefully exam-
ining," he also wrote, "between the blades of grass
in the fields above described, I found scarcely a
space of two inches square without a little heap
of cyiindi-ical castings of worms." A week or two

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

353

ago we chanced to walk through a very old pas-
ture, and we were much struck by the number of
the worm-casts it showed. They were, we are
certain, nearly if not as numerous as those men-
tioned by Mr. Darwin, and they darkened the
field so much, though the grass was growing, that
they caused some parts of it to look as if newly
top-dressed. — Scottish Farmer.

Fig. 1.

WEST'S IMPROVED PUMP.

The cuts which accompany tliis article give a rep-
resentation of the external appearance of two pat-
terns of the pump patented by J. D. West & Co.
It is a double - acting
pump, throwing the same
amount of Avater at each
motion of the handle, up
or down. The house
pump, (Fig. 1,) is of cast
kon, a very neat and pret-
ty design, and can be used
as any other house pump,
or, with hose attached,
water can be forced to any
required distance, for wa-
tering the garden, wash-
ing windows, or any of the numerous purposes for
which water is so often needed at a distance from
the source of supply.

The well and cis-
tern pump, (Fig. 2,)
is of the same in-
ternal consti'uction,
but is made with a
long piston rod and
discharging pipe, so
that when placed in
a well, out of doors,
the pump itself is
entirely below the
curb of the well,
out of danger from
frost. By attaching
hose, or by a pipe
under ground con-
necting with the
pump, water can be Fkj. 2.

conveyed as need-
ed. AVe are about setting one of these pumps,
not, however, where it will have a great opportu-
nity of distinguishing itself, as the work we shall
give it is hght, and may report in regard to its
action, at some future day. jNIeantime it is only
necessai-y to say that the pump has received com-
mendation from the highest sources, and that
Solon E-obinson, Avhom every farmer knows, says
no farmer can afford to be without it, who has to
draw his water from a well or cistern.

This pump was awarded a silver medal at the
last Mechanics' Fail- held in this city.

THE NEW YORK HORSE MARKET.

We have been lately a good deal in the Horse
Market, trying to learn the fact, if it existed, that
"the war has ruined," as we were repeatedly assured
it had during the dull state of trade that really
existed last autumn and winter. We have failed
to discover the ruin. On the contrary, we find the
stables in Twenty-fourth Street very fairly sup-
plied with a well-assorted stock of horses ; and
though sales are not eff"ected quite as lively as we
have seen them, the horses do find buyers at lib-
eral prices. Indeed, the prices must be higher,
for they are decidedly so in the country. A class
of horses that farmers would have vvillingly sold a
year ago atSluO each, are now in demand at $175
or $260 each.

This covers the class of good, strong, well-made
horses. On higher-priced horses the advance is
still greater. It is less in proportion on such as
are mostly used for stages and city railroads. The
army contracts, at low prices, notwithstanding
they absorb a great many horses, have a tendency
to keep the price of ordinary horses down, because
a person w"ho wants a low-priced horse for his own
use, regulates the value upon the army standard,
so that when a seller asks a higher price, he is at
once told that he is above the market.

But for the class of horses suitable for all work,
and good looking enough to make a foir show on
the road, the army rates fix no standard, and a
well-matched pair of this sort sell pretty readily at
$500 to $G00, and higher, if speedy. Fast trot-
ters and foncy-matched pairs, and elegant coach
horses, sell at fancy prices, according to circum-
stances, up to ten or twelve hundred dollars a
pair. And notwithstanding the assertion so fre-
quently made, that the war, cutting ofi" further
custom, would destroy the market for this class,
we believe that it is about as good now as when
we had the whole of Dixie for customers.

It is true that the appearance of "Southern gen-
tlemen" in the horse-market always raised a com-
motion, and gave the street a somewhat lively ap-
pearance, for the reason that one of them made
more "fuss and feathers" about the purchase of a
pair of horses than some of our quiet city buyers
would, in purchasing all the horses on sale. But
we assure our country readers that the absence of
Southern buyers has not ruined the business, and
horse-dealers are beginning to realize that their
i-eal substantial customers are our own citizens.
We are certain that we may assure all who are in-
terested in the production of horses, that the pres-
ent state of the market, and all the signs of the
times, warrant us in saying that there never has
been a more favorable prospect for the production
of good horses.

The destruction of horses by the army has been
enormous, and must have the tendency by reduc-
ing the stock in the country, to enhance values.
That enhancement has already commenced, and
dealers do certainly find buyers in this market at
the advanced price.

There are more horses selling in this city in
June 18G2, than there were in June 1861, of all
kinds, except it is the cheapest kind of work
horses. There are men in this city who have the
ability and will combined, to buy good horses.
Altogether, then, we must report the condition of
the New York horse market in one M^ord — favor-
able.— New York Tribune.

354

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

For tlie New England Farmer,
PBEMIUMS ON FIELD CHOPS.

Mr. EditoPv : — In your last number, (June 7th,)
your Western New York correspondent "H.," un-
der head of "E.ivalry in Farming," very sensibly
urges the importance of rivalry in this very im-
portant branch of business — but his idea of the
cause of a lack of the proper stimulus, or induce-
ment, seems to be "the manner in which i^remiums
are offered for field crops." He says "most of the
societies now offer a premium for the largest yield
from an acre and half acre of ground, regardless
of the expenses in producing it. Premiums
should," he continues, "be offered on not less than
five acres of ground, and for the greatest yield at
the least cost, taking the condition of the land be-
fore and after the crop is taken off, into consider-
ation."

I think there are many New England farmers
"who, (with due respect for opinions of your West-
ern New York correspondent,) entertain different
ideas from those expressed by him in some partic-
ulars. Situated as many farms are among the
granite hills, how many of them would be deprived
of the opportunity of competing for a premium if
"five acres" of a certain specified crop wei-e the
least amount of ground that could be received or
entered for a premium ! Besides, if I rightly un-
derstand the subject, one object in offering or
awarding premiums is to create a stimulus, and
encourage the idea that it is far better economy to
cultivate and till a less number of acres and do it
rightly, than to try to cultivate or go over a great-
er amount of ground and manure it more sparing-
ly ; although for the first crop it may seem to be
more expensive, yet in the long run such farming
will prove to be the most successful. E. W.

E. Westmoreland, June, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
MUSINGS BY THE HEARTHSTONE.

The shadows of evening have lengthened, and
■widened, and deepened, and blended into one thick
veil of darkness. The moaning of the March
wind comes, waking in my breast the echoes of
dying memories. The flickering blaze, too, pic-
tures on the wall what imagination sees as the re-
flected images of departed loved ones, mingled
with flitting shadows, like those which cross the
lighted pathway of the memory of the heart.
What heart is there which has no fountain, from
which some deep floodtide of fond recollections
will sometimes spring forth, bearing on its bosom
the lights and sliadows of other years, — no hours
of heavenly inspiration, when not only the past,
with its fancies, but the present and future, with
their realities, are spread out in startling distinct-
ness before the mental vision ?

Still, the bright hearthstone glows, and looking
into the mass of burning embers, I seem to see
contracted images of mighty structures and moun-
tains of living fire, rising and falling in wild con-
fusion, pushing each other up, and bearing each
other down, all to settle away at last, in one dead
mass, when the element which works the change
shall have exhausted their combustible properties.

Thus do appetites and passions work in the hu-
man mind when we allow them its controlling
power. Ever conflicting with and jostling each

other, they create an unceasing tumult, working
the ruin of our better nature. Love of ease wars
with animal appetites and ambitious flfesires. We
think we see a terrestrial heaven in rounds of
luxurious dissipation ; but the brilliant structure
proves a misty mirage, leading us into the midst
of a great desert of suffering and shame. Instead
of shady palms, and fruits, and flowers, and sil-
very lakes, the wilderness of ruined character, of
health and happiness, of body and mind destroyed
is spread out before us in all its grim desolation.
AVe have appetites and passions, and they have a
proper place in the human mind ; a proper sphere
in which to be exercised, but should be kept sub-
servient to our higher nature. Intellectual and
moral powers, the head — with benevolence, affec-
tion and reUgion, the heart — should be the con-
trolling elements of the mind. Because we have
an animal nature, it is not, therefore, necessary
that we should become all animal. Live a true
life, and in the end its goal is not uncertain.
Hopes now bright as the glitter of reflected rays
of winter sunlight on the clear snow, may, in-
deed, prove equally unsubstantial. But looking
toward the sunset of life, we see sketched on the
horizon, like a mountain of transfiguration, the
outlines of a good old age. Its clouds are few,
and tinted with colors of rainbow brilliancy, the
foreshadowing of a bright to-morrow, while its
lofty summit seems to pierce the lower strata of
the very heavens. A Monthly Reader.

Franklin, 1862.

WHAT IS IN THE MOON.

The comparative proximity of our own satellite,
the moon, has necessarily rendered it an object of
the greatest interest, and it has, perhaps, in a
greater degree than the other celestial orbs, been
subjected to the scrutinizing observations of the
telescope. Since the completion of the great in-
strument of Lord Rosse, that nobleman has fre-
quently observed it, and its appearance, as seen
by the great telescope, is thus described by Dr.
Scoresby :

"It appeared like a globe of molten silver, and
every object of the extent of one hundred yards
was quite visible. Edifices, therefore, of the size
of Yoi-k Minster, or the ruins of Whitby Abbey,
might be easily perceived if they had existed. But
there was no appearance of anything like water,
or of an atmosphere. There was a vast number
of extinct volcanoes, several miles in bi-eadth.
Through one of them Avas a line of continuance of
about one hundred and fifty miles in length, which
ran in a straight direction like a railway. The
general appearance, however, was like one vast
ruin of nature ; and many of the pieces of rock,
driven out of the volcanoes, appeared to be laid at
various distances."

We have here a strong, nay, a complete confirm-
ation of the most interesting recent discoveries
of the continental philosophers, Maelder, of Dor-
pat, and Baer, of Berlin. The result of their curi-
ous and elaborate observations has been a map of
what may now, without a figure, be called the ge-
ography of the moon, in which the surface of that
satellite has been laid out with as much accuracy
as that of our own globe. Of this map, a singular
contrivance of human ingenuity. Dr. Nichol has
given a reduced copy, besides a number of plates,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

355

representing on a larger scale, special parts of the
surface. The general character of the moon is
highly irregular, marked by huge mountains and
pits, the height and depth of which have been ac-
curately measured. About one-third part only of
the surface presented to us is comjiaratively regu-
lar, this regular portion being plains, and not seas,
as was formerly imagined. There is no appearance
of water ; and although astronomers are divided
in opinion about the existence of an atmosphere,
we are to conclude that the moon is not in its
present state, adapted for the abode of organized
beings. With regard to the mountains, a great
number of thera are isolated peaks, such as Tene-
rifte ; mountain ranges, of which some reach a great
elevation, are also present in the moon, though not
a chief feature in its surface. At least three-fifths
of its surface is studded with caverns, penetrating
its body, and generally engirt at the top by a great
wall of rock, which is serrated, and often crowded
by lofty peaks. These caverns or craters as they
are called, vary in diameter from fifty or sixty
miles to the smallest visible space. And it is also
remarkable that as they diminish in size, they in-
crease in number. — English Quarterly.

Fur the New England Farmer.

OUB ABBORETUM.

Mr. Editor: — I once heard an enthusiastic
votary of rural adornment strongly advocate the
establishment, in our town, of a Park to be sus-
tained at public expense. He thought, "a park
of a hundred acres, comprising hill and dale, and
water sceneiy, beautifully laid out, in walks and
drives, a perfect ai-boretum of all the trees and
shrubs that will grow in this vicinity, beds of flow-
ers of every variety of hue ; with seats and arbors
appropriately scattered about," &c., would greatly
promote a genial sociability among us, and aid in
develojjing all the finer traits of character in our
towns-people. He was not without hope of living
to see such an institution flourishing here ; and
thought it not impossible that some wealthy lover
of humanity might furnish the means for its es-
tablishment. I agree with my friend in the belief
that such a park would be a very valuable institu-
tion in any town. And, with your permission, Mr.
Editor, I will say to him, and to others, that we
already have very nearly the thing that he pro-
poses, only the area of our arboretum is to be
measured by thousands of acres, instead of being
restricted to a paltry hundred. And if he will
thoroughly explore this arboretum, he will find a
variety of plants, as large, I think, and certainly
as beautiful, as in any field of equal extent within
many miles of here. He will find a liberal allot-
ment of rare plants, and a goodly share of those
most eminent for beauty of foliage or flower. If
I were skilled as a describer of landscapes, I
would tell him of the various beauties of scenery
to be found there ; of cosy nooks with their mossy
rock seats ; of the beautiful drives that wind about
in every direction, some through disused roads,
where the carriage bends down the intruding sap-
ling in its passage, some over the soft leaf carpet
luider ancient pines, some that are not so smooth
as those where every grain of sand has been arti-
ficially laid, and all been made so even that as you
roll along over the surface you ai'e hardly conscious

of motion, but roads where stones and stumps and
deep ruts give you every now and then a good
shaking that stirs the blood, even though you may
have a slow and reliable horse ; of those M-ood-
roads winding around and over hills and through
valleys, giving glimpses of rocky cliff, of lake, of
river, of distant moimtain, of green fields, of vil-
lages and scattered farm-houses. But trusting
that he will see these things for himself, I will
pass to the less difficult and shorter labor of naming
some of the flowers to be found in the valleys and
on the hills, in the woods and on the plains of our
large botanic garden. These are so numerous,
and so many are worthy of favorable mention, that
I hardly know which to select to speak of without
trespassing too much on your columns. I vriW name
them nearly in the order of their blossoming.

Among the earliest of our spring flowers, and
certainly one of the finest, is to be ranked the
Mayfloicer, (Epigea repens,) sometimes called
the trailing arbutns. This is found in several
places in this town, though not in large quantities,
and probably grows more or less in raost towns in
this region. It is to be found almost as soon aa
the snow is off" the ground in spring. It is a low
vine, creeping among the dry leaves in the woods,
and you find the small flowers at the end of the
branches, sometimes white, sometimes shaded with
a delicate rose color, and always charged with a
pleasant spicy odor. Very abundant in Plymouth
county, and derives its common name from the
ship that brought over the Pilgrims.

The Liver-leaf, (Hepatica triloba,) is another
very early and a very beautiful light blue flower.
It is not found here, I believe ; but it is worth
looking for. I once drove twenty miles to the
easterly part of Maiden, to see it growing in its
wild home. I found it on a steep, rocky hill-side,
shaded by young wood, and the beauty of the
flower well repaid for the trouble of finding. I
brought away a number of plants, and if they fulfil
their promise it may not be so difficult for the
flower lovers of some future generation to find the
hepatica peeping at them from among the dry
leaves in some quiet nooks of the Concord botanic
garden.

The Houstonia, a little bluish- white flower, com-
mon everywhere in May and June, has also a claim
to be called beautiful, even though so abundant
that we can hardly avoid crushing many under our
feet as we walk in the fields. We are generally
inclined, perhaps, to overlook the beauties that
are every day before us. We want something that
is dear bought, or rare, or far-fetched. If the Hous-
tonia had come from our antipodes in Australia, or
from some tropical region, and were difficult of cul-
tivation, I doubt not it would be a favorite. The
Violets come into flower at the same time ; and
notwithstanding their commonness, are generally
petted. There are many species ; I have found at
least eight, on my own httle farm. The largest and
most common violet in this town, the pedate, or
bii'd's foot, is often so abundant as to give to large
portions of our dry pastures a blueish purple ap-
pearance, that may be distinctly seen at a consid-
erable distance. This is slightly fragrant, as are
also the two white species that are common here.

We have three species of Andromeda, in Con-
cord, the earliest of which, (Andromeda caliculata,)
flowers in April. It grows chiefly in wet, boggy
places, is a small evergreen shrub, and forms its

356

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

flower buds in autumn. They appear on the un-
der side of the slender stem, at the axils of the
leaves. The flower is white, shaped much like
that of the blueberry. Stems of this plant taken
in February, or March, and kept in water in a
warm and light room, for a week or two, will flower
nearly as well as in the open air, later in the sea-
son. We have had the flowers, thus produced, all
through the month of March. There is another
species, (Andromeda polifolia,) a smaller plant,
with narrow, bluish-green leaves, and bearing at
the tip of its stem a drooping cluster of white
flowers tipped with red ; very beautiful, and also
very rare. I have only seen it in one small
shaking bog at the south-west part of the town.

The Convallaria, or small Solomon's seal, with
its cluster of snow-white flowers at the top of its
short stift* stem ; the Trientalis, exhibiting on its
slender stem, starting from a whorl of green leaves,
a flower of such pearly whiteness that it might
well be adopted as an emblem of purity. These
thrive best in cool and moist shady places. In
such situations they grow in great abundance, and
are very beautiful then.

The Fringed Pohjgola, a fine purple flower
growing on a short stem, has a beautiful appearance
mingled with the young grass in May. It grows
by the road-side in the southwest part of the town,
and more abundantly in other places not so read-
ily found. Likes a rather moist soil.

The Bhodora is not, perhaps, common enough
to have been seen by all, yet it is well diff'used in
this neighborhood. It is a bright purple flower,
appearing before the leaves, late in May, in most
places. This flower suggested a fine poem, to Mr.
Emerson, in wliich he thus apostropliises it.

"Rhodova ! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,

Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,

Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.

Why thou wert here, rival of the rose !

I never thought to ask, I never knew ;

But in my selfsame ignorance, suppose

The self some Power that brought me here, brought you,"

The Cranesbill Geranium, a showy and deli-
cately beautiful flower, is one of the most common
ornaments of the moist and partially shaded bord-
ers of our swamp lands ; begins to blow about the
middle of May, and continues through June. —
Many flowers less beautiful than this are culti-
vated in our gardens. Perennial.

The bulbous Arethusa, a rich purple flower,
growing single on a leafless stem in many of our
wet, mossy swamps, should have a Avord of praise,
though all who have seen it will agree that it
carries its own recommendation in its face. I was
upon the point of expressing regret that it had
not a green leaf of its own, but am not sure that
it does not now better harmonize with its mossy
surroundings. Last of May.

The Lcdiwi, or Labrador tea, is a small ever-
green shrub, growing in cold bogs, and has a pretty
cluster of small white flowers. It belongs to the
far North, or to mountain regions, and has been
found in only one small swamp in Concord, and in
no other place within many miles. The leaves
have a rusty appearance, rolled back on the edges,
wooly on the under side, and possessing a strong
odor, resembling that emitted by an angry wasp.

The Linncea is another rare flower, found here
in only two small patches. The plant is a slender
evergreen vine, creeping among the leaves in shady

woods. Its small nodding flowers are veiy fi-a-
grant. It was a special favorite with Linnaeus,
and chosen by him, in preference to all more
showy and ambitious candidates, to bear his name.

The Harebell, (Campanula rotundifolia,) named
and praised by all the poets, has not been found
growing wild in Concord, but is common in Essex
county and the eastern part of Middlesex. I have
a plant in my own private little garden, and am
much pleased with its past performance and pres-
ent promise. Last Summer it hung out its blue
bells about the end of June, and continued in
flower through September.

The Mitclidla, also often called twin-flower, ia
another very pretty inhabitant of the shady woods,
common everywhere. It is a trailing vine, peculiar
in having two perfect flowers united at the base
on one germ, the two flowers producing only one
bright scarlet berry, which remains on the vine
through the winter, and even after the new flow-
ering in June. Also called checkerberry and
partridge berry. m. p.

Concord, June 15, 1862.

AMERICAN POMOIiOGICAIi SOCIETY.

In conformity with a Resolution adopted at the
last meeting of this National Association, the un-
dersigned. President thereof, gives notice that its
Ninth Session Avill commence in the Hall of
THE Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
corner of Washington and West Streets, Boston,
Massachusetts, on Wednesday, Sept. 17th, 1862,
at 12 o'clock, noon, and will continue for several
days. AH Horticultural, Pomological, Agricultu-
ral, and other kindred institutions in the United
States and the British Provinces, are invited to
send Delegations as large as they may deem ex-
pedient, and all other persons interested in the
cultivation of Fruits are invited to be present, and
to take seats in the Convention.

The present season promises to be the most
propitious for Fruit that has occurred for many
years, and it is anticipated that the coming ses-
sion, which takes place at the same time with the
Annual Exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticul-
tural Society, may be made one of the most inter-
esting which has ever been held by the Society.
All the States and Territories are urgently invited
to be present, by Delegation, at this meeting, that
the amicable and social relations Avhich have here-
tofore existed between the members of the Socie-
ty may be fostered and perpetuated, and the re-
sult of its deliberations, so beneficial to the coun-
try at large, be generally and widely diff'used.

Among the prominent subjects to be submitted
at this session will be the Report of the S])ecial
Committee appointed to revise the Society's Cata-
logue of Fruits, and thus to ascertain what varie-
ties are adapted to the different sections and dis-
tricts of our country. The various State and Lo-
cal Committees who have not already made their
Reports on the Revision are, therefore, solicited
to forward them, without further delay, to P. Bar-
ry, Esq., Rochester, N. Y., Chairman of said
Committee. And it is further requested, that all
other Reports, which are by the By-Laws made
returnable to the General Chairman of the Fruit
Committee, now deceased, may also be addressed
to Mr. Bakry, as aforesaid.

Members and Delegates are requested to con-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

357

tribute specimens of the Fruits best adapted to
their respective districts — to furnish descriptions
of the same, their mode of cultivation, and to com-
municate whatever may aid in promoting the ob-
jects of the Society and the science of American
Pomoh>gy.

Each "contributor is requested to come prepared
■with a complete list of his collection, and to pre-
sent the same with his Fruits, that a Report of all
the varieties entered may bo submitted to the
meeting as soon as practicable.

All persons desirous of becoming members, can
remit the admission fee to Thomas P. James,
Esq., Philadelphia, or the President, at Boston,
■who will furnish them Avith the Transactions of the
Society. Life Membership, Ten Dollars ; Bienni-
al, Two Dollars.

Packages of Fruits maybe addressed as follows :
"Ameiucax PoMOLOGiCAL SociEiT, care of Mass.
Hort. Society, Boston, Mass."

'^L\RS^ALL P. Wilder, President.

Thomas W. Field, Secretary.

Fur the New England Farmer.
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION,
BY JUDGE FRENCH.

In 1837 a Commission for the Zoological and
Botanical Survey of Massachusetts was ordered
by the General Court. To Dr. Thaddeus William
Harris was assigned the department of Lisects,
and his report was first published in 1841, at the
expense of the State. In 18-52, the first edition
having been exhausted, a second was published,
under the direction of the author, enlarged and
improved by him, and in 1859, by a resolve of the
Legislature, the Secretary of the Board of Agri-
culture was directed to issue a third edition, Avith
additions and with illustrations which were want-
ing in the former editions.

We have before us, as the result, perhaps the
most perfect and reliable work of the kind ever
published. In point of mere mechanical execu-
tion, paper, engraving, printing and binding, the
book is said, by competent judges, to be equal, if
not superior, to any other volume ever published
in America. Indeed, the State edition, with its
tinted paper and embossed cover, seems designed
rather for the parlor table, than the hard hands
of the farmer.

The hundreds of wood and steel engravings,
now first published, have been executed under the
direction of Prof. Agassiz, and by him carefully
compared with living specimens, and Mr. Secre-
tary Flint has availed himself of the first talent
in the country to make the work honorable to the
State.

The publishers, Crosby & Nichols, have re-
cently issued an edition less expensive than the
first, from the same plates, with colored illustra-
tions, and in all respects like the other, except in
the cost of paper and binding. This edition is

pnlri !»t ^^-^ r<f\ o r.r>rnr nnri aUVirviiorli nnlv of nhnnt

half the cost of the State edition, is as elegant a
volume as any man ought to make common use of.

HOW MANY INSECTS THERE ARE.

An English entomologist has stated that on an
average there are six distinct species of insects to
one species of plants. Mr. Harris thinks there
are four to one in America, and that as there are
1200 flowering plants in ^Massachusetts, it is fan-
to estimate 4800 different species of insects in
this State, This will furnish excuse enough for
the omission, to any reader, who shall find some
specimen of an insect which has not sat for its
portrait in this collection. Mr. Harris modestly
entitled his work a treatise on sovie of the in-
sects injurious to vegetation, and the attempt has
been made throughout to inform the reader of
tlie habits of such as are most common and most
destructive. Such a work is invaluable to the
farmer and fruit-grower. We can only arrive at
the means to defend ourselves against such pests
as the canker ■v\-orm, the curculio and the wheat
flies, by carefully studying their habits and meth-
ods of reproduction, and with all that art and sci-
ence can do for us, we shall always find warfare
with those enemies to be a condition of success.

PROPENSITY TO DESTROY EACH OTHER.

Mr. H. W. Beecher said, when some one desired
some solution of the doctrine of natural depravi-
ty, that it was of less importance to know how
sin got into the world, than how to get it out ;
that if a man saw a pig in his garden, his first
business was to drive him out, and not to sit down
and speculate on the question of how he got there.
Why all animals were created with a propensity
to bite, and worry, and devour other animals, is
not very plain, but the fact is manifest that if, in
Adam's fall, we sinned all, the beasts and insects
shared in the general wreck. The fact that the
birds devour the insects, and that some insects,
harmless to us, are destructive enemies of our
■worst foes, is of practical daily use, and one of
the great problems in life is to know how to dis-
tinguish friends from foes. That crows pull up
corn, and that robins eat cherries, are uni)leasant
circumstances to some of us, but whether these
birds do not earn their living by devouring nox-
ious insects and worms is another question. We
have seen a man shoot a whole brood of orioles
from nests that had hung on the old elm by the
house for a generation, because they destroyed
his green peas. He said they did it solely for
mischief, for they merely shelled out the peas and
left them. We thought if he knew as ■well as we
did how many pea grubs he ate with his peas, and
that the orioles only wanted the grubs, he would
be willing the poor birds should have their share
of them.

Not nnlv do birds rlps^^vo'^' inipftq. bnt evprv in-

358

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

sect seems to have some mortal foe, some evil
spirit, as it were, ever in close pursuit of him.
Plant lice, for instance, are savagely slaughtered
by the innocent looking little beetle, called the
lady-bird, as they are also by several species of
fly. Kirby says that he found it very easy to clear
a plant or small tree of lice, by placing upon it a
few larvae of these flies. If we only knew fully
the habits of the various insects, no doubt we
might train up packs of hunters that would take
the track of plum weevils and canker worms, and
hunt them to death, as hounds follow a fox ; but
the difficulty is, as before suggested, that we do
not know friends from foes. There is a world-
wide difference between a patriot and a secesli, but
they look so much alike, that frequently we mis-
take and fire on our friends.

DOR-BUGS, PEA-BUGS AND ROSE-BUGS.

These may be set down as unmitigated rascals,
with some others already alluded to. We use
their common New England names, which are
neither elegant nor accurate. The dor-bug does
more mischief than is generally known. The grub,
which is a white worm, with a brownish head, de-
vours the roots of grass and other plants, often
destroying lai-ge tracts of the latter. In Europe,
the cockchafer, which is of the same class, has at
times been destructive of all vegetation for miles.
About seventy years ago, a farmer in Norwich, in
England, with his men, gathered eighty bushels of
these beetles, and the English societies for many
years off'ered premiums for the best account of
this insect, and the means of checking its ravages.
The common dor-bug is frequently destructive to
the foliage of cherry and other fruit trees. They
may be effectually checked by shaking them off at
night, upon sheets. They may then be destroyed
with boiling water, and fed to swine. They may
be better gathered early in the morning, when
they do not attempt to fly.

We would not be so unfeeling as to publish
what we know about pea-bugs, were it not so easy
to guard against them. If you examine early
green peas on the table, you will often find on
them a whitish spot, under Avhich is a small mag-
got, which when properly boiled and buttered, is
perfectly healthful, and no doubt very nourishing ;
but as many prefer their meat served up in a sep-
arate dish, it is well enough to know how to effect
that object. The pea-bug is usually planted in
the pea. About the time the j)ea is half-grown in
the pod, she comes up from the ground, punc-
tures the pod and deposits in it opposite each pea,
an egg, which hatches and becomes a grub, and
works its way into the pea, and if not eaten green,
is transformed into the weevil, which remains
quietly in place till the next spring. Now, if you
will put the seed peas into water nearly boiling.

the weevils will all die, or come out, or if the peas
are kept over one season, the weevils will not sur-
vive. If weevils are planted, they are sure to
come up. As they fly very well, they may come
to us from our neighbor's grounds, but if market-
men should find that their customers paid more
for green peas free from grubs, they would soon
destroy them by some of the means suggested.

The rose-chafer, or rose-bug, is sometimes a
great scourge not only upon the rose, but upon
the grape also. The eggs are deposited about four
inches under ground, where they hatch in autumn,
descend below frost for the winter, ascend again
in spring, and stop near the surface, where the
grub becomes a pupa, and in June, at about the
time of the first blooming of roses, assumes the
final form of a beetle, digs its way up to the sur-
face, and enters upon all such mischief as its evil
nature prompts. The only method of destroying
them is by picking or shaking them off, and pul-
ing them into boiling water. A few days of per-
severing effort will reduce their numbers, and give
the roses a ftiir chance.

We advise our readers to study carefully Dr.
Harris's Treatise, both for pleasure and for prac-
tical, useful knowledge, and at the same time to
carefully study from nature the habits of the in-
sect tribes.

VOICES OF ANIMALS.

There is a chapter in the natural history of
animals that has hardly been touched upon as yet,
and that will be especially interesting with refer-
ence to families. The voices of animals have a
family character not to be mistaken. All the can-
idtC bark and howl. The fox, the wolf, the dog
have the same kind of utterance, though on a
somewhat different pitch. All the bears growl,
from the white bear of the Arctic snows to the
small black bear of the Andes. All the cats miau,
from our quiet fireside companion to the lions,
and tigers, and panthers of the forest and jungle.
This last may seem a strange assertion ; but to
any one who has listened critically to their sounds
and analyzed their voices, the roar of the lion is
but a gigantic miau, bearing about the same pro-
portion to that of a cat as its stately and majestic
form does to the smaller, softer, more peaceful as-
pect of the cat. Yet, notwithstanding the differ-
ence in their size, who can look at the lion, wheth-
er in his more sleepy mood, as he lies curled up
in the corner of his cage, or in his fiercer moments
of hunger or of rage, without being reminded of a
cat ? And this is not merely the resemblance of
one carnivorous animal to another ; for no one
was ever reminded of a dog or a wolf by a lion.
Again, all the horses and donkeys neigh ; for the
bray of the donkey is only a harsher neigh, pitched
on a different key, it is true, but a sound of the
same character, as the donkey himself is but a
clumsy and dwarfish horse. All the cows low,
from the buffalo roaming the prairie, the musk-ox
of the Arctic ice-fields, or the jack of Asia, to the
cattle feeding in our pastures. Among the birds
this similaritv of voice in families is still more

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

359

marked. We need only recall the harsh and noisy
parrots, so similar in their peculiar utterance. Or
take, as an example, the web-footed family. Do
not all the geese and the innumerable hosts of
ducks quack ? Does not every member of the
crow family caw, whether it be the jackdaw, the
jay, the magpie, the rook, in some green rookery
of the old world, or the crow of our woods, with
its long, melancholy caw, that seems to make the
silence and solitude deeper ! Compare all the
sweet warblers of the songster family — the night-
ingales, the thrushes, the mocking-bu-ds, the rob-
ins— they differ in the greater or less perfection of
their note, but the same kind of voice runs through
the whole group. — Agassiz.

Fur the New England Farmer.
POOR AND RICH LAND.

Messrs. Editobs : — After having resided in
different towns in four different counties in New
England, for more than 75 years, and making
such observations on farmers and farming, on rich
land and on poor land, as I was able to do, I have
come to the following conclusions :

First, that industry, economy and good calcula-
tions are absolutely necessary, and of main impor-
tance, on any kind of land, in conducting a farm.
The next consideration is for the farmer to select
good land if he can, but if destiny has decided
his lot, (as it will upon the greater number,) to
settle upon poor land, let him make the best he
can of it. Here, in New England, we find several
varieties of what is called poor land, as well as va-
rieties of rich land. Large tracts of pine plains,
swampy lands, barren knolls and mountain tops,
constitute the poor lands. Large swells, covered
with hard wood growth, or from where hard wood
has been removed, with alluvial valleys, and some
other varieties, are considered as a class belonging
to rich lands.

Farmers that settle upon the rich lands, under
good management, get larger crops than those do
on the poor soil, we suppose, as a matter of course,
but when we take into consideration the extra
amount of labor necessarily expended on strong,
hard land, sometimes stony, more than what is re-
quired to cultivate the pine plain land, the result
as to profit would be doubtful. On strong, hard
land, 40 or 60 bushels of corn to the acre, in New
England, has been considered a fair crop, and on
the plains, from 30 to 40 bushels. Corn is but an
item, our marketable crops are roots of various
kinds, hay, wood and lumber, apples, pears, cran-
berries and other fruits, and when we come to look
at the lands most favorable to these productions,
we find many of them included in the category of
poor lands. I have lived in four or more differ-
ent towns composed of strong, hard soil, some of
it predominating with clay. I have lived in towns
where a thin, porous, plain soil, predominated, the
land easily cultivated, and susceptible to manure
with advantage. I have observed that in towns
consisting of strong, compact soil, that hay was
the staple, or principal commodity, and that wood
was of very tardy growth, if it would grow at all,
and that farmers complained bitterly, after selling
their hay and fruit, to be obliged to spend the
money, thus obtained, for manure, or let their
fields run to barrenness, and I have seen many ex-

cellent farms, in other respects, that did not pro-
duce wood enough to supply the houses with fuel.
These strong land farms, situated upon beautiful
locations, make a splendid show, and are more
saleable than farms consisting of boggy, peat land,
cranberry meadows, sandy plains and growing for-
ests, that will produce a crop of wood and lumber
once in from 25 to 40 or 50 years. The advanta-
ges of the strong, heavy soils, are their aptitude
to produce hay and feed for cattle, apples, and
some other kinds of fruit, and heavier crops of
some kinds of grain and roots, than usually grow
on light land, with the important consideration of
its being a more saleable article.

On the other hand, the pine plains and boggy
land produce peat for fuel, cranberries, the king
of fruits, without manure, wood in rapid succes-
sion, bog-hay, better than nothing, good, soft wa-
ter, a privilege worth more than a thousand acres
of prairie, with poison water, and also respectable
crops of grain, fruits, roots and other productions,
under a less laborious cultivation than is necessary
on the stiff, strong soils.

I have seen numerous hard wood farms, or
farms originally covered with hard wood, pleasant-
ly located in the county of Essex, many of them
now almost destitute of wood for fuel. I have
been acquainted with numerous farmers and farms
in the county of Middlesex, the farms consisting
of the level, pine plains, swamps and bog-mead-
ows, and it is with difficulty that I can decide
which of the parties is best off. Those on the
hard land farms sell hay, butter, fruit of some
kinds, beef and vegetables. Those on the pine
land farms sell wood, lumber, cranberries and oth-
er fruits, some beef, butter, and various other lit-
tle commodities in common to both kinds of soil.
As far as I have investigated the conditions of
both classes of farmers, I have been inclined to the
opinion that the class of farmers living on the
plains have fewer mortgages to remove from their
lands, and more ready cash on hand for purposes
of convenience, and that their land is more easily
cultivated, if their crops are not so abundant to
the acre. I have supposed the farmers on both
kinds of soil to be equal in industry, economy and
skill. Silas Buown.

North Wilmington, Mass., 1862.

THE IRISHMAN IN IRELAND AND IN
AMERICA.

The Irishman when he expatriates himself to
one of those American States loses much of that
affectionate, confiding, master-worshipping nature
which makes him so good a fellow when at home.
But he becomes more of a man. He assumes a
dignity which he never has known before. He
learns to regard his labor as his own property.
That which he earns he takes without thanks, but
he desires to take no more than he earns. To
me personally he has, perhaps, become less pleas-
ant than he was. But to himself! It seems to
me that a such a man must feel himself half a
god, if he has the power of comparing what he is
with what he was.

It is right that all this should be acknowledged
by us. When we speak of America and of her
institutions we should remember that she has giv-
en to our increasing population rights and privi-
lesres which we could not give — which as an old

360

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

country we probably can never give. That self-
asserting, obtrusive independence which so often
wounds us, is, if viewed aright, but an outward
sign of those good things Avhich a new country
has produced for its people. Men and women do
not beg in the States ; they do not offend you
with tattered rags ; they do not complain to Heav-
en of starvation ; they do not crouch to the ground
for half-pence. If poor, they are not abject in
their poverty. They read and write. They walk
like human beings made in God's form. They
know that they are men and women, owing it to
themselves and to the world that they should earn
their bread by their labor, but feeling that when
earned it is their own. If this be so — if it be ac-
knowledged that it is so — should not such knowl-
edge in itself be sufficient testimony of the suc-
cess of the country and of her institutions ? —
America, by Anthony Trollope.

For the New England Farmer.
LITTLE THIKTQS:
Or, a Walk in My Garden,
the plum tree,
Two essential things are necessary in the suc-
cessful cultivation of the plum. The first is, to
give them a chance to grow about as thriftily as
possible, and then carefully head in the year's
growth at least one-half, in order to force out a
quantity of fruit spurs. I generally see this ne-
glected among farmers, and the consequence is,
we have a few long barren limbs, when the whole
top should be covered with these spurs. I raised
a bushel and a half of plums two years ago from a
small tree. It bore just as many as could find a
place to hang on the tree. Nurserymen under-
stand these things, and so should farmers who buy
of them. Plum trees that are highly cultivated,
will, in bearing years, blossom profusely, and be
more than a match for the curculio to puncture
them all, while those which grow in grass plots
and receive little cultivation are pretty sure to be
destroyed. It is better to depend upon a few
crops from a tree at a high rate of cultivation,
than to look for a small crop and a long life. So
far as my opinion goes, the farmer who only wish-
es for a few trees should have only two or three
of the most productive and hardy sorts. These
are the Lombard, Imperial Gage and Jefferson
Plum. These will ensure good crops if anything
will. Fancy cultivators may increase the number
of varieties indefinitely. But who is that man
yonder, just entering the garden gate ? O, it is
one whom I have long pictured to myself as

A CONTENTED MAN.

I have a friend whom I, for a long time, have
looked upon as a contented, and, consequently, a
happy man. He is not a wealthy man ; nor has
he acquired fame in civil or military life, and fall-
en back into a happy retirement. He is a shoe-
maker ; and I have looked at him as he worked
on his bench with the feeling that there was such
a thing as one contented man in this world. He
had a good education ; had travelled extensively,
and wrote poetry worthy of more than a passing
notice. He touched the guitar most delicately,
which, with his voice, caused breathless silence to
all within hearing. For a change, he would spend

an hour with the pencil, and transfer to canvas
some mountain or cottage scene. Stepping into
his shop, I have conversed with him on all these
subjects to which allusion has been made, and
found in him my teacher, and a man of the finest
sensibilities.

My first thought was that of wonder, that my
friend should take up, keep and be satisfied with
his occupation, but I soon reasoned myself into
the belief that he was a real philosopher, and knew
better than I how to be happy. He was an ex-
cellent workman, and had the confidence and pa-
tronage and good will of everybody. I therefore
came to the conclusion that he was a contented
man. He was attentive to his religious duties,
and recognized the claims upon him, from what-
ever source they came.

Matters went on in this way for some time,
when, all of a sudden, I was surprised to hear that
my philosophical friend had sold out his stock,
and had resolved to enter one of the learned pro-
fessions ! I seated myself in a chair and fell into
a strange reverie upon the uneasy condition with
which mankind is so universally affected. Still I
learned one valuable lesson, that in any position
in life there may be a cultivated mind and heart,
a dignity and honorable character which will com-
mand the respect of the public. I cannot say that
my friend was wrong in his course ; but he must
bid adieu to all personal comfort, and transfer it
all for the benefit of others.

Happy the man that is contented with his lot,
and who can pass through the whole year without
at any time repining at his condition. Where can
such a man be found ?

P. S. Since writing the foregoing, I learn that
he is not intending to change his occupation, but
that he is gone out West where he can make more
money ! Moreover, he is not married.

HOMINY ALL THE YEAR ROUND.

While adjusting a self-shutting gate to my gar-
den the other day, a neighbor came along and put
the strange question, "Do you love hominy?"
"Yes," I replied, "but I don't see it at this time of
year." "You can have it as well now as in au-
tumn," said he. So he told me how to have hom-
iny all the year round.

Take your corn and put it into water at night
just so as to wet it, take it out immediately, and
the next day tell your miller to grind you some
hominy. That is all. As this may be new to
some, 1 give it for the benefit of every lover of
hominy.

While looking over my orchard to-day I have
been reflecting on the subject of

SPRING PRUNING,

which I have practiced in the same orchard for
thirteen years past. My conclusions are these. If
a tree is pruned in spring, it will certainly bleed
and be of little value. Exceptions to this may
sometimes be seen in trees of a vigorous growth
when the leaves seem to elaborate all the sap and
they do not bleed. But how is it when the
wounds are protected ? Formerly I covered the
wounds with grafting wax, but the wood is liable
to rot beneath in l.\rge trees, and I now paint
them with yellow or red ochre and linseed oil, and
the wood becomes hard and heals readily. Are
there any physiological effects different in their

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

361

influence on the tree when pruned at different
seasons ? I know of none. My practice now is to
paint every wound, no matter how small the tree.

The editor of the Farmer advocates August
pruning. But let us see. I find in the spring
that a large limb has winter-killed. Now, if I let
that remain till August before I saw it oft", where
will be the line of demarcation between the living
and dead parts. If I cut it in the spring, the new
wood begins at once to form over the wound ; if I
leave it till August, one year must be lost, and I
am inclined to think that, if a dead limb remains
dui'ing the summer, the body of the tree be-
comes more affected below the dead branch than
if removed, just as the mortification in a toe will
communicate its poison to the trunk. These are
plain, practical questions, and rather lead the mind
of those most experienced in these matters not to
be too tenacious of any fixed course, but to adapt
their practice to circumstances. I have proposed
these questions without feeling absolutely certain
that I am right. I ask for light. N. T. T.

Highland School, Bethel, Me., June 6, 1862.

Remarks. — Where does the editor of the Far-
mer "advocate August pruning?" AVe do not re-
member to have done so, but have recommended
pruning from the fifteenth of June until midsum-
mer, because the sap has then — in a great meas-
ure— ^been withdrawn from the stem and large
branches of the tree, by the leaves, and compara-
tively little is left to flow out when the tree is cut.
If the work was neglected in June, then, we say,
prune in the autumn, after the leaves have fallen,
because at that time the tree is in a comparative
state of rest, and wounds then made will rarely
bleed.

Not being able to finish pruning last June, in a
neglected orchard, we continued the work into
November, removing a large number of limbs that
should have been taken away two or three years
earlier. This spring, and up to the present time,
hundreds of these wounds have been carefully ex-
amined, and with two exceptions only, they are
dry and hard, and present all the usual indica-
tions that they will rapidly heal over.

We are glad to notice, all about us, that sum-
mer pruning is becoming common, instead of do-
ing the work in ilarch, April or May.

A Hint that may be Generally Taken. —
A friend informs us that at a concert which took
place in a town that shall be nameless, last Fri-
daj'^ evening, a gentleman in the audience rose up
just as the third piece on the programme had been
performed, and said : "Mr. Conductor, will you
oblige me, sir, by requesting your vocalists either
to sing louder or to sing in whispers, as there is a
conversation going on close by where I sit that is
conducted in such a loud tone as to entirely liin-
der my enjoyment of the music. I prefer, cei'-
tainly, to hear the concert ; but if I cannot be so
privileged, I desire to hear the conversation."
There was an extremely quiet and attentive audi-
ence in the hall during the rest of the evening.

For the New England Farmer.
FARMERS AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Mr. Editor : — It is sometimes interesting and
amusing to learn from correspondents what is ex-
pected of farmers, who, pre-eminently, live by the
sweat of the brow. When a person has learned
to distinguish a crow from a robin, or a hawk from
a dove, a grasshopper from a house-fly, a butter-
fly from a mosquito, a flea from a spider, a toad
from a frog, or an elm from an apple tree, he at
once sets up to exhort farmers to study Natural
History, urging the absolute necessity of their be-
coming thoroughly acquainted therewith, in order
to succeed well in growing potatoes, turnips, corn,
wheat and grass. What help docs the farmer, for
example, well versed in entomology, derive there-
from on a visitation of the caterpillar, the palmer
worm, the canker worm or the army worm, over
his unread neighbor ? Are not his fields and or-
chards as liable to their visitations as those of his
neighbor who makes no claim to a knowledge of
tliis department of natural history ? When these
learned doctors in entomology are applied to for
relief from the depredation of insects, is it ob-
tained ? Let those who have tried to obtain it,
answer.

It does not follow, because a farmer cannot sys-
tematically name birds, quadrupeds, reptiles and
insects, coming under his observation, that he
knows nothing about them. Observation gives
farmers a good practical knowledge of the habits
of the animal pests that frequent their fields, or-
chards and gardens. When a learned D. D. says^
"Farmers hardly know a chipping sparrow froiEi
an owl," he shows himself as ignorant of farmersy
as they, forsooth, are of his transcendental specus'
lations in metaphysical hypotheses. Everybody,
almost, seems ready to echo the charge that faiia^
ers are a terribly ignorant class of men. It has
been truthfully said, that "It takes wisdom to see
wisdom, knowledge to discover knowledge." In
view of this old saying, let these learned pundits
first prove their claim to being wiser and more
learned than farmers. Until they do it by some
more conclusive way than that of accusing farm-
ers of ignorance, I, for one, shall pity them rather
than feel annoyed by their impertinence.

I claim for farmers, as a whole, that they under-
stand their business as well as any other industri-
al class ; and in confirmation of this, allow me to
state what no man can controvert, that they pro-
duce many times moi-e personal and national
wealth than all other industrial classes,.while it
is true, beyond successful denial, that the number
of farmers is many times greater than tliat of all
other business men, yet the number of bankrupts
among farmers is very much smaller than that
found in the other classes of men engaged in mer-
cantile and other manual labor pursuits.

While I would not object to a farmer's getting,
all the knowledge he can, as he journeys on, in
regard to all subjects for which he has taste and'
leisure, yet I would not impress him with the no-
tion that he cannot farm, and farm profitably, too,
without being an Agassiz in the Natural History
of Animals, or a Gray in Botany, or a Hitchcock
in Geology, or a Dana in Mineralogy, or a Liebig
in Organic and Agricultural Chemistry. As well
might one maintain that a minister, lawyer or doc-
tor is unfit to practice liis profession until he first

362

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

makes himself thoroughly master of, and conver-
sant with, the curriculum of knowledge, or to
maintain that a person cannot enjoy health, until
he is thoroughly conversant with a knowledge of
anatomy and physiology. Farming is an art, and
those who practice it as such, are they who have
been the best and most successful farmers, and
have accordingly made the most money. Let in-
telligent farmers beware of "professional igno-
rance," says one practical Farmer.

THE VALUE OF COAL ASHES AND
CINDERS,

Coal ashes are, as a general thing, thrown away
and thought a nuisance. But after some experi-
ence I am inclined to take a different view of the
matter.

It may be, and undoubtedly is the case that
they are less valuable than those derived from
wood. The ash of coal contains gypsum, lime
and phosphoric acid, but its main bulk is com-
posed of insoluble silica. I have found coal ashes
to be very useful in the peach orchard ; in the fall
they should be spread around the root of the tree
at the rate of a good-sized wheelbarrow load to
each tree, and spread some five inches thick at
the trunk, and sloping off gradually all around ;
the ashes should be allowed to remain in this po-
sition until the tree is out in blossom, when they
should be spread over the orchard. I consider
that I have derived much benefit from this plan,
and would account for it in the following manner.
We all know by experience that a large pile of
coal ashes will retain the frost much later than
common soil — the ashes at the trunk of the tree
(as I have proven by experiments,) retain the
frost later in the spring, and prevent the ti-ees
from coming out in bloom too soon. Another
good effect is that ashes thus applied will keep off
the peach worm, which is often so destructive to
the trees. Besides these mechanical advantages,
coal ashes contain substances which are beneficial
to vegetation of all kinds. Last winter I kept a
portion of coal ashes under shelter until the ground
was well frozen, when they were spread as before;
if the effect should be thereby changed, I will re-
port at the proper season. This system will apply
as well to other fruits as to the peach. I have
tried it with the same success on apple, pear and
cherry trees.

If coal ashes produced no other advantage than
the mechanical one of loosening the soil, they
would still be valuable. But the following anal-
ysis, by Prof. Norton, proves them to be valuable
as a manure. He found one hundred parts of ash
from white ash coal, without any wood ashes from
kindling, contained of

Insoluble silica 88.68

Soluble 0.09

Alumina 3.36

Iron 4.03

Lime 2.11

Magnesia 0.19

Soda 0.22

Potash 0.16

Phosphoric acid 0.20

Sulphuric acid 0.86

Chlorine 0.09

Those who advocate the application of iron to
peach trees will find another reason for my suc-
cess in the amount of that substance contained in
coal ashes.

One of my neighbors has for many years ap-
plied coal ashes to his potato patch as a preven-
tive of rot, and has not since been troubled with
rotten potatoes. He retains the same piece of
ground several years in succession, and applies
coal ashes in large quantities each year. He at-
tributes his success to the loosening or mechani-
cal effects of the ashes, but I attribute his and my
own success in this line to early planting and early
digging.

As to whether it will pay to buy or haul coal
ashes far, I cannot say, but by the above analysis
we see that nearly ninety pounds in every one
hundred is of no value as a manure ; that the
whole potash from one ton of coal ashes would
amount to but three pounds, which may be ob-
tained at a cost of twenty-five cents ; the sulphuric
acid w^ould amount to but eighteen pounds in the
ton, and would cost but about sixty-two cents.
Apart from the insoluble matter the ashes would
be as valuable as some of our patent fertilizers. —
Agricola, in Oermantown Telegraph.

For the New England Farmer,
"SPREADIN'O MILK."

Your New Hampshire correspondent "M." says
he has a valuable heifer whose milk spreads very
badly, and inquires whether there can be any rem-
edy. I have often heard of this imperfection, and
though I cannot call it a failing that should induce
a farmer to dispose of a good cow, as some have
done, it is surely a source of much annoyance to
the milker.

There can be a remedy for this in most cases,
unless there is a natural imperfection in the orifice
of the teat, in which case it may possibly be out-
grown. I cannot tell what may be the cause in
this particular case, but I should advise our friend
"M," to make an examination, if he has not already
done so, and, if he can find out the cause of the
difficulty, it can, most probably, be reraided
Sometimes a disagreeable spattering is caused by
a scratch, or sore, on the end of the teat ; this can
be easily cured by a salve which almost every fam-
ily keeps in the house — Redding's Russia Salve.
This, by the way, I think is the best salve for fam-
ily use in the country.

This spattering is also caused by a fault which
the milker is prone to get into, that of leaving the
cow's teats wet after milking. This seems to be
but a trifling matter, but in hot, dry weather it
has a tendency to dry up the teats, the orifice be-
comes partially filled up, and what "M." calls
"spreading" of milk follows. P. Paige.

South Hampton, N. H., June 19, 1862.

A Smuggler's Trick. — A novel way of smug-
gling is reported in the French papers. A watch-
maker of Alencon having lately offered some Swiss
watches at exceedingly low prices, was asked how
he could afford to sell them so cheap. "O, that
is simple enough," he replied ; "I bought them of
a wild beast showman who had just come from
Switzerland." Before leaving Geneva he bought
a quantity of watches, which he concealed under
the litter of his lions' cage. It is hardly necessary
to mention that the Custom House officers at the
frontier did not venture to search there for con-
traband goods.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND PARMER.

363

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Illustrated Horse Doctor. Being an accurate and de-
tailed account of tlie various Diseases to which the Equine
Race are subjected ; together with the latest Mode of Treat-
ment, and all the requisite Prescriptions. Written in plain
English, and accompanied by more than 400 pictorial Illustra-
tions. By EDWAnn Mathew, U. K. C. V. S. riiiladelphia:
J. B. Lippiucott & Co., 1S62. For sale by George L. Dix &
Co., Boston. Piice $2,00.

A person -who loves the Horse, who studies his
wonderful construction and adaptation to the wants
of man, and who feels a new dignity and power
when he sits upon a noble charger or has a pair of
mettlesome steeds in hand, can alone appreciate a
good horse, or knows how very few there are wor-
thy of the term. Few persons are awai-e of the
difficulties they must encounter, before they can
secure a horse that is of the right size, of the right
temperament, one that is elegant in form and ac-
tion, and capable of great endurance, if a case of
necessity should arise to test his power. Unless
occupied with some thought or care that is all-
engrossing, we never pass a horse without giving
him a critical notice, however brief that notice
niav be — and we sincerely believe that nine out of
ten of them— both in city and country — are only
remarkable for some physical defect, or some dan-
gerous habit, alike perilous to both man and
beast. They are mean, beyond description, com-
pared with what they might be under a proper
course of breeding and treatment ; they are knock-
kneed, have corns, splint, albugo, bots, broken
wind, canker in the foot, colic, horse distemper,
fircy, diabetes, curb, contraction of the foot, fistu-
la, poll-evil, glanders, founders, heaves, mange,
rheumatism, ringbone, sandcrack, roaring, get
bone, bog and blood-spavin, blind staggers, stran-
guary and lockjaw, tlu-ush, wind-galls and waits,
and forty other diseases, that oppress and torment
the poor animals a thousand times more than all
the labor they ought to perform ! What a fright-
ful catalogue of disea.ses, to be visited upon one
of the noblest animals — both in structure and dis-
position— which God has placed in our care, to
subserve our wants or gratify our pleasures!
Poor brute ! Never was another so beset with
evil, or treated with so much inhumanity.

There are two principal causes for all this, viz,:

1. Breeding from old and diseased animals ;

2. The injudicious and harsh treatment which
they receive.

It has long been a practice, and is a wide-
spread one, to breed from aged and imperfect
mares — mares that have been excellent animals,
but are full of age and the imperfections that a
large proportion of all horses acquire before ar-
riving at the age of twenty years. One, for in-
stance, has had crooked knees for ten years, an-
other the spring halt, and another a capped-hock
or the heaves. She is past serviceable labor in
the field or on the road, and as the kind master

is stUl desirous of making her profitable to him,
he turns her over in old age to the pains of partu-
rition, and just work enough in the plow or cart
to pay for her hay and grain. This is done by
thousands, who never think that these defects may
be entailed upon the progeny of these mares, and
thus a race of ill-formed, ill-mannered and com-
])aratively worthless horses is perpetuated. For
the purpose of breeding, the young or middle-
aged of both sexes should be selected — and these
should be of the best form, and possessing as
many of the best qualities as can be found in a
single animal. When these precautious are ob-
served, we shall have a race of young horses to
start with that will produce the finest animals, un-
der a proper course of management.

The next prolific source of poor horses, is the
injudicious, harsh, and very often cruel treatment,
which they receive. Colts are put to work too
young; pressed to the extent of their power, both
in speed and draft, too frequently ; and when fa-
tigued or heated, are left in the storm or cold, or
a draft, where agues and cramps are contracted
that contintie with them through life. They are
often urged to turn suddenly and rapidly, which
strains or breaks some of the nice organism, as in
the case of splint or spavin. They are hampered
with unnecessary and injurious harness, such as
tight check rein and blinders, which leave them
with imperfect vision, and their supple limbs tied
and tormentetl into every shape but a natural one.
These are all wrong, and the book whose title we
have introduced at the head of this notice, under-
takes to correct these errors — and not only this,
where these faults have brought their legitimate
fruits in lameness and disease, it teaches us how
to cure and recover, as far as judicious treatment
and veterinary skill is able. It is, probably, the
best book that has ever been published in relation
to the horse.

For the New England Fanner.
THE BAROMETER.

There seems to be a variety of opinions about
the value of this instrument to the farmer, some
placing implicit reliance upon it as a weather-indi-
cator, while some, consider its teachings so uncer-
tain, as to be of no practical value. These differ-
ences of opinion are probably due to three causes,
namely, more or less care and judgment in ob-
serving its indications, in connection tviih the sea-
son, direction of icind, &c. ; difference in action
of the instrument itself in different localities, and
difference in expectation of what it was capable of
doing before obtaining it.

From the extravagent statements of some who
had tried it, many were led to believe that it would
tell them, with unerring certainty, when it would
rain, and when it would be fair, and that, if the
barometer did not indicate rain, they could go on
with haying or harvesting with impunity, in spite
of every other appearance of rain, and when dis-

364

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

appointed in this, condemned the whole as a hum-
bug.

I have owned one of Timby's barometers nearly
two years, and for one year of that time, have ob-
served it carefully, several times a day, and have
taken every opportunity to converse with those
who have tried them, including at least one sea
captain, and all seem to agree that judgment and
careful observation, not only of the barometer, but
of other indications, are indispensable requisites in
its use, and that it is much more reliable in some
places, than in others, owing, I suppose, to moun-
tains which intercept currents of air. 1 think it
generally gives little or no indication of a north-
east storm, while a storm from the south, is gen-
erally preceded by a foil of the mercury, and a
thunder shower is usually indicated by a rapid
sinking, frequently of half an inch or more, depend-
ing, however, some upon whether the shower is
to be followed by wind. Saturday, May 31, the
column in the barometer fell slightly, and rose
again during the night, which, I believe, is not
generally considered to indicate rain, but on Sun-
day afternoon we had rain enough, with south-
west wind, to have interrupted haying or harvest-
ing, the mercury falling little more than a tenth,
some time after the rain commenced, a very
moderate thunder shower coming on Monday, fol-
lowed, however, by very warm weather and little
wind. During yesterday, Tuesday, June 3d, and
last night, the mercury rose nearly four-tenths, the
night being quite rainy, Avith a prospect of a long
storm ahead, wind north-east. In some instances
a barometer, a few miles from here, in a much
more elevated position, has indicated rain several
hours sooner than mine.

But to make the story short, I conclude that in
a locality like this, whoever buys a barometer
trusting for fair weather when the mercury rises,
and expecting rain when it falls, will so often
"catch a tartar" as to better off without it ; but
that with the aid of considerable experience and a
good stock of "gumption," it may be made quite
useful. Wm. F. Bassett.

Ashfield, June 4, 1862.

A Fine Rain. — On Friday evening, the 27th
of June, at about 7 o'clock, a dark cloud com-
menced rising directly in the north, and soon as-
sumed the grandest proportions. It was as black
as midnight, and rose majestically towards the ze-
nith, but gradually sweeping eastward until a new
current brought it directly overhead, whence it
spread in every direction, until the whole horizon
was shut in by it. It gave audible notice of its
coming from its appearance in the north, and as
it approached and passed, the grandest and most
brilliant fire-works were displayed, greatly en-
hanced by the rich baritone of the rolling thunder.
The rain fell fast in great drops, which, with the
lightning and thunder, and a lively breeze, gave
the beholder a vivid manifestation of the power of
Him who conducts and "rides upon the storm."

Never run into debt without a reasonable prob-
ability of aolvina- it at the time aareed.

THE BOBOLINK.

The verses which we give below are not inap-
propriate at the present time, when this delight-
ful singing bird has just arrived from his Southern
quarters. They were published in one of the early
numbers of the Atlantic Monthly, and were greatly
admired by the editor, J. R. Lowell. Mr. J. J.
Piper, of the Fitchburg Reveille, has pronounced
them the best Bobolink song extant. To enter
into the spirit of these verses, the reader should
be familiar with some of the peculiar habits of the
Bobolinks. These birds never sit still upon a
branch, like other birds, while they are singing.
As soon as they begin to sing, they take flight,
and poise themselves upon the wing, as the Eng-
lish Larks are said to do, except that, as the Lark
while singing is moving upwards, the Bobolink is
moving in a horizontal direction. Frequently in
an old orchard in the country, which is laid down
to grass, there are from ten to a dozen pairs of
these songsters ; and the male birds, during the
latter part of March and the whole of June, are
constantly hovering over the field apparently in
concerted action, as in an aerial dance, vieing \vith
each other in the loudness of their notes, and the
gracefulness of their quivering flight. For a full
account of the musical habits of these and other
native singing birds, we refer the reader to a se-
ries of five articles "On the Singing Bird and their
Songs," by the author of these verses, commenced
in the Second Volume of the Atlantic Monthly. —
Saturday Evening Gazette.

THE O'LINCON PAMILY.

BY WILSON FLAGG.

A flock of merry singing birds were sporting in the grove,
Some were warbling cheerily, and some were making love ;
There were Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, Conquedle ;
A livelier set were never led by taber, pipe or fiddle ;
C'rj-ing, "Phew, shew, Wadolincon, see, see, Bobolincon,
Down among the tickle-tops, hiding in the buttercups !
I know the saucy chap, I see his shiny cap.
Bobbing in the clover there ; see, see, see !"

Up flies Bobolincon, perching on an apple-tree.

Startled by his rival's song, quickened by his raillery.

Soon he spies the rogue afloat, curv'etiug in the air.

And merrily he turns about and warns him to beware !

" 'Tis you that would a wooing go, down among the rushes 0 !

But wait a week, till flowers are cherry ; wait a week, and ere

you marry,
Be sure of a house wherein to tarry I
Wadolink, Whiskodink, Tom Denny, wait, wait, wait."

Every one's a funny fellow ; every one's a little mellow.
Follow, follow, follow, o'er the hill and in the hollow !
Merrily, merrily, there they hie ; now tliey rise and now they fly ;
They cross and turn, and in and out, and down in the middle

and wheel about,
With a "I'liew, shew, Wadolincon ! listen to me, Bobolincon !
Happy's the wooing that's speedily doing, that's speedily doing,
That's merry and over, with the bloom of the clover !
Bobolincon. Wadolincon, Winterseeble, follow, follow me I"

0, what a happy life they lead, over the hill and in the mead !
How they sing, and how they play ! See, tliey tiy, away, away !
Now they gambol o'er the clearing ; offagain and then appearing ;
Poised aluft on quivering wing, now they soar and now tliey sing:
'>0 let us be merry and moving I 0 let us be happy and loving ;
For when the mid-summer has eome, and the grain has ripened

its car,
The haymakers scatter our young, and we mourn for the rest of

the j'ear !
Then Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, haste, haste,

1862

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

365

For the New England Farmer.
AGOING TOO FAST.

\Vlio is agoing too fast? Why, that hair-
brained fellow, driving that carriage, and in dan-
ger of upsetting the carriage, killing himself and
two girls he has with him, beside spoiling horse
and carriage. This crazy fellow is not the only
one who is in danger from fast driving. "Agoing
too fast" is an epidemic of the age ; farmers, me-
chanics, and those of many other occupations, are
in danger, as well as that go-ahead, enterprising
diiver of the carriage. Though farmers are in less
danger of fast driving than traders, speculators
and manufacturers, yet, occasionally, we see one
driving a little too fast. Peleg Go-ahead had a
farm left to him by his grandfather, containing
about 250 acres of intervale and other respectable
land. Before his grandfather died he had been a
clerk in a grocery store. Soon after he came in
possession of this valuable farm he said he did not
intend to plod along just as his grandfather had
done, who only left fifteen or twenty thousand
dollars, "but it was in him, and he meant to do
something." So he commenced operations early
in the spring by hiring all hands that offered their
services, without much scruple about wages ; and
with this motley gang of colors and dialects he
went ahead, driving business, plowing and sow-
ing, reaping and mowing, to the end of the first
year. Being somewhat in the habit of book-
keeping, he found himself rather in the rear after
paying off his hands and taxes, but determined to
make it up by doing more business. The next
year he made a more vigorous effort, hired more
help at high wages, and astonished his neighbors
to see what a business man could do. Without
going into many particulars how he enjoyed him-
self with his span of dapple greys in riding out
with his young wife, and how his variety help
spent their time when he was away, be it enough
to state that at the end of the third year, instead
of imitating his plodding grandfather, the spirit of
his grandfather had the spectacle of seeing his
farm struck off under the hammer to the highest
bidder for the accommodation of Peter's creditors.

Describing solitary cases of fast driving would
give but a feeble view of the reality. Fast driv-
ers may more consistently be classed in groups to
represent facts. In one of our large manufactur-
ing villages the lives of men and property wasted
in hurried speculations would compare with the
destruction caused by war ; hundreds of men
were made paupers, and not a few of them died of
consumption, broken hearts and brain fevers. I
do not state these remarks without some personal
knowledge of the facts. That insane desire to
gain property fast has been the destruction of a
vast many of our enterprising business men, and
has been the cause of stagnation in business and
dull times, little inferior to the calamity of war ;
instead of getting rich they make themselves and
others poor. Silas Beown.

Mtnks as Ixsect-Catciiers. — A correspondent
of the Rural New- Yorker, who seems to make a
business of raising minks for their fur, relates the
following in regard to their catching grasshoppers
and bee-moths : Two years ago last Majr, I caught
seven young minks. I made a pen of boards near
my bees, twelve feet square, and put them in it.

About the first of July, grasshoppers would occa-
sionally sail in, and they would jump and catch
them very quick. It soon became sport for boys
to catch grasshoppers and throw them on the side
of the pen, to see the minks jump and catch them.
Hearing the same jumping at night, I went out to
see what was going on, and I found they were
catching millers. The millers were so thick about
my bees, that I could catch about thirty or forty a
night in a pan of buttermilk, and now I have no
millers about my bees. My minks cannot climb a
rough board fence four feet high. They have
young once a year — from five to eleven — and be-
fore I take off their pelts, I keep them in the dark
for about one month, to make them dai'ker than
the wild ones.

CULTIVATION OP CLOVER FOR
FODDER,

Farmers who have kept, and themselves fed, a
variety of stock, sheep, horses, oxen and cows,
both dry and in milk, are pretty much of one
opinion, we believe, as to the value of clover hay
for such stock, viz : — that when it is well groicn
and properly secured, it is more valuable than any
other hay. Such, certainly, is our opinion, after
having fed it extensively, and particularly to
sheep. In a recent conversation with Mr. John
Day, of Boxford, who cuts large quantities of
clover, he stated that he feeds most of his clover
hay to cows giving milk, and he has noticed that
when the clover is exhausted, and herdsgrass and
red-top are supplied, twenty cows immediately
shrink two cans of milk per day ! We have heard
similar statements from other observing farmers.
If, then, clover hay is so excellent for produc-
ing milk, it must also be good for making flesh,
and especially excellent in promoting the growth
of young stock.

Our object in this writing is to learn the opin-
ions of brother farmers,

1. As to the best kind of clover for New Eng-

land farms ?

2. What is the best mode of producing it ?

3. How should it be cured and packed away?

4. Is there any way in which a fair crop can be

taken, annually, from land devoted to or-
charding ?

These questions are asked, in the hope that
many of our intelligent correspondents will reply
to them in articles for publication, as many per-
sons are desirous to engage more extensively than
they have ever done, in the cultivation of clover.

The question as to the best manner of cultivat-
ing orchards, is a perplexing one. All the pro-
cesses, the plowing, furrowing, cultivating, and re-
moving the crops, are dangerous ones to the trees,
and the expense of the labor is materially in-
creased by the impediments which the trees offer.
If there is any way in which a crop of clover could
be taken off annually without frequent plowing,

366

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

AVG.

it seems to us that with a top-dressing of com-
post each year, in the autumn, or, perhaps, once
in two years, the trees would be abundantly sus-
tained by the aid of the dressing and that drawn
from the constantly decaying roots of the clover
plants. Can it be done ?

Under such a course could not the specific ma-
nures, such as plaster, guano and superphosphate
of lime, be used more advantageously, even, than
on our corn and potato crops ? Clover plants do
not sward over and bind the surface of the soil as
do herdsgrass, red top, and some other grasses, —
and, therefore, the action of the atmosphere and
the rains would be much quicker upon the soil
than it is where these grasses prevail — and this
would be favorable to the trees. "We hope to hear
from those who have had experience in these mat-
ters, or who will offer opinions upon them-

For the New England Farmer.
A WONDERFUL DISCOVEBY.

This is an age of discovery, invention, and I be-
lieve, of progress. In almost every department of
knowledge, science, and art, discoveries of vast
importance have been made, which were never
dreamed of in the philosophy of the ancients.
Scarcely a daily public journal is issued which does
not contain news of a sudden and remarkable ad-
dition to the stock of human knowledge ; or, that
somebody has done, or is going to do, some aston-
ishing thing. But the reader, if he "takes the pa-
pers," knows all this and a great deal more, hence
a longer prelude is unnecessary. I will come at
once to the point, and tell him something which
he (possibly) does not know.

A very important discovery has recently been
made in the realm of science — the science of law,
or jurisprudence. What can it be ? says one.
Have they discovered that viiglit is right, or that
law and justice should not go hand in hand ? The
following facts will show that this guessing comes
very near the truth.

A few months ago, the savans, or rather the of-
ficials of the Fitchburg Railroad Co., discovered
that the corporation were not obliged by law to
build, or keep in repair fences on the line of their
railroad ; or to pay damages for killing a stray
animal of any kind ; and, furthermore, that who-
ever is unfortunate enough to have a horse, ox,
or cow slaughtered upon their track, is liable to a
fine of twenty dollars ; and if, by the collision, the
train is thrown from the track and smashed up
generally, the owner of the animal which caused
the obstruction, must jiay all the damages to cars
and wounded passengers, even if it takes the whole
of his property to foot the bill !

The company have taken this stand not because
there is an express law which exempts them from
building, repairing fences, and paying damages,
but upon the ground that there is an absence of
any law compeling them thus to do.

There is a section in the statutes of Massachu-
setts which says that all companies which have
built railroads since the year 1846, shall build and
keep in repair lawful fences upon both sides of the

track and pay to the owners the full value of cattle
which have broken through the fence and been in-
jured or killed.

As the Fitchburg railroad was built previous to
that year, the company have decided that they
are exempt from the law, and in accordance with
this decision have issued circulars to the land-
holders upon the line of their railroad, to the above
effect. A friend of mine who owns land upon this
road, recently had a valuable cow killed upon the
track in consequence of a defect in the fence. He
went to the president of the road expecting to re-
ceive the value of the animal, but was told, that
as the company had adopted this new measure,
he could not make up the loss. He went to an able
lawyer, but was advised not to prosecute the com-
pany, for the law was against liim. So the matter
stands. AVhy this sharp-sighted and over-hearing
company did not make this discovery sooner, and
apply it to practice, is one of the wonders of the
age. When the land was purchased for the con-
struction of the road, the owners sold it to the
company with the express understanding that the
company should build and maintain the fences,
pay damages, &c. ; but a very few wise old heads
ferring there might be a loophole of escape, had
an express provision, with regard to the fences,
made in the deeds which they gave.

This provision, the knowing ones say, cannot be
dodged. I do not believe that there is a jury of
fair-minded impartial men in the State who would
sustain the Fitchburg company or any other, in
the course they have taken. It is not only mean,
but wicked and abominable. It is hoped that a
united effort will be made during the sitting of the
next Legislature, to have the law, which obliges
railroad companies that have been formed, or
have built railroads since 1846, to build and keep
in repair fences, &c., so modified as to include oil
rail-roads built previous to that time.

South Groton, June, 1862. S. L. White.

P. S. Since writing the above, I have been in-
formed that the charters of the railroad companies
which were formed previous to the year 1846, ex-
empt the companies from building and maintain-
ing fences ; and that these charters cannot be al-
tered. If this is the fact, it may be that the good-
ness of the Fitchburg Railroad Co., and not their
ignorance, has caused them to fence tlx;ir road,
and pay damages. "Praise to whom praise is
due." s. L. w.

Stoddard's Horse Rake. — We are daily re-
ceiving inquiries by letter and otherwise, to learn
where tliis rake can be obtained. In a letter from
Mr. Stoddard, the inventor, dated June IS, he
says that "Messrs. J. W. Green & Co., of New
Brain tree, Mass., are manufacturing it and have
the conti'ol of it for the present."

It is on sale by Messrs. Parker, Gannett &
Osgood, 47 Blackstone Street, Boston.

Cribbing Horses. — Hitch the horse in the
middle of the floor, and high up, so that he cannot
bite any thing, till he forgets this habit, which will
not require many days to accomplish. He should
be fed from a basket hung on his head during the
time. — Rural New-Yorker.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

367

THE AGE OF OUK EARTH.

We extract the following from Agassiz's article
on "Methods of Study iu Natural History," in the
May number of the Atlantic Montlihj :

Among the astounding discoveries of modern
science, is that of the immense periods wliich have
passed iu the gradual formation of our earth. So
vast were the cycles of time preceding even the
appearance of man on the surface of our globe,
that our own period seems as yesterday when
compared with the epochs that have gone before
it. Had we only the evidence of the deposits of
rocks heaped above each other in regular strata,
by the slow accumulation of materials, they alone
would convince us of the long and slow maturing
of God's work on the earth, but when we add to
these the successive populations of whose life this
world has been the theatre, and whose remains
are hidden in the rocks into which the mud or
sand, or soil of whatever kind on which they lived,
has hardened in the course of time — or the enor-
mous chains of mountains whose upheaval divided
these periods of quiet accumulation by great con-
vulsions— or the changes of a dift'erent nature in
the configuration of our globe, as the sinking of
lands beneath the ocean, or the gradual rising of
continents and islands above it — or the wearing of
great river beds, or the filling of extensive water
basins, till marshes first, and then dry land suc-
ceeded to inland seas — of the slow growth of coral
reefs, those wonderful sea-walls raised by the lit-
tle ocean-architects whose own bodies furnish both
the building stones and the cement that binds
them together, and who have worked so busily
during the long centuries, that there are extensive
countries, mountain chains, islands, and long lines
of coast consisting solely of their remains — or the
countless forests that must have grown up, flour-
ished, died and decayed to fill the storehouses of
coal that feed the fires of the human race to-day —
if we consider all these records of the past, the in-
tellect fails to grasp a chronology for which our
experience furnishes no data, and the time that
lies behind us, seems as much an eternity to our
conception as the future that stretches indefinitely
before us.

PliEASANT NEIGHBORS.

One's pleasure, after all, is much afl"ected by the
quality of one's neighbor, even though one may
not be on speaking terms with them. A pleasant,
bright face at the window is surely better than a
discontented, cross one ; and a house that has the
air of being inhabited is preferable to closed shut-
ters and unsocial blinds, excluding every ray of
sunlight and sympathy. We like to see glancing,
cheerful lights through the windows of a cold
night, or watch them, as evening deepens, gradu-
ally creep from the parlor to the upper stories of
the houses near us. We like to watch the little
children go in and out the door, to play or go to
school. We like to see a white-robed baby danc-
ing up and down at the window, in its motlier's
arms, or the father reading his newspaper there at
evening, or any of those cheerful impromptu
home glimpses, which, though we are no Paul
Pry, we will assert make a pleasant neighborhood
to those who live for comfort instead of show. Sad,
indeed, some morning on waking, it is to see the

blinds down and the shutters closed, and know
that death's angel, while it spared our threshold,
has crossed that of our cheerful neighbor — sad to
miss the white-robed baby from the Mindow, and
see the little coffin at nightfall borne into the
house — sad to see innocent little faces pressed at
eventide against the window-pane, watching for
the "dear papa" who has gone to his long home.

For tlie Neio England Farmer.
SALT FOR BOSES.

Being in the vicinity of the United Society of
Shakers, at New Lebanon, N. Y., a few days
since, I called, as is my custom, to see their
fine gardens, learn something new, and enjoy an
hour of agreeable chat with my friends there.

In the garden, cultivated by George Curtis, I
discovered a large plot of roses just bursting into
beauty and fragrance. The leaves upon these
bushes were as fresh and as fair as though they
had been spread in Eden, before any insects had
been sent to blight the beautiful of our world. As
the rose bush pest was then in the midst of its har-
vest in other gardens, I inquired of my friend
Curtis how he escaped their visit. By giving the
ground salt, he replied, and that since he has done
it, he has not been visited by the pest. This salt
he sows among the bushes in early spring, and the
probability is that it destroys the egg of the insect
while in the ground.

He obtains refuse salt for garden purposes, such
as for roses, asparagus, &c., and deals it out lib-
erally. Its application, however, should not come
so near to pears or apple trees as to affect them.

Friend Curtis is very nice in all his garden oper-
ations, and among other things, he is experimen-
ting carefully and liberally with the grape, several
new varieties of which he has now in a state of
flattering progress. His favorite seedling has now
been in bearing some four years, and each yeai*
gives new testimony in favor of its excellent
qualities. Last year, although it suff"ered much
from a late frost, it was ripe September 20. The
vine is a very heavy bearer. He is slow in com-
mending it to the public, choosing thoroughly to
test it on his own grounds before he submits it to
the animadversion of critics, or the scandal of
grape-mongers. He has other seedlings that prom-
ise well, whose further developments he is anxious-
ly watching.

In this garden stands the original vine of the
"Northern Muscadine," that has survived so much
censure, and is now gradually gaining favor in
the good graces of amateurs ; — a beautiful vine,
whose bruising has only added to the fragrance of
its fruit and reputation.

Throughout this society I find abundant eff'orts
making in grape culture, and a success attending
them, which shows tliat we of the North, by a
little labor, may sit under our own vines and eat
the fruit thereof. Patient labor and unshaken
perseverance with them, have, to a good extent,
overcome the severity of our climate, and they are
n the yearly receipt of liberal reward.

STRAWBERRIES.

Friend Curtis showed me a bed of strawberries
two years from the seed. A very curious appear-
ance this strawberry bed presented. Leaves and

368

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug

fruit, of all sorts and sizes. I saw several stems
with fruit well worth cultivating, and from one root
he handed me, fruit which was famous in size, and
possessed in an eminent degree the peculiar flavor
and richness of the field or native fruit. He has
also a plantation of the Peabody, which were cul-
tivated in hills, and were well laden with noble
fruit.

THE SCHOOL-ROOM.

An invitation was proffered to visit the school,
at this season kept for the benefit of the younger
sisters in the community, but time would not al-
low me to indulge in this pleasure. I hope at a
future time to do so, as I am of the opinion, from
the general intelligence and noble deportment of
George's boys, that progressive education with
them is a fixed fact. They have introduced Harp-
er's series of readers, by Willson, into their school,
•which is evidence that they know what the best is,
and mean to make it available. W. Bacon.

Richmond, June 24, 1862.

THE HAYFIELD.

What man amongst us all, if he will think the
matter over calmly and fairly, can honestly say
that there is any one spot on the earth's surface
in which he has enjoyed so much real, wholesome,
happy life as in a hayfield ? He may have won
renown on horseback or on foot at the sports and
pastimes in which Englishmen glory ; he may have
shaken oflT all rivals, time after time, across the
vales of Aylesbury, or of Berks, or any other of
our famous hunting counties ; he may have stalked
the oldest and shyest buck in Scotch forest, and
killed the biggest salmon of the year in the Tweed,
and trout in the Thames ; he may have made top-
ping averages in first-rate matches of cricket ; or
have made long and perilous marches, dear to
memory, over boggy moor, or mountain or gla-
cier ; he may have successfully attended many
breakfast-parties Avithin drive of May Fair, on vel-
vet lawns, surrounded by all the fairy land of
pomp and beauty and luxury which London can
pour out ; he may have shone at private theatri-
cals and at-homes, his voice may have sounded
over hushed audiences at St. Stephen's or in the
law courts ; or he may have had good times in
any other scenes of pleasure or triumph open to
Englishmen ; but I much doubt whether, on put-
ting his recollections fairly and quietly together,
he would not say at last that the fresh-mown hay-
field is the place where he has spent the most
hours which he would like to live over again, the
fewest which he would wish to forget.

As children, we stumble about the new-mown
hay, revelling in the many colors of the prostrate
grass and wild flowers, and in the power of tum-
bling where we please without hurting ourselves ;
as small boys, we pelt one another, and the village
schoolgirls, and our nursemaids, and young-lady
cousins, with tlie hay, till, hot and weary, we retire
to tea or syllabub beneath the shade of some great
oak or elm standing up like a monarch of the fair
pasture ; or, following the moMcrs, we rush with
eagerness on the treasures disclosed by the scythe
stroke — the nest of the unhappy late-laying tit-
lark, or careless fieldmouse ; as big boys, we toil
ambitiously with the spare forks and rakes, or
climb into the wagons and receive with open arms

the delicious load as it is pitched up from below,
and rises higher and higher as we pass along the
long lines of haycocks ; a year or two later, we
are strolling there with our first sweethearts, our
souls and tongues loaded with sweet thoughts and
soft speeches ; we take a turn with the scythe as
the bronzed mowers lie in the shade for their short
rest, and willingly pay our footing for the feat.
Again, we come back with book in pocket, and
our children tumbling about as we did before
them ; now romping with them, and smothering
them with the sweet-smelling load — now musing
and reading and dozing away the delicious sum-
mer evenings. And so shall we not come back to
the end, enjoying as grandfather the love-making
and the rompings of younger generations yet ?

Were any of us ever really disappointed or mel-
ancholy in a hayfield ? Did Ave ever lie foirly back
on a haycock and look up into the blue sky, and
listen to the merry sounds, the whetting of scythes
and the laughing prattle of women and children,
and think evil tlioughts of the world or our breth-
ren ? Not we ! or, if we have so done, we ought
to be ashamed of ourselves, and deserve never to
be out of town again during hay harvest.

There is something in the sights and sounds of
a hayfield which seems to touch the same chord
in one as Lowell's lines in the "Lay of Sir Laun-
fal," which ends —

"For a cap and bells our lives we pay ;

Wc wear our lives with toiling and tasking ;
It is only Heaven that is given away ;

It is only God may be had for the asking.
There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer."

But the philosophy of the hayfield remains to be
written. Let us hope that Avhoever takes the sub-
ject in hand will not dissipate all its sweetness in
the process of the inquiry wherein the charm lies.
— Tom Brown at Oxford.

Sulphur for Mildew. — Sulphur is a cure for
most forms of fungus or mildew, if applied in time.
The cracking of the pear is undoubtedly caused by
a fungus, and I have great hopes that it will check
this great drawback to the culture of the Virgalieu
pear. The difficulty is to apply it so that the fruit
shall be dusted over with the sulphur. Syringing
the trees with a solution of sulphur is probably the
best method. By boiling for some time lime and
excess of sulphur together in water, we get penta
sulphuret of calcium — a compound containing
about eighty per cent, of sulphur. If this is largely
diluted with water, and the trees are syringed with
it, as the -water evaporates the sulphur will be left
on the leaves and fruit. I have great faith in this
plan, and mean to try it thoroughly. I boiled eight
pounds of sulphur and one of lime for several
hours. I then poured off the clear liquid and
added another pound of lime to the sulphur left at
the bottom and boiled again. — Genesee Farmer.

Mulch the Tomatoes. — The Gardener's
Montldij says : — "Tomatoes do best when suffered
to grow flat on the ground ; but in such cases the
soil should be covered with a mulch of straw or
litter to keep the tomatoes from getting soiled and
rotten by (lani]niess. Brushwood is an excellent
materal for them to lie on and they seem to thrive
well with it about them."

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

369

Fur the New England Farmer.

NOTES PROM THE MONOMACK,

BY SAGGAHEW.

Hints for Nurserymen. — It is quite com-
mon among nurserymen, in cases where they re-
ceive orders for any variety of tree, shrub or plant
they happen to be out of, to "substitute" some
kind that they have. If, for instance, a customer
orders the Doyenne d'Ete and Easter Beurre pear
trees, they send him the Brandywine and the Ep-
ine Dumas. (This was actually done the last
spring by one of our most distinguished and "re-
liable" nurserymen.) Now is there a single hon-
est reason for so doing ? We think not. It is
not a good excuse, even, to say that they send the
customer "something as near as they can" to the
article ordered, unless the customer expressly al-
lows them that liberty. In the case above men-
tioned, customers wanted those particular kinds,
and no others, and it was a perplexity, and a pe-
cuniary loss to the agent through whom the order
was sent. The latter did not recognize any obli-
gation, either express or implied, on the part of
the customers, to take what they did not order and
did not want, and he was obliged to sell the sur-
plus as best he could, and re-order of another
party. What would be thought of the merchant
who should venture to adopt such a practice in his
business ? We think he would soon find it "a
hard road to trabbel," and deservedly so. If all
customers hold the opinions of the writer, those
nurserymen who continue this bad practice will
in time find a falling off in their annual orders.

There is also need of a revision in the prices
which some of our nurserymen charge their cus-
tomers for packing goods ordered. We admit
that, in most cases, a charge should be made, but
we car. think of no good reason why a customer
should be asked to pay moi'e than a fair jjrice for
the material used, and the labor spent in doing it.
At prices in several cases charged the writer, any
common laborer, with a little practice, could easi-
ly earn $20 per day in packing, after allowing fair
prices for all materials used. A customer ought
not to be charged for taking up and collecting the
articles ordered, because the catalogue price, or
price agreed upon, covers this, by common con-
sent. If the nursery happens to cover a large ex-
tent of territory, or is cut up into lots more or less
distant from each other, it is no fault of the cus-
tomer, and he will be justified if he declines to
pay for such disadvantages under the plea of
"charges for packing."

Cutting back Newly Transplanted Trees
AND Vines. — It not unfrequently happens that a
tree, or vine, does not start well after it is set out.
It even refuses to start at all, and begins to "die
down" from the extremities, towards the roots. If
let alone, it will probably be entirely dead before
the summer is over. Sometimes a tree starts
quite feebly, and it seems doubtful if it will mus-
ter vitality enough to keep it alive. In these I
cases, also, if let alone, the chances are that death
will be the result. A large majority of such trees
can be saved, by simply cutting them back. The
writer has saved several such the present season.
In some cases, a severe shortening-in of all the
branches was sufficient, in others it was found
necessary to cut the whole tree back nearly to the

ground. By so doing, the remaining vitality is
allowed to expend its whole force upon a few buds,
which push with vigor, and soon sufiicient foliage
is secured to save the tree. Where a tree starts
at first, but afterwards falters, or where it fails to
develop foliage and yet the limbs appear to be
quite fresh, a severe cutting back will in most
cases be successful, even if performed as late as
July or August. This is particularly the case with
pear trees and grape vines.

KILLIWO KATS— A NOVEL TRAP.

The premises of a good many farmers are often
infested with rats, and we are often asked for
modes of destruction. A resident of Brooklyn is
vexed with an increasing family of rats that seem
to grow fat on arsenic and rat-exterminators. He
doesn't like rats, and refers his case to the Sun-
daij Times. That journal recommends a trap
made as follows :

"Take a mackerel bari'el, for instance, and fill
it to about one-third its height with water. Then
place a log endwise in the water, so that one end
of it will just remain above the surfiice. Make
the head of the barrel a little too small to fit, and
suspend it by two jiins to the inside of the top of
the barrel, so it will hang as if on a pivot and ea-
sily tip by touching either side. On this head,
thus suspened, secure a piece of savory meat.
The first rat that scents it, will, to get the meat,
leap on the barrel head. The head will tip, or
tilt, and precipitate him into the water, and re-
sume its former position. The rat in the water
will SM'im to the log, get on the end of it, and
squeal vociferously. His cries v.ill bring other
rats, all of whom will be tilted into the water, and
all of whom will fight for the only dry spot in it —
viz., the end of the log. As only one rat can hold
it, the victor will drown all the rest, and can, in
the morning be drowned himself. We have seen
twenty rats caught in one night by such a trick.

DISINFECTING AGENTS.

Now that the warm weather is upon us, our citi-
zens should thoroughly cleanse their premises,
rendering them as pure and healthy as possible.
We are convinced that a great portion of the dis-
ease so prevalent during the hot months in sum-
mer, is attributable to the accumulation of filth in
alleys and yards. There are a number of disin-
fecting agents which will be found efficacious in
removing offensive smells from damp, mouldy
cellars, yards, pools of stagnant water, decaying
vegetable matter, &c. Either of the following will
answer the purpose, while they cost but a trifle :

1. One pint of the liquor of chloride of zinc, in
one pailful of water, and one pound of chloride of
lime in another pailful of water. This is perhaps
the most effective of anything that can be used,
and when throw-n upon decayed vegetable matter
of any description, will effectually destroy all of-
fensive odors.

2. Three or four pounds of sulphate of iron
(copperas) di.^solved in a pailful of water will, in
many cases, be sufficient to remove all offensive
odors.

3. Chloride of lime is better to scatter about in
damp places, in yards and damp cellars, and upon
heaps of filth. — Scientific American.

370

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

LOSS OF MANUKB— FILTKATIOJSrS.

A correspondent who has read Avith great atten-
tion and interest our articles on Improvement in
Farming, asks, "If the soil is well pulverized to
the depth of two feet, so that water can pass free-
ly through, and below this there are drains ready
to carry off all the water not held by the soil, will
not the soluble parts of the manure applied near
the surface, and the soluble and the richest por-
tions of the soil, be carried off by these drains and
lost to the farmer and the crops ?" This is a very
natural and sensible inquiry, and shows that the
inquirer is one of those thinking men Avho is not
willing to adopt any plan without a full under-
standing of its effects. On this point, however,
there is no danger, for the water running from
pipes will be found clear and pure, no matter how
much or what may be the nature of the manure
applied. Even liquid manure may be given in
large quantities, and the water that filters through
will be found clear and pure. Soak the soil with
the dark brown drainings of the barn-yard, and
that which passes through to the drains will be as
clear as though just taken from the spring. Any
one can test this matter for liimself in a small
way, so that the question may be settled in his
own mind beyond question.

Among a series of experiments instituted by
Professor Way and H. S. Thompson, for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the power of soil to retain,
unimpaired in value, manures applied in winter,
and also its power to hold in suspension the fixed
ammonia in barn-yard tanks and manure heaps,
we learn that Mr. Thompson filtered through san-
dy loam, six inches in depth, ten grains of sulphate
of ammonia and ten grains of sesqui-carbonate of
ammonia, both dissolved in distilled water — the
one representing the ammoniacal matter of the
tank fixed by gypsum or sulphuric acid, and the
other the free ammoniacal solutions of the decom-
posed vegetable-matter of the barn-yard — and he
found that after passing through this thin stratum
of soil, only 2.4 grains of the sulphate of ammonia
resulted in the one case, and only 1.3 grains in
the other. When an eiglit-inch stratum of the
soil was used, the lohole of the ammonia loas re-
tained.

Professor Way subjected stinking tank water to
filtration through twenty-four inches of a light
loam, and the moisture at the foot of the tube was
perfectly free from smell, and a mixture of this
soil and white sand allowed the percolation of wa-
ter through it quite clear and free from ammonia.
With the drainage of a London sewer. Professor
W. found that the ammonia is separated from the
rest of the organic matter to the last fraction ; the
phosphoric acid is separated from its base, and so
is part of the sulphuric acid and all the potash ;
so that in fact the soil had selected and retained
those very principles of the sewer water which
science has decided to be the most valuable for
the purposes of manure.

Professor Mapes, in an article on this subject,
says — "It is impossible for manures in a fluid form
to filter downward through any fertile soil. Even
the brown liquor of the barn-yard will have all its
available constituents abstracted by the soil, be-
fore it descends into the earth thirty-four inches.
If this were not true, our wells would long since
have become useless, the earth's surface would

have become barren, and the raw materials of
which plants are made, which come from the
earth's surface and surrounding atmosphere, would
have passed towards the earth's centre ; but the
carbon and alumina of the soil, each of which haa
the power of absorbing and retaining the necessa-
ry food of plants, are agents for carrying into ef-
fect the laws of nature for the protection of vege-
table growth."

It is only in the most porous soils, containing a
good deal of gravel, that the manure will be
washed down out of the reach of the roots of
plants, and we venture the assertion that in no
fertile, and in fact in no soil that the farmer is ex-
pected to cultivate, may loss be apprehended from
this cause.

MANUFACTUKE OF CARPETS.

Within a comparatively few years past, several
improved kinds of carpet fabrics have been manu-
factured and come into extensive use. Among
these is the well known tapestry, which has been
brought to great perfection. The peculiarity of
this fabric is the unlimited number of shades or
colors that can be introduced so, that the most
elaborately- colored designs, with flowers and
scrolls, can be executed. The saving of worsted
is also very important in an economical point of
view. The appearance is the same, or similar, to
Brussels carpet, but the manufacture is more sim-
ple, each thread being colored separately at spaces,
with the various shades, as they follow each other
in the design. The process by which this is ac-
complished is beautifully simple and ingenious,
but requires much care in placing and arranging
the threads and putting them on the beam, or the
work will be imperfect. The patent Axminster is
another kind — the design of this manufacture be-
ing to give the beautiful appearance of Axminster,
or Tournay, at less cost. It has been very suc-
cessfully and extensively applied to the manufac-
ture of rugs, as well as carpets. Another descrip-
tion of carpets, having the same appearance of
Brussels, or tapestry, is also now much in use.
This kind is woven plain by steam power, and is
afterward printed by the same agency.

How TO Clarify Quills. — Cut off the small
top of the quill, tie them loosely in bundles, fix
them nearly upright in a sauce-pan of water, in
which a small piece of alum has been dissolved —
about the size of a walnut of alum, to a quart of
water ; let them boil slowly, until they become
clear ; add a little tumeric, or a small pinch of saf-
fron to the water, to give them the yellow color ;
dry them in the sun. You should tie paper round
the feather part of the quills, to keep them from
dust. You can increase the quantity of alum, ac-
cording as you wish the quills more or less brittle.
— Irisli Farmer's Gazette.

Wheat in Ohio. — The editor of the Spring-
field Ohio Daily Neuis, who has been taking "fine
carriage rides into the interior," says, "the soil is
mostly a stiff", cold clay, but we never saw wheat
look stouter and more thrifty. The stalks can
hardly hold the weight of the grain in the heads.
All other crops are also promising, and of fruit
there will be an enormous supply."

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

371

"AT THE LAST."

This beautiful poetry appeared, orisjinally, in the Independent,
written upon the passage, "Man goeth lorth unto his work, and
to his labor, until the evening."

The stream is calmest when it nears the tide.
And flowers are sweetest at tlje eventide,
And birds most musical at the close of day,
And saints divinest when they pass away.

Morning is lovely, but a holier charm
Lies folded close in Evening's robe of balm ;
And weary man must ever love her best,
For Morning calls to toil, but night to rest.

She comes from Heaven, and on her wings doth bear
A holy fragrance, lilie tlie breath of prayer ;
Footsteps of angels follow in her trace,
To shut the weary eyes of Day in peace.

All things are hushed before her, as she throws
O'er earth and sky her mantle of repose:
There is a calm, a beauty, and a power
That Morning knows not, in the evening hour

"Until the evening" we must weep and toil.
Plow life's stern furrow, dig the weedy soil,
Tread with sad feet our rough and thorny way.
And bear the heat and burden of the day.

O ! when our suu is setting may we glide.
Like Summer evening, down the golden tide,
And leave behind us, as we pass away,
Sweet, starry twilight round our sleeping clay !

LAMPAS I]Sr HORSES.

This is an imaginary disease, but one common-
ly believed in by grooms, and we are sorry to add,
by a great many well informed persons. If a
young horse refuses to eat, it is usually imputed
to the lampas, wliich is said to be a swelling of
the roof of the mouth back of the upper front
teeth, to such a degree that the animal cannot
chew its food. Then the awful remedy is present-
ed, of burning the part with a red-hot iron ! and
in many instances the cruel suggestion is put in
force with inhuman indifference and haste. This
terrible torture is often inflicted without the
slightest reference to the condition of the horse in
other respects — to the manner in which he has
been fed — what work he has been doing — or what
exposure he has experienced. No effort is made
to learn whether he has taken cold, and is fever-
ish, has eaten or drank heartily immediately after
a lively drive, or whether there are symptoms of
colic, or some injury has taken place to the mouth
or the jaws. No. It is lampas, and the red-hot
iron must be applied — nothing else will do.

Truly, the lot of the horse is a hard one, and if
we can do anything to alleviate it, to arouse men
to a more merciful consideration of the noble ani-
mal, we shall certainly feel happier every time we
see one.

Last week we noticed a new book upon the
horse, by Edward Mayhew^, and expressed the
opinion that it is the best work, probably, ever
AVi'itten upon the subject. Since that expression
was made, we have given the book still more care-
ful attention, and find abundant reasons for the

belief then expressed. Below, we copy a portion
of what the writer says in regard to the imagina-
ry disease of lampas in horses.

That affection is supposed to consist of inflam-
mation, which enlarges the bars of the palate and
forces them to the level of or a little below the
biting edges of the upper incisor teeth.

Would the groom take the trouble to examine
the mouths of other young horses which "eat all
before them," the "lampas" would be ascertained
to be natural development ; but the ignorant al-
ways act upon faith, and never proceed on inquiry.
Young horses alone are supposed to bo subject to
"lampas ;" young horses have not finished teeth-
ing till the fifth year. Horses are "broken" dur-
ing colthood ; they are always placed in stables
and forced to masticate diy, artificial food before
all their teeth are cut ; shedding the primary mo-
lars is especially painful ; of course, during such a
process, the animal endeavors to feed as little as
possible. A refusal to eat is the groom's strong-
est proof that lampas is present. But, putting the
teeth on one side, would it be surprising if a
change of food and a total change of habit in a
young creature were occasionally attended with
temporary loss of appetite ? Is "lampas" neces-
sary to account for so very probable a conse-
quence? The writer has often tried to explain
this to stable servants ; but the very ignorant are
generally the very prejudiced. While the author
has been talking, the groom has been smiling;
looking most provokingly knowing, and every
now and then shaking his head, as much as to say,
"Ah, my lad, you can't gammon me !"

Young horses are taken from the field to the
stable, from juicy gi'ass to dry fodder, from natu-
ral exercise to constrained stagnation. Is it so
very astonishing if, under such a total change of
life, the digestion becomes sometimes deranged
before the system is altogether adapted to its new
situation ? Is it matter for alarm should the ap-
petite occasionally fail ? But grooms, like most
of their class, regard eating as the only proof of
health. They have no confidence in abstinence ;
they cannot comprehend any loss of appetite ; they
love to see the "beards wagging," and reckon the
state of body by the amount of provision con-
sumed.

The prejudices of ignorance ai"e subjects for
pity : the slothfulness of the better educated mer-
its reprobation. The groom always gets the mas-
ter's sanction before he takes a horse to be cruelly
tortured for an imaginary disease. Into the hands
of the proprietor has a Higher Power intrusted
the life of his creature ; and surely there shall be
demanded a strict account of his stewardship. It
can be no excuse for permitting the living sensa-
tion to be abused, that a groom asked and the
master willingly left his duties to another. Man
has no business to collect breathing life about him
and then to neglect it. Every human being who
has a servant, a beast or a bird about his home-
stead, has no right to rest content with the asser-
tions of his dependents. For every benefit he is
bound to confer some kindness. His liberality
should testify to his superority ; but he obviously
betrays his trust and abuses the blessings of Prov-
idence when he permits the welfare of the crea-
tures dependent on him, to be controlled by any
judgment but his own.

372

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

The author will not describe the mode of firing
for lampas. It is sufficient here to inform the rea-
der that the operation consists in burning away
the groom's imaginary prominences upon the pal-
ate. The living and feeling substance within a
sensitive and timid animal's mouth is actually con-
sumed by fire. He, however, who plays with such
tools as red-hot irons cannot say, "thus far shalt
thou go." He loses all command when the fear-
ful instrument touches the living flesh ; the palate
has been burnt away, and the admirable service
performed by the bars, that of retaining the food
during mastication, destroyed. The bone beneath
the palate has been injured ; much time and much
money have been wasted to remedy the conse-
quence of a needless barbarity, and, after all, the
horse has been left a confirmed "wheezer." The
animal's sense being confused, and its brain agi-
tated by the agony, the lower jaw has closed spas-
modically upon the red-hot iron ; and the teeth
have seized with the tenacity of madness upon the
heated metal.

When the lampas is reported to you, refuse to
sanction so terrible a remedy ; order the horse a
little rest, and cooling or soft food. In short, only
pursue those measures which the employment of
the farrier's cure would have rendered imperative,
and, in far less time than the groom's proposition
would have occupied, the horse will be quite well,
and once more fit for service.

"NO MONEY ABOUT THE HOUSE."

There is probably no one class of citizens in
our State so completely "flat broke," as it re-
gards money, as are the "Cultivators of the Soil ;"
and yet they are at the same time the most "in-
dependent" and the most "wealthy."

A person unacquainted with the singular and
unwise management of the great majority of farm-
ers, would suppose they were all as poor as a
"church-mouse ;" and no doubt there are many
that are really poor by reason of misfortunes, and
some, also, (from a shiftless management,) deserve
to be poor, because they abuse their blessings.

There are hundreds of farmers that are ever
speaking of "hard times," "of low prices of grain,"
of the "ruin of the farmers," that there is "no
money," etc. ; and it is a notorious fact, they do
not have money, but run in debt for every neces-
sary of life, go miserably dressed, themselves and
children in many cases wanting the comforts of
life ; the wife, even, never touching a dime of
money, suflering for many needed and deserved
comforts, and yet "No Money in the House !"

We have seen their daughters going barefoot ;
and yet with all these "signs of poverty," the
same farmer would have 500, 1000, loOO, perhaps
2000 bags of wheat in the granary, "waiting a
rise," while his family and himself wanted the
comforts and necessaries of life. The wife, too,
who has toiled all the season, often beyond her
strength, hoj)ing "harvest-time" would bring com-
fort and ease; alas! poor woman ! the "Grain is
not sold," and you and the storekeeper must wait,
children go barefoot, the smile leaving your brow,
and probably some creditor, tired of waiting, will,
Shylock-like, strip the farm and homestead, and
leave you all to the cold pity of an unfeeling world.
And this because of that shiftless, miserable, wick-
ed plan of holding on to the crop, which should

always be sold to pay the debts incurred while
maturing it.

If our farmers would adopt the Cash System^
and buy and sell only for cash, they would find
that in a little time joy would be in the household,
and their own joy would prove to them that they
had discovered Aladdin's Lamp. — Exchange.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.
MANNY'S MOWER.

A statement made by Horace Ware of Marble-
head, of work done on his farm in the ordinary
way, in the season of 1856, by Manny's Mmcing
Machine.

1856.— June 24, l}^ acres, 2 hours, 3 tons per acre.

" " 30, 5 " m " 2 "

" July 1, 8 " 7 " Hi "

" " 2, 8 " 1% " 1 "

" " 7, 10 " 10 " 2 to 3 "

" " 8, 6 " m " 1 to 2 "

" " 9, 6 " 4 "2 "

" " 10, 4 " Z}i " 1 to 3 "

" " 14, 4>^ " 1 " 1 to 3 "

" " 16, 5,'a' " 3 " 1 to 2 "

" " 18, 2 " 1}^ " 1 "

" " 19, 5 " 4 " 2 "

" " 21, 10 " 9 " lto2 "

" " 22, 7 " 7 " lto2J^

" " 23, 5 " 4 " Kto2 «

" " 25, \yi " Hi " i^to2 "

" Sept. 15, 4 " 2,'^ " K "

Total,

93 acres. 76)^ hours.

Average of time, less than one hour to the acre.

H. Ware.

I find the foregoing data among my papers. I
remember to have viewed the ground as one of a
committee on mowing machines. I have entire
confidence that it is correct. I think it goes to
show very clearly the utility of such implements.
There may be other machines, which will do bet-
ter, but I have not seen them.

July 1, 1862. _ J. W. Proctor.

MUCK AND ASHES.

In the Farmer of May 21st some unknown
friend makes some statements in regard to my
farming. I think he must have misunderstood
me in some things, for instance, I do not consider
leached ashes worth much. In reply to W. J.
Pettee, I would say that I have experimented with
muck and ashes for more than twenty years. I
have tried it in the same field with stable manure
— half the field manured with six bushels of ashes
(or 36 lbs. of potash) to a cord of muck, and the
other half with stable manure, and aU the crops
were the best where the muck and ashes were ap-
plied. The muck was thrown out of the meadow
in the autumn, and the ashes mixed with it about
ten days before using. JoiiN Day.

Boxford, June 23, 1862.

THREE SPANISH MERINO BUCKS.

Messrs. C. C._ Smith and J. G. Fitts, of Corinth,
Vt., own three full blood Spanish Merino Bucks,
which sheared as follows : — One two years old,
twenty-two pounds ; next, two years old, eighteen
pounds, and the third, one year old seventeen
pounds ! Is not that a good Clip ?

Remarks. — Yes. The Vermonters beat all cre-
ation in fine horses and great "clips" of wool. —
There is no "great cry" and "little wool" in their
afl'airs.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

373

KICKING COWS.

I have noticed several receipts in your monthly
for preventing cows from kicking, some of which
may be good, but most of which are worthless, in
my humble opinion. If a cow is of a quiet, gentle
disposition, she will not kick if she is well used,
unless she has sore tits, or the milker's nails are
too long, or there is some other iiTitative cause for
it. But if a cow, through a vicious disposition or
constant bad treatment, once gets in the habit of
kiclving, there is but one sure remedy for it, and
that is" the trick the Yankee learned the Indian,
viz : cut her tail off close beliind her ears !

A. J. Aldrich.

North Blackstone, June, 1862.

LARGE FLEECES.

I saw a fleece of wool from one sheep the other
day that weighed 29^ lbs. I have heard of one in
Dorset, Vt., that weighed 33 lbs. I don't know
as these figures are very uncommon, but it struck
me they were.

There is a great drought here, and crops are
nowhere. HENRy O. Wiley.

North Granville, N. Y., June, 1862.

For the Neic England Fanner.
THE GBASS CROPS.

It seems to be the opinion of the best experi-
enced observers Avhom I have met, for the month
past, that there will be a small crop of grass, the
present season. They reason in this manner, that
during the winter and early spring, there was
much less rain than usual, that many spots were
winter killed, as it is called, by the long continu-
ance and close adherence of snow and ice to the
surface. Although the fields have a green and vig-
orous aspect, it will be found that the grass started
thin, and nothing has occurred, or is likely to oc-
cur, before the 4th of July to thicken it — when
mowing is expected to begin. Combining these
and other cosiderations, the farmer can only ex-
pect a limited reward for his labor, in these hard
times.

Besides, it will be found that many of the smart
boys, Avho would be better employed in handUng
the "shovel and the hoe," and in sharpening the
scythe, are gone to the marshes about Richmond,
and the swamps of Carolina, where, if they escape
laying their bones to moulder and decay, they
may be looked upon as lucky fellows. Essex.

June 24, 1862.

A GOOD "WOOD FOR THE SKUNK.
The American Agriculturist takes up the cud
gels in defence of the poor, despised, but seldom
kicked skunk, and gives him a good notice. Our
contemporary says :

All summer long he roams your pastures at
night, picking up beetles and grubs, poking with
his nose potato hills where many worms are at
woi'k. He is after the grubs, not the tubers. He
takes possession of the apartments of the wood-
chuck, who has quartered himself and family upon
your clover field or garden, and makes short work
with all the domestic arrangements of that unmit
igated nuisance. With this white-backed sentinel

around, you can grow clover in peace, and the
young turnips will flourish. Your beans will not
be prematurely snapped, and your garden sauce
will be safe from other vermin. The most care-
less observation of liis habits sho\vs that he lives
almost exclusively upon insects. While you sleep
he is busy doing your Avork, helping to destroy
your enemies. In any fair account kept W'ith him
the balance must be struck in his favor. Thus
among the animals we often find friends under the
most unpromising appearances, and badly abused
men are not unfrequently the benefactors of soci-
ety.

For the New Ensland Farmer,
CANBZER -WORMS— CROPS, &c.

Mr. Brown : — The canker worms have done
great damage in the eastern part of this county,
having, in many orchards, completely destroyed
all of the foliage, and in such cases the apples
have perished with the leaves. They appear to
congregate in large orchards the most, scattering
trees escaping mostly, or as a general thing.
What is the best way to destroy or check them in
their ravages for another year ? They have not
been in this town in any numbers for over forty
years. One of our oldest citizens informs me
that the 17th day of May, 1794, was a very cold
day, and the night following was so cold that the
ground froze quite hard. Previous to that it had
been warm, and the trees had blossomed ; the
canker worms were then in full blast, destroying
everything before them, but the cold and frost
killed every one, and left no descendants, so that
there were none here for years afterward.

I first observed them here on the 2d of June,
many on the leaves, and others going up on the
bodies and the large branches, from one-third
to three-fourths of an inch in length. On the 4th
of June I took an iron dish and put in one pound
of brimstone, and set it on fire under one tree and
smoked it completely. I could not kill them un-
less I held them almost into the "lake of fire"
spoken of by John the Revelator. I call them
fire-proof.

Grass looks about the same as last year ; there
will be about an average crop. In many places it
was winter-killed. One large former suggested
to me that it was owing to cutting the grass with
machines — the driving wheel, and cutting-bar dis-
turbing the roots and causing them to die. How
is that. Brother Mowers ?

Corn, potatoes and grain promise well thus far.
With industry, hope and patience, the husband-
man may expect a good reward for all his toil.
Would it be profitable to keep a litter of sucking
pigs with the sow till they would M'eigh 200 lbs.
alive, and sell them at 6 cts. per lb., and feed
them corn worth now 65 cts. ?

In "altering" one a few days ago the intestines
came out of the anus in length I should think four
or five inches. We held the pig up by his hind
legs, pressed them gently back, and with a needle
and thread, (linen,) took seven or eight stitches
through the skin ; it is now doing well. Another
case we had three or four years ago, which was
somewhat different. We took an "entire hog"
that would weigh about 125 lbs., which had but
one testicle that we could find. That was taken
out, and the butcher that had it said he would

374

NEW ENGLAND FAHMER.

Aug.

run all rlslt of its being strong. Afterwards, he
said that one-half of it was so bad that no one
could eat it, and we had to lose it — about a dozen
dollars. So much for not knowing what to do in
the first place. In dressing it, we found the other
testicle inside, lying close to the kidney, and of
full size.

P. S. I would state that the canker worms
"skedaddled" on the 14th and 15th inst., leaving,
like the rebels, death and destruction behind
them. Weare N. Shaw.

Kensington, June, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
ON FAKM ENGINEERIK-a.
BY ALBERT E. WOOD.
[Read before the Concord Farmers' Club, in January, 1862.]

An engmeer in the military art, — where the
word originated, I believe,— is a person skilled in
mathematics and mechanics ; one who forms plans
of work, both of offence and defence, marking out
the grounds for fortifications, &c. When this skill
was afterwards applied to the delineating plans
and superintending the construction of our public
works, such as canals, railroads, &c., the title of
civil engineer was given to it.

Now that the farmer is becoming alive to his
interests, he, too, claims an engineer ; he has ene-
mies to battle with ; he has works, both of offence
and defence, to construct. He need not, howev-
er, very often, go outside of himself, for this engi-
neering. No true farmer, with a mind alive to
his business, but has it within himself, if he choos-
es to apply it. Man's ambition says, Let us erect
this wilderness into a fruitful field ; let us make
upon it a fit habitation ; and it is the engineer in
the man that is called upon to do it.

A good location of our buildings, and their
proper construction, are the first considerations
requiring the engineer. In this latitude, we spend
a considerable portion of our lives in these build-
ings. Everything we do is in some way connect-
ed with them ; they are our outer bodies ; the
bodies to our bodies ; by them our degree of civ-
ilization may be judged. Everything dear to us
in life is connected with them ; in a word, they
are our homes. Youth, manhood, old age, are
bound to them by ties as dear as life itself. A
house is built for a lifetime. How important that
we do not plan it hastily.

No rules can be given for location or construc-
tion by which all can be governed. I will give a
few hints, however, that may generally apply.

A position as nearly central as possible should
be chosen, that the land we work upon may be
conveniently near ; a healthy location, as far as
possible from miasmatic swamps, yet not too high
upon a hill ; a convenience to water, where a good
well can be dug ; a running brook is, also, of great
use to both house and barn, especially so in lime
localities, where the well water is hard. Then
the relative position of our buildings should not
be lightly passed over, as it is a matter of great
convenience to have the barn near enough to the
house to be connected by a shed or other building.
Yet I think there are considerations that are
against this plan that more than balance this con-
venience. There is danger of greater loss in case
of fu'e ; our olfactories may sometimes be unpleas-

antly excited by too close connection ; the barn
and yard are nurseries for myriads of flies and
mosquitoes, who soon find their way to the dining-
room, and frequently take away the pleasures of
a good dinner, by presenting bills ! It is impor-
tant that the sleeping-room of the one having
charge of the barn should command a view of it,
and be sufficiently near to hear the bellowing of
the cattle in case of trouble.

There is another consideration, I think, often
neglected ; we are all, by nature, gifted with a
love of the beautiful.

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

And what more beautiful to us than a fine land-
scape ? This pleasure in life was given us as a
blessing ; let us consider it in the location of our
buildings.

A second consideration is, the dividing our land
into suitable lots to meet our several necessities.
It is curious to look over the farms in almost any
part of New England, and see what might be
called the want of engineering. Our forefathers
were straight-forward, stern, resolute, without
shadow of turning, as men, and it is a little strange
that they should have handed down to us their
streets and fences in such a crooked and wavering
condition. One might think they had a love for
geometry, and had attempted to represent upon
their farms every possible shape mentioned within
the leaves of Euclid, and a good many other shapes
that you might search Euclid in vain for. Look
at the line of our fences, and you see not only the
pot-hooks and trammels of our grandmothers, but
every variety of deviation from a straight line
represented.

The question ai-ises in my mind, What is the
need of all this irregularity ? It is a fact beyond
question, that a straight line is the shortest that
can be drawn between two points ; if a wall is to
be built between two points, why not have it a
straight one, and save labor ? I can see but one
reason why this should not be done, and that is,
that the longer the wall is the more stones it will
take to build it. This might be a sufficient in-
ducement, to the farmers in some of our neigh-
boring towns to take pot-hooks as patterns, but I
think no member of the Concord Farmers' Club
need adopt it, as a better use can be found for the
surplus stones one may find upon his farm. The
unevenness of the surface and the sinuosities of
the streams may sometimes force us into these
irregularities, but such are exceptions.

For economy in labor, not only should our lines
be straight, but all the angles, right angles. Who
that has ever plowed an irregularly shaped piece
but has seen this? Take a triangular shaped
piece, for instance ; you commence by plowing
around it, and everything goes on well for a time,
but before you finish, instead of spending your
time in plowhig, you devote it to turning the team
around ; this holds comparatively true of any de-
viation from a rectangle.

But, I hear somebody say, it is too late for us
to talk about these things ; our farms are as they
were handed down to us ; the fences are already
built ; true, but we have a chance every year to
improve them ; the crooked walls can be made
straight, when we relay them ; and it will, in many
cases, l)e a saving of labor, to change and improve
the shape of our lots.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

375

A third consideration, and one, perhaps, requir-
ing a little engineering that the farmer may not
be able to do himself, is the measurement of the
land. If a man owns a farm, it is a gratification
to know how many acres and rods it contains.
This, alone, would, naturally enough, induce him
to have it measured ; but, it seems to me, there
are other inducements besides this. Not only
should it be measured, and a plan drawn of the
whole, but each lot should be measured. Every
farmer, before he commences his work in the
spring, looks his farm over attentively, and de-
cides which fields he will plow, and which lay
down : to what particular kind of grain, grass or
root crop each piece shall be devoted ; how much
manure he will apply, and how much seed. Be-
fore deciding these several things, judiciously, he
must know the area of each lot.

In the late autumn, when he sits down and looks
over the result of his summer's labor, how can he
judge if his crops are up to the average, above it,
or below, unless he can tell from how many acres
a certain number of bushels of whatever it may
be was taken ?

No man having the interests of fai'ming at heart
but wishes to try experiments. It has been truly
said, "It is only by experiments that progress in
any branch of agriculture can be accomplished.
Any one that accomplishes an experiment, and
accurately reports it, advances the science and
practice of agriculture." How can these experi-
ments be accurately reported, or how can one judge
of them himself, unless the land is carefully mea-
sured ?

A fifth consideration requiring the engineer in
the man, is in reclaiming lands — bringing them
from a cold, barren state, into one of fertility.

Water is one of the great necessities of life,
both in plants and animals ; it goes to make up a
large portion of either ; yet the farmer often finds
it in the way of his improvements. This matter
has, of late, in this country, been brought a good
deal to our notice ; a great deal has been said and
written upon the subject, yet few of us fully ap-
preciate its importance.

It has been ascertained, by careful observation,
that more water falls upon the surface of the
ground during the year than is needed for the
growth of plants ; this, in lands where it cannot
pass down through the subsoil, must be in some
way removed by artificial means, or it will prove
an injury to our crops.

Draining is a process in agriculture which, if
well done, needs no repeating. It is the first step
necessary in order to avail ourselves of improved
modes of agriculture. We have a great deal of
land — and the best we have, if properly drained —
upon which the bestowal of any amount of labor
and manure is useless unless it is first drained.
We may plow deeply, and subsoil in vain, if the
land is "water-logged ;" the seeds will rot instead
of germinating ; the roots cannot penetrate to a
sufficient depth to get nourishment or to sustain
a drought. The land is sour and cold, and the
grass that does manage to grow upon it is not
at all palatable or nutritious to our stock, and
in winter the land freezes much quicker and
deeper.

Water is the only exception in nature, I believe,
to the law that matter becomes more dense by
cold and expands by heat. Water is most dense

at about forty degrees above zero, and expands
both ways fi-om this point. If land is saturated
with water in winter the water as it freezes ex-
pands and causes the ground to "heave." Small
trees are often in this way thrown out of the
ground, and many of our biennial and perennial
crops injured, or entirely ruined, or "winter-killed"
in this way. The land does not get suitably dry
for cultivation till very late in the season, if at all,
and thus our now too short season is rendered
still shorter. Water passes from undrained lands
almost entirely by evaporation. This is a refrig-
erative process, as any one can see by holding his
wet hand in the wind. We often hear farmers
speak of land as cold, and for this reason it is con-
sidered almost worthless. The land is cold, but
not of itself. Place a man exposed to a stiff wind,
with wet garments, and he will be cold ; the heat
of the sun is expended in evaporating the water,
and in this way the heat becomes latent. Ex-
change the man's wet garments for dry ones, and
he is comfortable ; draw the water from cold lands
and we warm them ; the sun's rays will then pen-
etrate them ; the air circulate in them, and seeda
will sprout and plants grow. Crops will start
sooner, come forward more rapidly, be more fully
developed and better matured. The roots can
sink deeper, having a greater space to collect
nourishment from, and are better protected from
drought.

During the spring and early summer the roots
are kept from going down by chilling contact with
cold water. When drought comes on the water
recedes, but it is then too late for the roots to fol-
low it ; they are confined to a narrow space upon
the surface of the soil, and like the seed sown up-
on stony ground, they are soon scorched, and
wither away.

Di'aining in another way prevents di'ought. In
connection with proper cultivation the soil be-
comes more finely pulverized, and capillary attrac-
tion acts with most power in smallest spaces. A
finely pulverized soil the better draws up the mois-
ture, and the better holds a sufficient quantity to
sustain plants through a severe drought.

If these statements are true, and 1 have suffi-
cient proof that they are, how much there is in
draining to call forth the engineering faculties and
energies of the farmer. If by a little engineering
he can make two spires of grass grow where one
grew before, how richly is he rewarded.

It is admitted, I believe, upon all hands, that
the most valuable land we have is the swamp or
meadow land, that is so situated that it can be
drained. Of the draining of these lands no one
can entertain a doubt of the advantage derived.
The only question that can arise, perhaps, is as to
the depth of draining. I do not believe that swamps
can be so deeply drained as to injure them, al-
though it is unnecessary, perhaps, to carry the wa-
ter line to more than three feet below the surface.
I have no doubt that deep di'aining will render
the top dry and springy for a time ; but it will
soon settle, and with the addition of a little sand
or gravel it will soon become sufficiently solid for
any crop. The soil of our swamps is made up
mostly of partly decomposed vegetable matter,
but not in a condition to be taken up by the roots
of plants ; when the water is removed, this be-
comes for a time spongy ; but it soon settles, de-
composition goes on more rapidly, and a fine, rich,

376

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

compact soil is the result ; while saturated with
water it can never decompose.

Besides being but slightly decomposed, the soil
of our swamps contain.^ an acid that must be re-
moved before plants will thrive in it ; this explains
why lime and ashes are used with so much advan-
tage upon such lands ; they destroy the acidity,
besides helping to decompose the mud. By re-
moving the water both these results are attained,
and to a much greater depth ; decomposition com-
mences at once, and by it the acid is destroyed.

If a farmer possess more land than he can cul-
tivate well, and has irrigated meadows, it is often
best to keep them as such, at least till he can find
no other land as capable of being improved. Ir-
rigated meadow lands are of great advantage to
farmers when kept as such ; they are as never
failing springs, from which he can draw the where-
withal to keep the rest of his farm from wearing
out. Hay can be taken from them, year after
year, without impoverishing them. Let us see
what keeps up this fertility. Let us see how it is
that the farmer is able thus continually to draw
from this bank without sometimes making a de-
posit.

There is a stream running through it made up
by a number of smaller streams. During a heavy
rain every acre of our upland is washed, more or
less ; the muddy water, laden with those things
which make plants grow, finds its Avay down into
the stream, and as the stream is high, and crook-
ed and narrow in some places, winding from this
side of the meadow to that, the water, hurrying
along, is dashed out upon the meadows at every
turn ; in spreading out it becomes comparatively
quiet, and here the mud and water part company ;
the mud settles upon the soil, while the water con-
tinues upon its journey to the ocean. In this way
our meadows are kept fertile ; and in fertilizing
the upland they but pay a debt they owe to them.

In straightening these crooked streams, I think
the farmer is sometimes guilty of a little too much
engineering. Through the straight, wide ditch
that Mr. Thrifty has engineered, the water rushes
without turning to the right or left, and the next
neighbor down stream gets the benefit of the de-
posit that would otherwise have been left upon his
own meadow. If a farmer has not enough other
land to cultivate, and washes to dry his meadow,
then straighten the stream, by all means, but not
otherwise.

But the strongest defence an engineer can plan
for the farmer must be built within himself, and
by himself alone. The only sure protection against
want, the true guaranty of success in farming, that
which covers all that has been said upon the point,
is, that the farmer enter into the business with en-
ergy. Not satisfied with plodding on in the old
path, however good it may be, followed by his fa-
ther and grandfother before him, without looking to
the right or left for improvements ; not satisfied
with confining his literary pui'suits to the reading
of the farmer's almanac, or an old newspaper bor-
rowed of a neighbor ; not satisfied with half a
crop, year after year, upon land that is capable of
bearing a full one ; he profits by the experience
of others, as found in the numerous books and
papers now published upon agriculture. He meets
with other farmers at farmers' clubs, and in this
way receives the benefit of the experiments ac-
complished in the various sections of country, or

upon the different farms in the vicinity. These
experiments may not be applicable to his land,
but by considering them carefully, he acquires a
knoAvledge of agriculture that cannot, in the end,
fail to make farming with him a success.

A farmer's business is the cultivation of the
soil, yet I see no reason why he may not also cul-
tivate his mind. I see no reason why he may not
spend his leisure time in study. No business of-
fers better chances for the study of the natural
sciences, and no one offers a richer reward than is
offered to the farmer, if he study them and put
the knowledge he thus attains into practice. The
reason the farmer has discovered no new benefit
from chemistry, is, that he has not studied it him-
self ; he is satisfied with what is told him by some
professor entirely ignorant of the practice of farm-
ing, and he generally finds his advice and direc-
tions entirely impracticable. Study and practice
must go together in order to ensure success.

The time is not far distant, I believe, when this
will be better seen and believed by the farmer
than it now is, and agriculture become, in reality,
what it now claims to be, a science.

May the Concord Farmers' Club take a bold
lead in this direction.

A LOOK AT THE CITY HORSES.

Though not especially given to fast nags, we
like horses, and always take pains to see them
where they are collected in considerable numbers,
in order to observe their treatment, ascertain
their qualities, cost of keeping, and whatever else
that appertains to them of an interesting nature.

With these views, we recently accepted an in-
vitation from Col. Ezra Forristall, the inde-
fatigable and accomplished Siiperirdendent of
Heallli for the city of Boston, to look at the city
horses, and the stables in which they are kept.
Our first call was at the stable on Grove Street.
Some forty horses are kept here, and under a
system that would command the admiration of
any person, whether he knew the difference be-
tween a horse-stall and a hog-pen, or not. Every
stall has its number, with a corresponding one for
the horse Avhich is to occupy it, and for the har-
ness he wears. The building is of brick, is long
and sufficiently wide to afford two rows of stalls
the entire length, with a space some ten feet wide
between the heads of the horses. The stalls are
principally of iron, the feeding boxes entirely so,
and everything about them is scrupulously clean.
We were there at noon of a hot day, yet the hors-
es suffered no annoyance from flies, and stood as
quietly as in the midst of a winter day. Every
part of the building is kept clean, — so that noth-
ing is left to offend any sense. All the depart-
ments of the establishment, the rooms where har-
nesses are cleaned, where the street brooms are
made, and Avhere carts and carriages are washed, —
presented the same neat and orderly appearance
that the stable itself does.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

377

The stables now occupied at the South End of
the city, are old, low posted and inconvenient, —
but even under these disadvantages, everything
was in order and moved with the precision of
clock-work. Just before leaving, we saw the men
and teams turn out to their afternoon work, some
fifty of each. In hitching up there was no con-
fusion, no scolding, swearing, or loud talking, even,
although some of the horses were quite young,
and evidently undecided as to what course they
ought to pursue amidst their trappings and the
thunder of the rolling carts.

None of the horses weighed less, we should
judge, than 1200 pounds, so on, to 1600 ! and are
well-formed, sound animals, admirably fitted for
slow movements and heavy draft. They are
cleaned, fed and washed with great regularity, and
soon become fat. They then each receive about
seven quarts of grain, corn meal, and oats, or
cracked corn, per day, wet with a little cut hay,
and once a week, at noon, on Sunday, a small
quantity of long hay. This keeps them in excel-
lent condition at trifling cost, and under this
treatment, they are able to perform a vast amount
of labor*. But they are never worked on a trot or
beaten, or abused in any way. Col. Forristall's
opinion is, that scolding and beating are always
injurious ; that all horses, if properly treated
from the beginning, will labor kindly and faith-
fully, to the very extent of their ability. The lov-
er of the horse can scarcely spend a more agi-eea-
ble hour than to visit the stables of these noble
and serviceable animals. They are among the
pleasant objects in our streets, and always attract
attention. Thanks to the City Fathers for fur-
aishing them so kind a master. They are fortunate
in securing the services of a gentleman of ability,
and one who is prompt and decided in the dis-
charge of his duties.

The city is now erecting new stables at the
South End which, Avhen finished, will undoubtedly,
be the best ever constructed iu the State, if not
in the country.

■WHITEWASHING SHINGLES.

Fresh or caustic lime, applied during the heat
of summer, and after the wood has become thor-
oughly dried, enters the pores and tends strongly
to prevent decay. We have recently examined a
board fence, which had been whitewashed in suc-
cessive coats about 18 years ago. The boards
were hard and sound, and had not become cov-
ered with moss, as was the case with another
fence near, built at the same time. There is no
doubt that a great advantage would result from
Avhitewashing shingles before laying them. We
have, on a former occasion, given some instances
of the durability thus imparted to them. A late
number of the Boston Cultivator gives some addi-
tional examples. J. Mears, of South Abington,
performed the experiment in substance as follows :

— He procured a vat, (a lime vat or a tannery
does well,) and applied salt with a small portion
of potash to the lime, and immersed the shingles
for four hours. The wash was afterwards brushed
over the shingles when laid. This made a fire-
proof roof on a blacksmith shop, now eleven years-
Silas Brown, another correspondent, says that 25
years ago, he dipped shingles in a large kettle of
lime wash to which salt had been added, and the
whole kept boiling. A few shingles were dipped
in all over at a time, long enough to soak them
well, and then thrown aside to dry. In a short
time all the shingles were thus prepared. Al-
though what are termed "sap shingles," they have
now lasted twenty-five years, and "may do so for
years to come." Several experiments of a similar
character have been made since, with very suc-
cessful results. — Country Oentleman,

MAUUKKS— PROFITS OF FABMIWG.

At the late Fair of the New York State Agri-
cultural Society, meetings for discussion were
held each evening, Hon. A. B. Conger presiding.
On Tuesday evening, the subject chosen for dis-
cussion was —

"How shall barn-yard manure be saved, and
how applied ? Shall it be kept under sheds ?
Shall it be piled ? Shall it be applied raw or rot-
ten ? Shall it be put on the surface or plowed
in ? And is a difi'ereut method of application re-
quired for diff'erent crops, and for pasture and
meadow lands ?"

George Geddes, of Onondaga, President of
the Society, who occupies a farm where grain is.
principally grown, and where straw is very abun-
dant, gave the following directions, as the result
of his observations on the subject: 1. The barn*
yard should be made so that the manure would
not run out of it. 2. Straw enough to absorb all
the liquid. Then in spring, pile up the manui'e
in heaps, with square sides and flat tops. If very
strawy, the heaps should be high, and the tops
somewhat hollow to hold the water, or they will
not rot. If this is done in the spring, by July the
piles will be in a condition to cut with a spade.
The outsides Avill not decay, and they should be
pared off" and thrown on top. It is folly to put
strawy manure under a shed. If it is three-fourths
cow-dung, it might be advisable to put it under
sheds. Sheep-manure under sheds will fire-fang.
Pile it up early, and it will not fire-fang. The
dairymen want it under sheds, but grain-growers
do not. In regard to its application : Put it on
either grass or wheat. Do not put it on corn di-
rectly ; it produces weeds. Rot it thoroughly,
draw it out on the wheat fallows and dragjt in.
Do not plow it in. Better on top than plowed in.
Believes in top-dressing clover or grass.. Get a
good crop of clovei', and you have laid, the foun-
dation for subsequent crops.

Hon. Moses Eames, an extensive dairyman,,
spoke of the benefit he had derived from the use
of earth in his barn-yard, as an absorbent of liquid
manure. A top-dressing of five loads per acre, of
this saturated earth, apphed in the fall, produced
thi'ee tons of hay per acre.

Wm. Andrews, of Connecticut, has not straw,
enough for litter. Wheels the manure into cot-
ered sheds, and in the spring applies it to com.

378

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

Has a drain from his yard, and irrigates an excel-
lent crop of grass.

Mr. Parker, of Jefferson county, had never
summered ten loads of manure. In December,
January, February, and the first half of March,
drew out the manure while fresh, and piled it up
into a large heap. In April spread the manure
and sowed wheat. Where the heap was, the
wheat was too rank and blasted. This satisfied
him that manure should not be piled. (We sup-
pose Mr. P. is in favor of spreading it on the sur-
face while green, as he remarked that his land is
not hilly, and there was no danger of the manure
being washed away.) When he had not straw
enough to litter, he goes to the woods and gath-
ers leaves. Puts muck, straw, leaves and horse-
manure into the pig-pens, and the pigs make it a
prime article for the garden and orchard and for
the corn-field.

Mr. Faxton, of Utica, alluded to the time when
the farmers on the Mohawk used to make "bees"
to clean out their premises, drawing their manure
out on to the ice, so that when the river broke up
it might be washed away, and thus save them any
further trouble ! Now, the farmers wisely took
great pains to keep up the fertility of the soil.

S. Walrath, of St. Lawrence county, said his
biggest crop was manure. Does not believe in
having foul seeds in manure. Cuts the hay and
weeds before the weeds go to seed. Saves every-
thing ; draws muck, grass, weeds and refuse of all
kinds into the barn-yard to rot. Applies his ma-
nure not to corn but to grass. Corn very clean,
grass free from weeds, and both of much better
quality.

On Wednesday evening, the subject for discus-
sion was :

"Dairy Farms. — Is it advisable to cultivate
dairy farms so as to secure fresh pastures, or are
permanent pastures most profitable ; and how can
noxious weeds be excluded from pasture lands the
most advantageously ?"

Mr. Walworth, of Lewis county, thought that
on some of the gravelly soils of the county the
old pastures were best ; but on the limestone soil
like that in his section, breaking up the land once
in eight years or so was a great improvement.
Cows did not like the new seeded grass best.
White daisies, yellow dock and moss are trouble-
some on the old pastures, and even on the new it
is difficult to keep them down.

Mr. Brown, of Lewis county, had a sixty acre
pasture run over with briars. It kept about ten
cows. He cut them, and subdued it by keeping
sheep. The June grass came in and spread over
it like a mat. It now keeps twenty-five to thirty
cows. Thinks this better than if it had been
broken up. Had sowed a little plaster on it. It
is limestone soil.

Mr. Miller, of Lewis, agreed with Mr. Wal-
worth. Cows and horses will resort to the newly
seeded land, and leave the original pastures.

Mr. Walwoetii — It is important to manure as
well as plow.

Mr. Lyon, of Lewis, said gravelly land re-
quired to be plowed oftener than the limestone
lands. Cattle will leave timothy and clover, and
go to the June grass brought in on the native
pastures.

S. Walrath, of St. Lawrence county. — The
great point is to get land clean before seeding.

President Geddes remarked that Mr. Wal-
rath's farm was the cleanest and neatest he had
ever seen. Not a square foot of weeds on the
whole farm of fifty acres. If Mr. W. would come
to Onondaga, they would send him to Congress.

Solon Robinson. — That would be but a poor
compensation.

Mr. Walratii. — Land quite natural to white
clover. Top-dressed his grass lands ; cows did
not like it for a few weeks, but after mowing pre-
fer it to all others. Considei'ed June grass a weed,
and took as much pains to destroy it as any other
weed. Cows prefer the new seeded land. Inju-
rious to the new grass to feed it the first year.

E. L. Halsey, of Cayuga, said permanent pas-
tures gave a better quality of butter. Clover will
carry more stock.

Mr. Stanley, of Lewis county, has pastures
sixteen years old, that produce better than lands
seeded three years ago. Cows prefer the old pas-
tures in the spring. The grass starts quicker.

Mr. Lyon, of Lewis county, had two pastures
— one which had been down three years, and one
seven years. The former afforded double the feed
of the latter.

Mr. Ellison, of Herkimer, spoke highly of
plaster for grass lands. Cattle prefer the plas-
tered grass. Frequent plowing is not beneficial.
Plaster in the spring, and manure in the fall.

Solon Robinson recommended salt as a top-
dressing for grass lands. It had proved very ben-
eficial on his farm at Westchester county. It
sweetens the grass. He had sowed as much as
ten bushels per acre.

On Thursday evening, the subject for discus-
sion was —

"TuE Agriculture of New York. — Is it
paying a fair compensation for the capital and la-
bor employed ?"

D. Parker, of Watertown, did not keep a rec-
ord. If he did, he thought it would show that
farming was not very profitable. He had got a
living, however, and his farm would sell for $4000
more than when he commenced. He ran in debt
for the farm (93 acres.) Had had rather a hard
time of it, but it was now all paid for, with good
buildings, etc.

J. J. Thomas mentioned sevei*al cases in Cayu-
ga county, where farmers had made large profits.
One young man, with $1000, bought "a $5000
farm, and in five years had paid all but $1,800
from the profits of the farm. Another had bought
a $6,000 farm, and paid $1,000 a year on it from
the profits. Several such instances of successful
farming were mentioned. Others of equal intelli-
gence might do the same.

A gentleman asked, "What crops those far-
mers had grown?" Mr. T. replied, "In most
cases, mixed husbandry — wheat, barley, oats and
peas ; in some instances, peas had been substitut-
ed for barley. They had also underdrained."

A. L. Fish, of Herkimer, thought the subject
hardly debatable. The State of New York had
become wealthy, and the principal source of it was
agriculture.

Solon Robinson eloquently elaborated the
same idea. The majority of merchants in New
York were bankrupts at the end of fifteen or
twenty years.

Mr. Ellison, of Herkimer, thought if the mer-
chant had j^racticed the same economy he would

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

379

be richer than the farmer. He would be honest,
and admit that fanners were better off than the
mechanic. Farmers might make more money if
they farmed better. His friend Fish had grown
rich by the application of scientific principles to
the culture and manuring of the soil. Keeps
good cows, and makes G50 lbs. of cheese per cow.
One year, he (Fish) had made some 700 lbs. It
was just as cheap to keep a good cow as a poor
one.

E. Cornell, of Ithaca, gave some very inter-
esting statistics of Tompkins county, showing that
the land, buildings, &c., were worth $13,000,000.
The crops raised were worth $2,713,011. Allow-
ing half of this sum for labor, seed and taxes, and
we have over 10 per cent, interest on the capital.
Farmers are getting rich. Better buildings, finer
bouses, etc. The land is not deteriorating — it is
annually becoming more productive.

For the New England Farmer.

HABRIET MABTIWEAU ON AMERICAN
AGBICUIiTUKE.

In the year 1835, Miss Martineau made a tour
of observation in this country, and on her return
home published a couple of very interesting vol-
umes, embodying her views upon American socie-
ty, and commenting with a good deal of sagacity
upon our agriculture. Upon the subject of the
thorough tillage of England, and the slovenly of
America — a subject lately much discussed — she
makes the folloAving sensible remarks :

"English farmers settling in the United States
used to be a joke to their native neighbors. The
Englishman began with laughing, or being
shocked, at the slovenly methods of cultivation
employed by the American settlers ; he was next
seen to look grave on his own account, and ended
by following the American plan.

"The American plows round the stumps of the
trees he has felled, and is not very careful to
measure the area he plows and the seed he sows.
The Englishman clears half the quantity of land —
clears it very thoroughly — plows deep, sows thick,
raises twice the quantity of grain on half the area
of land, and points proudly to his crop. But the
American has, meantime, fenced, cleared and sown
more land, improved his house and stock, and
kept his money in his pocket. The Englishman
has paid for the labor bestowed on his beautiful
fields more than his fine crop repays him. When
he has done thus for a few seasons, till his money
has gone, he learns that he has got to a place
where it answers to spend land to save labor ; the
reverse of his experience in England ; and he soon
becomes as slovenly a farmer as the American,
and begins immediately to gi'ow rich."

This is all very natural to expect, as the Eng-
lishman and the American are as near alike as two
eggs, (as Shakspeare would say,) their different
positions in their different countries or tlie shadow
of their institutions only making the apparent dis-
similarit)'. But while Miss Martineau knows the
American farmer recognizes the high comparative
price of labor in this country, she cannot account
for his opposing immigration so strenuously as he
does, when the tendency of this is to make labor
cheaper. But perhaps this is the result of mis-
taken political considerations. Respecting the

close cultivation of the soil, this is a subject which
no theorizing or lecturing will influence, but will
come as a necessity with the increase of popula-
tion and the dearness of land. The American
farmer, where land is cheap and rising, always
wants more than he can cultivate, as a reserve for
speculation. Hence Miss M. observes :

"The pride and delight of Americans is their
quantity of land. I do not remember meeting
with one to whom it had occurred that they had
too much. I saw a gentleman strike his fist on
the table in agony at the country's being so ^con-
foundedly prosperous!^ * * * Land was
spoken of as the unfailing resource against over-
manufacture ; the great wealth of the nation ;
the grand security of every man in it."

If what she observes in another paragraph is
true, (and it undoubtedly is,) we need have no
fears that agriculture will run down ; in fact, it ap-
pears to be a kind of safety-valve to all other to-
cations.

"The possession of land," she observes, "is the
aim of all action, generally speaking, and the cure
for all social evils among men in the United States.
If a man is disappointed in politics or love, he
goes and buys land. If he disgraces himself, he
betakes himself to a lot in the West. If the de-
mand for any article in manufacture slackens, the
operatives drop into the unsettled lands. If a
citizen's neighbors rise above him in the towns, he
betakes himself where he can be monarch of all
he surveys. An artisan works that he may die on
land of his own. He is frugal, that he may enable
his son to be a landowner. Farmers' daughters
go into factories that they may clear off the mort-
gage from their fathers' farms ; that they may be
independent landowners again."

]\Iiss M. speaks fovorably of this, and remarks
that "it falls out well fen* the old world in prospect
of the time when the new world must be its gran-
ary."

Both of the great political parties, she observes,
are proud of their lands, but the democratic party
were wont to say that the United States were in-
tended to be an agricultural country. "It seems
to me they are intended to be everything."

In Massachusetts, and, in fact, in most, if not
all the New England States, the authoress sup-
posed agriculture to be on the decline — or in other
words supplanted by manufactures, for which she
thinks it best fitted ; and in this connection she
alludes to many farmers dividing their time with
other pursuits — fishing and shoemaking, for in-
stance.

Miss Martineau's volumes are written Avith re-
markable vigor and freshness, abounding in a
good recognition of general principles, sagacious
observations, democratic tendencies and wise
prophecies — all covered with her hearty good
wishes. But, at present, I will make no further
extracts. d. w. l.

West Medford, July, 1862.

Thinning Pears. — One great error in the man-
agement of dwarf pear trees, is allowing the trees,
especially young trees, to bear too much fruit. It
is absolutely necessary for the health of the trees
and to secure good sized fruit, that the young fruit
be thinned ihorouglihj at this season. Don't be
afraid of thinning too much. — Genesee Farmer.

380

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

HELPING TO BUILD NESTS.
One of the best things in Merrifs Museum for
last month is the following article illustrative of
the character of one of the best men in our State,
Hon. John Preston, of New Ipswich. He is a
man whose good nature sheds a light upon all who
come within his influence. He was the advocate
of a bird law in our Legislature, in 1846, and we
well recollect the entrance of a bird into the Hall
of the House of Representatives at the time he
was advocating their cause. The effect was elec-
tric. But the law for their protection did not jjass.
Mr. Preston's milk of human kindness is not con-
fined to the feathered race — it extends, and in an
enlarged degree, to the whole human race.

Look upon that grand old elm and see that new
bird's nest on one of its overhanging branches.
What a beautiful place for a quiet home for the
n&stlings, and how admirably it is built and se-
curely fastened among the twigs ! It belongs to a
pair of orioles, or golden robins as they are some-
times called. These birds constnict their nests
out of bits of twine, cotton, tow, etc., which they
pick up with great pains from the surrounding
country. On the tree which you see in the pic-
ture, a pair of these birds have built their nest for
several years, because here they were sure of a
kind reception and a helping hand.

I saw that nest built the other day, and learned
the secret of their attachment to the place. Being
on a hasty visit to the country, I called at the res-
idence of John Preston, Esq., of New IpsAvich, N.
H., an old friend of Robert Merry. I found him
seated in his little ofRce very busy cutting up twine
of different lengths. He greeted me very cordially,
but kept on with his work, which seemed to be of
great importance. When he had prepared quite a
handful, he led the way out of the office, and de-
posited the strings upon the cross-bars on which
you see the little bird under the tree. Then he
told me they were for the birds to build their nests
with, and that every year, (when the sweet notes
of the oriole sounded through the branches of the
trees, filling the neighborhood with sweetest mu-
sic,) he had supplied them with materials for
building their nest.

We retired a short distance, and very soon down
came one of those beautiful birds like a flash of
golden light, and commenced selecting material
for his nest. I supposed he would take the first
piece that came to hand, but like a skilful build-
er, he took up first one piece, then another, ex-
amining them very curiously and apparently meas-
uring the length with his eye, like a practiced car-
penter. When one was found that suited his pur-
pose, away he flew to his chosen limb, and having
securely fastened it, he returned for another. He
was the very personification of industry, and set
an example worthy of imitation by many bipeds
without feathers.

Ordinarily it would require a week or more of
hoi'd work for a pair of these birds to build their
nest, as they must usually take long journeys to
find proper materials, but having everything pro-
vided at hand, they nearly completed the outer
walls in a single day.

The following mornino: my friend provided a

quantity of tow from bits of rope, which he picked
to pieces for the use of the birds, which they
speedily appropriated for a soft lining to the nest.
The matter interested me so much that I brought
away a good photograph of the tree and surround-
ings, taken on the spot.

I was greatly pleased in watching them ; but
what I admired most, and what I am sure you will
also think worthy of imitation, was the kindness
shown to these little creatures by this noble-heart-
ed man. He could find time from pressing busi-
ness, to care for the birds that came to cheer his
home with their songs. It made me love him bet-
ter than ever. He has his reward for his kindness
in the friendship of the birds, who have learned
to know their benefactor, and sing for liim their
choicest songs. — Portsmouth Jownal.

Far the New EnslaTtd Farmer.
TRIAL OF MOWINQ MACHINES.

Mr. Editor: — A trial of mowing machines
took place near Berry's tavern, in Danvers, on
Thursday, the 26th inst., under the auspices of
the Essex Agricultural Society, and superintend-
ed by the Committee on Farm Implements. At
10 o'clock, the time set, the still frowning aspect
of the lingering storm clouds had deterred many
who were anxious to witness the trial, and led the
Committee to hesitate whether to adjourn to a
finer day, or to proceed. By 11 o'clock, however,
quite a large number of persons had collected,
and the agents of the difl'erent mowers were al-
ready on the ground, desiring to show farmers
how easily, handsomely and economically their
grass could be cut, while they only looked on.
The Committee, therefore, concluded to step into
the yet reeking grass, and set off the requisite
number of one-quarter acre lots, from a field well
adapted to the purpose, offered, with his accus-
tomed generosity, by one of the Committee, E.
G. Berry, Esq. One or two of the mowers cut
the grass from the headlands, where spectators
might stand and the mowers turn, and at half-
past one the trial commenced.

E. E. Lummus, of North Beverly, entered one
two-horse and one one-horse Woods mowers, also
one Davis improved. Amos Poor, Jr., of New-
buryport, entered one 4 foot bar, (two-horse,) and
one 3J foot bar, (one-horse,) Union, and also one
Manny, (one-horse,) owned by Daniel Richards,
of Danvers. S. A. Merrill, of Salem, entered
one 4i foot bar, and one 4 foot bar, (each two-
horse,) and one 3^ foot bar, (one-horse,) of the
Buckeye.

It was arranged that only one mower should
operate at a time, so that each person might give
his undivided attention to each machine. But
want of time at last compelled the Committee to
let two move together. The Woods, the Union
and the Davis improved were all new machines,
light, and yet apparently well put together and
strong. The Davis improved did not work until
the writer was compelled to leave the field. The
Buckeye and the Manny had been often used,
and their merits are well understood.

The Committee, five of whom were present,
considered their duty on the occasion to be t®
give all those interested an opportunity to exhibit,
and see, and compare the oneraticn of the various

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

381

mowers, so that each person should be the better
able to judge which of them, on the whole, would
be best adapted to his own work. At this time,
when the sons of our farmers and so many of the
constantly diminishing number of good mowers
have thrown aside farming implements for the ri-
fle and the bayonet, these mowing machines are
becoming a necessity ; and the great question is,
Which shall I buy ?

The Committee regret that they had not the
means of measuring accurately by the dynamom-
eter the draught of the different mowers. That
would have settled one important point. They
were unanimous that the work was all well done.
And every farmer present, who owns only one
horse of nearly 1000 pounds weight, might have
been satisfied that with one of these machines he
can do his own mowing well.

Chairman of the Committee.

Haverhill, June 27, 1862.

HAYING.

The farmer is now in the midst of the hapng
season, when he is to cut and secure one of the
most important crops of the farm. In conse-
quence of the late rains in this region, farmers
did not commence haying as soon as has been
customary into ten or twelve days. Much of the
month of May was dry, so that the grass crop
was retarded in its growth, and since July came
in, has been in a condition to be greatly benefited
by the warm and frequent rains. The middle of
July, therefore, finds us only fairly engaged in the
great work.

Farmers, generally, do not now feel that they
are obliged to commence cutting their grass much
before it is in its best condition. Previous to the
days of mowing machines, they began early,
though the grass might not be in blossom, lest
they should not get thi'ough before some of it had
gone to seed- With the aid of mowing machines,
there is little danger of this result now, — and this
is one of the advantages which they confer. With
a good macliine, as much grass may be cut in two
or three hours in the evening, or in the morning,
as several hands can take care of for a day follow-
ing. It will be spread as it is cut, and ready for
the sun.

Good farmers diflfer in opinion as to the best
mode of curing hay. The practice many years
ago was to expose it two days to an intense sun,
the hotter the better. Under this treatment the
hay became nearly as brittle as glass, and a large
proportion of its nutritious properties were wast-
ed. It would certainly keep well in the barn, for
there were not juices enough left to get up a sweat,
and produce mould and fermentation. But it was
hard and glassy, and in our judgment, much less
valuable than if it had been cured more in the
shade.

To accomplish this, the grass should be cut and

evenly spread, and when thoroughly wilted — not
dried — thrown into cocks and covered with caps,
where it will lay, safely, from thirty-six hours to
three or four days, according to the state of the
weather. K the weather is clear and hot, on re-
moving the caps, the top of the cock, say a fourth
part of it, will be found well cured, and sufficient-
ly dry to go into the barn, which is evidence that
the process of curing goes on rapidly while the
hay is in this condition. But it is well to throw
the cocks open, admit the sun and air to every
part of it for an hour or two, turning it upside
down if necessary, and then it will be in excellent
condition to go in. If the weather is cloudy and
damp, or stormy, it is usually sufficiently cool to
prevent heating, for three or four days, and dur-
ing that time the hay will become so much made
as to require but little sun and air afterward.

Grass cured in this way is not brittle, but flex-
ible, is aromatic, has a lively gi'eenish color, and
retains most of its nutritious properties. Stock
will eat good grass thus cured with avidity, and
will produce a good flow of milk, or lay on fat or
flesh, without the use of grain. We do not mean
to say, however, that it is best always to leave hay
out three or four days, — but that it is better to
cure it partly in the cock than to expose it two
entire days to the sun.

CLOVER HAY.

Clover hay should be cut late in the afternoon,
or early in the morning of a clear day. Let it lie
without disturbing it until about two o'clock, and
then gather it into cocks with a fork, and cover it
Avith caps. It should then be left in this condi-
tion for two days, when the cocks should be
thrown open for an hour or two, and it will usual-
ly be found in fine condition to be housed. U»-
der this process the leaves and blossoms will re-
tain so much of their juices as to adhere to the
stem, so that very few of them will be found upon
the bottom of the hay cart upon unloading it.
The stems will also be juicy, sweet, nutritious,
and easy to masticate by the animal using them.
Such hay we consider more valuable than any
other that we secure, and we hope hereafter to see
it take the place of half the fields now devoted to
other grasses.

SALT ON HAY.

Many persons practice adding salt to hay as it
is stowed away in the bay or upon the scaffold.
The practice is a good one when the salt is used
moderately — but in such quantities as some apply,
we think it must be injurious to both hay and
the stock that consumes it. Some farmers have
told us that they use half a bushel to a ton of
hay when they feci obliged to get it in before it is
sufficiently cured ! Such fodder as this would
make, ought to be reported in the price current

382

NEW ENGLAND EARMEE.

Afg.

as pickled hay ! It is supposed that it induces
scours in stock, and often pi-oves quite injurious
to their general health. It is a wasteful practice
to get in hay half cured, and depend upon salt to
save it. It would be better economy to purchase
hay caps, and with their aid secure the hay in
perfect condition.

For the Neiu England Farmer.

PEOGRESS IN NATUBAIj HISTOBY.

I noticed in a late connmunication over the signa-
ture of "Farmer," some excellent ideas, but many
uncandid sneers at students of natural history, who
endeavor to benefit others by imparting the infor-
mation they have gained through careful observa-
tion and long experience. While there are num-
bers of empirics and superficial writers on these
subjects, we are not "ah uno disce(rc) omnes.'" If
the farmer %oill not, thi'ough indolence or disincli-
nation, or cannot, from want of time or incapacity,
study the works of nature himself, he must be at
the mercy of every ignorant pretender who has
scarcely learned, as your correspondent says, "to
distinguish a croM' from a robin, or a hawk from a
dove, a grasshopper from a housefly, a butterfly
from a mosquito," &c. But if, in the long winter
evenings, instead of yawning away the hours from
supper till bediime, or spending them at the vil-
lage tavern, he would take up a simple course of
study, on the subject, for instance, of insects — a
branch which is most intimately connected with
his pursuits — he would find himself amply repaid.
If he Mere to learn the characteristic distinctions
between a beetle and a fly, he would not, as do
many of our otherwise intelligent farmers, assever-
ate, with solemn sincerity, that the "rose bug,"
towards the end of the summer, sheds its wings,
and deserts its foi-mer pasture of the leaves and
flowers, becomes a hairy, yellow dungfly, and fre-
quents manure heaps for the remainder of the sea-
son. If he were assured that the beautiful painted
butterfly Mhich he cautions his children not to
catch nor injure, was a deadlier magazine of de-
struction to his kitchen garden than ever were can-
ister, grajie or shrapnel to the advancing column,
or that the little round red beetles, not larger than
a half pea, that he finds "eating up" his grain
crops, were doing more in one day to rid liim of
the real destroyer, the plant-lice, than he, in spite
of his size and strength, could accomplish in a
week, would he not regard the information as a
valualjle acquisition, even at the expense of an
hour's hard study ?

"Farmer" asks, "what help does the farmer, well
versed in entomology, derive therefrom on a visi-
tation of the caterpillar, the palmer-worm, the
canker-worm, or the army-worm, over his unread
neighbor ?" If he is truly "well versed" in ento-
mology, he will be able to check, if not prevent
their ravages, by attacking them at their weakest
points. If he sees, on the twigs of his apple trees,
little brown clusters of eggs, in the fall and winter,
or if, from the middle of June to the 10th of July,
he finds on his fences, and beneath the caves and
clap-boards of his house and barn, oval cocoons,
sprinkled with a sulphurous powder, he will pick
them ofl", and crush them under foot ; then ho can
see, the next spring, his apple-trees put out their

green leaves, and cover themselres with their
milky blossoms, without apprehension, and will
have no "visitation," while his uninformed neigh-
bors all around him are complaining of their van-
ished foliage whose place is poorly supplied by the
filthy, whited sepulchres of the "web-worm."

It does not follow, by any means, because a "far-
mer cannot systematically name birds, quadrupeds,
reptiles, and insects, coming under his observation,
that he knows nothing about them," but he is apt
to jump at conclusions, which are often totally er-
roneous, and the results of his action in the prem-
ises is often productive of irreparable injmy, as he
afterward experiences. A superficial observation
is no less a dangerous thing than a little knowl-
edge. A. sees a bird di'illing holes in his trees j
he shoots him, of course, and says to himself, "I
have done a good job; he was sucking the sap."
So pleased is he with the knowledge he has gained,
that he continues the practice, and in a year or
two, finds his trees dying, in spite of the vigilant
warfare he keeps up against their supposed de-
stroyers ; and when he cuts them down for firewood,
he exposes a wonderful number of holes and bur-
rows in the body of the trunk, but none tlirough
the bark, excavated by the indefatigable wood-
pecker in search of his rightful prey, the borer.
Now, even if A. had never opened a book on the
subject, nor been informed by any learned D. D.-,
but had merely canied his observations a little far-
ther, and had opened the body of the first bird he
had shot, the grubs of the boring beetle, and the
absence of sap, would have shown the folly of
jumping at a conclusion without more facts to sup-
port it. B. would laugh in your face, if you should
recommend him to kill all his cattle, because they
occasionally break into his cornfield, or kitchen
garden, and eat, trample and destroy a part of his
crops ; but at the same time he will exterminate
the crows, wlien corn has been planted, or the rob-
ins, when strawben-ies and cherries are ripening,
because these season their meal of cutworms with a
kernel of corn, or he lias heard some one say that
they sucked eggs and killed young birds ; while
the others, after bringing up their yomig brood
upon injurious caterpillars, at the rate of fifty to
a hundred per diem, think it no harm to take a few
cherries from the overloaded boughs, to vary their
repast. C.'s entomological lore consists of the
apotliegm — "insects are injurious to agriculture."
Accordingly, he proceeds to burn, slay and destroy
indiscriminately fi-iends and foes, the marauding
caterpillars, the beetles of the wire worm, the moths
and butterflies, together with the dragon flies,
the wasps, ichneimions and ground beetles ; and
that — ^by illustrious precedent — reminds me of a
little story which was related in my heai'ing by

Prof. , at a meeting of the Essex Institute,

and although I cannot give it the inimitable flavor
of his version, I will do my best. A certain min-
ister, who mingled his studies of Divine Revela-
tion with researches into the book of Nature, was
settled somewhere "down east," and continuing
his investigations as usual, was surprised in his
study by a deputation of wiseacres from his con-
gregation, who after a series of hems and haws,
opened the subject through their ringleader as

follows : — "Mr. , the people think you spend a

good (leal of time in poking round the fields and
catching hiKjs and butterflies, that would be better
employed in your studies, or in going round doing

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

383

good, in visiting them, and taking more interest
in their welfare." Scarcely giving liim time to

finish his speech, Mr. burst out abruptly :

"Mr. Jones ! Do you keep a cat?" The aston-
ished Jones hitched back his chair at least a foot,
before he replied, "Certainly." "What do you
keep a cat for ?" snapped the minister. "Why,
to kill the rats." "What do you M'aut to kill the
rats for ?" (short and sharp.) "Why ; because
they eat up my property," stammers Jones more
amazed than ever, thinking the Rev. Mr.

quite insane. "Mr. Jones," says the minister in a
lower tone, and looking earnestly into Jones' eyes,
"did you ever see — when you were out hoeing
your corn — a large, black beetle, more than an inch
long, very smooth and shiny, and very smart on
his legs ?" "O ! yes, very often." "And what
did you do with him ?" "I killed him," innocent-
ly replies Jonts. "You've killed a cat ! You've
killed a cat !" shouted the minister, and no other
answer would he vouchsafe to the delegation. It
is supposed that they deliberated on the matter,
however, and thought better of this foolish way of
spending time, for they were afterwards known to
come to the parsonage to inquire the names and
habits of curious animals that they met with, while
the minister, at last accounts, was not dismissed,
nor requested to resign.

In like manner, I, who am but an humble stu-
dent in the vast field of natural history, may be
able to contribute my mite in the form of facts,
&c., about insects, and shall be hapjiy to give our
good friend "Farmer," and others, any informa-
tion in my power, in return for their experience in
the same subject. F. G. Sanborn.

Bostoji, July 7, 1862.

Don't Drink Much Water. — A person in
good health, and in the moderate pursuit of busi-
ness, does not feel like drinking water, even in
Summer-time, if not very thirsty. In fact great
habitual thirst in Summer is the sign of a depraved
appetite, resulting from bad habits ; or it is a pruof
of internal fever ; and the indulgence of even so
simple a thing as drinking cold water largely in
Summer-time, especially in the early part of the
day, will produce a disordered condition of the
system. Most persons have experienced more or
less discomfort from drinking largely of cold wa-
ter. If we drink a great deal, we must perspire a
great deal ; this perspiration induces a greater
evaporation of heat from the surface than some
have to spare ; the result is a chill, then comes
the reaction of fever. Many a person arises from
the dinner or tea-table, in June, chilly because too
much cold fluids have been taken. Those who
drink little or nothing, even of cold water, in Sum-
mer, till the afternoon, will be more vigorous, more
full of health, and much more free from bodily
discomfort, than those who place no restraint on
their potations. — Hall's Journal of Health.

Tea Brands and their Meaning. — The fol-
lowing will interest housekeepers : — "Hyson"
means "before the rains," or "flourishing spring,"
that is, early in the spring ; hence it is often called
"Young Hyson." "Hyson skin" is composed of
the refuse of other kinds, the native term for which
is "tea skins." Refuse of still coarser descriptions

containing many stems, is called "tea bones."
"Bohea" is the name of the hills in the region
where it is collected. "Pekoe" or "Pecco" means
"white hairs," the down of tender leaves. "Pow-
chong," "folded plant." "Souchong," "small
plant." "Twankay" is the name of a small river
in the region where it is bought. "Congo" is from
a term signifying "labor," from the care required
in its preparation.

SKILL IN MABKETINQ.

One of the branches of his business which a far-
mer should well understand, is marketing. The
extreme eagerness which some manifest, to get an
additional half cent per bushel, is hardly to be
recommended, nor are the anxiety and sleepless
nights which they endure, while fearing the mar-
ket may decline instead of rising, compensated for
in the small additional amount possibly obtained.
As a general rule, farmers may sell whenever they
have the article ready and there is an active mar-
ket ; the cost of keeping, the danger of waste, the
loss of interest, &c., often overbalance a slow ad-
vance. But there is one point toward which they
may direct all their energies — this is, to have a
good article, and to have the reputation of always
furnishing such. We have known poultry deal-
ers to give from two to three cents a pound more,
at all times, to a farmer who had honestly earned
a reputation of having the very best, and always
put up in the very best manner — and this poultry
would sell when a pooi-er article would not. It is
so with marketing fruit. An apple inspector told
us that a considerable portion of the fruit offered
him the present autumn, proved defective and un-
fit for sale, after removing the few fine specimens
purposely laid on the top of the barrels to conceal
the bruised and scabby fruit below. Those who
indulged in such tricks lost their sales, and will be
watched another year. On the other hand, those
who have cultivated their orchards well, and tak-
en pains to raise the best, and who have carefully
picked, assorted, and put up what they had to
sell, will soon be sought b)' dealers, and will re-
ceive a higher price than others. As an instance
of success of this kind, we copy the following
statement from the Prairie Farmer — and no one
can doubt that the successful man of these two,
took more pains in picking carefully and in put-
ting up properly ; and as a good manager in one
way is usually a good manager in others, there is
no doubt that his orchard was in better condition :

"I am acquainted with two men occupying about
the same range of land, with farms opposite each
other, who happened to carry eighty barrels of
apples each to market the same week. One of
these men got a certain sum for his crop ; the
other got just $60 more, or an average of 75 cts.
more per barrel. One had sufficient mercantile
skill to lead him to assort his crop into grades —
put them into clean and uniform barrels, and fix a
price upon each class, and in consequence of his
knowledge of their worth and skill in assorting,
etc., he realized $60 more than his neighbor did,
on the same amount and quality of apples, with-
out expense, and with but little trouble ; and I be-
lieve it is not only in marketing apples, but grain
and even stock, that the seller should know the
real value of it, before disposing of it."

384

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

For the New England Farmer.

THE BIRDS OF NEW EWGLAITD— No. 19.

WORM-EATING WARBLERS.

■Worm-eating Warbler — Swainson's Warbler — Blue-winged Yel-
low Warbler — Golden-winged Warbler — N.ishville Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler — Tennessee Warbler.

The VermivorcB, or Worm-eating Warblers,
constitute a well marked section among our nu-
merous tribe of Warblers. They are surpassed by
no other group in the agility they exhibit in pro-
curing their food, and, in some respects, in their
habits, considerably resemble the Titmice. Their
colors are generally plain, and in their feeble
songs we observe nothing particularly notewor-
thy. As their name indicates, their food chiefly
consists of caterpillars, and the larvaj of other in-
sects that infest the trees, and spiders. Though
the group is widely distributed over the eastern
parts of the United States, none of the species are
found to be anywhere very common, and several
are extremely rare, and our knowledge of their
history is quite imperfect.

The Worm-eating Warbler, (Hehnitherus
vermivorus, Bona]).,) though somewhat common in
some of the Middle and Southern States, is quite
rare in New York and New England. This spe-
cies winters in Mexico and tropical America,
reaching Louisiana about the first of April, and
slowly proceeds northward to breed. Audubon
mentions having found them more numerous in
New Jersey than elsewhere. Its food is said to
eonsist of caterpillars and spiders ; of the latter it
is said to be extremely fond. Aububon describes
the nest as being built externally of dried moss
and the green blossoms of hickories and chestnut
trees, and neatly lined within with fine fibrous
roots. The structure is commonly placed among
the twigs of a low bush. The eggs are four or
five, cream-colored, with a few reddish dots at
the larger end.

The length of this species is five and one-
fourth inches ; alar extent, eight. Above fine ol-
ive, streaked on the head with black ; beneath,
dull buff, approaching orange on the breast, and
waved with dusky lines on the vent.

The Swainson's Warbler, {Helmitherus
Sioainsonii, Bonap.,) was discovered by Back-
man in 1832, near Chai'leston, S. C, and first de-
scribed by Audubon in the second volume of his
Ornithological Biograpliy. It is exceedingly rare,
and seems to be a southern species. l)e Kay,
however, includes it among the birds of New
York, and alludes to its having been seen in Mas-
sachusetts by Mr. Samuel Cabot, while Baird
tliinks it "hardly probable" that it has been seen
as far east as this State. Its history remains in-
complete. Mr. Backman "invariably found them
in swampy, muddy places, usually covered with
more or less water ;" and observes that he found
fragments of coleopterous insects in their gizzards,
as well as small worms. Its notes are described
as "loud and clear, and more like a whistle than a
song," on which account it has been called the
Whistling Warbler.

Length five inches and a half; extent, eight
and a half. Above dull olive, green, on some
parts tinged with reddish ; beneath, and line over
the eye, white.

The Blue-winged Yellow Warbler, {Hel-
minthophaga solitaria, Cab.,) winters in tropical

America, but is found in summer throughout the
eastern parts of the United States, reaching Penn-
sylvania in its northward migration early in May.
On its first arrival, like many other of our War-
blers, it frequents gardens and orchards, gleaning
among the blossoms for those destructive insects
that help make up its food, and afterwards retii-es
to the more sequestered forests to spend the sum-
mer and rear its young. Its nest, which is quite
peculiar, Wilson observes, "is fixed in a thick
bunch or tussock of long grass, sometimes shel-
tered by a briar bush. It is built in the form of
an inverted cone, or funnel, the bottom thickly
bedded with dry beech leaves, the sides formed of
the dry bark of strong weeds, lined with fine, dry
grass. These materials are not placed in the usu-
al manner, circularly, but shelving downwards on
all sides from the top ; the mouthbeing wide, the
bottom very narrow, filled with leaves, and the eggs
or young occupying the middle. The female lays
five eggs, pure white, with a few very faint dots of
reddish near the greater end." It' seems to be
quite rare in this State.

Length four inches and three-fourths ; extent,
seven. Above, green oHve ; lower parts yellow ;
lares black ; inner vanes of the outer tail feathers,
white ; two bars of white across the wings.

The Golden-winged Warbler, (Flelmin-
thophaga chrysoptera, Cab.,) is said by De Kay
to be rare in New York, as it likewise appears to
be in New England, though it has been seen as
far northward as 50° ; it has been seen as far
south as Bogota in South America, and known to
spend the winter in Mexico. It is regarded as a
rare species, and its history still remains very im-
perfect. Its habits are said to considerably re-
semble those of the Titmice, but more nearly
those of the Worm-eating Warbler described
above.

This neat and pretty species measures five inch-
es in length, and seven in extent. Color above,
dark bluish grey ; crown and wing coverts golden
yellow ; band through the eye, chin and "throat,
black ; lower parts white ; inner webs of the three
primary tail feathers white. Female, similar but
duller.

The Nashville Warbler, {Helminthophaga
riificapilla, Baird,) seems to be fast becoming a
common species in many sections of New Eng-
land, though formerly regarded as so rare. Wil-
son, who first described it, in 1811, saw but three
individuals ; Audubon, in 1832, had seen but
three or four, and Nuttall probably had not met
with it at the same date, though he observes it
had been seen near Salem, in this State. De Kay,
some twelve years later, mentions it as "exceed-
ingly rare," and gives us no further information of
its history. It has now come to be a common
species in collections of the birds of this State.
For several years past I have seen scores of them
every May, frequenting the orchards and gardens,
actively gleaning among the blossoms of the fruit
trees, as well as in the thickets and forests ; and
in 1861, many lingered in the deep woods till in-
to June, and I began to expect them to remain all
the summer. It lias been found to range through-
out eastern North America to Greenland, but I
am unable to find any account of its nest, the old-
er writers on American Ornithology merely con-
signing it to the northern parts of the continent
to rear its young, in common with numerous oth-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

385

er species of whose summer homes they were
equally ignorant. It probably will be found, how-
ever, to exist in the northern Alpine parts of New
England during that season, having myself shot a
male of this species in Weathersficld, Vt., August
16th, 1860 ; it was then in the midst of its moult,
and instead of manifesting that uneasiness charac-
teristic of these birds during their migrations, it
seems like a bird perfectly at home, and I doubt
not had spent the summer in that vicinity.

Length four and a half inches ; alar extent,
seven. Above, yellow olive ; head and neck, asli ;
crown, deep chestnut ; beneath, greenish-yellow,
brightest on the throat and breast.

The ORA^'GE-CRowNED Warbler, {Helmin-
thophaga celata, Baird,) was first described by
Lay, in 1823, who discovered it while travelling
with Mojor Long's expedition to the Rocky Moun-
tains. Audubon gives us an interesting account
of its habits, he having found them breeding in
the eastern parts of Maine, and in New Bruns-
wick and Nova Scotia. "Its nest," he observes,
"is composed of lichens detached from the trunks
of trees, intermixed with short bits of fine gi-ass,
and is lined with delicate fibrous roots and a pro-
portionally large quantity of feathers. The eggn,
which are from four to six, are of a pale green col-
or, sprinkled with small black spots. The nest is
placed not more than three to five feet from the
ground, between the smaller forks of some low fir
trees. Only one brood is raised in the season,
and the birds commence their journey southward
from the middle of August to first of September."

It ranges from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
southward to Northern Mexico. "In the summer
months," says Audubon, "it manifests a retiring
disposition, keeping among the low brushwood
that borders the rivers and lakes of the northern
districts ; while, in the South, however, where it is
rather common near the seashore, it is less cau-
tious, and is seen, in considerable numbers in the
orange groves around the plantations, or even in
the gardens, especially in East Florida."

Length five and a half inches ; extent, eight.
Above, greenish olive ; fulvous spot on the
crown ; beneath, olive yellow, brighter on the
vent.

The Tennessee Warbler, {Helmintlwphaga
-peregrina, Baird,) is another rare species of War-
bler, of whose history, we, at present, know but
little. It has been seen in this State, and is also
rarely met with in New York. Its habits, as far as
known, are similar to those of its congeners, feed-
ing on caterpillars and small insects. Its breed-
ing habits are probably yet unknown. It was first
discovered by Wilson, some fifty years since, in
the State of Tennessee, and hence its name.

The length of the Tennessee Warbler is about
five inches, and it is eight in alar extent. Upper
parts yellow olive : throat and breast, pale cream
color, fading into white on the lower parts. With-
in the last year, I have met with several individu-
als of this species at Springfield.

Nashville Warbler. — Since the above was
wiitten, some days since, it has been my good for-
tune to discover a nest of this species. The nest
was placed on the ground, in the side of a bank,
which was overgrown with bushes and coarse

})lants. It was built of fine roots and grass, nice-
y lined with hair, covered externally with green

moss, and so placed as to be protected above by
the dead weeds and grass, though not properly
an arched nest. The eggs were four, white, and
thickly sprinkled over the greater end with red-
dish brown specks. The nest was discovered of
the 31st of May.

Black and White Creeper. In No. 18 of
this series, it was stated, on the authority of Au-
dubon, (Vol. 1, p. 4-52,) that this species builds in
hollow trees. It also builds in other and various
situations, frequently openly on the ground, like
many other birds, as I have had the pleasure of
observing. j. a. a.

Springfield, June, 1862.

RECEIPTS FOR HARD AND SOFT SOAP.
A correspondent, in the Oerviantoion Telegraph
offers the following receipt as one to be perfectly
relied on :

Take ten pounds of soda ash, and dissolve it in
twenty gallons of soft water, with twelve pounds
of fresh lime and three-fourths of a pound of rosin,
by boiling them all half an hour, stirring the while
to keep them from setting or burning ; then pour
all the contents into a tub to settle, washing your
kettle clean. After these contents have settled,
take the clear water that comes on the top and put
it in the kettle ; now hunt up all your fat and skins,
till you get about twenty-three pounds — if clear
not quite so much — put over the fire to boil till all
the fat is eaten up : perhaps it will take two hours,
or not nearly so long ; then take fine salt to divide,
and add salt till the hard soap comes on the top.
It will at first look like froth, and the waste will
look very dark in the bottom of the kettle. Pour
all out in a tub. I forgot to say, fill up your tub
with cold water after taking off the first clear lye,
ready to boil your soap-froth with the second time ;
put two good bucketfuls of this clear lye in the
kettle, then with an iron ladle take all this soap
froth off" the top of the tub and put it in with these
two buckets of lye-water, to boil again a few min-
utes, to make your hard soap clear and nice, add-
ing salt till it separates well. Then pour all out
in a tub, to remain undisturbed over night. In
the morning you will have over thirty pounds of
as nice wliite soap as you will wish, for either
washing or toilet use, which will not chap the
hands at any time. Again, if you would wish a
half barrel of nice white soft soap, fill up this said
lime tub again with cold water till it settles, then
take the hard soap that sticks to the kettle and the
pitcher that you dip out with, and three or four
iadlefuls of this lye-water, and let it boil a few
minutes, till it looks like soap, then fill up your
kettle nearly full of the lye-water, and let it boil a
few minutes, then pour it out into a vessel, and
you will be much pleased with the result of your
labor. This soft soap will be thick and solid, and
it is very nice for boiling clothes or washing, as it
makes a very nice froth.

In order to have plenty of soap fat, you must
begin at the beginning to save all the skins of
meat, and all the fat scraps that come from your
table, which, in warm weather, should be put in
some of this clear lye until you get enough to
make some soap. By this course, in an ordinary
family, you will always have enough soap without
buying.

386

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug

For the New England Fanner.
BETBOSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Notes from the Monomack." — Muck, and
Model Farming. — Under the rather inexpressive
and uninviting heading above given, in quotation
marks, I find a very interesting and highly instruc-
tive communication in the Farmer, {Monthly) of
July, which had previously appeared in the weekly
issue of May 31st. It consists mainly of well con-
densed details, as to some of the more important
of the opinions and practices of Mr. John Day,
of Boxford ; and contains a sufficiency of these, to
prove that Mr. Day is a model farmer, — one who
makes use of his head as well as his hands, a suf-
ficiency, also, to form quite a useful addition to the
stock of information needed by every farmer who
is bent upon being successful and prosperous, as
Mr. Day has been a sufficiency, also, to form sub-
jects for consideration, for all who love improve-
ment and progress so much as never to suffer any
hints, derivable from the opinions and practices of
good managers, to pass from the mind, without
being duly pondered and practically applied.
I know of one farmer who has already made some
such use of several of the items of information
given in this article, as to the opinions and modes
of management of Mr. Day, having already en-
tered in his Boole of the Farm, and in that de-
partment of it, which he has entitled "Intended
Improvements and Projected Experiments" — see
page 214 current volume — two or three sugges-
tions, for trial and adoption, in future operations,
derived from the article now under notice. Prob-
ably others who are in the habit of jotting down,
as they occur to them, notes of improvements
which they intend to adopt, in tlieir future modes
of management and experiments, to be tried to
test the value of some hitherto unadopted prac-
tice, may have done the same thing as the farmer
just referred to, or may yet do so, on giving the
article on Mr. Day a second I'cading.

Among the noteworthy results of Mr. Day's su-
perior good management, the principal one, per-
haps, is his improvement of his grass lands, to
such an extent that where he at first cut only ten
tons of hay per year, he has, for the last twelve
years, averaged one hundred tons a year. This
astonishing inci'ease in the fertility and produce
of his grass lands was accomplished by a method
so simple as to be within the means of every far-
mer who has access to muck, though some might
succeed much better than others, in imitating Mr.
Day's modes of management with this inestimable
fertilizer, according as brains were used more or
less in the preparation, composting and applica-
tion of it. Some, for example, for want of brains,
apply muck to their land too soon after it has
been dug, exposure to a winter's freezing and to a
summer's rains and sun being, for many, or most
kinds of muck, absolutely necessary to pulverize
and otherwise prepare it for a beneficial inter-mix-
ture with the soil. Some, also, would probably
fail of the largest possible success in the applica-
tion of muck, or muck composts, from failing to
apply them at the best time. As no information
is given in the article under notice, as to the time,
or season of the year, when Mr. D. top-dressed his
grass lands, we may here say, that, so far as some
experience, of my own, and some acquaintance
with the practice of others, may enable me to 1

judge, the best two times in the whole year for ap-
plying muck composts to grass are, first, immedi-
ately after cutting the first growth, and next, in the
fall, say in October, or two or three weeks before
the usual time for steady and severe frosts. At
the former of these times, I have never applied
any more than a light dressing, mainly to save the
stubble and roots of Timothy from suffering from
drought, and to give it a start which it is generally
slow to _ take, applying a heavier dressing, well-
spread, in the fall.
^ As Mr. Day's mode of manuring and managing
his tillage lands seems just as judicious, and just
as worthy of attention, consideration, and imita-
tion, as that which he has adopted for his grass
lands, and as there does not seem to be any occa-
sion for any comments, either in the way of modi-
fication or supplement, I may now take leave of
this very excellent article by saying that whoever
has read it only once, has not read it half as often,
and perhaps not half as considerately, as it de-
serves to be ; and that whoever is so near to per-
fection in farming as to be able to find in Mr.
Day's views and methods of management nothing
worthy of imitation, or nothing to serve as hint
or help to some improvement in his own practices,
must be a model to his town or neighborhood, and
one whose farm I should like to visit, or have
"Saggahew" make a report of, in his next com-
munication. All young farmers, and almost all
who are not yet "already perfect," if really am-
bitious of making constant improvement, will find
the article under notice one that will richly repay
repeated perusals, and a great deal of thinking and
self-application.

"Proper Location of Buildings on the
Farm." — This, article which may be found on page
304 of July number of this journal, contains hints
and thoughts which would be of great value, so
far as comfort and convenience are concerned, if
they could find their way into the heads of those
who may be buying a farm, or putting up build-
ings on one, which they are to occupy for life. If
the considerations here presented should fail to
occur to the minds of buyers or builders in such
circumstances, the result may be that they and
their families may suffer some inconvenience, per-
haps daily, for the rest of their lives.

When the "Hints on Buying Farms," see pages
203 and 316 current volume, get printed in pam-
phlet form, as proposed page 316, this article
should be added as a useful appendix.

"Mental Culture." — There are some good
thoughts in this article, page 315 of July number ;
but they are not well adapted for use among com-
mon farmers, as, for example, the suggestion that
formers should have a study, or room for them-
selves to read and study in. We have never seen
so good a Avay of making a farmer and his fam-
ily intelligent, as lately, in a case in which the
father hears his children recite or answer questions
from AVilson's Family and School Readers, and
other books of Natural Science and History. Try
such a plan. More Anon.

Wool Exhibition. — There is to be a great
wool show under the supervision of the Ohio
State Agricultural Society at its annual exhibition
to be held at Cleveland, September 15 to 19,
1862. Competition is open to the world. Wool

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

387

•will be divided into four classes: 1st. Fulling
wools. 2d. Delaine wools. 3d. Cassimere wools.
4th. Combing wools. Twenty-five fleeces must
be exhibited to entitle exhibitors to a premium.
Mr. S. N. Goodale, of Cleveland, will have charge
of this department.

. SUMMEK MANURES.

It has become a common practice among New
England farmers to plow sward land and lay it to
grass in September, without cultivating a crop
upon it ; and when the autumnal months are mild
and moist, this course is certainly successful, if the
land is properly dressed with fine, rich compost.
More land would be treated in this way than there
is, if the farmer could always command the man-
ure which is indispensable, if satisfactory results
are expected.

The winter stock of manure is usually exhaust-
ed on the crops planted in the spring, so that the
only resource is to that which has accumulated
tlu'ough the summer, and what can be done as an
auxiliary help by the specific fertilizers. Some
persons have attempted to re-seed sward land by
the use of guano, bone-dust, ashes, lime or super-
phosphates, but we have never known the result
favorable under such circumstances. The seeds
come sparingly, and when up, do not grow vigor-
ously. But wherever there is a little well-rotted
manure, a particle of muck saturated with urine
or potash in some form, or a speck of rich, clayey
loam, the seeds will find and cling to it tenacious-
ly, and throw out their roots freely, which soon
pass through it and down into the firmer soil.
This is what they like, and should have, in order
to return to us profitable crops.

The efibrt to obtain the largest amount of this
material should never cease — not even during
hoeing or the hurrying season of haying. Every
available thing should be laid under contribution,
and especially all the green stuff that can be col-
lected, such as weeds, coarse grasses, and, in ma-
ny pastures, brakes, and the young growth of
bushes. In addition to these the droppings of
the cattle, whether tied up or not, should be cov-
ered three or four times a week, or once each day
would be better. When a system like this is put
into practice, and steadily persisted in, the far-
mer will often find himself amply supplied with
the necessary means of laying down his old fields
to grass, and of covering them once more with the
most abundant and paying crops.

The truth is, we let our grass lands run too
long. We mow them year after year and get a
ton of hay per acre, when the land, under a high-
er state of culture, is capable of yielding three
tons to the acre ! Would it not be cheaper to al-
low some of it to lie idle, or grow up to wood,
than to have so much in hand ?

In order to have the summer manure in proper
condition for re-seeding, it must be collected into
heaps and passed through a slight fermentation,
such as we have described in an article in this
number of the paper, in reply to the queries of a
con-espondent about destroying the vitality of the
seeds of weeds which find their way into the
manure heaps.

It is of vital importance to the farmer, never to
relax his efi'orts in making manure. They should
be systematic, not spasmodic, crowding in the ma-
terial this week in undue proportion, and with-
holding it entirely the next. Where system is
observed, and the various materials are judicious-
ly supplied, the heap will grow in magnificent
proportions, and if properly reduced from its long
and crude, to a short and saponaceous condition,
will amply repay the cost with more than com-
pound interest for all the labor he has expended
upon it.

Will the farmer allow us to suggest, once more,
the importance to him of attending to the manure
heaps in the summer, while materials are more
abundant than at other seasons, and while the hot
weather will rapidly reduce them to their best
condition. Let us suggest, also, that muck is the
great basis upon which his operations must main-
ly rest. It is, in reality, "the mother of the meal
chest." Without its aid we scarcely know what
course to suggest ; but with it in abundance, and
judiciously used, there is hardly a limit to the
productiveness of our good soils.

HAY CAPS.

We sometimes hear farmers say that they can-
not aff'ord this or that on account of the cost. Do
they always count the cost on both sides ? We
will give an instance of what seems to be true
economy. Jacob P. Buswell, of Auburn, purchased
20 caps three years since. He bought the cloth,
li^ yards wide, and tore it into squares, doubling
up the corners for the strings to be sewed on.
During the rainy week of the last of June, he had
a half acre of fine clover down. It had one day's
sun, and was put into 17 stout heaps. The caps
were put on, pegged down at the corners, and af-
ter a week's rain of no ordinary kind, the clover
came out bright and sweet, and was put into the
barn in first rate order. Now every farmer knows
that it don't take a week's rain to spoil clover.
i\Ir. Buswell's caps cost him $4. They saved
him thrice their cost in that one rain. This is
what we call true economy. This year cotton
cloth costs more than it did three years since, but
even now it will pay to buy hay caps. Such things
make the farm labor easier, they relieve its hur-
ried and anxious hours, and enable one to feel
tolerably easy in the catching rains. — N. H. Jour-
nal of Agriculture.

A person of uncultivated mind has no resource
but in the society of others.

388

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug.

For the Nete England Fqrmcr.
NOTES FKOM MAINE.

The Spring Droughts. — There was an unu-
sual amount of snow fell during the past winter,
but no January thaw worthy of being noted ; nor
during the winter was there rain to any amount.
The snow went off nearly all by the warmth of the
sun, aided by March and April winds, instead of
March winds and April showers, as usual.

This left enormous drifts of snow in every run,
gully and hollow, and frost in the ground, with
cold nights and days when there was wind, or it
was cloudy. Consequently, the ground was dried
slowly, at first, by the cool breezes, which in early
spring gave us a cold, wet, backward season, with
wet, cloggy soil. But it gradually grew warmer,
with, scarcely any rain till it became as dry as any
one, old or young, has seen in these parts at this
time of the year.

The germinating seed suffered much. I exam-
ined a piece of corn, June IG, planted May 28,
and found some of it up three inches, some just
coming, some sprouted one to three inches, dried
up and apparently dead, and some not swelled to
the sprouting point, looking as bright as when
planted. Sprouting and then drying has been a
too frequent condition of wheat, corn and other
crops. But the drought is now broken. Light
rains and fine showers are spoken of in many
places.

The Season. — As has already been hinted, the
season has been cold, windy and dry. Hardly a
day but the wind has blown some part of the
twenty-four hours so that a laborer, a traveller or
any one, would wish it might cease. Very few
hot days yet, and less hot nights. One advantage
we had, teams could do full work every day, be-
cause the heat and rain did not hinder, and they
were improved by every one.

Frosts were to be seen June 9 and 15, sufficient
to nip the tender garden vines in many places,
and hereaud there a corn blade ; but doing slight
damage, because the beans, the squashes, the cu-
cumbers could be replanted in the gardens, while
the field crops were little injured except in unfa-
vorable places.

The crops are late, owing to the late spring and
then the cold and dry weather following. There
is a good breadth sown in all crops, with an in-
crease in wheat. The choppings, that is, where
the trees were cut down in the summer of 1861,
could all be burned this spring and cleared up in
season for wheat. On these new lands it is not so
difficult to get a crop on account of the wheat
midge, Hessian fly, rust and mildew, as on plowed
land. The farther they are from old fields, the
surer the crops. The hay crop is materially in-
jured on dry, light land, and so it is on land laid
down in 1861, not being sufficiently sodded to
shield the young roots. O. W. True.

Near Fhillips, Me., July, 1862.

The Frog Trade. — The Auburn (N. Y.) Ad-
vertiser says that the catching of frogs at Monte-
zuma has become quite a considerable ti'ade. It
adds : "For three or four seasons past two men
have made the impaling of frogs their business.
Every other day they ship from Auburn a barrel
of frogs for the New York or Buffalo market.

They make very handsome wages. The method
of securing these basso profundos of the marshes
is very similar to spearing for fish. The men pad-
dle off through the marsh in the night with a dark
lantern. They approach the haunt of the frog
very quietly, and when near enough throw their
dart with a certainty acquired by practice, always
hitting them back of the head, killing them in-
stantly. The hind quarters are then carefully
skinned and cut off, packed in barrels, and sent
to their destination. They generally secure two
or three hundred in a night, and are paid $6 a
hundred.

CLOVER AND PLASTER.

A reader in Michigan wishes a little informa-
tion respecting clover and plaster, which we will
endeavor to give. Clover may be sown either in
the autumn with wiater grains, or in the spring
with summer cereals, or may be sown alone or
with timothy or any other of the cultivated grass-
es. Which is the best of these methods is not
very easily ascertained ; and the question has
caused a good deal of discussion among practical
men, and the exhibition of a great variety of ex-
perience that at first might appear contradictor}-.
Like other questions, however, in regard to which
experience seems to vary, we have no doubt the
difference in the result is chargeable to difference
of circumstances, such as soil, climate, exposure,
amount of snow, which is valuable as winter pro-
tection, and perhaps other influences.

When clover is sown alone, from ten to sixteen
pounds are used. Heavy land it is believed gen-
erally requires more seed than a light soil. It is
best not to be sparing of clover seed, for where
grown pretty thick the hay is finer and better.
When sown with timothy, the usual quantity is
from six to twelve pounds. The only way to in-
sure a good crop all over the field, is to prepare
the ground thoroughly and give plenty of seed.
Spots where clover will not catch, need manure
and a little more seed.

The operation of plaster is not well understood
either by practical or scientific men. It has been
used by some in certain locations without the least
apparent benefit, and its use abandoned, while
others differently situated find it the most profita-
ble manure that can be used on clover, all legu-
minous plants, and the grasses. Why this is so
no one can tell, though there are many theories.
Experiment alone will decide where it is profita-
ble to use plaster and where it is useless. There
is great difference of opinion, too, as to the best
time of sowing plaster. Some derive no benefit
unless it is used in the spring after the leaves are
well expanded, and think that its effect is through
the leaves alone, while others are not particular
on this point, and prefer to sow at the very earli-
est moment possible in the spring, and in this way
obtain the best results. We never saw a better
effect from plaster than on a field of clover in Ni-
agara county, heavy soil, that had received a heavy
dressing of plaster in the winter. A correspond-
ent complains that using plaster on clover sown
with wheat causes a heavy gi-owth of straw, makes
the wheat ripen late, and it is very much subject
to rust, while without plaster the clover perishes
from drought. K any of our readers know of a
preventive of this state of things, we would like

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

389

to be informed. From two to four bushels of
plaster is the quantity usually applied to the acre.

We have referred to the diiference existing
ameng scientific men regarding the operation of
plaster, and we give the opinions of three of the
most celebrated doctors.

Sir Humphrey Davy held the opinion that the
influence of gypsum on clover, sainfoin, rye grass,
and other plants of this character, is due to their
containing naturally a large proportion of sulphate
of lime. He examined the ashes of these plants,
and found that they afforded considerable quanti-
ties of gypsum, which substance, he thought,
might probably be intimately combined as a ne-
cessary part of their woody fibre. He believed
that Arhere gypsum failed to produce a good re-
sult, it would be found that the soil naturally con-
tained so much of the salt, that its artificial sup-
ply was unnecessary.

Prof. Liebig's opinions are thus stated in the
Ci/cloprcdia of Agriculture : Prof. L. explains
the action of gypsum upon grasses, by a reference
to its well known power of converting the volatile
carbonate of ammonia into the more fixed sul-
phate of the same base. When sulphate of lime
is mixed with a solution of carbonate of ammo-
iiia, all ammoniacal smell soon disappears. By a
mutual interchange of elements, carbonate of lime
and sulphate of ammonia are formed, and the lat-
ter salt, not being volatile at ordinary tempera-
tures, remains without loss in the liquid.

Prof. Liebig further states that "a part only of
the carbonate of ammonia, conveyed by rain to
the soil, is received by plants ; because a certain
quantity of it is volatilized with the vapor of wa-
ter. Only that portion of it can be assimilated
which enters deeply into the soil, or which is con-
veyed directly to the leaves by dew, or is absorbed
from the air along with the carbonic acid."

Now it is to the power, possessed by gypsum,
of converting the carbonate of ammonia into the
sulphate of the same base, and thus preventing
its volatilization when it has once come in contact
with the soil, that Prof. Liebig partly attributes
the action of gypsum as manure. We say partly,
because he expressly says that "the evident influ-
ence of gypsum upon the growth of grasses, the
striking fertility and luxuriance of a meadow on
which it is strewed, depends, in some degree, upon
its fixing in the soil the ammonia of the atmos-
phere, which would otherwise be volatilized with
the water which evaporates." And in other parts
of his well known work on Agricultural Chemis-
try he shows in what way plants derive the sul-
phur, required for the production of their albu-
minous constituents, either directly or indirectly,
from sulphate of lime. Prof. Liebig, then, con-
siders that gypsum acts as a source per se of food
to plants, but still more as a means of presenting
ammonia to them in greater abundance — in other
words, that in applying gypsum to a soil, we are
in fact Hianuring with an ammoniacal salt.

M. Boussingault, who advocates the third theo-
ry which we have to notice, has taken occasion,
in enunciating his views, to criticise with great
ability both of the preceding explanations of the
action of gypsum.

In reference to Prof. Liebig's theory, M. Bous-
gingault shows that to double the crop of clover,
which a di'essing of gypsum is well known to do,
the whole of the rain falling during the life of the

plant must have contained l-17000th of its weight
of carbonate of ammonia ; and that even allow-
nig that this proportion of ammonia could exist
in rain water, great corrections would require to
be made for the quantity of rain which either does
not penetrate the soil at all, or is returned to the
atmosphere without passing through the plants.

Admitting, however, for the sake of argument,
that the effect of gypsum upon clover, lucerne,
sainfoin, (Src, is really attributable, to its fixing the
ammonia of the atmosphere and of rain, M. Bous-
singault justly asks why it is that it does no good
whatever to natural pastures, and still less to root
or corn crops. Theoretically it would be expect-
ed that a proportionate advantage should be de-
rived by all crops from the ammonia so obtained,
and it is a matter of notoriety that ammoniacal
salts largely increase the produce, of natural grass-
es, and form an excellent manure for wheat. These
facts seem perfectly irreconcilable with the expla-
nation offered by Prof. Liebig for the action of
gypsum in agriculture. — Rural Neio-Yorkcr.

For the New England Farmer.
CULTURE OF THE ONION,

Yesterday I visited the grounds of P. L. Os-
born, an industrious laborer of this place, and
found him busily engaged, hoeing in his field of
half an acre of the potato onion. Never before
having particularly noticed the culture of this va-
riety of the onion, I was induced to inquire as to
the advantages of its culture. The first and most
prominent advantage is, that it is less liable to be
injur-ed by the onion maggot, or destroyer, that
has for several years nearly annihilated our onion
crop. Mr. Osborn's field appeared vigorous and
promising ; and he said he hoped to obtain from
it several hundred bushels. Several of his neigh-
bors are pursuing the same course of culture.
When such men thus illustrate their faith by their
works there is the best of reason to hope their ef-
forts will be successful. The boys in the Lane
about Wilsoii's Corner, are not often observed
chasing game, in a swamp, where none is to found.
If they cannot overcome the maggot in one way,
they will get around it in another. They rise ear-
ly, and work late, and eat the bread of careful-
ness. They do not wear kid gloves, except on
Sundays, and then only when going to Quaker
meeting. P.

South Banvers, Jiily 19, 1862.

HOW DEEP SHOULD DRAINS BE DUG?

This is a question upon which there always has
been and perhaps always wiU be a difference of
opinion. The depth required must depend on the
kind of soil, for if the soil is a hard one, on top of
a hard, gravely one, I do not find that there is
much advantage in going far into the hard pan.
If, on the other hand, the subsoil is loose and
more easily dug, there is an advantage to be de-
rived from going deeper.

My rule is, to guage the di'ains by their distance
apart. Let the depth be one-seventh of their dis-
tance asunder, and it will secure a thorough drain-
age. If the subsoil is hard, and the digging ex-
pensive, then do not sink the drains so deep, but
place them closer together, but hold on to the
above rule.

S90

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Atjg.

In many cases, especially where tile are used, it
will be more economical to sink the drain one foot
deeper, and by so doing save one-seventh of the
tile 5 but where tile can be cheaply procured this
is not always the case.

For a farm drain I prefer them about four feet
deep, with an opening, formed of flat stone, in the
bottom, and this covered with small stone to with-
in twenty inches of the top ; the latter are not
necessary if those forming the opening are cov-
ered with reversed sods.-^ Germantomii Telegraph.

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.
RATS AND MICE.

Will you inform me of a speedy and efTective
method of getting rid of i-ats and mice ?

They infest our house, which is rather an old
one, from attic to cellar, and we have been unable
to drive them away, though using a great number
of traps, &c., and in fact, trying everything we
thought might prove effectual. They cause con-
siderable damage to milk, cream, butter and
everything eatable, compelling us to cover up as
carefully as possible anything we wish to preserve
from destruction.

Now, if you, or any of the subscribers of the
Farmer, can inform me of any such way, please
do so, and oblige A Readex and Admikeu.

Framingkam, July, 1862.'

Remarks. — We were once troubled in the
same way, loaded the double-barrelled gun, re-
solved upon "eternal vigilance," shot nineteen in
the course of a few weeks, and had no further
trouble from rats for several years. But they are
great travellers, and in process of time we had
them again, and being mostly from home, resort-
ed to traps without success, and then to strych-
nine, which proved a quietus to many a poor rat.
Spread it upon bread and butter and place it a
short distance from the house, or under some
back building, where other animals cannot reach
it. By doing this they have never returned to
the house to die there in the walls.

MILK-SPREADING TEATS.

Having had some experience in milking cows
whose teats spread milk, and having been in all
cases able to overcome the difficulty. I am dis-
posed to give you the result. I find it to be, so
far as my observation extends, a protrusion of the
inside of the teat, and the remedy consists in
bringing tlie hand quite low down so as in some
measure to press 6ac/i:rather thanowf. I even let
my little finger come below the teat, so as to hold
it up. With a little practice this becomes quite
easy, and effects the cure. E. C. PiASE.

Athol Depot, July 7, 18G2,

FARR^VR'S LADDER IIOOKS.

I bought one of Farrar^s Ladder IIooTcs, soon
after seeing the illustration which you gave of it
in a late numbel of the Farmer, and soon had an
opportunity of using it to good advantage.

You know in what great peril my dwelling-

house wa.s when the factory burned so near me.
It was desirable to get buckets of water at once
upon the roof; tliere were two ladders leaning
against the house. I called for my Farrar's Lad-
der Hook ; this I attached securely to the upper
rounds of one ladder in a second, by turning a
screw, and slid the ladder over the ridgepole. In
my distress and anxiety as I dashed the water
upon the smoking shingles, I blessed the simple
contrivance which served me so timely. Here-
after I shall look upon Farrar's Ladder Hook as
one of my safeguards against fire, as it M'ill equip
any ladder so as instantly to be thrown upon a
roof.

I think I shall patch my roofs to better advan-
tage now that I can get over them more safely.

Wm. D. Brown.

Concord, Mass., June 24, 1862.

For the New England Farmer,
MOWING MACHINES.

Mr. Editor : — I have noticed several articles
on mowing machines in your excellent journal
during the last twelve months, one of which was
an inquiry about Ketchum's, as to which was the
best, the 1860 machine, or the 1861. I have used
one of the pattern of 1860, and it gives good sat-
isfaction. It does the work well, and is of light
draft. I have a pair of horses that do not weigh
more than fifteen or sixteen hundred, and they can
draw the machine with ease. It is not so hard for
them as ordinary plowing. I can mow an acre
per hour, and where the land and grass is suita-
ble to mow with a machine, I can commence at
twenty minutes past nine in the morning, on three
acres, and put it through in two-forty, and put my
horses up before noon with dry coats, if the tem-
perature of the weather is not more than 8<5°
above zero !

The principal difference between the patterns of
1860 and 1861 is in the finger-bar. That of '60
is bolted on tight ; that of '61 is connected by a
hinge, so that the bar can rise over objects with-
out tipping the driver's seat. But where the land
is smooth the hinge is not necessary, and where
the land is rocky, the hinge is dangerous. The
weight of the bar will prevent the machine from
tipping to the left ; but where the driving wheel
runs over a rock, or the hinge slides into a hol-
low, there is danger of throwing the driver over to
the right, and on to the knives, while it is next to
impossible to tip the stiff bar machine over to the
right. I should choose the stiff bar. There are
several kinds of machines in the market, and all
claim to be the best. But I doubt if there is a
better machine (taking all things into considera-
tion,) than the Ketchum machine ; if there is, it
would pay for almost every farmer to buy one ; if
not, it would pay to buy one of Ketchum's, for
it is better to pay ten or twelve dollars for the
wear and tear, and interest on the cost of a mow-
ing machine, than to pay twenty or thirty dollars
for a man to mow, and board hmi at a cost of six
or eight dollars more. In addition to this, grass
mowed with a machine is already spread, while if
mowed with a scythe, it would take as much time
to spread it as it would to mow it with a machine.

Amherst, N. H., July, 1862. D. N.

1S62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

391

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

OUK KECEIPT TO MAKE CURRANT
WINE.

For several years we have made a ten gallon
keg of cvirrant wine, which is of as good quality as
any we have tasted, and is generally so pronounced
by those who have had an opportunity to judge.
The mode of manufacture is simple, and can be
easily followed by any family having the currants
and the disposition to make the wine. For gen-
eral information as well as in reply to private in-
quiries, we give the receipt after which we make
it, and cordially recommend it.

The currants should be fully ripe when picked ;
put them into a large tub, in which they may re-
main a day or two ; then crush them with the
hands, unless you have a small patent wine-press,
in which they should not be pressed too much, or
the stems will be bruised and impart a disagree-
able taste to the juice. If the hands are used, put
the crushed fruit, after the juice has been poured
off, in a cloth or sack, and press out the remaining
juice. Put the juice back in the tub after cleans-
ing it, where it should remain aboul three days,
until the first stages of fermentation are over, and
removing once or twice a day the scum copiously
arising to the top. Then put the juice into a ves-
sel— a demijohn, keg or barrel — of a size to suit
the quantity to be made, and,

To each quart of juice add
Three pounds of the best .sugar,
And water sufficient to make a gallon.

Thus, ten quarts of juice and thirty pounds of
sugar will give you ten gallons of wine, and so on
in that proportion. Those who do not like very
sweet wine can reduce the quantity of sugar to 2^
or 2 pounds per gallon.

The cask must be full, and the bung or stopper
left off until fermentation ceases, which will be in
twelve or fifteen days. Meanwhile the cask must
be filled up daily with water, or what is better,
currant juice left over, as fermentation throws out
the impure matter. When fermentation ceases,
rack the Avine off carefully, either from the spiggot
or by a syphon, and keep running all the time.
Cleanse the cask thoroughly with boiling water,
then return the wine, bung up tightly, and let
stand for four or five months, when it will be fit to
drink, and can be bottled if desired.

All the vessels, casks, &c., should be perfectly
sweet, and the whole operation should be done
with an eye to cleanliness. In such event, every
drop of brandy or other spirituous liquors added
will detract from the flavor of the wine, and will
not in the least degree increase its keeping qual-
ities. Currant wine made in this way will keep
for an age, unless it is — drank. — Germantown
Telegraph.

Nice Tea Cakes.— Sift from a pint and a half
to a quart of flour, and mix thoroughly through it
two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and a little salt,
then rub in a clever lump of butter. Have ready
one pint of new milk with a teaspoon of soda dis-
solved in it, and pour this on the floor and work
up as soft as you can manage to roll, and cut with
cake-cutter ; add more flour, if necessary, and bake
in a quick oven. They soon bake, and are not so
good if the dough is stiff.

DRYING THE COMMON RED CURRANT.

V/e copy the following method for drj'ing the
red currant. It is highly recommended, and is
just in time to give it a trial.

The currants should be quite ripe when gath-
ered, with the stems attached, and washed or rinsed
efiectually and drained off. Then stem them and
wash them thoroughly, and to each pound of cur-
rants add a quarter of a pound of good Havana
sugar ; then place them in a preserving kettle over
a fire until they come to a scald heat, when they
are turned out into white earthen dishes, and ex-
posed to the action of the sun until, by evapora-
tion, they become hardened on the upper side.
Then they are turned over, and there remain un-
til they become so on the other side, and so alter-
nate until they become a sort of leathery texture,
when they are put away in earthen jars or boxes
until wanted for use. Care must be taken to keep
them from the dews of night and rains during the
process of drying ; finally, the utmost cleanliness
should be observed from first to last.

When used, enough hot water is required to
dissolve them or render them to any consistency
suitable for tarts, jelly, &c. At the same time,
more sugar is required to make them quite pala-
table, which must of course be governed by taste.
Currants in this way have kept well with us for
three years, and the presumption is that they will
keep for a longer time, if weU cared for.

AMERICAN GENTILITY.

In European countries the aim at anything like
gentility implies keeping one or more domestics
to perform household labors ; but in om- free
States every family aims at gentility, while not one
in five keeps a domestic. The aim is not a fool-
ish one, though follies may accompany it—for the
average ambition of our people includes a certain
amount of refined cultivation ; it is only that the
process is exhausting. Every woman must have
a best parlor, with hair-cloth furniture and a pho-
tographic book ; she must have a piano, or some
cheaper substitute ; her little girls must have em-
broidered skirts and much mathematical knowl-
edge ; her husband must have two or even three
hot meals every day of his life ; and yet her house
must be in perfect order early in the afternoon,
and she prepared to go out and pay calls, with a
black silk dress and card case. In the evening
she will go to a concert or a lecture, and then, at
the end of all, she will very possibly sit up after
midnight with her sewing-machine, doing extra
shop-work to pay for little Ella's music-lessons.
All this every "capable" New England woman
will do, or die. She does it, and dies ; and tlien
we are astonished that her vital energy gives out
sooner than that of an Irishwoman in a shanty,
with no ambition on earth but to supply her
young Patricks with adequate potatoes. — T. W.
Higginson.

FnriT "Wafers for Dessert. — Take currants,
cherries, apricots, or any other fruit ; put them
into an earthen jar in a kettle of water, and when
scalded strain them through a sieve ; to every pint
of juice add the same weight of finely sifted sugar
and the white of a small egg ; beat all together

392

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Aug

until it becomes quite thick ; then put it upon but-
tered paper in a slow oven ; let them remain un-
til they will quit the paper, then turn them, and
leave in the oven until quite dry ; cut them into
shape, and keep them between paper in a box
near the fire.

ABOUT BASPBERKIES.

These may be preserved wet, bottled, or made
jam or marmalade of, the same as strawberries.
Raspberries are very good dried in the sun or
in a warm oven. They are very delicious stewed
for table or tarts.

RASPBERRY JAM.

Weigh the fruit, and add three-quarters of the
weight of sugar ; put the former into a preserving
pan, boil, and break it ; stir constantly, and let it
boil very quickly ; when the juice has boiled an
hour, add the sugar and simmer half an hour. In
this way the jam is superior in color and flavor to
that which is made by putting the sugar* in at first.

RASPBERRY -STINE.

Bruise the finest ripe raspberries with the back
of a spoon ; strain them through a flannel bag into
a stone jar ; allow one pound of fine powdered
loaf sugar to one quart of juice; stir these M'ell to-
gether, and cover the jar closely ; let it stand
three days, stirring the mixture up every day ;
then pour ofi" the clear liquid, and put two quarts
of sherry to each quart of juice, or liquid. Bottle
it off', and it will be fit for use in a fortnight. By
adding Cognac brandy instead of sherry, the mix-
ture will be raspberry brandy.

RASPBERRY CREAM.

Rub a quart of raspberries, or raspberry jam,
through a hair sieve, to take out the seeds, and
then mix it well with cream ; sweeten with sugar
to taste ; put into a stone jug, and raise a froth
with a chocolate mill ; as your froth rises take it
off with a spoon, and lay it upon a hair sieve.
When you have got as much froth as you want,
put what cream remains into a deep china dish or
punch bowl, and pour your frothed cream upon it,
as hisrh as it will lie on.

American Babies. — I must protest that Amer-
ican babies are an unhappy race. They eat and
drink just as they please ; they are never pun-
ished ; they are never banished, snubbed and kept
in the background as children are kept with us ;
and yet they are wretched and uncomfortable.
My heart has bled for them as I have heard them
squalling by the hour together in agonies of dis-
content and dyspepsia. Can it be, I wonder, that
children are happier when they are made to obey
orders and are sent to bed at six o'clock, than when
allowed to regulate their own conduct ; that bread
and milk is more favorable to laughter and soft
childish ways than beef-steak and pickles three
-times a day ; that an occasional whipping, even,
will conduce to rosy cheeks ? It is an idea which
I should never dare to broach to an American
mother ; but I must confess that after my travels
on the western continent my opinions have a ten-
dency in that direction. Beef-steaks and pickles
certainly produce smart little men and women.
Let that be taken for granted. But i"osy laughter
and winning childish ways are, I fancy, the pro-
duce of bread and milk. — Anfhonv Trollope.

THE CATTLE MARKETS FOR JULY.

The fiiUowing is a summary of the reports for the four weeks
ending July 24, 1S62 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

Sheep and Shoies and Lire

Cattle. Lambs. Pi'js. Fat Hogs.

Julys 13S2 8125 500 400

" 10 1463 2078 600 400

" IT 1653 4078 640 300

" 24 1783 61G0 300 1000

6281 20,441 2040 2100

PRICES.

JuU/ 3. July 10. Jrily 17. July 24.

Boef cattle, ^ ft 5ig7 5Ja6J 5Ja6J 5 r«6J

Sheep, clipped, liveivt....3 (g4i 3 ©4 J 3 (§44 3 ®4i

Swine, stores, wholesale.. 4 igS @4 3.je4| 3ig45

" " retail 4ig5i 4 @5 4^55J 4^'ioJ

Dressed hogs 4325 4^g5 4|25 4|^5

Remarks. — There was a decline of ^c ^ lb. on beef, the second
week of July, and the market has shown a downward tendency
since that time. Since the first week in the month, no Northern
cattle have sold for over OjC ^ ft., on dressed weight, except,
perhaps, one or two pairs, which were, really, extra, and there
are so many corn-fed Western cattle at this market, that an ani
mal must be very fat and well shaped to be ranked as "extra."
The Northern cattle at market, July 24th, averaged very light.
The early Summer drought in the Northern part of New England
and Canada greatly injured the pastures, on which farrgers rely
for fatting their beef at this season of the year.

The market for lambs has been brisk during the month, not-
withstanding the large number reported the first week. There
have b*en but few old sheep at market this month, the great ma-
jority being lambs, many of which were small. They have sold
in lots, often with a few yearlings, or an old sheep or two with
Uie lambs, at from $2,50 to $3,50,— mostly from $2,75 to $3,25.

The market for milch cows has been dull during the month,
and in fact during the season. Pretty fair cows with young calves
sell for about $30. First rate cows sell better than ordinary

ones.

QUARTERLY SUMMARY.

The total number of cattle, sheep and lambs, shotes and pigs,
and live fat hogs, reported for the first and second quarters of
the year, ending July 24, with the average number for each week,
and the respective numbers of cattle and sheep from the West, or
those purchased at Albany, and from the North, or New Eng-
land, including a few from Canada and Northern New York, is
as follows:

Total both Average
1st Quarter. 2d Quarter. Quarters, jier Week.

Cattle 16.157 16,133 32.290 1242

Sheep 34,961 34,797 69,753 2683

Shotes and Pigs... 6,515 23,742 30,257 1164

Live Fat Hogs 8,850 8,650 17,500 673

Ao. of Cattle from No. of Sheep from

The West. The North. The West. The North.

First Quater 9,118 7039 14,423 20,538

Second Quarter.. 11 ,039 5094 2,025 32,772

1st six months... 20,157 12,133 16,443 53,310

Cure for Fever and Ague.— Although, like
toothache, fever and ague i.'? a disorder that many
people make fun over, no one who has ever had
the "shakes" and the "chills" is careless concern-
ing the remedy for them. A gentleman who has
been out among the troops on the upper Potomac,
says that there is a remedy always easily found,
which is much more reliable than quinine or chol-
agogue ; and that remedy is a decoction of the
common white plantain, formed by steeping the
leaves in whiskey, taken before breakfast a dozen
mornings in succession. The remedy is at every
farm-house door, and as simple as that prescribed
to Naaman by the prophet, to whom he was re-
fen-ed by the "little maid." — Exchange.

\mmm

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUBE AND ITS KINDHED ARTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, SEPTEMBER, 1862.

NO. 9.

NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Office.... 100 Wasuixgtos Striei.

SIMON BROWN Editor.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

CALENDAR FOB SEPTEMBER.

O, goodness, every year made new !

O, gifts, with rain and sunshine sent !
Thy bounty overruns our due,

Thy fulness shames our discontent. Whittier.

eptember, the first
of the Autumn
Months, is again
with us, and again
do we witness on
all hands the evi-
dences of another
of those fulfilments
of the promise that
"seed time and
harvest shall nev-
er cease," which,
while they are designed to
be sufficient to stimulate
hope and to encourage the
putting forth of those ef-
forts on our part which are
made the condition of the pro-
mise, are not intended to be posi-
tive enough to warrant that kind
of faith which seeks to manifest
itself "without works." Not know-
ing, positively, whether this or that should pros-
per, we cast in the seed, with just enough of hope
to give us courage to work bravely, and with just
enough of fear to make us realize that we are but
co-workers with a higher Power, on whom we are
dependent for the increase, however carefully we
may plant.

"0, Painter of the fruits and flowers,

We thank Thee for Thy wise design,
Whereby these human hands of ours

In Nature's garden work with Thine.
And thanks tliat from our daily need

The joy of simple faith is born ;
That he who smites the summer weed
May trust Thee for the autumn corn."

September is, in many respects, one oi the
most pleasant months of the year, being, in this

climate, an agreeable compound of summer and
fall weather — of warm days and cool nights. The
work of summer and the work of fall, as well as
the climate of the two seasons, seems to begin
and end during this month, or rather, we may
say, are divided by it. The harvesting of our
English grains and the gathering of our early
fruits occur during the season of haying, which,
in many sections of New England, includes the
early part of September ; while the gathering of
the later fruits, digging of potatoes and other-
roots, with the harvesting of the corn crop, are de^ -
ferred to the next month, or to quite the last of '
this. The good farmer, therefore, should find io.
September, not a mere boundary line only, but a
liberal vacation between summer work and fall
work. A vacation not for idleness, not so much
even for relaxation as for active efforts for tbe ac- i
complishment of certain well-considered and; per- '
hans long deferred plans for various

LITTLE IMPROVEMENTS

about the farm and its appurtenances, for ■which
September seems to be the most favorable time
in the whole year.

We do not propose at this time to advise par-
ticularly what these improvements shall be. They |
probably differ on nearly every farm. But this '
year, more especially than any other in the past
history of our country, is one in which every citi-
zen Avill count carefully the cost of all undertak-
ings, while, at the same time, there are many rea-
sons why he should take counsel' of iiis hopes
rather than of his fears.

While we would now, as we ever have done
caution against inconsiderate and extravagant
outlays for agricultural purposes, especially by
those of limited means, we believe there is occa-
sion this year to fear that many farmers will be
over-cautious, and thus verify in their own expe-
rience the truth of the precept, that "there is
that which withholdeth more than is meet, and it

394

NEAV ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

tendeth to poverty." Stormy as the political hor-
izon may appear, do not let September pass away
without making some permanent improvement on
the farm, or at least without doing something to
make home more pleasant, and next year's work
more agreeable and profitable. Something of this
kind may be done at small expense. It will not
cost much to plow up a small "land" of that
bound out meadow, and seed it down for next
year's mowing, harrowing in manure in propor-
tion to the "heft" of the crop you wish to cut
thereon for the next six or eight years. Neither
will it cost a great deal of money or time to col-
lect materials of some kind to prevent the waste
of the best part of the manure in the hog-pen and
cowyard, the sink, drain, privy, &c. If the old
swamp is dry enough, a few days' work there will
furnish an ample supply of an excellent absorbent
for the whole year. If it is too wet, what say to
a little bit of experience in turning running water
over a portion of the grass ground, if you happen
to have a stream that can be so used without too
much expense ; or, while waiting for the dry spell
that we usually find in this mouth or the next,
perhaps we can do something for that bushy pas-
ture, or possibly lay up a few rods of stone wall,
that will look much better and much safer than
the old wooden fence that was so completely
smashed down by last winter's snow.

And now for the cattle show. Never mind if it
is not managed exactly to suit you. You are just
the man that is wanted. Go yourself, and take
your family with you, and by the influence of your
•word and example the "little improvements" which
you desire may be effected. Farmers cannot well
do without these stated times and occasions for
meeting together to examine the results of each
'other's labor, and to talk over aflairs connected
with their business. Mechanics who cluster to-
gether in villages and cities, have frequent oppor-
tunities for conversation, but farmers live remote
from each other, and are in danger of becoming
too solitary and unsocial. There is high authori-
ty for the injunction "to do good and communi-
cate."

For the New England Farmer.
THE WHEAT CROP.

Mr. Editor : — Have your correspondents done
much for the winter wheat crop, which is now in
its harvest time ? War and taxes should keep all
your farmers within their own stone walls for
their brcadstuffs. Let tlicm all resolve that the
last week in August and first week in September
shall not pass with less than two to five acres or
mo7~e of wheat, as an indispensable necessity and
luxury of the farm. Has the spring wheat suffered
much by heavy rains, and the late broken mil-
dewy weather ? It is far less sure than winter
grain. Practice will prove my assertion.

Brooldijn, L. I. 11. Poor.

For the New England Farmer.
THE SEASON AND CROPS.

Rarely have I known a season that gave pro-
mise of crops more abundant. To be sure, the
superabundant rains have materially interfered
with the making of hay, which is ever one of the
most important products of New England farms ;
still, a large crop has grown, and most of it has
been cured in the best manner practicable, under
the circumstances. The introduction of moAving
machines and hay caps has greatly facilitated the
getting the crop, wherever their value has been
known and appreciated. One of my neighbors,
who cuts more than one hundred tons of hay, has
got it all in, in good condition, by due attention
to the time of cutting, and covering when in the
field. Hay is not injured by standing in cock for
several days, if properly capped ; in fact, I am not
sure that it is not better made so than in any
other way. I cannot doubt that the expense of
such caps will be saved in a single season, if pro-
perly used. Essex.

August 11, 1862.

Remarks. — Our correspondent is right in his
suggestion about hay being worth more for being
cured under caps. We have no doubt but it is at
least ten per cent, better. Let the grass be thor-
oughly wilted, or half made, then cock it, cover
with caps, and let it remain from 24 to 36 hours ;
then throw it open to the air and sun for three or
four hours, and the hay will be as perfectly cured
as it can be. It will not be brittle and break like
so many dry twigs, nor bleached until almost col-
orless, but soft, fragrant, and of a cheerful, light
green color, and full of tallow and milk, or what
will abundantly make them. We are for progress
in every thing good.

GATHERING SPONGES.

The sponge business is largely pursued at the
Bahama Islands. The exports of this article now
amount annually to about $200,000. It is almost
entirely the growth of the last twenty years. Dur-
ing that period the article has nearly quadrupled
in value, and has been applied to a great variety
of new purposes, especially in France.

The sponge is compressed in powerful ))resses
and sacked like cotton. It is assorted and grad-
ed, samples being fastened to each package to
show the quality.

It is fished or i*aked or grappled up from the
clean, sandy bottom at the depth of twenty, forty,
and even sixty feet, and often far out from tht
shore. The water is so transparent that the grow-
ing sponge is visible on the bottom.

The sponge, when first taken from the water, is
black, and at once becomes offensive to the smell

The first process is to bury it in the sand, where
it remains for two or throe weeks, when the gelat-
inous animal matter seems to be absorbed and de-
stroyed, or eaten by the insects that swarm in the
sand.

The boatmen who obtain it are paid in shai-es by
the owners of the boats. This, therefore, becomes
a precarious and semi-gambling pursuit, highly
attractive to the colored population.

1862,

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

395

HOW TO ENTER UPON SCIENTIFIC
PURSUITS.

The great treasure-house of nature is open to all, and the only
fee demanded for inspection, is attention.

Sir J. Herschcl said : "In entering upon any
scientific pursuit, one of the sttulent's first endeav-
ors ought to be to prepare his mind for tlie recep-
tion of truth, by dismissing, or loosening his hold
on all such crude notions as tend to mislead him."
Tlie advice is most excellent as far as it goes, and
we purpose rendering it more' complete, by show-
ing how it can be followed.

Observation of nature is the only source of
truth. Discursive observation is the art of notic-
ing circumstances evident to the senses. Men
who do this intentionally and carefully, with a
view of acquiring a knowledge of phenomena and
their causes, are distinguished for their varied
knowledge, and often for their great discoveries.
Shakspeare must have owed the varied facts in-
terwoven in his delineations of human character
to this source. The harnessing of the lightning
by Benjamin Franklin, was doubtless the sugges-
tion of his curious observations of things. Ful-
lon, Arkwright, Sir Walter Scott and Cowper are
well known to have been careful observers. New-
ton, Bacon, Hunter, Gall, and others, owe their
discoveries to their powers and habits of observa-
tion and experiment. Experiment is invented ob-
servation. It is putting into operation certain
supposed causes in order to observe their effects
— or it may be defined as an observation, which
we are at some trouble to make. It is the very
foundation of scientific pursuits.

Science is reason. Art is rule. Science tells
wh)'. Art tells how. An art is a system of rules
for the performance of an operation ; and science
explains the reasons on which the rules of art are
founded. To be scientific, therefore, we must
have a clear perception of this definition. To
have imbibed the spirit of science, whose traits
are clear distinctions, accurate classification, and
a strict reference to primitive data, is to approach
the apex of the inventive pyramid.

The student of science should have all his
knowledge systematized and arranged. What
other people have in confusion, he should have in
order. The elements of knowledge are, more or
less, known to all men — but in their perfect, com-
municable and usable state, they are known only
to the scientific man. What training is to the
soldier, science is to the thinker. It enables him
to control all his resources, and by classification,
show his powers to the best advantage. Astron-
omy, navigation, architecture, geometry, political
economy, morals, all rest, or should rest, and do
rest, if "they have attained to the ])crfection of sci-
ence, on primary facts and first principles. Every
step should be measured by an axiom — every step
traced to a first principle. To detect error, then,
in any province of investigation, the student first
looks to the primary principles on which it is
based, and thus tests the legitimacy of its conclu-
sions.

Observation, definition, classification, are the
maxims of absolute necessity to every inventor ;
without them, no real progress can be made.
These principles may not always make their ap-
pearance in formal propositions, but still they
guide all our thoughts in the same manner as
when a musician plays a careless voluntary ujjon

an instrument — he is guided by rules of music he
long since became familiar with, though scarcely
sensible of them now.

The natural order undoubtedly indicates, first,
search for the original principle of things — then
definition of terms — then systematizing or classi-
fication, and lastly, application. This habit aids
not only the acquisition of knowledge, but also its
retention. Around these princi]jles, as around a
standard, the thoughts naturally associate. Touch
but a remote chord of any question, and it will
vibrate to the central principle to which it has
once been well attached. Every relative impres-
sion owns a kindred connection, and the moment
one is attacked, it, like a faithful sentinel, arouses
a whole troop, which, marshalled and disciplined,
bear down and challenge the enemy.

What a poet once sung of the associations of
childhood, is true of the associations of scientific
investigation :

"Childhood's loved group revisits every scene, —

The tangled wood- walk and the tufted green.

The school's long porch, with reverend mosses gray,

Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay.

Mute is the hell which ran;^ at peep of dawn,

QuicU'nin.'? my truant steps across the lawn ;

Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air,

When the slow dial gave a pause to care.

Up springs at every step, to claim a tear.

Some little friendsliip formed and cherished here ;

And not the lightest leaf but trembling teems

Vt'ith golden visions and romantic dreams !"

— Farmer, Mechanic and Cabinet.

HOT-BEDS— HOT-HOUSES— WEEDS-
MANURES.

Will you please answer the following questions
through the columns of the Farmer, and oblige a
constant reader ?

1. What size glass and sash are best and most
convenient for a hot-bed ? What for a small hot-
house, in which to start and protect early and
tender plants, and how should it be built ?

2. How can manure be managed so as to kill
the seeds in it, and to escape the trouble of con-
stantly hoeing and pulling weeds, especially
among onions and root crops ?

3. How are the early onions and peas raised,
and what variety are they, that are brought early
into Boston market, and sent to other places ?
Are the onions raised from the seeds ? The peas
in this market, now brought from Boston, are
larger than the very early kinds raised here, such
as the Dan. OTtourke, &c.

Waterville, Me., 18G2. B. T. Stevens.

Remarks. — A hot-bed, merely to answer the
purposes of a common flimily, may be constructed
of tM'o old house windows and a few pieces of ua-
planed boards, and the plants will be just as
thrifty as under one that cost, $20. But if you
wish to engage to a more ample extent in pro-
ducing early plants, it would he better to con-
struct a hot-bed of considerable size, and of good
materials, — and even then, the process of con-
structing the frame and sash is exceedingly sim-
ple. It consists in nailing four boards together,
the width being about four feet, or just wide
enough to reach across, to tend the plants, and
the length extended as far as is desired. The

396

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

back board should be as much higher than the
front, as will give a proper pitch to the sash for
conducting off the water. Pieces of two inch stuff,
should be placed in the corners, and the boards
nailed to them, to keep the whole stiff. The sash
should be narrow, so as to be easily moved, and
run up and down, not crosswise, the glass lapping,
80 as not to leak. This is all that is necessary,
with regard to construction ; preparing the hot-
bed, and managing it, require constant and care-
ful attention.

We can give you but little aid, we fear, about
"a small hot-house." All houses for the purpose
of starting and growing plants, are rather expen-
sive. A good one — not an extravagant one — will
cost from six to ten dollars for each running foot,
built of the ordinary dimensions, say 12 by 32 feet,
or in about that proportion. A gentleman who is
interested in such houses, recently informed us
that he can construct a good house for less than
five dollars per running foot, — one that will well
answer all ordinaiy purposes.

Your question, in regard to the management of
manure so as to kill the seeds, is an important one,
as living seeds, spread with manure, not only per-
petuate a useless labor, but greatly exhaust the
resources of the soil, in the millions of weeds
which they produce. We know of only one way
to prevent their germinating, and that is through
the agency of fermentation. If this process is
properly conducted, we think it would not only
destroy the vitality of seeds, but vastly increase
the value of the manui-e. But it is a nice process,
and few, perhaps, will be willing to give it the
necessary time and attention.

The manure should be thrown into large heaps,
and a lower place than the heap stands on be made
near it, so as to catch all the drainage that escapes,
which should be taken up and thrown over the
pile two or three times each day. In throwing
up the pile, place two or three smooth poles in an
upright position, and throw the manure round
them so that when the pile is finished these poles
will stand in the midst of it. The heap must
stand out doors, as the barn cellar would probably
be too cool for the fermentative process to go on.
After the pile has been set up for tAvo or three
days, and repeatedly saturated with its own drain-
age water, by drawing up one of the stakes and
grasping it with the hand, the state of tempera-
ture may be ascertained. If it is found to be
quite warm in some places, and cooler in others,
it will become necessary to overhaul the heap, and
break up and thoroughly mingle the whole. In
a day or two apply the test again, occasionally
drawing out a small portion to learn what its con-
dition is. Great care must be observed not to al-
low fermentation to proceed too far, as "fire-fang,"
as it is pfiUod. would rnsup. and the hean be trreat-

ly injured. If fermentation is kept within proper
limits — and the heat of the poles and examina-
tions of the manure itself Avill always determine
this — the manure will become nearly black, and
quite fine, and we believe the vitality of the seeds
will be destroyed. In addition to tliis the manure
is rendered more valuable in every respect by the
process ; it can be more easily handled and ap-
plied to the soil or crops, and it is thought by in-
telligent farmers that one cord of it will produce
more crop the first year than two cords in the
crude form in which manure is generally applied.

Will you try this process, and inform us how
you succeed ?

The onions which you inquire about are proba-
bly produced from what is called the "top," or "po-
tato" onion. This produces a cluster of bulbs, or
ofi'sets, in number from two to twelve, and even
more, uniformly beneath the soil. Or, the onions
that come along so early may be obtained in the
following manner : Sow the seed of common onions
so late as to get little bulbs of the size of a cranber-
ry by the last of August, then take them up care-
fully, and dry them, and pack away secure from
frost. Quite early in the S])ring, as soon as the
soil will permit it, plant these little bulbs in favor-
able situations, and they will soon produce fair
sized onions.

The size of the peas of which you speak may
be owing to the high culture which they receive.
There are, however, several varieties which vary
considerably in earliness and in size, such as the
Dan. O'Rourke, Champion of England, Missouri
Marrowfat, &c. &c.

TUBULAR BRICKS.

The society for improving the condition of the
laboring classes in London, highly commend the
use of tubular bricks for purposes of construction.
According to an official statement made by the
society, a size has been chosen which, with the
omission of the headers, reduces, by about one-
third, the number of joints, and greatly improves
the appearance of the work, giving it more bold-
ness of effect and resemblance to stone than that
of ordinary brickwork. This size is twelve inches
long, and three courses rise one foot in height — a
size equally convenient for the workmen in the
manufacture and in the use of the bricks. Nine
bricks of this kind and size will do as mucli wall-
ing as sixteen of the common sort, Mhlle the
weight of the former but little exceeds that of the
latter. When passing through the macliinc, or in
the process of drying, any number may be readily
splayed at the ends for gables, or marked for clo-
sures, and broken off as required in use, or they
may be perforated for the purpose of ventilation.

In one ton of cabbage there are 189 ounces of
sand, 184 of salt (chloride of sodium,) 279 of sul-
phuric acid, 15G of phosphoric acid, 72 of magne-
sia. 052 of lime. 208 of soda, 6G1 of potasli.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

397

MAMTTRES.

All decomposing animal matters form most en-
ergetic fertilizers, and the collection of carcases of
animals, the blood from slaughter-houses, the resi-
due from the manufacture of preserved meat, fish,
&c., are all substances which, if given to the soil,
would be the source of abundant crops. But these
substances are difficult to preserve. The abomin-
able stench they give out prevents their transport
to any distance by land or sea. It is also ex-
tremely difficult to remove the excess of water
they contain, which insensibly augments their
weight, and at the same time contributes to their
more rapid decomposition.

To render blood, flesh, &c., imputrescent while
desiscating and during the time necessary to keep
them, but nevertheless to preserve their fertilizing
properties, so that when added to the soil they
may give out the putrefying elements required for
the nourishment of plants, is a subject of great
importance. To the solution of this problem, M.
Chevallier, son of the distinguished chemist who
has done so much for the advancement of indus-
trial science and pharmacy, has lately directed his
attention. M. Chevallier has found that a small
quantity of acid suffices, (from two to four per
cent, of the chloridine acid of commerce,) for par-
tially drying blood or flesh without giving out
sensible odor. It is highly desirable that this sug-
gestion should be practically tested, and, if veri-
fied, generally adopted. The London-Manure
Company, for instance, some time since endeav-
ored to bring into notice an animal manure, con-
sisting of the waste flesh of cattle imported from
the River Plate, which contained 11 per cent, of
nitrogen. The detestable stench of this substance,
hoAvever, fully accounts for the repugnance of cap-
tains and owners in bringing it over. The adop-
tion of some such process as that of M. Chevallier
might, however, remove this objection, and bring
into use this manure, which would prove nearly
as valuable as the blood manure of the same com-
pany, containing about IG per cent, of nitrogen.
The quantity of animal matter at present wasted
in the countries of the New World is enormous.
In South America there are killed annually, for
their hides alone, more than 5,000,000 head of
cattle, the carcases being left to rot. There is
thus wasted not less than 500,000 tons of man-
ure, equally rich with the best guano. On the
banks and shores of Newfoundland, again, there
is thrown into the sea more than 10,000 tons of
waste fish and bones, besides quantities of seal
blubber. On the coast of France, especially of
Britanny, there exist considerable quantites of
waste fish, available for manure, but which is not
cared for, although equal in fertilizing properties
to guano. We may estimate that it is possible to
furnish to agriculture an annual quantity equal to
400,000 tons of valuable animal manure, at pres-
ent lost. — Mark-Lane Express.

Do Your Own Work. — Enlarge not thy des-
tiny, says the oracle ; endeavor not to do more
than is given thee in charge ; the one prudence of
life is concentration ; the one evil is dissipation ;
and it makes no difference whether our dissipations
are coarse or fine. Property and its cares, friends
and a social habit, or politics, or music, or feast-
ing— everything is good which takes away one

plaything and delusion more, and drives us home
to add one stroke of faithful work. Friends,
books, pictures, loioer duties, talents, flatteries,
hopes — all are distractions which cause oscillations
in our giddy balloon, and make a good poise and
a straight course impossible. You must elect
your work ; you shall take what your brain can,
and drop the rest. Only so can that amount of
vital force accumulate which can make the step
from knowing to doing. — Emerson.

For the Neio England Farmer.

THE ADVANTAGES OF A CULTIVATED
MIND.

In a former article I mentioned some of the in-
strumentalities by which the laboring man can be-
come the possessor of a cultivated and intelligent
mind, and a refined imagination. I now propose
to show some of the advantages and benefits which
are derived from a course of mental discipline,
and the patient acquisition of useful and agreea-
ble knowledge.

The question is frequently asked by honest, but
ignorant people, "IFViai (/oocZ does all this read-
ing, study, thinking, and writing do'} Show us
the use of spending so much time in doing noth-
ing, and we shall have more faith in what you
say." I shall commence my answer to the above
question by asking another. What is that, which
everybody is ever either actively in pursuit of, or
passively sighing for ? All who understand any-
thing of the human heart will readily answer' —
happiness.

Although the diff"erent paths in which it is
sought after, are almost as numerous as the grains
of sand u])on the seashore, and, although some
succeed in finding it, and others do not, yet every
man, woman and child is always longing and
striving for happiness, in some of its many forms.
This yearning for happiness is implanted by Na-
ture in every breast ; and our infinitely wise and
benevolent Creator has placed the means within
our reach, by which we can gratify, not only our
own personal desires for enjoyment, but also assist
in making others happy.

As we are all seeking for happiness, is he not
the wisest man who pursuej the course of action
which will secure to him that enjoyment which is
of the purest, most satisfying, and most enduring
kind ? That he is, all will admit. Now it has
beea proved, beyond the least shadow of a doubt,
by observations extending through a period of
several thousand years, that the pleasures of the
mind are far superior to those of the body ; in
other words, the happiness which springs from the
exercise and cultivation of our mental faculties, is
as much greater and more lasting, than mere phys-
ical or animal enjoyment, as man is superior to
the brutes, or as the soul surpasses the body in im-
portance and duration. Here, then, is one of the
greatest reasons why we should endeavor, by every
means within our power, to strengthen and en-
large our mental powers ; for by so doing, we can
increase our capacities for happiness and useful-
ness to an unlimited extent.

This exercise and training of the mind, is an
irksome and difficult task to a vast number of per-
sons ; but this fact is no argument against such a
practice. Physical exercise and labor is also dis-

59S

NEW ENGLAND FARJ-vIEK.

Sept.

agreeable to many individuals, but who does not
enjoy the blessings of his OAvn labor, or that of
others ? But the exercise and improvement of the
mind is not always irksome and unpleasant. What
seems, at first, a hard and wearisome task, if per-
severed in, finally becomes a positive and fascinat-
ing pleasure, beside which all physical enjoyment
is dull, insipid, and unsatisfying.

Mental culture brings along Avith it so many
advantages, blessings and enjoyments that they
cannot be numbered ; and in attempting to describe
tliem faithfully, I should be at a loss to know
where to begin or end. My limits Avill not permit
me to mention, only in general terms, the advan-
tages which individuals and nations, of cultivated
intellects, possess over the ignorant and illiterate.

In the common afi'airs of life, we all know and
have felt the importance of knowing how to do a
thing ; indeed, without the requisite knowledge,
we can do nothing in a proper manner, but are ex-
tremely liable, and almost always do fail in every
undertaking. "Knowledge is power ;" and he,
M'ho possesses the greatest amount and variety of
it, and knows how to apply it to practical and use-
ful purposes, has an advantage over the ignorant,
similar in kind, if not in degree, to that Avhich man
holds over the brute creation. A thorough knowl-
edge even of the most familiar natural objects, or
of the most common pursuits of life, cannot in
every, if in any, instance, be acquired simply by
our own observations, or by the verbal communi-
cations of others. In the acquisition of any par-
ticular kind of knowledge, avo must not only ob-
serve, study, and think ourselves, but make use of
the thoughts, observations, and discoveries of oth-
er minds upon the same point ; and this, in most
cases, can be done only through the medium of
books.

I will now turn from individuals to nations, and
behold the effects of knowledge and mental im-
provement. It is a well-known fact, that through-
out the northern portion of the United States, ed-
ucation is much more generally difi'uscd among
the common people than it is in any other land.
Here, those who cannot read and write are an ex-
ception to the general rule ; but among the work-
ing classes of every other nation under the sun, he
who has taken this first step in th« rudiments of
knowledge is an exception, and not the rule ; and
is regarded by his neighbors as a fortunate man.

And what is the effect upon our nation, of this
acquirement, and of the power which it gives to
enter the unlimited realms of knowledge ? The
question is easily answered. It has made us, as a
peojjle, capable of creating, and, I believe, of sus-
taining a form of government greatly superior, in
every respect, to all others that exist, or that ever
existed upon the f;ice of the globe ! A republi-
can form of government like our own, cannot exist
Avhcre ignorance prevails among the people. Such
a government is founded ujion the knowledge, vir-
tue and Christianity of the people who sustain it.

Ignorance is as much opposed to true republi-
canism, as slavery is opposed to freedom, or dark-
ness is to light. That there are imperfections in
our present form of government, we must admit;
but when slavery, that vaminre upon our national
prosperity and ha])]nncss, is ui)rooted and utterly
anniliilated, it will be as perfect as we can reason-
ably hope to make it, in the present age of the
■world.

The most important effects of knowledge, or
mental illumination, are to be seen in its moral
bearings, and the ability which it gives an indi-
vidual to worship the Most High in a more intel-
ligent, and, consequently, in a more acceptable
manner. Every kind of knowledge confers advan-
tages and blessings upon a cultivated, or well-reg-
ulated mind ; but a knowledge of the natural sci-
ences, or of the visible manifestations of God's
power, wisdom and goodness, as displayed in the
works of creation, is a special and powerful in-
centive to rehgious thought and feeling. But I
must close, and yet the field which this subject
opens before us has scarcely been entered. Who
will lead us over its boundless expanse ?

S. L. White.

COMPAEATIVE NOUEISHMENT IN
VEGE5TABLES.

So far as regards the nutrimental proijerties of
diflferent root crops, when fed as food to animals,
there has been, as doubtless there always will be,
considerable difference of opinion among practical
men. The following table by the distinguished
chemist, Boussingault, shows the relative value of
the several articles named, so far as their nutri-
mental properties are involved. One hundi'ed
parts of the White French Bean, at a standard of
100, are equal to the following : —

Yellow Peas 120

Farina of Cabbage 140

" " Carrots 170

" " Wheat 175

Wlieat 191

Freuch Wheat 193

Rye 200

Farina of Barley 210

" " Potatoes • , 225

Barley 232

Indian Corn 246

Potatoes 1096

Carrots 1351

White Cabbage .1446

Turnips 2383

The author observes that, on a comparison of his
experiments with the practical experience of farm-
ers in feeding cattle, he found a most remarkable
coincidence between the theoretical and practical
inference. We present the table as we find it,
leaving the reader to deduce his own conclusions.

Flies on Picture Frames. — There is no bet-
ter preventive of flies soiling gilt frames than by
covei'ing them with gauze. It must be admitted,
however, that many persons prefer leaving the
frames exposed rather than hide them under the
usual gauze covering ; I Avould therefore suggest
to manufacturers the advantage of improving the
material. As at present made, the fabric is wov-
en much closer than is necessary. The finest and
most open work gossamer that could be woven,
would prove ettectual in preventing flies settling
near any object that was covered Avith it. A fly's
instinct prevents it going near a cobweb. I Avould
say, then, Aveave your gauze as fine and as much
to resemble a spider's Aveb as possible. This
Avould prevent the evil the houscAvife dreads, and
at the same time avouUI not hide any of the gilt
and carved frames. — S. Piesse.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

399

FuT the Sew England Fanner.
NOTES FROM THE MONOMACK.
BY SAGGAIIEW.

A Walk Through My Garden. — The loca-
tion is near the southerly edge of a bhiff, Avhich
rises rather abruptly about eighty feet from the
river — the ground is nearly level, and the garden
faces about south-east, \vith no ])rotection from
the northerly winds which sweep down the valley,
except a six foot close board fence. The soil is a
light sandy and gravelly loam, with a substratum
of sand on the north part, and of loose gravel on
the south part. Both tb.e soil and the subsoil are
so porous that the opinion was freely expressed by
my friends, when my trees and vines were plant-
ed, that they would "never amount to much."
Two years ago last October there was not a tree
or shrub on the place, except one poverty-stricken
seedling peach tree, which latter was promptly
dug up and converted into fire wood. Now let
us take a walk around this lot of 120 feet square
and see what we can find worth noting.

Grapery. — This is a very chea])ly built leanto,
of 9 by 18 feet dimensions. Only the roof is
glazed, and that is made entirely of common sec-
ond-hand window sash. The cost of the whole,
including the border, was not over twenty-five dol-
lars. Tiie border is about six feet wide, and two
feet deep, and contains, besides the soil taken
from the spot, about one-fourth cord of old barn-
yard manure, and ten bushels of oyster shells.
Six vines (layers of the previous year) were plant-
ed in this house two years ago last April, (ISGO.)
The first year they made a moderate growth, of
well-ripened and short-jointed canes. Our friends
didn't expect much from such a miserly made
house and border, and their expectations seemed
to be fully realized. The second year the vines
were allowed to bear an average of four bunches
of fruit each. The grapes ripened well, and the
vines made all the new growth that they were al-
lowed. It was evident that the border, with the
occasional liquid manurings, was amply nourish-
ing for the time being. Last fall the vines were
cut back to about six feet of cane each, and the
border moderattely top-dressed with barn-yard
manure and muck compost. This spring, long af-
ter my grape friends had uncovered their own
vines, the vines were set to work again, and now
(J uly 22) the six vines show an average of twelve
bunches each of good looking fruit, and appear to
be in excellent condition. The only ventilation
possible, is by the door at one end, and a common
sash window in the back side, opening into the
wood shed. Being absent myself from morning
until nearly evening, the care of opening and
closing the house has been attended to by my
'•help-meet," and has consisted of little else than
daily opening the door and window in the morn-
ing, and closing them at four or five o'clock in the
afternoon. Occasionally the inside border is giv-
en a good soaking with clean water, or sink drain-
age, and the vines syringed.

From my experience thus far, joined with a
somewhat extensive reading and observation, the
conclusion is forced upon me, that the raising of
excellent grapes under glass is a very simple
thing, and need not be an expensive one. Of the
many graperies I have visited, there is not one of
them all but what were built at an unnecessarily

large expense. Having nearly completed arrange-
ments for the erection of a new one this fall, I
hope soon to be able to prove to the readers of
the Farmer that a very little money will fuimish
them with a neat and complete house for growing
the finest grapes.

As our friend BroAvn likes short articles — that's
where he is just right — we must defer our notes on
the out-door grapes, &c., until another time.

For the Hew England Farmer.
CLOVER CROPS.

Mr. Brown : — In your edition of July 12th,
of weekly Farmer, I noticed a short piece on the
cultivation of clover as fodder. The article em-
braced four questions which I think are of great
importance to all farmers. First, as to the best
kind for New England farms. What the practice
is on the continent I know not, but here the farm-
ers all follow one routine, as to seeding down, and
as regards kind and quality sown. Yet, from my
own observation, I should judge that the red clo-
ver did as well here as any other. There is one
man on the isle who has about two and a half
acres of white clover that has come in naturally ;
this is the first season it has been cut for fodder,
so that its merits cannot be descanted on at pres-
ent.

The second query, "What is the best method
of producing it ?" is the one I would like for you
or some of your correspondents to answer partic-
ularly, and at the same time I would like to pro-
pound a question for some of them to enlighten
me upon ; to wit, — Would a person not get as
much hay from two acres of good land, to seed
down in the fall to clover, and mow first and sec-
ond crops the following year, and instead of fall
feeding the land turn under that feed for manure,
and again seed to clover, and at the same time
improve his land a little each year ? If he could
do so, Avhat is the best month to so do in ?

We are all now in the midS't of haying, and
have the promise of more than an average crop
of hay. Our own and other vegetation is back-
ward, and fears are entertained of the wheat be-
ing a total failure, on account of a little fly that
has taken it. Is there any remedy for it ?

Nantucket, July 1, 18G2. Tob\voasil\.

Remarks. — We are glad that our queries in
regard to the cultivation of clover crops are at-
tracting attention. We prefer that others should
answer these, and the one propounded by our cor-
respondent, above. In the meantime, we shall
improve every opportunity to converse with farm-
ers, and endeavor to get their opinions on the
questions submitted.

Expensive Ceremony. — The expenses of the
canonization of the forty Japanese martyrs at
Rome amounted to nearly 82.000.000, 70,000 of
which were furnished by the Franciscans, and 30,-
000 by the Jesuits and Carmelites. The tapers
used at the church were 35,000 in number, of the
purest white wax, each weighing three pounds,
and alone cost $25,000.

400

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

St:PT.

BEVOLVING -WHEEL RAKE

We insert the above cut of "Cogswell's Revolv-
ing Wheel Rake" for two reasons :

1. To place before the reader who wishes to
procure a horse rake, some idea of the construc-
tion of this one, better than he can gain by a mere
explanation in words, — and

2. To promote the interest of an inventor who
is willing to "warrant" that his machine shall "do
the work easier and better than any other rake in
the market."

We have never seen this rake, and, of course,
can say nothing of its merits ; but we should be
glad to test it in a quiet way in our own fields.

The proprietors say :

The rake can be mounted on common carriage-
wheels, and has a spring seat for the driver. It
has wooden teeth, which cannot injure the roots of
the grass, and can be easily replaced if broken.

It comes directly before the driver, which is a
decided improvement over any other, obviating
the necessity of looking backwards.

It works with a lever, which is so constructed
that the driver with one hand can raise the rake
full of hay over any obstruction to the height of
two feet.

It is warranted to rake hay and grain, and is
well adapted to the roughest fields, and will not
scrape up any dirt or stubble. It leaves the hay
in good order to put up, and can be operated by a
lad sixteen years of age.

Feeding Oats to Horses. — The same quan-
tity of oats given to a horse produces different ef-
fects according to the time they are administered.
I have made the experiments on my own horses,
and have always observed that there is in the
dung a quantity of oats not digested, when I pur-
posely gave them Avater after a feed of oats.
There is, then, decidedly a great advantage in
giving horses water before corn. There is anoth-

er bad habit, that of giving corn ana nay on their
return to the stable after hard work. Being very
hungry, they devour it eagerly and do not masti-
cate ; the consequence is, it is not so well digest-
ed and not nearly so nutritious. When a horse
returns from work, perspiring and out of breath,
he should be allowed to rest for a time, then giv-
en a little hay, half an hour afterward water, and
then oats. By this plan water may be given with-
out risk of cold, as the oats act as a stimulant.

A PENMAN ON PENS.
What a pen is to be made of is still unsettled.
The quill, the steel pen and the hard-nibbed gold
pen, have their several advocates, and are largely
used ; but still every one complains that he is not
suited ; nothing that is good and cheap lasts.
Various contrivances have been adopted for keep-
ing steel and corrosion apart. Pens have been
galvanized on Davy's plan for protecting the ship's
copper, but not with good effect. Washes of all
kinds have been applied ; the latest we have seen
being of gutta-percha, with the very improper
name of the gutta-percha pen. Glass has been
tried, but has not come into use. A correspond-
ent inform us, that he strongly suspects that sim-
ple gold, without any hard nib, is the true mate-
rial. When his nibs have come off, whether by
wear or accident, he grinds the gold ends in an
unskilful way into something like a practical form.
He thus produces a rough pen, which is so dura-
ble that he thinks the manufacturers would do well
to turn their attention to the imitation of a quill
in gold. The metal is to be excessively thin, and
our correspondent suspects that the best imitation
of a quill would require so little gold that a pen
might be sold for a shilling. This pen, he thinks,
would last for six months, at least, even in the
hands of a reviewer. At any rate, it is worth
while to repeat, from time to time, the complaint
that the world, in this prodigiously puffed and
loudly lauded nineteenth century, is still without
a pen. — London Athenaeum.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

401

For the Neic England Farmer,
SEASOTT AND CROPS IN ILLINOIS.

Mr. Editor : — When I was spending my ear-
lier boyhood days upon a farm in New Hampshire,
I can well recollect with what ])leasure I used to
read the Farmer, and watch with interest for the
notes of correspondents from the diflorent sec-
tions of the country, and, perhaps, a few notes
from the Sucker State may be of interest to some
now.

This is a small rail station on the Chicago, Bur-
lington and Quincy railroad. It contains some
seventy-five dwelling-houses, three stores, one
grocery, and it used to have a beer saloon — but
thanks to the Sons of Temperance, it is now among
the things that were, — a tin shop, three black-
smiths' shops, a wagon shop, shoe shop and two
harness shops. The religious sentiments are rep-
resented by three churches, and when the village
first sprung into existence, the old log school-
house beside the grove not being considered com-
modious enough, a new one was built. That one,
however, becoming wholly insufficient for educa-
tional purposes, another was completed last year,
sufficiently commodious for four teachers. Two
doctors and a lawyer represent the medical and
legal profession.

Seven years ago the place was almost an un-
broken prairie. The first settlements were made
in the township about twenty-five years ago, but
settlers did not come in till about the lime of the
opening of the railroad, six years ago. The peo-
ple are mostly from the New England States and
New York, though there are some Pennsylvani-
ans ; consequently it has a decided New England
aspect. The prairie is all enclosed except an oc-
casionally barren section, and also the timber land,
consequently most of the farmers are obliged now
to keep their cattle from running at large, if they
would have them do well. There are only two or
three small flocks of sheep in this vicinity.

Crops of all kinds are looking well. Wheat
will begin to be fit for the reaper next week, and
thei'c will be a good crop, if harvested well. Corn
is late, but doing well now, under the fine show-
ers and warm weather. The former is selling for
sixty cents per bushel and the latter for eighteen.
Grain would be much higher if the freights to the
Eastern markets were not so high. Haying is
generally done after harvesting, though where
tame grass is cultivated, it requires earlier atten-
tion.

Owing to so much wet weather, the musquitoes
are very troublesome, much more so than for sev-
eral years past.

Money is more plenty than a year ago ; then the
banks in the State were all breaking down.

S. H. Jackman.

Buda, Bureau Co., Ill, 1862.

A Subterranean Railway in London. —
A subterranean railway is now in an advanced
state of construction, running about four and a
half miles under the city of London. It com-
mences at Victoria Street, in the midst of what
was formerly a disreputable thoroughfare, but is
now a common centre for the Great Northern, the
London, Chatham and Dover, and the Metropoli-
tan lines. From that point it passes eastwardly,

having a large number of intermediate stations.
On the occasion of a recent trip made through a
portion of its length, the air was found to be per-
fectly sweet, and free from all unpleasantness or
dampness. The locomotives used condense their
own smoke, so that neither gas nor vapor is per-
cejitible. The surface of the rails is made of steel.
The line is made for two guages, and it is a dou-
ble track throughout. The carriages will be
roomy, well ventilated, and lighted with portable
gas. It is expected that the road will be opened,
about the middle of June. — Scientific American.

Fur the New England Farmer.
IRKIGATION.
BY JUDGE FRENCn.

Passing recently over a road which we have
known for many years, endeavoring to "find books
in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and
good in everything," the efl'ect of a little brook of
clear water, which was made to trickle through
the grass on a hillside, reminded us of the sub-
ject of irrigation. Here was a stream, which, in
summer, would scarcely fill a single furrow of a
sod plow, arrested in its rapid descent, and car-
ried round a hill, at nearly a level, for some sixty
rods, breaking over the little trench in which it
ran, and evidently causing an increase, three or
four-fold, in the crop of grass thus watered by it.
Any farmer may observe the same result whei*-
ever he travels. It is true that, in most instances,
the water which thus comes under our observa-
tion runs from the roadside, and we are apt to
refer the fertilizing efi'cct uniformly observed, to
what we call "the wash of the road," and to give
much of the credit rather to the roadside manure
than to the water. The little brook to which al-
lusion has been made, flowed directly across the
highway, between two little hills, so that it gained
nothing from the road ; and careful observation
will satisfy any one, that even the purest water,
flowing over the surface of a grass-field, Avill en-
sure a good crop of hay on almost any soil. Stag-
nant water, on the other hand, either in the soil,
or upon it, is sure death to all cultivated crops.

AVe will not undertake to theorize upon a sub-
ject upon which the profoundest thinkers confess
themselves at fault. Theories are very good to
account for facts, but facts are far safer upon
which to base our practice.

Prof. Way says, — "Although the benefit to be
derived from the use of water in irrigation is in-
contestible, the mode in which it acts has not
been satisfactorily explained. That streams of
water bringing down with them in suspension the
fine soil of more elevated land, on receiving in
their course the rich drainage of populous dis-
tricts, should prove fertilizing in the highest de-
gree, we can easily understand. But there is
more difficulty in accounting satisfactorily for the

402

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

striking results which are obtained from spring
water ilowing clear and limpid from the very bow-
els of the earth."

In an excellent article on water meadows, in
the Cyclopcedla of Agriculture, the author says,
— "Another question then arises, — Is clean or tur-
bid water best ? One might suppose that the lat-
ter, as abounding more in organic and inorganic
manuring substances, but experience seems to de-
clare that for grass land, the clearer the water the
better." As a first proposition, we merely wish
to maintain that irrigation with pure water, such
as brooks or wells afford, is beneficial to grass,
and to some other crops.

DO WE NEED IRKIGATIOX IN NEW ENGLAND?

Our climate, although cold in winter, is tropi-
cal in summer. England, where the plow may
run, in many counties, every month in the year,
is too cold and damp in summer for Indian corn
to ripen. Irrigation is most profitable, and there-
fore most practical, in hot climates. We suppose
it can hardly be profitable in New England, ex-
cept for grass. Heat and the moisture of water
not stagnant, will ensure heavy crops of grass,
on any tolerable soil. Usually, two or three heavy
rains in May and June, or the want of them, de-
cide for us the question of a good crop of grass.
Stagnant water may produce a crop of swamp
grass, but never of good hay. Drainage, natural
or artificial, and abundant moisture, though seem-
ingly contradictor)', are essential conditions of a
good grass crop. We must get rid of surplus
stagnating water, and supply percolating water
with the air that always follows it downward, and
then we may cut not only one, but three or four
good crops of hay, as is done in other countries.

The Craigintinny meadows, watered by the sew-
age fluid of the city of Edinburgh, produce an-
nually from 70 to 80 tons of green grass per acre,
which sells on the land for from $125 to $175.
The quantity applied, is said to be 10,000 tons
per acre in all, at eighteen different times. The
value of this liquid, has been heretofore stated to
be about four cents per ton, reckoning what ele-
ments of fertility it contains, compared with other
manm'e, but Prof. Voelcker has recently stated
that this is an over-estimate. But even this small
value of four cents per ton, makes $-100 per acre,
which is more than twice the value of the enor-
mous crop. The application of the sewage of
cities to land will not pay, as a mere agricultural
experiment, but connected with the necessity of
getting the filth of the large towns where it can
do no harm, and may do much good, the plan is
worthy of attention. The question whether the
people of London shall drain their sewers into
the Thames, and corrupt the air so that Parlia-
ment cannot continue its sessions, or conduct it

ofl' upon the soil for cultivation, involves other
considerations than such as are pm-ely agricultural.

But the point we desired to make, is this, that
the water alone is entitled to much of the credit of
these liquid manurings. Prof. Voelcker says that
on well drained clay soil, irrigation with the pur-
est water, even distilled water, if it were possible,
which would contain no foreign substance, will
produce very large crops of grass, and that in
many cases of liquid manuring which have at-
tracted attention, Avater is the most valuable con-
stituent.

Now we do not mean to say that poor land will
])roduce large crops with no manure but water,
but we do believe that almost any dry field which
produces one ton of hay may be made to produce
two tons at the first cutting, and at least as much
more at two subsequent cuttings, by irrigation
with water only.

WnERE SHALL WE GET WATER?

In reading recently of agriculture in Algeria,
now a French colony in the north of Africa, on the
Mediterranean, we observed an account of one
Jemmy Brown, a Jersey farmer, whom Mr. Caird
had found comfortably located there on 60 acres
of land, where he was cultivating wheat and mar-
ket vegetables. It was watered regularly yro;)! a
lodl worked by one horse, by means of which he
irrigated seven acres a day. He watered his lu-
cerne every six days, and cut it ten times a year.
His vineyard needed no irrigation. We chance,
also, to have before us "The Transactions of the
San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Society for
1861," and find that the Californians, like the
modern Algerines, have already learned the value
of irrigation. The committees on orchards, vine-
yards and nurseries, travelled extensively through
the valley, taking notes as they went. They give
no connected statement on the subject of irriga-
tion, but incidentally speak of it in many places.
Some of the orchards are spoken of as "partly ir-
rigated and partly not." One "ranch" is named,
and the remark is made that the trees and vines
are six years old, "irrigated with a horse-power
pump from a well eighteen feet deep." Andrew
Wolf's farm of 800 acres is named — 500 in culti-
vation. The wheat yielded 37^ bushels to the
acre, volunteer 20 bushels to the acre, raised 3,768
bushels of wheat and 2,800 of barley, cut 00 tons
of hay, and grazes 120 head of cattle, &c. "The
orchard and garden are irrigated by one of the
improved horse-power force pumps, manufactured
by Keep & Briggs, of Stockton ; the mcII (Arte-
sian) is 58 feet deep, throwing a continuous, full,
strong, six-inch stream, affording ample water in
a few hours' run each day, for irrigating the
ground and supplying the stock."

On John Rich's farm, on the Sonora road, it

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARjVIER.

403

seems another power is used. "We counted eight
windmills on the place for irrigating. They were
of every variety, from Derrick's best, to the worst
form of the 'spinning' sort." By a "volunteer"
crop, we understand a second crop, which grows
without sowing from the scattered seed of the for-
mer crop.

The "improvement" which we would make from
these hints is this, that if it is found that it would
pay in New England, we might almost anywhere
sink a well which would supply all the water for
irrigation. We have long had the impression
that such an experiment might be very successful,
where the hay crop is the chief object. Much of
our land which we are obliged to plow after two
or three crops of hay, might be kept permanently
in mowing, by two or three waterings in May and
June, and as many after the first cutting as the
character of the season might demand. To do
this, the field must, of course, be carefully pre-
ared with water-furrows carried along the slopes
so as to conduct the water evenly over the whole
surface, and the water must be applied at the high-
est point. These furrows need not be deep
enough to impede the mowing machine or horse
rake, and the labor of superintending the irriga-
tion would be very slight. Who Avill give us an
experiment in irrigation from a well on this side
of the Rocky INIountaius? And wiH not our
friends on the other side give us details of their
successful operations in this department ?

For the Neic England Farmer.
CLOVER IN OKCHABDS.

Mr. Editor: — In the Farmer of July 12 you
call for experience and opinion in relation to the
management of orchards. I have a young orch-
ard which I have always kept plowed and cultivat-
ed until this season, but find many difficulties con-
nected with it. In addition to the extra labor
and danger of breaking root and limbs and bark-
ing the trees, the fruit gets sandy, and requires a
great deal of cleaning, and continued cropping
with hoed crops seems to injure the growth of the
trees, even if manure is applied ])retty liberally.
Last spring I concluded to keep the surface mel-
low by a liberal use of the cultivator and harrow,
but the land not being quite level and a heavy
shower following soon after my first experiment in
this direction, there was not sufiicient depth of
])orous earth to absorb the rain, and much of the
fine rich surface soil left for "parts unknown."

With this unfavorable experience in cultivation,
I intend to try seeding to grass or clover, and ap-
ply a liberal dressing of manure in September and
October, which, I think, will soak into the ground
and give the trees an opportunity to appropriate a
fair proportion of it before the grass has time to
absorb it all. I expect, also, to gain another advan-
tage by leaving a sufficient growth on the land to
retain the leaves in the fall, which I think equal
to a pretty good dressing of manure. Some care
will, however, be necessary to protect the trees

from mice, unless, as in my orchard, several good
cats take good care of them.

Clover is supposed to derive much of its mate-
rial for growth from the atmosphere, and on this
account would be better for an orchard than grass.
The only objection to clover, that occurs to me
now, is its liability to winter-kill, and this might
be obviated by sowing seed occasionally.

Aslijield, July 15, 1862. ^M. F. Bassett.

Remarks. — Thank you, sir. We hope to get
the opinion of many good farmers on this subject.
It is quite probable that there is a less expensive
way of managing orchards than the course now
generally adopted.

For tlie New England Farmer.
FAKMEKS AND NATUBAL HISTORY.

Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent of July
19th found "many uncandid sneers at students
of natural history who endeavor to benefit oth-
ers," &c., in my communication of July 5th. I
have carefully looked over that article to see on
what such charges was predicated, and found
nothing, in my judgment, to justify it; and as
your correspondent quoted nothing to illustrate
his statement, it is regarded as entirely gratui-
tous. It is true, I referred to the charges of ig-
norance, made against farmers, by students, pro-
fessors and divines, and attempted to justify the
tillers of the soil from the attacks of such assail-
ants, not designing to make, neither am I aware
of making, any ^■uncandid sneers," nor "candid
sneers." [Would the latter be justifiable ?]

But, says your correspondent, "If the farmer
unll not, or cannot study the works of nature, he
must be at the mercy of every ignorant pretend-
er." Nay, Mr. Editor, he gives such empirics no
quarters. As little as he knows, he soon learns
that they really know much less than he does.
The farmer has learned the habits and uses of
many quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, insects and
plants, though quite unable to name them system-
atically. The learned pundit begins at once, if
botany be the topic, to utter "long-jawed" names,
such as ampelosicyos, chama^nespilus, helmintho-
stachys, pogoyne, scniverechia, splenchnomyces,
zetragonotheca, hysmalobium and zuccagnia ; and
because the farmers laugh over such a lingo, they
are charged with ignorance. Let the farmers turn
upon these botanical pundits, and ask them the
meaning of these unmeaning sounds to them, and
what is the answer ? Let those who have tried it
testify. The same is true of the various depart-
ments of the animal kingdom.

I remember once of asking a learned botanical
professor some questions concerning the qualities
and uses of certain plants with whose systematic
names he seemed to be quite familiar. His curt
reply was, "Such inquiries concern not the scien-
tist." Very well, said I to myself; there are men
who know nothing of the systematic names of
plants, who are, nevertheless, familiar with their
habits, uses and economical value. Thinks I to
myself, the knowledge of the latter is greatly pre-
ferable to that of the former, for one who is to
earn his food and raiment in a world where both
must be had.

404

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

Admitting that your correspondent found a
farmer who believed that a "rose bug" becomes a
"dung fly," let this be an offset to a student of
natural history, who taught that a lobster is an
insect. Such cases may be few.

No farmer need open a book, or be told by stu-
dents in natural history, that caterpillars can be
destroyed, if taken in season. But when he in-
terrogated these pundits about the army worm,
the palmer worm, the grain aphis, &c., what did
he learn of a practical nature ? Just nothing at
all, as was again and again demonstrated last year,
with regard to some of these depredators.

Your correspondent has yet to learn that wood-
peckers do injure fruit and forest trees ; also
that they are not hunting borers so far fi'om the
ground. Does he need be told that crows do de-
stroy the eggs of other birds ? What birds bring
up their broods on caterpillars, at the rate of "from
50 to 100 a day? What kind of caterpillars are
referred to ? When your correspondent answers
these inquiries, I have others in store for him, as
he voluntarily offers, gratuitously, to teach a

Farmer.

RIPENING PEARS.

At a meeting of the Farmers' Club (September
9th) the subject of "Ripening Pears" was dis-
cussed, and while all agreed that the later sorts
should be removed from the trees when hard, to
be ripened in fruit rooms at their proper seasons,
some preferred the summer and fall pears when
ripened on the trees. Several admitted that the
Seckel would ripen perfectly on the tree ; but J.
W. Hayes, Esq., of Newark, claimed that many, if
not all the summer and fall pears, were better
when so ripened, while Dr. Carpenter, and many
others, stated, that with the exception of the
Seckel, none of the summer or fall pears were so
good when not gathered in a green state ; that
they became mealy, losing much of their juice by
evaporation, etc.; while, if removed from the tree
before losing their hardness, and ripened in prop-
er localities, the pears were more delicious, and
every way preferable. Our experience coincides
with the latter opinion, for we have found that
even the Bartlettis materially improved in quality
by being ripened in the dark after being removed
from the tree.

We are anxious for exact information on this
subject, and would thank our pomological readers
if they would furnish it, and also the proper dates
for ripening each of the latter kinds of pears. If
the Duchess D'Angouleme be placed in a warm
room, and ripened at various dates, fifteen days
apart, from Sept. 15th to Dec. 1st, those ripened
at the latest date will be found to be far better in
quality than those ripened earlier. A perfect list
of the later pears, with the best dates for ripening
them, would be very valuable, and would assist
fruit dealers in improving the public appreciation
of the finer qualities of fruits. — Working Farmer.

Blight in Pear Trees. — We are sorry to
learn that the "pear-blight" is making its appear-
ance quite extensively. Some of the finest trees in
our knowledge are ruined, and others badly af-
fected. What the cause is, or what the remedy,
we do not know. There are theories as to the

cause, but they fail to satisfy us. Downing says
that upon the first appearance of dying leaves,
they must be taken off. That is well enough, as
they disfigure the tree, and we are anxious to
be doing something — but it does not always ar-
rest the disease. Will some one tell us more
about it ?

For the A'eu? England Farmer,
FARMERS' "WIVES.

The farmer's wife is, or at least should be, the
most cheerful, happy being in existence. Sur-
i-ounded as she is by everything beautiful in na-
ture, wakened every morning by the joyful carol-
ing of the birds in the trees around the house,
soothed all day by the whispering winds and
balmy breezes, laden with sweet perfumes stolen
from clovei'-field or apple blossoms, how can she
be otherwise than happy? O, how from my heart
have I pitied poor, pale, uneasy-minded women,
living in large villages or cities, where every inch
of ground was precious, and not a bird sang, but
with a sort of wheezy, choked music, and the very
trees looked dusty and dim !

How often in the morning, as throwing open
my doors and windows to the cool morning air
that came bustling in, filling every breath with
pure, sweet odors from the budding trees and
springing grass, have I wished my city friends
could stand in the door by my side, and gaze up-
on the lovely scene spread out to my admiring
view.

With everything so beautiful around her, wo-
man can work hard, harder, perhaps, than she
ought, but with willing hands. Everybody and
everything works in the country. You cannot
look even for a moment, out at the open door,
without seeing some little bird very busy getting
straws to build her nest, worms to feed her little
fledgelings, or working industriously to teach
them the use of their tiny wings, that scarce can
bear their weight, or perhaps j'ou see some merry,
chirruping squirrel, adroitly stealing his stock of
grain, for the winter he knows must come, sooner
or later, and hiding it wisely in the decayed trunk
of a neighboring apple tree.

The spirit of action is contagious. The hours
glide by and so does the work, and when dinner-
time arrives, instead of the pale, languid counte-
nance you find in the city wife, as she sits down to
her luxurious table, loaded with over-cooked meat,
under-cooked vegetables, stale fruits and baker's
bread, a brisk, cheerful face meets you at table,
whereon you find ham and eggs, and Indian meal
pudding and molasses, perhaps, but good, light,
sweet, wheat bread, and tempting dishes of fruit,
fresh from the garden, that would completely up-
set the equanimity of the guests at the aforesaid
city table.

A farmer's wife can concoct such dishes as city
folks know nothing of. With plenty of milk and
eggs, there is always something in the house to
eat. You can never take her so much by surprise
.that she will give you no invitation to stop to tea,
and she is never so full of apologies because that
tea is not nice enough, as to render you uncom-
fortable.

With a mind evenly balanced, a home made
happy by her presence, a contented disposition,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

405

•wishing no change, a quiet, easy way of turning
oft" work, the farmer's wife is a woman to be en-
vied, and still some poor, foolish mortals presume
to pity her ! Pity, indeed ; better bestow it where
it is needed ! The highest, noblest lot of woman
is her home mission, and the most superior place
for the exercise of her power is in the quiet home
in the country, 'mid the soul-stirring beauties of
nature, the handiwork of nature's God.

Sarah.

NAILS, NUTS, SCREWS AND BOLTS.

One of the component parts of a gocd f\xrmer is
mechanical ingenuity. Some lose half a day's val-
uable time, for want of knowing how to repair a
breakage, which an ingenious person could do in
five minutes. A team and two or three men are
sometimes stopped a whole day, at a critical sea-
son, for want of a little mechanical skill.

It is well for every farmer to have at hand the
facilities for repairing. In addition to the more
common tools, he should keep a supply of nails of
different sizes, screws, bolts and nuts. Common
cut-nails are too brittle i'or repairing implements,
or for other similar purposes. Buy only the very
best and anneal them, and they will answer all the
ordinary purposes of tlie best wrought nails. To
anneal them, all that is necessary is to heat them
red hot in a common fire, and cool gradually. Let
them cool, for instance, by remaining in the fire
while it burns down and goes out. One such
nail, AvcU clinched, will be worth half a dozen un-
annealed.

Nothing is more common than for a farmer to
visit the ))lacksmith shop to get a broken or lost
bolt or rivet inserted, and often a single nut on
a bolt. This must be paid for, and much time is
lost. By providing a supply of bolts, nuts and
rivets, much time and trouble may be saved. They
may be purchased wholesale at a low rate.

These should all be kept in shallow boxes, with
compartments made for the purpose, furnished
with a bow-handle, for convenience in carrying
them. One box, M'ith half a dozen divisions, may
be appropriated to nails of different sizes ; and
another with as many compartments, to screws,
bolts, rivets &c.

Every farmer should keep on hand a supply of
copper wire, and small pieces of sheet copper or
copper straps. Copper wire is better than an-
nealed iron wire ; it is most as flexible as twine,
and may be bent and twisted as desired ; and it
will not rust. Copper straps nailed across or
around a fracture or split in any wooden article,
will strengthen it in a thorough manner. — Annual
Begister of Rural Affairs.

Antiquity of Tik. — Tin is one of the most
ancient raetals — that is, it was well known to the
ancients ; and it is very well established as a fact
that the Phoenicians, those olden masters of the
sea when Tyre was in her glory, made voyages to
Cornwall, and obtained tin from the mines in that
district, long before Britannia was known to the
Romans. It was this tin, alloyed with copper,
which formed the old bronze armor of the Asiatic
warriors ; and it may have been furnished also by
the renowned Hiram, King of Tyre, the great ar-
chitect and friend of Solomon, for the building of
the first «ind nnarinroached .Tewish temple.

PEBSONAL EXPERIENCE IN EARNING-
A FARM.
Having read in the Country Gentleman several
ways for a young man desirous of obtaining a
livelihood by farming to do, I thought perhaps a
few ideas I might suggest would not be out of the
way. Although young and inexperienced myself,
in the ways of working and by the means of which
a farm is obtained, I have often heard my father
speak of his experience, some of which I will
briefly relate. At fifteen years his mind was fully
made up to be a farmer. To that he devoted his
energies, and boy though he was, was fully as-
sured that he would never have any other voca-
tion. At eighteen he bid adieu to ftither and
mother, and started with nothing but an ax, which
was all the kind parent could give but his bless-
ing, and a piece of bread and cheese from the
thoughtful mother. He left the parental home-
stead, travelled thirty miles, there found employ-
ment, and from that day to this never has known
want. For the next five years he labored partly
by the month, and also by working farms on shares.
In those days when working a farm on shares, you
boarded with the family, including washing, and
had one-third of the profit. In the next five years
he laid up $500 — was then married, bought a
small farm for $750, paid $250 down, with five
years to pay the balance. He worked it eight
years, then sold, and was worth at that time
$2100. Worked a farm on shares for two years —
was then worth $3100. Then bought a farm for
$4500, having it so arranged that the payments
would be made from the grain and meat raised on
the farm. When that was paid for, sold again
and bought another for $8200. By improving in
fencing and building, the flmn is now worth $13,-
000. Many young men, who commenced with
nothing, have now good homes, surrounded with
all the comforts of life. Working a farm on
shares, he thinks, is quite as profitable for a young
man as working by the month. — A Farmer's
Son, in Country G'entleman.

MANURES FOR GRASSES.

Nearly all the experiments which have been
made with artificial manures for grasses indicate
that, like wheat, barley, oats, etc.,, the grasses
proper — such as timothy, rye-grass, etc. — require a
large amount of ammonia. In the park at Roth-
amstead, which has been in grass for a great num-
ber of years, and the crop frequently made into
hay and removed from the land, manures contain-
ing much ammonia were very beneficial on the
grasses, while those furnishing potash, soda, and
other inorganic substances, had the efiect of caus-
ing clover and other leguminous plants to spring
up and flourish. This efiect was very marked, and
the result fully sustains the deductions made from
direct experiments on clover, wheat, barley, etc.
We are warranted in concluding that clover and
other leguminous plants require a larger amount
of alkalies in the soil, than wheat and the grasses
generally, while the latter require manures rich in
ammonia.

Some experiments recently made in Scotland,
by Thomas Ferguson, also favor this opinion.
Land recently seeded with rye-grass and clover,
was top-dressed with various fertilizers. Those
furnishing a free sunplv of ammonia or nitric acid,

406

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

increased the rye-grass to such an extent, "that
the clover plant M'as choked, and came up very
thha in tlie aftermath." One hundred and twelve
lbs. of sulphate of ammonia, costing $4,50, gave
an increase of 1,524 lbs. of hay per acre ; 224 lbs.
of Peruvian guano, costing §6, an increase of 1,260
lbs. ; 112 lbs. nitrate of soda, costing $5, an in-
crease of 1,540 lbs. ; 280 lbs. of superphosphate of
lime, costing $5, an increase of 292 lbs. ; while
sulphate and muriate of potash gave an increase
of only 30 lbs. — Genesee Farmer.

HEALTH OF COWS.

Good health in domestic animals is always a
matter of primary importance. As bad health in
parents transmits a tendency to disease in the off-
spring, it is important that every kind of animal
we desire to continue on our farms should be kept
vigorous and healthy.

As domestic animals are a source of human
food, it is a matter of great im])ortance to pre-
serve them in a healthy condition. Diseased
meat carries its qualities into the stomachs of the
consumers. It is a serious objection which vege-
tarians urge against the use of animal food, that
the bad treatment they receive renders them un-
healthy.

As an unhealthy animal cannot consume food
to as good advantage as a Avell one, it is again
economical to avoid disease.

Each of these circumstances is sufficient reason
for guarding with scrupulous care the health of
the animals we feed ; but when we derive milk
from animals, it is doubly important that they be
kept free from every objectionable taint. A sick-
ly cow not only yields a diminished profit, but she
yields sickly milk, and sickly in a higher degree
than her flesh.

If a cow eat anything that has a strong or disa-
greeable odor, it appears in her milk.

If she eats anything medical, it comes out in her
milk.

If she is feverish, her milk shows it.

If she has sores about her, pus may be found in
her milk.

If slie is fed upon decayed or diseased food,
her milk, since it is derived from the food, will be
imperfect. It is as impossible to make good milk
from bad food, as to make a good building from
rotten timber.

If there is anything wrong about her, it will ap-
pear in the milk, as that is an effective source of
casting filth from her organism. — Hallowell Oaz.

American Exhibitoks in London. — The
London Times, an habitual slanderer of this coun-
try, in an article on the American department of
the great exhibition in London, closes with the re-
mark,— "Taking the American exhibition as a
whole, there is no department in which the exhib-
itors will reap more profit from their pains, and
perhaps this is as high praise as we can pass upon
it." There is a trite saying that Ave should "give
the devil his due," and we are glad to award to
the Times proper credit for this instance of faix'-
ness and candor.

For the New Eiigland Farmer.

CAN FABMING BE MADE PROFITABLE ?

Can those who farm, thereby a profit make .'
Wliy not, if they but farm for profit's sake ?
For when our thoughts in one direction tend,
We, as a rule, attain the sought for end.
If, then, the object sought is merely gain,
The course to be pursued is pretty plain.
We first of all must keep our end in view,
In what we think and say, as well as do,
Nor ever from 'our purpose turn or swerve.
But make all things to that conform, subserve.
If farmers thus would live 'till life shall cease.
Would not their wealth from year to year increase .•■
But would the wealth thus gained or purchased, pay
For other things they lose, or throw away?
Perhaps it might, but for myself, I fear
'Twould be like Franklin's whistle, much too dear.
How much of money, what amount of wealth,
Will compensate a man for loss of health ?
How great must be a farmer's yearly gain,
To counterbalance after years of pain ?
How high — to what per cent., should profits rise,
To pay for disregarding social ties .'
In footing up, what balance must we find.
To set against a starved and shrivelled mind ?
How many bills, how large must be the roll.
For which an upright farmer sells his soul .'
Can any sum attain sufficient size.
To justify so great a sacrifice .'
And yet, for gain or profit even small,
■We sometimes see them cffired, one, or all.
But cannot those who cultivate the soil.
Without debasing, unremitting toil.
Obtain therefrom a compensation fair.
Acquire of worldly wealth their part, or share ?
That is, if they conform to nature's laws.
And when results are wrong, remove the cause ;
Against all wrong, adverse results contend,
And from intruding loes their farms defend.
'Tis true, as soon as plants begin to start,
The birds and bugs and worms will claim their part,—
Not only claim, but take "the lion's share,"
Unless we guard and watch with constant care.
'Tis true, the growing crops are sometimes lost,
Cut down, destroj'ed by late or early frost ;
And when in rich and fertile vales they grow.
Are washed away, if streams their banks o'ertlow ;
Or if on land that's light, or hill-sides high,
May suffer drought in seasons hot and dry.
'Tis true, the farmer's fruits will sometimes fail,
Or be at least unsuitable for sale 5
His stock may sicken, die of some disease,
The fox and birds of prey his poultry seize.
And greater trials too, at times, may come,
And throw their shade of sadness o'er his ly^me.
The farmer's faith and patience thus are tried —
But farming hath a bright and sunny side,
For e'en its darker clouds are "silver-lined,"
And though their pockets all may not thus find,
(At least may not be lined so soft and thick.
As those of some who line them very quick,)
Still, by a process slow, but safe and sure.
They can be lined to last, through life endure.
Just how 'tis done, I don't pretend to know.
Nor by ray practice other farmers show.
But some, at least, the process understand,
And make a yearly profit from their land.
What some hare done, why may not others do.
If they a corresponding course pursue .' A. C. W.

Leominster, 1862.

Amekican Hopefulness. — One of the Ameri-
cad characteristics which most surprises the good-
natured Mr. Trollope in his recent journey

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

407

through this country, is the imperturbable good
humor and hopefuhiess of peojile. He meets fre-
quently people who are ruined l:)y the calamities
of the war. They never weep, or wring their
hands, or tear their hair. One man, from whom
the secessionists of Missouri had taken cattle and
crops, and all the fruit of the labor of years, mere-
ly remarked in a quiet Avay, while he picked his
teeth Avith a bowie knife, "Yes, they have been
kinder rough with me !" That was all ; he had noth-
ing else to say. ]Mr. Trollopo tliinks a genuine
American never complains and never despairs.
Whatever happens in the external world, says Mr.
T., "tne vian is always there."

For the New England Farmer.

SEVENTY MILES BELOW NEW OR-
LEANS.

Friend Brown : — It is very seldom that you
have an agricultural corres])ondent at a point so
far South as this. Perhaps the novelty of the
thing will atone for any crudities found in my
communication. With tiie warlike aspect of mat-
ters about here, the New England Farmer has,
of course, nothing to do. If cannon-shot could
only germinate, and "grape" produce grapes, what
a paradise this land of swamps would become !
If every sunken steamer along these shores could
be transformed into a hot-house, we might defy
even a Northern winter. As one of the results
of my "inspection of farms" about here, I may
say that green peas in March, new potatoes in
May, tomatoes and carrots at all seasons, string-
beans at any lime, and shcUed-beans never; (can't
tell why ;) upset my almanac completely. So far
as garden supplies are concerned, tliis is a glori-
ous country. I can discover nothing in the cli-
mate that should render an uninterrupted succes-
sion of garden crops at all diflicult ; still, they arc
not forthcoming ; and I can only account for the
fact by supposing that tlie natives about here,
having obtained one crop, are content to wait till
the year comes round again before they plant for
another.

The prices of "garden-sauce" might well make
a Concord farmer stare. What think you of Irish
potatoes, (very small ones, too,) at 81,00 "a buck-
et?"— the ratio of a bucket to a peck is a problem
fur you to solve. By the way, I priced some ar-
ticles at a store, the other day ; a bucket (water
pail) lb cents ; a Shaker broom $2,00 ; alum 50
cents a pound, (indispensable for settling Missis-
sippi water.)

Just about these forts, the only specimens of
stock that present themselves for examination are
alligators — in any quantities and of all sizes. The
only field products are water plants. Twenty
miles further up the river are the sugar and rice
plantations ; and to a farmer who sees them for
the first time, they are a curiosity. As you sail,
not by, but above them, (the river being full to
the top of the levee,) the straight, and almost in-
terminable rows of sugar cane, and the bright
green spread of the immense rice-fields, present a
beautiful appearance. If it were not that the idea
of involuntary labor forces itself continually upon
the mind, this would be a paradise indeed. It is
common to hear it said, that without slavery this
system of agriculture could not be sustained ; but
I do not believe it. True, it makes one's back

ache to see rows of cane nearly a mile in length,
and miles in breadth ; but it must be remembered
that as little or no manure is carried out upon
these lands, the pest of weeds, with which in j\Ias-
sachusetts we have to fight such continuous bat-
tles, is almost unknown. Most of the labor is
finished before the heat of the season becomes se-
vere ; furthermore the labor of "haying" is not
called for ; so that the aggregate of toil is less in
Louisiana than in Massachusetts. The main re-
liance of the people along the western bank of the
river between here and New Orleans, seems to be
the orange and lemon crop. The amount received
annually by the growers of these fruits seems in-
credible. Why may not the day come, when this
amount shall be distributed among a free and
happy yeomanry, instead of going, as it now does,
into the pockets of a few slaveholders, to be spent
in luxury, while the honest producers get only
their food and clothing — a scanty allowance of
each.

Between Forts St. Philip and Jackson and the
"Passes," is a vast extent of country scarcely ele-
vated above the surface of the river, of the great-
est possible fertility, perfectly level, and at pres-
ent perfectly valueless, because liable to inunda-
tion. Perhaps the time will come v.'hen this re-
gion Avill become one of the most productive and
prosperous on the fiice of the earth. The climate
is delicious, though at times hot. Almost every
day a sea breeze tempers the heat, so that to even
the partially acclimated it is not very trying.
During the winter months the temperature must
be delightful. The only obstacle to settlement is
the danger of inundation. But this difficulty may
easily be obviated. A levee, a few feet in height,
would aficird perfect security ; and were the thing
to be undertaken on a large scale, these levees
might, with the aid of modern contrivances for
the purpose, be erected with great facility, and at
less expense than many stone walls in Massachu-
setts. The soil is perfectly free from roots, stones,
and all other impediments ; and a steam excava-
tor would work wonders. Why may not this re-
gion become one day an American Holland ? Al-
most all the tropical plants could be raised here ;
and the malaria of the swamps give place to the
fragrance of orange groves. When the company
is incorporated for carrying this scheme into ef-
fect, I shall feel that I am entitled to one share,
for making this suggestion. B.

Fort Jackson, La., June 30, 1862.

What is Heat Lightning? — The flashes of
lightning often observed on a summer evening,
Viuaccompanied by thunder, and popularly known
as "heat lightning," are merely the light from
discharges of electricity from an ordinary thun-
der-cloud, beneath the horizon of the observer re-
flected from clouds, or perhaps from the air itself,
as in the case of twilight. Mr. Brooks, one of the
directors of the telegraph line between Pittsburg
and Philadelphia, informs us that, on one occa-
sion, to satisfy himself on this point, he asked for
information from a distant operator during the
appearance of flashes of this kind in the distant
horizon, and learned that they jiroceeded from a
thunder storm then raging two hundred and fifty
miles eastward of his place of observation. — Prof.
Henry.

408

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

RYE FOR BRINQIK-G LIGHT SOIL INTO
CONDITION TO PRODUCE ■WHEAT.

In a former volume of your excellent monthly
text-book for farmers, the fact was alluded to,
that for some years past, since the spa-it of re-
search and improvement (in a large degree due to
Liebig's discoveries and inculcations) in agricul-
ture more generally set in, large tracts of light,
sandy land, some of it so light that it blows and
drifts, in Silesia and contiguous districts in Ger-
many, had been much improved by the growing
and plowing in of successive crops of rye and lu-
pins— the lupin being a leguminous plant, a small
species of bean. It was shown, that, by plowing
in these crops in succession the same season, so
much humus or vegetable mold was accumulated
in the soil, that its color was changed from that
of a light sand to that in appearance of a darkish
loam, and its quality from that of a meifaly rye-
growing sand to a soil producing faiv crops and
quality of wheat. Such, if my memory is correct,
were the almost immediate results of this simple
means of renovating sandy soils — means not cost-
ly, nor difficult, nor laborious, nor tedious of ap-
plication, but so simple and easy of demonstration,
as to be within the reach of every cultivator of a
farm, however limited his means, or the extent of
his possessions ; a method of improving poor,
light soils, so accessible and economical, that not
one of us need allege any other excuse but a want
of will and perseverance, if hereafter we allow our
light, sandy soils to become unprofitable by reason
of a deficiency of humus or vegetable mold in
them.

But my object, at present, was to i-efer to a pe-
culiarity of the rye plant — namely, its power of
transforming silica or sand itself into its own
growth and substance — i. €., that of its straw.

Rye straw is stiffer than the straw of either
wheat or oats, as is shown by its much taller
growth, it being equally erect and more elastic
than either oat or wheat straw. The greater ex-
tent of silicated surface in a crop of rye straw will
probably be in excess of that of oats and wheat,
for the same number of plants, in about the degree
that rye straw is the taller or larger of the three.
We cannot determine this with exactitude, nor is
this necessary ; for, though their composition is
similar, wheat will not flourisli on many soils, for
which, in the same condition, rye does tolerably
well. (It is to this fact that may, in part, be as-
cribed the settlement of Germans on much of the
poorest and most sandy land in the West, as for
instance the settlement of New Holland, Michi-
gan, and the more extensive, though scattered one
north of the Fox or Neenah river, Wisconsin.
These plodding, industrious and eminently worthy
citizens have been familiar with rye on sandy lands
in Germany ; and rye bread is their staple food in
many instances — hence they can live on lands too
])oor to support costlier habits.) It is, however, a
familiar fact that rye will flourish on soil too sandy,
too deficient in vegetable mold to produce a crop,
or half a one even, of wheat. The question I wish
to suggest is : To what peculiar power in the rye
plant is this success due ? When both plants
grow on similar soil, there is no essential differ-
ence in their general composition apparent. But
when rye flourishes where wheat will not, where
the soil is too sandy, I have long thought such
success due in a considerable degree to the power

of the rye plant to dissolve silica in a greater de-
gree than is true of wheat ; because its composi-
tion, when grown, shows that it did dissolve, for
it comprises more in its straw than wheat does.

One reason why wheat succeeds after the quan-
tity of humus or vegetable matter has been in-
creased, is undoubtedly to be found in the greater
supply of ammonia or nitrogen, of which wheat
requires a little more than rye, that is found as
constituent of all vegetable matter in the soil. The
substance of rye plowed in, supplies this necessary
to wheat. But this does not explain why rye will
grow where wheat fails.

If, as I suspect, the success of rye is due to a
peculiar power in dissolving silica more rapidly
than is true of any of our other well-known culti-
vated plants, then the inference suggests itself
that rye is precisely the plant to prepare silica,
and perhaps other minerals, for more delicately
constituted plants, like wheat, oats and corn.
There are certain elementary forms of mineral
matter, which some plants have no power, even
with the aid of the great transforming agent, oxy-
gen, to modify or break up. This may be true as
to wheat in relation to crude silica, Other plants
differently constituted, in some peculiarity, have
such a power. This may be true — and if it is not,
I am mistaken — of rye, in relation to crude silica.

Often, silica has been changed from its crude
form by the rye plant, its original crude and, to
wheat, unassimilable form, has been broken up
and changed, and thus reduced to a different or
new form with new proportions suitable for the
nutrition and growth of wheat. We know that
one animal can digest and assimilate substances
that are impossible of digestion with another. And
the succession of different species of plants on the
same soil proves something like this to be true of
vegetables. If rye has this power, it may be
turned to good account in bringing the crude min-
eral of sandy soils into a condition suitable for the
nutrition and growth of wheat, which is of more
general importance and value. — J. W. Clarke,
in Oenesee Farmer.

KINO- BIRD versus BEES.

It is contended by many who have watched
them, that the king-bird does not attack and de-
vour bees, and by others that they do. But when-
ever the bird was shot and examined, no bees
were found. The following fact was related to us
a few days since by the observer. Happening
one day to be near his bees, and in such a position
that a bee could be seen at some distance in the
air, going from and coming to the hive, he saw
a king-bird perched upon a stake near by, who
would dart from his perch among the returning
bees, make a circuit and return again. Tliis it
continued to repeat. He now became fully con-
vinced that the bird was catcliing and eating the
bees. Upon watching the bird, however, more
carefully on his return, he observed that it let
something fall each time to the ground. Going
to the stake where it had been perched, he found
a large number of dead bees scattered upon the
ground, every one of which had been burst open,
the honey expelled from the sack and eaten by the
bird. Tins accounts for no bees being found in
the birds when killed, but establishes the fact that
they like honey. — Prairie Farmer.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

409

For the New England Farmer.
HOME DUTIES.

Would you see ■woman in her most lovely char-
acter, her most proper position ? Then seek her
not amid the dust and turmoil of city life, not be-
neath the glare of gas light in the crowded ball-
room, or the round of shopping, calls, and gossip-
ing, M'here, I am sori-y so many women seem so
happy, but in the sweet, quiet retreat of a farmer's
home.

Home is a word that thrills the hardest heart.
Ah ! many a worn and weary man, now far away,
fighting for his liberty, and boldly facing the en-
emy, without one tremor of fear, quivers as though
in pain, at mention of his home, and will, when
night descends in mercy over the bloody scene,
weep bitter tears upon his hard, lonely cot, as he
thinks of the comforts that once were his, in that
beloved spot. And what makes our homes ? It
is woman. Sneer at her as you will. ])arade her
failings and weaknesses before the public eye, if
you choose, but for all that, it is her refining,
soothing, refreshing influence, that makes home
the loveliest place on earth. A man may have a
place to stay, eat, and sleep in, but it is the pres-
ence of woman that makes it a home, to be sought,
with eager steps, when work is finished for the
day, if she exert her powers as she ought, to make
it a pleasant spot.

The farmer's life is one of toil. By the sweat
of his brow does he earn his bread, and ought not
woman to make his resting hours as happy as
hours can be, here in this weary Avorld ? Shall
she not beguile him from his care, make him for-
get, for awhile, his corn and potatoes, and in-
dulge in a higher enjoyment than mere tilling of
the soil aff"ords ? It is for her to place the easy
chair beside the inviting fire, and on the hearth
the soft slippers to receive the tired feet. It is for
her to draw up the little table, with its dainty,
white cover, and place thereon a gloAving light,
the evening paper, and a tempting dish of apples,
pears or nuts. With such influences, can a far-
mer do otherM'ise than forget the hard toil of the
day, and revel in a pleasure the city man can
never feel ?

And thus, to place all the refining influences of
home around the former's hearth, the woman, the
presiding genius of the spot, must not be allowed
to work too hard herself. Woman will droop and
pine, grow cross and fretful, forget others in think-
ing of her own aches and pains, if, from the rising
of the sun till late into the stillness of the night,
she must work incessantly, with no hope of rest,
till she finds it in her lowly grave. If there are
butter and cheese to make, hired men to Avait
upon and cook for, and no daughters large enough
to help the tired wife and mother, let her hire
some one to do it.

To be sure, it will take quite a sum out of your
yearly profits ; but, my good friend farmer, had it
not better come out of the profits, than out of the
faithful companion you have chosen for life ? Wo-
man is often blamed and found fault with, for not
doing more work than she is really able to per-
form. If woman is true to her nature, if she is
such a wife as she should be, she will faithfully do
all she is able, and if she come short, know, ye
men who carelessly complain, that it is lack of
strength, not will.

The calm of a farmer's home is just the place
for love and harmony to dwell. Jars, discords,
and family quarrels should never mar the lovely
scene. What more beautiful than a pretty, com-
fortable farm-house, nestled among trees, and sur-
rounded by fields of waving grain and rustling
corn ? All the better qualities of the heart must
involuntarily spring forth, amid such influences.
And shall it be said that Avoman fails to do her
duty, in such a field as that ? No ! wives and
mothers, be up and doing. Let the subduing at-
mosphere around you quell all fault-finding, pee-
vishness and ill-temper, and may your influence
be such, that the farmer's life may always be, as it
often is, the happiest to be chosen. Sarah.

ABOUT CISTERNS.

Eds. Rural New-Yorker : — In a late num-
ber of your journal some one wishes to know the
best way to make a good cistern, and as I have
made cisterns for the last eighteen years, I am
willing to give my experience for what it is worth.

Cisterns can be made all shapes and sizes, but
the best shape is round, because it is the strong-
est. A very good size for family use is about 7
feet deep and 6 feet wide when finished. The. best
way is to wall up the sides with stone laid in good
lime mortar, (either stone or water lime will an-
swer, but water lime is the best,) it should then
be covered with a brick arch 8 inches thick, the
arc;h to rise about 18 inches, in shape like a cal-
dron kettle turned bottom side up. A place to go
in and out must be left in the arch by making a
frame of good plank, or plates of iron cast for the
purpose, and built solid in the arch. Sixteen
inches square is a good size for the opening.
Other holes can be left in the arch to receive tubes
to conduct in the water, to conduct off" waste wa-
ter, and to put in a pump if needed. The top of
the arch should be 10 inches or a foot below the
surface of the ground, to keep it from the frost.
Another frame should now be made two inches
larger than the first, and set on the top of the first
one. This leaves a ledge an inch wide to receive
a cover made to fit inside the top frame, and fas-
tened, to keep out children and creeping things.
It must now be plastered with two coats of good
water lime mortar on the inside, and if the work
is done thoroughly, you will have a cistern that
will last from generation to generation. — Rural
Neio- Yorker.

The Tomato as Food. — Dr. Bennett, a pro-
fessor of some celebrity, considers the tomato an
invaluable article of diet, and ascribes to it very
important properties :

"First, that the tomato is one of the most pow-
erful aperients of the liver and other organs ;
where calomel is indicated, it is probably one of
the most eff"ective and least harmful remedial
agents known to the profession. Second, tliat a
chemical extract will be obtained from it that will
supersede the use of calomel in the cure of dis-
ease. Third, that he has successfully treated di-
arrhoea with this article alone. Fourth, that when
used as an article of diet it is almost sovereign for
dyspepsia and indigestion. Fifth, that it should
be constantly used for daily food ; either cooked,
raw, or in any form of catsup, it is the most
healthy article now in use,"

410

NEW ENGLAND FABMER

Sept.

CAUSE OP HEALTH AND VTGOB.
The following from the Manchester (Eug.) Al-
liance News, describes the habits of a distin-
guished literary veteran, William Howitt, who has
maintained remarkable health and vigor, both of
mind and bodj' :

I am temperate, because I have seen and felt
the good policy of it. As a literary man, if 1 had
fallen in with ordinary literary habits, I should
not have been sitting here to write about the ad-
vantages of temperance. If I had lived as a ma-
jority of literary men of this age, as "a man about
town :" if I had lived in town, and kept the usual
late hours, and passed evening after evening in
hot, crowded rooms, breathing the deadly poison
of physical effluvia, gas and air deprived of its
ozone ; if I had sat over the bottle at late suppers,
foolishly called dinners ; and, in short, had '•jolli-
fied," as my literary cotemporaries call it, I should
have been gone 30 years ago.

As it is, I have seen numbers of literary men,
much younger than myself, dying off like rotten
sheep — some of them in their early youth, few of
them becoming old. They have acquired great
reputations ; for, if you take notice, they who col-
lect about the press, and jollify with one another,
and cry up one another as prodigies, are the men
who become most popular, and "verily they have
their reward."

They reap much money and much temporary
fame, but at what price do they purchase it ? At
the cost of bodily, as well as mental comfort ; at
the cost of life itself. For my part, seeing the vic-
tims of "fast life" daily falling around me, I have
willingly abandoned the temporary advantages of
such a life, and preferred less popularity, less
gains ; the enjoyment of a sound mind in a sound
body ; the blessings of a quiet, domestic life, and
a more restricted, but not less enjoyable circle of
society.

And now a word on work. Those who imagine
that I only wag a goose-quill, mistake a little. In
that department, indeed, I have perhaps done as
much work as any man living. Often in early
years, I labored assiduously sixteen hours a day.
I never omit walking three or four miles, or more,
in all weather. I work hard in my garden, and
rcould tire a tolerable man at that sort of thing.
J)uring my two years' travel in Australia, when
;about 60, I walked, often under a burning sun of
120 or 130 degrees at noon, my twenty miles a
(day for days and weeks together ; worked at dig-
.ging gold in great heat, and against young, active
men, my twelve hours a day, sometimes standing
in a brook. I waded through rivers — for neither
man nor nature had made bridges — and let my
clothes dry upon my back ; washed my own linen,
and made and baked my own bread before I ate
,it ; slept occasionally under the forest tree ; and
tlu'ough it all, was as hearty as a roach !

Linseed. — A gentleman who has lately re-
turned from the West reports that the crop of lin-
seed oil will be very large this year, probably
quadruple any previous year in Ohio, although in
the vicinity of St. Louis it will not be more than
double, for the reason that farmers could not pro-
cure seed enough to suj)ply their wants at plant-
ing time. The high price of linseed last spring,

and the low price of corn, in consequence of the
rebellion cutting off the Southern markets, is the
cause of this great increase. The crop will be
ripe about July 20, and will come into market
about the 1 st of August.

For the New England Farmer.
INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

My Dear Sir : — It gave me much pleasure to
notice, in the Farmer of June 21, that Messrs.
Crosby & Nichols have just published a large edi-
tion of "Harris on Insects Injurious to Vegeta-
tion," and have put it so low as to place it among
the cheap jyublicatiotis, and bi-ing it within the
reach of every one.

Insects, as every cultivator, whether of the field
or garden, the orchard or the flower-pot plant
standing on the window-stool, knows by sad ex-
perience, now constitute a serious di'awback on
general cultivation, and unless efficient remedies
are applied, they threaten still greater inroads
upon the progress of labor. In order to check
them, we must annihilate them, and to do this,
we must not only form an acquaintance with
their names, but the habits of their lives. This
calls, I am aware, on the close observation and
persevering laboi's of the farmer or gardener.
Book knowledge will not effect it without these.
Book knowledge, however, is an amazing good
help in directing the course of observation. By
treating upon the habits of its subjects, it exposes
their vulnerable points, and enables the student to
meet them more readily.

INIany of our farmers are familiar with Dr. Har-
ris' "Report on Insects," published in 1841, and
can speak of its value as a practical scientific
work. I can attest its world-wide reputation ;
for that day, it stood without a pai'allel. But the
discoveries in the science, the appearance of in-
sects new to us, and general progress of tilings,
(this last consideration is a noble omen,) ere a
score of years had passed away, called for this new
and richly illustrated edition. In consequence of
the demise of the author, the preparation of the
work was placed in the hands of our excellent
Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, Mr. Flint,
who readily gathered around him the aid of such
men as Agassiz, LeConte, Uhler, Dr. Morris and
many others, who were abundantly able as well as
willing to add value to its pages from the stores
of their own lore. With such aids it may well be
supposed that the volume under consideration oc-
cupies the first position among works of the kind.
The illustrations, which are numerous, are very
life-like, so that a child may recognize in them, in
midwinter, the butterflies he chased, or the insects
that annoyed him in summer.

No library can be complete without this book.
Every farmer who buys a copy will not only find
it a pleasant and instructive work, but a labor-
saving machine to aid him in getting rid of the
insect pests that do so much to blight his hopes
and ruin his labors every year. It is without
doubt the most perfect work of the kind before
the public.

With agricultural societies it should hold a
prominent position. I know of no way in which
they could give more valuable or more acceptable
premiums, or advance the true objects of reward-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

411

ing competition better than in the distribution of;
these books. Indeed, I have heard half-a-dozen |
saj', already, that "that's the kind of premium they
would like." Its pecuniar}' value to trade upon j
would not, of course, be as great as that of a ten j
or twenty dollar gold piece. It is not the object i
of these societies to increase one's financial funds ;
in the amount of their prizes, but rather, to bestow I
memorials of merit — heir-looms, in whose web fu- j
ture generations may see the results of ancestral j
enterprise ; dead capital laid up to look at and
used only on holidays. Such a book is a noble
rewai'd for successful effort — a cruse of oil from
which any quantity may be taken daily, yet none
the less remains, and the book and its teachings
go down to posterity a beautiful legacy to the
worth of those who acquired it. W. Bacon.
Richmond, 18G2.

AGEICULTUIIAI. IMPLEMENTS AHD
MACHIISrEBY.

There are many farmers now in the dally use of
approved agricultural implements and machiner}',
who began their business with the use of the most
limited, heavy and awkward tools.

The shoveh were made of wood, with the ex-
ception of a strip of iron across the bottom, split,
80 as to admit the thin, wedge-like wood, and then
the iron hammered down and fastened. The ex-
tra labor required to use them must have been
equal to one-third of the effort necessary to ac-
complish a fair day's work. When the material
to be removed was wet, it would cling to the
wooden blade with such tenacity as to make the
work of separating it a heavy and laborious task,
and frequently would entirely prevent the oj)erator
from separating it from the shovel. In conse-
quence of this, he was not able to throw the loam
or manure several feet into a cart or upon a bank,
as he can with one of the smooth and light steel
shovels of the present day.

The iron-tooth rakes were made by the village
blacksmith, and were cumbersome and unwieldy
things, rather better calculated for harrowing,
than for raking.

The pitcliforks were made at the same forge ;
they had two tines, with material enough in them
for four — were w^ithout proper pitch or symmetry,
and did not impart that cheerfulness and elastici-
ty to the mind, which a light, well-balanced im-
plement never fails to do, in the hands of an am-
bitious workman. The handles to both rake and
foi-k were wrought out at the wheelwright's shop,
or on the farm itself, and in their proportions cor-
responded with the iron parts.

The koe, also, was many ounces too heavy, was
uncouth in form and pitch, and so rough as to
cause the soil always to cling to it when wet.
This implement was also made at the village forge.
The blade was formed, and then the eye ham-
mered out on the horn of the anvil — instead of be-
*""• ",Toc=.afi jr, a "die," as we believe is now done

— and then welded to the blade. The work was
probalily as well done as ought to be expected un-
der the circumstances. But when done the best,
the implement was anything but a convenient and
pleasant tool. Its great objection, however, was
its weight. A middling sized hoe, made of light
and tough materials, will weigh two and a half
pounds, handle and all ; and such a hoe has all
the strength that is necessary for use on common
soils. On stony, clayey and compact land, a half
pound, or even a pound more weight might be re-
quired.

Now suppose that two ounces extra be added
to the two and a half pound hoe, and the person
using it works twelve hours a day. Standing by
a man hoeing on old land, we found that he aver-
aged 50 strokes per minute, where there were no
v\eeds to be taken out by hand. That would give
3000 strokes per hour, and 36,000 in a day of 12
hours, making an aggregate of 72,000 ounces
moved during the time. Dividing this by 16 —
the number of ounces in a pound — we find that
the man using the hoe that weighs two ounces too
much, that is, more than is necessary, raises about
18 inches from the ground four thousand and Jive
hundred pounds, or two and one-quarter tons per
day!

It may be said that the superior weight, when
once raised, will fall with more power, and cause
the hoe to penetrate the soil more than if it were
lighter. This may be so, but it requires greater
care and strength to direct the motions of a heavy
body, than a light one, and this will offset this
claim. To test the advantage of having a hoe
possess just the weight and strength to perform
the work required of it, let the operator attach a
piece of iron to his hoe, weighing two ounces, and
work with it one day. Before night, he will prob-
ably feel it affecting him as does the grasshopper
the tottering steps of the aged and infirm.

And so it is with all other agricultural imple-
ments and machinery. Great advances have been
made in this particular. The mechanic has been
into the field and tested his work there, and as-
certained what was lacking and what redundant.
In this way we now, undoubtedly, have the best
farm implements and machinery that can be found
in any nation of the world. They have so com-
mended themselves, by their own excellence, as to
break down the stern prejudices of the most ex-
acting and fastidious. We have spoken of the
hoe, only to illustrate our views of the matter ;
what we have said applies equally to other imple-
ments, and to machinery.

Several others among the smaller tools might
be mentioned, if enough had not already been said,
to show the great contrast between those used by
our fathers, and those which we handle with so
much pleasure and alacrity at the present time.

412

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

The most important improvements, perhaps —
not "inventions" — have been in the p^or<». On
many of our farms men may occasionally be heard
relating their experience with the old Dutch plow,
as it is called, over which they stood and subdued
the stubborn glebe in their youth. We have
known them to grow eloquent, even, in describing
its processes in rocky land, as to how it would
throw them across its handles, first on the land
side and then on the plowed — until their very
bones ached with the concussions. If it were on
level land, free from stones, its movements would
be disturbed by every pebble or variation in the
compactness of the soil, so that it was forever
poking its nose out of the ground when its propri-
etor least desired to see it !

Place it side by side, now, with one of Mr. Jo-
el Nourse's iron plows, with the same power to
draw them, and we think it will be found that
twice as much work will be accomplished in a giv-
en time by the iron plow as can be got out of the
old Dutch. The mould-boards of the old plow
were of wood — but sometimes in the hands of a
progressive farmer, who meant to have everything
in the "top of the mode," the mould-board would
be strapped with hoop-iron, running longitudinally
with the mould-board itself. This was a step in
advance, allowing the plow to pass with greater
ease through the soil, and requiring much less
team to draw it. There are many other plows, al-
so, of great excellence, which reduce the prime op-
eration of i^lowing very considerably from its for-
mer cost.

We have said that the prejudices which have
80 long existed against the use of viachinery, es-
pecially on the farm, have greatly abated. In-
deed, they seem to be almost gone, for the manu-
facturer finds it impossible to answer the demand
upon him for several articles of established excel-
lence.

These thoughts have been suggested by listen-
ing to a conversation which occurred in the ware-
house of Messrs. Parker, Gannett & Osgood,
of Boston, a few days since. A gentleman came
from Boxford, Mass., and ordered two Buckeye
mowing machines, another from Danvers, and
still one from another town. "We have not got
them," was the reply. One of the firm then said
he had recently returned from the manufactory,
and he found them there eleven hundred behind
their orders !" We learn, also, that the agent of
the Wood machine in Boston, has been unable to
meet the great demand upon him. The Davis'
Improved Ketchum has been sold freely by O.
Ames & Sons, Boston, and in one or two instances
at the rate of nineteen or twenty a day, without
the aid of out-door agency. The New England
machine, which is a new one, is gaining favor, and
we Tuiderstand has had a large sale.

We are glad to notice this spirit of progi-ess.
It will tend to preserve health, and increase the
happiness and profits of the farmer and his house-
hold.

THE BLACK KNOT.

The knots are now making their appearance on
the plum and cherry trees, and require attention.
Those who will make a careful examination of the
excrescence will be able to find small marks upon
them, sometimes crescent-shaped like the curculio
mark upon the fruit. By a very careful dissec-
tion, a minute white speck may be found in the mid-
dle of the concave portion of this crescent. This is
an e^g of an insect. It is believed that the q^^^
causes this excrescence, and we suppose so, be-
cause we know that this eg^ becomes a grub, and
burrows in and feeds upon the substance of this
knot. These grubs, if raised to maturity, become
so like the curculio that stings the fruit, as not to
be distinguished from each other. Still they may
be diff"erent. There are many diff'erent kinds of
beetles that look much alike. The peabug and
the worm in the chestnut, both look much like
the ourcuHo, but differ greatly in their habits.

When we cut into the little balls found grow-
ing upon an oak leaf, and find there a full-grown
perfect fly, and no possible way it could have got
there from without, we suppose that the parent of
that fly, in some way or other, caused that ball to
grow, and that it grew to afibrd protection and
food for her young. This is a natural supposition,
and is probably true, although it would be hard to
prove. Acting upon such a theory as regards the
black knot, we should say cut them oS" as soon as
they appear, and you destroy the embryo insect
that would cause similar knots another year.

We have seen both plum and cherry trees about
this city, and indeed almost wherever we travel,
perfectly deformed with these excrescences, and
permitted to stand year after year, mere nurseries
for spreading this evil.

Many people carefully cut off these knots early
in the spring, and it is well enough to do so even
then, as it certainly removes a defoi-mity, but it
then avails nothing towards getting rid of the
cause.

By careful watching and prompt cutting away
during the early part of July, you may keej) the
enemy under your control, but by neglecting them
for a year or two, valuable trees, or even orchards,
will become worthless. — Newark Mercury.

CURRANTS, TREES AND SMALL BIRDS.

As currants are now becoming ripe I would ad-
vise all those who cultivate this fruit to allow them
to hang upon the bushes until they are perfectly
ripe. I give this advice because I am aware that
this fruit is too commonly pulled before it has at-
tained to maturity and has become sweet and
pleasant to the taste. Currants and gooseberries
make most excellent wine, but not as they are us-
ually pulled, namely, when quite sour.

If peach trees were cultivated like currant 1)ush-
es by allowing them to spread out around the roots
they would ])erhaps be more healthy and yield
more regularly. I have found that leached ashes
when placed around the root of a valual^le fruit
tree that has become in a measure decaved reno-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

413

vates it. Th» soil should be removed for a space
of about 20 feet in circumference around the tree,
the leached ashes laid down therein to a depth of
four inches and the soil then spread over this.

Of recent years worms and catewnllars have
become more numerous and therefore more des-
tructive all over the thickly settled part of the
country. They injure our fruit-bearing shrubs
and trees in a most serious manner, and this evil
appears to increase in magnitude every year. It
is my opinion that this is in a great measure due
to the very general destruction of small birds, by
men and boys who proceed from cities on holidays,
and shoot harmless birds to obtain what they call
sport. IMost of these birds feed on insects and
their larva?, and they are therefore, the friends of
man, keeping down insectoria. The destruction
of the little birds should be prohibited by law. I
recommend every man Avho has a garden, to put
up bird houses and cultivate the society of Avrens, j
blue birds, &c. These "warblers of the grove,"
feed upon moths that prey upon bee hives, and
they are also enemies to the grape-vine caterpillar
and many like pests of vegetation. — Scientific
American.

LITTLE KINDWESSES.

BY KOWLAND BROWN.

Little drops of dew

Give life to fainting flowers ;
Little moments beating true

Ifake up this life of ours.
From the tiny acorn springs

Proudest of majestic trees ;
And from little fluttering wings

Fall the sweetest melodies.
And as little golden seeds

Glorious harvests may impart,
So will little kindly deeds

Make a Heaven of the heart.

Dost thou sometimes doubt thy strength .'

Dost thou weak and trembling feel .'
See ! the little trickling stream

Turns at last the giant wheel.
See the beauteous coral isle,

Mark those grottoes of the wave ;
They should make thee wear a smile.

And thy heart grow bold and brave !
For, like daisies from the sod

To the winter-weary heart,
So, the weakest child ot God

May Bome thrill of joy impart.

THE D-WELLING OP ANTS.

Ants, in the exotic regions, construct habita-
tions of considei'able size, and form large commu-
nities, consisting of a king and queen, soldiers and
laborers. Such especially are the white ants,
whose nests, formed entirely of clay, about twelve
feet high, and broad in proportion, soon become
clothed with grass, and when a cluster of them
are placed together, they may be taken for an In-
dian village, and are in fact occasionally larger
than the dwellings of the natives. These dome-
like buildings are sufficiently strong and capacious
to inclose and shelter the interior from all change
of weather, and the inhabitants from the attacks
of natural or accidental enemies. They are divid-
ed into a number of apartments, for the residence
of the king and queen, and the nursing of their

numerous progeny ; as also for magazines or gra-
naries, where provisions of various kinds are kept
stored. The royal chamber occupies the centre oi
the building ; and on all sides, above and below,
are arranged a kind of ante-rooms, containing
both soldiers and laborers, who wait there either
to guard or serve their common parents, on whose
safety depends the well-being of the whole com-
munit}'.

HABITS OP THE SHAD.

The habits of our fish have been very little at-
tended to in this country. Our scientific men, it
is true, have been very precise in their accurate
classification, and in the use of their ponderous no-
menclature ; they have described our fishes even
to the shape of a scale, or the number of thorns in
the dorsal fin, but they have not condescended to
note their habits, their food, their length of life,
with all such particulars as would interest common
readers, and be of use to mankind.

No fish is more valued, or more valuable than
the shad ; yet but few of its habits of life ai'e
known. Tlie books are silent, and angling gives
no information. It was for a long time a common-
ly received opinion that the shad spent the win-
ters in the Gulf of Mexico, and then as spring ad-
vanced, and the snow ceased running, came along
the coast, and entered the rivers in succession. If
this were true, tliere would be no uniformity, year
after year, in the run of shad in each river. The
very distinct varieties would all become intermin
gled. But each river has its own variety. Those
of Connecticut river have long been known as
possessing superior size and flavor to any others.
The variety that seeks the Hudson as a spawning-
ground is easily distinguished from ours. The
fact of the distinctness of the varieties in each riv-
er tends to tlie belief that shad go no farther than
the mouth of the stream in which they are hatched.

The habits of the shad are unlike those of other
fish. As soon as the snow-water has ceased run-
ning, they press up the river as far as they can
reach, in order to deposit their spawn. In follow-
ing this instinct, they never stop for refreshment,
or food. Whoever found anything in the maw or
stomach of a shad that would indicate the nature
of its food ? Whoever knew them to bite a baited
hook ? They do not feed from the time they en-
ter the stream until they sink down, thin and ex-
hausted, into the deep places at the mouth. For
this purpose of nature the shad has been prepar-
ing itself during the quiet luxuries of a winter,
and has become fattened for the use of man, or, if
it escape the net, for the reproduction of its spe-
cies. The shad lives but a single year. It is
hatched in the early summer ; descends the
streams as soon as large enough ; feeds and fat-
tens in the winter at the mouth of the stream ; as-
cends in the spring to deposit its spawn, and de-
scends to die at the bottom of the ocean. This
fact accounts for the uniformity in the size of the
fish. A Connecticut river shad seldom goes be-
yond seven pounds, and the variation in size is
comparatively slight. The bass, on the other
hand, w-hich is known to live many years, varies
from half a pound in weight, to fifty, even in gur
own river. It has a longer time to grow, and
shows a much greater diversity of size. These
considerations have led to the conclusion that one

414

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

year was the duration of the shad's life. What
was only a matter of conjecture and inference, has
been lately proved by the artificial fish-breeders.
Somewhere in the State of New York, one of
these raisers of fish from spawn Avhich he fed in
early life with crumbled crackers strewn upon the
pond where they Avere kept, has proved their
short hold on existence. He raised them for the
purpose of supplying the very large fish he had in
his tanks and ponds with food. As the science of
breeding fish is known more, the habits of the dif-
ferent species will be more easily described. —
Hartford Courant.

For the New England Farmer.
HOW TO MAKE MASTURES.

Mr. Brown : — There seems to be a desire by
farmers to know what course to pursue in regard
to worn-out or neglected land. My experience
and observation teach me that the barn-cellar, if
properly managed, is the best bank stock that a
working farmer can have. x\ dairy farm of from
twelve to twenty cows will make, from spring to
November, one hundred and fifty to three hun-
dred cart-loads of first-rate manure for fall seed-
ing or top-dressing, if the proper materials are fur-
nished, at a very small cost. Among these I
would recommend for the stable, sawdust, where
it can be had, spent tan or sand ; with a bountiiui
supply of sand, loam, muck, or almost any other I
kind of earth, carted into the cellar as soon as j
convenient after planting. A good su])ply placed
under the stable to receive the droppings and li-
quid manures, and the rest tipped up or piled up,
by the side, so as to be convenient to be mixed
with the manure as often as once, twice or three
times a week, as circumstances M'ill admit. There
is not an industrious farmer, or one who has help,
who can receive so much profit from liis labor as
in spending his spare hours or rainy days in lev-
elling down his manure, and mixing in his materi-
als, which are provided, and in this vvay increase
the products of his farm beyond his comprehen-
sion.

HOW TO KILL SEEDS OF WEEDS.

Mr. B. T. Stephens, of Waterville, ;Me., asks,
"How can manure be managed to kill the seeds in
it, and thus escape the trouble of constantly hoe-
ing and pulling weeds ?"

In the first place, put no Aveeds into your barn
or cellar after they have come to seed ; next, al-
low no weeds to get ripe in your fields of corn or
potatoes ; sow as little ]']nglish grain as possible
where you intend to i)lant ; seed down your land
to grass with the corn crop, by the use of the
horse-harrow, and a little use of the hoe to keep
it perfectly level, and destroy the Aveeds. A few
days in August Avill destroy in your hoed crops
more weeds than farmers are aware of.

Northhoro\ July, 1862. A SUBSCRIBER.

If you have an evergreen, or Norway spruce,
balsam fir, American spruce, or any of the pines,
and desire to make it grow more compact, just
pinch out the bud from every leading branch, all
around and over it. Repeat this process again
next year, at this time, and your evergreen will
continue thereafter to grow thickly. — Indiana
Farma;

Fur the New England Fanner.
AGRICITLTUBAL READUSTG.

Mr. Editor : — It is universally allowed by in-
telligent men, that the highest degree of success
in any vocation is attained by those who have the
best practical knowledge of the principles which
underlie that calling. The experience of our pre-
decessors, Avith the deeds of Avhose lives we are
conversant, aflbrds ample proof of this assertion.
Ignorance, let our pursuit be Avhat it may, cazi
only lead us astray ; it never can guide us in the
Avay to prosperity. To the farmer, these truths
are of the first importance, showing, as they do,
the necessity of a good understanding of his busi-
ness. To throw light upon the subject of agricul-
ture, by the aid of the pen and the press, has been
considered a thing superfluous, and by many ac-
tually injurious. The information handed doAvn
from father to son, Avas deemed amply sufficient
for a successful career in farm- life. But the times
have changed, and Avith the times, the opinions of
men, in a good degree ; and noAv the great ques-
tion among our intelligent cultivators is, What
are the means by Avhich we may be enlightened in
relation to our profession ? This is a question ap-
plicable to the age in Avhich Ave live, and the an-
swers as various as the means are numerous.

I look upon the agricultural press as one of the
most cfncient aids of the farmer. Here is dis-
])layed the united talent of tiie theorist and the
practical man. Here the acciunulated knoAv ledge
of the past, augnrented by the investigations of
the present, is laid Ijefore us in appropriate form,
and in language easily comprehended. The good,
progressive farmer is a student, pushing his inves-
tigations Aviththat devotion and intelligence Avhich
characterize his plans and labors upon the farm.
Standard agricultural Avorks occupy a prominent
place in his library, and the popular journals of
the day, Avhich treat of his profession, find a ready
Avelcome and an eager perusal; by his fireside.
Who, then, Avill marvel Avhcn they Avitness the
success of such men — men Avho have labored "to
imjn-ove both the soil and the mind ?" But we are
oftentimes told that much Avhich is written upon
agricultural topics is mere speculation, and never
can be applied to practice Avith favorable results.
This Ave admit in a measure, but let us inquire, Is
it necessary to reject all agricultural reading,
merely because an occasional article is submitted
to our perusal, incompatible Avith the principles of
that science Avhich it is intended to enlighten us
upon ? No intelligent former Avill give an affirma-
tive response to a question of this nature. Proper
discrimination must be exercised concerning mat-
ters of this kind, or Ave can never hope to profit
thereby. If Ave read an article Avhich at once ap-
pears to contain a multiplicity of absurdities, Ave
do not usually allow the article to be laid aside,
Avith merely remarking that it is incorrect, but Ave
strive to collect evidence Avhich Avill place its in-
correctness in a clearer light; and in this elucida-
tion of its folsities, our attention is often directed
to subjects Avhich might never have been consid-
ered, if there had been no occasion like this to
call them forth.

I long to see the art of cultivating the earth
raised to a higher state of perfection. This can
be accom])Hshed only through the instrumentality
of a more varied, practical and thorough knoAvl-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

415

edge of those great principles upon which it is
based. I say, then, let the agricultural press — the
herald of true progress in this sphere, still go on
fulfilling its mission. Let the farming community,
by diligent study, acquire more liberal views of
their calling, and of the means for its promotion,
and thus more successfully pave the way for genu-
ine, progressive farming. J. H. G.
Eubbardston, April, 1862.

EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES.
BLACK WAUTS ON TllEES.

Will you or some of your writers inform me
through your paper how to prevent what I call
canker worms from getting in plum and cherry
trees ? They cause a hard, black bunch to grow
on the branches, and spoil the tree.

Norway, Me., July, 1862. Subscriber.

Remarks. — Cut them out carefully and thor-
oughly as often as they appear. The following is
from the Country Gentleman : —

In conversing with a friend a few days since, he
informed me that he had been successful in re-
moving the black excrescences that have proved
so injurious to plum trees, as follows : vSaturate
the knot with spirits of turpentine, and in time it
will dry up and heal over. He thinks the disease
is caused by an insect, which the spirits of tur-
pentine destroys, and thereby remedies the evil.
He had recommended it to his neighbors, and in
all cases it has proved alike beneficial. In look-
ing over some of the back volumes of the Cultiva-
tor, I find the general remedy recommended is
excision, and knowing that this sometimes proves
injurious to the tree, I thought I would send you
this remedy — so simple and yet so beneficial — for
publication, not doubting but that I should get
some ideas in return from your correspondents.

I see the cherry is affected, in some sections of
the country, with the black knot, and I presume
the above remedy will prove alike beneficial to
them.

COLD AND WET.

Such is the present month of July. Already
have there fallen five inches of rain, and in very
lew of the days has the mercury, on a fair expos-
ure, risen above 70°. These flxcts are extraordi-
nary, and must essentially modify the products of
the fields and gardens.

^ly thermometer distinctly indicates summer
heat as 76°. AVhen the mercury for weeks in suc-
cession, fails to reach this point, we may begin
to query whether all is going rightly on. —
My corn looks green and luxuriant, and rises a
foot or more above my head, as I walk among it ;
but still, it needs heat to fill out and mature the
ears. Grain of all kinds appears to be doing well.
This matures with less heat than corn. Potatoes
were never better than the present season. I hear
nothing of the rot. "Seed lime and harvest" have
come for the last seventy years, and I have no
reason to fear that they will fail us. I have much
more fear of the ugly secession spirit abroad.
God grant that this may be suppressed, and this
speedily. p.

Essex Co., Mass., July 26, 1862.

crop of grass.

I learned to-day, that this will come short by at
least one-quarter part of several years past, on
the splendid farm of Gen. Sutton. As every one
knows that he spares no expense or effort to
make his lands as productive as possible, the de-
ficiency must be charged to the malign influences
of the season. This is contrary to the general
impression of the season. Perhaps it may be
chargeable to the war, as he is a Major General
of long standing, and his attention must have
been diverted from the farm, by the enlistment
and organization of troops, — the all-absorbing
topic of the day. The truth is, farmers must at-
tend to their business, if they would have their
barns full in due time ; if they do not look to
their farms, their farms will not sustain them,
whatever may be their official station. *

Essex Co.', July 26, 1862.

"A PAIR OF TWINS."

We very frequently hear and use the expres-
sion, "A pair of twins," evidently meaning two
born at the same time. But, strictly speaking, is
this a correct expression ? Is it true that two
produced at the same birth constitute a pair of
twins? Two, doubtlessly, constitute twins, but
not a j-iair of twins. As it takes two to make
twins, it must certainly take twice as many, or
four, to make a pair of twins. If I am correct in
this — and I believe that I am — it is very seldom
that we see a 2)air of twins, although twins are
often met with. A Constant Reader.

Paiolet, Vt., July, 1862.

LEACHED ASHES.

Prof. Buckland, the able editor of the Canadian
Agriculturist, says :

"Wood ashes always contain a considerable
amount of carbonate of potash, lime, etc., and are
consequently very beneficial to such plants as re-
quire large quantities of these alkalies, such as
Indian corn, turnips, beets and potatoes. Leached
ashes have los*, much of the principal alkaline
salts, and have been deprived of the greatest part
of their most important soluble ingredients ; still
they must not be regarded as an unimportant fer-
tilizer, and other matter which they contain is al-
ways more or less beneficial to the soil. Unless
the land is well worked and contains sufficient or-
ganic matter, we should not consider ashes,
whether leached or unleached, as alone adequate
to the production of a good crop of wheat, tur-
nips or corn."

There is something about old leached ashes that
we do not understand, though we have given the
subject considerable attention. We have seen in-
stances where old leached ashes have had an ex-
cellent effect on wheat, while unleached ashes
seemed to do no good. We have thought that
perhaps the potash and soda which had been
washed out, were replaced by ammonia and nitric
acid from the atmosphere. The subject is one
worthy of investigation. At all events, it is cer-
tain that leached ashes frequently have a very
beneficial effect ; and if the above hypothesis is
true, the older they are the better.

416

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

Por the Neic England Fanner.

MEANS OF AGBICULTUBAIi KNOWL-
EDGE.

Mu. Editor : — What are our principal means
of obtaining a knowledge of agriculture in New
England at the present time ? I make this inqui-
ry, because I wish to know whether or not we are
employing sufficient means for the education of
the vising generation who are to occupy the land
of their fathers, and to cultivate its rugged soil.
New England is comparatively a hard, rocky and
barren soil ; but, under skilful cultivation, it is
capable of producing all the necessaries and many
of the luxuries of life in great abundance. Still,
in order to compete successfully with other por-
tions of the country where but little knowledge
and effort are required in cultivating the earth,
the New England farmer must possess superior
knowledge of the business so as to be able to hus-
band all his resources to the best advantage. It
will not do for him to skim over the surface, to
scratch the soil and cast in his seed, and expect
an abundant harvest. No ; what he most needs,
is practical knowledge or science ; for it is this
alone which can enable him to render the rough
and rugged soil of New England productive.

Let us briefly enumerate some of our principal
means of acquiring agricultural knowledge, and
endeavor to ascertain our real condition and pros-
pects.

The first means of acquiring this knowledge is
in the family, on the farm. This is very different
on different farms, and in different towns and
neighborhoods. On some farms, it is good, very
good ; on others, it is tolerably or indifferently
good ; on others, again, it is useless, or worse
than nothing. It is no where uniform, methodi-
ical, systematic, or scientific. On one farm, the
operations are all performed in a very careless,
slovenly and unskilful manner ; on another, they
are all performed very differently, and are followed
with very different results. Still, whatever may
be the errors and defects of family instruction on
the farm, it ought not to be underrated or held in
disesteem, because in most families, and on most
farms, it is doing an immense amount of good,
and imparting a great amount of knowledge to the
young.

The second means of knowledge consists of
newspapers, periodicals and books, professedly
treating of the science and practice of agriculture
in all its departments. And it is greatly to be re-
gretted, that these admirable means of knowledge
intended for the benefit of all, should be improved
by so few; that any unreasonable prejudice should
prevent any one from receiving that instruction
from books and newspapers which he would glad-
ly and thankfully receive from the lips of a friend.

The tliird means of knowledge consists of the
example, conversation and advice of neighboring
farmers. A good example, accompanied by gen-
tle words and useful advice, will have a great ef-
fect on youthful practice. The influence of such
farmers is very great. The young are naturally
inclined to imitate their superiors and elders in
every kind of business. This is peculiarly the
case in farm operations, in which every improve-
ment is readily adopted and reduced to practice.

The fourth means of knowledge consists of
farmers' clubs and town agricultural societies. In

every town where there is a farmers' club estab-
lished for the discussion of agricultural subjects,
there is generally an excellent school for young
farmers. These farmers' clubs are generally made
up of the best and most skilful farmers in the
town ; of men who read and think and reason,
and, in all their discussions, aim to let their light
shine for the benefit of each other. Mutual in-
struction is what they aim at, and not to astonish
the world by an exhibition of some great montros-
ity of nature or art. They have no premiums or
State funds to bestow on unworthy objects. They
see clearly, that the State's money which is now
annually distributed among the several county so-
cieties so liberally, ought to be so managed as to
impart knowledge to the great mass of young
farmers, instead of being squandered away in
county towns upon trifling and doubtful objects.

Such are some of our principal means of acquir-
ing agricultural knowledge. Are they adequate
to the purpose of imj)arting a thorough knowledge
of agriculture to the rising generation ? If they
are, we ought to be satisfied with them, and en-
deavor to use them to the best advantage. But
if these means are not sufficient, we should make
use of additional means, so as to secure a greater
amount of knowledge. It is obvious to every one,
that the strongest man is not necessarily the best
farmer. There is something which is better than
physical strength, and which can accomplish more.
It is knowledge which is able to overcome brute
force, and subdue the ferocity of the tiger. The
knowing farmer can always excel the ignorant
farmer whatever be his physical strength, laecause
his superior knowledge gives him additional skill
in his business. In New England, the head as
well as the hands must work. There cannot be
much success in farming, where there is a lack of
knowledge ; for it is knowledge which enables the
farmer to raise the largest crops, at the smallest
cost, and with the least effort. How to do this
successfully, the science of agriculture alone can
teach. At the present day, the farmer is placed
in such close proximity with almost every depart-
ment of science, that it is difficult to determine
what should be the extent of his knowledge.

Warwick, Mass., 1862. John Goldsbury.

HABITS OF GRASSHOPPEBS.
A Goliad correspondent of the Colorado (Texas)
Citizen gives some curious facts in relation to the
grasshoppers which have recently swarmed in that
region. He says :

They have an especial fondness for wheat and
cotton, but don't take so kindly to corn. The only
vegetable they spare, is the pumpkin. The most
deadly poisons have had no effect upon them;
fumes of sulphur they rather like than otlierwisc ;
musquito nets they devour greedily ; clothes hung
out to dry they esteem a rarity ; blankets and
gunnybags they don't appear to fancy. They swim
the broadest creeks in safety, sun themselves a
while, and then go on. The whole mass ajipear
to start at the same time, travelling for an hour or
two, devouring everything in their way, and then
suddenly cease, and not move perhaps for a week,
duirug which time no feeding is noticed ; and
finally, they carefully avoid the sea-coast.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

417

GREEN HOUSE ENGINE.
The Messrs. Cowing & Co., of Seneca Falls,
N. Y., have been i^nown for years as the manufac-
turers of iron pumps of various patterns, chain
pumps, garden engines, &c. This year they have
introduced a new green house engine — a repre-
sentation of which accompanies this article. It
consists of a small force pump firmly fastened into
an iron pail. It can be carried quite easily when
full, to any desired spot, and can be worked with
one hand. We have one in our ])ossession whicli
we have tried, and find it will ihrow a small stream

a distance of 40 feet, and at the rate of two or
three gallons a minute. Simply for watering
plants, the necessity of renewing the supply of
water so often would make it of little more value
than the common watering pot, but in washing
windows or carnages, in throwing water to the
centre of flower-beds which cannot be easily
reached in liquid manuring, or in throwing such
compositions as soap suds, tobacco water, &c.,
upon the foliage of trees and plants for the de-
struction of insects, it appears to us to be a valua-
ble article. The price is $S,00, and it would be
hard for any one not to realize the interest of this
outlay from its use

STEEL AMALGAM BELLS.

Messrs. Cowing & Co. have also sent us one of
their new bells, made of the above material. They
are of several sizes, and designed for farms, en-
gine-houses, school-houses, churches, &c. The ma-

terial of which these bells are constructed gives
them strength and sonorousness, and at the same
time enal)les the manufacturers to sell them at a
price mucli less than other bells of the same
weight. We can remember the sound of the din-
ner liorii v\-hich we used often to hear in our
younger days, and can remember, also, that it took
a powerful pair of lungs to make it heard at any
considerable distance. In those days, we should
have been glad to have had the bell speak for us ;
and we doubt not there are many farms now, be-
yond the reach of the steam whistle, where one of
these bells Avould be a welcome signal of the din-
ner hour, and where its stirring tones at sunrise,
its warning voice in case of fire or accident, and
its merry peal on festive occasions, would more
than Day its cost.

GRAPE CULTURE.

The following is a postscript to a letter, received
a few days ago from our much esteemed old
friend, whose name is signed to it. His success
in grafting the grape is very satisfactory : —

Shall I inform you of my success in grafting the
grape-vine this spring? This morning I set grafts
of the last two varieties on hand. I grafted the
first about the middle of March on to the begin-
ning of April, then stopped until about the mid-
dle of June; then, as time would permit, stuck in
a few occasionally until this day, 2d July — all in
the roots, or in branches laid underground. Many
of the grafts have already made a growth of four
inches to four feet, one is bearing a cluster of
fruit and some of those grafted ten days to two
weeks, are pushing already. Of about one hun^
dred grafts set, at least eighty will grow ; and of
these one hundred grafts, representing thirty va-
rieties, I will have every variety to grow !

Last yearns grafting are noiv strong jylnnts,
hearing from one to a dozen branches of fruit.
By this mode of propagation a new variety may
be fruited the second year for certain ; while in
planting the delicate, forced pot plants we must
wait four to six years before fruit can be looked
for "Time is money" in more ways than one. —
/ B. Oarber, in Qermantown Telegraph.

41S

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

GKAVEL lU OXEN — A REMEDY.

During the latter part of March I had a noble
ox taken suddenly sick, giving signs of great pain
and an evident desire to discharge urine. Fre-
quent ])ulsations of the urethra (always observable
when cattle are voiding their urine) were noticed,
which continued for several hours, the ox frequent-
ly lying down or standing in a stretching posture.
After twelve hours, the pain with M'hich he was at
first taken appeared to somewhat abate, but there
was no discharge of urine. Various remedies
were administered, such as spirits of nitre in large
quantities, and liquor of pumpkin seeds, but of no
avail. He remained standing until he drew his
last breath, when he fell to the ground. Not a
muscle was noticed to move after his fall.

Upon a post mortem examination, the cause of
his death was very apparent. It was, as I had
supposed, an obstruction of the urethra. A stone
had formed in the bladder, and then passed down
the natural channel of discharge, until it reached
the cod ; here it became lodged, shutting up all
passage for the escape of urine. The stone, which
was of an oval, oblong shape, was not larger tlian
an ordinary cranberry bean. It is composed of
lime, similar in appearance to the crust collected
on the inside of tea-kettles, but was covered with
a membraneous substance, doubtless formed after
it became lodged, in consequence of inilammation
taking place.

Since losing my ox, I have learned of several
that have died of the same disease. Also, of two
cases where cures have been effected in the follow-
ing way : When you are sure there is an obstruc-
tion, the animal should be thoroughly examined
by feeling the whole length of the urethra, if pos-
sible, to ascertain vhere the obstruction is. But
if you fail to find where the obstruction is located,
make an incision into the urethra where the pul-
sation I have observed is observed. If then the
animal does not discharge his urine, you may be
sure the obstruction is higher up, and so large
that it cannot pass down the natural channel. This
may be removed by inserting a catheter and crowd-
ing it back. If the difficulty is below the incision,
the animal may ever after continue to discharge
the urine from the orifice made, without any det-
riment to the health of the animal. There is a
case of this kind near here, which has been in this
situation for three years. — J. I. Knapp in Rural
jSleiu- Yorker.

"Nothing to Do." — We have for several years
known an elderly farmer, whose fields are level
and well adapted to the use of the mowing ma-
chine, but who could not surmount the idea that
machinery is a plague on the farm. So at early
dawn he has bent over the scythe on his broad
acres, until he has acquired a bend in his back
that no medicament can cure. This year, the
pressure was too strong for him. He heard the
"clack" of machinery all about him, and saw his
neighbors clearing their fields at the rate of two
acres to his one. He could stand it no longer.
A Wood machine was purchased, and proved a
good one, and now he may be seen early in the
morning under his beautiful trees, feeding the
poultry, or slowly following liis fine cows as they

niljble the sweet grass on the roadside, on their
way to pasture. He is in no huiTy, not he. He
sits twice as long at the breakfast table as he did
last year, and thinks the food tastes better than
it did then. He rises early, to be sure, and his
practiced eye scans everything, and sees that all
is right. The horses are hitched to the machine
about nine, and, presto, before twelve there is as
much grass down as all hands can take care of.
He thinks he can earn more in the time which he
has to bestow upon his stock and his care of "lit-
tle things," than he ever did in the mowing field.
Indeed, it seems, he says, as if he had "nothing
TO IX) !"

BENEFITS OP AUTUMN PLOWING.

The tillage and drainage of the soil are very
closely related to each other. So indeed are the
tillage and manuring the soil. And these, not
merely as cause and eff'ect are related — though
drainage does enable tillage, and tillage does alter
composition — but as being operations of the same
class and kind. And thus Mr. Bailey Denton,
thougli engaged in a lecture upon land drainage,
could not help referring to the steam plow — as the
great tillage implement of the future. And we
had from him, too, the striking fact bearing on the
composition of a fertile soil, that in a state of per-
fect tilth one-quarter of its bulk is air.

Mr. Smith, of Lois-Weedom, says that in all
clay soils containing the mineral elements of grain,
perfect tilth dispenses with the need of manure ;
and tliere cannot be a doubt that a deep and thor-
ough tillage enables soil to draw immensely on the
stores of vegetable food contained in air and rain,
^lessrs. Hardy again say that perfect tilth dispen-
ses with the need of drainage, and there can be
but little doubt that deep and thorough tillage fa-
cilitates the operation of whatever drainage may
exist, whether it be natural or artificial.

In both these cases the usefid lesson is well
taught, that it is true economy rather to put the
cheap and copious storehouse of Nature's agen-
cies to its fullest use, than by laborious and costly
artificial means to imitate expensively their opera-
tion.

Such a lesson applies, beyond the advantages
of tillage to the methods by which tillage is ob-
tained. Among the eariiest suggestions of culti-
vation by steam power was that of reducing by
its means the soil to tilth at once. The land was
to be torn down as the deal is torn down at the
saw-mill ; though before the machine it may have
been as hard and firm as wood, behind tlie tool as
it advanced at work it was to lie as light and fine
as sawdust. But it has at length been found that
it is better because clieaper, and more perfect, too,
to leave this last refinement of the tillage process
to the weather, which does it Avithout cost. The
land is now torn — smashed u]) — or moved and
thrown about by plow or grubber in great clods
and lumps. This is best done in dry autumn
weather, and thus it lies till spring. Certainly no
climate is better adapted for cheap tillage than
the English — the rains and frosts of winter follow-
ing a dry September and October must i)cnetrate
and thrust asunder the clung and hardened masses
of the soil. No two particles shall remain adher-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMEE.

419

ing to each other, if you only give room and op-
portunity to the cheapest and most perfect natu-
ral disintegrator in the world. No rasp, or saw,
or mill will reduce the indurated land to soft and
wholesome tilth so perfectly as a winter's frost.
And all that you need to attain its perfect opera-
tion is, first to provide an outlet for the water
when it comes — by an efficient drainage of the
subsoil, and then to move the land while dry and
break it up into clods and fragments, no matter
how large they be, and leave them for alternate
rain, and drought, and frost, and thaw, to do their
utmost. — London Agricultural Gazette.

^WHEN" TO CUT BUSHES.

We have no doubt but that late in summer,
when the growth of the season is just ended, and
the plant has expended all its energies in growing,
and is just falling into that rest so essential to
vegetable maturity, is an excellent time to behead
these plagues of the farm. But we have tried
another season, when the labors of the year were
not quite so pressing as is usual in summer, or
early autumn, and have found it so successful in
our case, that we hold it worthy of commendation
to others.

Many years ago, there was a dense patch of wil-
lows on a swampy spot at one end of the meadow.
They covered about half an acre, and were so
thick that any animal, biped or quadruped, would
find it difficult to pass through the thicket. It
v/as waste land, good for nothing unless it were
for wasps and hornets to occupy in rearing their
young, or for the bob-o-link to pour out his noisy
clatter. More than this, it was a grievous eye-
sore, that closely embodied phalanx of willows in
full view of the highway, and the first object that
greeted the eye in one direction from the win-
dows.

It was in our school-boy days, and it so hap-
pened, as was then customary in New England,
our school adjourned over from Wednesday night
before Thanksgiving, until the following Monday,
to give the teacher time to go home and visit all
his cousins and neighbors, the big boys to skate
and attend turkey shoots, and every one to enjoy
themselves in the ways best suited to their fancy.

Cold weather had set in, in earnest. The ponds
were all frozen over, and the streams flowed noise-
lessly along under their icy blankets — dark clouds
chased each other across the horizon, occasionally
spitting snow as from very spite, and the hoarse
north wind piped in doleful notes the birth of the
season of storms and snow-drifts, of sleigh-rides
and singing-schools. Of course, our old enemies,
the willows, were firmly lodged in winter quarters.
At least Jack Frost had one of them firmly se-
cured in his unflinching, relentless vice. Taking
that fact into consideration, in connection with
the other more important one that we had two
whole days all our own, to do what we pleased,
with the proviso that we must not be pleased in
doing any sort of mischief, we resolved to open
speedy hostilities on our old, hateful enemies, the
willows, and accordingly with a sharp axe in hand,
we commenced our Avarfare, cutting them off"
smoothly and rapidly just below the surface. Our
progress in the business was very good in these
two cold, days. The improved look of the meadow
was an ample compensation. We have no doubt

we made better progress in our studies that win-
ter for the triumphs of this two days' labor. But
this was but the beginning of the end in this busi-
ness. The removal of the willows revealed old
logs and stumps ; and there must be drains cut
to take off" the water that had fed the willows. So
it was concluded to fence off" that end of the
meadow for pasturing, while this operation was
going on.

The result was this : The bushes were cut so
low, that the first thaw covered their stum])s with
water, which froze firmly over them. Whether
they drank too much in this drowning process, we
shall not presume to say. This we know, however,
that the subsequent growth was a very feeble one,
and the browsing of the animals pastured there,
completed the work of destruction so effectually,
that on restoring the old swamp to the meadow,
it was destitute of willows as the desert of Sahara.

We have another piece of swamp, on which
much earth had been carried by artificial means,
and which in 1859 had become a tangled mass of
willows and alders. In January of 1860, we cleared
off a portion of this swamp by cutting the crop in
the same way as before, just below the surface,
when the ground was frozen. Two seasons of
growth have passed since then, and the new
sprouts make but a very feeble show. Another
cutting, -which can be effected in a very short time,
would probably eradicate the bushes entirely.

Now we do not claim that we have taken the
best time to cut our bushes. We state when we
did, how we did it, and the result, leaving it for
the intelligent agricultural world to draw their
own inferences. We think, however, that in win-
ter, if frost favors the object, and there is no snow
to obstruct, it is the best time for us, for then it
will not interfere with the ordinary duties of farm-
ing, and labor is cheaper. Then the bushes being
firmly frozen in, every blow of the axe will tell,
and there is no mud to annoy the operator. We
have some belief that the freezing and thawing
over the stumps, and the water that settles over
them in spring, has something to do with drown-
ing out these mischievous aquatic shrubs. — Wil-
liam Bacon in Country Gentleman and Cultiva-
tor.

BUCKWHEAT A BAD CROP FOR THE
SOIL.

J. W. Colburn, writing to the Country Gentle-
man, says : — "In the last number of your paper,
Mr. Holden, of North Clarendon, V"t., inquires
for the reason of a poor crop of corn the next year
after a crop of buckwheat on the same land.

I can give him what little experience I have had
in this way. Several years ago I turned in a light
crop of grass the last of June, and sowed the
sward to buckwheat, and had a heavy crop. The
next year manured the same field well, and plant-
ed to corn. It came up feebly, looked pale and
sickly for all the first part of the summer, but
seemed to recover in a measure towards the latter
part, but did not mature before the first hard frost
so as to make a fair crop of sound corn — a fair
growth of fodder with an undue proportion of soft
corn. Not thinking that the previous crop had
much to do with the failure of the one following,
and liking a crop of forty bushels per acre of
buckwheat, which is good swine feed, I repeated
the same process within a year or two after, and

420

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

with the same results. I then made up my mind
that buckwheat is not only an exhausting crop,
but that it leaves the soil unfit for a good crop af-
ter it, until it can recover from the deleterious ef-
fects of the buckwheat. It seemed to create an
acidity in the soil, for I noticed before plowing
the next spring, that sorrel started up plentifully.
I abandoned the growth of buckwheat from that
time, and have never found any other crop that
left the soil unfit for a good crop of corn, with
proper preparation and culture.

In my case I lost more on the corn crops than
the whole value of the buckwheat. A crop that
will create a cold acidity in the soil, so as to sen-
sibly afl'ect the one following, is unfit to be grown
upon a good soil. Buckwheat will thrive fairly on
rather poor, sandy and gravelly soils, if the sea-
son is not too dry. If I had such land, and was
desirous of cultivating this crop, I would put it
upon this kind of soil once in two years, letting it
rest the alternate year, but never upon good soil
designed for corn the following year. No crop
that can exhaust more than the value of a crop
can be a paying one in the long run on good pro-
ductive lands."

For the Neic England Farmer.
CANKER V70BMS— ORCHARDS.

Mr. Editor: — Your correspondent, "W. N.
Shaw, Esq.," has told us a terrible tale of the can-
ker worm upon his premises. If anything would
make a farmer shrug his shoulders and forget to
skip a few hard words, it would be his promising
orchard, well invested with the canker worm.

This would seem to be the proper time for sci-
entific study, and to apply the remedy. Now, we
know exactly where the enemy lies, that by its
silken cord, it lets itself down to the ground with-
in the limits of the branches of the tree from which
it had foraged. How can we destroy this grub
now so near the surface, among the grass roots,
waiting to be transformed to do its wicked work
the next spring ? Placing heavy paper around the
tree and taring, stops a great many grubs, but it
must be watched, and the tar often applied. Some
apply directly upon the bark, but this endangers
the health of the tree, while others have tired
themselves and ended their labors in disgust.

It has occurred to me to sow salt or alkalis free-
ly under the trees, particularly in mowing orchards,
then use the Michigan or double Eagle plow as
soon as it is the proper time to sow grass seed,
and at once stock it down to grass again, which
will largely increase the crop for the next year,
even without manure. By tliis process, the grub
will be Avell salted and the sward furrow will be
deeply and perfectly buried. No other plow could
do it so well, in my judgment. It is about time to
sow grass seed.

It is said this grub begins to move for the tree
a long time before the frost is out of the ground.
If so, it is nigh the surface ; a deep burial and a
reverse position might effectually destroy it.

These suggestions may be nothing new, and
perhaps have been put in practice by many, but I
cannot conceive of a more eff'ectual process. Too
many orchards become prematurely old by neglect-
ing to cultivate among the troes, and manuring
well, as you would for a field of corn or a crop of
oats. Beside, when the old sward is turned un-

der, how many thousand of the pestiferous insect
creatures, such as apple curculio, etc., may be
destroyed ? Not like the tree in the forest, that is
enriched by the dropping of its own leaves, and
grows luxuriantly, the old orchard apple trees,
for a half century, have stood like the monuments
of a grave-yard, only to gather moss and bear no
fruit ; vigor, life and fruitage come from the plow,
the manure heap and the labor of man.
Brooklyn, L. I. H. Poor.

A NOR-WEGIAN HOME.

The houses in which these country people
reside are not altogether unlike the small log-
cabins of the early settlers on our western frontier.
I have seen many such on the borders of Missouri
and Kansas. Built in the most primitive style of
pine logs, they stand upon stumps or columns of
stone, elevated some two or three feet from the
ground, in order to allow a draft of air underneath,
which in this humid climate is considered neces-
sary for health. They seldom consist of more than
two or three rooms, but make up in number what
they lack in size. Thus a single farming establish-
ment often comprises some ten or a dozen little
cabins, beside the large barn, which is the nucleus
around which they all centre ; with smaller cribs
for pigs, chickens, etc., and here and there a shed
for the cows and sheep, all huddled together
among the rocks or open hill- side, without the
least apparent regard to direction or architectural
effect. The roofs are covered with sod, upon
which it is not uncommon to see patches of oats,
weeds, moss, flowers, or whatever comes most con-
venient to form roots and give consistency and
strength to this singular overtopping. The ob-
ject, I suppose, is to prevent the transmission of
heat during the severe season of winter.

Appi'oaching some of these hamlets or farming
establishments during the summer months, the
traveller is frequently at a loss to distinguish their
green-sodded roofs from the natural sod of the hill-
sides, so that one is liable at any time to plunge'
into the midst of a settlement before he is aware
of its existence. Something of a damp earthy
look about them, the weedy or grass covered tops,
the logs green and moss-grown, the dripping eaves,
the veins of water oozing out of the rocks, give
them a peculiarly northern and chilling effect, and
fill the mind with visions of long and dreary win-
ters, rheumatisms, colds, coughs and consumptions,
to which it is said these people are subject. Noth-
ing so wild and primitive is to be seen in any oth-
er part of the day, when the inhabitants are out in
the hills attending their flocks or cultivating their
small patches of ground. I passed many groups
of cabins without seeing the first sign of life, save
now and then a few chickens or pigs rooting about
the barn-yard. The constant impression was that
it was Sunday, or at least a holiday, and that the
people were either at church or asleep. For one
who seeks retirement from the busy haunts of life,
where he can indulge in uninterrupted reflection,
I know of no country that can equal Norway.
There are places in the interior where I am sure
he would be astonished at the sound of his own
voice. The deserts of Africa can scarcely present
a scene of such utter isolation. — Harper's Maga-
zine.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

421

WHAT ARE TREES MADE OF?

If we were to take up a handful of soil and ex-
amine it under the microscope, we should probably
find it to contain a number of fragments of wood,
small broken pieces of branches or leaves, or oth-
er parts of the tree. If we could examine it chem-
ically, we should find yet more strikingly that it
was nearly the same as wood in its composition.
Perhaps, "then, it may be said, the young plant
obtains its wood from the earth in which it grows.
The following experiment will show whether this
conjecture is correct or not. Two hundred pounds
of earth Avero dried in an oven, and afterwards put
into a large earthen vessel : the earth was then
moistened with rain-water, and a willow tree,
weighing five pounds, was planted therein. Dur-
ing the space of five years the earth was carefully
watered with rain-water. The willow grew and
flourished, and to prevent the earth from being
mixed with fresh earth, being lilown upon it by
winds, it was covered with a metal jjlato full of
very minute holes, which would exclude every-
thing but air from getting across the earth below
it. After growing in the earth for five years, the
tree was removed, and on being weighed was
found to have gained one hundred and sixty-four
pounds. And this estimate did not include the
weight of the leaves or dead bi-anches which in
five years fell from the tree.

Now came the application of the test. Was all
this obtained from the earth ? It had not sensibly
diminished ; but in order to make the experiment
conclusive, it was again dried in an oven and put
in the balance. Astonishing Avas the result — the
earth weighed only two ounces less than it did
Avhen the avIUoav Avas first planted in it ! yet the
tree has gained one hundred and sixtii-four
jyounds. Manifestly, then, the Avood thus gained
in the space of time Avas not obtained from the j
earth ; Ave are therefore obliged to repeat our
question, Where does the Avood come from ? We
are left Avith only two alternatives, the Avater Avith
which it Avas refreshed, or the air in AA'hich it lived.
It can be clearly shown that it Avas not due to the
Avater ; Ave are consequently unable to resist the
perplexing and Avonderful conclusion — it Avas de-
rived from the air.

Can it be ? Were those great ocean spaces of
wood, Avhich are as old as man's introduction into
Eden, and wave in their vast and solitary luxuri-
ance over the fertile hills and plains of South
America, Avere all these obtained from the thin
air ? Were the particles which unite to form our
battle-ships. Old England's Avails of Avood, ever
borne the Avorld about, not only on Avings of air,
but air themselves? Was the firm table on Avhich
I rest, the solid floor on Avhich I dwell, once in a
form Avhich I could not as much as lay my finger
on, and grasp in my hand ? Wonderful truth !
all this is air. — Eng. Paper.

them successfully preserved till spring, as follows :
"Into the bottom of a small keg or nail-cask put
a layer of grape leaves fresh from the vines. On
these carefully place a layer of sound, ripe, dry
grapes, then leaves and grapes in alternate layers,
till the keg is full. Head up the cask, and bury
it in some Avell drained ground, beloAV the depth
of the frost." Like other things excluded from
the light and air, they Avill change rapidly on ex-
posure, and hence Avhen a keg is opened and they
are found good, use them freely.

Keeping Grapes. — Dining with a friend re-
cently, Ave had the unusual luxury of a desert of
CataAvba and Isabella grapes. Their mode of pres-
ervation being the theme, Ave learned that they
Avere picked Avhen ])erfectly dry and ripe, and
packed carefully in bunches, in a box, between
layers of cotton, and as much as possi])le excluded
from the light and air. More recently a gentle-
man from Pennsylvania teUs us that he has seen

POULTKY-HOTJSES AND YARDS.

Arthur Young, whose opinions and inculca-
tions on most matters appertaining to farming and
domestic life are of a highly practical character,
in some observations upon this subject says : —
"When a set of houses are intended for the rear-
ing and feeding of poultry, a situation should be
selected near, or close to the farm-yard, and with
ample space around for the foAvIs to disperse over
in the day time, and containing one or more ponds
for the aquatic birds. All must have access to a
gravel-yard, and to grass for range, and to clean-
liness, and to Avhite-Avashing, not for appearance
merely, but to destroy the vermin."

Poultry should never be restricted as to food,
if we are to expect profit from them. It is more
judicious, and Avill be more for our interest to al-
low a superfluity, than to stint them in this respect.
Loudon observes, in one of his valuable works,
that in selecting a site for a poultry-house, one
should be chosen Avhich is perfectly dry, and with
an exposure to the east, or south-east, in order to
secure to the fowls the benefit of the sun's rays
during the inclement seasons of spring and au-
tumn. But this, some Avill say, is a department
of rural economy Avhich belongs, or should belong
exclusively to the female part of the household.
Very Avell : We have no objection to such an as-
signment of it, but then the good man must see
that the proper shelter is provided, and store of
good food supjilied for the foAvls. The houscAvife
can doubtless do much in this as in various other
matters to ensure the success of her husband's la-
bors. In the language of old Father Tusser,
Avhose "Five Hundred Points of Good Hushand-
rxj" should be in the hands of most farmers, al-
though published so long ago as the reign of Hen-
ry VIIL, of England —

"When husband is absent, the housewife be chief.
And look to their labor that eateth her beef.
The housewife so named (of keeping the house,)
Must tend on her profiL, as cat on a mouse."

It is very desirable in rearing poultry for the
market — and especially hens — that good varieties
be selected, such as Avill not only lay Avell, and be
Avatchful and attentive mothers in bringing up
their young, but be kindly disposed to fatten Avhen
preparing for the market. The Bolton Greys are
said by those who have had much experience in

422

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

poultry-raising, to excel in the latter respect, while
they are exceeded by the Shanghaes and Dorkings
in the former. The White Dorkings are beautiful
birds. They are of a middling size, entirely white,
have partially feathered, yellow legs, and are good
layers and mothers. They are a little inconstant
in sitting, and inclined to sit too much. Their
flesh is juicy, tender and delicious, and comes
nearer the common fowls of New England many
years ago, than any other we have ever tasted.
The Speckled Dorkings are also superior fowls,
having the broadest bodies according to the whole
weight of any fowls we have ever seen. Dr. Eben
Wight, of Dedham, who has imported several
varieties of fowls — and among them the Speckled
Dorking — sent us a splendid pair of them last
fiill, which now promise to be an unequivocal ad-
dition to our poultry-yard. The doctor has con-
ferred great pleasure, as well as profit, upon poul-
try-raisers by his attention and excellent judg-
ment in the introduction of superior breeds of
poultry.

The BraJima Pootra fowl is highly esteemed by
many, and our own experience coincides witli this
good opinion. Mr. Ives, of Salem, who has had
much experience in rearing poultry, gives this
breed the highest praise, both for beauty of ap-
pearance and profitable products.

"The chicken," says a late writer, "is classed by
the naturalist in the tribe of the Gallinacecc, form-
ing part of the order Rasores or scraping birds."
These fowls swallow their food without mastica-
tion, a process which is rendered utterly superflu-
ous by the provision of an apparatus denominat-
ed a "crop" which bears a very near resemblance
to the first stomach of the cow, and in which the
food received is speedily macerated, and to a cer-
tain extent dissolved or digested by the action of
secreted fluids. Belov/ the crop there is a second
cavity or sac-like organ, into which the food in
its partially macerated state passes, and where it
is again subjected to the action of the stomachic,
or animal solvent or digestive fluid, and is finally
transmitted to the "gizzard," or last stomach, which
is furnished with muscular and cartilaginous lin-
ings of very considerable strength. Here it is in-
turated and converted into a thin paste, prepara-
tory to its reception into the chyle-gut, from
which it passes finally into the circulation. The
muscular force of the gizzard is so great that even
glass is in a few hours reduced to powder when
submitted to its action, and even the roughest and
hardest bodies are not proof against its force.
Spallanzani is said to have introduced into the
gizzard of a fowl a leaden ball, with a dozen need-
les so fixed in it that their points protruded a
quarter of an inch from the surface in various di-
rections, yet this formidable machine, instead of
proving of the slightestinjury, was in itself broken

down, and the sharp needles demolished entirely,
in the brief space of a little more than two hours !
Instinct leads the barn-door fowl to swallow
gravel, shells and glass, to facilitate and hasten
the comminution of the food it partakes of,
whether animal or vegetable. While having the
free range of the fields, a very considerable pro-
portion of the food of most fowls is derived from
the insect tribes. This fact suggests the impor-
tance of supplying them liberally with meat, when
confined to the hen-house. A hen restricted ex-
clusively to a vegetable diet, no matter how liber-
al may be the hand that feeds her, will be far
less profitable than one fed on a mixed diet of
meat and vegetables.

Fur the New England Fanner.
FENCES.

So much has been said of late in the Farmer
about fences, that the subject may seem almost
exhausted, yet as this is one of the most impor-
tant items connected Avith the business of farming,
it may not lie unprofitable to your agricultural
readers to have theii- attention called to it once
more.

Farming, without fences, is of course an im-
possibility. Good farming, with poor fences, is
equally so. With poor fences, a man may not
expect to have peaceable cattle or good neighbors,
nor can he feel any security for his crops, as they
are hourly exposed to destruction. Under such
circumstances, (which are by no means unfre-
quent,) is it strange that farming is regarded as
the most vexatious and uninviting of all employ-
ments ? If, then, good fences are one of the essen-
tials of farming, of course the question at once
arises — what kind of fence is the most profitable
to build ?

Mr. I. Palmer, of South Hampton, N. H., has
mentioned in your paper several varieties which
he regards as good, and Avhich are, without doubt,
a grc»it improvement on many kinds now in use ;
but there is a kind of fence coming into use in
this vicinity, which, in my opinion, is far superior
to any which Mr. P. has mentioned. I refer to
that known as Smith's patent, a description of
which has recently been given in the Farmer. I
lived for several years near jSIr. Smith, and have
seen his fence thoroughly tested in a variety of
ways. It works equally well on swampy, clayey
or ledgy kwid, and fully comes up to any recom-
mendation which has been given of it.

Mr. Palmer inquires how the braces are to be
tied to the boulders ? This is easily ione by
means of looped wire, or pieces of iron set in
brimstone, which, if properly done, are perfectly
immovable. I built some of this fence around
my barnyard last year, which, to keep ofl" the
storms, I made tight and high, and it stands now
just as firm as though the posts were frozen into
the ground. As for its durabihty, it is difficult to
tell what part of it will fail first. If any of your
readers have occasion to pass through Haverhill,
N. H., tell them to call on Mr. Smith and exam-
ine for themselves, and if they have heretofore
been skeptical on the subject, they will lie likely
to be so no longer, for "seein? will be beiieviag."

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

423

Many of the best fanners in this vicinity, who
are not usually hasty to adopt new notions, have
become satisfied in regard to this fence, and are
preparing to build it on tlieir own farms. Un-
doubtedly, it will eventually come into general
use, and if so, depend upon it, the country will
become richer thereby. I. B. Aykk.

Bradford, VL, Jtdy, 18G2.

Remarks. — If any one wishes to see the fence
our correspondent so greatly commends, he can
find it on our farm at Concord, oSIass., where some
fifty rods are set. The fence rests entirely upon
stones, not a particle of it touching the ground.
We expect to be able to give the exact cost per
rod, as it stands.

THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS,

The nephew of Dr. Jenner, Avhen on board a
vessel going in a direct course for Newfoundland,
and more than one hundred leagues from any
land, saw a brown owl gliding over the ocean with
as much apparent ease as when seeking for a
mouse over its own native fields. Mr. William
Thompson, of Belfast, in his Natural History of
Ireland, records, vol. I., page 102, from the log
book kept on board the John and liobert, of five
hundred tons, Captain M'Kechnie, from Quebec
to the port of Belfast, that from thirty to forty
snowy owls, on the 16th of November, 1838, were
seen when the vessel was 2t50 miles from the
Straits of Belleisle. Several followed the ship ;
from fifty to sixty were seen on the 18th, some
alighting on the rigging and j'ards ; three were
caught and taken to Belfast alive. The last of
those seen at sea was on the 2()th of November ;
the vessel then near 700 miles from Belleisle, and
sailing along in latitude 54, or nearly so. The
Rev. Robert Holdsworth wrote me word that a
water-rail alighted on the arm of a man-of war,
about 500 miles to the westward of Cape Clear,
and at the same distance from any known land.
An officer of the ship caught it, and carried it
with him to Lisbon, feeding it with bits of raw
meat. In a day or two it became perfectly tame,
and would eat out of his hand. By the kindness
of two officers of the Royal 42d Highlanders, sta-
tioned at Bermuda, I received the skin of a land-
rail shot there. This bird is not found in the
New World, and could only have reached Bermu-
da under the inffuence of a strong northeast wind
and thus saved its life, for a time, by making that
island. With respect to Sir Ross's pigeons, as
far as I can recollect, he dispatched a young ])air
on the Gth or 7th of October, 1850, from Assistant
Bay, a little to the west of Wellington Sound, and
on the l.'3th of October, a pigeon made its appear-
ance at the dovecot in Ayrshire, from whence Sir
John had the two pairs of pigeons which he took
out. The distance between the two places is
about 2000 miles. The dovecot was under repair
at this time, and the pigeons belonging to it had
been removed ; but the servants of the house were
struck with the appearance and motions of this
stranger. After a short stay, it went to a pigeon-
house of a neighboring proprietor, where it was
caught and sent back to the lady who originally
owned it. She at once recognized it as one of those
she bnd given to Sir John Ross, but to nut the

matter to a test, it was carried into the pigeon-
house, when, out of many niches, it went directly
to the one in which it had been hatched. No
doubt remained in the mind of the lady as to the
identity of the bird. — YnrrelVs Birds.

SCIENTIFIC MODE OF BOILING MEAT.

When animals are newly killed, there is an acid
secretion in their ilesh which turns blue litmus
paper red, and which renders their flesh easy of
digestion, if it be eaten immediately. In a few
hours, however, this acid evaporates, and the meat
becomes hard and difficult of digestion, till it ha.s
been softened by cookery, or kept sufficiently long
to have become tender, from the process of de-
composition having commenced. In Liebig's re-
cently published work on the "Chemistry of Hu-
man Food," we are told that boiling flesh slowly,
effects a chemical change in its composition ; and,
according to the length of time employed in boil-
ing, and the amount of water used, there takes
place a more or less perfect separation of the sol-
uble from the insoluble constituents of flesh : the
water, or soup, in which the flesh has been boiled,
containing the soluble matter, and the houilli or
meat from which the soup was made, consisting
chiefly of fibrous, insoluble matter, nearly useless
as nourishing food. Thus it is obvious that when
the water in which the meat has been boiled slow-
ly is thrown away, by far the greater part of the
soluble or nutritious matter is wasted. A very
different mode of cooking should be adopted when
it is wished to eat the meat. The muscular fibre
of flesh in its natural state is everywhere sur-
rounded by a liquid containing dissolved albumen.
When this is removed by boiling with water, the
muscular fibre becomes hard and horny, and this
hardness increases the longer it is boiled. "It is
obvious, therefore," observes Liebig, "that the
tenderness of boiled meat depends upon the quan-
tity of albumen deposited between the fibres, and
there coagulating ; for the contraction or harden-
ing of the fibres is thereby, to a certain extent,
prevented. If the flesh intended to be eaten, be
introduced into the boiler when the water is in a
state of brisk ebullition, and if the boiling be kept
up for some minutes, and then so much cold water
added as to reduce the tem])erature of the water
to 158°, the whole being kept at this temperature
for some hours, all the conditions are united which
give to the flesh the cjualities best adapted to its
use as food. When it is introduced into the boil-
ing water, the albumen immediately coagulates
from the surface inwards, and in this state forms
a crust or shell, which no longer permits the ex-
ternal water to ])enetrate into the interior of the
mass of flesh. But the temperature is gradually
transmitted to the interior, and there effects the
conversion of the raw flesh into the state of boiled
meat. The flesh retains its juiciness, and is quite
as agreeable to the taste as it can be made by
roasting ; for the chief part of the sajnd constitu-
ents of the mass is retained, under these circum-
stance, in the flesh."

A Good Idea. — That is a good idea of Clark's :
''Ihe frost is God's plow, which he drives through
every inch of ground in the w > '1 1, opening each
clod and pulverizing the whol- '

424

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

LATE PASTURING.

Some farmers keep their cattle out as late as
possible iu the fall, and even into winter. The
pastures are gnawed very close, and even the af-
ter-math of mowing fields, as if they never expect-
ed to get another crop of grass from them. This
is very bad husbandry upon any land, and espec-
ially upon that recently seeded with herds-grass.
This grass, as is well known to all careful observ-
ers, has a bulbous root, and the fine roots that
shoot out from the bottom are not as strong as
the roots of most other grasses. It is, thei-efcre
exceedingly liable to be torn out by the roots by
grazing cattle, especially if the grass is short. In
a close cropped meadow where this grass has been
sown, nothing is more common than to see thous-
ands of these dried bulbs l)'ing upon the surface.
We doubt the economy of grazing a herds-grass
meadow at any time. 13 ut if done at all, it should
not be cropped after the first of November in this
latitude.

The roots of all the grasses are designed to be
covered with their own leaves and stalks during
the winter. These, and the snow, protect them
from the alternate freezings and thavvings, and
bring them out in good condition in the spring.
The farmer M"ho undertakes to thwart the designs
of Nature in this respect, will find it a very expen-
sive business. The little that he saves in feed
now, he loses next season iu the diminished yield
of the pasture or the meadow. We ought always
to manage so as to have Nature working with us,
instead of against us. This is one of the evils of
overstocking farms. The farmer is afraid that he
has not quite fodder enough for winter, so he pas-
tures till the ground is frozen. He cuts less hay
for the next season, and he is still more sorely
tempted to pasture.

It is quite as bad for the cattle as it is for the
land. If they have no fodder in the month of No-
vember, they lose, rather than gain upon pasture,
unless it is much better than the average. Every
animal ought to go into the stable in a thriving
condition — if not fat, at least in full ilesh. They
are then easily kept thriving upon good hay, or
upon hay and roots, straw and meal. After sev-
eral years' close observation directed to this par-
ticular point, we do not think any thing Is gained
by pasturing in this latitude, and north of it, after
the fii'st of this month. All the grasses must have
time to cover tlieu" roots in order to make flush
feed next season. Cattle foddered through a part
of October, and brought to the stable about the
first of November, in good flesh, are easily win-
tered. It is better management to buy hay or to
sell stock, than to pinch the pastures by close
feeding. — American Agriculturist.

Simple Receipts for Making Vinegar. —
T. B. Miller, of Clayton, Ind., has communicated
to the New York Farmers' Club the following sim-
ple receipts for making vinegar :

"Fill nearly full any vessel, jug, crock, pan, tub
or barrel with pure rain or soft water, sweeten it
with any kind of molasses, (the quantity is not
material,) set it in a moderately warm place, or in
the sun, cover with sieve, gauze or net, to kep out
flies and gnats. In due process of time it will be
vinegar, when it must be put into a suitable ves-

sel and stopped close. To convert cider into vin-
egar— if made from sweet apples, it is only neces-
sary to set the barrel in a warm place and knock
out the bung ; if from sour, stir in a little molass-
es, and when sour enough bung up tight. Vine-
gar barrels should be well painted, as they are li-
able to be eaten by worms.

It will be proper to state that it is the action of
the atmosphere, which in time converts the sweet-
ened water into vinegar, hence the greater the sur-
face of water exposed to its influence the sooner
it will sour. There is a thick scum rises on the
top of the vinegar v/hen making, which is the
'mother,' and should not be thrown away."

A "WOODLAND SONG.

From north and south, and east and west,

A sound of joy is coming ;
The patridge, in his russet vest,

Down in tlie glen is drumming ;
The squirrel and the cedar bird,

And the woodpecker, all are merry,
And I, too, sing, as I flirt my wing,

Chick-a-dee-dee-down-derry I

Because, no more, for walls of wood,

The nations now will ravage,
With ringing axe, the solitude.

So dear to bird and savage ;
Since iron, only, on the sea,

Henceforth, the day will carry ;
Then sing, old passenger, with me,

Chick-a dee-dee-down-derry !

Live on, live oak, on ridge and glade,

Unfearful of disaster ;
Pine tree, that erst a mast had made,

Of you I now am master ;
Bend, beech, unto the linden tree ,

Young ash, embrace the cherry.
And sing, old beeswax, sing with me,

Chick-a-dee-dee-down-derrj' !

Vanity Fair.

LIME IN AGRICULTUKE.
In a paper lately read by Boussingault, before
the Paris Academy of Sciences, he stated that
lime introduced in an arable soil, very quickly sets
at liberty a certain quantity of azote in the state
of ammonia : the azote elements were before imlt-
ed iu Insoluble combinations, not assimilable by
plants — the action of the lime sets them free, and
permits a part of the capital buried in the soil to
be utilized for the next crop. Boussingault thinks
that certain mineral matters, such as potash and
silica, may be liberated in the soil by the lime ;
that other substances injurious to plants are de-
stroyed or modified by the same agent, and that
to these effects is added besides, a physical action,
changing the constitution of the land. The action
of the lime is thus excessively complex, and its
good effects can only be explained by studying at-
tentively the special circumstances under which
they are produced. The grand fact proved by the
present researches of Boussingault is, that there
exists in mold, as well in the form of organic mat-
ters as in that of mineral matters, a host of sub-
stances completely inert for vegetation, until the
moment when some proper agent renders them as-
similable by ])lants. The continuance of experi-
ments can alone clear up these complex facts, and
point out to our agriculturists the most efi'ective
processes.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

425

For the New En^;laml Farmer.

THE BIRDS OP NEW ENGLAND— No. 20.

KINGLETS — TITMICE.

Ruby-crcstefl Kinglet — Golden-crested Kinglet — Crested Tit-
mouse— Black-capped Titmouse — Hudson's Bay Titmouse.

In the genus Regulus we find a few species of
very minute and interesting birds, two of which
visit New England, and are widely distributed
over North America. They are hardy, extremely
active birds, and perform extensive migrations,
though one species is sometimes found here in
the depth of winter. Their color is generally
some plain tint of olive, with an erectable crest of
brightly-colored feathers.

The Ruby-Crested Kinglet, {Regulus Calen-
dula, Licht.,) winters in Mexico, and some of the
Southern States, and reaches Massachusetts in
April, first appearing among the maple blossoms,
nimbly searching among the opening buds for a
small black beetle on which it feeds much, and
other insects and larvae. For about two weeks it
is not uncommon in our woods and swamps, busi-
ly hunting its food among the evergreens, and the
yet almost naked twigs of the deciduous trees,
searching the tops of the tallest trees, where they
seem but little larger than Humming Birds, as well
as the low bushes. At this time the males pos-
sess a low but very agreeable warbling song, fre-
quently uttered during the clear, fine moi-nings of
the last of April and the fii'st week of May ; and
at this early season, their song can only be lis-
tened to with great pleasui-e, seeming the more
sweet, heard amid the desolate and leafless woods.
When several males meet, they erect their bril-
liant crests, Avhich are then conspicuous, and go
through a variety of odd and curious gesticula-
tions, their little throats swelling and quivering as
each tries to excel the others in song. As soon as
the season has a little advanced, they leave for
more boreal regions, where they spend the sum-
mer rearing their young, and are not again seen
till October, when they return to the South. A
few sometimes pass the summer among the moun-
tains of the Middle States, but their breeding hab-
its seem to be yet unknown. In the fall they are
more numerous, and occasionally visit the orch-
ards ; a few often linger till late in November.
This bird is perhaps better known as the Ruby-
croxoned Wren.

Length four and a half inches ; breadth of
wings six and a half. Above, dark green olive,
with a tinge of yellow ; beneath, yellowish white ;
an oblong patch of erectable, scarlet feathers on
the crown, which usually lie concealed by other
feathers.

The Golden-Crested Kinglet, ( Regulus sa-
trapa, Licht.,) is found throughout the northern
parts of the United States, westward to the Rocky
Mountains, but is more circumscribed in its hab-
itat than the preceding, which appears to visit
nearly all parts of the continent. In its habits, as
well as in its general colors, it greatly resembles
the preceding species, spending the summer to the
northward, and appearing here in spring and au-
tumn, and is equally active and expert in finding
and capturing its prey. In fall they are some-
times quite numerous, frequenting the orchards
and feasting upon the insects that then infest the
leaves of the apple trees, as well as hunting in the
woodlands. They occasionally associate with the

Ruby-crested species, but are more frequently
found in company with the Chickadees, Nuthatch-
es and Brown Creepers, often forming a noisy par-
ty of several dozens. They usually forage at this
season in small parties of four or five to a dozen
or more, are very unsuspicious and industrious,
searching the extremities of the twigs, the branch-
es and the bark of the trunks with great care for
the lurking larvaj. Their only note at this season
seems to be a feeble, plaintive schreep, which is
their call-note. Although but half the size of the
Chickadee, they sometimes pass the winter in this
State, when they are almost invariably found in
companj^ with the Chickadee, which they greatly
surpass in the activity and agility with which they
hunt the almost barren twigs for food. I have
seen them in January, within twenty-four hours
after the thermometer had shown a temperature
ten or twelve degrees below zero, appearing as ac-
tive and comfortable as ever.

The length of this species is four inches, stretch
of wings six and a half. Above, olive green ; un-
derparts, dull white ; a line of white over each
eye, above which is a line of deep black on each
side of the head ; between these black lines is an
oblong spot of brilliant golden yellow, divided by
a narrower spot of vivid flame color. These col-
ors contrast admirably, and often form a conspic-
uous ornament as the bird is flitting among the
trees. The female has the colors of the crest
much paler.

This species much resembles the common Gold-
Crest, or Golden-Crowned Wren, of Europe, and
has been described as identical with it, as Regulus
cristalus, though decidedly distinct.

Audubon described another American species
of Regulus, {Regulus Cuviere,) dedicating it to
Cuvier, but the only specimen yet known is the
one shot by him in Pennsylvania on the Schuyl-
kill, in June, 1812, on which the species rests.

The sub-family Parince, (the Titmice) com-,
prise a group of very useful and interesting birds,.,
being chiefly insectivorous, of which the coramom
Chickadee may be taken as an example. In th^e-
ninth volume of the i-eports on the various Pacific-
Railroad expeditions and surveys, sixteen species
are described by Prof. Baird as found in the Unit-
ed States, of which but two or three are found in
New England, a great part of them having; a
western or southern habitat, several residing whiol-
ly west of the Rocky Mountains, and others are
confined to the valleys of Texas and Mexico, and
southward.

The Crested Titmouse {Lophopliancs bic-ohr,
Bonap. ; Parus bicolor of earlier writers,) is occa-
sionally seen in New York, and though its habitat
is said to be the whole of eastern North America,
it is extremely rare in Massachusetts, and south-
ern New England generally, and there are- but
few authentic instances of its having been takan
here. It is described by Wilson as "more noisy,
than the common Chickadee, more musical andi.
more suspicious, though rather less active It is, ,
nevertheless, a sprightly bird, possessing- a re--
markable variety in the tones of its voice, at one •
time not much louder than the squeaiviag of a,
mouse, and a moment after whistling aloud and:
clearly, as if calling a dog ; and continuing, this-
dog-call thi'ough the woods for half an hour at a
time. Its high, pointed crest, or, as Pennant calls
it, toupet, gives it a smart and not inelegant ap-

426

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

pearance." Their food consists of insects and
their larvae, chiefly the latter during winter, with
the addition of a few seeds. It builds its nest in
a hollow tree, which it often excavates itself, and
the female lays six eggs, pure white, with a few
reddish specks at the larger end. It extends its
migrations far to the north, inhabiting Greenland,
and is occasionally met with in the north of Eu-
rope.

Length six inches ; alar extent, seven and a
half. Above, ashy black ; forehead nearly black ;
beneath, whitish ; sides, chestnut. Head with a
high pointed crest.

The Black-Capped Titmouse, or Chickadee,
(Parus atricapillus, Linn.,) is the most common
species of this group of birds found in New Eng-
land, and is universally known as a familiar, noisy,
very active and restless bird, and is a constant
resident, braving our severest winters, and is said
to be even abundant in the depth of winter as far
north as Hudson's Bay. It is universally es-
teemed as a friend, and for the best of reasons,
being a great consumer of a large variety of inju-
rious insects, often making excursions to the orch-
ard and shrubbery of the gardens, in fall and win-
ter, from the woods where it resides the greater
part of the year. In the coldest weather they will
make the woods echo with their varied notes, as
in company with Woodpeckers, Creepers and
Nuthatches, they hunt the twigs, the larger
branches and the bark of the trunk for dormant
insects and larva;, each in his peculiar way. In
winter they feed upon the seeds of the hemlock
and pine, and sometimes come about the farmer's
door for crumbs to vary their scanty fare at this
inclement season. Their agility is surpassed by
but few birds, and when searching for food will
cling head and back downwards in every possible
attitude. They usually forage in small parties,
and keep up a constant twitter of varied notes.
They nest in hollow trees, the female sometimes
making the excavation herself. The eggs are six,
white, with a few minute specks of red. During
the latter part of the summer the whole family
hunt together, the parents guiding and feeding
the brood, keeping up a constant chatter.

Length five inches and a half; alar extent, six
and a half. Back, ashy brown ; head and throat,
black with a white patch between them ; beneath,
whitish, sides brownish. The thick covering of
long, soft, downy feathers is admirably adapted to
protect this bird from the severe cold of winter.

Another species of Titmouse, generally regard-
ed as a bird of New England, is the Hudson's
Bay Titmouse, {Parus Iludsonicus, Forster,) as
tlie southern limit of its habitat is known to be
within the Northern States, inhabiting from Mas-
sachusetts northward throughout eastern North
America. In habits it differs but little from those
already described, breeding in hollow stumps and
trees, though in color more nearly resembling the
Chestnut back Titmouse, (P. rufescens,) of the
Pacific coast. J. a. a.

Springfield, July, 1862.

Ox-Bot. — This is a cuticular insect, the egg
being deposited externally in the skin of cattle,
and the larva; inhabiting a tumor or abscess
formed around them. These tumors arc usually
found in the back or loins, and are often larger

than a pigeon's egg. When the fly is depositing
its egg the cattle are in the extremest agitation
and dismay, and sometimes become quite furious,
running off, bellowing, at full speed. The larva?
in its cyst gradually enlarges, while the pus that
is secreted by the irritation serves for its nourish-
ment. The tumors which are produced ai-e called
warbles, wormals or womils. The skin and hide
are permanently injured by being subjected to this
process. — Ohio Valley Farmer.

MANURES.

Next to a systematic and energetic application
of the powers of both mind and body to his pro-
fession, the collection, preparation and applica-
tion of manure to the soil is of importance to the
farmer. On New England soils, these must sup-
ply the basis of all profitable culture, and collect-
ed in suitable quantity, skilfully prepared and ju-
diciously applied, they will certainly lead to thrift
and independence. These will follow, even in
this cold and variable climate, and on any of our
lands that are managed by an intelligent industry.

The difficulty presented to the farmer in this
matter, is the want of the materials themselves
to swell his heaps. He naturally argues that he
has so much hay, which, when fed out, will pro-
duce about so much manure, and in thousands of
cases, little eff'ort is made to change this state of
things. Evidently, the first step towards im-
provement must be to change this condition by
increasing the materials that are to increase
our crops. This cannot be done without an out-
lay of labor, and it is this item of cost that deters
so many persons from securing the necessary ma-
terials for large and valuable heaps of manure.
This is an important omission, because this work
forms the basis of all the future operations of the
farmer, and absolutely prevents that progress and
profit which would certainly flow from a more in-
telligent practice.

All farms furnish resources for these supplies,
in a greater or less degree. On some there are
leaves and ferns ; on others head lands and balks,
where the finest portions of the soil have been ac-
cumulating for a generation, in unsightly and in-
convenient quantity — another has sea-weed
thrown upon its margin or shells of various kinds
that may be converted into rich materials ; while
some of them have marl, and a large proportion
ample beds of meadow or swamp muck. There
are various other resources, also, beside these and
the usual products of the fodder crops, of which
the farmer should avail himself, such as the waste
of every kind from the house, hassocks from the
meadows, small brush, tan bark, sawdust, shav-
ings, &c., all of which are valuable materials when
properly wrought up and tempered with lime, salt
and ashes, or some other quickening agent. No
labor on the farm can be more profitably expend-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

427

ed than that devoted to tliis woi-k, although a too
common practice will scarcely verify our state-
ment. Too little capital, either of labor or money,
invested in this primary part of farm management,
embarrasses all the succeeding operations of the
farmer, and -causes a great amount of labor to be
performed that brings no productive results. It
is as though the manufacturer should erect his
mill, and supply the necessary material of cotton
and wool, but provide no power to propel his ma-
chinery.

THE IDEA OF THE SPINNIWQ-JENNY,

Suddenly he (James Hargreaves) dropped on
his knees and rolled on the stone floor at full
length. He lay with his face toward the floor, and
made lines and circles with the end of a burned
stick. He rose, and went to the fire to burn his
stick. He took hold of his bristly hair with one
band and rubbed his forehead and nose with the
other and the blackened stick. Then he sat upon
a chair, and placed his head between his hands,
elbows on his knees, and gazed intently on the
floor. Then he sprang to his feet, and replied to
some feeble question of his wife, (who had not
risen since the day she gave birth to a little .stran-
ger,) by a loud a.s.surance that he had it ; and,
taking her in his sturdy arms, in the blankets, the
baby in her arms, he lifted her out, and held her
over the black drawings on the floor. These he
explained, and she joined a small, hopeful, happy
laugh with his high-toned assurance, that she
should never again toil at the spinning-wheel —
that he should never again "play," and have his
loom standing for want of weft. She asked some
questions, which he answered, after seating her in
the arm-chair, by laying her spinning-wheel on its
back, the horizontal spindle standing vertically,
while he made the wheel revolve, and drew a ro-
ving of cotton from the spindle, into an attenuated
thread. "Our fortune is made, when that is made,"
he said, speaking of his drawings on the floor.
"What will you call it.-^" asked his wife. "Call
it ? What an we call it after thysen, Jenny ?
They called thee 'Spinning Jenny,' afore I had
thee, because thou beat every lass in Stanehill
Moor at the wheel. What if we call it 'Spinning
Jenny ?' "

The DR.A.FT and the Farmers. — The Chicago
Times thinks the order for di'afting comes very
opportunely, so far as the farmers are concerned.
By the time operations will have fairly commenced
under it, the harvests will have been generally se-
cured, and farmers will have an interval of a cou-
ple of months before it will be necessary to sow
the fall wheat. If they are economical in time and
means there need be but little if any diminution
in the amount of land sown. Calculating the time
for the 300,000 men called for nine months to be-
gin on the first of September, they will be entitled
to discharge on the first of May, which will enable
them to return home in time to assist in jnitting
in the spring crops. It would seem as if this had
been considered in making the call, as under it we
may hope there will be no material lessening of
the agricultural products of the country in either
the present or coming year.

THE BEAUTY OF THE GRASS.

It seems as if nothing could be said under this
head, because, in truth, there is so much to say.
To get a good idea of the beauty of the grass, en-
deavor, in imagination, to form a picture of a world
without it. It is precisely to the scenery of na-
ture, what the Bible is to literature. Do you re-
member that idea of Froude's, that the Bible had
been obliterated, and every other book had there-
at lost its value, and literature was at an end ?
Take away this green ground color on which
Dame Nature works her embroidery patterns, and
where would be the picturesque scarlet poppies or
white daisies, or the gray of chalk cliff's, or the
golden bloom of a wilderness of buttercups ? Its
chief service to beauty is as the garment of the
earth. It watches night and day at all seasons of
the year, "in all places that the eye of heaven vis-
its," for spots on which to pitch new tents, to make
the desert less hideous, fill up the ground work of
the grandest pictures, and give the promise of
plenty on the flowery meadows where it lifts its
silvery and purple ])anicles breast high, and mocks
the sea in its rolling waves of sparkling green-
ness. It is beautiful when it mixes with oupine
and turritis on ruined bastion or gray garden
wall ; beautiful when it sprinkles the brown thatch
with tufts that find sufficient nourishment where
green mosses have been before ; beautiful when it
clothes the harsh upland, and gives nourishment
to a thousand snow-white fleeces ; still more beau-
tiful when it makes a little islet in a bright blue
mountain lake, "a fortunate purple isle," with its
ruddy spikes of short-lived flowers ; and precious
as well as beautiful when it comes close beside us,
in company with the sparrow and robin, as a
threshold visitant, to soften the footfall of care,
and give a daily welcome to the world of green-
ness.

"If a friend my grass-grown threshold find,
O, how my lonely cot resounds with glee."

Is it only for its velvet softness, and the round
pillowy knoll it heaves up in the vistas of the
greenwood, that the weary and the dreamer find it
so sweet a place of rest P Or is it because the
wild bee flits around its silvery panicles, and blows
his bugle as he goes with a bounding heart to
gather sweets ; that the hare and rabbit burrow
beneath its smooth sward ; that the dear lark cow-
ers amid its sprays, and cherishes the children of
its bosom under its brown, matted roots ; that the
daisy, the cowslip, the daff"odil, the orchises — the
fairies of the flower-world — the bird's foot trefoil
— the golden-fingered beauty of the meadoAvs, the
little yellow and the large strawberry trefoil, are
all sheltered and cherished by it ; and that one of
its simple children, the Anthoxantum odoratum,
or sweet-scented vernal grass, scents the air for
miles with the sweetest perfume ever breathed by
man?

Ax Ox OR Cow that is accustomed to throw-
ing fences, may be prevented doing so by taking
a large wire and bending it in the shape of a bow ;
then bend the points in the shape of a fish-hook ;
tie two strings to the wire, place the hooks in the
nostrils lightly, and tie one string to the point of
each horn. This will prevent the most unruly ox
or cow from throwinsx fences.

428

NEW ENGLAND FAKMEB.

Sept.

For the New England Farmer.
AGHICUIiTUBE.

Agriculture was the first occupation of man.
Many of the most distinguished men, in every age
of the world, have been cultivators of the soil.
They thought it no dishonor to obey the Divine
injunction, and earn their daily bread by the sweat
of their brow. Some of the ancient nations es-
teemed agriculture as the most honorable of pur-
suits. Indeed, it is the foundation of all other pur-
suits. Were it not for the produce of the soil,
there would be no commerce, no intercourse be-
tween nations, ships would rot at their docks,
merchants would have to leave their counting
rooms, and the whole human family would soon
experience a day as dark as the one Lord Byron's
imagination saw.

Agriculture spreads the table from which we ob-
tain nourishment, to strengthen these weak and de-
caying bodies. The manufacturer cannot flourish,
without the aid of the farmer. Every new wheel
which is set in motion depends upon the farmer
for the raw material to manufacture into cloth.
Where the cultivation of the soil is held in low es-
timation, we see no thriving cities, no centres of
commerce or trade, no railroads or telegraphs, no
civilized society ; nothing but a low, degraded race
of barbarians. No nation can be pi'osperous and
wealthy, without the development of its agricul-
tural resources. The agricultural classes are the
sovereigns of our country, and will conti'ol its po-
litical destinies in future ages.

How many young men we see, who act as
though they thought it beneath their dignity to till
th» soil and earn their daily bread ! They seem
to think that everlasting disgrace would come upon
them, if they should be seen hold of the plow or
the hoe ! So they look with scorn upon the farm-
er's lot, and die in the poor-house. How many
people there are, who think that the ignorant
ought to cultivate the soil, and the more learned
follow other pursuits. It is' a great mistake. Ag-
riculture is a science ; and ought to be studied
just as much as any other science, if we wish to
be successful farmers. A few more brains with
the muscles, would improve the soil very much.

Some complain that it is unpleasant work to cul-
tivate the soil. I do not agree with that class of
persons. I delight, with a good team and plow,
on a beautiful spring morning, when the merry
birds sing sweetly upon the sunny hill-sides, and
all Nature seems alive with music, to go forth in-
to the field, and turn the furrows over, and view
Nature in her most beautiful aspect. The sur-
rounding scenery points me upward to Nature's
God, and fills my heart with gratitude and praise
to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. There
is no class of people in the world who enjoy life
so well as independent farmers. The man who
owns the land which he cultivates, (perhaps it has
cost him many years of hard labor, or it may be it
is the old homestead, where his father lived before
him, and his heart is bound to it by a thousand
sacred ties,) is truly in a position to enjoy life's
sweetest blessings. Oliver P. Mead.

Middlebury, VL, 1862.

THE ELM TREE "WOBMS.

A successful mode of eradicating these pests
would seem to have been discovered in Connecti-
cut. A few years since. New Haven, very prop-
erly designated "the Elm City," bid fair to lose its
right to the cognomen, by the total destruction of
its elms, so completely were they overrun and
stripped annually by the worms. The authorities,
however, very wisely took under theii' charge all
the trees, whether before private property or in
the public parks and grounds, and commenced a
uniform plan for their protection. Around each
tree was placed a bandage of fine straw, so ar-
ranged as to jiresent a bristling barrier to the up-
ward march of the worms ; above this a leaden
trough was placed, surrounding the tree, which
was filled with oil and furnished with a projecting
roof of the same metal. If any of the worms suc-
ceeded in surmounting the barrier of straw, they
were caught in the oil, and care was taken to have
all so caught regularly taken out and killed, so
as to leave the trap cleai-. The effect of these pre-
cautionary measures seems to have been to eradi-
cate the worms almost entirely, and the noble elms
of New Haven never appeared to better advan-
tage than at the present time.

The violet grows low, and covers itself with its
own tears, and of all flowers yields the sweetest
fracjrance. Such is humilitv.

Yankee Inventions Abroad. — The London
Times thus notices a feM" of the machines in the
American Court of the Great Exhibition : —

After the models and gigantic engines in the
Western Annexe, the very ingenious small hand-
labor saving machines in the American Court are
tlie most looked after. One of the most curious
of these is the machine for milking the four teats
of a cow at the same time, and in a manner pre-
cisely similar to the action of the calfs mouth
upon the teat. In point of time, labor and clean-
liness, the operation of the machine is said to far
surpass milking by hand ; and the right to use the
patent in this country was yesterday sold, we be-
lieve for a very large sum. In this court also is a
very ingenious machine for making paper bags,
which turns them out folded, packed, dried, and
finished at the rate of forty a minute. The cork-
cutting, "planting," and rope making machines
here are especially worthy of minute examination,
and some of the washing machines are quite mar-
vels of inventive skill — almost approaching to the
inspirations of genius in the simple means by which
their great results are efl'ected. This court is wor-
thy of even a more extended notice than it has
yet received from the mass of visitors.

Flannel. — Flannel should be worn summer
and winter, during the day, but should be taken
off at night. In summer it allows the perspira-
tion to pass oft' M'ithout condensing upon the skin,
and prevents the evil effects of the rapid clianges
of temperature to which we are liable in our
changeable climate, when out of doors. In win-
ter, as a non-conductor of heat, it is a protection
against cold. At night, the flannel jacket or jer-
sey should be exposed to a free current of air and
allowed thoroughly to dry ; it should never be put
in a heap of clothes by the bedside. Flannel is
usually only worn over the chest and abdomen.

1862.

NEAV ENGLAND FARMER.

429

For the New England Farmer.

THE BREAD AND BUTTER MACHrNTE.
BY MRS. MADELINE LESLIE.

"It has come, mothei* ! It's come, Etty ! The
machine has come ! The express man is taking it
out of his wagon, hurrah ! Now we'll have some
bread in a trice !" and the excited boy swung his
cap in the air as he bounded down the steps.

Excuse me, dear reader, for introducing the re-
spectable family of Mr, James Franklin Allen in
such an unceremonious manner ; but, really, to
the parties concerned, the occasion was a most ex-
citing one, which must be my apology.

Now that the machine has been safely deposited
on tlie kitchen table, and the express man, having
received his pay, has turned his weary horses from
the door, allow me to explain that the aforenamed
Mr. Allen was what may be called a merchant-
farmer ; that is, he made money easily at his store
in the city, and spent it laboriously on a few acres
of land, which he was trying to rescue from the
imputation of having run out. Certain it was,
that whatever else did not grow on the farm, the
yield of sorrel was very abundant, enough to fur-
nish cures for all the sore throats in the State.
Mr. Allen, however, was a man who, having put
his hand to the plow, did not look back. Not he.
The third year a peat meadow was added to his
acres, the mud from which he was well assured
would assimilate with his gravelly soil, and thus
produce rich bottom land. In a few years his pre-
dictions began to be verified. He now added the
Ploughman and the Neio England Farmer to his
list of periodicals, read with interest notices of all
the county and State fairs, and even aspired to
some of the best premiums.

Noticing one day an advertisement of the prize
offered for the best bread at the coming fair, he
instantly determined that his daughter Etta should
contest it with her neighbors, from flour made of
his own wheat. To stimulate her ambition still
furthei', he offered an additional premium of ten
dollars, if she would win the silver cup from all
competitors.

From this time forth there was a vigorous col-
lection of receipts for making yeast and mixing
bread, the excitement reaching its culminating
point when, one evening, Mr. Allen returned
from the city Mith the news of a bread and butter
machine, the latest production of the genius of our
American inventor, Thomas Blanchard, Esq., of
Boston. After the announcement of this new aid
to her plans, it could not, of course, be expected
that Miss Etta would give herself or her father a
moment's rest until he had promised to purchase
one immediately for her use.

The arrival of this wonderful machine was,
therefore, the occasion of Master Walter's excite-
ment at the commencement of this story. Injus-
tice to its merits, it ought to be described without
further preamble.

On tearing off the coarse matting which envel-
oped it, a small tub was found, fastened by a large
iron pin into an iron stand by means of a groove,
in which it turned with great ease. The stand
could be fastened by wooden screws upon any ta-
ble, and thus rendered firm for the work of knead-
ing. Running up from one end of the stand or
supporter, to the tub, was a bar of iron into which
a lever was attached, which was the propelling

power for the business. About midway of the
lever was a wooden, concave shovel just fitting to
the size of the tub, which, when worked horizon-
tally by the lever, carried the dough from one side
of the vessel to the other, mixing, kneading and
making into loaves ready for the pans. If it was
more convenient to allow the bread to rise without
moving it from the tub, the lever was raised and
turned back out of the way, and the dough left
without any M'aste of materials, ready, when risen,
for the second and third kneading.

Having heard her father's explanation, Etta was
all eagerness to give her machine a trial. Put-
ting on a large apron, therefore, she ran to sift her
flour, measured it and poured it into the new tub,
which her mother had carefully cleansed ; then
adding her light, frothy yeast and lukewarm wa-
ter, she proceeded to work the lever to mix the
dough, the entire family standing around to watch
the experiment.

"Shove it back and forth," said her father, "in
this manner ; you are not ready for the kneading,
yet."^

"You will need more flour," suggested the ex-
perienced mother. "It is a good rule to mix in
flour until it has done sticking."

"O, see how nicely the shovel clears it from the
sides of the tub !" cried the laughing girl. "I'm
sure, for one, I thank Mr. Blanchard. It does
Avork beautifully !"

"Yes, it is a complete success," remarked the
merchant-farmer, "and if not so remarkable as his
machine for turning marble or plaster busts, or
his patent for making gun-stocks, yet I prophesy
that Mr. Blanchard's name will long be remem-
bered in connection with his bread and butter
machine."

"Can it churn, too, father ?" cried Walter, his
eyes growing large with astonishment.

"No, not churn, my boy, but you can see by the
motion of your sister in making the bread, that
the butter when churned, could be thoroughly
worked or separated from the milk, by pressing it
up against the sides. You, or any one, could do
that under the direction of your mother."

Walter gave a scream of joy. "Can you churn
to-day, mother ?" he asked.

"No, not to-day. We must not disturb Etty's
bread till it is ready for the oven. Now, turn it
over, Etty, and leave the top smooth."

"I feel quite sure that I shall win the prize,"
exclaimed the young girl, gazing with evident
pride at the nice, white, well-mixed dough in the
tub; "and only see, not even a dust of flour on
my hands."

"But mother threw in the flour from the scoop,
for you," cried Walter.

"Yes, but another day I could do it quite as
well, myself. I can't expect to have such an ad-
miring audience every time I mix bread."

"Here is another convenience," said Mr. Allen,
smilingly untying a paper bundle which he had
quietly withdrawn from their notice. He held up
a flat, round piece of hard wood, which he assured
them fitted exactly into the bottom of the tub, and
then a sharp knife which could be fastened to the
wooden shovel, thus acting as an extensive cutter
for mince-meat or sausages.

"Well, really, now. Miss Allen!" exclaimed
Hannah, the girl of all work, who had been gazing
at the group and reflecting in amazement at the

480

NEW ENGLAND FARMEK.

Sept,

progress of art, "I do believe the millennium day is
a-comiiig .' Don't the Bible say knowledge will
be a-running to and fro through the earth, and
hasn't it run out to our farm in the shape of a
bread and butter and sausage machine ? It does
seem to my mind that we oughter be setting our
houses in order, when the work it took our moth-
ers, hours to accomplish, is done without hands.
I'm free to say, ma'am, it makes me solemn."

At tea, the family had an opportunity to test
the excellence of the new bread, which, without a
dissenting voice, was pronounced "first-rate."

Walter, in his zeal, went so far as to shout,
"Hurrah for the bread made without hands I" but
instantly blushed crimson on receiving a gentle
reproof from his father.

"What a blessing," remarked Mrs. Allen, "this
invention will prove in large boarding-houses,
where a third of a barrel of flour is mixed at
once."

"Yes," replied her husband, "a lady told me to-
day, in the city, that she not only made bread in
hers, but gingerbread and fruit-cake, putting to-
gether all the ingredients, and giving the whole a
thorough beating with little comparative labor."

"I shall want to carry my machine to the fair,"
cried Etty.

"Mr. Blanchard will probably send one, not
only to our county, but to others through the
State," I'ejoined Mr. Allen, "and I have no doubt
they will excite great interest wherever they are
seen."

Remakks. — Excellent. "Progress" is the word,
in everything that is good — everything, especially,
that makes lighter and cheaper the labor of the
kitchen, that must of necessity continually occur.
Bread-making, Ave believe, is work that women do
not particularly like. They do not dread it, per-
haps, but it is not an attractive labor, so that if
bread can be well prepared, as would seem by the
glowing language of our correspondent, it is cer-
tainly an important step in the right direction.
We shall endeavor to find the machine, and test
its merits.

For the New En<>land Fanner.
PLOWING IN WINTER GRAIN.

Mr. Editor : — I have a piece of pasturing
which was broken up in June. I intend to cross-
plow and harrow it, and then plmo in the grain,
instead of harrowing it, as I think is the general
practice. The idea Avas suggested to me by a
brother farmer in toAvn, Avho said that Avhen he
sowed Avinter Avhcat the last of August or first of
September, and plowed it in, he avus pretty sure
of a good crop, even on rather light, plain land, if
properly manured.

I Avish to inquire if other persons have had a
similar experience, as I think of sowing a portion
of my piece Avith Avinter Avheat.

I Avish to say a Avord in relation to king-birds
and bees, suggested by an article on that subject
in the Farmer of August 9th.

I have nine swarms of bees and four king-birds,
that is, there are four which have made my prem-
ises their head-quarters, though I have several
times destroyed their nest, as I am fully convinced

that, so far as bees are concerned, these birds
should not be alloAved to increase and multiply- I
have Avatched them sometimes, as they darted
through the air, and seized the returning bees,
which I supposed they devoured, but according to
the article to AA'hich I have referred, they only ex-
tract the honey from them. I have also noticed
them Avhen feeding their young, Avhich, of course,
Avas on honey only, that they might have a SAveet
tooth, and as they grew older, gratify it even by
murder, pillage and robbery.

Now, Mr. Editor, for one I say, down with the
king-birds and rebels. a. c. w.

Leominster, August II, 1862.

Remarks. — Do not exterminate them without
careful examination. Shoot one or two that you
have supposed had taken the bees and examine
their crops. If you find bees, or honey there, it
Avill be well to consider what course should be
pursued in regard to them. The king-bird is one
of our beautiful and active birds, Avhose place
could scarcely be supplied by any other.

For the JSetr England Farmer.
WTH^TTER WHEAT.

Messrs. Editors : — ^The subject of raising win-
ter wheat is undergoing a revived discussion in
this vicinity, if not through all Ncav England. I
have often heard ministers preach the importance
of enforcing line upon line and precept upon pre-
cept, upon their dull hearers, that the impression
might be so durable as to produce valuable practi-
cal results. Mr. Henry Poor, formerly of North
Andover, noAV of Brooklyn, N. Y., by his perse-
verance year after year in keeping the farmers of
New England aAvake on the subject of raising Avin-
ter Avheat, has truly been a benefactor to his coun-
try. The lacking of faith, as well as excessive
credulity on farming, as on religious subjects, is a
great obstacle to progress.

1 have read Mr. Poor's communications on
Avheat-raising from the first, but so little fixith had
I in making the attempt to raise wheat on my
Wilmington land, that I did not even try the ex-
periment. Two years ago, my son, (with more
hopeful organs,) bought sLx quai'ts of winter AA'heat
and soAved it upon about a quarter of an acre of
unmanured, sandy land, the last of August, 18G0;
the Avork Avas done in a hurried manner and left in
an unpromising condition. On the 23d of July
nearly four bushels of good Avheat Avas cradled,
notwithstanding severe drought and bad cultiva-
tion. On the last of August and first of Septem-
ber, 1861, he soAved about an acre Avhere a crop of
oats had been taken off; a light dressing of com-
post Avas plowed under Avith the oat stubble ; it
came up Avell, but nearly half Avas Avinter-killed.
This little field Avas harvested on the 6th inst.,
promising a good yield of fine, plump wheat, a
discount being made for the Avinter-killcd.

The advantages of raising Avheat over corn and
rye are very apparent. The operations of plant-
ing and hoeing corn two or three times, the lialnl-
ity of its being frost-bitten, cutting the stalks,
harvesting, husking and shelling are considera-
tions Avorthy of the farmer's notice in settling up
his bills. 'Ihe same quantity of manure applied

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

431

to an acre of winter wheat which we apply to an
acre of corn, an half-bushel of seed, sowing, plow-
ing and harrowing constitutes the labor and ex-
pense till harvesting, which may be done by a
good cradler in a few hours, the risk of a crop to
each is about equal. Now look at the labor of
raising corn and wheat, and see how the balance
stands. If we can raise 25 bushels of wheat to
the acre, on land that would produce 45 bushels
of corn; at $1,35 per bushel the wheat would
amount to $33,75, and the corn to $29,25. The
expensive and laborious process of raising corn
must, I think, yield to the less expensive opera-
tions of raising wheat, and the wheat crop prove
most profitable.

August 5. — According to appearances, our win-
ter rye will not produce much over half as many
bushels to the acre as the wheat will, although
grown within a few rods of it. SiLAS Brown.

North Wilmington, August, 1862.

N. B. — My most respectful regards to ^,*^, and
the subscriber would feel much gratified to have
the Stars make a visit to the State Aims-House
farm and see if he finds it "barren in extreme."

S. Brown.

EAMBLES IN THE COUNTRY.

Gentlemen : — Having finished the English
hay harvest "through much tribulation," on ac-
count of the "catching weather," and having a
strong desire to see something more of our good
State, and to mingle with brother farmers in some
towns not heretofore visited, I started from Con-
cord on the fifth instant, in an open wagon, with
a steady old horse that had no surplus energy to
expend in "highfaluting," either in running, kick-
ing or shying — but whose gait was so slow and
dignified as to afford me ample opportunity to no-
tice the crops and the agricultural condition of
the country as we went along. My travel was
west, the intended terminus being the Hoosac
mountains, and to reach them I passed through
the centres, or some portion of the following
towns : Concord to Acton, Stoiv, Bolton, Sterling,
BoyUton, Princeton, Hubbardsfon, Barre, Dana,
Grecmvicli, Enfield, Belchertoicn, Amherst, Had-
ley, Northampton, Wesfhampton, Norwich, Hunt-
ington and Chester. Then turning more directly
west, to Worthington, Peru, Windsor, Savuy, into
the village of Soidh Adams, and slept on the
banks of the rippling Hoosac river. Turning to
the south, I passed through Cheshire, Lanesboro',
Pittsjield, and then east to Ballon, Hinsdale,
Middlefield, Huntington, (a new town,) Bland-
ford, Montgomery, Eussell, West field, Springfield,
and from thence by railroad to Boston.

In this jaunt of about a week I have seen and
learned more of that portion of the State, than I
could have done by travelUng in the cars for
months. The cars are convenient for the man of
business, and well enough when a remote point is
to be quickly reached. But to gain any reliable
knowledge of the people, or of the condition of

agriculture, in travelling by them, is out of the
question. Many travellers lose more than one-
half of the pleasures of a journey by rushing from
one point to another. They find no incidents of
interest by the icay, and the grand goal is almost
as barren when they have reached it. To me,
when I am in the country, every mile has its
charms, whether on mountain, plain or valley, or
whether it rain or shine or blow. Nature, every
where, is so profuse in beautiful and beneficent
things, that travel never ceases to excite study
and admiration. He who sees the land all barren
as he gees, will never find the elixir he seeks at
the end of his journey ! The true traveller, like
the true philosopher, will find his pleasures as he
passes along. In the rocks and grand old trees
will he find them, on the hill-side, in the purling
brooks or the tumbling waters of the rapid
streams. Every face will beam kindly upon him,
and out of every mouth he may gather some wis-
dom worth adding to his own stock. The pwrsMif
of happiness is usually a vexatious and profitless
labor.

"From our own hearts our joys must flow,"

and if they do not find their seat and centre there,
no crystal hills, translucent waters or mountain
air will be likely to supply them. "God made the
country and man made the town." Both are good
— both necessary — but the mind will never ex-
pand in the contemplation of the town as it will
on lifting up the eye among the green hills which
surround me here, and by association with these
dwellers among the mountains.

Cheshire is in Berkshire county. Hayward's
Gazetteer of 1849 contains a brief account of it,
which says that "the centre of the town, through
which the south branch of the Hoosac runs in a
northern direction into Adams, is a rich and fer-
tile valley. To the east and west of this, the
ground gradually rises into hills and mountains.
The township is admirably fitted for grazing, to
which the attention of the inhabitants is principal-
ly turned ; though considerable quantities of grain
are raised. Extensive and valuable dairies are
kept, and the Cheshire Cheese has acquired a wide
and merited celebrity. The famous mammoth
cheese, presented to President Jefferson, January
1, 1S02, contributed much to bring this town into
notice. On a given day, the dairy-women sent
their curds to one place. The quantity was too
great to be pressed even in a cider mill ; so that
in addition to the intended present, three addi-
tional cheeses were made, weighing seventy
pounds each. The mammoth cheese weighed
about one thousand four hundred and fifty
pounds. Mr. Jefferson sent back a piece of this
to the inhabitants to satisfy them of its excel-
lence ; and he also sent pieces of it, it is said, to
the governors of the several States."

432

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept,

At the farm of Mr. Luther D. Wood, in this
town, and tlu-ough the kind attentions of his wife,
I saw an excellent sample of the famous Cheshire
cheese. I was admitted to the dairy-room, which
was the perfection of neatness, and there, in all
their richness and fair proportions, saw fifty cheeses
upon the shelves, weighing, in the aggregate, about
two thousand and Jive hundred pounds, an equal
amount having been sent to market in the month
of June ! These wore "new-milk" cheese, as they
are termed, which means that they have all the
cream that the milk contained. This /Zwe thousand
pounds of cheese had been made this season be-
fore the middle of August, from a dairy of sixteen
cows. In appearance, I have never seen finer
cheese. Each one was encircled with a strip of
cotton cloth, it being too rich to hold together
without such help. Thanks to Mrs. Wood for
the opportunity of looking at her cheese dairy, the
first I have enjoyed for many years. Back of the
house were thirty-eight swarms of bees, busily en-
gaged in bringing their luscious stores from the
wild mountain-flowers and the white clover of the
valleys. The best honey I have found is made
from the blossom of the wild raspberry, and these
abound in all this region. Mr. Wood had eighteen
swarms only in the spring, and they had increased
to thirty-eight. Not half the attention is given
to the culture of bees that the business deserves
in this mountainous region. Truly, the land
abounds with milk and honey ; the evidence was
before me ; industry and skill are only required to
gather them in and make the household glad. I
saw large boxes of most excellent honey, which
is sold for a shilling to twenty cents per pound. I
suppose tons of this highly-prized luxury are left
uncollected every year, in this State, much of
which might be saved by a little pains in the
keeping and care of bees.

The face of the country through which I passed
is extremely diversified. After leaving Sterling —
one of the most excellent agricultural towns I have
seen — old Wachusett, and the lofty hills in its re-
gion, came into vicAv, and still beyond them the
dim outlines of miniature Alps are seen as far as
vision can extend. Most of the valleys are very
narrow, rarely expanding to the width of a hun-
dred rods. These are cultivated, however narrow,
so that a corn or oat field may frequently be seen
containing less than a dozen square rods. Many
of the hill-sides are without stones, and in places
that can be approached with a team, I occasional-
ly see small cultivated fields. Grass, however, is
grown upon them where the hay cannot be taken
away by oxen or horses, but is rolled down the
hill, or "toted" down with poles, or, perhaps, as is
done in some of the mountain towns in New
Hampshire and Vermont, got down on sleds. The
process of hay-making here is slow and tedious,

and in consequence of the frequent rains this sea-
son, a discouraging one. Where the land swells
into vast hills, only, the extent of the hay-fields is
very great. I have passed thousands of acres,
having excellent crops, waiting for the mower to
come and get it. The land seems admirably
adapted to grass, and yet I have not seen stocks
of cattle, horses or sheep, or barns, which indicate
that a large amount of hay is cut and fed out.
What becomes of such an amount as is on the
ground this season, I cannot learn, although my
inquiries have been somewhat minute on this
point. The English hay is not yet half cut, though
it is now the 10th of August.

The crops look well all along my route. There
is little Indian corn, compared with what is raised
in Middlesex, Essex and Norfolk counties. The
oat crop, I think, was never better. A large space
is covered with it, owing to their high price in the
spring, and the demand for them which it was sup-
posed would continue through the year for array
u^cs. Barley is good, although I have seen but
few fields of this grain, or wheat in this region.
There is little orcharding, compared with the east-
ern portion of the State, and a large proportion of
the trees, which I see from day to day, are of un-
grafted fruit.

I have said that I slept one night on the banks
of the brawling Iloosac river. This stream passes
through the centre of the town of Adams, from
north to south. On the northern side of the town,
Spruce Hill looms up 2,588 feet from the level of
the sea, and Old Greylock looks down upon the
busy villagers from his height of 3,505 feet. Peru
Hill, upon which stands one of the great, square
churches, of a past generation, two or three stories
high, rises 2,239 feet above the sea level ; and, at
a distance, the vane on the church seems to rise
about as much more ! The village has four dwell-
ing-houses, from one of which no smoke ever rises
from the chimney, with "nary" a blacksmith shop,
store or school-house !

All along the Hoosac river and the two or three
streams which unite and form the Westfield river,
there are mills for the manufacture of various arti-
cles of wool, cotton, iron and tv-ood. Where sev-
eral mills are near each other, there springs up a
village of more or less consequence, which be-
comes the centre of business and town meetings,
leaving the old, original village deserted and dis-
mal, and with scarcely any thing left but its name.
In these, there arc rarely any signs of fresh paint,
poetry or pluck, but things look seedy, dull and
decaying.

In the woods, in the town of Huntington, (a new
town, I suppose, as I cannot find it on any map,)
I came across a mill where the manufacture of
wooden bowls is carried on, and I paused half an
hour to see the process of making. They are made,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

433

principally, of rock maple, but sometimes of beech
or yellow biixh. The log is sawed off of the right
length, and again longitudinally. It is then put
into the lathe, and the outside of the log taken
off, leaving the outside of the first bowl that is to
be made from the log, completely formed. The
chisel used is a little longer than the depth of the
bowl, and shaped just like the curve of the bowl
which it forms. There were six bowls made from
the half log which I saw turned out, and the work
was done in thirty minutes. The bowls M'ere beau-
tifully formed, and left very smooth. The largest
was twenty-six inches across the top, and the
smallest about ten. I had often wondered how this
work could be done, but on seeing it found the
process simple, and very ingenious. I have seen
and heard many interesting things in my jaunt,
some of which may be alluded to hereafter.

Very truly yours, Simon Brown.

Messrs. NouESE, Eaton & Tolmajj, Boston.

TIME.

Many are the matches which I have had against
time in my time and in his time {i. e., in time's
time.) And all such matches, writing or riding.
are memorably unfair. Time, the meagre shadow,
carries no weight at all, so what parity can there
be in any contest with him ? What does he know
of anxiety, or liver complaint, or income tax, or
of the vexations connected with the correcting of
proofs for the press ? xMthough, by the way, he
does take upon himself, with his villanous scrawl,
to correct all the fair proofs of nature. He sows
canker into the heart of rosebuds, and writes
wrinkles (which are his odious attempts at pot-
hooks) in the loveliest of female faces. No type
so fair, but he fancies, in his miserable conceit,
that he can improve it ; no stereotype so fixed,
but he will alter it ; and having spoiled one after
another, he still pei-sists in believing himself the
universal amender and the ally of progress. Ah !
that one might, if it were but for one day in a
century, be indulged with the sight of Time forced
into a personal incarnation, so as to be capable of
a personal insult — a cudgelling, for instance, or a
ducking in a horse pond. Or, again, that once in
a century, were it but for a single summer's day,
his corrected proofs might be liable to superses-
sion by revises, such as I would furnish, down the
margin of which should run one perpetual iteration
of stet, stct ; everything that the hoary scoundrel
had deleted, rosebuds or female bloom, beauty or
power, grandeur or grace, being solemnly reinstat-
ed, and having the privilege of one day's secular
resurrection, like the Arabian phoenix, or any oth-
er memento of power in things earthly, and in
sublunary births, to mock and to defy the power
of this crowned thief, whose insatiate scythe mows
down every thing earthly. — Thomas Be Quincy.

Stamping Fruit. — A German journal publish-
es the following : At Vienna, for some time past,
fruit dealers have sold peaches, pears, apples, ap-
ricots, &c., ornamented Avith armorial bearings,
designs, initials and names. The impressions of

these things are effected in a very simple manner.
A fine fruit is selected at the moment it is begin-
ning to ripen — that is, to take a red color — and
paper, in which the designs are neatly cut out, is
affixed. After a while, the envelope is removed,
and the part of the fruit which has been covered,
is brilliantly white. By this invention the produ-
cers of it may realize large sums.

Fvr the New England Farmer,
NOTES FROM THE MOWOMACK.
BY SAGGAIIEW.
A WALK THROUGH MT GARDEN. — (Continued.)

In my last "Notes" a brief description was given
of the cold grapery. I may add here, that the
fruit continues to look Avell, and that bunches on
the "ringed" spurs have already (Aug. 5) com-
menced to "color."

The general plan of the garden is, in brief, the
following : There is a row of vines next to the
fence, on all sides, then comes a walk, and inside
of the walk the ground is filled with fruit trees, at
equal distances of eight feet apart. In each cor-
ner of the garden is a standard apple tree. In the
outside row of trees, standards and dwarfs alter-
nate, the central rows being almost wliolly dwarfs.
Between the trees, each way, are planted currants
— a single bush in each space — and in the centre
of each square thus formed is planted a vine.
These currants and vines will be removed when-
ever the trees need the whole ground. Thus much
for the general plan, and now a few notes on the
Out-Door Grapes. Of the 520 feet of fence en-
closing the garden 350 feet is lined with a wire
trellis. This trellis is made by stretching six
strandsofNo.il annealed Avire along the inner
sides of the fence posts, at one foot apart, making
the trellis six feet in height. The wires are fast-
tened to each post by a wire staple, (No. 8 wire,)
and were drawn sufficiently taut by a simple
clamp, or pair of wooden tongs, made of two
strips of fence pickets, between which the wire
was elapsed. The cost of the wire was seven cents
per pound, and the amount used was 90 pounds,
making a total cost of $6,30 for 340 running feet
of trellis. The labor of putting it up was about
one day each for two men. Another trellis is
made by setting cedar posts, seven feet long,
about thirty inches into the ground, along the top
of which (about four feet from the ground,) is
nailed, flatwise, a spruce joist, of 2X3 inches, and
about fifteen inches from the ground is nailed a
strip of board about six inches wide. To these
are nailed vertical slats, made by sawing spruce
boards into strips of three-fourths inch thick. To
make the trellis somewhat ornamental, these slats
are placed "diamonding," at eight inches apart.
Considering its durability and neat appearance, I
think this the best cheap trellis for gardens I have
seen.

The number of vines in the garden is about 160,
including fifty-two varieties. Several distinct
methods of training are practiced, varying accord-
ing to location of vines, habits, and objects in
view. One row of Hartford Prolifics are planted
six feet apart, and trained upon the "long rod re-
newal" method ; a row of Concords are but two
feet apart, and trained upon the "single cane dwarf
renewal" method recommended by Bright, in his

434

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

Grape Culture ; another row of vines are placed
three feet apart, and trained according to the old
"single cane renewal" of the books ; and several
vines are allowed to ramble pretty much as they
please; the principal care being to keep up a good
stock of bearing wood.

Thus much for the trellises, and training, and
now for a few notes upon the different vai-ieties of
grape.

Allen's Hybrid. — A pot vine of 1861 ; now
making a fair growth, of very handsome wood ;
expect it will prove worthy of general cultivation
a little further south — and perhaps here.

August Pioneer. — A layer of 1861 ; has made a
vigorous growth ; said to be a desirable, hardy
fruit, but I doubt if it comes quite up to its min-
isterial recommendation.

Blood's Black. — A layer of 1861 ; fair grower.

Black Seedling. — Strong grower ; promises well
for a wilding seedling.

Clark's Seedling. — A. layer of 1861 ; has not
grown well with me ; one died, and this one start-
ed late, and grows feebly — probably was layered
from the last year's wood ; is well spoken of by
those who ought to speak truly.

Clinton. — One of the feeblest growers I have ;
layers of 1860, planted 1861, have made but little
wood, and show no signs of fruit ; expect it to be
desirable in New England as a wine grape.

Canadian Chief. — A pot vine of 1861 ; feeble
growth ; do not expect much from either vine or
fruit, though, from its origin, and handsome
bunches, I wish it may prove desirable.

Cuyahoga. — A pot vine of 1861 ; feeble ; ex-
pect it to prove desirable.

Canhy's August. — A layer of 1861 ; feeble
gx'owth, and very small foliage.

Concord. — Vines of one to five years old ; strong
growers ; out of thirty-three have not lost one ;
layers of 1859, planted 1861, show a goodly num-
ber of handsome bunches ; stands very near the
head of the list of desirable out-door grapes for
this latitude. One row of twenty-seven vines is
trained according to Bright's method — ;". e., each
vine is allowed to grow but one cane, which is
fruited one year, and then cut down, and next year
a new cane is grown, to fruit the year after. In
this way a crop is grown every other year. By
cutting down every other vine each fall, I have a
fruiting cane every four feet. This is a very sim-
ple method, and will return good crops, but it
costs more to stock a vineyard than by most oth-
er methods. The Concord thus far behaves admi-
rably under this discipline.

Dclaioare. — Pot vines of 1860, planted 1861,
made a feeble growth the first year, (one-half of
them dying outriglit,) but this year will give sin-
gle canes of four to six feet of good wood. Very
hard to propagate, either from eyes or layers. For
quality of fruit, and hardiness, this stands at the
head of the list of out-door grapes, but I expect it
will soon be eclipsed by a larger variety. Thus
far I find it rather a troublesome vine to train, on
account of its disposition to send out numei'ous
laterals. But as at present advised, I consider it
the leading grape, for vineyard or garden. It
leaves little to be desired, except size, and that I
shall doubtless secure ere long.

JJracut Amber. — Three year old layer when
planted, 1861 ; made rather poor growth last year;
this year growing finely, but only set one feeble

I bunch of fruit ; is spoken of as a fair table-grape,
; but promising well for wine. From Dr. Jackson's
analysis, I am incHned to the opinion that it may
j prove worthy of general cultivation for wine pur-
1 poses ; but it must show greater bearing qualities
[ than as yet with me, or it will be passed to the
I rear.

Diana. — One vine five years old, planted 1860,
made good growth, but shows only a few very
poor bunches of fruit ; find it slow getting layers
from it. Of fifteen purchased layers of 1860 plant-
ed in 1861, only five survived, and they have not
yet shown much vigor ; of some eight or ten plant-
ed this year, all have made a moderate growth.
Late and uneven ripening are serious objections
to this otherwise desirable grape.

Early Isabella. — Said to be a seedling of the
old variety, but two weeks earlier. x\ppears and
grows much like the original, and a specimen of
fruit on layer of 1861 throws a doubt on its early
ripening.

Empire. — Layer of 1861 ; a very vigorous
grower ; smooth leaf, and badly eaten by insects,
and so far as present appearances indicate, it is
too succulent and tender for this latitude.

Early Hudson. — Layer of 1861 ; strong growth,
and looks promising.

Franklin. — Layer of 1861 ; a fair groAvth.

Oarrigues. — Layer of 1861 ; a very vigorous
grower ; looks well.

Granite State. — A very strong grower ; fair-
sized bunches, but berries now twice the size of
either Concord, or Hartford Prolific. Said to be
a fair table grape ; not yet proved for wine ; ri-
pens 1st to 10th September.

Hartford. Prolific. — Of twenty layers of 1860,
planted 1861, every one made a very vigorous
growth, and several ripened a specimen of fruit ;
propagates early ; vines this year have double the
fruit of Concords one year older ; evidently a great
bearer. Is a fair table grape, and analysis speaks
Avell for its wine-making qualities. Deserves
more attention here at the north-east.

Isabella. — More mildew on one vine, than on
all my other varieties put together ; crops very
nearly ruined.

Jennings. — Layer of 1861 ; good growth; looks
well, and is well spoken of.

Logan. — Layer of 1861 ; good growth.

Louisa. — Similar to Isabella ; said to be earlier ;
layer of 1861 ; vigorous growth.

Marion. — Layer of 1861; moderate growth;
small foliage ; not very promising.

Northern Muscadine. — Layer of 1861 ; fair
growth ; generally considered as a very ordinary
native grape.

Nancy. — Layer of 1861 ; good growth, of very
slim cane ; not very promising.

Ontario. — Layer of 1861 ; fair growth.

Oporto. — Layer of 1861 ; a strong growth ;
gives promise to be a desirable wine grape.

Pennel. — Layer of 1861 ; a fair growth, but
small foliage.

Perkins. — Layer of 1861 ; good growth ; is well
spoken of for its fair quality, earliness and nardi-
ness.

Pebecca. — The tenderest and feeblest vines I
have. Generally reported to me as too tender for
this latitude, but a fine grape, when well grown.

Rogers' Hybrids. — I am convinced that several
of these will prove decidedly popular, and worthy

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

435

of general cultivation. Nos. 9 and 15, pot vines
of 18G1, good growth. No. 19, large and hand-
some layers of 1861 ; a very vigorous grower —
equal to any in my collection. This grape proves
to be of good quality, hardy, prolific, and earlier
than the Concord. Berries never drop, and keep
well. Bunch and berry large and handsome.
Several good (amateur) judges in my acquain-
tance pronounce it a much more desirable grape
than the Concord. A small layer of 1859, planted
in 1860, gave thirty large layers in 1861, every
one of winch is growing well in 1862. In two
neighbors' gardens, the grape is ripened about
one week before the Concord.

Sage. — A well-known "Shaker grape," of rath-
er poor quality, but hardy and vigorous.

Taylor's Bullitt. — Layer of 1861 ; a very vigor-
ous grower, but canes look tender, and leaf
smooth, tender, and badly eaten. Of doubtful
hardiness.

Union Village. — Pot vine of 1861 ; good
growth ; rather too late for this section.

Warren's Seedling. — Layer of 1861 ; a strong
growth ; looks Avell, and is well spoken of.

In my next, I shall take a look at the pear
trees.

ELEGY ON "POOR CHARLEY,"

Who, having reached the age of dry bones, (23,) in attempting
to kick up his heels, like a colt, broke one of his legs. Not able
to commit suicide, as Plato did when he broke his finger, one of
the farmers shot him:

Here lies a faithful steed —
A stanch, uncompromising "silver-gray" —

Who run the race of life with sprightly spesd.
Yet never ran — away.

Wild oats he never sowed,
Yet masticated tame ones with much zest ;

Cheerfully he bore each light allotted load ;
As cheerfully took rest.

Bright were his ej'es, yet soft.
And in the main his tail was white and flowing ;

And though he never sketched a single draught,
He showed great taste for drawing.

Lithe were his limbs and clean.
Fitted alike for buggy or for dray ;

And like Napoleon the Great, I ween,
He had a martial neigh.

Oft have I watched him grace
His favorite stall, well littered, warm and fair.

With such contentment shining from his face,
And such a stable air ;

With here and there a speck
Of roan diversifying his broad back ;

And, martyr-like, a halter round his neck.
Which bound him to the rack.

Mors omnibus ! at length
The hey-day of his life was damped by death ;

So summoning all his late remaining strength,
He drew — his final breath. T. Spoox.

A Hat and a Horse. — If caught in a shower,
and you get your hat wet, brush it before it is dry.
And so of the horse. When he comes in, wet
with perspiration, smooth his hair with a coarse
brush — a common broom is better than nothing —
in the direction you wish it to lie when he is dry.
The animal will feel better, and it will be only

half the trouble to clean him the next time he
needs it. Mr. S. will be kind enough to try this
on his new "beaver," [made of silk, perhaps cot-
ton, now,] and Mr. W. on his four-year-old dap-
ple grey colt.

For the New England Farmer.

AGKICTTLTUBE IN THE HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS.

Makawao, MAni, Hawaiian Islands, \
May 16, 1862. \

My Dear Sir : — It is quite time to address you
after reaching my island home, and getting things
somewhat straightened about me. I am sony that I
could not see you again at your office, but though
I called twice near the time of my leaving Boston,
I could not find you. This was all right, as you
were doubtless where duty called. "Duty, stern
daughter of the voice of God !" Since I last entered
your office in obedience to her call, I left the land
of my birth, and am now in the land of my adop-
tion, some 8000 miles, the most direct way from
your goodly city. The Lord bless old Boston, the
metropolis of New England.

Your readers will not care very much to hear of
my voyage to San Francisco and the Islands ;
rather will they desire to know how I found things
on shore and things pertaining to agriculture. To
the extent of my ability I will gratify so reasona-
ble a desire.

I arrived in San Francisco, November 6, and re-
mained there about a week. I visited Oakland,
and the mission, so called, about a league distant
from the city, a ])lace which I saw in 1829 then
occupied by the Mexicans, and the most thickly
settled of any part of San Francisco. I hoped to
make a longer stay, that I might go into the inte-
rior a short distance, and see the products of the
country ; but an opportunity ofiering for Honolulu,
I felt it my duty to leave at once. In visiting the
San Francisco markets, I was much disappointed
in finding the vegetables, potatoes, turnips, beets,
carrots and onions, of so diminutive a size, com-
pared with what I had been told to expect. I sup-
posed that I should find beets of the size of a man's
thigh or, perhaps, body, and potatoes like one's
head, but 1 saw no such mammoth vegetables.
My impression is that Boston market has as fine
a show as San Francisco in the line of vegetables ;
and in many things, as meats, fish, butter and
cheese, Boston is, of course, far before the city of
the Pacific. At one thing only was I astonished —
the seeing, the hearing of, and tasting the fruits of
California. I should hesitate to tell you the meas-
urement of some of the apples and pears which I
saw. What would you think of a pear that weighed
four pounds and a quarter ? Such a pear grew in
Oakland last year ! The fruit, too, is most excel-
lent. Nothing so good did I taste in 1860, in my
travels from Bangor, Maine, to Cincinnati, Ohio,
and you know that 1860 was an extraordinary sea-
son lor fruit. California will be a fruit country, and
no mistake.

Let m^now tell you of Hawaii. It is now more
than two years since I wrote you from Makawao,
so I must give you an account of the products of
two seasons, 1860 and 186L The crop of wheat
of 1860 at Makawao and vicinity was a very fair
one, but the market was very soon supplied, and
the surplus was sold at so low a price, that our

436

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

Hawaiian farmers were much discouraged. In con-
sequence, much less was sown in 1861. Only some
10,000 bushels were raised, but this was of a su-
perior quality, and sold for one dollar per bushel.
More was needed than could be obtained, and seed
this spring sold readily for $1.50 per bushel. A
good many oats and some barley and buckwheat
were raised, and found a market. In 1861 consid-
erable Indian corn was raised, and it sold for a fair
price. The prospect of obtaining a higher price for
wheat the present year than had been offered the
past two years, stimulated our people to sow more
than they had done. In February and March a good
deal was sown, and but for the cut worm the crop
would have been lai'ge. The earliest sown, some
of which is nearly ready to be cut, looks very well,
the latest sown is nearly destroyed by the worm.
This is very discouraging, but there seems to be
no help for it. "Long patience" becomes the hus-
bandman.

Of the crop for the present year I will speak
again, if spared, after the harvest shall have been
gathered. We are now having gentle rains which,
may bring forward the late sown wheat so that
■what remains of it will be stout and of good qual-
ity. More than usual Indian corn was raised last
year, and our farmers are planting again this spring.
As there are but few whaleships remaining, the cul-
tivation of the Irish potato has greatly diminished.
Indeed, there is likely to be a great change in the
agricultural products of the islands.

The cultivation of sugar cane and the manufac-
ture of sugar are decidedly successful, and this
branch of business is rapidly increasing. In my
own vicinity there are already three large plan-
tations, with houses and machinery of improved
pattern for manufacturing. Several landholders in
the vicinity of these plantations are now turning
their attention to the raising of cane, so that the
prospect of a great increase of the amount of sugar
is very fair. At Ulupalakua, some twenty-five miles
distant, there is a plantation of several hundreds
of acres of cane of promising growth. A mill of
superior construction has lately arrived from Bos-
ton for this plantation. Wailuku, fifteen miles dis-
tant, and Waitepu, a neighboring village, are lands
well adapted to sugar cane, and they will both be
appi-opriated ere long to this product. The late
King, Ivamehameha III., several years ago, and
while I resided there, caused a large tract to be
planted at Wailuku, and erected a water mill to
grind his cane. The experiment proved a failure,
however, through the unfaithfulness of the man —
a Chinaman, whom he employed as superintend-
ent. Lahaina, Avhich you will recollect as the me-
tropolis of this island, is nearly deserted by whale-
ships, and there is scarcely anything doing in
the shape of trade. But it is probable that all the
land that can be spared from kalo, the native sta-
ple, will be filled with cane. Much is already
planted, and sugar is being manufactured on a
small scale. I doubt not that Lahaina will more
than recover its importance in consequence of this
new business, and I am sure there will be great
gain. ^

Another enterprise has begun to be urged among
us, which promises large results. I allude to rice
growing. The experiment of growing rice was made
some twenty years ago at Wailuku, and succeeded
so far as to satisfy all of us that rice could be
raised at the islands without any difficulty. But

it was given up because it was doubtful whether
it would be as valuable a product as the kalo. I
see I'm spinning out my letter too long. Let me
pause. Thine with respect,

J. S. Green.

For the New Ensland Farmer.
LITTLE THINGS:
Or a Walk in My Garben.

Among the little things that most men despise,
and do not consider worth their study, is that of

INSECTS injurious TO VEGETATION.

Insects are among the greatest enemies to the
gardener and farmer, and it is gratifying to know
that we can, to a certain extent, avoid their dep-
redations as soon as we become familiar with their
habits.

Farmers who sow their wheat as early as pos-,
sible succeed in avoiding, to a great extent, the
ravages of the weevil. Many prepare their ground
in the fall, so as to harrow it as early as they can
in spring. It may now be pretty safely predicted
what will be the wheat crop by the time farmers
are able to sow it.

The apple tree borer, which but few farmers
knew anything about twenty years ago, while they
Mere destroying their orchards, is now known to
every good farmer, and his ravages prevented,
simply by cutting them out, or what is better, us-
ing a straight awl and mallet and by keeping the
ground clear around the trunks of the trees, and
applying some wash to young orchards in the month
of June, made of soda, Ume, salt or potash, either
of which will prevent them from depositing their
eggs.

If we step into the garden we shall there find
enough to try our patience. But let us see. I
have been overrun with the grub worm, but I have
stopped him from eating down my cabbages, simp-
ly by tearing a slit in a piece of paper eight inches
square and slipping the ])lant through it, thus
making a paper platform around the plant, which
must be kept down by a lump of earth or a stone.
Care should be taken to have the paper close
round the plant, as they will sometimes crawl up
through the paper. I have had complete success
the present year in saving my cabbage plants.

To save vines from the striped bug, nothing is
easier than to place half of a common-sized news-
paper over the plant, and hoe a little earth on the
edge of the paper. The plants will grow faster in
]May and June than if exposed to the air, and it is
a perfect protection.

The curculio is still a troublesome insect, but
I am inclined to think that in fruit-bearing years
most northern localities can obtain a good crop by
cultivating highly so as to cause as many blossoms
to set as possible. It has occurred to me that if a
few of the Canada plum tree should be allowed to
bear near by, that they would furnish a more de-
sirable treat to the curculio. They bite those
much more readily than the ordinary plum. I
shall get a good crop tliis year, though many of
them have been destroyed by this pest.

Our gardeners in this vicinity cannot raise on-
ions from the seed on account of the maggot, but
they obviate this by planting the potato and top
onions, which do not seriously suffer from its rav-
ages. Fine beds may now be seen in most gardens

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

437

where they have long been destitute of this escu-
lent.

Thus as we become acquainted Avith their hab-
its, we may in a measure get rid of the most
troublesome insects. There are some which still
trouble us, such as the spindle worm in our corn,
the currant worm, and the little maggot that eats
the roots of cabbage and turnip plants, and a fly
that eats off the beet as soon as it appears above
ground. A word here in regard to the

BLACK KNOT.
This is not produced by the curculio or any oth-
er insect. If it was, I should be overrun with it,
whereas it never apjicars in my garden. It is un-
questionably a specific disease, which communi-
cates its poison from tree to tree and which fur-
nishes a welcome nest for certain insects. Gar-
dens where trees are badly crowded together, are
usually affected the M'orst.

LITTLE MISTAKES.

I must stop here to correct a little mistake in
my last article. I spoke of the Editor of the Far-
mer as an advocate for August pruning. It should
have been summer pruning. Things as trivial as
that have brought on desolating wars. IIow im-
portant that we should take care of little things !

ST. CATHERINE'S PRUNE.

I noticed a fact that the curculio does not touoli
this plum in my garden at all. Is the plum worth
cultivating? I received the scions from France.
N. T. T.

Remarks. — We have not raised the St. Cathe-
rine. Downing says that "among the fine old va-
rieties of late plums, the St. Catherine is one of
the most celebrated. In France it is raised in
large quantities, in some districts making the
most delicate kind of prunes. It is also much es-
teemed for preserving, and is of excellent quality
for the desert. It bears regularly, and abundant-
ly in this part of the country, [that is, along the
Hudson,] and deserves a place in every good gar-
den."

It is not yet well settled whether the black knot
is occasioned by insects, or is a disease. High
authorities are of different opinions.

Cleaning Milk Vessels. — A correspondent
of the Cincinnati Gazette truly says, there is no
product of the farm that presents so much differ-
ence as butter. This arises chiefly from using ves-
sels for holding the milk, and utensils in making
the butter, which are soured. In my notice of the
effects of having soured troughs in sugar-making,
I stated that acidity was fatal to good sugar-mak-
uig. It is not less so in butter-making. ^lilk has
a peculiar acid very easily formed, which entirely
takes away that rich, sweet, fine flavor, belonging
to good butter. A very little soured milk or cream
on vessels rapidly generates enough acid to take
it away. To avoid this great care is requisite.
Dleanliness only is not sufficient, in having the
vessels well washed, but they must be carefully
%vashed in boiling hot water, and should be boiled
in it also. But as the cream is very apt to stick,
even in good washing, when the vessels are boiled

in water, some pearlash or soda should he put in
it, which destroys any acidity that may be about
the vessels. They should then be well sunned. I
have known some good butter-makers who dis-
pensed with the sunning when soda was used, but
both are to be commended.

AGBICULTUKAIi EXHIBITION'S FOB 1862.

Time of exhibitions by the Agi'icultural Societies in the State,
and the Delegate from the Board of Agriculture to each society.

SOCIETY. COMMENCES. PELEGATE.

Essex Sept. 30 P. Steilman.

Middlesex Sept. 18 Jabe/ Kif^her.

Middlesex South Sept. 23 Levi Stnckbridge.

Middlesex North Sept. 25 Samuel llartwell.

Worcester Sept. 18 Joseph White.

Worcester West Sept. 25 D. A. Cleveland.

Worcester North Sept. 30 E. W. Bull.

Worcester South Oct. 2 II. Stebbins.

AVorcester South-East Oct. 14 \sa Clement.

Hamp, Franklin aud Ham. Oct. 2 H. IL Peters.

Hampshire Oct, 9 Tohn Brooks.

Highland Sept. 11 Paoli Lathrop.

Hampden Oct. 7 S. B. Phinney.

Hampden East Oct. 14 S. H. Biishnell.

Franklin Sept. 25 George B. Loring.

Berkshire Oct. 1 M. P. Wilder.

Housatonic Oct. 7 C. C. Sevrall.

Hoosac Vallej' Sept. 23 C. G. Davis.

Norfolk Sept. 25 Henry Chapin.

Bristol Oct. 7 Freeman Walker.

Plymouth Oct. 2 John B.Moore.

Barnstable Oct. 14 J. S. Grennell.

Nantucket Sept. 30 Henry Colt.

Martha's Vineyard Oct. 21 Matthew Smith.

State Fairs for 1862.

Below we give a list of State Fairs, as far .is we have been
able to learn the time of holding them. We shall publish this
list, with additions and corrections, from time to time, until the
season is over.

Vermont Rutland Sept. 9—12.

Canada East Sherbrooke Sept. 17—19.

Kentucky Louisville Ssi)t. 16 — 19.

Illinois Peoria Sept. 29 — Oct. 3.

New York Rochester Se])t. 30— Oct. 3.

Ohio Cleveland Sept. 16—19.

Iowa Dubuque Sept. 30— Oct. 3,

Michigan Detroit Sept. 23 — 26.

Pennsylvania Norristown Sept. 30 — Oct. 3.

Indiana Indianapolis Sept. 30 — Oct. 3.

New Jersey Newton Sept. 30 — Oct. 3.

Connecticut Hartford Oct. 7 — 10.

Dark Rooms. — Florence Nightingale, in her
Notes on Nursing, says : "A dark house is almost
always an unhealthy house, always an ill-aired
house, always a dirty house. Want of light stops
growth, and promotes scrofula, rickets, etc., among
the children. People lose their health in a dai'k
liouse ; and if they get ill, they cannot get well
again in it. Three out of many 'negligences and
ignorances' in managing the health of houses gen-
erally, I will here mention as specimens. First,
that the female head in charge of any building,
does not think it necessary to visit every hole and
corner of it every day. How can she expect those
who are under her to be more careful to maintain
her house in a healthy condition, than she who is
in charge of it ? Second, that it is not considered
essential to air, to sun, and to clean rooms while
uninhabited ; which is simply ignoring the first
elementary notion of sanitary things, and laying
the ground ready^or all kinds of disease. Third,
that the window, and one window, is considered
enough to air a room. Don't imagine that if you,
who are in charge, don't look to all those things
yourself, those under you will be more careful
than you are."

438

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

EXTRACTS AND BEPHES.
THE BUR-MARIGOLD.

Will the editor please inform me what is the
name of the enclosed "posy," and oblige a North
Ferrisbure:h SUBSCRIBER.

Aug., f862.

Remarks. — The plant enclosed is a common
one in Massachusetts, and we believe is the Bia--
Marigold. It grows on a long, slender stem, and
bears a yellow flower, having four or five leaves.

TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTIES.

I wish to call your attention to a piece I find in
the Vermont Chronicle of May 27, 1862, headed,
"Transmission of Properties, Diseases, &c." 1
would like to see your comments upon it, and its
application, not only to the human family, but to
the breeding of sheep and other kinds of stock.
There are a few thoughts upon my mind that I
might like to present at some future time.

Sharon, VL, Aug., 1862. A. S. Phelps.

Remarks. — Send the article along, and your
own thoughts, and we will consider them.

A GOOD wash for OUTSIDE BUILDINGS.

Thinking some of your readers may like a good
receipt for a wash for buildings or fences, I will
give you one which I have used for ten or twelve
yeai-s. It is almost equal to paint.

Take half a bushel of lime and slake it with
boiling water ; then add one peck of salt and two
pounds of glue dissolved in warm water. Add eight
pounds of dry, yellow paint, and two large papers
of lamp black, mixed to a paste with alcohol. This
makes a beautiful slate color. The color can be
varied bj'' adding more or less black to suit the
taste. F. E. Bigelov^t.

Concord, Mass., Aug., 1862.

MORTAB FOR BUILDING.

In common practice, the cohesion of mortar is
greatly impaired by using too large a portion of
sand ; it should never exceed two parts by meas-
ure to one of lime paste. A cask of lime weigh-
ing 280 lbs., made into eight cubic feet of lime
paste, should be mixed with sixteen bushels of
damp sand. The notion used to be generally en-
tertained that the longer lime was slaked before it
was used, the better would be the mortar made
of it.

This, however, ds not the case with our common
fat lime and sand mortars. The sand should be
mixed with the slaked lime as soon as the latter
becomes cold, and no more water should be em-
ployed than will reduce the lime to a thick paste.
In preparing mortar, the unslaked lime should be
placed on boards and sheltered from the sun and
rain ; it should be open above and surrounded
with some sand. The water necessary to slake
lime should be poured upon it with any suitable
vessel, and care should be takan to stir the lime
so as to bring the water into contact with every
portion, when it may be left until all the vapor
has passed off.

The sand may now be incorporated with the
lime by means of a hoe or shovel ; and, if neces-

sary, a little water may be added to produce a
homogeneous, consistent paste, when it is ready
for use. Sand from the sea-shore should never
be employed for making mortar without being first
washed with fresh water, because the salt left in
such sand is liable to absorb moisture and prevent
the mortar becoming hard.

In putting up walls of brick or stone, care
should be taken that the stones or bricks be mois-
tened before they come in contact with the mor-
tar. Every brick and stone should be laid in a
good bed of mortar, and should receive a blow to
fix it firmly. The bricks should not be laid mere-
ly as is the common custom, but forced down so
as to press the mortar into all the pores and crev-
ices. The superintendent of a building should
give his personal attention to the vertical joints in
the walls, as the masons frequently neglect to
fill them up with mortar. — Scientific American.

YOUTH'S DEP/^RTMENT.

THE DRY STREAM.

"John," said Isaac, to his brother, "do you know
that the brook in the sheep pasture has dried up ?"

"No ; I do not know any such thing."

"It is dry."

"I saw it running not an hour ago."

"It was dry this morning. I was going to cross
over on the fence, but there was no water in the
bed of the stream above or below the fence. I
heard father say the brook never failed."

"I know it has not failed."

"That comes pretty near saying you don't be-
lieve what I say."

The brothers went on disputing till they got
very angry. At first, one was sure that the other
was mistaken. "When they became angry, one
was sure that the other had asserted an untruth.

Now, the fact was, that both had spoken the
truth. When the stream Avas low, there was a
gravel bank by the fence mentioned by Isaac,
through which the water percolated without ap-
pearing on the surface. John had seen the water
flowing as usual in its channel some twenty rods
below the fence.

Men often dispute about things in I'egard to
which they really do not differ. They look at the
subject from different points of view. Before you
decide that a man is wrong because he differs from
you, see from what point he views the matter. —
S. S. Times.

THE KANGAROO AND HIS PUPS.

How many times, on my hunting excursions,
have I painfully witnessed the poor doe — when
hard pressed by the hounds — hastily pull from her
pouch the almost hairless and utterly helpless
little Joey (as its offspring is called,) and cast it,
whilst at full speed, into a tuft of high grass, or
clump of thick fern plants, as the last resource
whereby to save herself from the ruthless fangs of
her hungry pursuers. And hundreds of times
have I seen our magnamimous dogs spring over
the Joeys, as if such puny prey were unworthy of
their notice, and continue in hot pursuit of the
poor, panting mother, who, if so fortunate as to
outstrip the hounds, in one hour's time would in-

isn

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

439

stinctively return, to the spot where she had left
her young one, and, on recovering her dear Joey,
would hurriedly replace it in its sanctuary, and re-
tire far away, amidst the hills and valleys, for
many successive weeks. But jNIaster Joey is fre-
quently captured by the huntsman, reared up by
hand, and invested with a bright scarlet collar,
to distinguish him from his uncivilized brethren.
I brought up one, which formed a great source of
mirth and admiration to us all. To witness gen-
tle, unsophisticated Joey turn out of his warm crib
at daylight, and join the hounds and half-a-dozen
huntsmen, displaying his great agility and delight
by clearing dogs, buckets, and iron pots at a sin-
gle bound, added considerably to the fun and
good-humored witticisms which always enliven an
early hunting-party, even in the green forests of
the antipodes. In the heat of the chase, gentle
Joej' — arrived at the age of two years — could keep
pace with the swiftest of our pack ; invariably took
his place, leaping in the midst of them, and was
always in at the death. — Tlddy-tliree Years in
Tasmania and Victoria.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

MABKIAGB OP DAUGHTERS.
Henry Taylor, in his "Notes from Life," com-
prises not a little sound as Avell as practical phil-
osophy upon the incidents leading to marriage,
and the relations of mothers thereto. We give it
for the benefit of both mothers and daughters :

"If an unreasonable opposition to a daughter's
choice bs not to prevail, 1 think that, on the other
hand, the parents, if their views of marriage be
pure from worldliness, are justified in using a good
deal of management — not more than they very
often do use, but more than they are wont to
avow or than society is wont to countenance —
with a view to putting their daughters in the way
of such marriages as they can approve. It is the
way of the world to give such management an ill
name, probably because it is most used by those
who abuse it to worldly pur|:)oscs ; and I have
heard a mother pique herself on never having
taken a single step to get her daughters married,
which appeared to me to have been a dereliction
of one of the most essential duties of a parent. If
the mother be wholly passive, either the daugh-
ters must take steps and use management for
themselves — which is not desirable — or the hap-
piness and the most important interests of their
lives, moral and spiritual, must be the sport of
chance, and take a course purely fortuitous ; and
in many situations, where unsought opportunities
of choice do not abound, the result may not im-
probably be such a love and marriage as the moth-
er and every one else contemplates with astonish-
ment. Some such astonishment I recollect to
have expressed on an occasion of the kind to an
illustrious poet and philosopher, whose reply I
have always borne in mind when other such cases
have come under my observation — 'We have no
reason to be surprised, unless we know what may
have been the young lady's opportunities. If Mi-
randa had not fallen in with Ferdinand, she would
have been in love w^ith Caliban.' "

ON A WEDDING DAT.

Nine years ago you came to me,

And nestled on my breast,
A soft and winged mystery.

That settled here to rest ;
And my heart rocked its babe of bliss

And soothed its child of air
With something 'twixt a song and kiss,

To keep it nestling there.

At first I thought the fairy form

Too spirit-soft and good
To fill my poor, low nest with warm

And wifely womanhood.
But such a cozy peep of home

Did your dear eyes unfold ;
And in their deep and dewy gloom

What tales of love were told !

In dreamy curves your beauty droopt,

As tendrils lean to twine.
And very graciously they stoopt

To bear their fruit, my vine !
To bear such blessed fruit of love

As tenderly increased
Among the ripe vine-bunches of

Your balmy-breathing breast.

We cannot boast to have bickered no(

Since you and I were wed:
We have not lived the smoothest lot,

Nor found the downiest bed I
Time hath not passed o'erhead in stars

And underfoot in flowers,
With wings that slept on fragrant airs

Through all the happy hours.

It is our way, more fate than fault.

Love's cloudy fire to clear ;
To find some virtue in the salt

That sparkles in a tear !
Pray God it all come right at last,

Pray God it so befall.
That when our day of life is past

The end may crown it all ! Gerald Masset.

DOMESTIC KECEIPTS.
How TO ■Make Elderberry Wine. — The
berries, when ripe, are picked by the stems, then
stripped Avith the hands, or trimmed with shears.
Next they are mashed fine, which can be done by
means of a pounder, similar to those used for
pounding clothes. Let them remain until the next
day, when the juice is pressed out in a cheese
press, or any other convenient way. Next, boil
the juice twenty minutes ; skim it, and add four
pounds of sugar to the gallon. When milk-warnr
add a small piece of bread crust that has been
dipped in yeast. Let it stand three days, remove
the crust, and the wine is ready for bottling. Age
improves it. Some add spices to the liquor when
boiled. This is a great favorite with the English.

To Dress Cucumbers. — Take three good-sized
cucumbers, pare them, put them in cool water fcjr
an hour, take them out and cut them in the usual
way ; sprinkle salt upon them and let them be so
until an hour before dinner ; drain ofl' the salt
liquor ; put them into a vegetable dish. Take a
pint of sour cream, {not too old,) a good table-
spoonful of cider vinegar, a piece of butter the size
of a hickory nut ; put them on the fire and let the
mixture come to a boil ; pour it over the cucum-
bers while hot ; set them by in a cool place until
dinner. We think it is the only way to eat them.
Try it. So says a lady in the Amcrirau Frtrmrr.

440

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Sept.

Old-Fashioned Hulled Corn. — Shell a doz-
en ears of ripe, dry corn, put it in an iron kettle
and cover with cold water ; put in the corn a bag
of tv/o teacupfals of fresh wood ashes, and boil
until the corn looks yellow and tastes strong of
the alkali, then take out the bag and boil the corn
in the lye over an hour, then pour off the lye, add
fresh water and simmer until the corn swells. If
the hulls do not then come off by stirring, turn off
the water and rub them off with a towel ; add
more water, and simmer for three or four hours,
ofcen stirring to keep it from burning ; when it
swells out and becomes soft and white, add salt
to liking, and let all the water simmer away. Eat
warm or cold, v/ith cream or milk.

Pine- Apple Jelly. — Take a perfectly ripe and
so'iind pine-apple, cut off the outside, cut in small
pieces ; bruise them, and to each pound put a tea-
cup of water ; put in a preserving kettle over the
fire ; cover the kettle, and let them boil for twenty
minutes ; then strain it, and squeeze it through a
bit of muslin. For each pound of fruit take a
pound of sugar ; put a teacup of water to each
pound; set it over the fire until it is dissolved;
then add the pine-apple juice. For each quart of
the syrup clarify an ounce of the best isinglass,
and stir it in, let it boil until, by taking some on a
plate to cool, you find it a stiff jelly. Secure it in
jars.

Potatoes in Haste. — A nice dish of potatoes
may be made in five minutes, if the water is boil-
ing. Peel and cut some potatoes in slices ; pour
on them boiling water enough to cover them, and
let them boil till tender ; skim them out, add but-
ter with flour ; let it boil up once, add a little
chopped parsley and pepper.

THE CATTLE MAKKETS FOB AUQUSl.

The following is a summary of the reports for the four weeks
ending August 21, 1S62 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

Cattle.

July 31 1668

Aug. 7 1639

" 14 2101

" 21 1649

7057

Sheej^ and
Lambs,
8758
5380
5769
7064

26,971
PRICES.

Shotes and
Pias.
270
200
350
190

1010

Lire

Fat Hogs,

750

150

750

Interesting to the Ladies. — For once the
course of true love has run smoothly. When the
Duke of Portland died recently in England, he
tried to prevent the marriage of his daughter. La-
dy Mary Bentinck, with Sir William Topham, by
stipulating in his will that her dowry of £32,000
should be M'ithheld in case she disobeyed his com-
mands. The lovers were warmly attached, and
Sir William carried the case into court, deter-
mined to have the lady, and her portion with her.
The court decided that the Duke had no right to
encumber the apportionment of money under a
marriage settlement with such capricious condi-
tions, and the funds were made over to Lady Ma-
ry. Whereupon the lovers were made happy.

If we had not within ourselves the principle of
bliss, we could not become blest. The grain of
ii; iven lies in the breast, as the germ of the blos-
■.jni lies in the shut seed.

Juhi 31. Aug. 7. Ati^. 14. Aug. 21.

Beef cattle, ^ % i\m}; 4:lU^\ 4 (g6i 4 '(TfGJ

Sliocpandlambs,inIots.$i:{S3} $2 inSJ $2.VS3i §2.^5-%^
Swine, stores, wholesale.. 4^ §6 a\h 4^51 4|fj54

" " retail 5'g7 5 !^7 4 (g6| 5 @7

Dressed hogs 45ff5J 4S-g5i 533 5^3

RsMAKKs. — Prices for beef cattle showed a downward tenden-
cy during the first three weeks of the above term, but there was
not, in our opinion, sufficient depreciation to authorize a change
of figures, farther than to erase, as was done, from the list of
prices aftar the first week, the statement then made that "a few
extra Western steers may cost over 6,'<c." An addition of near-
ly 500 to the average supply for several previous weeks was re-
ported for the week ending August 14th. Some three hundred
cf these arrived at market one day behind hand, and consequent-
ly after most of the butchers were well supplied. The result was
that the late-comers and such remnants of droves as remained
iu the yards at the time of their arrival, had to be offered at prices
considerably lower than cattle had been selling for, to induce
pm'chasers to add to the stock already on their hands. Low as
they were offered, however, they were not all sold, some 60 to 80
head being kept over to the next week, in the hands of the dro-
vers. The cattle at market August 21st, both Northern and
Western, were not only less in number, but they were smaller
and inferior in quality. About 200 cf the Northern cattle were
stores, consisting of thin worlcers, milch cows, and young cattle,
among which were some yearlings not as large as calves ought
to be. In consequence of this short supply of beeves prices ad-
vanced from 34 to lie ^ ft.

The market for sheep and lambs has been quite uniform dur-
ing tlie last four weeks. The frequent rains have kept the feed
good, and a steady impi-ovement has been noticed in the size and
quality of the lambs offered for sale. There have been but few
old sheep at market, and these have generally been sold with the
lambs, within the range of prices quoted above.

The market for milkers may still be reported as rather dull.
There have been but few workers brought in as yet, and there
has been thus far, this season, but little inquiry for store cattle
of any kind.

In consequence of a disease among swine, the trade in store
pigs and shotes has become quite small, at Brighton, as will be
seen by the number at market for the past month.

New Hampshire State Agricultural Fair.
— At a recent meeting of the Board of Directors
of the N. II. Agricultural Society it Avas voted in-
expedient to hold a State Fair the present Fall.
The Directors of the Rockingham County Agri-
cultural Association have passed a similar vote.

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTTJBE AND ITS KTNDKED AKTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV

BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1862.

NO. 10.

KOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Office.... 100 Washington Street.

SIMON BROWN, Editor.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

SUGGESTED BY OCTOBER.

"All through the night
The subtle frost hath plied its mystic art,
And in tlie day the golden sun hatli ■nTought
True wonders ; and the vrings of morn and even
Have touched with magic breath the changing leaves,
And now, as wanders the dilating eye
Athwart the varied landscape circling far,
What gorgeousncss, what blazonry, what pomp
Of colors, burst upon the ravished sight."

Gallagher.

HE sad leaves
are now falling,
sere and with-
ered, from the
branches -which
so recently they
adorned ; the
wailing wind
sighs through
the forest, and
speaks with

more than Cice-
ronean or De-
mosthenean elo-
quence, of decay
and death. But
nothing is lost
to human happi-
ness, or the ad-
vancement of society, by this change from activity
to torpor. Xature suffers no diminution of her
powers — no declension of her glorious preroga-
tives, by hybernating. In the beautiful economy
of nature there are no harsh antagonisms, for in
ever}' department, every development tends to a
common end. Xot so in the human mind and
character. The alchymy of vice not only trans-
forms,— it destroys.

Wc have read somewhere of an artist, who,
meeting with a child of exquisite loveliness, de-
sired to preserve its features for fear he should
never meet such loveliness again. He painted

the face upon canvas and suspended the picture
upon the wall of his studio. To him, in his som-
bre hours, that sweet, gentle face was like an an-
gel of light, filling his soul with the purest aspira-
tions. If ever I find, said he to himself, a perfect
contrast to this lovely countenance, I will paint
that also, and suspend the two, side by side, as
an ideal of heaven and hell.

At length it chanced that, in a distant land, he
beheld in a prison the most hideous and revolting
object he had ever met — a fierce, haggard fiend,
with glaring eyes, and forehead furrowed with the
lines of lust and crime. The artist remembered
his vow, and painted a picture of the loathsome
form to hang beside the lovely portrait that al-
ready adorned his studio walls — the picture of the
lovely boy. The contrast was perfect, but most
revolting ; his dream was realized — the antipodes
— the two extremes of human character, were viv-
idly before him. But what was the surprise of
the painter when he ascertained the history of
this disgusting abortion, to find that it was the
lovely boy whom he had painted ! These pictures
— the Angel and the Demon — now hang side by
side in a Tuscan gallery. Let us look at the ef-
fects of vice on man, and on society, and we shall
see changes equally as marked and mournful as
that which realized the idea of the painter's dream.
We need not travel to a foreign gallery to see il-
lustrated the transforming power of vice upon our
physical and moral nature.

"Of the soul, the body form doth take,

For soul is form, and doth the body make."

"That brazen-faced, wanton-looking wreck of
womanhood, was once a sweet, modest little girl,
that blushed at the slightest indelicate allusion.
That obese, bloated, brandy-burnt visage, was
once a joyous, light-hearted boy. What strange
alchymy has wrought this bestial transformation ?
They have been in the hard battles of appetite,
and bear the scars of many campaigns." When

442

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

the dark clouds of winter have passed, the ener-
gies of nature, unlike those of the human soul
impaired and prostrated by the palsying touch of
vice, will revive like the energies of a healthy per-
son strengthened and refreshed by sleep.

Has it ever occurred to our female readers, how
important are the duties imposed upon them by
their domestic and social relationships ? How
momentous are the consequences that may ensue
to the young of their household from even a par-
tial neglect to satisfy those obligations which they
should habitually recognize in practice, and the
performance of which ought to constitute the first
and sweetest pleasure of their lives. A late writer
has observed that, "In the basement cells of ine-
briety, many youthful forms are sitting for their
portraits. The demon artist of lust and intem-
perance, is gradually moulding them into fiends.
The young may steal secretly into those hells of
inebriety and lasciviousness, and their friends may
not suspect their wayward proclivities. But vice
cannot long remain concealed ; the soul has no
place in which to hide. Soon the foul flame —
through some vent or fissure of the body, will find
expression. The inmost loves, affinities and de-
sires of the soul, will mould the plastic child into
a corresponding likeness. The body is a flesh and
blood statue of the spirit, and the countenance
the play-ground of the spirit."

The influence of woman is great. Who can es-
timate, adequately, the aid and comfort they are
capable of furnishing their husbands and brothers,
simply by manifesting an interest and sympathy
in their labors? Nothing sweetens toll like sym-
pathy. The richest reward of the farmer's toil is
not bread alone. It is the approbation of those
whom he respects and honors — self-respect and
the cordial approbation of his fellow-men.

Home education, where there is a union of sen-
timent between the parents, leaves its impression
vividly and strongly stamped upon the soul and
heart, and can never be totally obliterated. If the
example of the father is in unison with the teach-
ings of the mother, the most determined mind
will, in every situation of life, be influenced by it.
It haunts us through every stage of its pilgrimage,
like a good genius, and ceases only vrhen the
mind itself, changing beneath the mystic cloud,
ceases to appreciate and respond. During the long
evenings of winter, the altar of home should be
illuminated with its brightest lights. The mother
should labor to form to usefulness and happiness,
the minds committed to her charge, and to pre-
pare them by the best moral training possible, for
the duties and trials which await them in the
trial fields of life.

We have sometimes feared, that among the many
innovations of modern refinement, those healthful
influences which the young so much need in form-

ing their minds for usefulness, might be too much
neglected, and finally become obsolete. The ro-
mance of home-life, like every other kind of ro-
mance, will, in time, wear out ; the heart will be
disenchanted, and the merry sports of Christmas
and the "Old Oaken Bucket that hung in the
AVell," as well as the realization of "Love in a
Cottage," become a picture of almost fabulous an-
tiquity, and exist only in rural fancy.

The changes occurring everywhere around us,
naturally lead to the train of thought in which we
have indulged. Spring, with her genial sunshine
and showers, will restore the verdure which au-
tumn frosts have now laid low — but the blight
occasioned by neglect and vice, may require years
of culture and repentance to restore the charms
of peace and satisfaction to the blighted soul.

"Solemn, yet beautiful to view,
Month of my heart ! thou dawnest here,"

to beautify, instruct, and prepare for a winter of
rest to the vegetable world. Let us apply this
lesson of nature to ourselves, and so live that
"our vutues shall blossom in the dust."

Our Teeth. — They decay. Hence, unseemly
mouths, bad breath, imperfect mastication. Every-
body regrets it. What is the cause ? It is want
of cleanliness. A clean tooth never decays. The
mouth is a warm place — 98 degrees. Particles of
meat between the teeth soon decompose. Gums
and teeth must suff'er.

Cleanliness will preserve the teeth to old age.
Use a quill pick, and rinse the mouth after eating.
Brush and Castile soap every morning ; the brush
with pure water on retiring. Bestow this trifling
care upon your precious teeth, you will keep them
and ruin the dentists. Neglect it, and you will
be sorry all your lives. Children forget. Watch
them. The first teeth determine the character of
the second set. Give them equal care.

Sugar, acids, hot drinks, saleratus are nothing
compared with food decomposing between the
teeth. Mercury may loosen the teeth, use may
wear them out, but keep them clean and they will
never decay. This advice is worth more than
thousands of dollars to every boy and girl.

Books have been written on this subject. This
brief article contains all that is essential. — N. Y.
Independent.

Think. — Thought engenders thought. Place
one idea upon paper, another will follow, and still
another, until you have written a page. You can-
not fathom your mind. There is a well of thouglit
there which has no bottom. The more you draw
from it, the more clear and fruitful it will be. If
you neglect to think yourself, and use other peo-
ple's thoughts, giving them utterance only, you
will never know what you are capable of At first
your ideas may come in lumps — homely and shape-
less— but no matter ; time and perseverance will
arrange and polish them. Learn to think, and
you will learn to write ; the more you think the
better you will be enabled to express your ideas.

1862.

:NEW ENGLAND FAUMER.

443

Fijr tie New England Farmer.

AGKICULTTTKE IINT THE HAWAIIAN"
ISLANDS.

Makawao, Maui Hawaiian Islands, j
May 27, 1S02. j

My Dear Sir: — A few months since a pro-
fessional gentleman of Honolulu commenced the
planting of rice on some old kalo patches, i. e.,
patches dug some two or three feet deep, made
perfectly level, beaten so hard that they would not
leak, and filled with water. In about four months
the rice was ri]ic, cut, threshed, and the paddy
weighed. It sold for three cents per pound, and
was of a superior quality. It is not certain that
the raising of rice will be as jirofitable for native
Hawaiians as the kalo, but foreigners are confi-
dent that it will be i)roatable for them, and num-
bers of them are going into it. I will keep you
apprised of the results so far as I learn what they
are.

Cotton, we are confident, will yet do well on
the islands. Our climate is adapted to its growth
and the only trouble Ave have hitherto experienced
is the insect in the shape of a small fly. Mr.
Bailey, of Wailuku, experimented for a season,
and he would, perhaps, liave held on much long-
er, but for other labors which demanded his atten-
tion. Could we succeed in this business, it would
be a rich blessing to IIav\"aiians, as there are large
tracts of land which would answer for cotton, that
are now utterly useless. We should also contrib-
ute our mite to the pulling King Cotton from the
throne of our country, and thus bless others while
securing benefit to ourselves.

The Hawaiian Legislature, now in session, will
do something, I hope, to encourage agriculture, as
all, chiefs and people, ])lainly see that here alone is
the nation's hope. Cattle raising, it has been j
thought, would be a profitable business, an.d many
portions of the country are fidl of cattle and
sheep. Horses, also, greatly abound. So plenti-
ful are cattle that the best of beef can be pur-
chased for two and a half cents per pound. Pas-
turage is being ruined by noxious weeds which are
fast filling the country, and which can be de-
stroyed only by cultivation. If this is really so, I
can see clearly, the hand of God in thus arranging
things in reference to our lands. Cultivation
teaches industry. Men must toil who plow, and
sow and reap. The growing of \vheat in my field
has greatly increased the industry of my peojjle,
whereas the tending of cattle and sheep has
taught them to be indolent. I long to have the
people all skilled in the business of turning up the
soil, and filling the earth with precious seed, or
with sugar cane, rice and other things. There
would be less grazing land, and, of course, fewer
horses and cattle. Horses are a nuisance, and
cattle scarcely less so. I mean cattle that are not
needed for working or for milk.

The seasons for three or four years have been
very dry, so much so that sugar cane has greatly
sufi'ered, and many large fields have absolutely
dried up and perislied. On my return about the
middle of December, the v.hole district was sutier-
ing terribly, and one more such season, it was
thought, would about destroy our district. But
the Great llusljandman remembered us in mercy.
Soon it commenced raining, and up to this day we
have been greatly r; freshed with water from the
river of God, and our wheat, sugar cane and gar-

dens have been brought to maturity, and we still
have the refreshing shower.

Our volcanoes are quiet of late, but earthquakes
are not infrequent. Still they are not very severe.
On the whole, with our pleasant climate, fruitful
soil, ample productions, both of a temperate and
tropical region, where the hand of the diligent is
seen, our flowers, fruits and grains of various
kinds, we have much reason for gratitude and
contentment, especially since peace spreads her
wuigs over the whole land, and every man may sit
under his own vine and fig tree, having none to
make afraid. God mercifully grant that it may
speedily be thus in our ov,-n highly favored land,
that you may have peace with righteousness.

I must tell you of a new product, or arti-
cle of commerce, recently brought into notice and
repute among us. It is a fungus, an excrescence
gathered from fallen trees in the forests of Ha-
waii and Maui. It protrudes, chiefly, from the
Kukui, or candle tree, {nlcurltea frihola,) which
is cut down for the purpose of obtaining the fun-
gus. Several pounds may be gathered from a
good-sized tree at one time, and frequent crops
are garnered. After being dried, the article sells
at my place for seven cents per pound. At Hon-
olulu it is worth eight, and sometimes nine cents,
and at China, whither it is sent, it brings fourteen
cents, perhaps more. A great deal of it is gath-
ered in my neighborhood, and large quantities, I
hear, on Hawaii. It is light work, can be gath-
ered by women and children. The natives call it
pe]3eiao laau tree ear. It is used in China for
soups, and answers the purpose of Iceland moss.
It helps the people just now, as money is very
scarce, but as the tree must be cut down ere the
fungus grows, much timber will be destroyed, and
the country impoverished. It is produced from
some other trees, but cliiefly from this one, the
kukui or candle tree. This tree grows large, and
is sometimes sawn into boards, and will become
valuable for finishing inside v.'ork, for Mdien pro-
tected from the weather and well painted it is
nearly as valuable as your bassvi'ood. The nut,
also, produces a tolerable oil for light, and the nut
burns freely, and was formerly the poor mail's
candle. I shall be sorry to see the tree destroyed.
The greatest loss will be that Me shall have less
frequent rains, and thus lose our crops. If spared,
I will write you again after our harvest, and will
tell you of the progress of rice-growing, of cotton,
if any, and of the amount of fungus gathered by
our Hawaiian people. In the meantime, let us
pray for the speedy fulfilment of the glowing pre-
diction found in Isaiah 2 : 4.

Yours, with much respect, J. S. Green.

Keeping Orchards Cultivated. — The "Gar-
dener's Montldy" an excellent journal, published
in Philadelphia, Thomas Meehan, Editor, con-
tained an article a few weeks since, the leading
idea of which was, "that orchards are more suc-
cessful through a series of years laid down in
grass and annually top-dressed, than when culti-
vated and cropped." The Country Gentleman,
and some other papers, dissent from the doctrine,
and urge cultivation. The true course, it seems
to us, lies between the two extremes. We have

444

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct:

never known an orchard to flourish that was con-
tinually in grass, no matter what the other circum-
stances were. Perhaps excessive top-dressing
might make it thrifty, — we have never tried it, —
but it would certainly greatly promote the growth
of the grass. On the other hand, orchard land
continually cultivated for many years, and annu-
ally manured, will so force the trees as to make
them tender and liable to disease, and produce
such a surplus of wood as to prevent their fruit-
ing-

Far the New England Farmer.

HORTICULTUilAIi NOTES.

D. Waldo Lincoln's Garden, Worcester — Its Ornamental and
Fruit Trees — Fire Blight — Aspect of Worcester.

In a visit to Worcester, lately, I had the pleas-
ure of examining the garden of D. Waldo Lin-
coln, Esq. It has been planted from fifteen to
twenty years, and comprises most everything of
interest in the fruit and ornamental tree depart-
ments, with the exception of apples, of which he
has but a comparatively small number. Its area
is about 15 acres, and is tastefully divided into
lawn, pear orchard (and smaller fruits,) and sites for
a cold grapery, two houses and a stable. With the
out-door culture of grapes he is not much encour-
aged, as the frosts are earlier and moi'e severe in
his locality than in the vicinity of Boston. The
highway or northern boundary of his enclosure
has a beautiful and thrifty belt of evergreens —
pines, Norway spruce, &c., — 15 to 20 feet high,
and the pear orchard is still further screened from
the north wind by an internal or special belting of
the same, and that which lines the avenue leading
to the house also answers the same purpose.
These lofty hedges are elegant in summer, and
useful and beautiful in the winter. The matter of
evergreens, in fact, can hardly be overdone. Some
question has been raised Avhether the Norway
spruce would bear the shears and thicken up well
in the character of a hedge ; but it must be set at
rest, for Mr. Lincoln has a thick and very hand-
somely trimmed hedge of these evergreens about
12 feet high. He has also a large collection of
shrubbery and ornamental trees in general, em-
bracing many rare specimens.

The number and variety of the proprietor's pears
are extensive, and most of the trees are thrifty
and in bearing order, showing at present an ex-
cellent crop. Particularly noticed were several
lieavily-ladened Rostiezer trees, five or six inches
in diameter. This excellent variety is a rampant
grower, throwing out branches like a rocket ; but
age gives the tree a tolerably well-balanced and
compact head. Ilis Flemish Beauties were also
very attractive, with their large, brown fruit, free
from cracks, struggling to hold uj) their branches.
The Fulton Pear was also noticed ; and although
the trees were not so attractive as some others,
Mr. L. regards it as one of the best — superior to
the BufTum, another small, native, hardy fruit.
Very good specimens of the Beurre Clairgeau, and
also of the Maria Louise, were seen. The latter
were on large standards, and the proprietor re-
gards the variety as one of the best. lie has also
many of the new sorts of pears, not yet in bearing.

■lUt i* n""' nqiiifiil to jioticp tVio lio--'-." ■<vhii-'l-. tlie

fire blight was making among Mr. Lincoln's pear
trees — many large branches of medium-sized trees
being black with it. It would seem that Ave have
no remedy for this evil, although it is recommend-
ed that the affected parts be immediately cut away,
some inches below the disease, and burnt. For
appearance, at least, this should be done.

Fire blight is supposed to be a disease of the
circulation, caused by hot and damp weather. And
it is thought that trees of rapid growth, or of a
plethoric habit, are more liable than others to the
attack. Hence it has been recommended to plant
in soil of moderate richness, or to avoid high cul-
ture. But rather than be annoyed by slow growth
most cultivators would take the risk of the blight,
even if it might kill some of their trees outright.

But I am inclined to question the theory of
"plethora," the superabundance of sap, or of rap-
id growth. From my own observation, newly-
grafted trees, throwing out a large head of very
luxuriant and sappy wood, are no more liable (if
so much so,) than large and matured trees. If such
were the fact, I have several trees that are mira-
cles of escape. Indeed, in this region, I have not
noticed the blight. Whether east winds or the
spray of the ocean have any favorable influence,
may be worthy of inquiry.

Taking a broad view of the laws of nature, how-
ever, disease and decay are the normal condition
of vegetation, as well as of men ; and hence we
shall be very likely to be foiled in the preservation
of all of our trees — whatever our skill — and taught
to submit stoically to necessity.

Worcester is a beautiful inland city, noted for
its thrift and cleanliness, and conspicuous for its
many handsome residences, with their tasty en-
closures of flowers, fruit and shrubbery. It also
has a large share of handsome public buildings,
and much attention is here given to education.
Several railroads terminate or form connections
here, also — the well-conducted and well-paying
"Boston and Worcester" undoubtedly adding as
much as (if not more than) any other to its pros-
peritv. D. w. L.

West Medford, Aug., 1862.

The Natural Wonders of Kentucky. — The
geological formation of the country is singular.
Ponds, with no visible inlet or outlet are very fre-
quent. Holes in the ground, called "sink holes,"
are very common, and some of these lead to the
great caves which abound in this region. Boys
pick up load-stone from the ground at most any
point. Surveyors are often ti-oul)led from this
cause. "Sink holes" extend into the earth from
ten to three hundred feet, with sometimes a spring
or small stream at the bottom. Two of these near
Munfordsville excite a good deal of curiosity.
One, on an eminence called the Frenchman's
Knob, has been descended two hundred and sev-
enty-five feet, without discovering any indications
of a bottom. Another, near the town, is some
seventy-five feet in diameter at the top, inclines
like a funnel to the depth cf thirty feet. At this
point is an aperture twelve feet in diameter, lead-
ing to unknown depths below. A stone or rock
cast in, returns no sound indicative of having
found bottom. Near the same place is a spring
that rises twelve inches at noon, every day, with
as o-i-oit rott'ulnn^i' ■■'4 tb'^ t^'i'i "asses the zenith.

1S62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

445

PliO-WEBS AND FABMING.

In our late ramble into the Western portion of
the State, of which a brief account was given in
the last week's Farmer, we frequently noticed an
evidence of taste and refinement among the peo-
ple in the cultivation of flowers. We were often
pleasautl)' surprised to find so much attention
given to a matter that did not promise to place
cash directly in the pocket. The love of flowers,
and the cultivation of them, is not only an evi-
dence of taste and refinement, but an evidence
that a true sentiment is in the heart, that a love
for the beautiful has dawned there, and that a de-
sire for progress and the possession of a general
intelligence has been awakened in the mind. One
would scarcely love flowers, merely because they
look beautifully. He who could go no farther
than this, would scarcely have perception suffi-
cient to know that they were beautiful ! No.
There is a deeper and holier sentiment underlying
the love of flowers. It is, that attention to them
elevates and purifies the mind, softens asperities,
and gives the dusty walks of life many a charm
and grace that cannot be found where they are
lacking. They have a gentle and refining influ-
ence upon children, tending, somehow, to polish
their manners and inspire them with noble views
of life. "It is a law of our being that we become
attached to those subjects upon which we have be-
stowed labor, and over which we have expended
care. We love the trees our own hands have
planted, the vines we have cultivated and trailed
over our doorways, and over the trellis our own
hands have constructed, and our attachment be-
comes very strong."

All along our way, for more than a hundred
miles through a broken and rough country, we
passed the most unpretending dwellings, graced
with a variety of seasonable and beautiful flow-
ers. Sometimes the dahlia was peeping through
the palings of the front yard fence, or some aspir-
ing member of this family looked gaily over it as
we passed along. The showy phloxes, with their
bright faces, spread themselves in profusion and
glistened in the sunshine which gladdened them,
while the less pretentious nasturtiums of various
colors kept nearer the ground, and opened a flower
wherever a stream of sunshine could find its way
in. So on the gate posts, in flower pots, or even
in rude wooden vessels set there, trailing plants
were growing, hiding blemishes in the wood work,
and making the dwelling a thousand times more
attractive than it could be without them.

But this is not all. Where there were flowers
we thought we saw more order about the build-
ings ; an air of tidiness, thrift and comfort, and
better farming generally. Was it so, or was it
fancy ! At any rate, our way was made pleasant
by the flowers, and when we entered the dwellings

of those who cultivated and cared for them, we
found their inmates intelligent, hospitable, and not
unfrequently imaginative and poetical. Strange
as it may seem to some, these are two qualities
greatly needed on the farm, and their growth
there would tend to keep a thousand sons and
daughters from deserting the old homestead, and
a soil that is capable and willing to yield a larger
per ccntage of proflt than is usually realized in
most other departments of industry.

"No man can cultivate a love for the flowers
of the field,' breathe their fragrance, and admire
their beauty, without being the subject of that
softening influence necessary in forming a perfect
and symmetrical character. The refinement thus
secured does not at all diminish his mental vigor
and strength, but renders them more attractive,
and is essential to the perfect development."

CUTTING TIMBER AND "WOOD.

The durability of timber, all admit, is more or
less influenced by the time of cutting, but all are
not so well agreed what is the best time. Every
farmer must have observed that chestnut rails in
his fences, in some instances, remain entirely
sound for many years ; that there seems but little
difference in the durability of the sap, or outer
part of the tree, and the heart or inner part. All
becomes hard. The bark, in time, comes off", but
shows no decay or worm-holes. In other instances,
the sap soon becomes rotten and abounds in
worms, and the whole of the rail soon perishes.

So of shingles. In some lots the sap will last
well, in others, the first shower will show a differ-
ence of appearance, and after a few months it will
let the water through the roof.

Walnut and beech timlier sometimes become
worm eaten (powder post,) in a few months. Other
specimens will lie with them and remain untouch-
ed for years. In this market a load of wood will
be offered, beech, birch or maple, with split sur-
faces and ends bright and free from mildew, cor-
roborating the assurance of the owner that it has
been cut but a few months, and that it was piled
immediately where it had a feir ex])Osure to the
sun and air, and yet when you handle it you find
it light, when you saw and split it you find it
changed in texture and color, and its elasticity all
gone. In the fire it passes away rapidly with but
little blaze and but little heat. Other lots of the
same species of wood, cut an equal length of time,
and seasoned under the same circumstances, and
ahowing no better on the surface, will be found
much heavier on handling, unchanged in structure
and color and highly elastic as the saw and axe
expose fresh surfoces, and giving a bright, lively
fire when you burn it, and worth from a quarter
to a third, and sometimes a half more than the
first lot. These are all familiar instances, and all
depend on the season when the trees are cut. K
we are correct in ascribing such results to the
time of cutting the timber, it is a question of very
great importance, "What is the best time ?"

We are not very confident of our ability to an-
swer the question, but will make one or two sug-
gestions and leave it for the present, asking for
facts from the observation of our readers.

446

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

In the first place, it seems in some way connect-
ed with the sap in the wood at the time of cutting,
We should like to see the results of a series of
experiments, showing the difference in amount of
sajj in the same species of wood of equal age and
thrift, at different seasons of the jear. We tliink
the least would be found when the tree was in full
leaf. We know that wood-land cut over at this
time gives but few sprouts, and that if you wish
to destroy bushes, this is the time to cut them,
while if you wish to remove the timber from a
piece of ground and have it grow up again, the
winter is the time to do this. The tapping of the
maple in early spring shows that there is a large
amount of sap wintered in the tree, both body and
roots. Let a person cut a green and a dry tree at
this season, and he will find, by comparison that
there is a vast amount of sap frozen up in the in-
terstices of the green wood. As the leaf is devel-
oped, the sap ceases to flow from a wounded ])lacc,
and when the leaf is perfected, both on the old
twigs and those of the jjresent year's growth, and
the growth of new wood is completed for the sea-
son, there is an exhaustion of activity. Cut the
tree and it sends up, if any, a few sickly s|)routs.
The timber, on the other hand, dries quickly, and
we think it more durable. "We leave the subject
for the present, hoping to hear from others. — Dr.
Stephen Reed, late Editor of the Fittsjield
"Chdturist."

CEMENT PIPES.

J. N. Garretson inquires for the best mode of
constructing hydraulic cement pipes. There are
two distinct modes in practice — one, forming the
pipes simply of water lime cement, with a bore
through it ; and the other, laying small tubular
tile surrounded with the cement. In either case
the water lime must be of undoubted quality, which
has been proved, and the sand clean, coarse and
sharp ; these must be well mixed dry, and moist-
ened as needed. The easiest mode is to use tile
where it can be had, the smaller the better, an
inch and a fourth bore Avould bo just the thing.
AVe have used an inch and three-fourths with suc-
cess. This mode answers well Avhere tlierc is a
considerable flow of water, and not much head or
pressure at any place. The ditch was cut to a
narrow and smooth trough at the bottom ; then an
inch of freshly jirepared cement or mortar spread
quickly and solidly along it. The tile was then
laid closely end to end, and pressed a little into
the mortar. Then with a trowel the sides and top
were covered with the mortar about three-fourths
of an inch thick. A rope covered with cloth so as
to be just large enough to fit the bore, was drawn
through it as the Avork progressed, to wipe out the
inside smoothly, and to prevent mortar from pro-
truding through the crack. After drying enough,
say a few weeks, the ditch was filled with earth.
It has been about two years since this pipe was
laid, and it is now as hard as stone, the cement
being much harder than the hard burnt tile, and
would now bear considerable pressure — the first
year it would not. The smaller the tile the less is
the danger of bursting under a head of water, the
less cement is needed, and the cheaper the con-
struction, A moderate share of skill will make a
good pipe in this way.

The other mode consists of laying a mass of ce-
ment around a plug or cylindrical piece of wood.

which is drawn along as the work progresses, leav-
ing a bore in the hardened mass. The chief care
is to draw the plug gently, and at the right time
to prevent any cracking of the cement. The new
mode of using India rubber tubes for forniiiig the
bore to be kept inflated with air except at the time
it is withdrawn, would obviously prevent cracking
better than the common mode. — Country Gentle-
man.

For the Ne?c England Fanner.
ABOUT NATUBAL HISTOBT.

Mr. Editor : — I find in your columns of the
date of August 2, an explanation from, your cor-
respondent who writes over the signature of "Far-
mer," for which I return due acknowledgments.
It seems that what 1 mistook for sneers was his
peculiar method of asking for information, as the
same style characterises his second letter. He
has a-pparently been unfortunate in his acquaint-
ance with '^piu).dils" who had the bad taste to air
their vocabulary, without the requisite learning to
define it, wliile he himself seenxs to have shown as
little judgment when seeking information of a sci-
entific botanist as to the qualities and uses of
plants, as he would in going to a tailor for a new
set of wagon harness.

The student of natural history who maintains
"that a lobster is an insect," stands, by popular
consent, among the first of naturalists, and needs
not that I should take up the gauntlet in behalf
of his theory. "Farmer" cannot have read the pa-
pers, when he makes the statement that nothing
of a practical nature was learned last year from
students of the science, with regard to the army-
worm, grain aphis, &c. He must have entirely
overlooked the full and accurate description and
plain directions for relief given by Br. Asa Fitch,
of New York, in the Country Gentleman, and oth-
er papers, and published in full in the Ag. Re-
port of that State ; the long and elaborate articles
of Mr, B. _D. Walsh, of Illinois, of Dr. Kirkpat-
rick, of Ohio, and Mr. A. S. Packard, of the State
of Maine. On page 41-i of the xV. E. Farmer for
the month of September, 1861, he will find a de-
scription of the army-worm and grain-aphis, in the
plainest language, together with methods of de-
stroying them, which have not only been tried with
the greatest success by farmers themselves, but
also corroborated and reiterated by the highest au-
thorities on Economical Entomology in the coun-
try. The inquiry, "What birds bring up their
broods on caterpillars at the rate of from 50 to 100
a day ?" I will answer in as sim]fle language as
possible, lest I fall under the terrible displeasure
of friend "Farmer," as expressed in the word
"pundit," and wherever a scientific appellation is
made use of, will also give its equivalent in plain
English.

The Baltimore Oriole, or Golden Robin, which
devours even the hairy caterpillar of the ajjple
tree, — the common robin, which I have myself
seen during one hour carry to its nest upwards of
twenty caterpillars of the Bibio albipennia, or stout-
built, white-winged gnat, — one of the most injuri-
ous insects to our grass crops ; five caterpillars of
the Afjrotis tesselata, which signifies "the check-
ered rustic," one of the commonest "cut-worms,"
and one huge caterpillar of the ceratomia qiiadri-
cornis, which means "the four-horued hawk-moth,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

447

with horns on the shoulders," and which ravages
the ehii trees in this part of the country. The
sparrow has been found by careful observers to
destroy more than three thousand insects per
week, while breeding ; including not only cater-
pillars, but flies, beetles, bugs, and other perfect
insects. I made no "offer gyutuitoiishj to teach"
"Farmer," but to exchange infoymation, and hav-
ing answered his queries, will be obliged to him
in tarn first, to inform me what facts he can pro-
duce in support of the belief in M-hich he indulges
with regard to the injury caused by the wood-
pecker, and second, to favor me with his name
and address, unless there is some important rea-
son lor concealment. Fkancis G. Sanborn.
Andover, August, 1862.

GYMNASTICS AS A MEANS OF PHYSI-
CAL HEALTH.

The following remarks ai-e taken from Dr. Dio
Lewis' book, "The New Gymnastics," just pub-
lished. They form the preface to a German work
on Dumb Bell Exercises, wliich Dr. Lewis has in-
corporated in. his volume. The exercises referred
to are all to be found in "The New Gymnastics :"

Man's physical integrity must ever depend upon
his fidelity to nature. Through the deteriorating
influences of civilization, he has departed far from
nature. If he woitld restore his life-energy, he
must, like the prodigal son, return.

Health is the most precious of earthly posses-
sions. He who has it, has all things ; he who
xBcks it, has nothing. Men seek with vehement
earnestness, external things. How few recognize
the value of health. Men seem, to care as little
for their bodies as the snail for its shell. The
world is full of misery. Physical deformity and
suffering are increasing with fearful rapidity.
Thank God, the great physiological revolution
which is to restore man to his pristine condition,
is inaugurated.

As in the jn-osecution of all other reforms, we
are met on every hand by prejudice. We are
told that man was not designed to enjoy uninter-
rupted health ; that in this life, he must be the
victim of disease and suffering ; that nature will
give all needed superintendence to the body.
True, they say, it is possible to ward off danger,
but quite chimerical to undertake the prevention
of disease by a development of the powers within.
Hufeland took this view of the subject. But the
physiological reformer of the present hour afhrms
that the physical organism is susceptible of iiulef-
inite imin-ovement ; that it can be made by cer-
tain hygienic processes so vigorous and resistant,
that amid diseases and dangers it may pass
through the fire unscathed.

How shall such invigoration of our bodies be se-
cured ? So far as the answer can be given in one
word, it is, gymnastics. In the animal body, ex-
ercise is the principal law of development. By
gymnastics, we mean system of exercises which
the greatest wisdom and largest experience have
devised, as best adapted to the complete develop-
ment of the physical man. Ideler was the first to
comprehend the principle of gymnastics, and their
application to the training of the body. He saw
their infinite wortn in the education of youth ; in

the preservation of the health of adults ; and in
the cure of many diseases.

Gymnastics are valuable to all persons, but es-
pecially to clerks, students, sedentary artisans,
and still more particulary, to those, who in addi-
tion to sedentary habits, perform exhaustive in-
tellectual labor. With the latter class, sufi'ering
from indigestion and nervous irritability, nothing
but a wise system of gymnastic training can pre-
vent the early failure of the powers of life. We
believe that to such persons this little work will
come as a most welcome friend. We believe that
it may assist them in returning to health and na-
ture. Do not, friends, v>'e implore you, refuse its
kind offices by such pleas as "want of time," the
"great difficulty of the feats," "age," "rigidity of
limbs," or "want of strength;" for if these excuses
are well founded in your case, the exercises de-
scribed in this little work will prove to you of
great value.

The reader will find descriptions and illustra-
tions of a large number of the most valuable ex-
ercises with (lamb bells. The descriptions are so
simple that there will be no difficulty in under-
standing them.

It is hoped that in this little book many per-
sons will find a simple means, through which they
may secure a full use of all their powers. May
they find it a source of health and happiness.

THE BED OP THE SEA.

Take up a pinch of the soil over which lies two
thousand five hundred fathoms of sea water, sub-
mit it to a microscope, and behold, though it
looks and feels like fine clay, it does not contain a
particle of sand, earth or gravel. Every atom
under the lens tells of life and living things. The
bed of the Atlantic is strewn with the bones and
shells of the myriads of creatures inhabiting its
waters — creatures so numerous that figures tail to
convey an idea, or the mind to embrace their vast
.profusion. The navigator traversing the blue sea
sails for days in a fleet ship through waters so
thickly covered with small pulpy sea-nettles, or*
meduste, that it looks to him like a "countless
meadow in yellow leaf." The savant, following
on his trail, places a single one of the sea-blubbers
under a lens, and in one of its nine stomachs finds
seventy thousand flinty shells of microscopic dia-
tomacse, one of the many animalcula* of the sea.
Thus each creature in these thousand squai'e
leagues of medusae was sucking from the millions
of these diminutive creatures, and ejecting their
shells, to fall, in a gentle yet perpetual shower,
down to the bed of the ocean, and there, in time,
form strata of siiicious and chalky matter for fu-
ture geologists to ponder over. And, remember,
that upon all these medusa^ pi-ey legions of bigger
creatures, and that into these helpless colonies
sails the huge whale with cavernous mouth, and
gulps down as many of them at every feast as they
do of the minute diatomaca?.

Fine Wheat. — We have upon our desk as
handsome a specimen of wheat as one could ask
to see. It grew upon the farm of Mr. S. M. Ba-
ker, of Hillsboro' Bridge, N. H. We hope Mr.
Baker Avill send us some account of the wheat
itself, and of his mode of cultui'e.

448

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

For the New England Farmer.
•WIN-TEE. 'WHEAT.

Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent from Leo-
minster inquires about the expediency of plowing
in v.inter grain, and refers to the experience of a
brother farmer in plowing in wheat about the last
of August or the first of September. I would un-
hesitatingly advise him to be guided by the expe-
rience of his brother farmer.

There is much more spring wheat cultivated in
this part of the State, than there is of winter
wheat. The reason assigned is, that wheat sowed
in the fall, is apt to be winter-killed. But obser-
vation has long since convinced me that if wheat
is sowed early, say from the 20th of August to the
10th of September, so that it may form a good
i-oot, and the root is well covered in the soil, that
the crop is quite as sure as spring wheat. If it is
sowed early and makes a large growth of leaf, the
leaves are a great protection. In order to get this
growth of leaves, the ground must be mellow and
well manured. The best way to put in winter
wheat is with a light horse plow, guaged so as to
run at a uniform depth, not less than three inches,
and not over four. This should be followed by a
roller. At the season referred to, the land is
worked easier than in the spring, and form work
is less urgent just at that time, between haying
and harvesting. The grain starts immediately,
and will grow more in one week then, than in two
weeks in April and the first half of May. Cattle
should not be allowed to run upon it in October
or November, for the reason that I have already
alluded to, that the leaves are M'anted as a matting
to protect the crowns of the plants. Another ob-
jection is, that the cattle tread the ground and
leave it uneven.

Another reason for the culture of winter wheat
may perhaps be suggested by the prevalence of
the wheat aphis during the present season. Win-
ter wheat makes its growth and matures earlier
than spring wheat, and will ])robably be less injured
by this insect than sjn-ing wheat. Experience and
further observation must determine this point.

Winter wheat will, I think, be found less ex-
hausting to the soil than spring wheat. The rea-
son of this is probably that the leaves made in the
autumn, decay in the spring, and constitute a top-
dressing of considerable value. I have for three
years been urging upon our farmers the expedi-
ency of cultivating winter wheat, and of putting it
in with the plow, the latter part of August, and I
am glad to see that practical men are being led by
experience to the same conclusion.

Concord, Aug. 21, 1862. J. Reynolds.

Preserving Daulia Tubers. — A correspon-
dent of the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage
Gardener, -wvites as follows: "May I be permitted
to olTer a simple suggestion relative to the preser-
vation of Dahlia roots during winter ? Though
carefully dried before storiiig away in the autumn,
I used continually to lose them by the rotting of
the crown, till at length the idea one day occurred
to me that the mischief was occasioned through
the decay of the long stalk left attached to the
tubers ; this becoming partially charged with fluid,
kept the crown constantly wet. My remedy has
been not to leave more than four inches of stalk ;
from this to scrape the whole of the outer covering

or bark, and at the base to make a small opening
which permits any watery deposit to escape. The
result has been that I have preserved the whole
of my tubers, while experienced gardeners around
me have complained of loss, notwithstanding that
every precaution from damp or frost had been
taken."

EXPLAWATIOlSr OF TERMS USED IN
DESCRIBING FRUITS.

As the season is at hand when fruit is ripening,
and the various kinds of apples and pears, espec-
ially, are under discussion, we give below, from
Coles' Fruit Book, some explanation of the terms
used in describing them. They will be found to
be plain and easily understood by all who will
give them a very little attention.

Fruits are generally described in familiar lan-
guage ; a few technical terms, only, are used.

The position of fruits, as represented by engra-
vings, is stem upward, as it usually hangs on the
tree ; yet, in description, the stem end is called
the base or bottom, as it is next to the branch or
tree, and the blossom end is called the top, sum-
mit, crown, apex, or eye.

Sizes are expressed by comparative terms ; as,
extremely large — very large — large — rather, or
tolerably large — large medial — medial — small me-
dial— rather small — small — very small — extreme-
ly small. These form a graduation of sizes.

Forms of fruit are multifarious, varying, all the
Avay, from one extreme to another. The follow-
ing figures and remarks will aid the inexperienced.

Bound — This simple form is most common to
fruits, and other substances. It is the basis on
which other forms are calculated. Figure 1.
Black Hamburgh Grape. Slight deviations are
Eoundish, as the peach.

Apph'form is the most common modification
of the circle. The base or stem end is the larger.
Fig. 2. Baldwin Apple.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Round.

Ajipleform.

Pearfurin.

Pearform., or Pyriform, is the reverse of apple-
form, as the base is the smaller. Fig. o. An-
drews Pear. Pears generally taper more to the
small end than apples.

All other Forms are modifications of these three
leading forms.

Oral, the circle modified or elongated length-
wise. Fig. 4. Smith's Orleans Plum; White
Muscat Grape.

Flat, the circle elongated crosswise. Fig. 5.
Briggs' Auburn A])ple, Rambo Apple.

Ohlon;/, the height greater than the diameter.
Fig. 6. Porter yVpple ; Coe's Golden Drop Plum ;
Portugal Quince.

Ovate, the form of an egg ; the base the lai'ger
end. Fig. 7. AVilliams Apple ; High Bush
Blackberry is long-ovate.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

449

Fig. 6

Flat.

Obion".

Obucate.

Obovate, ovate form revei-sed. Fig^. 8. Osborn's
Summer Pear ; Blue Irapei-atrico Plum ; Cran-
berry.

Coniccd, tapering much, and straightly, or near-
ly so, to the top or calyx. Fig. 9. Burr's New
Pine Strawbei-ry.

Tiirhinate, top-shaped. Fig. 10. Dearborn's
Seedling Pear.

Fig. 9.

Conical.

Turbinate. Ileart-shuued.

Heart-shaped, shape of a heart. A form pecu-
liar to cherries. Fig. 11. Elton Cherry.

Angular, elongated diagonally, one side the
lower, the other the higher. Fig. 12. Newton
Pippin.

A combination or modification of these forms,
is expressed by a combination of these and various
other terms ; as, rouudish-flat, flattish-round, flat-
tish - conical, roundish - conical, oblong - conical,
roundish-ovate, oblong-ovate, obtuse-pyrifurm,
acute-pyriform, obovate-pyriform, turbinate-pyri-
form, roundish-pyriform, tlattish-roundish-coaical,
roundish - acute - pyriform, obtuse - heart - shaped,
acute-heart-shaped, roundish-heart-shaped, &c.

Calville-sliaped, prominently ribbed and irreg-
ular.

Ribbed, having moderate protuberances on the
sides.

Undulating or Waved, having very gentle swel-
lings on the sides, or in the cavity or basin.

Colors of fruit are described in terms so famil-
iar, that they need no explanation. They should
represent the fruit as it appears when ripe or per-
fect for use.

The Stem is also called stalk, and the hollow-
in which it is set is called

Cavity, which is of various forms.

The Calyx is the remains of tlie blossoms, and
the parts of it are called segments. The calyx is
generally in a depression or

Basin, which is of various sha])es, and is smooth,
waved, furrowed, plaited, or notched.

Suture is a hollow or furrow on stone fruit, ex-
tending lengthwise round, nearly round, mostly
round, half round, or partially round it. It is pe-
culiar to peaches and plums.

Mr. a. Saul, of Newburg.— We are sorry to
learn of the death of this well-known horticultur-
ist. As partner in the firm of A. J. Downing &
Co., Mr. Saul became widely known; and as the
active man in the nursery branch, caused the New-
burg Nurseries to reach a distinguished position

in the trade. When the firm was dissolved by the
withdrawal of Mr. Downing, Mr. Saul occupied
the position of head of the firm, and we believe
nearly entire proprietor, Avitli varying success
through these disastrous times, until the 2oth of
June, the day of his sudden death. He had a
slight fall, on his grounds, a few days previous, but
it was deemed nothing serious, lie was, however,
injured internally, and died from this cause.

Fur the New England Farmer.
RETROSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Agriculture in Our Common Schools. —
On page 3.52 of current volume of this journal,
(monthly edition,) and in the weekly issue of July
12th, the reader may find an article with the above
heading, from the pen of John Golusbury^ a
gentleman who^usually writes instructively, and
with admirable good judgment. Upon the pres-
ent occasion, however, his good judgment seems
to have been asleep, as not a few readers, it may
be presumed, will be inclined to think, as well as
the writer of this, after a careful and candid peru-
sal of the following strictures.

Mr. Goldsbury presents for the consideration of
readers of this journal the two following ques-
tions, viz : "Ought agriculture to be taught in
our common schools ? In their present state and
condition, can it be successfully taught there, with-
out doing more harm than good ?" He then pro-
ceeds to off. r a few reasons why, as he thinks, ag-
riculture ought not to be introduced, as a study,
into our common schools.

The first objection offei'ed by Mi". G., though
not formally stated as such, is the remark that our
common schools were established for the purpose
of teaching reading, writing, spelling and defining
of words, grammar, or the use and power of lan-
guage, arithmetic and geography ; and that the
design of the education of children in common
schools is, not to fit them for any particular call-
ing, whether it be that of a farmer, a merchant, a
mechanic, or a manufacturer, but, by a thorough
training and drilling in the above studies, to pre-
pare them for any occupation or pursuit. Now
this jn'eliminary remark, or first objection to the
introduction of agriculture as a study into our
common schools, is itself objectionable, as being
nothing more than an erroneous assumption, if
^Ir. G. means to imply that common schools have
been established, or are maintained for the pur-
pose of teaching onlg and solely the particular
branches of study which he has specified. It is
true, indeed, and "i)ity 'tis, 'tis true," that the par-
ticular branches of learning named by Mr. G.
form, generally, nearly the entire list of studies
pursued in many, perhaps most of our common
schools ; but as no one will be daring enough to
assert that the enlightened legislators of any State
ever established schools, or that intelligent pa-
rents ever maintained schools, in which children
vv'ere, by any authority lohatever, to be limited to
such a small and ciixumscribed range of studies,
then it still remains nothing else than an errone-
ous assumption that our common schools were es-
tablished for the purpose of teaching only the par-
ticular branches named, or any similar limited
range of studies ; and furthermore, the objection,
based upon this mere assumption, to the effect

450

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

that agriculture ought not to be introduced, as a
study, into our common schools, must be "null and
void, and of no force -whatever."

The true view in relation to this question of the
purpose for which common schools have been es-
tablished, and are still maintained, seems to be
this — that enlightened legislators established them,
and intelligent parents and educationists maintain
them, in order that the children of the State — each
young and rising generation — might have an op-
portunity of acquiring all the knowledge, and of
being trained in all the habits of correct and vig-
orous thinking or judging, which might in any
way, prepare them to fulfil well and worthily all
the duties and offices which they might be called
upon to perform, as individuals, citizens, and
members of society generally, in after life. Many
or most schools may, indeed, come short of this
high and comprehensive design, but nevertheless,
this is the end and object of their creation ; and
consequently every study may, with perfect pro-
priety, be introduced into a common school, which
has any tendency or power, by its increasing
knowledge or invigorating mind, to fit and pre-
pare the young for the worthy discharge of the du-
ties, offices, responsibilities and transactions or
business of adult life. It is a maxim generally ac-
knowledged as true, and of authority, that chil-
dren should learn, when young, what will enable
them to execute well what they will have to do
when men and women. And as a knowledge of
soils, manures, the growth of vegetables and other
things embraced in agriculture, must be useful to
almost all, there seems to be no reason why this
should not be studied in schools, which would not
as obviously exclude a good many other studies
which are now among the customary studies of the
best schools. All men and women have gardens
of some kind, if no more, and would not a knowl-
edge of this and other branches of agriculture be
of far more practical value in adult life, than a
knowledge of botany, chemistry, astronomy, alge-
bra, geometry, trigonometry, and some other
branches of learning generally pursued in schools ?
As it might be too great a tax upon the patience
of the readers of this journal to take up time and
space to review and refute in detail all the consid-
erations used by Mr. G. to enforce his objections
to the introduction of agriculture, as a study, into
our common schools, I will name, at present, on-
ly one of the several things which might be urged
in reply to the statements made by him in the ar-
ticle under notice. There is, then, one thing im-
plied or taken for granted in all of the objections
urged by Mr. G., which, as it is an erroneous sup-
position, vitiates the whole of his rather surpris-
ing plea. This mistake, running throughout the
remarks of Mr. G., is this — that if agriculture is
to be introduced as a study into our schools, it
must be a study obligatory upon all who attend
these schools, or, in other words, a compulsory,
and not, like botany, chemistry, algebra, 8cc., a
voluntary or elective study, which only those are
to engage in who may wish to do so, or who may
be desired to do so by their jjarents or guardians.
Almost all the studies attended to in our schools,
are elective or voluntary, not compulsory, and why
Mr. G. should have taken up the supposition that
agriculture, if introduced at all, is to be a study
obhgatory on all, seems difficvdt to be accounted
for. It might, indeed, be easily accounted for in

a lawyer who was employed to do his utmost in
making out a case, or in one who was so thorough-
ly prejudiced and one-sided as to be utterly blind-
ed to the truth and the reality of things, but we
cannot allow ourselves to place Mr. G. in either
of these positions. But however this supposition
came to be entertained, it runs through all that
iilr. G. has written on the subject, and renders all
his objections of little, or rather of no force what-
ever. The question of the expediency of introduc-
ing agriculture as a study in schools is, therefore,
now open for discussion. Who will speak in favor
of it ? More Anon.

EXTRACTS AND KEPLIES.

LICE ON FOWLS.

I wish to inquire of you where the black sul-
phur of which you speak in the Farmer, as a rem-
edy for lice on poultry, can be purchased ? I have
tried to obtain it at several different places, but
without success. Ey an early reply you will much
oblige your subscriber, f. f. s.

Needham, Aug., 1862.

Remarks. — The article which we published
was taken, we think, from an English paper. On
inquiry we learn that the word "black" should be
lac, that is, the millc of sulphur. It is called lac
sulphur because it is washed in alcohol, which
takes away a large amount of the sulphur odor.
See remedies for lice on fowls in the article below.

I wish to inquire through your valuable paper,

1. What is a safe cure for lice on fowls ?

2. Are you acquainted with a book called "The
Manual of Agriculture," and if so, would you ad-
vise one with a small farm to buy it ?

3. What is the best food, except honey, to feed
bees with, and also, what is the best way to feed
them ?

By answering the above you will oblige a new
subscriber. p.

Beverly, Aug., 1862.

Remarks. — Lice on Fowls. — Keep everything
perfectly clean, and keep them in perfect condi-
tion so far as feed will do it. Oil the roosts once
a month with any soft, clean oil that has no salt
in it. Occasionally rub a little under their
wings, on the top of their heads, but in very small
quantity. Provide plenty of wood ashes for them
to roll in.

2. Buy the "Manual of Agriculture," by all
means, and become master of all the facts it pre-
sents.

3. Food for Bees. — Next to our honey. West
India is the best. It can be bought for about
$1,50 per gallon. The best way to feed bees is in
little troughs directly over their comb — but you
cannot do it in common hives. Put straws into
a saucer and turn honey into it and set it under
the hive, and see that robbers do not come for it.
Torrey's Maine State Hive has all the accommo-
dation for feeding bees, without their being visit-
ed by neighboring swarms.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

451

THE POTATO ONION.

In a late paper I noticed a communication from
South Danvcrs which spoke of the culture of the
potato onion. I am curious to know how exten-
sively this variety is grown ; and whether there is
any prohability of its supplying the want of on-
ions raised from the seed. The writer speaks of
its having been grown by Mr. P. L. Osborn and
several others, but to what extent it is grown no
intimation is given. If anything can be discov-
ered that will restore the onion crop, it will be
hailed as a God-send throughout the land.

August 20, 1862. Inquirer.

Remarks. — We join our correspondent in this
inquiry, and shall be glad to receive a full ac-
count of the culture of the potato onion from Mr.
Osborn, or any other gentleman possessing the
facts.

MINERALS IN MUCK.

In draining a swamp, I threw from the ditches
a kind of muck, which, after being for a time ex-
posed to the atmosphere, frosted over with a sub-
stance which tastes like alum. No vegetation
starts upon it. Is it of any value as a fertilizer,
and if so, how should it be used ?

West Brookjield, Aug., 1882. W. B. Stone.

Remarks. — We have often cases such as you
describe. The muck is strongly impregnated with
some mineral substance which is sufficiently pow-
erful when the muck lies in mass to prevent any
vegetable growth upon it. It may, however, be
very useful when used in small quantities on land
unlike itself; but this will depend upon what the
substance is. Will you try it, in a small way, on
a piece of grass land, this fall ? We should be
glad to receive a sample of it, if you can send it
■without trouble. It would not be safe to mingle
this muck with barn manures, or to use it exten-
sively until its qualities are ascertained.

MILK FROM THREE AYRSHIRE COWS.

I send you a statement of the milk from three
Ayrshire cows, not because the amount is extraor-
dinary, but to elicit information, and thus give
your readers an opportunity to compare the yield
of milk with that of other breeds.

"Beauty," 8 years old, imported by me when
one year old, average weight of milk for seven
days, fi;om June 19 to 2.5, 44 pounds. Calved
Miy 1.

"Bessie," 4 years old, bred by me out of a cow
I imported, average weight of milk same time for
seven days, 47| pounds. Yield for one day, 49
61-100 pounds. Calved May 12.

"Tulip," 5 years old, bred by me out of a cow I
imported, average weight of milk seven days from
June 28 to July 4, 42 pounds. Calved May 31.
Total 133^- pounds, the three averaging a trifle
over 44.^ pounds each per day.

It should be borne in mind that the Ayrshire
cow is not large. The only one I ever weighed
was "Beauty," whose live weight, two years ago,
■was 860 pounds. The other two may be some-
thing heavier. L. S'CvEETSER.

Amherst, Aug. 8, 1862.

THE TOOLS GREAT MEN "WORK WITH.

It is not tools that make the workman, but the
trained skill and perseverance of the man himself.
Indeed it is proverbial that the bad workman
never yet had a good tool. Some one asked Opie
by what wonderful process he mixed his colors.
"1 mix them with my brains, sir," was his reply.
It is the same with every workman who would ex-
cel. Ferguson made marvellous things — such as
his wooden clock, that accurately measured the
hours — by means of a common penknife, a tool in
everybody's hand, but then everybody is not a
Ferguson. A ])an of water and two thermometers
were the tools by which Dr. Black discovered la-
tent heat ; and a prism, a lens, and sheet of paste-
board, enabled Newton to unfold the composition
of light and the origin of color.

An eminent foreign savant once called upon
Dr. WoUaston, and requested to be shown over
his laboratories, in which science had been en-
riched by so many important discoveries, when the
Doctor took him into a study, and, pointing to an
old tea-tray, containing a few watch-glasses, test-
papers, a small balance, and a blow-pipe, said :
"There is all the laboratory I have."

Stothard learnt the art of combining colors by
closely studying butterflies' wings ; he v.^ould often
say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny
insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served
Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas. Bewick first
practised drawing on the cottage-walls of his na-
tive villatje, which he covered with his sketches in
chalk ; and Benjamin West made his first brushes
out of the cat's tail.

Ferguson laid himself down in the fields at
night in a blanket, and made a map of the heaven-
ly bodies, by means of a thread with small beads
on it, stretched between his eye and the stars.
Franklin first robbed the thunder-cloud of its
lightning by means of a kite made with two cross-
sticks and a silk handkerchief.

Watt made his first model of the condensing
steam-engine out of an old anatomist's syringe,
used to inject the arteries previous to dissection.
Giftbrd worked his first problem in mathematics,
when a cobbler's apprentice, upon small scraps of
leather, which he beat smooth for the purpose,
while Rittenhouse, the astronomer, first calcuhited
eclipses on his plow-handle. — Smiles' Self-Help.

The Chrysanthemum. — Unusual importance
attaches to the cultivation of chrysanthemums,
from the facility with which they may be grown in
the very heart of large towns, as has been proved
by the efforts of Mr. Broome, in the Temple Gar-
dens, where he has grown all the best varieties in
a manner which has astonished many who have
examined his collection. The flower is of easy
culture, and cuttings may be struck almost up to
the time of flowering, and nothing is finer than the
display of its flowers in October and November,
ranging as they do from pure white to a deep
orange, from a pale blue to deep red and crimson ;
but, like the dahHa, the first frost sadly spoils its
bloom. When the collection is a choice one,
they are best trained against a wall or in beds,
where protection can be easily applied. By means
of pot culture, which is now extensively used, a
splendid show of flowers may be preserved even
up to Christmas, with comparatively little trouble.

452

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

SKYLARK PREACHINa A SBBMOW.

There is no such thing as a song bird natural to
Australia ; there are birds who chatter, birds who
shriek, but no birds that sing. Well, there was
a young man who went out from England as a
gold digger, and was lucky enough to make some
money, and prudent enough to keep it. He opened
a "store" — a kind of rough shop where everything
from candles to coffins are sold — at a place called
"the Ovens," a celebrated gold field, about 200
miles from Melbourne. Still continuing to pros-
per, he, like a dutiful son, wrote home to his fath-
er and mother to come out to him, and if they
possibly could, to bring Avith them a lark. So a
lark was procured, and in due time the old folks
and their feathered charge took ship and departed
from England. The old man, however, took the
voyage so much to heart that he died ; but the old
woman and the lark landed in sound health, at
Melbourne, and were speedily forwarded to Mr.
Wilsted's store at the Ovens.

It was on a Tuesday when they arrived, and the
next morning the lark was hung outside the tent,
and commenced piping up. The efl'ect was elec-
tric. Sturdy diggers — big men, with hairy faces,
and great brown hands — paused in the midst of
their work, and listened reverently. Drunken,
brutal diggers left unfinished the blasphemous
sentence, and looked bewildered and ashamed.
Far and near, the news spread like lightning —
"Have you heard the lark?" "Is it true, mate,
that there is a real English skylark up at Jack
Wilsted's ?" So it went on for three days, and
then came Sunday morning. Such a sight had
not been seen since the first spadeful of the gold-
en earth had been turned ! From every quarter —
east, west, north and south, from far hills, and
from creeks twenty miles away, came a steady
concourse of great, rough Englishmen, all brushed
and washed as decent as possible. The movement
was by no means preconcerted, as was evident
from the half-ashamed expression of every man's
face. There they were, however, and their errand
was to hear the lark ! Nor were they disappoint-
ed. There, perched in his wood and iron pulpit,
was the little minister ; and, as though aware of
the importance of the task before him, he plumed
his crest, and lifting up his voice, sung them a
sermon.

It was a wonderful sight to see, that — three or
four hundred men ; some reclining on the ground ;
some sitting with their arms on their knees, and
their heads on their hands ; some leaning against
the trees with their eyes closed, so that they might
the better fancy themselves at home and in the
midst of English corn-fields once more ; but sit-
ting, standing, or lying, all were equally quiet and
attentive ; and when, after an hour's steady preach-
ing, the lark left off", his audience slowly started
off, a little low-spirited, perhaps, but on the whole
much happier than when they came. — Beeton's
Home Pets.

Lessons of War. — A people in earnest, smart-
ing with the wounds of war, and the deeper inflic-
tions of treachery, is abroad seeking after a coun-
try. It has been repeating with annual congratu-
lations for eighty years the self-evident truths of
the docvmient which declared its independence ;
now it discovers that more evidence of it is need-

ed than successful training and building can bring,
and it sends it forth afresh, with half a million of
glittering specialities to enforce its doctrines, while
trade, and speculation, and all the ambitions of
prosperous men, and delicately nurtured lives, and
other lives as dearly cherished and nursed to ma-
turity, are sent out with an imperative commission
to buy, at all hazards, a real country, to exchange
what is precious for the sake of having finally what
\\e dreamed we had before — the most precious of
all earthly things, a Commonwealth of God. Yes,
our best things go, like wads for guns, to bid our
purpose speak more emphatically, as it expresses
the overruling inspiration of the hour. — Atlantic
Montlily.

THE BEST TIME FOR PLANTINQ
EVERGREEN TREES
IS IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER.

Evergreens are always in leaf, and it is therefore
important, in planting, to secure a quick action of
the roots, in order to sustain the foliage. Early
in the spring the ground is cold and wet, and the
roots cannot take hold ; and therefore sharp, dry-
ing winds are very likely to exhaust the tree of aU
its juices before a new supply can be furnished.
Late fall planting is still worse — for the roots re-
main dormant a much longer time, and evapora-
tion from the leaves is going on, to some extent,
throughout the Avinter. In May and June the
ground becomes Avarm — the roots are ready for
action — and, consequently, the time is favorable
for removal.

But the conditions are even more favorable in
August and September. At this season the ground
is thoroughly warmed through, and as the nights
begin to be cool and dewy, the earth gives, as it
were, a gentle bottom heat. It is surprising to
find Avilh what readiness and vigor the roots now
act — often showing signs of growth within three
days after planting. There is this additional ad-
vantage over May, that the tree has made all its
growth for the season, and early matured its Avood,
so that it is not in need of such a full flow of sap
as Avhen the young groAvth is starting, or is succu-
lent, and tlie plant has need of all its energies.
During the autumn months, the earth being Avarm-
er than the atmosphere, Avhile the Avood is simply
maturing, not growing, the roots on the contrary
are in vigorous action, and Avill insure sufficient
strength to resist the succeeding A\'inter, and also
the best possible condition for subsequent groAvth.

Remarks. — The above came to us in a printed
circular from Mr. W. C. Strong, Nurseryman at
No7iantum Hill, Brighton, Mass. We print it
for the benefit of those Avho are desirous of trans-
planting evergreens this fall. We have been
through Mr. Strong's green-houses and grounds,
and have had plants from them, and feel entirely
safe in saying that he has plants in great variety,
and that Avhatever he states in regard to them may
be relied upon. We shall immediately put in
practice his suggestions with regard to transplant-
ing evergreens. Mr. Strong is so confident of
success in transplanting that he is Avilling to con-
tract to do so, and warrant to live.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

453

INSECTS ON WHEAT.

We have been exceedingly sorry to see wheat
fields all around us utterly ruined this season by a
little black insect that swarms upon it in indefi-
nite legions. In a field that we frequently visited,
they began their depredations during the last half
of July, and soon multiplied into such astonishing
numbers as to preclude all hope of saving the
crop. This insect is not the wheat midge which
proves so destructive to the wheat crop in West-
ern New York and in the AVestern States, but a
much smaller, and infinitely more numerous de-
stroyer, and one which baffles all human skill.
Indeed, we stand powerless before its invasions,
and look on its devastations with mingled feelings
of wonder and fear at its terrible power of cutting
oflf the chief staple of human subsistence.

The only remedies we have ever heard suggest-
ed, are to sow slaked lime plentifully over the in-
fested grain, or thoroughly coat the seed before
sowing it. But this must be a hopeless remedy.
The cost of the material, the labor of applying it,
and the desti'uction to the crop in doing so, would
probably exceed the value of the crop itself.

These destroyers sometimes infest the wheat in
Europe to a great extent, and are called the
Thrips cerealium. In its larva state, "it is small-
er than the wheat maggot, is orange-colored, and
is provided with six legs, two antennae, and a
short beak, and is very nimble in its motions," as
described by Dr. Harris. It is supposed to suck
out the juices of the seed, thus causing it to shrink
and become what the English farmers call pun-
gled. It belongs to the order IlEnMlPTEllA,
which means that half of their upper wings resem-
ble a piece of leather, and the other half are mem-
branaceous, that is, having a thin, flexible skin.
This order includes the various insects which we
call bugs, and locusts, plant-lice, &c.

We regret this partial destruction of the wheat
crop in New England, because its tendency v/ill
be to prevent its culture another year. Our peo-
ple have now become interested in it, having suc-
ceeded well for several years past, and this partial
failure will tend to discourage the good work
which has been begun.

We hope, however, that farmers will not fail to
sow their usual breadth this flill, and give it a fair
trial.

Bee Pasturage. — The Bee Journal says : —
"The rapidity with which bees will build comb,
and gather honey, under favorable circumstances,
is 80 extraordinary as to be almost incredible. Mr.
Brink says that he has known a strong swarm to
fill its hives with comb in seventy-two hours ; and
that colonies expelled in August, put into empty
hives, and transported to the heaths, would fill the
hive with new comb, and gather from thirty to
forty pounds of honey, in the brief season for work
in which they could labor."

FOREST TREES OF AMERICA.

During the recent session of the U. S. Agricul-
tural Society at Washington, Dr. J. G. Cooper, of
the Smithsonian Institute, delivered an interest-
ing lecture before the Society, on the Forest Trees
of America, illustrating his subject with compari-
sons with the distribution of European forests : —

The thinning out of timber in the older States
has reduced the proportion, and we are fust creep-
ing toward the point when it will be scarce and
dear. The western boundary of the timber coun-
try is a waving line which runs from the west end
of Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico at the eastern
boundary of Texas, which line exactly corresponds
with the general direction of the moist winds from
the Gulf of IMexico, northward and eastward. The
prairie country is bounded by the 30th and 60th
degrees of latitude, and the 92d and r20th merid-
ians. Westward come the plains, rendered sterile
by the sweeping dried and hot winds from the
Pacific. In the prairie country, and, to some ex-
tent, in the desert itself, the margins of streams
are wooded, and they alone. Along the Pacific
slope a belt of timber extends along mountain
ranges, becoming thinner as we go southward.

The forests of America are disappearing, and
unless some means of preservation are adopted,
wood will become very scarce in our own time.
In Russia, forests extend nearly ten degi'ees fur-
ther northward than in America. The extent of
timber land, compared with arable, is greater here
than in Europe. In Russia the proportion is 36
per cent., Austria, 30 6-10, Prussia, 21 8-10,
France, 16 6-10 ; for the M'hole of Europe the pro-
portion is 26 1-4 per cent., while in the United
States and Canada it was as high as 48 4-10. In
Europe the proportion was increasing, with us de-
creasing. The computations do not take any note
of mere firewood, but solely of the timber suitable
for building, &c. In the United States and Can-
ada, north of latitude 43 degrees to 50 degrees,
there is To to 90 per cent, of the country wooded.
South of latitude 43 degrees to Virginia and Ohio,
there is 55 per cent. ; add Virginia, Kentucky and
Ohio to this district, and we have 58 per cent,
wooded. Indiana, with the Southern States, ex-
cept Texas, gives 68 per cent. The prairie States,
with wood only along their streams and rivers,
have 30 per cent, of timber land ; and west of the
prairie there is but 5 per cent, in all.

From the statistics of our last census we dis-
covered that 1,500,000 acres out of 2,000,000 had
but 5 per cent, wooded. Assuming that in 1790
all the eastern country was wooded, then it had
fallen from 90 per cent, to 47 1-2 per cent., or six
per cent, each decade, and if the thing went on
at this frightful rate, in 30 years more we would
reduce our proportion of timber in the older States
to but 30 per cent. In Russia it has been ascer-
tained that a country having 37 per cent, of tim-
ber lands was well wooded, 37 to 22 foirly wood-
ed, and below that point poorly wooded.

In 1694 laws were passed in Prussia for the pro-
tection of timber, and in 1720, trees were first
planted by Government, German pi'ofessors em-
ployed, and regular schools opened. It has proved
highly profitable to the Government, and the sys-
tem has been greatly enlarged. Up to 1850 there
had been surveyed 24,000,000 acres of timber,

154

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

and the proportion of each variety of tree ascer-
tained, 49,500,000 survej-ed, but the trees not
classified, 5,500,000 trees planted, 30,000 acres
drained for tree plantations, and 2000 pounds of
seeds sown. The saving by protection from the
former waste had been $3,500,000 in three years.
They had learned to plant trees in barren, shifting
sands, 4000 acres of this formerly worthless land
having been set in trees.

HOGS IN THE APPLE OBOHARD.

Nobody sends such apples to market as my
neighbor John Jacobs, He always has apples to
sell, and gets the highest price. Folks prefer fair,
large apples, and such are always packed in Ja-
cobs' barrels. You might search them with a
candle and not find a knotty fruit or a worm hole.
Such Rhode Island Greenings and Roxbury Rus-
sets I have never met with in the old States. They
are as handsome as anything in the virgin soils of
the West.

I was going by Jacobs' orchard last summer,
and I had the curiosity to call and examine for
myself. Says 1, "Neighbor, -what is there in your
soil that makes such smooth, large apples ? They
are a third bigger than I can»get, and my trees
look as well as yours.

"The secret is not in the soil," John replied
with a twinkle in his eye. "Do you see those
grunters there ? My pork brings me fifty cents a
pound — eight in flesh and the balance in fruit. I
began to pasture my orchard ten years ago with
hogs, and since that time I have had no trouble
with wormy fruit. Apples, as a general thing,
don't fall from the tree unless something is the
matter with them. The a])])le-worm and curcu-
lio lay their eggs in the fruit, and the apples drop
early. The pigs devour the a^^ples, and by Sep-
tember every unsound apple is gone, and I have
nothing but fair fruit left. The crop of insects for
the next year is destroyed by the pigs. They root
around under the trees, keep the soil loose, man-
ure the land some, and work over what manure I
spread. The apples help the pigs, and the pigs
help the apples."

I saw John's secret at once, and have profited
by it. I never had so few insects as this spi'ing,
and I give the pigs the credit for it. In turning
the orchard into a pasture put in pigs — not land-
pikes with snouts like levers. You might lose
trees as well as insects in that case. But well
bred animals with judicious snouts, will root in a
subdued and Christian-like manner. — American
Agriculturist.

A Trout Factory in Connecticut. — Messrs.
Dunham, Kellogg & Ives, of Hartford, have a
large trout factory in Glastenbury, Conn., where
trout are hatched by artificial means. The num-
ber now in the pond is between 40,000 and 50,000
and rapidly increasing. When the stock reaches
the number of half a million, they estimate a yield
of 58,000 pounds per annum. As they will bring
in the market from 25 to 50 cents per pound, this
amount would afford a very pleasant net income.
The fishes are fed regularly, and they have a man
in constant attendance. Their food consists of
small fishes and shad spawn in season. Millions
of suckers are raised to feed the hungry beauties
of the pond.

For the New England Farmer.
"A PAIS. OF TWINS."

Mr. Editor: — I was quite interested in read-
ing a few lines in your last week's Farmer, under
the above words. Your deserving Vermont cor-
respondent questions the propriety of saying "a
pair of twins." So common has been the usage,
I presume the question seldom presents itself as
to whether it be strictly a correct expression. But
let us examine it a little more minutely, and see
if the conclusion at which our friend arrives be
correct.

"Is it true," asks your coi'respondent, "that two
produced at the same birth constitute a ^^air of
twins ?" This, in substance, he answers in the
negative. Nom' the definition of a pair we all
understand to be a couple, or tM'o of the same
sort ; and this, our friend will admit, we have in
two twin children. Here, then, is a pair — of what?
Why not a pair of twins? They are certainly
twins, and there is a pair of them. Our friend
may say twin itself implies that there is more than
one, and may suggest that if we prefer to use the
word pair, we say "a pair of children." But does
this really express the idea ? No, I think not ;
we should not know they were twins. On the
other hand, if we say simply "twins," that gives
us too wide a range, for it may refer to either two
or a dozen. Take an assembly, for instance, w^here
we will suppose — which would not be an impossi-
bility— that there were a dozen twin children.
Each child according to the lexicographers, may
be properly called a twin. Are there, then, in the
dozen, six pairs or three ? According to your cor-
respondent's reasoning, only three. But I believe
the majority of your readers will be of my opinion,
that it takes six pairs to make a dozen.

In short, Mr. Editor, I see no more objection
to saying "a pair of twins," than "a pair of oxen."
Because the thought of one hay-pole suggests an-
other, its mate, is it any reason that we should
hesitate to say a pair of hay-poles ? P. Paige.

South Hamjyfon, N. H., Aug. 12, 1862.

How TO Make a Cement for Stoves. — Take
fine salt one part, and two parts of fresh, hard
Avood ashes, mix well together, then take cold
water, and mix into a mortar. Apply to the crack
either warm or cold, and you will find a cement
Avhich will answer all common purposes, and found
to be very useful where the stove-pipe joints are
not as tight as is desirable.

Still Another. — Take iron filings, and mix to
about the consistency of putty for glazing, with
white lead and linseed oil. Fill in the joints as
securely as possible, while the stove is cold, and
let it stand a day or two before using.

Keeping Grapes. — The Gardener's Chronicle
states that Mr. Thomson, of Dalkeith, adopted the
following method of keeping grapes, with great
success : In cutting the grapes he left the bunches
attached to the branches that bore them ; sharp-
ened the points of the branches where they had
been detached from the parent stem, and ran them
a couple of inches into mangel wurzel roots. They
were laid on the shelf of the fruit room, and the
grapes allowed to hang over the shelf, where they
could be cut as required. They kept perfectly
plump till the last bunch was consumed.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

455

For the New Eniihmd Farmer.
' BIRDS versus IISTSECTS.

Mr. Brown : — A few daj-s since I took a
leisurel)' stroll far into the forest, for the express
purpose of observing the habits of some of our
woodland birds. Thout^h it was mid-August, the
day was cool, clear and autumn-like. The woods
were extensive, and though the larger trees were
chiclly pine, every kind of timber growing in the
vicinity abounded there. When I first entered
the edge of the wood, a single Wood Pewee and a
Scarlet Tanager were the only birds visible, or
even hardly within hearing, excepting a bevy of
Jays, screaming loudly in the distance. While I
was watching the Wood Pewee, as she darted upon
passing insects, and anon gave frequent utter-
ances to her ])laintive call of pce-e-toee, and won-
dering M-hat might cause the still bright red Tan-
ager (these birds generally moult and change
their scarlet dress for one of greenish-yellow early
in August.) to call so loudly dilcken, chick, chicL-
tem, and appear so much irritated, a confiding
Chickadee alighted low on a sapling 7iear me, and
began eying me Avith the usual inquisitive bold-
ness of his species. He uttered feebly and hesi-
tatingly his wild call-note, pe-dee, and was soon
joined by his companions. Now, various species
of summer Warblers appeared, when on came the
throng of noisy Jays, accompanied by a considera-
able number of Cakimove Orioles, v/hich, at this j
season, forage extensively in the woods, as well as j
among the trees of the orchard, a large spotted
Woodpecker, several Nuthatches, Vireos and oth-
er birds. The whole formed as numerous and
musical a party as one often meets in a forest —
taking complete possession of the trees, t'le twigs [
and small branches of which seemed in constant '•
vibration as they hopped about among them, hunt- j
ing insects. I sat down and reckoned up fully I
fifteen species that I had seen in the last ten min- 1
utes, some of them represented by a dozen or
twenty individuals.

The Chickadee, close by me, I several times saw
pulling in pieces cateri)illars and inch vv'orms, and
eating them by piece-meal ; the Jays were feeding
their full-grown young v.-ith the fruits of their for-
aging, apparently chiefly caterpillars ; the Orioles
I saw separate the rolled up leaves on an oak, and
draw therefrom and devour the hidden larva, and
hammer in pieces large caterpillars preparatory to
swallowing ; the Nuthatches were running over
the stems of the trees, shivering oft' the loose
scales of bark to get at the concealed insects ;
the Woodpecker was hammering away on a de-
cayed limb for a borer, and the Warblers were
seizing insects flying in the air, as well as those
that infested the trees. I remained still in my sit-
uation, quite unobserved by the birds for a long
time ; for it was a half hour or more before this
numerous party Avas all past, in their leisurely
way of foraging ; and at no time during the sever-
al hours I remained in the wood, were there no
birds visible, but on the contrary, several, and
many in hearing, all the while engaged in hunting
and devouring caterpillars and other larvse infest-
ing the forest trees, and mature insects.

At this season it is not uncommon to meet with
parties like this in our woods, particularly a little
later, when the fall migration of the little War-
blers, that spend the breeding season more north-

wardly, occurs, when parties of several scores, and
even hundreds are constantly hunting the wood,
and the quantities of very many species of de-
structive insects they devour must be indeed im-
mense, they being actively engaged almost the
whole day long.

Indeed, the number of insects one bird destroys
in a single day is surprising. Birds require, in
fact, a large amount of food ; their digestion is
rapid, their blood of a high temperature, and their
muscular exertion great, being, at least some spe-
cies, almost constantly in motion. Let any one,
who is at all skeptical respecting the probable
correctness of the estimates commonly made of
the immense number of insects destroyed by birds,
go into the woods and silently watch the birds in
their unrestrained freedom, and base his estima-
tions upon what he himself sees. If still doubt-
ful, let him shoot a few birds — only a few — and in-
spect the contents of their stomachs, examine
w^hat there remains of perhaps hundreds of par-
tially digested insects, generally of many species,
and then give us his opinions and estimations.
But some may say, birds are not all day thus en-
gaged destroying insects ; observation, however,
shows that there are but fev/ periods during the
day, and those of short duration, when truly in-
sectivorous birds are in a state of rest. Having of
late s]5ent much time in the woods prosecuting ray
favorite study — the natural history of our native
birds — I am the more forcibly struck with the
immensity of the destruction of insect life by
the birds, the natural, pre-ordained checks upon
the numbers of the rapidly increasing insect my-
riads.

Having occasion to prepare some specimens for
the cabinet, I have dissected many individuals for
the purpose of investigating their regimen, and
had designed to present a minute account of the
result here ; but I am already getting too lengthy,
and will present only general details. Of ten spe-
cies, taken without selection, but by chance,
mostly in the woods, in only one, did I find a
particle of vegetable diet; the Golden-Crowned
Thrush, with the remains of numerous beetles and
caterpillars, had a few small seeds in its stomach.
The Vireos, several of which I dissected, which are
commonly believed to subsist almost M'hoUy upon
Vr'hortleberries at this season, contained no other
food than the remains of several species of light
green caterpillars. The Orioles had dieted upon
caterpillars and small beetles, while the gizzards
of Bobolinks were distended with what appeared
to be a reddish-brown Aphis. Warblers were
filled with the remains of minute beetles and small
caterpillars ; Pewees and Tanagers with various
species of dipterous and hemipterous insects and
a few beetles. j. a. a.

Springiield, Aug. 20, 18G2.

Hints about the Dahlia. — The dahHa is our
favorite flower, and it must from its many desira-
ble qualities always be popular, if, at present, it is
a little out of favor. Some in our yard, are nov/
— Aug. 1st — in full perfection of bloom, and are
truly magnificent. Any garden soil will grow this
flower, but we prefer a compost made of old black
garden mould, clay and sandy peaty loam. In
wintering the dahlia, take up the tubers as soon
as the tops are killed by the frost, do not separate

456

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

them, but pack them aAvay in a box of dry sand
or loam, placing them in a dry cellar out of the
way of frost, till wanted for propagation in the
spring. This flower is particularly worthy of cul-
ture on account of its cheapness, the ease with
which it is grown, and the rich display it makes
in the garden when the other flowers are gone.

For the 'New EnuJand Farmer.
"WIITTEB "WHEAT.

I cannot refrain from expressing my obligations
to your intelligent correspondent. Dr. Silas Brown,
of Wilmington, for his kind and complimentary no-
tice of my eflbrts during the past fifteen years,
commencing with the Massachusetts Ploughman,
where I met much opposition, on the important
subject of raising winter wheat in the New Eng-
land States. But as I sowed, so did I reap from
year to year, buffeting the chronic prejudices of
public opinion, till the scales were removed from
their eyes, and finally that seeing icas believing.
From time to time, lAvas sensibly reminded of the
venerable clergyman who had preached line upon
line and precept upon precept, a good portion of
his life, to his "hard-hearted, stony ground hear-
ers," without any visible impression. And anoth-
er venerable prelate, who was about to exchange
with his neighbor, saying — now, in the morning,
it is all very well, but in the afternoon you must
be short, and you must give them a rouser ! "Why
so," says brother M. ? "Well, my people eat about
seven and a half bushels of baked beans for Sun-
day dinner, and become so drowsy, that it is my
misfortune to preach to the heans during this pe-
riod of profound sleep."

I will not attempt to make an application of this
sleepy indifference to these "stony-ground hear-
ers," on the part of an honest, hard-working yeo-
manry ; rather would I believe it to be the first
ordinary impulse of the farmer to cultivate his
wheat field, and to say, take courage from Mr.
Brown, who began with his homoeopathic dose of
six quarts — "lacking of faith" — "the great obsta-
cle to progress."

The farmer needs but to read the statement of
Mr. Brown to convince him. If the "sandy," shal-
low, "unmanured lands" of Wilmington will pro-
duce wheat, we hope to see that large breadth
turned to a more profitable account. This con-
firms my oft-repeated story, that poor rye lands
will give as many, or more bushels of wheat to the
acre than rye. The value is nearly double.

By your permission, Mr. Editor, I will make a
few statements of facts. From a small fine salt
bag full of wheat which I presented to Mr. Jose,
of Northumberland, N. H., he obtained eight
bushels — sown on mowing sod. Samuel Froth-
ingham, Jr., Esq., Milton Hill, (near Boston,)
gathered ninety-two bushels from five bushels
sowing, on less than two acres of pasture ground,
heavily manured from the ])iggery. Allowing for
the quantity lodged, his yield was 50 bushels to
the acre. Rev. A. B. Loring, of North Andover,
(now deceased,) who had the rare combinations of
a sound theologian, a good farmer, and a Christian
gentleman, whose memory I shall ever respect,
reluctantly received from me a bushel of winter
wheat, as a present, saying, with his usual pleas-
antry, "Mr. P., I fear no one hereabout can raise
wheat successfully but yourself, but 111 try." His

soil was strong, and side by side he sowed his
bushel of wheat and a bushel of rye. He gathered
eighteen bushels of wheat, and not a berry oi -ve,
but a large quantity of straw ! This phenomenon
explains that rich lands are sure for wheat and
uncertain with rye.

During the successful reign of Gov. Gardner, I
modestly addressed him an importuning letter,
suggesting the ])ropriety, in his Message to the
Legislature, of proposing to give the farmers a
bounty on wheat, as a stimulus to engage in the
work. That functionary, probably with no aspi-
rations for agricultural fame, omitted this crown-
ing act, which would have been a large revenue to
the State. It is not too late for all the N. E. States
to off"er bounties of ten to fifteen cents per bushel.
How could they make a better investment of mon-
ey, than by encouraging the growth of the most
valuable product known to man ?

Some of your readers may have supposed my
earnestness in this matter was but an exaggera-
tion ; that I was in hot pursuit of a hobby that
would mislead them. I trust this error has re-
ceived its counterpart, and by many, whose labors
have been rewarded by an overflowing granary.

Henry Poor.

Brooldyn, L. I., Aug. 23, 1862.

P. S. — From this time till 10th Sept., sow on
light land ; soak seed in salt pickle, rake in ashes,
which is equal to a light coating of manure ; get it
in two to three inches deep, which prevents winter-
kill. Mowing and pasture sod is better than old
ground. Roll after sowing, especially if it is dry.
Salt kills the insects, should there be any, and
ashes are not a palatable alkali.

Remarks. — We regret that, owing to our ab-
sence in plowing and seeding down an old mowing
lot, for two days only, the printer had gone so far
ahead that we were not able to crowd this letter
into our paper of last week.

For the New England Farmer.
MOWING MACHINES.

Mr. Editor : — I have noticed several articles
in your very excellent paper relative to mowing
machines. I consider them decidedly a labor-sav-
ing machine, and I may say, even, they are a great
benefactor to the farmer. I therefore do not hes-
itate to recommend them to my brother farmers,
as no doubt many arc waiting (as has Ijcen the
case with me) for them to be improved, simplified,
and, withal, for the price to come within reach of
farmers of moderate means.

I think the Ketchum or Davis' improved mower
is brought to a state of perfection that will prove
satisfactory upon trial. I cannot vouch fur the
other kinds, as I have not used them ; no doubt
they, too, are good machines, although I have
seen no other kind but what cost higher than the
Ketchum ; and if they are as much better as they
cost more, they must certainly 1)e perfection itself,
as no one that is not hard to please can dislike
the work done by the Ketchum mower.

I notice in an article in a late number of your
journal, speakingof the hinge in the cutter bar, your
correspondent thinks it unnecessary on smooth
land, and also thinks it dangerous on rocky orouncL

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

457

All this may be true, yet I am unable to see
that the hinge does any harm upon smooth land,
while in case the ground is rocky, inclined or
rough, all danger to the driver may be obviated,
by simply walking behind the mower, as it will do
just as nice work one way as the other. The hinge
is an improvement in moving the machine from
place to place, as many times one wishes to go
through narrow places, where there would not be
sufficient space to pass with the finger-bar run-
ning out four feet, horizontally, to the right —
while with the hinge, the finger-bar can be brought
into a perpendicular position, making the machine
occupy less space in passing than a common
wagon, which is convenient under many circum-
stances. While my bi'other farmers would choose
the stiff finger-bar, I would put in my testimony in
favor of the hinge or joint in the same.

Calais, Vt., Aug., 18G2. c. C. E.

I^or the Neie England Farmer.
FISH AND FISH-BREEDING.

Having passed a few days of my summer vaca-
tion from business, in wading up and down the
cold, clear streams of the White Mountains, en-
ticing, by all sorts of deceitful contrivances, the
beautiful trout from their shady retreats under the
dark rocks, and having had success sufficient to
supply the table, so that I have pretty satisfactory
notions of the value of that kind of food, it is nat-
ural that my thoughts should still linger upon the
subject. Once, in Switzerland, near the moun-
tains, where I spent a Sabbath, our party were
asked if we should like some trout for dinner, and
upon our affirmative reply, a girl of the house
went down to a spring where was a cask, from
which she took living trout sufficient for our sup-
ply. We were told that these were fish recently
taken from the streams and kept alive for occa-
sional use.

Now, what a luxury would it be in the country,
where a variety of food is not always to be had, if
we could go to our fish-pond, as we go to our
poultry-yard, and take out a goodly dish for our
family or newly arrived friend.

FAILURE OF FISH IN OUR STREAMS.

In old times, all our rivers and small streams
abounded in fish. Salmon, and shad, and alewives,
at certain seasons, filled the waters in such quan-
tity as fully to supply the wants of all the inhabi-
tants along the banks. Old men away up in Ha-
verhill and Bath, in New Hampshire, point out
the salmon holes in the Connecticut River, hun-
dreds of miles from the sea. Now, although the
Colonial governments took great care to provide
fish-ways in the dams which they allowed to be
erected, and although the statute books of most
of the States abound in provisions for the preser-
vation of fish, yet our principal streams are so for
cleared of them, as scarcely to afford sport to the

angler, much less any reliable supply of food to
the citizen.

The principal reason why the salmon has dis-
appeared from our streams, is the obstruction by
dams. The salmon and trout species run far back
into the cold mountain streams to deposit their
spawn, where it may hatch, at the proper season,
and where the young fry may be safe from the
jaws of the larger fish, which generally have no
particular scruples about devouring their own
children, if they come in their way. As the coun-
try becomes settled and cleared of wood, too, the
streams become far more irregular. Drainage of
land for agriculture, and the removal of small ob-
structions in the brooks, tend to carry the water
off more rapidly after gi-eat rains, thus causing
freshets, followed by droughts which are aided by
the greater evaporation consequent upon letting in
the sun where the stream was formerly shaded.
These alternate floods and droughts break up the
breeding places of the fish, destroy their spawn,
and often the young fish are left to perish for want
of water in their once perennial streams.

We may moui-n over the lost sport, and lost
supply of food from our streams, but neither
mourning, nor indeed any endeavor of ours, can
restore them. Severe legislation, which would,
perhaps, too much have impeded manufactures,
might have preserved them longer, but public sen-
timent, embittered by tradition of English game
laws, has, in this country, little sympathy with
laws for preserving bird, or beast, or fish. By the
common law, and by early colonial statutes, the
large streams, the bays and large ponds, were, in
Massachusetts, made common to all for fishing
and fowling. This is in accordance with our ideas
of equality, and is far better than the odious priv-
ileges and monopolies enjoyed by the higher class-
es in other lands.

FISH-BREEDING IN PONDS.

Although we have lost our fish, mostly, from
our public ponds and sti'eams, we may, many of
us, with little trouble or cost, supply ourselves
and neighbors through the use of private fish-
ponds, either natural or artificial. Neither law
nor good neighborhood gives any excuse for in-
terference with small ponds upon one's own land.
The land-owner is as exclusively owner of his
pond, as of his barn, and his fish are as securely
protected as his cattle.

There is not room in a single article, to do much
more than give some general hints, showing the
principles to be regarded in fish-breeding, j,nd re-
ferring to some instances of successful experiment.
In Germany, about a hundred years ago, one Ja-
cobi published some interesting accounts of his
method of breeding trout by artificial impregna-
tion of their ova or eggs.

458

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

About thirty years ago, a series of very accu-
rate and scientific observations was published in
Scotland, upon the habits of fish at the season of
spawning, which is the material matter in artificial
propagation. In France, about 1848, the atten-
tion of the government was attracted to the sub-
ject, and as the emperor in that thoroughly gov-
erned country vmdertakes to regulate everything,
an appropriation was made, and an institution es-
tablished for hatching, rearing and transporting
fish. I have not found access to any reports of
the success of those efforts.

In New Haven, Conn., an experiment has been
going on for about five years, in stocking the
Saltonstall Lake, which is about three miles in
length, Avith the lake trout and white fish, from
Lake Ontario, which is said to be progressing sat-
isfactorily. In 1822-3, the black bass of the lakes
was introduced into Waramang Lake, in Litchfield
County, Conn., and more recently into other lakes
in the same State, and the report of their increase
in number and size is wonderful. "They have in
that lake," says Mr. Beeman, of Litchfield, "mul-
tiplied very generously. Their growth is estimat-
ed to be about one pound a year, and they have
been frequently caught weighing five pounds and
upwards. There were less than one hundred bass
originally placed in Waramang Lake ; there are
now probably millions, and they appear to propa-
gate and flourish better than any other fish in the
waters of that lake."

ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION AND GROWTH.

The whole secret of raising fish is in the knowl-
edge of their natural habits, and with the devo-
tion of such noble lives as Agassiz to the study of
what appear to many to be little things, such
knowledge is furnished ready to the hands of those
of us who have no taste or leisure for such
studies.

There are two methods of stocking a pond with
fish ; first, by introducing the egg or spawn, and
secondly, by putting in living fish to propagate for
themselves. Many ponds probably will be found
adapted to the growth of particular fish, as trout,
for instance, which may not furnish the proper
breeding-ground, and again it is both difficult and
expensive to transport through long distances
enough living fish to commence stocking even a
small pond. It is therefore often advisable to as-
sist Nature somewhat in her disposition to multi-
ply and replenish the waier as well as the earth.
And wonderful it is to see how profuse is Nature
in her fU;tempts at re-production. A single sal-
mon, it is said, deposits in a season from ten to
twenty-five thousand eggs, and a perch two hun-
dred thousand, and a single male will impregnate
the spawn of several females. The greater part of
these are destroyed before they are hatched, while

millions are devoured by larger fish before they
are large enough to propagate. It is evident,
then, that there is no want of capital on which to
set up our stock of fish. The process of propa-
gating is very simple and curious. The female
fish, in her natural element, drops a few of her
ova or eggs into a little place which she has
scooped out in the ground. The male follows,
and emits a quantity of milt upon the eggs, and
they are left to their fate, and so the pair continue
along, until the female has deposited all her eggs.
In artificial propagation, the female is taken; when
she is ready to spawn, and by gentle pressure in
the water made to drop a quantity of eggs. The
male is then by the same process, made to emit a
portion of milt into the water, so as to come in
contact with the eggs. The eggs are then placed
in hatching boxes, constructed in the form of
troughs or otherwise, according to the nature and
habits of the kind of fish, protected by wire grat-
ings, placed in running water of requisite temper-
ature, until they hatch, when they are removed to
a larger receptacle, and at the proper time placed
in the pond. Eggs of the trout and white fish,
after they are impregnated, properly packed, will
remain perfect many weeks, and bear transporta-
tion without injury. In this way, the Connecticut
lakes were stocked from Lake Ontario, and from
Ohio.

How fast fishes grow, is a question upon Avhich
there is a difference of opinion, and as it depends
much on their food, and their Avater privileges, it
may be difficult to state definitely. Mr. Gfcmstock,
in the Patent Office Report for 1859, says well
cared for trout will attain the length of about
thi-ee inches the first year. In the Peabody Riv-
er, far up among the mountains, the greater part
of the trout are in August about double that
length, and a gentleman who pretended to know,
informed me that they were yearlings. Trout
spawn in the autumn and hatch in spring, and
probably grow to this size the second year. Sir.
Treat, of Eastport, Me., who has given attention
to the propagation of salmon, says they grew ten
or twelve inches long the first year. A trout in a
basin of a garden fountain is said to have grown
but slightly a whole season, for want of food, but
upon being daily well fed, more than doubled hia
size in a single month. For these facts, I am also
indebted to Mr. Comstock, to whose valuable ar-
ticle I would jefer the reader for other interesting
information on the subject.

EXPERIMENTS IN GERMANY AND FRANCE.

Since writing the above, I have received from
my friend, Luther H. Tucker, editor of that capi-
tal agricultural paper, the Country Gentleman,
some volumes of the Transactions of the New York
Agricultural Society. They are full of valuable

1862.

^E\V ENGLAND FAUMER.

459

information, and should form a part of every agri-
■cultural library. The volume for 1859 contains a
letter from Mr. Wright, our Minister at Berlin, in
which he states some encouraging facts as to the
artificial propagation of fish in Germany and
France, He says that by proper attention to the
matter, salmon in Hanover have become so abun-
dant, tlmt they are within the means even of the
peasants, as well as the nobles ; whereas, a few
years ago, they were a luxury only seen on the ta-
bles of the wealthy. In one of the domains of the
Emperor of France, near St. Cloud, is a small
pond of about two and a half acres, supplied by
springs, and but about twenty feet deep in the
deepest part. In lSi36 it was drawn off and re-
filled and stocked -srith trout, which at four years
•old, -were in 1859 about a foot and a half in length.
In April and May 1857, several thousand young
salmon bred at the College de France two months
before, were added. In 1859, at a single draft of
a net, about 450 pounds of salmon were brought
up in the presence of their Majesties. They av-
eraged about a foot in length. A very important
fact was ascertained : that these salmon of 18
months old, were ready to spawn, although they
had never been to the sea, nor in any streams, and
their eggs have been since artificially hatched.

Why should not our ponds be thus rendered
productive, and so the wealth of land-owners and
of the country be increased ? H. F. f.

For the New England Farmer.
A. PATTERN" GAKDEN".

Mtu Editor : — I know you are always willing
to publish communications from jjractical farmers.
Now, I do not come under that head, exactly, but
I can never bear- to see an inch of ground unim-
proved or unadorned, and I have a desire to tell
you what I have now growing on three hundred
wid twenty feet, by actual measurement, in the
backyard of the house I occup)\ With the assis-
tance of my wife, who is better posted in these
matters than I am, we count nixty-six distinct va-
rieties of flowering plants ; one prolific grapevine ;
one peach tree, on which we count twenty-seven
iarge and handsome peaches ; two varieties of
raspberries ; string and shell beans from which we
have already gathered several "messes ;" squash
vines, trained on an out-house, with five splen-
did "Hubbards" attached, and five hills of French
tomatoes, (not much account.) Of the flowering
shrubs there are quite a number of varieties of the
same kinds, which we did not add to the count. I
was induced to measure the ground occupied by
the above, from hearing a neighbor remark that he
would admire to have a garden if he had the room.
I contend that any one who has room to set a su-
gar'box, can have a garden. What saj' you ?

Judge French "took us all down" to the City
Hall, Saturday evening, to hear his war speech. I
tell you it was great. We are so used to the ster-
eotype process over here, that the Judge's style
took hugely. We cry for more ! G. M. L.

Charlestown, Awjast, 1862.

WOODCHtrCKS.

Speaking of boyhood, did you ever hunt wood-
chucks .•' AVe remember well what venatorial ]Der-
turbation our young bosom used to suffer on see-
ing a woodchuck popping u]) his head above the
grass, and with what headlong zeal we plunged af-
ter him, invariably to just miss catching him as his
tail disappeared down his hole. This region seems
to be a favorite haunt for these marmots. Some
dozen we judge, are tenants on our farm. The
boys have made several sagacious forays upon
them, with arms and dog, but Sir Marmot has al-
ways been a little too deep for them. Not so the
dog. Jocko had been down upon a visit to a
neighboring dog, talking of rabbits, cats, and oth-
er things which have power over dogs' imagina-
tion. On his way home, a young woodclmck,
Avhose ma did not know that he was out, inadvert-
ent!}' exposed himself. The temptation was too
strong for Jocko. With one or two tremendous
bounds, a nip, and a very busy shaking, and the
work was done. For all the good his parents had
of him, the woodchuck might as well not have
been born. John skinned him neatly. He was
roasted. The family sat around. The lady of the
house peremptorily i-cfused to touch the "var-
mint." The eldest son agreed to support the fath-
er, and the two yoitnikers were fierce to eat wood-
chuck ! The head of the family disposed of one
mouthful, and looked around. Being watched, he
boldly took a second, and was imitated. But
about the third taste made it plain that woodchuck
satisfies the appetite very speedily.

These singular chubby, nimble fellows have very
good times of it, on the whole. They wake up
from a winter's sleep — enjoy the spring, summer,
and autumn. They have no migration to attend
to. They lay up no stock of Miuter food. When
the time comes, they roll up into a heap, in the
chamber of their burrow, poke their nose into their
belly, and tuck their tail around, to make a good
finish, and then the}' outsleep storms, snow and
winter. But we have saved one member of this
family even this trouble. We have looked in the
Prices Current of the Independent in vain to find
the ruling prices of woodchuck skins. Can any
one inform us ? From the amazing enterprise
shown by the boys, hitherto, they might turn an
honest penny yet, in selling packs of woodchuck
skins.

Meanwhile, my young marmots, you are Avel-
come to all the clover you can eat, to all the holes
you can dig. You may sit serene after )'our morn-
ing feed, and sun yourselves without fear of the
boys, for, really, jesting apart, they are not half as
smart as you are. Don't flinch if they shoot, es-
pecially if they take aim. But beware of the dog.
He does not say much. He is apt to perform first,
and promise afterwards. — Beecher.

CUBING PORK.
A French chemist has lately asserted, that
scurvy will never arise from the use of salt provi-
sions, unless saltpetre be used in the curing ; that
salt alone answers all the purposes, provided the
animal heat be entirely parted with before salting.
He claims that the insertion of pork in pickle
alone is not suflicient, but that it should be rubbed
thoroughly with dry salt after it has entirely part-
ed with its animal heat, and that then the fluid

460

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

running from the meat should be poured off before
packing the pork in the barrel. This should be
done sufficiently closely to admit no unnecessary
quantity of air, and some dry salt should occupy
the space between the pieces, and then pickle, and
not w.ater, should be added. Gi"eat care must be
taken to fill the barrel entirely full, so that no por-
tion of the meat can at any time project above the
surface of the fluid ; for, if this occur, a change of
flavor ensues such as is known with rusty pork.

The pickle, of course, must be a saturated solu-
tion of salt and water, that is, so strong that it is
incapable of dissolving more salt. It must be re-
membered that cold water is capable of dissolving
more salt than hot water. — Working Farmer.

For the Netr England Farmer.
HINTS ON BUILDING.

In the May number of the Farmer I gave a few
hints in regard to buying farms, wherein I stated
that it was much cheaper to buy a farm with good
buildings, than to buy one with poor, or no build-
ings, and then erect them. I say so still — but as
a large share of the farms for sale have poor build-
ings, it is evident that somebody must build them
— therefore, a few hints on that subject may not
be inappropriate.

As older people are presumed to know all
about these things, I make these remarks for the
benefit of young farmers, many of whom already
have farms with poor buildings, and others are
daily coming into possession of such, by inheri-
tance or otherwise. If every farmer who builds a
house had a little knowledge of architecture, it
would save thousands of miles of unnecessaiy
travel for the housewife, and many useless regrets
in after years.

In the first place, do not build until you are
able to build a good house ; by which I do not
mean an expensive, fancy house, for such is sadly
out of place on a farm, but a neat, tasty and sub-
stantial one. Many a man has mortgaged his farm
to build a large, fine house, to eclipse his neigh-
bor, and had the sheriff sell house, farm and all,
to pay his debts. In planning your house, keep
this old saw in view, "A little house well filled,"
&c., and then plan your house according to your
needs, as a great deal of spare room in a farm-
house is so much wasted. Before resolving to
build, get some trusty house-builder to make an
estimate of the cost of a house such as you require,
then add as much more to it, and if your pile of
money corresponds with that, go ahead.

In planning a house, convenience should be the
ruling idea, and such an aiTangement of the rooms
as will permit the doing the most work with the
least travel. The saving of twenty-five or fifty
steps a day amounts to a great deal in a life time,
and may add some years to the life of the house-
keeper, and make her path through life much
smoother. It is very much the fashion, now-a-
days, to build a large house, and then build a small
place, ofl' back out of sight of the higlnvay, to live
in. Now, then, as the kitchen, or living-room, is
the one the fsimily occupies three-fourths of the
time, it should be situated in the pleasantcst
part of the house, if possible. As the parlor is
seldom used, except when we have company to
entert'^an, it matters but little where it is nlaced.

if it does not interfere with the an-angement of the
other rooms.

One thing beware of, viz., small bedrooms. All
rooms used for sleeping apartments should be
large and airy. For this reason the chambers
should be up square, and not low and sloping, as
they are in all stoiy and a half houses. It costs
but little more to have the posts long enough to
make the chambers square at the top, and the
rooms are worth five times as much as the old-
fashioned, low chambers.

The pantry should be large enough to keep
flour, meal and such things in, instead of keeping
them in some out-building, or in the chambers, as
most people used to do, thereby making a vast
amount of unnecessary travel every time any of
those articles are wanted for use. The cellar
should be proof against three things : viz., rats
and mice, frost and water. In order to guard
against the first and last, after the cellar is dug,
and before the wall is started, dig a trench one
foot deep, and the width of the wall directly under
where the wall is to stand, and fill it with pound-
ed stone, and on this commence the wall, which
should be lain in mortar from the bottom. To
guard against frost, leave a small space in the cen-
tre of the wall for three feet from the top in wliich
no mortar is put, and have no stone reach through
the wall in this three feet, and frost will not be
very apt to get in.

The house should be located as near the Avell, or
spring, as possible, or where the water can be
brought near, or into the house.

No man ought to build a house without at the
same time building a cistern. If he builds it at
the same time he does the house, he is sure of it,
and it will not cost as much as it would to make
a separate job of it, and what is still worse, if he
puts it off, it is very doubtful whether he ever has
it. The best place for a cistern is in one corner
of the cellar, as it requires no protection from
frost, and no separate drain for the waste water,
as it can go off in the cellar drain.

Especial attention should be given to the floors,
in order to have them as smooth as possible, for
the reason that most farm-house floors have to be
mopped more or less, and every farmer's wife can
tell how much easier a smooth floor mops than a
rough one. Avoid all fancy mouldings in finish-
ing off, as every crease and crevice are receptacles
for dust and dirt, and increase the labor of clean-
ing the wood-work. Use none but seasoned lum-
ber, and no poor material of any kind, as a good
article is always the cheapest, and then employ
good workmen, keep your house painted, and if
no accident befalls it, you will never have to build
another house, unless you should live longer than
most mankind. Another time I may speak of out-
buildings. Agriculturist.

Neio Fork, August, 1862.

Remarks. — The above article contains several
excellent hints, and will be quite likely to save
some persons many a hard-eanied dollar. It may
appear a little discouraging to the young man Avho
is about to build, when he is told to double the
cost of his estimates ! This cannot be necessary
to him who follows the suggestions of our corres-
pnndeTit. Tf be r^pts his estimates from a nracti-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

461

cal house-builder, ten per cent., we think, will be a
sufficient addition to them.

The hint as to the cellar wall is excellent, as
forming it in the manner described, would leave a
very good air chamber, beyond which frost would
seldom pass.

One can scarcely appreciate the value of plenty
of soft rain water in a cistern in the cellar, until
he has once had it and been deprived of it. We
put one in several years ago, and with the excep-
tion of three or four weeks at one time, have nev-
er been without a plentiful supply of clear, soft
water, no matter how much the demand upon the
cistern has been.

Our correspondent is evidently a practical man.
Some of his articles heretofore published have
been extensively copied.

GREEK- MANUiUNG.

By this term I mean plowing under green crops
for the purpose of increasing the fertility of the
soil. It is a well established fact that all plants
derive a portion of their nourishment or substance
from the atmosphere ; therefore any crop turned
under and allowed to decay, must leave the soil
more fertile than it found it, by exactly the amount
of nourishment which the plant received from the
atmosphere.

The main object in this kind of manuring is to
obtain a plant which grows quickly and produces
a large amount of foliage without occupying the
ground too long, and at the same time drawing
as large a portion of its nourishment from the air
as is possible.

But the leaves and stalks are not the only ben-
eficial parts ; we want a plant whose roots run
deep, and thus raise from a considerable depth
substances which are useful to vegetation, but
from their depth are not available to our common
crops.

The most common mode of green manuring in
this country, is the turning under of sods for corn.
The benefit derived from turning under a stiff sod
for corn is known to all farmers, and some allovv'
the grass to grow as late in the spring as possible,
and put off plowing as long as it will do.

We all know that corn is a very exhausting
crop, and yet as a general thing it receives no
manure but what is derived from the decaying
grass and grass-roots which are turned under by
the plow.

But there are various other plants which are
available for green manuring, of which the com-
mon or red clover seems best adapted to our cli-
mate. It soon reaches its growth, has a large
amount of leaves and stems, and its roots are
large and fibrous, and run very deep. Pive also
forms a very good crop for green manuring, but
requires more time than clover, is more expensive,
and derives more of its substance from the soil.

Johnson writes, "That in no other way can the
same crop convey to the soil an equal amount of
enriching matter as in the leaves and stems."

One great advantage of green manuring is that
these vegetable substances, when turned under,
decompose rapidly, and soon benefit the crop.

Another is, that grain manured in this manner
never falls to the ground through weakness of the
straw, but no matter how heavy the head it re-
tains its erect position.

But we must not attribute all the benefit de-
rived to the leaves and stalks, for the roots in
some cases contain as much bulk and nourish-
ment as the leaves and stalks. It has been esti-
mated that the weight of the roots left in the soil
by a sod four years old is equal to one-twentieth
more than the weight of the grass grown the
fourth year.

The best plan to bring a field under a course of
green manuring, is to apply the manure on the
sod for corn, which should be followed with oats
in the usual manner, with a good coat of clover
(say eight or ten quarts to the acre) sown among
1 it. After the oats is taken off, the clover may be
I pastured lightly during the fall. Next year it
should be allowed to grow until three or four
weeks before it is time to sow the wheat, when
the clover should be well turned under and allow-
ed to remain until seeding time, when the wheat
should be put in the usual manner.

By this plan, the manure is in good order to
act on the wheat crop as soon as it is sown, and
the green clover will strengthen the straw and in-
crease the yield of grain.

This has been my practice for several years.
Last spring I sowed one bushel of plaster per
acre on the clover, and this fall I shall have a lux-
uriant cro]) to turn under. But I expect to plow
a portion of it before harvest, and then plow again
(shalloic) before seeding with wheat and grass
seed next fall. — Germanlown Telegraph.

For the New England Farmer.
HOMES AND PEOPIiE.

A man's home is a truthful index of himself.
With his house, his yard and his fields, he pub-
lishes his autobiography for the world to read.

When M'c pass buildings which are neat and
tasteful, with vines hiding all ungraceful angles,
and flowers all aljout ; when we hear the music of
the mowing machine in the meadow, and the sew-
ing machine in the parlor, we know just what
sort of people we shall find — industrious, cheerful
and generous, poor in purse, it may be, but rich
in heart treasure.

Up street a little way is a frigid looking house,
well built and well painted. There are fruit trees
and a vegetable garden behind it ; but in front
the unfenced "lawn" slopes in nature's roughness
to the road. In one corner, a little patch of ground
is spaded, and a few consumptive-looking sweet
peas and asters are striving to bloom, perhaps in
competition with the heliotropes and geraniums in
the window above. Who needs an intimate ac-
quaintance with the proprietors thereof, to be con-
vinced that the Avoman alone has a tender, loving
heart, and a taste for the beautiful, and that she
has no sympathy from her husband in her efforts
to make the "wilderness blossom as the rose ?"

Something of the inside atmosphere we may
learn from the quantity of sunlight which is ad-
mitted. Happy faces and dark rooms seldom go
in company, (except in "Jly-time.")

From my window I can see a low, unpainted
building — the roof is unpainted, as perhaps it

462

^EW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

ought to be, the remainder I "guess at," for it is
entirel)^ hidden by tall lilac bushes. 1 never looked
inside, but I know it is dark, and gloomy and
still. Once I had a glimpse of the lady that dwells
therein. One summer morning as Abhie and I
were passing, we spied two blush roses outside
the rickety fence, and with no thought of tres-
passing, we stopped to pick them. The lilac bushes
parted, (there must be windows behind them !) a
gray head surmounted with a black cap appeared,
and a harsh voice called out, "Here, gals, let alone
o' those roses !" We "skedaddled !" But what
better could we expect, where there was no sun-
shine ? Somewhere, however, in her desert heart
there was a green oasis, for she cared to save her
roses. And they, poor things, were trying to es-
cape her and her shadows, seeking the common
highway, where sunlight and somebody would
smile upon them.

Let in the good sunshine. God only knows how
we need it now, in our homes and in our hearts,
while such great shadows of grief hang over us,
and in nearly every household the hourly prayer
is, "O, save my soldier!" "God said, let there
be light I" And there is light now for us, free and
overflowing, if

"While the west winds play

We throw the windows of our souls

Wide open to the day." MaRGIE.

CATTLE IN" THE KOADS.

The best judicial authority in our land has de-
cided (and the decision has been confirmed time
and again) that when a person sells or deeds a
portion of land to a county for a public road, he
merely gives the public the right of free passage
over that land, and no one has the right to re-
move earth from the roads, — and of course the
same applies to the gxass. This places the matter
in the hands of the farmers, and gives them a
remedy which they should make use of.

It is not proper or humane to injure or hurt the
cattle thus committing a nuisance, but their own-
ers should suffer for it. My treatment (which I
find effectual) is to treat all such animals as strays,
according to the law made and provided for such ;
that is, take them into your field, and if not soon
called for, advertise them, and charge for pastur-
age and expenses.

We have a law against any person who owns
sixteen acres turning his stock into the road, but
this does not give any one owning less or none at
all the right to tiu-n theirs on the public road, be-
cause no authority can give the right.

The owners say that if farmers wovdd keep good
fences the cattle would not trouble them. 13ut all
know that a good fence will not turn an experi-
enced road steer or cow, for they have a wonderful
facility, acquired by long practice, of letting down
bars and throwing the riders off fences, which cat-
tle that have enough to eat know nothing about.

Whenever these coavs appear within the limits
of my farm, I drive them into a small lot near the
house, where they remain for eighteen or twenty
hours, when, if not called for, they go into the pas-
ture meadow with the other coms, and their pas-
ture bill begins and continues until it is paid and
the cows are removed. If not called for within five
days, they are advertised. In this way I and some
dozen of my neighbors keep ourselves nearly clear
of this nuisance.

FEVEK AND DYSENTEKT.

The sudden and extreme change which occurred
in the weather during Saturday and Sunday, Au-
gust 24 and 25, will undoubtedly prove the cause
of numerous cases of fever and dysentery among
our people. Many persons suppose that these
diseases are generally occasioned by eating the
vegetables and fruits of the season. That they
are so, in many instances, is probably true, but
perhaps more frequently by a .sudden check of
perspiration, or exposure to the night air. Great
care is, therefore, necessary not to expose the
body to fresh currents of air when it is moist with
perspiration, or fatigued, or when sleeping. Plen-
ty of air in the sleeping-room is favorable to
health, even though it be night air, — but it should
not blow directly iipon the person.

At this season of the year one must be espe-
cially careful to keep a general and equal warmth
of the body, eat sparingly of fruits and vegetables,
and make the fruit as much a» possible a part of
the meal, and change the clothing as the temper-
ature of the weather changes. At most, take but
a light supper. Sedentaiy persons would be bet-
ter without any — having had two hearty meals.
At the first symptoms of sickness, stop eating and
drinking, and labor, £is far as possible ; then put
on a pair of easy slippers and clean clothing, and
resolve to do just rijht in everything, and you wili
soon be well again ! Will you try the prescrip-
tion ?

WATUKAL BAROMETEK.

The spider, says an eminent naturalist, is almost
universally regarded M'ith disgust and abhorrence ;
yet, after all, it is one of the most interesting, if
not the most useful, of the insect tribe. Since the
days of Robert Bruce, it has been celebrated as a
model of perseverance, while in industry and in-
genuity it has no rival among insects. But the
most extraordinar)' fact in the natural history of
this insect, is the remarkable presentiment it ap-
pears to have of an approaching change in the
weather. Barometers, at best, only foretell the
state of tlie weather with certainty for twenty-four
bom-s, and they are very frequently fallible guides,
particularly when they point to settled fair. But
we may be sure that the weather will be fine
twelve or fourteen days, Avhen the spider makes
the principal threads of its web very long. This
insect, which is one of the most economical ani-
mals, does not commence a work requiring such
a great length of threads, which it draws out of
its body, unless the state of the atmosphere indi-
cates with certainty that this great expenditure
Avill not be made in vain. Lot the weather be ever
so bad, Ave may conclude with certainty that it
will soon change to be settled fair when we see
the spider repair the damages which his Aveb has
received. It is obvious how important this inf;tl-
lible indication of the state of the weather must
be in many instances, particulai'ly to the agricul-
turist.— Exchange.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

463

SHEEP AND WOOIi.
BV HENRY S. RANDALL.

You ask me to write for you on sheep. Perhaps
I may do so occasionally, if I find anything which
I think worth saying. There is a point in my re-
port to which I would wish to call general atten-
tion ; and, I trust, when you get the paper, you
will make the remark I there submit on the sub-
ject, the text of an earnest appeal to the sheep-
breeders of Oliio. I refer to Jilting up sheep for
sale, by special treatment, intended for that and
110 other object. This treatment consists in shear-
ing the sheep a month or two in advance of the
usual time ; sheltering them from rain storms,
throughout the entire year ; Jiousing them nights,
throughout the year, except during two and a half
or three of the warmest months, and pampering
them with high feed.

All of these practices are beginning to be in-
dulged in extensively, by breeders proper, i. e.,
those who look for their main profits from the an-
nual sale of rams and ewes for breeding, instead
of the annual sale of wool, and mere surj^lus
sheep. The object is obvious. A ram, exhibited
in the fall, with two months' extra wool on,
whollj' outshows one sheared at the common
time. If housed through the season from storms,
and from dew also, after say the middle of Au-
gust, he is a far darker colored sheep. If pam-
pered, he is larger, rounder, more compact in
build, and has the appearance of being shorter-
legged. Besides, the additional yolk, (''gum" and
"oil,") preserved ou and in the wool, by shelter-
ing, is a most important auxiliary to the weight of
those "brag" fleeces, which is to be proclaimed to
the world. Pampering, of itself, not only increases
the amount of yolk, but it increases the actual
amount of wool. A flock of ewes may be made
to yield a pound of wool more a head, by very
high keej) ; and on a large ram a difi'erence of two
or three pounds can be thus made.

Mere early shearing, and summer sheltering,
are not fraudulent, if frankly avowed, (and avow-
ed to the purchaser, whether he thinks to make
inquiry or not,) but of what real use are they, un-
less they are expected to mislead somebody's
judgment, by making the sheep appear better than
they are ? If proclaimed with a trumpet, in the
ear of the inexperienced buyer, still, they would
not prevent his fancy from controlling his choice.

They are expensive. The large flock-master
would find them nearly impracticalde. Should the
true breeder wish to get advantage of his neigh-
bor by any such means ? The common excuse
among breeders is that they must do it to keep
up with their neighbors.

Waiving all imputations of fraud, would it not
be better and manlier for all breeders to stand on,
and start from the same ground, in their rivalry,
and that, the ground of nature and old usage ?

Pampering stands in another and worse cate-
gory. This materially and permanently damages
the sheep. It impairs the constitution.' A sheep
■which has been fed very highly with grain, in the
fall and winter, for one or two years, to fit it for
show, and to obtain a great fleece, is like a spent
hot-bed, so far as future production is concerned.
Even the natural weight of fleece will not again
be produced. It requii-es great skill to keep such
a sheep iu health, and the least casualty will prove

fatal to it. It has lived too fast, and its vital en-
ergies are burnt out.

Some credulous young beginner buys a ram,
and half-a-dozen ewes, which have been thus
treated. They have yielded monster fleeces, and
he pays a monster price for them. lie can scarcely
raise lambs from them. They often die within the
first or second year. If the seller did not apprise
the buyer, both of the facts and their consequen-
ces, what is he better morally than a swindler ?
Even the ethics of horsc-jockeyism would not tol-
erate the idea that an animal may, with propriety,
be secretly injured to fit it for sale.

I understand that shee])-jockeying has made but
very small progress in Ohio. I sliould expect this.
Nature acted on too grand a scale, when she laid
out your noble State, to make such petty and
paltry trickeries necessary, or appropriate to your
people. But there is contagion in bad example,
and especially in the cunning practices and prep-
arations of rivals in breeding.

But if the agricultural press Avill do its Avhole
duty fearlessly, in such matters ; if it will call
things by their right names, and denounce that as
unmanly which is unmanly, and that as infamous
which is infamous — the practices which I have de-
scribed will not extend beyond their present lim-
its, and will only be resorted to within those lim-
its by those who are Avilling to be stigmatized as
two-penny tricksters.

Our agricultural societies ought to require every
exhibitor of sheep, at their fairs, to state explicitly
the day on which those sheep were previously
sheared, and M'hether they have been housed froq>
storms, or fed anything but grass between the 1st
of May and the 1st of December.

One more point I will call your attention to,
which is barely alluded to, in my recent report.
We need better and more definite statistics ot
breeding flocks than we now obtain. If A. tells
me that he procures five pounds of washed wool
per head, from a flock of sheep containing so many
rams, ewes and wethers, he gives me a very in-
definite piece of information. If he gives their re-
spective ages, he vastly adds to the information ;
but it is still indefinite. To judge accurately of
the value and profitableness of his flock, for wool
production, I must know how much wool he ob-
tains from a given amount of feed. Am I told that,
as a general thing, it is not conveniently practica-
ble to obtain this information ? Well, it is at least
easy enough to find the comparative product to con-
sumption, as between difi'erent flocks. Speaking
in general, sheep unquestionably consume in pro-
portion to their weight. Those of the same breed
and habits consume in the same proportion. Thus,
the several varieties of the Merino, daily consume
about one-thirtieth of their weight of good hay,
in winter, and an equivalent of green feed in
summer.

The flock, then, which produces most wool, in
proportion to weight of carcass, is, other things
being equal, most profitable. And between ex-
tremes of size, other things should be about equal,
in a sheep kept mainly for wool production, and
for the increase of its kind. Large size is not de-
sirable per se in such sheep. By an invariable law
of matter, small spheres, or spheroidal bodies, like
the carcass of a sheep, have more surface, in pro-
portion to weight and diameter, than larger ones.
For example, a round shot, two inches in diame-

464

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

ter, weighs 1.092 pounds, and has 11.50 inches of
surface to one pound weight ; while a shot eight
inches in diameter weighs 69.889 pounds, and
has 2.87 inches of surface to the pound. This
enormous disparity, in proportionable surface, di-
minishes, as between larger spheres, but still it is
a material one, between a sheep weighing one
hundred, and another weighing one hundred and
fifty pounds. Too small sheep, however, are ob-
jectionable, on several almost obvious grounds,
(which I have not space now to point out,) and,
all things considered, fair, plump, medium size,
for the breed, is the best one.

SURFACE APPLICATION OF MANUBE.

From the result of various trials, Prof. Voelcker
seems to lean to the opinion that the spread-
ing of farm-yard compost on the surface of the
soil, for even a considerable period before it is
plowed in, is by no means so injurious a practice
as we have hitherto been led to suppose. He says
"that on all soils with a moderate proportion of
clay, no fear need be entertained of valuable fer-
tilizing substances becoming wasted, if the manure
cannot be plowed in at once. Fresh, and even
well-rotted dung contains very little free ammonia ;
and since active fermentation, and with it the for-
ther evolution of free ammonia, is stopped by
spreading out the manure on the field, valuable
manuring matters cannot escape into the air by
adopting this plan." If this is a reasonable con-
clusion, it goes far to remove our dread of losing,
©n such soils, the better portions of farm-yard ma-
nure by top-dressings. As the season will soon
be here when these dressings are commonly ap-
plied to grass, it will be useful to remember this
fact.

The best time for applying the manure is held
by the great Cheshire grass farmers to be in the
end of September or the beginning of October,
particularly in a showery period, as the grass soon
covers it, and renders it less liable to be damaged
by the sun or drying winds. — Mark Lane Express.

Sleep. — Invalids generally do not sleep enough.
The importance of sound, quiet and sufficient sleep
cannot be too highly estimated, as may be inferred
from the physiological fact that it is during sleep
that structures are repaired. The materials for
nutrition elaborated during the day, but assimila-
tion— the formation of tissue — only takes place
during sleep, when the external senses are in re-
pose. Literary persons require more sleep, other
circumstances being equal, than those who pursue
manual-labor occupations. If the brain is not duly
re])lenished early decay, dementation or insanity
will ])e the result. The rule for invalids is to retire
early, and to remain in bed as long as they can sleep
quietly. If their dietetic and other habits are cor-
rect, this plan will soon determine the amount of
sleep which they requii-e. Gross, indigestible and
stimulating food, heavy or late suppers, etc., neces-
sitate a longer time in bed, for the reason, nervine
and stimulating beverages, as tea and coffee, pre-
vent sound and refreshing sleej), and thus wear
out the brain and nervous system prematurely.
Those who are inclined to be restless, vapory or
dreaming, during the night, should not take sup-
per.— Dr. Trail.

PATENT OFFICE EEPORT FOR 1861.

We have before us the Report of the Commis-
sioner of Patents for the year 1861, on Agricul-
ture. It is printed by the Government, and its
typographical appearance is better than that of
any of its predecessors. This is encouraging. The
papers which make up the volume are — the per-
sonal report of the Commissioner, D. P. Hollo-
way, which gives an account of the transactions
of his Department for the year. In this an inqui-
ry is made, and briefiy answered, as to the agri-
cultural, manufacturing and commercial resour-
ces, capabilities and facilities of this republic.

In the course of his answers to this inquiry,
some interesting facts are stated. The aggregate
of coal-Jields of the United States, he says, is
200,000 square miles,— more than ten times as
much coal as Britain, Spain, France and Belgium
united ! The diflerence in the quantity and qual-
ity of iron is about as great. The railroads now
in operation amount to 30,000 miles, and the tele-
qraphs to 40,000, and the productive industry of
the country is to the enormous amount of four
thousand million of dollars ! The Commissioner
adds : — Of all the nations of the earth there is not
one at whose command there has been placed an
amount of resources at all to be compared with
those of the United States ; not one with stores
so boundless of coal, iron, copper, lead, silver and
gold ; not one with such a soil and cHmate com-
bined, producing such diversified products in so
lavish abundance ; not one with a people so free,
so generally enlightened, enterprising and inven-
tive.

In noticing some departments of our industrial
energy and resources, the Commissioner passes
in review Great Britain herself, and four of her
principal victims, Portugal, Turkey, Ireland and
India, comprising in the whole two hundred mil-
lions of men — nearly one-fifth of the population
of the globe. In speaking of the despotism exer-
cised over the people of India, he says : — "Under
their old masters they had at least one resource ;
when the evil became insupportable, the people
rose and pulled down the government. But the
English government was not to be shaken off.
The government, oppressive as the most oppres-
sive form of barbarian despotism, was strong with
all the strength of civilization. It resembled the
government of evil genii rather than the govern-
ment of human tyrants."

The next paper is ujwn 2'he History, Industry
and Commerce of Flax, and is a long article, go-
ing into minute details of the value and culture of
the plant. Then follow articles on Raising Sheep
and Wool Growing, Sheep Breeding, The Breeds
of Sheep best adapted to New England, Artificial
Manures, Belt of Frost, or Thermal Belt, Hog
Cholera, Territory of Colorado, Raspberry Culture,

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

465

Strawberries, Worn-Out Lands of New Jersey,
The Consumption of Milk, Cotton in Missouri, On
the Destruction of Noxious Lisects, The Pear Or-
chard, Farming in the New England States, Indi-
an Corn, Hop Culture, Sorghum Culture and Su-
gar Making, On the Recent Progress of Agricul-
tural Science, Reclaiming Salt Marshes, On Food,
The Houses of New England, Dairy Farming, Se-
lect Breeds of Cattle and their Adaptation to the
United States, The Grapes of North America, On
Grape Culture, Fruit Culture, Something of the
Philosophy and Chemistry of Manures, and an ar-
ticle on Entomology.

Some of these articles are highly interesting,
and would be instructive to most of us, and the
whole volume is, perhaps, as applicable to the gen-
eral wants of the country as one could be made.
At any rate, we do not know who could have done
it any better.

DOGS versus WOOL.

That many farmers have been and are now de-
terred from sheep l)reeding and wool growing,
from the fear of dogs, we have no hesitation in
saying. Why, then, should so many worthless curs
as are found through the country be suffered to
remain as a sort of incubus to this important
farming interest ? There should be an enumera-
tion of all the dogs in every townsliip in the State,
and the supervisors of roads and township audi-
tors, who are here appraisers of damages to sheep
by dogs, should be empowered and compelled to
destroy all dogs not claimed by responsible own-
ers. In Paris the police are provided with meat-
balls containing strychnine, which they quietly
offer to the dogs running at large ; in this Avay an
immense number of dogs are destroyed. Put a
high tax on the dogs ; men who have valuable
dogs would be perfectly willing to pay $o,Q{) a
head tax. Tax them high or kill them. Wool is
high in price, flax is high, and cotton is very high ;
the latter is a tropical plant, and its cultivation is
not understood here. Then why attempt its culti-
vation Mhen we have both wool and flax, both
valuable textiles in demand, both adapted to our
climate, and the growth of both understood by
our people, but much neglected by them ? Bring
out the wool growers and the flax growei's, and
clear out the dogs. Read the following from the
Maine Farmer on the subject :

"The Dog Tax. — One of the most beneficent
things connected with the tax bill just passed the
House, is the tax of one dollar per head on dogs.
If it will have the effect in any degree to abate the
dog nuisance, which costs the country millions of
money every year in the destruction of sheep, and
the discouragement of the business of wool grow-
ing, the Congress which passes it. will be the ben-
efactors of their country. A Missouri paper gives
the following statistics, in connection with the
subject, v.'hich will be of interest to our readers :

"One dog for each family in the United States
would be a very moderate computation. This
would give us in round numbers probably eight
millions of dogs, each of which consumes annu-
ally food sufficient to raise a pig worth a dollar.

The cost, therefore, of feeding the dogs in the
United States is $8,000,000, which amount may
be considered nearly, if not quite, a dead loss to
the nation.

"A much more important question to consider,
however, is, How many millions of dollars are an-
nually lost by the sheep, and otlier domestic ani-
mals killed by dogs. This question cannot be
solved until the attention of the census takers or
assessors shall be directed to the matter. Ohio
has already made the experiment, and it was
found that the loss in that State of the sheep
killed and injured by dogs in 1801 amounted in
value to $96,795 9.5. '

"The extensive wool growers in some portions
of the country, Avho keep choice breeds, have esti-
mated their individual losses at several thousands
of dollars annually, notwithstanding the utmost
care to prevent them. The havoc made by a single
dog who has become addicted to sheep-killing, is
astonishing ; and when two or three dogs asso-
ciate for the'i- H'ork, as often happens, one or two
visits will be sufficient sometimes to destroy a
large flock of sheep.

"Cattle and hogs to a great extent are bitten
and destroyed by mad dogs. The danger and loss
of human life by the same cause is not inconsid-
erable, and is well worth consideration. At the
same time nineteen-twentieths of the dogs are
utterly worthless to their owners.

"A still more important injury which the coun-
try sustains by dogs remains to be considered.
Thousands of farmers have abandoned raising
sheep on account of their destruction by dogs.
Others in nearly all places, aie deterred from en-
gaging to any considerable extent in this import-
ant and profitable branch of industry for the same
reason. Of the great loss which the country sus-
tains in this way there can be no doubt. The
number of sheep in many of the older States has
largely decreased annually. Those States are now
waking up to the importance of adopting measures
to decrease the number of dogs, and of obtaining
a revenue from them to remunerate sheep owners
for their losses. Under these circumstances we
have become large importers of woolen goods and
even wool. Instead of drawing on factories of our
own for a supply of clothing for our immense
army, we were obliged to import from Europe.

"In the West there is everything to favor, and
nothing except dogs to prevent, producing im-
mense quantities of wool, and ))roducing it very
cheaply. We have also every facility for manu-
facturing it in our midst. Such manufactories
would increase our population, and would consume
a large proportion of our surplus grain and pro-
visions which now have to seek distant markets
at a loss." — Evans's Rural Economist.

Ax Excellent Suggestion. — The New York
Post suggests that the assessors, assistant asses-
sors and collectors, whose appointment is pro-
vided for in the Tax Bill, and who will number
some thousands, be selected from the ranks of our
disabled soldiers. Men who return to their homes
incapable of further military service are now visi-
ble in every loyal city and township, equally inca-
pacitated for active business. Maimed, crippled
and destitute, many of these brave heroes are un-
able to procure remunerative employment. With

466

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

broken constitutions, they come back to their fam-
ilies and friends with limited ability to take a
prominent part in those avocations Avhich formerly
afforded them a comfortable subsistence, and in
many cases become a charge upon the charitable
or helpless dependants upon their families. These
men, who have shed their blood to sustain the
government, have a right to ask assistance from
that government, and the numerous oiRces cre-
ated by the Tax Bill will afford the means of pro-
viding them with light and remunerative employ-
ment. Much suffering may thus be prevented.

For the New England Farmer.
MINERALS IW MUCK.

Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent from Brook-
field states that he has muck thrown from a
swamp, which, on exposure to the air, becomes
frosted over with a substance tasting like alum.
This fact is frequently witnessed in the muck of
swamps or meadows, when the soil in the higher
levels surrounding them contains a large propor-
tion of clay. Alum is the basis of clay. Alum con-
sists of sulphuric acid and alumina. A portion of
this salt is leached by the rains from the clay soil,
and carried to the swamps and m.eadows. Here
it combines with the iron ore often found in such
situations, and a salt of iron is formed. This is
the substance which he finds, after a few dry days,
upon the surface of the muck heap. He may find
the iron by a simple experiment, performed in a
rough way, as follows :

Collect a gill of the substance or efflorescence,
and put it into half a pint of rain water. Shake
it well, and let it stand 12 hours. Then strain
carefully through a cotton cloth. Put the clear
liquid into a white glass bottle. Add a little car-
bonate of potash or saleratus. Shake M'ell to-
gether, and let the bottle stand at rest, and, after
a few hours, he will find the sides and bottom of
the bottle coated with iron rust. The sulphuric
acid which was previously combined with the iron,
has left it, and combined with the potash, and the
carbonic acid that was previously combined with
the potash has combined with the iron, and formed
a carbonate of iron, which, being but slightly sol-
uble in water, is deposited on the bottom and
sides of the bottle.

Muck of this description m.ay be used with much
advantage on warm, sandy soils, as old pine plains.
It should be well pulverized by exposure to the
frost of winter — spread upon the surface and
plowed in. I have seen a good crop of corn raised
upon such land by the free use of just such muck,
and the value of the land for pasturage much in-
creased for several years afterwards. But the best
Avay to use such muck is to mix a cask of quick-
lime with a cord of it, three or four weeks before
using it. Just before using it, overhaul and mix
thoroughly, and you have a valuable manure for
a topdrcssing for grass or grain, or for almost any
other crop. J. REYNOLDS.

Concord, Aug. 29, 1862.

Birds and Insects. — The attention of the
reader is called to an exceedingly interesting arti-
cle in another column of this paper, on the sub-
ject of bb'ds and insects. We hope every farmer
will read it.

For the New England Farmer.

HAHVESTS.

BT R . P. F CLLER.

When sunlicrht pours a goWen flood

Over the autumn field and wood,

A better harvest here I gain

Than they, who only reap the grain ;

And my increase, more rich than theirs.

The glorious October bears ;

My sateless eyes, from west to east,
On all the varied colors feast —
Sweet foretaste of the gems divine
That in the heavenly city shine !
The woodman hews the forest ; yet,
I gain much more than lie can get !

From green to gold the sunbeams change
The fruitage, ready for the grange.
The reaper has his harvest sought ;
He gleans the grain ; I gather thought !
But mine is far the greater good,
And satisfies with heavenly food !

For me, more than for liim, it grows,
And, every day, nev/ beauty shows.
For me it waves, to please the mind.
And, when its sheaf the reapers bind,
I reap the reaper, with his grain,
And all the good of it obtain.

For God, and for His children, still
His field must cverj' farmer till.
The pious thought alone shall gain
The real blessing of the grain:
Thus, earth the meek inherit ; though
A worldly hand may reap and sow.

Ye gatherers of the autumn, come !
To furnish forth the harvest home.
Fail not the fruits of thought to bind,
And reap rich increase for the mind I
Else, with a sordid toil, in vain
You leave the gold and get the grain !

Look on the pure ideal stores,
The autumn for the spirit pours !
0 ! waste not this abundance, which
God gives to make the poorest rich !
Come ! in the gold October, cull
A harvest of the beautiful !

TEMPERATURE OF THE SOIIi.

If no other argument could be deduced in favor
of under-draining, the foct that it equalizes the
temperature during the season of growth would be
enough to recommend it. The temperature of water
issuing from under-drains, as com])ared with the
temperature of the soil at the same level, shows
that during its passage it parts with heat which
must rise upward. l)uring the entire month of
April, the soil is mtich Avarmer at night than the
air, although perhaps somewhat colder during the
day. The average of its temperature, however, is
much higher in a drained than an undrained field,
but it is the same at night as in the day ; no loss of
heat occurs from the surface of the soil by evapo-
ration, or at least a much less loss than with un-
drained fields, and thus we see that the tempera-
ture of the soil, from the extremes of winter and
summer, is materially modified. Water falling
through the atmosphere and partaking of its tem-
perature, sinks readily in under-drained soils,
while in others it runs from the surface, becomes
cold by eva])oration of a portion, dissolves large
amounts of the more soluble, and therefore more

1S62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

467

progressed and valuable inorganic contituents of
the surface, and carries them to the nearest ditch
or brook.

Tlie same truths apply in degree to sub-soil
plowing, and when the two are combined, a longer
season is the consequence.

The continued downward evaporation in well
prepared soils renders the feeding of the plants
continuous and not unequal, as with soils badly
prepared, which supply the necessary amount of
moisture for the solution of surface fertilizers only
during rains and at moments of heavy dews, leav-
ing the soil incapable of permitting the free ac-
cess of atmosphere and the accompanying humid
condition. — Working Farmer.

PLTEE WATER FOB, STOCK.

A good draught of good water is, probably, as
refreshing to beasts as it is to people. But in the
month of August nearly all domestic animals suf-
fer far more than we imagine for w'ant of good wa-
ter. Sheep will thrive far better if they can have
access to ])ure water. Teams will endure the heat
far lietter if they can have a plenty of pure water,
and if milch cows must drink stagnant water
wherever they can find it, hov.- is it possible for
them to give their usual (low of good milk ? It is
impracticable for them to do it.

Some people allow water to stand in troughs
day after day, many times, and compel their ani-
mals to drink it all up. Did such people ever
drink water from an old dirty slop-pail, after it
had been allowed to stand in the sunshine for two
or three days ? Let them try the experiment of
drinking such water, and wait for the result ; and
then they will be prepared to express a correct
opinion, whether or not such water is as good for
stock, in the sultry days of August, as pure cold
water would be.

Water troughs and water tanks should be
cleaned frequently during the hot days of August,
and fresh water pumped into them several times
during the day.

Milk cows require a vast quantity of pure water
in hot Aveather, in order to produce their usual
flow of good milk. — Country Gentleman.

Bruce's Patent Fruit Gatherer. — This is a
very simple contrivance for selecting specimens of
fruit from the tree while standing on the ground,
or for gathering apples on the outside branches of
trees where they cannot be reached by the hand —
and where a ladder would injure the tender twigs
by resting against them. It is made by inserting
several bent wires into an iron collar. A narrow
bag of cotton cloth is inserted in this collar to
catch the fruit when it has been gently pushed or
twisted off ; it then falls into the bag and rolls
down to the hand, into a basket or upon the
gi'ound. By care, this can be done so as not to
injure the fruit.

This Fruit Gatherer is manufactured and sold
by A. H. Caryl, Groton Junction, Mass. The
retail price is 7j cts., or with a short bag, 50 cts.,
and to those who purchase to sell again at a still
less price.

For the Neic England Farmer.

THE BIRDS OF ISTEW EWGLAND— No. 21.

VIREOS.

Red-eyed Vireo — White-eyed Vireo — Yellow-throated Vireo—
Solitary Vii-eo — Warbling Vireo.

The YlREOS or Greenlets, (forming the sub-
family Vireoninceoi Swainson's family Ampclidce,)
form one of our most useful and interesting groups
of birds, subsisting nearly the whole year upon
insects, and at no time are they found feeding
upon cultivated fruits. In the form of the bill
they resemble the Shrikes, it being large, stout
and toothed, but in their habits have considerable
similarity to the common Flycatchers ; so much
so that they were first described under the genus
Muscicapa, by all of the earlier ornithologists.
Thirteen species of Vireo are described by Baird
as found in the United States, five of which inhab-
it the New England States. They are all migra-
tory, spending the winter far southward, and ap-
pearing here in ^lay.

The Red-Eyed Vireo, {Vireo Olivaceus,
Yieill.,) is perhaps our most common as well as
the plainest colored species, reaching here early in
]May, when its song is at once heard, loud and
lively, as it hunts in the woods and thickets for its
winged food. It continues with us often till late
in September, and throughout the summer it war-
bles its agreeable, but slightly varied notes with
hardly a season of intermission ; during the hot
July days, when most liirds are quite silent, the
lively lay of this harmless songster is heard from
the tree-tops, and only interrupted now and then
to dispose of a captured insect, throughout the live-
long day ; and in August, when nearly every for-
est-warbler has become silent for the season, the
sprightly notes of this bird are still heard in the
woodlands, outside of which it is seldom seen. It
constructs a neat and pensile nest, suspended by
its upper edge between the twigs of a sapling oak
or maple, seldom more than four or five feet from
the ground, though sometimes quite elevated.
The materials are quite various, generally em-
bracing fibrous grass, strips of the bark of grape
vines, pieces of withered leaves, caterpillars' webs,
etc., the whole com])actly woven and glued with
the saliva of the bird. The eggs are four or five
white, with a few small, dark brown specks at the
larger end. This bird is often the foster-mother
of the Cow Bird. This species inhabits the whole
of eastern North America, from Greenland to
Guatemala.

Length, five and a half inches ; alar extent, sev-
en. Above, yellow-olive ; crown, ash ; line of
black over the eye ; beneath, pur e white ; sides
tinged with greenish. Iris of the eye bright red.

The White-Eyed Vireo, ( Vireo Xoveboracen-
sis, Bon.,) inhabits the whole of the eastern part
of the United States, southward to Texas, and is
said, like the preceding, to be quite common. It
is frequently taken in the eastern part of the
State, but in this vicinity I am inclined to think
it more rare, having examined several collections
of birds made here in the last three years, amount-
ing in all to more than eight hundred specimens,
without finding a single individual, and in collect-
ing more than five hundred specimens myself in
the woods and thickets, I did not meet Avith it.
Wilson says, "This is another of the Cow Bird's
adopted nurses ; a lively, active and sociable little

468

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

bii'd, possessing a strong voice for its size, and a
great variety of note ; and singing with little in-
termission from its first arrival, about the middle
of April, till a little before its departure in Sep-
tember. « * * * Xhis bird builds a very
neat little nest ; often in the form of an inverted
cone ; it is suspended by the upper edge of the
two sides, on the circular bend of a prickly vine —
a species of smilax that generally grows in low
thi(:kets. Outwardly, it is constructed of various
light materials, bits of rotten wood, fibres of dry
stalks of weeds, pieces of paper, commonly news-
papers, an article almost always found about its
nest, so that some of my friends have given it the
name of the Politician ; all these substances are
interwoven with the silk of caterpillars, and the
inside is lined with fine, dry grass and hair. The
female lays five eggs, pure white, marked near the
great end with a few small dots of deep black or
purple." It is similar to the preceding species in
size and general colors.

The Yellow-Thuoated Viiieo, ( Vireo flavi-
frons, Vieill.,) though less common than the Red-
eyed, is not very rare in the forests of New Eng-
land, to which it is chiefly confined ; its wild, mu-
sical pree-o, pree-a, prcc-e, etc., is not vnifrequent-
ly heard, however, from the tall elms and majjles
that are found shading our quiet village streets.
It arrives hei'e in May, from Mexico and Centval
America, spends the summer with us, and returns
with its young early in September. Its principal
food at all seasons is winged insects, though, in
common with its numerous congeners, it feeds
more or less in August, ujion whortleberries and
other small, wild fruits. The nest of this species,
Wilson observes, "is sometimes fixed on the up-
per side of a limb, sometimes on a horizontal
branch among the twigs, generally on a tree, is
composed outwardly of thin strips of the bark of
grape vines, moss, lichens, and lined with fine
fibres of such like substances ; the eggs, usually
four, are white, thinly dotted with bkick, chiefly
near the great end."

This neatly-colored species measures five and a
half inches in length ; and about nine in the ex-
tent of tlie wings. General color above, delicate,
bright yellow-olive ; line over the eye, throat and
breast, bright lemon-yellow ; rest of the lower
parts, white.

The Solitary Vireo, {Vireo Solitaritis,
Vieill.,) is the rarest of its genus in New England,
and though inhabiting the whole United States,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is a less numer-
ous species than either of the preceding. Wilson,
Avho first described it, saw but three individuals,
and all authors agree in esteeming it rare; and
we know but little concerning its history. I have
met with it several times at Springfield, always
early in May ; my attention was first attracted to
it by its beautiful song, which excels even that of
the Warbling Vireo, which is such a xniiversal fa-
vorite, being louder and more prolonged, and fully
as lively and agreeable, though a little less hur-
ried. In every instance it appeared restless and
shy, constantly hopping from limb to limb, and
flying from tree to tree, frequently repeating its
song.

This species is five inches long, and about eight
in extent. Above, fine green olive, head and neck
bluish ash ; breast, pale ash ; sides yellow ; lares,
black.

The Warbling Vireo, ( Vireo gilvus, Bon,,) is
not an uncommon denizen of the orchard, and
high trees that border the streets of our vil-
lages and cities, quite avoiding the forest, and ap-
pai-ently courting the society of man. It much
resembles the Red-eyed Vireo in colors, but is
somewhat less in size ; it is found throughout the
United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast, reaching this latitude from the South early
in May, and lingering here till late in autumn,
even sometimes till October, when its sweet war-
ble is heard from among the withering leaves, long
after all other songsters have l^ecome silent, or
have left for a more southern section. The almost
unrivalled sweetness and easy flow of its warbling
ditty, and its unsuspecting habits, often suspend-
ing its delicately-woven nest from the drooping
branches of the elms that overhang the crowded
streets, endear him to all. Throughout the whole
summer, his soothing notes are heard, in the heat-
ed hour cf noonday, when most birds are silent,
as well as at early dawn, as he hunts the noxious
insects that prey upon the foliage of our fruit and
ornamental trees. This species often continues
hunting in the same tree for hours, dextrously
seizing on the insects that infest it, repeating its
song every two or three minutes, or oftener ; yet
it is difficult to discover the bird, hidden among
the thick foliage. The nest is usually fastened to
a drooping branch of an apple tree or an elm, by
its upper edge, and constructed of fibres of tough,
dry grass, and strings, when obtainable, and the
silky webs of caterpillars and spiders, and neatly
lined with hair and soft, downy substances ; the
whole forming a substantial structure that often
resists the elements for more than one season.
The eggs, usually four, are pure white, sparingly
marked with specks of bright brown around the
larger end. It is strongly attached to its nest, and
exhibits great distress when it is exposed to dan-
ger. J. A. A.

Springfield, Mass., 1862.

To Prevent Ink from Damaging Steel
Pens. — TJirow, either into the ink-stand or the
bottle in which the ink is kept, a few nails, brok-
en bits of steel pens, (not varnished,) or any piece
of iron not rusted. The corrosive action of the
acid contained in the ink is expended on the iron
introduced, and which is soon covered by the de-
composition of the sulphate of copper, which gives
the coppery hue observable on metallic pens used
with common ink. The ink will not aftect the
pen, or, should it still do so, it will be necessary
to add more iron, and the mischief will be entire-
ly remedied.

Chloride of Lime as an Insecticide. —
Dingley's Folytechni sokes Journal says that
sprinkling beils of vegetables with even a weak
solution of this salt effectually ))reserves them
from caterpillars, butterflies, mordella, slugs, &c.
It has the same effect when sprinkled on the foli-
age of fruit trees. A paste of one part of powdered
chloride of lime, and one-half part of some fatty
matter, placed in a narrow band round the trunk
of the tree, prevents insects from creeping up to
it. It has ever been noticed that rats and mice
quit places in which a quantity of chloride of lime
has been spread.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

469

For the New England Farmer.
THE POTATO ONION.

Mu. Editor : — T noticed an inquiry in your last
paper from an "Inquirer," iu relation to the cul-
ture af the potato onion. I have been in tlie habit
of cultivating the potato onion to a limited extent
for more than twenty years. "Whether they can
be raised to "supply the demand for onions raised
from the seed," is a question to be decided by
connoisseurs. "The demand will produce the sup-
ply." The seed of the common onion will cost you
much less than the bulbs of the potato onion.
This is a drawback on the culture ; but if they
were to come into more general use, the e})icure
and the public would realize their value, and re-
gardless of cost would purchase no other. For
soups and chowders, and, iu fact, for all culinary
purposes, they are delicious ; in comparison, all
other onions sink into insignificance.

They are a very early onion, and should be set
out or planted as early as the first of April, and
earlier if possible. I prepare the ground with a
liberal dressing of compost manure, which I plow
in and level off with a harroAv or rake ; I then
draw a line and dig a trench suificieutly deep to
cover the bulb. Place them about three inches
apart in the trench, cover carefully and roll with
a light garden rollii', or press the earth around
them with the feet. Otherwise, if not planted deep
enough and the earth made compact when taking
root, the onions will be crowded out of the ground.

Thej' may be set out in rows about fifteen inches
apart, or sufficiently wide to allow the use of a
wheel hoe, which 1 have found the best instru-
ment for weeding them.

I send you some samples of the potato onion,
which I raise. There are other varieties, but none
as good. The largest Avill produce clusters like
sample — the small onions in the clusters are called
seed, and each one of them will, in another sea-
son, produce one large one.

I am sorry to say that the potato onions are not
exempt from the ravages of the maggot, as, for
two or three years past, we have discovered indi-
cations of their presence. I raise from 20 to 30
bushels per year, and find no difficulty iu selling
them at .$2,(30 per bushel. I have sold them as
high as $5,00 per bushel to agricultural ware-
houses. I paid six cents each for tubers 20 or oO
years since. HoKACE Collamore.

North Pembroke, Sept. 2, 1862.

of absolute privation of drink (unless in a moist
atmosphere,) is perhaps a limit of endurance. This
is the most atrocious torture ever invented by
Oriental tyrants ; it is that which most effectually
tames animals. Mr. Astley, when he had a refrac-
tory horse, always used thirst as the most effective
power of coercion, giving a little water as the re-
ward for every act of obedience. The histories of
shipwrecks paint fearful pictures of sufl'ering from
thirst ; and one of the most appalling cases known
is the celebrated imprisonment of 14G men in the
Black Hole of Calcutta. — Blackwood.

R,EMARKS. — Our old friend and correspondent,
Mr. Collamore, will accept our thanks for this
interesting and valuable communication. It is just
the information many persons have desired to re-
ceive, and is worth the cost of the Farmer for a
year to numbers of its readers.

Thirst Worse than Hunger — The disturb-
ance to the general system which is known by the
name of raging thirst is far more terrible than that
of starvation, for this reason : during the abstinence
from food, the organism can live upon its own sub-
stance ; but during the abstinence from liquid, the
organism has no such source of supply within it-
self. Men have been known to endure absolute
privation of food for some weeks ; but three days

For t/ie New Fnqland Farmer.
HOW TO SET FENCE POSTS.

Mr. Editor : — I wish to make, through the
columns of your valuable paper, a few suggestions,
in regard to the setting of fence posts. I am con-
vinced that this part of farm work, as usually
practiced, is performed much more frequently
than would be required, if they were properly pre-
pared and set at first.

If this is true, the cost of maintaining post and
rail or board fences is much greater than the ne-
cessity of the case requires ; and he who can in-
duce the farming community to look upon it in
that light, and act accordingly, will at last have
performed a little good. But to the point ; to il-
lustrate the subject, I will relate a few facts that
have come under my own observation.

About sixteen years since, my father erected a
post and board fence around his barn-yard. The
posts were set, as was, and still is the custom, to
a wide extent, with the large, or butt ends in the
ground, with the exce])tion of three which were
accidentally placed with the top end of the timber
down. This fact was not noticed at the time, but
at the expiration of seven or eight years, all of
these posts, with the exception of the three that I
have mentioned, were decayed and broken off";
when, upon examination of those remaining, it
was discovered that they were set as stated above.
Those three identical posts are still standing as
originally set, to-day, and bid fair to last a num-
ber of years. If that part placed in the gi'ound
had been chan-ed, that is, burnt to a coal, I have
no doubt but what they would have lasted twice
as long as they otherwise would. The process of
charring is very simple and easily performed, as
one man can prepare one hundred and fifty or two
hundred posts in a single day. I never have had
an opportunity to determine how long chan-ing
will preserve a post, but have seen some treated
in this manner taken from the ground at the end
of six years, as sound and hard as when placed
there.

I suppose the reason that posts set top end
down are preserved such a length of time is this :
in all timber, to a greater or less extent, there are
many minute canals or ducts, usually visible to
the naked eye, extending lengthwise, \vhich serve,
when the tree is growing, to convey the sap from
the roots through the trunk to the boughs,
branches and leaves of the tree. In these ducts or
veins there are many minute valves opening up-
wards, not impeding the sap in its upward flov/,
Ijut Avhich immediately close when a pressure is
brought to bear in an opposite direction. Now
Mhen the butt end of the post is placed in the

470

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

ground, if the ground is, or becomes wet, the wa-
ter immediately rises by capillary attraction up
through its natural channels into the body of the
post, thus becoming alternately wet and dry, and
causing it rapidly to decay. On the other hand,
if the top end is placed in the ground, the tenden-
cy of the water to pass upwards instantly closes
these valves, perfectly excluding the water, keep-
ing the post dry, and preserving it to a certain ex-
tent from the hand of time.

In conclusion, T hope all who have occasion
hereafter to erect a fence of this character, will fol-
low the suggestions here given ; and my word for
it, they will never look upon it, as labor lost.

North Pawlet, Vt, Sept. 1, 1862. Dike.

NORTHERN SUGAR.

It would be a singular result of the rebellion, if
the North and West should become independent
of the Southern climes in the articles of sugar and
cotton. The cotton culture will be tried next sea-
son in regions farther north than it ever was be-
fore, with what results time will show. The va-
rious products that will yield sugar will also be-
come more extensively sought after.

The sorghum, the sugar beet and the rock
maple, are all demanding attention. They can all
be used in Maine and the other New England
States. The maple and the beet are at home in
the North, and the sorghum and imphee produce
abundantly in the Western States. The earlier
varieties of imphee will undoubtedly ripen in
Maine.

The sorghum has already been proved in the
West, and its culture next season will be quad-
rupled. A Sorghum Convention was held at liock-
ford, 111., last Fall, where many samples of the
syrup and some sugar was exhibited and much
valuable information elicited, which will lead to
improvements both of culture and manufacture
the coming season. One individual had made 16
gallons of syrup from an acre. Another had made
100 gallons from three-fourths of an acre. Seven
gallons of juice made one of syrup.

The Illinois Horticultural Society, at their
meeting held in Chicago not long ago, discus-
sion upon the subject of the production and man-
ufacture of sorghum syrup and sugar. Among
other interesting facts it appears that "The culti-
vation of the sugar cane in the Northwest is no
longer a matter of doubt. As high as 300 gallons
of syrup have been produced per acre. One hun-
dred and fifty gallons is a small yield ;" and it
was confidently asserted that they would soon
have a home supply and a surplus to export to
the Eastern States.

Our farmers in northern New England should
be preparing themselves for the maple sugar cam-
paign. The time for it will soon be along, and
should be improved in every way possible. —
Maine Fuiirier.

I ed off with clean cold water, applied to both sides.

I The cleansing of silk is a very nice operation.
Most of the colors are liable to be extracted with

I washing in hot suds, especially the blue and green
colors. A little alum dissolved in the last water
that is brushed on the silk, tends to prevent the
colors from running. Alcohol and camphene, mix-
ed together, is used for removing grease from
silk. — Scientific American,

Washing Silk. — No person should ever wring
or crush a piece of silk when it is wet, because
the creases thus made will remain forever, if the
silk is thick and hard. The way to wash silk is
to spread it smoothly upon a clean board, rul)
with white soap upon it, and brush it with a clean
hard brush. The silk must be rubbed until the
grease is extracted, then the soap should be brush-

INFLUENCE OF SUJNTLIGHT.

A mistaken notion prevails with many that ani-
mals need little or no light while confined in the
stable. Physiologists declare that, other things he-
ing equal, families who occupy apartments on the
sunny side of dwellings arc the most healthy and
happy. Fresh air and sunlight are promotive of
health, and yet, in the construction of stables for
animals, many seem to forget that these requisites
are important.

One would suppose that in localities where the
attention of farmers is almost exclusively devoted
to stock, anything connected with the manage-
ment of animals conducing to their health and
comfort would be the subject of thought. Yet,
how few even for a moment are Milling to give
this subject the attention it deserves. To suppose
that an animal, confined in a clark, damp, unven-
tilated stable, will thrive, and be able to yield the
same profit that it would if occupying a place the
reverse of these, is to sujjpose an impossibility.
Disease, though it may not at first be apparent to
the eye, is, nevertheless, doing its work, and in
some way will make itself felt to the loss of the
owner.

Hogs that have their pens so made that the
sunlight can be freely admitted, thrive better and
are more easily fattened than when confined in
])ens v.here the rays of the sun never penetrate.
So with horses. Serious diseases are engendered
from badly constructed stables. The horse is fond
of fresh air and light, and his stable should be pro-
vided with the means of thorough ventilation, and
the admission of the sun's rays ; he enjoys these
quite as much as his master, and it seems thought-
less and cruel to deprive so good a servant of that
which costs nothing, but yet serves to make him
happier and more contented with his lot in life.
Doubtless, animals, like men, have their gloomy
days in which things are turned topsy turvy, and
could their feelings be expressed in words, we
doubtless should hear sad stories of their being
compelled, under the whip, to do heavy and ex-
hausting work when sick, and of being deprived
of conrfbrts through the ignorance and thought-
lessness of those who have them in care.

On the score of economy, we believe that it pays
to treat all animals kindly, and to provide them
with suitable buildings for shelter. We know from
actual experience, that the cow that has been win-
tered in a warm, dry, well ventilated stable, prop-
erly fed and cared for, will pay for all extra trouble
and labor, in the increased quantity and better
quality of milk yielded, through the summer fol-
lowing. When we hear of dairymen complaining
that the aiunuil yield of cheese ])er cow lias fallen
down to ;300 or 350 lbs., we have strong suspi-
cions that the fault lies somewhere in the keeping
or management of stock. We hold that a good
stable for stock should be provided with windows

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

471

to admit sunlight ; it should be dry and well ven-
tilated, and the same general rules for health, ap-
plicable to persons, should be ever before the eye
of the farmer, and guide him in his treatment of
stock.

If any one doubts that sunlight has a beneficent
influence on health and spirits, let him compare
his feelings during a long term of cloudy wet
weather, and then again, when every day is pleas-
ant with warm, bright sunshine. The difference,
we think, will be observable, at least, with most
persons. — Dairy Farmer.

AUTUMN.
Now sheaves are slanted to the sun

Amid the golden meadows.
And little sun-tanned gleaners run

To cool them in their shadows ;
The reaper binds the bearded ear,
And gathers in the golden year ;
And where the sheaves are glancing,
The farmer's heart is dancing.

There pours a glory on the land,
Flashed down fi'om Heaven's wide portals,

As Labor's hand grasps Beauty's hand
To vow good -will to mortals:

The golden year brings Beauty down,

To bless her with a marriage crown,

While Labor rises, gleaning

Her blessings and their meaning.

The work is done, the end is near,

Beat, Heart, to flute and tabor,
For Beauty wedded to the Year

Completes herself from Labor ;
She dons her marriage gems, and then
She casts them off as gifts to men.
And, sunbeam-like, if dimmer,
The fallen jewels glimmer.

There is a hush of joy and love

Xow giving hands have crowned us ;
There is a heaven up above,

And a heaven here around us !
And Hope, her prophecies complete,
Creeps up to pray at Beauty's feet.
While with a thousand voices
The perfect earth rejoices !

When to the Autumn heaven here

Its sister is replying,
'Tis sweet to think our golden year

Fulfils itself in dying ;
That we shall find, poor things of breath,
Our own Soul's loveliness in death.
And leave, when God shall find us,
Our gathered gems behind us. London AtheiKmim,

For the Neip England Farmer.

STATE AND COUNTY SHOWS.

In the published accounts of these, I perceive
an omission of many names that I have been ac-
customed to see, in years gone by ; and what is
more, that some State and County Societies have
deliberately determined not to have a Show or
Fair during the present season. This presents a
question of vital importance to the farmer, — Are
these Shows, as a whole, productive of any real
benefit ? Or are they mere hoUdays, for the grat-
ification of the rabble ? No one has taken a deep-
er interest in these shows, for the last forty -four
years, than I have myself — never having failed to
be present at the show in my own county, and

often in other counties and States. I should like
to see the reasons for and against such shows
fairly stated. I believe the topic to be of vital
importance to the agricultural community.

Essex.

For the New England Farmer,

AKE FOWLS PROFITABLE TO THE
FABMES, P

This is a question often asked, and I now have
in my possession three letters from correspondents
upon this question, and with your indulgence, I
will answer them thi'ough the extensively circulat-
ed columns of the iV. E. Farmer. My positive
answer is-^Yes. Fowls will pay a large profit
when properly fed and cared for ; a comparative-
ly few in number will give a better return than a
large flock ; although they may receive extra care
and attention, it seems impossible to keep a large
number, even in a spacious enclosure, without dis-
ease. Twenty good fowls will lay more eggs, and
be in better health, when enclosed in a coop, than
one hundred in the same enclosure, for two years.
One hundred fowls may succeed well in a large
coop for a short time.

Another mistake wc are very liable to make, is
in keeping many breeds of fowls together. Have
but one breed, keep them Avell, and ventilate their
coops. A good, hardy breed of fowls do not re-
quire such warm and close houses as they are gen-
erally kept in, although they require a dry coop,
free from drafts. Ventilate freely on the top, if
possible, feed through the winter upon corn and
barley, and occasionally with raw fresh meat ;
beef preferred.

I still ha%-e a great preference for the Brahma
fowls for our climate. They are hardy, and lay
through the winter season as well as the summer,
when eggs are worth double the price that they
are in summer. They may be kept in the coldest
coop, if fed properly, and in regard to profit, no
fowls I ever saw, if kept by themselves, pay in
every respect so large a profit as this breed. A
neighbor of mine, a shrewd and very successful
farmer has kept no other breed of fowls for many
years ; he winters about twenty-five pullets in
his barn-cellar, and has eggs from them through
the entire winter. In March he sets his hens, and
hatches from one to two hundred chicks, and
keeps them in his barn-yard, allowing them to en-
ter the barn at night ; by the 4th of July he dis-
poses of all, exce])t his winter stock, alive, at an
average price of fifty cents each, to the butcher.
He has now laying pullets, which commenced lay-
ing by the last of July, hatched in March. 1 know
of no other breed of fowls that will do this. My
flock, when hatched in May, was 110. I have now
101, having lost but nine chickens this season;
they are very hardy, which, in our climate, is a
great recommendation to any breed of fowls.
Fowls may be unprofitable, when kept, as many
farmers are in the habit of keeping them, allowing
them to wander about the farm, laying when they
please, and feeding theiriselves upon melons, to-
matoes, corn and other valuable articles of food. I
find, from practical observation, that fowls are like
all other animals, they will be very unprofitable if
not properly cared for, and very profitable if kept
as they should be. JOHN S. IVES.

Salem, Sept. 1, 1862.

472

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

THE NEW MONITOR, NAMED "NAHANT."
We took a stroll, the other clay, as far as the
"City Point Works," at South Boston, to see the
new iron-clad vessel "Naliant" now being con-
structed at the yard of Harrison Lorixg, Esq.
Those who have never seen a vessel of this kind
can scarcely realize, by any description, the im-
mense strength of one, or the skill and cost re-
quired to complete it. The sounds around it were
louder than the voice of many waters. Little
forges were glowing with red-hot coals heating
the bolts that little boys were evcryM'here drop-
ping over the sides of the vessel, sus])ended on a
hook at the end of a cord. These were eagerly
caught in iron tongs, and when entered into the
rivet holes, were smitten with blows from two or
three sledges and hammers with a rapidity that
seemed to outstrip the motions of the quickest
machinery. Every part of the vessel Avas going
on at one point or another, — the sides, the deck,
the engine, water tanks, quarters, the terrific ram
in the bows, and the turret. This stood on a
platform resting upon the ground, and I suppose
when partly done will be hoisted on deck and fin-
ished. The whole thing is so unlike any vessel of
common construction, and the means of defence
and aggression so unlike all the usual arts of war-
fare, that the mind was bewildered with the
strangeness of the scene, when contemplating
■what it was all for. Some of the proportions of
the "Nahant" are —

Length 200 feet.

Breadth 47 "

Thickness of wood armor 3 "

Thickness of iron armor, outside of wood 0 inches.

Thickness of turret 11 "

Thickness of deck plating 1 "

Diameter of turret 21 feet.

Into this turret are to be placed two or more
guns of great weight, which are to hurl destruc-
tion to every approaching foe, or run it through
with the terrible beak that projects from the prow.

For the Netc Enaland Farmer.

WHEAT— WHEAT.

Mr. Editor: — I noted your editorial in refer-
ence to the small, "black insect that swarms on
the wheat this season." Is this insect confined to
the wlieat alone ? Are the "fields of wheat" spring
or winter grain ? And from whence comes this
new enemy ? Has it originated in foreign seed ?
Can it be traced to any one field ? Last year,
some of your correspondents described a "louse or
aphis," of peculiar shape, and if I mistake not, it
appears on all grains. You say "these destroyers
sometimes infest the wheat in Europe to a great
extent." This indicates to me what I have often
written, that the eggs of the insect are deposited
in or on the berry, and if imported from abroad or
transported from the West, or elsewhere, it is fair
to su])pose the insect goes with its natural food in
the form of an e^s:,, or in its own peculiar form of
propagation. No one ever saw the weevil in any

grain but wheat. It seems to be its natural food.
So it is with the onion maggot.

How is it possible that seed wheat, coming hun-
dreds or thousands of miles, and for the first time
an attempt is made to raise it on a New England
farm, this troublesome insect appears with the
grain ? Is it fair to suppose it an incorporated in-
sect of the farm, or was it brought there in the
grain? This may be a proper subject for your
scientific readers. Will they please inform us ?

Now for the remedy for this evil in the start,
which no doubt is more or less eflfectual, and per-
haps for the fiftieth time I have troubled your
readers to read it — soak the grain in salt pickle
twelve hours, then rake it in wood ashes and sow
when damp ; soaking throws to the surface foul
seed and insects, quickens the germ, and perhaps
may destroy the c^j^^ that attaches to the berry. It
is a powerful fertilizer, &c.

I would again say to the farmer, on your light
plain rye land, I should not omit putting in wheat
as late as the 25th of this month. Many of you
have little or no manure. Then plow in ashes or
slaked lime with the grain, say three inches deep,
or with a cultivator two to three inches deep,
and you Mill not regret your labor. Use the rol-
ler if you can borrow one. In England and Scot-
land they roll all their grass lands in spring ; it
packs the roots and increases the crop. We shall
learn the value of the roller by-and-bye.

Brooklyn, L. 1. ' H. PoOR.

N. B. Light plain lands are two weeks earlier
than heavy grass lands.

MOVING.

People who live in cities and move regularly
every year from one good, furnished, right-side-up
house to another, will think I give a very small
reason for a very broad fact ; but they do not
know what they are talking about. They have
fallen into a way of looking upon a house as a
sort of exaggerated trunk, into Avhich they pack
themselves annually with as much nonchalance
as if it were only their preparation for a summer
trip to the sea-shore. They don't strike root any-
where. They don't have to tear up anything. A
man comes with a cart and horses. There is a
stir in one house — they are gone ; there is a stir
in the other — tliey are settled ; and everything is
wound up and set going for another year. We
do these things differently in the country. We
don't build a house by way of experiment and live
in it a few years, then tear it down and build an-
other. We live in a house till it cracks and then
plaster it overj then it totters, and we prop it up ;
then it rocks, and we rope it down ; then it
sprawls, and we clamj) it ; then it crumljles, and
we have a new underpinning, but kcc]) living in it
all the time. To know what moving really means,
you must move from just such a ricketty-racketty
old farm-house, where you have clung and grown
like a fungus ever since there was anything to
grow — where your life and luggage have crept in-
to all the crevices and corners, and every wall is
festooned with associations thicker than cobwebs
that are ])retty thick — where the furniture and
the pictures and the knick-knacks are so become a
part and parcel of the house, so grown with it and
into it, that you do not know they are chiefly rub-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

473

bish till you begin to move them and they fall in
pieces, and you don't know it then, but persist in
packing them up and carrying them away for the
sake of "auld lang syne," till set up again in your
new abode, you suddenly find that their sacred-
ness is gone, their dignity has degraded into din-
giness, and the faded, patched chintz sofa, that
was not only comfortable, but res])ectable, in the
old wainscotted sitting-room, has suddenly turned
into "an object" when "lang synes" go by the
board, and the heir-loom is incontinently set
adrift. Undertake to move from this tumble-
down old house, strewn thick with the debris of
many generations, into a tumble-up, peaky, perky,
plastery, shingly, stary new one, that is not half
finished, and never will be, and good enough for
it, and you will perhaps comprehend how it is that
I find a great crack in my life. On the further
side are prosperity, science, literature, philosophy,
religion, society, and all the refinements and
amenities, and benevolences, and purities of life —
in short, all the arts of peace and civilization and
Christianity — and on this side — moving. — Atlantic
Montlihj.

For the New England Farmer.
HARD COAL ASHES,

Mk. Editor : — On page 362 of your August
number I find an article on the use of hard coal
ashes for manure, which induces me to make a
suggestion that they are much more valuable as
an absorbent of the fertilizing elements in ma-
nures, than is generally supposed, and may be
worth something as a disinfectant.

It will not be difficult for some of your readers
to try the experiment as I have, and satisfy them-
selves. My belief is, that all the ashes and all the
drainage of all our cities should be combined, and
thus, out of two evils, bring an inexhaustible good.
I have no doubt but that the effluvia proceeding
from the slaughter-houses in Brighton could be
thoroughly neutralized by the use of anthracite
coal ashes, and the atmosphere rendered as pure
as in any other neighborhood.

It will be found, upon mixing a moderate pro-
portion of ashes with the contents of the privy,
cess-pool or hog-pen, that in a short time the of-
fensive odor has entirely disappeared.

It is not expelled, as by the use of chlorides,
but held in combination until, by its use as ma-
nure, the earth and roots of plants liberate and
use it.

Dry peat, charcoal dust and other like substan-
ces have the same power. But nothing is so cheap
as hard coal ashes, which have generally been
considered only a nuisance. D. Wilder, Jr.

Important Commercial Projects. — A cor-
respondent, writing from Rio de Janeiro, under
date of July 14, says that Senor Tavarres Bastos,
a leading and eloquent statesman, has introduced
into the Brazilian Chambers a proposition (1st,)
to give subsidy to any company, (meaning a
United States company,) of $100,000 to run a line
of steamers monthly between New York and Para,
to connect with the Brazil mail steamers which
run between the Amazon and the La Plata, touch-
ing at all intermediate ports ; or (2d,) to give the
same United States steamers a subsidy of $300-

000 to make regularly monthly trips from New
York to Rio, touching at six or eight of the prin-
cipal ports of the Empire, beginning with Para.
Another proposition has been laid before the
Chamber, which will doubtless pass, that in two
years' time, the Amazon, and its branches, be
thrown open to the flags of the world ; and in five
years hence the river Plata and its vast continua-
tions (the Parana and Paraguay,) which are most-
ly in Brazil, be also tlirown open to the commerce
of all nations.

LACUSTRINE HABITATIONS.

A work has been recently published in France
by M. Troyon, entitled the "Lacustrine Abodes of
Man,^^ or the relics of primeval antiquity discov-
ered in the lakes of Switzerland. It appears that
the boatmen on those lakes have, from time imme-
morial, observed in various places near the shore,
under the calm transparent Avater, the heads of
numberless wooden stakes protruding through the
deposit which is generally found at the bottom.
Along with these, large blocks of wood have here
and there been visible, stags' horns of great size,
bones, and fragments of pottery. There was a
lurking traditional belief that these were the re-
mains of dwellings, occupied by the people of an-
cient times, who built on the lakes in order to
shelter themselves from wild beasts. For centu-
ries, however, no one had been tempted to look
closer into these scattered fragments of a forgot-
ten world. It was not until the year 1854 that
the attention of scientific men was called to the
discovery, and the result of the earliest investiga-
tions on the subject was to establish the existence
of a submerged "lake village" in a certain part of
Lake Zurich. This discovery was rapidly followed
by others. Similar sites have been traced in Lakes
Constance, Geneva, Neufchatel, Burine, IMorat,
Sempach, and in several smaller ones. Indeed,
they now seem to multiply in the note books of
archaeologists with almost inconvenient rapidity.
Two years ago twenty-six such village sites had
been desqi-ibed in the Lake of Neufchatel alone ;.
twenty-four in that of Geneva ; sixteen in that of
Constance ; and the amount of ancient objects re-
covered from their debris has reached a truly for-
midable magnitude. Twenty-four thousand of
these have been raised from a single locality in
Lake of Neufchatel. "We are still very far," says
M. Troyon, "from having recovered all the relics
imbedded in the silt of the lakes and peat of thje
valleys. Nevertheless we are by this time ac-
quainted with a sufficient number of points of re^
markable richness to enable us to give, by their
description, an idea of that ancient population
which had the habit of living on these waters."

These people were of smaller statue than the.
present inhabitants of Europe, as is shown by th^-
diminutive size of their ornaments, and in ])artiof-
ular by the grasp of the handles of their im])lc-*-
ments. They were a race of hunters ; arrow-
heads and lance-heads and the bones of wild ani-
mals are heaped around their dwellings. Tlwy
were also pastoral, for the bones of sheep and ox-
en, and in some instances of a small species of
horse, are found in close juxtaposition with those
of the deer, the wild boar, and other beasts of the
forest. They were, to some extent, agricultural,
for grains of wheat and barley, kernels of culti-

474

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

vated fruit, nuts and cakes of unleavened meal,
and even slices of small apples and pears, as if cut
for preserving, are found among the relics. There
are less certain traces of mats, or cordage, of hemp
or flax. These pre-historical men had their do-
mestic animals, and fed their dogs with the relics
of their dinner ; for almost all the bones contain-
ing marrow are broken, while many of them are
maj'ked by the teeth of dogs.

For the Neto En^dand Partner.
AGKICULTTJIlEl IN" COMMON SCHOOLS.

Mr. Editor : — Some time ago I wrote an ar-
ticle— one of a series of articles on the subject of
Agricultural Education — on this two-fold question :
"Ought agriculture to be taught in our common
schools ? In their present state and condition,
can it be successfully taught there, without doing
more harm than good ?" In the simplicity of my
heart, after pointing out the primary and funda-
mental branches which ought to be taught, and
thoroughly taught, there, I offered three reasons
which were convincing to my own understanding,
and which I thought would convince others, that
agriculture should not be introduced, and could
not be successfully taught in our common schools.

Imagine my surprise on reading, in a subsequent
paper, the rambling remarks of your learned, but
anonymous correspondent, "More Anon," (whose
remarks have no more to do with the merits of
the question, than they have with the merits of
the Southern Confederacy,) who charges me with
a want of "good judgment," and with treating the
subject unjustly and unfairly ! I do not plead
guilty to this charge. Nor do I think I am so
"sleepy" or so ignorant on the subject as the
learned gentleman seems to suppose. I am toler-
ably well posted up on schools of every grade.
For over thirty years I have been voluntarily im-
mured within the Avails of a school-room, and con-
sequently ought to know what they are capable of
doing, and what they were intended to do. And
this I know, that they never were intended to
teach the whole circle of the arts and sciences, but
those fundamental branches only which are indis-
pensably necessary to every occupation or pursuit.
The branches intended to be taught were necessa-
rily limited, precise and definite, and not left to
the choice of a hundred whimsical and wayward
children in the school.

I am sorry to be obliged to say, that this article
of "More Anon," altogether different from any of
his preceding articles, sounds and reads very much
like any one of Jeff Davis' messages to the rebel
Congress;, for he evidently foliovrs the example of
Jeff, and "walks around the truth." There is,
however, this difference between them. The one
signs his own proper name to his own production :
the other screens himself from responsibility by
t*^ uj#f shelter behind the masked battery or a fic-
ticious name. Which is the more honorable of
the two I will not undertake to decide. But this
I will say, that whoever attempts to review the re-
marks of others, especially if he be an anonymous
writer, should be extremely careful to treat them
and their remarks with due resjiect ; at least, he
should do justice to himself and his subject. I
submit, that "]More Anon" has not done this. All
that he says about my special pleading as "a law-
yer who is employed to do his utmost in making

out a case, or one who is so thoroughly prejudiced
and one-sided as to be utterly blinded to the
truth and the reality of things," is wholly uncalled
for and gratuitous ; or, if it has any possible appli-
cation, it applies only to himself and his treatment
of the subject.

What I have written on this subject has been
over my own proper name, and with the fullest
conviction that I was giving utterance to the sim-
ple, naked truth. I hold myself responsible for
all that I have said. I have not yet said all that
I have to say on this subject. Thus far, I have
endeavored to show in my simple way, in a very
brief article, that agriculture could not be success-
fully taught in our common schools without doing
more harm than good. To prove this, I have
urged the three following reasons : "First, it
would injure the schools by diverting the atten-
tion of the scholars from their other necessary
studies. Secondly, our teachers are not qualified
to teach it, and have no means of explaining it-
And thirdly, our scholars generally are not old
enough to understand it, and have no time to de-
vote to it, without neglecting their other studies."

Now, if "JNIore Anon" will answer these objec-
tions to the satisfaction of all reading and think-
ing men, he will confer a great favor on the pub-
lic, and crown himself with distinguished honor.
John Goldsbury.

Wanoick, Mass., Sept., 1862.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE OF THE
UNITED STATES,

The census for 1860 gives the following com-
parative statement of the agricultural products of
the United States : —

Articles. 1849. 1859. Increase.

Wheat, bushels 100,485,944 171,183.381 70,697,437

Indian corn, bushels.. 592,071,104 830,451,707 238,380,603

Cotton, bales 2,445,793 5,196,944 2,751,151

Butter, !bs 248,675,322 460,509,354 211,834,532

Cheese, lbs 105,535,893 105,875,135 339,242

Animals, slaught'd.. $111,703,142 $212,871,653 $101,168,511

Sheep, No 21,723,210 23,317,756 1,594,536

Wool, fts 52,512,959 60,511,343 7,998 384

Sus^ar cane, lbs 237,183,000 302,255,000 65,072,000

Molasses, gallons 12,700,991 16.337,080 3,636,089

Sugar, (Maple,) lbs... 34,253,436 38,863,884 4.610,448

Tobacco, lbs 190,752,655 429,390,771 229,638,116

Wine, gallons 221/249 1,260,008 1,238,759

Hay.tons 13,833,645 19,129,128 5,290,483

Orchard produce $7,723,186 $19,753,361 $12,030,175

On an average, the increase in the aggregate
value of agricultural products, during the ten
years, is more than double the ratio of increase in
the population. The product of wheat, in 1859,
exceeded that of 1849 by over seventy million
bushels, which is an increase of seventy per cent.
The growth of population for the decade has been
about thirty-five percent., or one-half the increase
of the wheat crop. This shows that we are stead-
ily increasing our surplus product of breadstuffs,
and putting ourselves in a position for supplying
the deficiencies of certain of the grain-growing
countries of Europe. A similar increase has oc-
curred in the produce of butter, the yield of
which has enlarged to the extent of 211,8;j4,o32
pounds.

To Dry Sweet Corn. — Cut the corn from the
cob ; place upon tins and put it in the oven ; stir to
keep from scorching. After it is thoroughly scald-
ed, set in the sun to dry. After it is perfectly
dried tie up in sacks and put away for winter use.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

475

MASSACHUSETTS FAKMEKS.

A General Survey— Old Hats, Rajs and Pants in the Windows
—Condition of 'the BuiUlings-Ouraens— Shrubbery and Flow-
ers— Education — Manners— Dress— Religion.

HE traveller
■who loves the
country and
natural scene-
ry, who has a
quick eye to
detect errors
in the art of
farming, and
skill and ex-
perience from
which to sug-
gest improve-
ments, may
learn the con-
dition of the region through which he passes,
even though his journeyings are brief and his in-
terviews with the people few. There is a general
outline of the farm, a certain impress stamped
everywhere upon it, that indicates its degree of
prosperity, and the amount of skill and industry
that are expended upon it.

In our late ramble through the tcestern portion
of this State several things were observed, a re-
ference to which may be of some interest to the
reader in a suggestive form, or in a statement of
facts.

The first thing that arrests the attention of the
traveller, is the imjjroved condition of the build-
ings, as compared Avith their appearance thirty
years ago ; and as the house we live in seldom
fails to have an important moral influence upon
its occupant, the inference is natural that the
mind and manners have advanced with the exte-
rior things around them. And this is true. At
the period alluded to, a large number of the dwell-
ings that came to the view of the traveller bore
evidences of premature decay. The paint was
gone ; if they had blinds they hung by one hinge,
or some of the slats were missing. A clapboard,
here and there, was clattering in the vnnd ; the
mortar was out in the joints of the chimney, and
scattered bricks were resting on the moss-covered
roof. The windows rattled and screamed at every
blast ; on the front, broken panes were covered
with an old newspaper, either pasted on or stuffed
in, while on the ends or back side of the house,
cast-off pantaloons and old chip hats shut out the
cheerful light as well as the pitiless storms, and
gave the dwelling that patched and motley ap-
pearance that indicates the road to ruin, and makes
one sick to behold. If there had once been a
front fence, it was all awry ; a part of the palings
had been pulled out with which to beat the hun-
gry cattle and hogs away from the dooi'-yard ; the

gate had its back broken, the posts were rotten
and leaning in every direction, and the trees and
shrubbery M'hich the women had tended for many
years, broken and despoiled !

Within the house, things were no better. The
once elastic and cheerful wife, moved like a spec-
tre about the rooms, haggard and thin, seeing her
family sinking day by day lower and lower, while
the farm that promised a permanent home, food
and happy employment, was wasting away like a
morning dew. These Arere no uncommon scenes,
and the moral degradation which accompanied
them was still more painful ! Thanks to the phil-
anthropic reformers, — who saw this evil and its
tendencies, — for a happy change. Comparatively
few of these appearances now meet the eye of
the traveller. If a depraved appetite for stimu-
lating drinks is indulged, it seeks that indulgence
in a more retired way, and with many modifica-
tions which seem to alleviate the crime. This re-
form has undoubtedly changed the face of the
country, and given the landscape a more cheerful
and prosperous aspect. Let us see how things
look, now.

Instead of the old-fashioned, square house, two
stories high, with four or five large rooms on the
ground floor, and an enormous chimney in the
centre, with bricks enough to erect a citadel, —
and only two or three rooms in the whole house
so far finished as to be plastered, — a neat story-
and-a-half, or two-story house, with one tier of
rooms on the ground, is erected, and every part
of it thoroughly finished. The cellar is well
drained, the kitchen furnished with a bountiful
supply of soft water, a cooking stove with which
one person can perform as much service, as three
could in former times, a good wood-shed is con-
venient, the house is painted inside and out, and
most of the rooms papered. We do not mean to
say" that this is universal, — but it certainly de-
scribes the dwellings of the best farmers whom
we saw. But the next class is greatly in advance
of its condition thirty years ago. The new houses
are smaller and better arranged and finished in
every respect, while the barns are much larger,
and there is an air of thrift, neatness and enjoy-
ment about them, that were only exceptions to
the general rule at the time to which we refer.
These dwellings cost less than the old castles did,
and are less expensive to be kept in repair, as the
roofs — the most costly part of buildings — are few-
er, and are constructed upon true principles which
prevent rapid wear or decay.

Such are some of the evidences of progress in
our farmers, in one direction, — the dwellings in
lohich we live. When the mind, however, has
been cultivated to advance to such a degree of
perfection in this particular, it has received a
quickening that will not allow it to rest contented

476

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

with a better dwelling only, — but its surroundings
must be brought into keeping with it, and make
the whole harmonize, — mind, dwelling and sur-
roundings. So the fences are constructed with
taste and precision, whether of stone or wood ;
shade trees are planted ; rubbish of all kinds dis-
appears from the door-yards, and a smooth and
velvety lawn smiles in its place, kept even by
grazing cows on their way from pasture to stall ;
a piece of land is set apart for garden purposes,
into which a few hardy shrubs are introduced, with
small fruits, asparagus and other esculents, and a
A'arlety of apples, coming into use from July to
July. So far as profit is concerned, there is prob-
ably no investment of money and labor on the
farm that yields so much, — for a skillful house-
keeper will draw from this source and the pork-
barrel a principal supply for the table for several
months in the year. The Garden on the farm is
one of the happy changes that has taken place,
and was observable all along our route.

The cheerful influences of better buildings and
productive gardens have developed a taste for the
cultivation of flowers,

"WhoBe voiceless lips are living preachers, —
Each cup a pulpit, and each leaf a book,

Supplying to the fancy numerous teachers,
From lowliest nook."

There is scarcely a farm-house now but has its
flowers. In a little, tasteful garden, in the front
yard, on the window-sill, or in pots on the gate-
posts, a few hardy plants may everywhere be seen.
They give a pleasant and cheerful aspect to the
homestead, and greatly attract the attention of the
traveller as he passes along. What their influence
is — combined with the other changes already no-
ticed — was immediately obvious upon entering
dwellings and mingling with the family.

The first thing noticeable was a refinement of
manners. A modest address and graceful self-
possession generally assured us that we were cor-
dially received into the circle. There was little
restraint in the presence of a stranger, conversa-
tion flowed naturally, and with an elegance of ex-
pression, that showed greater advancement than
any of the physical signs we have mentioned. The
common schools, however, have had much to do
with this. As an interesting conversation cannot
flow from barren minds, it soon became apparent
that a general education had been attended to, for
wherever we conversed, we found State and Na-
tional afi'airs were understood, and if, fortunately,
literary or scientific matters were introduced, some
one was present, able to speak with interest upon
them.

A third thing noticeable was that of dress. We
scarcely saw a slovenly and ill-dressed farmer in
our whole travel. The dress of the men is plain
and substantial, — and that of the women tasty and

becoming, with the exception of a rather too strong
desire, everywhere, to bow submissively at the
shrine of fashion ! There is no hill so high, or
hamlet so remote, no dwelling so humble, or
means so restricted, in our rural population, that
fashion does not find its devotees, and lead to
some extravagances. A correspondent, in anoth-
er column, states that the cost of the imported
flowers for ladies' bonnets is greater than that of
the railroad ir6n we use ! We like to see people
well clad ; that is, that garments shall be well
made of excellent materials, and properly fitted to
the person. But the ear and nose-jewels, — the
eighteen yards in the skirt of a dress, — the hoops
two or three yards in diameter, — with whole rows
of staring dahlias under the bonnet, and tiers of
"bouncing bess" on top, we utterly eschew. A
good bonnet used to cost $5 ; a good one now
$15 to $25. Upon the whole, however, our farm-
ers dress better, all things considered, than they
formerly did.

But the quality that crowns all the other graces
to which we have adverted, is the sincere respect
and regard for religion, which was everywhere
manifested by those with whom we were so happy
as to have much conversation. This gives assur-
ance that the other virtues cited are based upon a
permanent foundation, and will be handed down
to generations yet unborn, to bless and exalt the
race.

We are clearly of the conviction, therefore, that
among the farmers of Massachusetts of to-day,
there are

1. Less temptations to vice than formerly.

2. That their buildings are better.

3. They have better gardens, and a greater va-

riety of wholesome food.

4. That the almost universal cultivation oiflon^ers

indicates a refined taste and higher intellec-
tual attainments.

And that, consequent upon these, there exist —

1. Better education ;

2. Better manners ;

3. Better dress ; and

4. More true religion.
Notwithstanding the cheerful views we have

taken above, of the condition of the farmers in the
western part of the State, we are sensible that
these improvements have come with slow and fee-
ble steps, and that they ought to be far beyond
what they really are. In a future article, we may
offer some opinions showing why the progress has
not been still more decided and beneficial to the
farmers of that region.

Boiled Corn for Hogs and other Stock. -
Wm. Van Loom, writing to the Prairie Farmer,
says that he has practiced feeding boiled co^n to

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

477

his stock and hogs, and is "satisfied that he saves
one-half his grain, and gains as much more in
time ;" that one bushel of corn on the cob, boiled,
■will produce as much as two fed raw, and in one-
half the time. In one experiment he fed three
bushels of boiled corn, per day, to twenty-seven
hogs, for ten days. The average gain was two
pounds per day. He then fed the same lot of
hogs on two bushels of raw corn per day, for
twenty days — they gained a mere trifle over one
pound per day. These were small, young hogs —
larger ones would have fattened better.

For the New England Farmer.
THE BREEDING OF SHEEP.

Mr. Euitou: — I propose, in the present letter,
to make a few remarks in regard to the breeding
of sheep. There is no business that pays the farmer
any better, at present prices, than the producing
of wool. Domesticated sheep are of Aery ancient
origin. We read in the good book that Abel was
a keeper of sheep. Its iuoffensiveness and mild-
ness of temper, the value of its wool for clothing
and the flesh for food, attracted the attention of
the ancient patriarchs. Job's flock numbered four-
teen thousand. In ancient Greece there were some
very choice flocks. SheejJ were introduced from
Greece into the Roman Empire, and great care
was taken to import the best breeds. The Roman
historian informs us that sheep were sold some-
times for $1000 apiece ; so it seems that specula-
tion ran as high in ancient times, as it does at the
present day.

From Italy sheep were introduced into Spain ;
and a cross was effected between the choice breeds
of Italy and the more robust sheep of Spain, which
was the origin of the world-renowned Spanish
Merinos. In the year 1801 some fine animals were
imported into the United States; since then, large
importations have been made at difl'erent times.
Hon. William Jarvis, of Vermont, shipjied 3.600
to this country from Spain, which sold at high
prices. Later importations have been made, and
great care has been taken to keep the Merinos
pure ; and I venture to say, that some of the far-
mers of Addison County, Vermont, have got as
good sheep for producing wool as there are upon
the face of this earth.

If I were to speak of mutton sheep, I should
recommend the Leicester and the South Down,
as best suited for that purpose. The breeding of
sheep requires a great amount of care. The qual-
ity of the wool, the weight of the fleece, and the
price it will sell for in the market, dc])ends in a
great degree on the care we take of the tender
sheep. No sheep ought to be exposed to the raging
storm in any season of the year, but all should
have the protection of good sheds. Farmers who
sell sheep for the highest ])rices, are those who
take the best care of their flocks, and, when
storms come, secure them under shelter. In the
first place, procure the right breed, then take
good care of them, and you are sure of success.

There is one subject which has not received
the attention of farmers so much as it should —
that is, the wool-producing properties of difl'erent
articles of food. Experiments ought to be made,
and the results published. White beans, peas
and oats, are some of the articles of food, best
adapted to the growth of wool.

Some of the farmers of this county have met
with great success in improving their flocks ; in-
deed, some think they have reached the top of
the ladder, while others are determined to secure
further imjjrovement.

Many sheep are bred in this vicinity for the
Western market. Prices range from twenty-five
to one thousand dollars apiece. When specula-
tion runs so high, it tempts some men to be dis-
honest, so a common grade sheep gets sometimes
what they call the Cornwall finish, and is sold to
the ignorant buyer for a full-blooded Merino.
Buyers must look out for rascals, for it takes a
sharp eye to discover their deception, when black-
ing and oil is put on in a scientific manner.

A few years ago, farmers thought that if a flock
of sheep averaged four pounds of wool apiece, it
was doing exceedingly well ; but now, if they will
not average from six to ten pounds of wool
apiece, they are considered a poor flock. What
makes tlie diff'erence ? We answer, the improve-
ment of breeds, the protection of warm buildings,
and the great care taken of them through the cold
months, instead of letting them roam about the
bleak fields in search of food.

Oli\"rr p. Mead.

Middlebury, Vt., September, 1862.

PKICES OF "WOOL.

In these times of change and remarkable inci-
dents, the farmer should watch the course of events
with care, and see if he cannot turn some of them
to his own advantage. For instance, when he
sowed his lands last spring, oats were bringing
twenty per cent, more than they commanded for
the last ten years — selling in small quantities at
sixty cents a bushel, while good western corn was
selling at sixty-four cents. Did the fanner ob-
serve this, and shape his crop accordingly ?

Now, the great demand for woolen cloths of va-
rious kinds to be made up into garments for the
soldiers of the army, has greatly increased the
price of wool. At a recent sale in Philadelphia,
various grades and sorts sold at the unusual prices
of 15,000 lbs. at 75c.— 10,000 at 77^—50,000 lbs.
mixed at 65c. to 75c. — 25,000 lbs. common, at 70
to 72^c. — 15,000 h. and | blood, at 60c. — none
selling for less than 55c., and all the lots for cash.

Will it not be well for the farmer to look at
this matter, and learn whether there is not some-
thing to be gained by him in the great changes
that are now taking place.

Heaet-Words. — An old writer has truthfully
remarked, that we may say what we please, if we
speak through tears. Tender tones prevent se-
vere truths from ofl'ending. Hence, when we are
most tender at heart, our words are most power-
ful. Hence one great reason why our words have
sci much more power during a revival than at oth-
er times. Our hearts are more tender then than
they usually are — we feel more, and it is easy for
the impenitent to see and feel that our hearts are
interested in their behalf. They feel that our
words are not mere lip-words, but heart-words.

478

NEW ENGLAND FABMER.

Oct.

For the New England Farmer.

HOW SHALL THE FARMER IMPROVE
HIS MIND?

A correspondent of the Farmer, who writes
excellent articles under the title "Retrospective
Notes," regards my ideas concerning the cultiva-
tion of the farmer's mind as Utopian or impracti-
cable. This is a pretty severe criticism, but as
every production of the hands or brain must always
go through a process oi sifting, I may as well be
resigned to the operation, and think myself well
off if anything remains in the sieve after the shak-
ing has ceased.

From his writings, I conclude that the author of
the "Notes" is a man of extensive knowledge and
experience. Will he inform his readers hoio he
acquired this knowledge, and how he learned to
write such interesting and valuable reviews ? He
should not withhold this information from the
public ; for, if every farmer understood his art as
well, and could write as clearly and forcibly as our
reviewer, there would soon be a great revolution
and reformation in the farming community. I
love to see an intelligent farmer or mechanic —
one who is thoroughly acquainted, not only with
the principles and practice of his own occupation,
but has a knowledge of many other things, and a
cultivated mind. Oj)inions differ as to the best
means of acquiring this knowledge and culture,
but it matters not how it is done, if the thing is ]
only accomijlished. Whether we are in the house j
with our children and friends ; in a study, libra- 1
ry, or room by ourselves ; in the shop ; in the
field ; or in the silent woodlands ; thei'e must
somewhere be patient study and application, or no
real progress will be made in self-improvement.

It has been said that a little knowledge is ai
dangerous possession. Must laboring men and
women remain in total ignorance because they j
cannot, like Humboldt, compass llie whole field of j
knowledge, and be able, like him, to write al
"Cosmos?" I answer, iVo. Let them rather strive, I
by every means in their power, to reach so sub- j
lime an elevation, even if the difliculties of the
way seem insurmountable. S. L. White.

A CHEAP AND GOOD SMOKE-HOUSE.
A Western New York farmer publishes his plan
of a small, cheap and good smoke-house, which,
as it may contain some practical hints for our own
readers, we append:

No farmer should be without a good smoke-
house, and such a one as will be fire-proof and tol-
erably secure from thieves. Fifty hams can be
smoked at one time, in a smoke-house seven by
eight feet square. Mine is six by seven, and is
large enough for most farmers. I first dug all the
grouiul out below where the frost would reach,
and filled it up to the surface with small stones,
On tliis I laid my brick floor, in lime mortar. The
walls are brick, eight inches thick, and seven feet
high, with a door on one side two feet wide. The
door should be made of wood, and lined with
sheet iron. For the top I put on joists, two by
four, set up edgewise, and eight and a half inches
from centre to centre, covered with brick, and put
on a heavy coat of mortar. I built a small chim-
ney on the top in the centre, arching it over and

covering it with a single roof in the usual way.
An arch should be built on the outside, with a
small iron door to shut it up, similar to a stove
door, with a hole from the arch through the wall
of the smoke-house, and an iron grate over it.
This arch is much more convenient and better to
put the fire in, than to build a fire inside the
smoke-house, and the chimney causes a draft
through into the smoke-house. Good corn cobs,
or hickory wood are tiie best materials to make a
smoke for hams. The cost of such a smoke-house
as I have described is about $20.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES,
COUNTY SOCIETIES.

I perceive that the Worcester County Agricul-
tural Society, and some other societies, have de-
termined not to avi'ard premiums for cattle the
present year. I presume this is on the principle
that when arms prevail, all other things must give
place — in conformity with a classical maxim, that
my memory fails to command. I am by no means
certain they are not right in this movement. It
is hardly possible to take hold with an active in-
terest in the trifling engagements of an ordinary
cattle show, v.'hen the more pressing wants of the
country are calling aloud from every border of
the Potomac and the plain of Virginia, and our
brothers and sons are lying prostrate on these
plains. If ever there was a time when action was
called for, it is the present. Let every one who
can shoulder a musket do so — and if he can't use
a musket to advantage, let him take his pitchfork
in hand, and go forth with a determination to ef-
fectually quell this rascally rebellion. I have no
patience when I think of it, because there is no
honestv, reason or propriety in it.

August 10, 1862. Old Put.

GARGET IN COWS.

Please inform me through the Farmer what will
cure the g-irget in cows. I have a nice cow but
she is very much troubled with the garget — fre-
quently gives curdly milk, and her bag swells.

Eiickland, Aug., 1802. J. Phiubrook.

Remarks. — What is called garget in cows is
probably occasioned by colds or by some injury to
the udder. We cannot prescribe a certain reme-
dy. Bathing the bag in warm water is good to
allay inflammation. A few drops of the tincture
of arnica, in the water, will have a happy effect.
The milk should all be drawn from the bag three
times each day, and the cow kept quiet. If the
milk become discolored and mixed with matter or
with blood, the evacuations must be watched, and
if it seem necessary, a dose of physic administered.

THE FLANDERS APPLE.

I send you a few apples, known in this vicinity
as the Flanders apple, of the qualities of which you
can be your own judge. I have, also, put a few
potatoes into the bottom of the box, in order that
you may test their qualities. In 18o9 I planted
the seed taken from the balls the fiiU previous,
and obtained a few potatoes, the size of a hen's
Q^^. In 1860 I planted my seedlings, and ob-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

479

tained some that weighed ten ounces. In 1861
I had some that weighed 1 \ pounds. The yield,
last jear, was nearly double that of the Davis
Seedlings, planted side by side. These I send
you grew in rather a shady place, the ground be-
ing manured only in the hill, yet they yield a
bushel to sixteen hills. Planted about tlie mid-
dle of May. I know not what length of time is
required to bring potatoes to maturity which are
started from the seed, but infer from my experi-
ment that three or four years, at least, is required.
J. S. Ellinwoou.
Deering, N. H., September, 1862.

Remarks. — The apples are excellent. The po-
tatoes not yet tried.

SEEDLING GRAPES.

I have taken the liberty to send you a box of
my seedling grapes. The reasons why I send
them are these : The vine that produces them is
very hardy ; is cultivated in the open air, on the
southeast end of my house, and it is a great
bearer, and I think a very good grape.

South Randolph, 1862. N. E. IIoBART.

Remarks. — Received in good order, and found
to be ripe, and quite sweet.

GRASS SEED FOR WET LAND.

Can you inform me through the Fanner what
is the best kind of grass seed to sow on a wet,
marshy piece of land? I have heard fowl meadow
seed recommended. Can you tell me where I can
buy that kind of seed, how much it sells for, and
how much it is advisable to sow on an acre ?

Ilyanrm, 1862. F. H.

PtEMARKS. — The fowl meadow is an excellent
grass for such land as you describe. It makes ex-
cellent fodder, being scarcely inferior to herds-
grass, and yields abundantly on land suited to it.
It will not flourish on land where the water re-
mains late in the spring. We have never sowed
the seed, but have been informed that four quarts
is sufficient for an acre. There is but little sold,
as it cannot be obtained, and commands a high
price, as high, we think, as $5 to $6 per bushel.
It can sometimes be found at the seed-stores in
Boston.

ABORTION IN COWS.

As this is the season for feeding cows on green
corn, please to re-insert the enclosed slip, which I
failed to note in season. I recollect feeding smut
with the corn to my cow. about four days before
she slunk her calf, having entered upon her sev-
enth month ; she, however, has a good ilow of
milk, so I think it will be no great loss to me, as
I keep but one cow ; but the caution I hope will
reach those who will, or might be benefited by it.

Franklin City, Sept., 1862. A. E. Howard.

tion in cows fed with it. In a stable where cows
were given corn M'ith smut on it, eleven abortions
occurred in eight days ; when the cause was sus-
pected, and the food changed, there were no abor-
tions. Stock-keepers should make a note of this.

POULTRY KEEPING ON A LARGE SCALE.

Mr. Editor :— I keep from 100 to 200 fowls,
mostly of the Black Spanish breed, and keep
them confined the year round, but disease is n.ot
known among them, and I can assure you that
they do full as well as those kept by others who
believe that fowls cannot do well unless they are
kept scratching. My yard is only 2.3 by 60 feet,
filled 12 inches deep with leached ashes and fine
sand. , I have a large box containing some 30
bushels of burnt shells and bones, which the
fowls have free access to, and when the top be-
comes too dirty, I take it off' and put it around
my grape vines. My gardener raises 600 head
of cabbage, annually, which is fed them through
the winter, and in summer he gives them lettuce,
all they want. I have a contract for 10 l)eef heads
weekly, and give them plenty of sour milk, in
additions to all of which they have free access to
a mixture of corn, oats, wheat and barley, which
is kept in a bin holding some 40 bushels, so con-
structed as to regulate itself, and not allow the
fowls to waste a grain, or to scratch in it. My
watering trough is also so constructed as only to
admit the heads of the fowls, and is ahvays full of
pure, clean M'ater, which is of more importance
than anything else in keeping poultry healthy.

A barrel of lime, a bucket and a brush, are in-
dispensable articles in a poultry house, and should
be used every rainy day (and oftener during such
a drought as we have had lately,) — whitewashing
everything but the floor, and using the lime dust
on that. But wash the floor first. I have tried
all your vermin preventives, and everybody's else,
but never succeeded in keeping my fowls free un-
til I found a remedy by experimenting.

The nests are so constructed as to be all taken
apart in two minutes ; they are perfectly smooth
insidef and out, and once in every two montlis I
have them taken dov/n, cleanly washed, and then
thoroughly coated with common Mhale oil, and
have never yet seen a single louse near them, nor
can one be found around my premises. The oil
we apply with a common brush, and it can be re-
lied upon as being a sure preventive against ver-
min on fowls. — IV. II. II., in Country Gentleman.

Tea Brands and their Meaning. — The fol-
lowing will interest housekeepers : Hyson means
before the rains, or flourishing spring, that is, ear-
ly in the spring ; hence it is often called Young
Hyson. Hyson skin is composed of the refuse of
other kinds, the native term for which is tea-skins.
Ptefuse of still coarser descriptions, containing
many stems, is called tea-bones. Bohea is the
name of the hills in the region where it is collec-
ted. Pekoe or Pecco, means white hairs, the down
of tender leaves. Powchong, folded plant. Souch-
ong, small plant. Twankay is the name of a small
river in the region where it is })ought. Congo is
from a term signifying labor, from the care re-
quired in its jii'eparation. — Scientijic American.

480

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

THE SEASON AND THE CROPS.

The summer which has just ended has been a
moist one in all this region. No long and delug-
ing rains have occurred, but showers have been so
frequent that we had no dusty roads until about
the 10th of September. Rain fell on the 2d and
again on the 13th and 14th of this month ; be-
tween those periods the sun was exceedingly hot
for several days, which were followed by quite
v/arm nights. It has not, therefore, been a de-
cided Indian Corn season. On light, warm soils,
however, that were highly manured, there will be
a fine crop — while on the moist, heavy soils, it
will be only a middling crop, though well manur-
ed and tended. At least, such is the case as far
as our observation has extended.

Oats were excellent, and will bring an unusual
price, in consequence of the great demand for
them for the army horses.

Wheat promised well until the heads were form-
ed, when it was attacked by a small insect, prob-
ably the Thrips, and most of it was ruined.

Barley proved a good crop, where it was not
winter killed. We believe it a profitable crop, and
that it should be more extensively cultivated.

The Rye crop was fair — on good land heavy.

Beans are excellent, and are in demand at high
prices.

The Potato crop promises well ; little is said of
the rot, though it is occasionally seen. We hope
that scourge has passed away. Potatoes are low
in the markets, compared with the prices that have
ruled for several years, previous to last year.

Apples and Pears are abundant, and unusually
sound and fair. Porters are selling for 75c. to
$1,25 per barrel. Bartlett pears very low, say
from 50c. a bushel, up, according to quality.

There are very few Peaches of New England
growth, but plenty from the Middle States, such
as they are — all plucked before they are ripe, and
of course, without the delicious peach flavor, which
is their prime quality.

Plums, in variety, are plenty.

Grapes are abundant, and will be good if they
get ripe.

The Cranberry crop will be light — not one bushel
where there were ten last year.

Generally with farmers, the season has not been
favorable for vines, pionpkins, cucumbers and
squashes, but those who make it a specialty to
raise them have succeeded, and there will be a
plentiful supply of the two last.

The first Hay crop was good, and the second
also, on new, rich land.

What Buckwheat fields we have seen did not
promise well ; this crop, however, is not a leading
one hereabouts.

On the whole, there is abundant reason for our
most grateful acknowledgments to Him who con-

trols the seasons and gives us the increase of the
fields. The farmer may find for a time that his
products will command but a moderate price,
while the articles that he is obliged to purchase
will be high. But as he cannot control the great
events which induce this state of things, he must
economize a little, call in to his aid an unusual
amount of patience and philosophy, and press on
as ever in his line of duty, and all will be welL

RAIJSr ON THE BOOF.

When the humid shadows gather

Over all the starry spheres,
And the melancholy darkness

Gently weeps in rainy tears j
'Tis a joy to press the pillow

Of a cottage chamber's bed,
And listen to the patter

Of the soft rain overhead.

Every tinkle on the shingles

Has an echo in the heart,
And a thousand dreamy fairies

Into busy being start ;
And a thousand recollections,

Weave their bright hues into woo
As I listen to the patter

Of the soft rain on the roof.

There in fancy comes my mother,

As she used in days agone ;
To survey the infant sleepers.

Ere she leaves them till the dawn.
I can see her bending o'er me,

As I listen to the strain
Which is played upon the shingles

By the patter of the rain.

Then my little seraph sister,

With her wings and waving hair,
And her bright-eyed cherub brother,

A serene, angelic pair,
Glide around my wakeful pillow

With their praise or mild reproof.
As 1 listen to the murmurs

Of the rain upon the roof.

Then another comes to thrill me,

Witii her eyes delicious blue ;
I forget as gazing on her

That her heart was all untrue ;
I remembered that I loved her

As I ne'er can love again,
And my heart's quick pulses vibrate

To the patter of the raiu.

There is naught in art's bravuras

That can work with such a spell,
In the spirit's pure, deep fountains,

When the holy passions swell,
As that melody of nature.

That subdued- subduing strain,
Which is played upon the shingles

By the patter of the rain.

Exchanse.

Legislation on the Canada Thistle. — At
the last session of the Pennsylvania Legislature, a
law was passed to prevent the s])read of the Cana-
da thistle. "Hereafter, any individual or corpo-
ration in that State, allowing the Canada tliistle to
ripen on his or on their premises, shall be liable to
a fine often dollars, upon each complaint that is
properly established ; and any one who may fear
the spread of the Canada thistle upon his premises

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

481

from the lands of his careless or thriftless neighbor
may, after five days' notice, enter upon any land
■whore the weed is found growin";, cut it, and re-
cover full costs for the labor and trouble."

For the A>ic England Farmer.

PLAN OF A SHEEP BARN AND FEEDING
RACKS.

Mr. Editor : — I send herewith the description
of Mr. R. W. Toby's sheep barn, which I prom-
ised you sometime since. I find it somewhat dif-
ficult to give an intelligible description of it, but
if you and your readers are willing to use a good-
ly quantity of Job's especial virtue, I think I can,
"after a time," make the thing plain.

The barn, or more properly, perhaps, stable, is
a building 50 feet by 10 ; the west end joining the
barn from which the sheep are foddered. The
posts are 14 feet in length, the first seven feet be-
ing used as a shed for cattle, with the excc])tion
of 12 feet of the east end, which contains a hen-
roost, &'C.

Over these is the stable, occupying the whole
extent of the building. The floor is of inch boards
lined with half-inch. On each side are four win-
dows, for the double purpose of admitting light
and for ventilation. Through the middle is a
space 4 feet in width, extending from the west end
to within about 3 feet of the east eiid ; in this
space the sheep are fed. On either side of this is
a row of stalls of the same length, and outside of
these, between the back ends of the stalls and the
sides of the building, on each side, a space 2 feet
10 inches in width. The east end of the middle,
or feeding space, being boarded up, it leaves an
alley nearly 3 feet wide, on both sides and across
the east end, which the sheep have entirely to
themselves.

Inclosed is a rough sketch which may aid some-
what in giving a correct idea of the stalls ; and as
it is in these that the ^'peculiar peculiarity'' of
the stable lies, I take the liberty to send it, hoping
that you may see fit to use it in connection with

this. The floor under the stalls has a slight slant,
being raised an inch and a half at the front by
means of wedges sawed ofl" the proper shape and
laid upon the sleepers.

The stalls are 3 feet 2 inches long, and 16 inch-
es, clear, in width. The uprights, a a a, are of
inch spruce, 2 feet 8 inches long and 2 inches
wide ; on each side of these the strips which form
the sides of the stalls are nailed. These strips are

of half-inch bass-wood, the side next the sheep
being planed ; the bottom ones are 4 inches wide
and are ])laced 10 incliesfrom the floor ; the others
are 3 inches wide, leaving the two uj^per spaces 6
inches each.

In front is an elm board, C, 16 inches wide, and
above this a spruce board G inches wide, the space
between being G inches.

Across the tops of the front uprights is a strip
3 inches wide nailed firmly to each one. Across
the Ixick ends of the stalls is a piece of 2 by 3
scantling let on the tops of the uprights about an
inch, for the purpose of strengthening this part of
the work. In the board C, in front of each stall, is
a notch 6^ inches wide and 9 inch deep ; the board
is so wide that a sheep cannot eat from the floor
without placing his neck in this notch, and you
will see at once that while it is here he cannot ma-
terially interfere with his neighbor's business.
The six-inch space between the two front boards is
for the accommodation of horned sheep ; a sheep,
while his head is at about its natural height, can
readily pass it through this, horns and all.

Sliding upon the back uprights and held in its
place by cleats, is a board some 4 inches wide, so
arranged that it may fall to within about 13 inches
of the floor, or be raised to the top of the stand-
ards, by means of a cord passing over the scantling
above it, to the front of the stalls ; these boards
are 12 feet in length, so each one closes eight stalls.
The sheep are not usually confined to the staUs
except while feeding grain, then it becomes neces-
sary, or at least very convenient, to have them so.
Every farmer knows that if he has a sheep that is
a little weakly in the fall, (and every large flock
will have such,) it will, from the very fact of its
weakness, keep continually growing weaker, un-
less he separates it from the larger and stronger
sheep. Now this arrangement must, I think, al-
most entirely obviate difliculties of this nature ;
one sheep has just as good a chance as another,
for there is no such thing as crowding a weaker
one from his place at the rack. And if you have
a sheep that is not doing quite as well as you
would like, you have every facility for increasing
his feed.

At the time this stable was built, it was intend-
ed more particularly for fatting sheep ; but Mr.
Toby tells me that from what experience he has
had with it, he has not the least doubt but that
store sheep would do enough better with the same
amount of feed, saying nothing about the increased
ease of management, to make the thing pay with
any farmer having fifty or more to winter.

It is an old, but I think now nearly exploded
notion, that sheep do not require water. But any
one still skeptical on this point would have all his
doubts removed by watcliing Mr. Toby's ilock a
short time, and be obliged to acknowledge that, so
far, at least, as a love of water is concerned, sheep
are not constituted materially different from other
animals. They have free access to water, and
scarcely five minutes passes while they are eating,
but that one or more will come down, take a few
swallows, and run back to their feed.

Well, says my economical friend, this is all very
nice if a man only has the "wlierewith," but it is
altogether too much like English farming to be of
any practical use to us poor farmers.

But wait a moment ; an excellent old maxim tells
us to "look before we leap," so we will examine

482

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

the cost a little before we jump at the conclusion
that it must be very great. I find that, construct-
ed as Mr. T.'s are, fiity stalls (his stable coirtains
sixty,) would require,

68 feet of inch spruce for standards.

83 feet of ?4-mch spruce.

135 feet of Js-inch bass-wood for partitions.

100 feet of inch elm.

40 feet of 2 by 3 scantling.

Any one having the curiosity so to do, can carry
out the items to suit the price of lumber in his
particular locality ; in this vicinity we consider it
worth but little more than the drawing and saw-
ing. We find that it requires some 450 feet of
stuff' for fifty stalls, but from this we ought, per-
haps, to deduct the fourth item, and some 40 feet

of the second, as these make the hay-rack, and : plants, as he would in going to a tailor for a new
this we should be under the necessity of having if ] set of wagon harness." His statement is as sin-
we dispensed with the stalls. The work of con- j gular as it is remarkable, Mr. Editor ; at least it
struction is not great, and, thanks to our circular i seems so to a plain man like me. "As soon ask
saws and planers, it costs but little to reduce the I a tailor to make a new set of wagon harness," as
lumber to the proper sizes. I to ask "a scientific botanist" concerning "the qual-

Should any part of the above description ap- | ities and uses of plants." What is the province

For tlie New England Farmer.
THE PUKSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER
DIFFICULTIES.

Mr. Brown : — Your correspondent of August
30 contributes an article "About Natural Histo-
ry." On reading it, I found it to be "about it,"
rather than it, "Natural History." His fii-st re-
mark, after "due acknowledgments," is, "he,"
meaning "a Farmer," "has been imfortunate in his
acquaintance with pundits." True, indeed, Mr.
Editor, and who has not, that has had any experi-
ence at all either in con^wltmg pundits, or reading
what they publish. Your correspondent then adds,
"he, (meaning myself,) seems to have shown as
little judgment when seeking information oisi sci-
entific botanist as to the qualities and uses of

pear "misty," I will, upon due notice, gladly strive
to dispel the gloom. Jake Bomsty.

Calais, Vt., 1862.

Remarks. — This article was received sometime
since, in response to a request which we made last
winter for some of our friends to send us plans or
descriptions of their sheep barns and feeding racks.
We have already given one or two that were early
received, reserving this for the present use. Our
obliging correspondent will please accept our
thanks for his kindness in furnishing it. The en-
graving has been made especially to illustrate his
description.

IMPBOVINQ OLD PASTURES,

At an agricultural meeting in Cheshire, Eng-
land, Mr. Richard Dutton read a ))aper on the

"Agriculture of Cheshire," in which he remarks: ^ ^ _^^ ^ ^^ ^ _^ .,„.„^^„ „.....^. ^. „..>.„

"An old pasture-field, rich in good herbage, should gg the" interpretation of "a sci'en^mc botanist," as
never be brought under the plow, on a dairy or | ^e is of whom I sou-ht information, then I no

"of a scientific botanist," pray, if "the qualities
and uses of plants" are to be wholly excluded
therefrom, as much as harness-making is from the
province of a tailor ? "Quality," the very nature
and property of a plant, is declared to be as far
removed from the investigations "of a scientific
botanist." as harness-making is from making trow-
sers. Such a botanist, Mr. Editor, is a good rep-
resentative of that class of jjseudo scientists, that
I call pundits.

Exclude a knowledge of both "the qualities and
the uses of plants" from the province of the bota-
nist's investigation, and what is to guard him from
handling poisonous plants, and suffering there-
from ? So of seeds and fruits that have an edible
look, yet are deadly poisons when taken into the
stomach. But according to your correspondent's
statement, a botanist is to concern himself about
none of these things, and I, for asking a botanist
for such information, am charged with showing
"as little judgment" as a man would, Avho should
go to a tailor to S:et wasron harness made. If such

grazing farm, without an urgent necessity. On
our best dry soils, old pastures are apt to become
rough, and in some cases covered Avith moss,

longer wonder that I got the answer I did. Ac-
cording to this definition of a l)otanist, as I appre-
hend it, after considering your correspondent's for-

This may be prevented, to a great extent, by a ; cible comparison to show me devoid of "jud„
top-dressuig of salt, during the winter, at the rate \ ment," then, to be a carpenter, all that is fequi-
of 10 cwt. per acre ; or, in some cases, a good j site would be to name correctly all tlie tools in a
dressing of lime, at the same time freely harrow- i joiner's chest. But according to ray plain way of
ing the surface ; or, what is less expensive, stock- thinking and saving, it is not only necessary to
ing with sheep, during the winter months, at the know the names of the tools, but the qualities and
same time feeding them with turnips or corn. In ^sg thereof, to be a carpenter. So of botany, as I
a very productive summer, or when a farmer has , h^ve been in the habit of looking at it ; a man is
been unfortunate with his stock, he may with ad- \ „ot a botanist who can call a few hundred or thou-
sand trees, shrubs, flowers and weeds by name, by
the Latin lingo, if you please, but rather he who
knows the structure, function, "qualities and uses
of plants." A knowledge "of the qualities and
uses of plants," I deem as essential to the charac

vantage mow such parts of his pastures as can be
spared for the purpose. It is superfluous for me
to say that, on a very large ])ortion of our grass
lands, draining and bone-dusting are the great
means of improvement. A question of some im-
portance may be asked : 'Are all our clay soils
improved by draining for mowing and pasture
pur])oses ?' I think not. When there is nothing
in the herbage produced which indicates tlie pres-
ence of too much water, I think draining will add
nothing to the fertility of such soils, so long as
they are in grass."

tcr "of a scientific botanist," as the apostle Paul
does charity to the character of a Christian. But
I must pass on.

This prepared the way for me readily to believe
that your correspondent is still lingering among
those who regard a lobster as an insect ; and like
a modern student I referred to, he would also

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

483

teach most likely, had he the opportunity, that a
Crustacean is an insect. Is this according to the
teaching of the late Dr. Harris ? Perhaps your
correspondent can tell.

But again ; your correspondent says, "A Farmer
cannot have read the papers when he says he
learned nothing from pundits about the army
worm, palmer worm, the grain aphis," &c. He
did read the papers, but alas ! he was constrained
to say that words without knowledge reflected no
light upon his pathway, any more tlian upon that
of his neighbors. It was said by these pundits
that "the army worm would be common this
year, and every year." Is this so ? Said another,
"The grain aphis will not appear this year." Has
this prediction proved true ? Let those who have
suffered from its visitation answer. Who has de-
stroyed the grain a])his, and what was the remedy ?
So of the army worm and palmer worm. Perhaps
your correspondent will inforni me, and in doing
so, many others also through your columns, who
would like to knov/ how to keep off these vermin
from summer crops.

Concerning my inquiry about birds and cater-
pillars, your correspondent says, "I will answer in
as simple language as possible, lest I fall under
the displeasure of 'A Farmer,' and wherever a
scientific (systematic) appellation (name) is used,
will also give its equivalent in plain English."
Thank you, good sir.

Then he mentions the golden robin and the
common robin, the latter of which he says, "I have
seen during an hour, carry twenty caterpillars of
the Bi.bio alhipennifi, or stout-built, white-winged
gnats, one of the most injurious insects to the grass
crops." "Caterpillar, or stout-built, white-winged
gnat." Which ? No "plain English" here, as it
seems to me. He then adds, that he saw a robin
carry Jzoe caterpillars of the A(jrostis fesselata,
which signifies the 'checkered rustic' " What
signifies the checkered rustic ? Agrostis or tesae-
tata, or both ? Also, "one huge caterpillar of the
Ceraiomia quadn'cornis, which means the four-
horned hawk-moth, nu'th horns on the shoulders."
This is lucid, undouljtedly, to a pundit, but to me,
it is a lingo quite unintelligible. "A four-horned
hawk-moth, loith horns on the shoulders." A
sparrow, he adds, has been found to destroy 3000
insects a week, while breeding (?), including cater-
pillars, flies, beetles, bugs and other perfect in-
sects." Is a caterpillar an insect ? Farmers in
my vicinity do not regard worms and caterpillars
as insects. But I suppose we are all wrong. I
should like to know however, whether a worm and
a lobster are set down as insects by Prof. Agassiz.

Finally, your correspondent adds, "I made no
*oflev gratidiously to teach' a farmer." That was
ray inference, from his own words ; after telling a
long story about a minister, and how he taught his
parishioners about insects, he concludes by saying,
"In like manner, (as did the minister,) I, ivho am
but an humble student in the vast field of natural
history, may be able to contribute my mite in the
form of facts, &c., about insects, and shall be hap-
py to yive our friend ^Farmer,'' and others, any
■information in my poicer in return for their ex-
perience (?) in the same subject." I think this
language fully justifies my statement touching
this ])oint.

I have no "■experience" to relate on insects, and
but little observation of any value. I will, how-

ever, in reply to a question, quote the statement
of Dr. Hay on the woodpecker, one species of
which he says "sucks the sap, and eats the inner
bark of ornamental and fruit trees, which are thus
killed." As for my "name and address," asked
for, I have to remark, they are not of the slightest
consequence to your correspondent. It is the sub-
ject of inquiry, what is said, and not who says it,
that concerns him and the readers of the N. E.
Farmer. My cof/nomen indicates the very numer-
ous and respectable family or class of which I am
a humble member, who is content to subscribe
himself a Farmer.

THE VERMONT STATE FAIR.

The Vermont State Fair was held at Rutland,
on the 9th to the 13th inst. It is its twelfth an-
niversary. The weather was favorable, and in
strong contrast with the stormy opening last year.
The attendance on the first day was considerably
larger than for some years past. The handsome
grounds of fifty acres where the fair is held, about
half a mile south of the town, the admirable trot-
ting course and comfortable seats erected oppo-
site, and the convenient halls, "Floral" and "Me-
chanics'," have all been described on the occasion
of former fairs. Mr. George Campbell, of West-
minster West, was present with some of his ex-
cellent sheep, among which v.as a four years old
Buck that he has refused .$2000 for, for the rea-
son, he says, that it is worth $5000 to him for
stock purposes.

■Wool Growers' Convention.

The most interesting event of the first day was
a convention of the Vermont Wool Growers, held
in Mechanics' Hall, on the Fair Grounds, under
the auspices of the State Agricultural Society.
Edwin Hammond, of Middlebury, President of the
Society, was Chairman, and Daniel Needham, of
Hartford, delivered an appropriate address, which
it was voted to issue in a pamphlet form.

Important matters connected with the raising of
wool and mutton were ably discussed at the con-
clusion of the address by Solon Robinson, of the
N. Y. Tribune, Judge Colburn, of Springfield, Vt.,
David E. Nicholson, of Wallingford, Mr. Marsh,
Mr. Lester, and Mr. Cushing, of Woodstock, and
others.

The principal subjects of comment were the best
means of preparing wool for the market, the im-
provement of stock, with reference to producing
the largest amount of wool at the least possible
cost, and the best method of curing wool for the
market.

Mr. Robinson did not favor the washing of wool
by the farmers, for it can be done by a chemical
process by the manufacturers so much cheaper
that they will not pay the wool growers for their
trouble. The war, he said, creates a scarcity of
cotton and a demand for wool, and there is also a
great demand for mutton, therefore, the raising of
these staples cannot be otherwise than profitable
in Vermont. He did not speak favorably or oth-
erwise of any particular breed of sheep, but he
thought Southdowns could not be kept profitably
in flocks exceeding from one to two hundred head.

Mr. Nicholson did not favor the raising of sheep

484

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

to the exclusion of other stock, although he knew
it to be profitable from experience. He thought a
stringent dog law was necessary for the protection
of sheep growers. Here followed some lengthy
remarks concerning the washing of wool before
shearing, in which the speakers generally concur-
red in the belief that such a process was not pro-
fitable to the growers, inasmuch as manufacturers
pay as much for oily and unwashed wool as they
do for clean dry wool. Resolutions presented by
Mr. Needham, asking the Legislature to enact a
dog law, and resolving to hold meetings each year
of the fair for the discussion of wool and sheep
matters, were passed, after which the convention
adjourned.

The Second Day's Exhibition.

The stock and articles on exhibition were more
numerous, and the attendance much larger than
on the first day. A pretty good idea of the num-
ber present may be inferred from the fact that
there were $odO worth of tickets sold at twenty-
five cents each, and there was a very large num-
ber of exhibitors who were admitted by passes.
In the horse department there were no entries for
the sweepstake premium of a diploma and $jO,
but there were numerous others as follows : Sher-
man Morgans, stallions, 12 ; mares, G ; Woodbury
and Bulrush Morgans, stallions, 8 ; mares and
fillies, 3 ; Hambletonians and other bloods, (in-
cluding all bloods not previously mentioned) stal-
lions and mares, '63 ; matched horses, 24 ; geld-
ings and mares, 4 ; foreign horses, 2. There were
only two entries of cattle for the sweepstakes pre-
mium of $25, which will probably not be awarded,
as the rules of the society require that there should
be at least three competitors. Of Durhams there
are nine entries, Devons, one ; mixed and native
bloods, 16 ; working oxen, 9 ; steers, 3 ; fat cat-
tle, 1 ; and of foreign cattle, none. There were
four entries of sheep for the sweepstakes jiremium
of $25 ; and of Spanish merinoes the entries were
bucks and ewes, 28 ; lambs, !(> ; ewes (stock of
twenty-five) 4 ; long and middle wooled, 9. The
premiums are to be awarded with reference to the
combination of the best carcass for mutton, and
fleece for manufacture. There were o entries of
swine, and 8 of poultry. The productions of the
dairy comprised 3 entries of butter and 6 of cheese.
The other entries are — field crops, 3 ; fruits, 6 ;
maple sugar, 7 ; vegetables, 4 ; mechanical depart-
ment, first class (including farm implements and
machinery,) 24 ; second class (including all other
manufactures,) 18 ; fioral department about 200.
Opening of the Third Day.

The weather was very fine, and the people fiist
gathered upon the grounds. Amusements were
liberally provided for all, so that all could find en-
joyment, leaving no temptation for any to become
noisy and troublesome.

Mr. Greeley's Address.

There were 8000 people upon the ground to lis-
ten to the agricultural discourse of Hon. Horace
Greeley, of New York. Nearly two-thirds of the
male population in attendance were professional
farmers, and the gathering together of a more in-
telligent appearing class of men is seldom witness-
ed. It is well known that Mr. Greeley is exceed-
ingly popular in this vicmity, having been a resi-
dent of the county in his early youth j and possess-

ing a natural taste for agricultural pursuits, he
was probably the most appropriate man to address
his admirers upon the subject.

The chosen topic of his discourse was "Agricul-
ture in Vermont — Past and Future." At the com-
mencement he gave some personal facts, and re-
lated the backwardness of everything pertaining
to agriculture half a century since. More than
forty years, he said, have passed since I, a mere
child, a portion of the family and scanty worldly
possessions, all contained in a double sleigh, of a
poor and unsuccessful New Hampshire farmer,
passed through the town and halted in this county,
with our faces turned toward that great West,
which was and is the bounteous and hospitable
"land of promise" for the destitute and unlucky.
For the next ten years this section was my home ;
for the first five of them my time and my energies,
such as they were, were devoted to clearing away
timber and tilling the soil. During those five
years, though a most omnivorous reader, hunting
lar and wide for mental aliment, I never saw an
agricultural book, and I think not even a single
copy of a periodical devoted to farming. I did not
hear nor even read an address or a speech whereof
agricultural improvement or agricultural method
was the theme. I did not hear of a Vermont State
nor Rutland county fair. A town fair, or a town,
village or neighborhood meeting of farmers to dis-
cuss agriculture as a pursuit, or interchange ideas
and suggestions concerning their own vocation,
was never thought of in the varied circle which
bounded my daily life. If it had been suggested to
my neighbors and daily associates that agriculture
was a pursuit i-equiring for its wise and effective
prosecution a very large measure of general knowl-
edge— that it was a science demanding a profound
acquai]itance with and accurate knowledge of na-
tuie — of geology, chemistry and botany — I am
confident the most of them would have been as
thoroughly astounded as if they had been urged to
send their oxen to college and take their horses to
hear a course of lectures on astronomy.

The agriculture by which people managed to
exist at that time in this vicinity was sheep and
grass, and they did not, and Mr. Greeley presumed
they do not now, grow as much grain as they con-
sun^e. The clay flats of Westhaven, as good grass
land as ever was, did not average a ton to the acre,
and some not half a ton, for the reason they had
been regularly mowed for forty years and ])astured
usually from September to May, and never ferti-
lized in any manner. Rye was the staple grain,
but there was not enough raised to sui)ply the
people with bread and whisky, which by many
were regarded the prime necessities of life. Many
fields were sowed with this unexhausting grain,
without fertilizing, until they did not yield five
bushels to the acre, although there was lime and
other fertilizers protruding all around. In some of
the townships cast and north of Whitehall the an-
nual products were so diminished that the inhabi-
tants had only a choice between emigration and
famine.

The last forty years, however, have witnessed
great improvements in agricultural methods here
and almost everywhere else. In spite of the too
general sluggishness and inhospitality to new ideas
of the class of poor farmers, certain cardinal truths
have forced their way into the general mind and
will not be dislodged. Among these Mr. Greeley

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

485

reckoned as important that no man can afford to
keep indifferent stock, or to keep good stock poor-
ly. He did not mean to touch the rival merits of
certain herds of cattle, for some bloods are <i;ood
in certain localities and some in others. He fa-
vored ten or twenty generations of careful breed-
ing and generous feeding, and also good shelter.
It is a sound general rule, with few exceptions,
that no man can afford to groio poor crops, and
all farmers that do grow them invariably grow
poor themselres. Neither can a man afford to bring
up his children in ignorance of the principles and
facts which underlie successful fiu'ming. Mr. G.
thought our popular erlucation defective in plan
and scope, although the idea might not be locally
applicable. All branches of education he consid-
ered worth having, but insisted that there were
some not taught that would be better than some
that are. He would change this by choosing for the
]n'incipal reading-book in every common school, a
condensed statement of primary truths bearing on
agriculture, like that recently compiled for Massa-
chusetts by Messrs. Flint and Emerson.

Draining and manuring land was dwelt upon at
considerable length and with much enthusisam,
although the farmers were cautioned not to fail
through excesses. Farmers should produce their
own manure, and avoid sending to the cities for
phosphates. He told them to save bones of every
kind, and apj^sly them speedily to the farm ; grind
them in a mill if you can, dissolve them in diluted
sulphuric acid, mash them with the beetle on a
rock or barn floor, if that is the best you can do,
but let not a bone be lost.

In the evening of this day, Mr. Greeley ad-
di'essed the people upon political matters. He
was urgently requested to do so in connection
with his address, but very wisely refused to do so.

Fourth Day— Sept. 12.
The premiums, which were announced to be
awarded yesterday, were necessarily postponed
until to-day. The amount usually paid in premi-
ums in former years has been about $3000 ; but
this year scarcely $2000 was appropriated for that
purpose. The delay in awarding yesterday was
occasioned by the slackness of the committees in
handing in their reports, and the imperfect man-
ner in which they were made out, many of them
omitting the names and residences of competitors,
^:c. The leading premiums in the important de-
partments are : on Sherman Morgan horses, F.
Griswold, of Randolph ; three year old colts, E. F.
Jackson, of Pittsfield ; one year old colts, Lester
Fish, of Ira ; live year old stallions, Lionel Udall,
of Hartford ; mares, C. H. Stov.ell, of Cornwall;
fillies, G. B. Cannon, of Burlington. There was
no sweepstakes premium awarded to cattle, but on
Devons the first went to C. B. Cook, of Wnl-
cott ; mixed and native bloods, two j"ear old bull,
James A. Shedd, of Burlington ; bull calf, James
Ray, of Bennington ; cows, James A. Shedd, of
Burlington ; two year old heifers, John Ingraham,
of Rutland ; breeding cows, Lorenzo R.ay, of Ben-
nington ; working oxen, W. H. H. Barker, of
Shrewsbury ; steers, three year old, J. M. Wins-
low, of R.utland ; two year old, William S. Allen,
of Panton ; one year old, Bradley Gorham, of
Putney ; milch cows, Daniel Kimball, of Claren-
don. Sheep — Spanish merino ewes, five in pen,

George Campbell, of Westminster West, to whom
was also awarded the sweepstakes premium of $25
for the best buck ; yearlings and lambs, A. A.
Saxton, of Walpole ; three year old and one year
old bucks, George Campbell, of Westminster.
Swine — boar, J. M. Hall, of Rutland ; litter of
pigs, H. W. Lester, of Rutland ; breeding sow,
Thomas Stewart, of Clarendon.

Circumstances prevented our accepting the in-
vitation of the officers of the Society to be present
on this occasion, and this account of the show is
compiled principally from the quite full reports to
the Boston Journal.

For the New England Farmer.
THE FETTERED MIND.

Messrs. Editors : — Fetters are applied to the
corporeal appendages of criminals, unruly ani-
mals and maniacs, as restrictions against trespass
and mischief. The intellects or minds of men
may wear fetters as Avell as the corporeal parts.
When the reflecting man takes a view of his fel-
low-mortals spread over the earth, and sees the
huge proportion of fettered minds, fastened by
ignorance and prejudice to old customs and creeds,
he Avill be filled with Avonder. There are many
farmers in this country, who already possess am-
ple knowledge, in their own estimation, and have
no room for more, very good men in their way,
but are fettered against progress and improve-
nient ; they are as certain that they are right as a
sectarian minister ; such farmers may raise a great
deal of produce, and be good men in society, but
still wear the fetters of prejudice against any va-
riations from their former customs.

Physicians are liable to do a great deal of mis-
chief from the same cause ; they are fettered to
medical writers of the most profound nonsense
and absurdities imaginable. Young physicians,
of little experience, are apt to trust in books,
written by superficial theorists, who have no prac-
tical knowledge of the subjects they write upon,
any further than to make an attractive, saleable
book which will command a good price. When
I commenced the practice of medicine I was fet-
tered to n^- medical books ; they disappointed me.
I broke my fetters and cast them away, and took
the privilege of thinking for myself, to what pur-
pose, I leave to my ciistomers to decide. I do
not mean to include all medical books in the cat-
egory of deceptive trash, for, thanks to God, we
have medical writers of true probity, experience,
science and ability to write a good book. An-
cient medical writers were fettered to their prede-
cessors, whoever they might be ; and therefore
the fettered minds of medical writers copied the
works of their "illustrious predecessors," down to
a late century, as infallible, before unfettered, in-
dependent minds began to take the lead.

Another class of fettered minds are those who
are bound to support a creed. Why will rational
men bind themselves to a creed, right or \M-ong,
and shut the bars to all progress or improvement ?
Such ones are doubly fettered, if they live to see
errors and fallacies in the creed to which they
have subscribed, and have honesty and independ-
ence enough to reveal the fact ; ten to one if they
do not lose their places, whether in the pulpit or

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

any other place where bigotry rules, and they may
consider themselves fortunate if their characters
do not suffer as much as their pecuniary interests
do. Silas IBrown.

North Wilmington, June, 1862.

Remarks. — We have taken the liberty to omit
a portion of the article sent by our esteemed cor-
respondent, not because we do not believe every
word he says, but because it might introduce a
discussion entirely inconsistent with our purposes
and plans in the Farmer.

Fur the New England Farmer.

THE ONLY "LADY-BIRD'* INJURIOUS TO
VEGETATION.

The habits, food and transformations of insects
are so uniform and constant as to have given the
foundation for their division into orders, families,
genera and species, some feeding entirely upon
other insects, others upon decaying vegetable or
animal matter, and others still upon living vegeta-
bles. But as in every other subject there is no
rule without an exception, so it is
here. The "lady-birds," as they are
commonly called, or Coccindlidce, are
a very extensive family, numbering
several hundred specie 3 in the world,
of which between twenty and thirty
have been found in Massachusetts. All of them
that have been studied, and their habits ascer-
tained, are found to be carnivorous, or innoxious
to vegetation, with the single exception of the
large and handsome species, a cut of which graces
this article. It is known as the Goccindla borca-
lis, or northern "lady-bird," and is found to I)e
very injurious to the squash and other cucurbita-
ceous plants ; laying its eggs upon the under side
of the leaves, a small yellow grub or larva with six
feet, and of a rounded form is hatched from them,
and proceeds at once to devour the parenchyma or
])ulpy substance of the leaf; it is a delicate feed-
er, rejecting the veins and tough nerves of the
leaf, so that it presents a net-like ajipearance,
somewhat like coarse lace, and can readily be dis-
tinguished from the ravages produced by the oth-
er enemies of the plant. The perfect insect in its
beetle form is also believed to injure the leaves in
the same manner. Sprinkling the plants thickly
with ashes or fine gritty dust, such as accumulates
in the grindstone box, or even common road dust,
is said to be an excellent remedy, if applied when
the dew is on. F. G. Sanborn.

Andover, 1862.

had no power in themselves, they have wrought
a good work in preventing the horrid and tortur-
ing prescriptions which were so common forty
years ago. Thanks for so much. And if the poor
horse could speak, we should find an eloquent
gratitude surpassing that of human tongue.

We hope this book will have a wide circulation.
By using it, Ave have no doubt horse-owners will
find there are remedies for the diseases of the no-
ble animal beside gin, spirits of turpentine, red-
hot irons and the seton. Beside their inherent
power, these medicines have another recommen-
dation in the ease with which they may be admin-
istered.

New Hampshire Fruit Crop.— The crop of
apples and pears is exceedingly large this year, and
the price so low that there will be plenty of cider
and dried apples made. Along the road, almost
anywhere, you will see many trees propped up, and
some limbs broken down. — Manchester American.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

NE-W PUBLICATIONS.

New Manual of Homceopathic Veteuinart Mkdicixe ; or the
Homoeopathic Treatment of the Horse, the Ox, the Sheep, the
Dog anil other nomestic Animals. By F. A. Odntiieti. Bos-
ton: Puhlisheilby 0ns Clapi', 3 Beacon Street, Boston.

The introduction of Homoeopathic medicines
has greatly modified the Allopathic treatment of
both men and animals. Many of our best veteri-
nary surge^ons have long availed themselves of
the agreeable and efficacious homoeopathic reme-
dies, and have used them in their practice and
recommended them in their books. Even if thev

WORDS FOR •VSTIVES.

I believe the influence of a wife to be always,
for good or for bad, very decided. There is not a
woman living, unless she have forfeited all claim
to her husband's respect, but is making her mark
day by day upon his character. We men are fool-
ishly proud, and do not like to let the women see
how they influence us, but we know that, outside
of our business, and sometimes even in it, — all our
doings are more or less controlled by our wives,
and he is a knave who will not honesily own it.
Is it a disgrace to a man that he is kept at home,
away from bad com[)any, away from doubtful
pleasures and foolish expen'^e, through his wife's
influence ? Some poor, cowardly souls think so,
and utter senseless cries against her who, as a
guardian angel, stands between these and their
victim. 1 think the wife was given to man to sup-
ply him with certain things wanting in his own na-
ture, and in yielding to her judgment, her opinion,
her desire, — where these are on the side of ti'uth
and justice,— he only follows out the leading of a
Divine will. But though the husband hide it or
deny it, let the good wife be of good cheer. One
thing, however, let her understand, — worrying,
fretVng, fault-finding, direct and frequent har-
rangues, ill-tempered slurs, anything that looks
like passion, suspicion, or jealousy, will do no
good. These are things a man cannot bear, and
have driven many into the things they were in-
tended to prevent. She lacks judgment and pru-
dence who shall ever indulge in these. Let her
know tliat the strongest influences are those which
are silent and indirect, that it is impossible for her
to be in the right, gently, patiently, consistently,
without its being felt. It may not be acknowl-
edged to-day, or to-morrow, or ever ; it may not
do all that she hoped it would do. Counteracting
influences may be too strong for that, but it is felt
among the deepest and last things of life, even
when he jeers, and scofi's and strikes. — Monthly
lieligious Magazine.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

487

ABOUT COOKING POTATOES.

Potatoes Boiled.— Wash thera, but do not
pare or cut them, unless they are very large. Fill
a sauce-pan half full of jiotatocs of equal size, (or
make them so h\ dividing the larger ones,) or the
small ones will be done to jjieccs before the large
ones are boiled enough, put to them as much
cold water as will cover them about an inch ; they
are sooner boiled, and more savory, than when
drowned in water. ^lost boiled things are spoiled
by having too little water, but potatoes are often
sjH)iled by too much ; they must merely be cov-
ered, and a little allowed for waste in boiling, so
that they may be just covered at the finish.

Set them on a moderate fire till they boil ; then
take them off', and put them by the side of the j
fii'e to simmer slowly till they are soft enough to !
admit a fork, (place no dependence on the usual
test of their skins cracking, which, if they are
boiled fest, will happen to some potatoes when
they are not half done, and the insides quite hard.)
Then pour the water oft", (if you let the potatoes
remain in the water a moment after they are done
enougli, they will become waxy and watery,) un-
cover the sauce-pan, and set it at such a distance
from the fire as will secure it from burning ; their
superfiuous moisture will evaporate, and the po-
tatoes will be perfectly dry and mealy.

You may afterward place a napkin, folded up to
the size of the sauce-pan's diameter, over the po-
tatoes, to keep them hot and mealy till wanted.

This method of managing potatoes is in every
respect equal to steaming them ; and they are
dressed in half the time.

There is such an infinite variety of sorts and
sizes of potatoes, that it is impossible to say how
long they will take doing ; the best way is to try
them with a fork. Moderate sized potatoes will
generally be done enough in 15 or 20 minutes.

Coi.D Potatoes Fried. — Put a bit of cream
dripping into a frying-pan ; when it is melted, slice
in your potatoes with a little pepper and salt ; put
them on the fire ; keep stirring thera ; when they
are quite hot they are ready.

Potatoes Mashed. — When your potatoes are
thoroughly boiled, drain them quite dry, pick out
every speck, etc., and while hot, rub them through
a colander into a clean stew-pan. To a pound of
potatoes put about half an ounce of butter and a
tablespoonful of milk ; do not make them too
moist ; mix them well together.

Potatoes Mashed with Onions. — Prepare
some boiled onions by putting them throug-h a
sieve, and mix them with potatoes. In proportion-
ing the onions to the potatoes you will be guided
by your wish for more or less of their flavor. —
Germantoion Telegraph.

con-upting. In winter, or at any other time, when
you would have the flowers blow, take the buds at
night and cut off' the end of the stem sealed with
wax, and put the buds into water wherein a little
nitre or salt has been difl"used, and the next day
you will have the pleasure of seeing the buds open
and expand themselves, and the flowers display
their most lively colors and breathe their agreea-
ble odors.

GYMNASTIC COSTUME FOR LADIES.

Dr. Lewis, in his new work, "The Gymnastic,"
gives the following hints as to the proper costumes
for ladies to wear in performing gymnastic exer-
cises :

The most essential feature of the dress is per-
fect liberty about the waist and shoulders. The
female costume may be ever so short, if the waist
or shouldei's be trammelled, the exertions will
serve no good purpose. If the arms can be thrust
perpendicularly upward without drawing a quarter
of an ounce on the dress, the most vital point has
been secured. It is made very loose about the
head and shoulders, worn without hoops, but with
a thin skirt as near the color of the dress as possi-
ble, and only stiff' enough to keep the outside skirt
from hanging closely to the legs. This skirt
should be fastened to the belt of the dress so that
it will not hang below the dress when the arms
are raised.

The present style of Garibaldi waist is very
beautiful. It is particularly appropriate for gym-
nastics ; as it allows the freest action of the arms
and shoulders. But to permit this waist to fall
over the belt, which is its peculiar feature, the belt
is usually made tight enough to kee]) it in posi-
tion. This is wrong. Buttons should be placed
on the inside of the belt, the same as on gentle-
men's pants for suspenders, and the same kind of
suspenders should be worn. In this way the belt
may be very loose, and yet, being supported over
the shoulders, it will remain in its proper position.

To Obtain Fresh Blown Flowers in Win-
ter.— Choose some of the most perfect buds of
the flowers you would preserve, such as are latest
in blowing and ready to open, cut them off' with a
pair of scissors, leaving to each, if possible, a piece
of the stem about three inches long ; cover the
end of the stem immediately with sealing wax, and
when the buds are a little shrunk and wrinkled,
wrap each of them up separately in a piece of pa-
per, perfectly clean and dry, and lock thera up in
a dry box or drawer : and they will keep without

Things worth Forgetting. — It is almost
frightful, and altogether humiliating, to think how
much there is in the common on-going of domes-
tic and social life which deserves nothing but to be
instantly and forever forgotten. Yet it is equally
amazing how large a class seem to have no other
business but to repeat and perpetuate these very
things. That is the vocation of gossips, — an or-
der of society that perj)etuates more mischief than
all the combined plagues of Egypt together. You
may have noticed how many speeches there are
winch become mischievous only by being heard a
second time ; and what an army of both .vexes are
sworn to see to it, that the fatal repetition shall be
had. Blessed is that man or woman that can let
drop all the burrs and thistles, instead of picking
them up, and fastening them on to the next pas-
senger ! Would we only let the vexing and mali-
cious saying die, how fast the lacerated and scan-
dal ridden world would get healed and tranquil-
ized. — Dr. Huntington.

The Doll's Mission. — The doll is one of the
most imperious necessities, and at the same time
one of the most charming instincts of female child-
hood. To care for, to clothe, to adorn, to dress,

488

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Oct.

to undress, to dress over again, to teach, to scold
a little, to reck, to cuddle, to put to sleep, to im-
agine that something is somebody — all the future
of woman is there. Even when musing and prat-
tling, while making little wardrobes and little
baby clothes, while sewing little dresses, little bod-
ices, and little jackets, the child becomes a little
girl, the little girl becomes a great girl, the great
giri becomes a woman. The hi-st baby takes the
place of the last doll. — Victor Hugo.

DOMESTIC KECEIPTS,
To Preserve Crab Apples. — Take off the
stem and core them with a penknife, without cut-
ting them open. AVeigh a pound of white sugar
for each pound of prepared fruit ; put a teacup of
water to each pound of sugar ; put it over a mod-
erate iire. When the sugar is all dissolved and
hot, put the apples in ; let them boil gently until
they are clear, then skim thera out and place them
on flat dishes. Boil the syrup initil it is thick ;
put the fruit in whatever it is to be kept, and when
the syrup is cooled and settled, pour it carefully
over the fruit. Slices of lemon boiled with the
fruit may be considered an improvement ; one
lemon is enough for several pounds of fruit. Crab
apples may be preserved whole, with only half an
inch of the stem on ; three-quartei's of a pound of
sugar for each pound of fruit.

Brown Bread. — The Comptes Rcndus of the
French Academy of Sciences of Paris contains a
very long paper, which is of some scientific and
more practical interest, on the art of making
bread. It appears that the bran of ground wheat
contains an active principle of ferment, which has
hitherto not been rightly understood by chemists,
and to which the name of cerealine has now been
given.

This ferment can, we are told in the paper be-
fore us, be neutralized by the application of glu-
cose, employed in a peculiar way ; and being neu-
tralized, the greater part of the bran becomes
transformed into good flour. In other words what
is called in France bread of the second quality,
which the common people are obliged to eat on
account of its cheapness, (though they do so with
a certain degree of repugnance,) can be done away
with, and bread equal to that of the first quality,
which is consumed by the better classes, can, with-
out increase of expense, be substituted for it.

Thus the new system seems to bo of great utili-
ty, and it is desirable that our bakers should in-
quire into it. The bread produced is represented
to be very palatable and wholesome. In the course
of the experiments which the new ])lan necessitat-
ed, a curious chemical fact was discovered — name-
ly, that tlie dark color of bread of the second qual-
ity is not caused, as has always been supposed, by
the presence of bran in the flour, but by a pecu-
liar fermentation of the flour.

Syrup of Lemons. — Clarify three pounds of
lump sugar, then pour into the syrup, wliile at
weak candy height and boihng, the juice of eigh-
teen good lemons and the peel of three, grated.
Let it boil together for three minutes, strain it
through a lawn sieve, and bottle it. When cold,
cork it down tight, to keep for use. This syrup is
ready for lemonade, punch, ices, jellies, etc., with-

CATTLE MARKETS FOB SEPTEMBER.

The following 13 a summary of the reports for the four weeks
ending September 18, 1S62 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

Cattle.

August 28 2194

September 4 2492

" 11.... 2756
" 18... .3005

Sheep and Shvtes and Lire

Lambs, Pi^'S. Fat Ilogg.

7593 480 800

8635 315 1000

6620 900 1200

64S4 400 1000

10,447

29,332 2095

PRICES.

Aug. 28. Sept. 4.
Beef cattle, northern,^ lb. 4 ige^ 4 gej
Sheep and lambs, in lots.$2i:ff3i $2^fl3|
Swine, stores, wholesale. .4^^ 55 4.3'g5^

" " retail 5 §6 5 (g6|

Dressed hogs 4Jn4J (g4j

Sept. 11.
4 @6J

$2is3i
31341
4 ,@6
3JS4

4000

Sept. 18.
4 @6i

$2iS3i
4 ® 5
4JS5i
4(S4j

Remarks. — Most of the Northern oxen at market, tliis month,
were ordinary, grass-fed bullocks, and none have been sold for
anything over 63^0 ■tf lb., and only a few pairs at that price. A
choice few of the Western steers have been sold for 7c, 2S tt> 32
^ cent, shrink. The butchers generally hope to gain something
on the shrinkage allowed for the best Western cattle. A gain of
2 #■ cent, on the shrink is nearlyequal to '.jC on the price ^ lb.

It will be noticed that the number of cattle has increased about
300 ^ week, for the last four successive weeks, or from 1649 at
market August 21, to 3005 reported September 18. The number
of Western cattle has rather declined during this time. The in-
crease, therefore, has been in the stock from the North and East,
and consists of the lighter quality of beef cattle and of stores, to-
gether with not a few animals which do not seem to belong to
either class^neither fit for the shambles, the pasture nor the
stall, and which make drovers much trouble, as nobody wants
to buy them. The poorer qualities of beef have consequently
declined in prices, during the month, with an increasing dull-
ness in trade. At the same time the first quality of beef has
found ready sale and pretty uniform prices.

The mutton market, so far as live stock is concerned, has been
very steady, with many symptoms of improvement, although
prices have not materially changed. The price of wool encour-
ages farmers to keep sheep instead of cattle.

Quite a number of working cattle have been sold during the
month. Few oxen sold at higher prices which were not good beef.
Prices from §55 or $60 to $115 or $120 ^ pair.

The market for milkers is still considered dull by the dealers,
especially for those of ordinary goodness. Really good milch
cows, however, sell readily at fair prices. Cows with young
calves are sold at all prices from $20 to $50.

The business at the swine market in Brighton has been small
during the past month, and indeed for the last six months. Pur-
chasers have been afraid of the disease.

Postage Stamps. — The United States postage
stamps, which are now coming so freely into cir-
culation, besides having the amount of their value
in figures upon the upper corners, may be readily
recognized by their colors and vignettes, which
are as follows : —

Amount. Vignette. Color.

1 cent Franklin Blue,

3 cent Washington Pink.

5 cent IcITersou Chocolate.

10 cent Washington Green.

12 cent Washington Black.

24 cent Washington Lilac

30 cent Franklin Yellow.

90 cent Washington Blue.

I^ Lake Superior copper production has now
reached to an amount more than half as great as
the Cornwall mines of England. The average pro-
duction of the latter is about 13,000 tons ; that of
Lake Superior, for liSlU, is 7450 tons. Tlio i"prease

DEVOTED TO AQBICULTUilE AIH) ITS ElWDRED ABTS AND SGIEKTCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1862.

NO. 11.

BOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Office... .100 "Washinqton Street.

SIMON- BROWN, Editor.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

THOUGHTS ABOUT NOVEMBER.

"Sweet Summer, sighing, flies the pl.ain,
And waiting Winter, gaunt and grim,

Sees miser Autumn hoard his grain,
And smiles to think it's all for him."

Home Journal.

OVEMBER, in
anticipation at
least, is gener-
ally regarded
an impor-
tant month. —
^^We think of it
as a sort of
transition pe-
^^^^^fj^^-^ riod, a ming-

ling of Fall and
Winter, with
just enough of
Summer to
give an edge
to its sharp
corners. But
in realization it
is often found
that these cor-
ners are so
rounded that
its short days, coming as they do one at a timcj
glide away more comfortably than we expected,
when looking upon them as a unit, and at the
close, as we look back upon the month, the re-
mark is often made that "November has been
quite pleasant, after all !"

How the Month will prove, this year, remains
for each one to determine for himself. With an
eye to see and a heart to enjoy the beautiful and
the poetical in nature, such as the unknown writer
of the four lines at the head of this article must
have possessed, November and all the other
months of the year will indeed prove a "joy for-
ever."

To the farmer, too, whose work is kept up
squarely with the season, none of the various
phases of this fickle month will come amiss, but all
be made to fit in with his general plan of opera-
tions. Should the frost-king seal up the earth, as
he sometimes does, by the middle of November,
all the potatoes and other root crops of this class
of farmers will happen to be safely in the cellar.

But to another class — the procrastinators, the
behind-handers — this month will probably prove
much like its predecessors, very unpropitious —
every storm and every freeze happening at just
the wrong time. We trained in that company -
once just long enough to learn to dislike its tac*^-
tics, and to pity those who have "enlisted for the ■
war."

We recollect, when a boy, of being on pi«k_-it;
duty one day in a potato field, after the soil was
pretty well frozen, and when a cold, piercing; wind
blew most uncomfortably all day long. With,
strong hoes the crust of frozen earth was broken
and tipped off" the hills, while with mittened,' be-
numbed fingers we gathered the potatoes from
their beds and from the crust into which many of
the upper ones were frozen. It makes us "blow
our fingers'' even now, to think of that day's work.
The next morning, to the great joy of one little
fellow, at least, it was announced that thje ground
was as solid as a rock, and that no more potatoes
could be dug till it thawed; and as ;it did not
thaw out again that fall, about an acreni one field
remained unharvested. This was an experiment
which is not often repeated, probably. B,ut pota-
toes are frequently left in the ground until there
are frosts sufficiently severe to injux:ersome! of those
which lie upon or near the surface ©f the ground.

Another crop that sometimes stands in the field
until November is Indian Com. This noble grain
may be harvested at any time from tlie last of
September till the snow flies. Ofi" West they leave
it in the fields until mid-winter, or until consumed
or marketed. But here in New England, where

490

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

we calculate that the stalks, husks and buts of
an acre of corn are about as valuable as the hay
grown on any other acre of "mowing," on the
farm, we must consider the stover as well as the
grain, in comparing the advantages of an early
and late corn harvest. The husks and buts that
remain in the field till late are not as valuable for
fodder as those harvested in October, but the
grain itself, except the ears that fall to the ground,
is not injured by wet or cold.

What a wonderful plant, or grass, as the botan-
ists call it, this Indian corn is. Who does not
like to watch its growth.

When, like a column of Corinthian mould,
The stalk struts upward, and the leaves unfold ;
Or when the strong foliage bears the standards high ;
And shoots the tall top-gallants to the sky !

Equally beautiful is a field of corn when the
golden ears peep modestly through the husks
white already to the harvest. There is something
animating in the corn crop, from beginning to end,
especially in the rich aj^pearauce of the ripened
grain. Change a company of laborers from dig-
ging potatoes to gathering corn, and every man
and boy will not only stand up straighter, but his
eye will be brighter, his motions quicker, and his
song or voice more cheerful.

Beautiful as this crop is, its wonderful utility
will still be regarded by farmers as its chief recom-
mendation. The different parts of the crop are
already used in a great variety of ways, and others
may yet be discovered. We lately saw the state-
ment in the newspapers that a foreigner had filed
his application, with specimens, for a patent for
various uses made of maize shucks. The varie-
ties include yarn, maize cloth, paper of beautiful
qualities, white and colored, from silk to parch-
ment texture, maize flour, &c.

Corn husks have been used in the manufacture
of common paper for many years, and are an ex-
cellent material for under-beds. William Cobbett
wrote a book after his return to England, recom-
mending corn as food for man and beast, which
was printed on paper made of corn husks. He
also smoked them in his pipe as a substitute for
sobacco leaves. Would that his example in this
respect might be followed by all Americans who
must smoke in other people's faces !

The Area of the Great American Lakes. —
The five great lakes of North America have lately
been surveyed, and it is found that they cover an
urea of 90,000 square miles. The total length of
the five lakes is 1534 miles. Lake Superior, at
its greatest length, 3u<5 miles ; its greatest breadth
is IGO miles ; mean depth, 'JS8 feet; elevation
above the sea, 627 feet ; area, 32,000 square
miles. J^ake Michigan is 360 miles long ; its
greatest breadth is 108 miles ; its moan depth is
900 feet ; elevation, 687 feet ; area, 20,000 square
miles. Lake Huron, in its greatest length, is 200

miles ; its greatest breadth is 160 miles ; mean
depth 300 feet ; elevation, 574 feet ; area 20,000
square miles. Lake Erie is 250 miles long ;
greatest breadth 80 miles ; mean depth, 200 feet ;
elevation 555 feet ; area 6000 square miles. Lake
Ontario has a length of 180 miles, and its mean
breadth is 65 miles ; mean depth, 500 feet ; eleva-
tion above the ocean, 262 feet ; area 6000 square
miles.

For the New England Farmer.
COKRESPOK-DENCE FROM MAINE.
POTATO ROT.

Since about the 15th of September the farmers
have been discovering this disease on their pota-
toes. They looked remarkably well in this section,
considering the dry times, till the rust began to
come upon them. It does not appear now that it
will be any thing near like some years ago, but is
more extensive than for three years past. The
breadth planted has been rather on the increase,
for a few years, to be fed out to stock, on account
of the rot being less prevalent, the starch facto-
ries not buying them up, and a higher value set
upon them for feed for sheep and stock, by the
farmers.

WHEAT, CORN AND OATS.

Wheat is good — better than 1861, and more
was sowed than for many years past — but not
quite as good as in 1860. It has to be sown just
as early in the spring as the land will admit of the
teams working without "mudding it in," so as to
get it ahead of the insects. It has proved the best
way, to fit the land ready to sow, late in the pre-
vious fall, as far as I have seen or lieard,^and then
as soon as dry enough, sow the wheat. Some have
contended that if the snow Avas not oft' so as to
sow in April, it was safe and best to sow upon the
snow, or in the mud and water ; but my expe-
rience is, wheat sown on snow-drifts, in mud-pud-
dles, or the like, in early spring, has not vegetated
sufficiently to warrant the practice.

Corn is a light crop, but much better than was
even hoped for in August. The worms and
drought in the spring injured it materially, so
much that it did not entirely recover, though
September has done wonders in the cornfields.
There was more ])lanted than last year.

The oat crop is full an average, yet not so many
were sown as in some years ; but as the aphis in-
jured the crops but little, they will yield better
than last year.

FROSTS AND THE WEATHER.

August gave Franklin County, as well as most
parts of the State, frosts on the 18th, 24th, and
31st, each doing some damage to the "tender
vines," and in many places nij)ping the corn
leaves rather close. September, too, on tlie 22d
and 25th, still harder. October 1st, a very hard
frost, not slighting any of the vegetables along
Sandy river, which it is usual for Jack Frost to
greet with a withering kiss.

The weather, for harvesting, through September,
has been delightful. Had it not been so the crops
would have suffered, because the last 600,000 tal-
lied among the hired help upon the farms, as well
as among the farmers and farmers' sons. The
streams are low — very low. O. W. True.

Elm Tree Farm, near Phillips, Oct. 3, 1862.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

491

For the New Englniid Farmer.

AGEICULTUEE IN COMMOW SCHOOJLS.

The true, fundamental idea, I think, which
should govern the introduction of studies into our
common schools, is —

1. That no sectarian doctrines of religion should
be taught. The importance of this prohibition
has long been discovered.

2. That the studies permitted should be general
and not special. That is to say, studies which
will undojibtedlij be of subsequent use to all, and
not those which mar/ ])ossibly be so to some schol-
ars in the avocations in which they may engage.

Hence Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Eng-
lish Grammar are taught as fundamental studies ;
and then follow those which may be termed sec-
ondary, such as the Elements of Chemistry, Ge-
ology, Botany, the higher Mathematics, some of
the ancient and modern languages, &c., usually
as the scholars may elect.

But a small number of individuals in the State
— quasi or amateur farmers, irregular teachers
and book publishers — usually actuated bjr good
motives, now ask that the Elements or the Prin-
ciples of Agriculture be taught in these schools ;
and to further the object, the State Board of Ag-
riculture has recommended it, and its Secretary,
in connection with another gentleman much in-
terested in education, has prepared a very good
and neat Manual adapted to this purpose. The
advocates of this plan seem to be possessed with
the idea that farming in Massachusetts is unduly
on the decline, that it is an occult science, and
not sufficiently scientific in its operations, and
that its prospective manual resources are alarming-
ly deficient. Hence this new mode for its recu-
peration.

Whether agriculture is or is not on the decline
in Massachusetts, it is pretty clear that it cannot
be controlled by the school-house ; it is suliject
to other and higher laws. As to its being an ab-
struse matter, (except in the broad field of theo-
rj',) requiring early induction in our schools, to the
practical farmer who can revel in his manure
heaps, it is ridiculous. Agriculture should be as
simple and confined to as few principles as possi-
ble ; and these few principles — most every practi-
cal farmer will admit — are best wrought out from
the soil by each individual, rather than confound-
ed in the school-room, where more, probably,
would be attempted to be taught than our exact
knowledge would warrant.

Of those boys who attend our schools, only a
small proportion intend to become farmers. To
iiUroduce the study of agriculture, therefore, would
be well nigh futile, unless its study should be
made nldigatory — like some of the general stud-
ies— which no one, probably, will have the eff"ront-
ery to demand. Besides, unless the farmers sus-
tain it, it must fail. Have theif asked for it, and
will ii'ieif sustain it ? I think not. And here, as
a partial answer at least to these queries, let me
ask, (looking in the most favorable light upon all
that has been said and done in furtherance of this
"consummation so devoutly to be wished" by
many good men, can any one tell the public how
many boys have engaged in this study in our com-
mon schools in this State during the past year ?
The facts would be interesting to all concerned.

Admitting even that agriculture miorht be taught

to advantage to some in our schools, it is an im-
portant inquiry whether they can possibly admit
all the studies which may be useful to some schol-
ars who attend them. Heretofore it has been
considered wise to restrict them to those of a gen-
eral or universal character. Much, it is supposed,
is to be left to the student after he leaves school
— more particularly the acquisition of his trade
or profession. If one class of persons claim that
the elements of agriculture be taught, another
has as much right to claim that the elements of
law (Blackstone and Kent) be also taught ; still
another those of medicine, and so on to the prin-
ciples of carpentering, shipbuilding, tailoring, &c.
All these studies or o])erations, in their proper
place, are very useful ; but it must be plain to ev-
ery reflecting mind, that the common schools are
not the place for them, and that the committees
or powers over them, must economize and closely
discriminate in the selection of useful studies to
be there taught. This being so, the best rule
they can adopt is, that they shall be general, not
not special.

We are now engaged in an important civil war.
The church has fated about and buckled on the
kna])sack, and all our schools, from the highest to
the lowest, are reveling in the odor of gunpow-
der ! A remarkable change has come over New
England ; her Peace Societies are a mockery, if
in being, and her desire is that her plow-shares
and pruning-hooks should be transformed into
spears and implements of war. And some teach-
ers, even, catching the spirit so rife, have urged
the policy of teaching military tactics in our
schools as a regular branch of education ! Real-
ly, what next in the march of improvement ? Un-
doubtedly the national defences, as well as agri-
culture, are all-important ; but that their rudi-
ments should be forced into the common school-
room must strike the mass of reflecting persons
as impolitic. If the young men of our higher
schools and acadamies wish to drill — at proper
seasons — for pleasure or physical development,
(as those of one, at least, do in Boston.) there
probably can be no serious objection to it : but
military drill and kindred exercises should not
be allowed to interfere with the ordinary duties
of the common schools, for they are not institut-
ed to make farmers, mechanics, professional, men
or soldiers ; but to give a proper, general educa-
tion to all, which shall be of value to them in
whatever vocation they may engage.

It has been frequently said that our schools are
already too much crowded with studies. But it
is thought that in making room for agriculture,
some others should be omitted or abridged, or
that scholars should select the number and kind
of studies they M'ish to pursue. Under these con-
ditions, perhaps no one would object to a scholar's
pursuing a course of agricultural rudiments. But
even then, its utility is somewhat doubtful, as it
may be well questioned whether the larger schol-
ars who attend our common schools are of suffi-
cient age to understand the many abstruse points
involved in the theory, if not in the economj- of
this art. In fact, they are not well understood
by any one. But even if what is taught is well
settled, scholars must have a deep interest in the
subject to retain anything of any value. Too
much, undoubtedly, is sought to be crowded into
the youthful mind, at the present day — or perhaps

492

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

it might be better said that too much is crowded
out, for much that is taught disappears forever.

"Voracious learning, often orerfed,
Digests not into sense its motley meal."'

Without touching directly upon the question
how agriculture should be taught, I would, in con-
clusion, observe generally, that the youth who
pursues his studies little by little, who spreads
them over a greater number of years, who com-
mingles with the world, and judges of what he is
in most need, usually makes the smartest and
most practical man. A knowledge of the busy
outside world — a knowledge of its ignorance and
its learning — is all-important in education, as it
tends to make a person wise. Much book learn-
ing, without the wisdom or means for its applica-
tion, is too often characteristic of our young men.
Hence the sarcasm of Pope :

"Some are bewildered in the maze of schools.

And some made coxcombs, nature meant for fools."

West Medford, Sept., 1862. D. w. L.

For the New England Farmer.
THOUGHTS ON ECONOMY.

It is thought by many that unnecessary expen-
ditures are beneficial in causing the circulation of
capital, just as though the circulation of capital
without the production of economization of real
value, could be universally productive of the ele-
ments of wealth.

Now a little reflection on some of the principles
involved in the science of political economy, shows
the fallacy of such reasoning. It is, indeed, true,
that such expenditures do often tend to enrich
certain individuals, but they just as surely tend to
impoverish others. Take, for illustration, the ar-
ticle of tobacco, from the importation of which the
British government alone derives an annual reve-
nue of $28,000,000 ! Now, it is admitted by all
that tobacco, as generally used, is of no benefit to
the consumer ; indeed, its uses are far overbal-
anced by its abuses, but overlooking this fact, we
see that, unlike food, it does not strengthen and
nourish the physical system ; neither, like clothing,
does it shelter our bodies from the inclemency of
the weather, nor like flowers, pictures and other
ornaments of similar nature, does it tend to refine
and elevate the mind and develop those spiritual
qualities which distinguish the soul of man from
the instinctive mind of the brute. In short, it
does the consumer no good whatever, and is, in
reality, a capital of the most unproductive kind,
while food, clothing, &c., are productive capital,
whatever benefit may be derived from their use.

Suppose an agriculturist in America raises a
quantity of tobacco ; it then goes through the
hands of the tobacconists and one or more mer-
chants, each adding to the pecuniary — not the in-
trinsic— value of the weed, by which addition of
value each gets pay for the time, labor, &:c., which
he expends on it. The tobacco is then exported,
the net profits arising from its culture, and from
the time, labor, &c., expended on ij; by the tobac-
conist and merchant, being so much real gain to
the capital of the country. All time and labor
below the net profits, cannot be reckoned as a
dear gain, as they might have been applied with
equal advantage in some other department, and
are. in reality, so much cdpital pxnendcd in its

production. The cost of transportation again in-
creases the price of the tobacco, and then the du-
ties imposed by the government, where it is im-
ported, raises the price still higher, and then, be-
fore reaching the consumer, the merchants, through
whose hands it goes, put on the "finishing touch."
That part of the price which forms the net profits
of the European merchant is not lost to the coun-
try v/heve the tobacco is consumed, although it is
lost to the consumer. Neither does the country
lose the duties collected from it as an import, for
government must impose taxes of some kind, for
its support ; but the consumer pays more than his
share of government expenses, provided he con-
sumes other taxable importations equally with the
nonconsumer of tobacco. The other portion of the
cost, however, is a dead loss both to the consumer
himself and the country where it is consumed, the
tobacco being no real equivalent for the money
thus expended. Not only to the consumer and the
country where they are consumed, are all kinds of
unproductive capital a dead loss, but also to the
world, — for the time, labor and capital expended
in their production might equally as well be ap-
plied to the production of such capital as would be
productive. Money, too, paid for unproductive
capital, might just as well be given to the persons
receiving it, without as Avith the intrinsically valu-
less remuneration. Or, as far as the economy of
the question is concerned, it might as well be
stolen in order to keep it in circulation. Tobacco,
however, is but a single item in the list of articles
composing the unproductive capital of the world,
and unhappily, America has done her full share
in their consumption.

What a vast amount of money do we, even now,
spend simply for show. There is that one little
item of imported /?r>M'e7-sybr ladies' bonnets, to say
nothing of domestic ones ; their cost is greater than
that of railroad iron, and wounded soldiers often
suff^er for want of articles of comfort which such
money would help to bring them. In many towns
in New England, the consumption of tobacco, in
its various forms, exceeds the whole amount paid
for taxes on all kinds of property, while there is
scarcely a town whose appropriations for educa-
tional purposes equals this self-imposed tax !

Nothing can be considered unproductive capital
which tends to make men M-iser and better, and
to elevate humanity in the scale of progress and
civilization. Millions are spent annually in dress
to satisfy the requisitions of that tyrant of tyrants,
fashion, which are really needed in the same de-
partment to answer the demands of undepraved
taste, and to preserve the health and strength of
the physical system.

The principles of political economy were former-
ly supposed to be involved only in the pecuniary
aff"airs of nations, and this idea is conveyed in the
definition which many economists have given to
the term, — but it is evident that those principles,
like all others, are of "universal application,"
many of them going beyond mere pecuniary ques-
tions, and are applicable in any and every depart-
ment of life. Economy, combined with persever-
ance, energy and industry, is the great element of
success in every laudable undertaking, — a great
lever of almost illimitable power to raise humanity
to a higher scale of civilization. Economy of time
bears the standard of victory up the steep ascent
of the hill of knowlwltre. the few snare moments

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

493

saved daily from the haunts of idleness and use-
less pleasure being sufficient to make any man of
medium talents rich in mental wealth. In Napo-
leon's early days, while in the military academy,
some of his fellow-pupils wasted much of their
time in a neighboring shop, which he, however,
seldom visited. Afterwards — I think it was when
appointed to the command of the army of Italy —
he called at the shop and was recognized by its
mistress as the young soldier who had spent so
little of his time there. "Ah, Madam," said Na-
poleon, "had I done so I should not now be in
command of the army of Italy." It was the same
great man who afterwards expressed the idea that
it was the extra five minutes that saved victories.
Take care of the pence, said Franklin, and the
pounds will take care of themselves. Take care
of the spare moments, and you thus save to your'
selves years of time otherwise unoccupied. Save
up to yourself daily a few of those propositions of
whose aggregate comjjosed the sum total of all
knowledge, and you will at length possess a large
share of imperishable wealth of the most produc-
tive kind, — productive of hapi)iness and usefulness
to yourself and others, in this world and in the
future.

If acceptable, I should be happy to write anoth-
er article on this subject during some of the spare
moments. Monthly Reader.

September, 1862.

Remarks. — Write on. These are just the doc-
trines we all need — truths that cannot be success-
fully controverted.

MIDDLESEX CATTLE SHCW.

The annual exhibition of the Old Middlesex
Society took place at Concord, on Thursday last,
Sept. 18th. The weather was perfect. There
was a clear sun and a slight breeze, just enough
to make a little exercise agreeable. The show of
cattle, horses, swine and poultry was unusually
small, — smaller, indeed, than we have ever wit-
nessed before on a similar occasion. There were
but few articles of machinery on the ground — a
Wood's mowing machine and a hay-tedder being
all that we saw, — and no implements of husband-
ry, save one or two of trifling importance, with the
exception of some beautiful samples of Nourse's
iron plows. At the plowing match some dozen
teams were engaged, and from the implements
used, and the rej^utation for skill of the plowmen
using them, we have no doubt that the work was
•well done. The attendance upon the field was
much smaller than usual. The show of fruit in
Exhibition Hall was of a very superior character,
— equal to that of the Massachusetts Horticultu-
ral Society, which was on exhibition at the same
time. Nothing, it seems to us, could be finer
than the apples and pears presented. There were
a few excellent vegetables, one bag of wheat, two
of barley and a few traces of seed corn. The ex-
ercises at the table were eating the dinner, a few
words from the President, an address by Dr. Lo-

UING, of Salem, an hour long, upon national top-
ics, beautifully written and delivered, and remarks
by Dr. FisHEii, the delegate from the North
Worcester Society. The usual spicy after dinner
speeches were wholly omitted, as well as the read-
ing the awards of premiums and the reports of
Committees ! In the business meeting, the old
board of oflScers was re-elected.

■WOOL-QIlO"WrERS' CONVENTION".

By a resolution of the Directors of the Vermont
State Agricultural Society last winter, a Wool-
Growers' Convention was called for the first day
of the fair at Rutland. This was an experiment,
to see if wool-growers could not find something of
interest to talk about, as well as horse-breeders,
and those engaged in other branches of agricul-
ture. It was thought to be an interest which Ver-
mont farmers should talk about. Still it was
feared that enough of them to make a meeting in-
teresting could not be got together, or that the
meeting might fail to be sufficiently interesting to
make it worthy of repetition. In all this, fears have
proved grouudless. It was held Sept. 9 ; it vv'as
well attended ; it was exceedingly interesting ;
and it was unanimously agreed to be continued.

The President of the society, Edwin Ham-
mond, of Middlebury, who is a large breeder of
valuable fine-wooled sheep, such as he sells from
$25 to $500 each, opened the meeting by a few
pertinent remarks upon the great interest Vermont
has in the wool business, and the importance of
wool-growers meeting together to discuss that in-
terest, and' then introduced the Secretary of the
society, Daniel Neediiam, of Hartford, Vt., who
gave a very interesting address, containing some
valuable statistical matter, among which we noted
the following, lie said, in substance :

We not only clothe ourselves neatly and com-
fortably, but in doing it, we use up all the wool
that the country produces, and large quantities of
imported wool, beside imported fabrics. Farmers
for want of information disposed of much of their
wool at ruinous sacrifices, when the war broke out
— in this State below the cost of production.

In 18(51 we imported $5,000,000 value of avooI
and $28,000,000 value of woollen fabrics, and that
was $10,000,000 less than in 1860. The range
for three years has been $35,000,000, to $45,000,-
000. We import the products of 13,000,000 of
sheep, which we had better keep in this country.
This proves that we are in no immediate danger
of getting too many sheep.

The increase of population in the United States
would require the wool of 3,000,000 of sheep.

No animals are so well adapted to Vermont
pastures as sheep, and none so productive.

In 1850 the number of sheep in the State was a
little over a million, and the yield of wool a trifle
over three pounds a head. By improved care this
yield has been largely increased.

In 1850 the total of sheep in the United States
was 21,723,000, averaging 2h. pounds of wool per
annum.

We read of the great care bestowed upon some
of the fine-wool flocks of Europe, without seeming
to be aware that equal care is bestowed upon some
flocks in Vermont.

494

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nor.

To show the need of protection to the wool-
groM-er, as well as to the manufocturer, look at the
prices of imported wool. In 1861 it averaged llj
cents. It comes mostly from South America,
where the principal cost of production is shearing
the sheep.

While we can produce every grade of wool
needed in this country, we should be independent
of any other country. Protecting the manufactur-
er does not wholly protect the wool-grower. One
of the great needs of legislation is a repeal of the
"reciprocity treaty," the benefits of which are all
on the British side.

Give equal protection to all the great interests
of the country, and all honest men will be satisfied.

The prospect of the next few years is very en-
couraging to the wool-growers. In consequence
of the supply of cotton being cut off, we shall use
more wool, beside the great demand for army pur-
poses. We had no surplus last year, and the clip
of 1862 was very early bought up, and the price
has continued to advance.

The great practical question, and the one for
which this convention was called principally to
discuss, is, how we shall prepare wool for market.
Is it most advantageous to the farmer to sell his
wool washed or unwashed ? The buyers usually
make about 23 per cent, difference between washed
and unwashed wool, but no discrimination between
that which is thoroughly clean, and that of a man
who has only washed his sheep to make his wool
sell at a higher price, while it is but little lighter
than that sheared without washing the sheep. The
conscientious man has very little encouragement.

The question of the health of the sheep — wheth-
er it is injured by washing and carrying the fleece
till very warm weather— is an important one for
farmers to discuss, and if possible, produce a uni-
formity of action.

The improvement of Vermont sheep has been
wonderful. In 1840 there was not a buck in the
State that would shear 12 pounds. Now there are
plenty that give 20 to 25 pounds, and it is not
made up of oil and dirt, but will give 60 per cent,
of genuine, clean wool.

With such bucks to be had, there are men who
still keep their old native stock of sheep ; and gen-
erally the same men have unimproved cattle, and
work with the old wooden and wrought-iron plow.

After trying all sorts, the majority of Vermont
wool-growers have settled upon the Spanish meri-
no as best adapted to their soil and climate, and
mountain pastures.

The average cost of keeping sheep is estimated
per annum as follows : Illinois, 60 cents ; Iowa,
75c ; Michigan, 83c ; Virginia 60c ; New Jersey,
60c ; Pennsylvania, oOc ; Maine, $1 ; California,
75c; Vermont, $1,30. _

The average increase in Vermont is 70 per cent. ;
in Ohio, 80 ; Virginia, 99 ; New Jersey, 80 ;
Maine, 90. Still, Vermont leails all the States in
wool-growing, and production of valuable sheep
for sale, which we furnish to nearly all the other
wool-growing States, which buy our bucks at $200
to $500, and ewes at $25 to $50 each.

In this day of trial of our country, there is no
way we can serve it better than in studying to im-
prove it, and increase its wealth, and make wealth
aiid civilization twin sisters. If our countiy de-
mands all of our young men, their wives, sisters
and mothers will unite with the old men to sus-

tain Vermont agriculture during this great contest
between "Liberty and Slavery."

After the close of Mr. Needham's address, D. E.
Nicholson, of Wallingford, was called up, and
he gave the convention a stirring, short speech, in
his happiest mood. He said that he hoped all
Vermont would not be carried away by his friend
Needham, and rush into the wool business, be-
cause there was a great beef and dairy interest in
the State, which it was not worth while to forsake
at once, because the sheep farmers were now reap-
ing an e.xtra harvest. He thought, however, a
wool-growers' convention was not exactly his place,,
as he kept no more sheep than the law allowed,
but he sold the clip of them of two years yester-
day, and supposed by that means had got into this
good com})any of Vermont wool-growers — these
developers of the boundless wealth of the mountaio
pastures of the State. We ought to cherish sheep
as a mine of wealth, and with this view we oughfe
not to cherish 30,000 dogs, nor tolerate their own-
ers, unless they are able to give bonds for their
good behavior. The highest interest of the State
demands a dog law, and wool-gi*owers should de-
clare that they will have one, and that the effort
to pass such a law shall not be put down, as it has
been, by the owner of a bitch and pups, or who
had some friend that owned such stock, whose
vote he was anxious to secure, and therefore would
defeat an effort to rid the State of such a nuisance
as our host of worthless curs.

Mr. Marsh, of Clarendon, moved a vote of
thanks for the address of Mr. Needham, and that
1000 copies be printed for distribution. In regard
to shearing sheep without washing, he has fully
tried both ways, and is convinced of the advan-
tage of not washing. We can shear our sheep a
month or two earlier, and they suffer less. I
sheared May 1, and it was followed by a cold
storm, but I sheltered the flock, and they did not
suftcv as much as sheep often do in June, after
washing and shearing ; and he was satisfied that
the sheep winter better if sheared early, without
washing.

Solon Robinson, of New York, being called
upon, gave some information relative to sales of
mutton sheep, and growing lambs for the New
York market, and about the prospects that wool-
growers have before them. About washing sheep,
he said that he had come to the conclusion, after
careful consideration of the subject through a se-
ries of yeai-s, that a farmer cannot afford to wash.
The manufacturer can cleanse the wool cheaper
than the fiinner. He urged farmers to carefully
try the experiment to see which course brings the
most money. He used to think it cruel to dip
sheep very early in the spring, but has lately be-
come satisfied that they suffer less than they do if
washed and carry their fleeces late in June. Ow-
ing to the short supply of cotton, it is evident that
we must clothe ourselves much more in woollens
in future ; and this will increo.se the demand more
than wool-growers can supply at present high pri-
ces ; and this should encourage them to persevere
in all improvements. If the price again recedes,
remember that New York always furnishes a mar-
ket for over half a million mutton sheep a yeai\

Nathan Gushing, of Woodstock, said that
our fine-wool flocks have been continually improv-
ing for thirty yeai's, and that it is an art to keep
up improvement that must be learned, but it is

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

495

worthy of attention of Vermont farmers, whether [ and that some of the most profitable Vermont
they cannot profitably increase the production of : flocks show a small amount of oil. He has sheared
mutton sheep. According to information given I bucks of this kind that gave 16 to 20 pounds of
us by Mr. Robinson, it is a profitable branch of I wool.

farmino-. I Geo. Campbell, of Westminster West, thought

Judge Colburn, of Springfield, Vt., thought if [ that much of the oil was made by feeding ; that
all wool-growers could be induced to adopt the i he could by that means make the same sheep show
rule not to wash sheep, it would be an advantage | more or less oil. He is sure that those that run
to the State. At present, the only discrimination j most to oil are of a weaker constitution than oth-
in buying, is to deduct one-fourth the price of i ers. He had travelled much in this country and
washed wool, if the same grade is unwashed. If Europe in pursuit of knowledge about sheep, and

we ever adopt a rule to do away with washing, we
shall get rid of very unpleasant, and some think
unhealthy work.

A gentleman from Western New York said

is satisfied that Vermont has the best stock in the
world, better than Spain. He has tried all sorts,
and settled upon the Spanish merino as the most
profitable breed ; and he is also satisfied that it is

that the disposition of manufacturers to buy un- ! not profitable to wash sheep, because by not doing
washed wool was largely increasing. He "knew it, he can shear early, say about May 1, and ])ro-
one who tried 5,000 pounds, year before last, as ; tect the sheep a few days, and tliey are not injured,
an experiment, which satisfied him so well, tliat he ' and he thus saves wool. When he used to wash,
bought 80,000 pounds last year. In his own ex- and turn out to pasture, much wool was lost upon

perience he had proved that unwashed sheep win-
ter better than they do when washed and sheared
a mouth latei".

A resolution was now introduced by some one,
and read by the Secretary, that it ia the sense of

briers and bushes.

He is sure that, one year with another, his clip
sells for more money unwashed than it would
washed, and he saves the labor and health of his
sheep. The wool clipped early looks better, and

this convention that we should strive to produce ! often is better, than washed wool. Some buyers
wool, and not oil. This was evidently intended | think that heavy fleeces must be dirty ;^ and, to

as a hit at those who run upon a strain of sheep
with very oily fleeces. The resolution was debat-
ed quite earnestly, and at first seemed likely to
pass, but in the end would have been almost unan-
mously voted down, if it had not been withdrawn.
So much for the advantage of discussion.

Judge Colburn thought that although Ver-
mant has the best flocks in America, we are tend-
ing too strongly toward producing very oily
fleeces, which weakens the constitution of the
sheep. Some of the high-priced bucks sold to go
West, have two pounds of oil to one pound of
wool.

Solon Robinson thought it all resolved into a
matter of dollars and cents. If it is more profita-
ble for a farmer to procure oily fleeces, he should
not vote for this resolution. It is not a point of
morality, but a point of interest, that he has to
settle, and he did not believe it was for the inter-
est of Vermont farmers to adopt the spirit of this
resolution.

Mr. Marsh thought it was not good policy to
change our course of breeding, M'hile we find ready
sales for wool, and while the bucks that are most
oily, are sought after to cross upon Western na-
tive sheep. Farmers must look to their own in-
terest, and that will regulate the production of
oily wooled sheep.

Daniel Kimball, of Clarendon, thought that
voting for this resolution would tend to hurt the
credit of Vermont sheep, as a sort of confession
that they were generally too oily.

Mr. Lester, of Rutland, moved to lay the reso-
lution on the table, as it was useless to adopt it,
since farmers would raise such sheep as were most
profitable.

Judge Colburn thought it would not be so
easy for farmers to sell their wool in peace times
as now, full of grease and dirt.

Mr. Cdshing said that many breeders are now
satisfied that very oily sheep are not as profitable
as others that keep up the same fineness and
length of fibre, with just oil enough to protect it.
He is satisfied that very oily sheep tire not hardy.

avoid this objection, he has divided and tied up
two to a sheep, and then they sold M'ithout any
objection. It is now ten years since he has prac-
ticed washing sheep.

Mr. Gushing practices the same plan of divid-
ing heavy fleeces, and finds it works well.

An old farmer present remarked that he had
learned something in this respect to pay him for
the trouble of attending this convention.

It was unanimously voted to continue to hold
similar meetings at each State Fair, and that the
question discussed here, be earnestly considered
by all Vermont wool-growers. — S. R. in N. Y.
Tribune.

Far the New England Farmer.

KICHMOWD PRICE CURKEBTT FOR JULY.

It may amuse your readers to look at the prices
of provisions, groceries, &c., in the city of Rich-
mond, in the month of July. When my informant
left, prices were still advancing. This statement
is entirely reliable, coming from a cousin who has
made his escape from that city, after serving as
clerk in a store the past year. He passed a week
at my house, and has come to the conclusion that
rebellion is expensive and terribly inconvenient.

Fresh beef, lb 62^5 75

Fn'sh pork None.

Salt pork, lb $1,00

Hams, lb $1,00

Fresh and salt fish None.

Cheese None.

BuHer, lb $1,.')052,00

Kggs, (loz $1,2.3 (jl,'iO

Potatoes, bush .$16

Cabbages, head $1,00

Onions, each 2.5

Bar soap, lb $1,60

Starch None

Salt, per sack, made in

Va., and poor $90

Milk, quart 2.5

Boots, pair ^ §25 (T:.35

Shoes, pair $15 §20

Ladies' gaiters, pair $15

Soft hats, each $16

Dress coats $60

Pants $20

Cotton cards, pair $25

Tea, lb $16

Coffee, Ih $3,50@5,00

Mustard , small can $5

Brown sugar, lb $1,00

Mo1a«ses, gal $6,00

Candles, lb $2 00

Morphine, oz $40

Calomel, oz $2-5

Quinine, oz $2)

Atlantic sheeting, yd $1,50

Prints, yd $l,00?il,25

Heavy wool filling jeans,

per yai'd $16

Satinetts, cassimeres and

woolen dress goods .... None.
Cnates' spool cutton,each $1,00

Brooks & Clarke's, do 60

Sewing silk, skein 30

Linen braid, lb $9,00

Powder, lb $8

Revolvers, each $50

Neto York, Sept. 12, 1862.

496

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

For the New England Farmer.
KETROSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Fever and Dysentery" — Sudden Chan-
ges IN Diet, &c. — In the issue of this journal
for Sept. 6th, the editor, under the first portion
of the above heading, has given to his readers
several valuable and seasonable hints in respect
to the avoidance of the above-named diseases, as
well as of other minor ailments which are apt to
occur about this time of year. From a wish to
second the benevolent and judicious efforts of the
editor to enable his readers to escape a great deal
of danger and suffering, common at the autumnal
season, we yield to the imjnilse which prompts us
to commend the article referred to, as worthy of
a second, or even a third or fourth reading, which
we can do most cordially, as the advice and sug-
gestions contained in it are really as judicious as
if they had been written by one of the oldest and
most sensible physicians in Boston, and as we feel
sure that those Avho will fix them firmly in mind
and memory, and make practical application of
them, will be likely to escape disease and suffer-
ing which might otherwise happen either to them-
selves or to their families. A great deal of the
sickness which mothers and doctors have to at-
tend to during the fall might be avoided, if such
precautions as those recommended in the article
under notice were more generally adopted. The
bowel complaints and other ailments of children,
as well as of adults, at this season of the year,
are probably as frequently owing to sudden chan-
ges in temperature, exposures to damp and cold,
and the want of sense and care which should
adapt the clothing to these changes and exposures,
as they are to errors in diet, and the immoderate
consumption of fruit and vegetables. We would
add, therefore, to what the reader will find in the
article under notice, as to sudden checks to per-
spiration, and exposure to night air and currents
of air, that during cool and rainy days, and when
the mornings and evenings are quite cold com-
pared with the heat of the day, more than usual
care should be taken so to adapt the clothing, and
of children more especially, to the atmospheric
condilion and temperature that there shall be no
cliilliness of the surface of the body. There is,
without question, much carelessness in this re-
spect as to children, and physicians of discrimina-
tion and benevolence have often been able to trace
complaints which they have been called upon to
prescribe for, about this season of the year, to a
negligence which has surprised them, in regard to
adapting clothing to the changes of the weather.
Wiien mornings are cool or cold, and when a day
of rain, raw, east wind, or other uncomfortable-
ness occurs, the clothing should certainly be dif-
ferent from that well enough for the warmer morn-
ings and days of the season, though both chil-
dren and adults may be often, at such times, go-
ing about in garments fit only for the warmth of
summer. There should also on many such occa-
eions be a fire kindled in the sitting-room.

liut this is wandering somewhat from our pur-
pose, which was, not to give details as to manage-
ment, but to second the efforts of the editor in
warning his readers to avoid a cause of sickness
which is not known to be such, or avoided as such
when known, as much as it should be. That
cause consists chiefly in sudden chucks to perspi-

ration, sudden changes in the weather, chilliness
of the surface from want of sufficient clothing
and such like conditions, all tending to drive in
the blood upon the internal organs, and otherwise
to derange the functions of the system.

There are several other suggestions in the arti-
cle under notice, which are of value as helps to
the preservation of health, such as those relating
to a sparing use of fruits and vegetables, making
the fruit a part of the meal, changing clothing aa
the temperature changes, 8zc.

"The Season and Crops." — In an article
with this heading on page 394 of current volume
of this journal (Monthly) the writer remarks that
"hay is not injured by standing in cock for several
da3s, if properly capped," and adds that he rather
thinks it better made so than in any other May.
Upon this the editor makes a comment as follows;
"\Ve have no doubt but it is at least ten per cent,
better. Let the grass be thoroughly wilted, or
half-made, then cock it, cover with caps, and let
it remain from twenty-four to thirty-six hours,
then throw it open to the air and sun for three or
four hours, and the hay will be as perfectly cured
as it can be. It will not be brittle and break, like
so many dry twigs, nor bleached until almost
worthless, but soft, fragrant, and of a cheerful
light green color, and full of tallow and milk, or
what will abundantly make them."

Now, as not every farmer is provided with caps,
(though before the great rise in the price of heavy
cotton goods, which is one of the evil fruits of
this wicked, fratricidal rebellion, and that accursed
clinging to "the sum of all villanies," which is the
fountain of the rebellion, an investment of a few
dollars in these articles was usually a paying one,)
we would suggest that hay can be made, and has
been made, of just as bright and fresh a color, and
of just as nutritious qualities, without caps, as ev-
er was made with them. For several years it has
been our aim to make hay, especially that which
was all or mostly clover, in just the way described,
that is, so far as putting it up in cocks when only
about half-made, letting it remain so from one to
three days, and opening it out to the sun and air
a few hours before drawing it into the barn, are
concerned. Some years ago we made hay in this
way, which was the admiration of all who saw it,
for its beautiful freshness and green color, and the
delight of every creature to which it was offered,
and when not hurried in the making of hay by
weather or want of help, we have done the same
repeatedly since. And what has been done can
be done again. Try and see. More Anon.

Remarks. — Certainly. But what if it rains
some portion of nearly every day, as has been the
case with us, this summer ? However, we do not
urge the caps, with cotton at twenty cents a yard.

Pillars of Sand in the Desert. — The des-
erts of Arabia are among the most remarkable
places in the world, and are especially remarka-
l)le for their pillars of sand ; they are raised by
whirlwinds, and have a very close resemblance in
their appearance to waterspouts. The places where
these pillars of sand most frequently occur, are
those portions of the deserts which are near to a
river or the sea. The pillars of sand ill the des-

1862.

XEW ENGLAND FARMER.

497

erts of Africa are very magnificent ; the raised sand
is in wavy and rounded lobes, which have a curl-
ing motion, like that of smoke ; and both the apex
of the entire ])illnr, and the extremities of the lobes,
are shaded oti' to a very indefinite outline. The
mirage is another very singular feature of the des-
erts. The traveller very freciuently sees rising, as
it were, before him, some great city or lovely vil-
hige ; he hastens onward, full of eager anticipation
to receive refreshment, and ever as he goes, the
image recedes from his advancing steps, and he
discovers, perhaps, only too late, that it was an
image formed by the refraction of the sun's rays
in a particular direction, upon an atmosphere
somewhat hazy and opaque.

EXTRACTS AUH REPLIES.
POSTPONEMENT OF CATTLE SUOWS.

"Essex" asks the reasons, pro and cnii, for giv-
ing up our catUe shows the present year, as has
been done by several societies. I am free to say
that I have heard no good reason for so doing.
What though our country be agitated by intestine
commotion ? What though money be hard to be
earned ? What though our young men are need-
ed on the battle-field ? These reasons, one and
all, are not sufficient to justify the abandonment
of the ordinary pursuits of life. On the contrary,
much greater is the necessity of pursuing them
more strictly. Let the middle-aged be called
away, the young must stay to provide for the old
and the helpless — the women and the children.
In any way you can fix it, three-quarters of the
whole will remain at home. The project is a mis-
taken one, and will never be entertained for a mo-
ment by any sound mind. Away with all such
fancy stuff. CandoPv.

September 12, 1862.

CURE FOR GARGET IN COWS.

I have been a constant reader of the Farmer for
the last ten years, and am so pleased with it that I
have caused quite a number of copies to be circu-
lated among our farmers. I would not be Avith-
out it for double the expense.

A question has recently been asked, "What is
a cure for garget in cows ?" I feel it my duty to
answer this question, and it is a sure remedy :

1. Take a piece of garget that is good, the size
of your little finger, make a deep incision in the
brisket of the cow, put in the garget and let it re-
main.

2. Take two pounds of sulphur and one of salt-
petre, pulverize the latter and mix them together ;
give one table-spoonful twice a day in sliorts or
meal, the former preferi-ed ; use up this compound,
and I will v/arrant a cure. Ed. Keasor.

Upper Gilmanton, N. II.

AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS.

T percei%-e an effort is making in some quarters
to divert attention from these to the more pressing
and urgent wants of our country. It would seem
to me that both can be duly regarded at the same
time. All will admit the imperative necessity of
doing everything that can be done for the salva-
tion of the institutions of our country in their pu-
rity ; but does it follow when we are acting hon-

estlj' for the advancement of agriculture, we are
acting adversely to the best interests of the coun-
try ? Far otherw'ise would it seem to me. He
who learns how to make two spears of grass, or
two ears of corn grow, where but one grew before,
is the true patriot — in whatever field he may la-
bor. *
Sept. 20, 1862.

MAKING ICE BY MACHINERY.

The following is an account given in the World
of a patent improved ice-making machine, manu-
factured by 1). Siebe, Lambeth, London. This
machine is in actual use in India and Peru, where
it produces ice at the rate of from two and a half
to six dollars per ton. The principle upon which
the machine is constructed is an application of the
well-known natural law, that by evaporating fluids
the caloric contained therein passes off with the
vapor, thereby reducing the temperature of the
evaporating body. In tliis process a volatile fluid
steam is used as an evaporating agent ; a power-
ful pump forms a vacuum, and in its eftbrts to do
so assists the evaporation at a low temperature on
the one hand, and by pressure, with the assistance
of water at an ordinary temperature, reduces the
vapor again to fluid on the other hand, thereby
using and re-using the same volatile fluid without
loss. No chemicals of any kind are used. To
talk about making ice in the United States may at
first sight seem absurd. I am not so sure that it
is so in all localities and under every condition
of things. But there is a purpose to which this
ice-making machinery is applied which may be
deserving of attention in the United States. It is
proposed to cool hospitals by this machinery on
the converse principle by which buildings are
warmed. It has been proved by experiment that
this is practicable, the inside temperature of a
chamber having been reduced to within six de-
grees of the freezing point, while the thermome-
ter outside ranged at 90° Fahrenheit. In the pro-
gress of the war something of this sort may be
very desirable. The machinery for making a ton
of ice at a time might be carried on a large wagon.

Poverty. — Bulwer says that poverty is only an
idea, in nine cases out of ten. Some men with ten
thousand dollars a year sufier more for want of
means than others with three hundred. The rea-
son is, the richer man has artificial wants. His
income is ten thousand, and by habit he spends
twelve or fifteen thousand, and he suffers enough
from being dunned for unpaid debts to kill a sen-
sitive man. A man who earns a dollar a day and
does not run in debt, is the happiest of the two.
Very few people who have never been rich will be-
lieve this, but it is as true as God's word. There
are people, of course, who are wealthy, and enjoy
their wealth, but there arc thousands upon thou-
sands, with princely incomes, who never know a
moment's ]5eace, because they live above their
means. There is really more happiness in the
world among working people than among those
who are called rich.

Beecher says : "Never chase a lie. Let it
alone and it will chase itself to death. I can work
out a good character much faster than any one
can lie me out of it."

498

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

BETUBW OF AlSr ARCTIC EXPLOKBR.

The barque George Henry, Capt. Buddington,
arrived at New London, Conn., early on the morn-
ing of the i;3th inst., having on board Mr. C. F.
Hall, the Arctic explorer, whose history of his ex-
pedition is very interesting. We find the follow-
ing statement in the correspondence of the N. Y.
Herald :

He arrived in the Arctic regions late in 1860,
and, as the seas were so free from ice, he was very
anxious to proceed immediately with his mission ;
but, notwithstanding the bright aspect of affairs,
he M isoly took the counsel of the Esquimaux, who
would not consent to make up a boat party for
the purpose of prosecuting the work.

The intervening time was occupied in learning
the Innuit or Esquimaux language from the na-
tives, whom, by their contact with the whalemen,
he was enabled soon to understand and be under-
by stood. In the matters of clothing and food Mr.
Hall adopted the Lmuit style, and was dressed in
skins and fed upon raw meats, with a due share
of blubber.

During the long and weary winter months Mr.
Hall was not idle, for with his boat he settled the
fact that Frobisher's Strait was only a deep in-
dentation or bay. On the 21st of August, 18G1,
he stood on the high land at the northern shore,
and saw the whole sweep of land around the bay.
On the 27th of September, 1861, the frail boat
upon which he so much depended, was totally
lost. Fortunately at the time two English whalers
were in a bay — longitude 62 degrees 52 mkiutes
west — and Captain Parker, who commanded one
of them, i)romised Mr. Hall a boat, which he was
to leave at a designated place for his use. By
some means the Englishman did not leave the
boat, and Mr. Hall says he thinks the ships were
blown out of the bay ; and yet he is anxious to
hear the true history of the case. The cause of
humanity demands an explanation also.

Mr. Hall returned to the George Henry, and
learned that the schooner Rescue or 'Amaret,' a
tender to the barque, had been lost in the gale of
the 27th September. In reference to Frobisher's
discoveries, it apjjears that the ancient navigator
and explorer entered this bay, and finding that his
progress was impeded by fixed ice, supposed that
it must be an open strait frozen over, and the
British government has never since pushed itvS
further exploration. The lay of the land is very
different from the lines laid down upon the charts
now in use. This fact is and has been known by
the M'halemen who frequent its locality ; but they
supposed it to be a strait. But no official change
has been made by any government.

Mr. Hall has a very large and carefully pre-
pared chart of this bay, and will in due time pub-
lish it to the world, Ijut at the present time he
deems it proper to withhold its features.

In 18(51 his explorations were renewed with en-
ergy. He had become acclimated, and was fully
alive to the amount of work which was before
him. A whaleboat was now procured from the
George Henry, and with a crew of six Iinmits,
mtale and female, he started on his northern jour-
ney. The natives take their families with them
when on these expeditions, and the women pull an
oar with the men. Dogs are also of the compa-

ny, and several native boats are taken for the pur-
pose of hunting and fishing with. Thus provided
with personnel and materitl they started, living
on prepared food in small quanties, but mainly
depending upon the game captured on the way.

ISIr. Hall went to Countess of Warwick Sound,
and after much difficulty succeeded in discovering
the place where Frobisher attempted to plant a
colony. A considerable time was spent here in
obtaining relics of that ill-fated colony. At near-
ly every ])lace of their debarkation relics were
found consisting of pieces of coal, brick, wood,
and a portion of a cannon shot, which might have
been used as boat ballast.

The coal had been overgrown with moss, and a
dark vegetable growth ; the brick looked quite
fresh and new, the wood Avas simply chips, which,
although embedded in the coal dust for nearly
three hundred years, are well preserved. The
piece of iron is well worn with the rust of so many
years.

One of the most palpable facts in connection
with the discovery of these people of "ye olden
time" is that Mr. Hall discovered a trench twenty
feet deep and one hundred feet long, a species of
dry dock, leading down to the water. In this ex-
cavation the party of Frobisher's men who were
captured by the Esquimaux on his first voyage,
with the assistance of some of their captors, built
a small vessel, in which they were to embark and
sail for England. In due time she was completed
and put to sea, but heavy weather coming on, and
their vessel proving unseaworthy, thej' were soon
obliged to return. All of this crew were severely
frost-bitten. Despairing of ever reaching their
native land, and being severely frost-bitten, the
captives soon died.

The facts of their mode of living and attempts
to reach England were gathered from the Innuits.
Mr. Hall says that the traditional histories are re-
markably clear and explicit, and can be relied on
to the greatest extent ; and I believe that those
who have been familiar with this class of people
coincide in the same opinion.

The information respecting the fate of two of
the boats' crews of Sir John Franklin's expedition
is not yet as clear as could be desired. The facts
are these :

While on one of his sledge journeys in 1861 —
for lie has made several — a ]xu'ty of strange In-
nuits came to his stopping-place, and from them
he learned that three years ago two boats' crews
came down Hudson's Straits, bound through the
straits. These men, "cudlemas" or white men,
stopped on one of the Lower Savage Islands
(which lie near the mainland on the north side of
lludson's Straits,) and here they left what the In-
dians called "soft stones." One of the natives who
knew the use of firearms, saw the "soft stones" and
pronounced them to be leaden bullets. All traces
of these men were subsequently lost, and Mr.
Hall, not knowing that the Kitty, a Hudson's
Bay Company ship, had been lost there five years
previously, supposed these two boats' crews to be
a portion of the Sn- John Franklin expedition,
from the fact that that regretted explorer, not
knowing how long he might be detained in the
ice, had laid in a very large supply of ammunition
and leaden bullets, and that quantities had been
taken in the boats when they left the larger ves-
sels ; and in their endeavors to get through Hud-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

499

son's Straits, to Labrador, they had thrown away
all cumbersome articles and thus the bullets came
in this place. Of tiiis matter !Mr. Hall will make
some farther search in history before he will yiev-
mit his inferences to have too great a weight in
his narrative.

Mr. Hall has discovered a very large and inter-
esting mountain of fcissils at the head of Frobish-
er's Bay, which has furnished him the materials
for an extensive scientific article on that abstruse
snbject.

He also discovered an immense glacier near
Queen Elizabeth's Land. This he named the
'■Grinnell glacier," in honor of Mr. Henry Grinnell.
It exceeds three thousand feet in heiglit, is one
hundred miles long and fifty miles in width.

Mr. Hall has brought home with him a very in-
teresting family of Iinutits or Esquimaux. E-bier-
biiig, the husband, is a fine-looking fellow, about
twenty-four years of age, but he is not so large
and good-looking as Avas Cad-la-go. Tuk-oo-h-
too, the wife, is about the same age as her hus-
band, and is the interpreter. She is the best in-
terpreter in the Arctic regions. Her knowledge
of the country and its traditions is wonderful, and
any explorer would feel justly proud of her ser-
vices. Tuk-er-lik-e-ta, the infant child, is one
year old, and is a fine child. The father and
mother went to England some years ago and were
presented to the Queen. They, of course, are not
so much surprised at seeing a civilized country.

IlIPEIiNriNG OF FKUITS.

A short article on the tomato, by Y., in our
present number, is worthy of more than passing
attention. The writer found that tomatoes, suf-
fered to lie in their natural position on the ground,
ripened earlier than those trained to any form of
trellis. This exactly accords with our own obser-
vations. And it is in perfect unison with all that
we have taught since the organization of the
Gardener\s Montlilij ; not, indeed, in regard to to-
mato culture, but in connection with the general
theory of ripening fruit. Yet, there is not a more
widely spread error, than the common belief that
fruits must have "all the sun and air possible to
ripen them early and properly."

Thus we see everywhere around us, numbers of
excellent practitioners stripping their vines of fo-
liage to "let in sun and air to ripen the fruit," and
if there is one spot on the ground more sunny and
exposed "to the air" than another, that spot they
are sure to select for some apricot or choice fruit
that they particularly value.

It seems to be forgotten that fruit ripening is in
the main a vital process. Chemical action is of
course essential to it ; but it is dependent on veg-
etable life. This vitality is maintained by Avell-
developed and healthy foliage, and this again is
dependent on the general health of the plant.

All pruning is more or less detrimental to the
general health of the tree. Winter pruning or
summer pruning, the effect is the same. Pruning
is but a compromise.

To gain a great object, we sacrifice small advan-
tages. In pruning, that sacrifice is drawn from
general health. We break oft' a strong shoot while
green or succulent, that it may not rob a weaker
one below ; or, we shorten a weak shoot in winter
that it may push stronger next season. Here we

gain desired advantages, but the vital force re-
ceives a shock. The more severely we pursue this
course, the more we perceive the shock, till, as is
well-known, we can take off leaves or shoots
enough to utterly destroy the life of a tree. We
prune trees at transjilanting, just as we Avould cut
off a man's leg ; not because the tree likes prun-
ing, or that amputation is a peculiarly pleasing
operation, but as a part of that system of compen-
sation which nature demands for broken limbs
and broken laws. We gain an advantage, but
with permanent loss.

Men like to deal with aphorisms. It is easier
to follow a rule than to understand the reasoning ;
so if we tell a child to "take care of the pence and
the pounds will take care of themselves," it will
be more likely to be economical than if we read it
a long homily as to the reasons therefor. So we
shall perhaps, be more generally understood if we
reduce all we have said to this, "take care of the
leaves and the fruits will take care of themselves."

If we go into a dense wood, where the grape-
vine never knew the gardener's knife, and sec the
vine in its massiness of foliage, rambling over
bushes and trees, in dells or ravines, and where
the sun's direct light never shines, our "sun and
light" friends will expect to see green and unripe
grapes : yet no enraptured poet ever dwelt with
more pleasure on the "dark black orbs" of his fair
an«el, than the genuine lover of good fruit may
dwell on the dark black orbs hanging in the wild-
est luxuriance from these extremely healthy, but
sun-forsaken vines.

If we look into similar places — not, perhaps,
quite so shady, for that is not its nature — and
there note the fine healthy leaves of the blackber-
ry, with its fruit black as jet beneath the still sha-
dier foliage, and the bright shining little pearls
glistening from every pip ; do they not ask you
bluntly, what is sunlight to them ? And if you
are not prepared to answer, go to the garden of
some "sun and air folks," look at the hot board
fence, facing due south, and tarred to make it hot-
ter ; and against it, with large yellow leaves and
red ripe berries, see the poor Lawtons languishing
for their native shade. Their owner considers
Lawton a great humbug ; and the blackberry no
better than his own fence rows afford. Friend
Lawton, forgive that man — while thousands bless
you, this unfortunate knows not what he does !

When your gooseberry leaves fall off by mildew,
the grape leaves by hail, or the pear leaves by
blight ; do you have gooseberries, grapes or pears ?
We need scarcely answer ; and yet the same per-
sons, who know they do not get good fruit under
these misfortunes, by their very systems of prun-
ing, which "lets in the sun and air," are really
working to the same unsatisfactory end.

"Take care of the leaves, and the fruits will
take care of themselves." Mr. Buist cleverly
showed this, in an article he contributed to an
early volume of the Gardener^s Monthly. He set
a novice to shorten in some shoots in his vinery,
and before he saw him again, had a few vines
nearly stripped of their foliage. These vines had
badly colored grapes. They never had before, nor
had the rest of the grapes from the point where
the defoliating operation ceased.

"Take care of the leaves, and the fruits will take
care of themselves." Long befoi'e Mr. Buist's ar-
ticle ever saw our pages, a few acute gardeners

soo

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

were well aware of the importance of the maxim.
If the}' wanted grapes to color "very particularly"
well, they shaded the vinery a week before the
fruit ripened ; "for," said they, "too strong a sun-
light has a tendency to ripen leaves, and as soon
as they ripen they are no longer of any service to
the fruit. The longer we keep our leaves healthy,
the darker and better the fruit."

We have preached on this text before, and
often. Like little drops of water, our labors have
not yet wore much of a hole in the stone of pre-
judice, as we see but too well in so many vineries,
fruit-houses, gardens and orchards around us ;
but we have faith in water wearing its way through
the hardest rock, and while welcoming such ex-
periences as this of our "Tomato culture" corres-
pondent, continue to teach as heretofore, "Take
care of the leaves, and the fruits will take care of
themselves." — Gardener's Monthly.

USE OP LEAVES.

In many sections of our country, oak leaves are
extensively used as bedding for domestic animals.
They are gathered in the forests in autumn, and
stored in some convenient place till wanted. This
affords them time to dry, which increases their
power of absorption, and renders them more valu-
able in taking up and preserving the liquid void-
ings, and also facilitates, through this means, the
decomposition of the vegetable fibre when used as
a manure. That oak, or other kind of leaves, op-
erate powerfully when spread broadcast on the
surface of mowing land is unquestionable ; yet this
results not so much from the "astringent" matter
they contain, as from their non-conducting power.
We spread leaves around the trunks of trees, the
blossoming of which it is desirable to retard in
spring ; Ave apply them also in "mulching," the
object of which is to retain the moisture in the
soil for the benefit of trees newly transplanted.

When they are spread upon the surface of grass
lands, they present, to a very great extent, the ac-
tion of the solar rays, and thus in a measure de-
prive the roots of the energizing and vitalizing
influences upon which their strength and vigor
very essentially depend. Whatever may be the
effects produced by leaves, in their crude state
upon cultivated vegetation, we see that they
are eminently useful in woodlands, where, if they
are removed annually, the growth is not only
greatly retarded, but arrested.

In compost, also, we may often see the value of
leaves tangibly exemplified, for experience has
long assured us that few more really valuable ac-
cessions can be made to the compost heap or yard,
than that obtained from the forest. In the culti-
vation of young fruit trees, this species of dressing
is now greatly valued. From one to two years are
required to prepare them for this purpose accord-
ing to the particular use to which they are to be
applied. Any kind of forest leaves will be found

valuable for this purpose. All that is necessary is
to afford them time to decompose. The foliage of
the alder, bass, poplar, willow and other similar
trees, is more readily decomposed than that of the
elm or oak ; but they possess less consistence, and
consequently tend less to the increase of the
compost heap.

The fact is now generally well understood by
practical agriculturists, that the aliment of vegeta-
bles, technically denominated IIUMUS, is best pro-
duced from that class of substances from which
plants derive their food. The process adopted
for elaborating this important material is attained
in a variety of ways ; but the most direct method
is by the application of substances of an animal or
vegetable character in a state of active putrescence
or decay. We, of course, are speaking now of
organic manures, and in the list of materials shall
embrace leaves. These, in addition to their or-
ganic constituents, possess also matters of an in-
organic character no less essential to plants in a
growing state, than the former. To illustrate this
point somewhat more fully we present an analysis
of leaves of the "Early Harvest Apple." The
leaves were collected September 30, the tree bear-
ing fruit :

Silica 5.775

Earthy phosphates,

Piiosphate of peroxide of lime 4.875

Phosphate of lime 1.416

I'hosphate of magnesia trdce.

Silica 5.125

Phosphoric acid 5 359 — j6.775

Lime 36.398

Maiinesia 0.075

I'otash 13.1 79

Soda 11.616

Chloride of sodium 0.060

Sali)huric acid 0.137

Carbonic acid 15.200

Organic matter 2.800

101.065
PROPOKTIONS.

Water 54.341

Dry 45.fK>9

Ash 4.194

Calculated dry 9.103

Foreign Agricultural Reports. — We
learn that the Department of Agriculture at Wash-
ington is just in receipt of the supply of the First
and Second Annual Reports of the Board of Ag-
riculture of Victoria, (Australia,) which have been
forwarded to the Department by I. M. M.vrsoN,
Esq., Secretaxy, for distribution to the different
agricultural societies of the country. The Secre-
tary, in his official letter accompanying the ship-
ment of these valuable reports, expresses the wish
to co-operate with American agricultural societies,
for the purjiose of exchanges of products, and the
intei'change of communications upon subjects
which may be mutually beneficial to both coun-
tries. We learn that the reports embrace much
valuable information, and will be immediately dis-
tributed by the Commissioner among the societies
of this country.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

501

For the Netc England Farmer.
THE ECONOMICS OF SKUNKS.

Society has learned to associate but foulness
•with this animal. This is ^ross injustice. Of the
aroma of its weapon of defence I have nothing to
say, other than that it is a most capital defence,
and to this every man, woman and child will
agree. The quadruped itself has a neatly-cut
and finely-shaped head, with eyes bright as dia-
monds, and teeth of ivory whiteness, contrasting
finely with the blackness of the hair. The skunk
usually lies quietly in his burrow by day, and with
nightfall steals quietly forth in search of food.
The movements of the animal are very quiet, and
the white portion only of his hairy coat (he wears a
iong-tailed one,) being visible, the mind receives a
strange impression, as the apparently shapeless
object flits noiselessly by. On issuing forth he
greets his mates with a low, suppressed bark, re-
sembling that of the grey squirrel ; the bark, on
still evenings, can be heard at a great distance,
and is eagerly awaited by the country boys, who,
Avith dog and gun, are ready for their game.

On what does the skunk feed ? "Hens and
chickens," exclaim half my readers. It cannot be
denied that the animal has something of a weak-
ness in this direction, therein exhibiting a fine
taste, as ail will allow ; but then I suspect that
the skunk's poultry suppers are about as rare as
the negro's turkey dinner — "When Sambo gets
nuffin' else he gets deni." The principal food of
the animal is large insects, principally of the bee-
tle family. When I take my morning trip to
"George's lot," across the pastures, I observe nu-
merous little holes, freshly scratched in the turf,
which I doubt not were made by his skunkship
during the night in search of his game. An ec-
centric townsman, now deceased, ranked the flesh
of the skunk among his favorite dishes ; whatever
may be said against the delicacy of his tastes, this
much is notorious, that he once imposed a cut of
it, nicely cooked, on a friend, who ate it as excel-
cellent veal or pork, I am now uncertain which.
I declare the skunk to be a first-rate rat extermin-
ator— and as this is the great point in my eco-
nomics, I will detail a little.

I was most sadly troubled last season with rats ;
they cracked my beet seed, stole my peas, gnawed
my potatoes in the ground, ate my squashes on
the vines, and husked and ate my seed corn as it
grew ; they massed under my barn, made every
hole in the walls an abiding-place, yea, more, bur-
rowed in the ground like squirrels in "George's
lot," and seemed to be in a fair way of changing
owners. I did the best I could with trap and poi-
son, yet could not make a very perceptible im-
pression on the gnawing, thieving hosts.

It became a very serious question with me — a
seed-grower — this season, how I should dethrone
thes - intruders. I rejected all manures that Avould
tend to attract them, and prepared a good mous-
ing cat. I hesitated for awhile as to the policj' of
keeping pigs under the circumstances, but finally,
the quantity of waste material that could thus be
changed into manure turned the scale. After put-
tiniij in the pigs, I awaited the rats ; a week went on
and but one rat showed himself, and he was hur-
rying from the premises as fast as possible. This
was a puzzle — who or what had banished them ?
About a couple of vs-eeks ago, while pulling weeds

during a fine moonlight evening, a skunk crept
quietly out from under the barn and disappeared
among my bush beans, which grew thereby. The
thought flashed into my mind at once — this is the
self-instituted banisher of the pestiferous rhodents.
1 incline to the belief that the cold of winter drove
the rats who dwelt in the walls and burrowed in
the ground to the shelter of the barn, and when
his skunkship presented himself, the whole tribe
vamosed from such unsavory company. I have
examined my crop in the vicinity with some care,
and perceive no damage. That skunk is invalua-
ble to me. I vote him the freedom of the prem-
ises. May his years be many.

J. J. H. Gregory.
Marhlehead, Mass., 1SG2.

For the Neip England Farmer.

STATE AND COUNTY SHOWS.

I observed in one of your late papers the fol-
lowing communication :

"In the published account of these, I perceive .in
omission of many names that I have been accustomed
to see in years gone Ijy ; and what is more, that some
State and County Societies have deliberately deter-
mined not to have a show or fair during the present
season. This presents a question of vital importance
to the fai-mcr : Are these shows, as a whole, produc-
tive of real benefit ? Or are they mere holidat/s for the
gratification of the rabble ? No one has taken a deep-
er interest in these shows, for the \)i\Ht forty -foia- years,
than I have myself, — never having failed to be present
at the show in my own county, and often in other
counties and States. I should like to see the reasons
for and against such shows, fairly stated. I believe
the topic to be of vitiil importance to the agricultural
community. Essex."

The inquiries of your correspondent are impor-
tant, and well deserve an answer. I am inclined
to think that our cattle shows, as they are now
conducted, are of little or no practical value. I
object to the amalgamation of the horse fair and
cattle show. At the horse show at Springfield,
the main purpose was to test the capacity of the
horse in a trial at speed. Mr. Botts, of Virginia,
who was present on that occasion, remarked :
"You censure us for horse-racing, but if this is
not horse-racing, what is it ?" The same remark
applies with equal force to the trial of speed at our
cattle shows. It is an attempt to inoculate them
with the barbarism of the South. I have no doubt
that the southern States rejoice to see us walk in
their footsteps, and I have no doubt that they
would like to have us follow their example in every
other particular. It remains to be seen whether
we are to follow them or they are to follow us.

I object to horse-racing because a mere race
horse is generally unfit for anything else, nor is it
essential to a good horse that he is able to trot a
mile in three or four minutes ; such high-spirited
animals are generally wild and reckless, no woman
can drive them, and few men would wish to do it.
What the farmer wants is an animal for draft and
Avork, one that is kind, manageable and eflicient.

I object to horse-racing because it leads to bet-
ting, gambling, drinking and fighting. These are
its usual concomitants at the South, and the same
consequences attend it more or less at the North.
A very serious affray of this sort occurred at the
Concord cattle show a few years since, while this
horse-rr.cin": fever was in full blast. It is thus no-

€02

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

ticed by the delegate of the Board of Agriculture :
"In closing this report I wish to call the attention
of the Board to a transaction that occurred on the
grounds of this Society, near the closing hours of
its exhibition. An intoxicated Irishman, in a fit
of drunken frenzy, with a dangerous weapon,
stabbed two men severely, and, as was feared at
the time, fatally. It is a question whether our So-
cieties are sufficiently guarded and empowered by
legislation to protect themselves from scenes of a
similar character."

Some societies have offered premiums to female
equestrians, who show the most skill in riding on
horseback. If anything could lend enchantment
to the scene, it is a display of this kind, where
young lady competitors play the part of a jockey.
Can it be supposed that our legislators would ever
have made an annual grant to each Society of six
hundred dollars, if they could have anticipated
that a part of the money would be employed in
patronizing the race course ? In one of the slave
States 1 noticed on the stand several young ladies,
apparently the daughters of planters, who fre-
quently bet on the horses, and if the ladies here
take the lead in the race, it would not be strange
if they took the lead in betting. Now what is the
consequence,-' It draws off attention from the
great concerns of agriculture, and fixes it on things
which are worse than useless, which are pernicious.
I object to the race, because it pampers the love
of dissipation. It is a dish catered for various ap-
petites, and will always find a good market among
the rabble.

Another objection which I have to the manage-
ment of the cattle shovt? is, that those who are se-
lected to deliver the annual address ai'e generally
persons who have no practical acquaintance with
farming, and are, therefore, unfit fur the task.
Accordingly, some of them have broached the wild-
est theories which can be imagined. A few years
since, one undertook to advocate the introduction
of agriculture as a branch of study in our common
schools. At the conclusion of his address, the
President remarked that the exhibitions of the day
had been the best he had ever witnessed, and in
saying this I understood him to allude particular-
ly to the address, which had just been delivered.
If this be so, ex uno disces omnes, from one j'ou
may judge of the rest. I shall quote one or two
extracts from this address, and then offer a few
comments upon them.

'•Botany, or the study of plants, grains and veg-
etables, should be a prominent study in our com-
mon schools, commenced with the alphabet aiul
continued to gradaation, so that every boy and
girl fourteen years of age can not only tell the
growth and food of every grain, and grass, and
vegetable, l)ut also what soil, and season, and fer-
tilizers, are best for it. Chemistry, also, shoidd be
studied from the earliest period to the latest, as we
now study arithmetic and geography. It is vast-
ly more important/or a person to know the prime
gases, than the prime numbers." This is more
easily asserted than proved.

Again, — "Arithmetic, geography and grammar
are studied to the neglect of other more important
and attractive branches of knowledge. Teachers
should be trained in our Normal schools, not in
algebra and geometry only or chiefly, but in bot-
any, and chemistry, and meteorology."

The idea, as I understand it, is, that to attain

any great excellence or efficiency in farming, the
common schools must be converted into high
schools, and agriculture must be taught there. In
my judgment this is far from sound doctrine. The
province of the high schools and common schools
is distinct and peculiar. The division of labor
must be maintained and preserved ; you cannot
distract and confuse the mnid by a multiplicity of
books and studies, without rendering all instruc-
tion faint and ineffectual.

The idea of a high school has at first something
so magnificent about it, that we are apt to imagine
from a liberal mode of reasoning ayorito?-/, that it
is the grand concentrated essence and source of
intellectual light, and that all the minor institu-
tions of our primary and common schools are only
so many opaque bodies which shine only by reflec-
tion. This is so far from being the fact, that the
very reverse is true, and if these said high schools
sometimes dazzle us by their splendor, it is chiefly
owing to the conducting media by which the rays
of light are brought to a focus.

I know not that I can more clearly express the
peculiar influence of both the high and common
schools upon the intellectual cliaracters of our pop-
ulation, than by the force of analogy. I would
say, then, that the high schools, like the foolish
works of imagination, seem to have been got up
for show rather than use ; the common schools,
like the argumentative inductions of a practical
and perfect philosophy, serve to feed the mind
with solid truth, and give us a rule and a guide
which we may carry with us into all the business
of life, and apply as often as we have occasion to
act, to speak, or even think.

Indeed, there is but little danger of exaggera-
tion in dwelling upon the vast importance of popu-
lar education ; nor is it at all extravagant to assert
that in civilized society a capacity to read, write
and cipher seems to second the great endowments
of nature by which we are able to speak, to see
and hear, and ranks next in importance to them.

It was said, with truth, by Charles the Twelfth,
of Sweden, that he who was ignorant of the arith-
metical art was but half a man; but hov/ much
more wretched is that man's condition who has
not even mastered the simplest elements of lan-
guage, and who, from the infirmities of the mind,
must be an animal, and bear the burdens of an an-
imal all his days.

We aie apt to undervalue many of our blessings
from the fact that they are common, and because
we have never realized what it is to be destitute of
them. Profound learning was never designed to
be the lot of all, no more than wealth and inde-
pendence, and if you were to place the external
circumstances of every individual upon the same
level, in poirit of property or knowledge, and yet
suppose them as still ])ossessing the same old
money-getting or inquisitive taste, they would not
remain so a day, no, not an hour. So. with what is
called a high school, although the external advan-
tage of books and the means of instruction are in-
tended to be distributed equally to all, yet there is
nothing mysterious, no magic in the place, which
can ever make a blockhead a great genius.

"Pigmies are pigmies still, though placed on Alps."

The strange doctrine that the teachings of the
alphabet should be intermixed with those of the
high school and college, was a fit subject for ani-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

603

madversion. Its novelty was only equalled by its
absurdity. Gov. Boutwell, then Secretary of the
Board of Education, was present at the delivery of
the address to which I refer, and expressed his dis-
sent from the positions which the speaker main-
tained and asserted. He declared that the first
step in education Avas to learn to read, and that
this was a prerequisite to all future study.

I consider it a great mistake that those who are
selected to address farmers at our agricultural fes-
tivals, are either clergymen, lawyers or physicians,
men M'ho have no practical acquaintance with ag-
riculture, and who have no sympathies with the
farmer ; mere theorists, who cannot say anything
Avhich comes home to their business and bosoms.
Accordingly the addresses on these occasions are
insipid, uninteresting, and unsuited to meet the
wants and wishes of the farming community. I
had rather read the N. E. Farmer or the Plovgli-
man, than to listen to the doctrines and positions
which they aim to inculcate. If we Avant infor-
mation on any point connected with theology, law
or medicine, we look to those who are profession-
ally engaged in the study. Upon the same prin-
ciple, farmers are best qualified to instruct us in
farming.

I have thought, in the present state of the coun-
try, that there is a topic of surpassing interest and
importance which ought to be presented to our
agricultural societies. In the great struggle in
which we are engaged everything cannot be
achieved by our forces on sea and on land. The
agricultural fraternity have a part to perform in
the great work of redemption. I wished that
some one might be permitted to give utterance to
this sentiment, but the prejudice against farmers
is so violent and excessive that if an individual in-
timates a wish or a willingness to express his
opinion, (though no one has ever been more back-
ward or unwilling than he, to do it before,) he is
laughed at for his presumption, or denounced for
his folly.

I know it may be said that this is not always
the case, and that Dr. Loring is a practical far-
mer, and yet he has often been called upon to act
in this way. He is indeed an exception, but a sol-
itary one, and his case does not invalidate the
general truth of the fact. Dr. Loring is a gentle-
man of learning and ability, and he has been emi-
nently practical in his addresses to farmers, but it
is believed that there are other educated men, who
if they do not equal him in talent, might, in these
times, give an address, v/hich v/ould be acceptable
and satisfactory. It has been said that the Essex
Society have never gone out of their county to
obtain an orator for the cattle show, and it is a
shame and disgrace to the commonwealth, that
while Essex boasts of her independence, almost
every other county in the State has been more or
less dependent on her.

Twenty-four years ago the editor of the Ploiigh-
man delivered an excellent address at the Concord
castle show. It was listened to with intense inter-
est, and gave universal satisfaction. Since that
time not more than one or two farmers have been
invited to officiate at this festival. How is it, Mr.
Editor, tliat we have never had a discourse from
your prolific \)e\\ ? You could give us one quite
equal to that of the Editor of the Plouglimaii. Is
it possible that you have never had an invitation?

In conclusion, I will answer the question of Es-

sex. I believe the cattle shows, as at present con-
ducted, are of little practical value. If they were at
once abolished, I think it would not perceptibly af-
fect the advancement of agriculture. For myself
it is a matter of no personal interest. From the
infirmities of age, I have ceased to go to the cattle
show, and to say the least, it is exceedingly doubt-
ful whether I attend another. I notice that the
North Middlesex Society have dispensed with
their show for this year, and declined the State
grant of six hundred dollars. As the Slate and
nation need all their resources of men and money,
would it not be well for the other societies to
make a like sacrifice during the continuance of the
war ? We are contending for everything dear and
sacred, we need to buckle on all our energies in
behalf of the great cause. Let us rally round the
flag of the Union, and inscribe on our banners, —
our country, our whole country, and nothing but
our country. "Liberty and Union now and forev-
er, one and inseparable." a.
South Acton, September 22, 1862.

Remarks. — We thank our correspondent for
his communication, and agree with him in most
that he has said. We certainly believe with him
that some radical improvements are necessary in
the management of our agricultural societies in
order to make them worthy recipients of the State
bounty. The same things are being done over and
over again, and the State's money exhausted upon
them, until the intelligent public have lost inter-
est in the old stereotyped routine, and demand a
reform. This, we think, should take place, or the
bounty of the State be discontinued.

Fvr the Neio England Farmer,
HUNGARIAN GRASS,
Messrs. Editors : — If the little experience of
one season is of any value, I freely give it, not ex-
pecting "recompense or reward." I have seen a
variety of opinions expressed in the journals in
regard to the successes of different experimenters
in their reports upon raising Hungaiian grass as
a substitute for the more common approved grass-
es. To tell as straight a story as my decaying fac-
ulties will admit of, I bought eight quarts of Hun-
garian grass seed, and sowed it upon half an acre
of thin-soiled land, where corn had grown the
year befor-e. This half acre was dressed with a
light coat of compost of animal manure and mud,
and plowed, the seed sowed and harrowed in on
the 16th day of May, 1862. It being a new thing
with me, I watched it from day to day ; its prog-
ress was rather slow at first, but my curiosity
svvfelled into astonishment when I beheld on the
20th day of August something like three tons to
the acre (after cut and cured) mowed for fodder
from my "Wilmington land." According to the
best estimate we could make by weighing a part
while green, there were over seven tons to the
acre. This first cut was purposely for fodder be-
fore the seed had matured ; the last of August we
cut a small part of what was saved for seed stand-
ing, and on the 9th of Se])tember we finished the
lot left for seed. The seed from that harvested
20lh of August was very light, and its germina-

504

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

tion is doubtful. The seed from that cut the last
of August was better, but the seed from that har-
vested the 9th of September was full grown and
perfect. Thus we see for fodder the grass was
growing from the l(3th May to the 20th August,
three months and four days; and for seed from
three and a half months to three months and
twenty-four days. We saved merely seed enough
for our own land. I have found the statements of
Mr. Richards, and some other of your correspon-
dents, in regard to the quality of the fodder, to
concur with my own limited observations. We
have never had so universal a favorite for fodder
in our barn with horses and cattle as the Hungari-
an grass, green or dry ; they seem to prefer it to
any other kind of hay. I am of the mind of your
correspondent who said, "I never will sow any
more oats for fodder." I have harvested as good
English hay as grows anywhere, if not so much to
the acre, but all our graminivorous animals give
their votes for the Hungarian grass. The culti-
vation of the Hungarian grass being comparative-
ly a new thing among us, I give out the few prac-
tical results of my limited experience in a report
which may be instrumental in distributing a few
sparks of light among farmers less experienced
than myself. The introduction of Hungarian grass
will make a very valuable addition to the varieties
of fodder now in use for stock, it is a kind of grass
which will be of first importance to farmers who
occupy the sandy plains throughout the country ;
great crops of it can be raised on light and warm
soil where it would be difficult to obtain moderate
crops of other kinds of grasses.

Silas Brown.
North Wilmington, Sept., 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
SUPERIOR KIUDS OF APPLES.

There are, doubtless, many first-rate varieties
of the apple which have originated in this region
that have never been propagated by budding or
grafting, and are scarcely known beyond the farm
where they sprung up. These should be submit-
ted to fruit committees, and others, who are well
qualified to judge of their merits, and such as are
found to be first-rate in all respects should be add-
ed to the list for general cultivation. There are
many second and third class kinds, now grown to
some extent, which might be rejected with propri-
ety, and their places supplied with the best of
these varieties. Some of the best old kinds some-
times change and degenerate after cultivating for
a long series of years, and we must obtain some-
thing among the new, equal, if not superior, to fill
their places. Exhibitions of fruit at cattle and
horticultural shows afibrd a good o])portunity for
bringing these new kinds into public notice.
Within a few years, I have sent several varieties
to an eminent pomologist, wdio expressed a very
ftivorable opinion of them. O. V. HiLLS.

Leominster, Sept., 1862,

To ONE GALLON of soft water add a pint of
sugar or sorghum molasses, stir all well, and then
add nearly a gallon of fresh ripe tomatoes. Set
the vessel aside, and in a few days you will have
the sourest pickles you ever tasted, and the be^t
VI nesrar , — Kxchnn ae.

AQRICTJIiTTTRAL EXHIBITIONS.

MIDDLESEX SOUTH AGRICULTUBAL SOCIETY FAIR.

The annual exhibition of the Middlesex South
Agricultural Society was held on the Fair Grounds
at Framingham, and was one of the largest and
finest that has occurred for many years.

The display of fruit was uncommonly large and
fine, comprising 729 diff"erent parcels. The chief
contributors were George W. Goodenough, of
Southboro', 40 varieties of apples and 15 of pears;
W. G. Lewis, 26 varieties of pears, 17 of apples ;
H. G. White, 15 of each ; Liberty Chadwick, 20
of apples ; Oliver Bennet, 12 varieties of hot-
house grapes and 10 of native ; James W. Clark,
35 varieties of grapes. R. A. French exhibited a
large plate of apples of the Gloria Mundi variety,
weighing from 8 to 20| ounces each ; and N. F.
Clark, of Sherborn, a fine basket of assorted fruit.

The principal exhibitors of vegetables were H.
G. AVhite, 39 varieties ; W. G. Lewis, 40 do. ;
Liberty Chadwick, 95 ; C. J. Powers, 34 ; Isaac
Osgood, Hopkinton, 115. Mr. Lewis exhibited
some German sweet tui'nips, raised from seed ob-
tained at the Patent Office three years ago. They
averaged 14^ pounds each when about half-grown.
Thirty-seven tons to the acre have been harvest-
ed. He also exhibited a new and remarkable va-
riety of yellow corn, that ripens before the frost,
however early it may come. Mr. White exhibit-
ed nine new varieties of seedling potatoes, the
only ones considei-ed worth retaining of 1700 va-
rieties started by Goodrich, of New York. The
displays of flowers, bread, preserved fruits, &c.,
were very fine.

The ladies proved themselves superior in needle
practice, and their display of crotchet work, quilts,
knitting, plain and fancy scM'ing, &c., was very
creditable.

The stock entries were numerous and excellent,
numbering from 5 to 20 each of bulls, fat cattle,
cows, heifers, yearling colts, boars, sheep, calves,
&c., &c. H. G. White's stock of short-horns are
extensively known, and were recently the subject
of an elaborate article in the Country Gentlemnn.
H. H. Peters and W. G. Lewis exhibited several
Aryshires, William Buckminster, his celebrated
Devons, and F. A. Billings, his Alderneys. Of
swine, Mr. AVhite exhibited specimens of the
Chester county breed, and sheep of the Cotswold
variety. There were several Morgan and Mes-
senger colts, and the usual variety of fowls.

BRISTOL COUNTY CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SO-
CIETY CATTLE SHOW AND EAlR.

The annual exhibition of thio new Society was
held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The
weather was delightful, the attendance large, and
the exhibition a great success.

I'he subjects of special interest on the first day

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

505

■were the plowing-match, the show of town teams,
with all the neat stock on the track, — the draw-
ing-match, the trial of walking horses and pacing
horses. Everything passed off well, and the at-
tendance was good. The show of poultry and
swine was large. The exhibition of sheep was
fair for the present era of sheep husbandry.
Among the stock there were some fine pairs of
oxen, both working and fut cattle. A fine grade
bull of the short-horn type was exhibited by the
President of the Society, with other of his stock
which was fine, including a pair of steer calves,
about seven months old, that weigh a little short
of 900 lbs.

On Thursday, the first exercise was that of the
spading-match. There were five entries. This
was a spirited exhibition, and attracted considera-
ble interest. Following this, the foot-race came
off, and was quite exciting. There were three
that ran round the half-mile course — time 2.32
and 2.40. The third got out of wind before he
came round.

The dedicatory exercises of the new Hall on
the Fair Grounds came off in the afternoon of
Thursday. Dr. Durfee, the President, made a
brief address and introduced Lcander Wetherell, of
Boston, elected to deliver the dedicatory address.
His subject was "Experimental Farming," and he
was attentively listened to by a large audience.
Prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. McDonald, of
New Bedford. Music by the Bridgewater Cornet
Band.

On Thursday evening there was a war meeting
at the Hall, addressed by Mr. Westall and Dr.
Hooper, of Fall River, Mr. Wetherell, of Boston,
and others.

On Friday morning, the old board of oflScers
was principally re-elected. The trial of working
and trotting horses came off, and attracted a large
crowd. The attendance during the three days
was large.

The dinner was served in the Hall at 1, P. M.,
about 400 partaking of it. Reports were read
after dinner by the Chairmen of Committees, and
interspersed with speeches by the President, Ja-
cob Dean, of INIansfield, L. Wetherell, of Boston,
Dr. Hooper, of Fall River, Maj. Phinney, of the
Barnstable Patriot, and others. The Fair closed
with a sale of fruit by auction for the aid of the
Society.

This, though the youngest Society in the State,
is one of the most enterprising, vigorous and suc-
cessful, even though deprived of the State boun-
ty, and of a representation in the State Board of
Agriculture.

This Society has purchased a farm at Myrick's
Station, on the Old Colony Railway, and enclosed
45 acres of the same for the cattle show and fair,
and thev have erected suitable buildings thereon.

NORFOLK COUNTY AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITION.

The fourteenth yearly display of this Society
was held on the Society's grounds at Dedham.
The weather was beautiful, and the attendance,
though not as large as upon some former occasions
was very good, considering the state of the coun-
try. The show of horses and cattle was not as
large, but was considered by many as more choice
than upon any former occasion. Mr. W. T. G.
Morton, of Needham, had a fine collection of Jer-
sey and Aryshire stock. Mr. A. S. Drake had
some beautiful cattle — and A. W. Austin, of West
Roxbury, exhibited his curious Kerry stock.

The plowing match took place at 2 o'clock, and
was one of the best that has marked the Society's
history. The drivers seemed to have taken a les-
son from the patient beasts they drove, and went
about their work with a quietness and calm meth-
od which excited general applause, and of course
produced the desired result — most excellent plow-
ing. Eleven teams engaged in the match.

The show of fruit was not large, but was very
fine. The President of the Society, Hon. Mar-
shall P. Wilder, as usual, was on hand with a fine
display of ])ears, including 125 varieties. Mr. F.
Clapp, of Dorchester, also exhibited fine apples,
pears and peaches, while the show of out-door
and hot-house grapes by Mr. Geo. Davenport, C.
B. Shaw and J. W. Clark, of Dedham, was very-
fine.

The display of barn-yard fowls, both staple and
fancy, was quite large.

The second day's proceedings commenced with
the spading match, to which there were five entries.

After this came the cavalcade. This consisted
of all the horses entered for premiums, and was
formed under the leadership of Sheriff J. W.
Thomas, and, led by Gilmore's Band, proceeded
around the track, the line reaching nearly half a
mile. There were but few particularly fine look-
ing horses in the cavalcade, and the committee
consequently withheld a large portion of the pre-
miums offered by the Society. After the proces-
sion had passed around the track, the horses in
the diflerent classes were put through their paces
before the committee.

After this came the dinner, and address by
Hon. B. F. Thomas. Mr. Thomas commenced by
referring to farming from the commencement of
the world, when Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord, and asked how many young men in
our day leave the quiet of a country life, to go in-
to the market-place and the forum, thus going out
from the presence of the Lord. The exchange
and the forum have many rich piizes ; but in seek-
ing these, who can gather up the golden hopes
that are lost in the strife with the world ? He
thought there were no shares in bank or manufac-
tory that paid better than the plowshare ; for a?-

506

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

riculture, aided by science, yields enough for any
man's desires. We have begun to find that there
is no place for the rich man in the kingdom of rest
and peace. He then particularly spoke of the vis-
ible result of agricultural labor, and said this was
not only palpable, but comparatively certain. He
thought the thirst for political distinction had been
one of the greatest curses of the farmer. He
dwelt at some length on the aid God gave the
farmer, and the imjjortance of taking advantage
of this, and closed a fine address by appropriate
quotations from the Proverbs of Solomon.

A very well written poem for the occasion was
then read by the author, Francis P. Denney, Esq.,
which was loudly applauded, when brief respon-
ses to sentiments were made by Rev. Dr. Thomp-
son, Judge Thomas, E. L. Pierce, Esq., of Milton,
and a humorous report of the Committee on Swine
was read by Capt. J. S. Sleeper, of Roxbury.

BROOKLYN HORTICULTUBAL SOCIETY.

The number of the Hortimdiurist for Septem-
ber is before us, as fair and attractive as usual. It
has excellent articles upon several interesting top-
ics. In its account of the Brooklyn Horticultural
Society it gives part of a report of Di*. Trimble's
address on insects injurious to city trees, from
which we make the following extracts :

The Ichxeumox. — The Ichneumon animal eats
the eggs of the crocodile, to some extent control-
ling its numbers.

The cuckoo in England and the cow bunting in
this country, lay their eggs in the nests of other
birds, and the young are nurtured by foster moth-
ers ; and it is said these parasite intruders have
the instinct to throw the rightful possessors out
of their nests. By such a process these foster par-
ents would be lessened the next year — a law that
would react upon the parasites in the future ; and
we see that none of these birds become numerous.
The ichneumon insect is a four-winged fly, and an
immensely numerous class, of all sizes and exceed-
ingly irregular and eccentric in shape. Tliey are
the great regulators of insect life.

The female deposits her eggs in, and the young
feed upon, the living bodies of other insects.

It is the fatal enemy of many other insects ; flies
in their larva state, and even the eggs of some in-
sects, are destroyed by them, but the caterpillars
arc the great suflerers. You may often see feeble
looking ones, studded over the back with little
protuberances ; these ai'e the cocoons of the para-
site grubs that have fed to maturity upon the flesh
of the ])oor worm, and leaving just vitahty enough
to last as long as it is necessary for them that they
should live. These little creatures, when full
grown, issue from the substance of the poor cater-
pillar, spin their cocoons and attach them by silk-
en cords to their miserable victims. (Here the
Doctor showed a specimen with eighty cocoons at-
tached, and from which he had collected the flies.)

Many insects prey upon each other ; sometimes
diseases diminish them ; birds destroy incredible
numbers ; toads cat them : froijs and fish consume

vast numbers of the larva of the submarine varie-
ties ; but such is the incredible rate of increase,
that many kinds would overrun us, but for the
wonderful check of this parasite class. The news-
papers often report fearful numbers of some new
insect, and forebode dreadful consequences. Such
insects are troublesome for a short time, and then
disappear. Some observe a periodicity, as the Lo-
cust, the Chaff'ers and Ephemerae, but most of them
are checked by the Ichneumon.

I have seen the stems of grapes cut ofl" in great
numbers by a caterpillar, and I attempted to see
M'hat butterfly it would come to, but I got only
large, fierce looking Ichneumon flies, two from
each.

Our pine forests are saved from serious injuiy,
and the lumber from damage, by the friendly in-
terference of an Ichneumon insect that stings the
borer, while just under the bark, during the peri-
od of its transformation.

I once knew an eccentric person make a calcula-
tion, that the undisturbed increase of a single her-
ring would, in twenty years, more than equal the
solid earth, and he became nervous with the idea
that we were all to become herrings. He forgot
that in addition to the hundreds of enemies that
prey upon these fish, besides ourselves, that the
cachelot whale feeds upon them, and takes in
2,000 at a single mouthful. No. Nothing here
is allowed to take exclusive possession. Of the
hundreds of thousands of varieties of insects, none
become extinct, and none are permitted to prepon-
derate to a dangerous degree for any length of
time.

When meteors and comets jostle the planets
out of their places, and the heavenly system be-
comes disturbed, it will be time enough to antici-
pate that God has forgotten to regulate the insect
world.

GIRDLED TREES.

Mice often produce sad havoc in young orch-
ards and nurseries by gnawing the trunks near the
surface of the ground, and not unfrequently for a
considerable distance above it. This may often
be prevented by compressing the first snows that
fall about them, by stamping and keeping them as
hard as possible until spring. If, however, from
neglect or any other cause, trees do get injured
in this way, watch the opportunity, and as soon
as the frost leaves the surface, bank them up
with soil to the extent of the injury, and allow the
same to remain till the subsequent year. A new
deposition of granulated matter will thus be in-
duced, and this becoming in due time liquified,
the surface will appear nearly as smooth as before
it was injured. It will be well, however, before
banking up to dig the soil thoroughly, if the frost
will admit, and to the extent of the lateral limbs,
and work in a liberal quantity of old, fine manure,
mixed Mith a little ground bone, ashes or plaster
to each tree. This will stimulate action, and
cause a more rapid and abundant deposition of
granular substance to heal and conceal the wound,
and be otherwise beneficial to the tree. Those

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

507

who have gum shellac dissolved will do woU to
brush the gnawed places over with that before
banking up. Many valuable trees may be saved
by this process — but perhaps not all. If gnawed
places are found in the winter, or early spring,
they should be kept covered with snow, or wrapt
up at once to prevent their becoming dry and hard.
Very much will depend u])on this. If girdled en-
tirely around the tree, scions must -be inserted in
order to keep up the circulation. We have some
interesting facts to communicate on this subject.

MINNESOTA,

We have before us a well-printed pamphlet of
126 pages, with the following title : — "MINNESO-
TA : Its Progress and Capabilities. Being the
Second Annual Report of the Commissioner of
Statistics for the years 1860 and 1861. And con-
taining an abstract of the U. S. Census." The
mechanical execution of the work reflects credit
upon Mr. Wjl. R. Marshall, the State printer
at St. Paul.

In a speech made by Mr. Seward, at St. Paul,
a year or two since, he said, — "Here is the place,
the central place, where the Agriculture of the
richest region of North America must pour out its
tributes to the whole world." We have been
greatly interested in looking over the pages of
this work, and as much surprised as pleased at
the wonderful resources and developments of this
new world. Mr. J. A. Wheelock, the Commis-
sioner of Statistics, has embodied such a budget
of facts and intelligent observations upon them as
is seldom met with.- The country seems to be
rich in all the elements essential to a rapid growth
in population and almost unbounded wealth — in
minerals, timber of various kinds, in the cereal
grains, in rich native grasses, in abundant water
privileges and communications M'ith the rest of
the world, and in a climate highly favorable to
health and the production of the great staples for
sustaining human and animal life.

The following facts are collated from the official
statistics of Minnesota :

Rapid as has been the growth of the new West-
ern States, Minnesota has surpassed them all in
the rapidity of its progress. Its population in
1850 was 5,330; in 1860, 172,022. Its agricul-
tural development has been even more remarkable.

The number of acres of plowed land in 1850 was
1,900; in 1854, 15,000; in 1 860, 433,267— hav-
ing increased nearly thirty fold in six years.

The number of bushels of wheat produced in
1850 was 1,401 ; in 1854, 7,000; in 1860, 5,001,-
432 bushels, being nearly thirty bushels to each
inhabitant, or four times as much as the whole
wheat crop of New England in 1850.

The whole amount of grain and potatoes pro-
duced in Minnesota in 1850 was 71,709 bushels;
in 1860 it was 14,093,517 bushels — mostly in the
small grains. What a progress for ten years !

This rapid agricultural growth has been achieved
chiefly since the collapse of land speculation in
1857. In 1858 Minnesota imported bread and
provisions. In 1861 she exported 3,000,000 bush-
els of wheat alone.

Minnesota is probably the best wheat State in
the Union, with the exception of California, and
perhaps Wisconsin. The statistics of her wheat
crop show an average yield in 1860 of twenty-two
bushels per acre, and in 1859 of nineteen busliels
—these results being from fifty to tliree hundred
])er cent, greater than that of the principal wheat
States, with the exceptions noted. In 1859, for
example, the average yield of Iowa was four and
one-third bushels per acre ; of Ohio, seven and
one-third bushels. Illinois, according to a high
local authority, produces from year to year not
more than eight bushels per acre, and fifteen bush-
els is considered an unusually large average for
the best wheat States. The comparative exemp-
tion of Minnesota from the disease and insects
which ravage the wheat crops of other States,
gives it a great advantage in the cultivation of
this most valuable staple.

Minnesota is often supposed to be too far north
for coi'n. This is a great mistake, founded on the
popular fallacy that the latitude governs climate.
But climates grow warmer towards the west coasts
of continents, and although its winters are cold,
the summers of Minnesota are as warm as those
of Southern Ohio. It may surprise some readers
to know that the mean summer heat of St. Paul is
precisely that of Philadelphia, five degrees further
south, and that it is considerably warmer during
the whole growing season than Chicago, three de-
grees further South. The products of the soil
confirm the indications of the Army Meteorologi-
cal Register. The average yield of corn in 1860
was thirty-five and two-thirds bushels per acre,
and in 1859 — a bad year — twenty-six bushels. By
comparison, in the latter year, Iowa produced but
twenty-three and one-half bushels per acre, and
Ohio, the Queen of the corn States, but twenty-
nine bushels. In Illinois — of which corn is the
chief staple — Mr. Lincoln, now President of the
United States, in the course of an agricultural ad-
dress in 1859, stated that the "average crop from
year to year does not exceed twenty bushels per
acre."

Hens Eating Eggs. — A writer in the London
Field says that hens eating their eggs is often ow-
ing to the form of the nest, and sug<^ests that the
proper form is that of a plate, shallow, that she
may not have to jump down on the eggs, and flat
on the bottom, so that when she treads on them,
they will roll aside, and let her feet slip easily be-
tween them. She can then pass her bill among
them, as she tucks them under her, and shuffle
them together with her wings without hurting
them. If, on the contrary, the nest is made in the
form of a basin, the eggs press against each oth-
er, and are liable to be crushed by her efi'orts-to
push her feet between them, or to alter their posi-
tion with her beak or wings. When an egg is
broken, most hens will eat it, and, as hatching
time approaches, the eggs become more brittle ;
and in a deep or badly-form.ed nest, the chicks are
very apt to be crushed and killed between the oth-
er egss. bv the movements of the hen.

508

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

Not.

For the New England Farmer,
OBSERVATIONS ON DKAINAGB.
BY JUDGE FRENCH.

Since my treatise on Farm Drainage was pub-
lished, three years ago, I have carefully watched
all the drainage operations that have come within
my sphere of observation, as well as the published
statements in the agricultural journals, and espe-
cially in the Transactions of Societies, and no sin-
gle instance has come to my knowledge, where
even a tolerably well conducted experiment in
drainage has proved unsatisfactory to the propri-
etor. Indeed, the fact, that almost any poorly
conceived, and half-executed plan of drainage,
produces such wonderful results, is an obstacle in
the way of the most thorough and permanent,
and in the end, economical execution of the work.
A farmer, who has run a few open two-foot ditch-
es through his meadow, triumphantly points out
to you the perfect realization of his idea of suc-
cessful drainage, and another, who has filled alike
ditch two-thirds full of roadside stones, and cov-
ered it with shavings and soil, exhibits his field as
a new evidence of the importance of underdrain-
ing. All this is well, if the same labor and ex-
pense would not have done the work better. Any
drainage, like any plowing or any manuring for a
crop, is better than none at all, but let us keep the
standard at its proper height, and work as nearly up
to it as practicable, and let no man flatter himself
that anything less than tile drains four feet deep
is really the best drainage. Stone drains are just
as good as tiles, if they can be kept open, but
unless very deep, so as to be below frost and the
operations of moles and mice, they are likely to
be obstructed, and when once obstructed, cannot
be repaired.

THE OBJECTS OF DRAINAGE

may be briefly stated thus : 1. To remove stag-
nant water ; which is, for some reason not easily
defined, poisonous and destructive to all valuable
grasses and cultivated crops. 2. To deepen the
soil, and so afi'ord to the roots of plants a larger
pasture or feeding ground. 3. To promote pul-
verization of the soil, so as to allow the roots to
traverse far and wide and to find their appropriate
nourishment in its proper condition. 4. To pre-
vent surface washing ; by allowing rain and snow
water to pass through, and not over the soil. 5.
To prevent freezing out of grass, grain, and even
shrubs and trees ; by allowing the water to pass
quickly down, instead of freezing near the surface
and expanding by crystallization, and so tearing
the roots from the soil. 6. To lengthen the sea-
son for labor and for vegetation ; making what was
before a late soil in spring, the earliest for work-
ing, and giving all the autumn, till the ground
freezes, for fall tillage or improvement. 7. To

save, on moist land, twenty-five per cent, of the
labor of cultivating ; heavy soils being rendered
by thorough drainage, almost as easy of cultiva-
tion as naturally light land. 8. To promote the
absorption of fertilizing substances from the air ;
and so to get your share of the exhalations from
your neighbors' manure heaps, as well as from the
swamps and cities. 9. To supply to the roots of
plants, air ; which is necessary to their very life,
and which must follow the rain water as it de-
scends towards the drains. 10. To warm the soil,
which can never be warmed while filled with wa-
ter. Heat cannot be propagated downward in
water. No degree of heat applied to the surface
of a vessel of water, can warm it at the bottom.
Heat passes through water by the circulation of
its heated particles, which, being made lighter by
heat, always go upward. TTie only way to warm
the soil in the spring, is by allowing the snow wa-
ter to pass down and warm water or air to take
its place. A rain storm of boiling water on soil
saturated with cold water, could not perceptibly
warm it three inches below the surface. 11. To
render the soil more moist in times of drought ;
a pulverized soil holding, by attraction, much more
water than a lumpy or compact soil, as is readily
proved by the fact, that water may be squeezed
from a moist, light soil, as from a sponge, even
by hand pressure. 12. To prevent injury by
drought, also, by causing the roots to strike far
deeper in early spring, than they can do in wet
soil, thus giving them an equal moisture through-
out the season, instead of floods in spring, which
prevent expansion of roots, followed by a lower-
ing of the water-table beyond their reach.

These advantages of drainage are all real and
intelligible, and may be greater or less, according
as the particular field under consideration may
be more or less moist. It may be added, that all
fruit-growers and nursery-men seem to agree, that
stagnant water, even in winter, is vei-y injurious,
and that standing even in that season with their
feet in cold water is destructive to fruit trees.

WHY TILES ARE BEST.

Tiles are getting to be abundant in many parts
of New England, and as there is no reason why
they may not be made wherever common bricks
are made, any demand for them will soon be met
by a supply. Where tiles cannot be obtained at
reasonable rates, it may be often expedient to use
stones. There is no one advantage, that a stone
drain possesses over a tile drain, and no reason
can be given for using stone, except economy,
which is a point presently to be considered.

Tile drains are better than stone. 1st, Because
they are more permanent and reliable. No mole
or mouse, or insect large enough to do any harm,
can enter a tile drain properly laid and secured. A

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

509

stone drain cannot be laid without cement, or
hammered stone, so that moles and mice, snakes
and other vermin, as the English call such crea-
tures, cannot enter, and they all, at once, establish
communication between the drain and surface.
When such tiles are opened, the water runs in
from the top, carrying soil and sand, and the drain
is 611ed up and ruined, and it is often more work
to take it up and relay it, than to lay a new one.

Tiles, it is true, are liable to obstruction. Sand
may find its way into them, even through the very
small cracks at their junction, and fill them entire-
ly. Frogs and moles may enter at an ill-secured
outlet, or a soft or cracked tile may fail, but these
obstructions are very rare, and very easily re-
moved.

The water will show itself above the obstruc-
tion, and by thrusting down a crowbar along the
line of the drain, it is easy to ascertain, by the ris-
ing of the water in the hole, where the obstacle
begins. Then it is very little labor to dig down
to the tiles, and take them up, so far as they are
filled, and replace them after cleaning. Usually
these obstructions extend but a short distance,
and as there is nothing to be carried away or
brought upon the field, except perhaps a single
tile, the soil and -even the sod may be replaced
without injury.

2. Tiles are cheaper even at $15 per 1000, than
stones lying on the field. This is a matter of cal-
culation, not of mere opinion. The saving in tile
di-ains is in the cost of excavation mainly. The
English workmen open four-foot drains, with a
mean, or average width of lO-i inches. We will
call it 14 inches, and the cost a third of a dollar
per rod for digging and filling. The tiles at $15
per 1000, cost 25 cents per rod, making the cost
of the drain 58J cents.

Now a stone drain must be nearly double this
width, but we will call it only 21 inches, making
the digging and filling cost, at the same rate, 50
cents. The ditch \vill require two ox-cart loads of
stone, and saying nothing of the picking and haul-
ing, it is worth 25 cents per rod to lay them in
place, which makes the labor 75 cents per rod,
saying nothing of two cart-loads of surplus earth
to be hauled away.

In other words, this, I think, is true, that the la-
bor of constructing stone drains will cost more
than the labor and tiles for tile drains.

DEPTH AND DISTANCE.

I advise laying drains as deep as four feet, not
only because they drain the soil better, but be-
cause they are more permanent, than when more
shallow. At that depth, the soil is little aff'ected
by vermin, or by the tread of cattle, or by the
plow, or by frost, and holes are not likely to be
broken through from the surface, to admit water

and earth. I advise the use of two-inch tiles as
the minimum, not because a smaller bore would
not carry the water, but because it would be more
easily obstructed. The distance must depend on
the depth in part, and in part upon the nature of
the soil. I have never yet seen a failure in drain-
age, from drains at proper depth, too far apart.
From 30 to 60 feet may perhaps be given as ex-
tremes, in New England, where we have little
close clay. In England, tough clays are sometimes
di'ained as close as 16 feet.

ENGINEERS.

Drainage is expensive, and mistakes are too
costly for the farmer. A day's labor of a compe-
tent engineer will often save five times the cost.
No man can, by the eye, properly estimate the fall
in even a single acre, and a practiced hand can lay
out work far better than any unpracticed farmer.
The first step must always be to lay out the work,
and although I have had much practice myself, I
should not dare to attempt any extensive drainage
even on a five-acre field, without an engineer with
his levelling instruments.

The autumn is a leisure and convenient time for
these operations, the only objection being that
there may be too much water before the tiles are
in, but we have usually many weeks after the mid-
dle of September for field operations. The sub-
ject is of great importance on all the old and valu-
able fields of New England, where there is too
much moisture at any season.

For the Ncip England Farmer.

AGBICUIiTURE IN OUB COMMON
SCHOOLS.

Mr. Editor : — I read the communication from
Mr. Goldsbury upon the above subject, when the
Farmer of July 12 was received, and have perused
it with more care and attention since reading the
"strictures" upon it which appeared in your paper
of August 30.

The clear and comprehensive manner in which
Mr. G. treated the subject under consideration, I
think did not indicate that his "'usual good judg-
ment" was "asleep," but that he was in the full
possession of all his faculties, though other per-
sons may entertain a diff"erent opinion. It seems
to me his objections are sound and sensible, and
show that the writer understands the object for
which our common schools are designed, is well
acquaiuted with their condition, either by experi-
ence or from observation, and knows their wants
and failings.

If I am not mistaken, there is a general feeling
in the community, that for some years past, too
many studies have been introduced into our com-
mon schools, to be learned thoroughly, while some
of the fundamental branches, such as reading,
spelling and writing, are so much neglected, that
comparatively few boys and girls who arrive at
years of maturity can be called really good read-
ers and writers, at least so far as correct spelling
and composition are concerned.

510

NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER.

Nov.

In such schools as the State establishment at
Weslboro', and others of a similar character, agri-
culture of course can be taught practicalhj, but
our common schools in the summer season, as is
well known, are under the care of female teachers,
and in the winter no practical application could be
made of any principle connected with farming, ex-
cept perhaps in some places the older boys might
^jrrttY tee preparing greenwood for the fire, as "Jo-
nas" did when the famous "Memorious" was sent
out to spell him."

"More Anon" says it is implied or understood
throughout the remarks of Mr. G. that if agricul-
ture is introduced into our schools as a study, all
the scholars would be obliged to attend to it. I
find nothing in any of the objections to justify such
a conclusion. But perhaps my per cepitue faculties
may be shghtly impaired. A. c. w.

Leominster, Sept., 1862.

For the New Englarid Farmer.
"AGKICULTITRE IN COaiMON SCHOOLS."

Ever since the publication of The Progressive
Farmer, by Prof. J. A. Nash, in 1853, the ques-
tion as to the expediency or probable utility of in-
troducing agriculture as a study into our common
schools has occupied the attention of the writer,
and doubtless of many others, every now and then.
In his preface to that excellent little manual, in
which the more important facts and truths of ag-
ricultural chemistry and geology, and of Vvhat is
known in regard to the plants and animals, the
soils and manures, with Avhich the former has to
do, are very plainly and clearly stated, and made
available for practical application to every-day
operaticiis on the farm, Mr. Nash informed the
public that his work was the result of an effort
to render science — that is, well-established and
systematic knowledge — available to practical far-
mers, to young men desirous of qualifying them-
selves for so useful an em.doyment, and especial-
ly to the more adoanced classes in our public
schools. This announcement of his intention to
have his book used in public schools, in connection
with a trial of a portion of it in our own fireside
instruction, first started in our mind the question
as to the expediency, benefits, or utility of having
it regarded by teachers and parents as one of the
studies which might be attended to by those who
wished it, in our common schools.

In a few months after the publication of the
above-named work, and while engaged in using it
as a text-book for instruction at the fireside, the
new edition of Johnston's "Elements of Agricultu-
ral Chemistry and Geology," by the editor of this
journal, made its appearance, and was found by
the writer to be a most admirable aid in making
the study of Mr. Nash's manual at once more in-
teresting and more instructive. By the help of
the very copious index attached to that edition, it
was very easy for either the student or instructor
to turn at once to the pages in which might be
found the remarkably lucid, practical and interest-
ing statements and illustrations of Prof Johnston,
in regard to any subject treated of in our text-
book. And so very plain and interesting to the
student was this book found to bo, that it has
seemed there could scarcely be a better one for the
study of the more advanced classes, if it v. ere as

Avell fitted for the pui-pose of recitation, or for use
as a text-book, by appending to it a catechism or
set of questions, as it now is for ready reference
by its very copious and really useful index. So
useful, however, did the writer find this book, and
so well adapted to interest as well as to instruct
one young mind, that it sensed to bring up afresh
the subject of the expediency of introducing some
branches of agricultural science as a study, for
those who might choose it, or whose parents might
choose it, in our public schools.

So great had thus gi-adually become my interest
in this question, and so great my desire that a
text-book more exactly adapted to the capacities of
the young might make its appearance, that I was at
once induced to procure and examine, with this ob-
ject in view, the "Rural Handbooks," prepared and
published by Eowler & Wells in 1858. These I
found better adapted for study and reference by
young farmers, and those who had never made
themselves acquainted with the principles of farm
operations, than for youth at the age they usually
attend school. Still it seemed that a very good
text-book for the more advanced pupils — say in
the last year of their attendance at school — might
be prepared, by re-writing, with this special end
in view, two of these hand-books, viz. : "The
Farm" and "The Garden."

Again, when in 1861 it was announced that a
manual of agriculture for the use of schools was in
preparation, and when soon afterwards it was giv-
en to the public with the sanction and approval of
the State Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts,
— a State which has always taken the lead and
held the foremost place in all educational concerns
— I hoped that the expediency of such a study in
schools was now generally felt and acknowledged,
and felt persuaded that a text-book as good as we
were likely to have for many years, was now with-
in the reach of all who were independent and pro-
gressive enough to venture upon the innovation.
And although it seems to me that this "Manual
of Agriculture," by Emerson & Flint, might have
been more likely to interest the young, had illus-
trations from orchard and garden-culture, — with
which all children are more familiar than with op-
erations on the form, — been more frequent, still I
think any teacher of intelligence, and ambitious to
do his very best, might, with this manual as a text-
book, and by consulting the agricultural books and
papers which he could scarcely fail to find in any
school district in which there were parents intel-
ligent and progressive enough to furnish a class
for such a study, extemporize illustrations from
the things with which all children are more or less
familiarly acquainted, so as to make the teachings
of this text-book both more interesting and more
likely to be remembered, as well as ready for prac-
tical application. Indeed, wherever there are par-
ents intelligent enough to appreciate the truth, so
pithily expressed by Milton, namely, that

"To know that which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom,"

and sufficiently judicious and energetic to regulate
the education of their children by that and other
cognate truths, so that their employments during
their school life shall be the best possible prepara-
tion for their employments in after life ; wherev-
er there are in any school district such parents
having children enough among them of the proper

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

511

age to form a class of sufficient size, and they shall
consult together and combine for the purpose,
there seems noio to be nothing in the way to hin-
der the ex])ediency of this new branch and study
in schools being put to the test of experiment, save
only to secure a teacher of ordinary intelligence,
and possessing ambition to do his very best for
the interest of his pupils and his employers. And
■with such pai-ents, and such a teacher, (no more
than all teachers are in duty bound to be,) and
such a text-book, and such aids as have been re-
ferred to as available for the assistance of the
teacher, it seems as if the experiment could no-
wise fail of proving a most gratifying success.

Surely, such parents as I have described will
not allow themselves to be deterred for more than
a few minutes by any such objections as those
which have been submitted by Mr. Goldsbury in
the issue of this journal for July 12th, and in tlie
August No. of the monthly edition. The state-
ments which appeared to him, doubtless, to be ar-
guments of great force and vaHdity, have been
shown to be nothing more than unproved assump-
tions and erroneous assertions, in the Farmer of
August 30th. It was there shown, in opposition
to one of the assumptions of Mr. G., that there is
no good reason for any sucli limitation of school
studies as he insists upon, that with scarcely an
exception, any study may occupy the time of chil-
di'en during their school life, which may serve to
develop and invigorate, or discipline the mental
faculties, and also to furnish the mind with stores
of knowledge likely to be useful in the general
business of adult life. This being the principle or
rule by wliich the appropriateness and value of any
study are to be tested, what could justly be ranked
more highly than a study so intimately related to
the life-business pursuits of a large majority of
the American people ? There are, certainly, sev-
eral of the studies to which Mr. G. would limit
youth in our common schools, which are of small
value, and are likely to yield results of little im-
portance, when put into comparison with the
knowledge of "that which before us lies in daily
life," and which the study of agriculture, in all its
branches, h so well adapted to furnish to every at-
tentive and inquiring mind.

This will appear more obviously when it is con-
sidered that agriculture in all its branches, or even
as it is presented in the brief "Manual" of Messrs.
Emerson & Flint, leads the student to a knowl-
edge of the more practical and important portions
of the sciences of meteorology, climatology, chem-
istry, botany and vegetable physiology, geology,
zoology, entomology, &c., and to a knowledge,
also, of whatever comes under the usual appella-
tion of gardening, orcharding, husbandry, rural
economy, domestic economy, ice, &c. If, then,
the best use of schools is to prepare the young for
the duties, offices and employments of adult life,
what could be named as a more appropriate
school study than that which leads to a knowledge
of these most common, most important things?

Again, it was shown in the Farmer of August
30th, that it is assumed or implied, in all the ob-
jections urged by Mr. G., that the study of agri-
culture, if introduced into schools, would be ob-
ligatory upon all. On the contrary, it must be
manifest to all not blinded by biasing influences
of some kind, that it would be a study perfectly
elective, like algebra and several others, and that

it would be chosen only by or for the more ad-
vanced pupils. But we must not repeat what has
already been said on tliis matter ; but refer the
reader to the article above referred to. All who
read carefully and candidly that article replying
to the objections of Mr. G., will see that if the
study he objects to is to be, and to be universally
considered, an elective one, not at all obligatory
upon any one, then all his objections are void and
of no force whatever.

To this refutation of the objections of Mr. G.,
in the Farmer of August 30th, he has not yet
seen fit to reply. True, he has written a notice of
the article in the Farmer of August 30th, which
is printed in the issue for September 20Lh. But
this notice of his consists only of certain utteran-
ces of a resentful nature, as if greatly oft'ended
by having his opinions called in question ; and as
the public cAre little about the bickerings of dis-
putants who tread on each other's tender toes, I
leave all Mr. G.'s personalities and accusations
without reply, and would only remind him that
I the public care only about the poiyits at issue be-
j tweeu us, and not whether we wound each other's
I self-esteem, or otherwise. We wait Mr. G.'s re-
\ ply. More Anon,

THE CATTLE MABKETS.

The close of the first year of the services of our
present reporter seems to be an appropriate occa-
sion for a review of some of the facts which are
embodied in his weekly reports.

According to his figures, the number of live
stock at market during the year ending Septem-
ber 30, 1862, is as follows :

Cattle of all kinds 90,153

Sheep and lambs 208,592

Shotes and pigs 46,080

Fat hogs 44,790

Veal calves 8 ,000

The following table shows the numbers of cat-
tle and sheep from the "North," and the number
from the "West," arranged by Quarters, with the
average number of each per week. The Northern
or Eastern includes those from the New England
States, the northern part of New York and Cana-
da, and the Western, those pui-chased in Albany,
and those that come direct from the Western
States.

CATTLE. SHEEP.

Quarter , '■ , , '■ >

Eiid/112 N-irth. irest. T-.ta'. Ni.rfli. ire.f. TM

Dec. 31, 1861, 23,835 6,980 30,315 51,048 4,142 55,190

Mar. 31,1862, 8,834 7,223 16,062 ai.I46 13,7 ".5 34,901

.June 30, " 5,094 11,0.39 16,133 32,673 2,124 34,797

Sept. 30, « 15,il3 11,725 27,143 81,290 2,414 83,704

Total for year, 53.181 86,972 90,153 186.157 22,435 203,592
Aver, per week, 1,023 711 1,734 3,580 431 4,011

For the purpose of arriving at some conclusion
as to the value of the stock sold at this market for
the year past, we assume the sales of Northern
and Eastern cattle, large and small, to average
$35 per head, and the Western $60 per head ;
Northern or Eastern sheep and lambs, $3,62, and
Western $4,25 each ; shotes and pigs .$4, fat hogs
$8, and calves $4,50 each, and multiply accord-
ingly. The following result is ofi"ered as an ap-

512

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

proximation to the total value of live stock sold at
this market during the past year :

North. West. Total.

Cattle $1,861,335 00 $2,218,320 00 $4,079,655 00

Sheep 673,888 34 95,348 7* 769,237 09

Sholes and pigs.... 184,320 00 184,320 00

Fathocs 358,320 00 358,320 00

Veal calves 36 ,000 00 36 ,000 00

$2,571,223 34 $2,856,308 75 $5,427,532 09

An average of $104,289 per week, the year
round.

Prices for beef cattle have been, we think, re-
markably uniform during the year past. The
range ot our weekly quotations has been from
$3,75 a 6,25 to $5,75 a l,2o. And this, it should
be stated, represents the variation in quality as
well as price.

During October, November and December, the
highest quotation was $6,50 for nine weeks, and
$6,25 for four weeks.

During January, February and March, the high-
est quotation was $7 for three weeks, $6,75 for
seven, $6,50 for two, and $6,25 for one week.

During April, May and June, the highest quota-
tion was $7,25 for one week, $7 for nine weeks,
and $6,75 for thi'ee weeks.

During July, August and September, the high-
est quotation was $7 for one week, $6,75 for sev-
en weeks, and $6,50 for five weeks.

Sheep have sold higher than usual this year.
During the first quarter, sheep and lambs were sold
in lots or flocks, by the head at from $1,75 to 4,00.
During the second quarter, they were sold mostly
by the live weight at from 4:^ to 6c per lb. Dur-
ing the second and third quarters, at from 3 to 6c
per lb., many being cHpped.

Stock at Market,
TEX, TV^^ENTY AND TUIRTY YEARS AGO.

The following table shows the number of Cat-
tle, Sheep and Swine reported at market the first
week in October, 1862, 1852, 1842 and 1832.

Oct. 3, Oct. 7, Oct. 3, Oct. 1,

1862. 1852. 1842. 1832.

Cattle 2,809 3,820 1,080 1,905

Sheep 8,557 12,ri00 450 4,000

Swine 2,350 3,100 1,550 610

Prices,

TEN, TWENTY AND THIRTY YEARS AGO.

Oct. 3, Oct. 7, Oct. 3, Oct. 1,

1862. 1852. 1842. 1832.

Beef, extra $6,50fi6,75 $6,25(g6,50 A few at $5 $5,25S5,.50

" Istqual.. 6,0056,25 5,50'n6,00 $4,50ff4,75 4.84e5,17

" 2(1 " .. 5,2535,75 4,7og5,25 3,75m 4,25 4,25r?4.50

" 3(1 " .. 3.75ff5,00 4,00 3 4,50 3,00a3,50 3,50g4,U0

Wk. oxen, pr.. $50fil20 $5Ja92 Notquoted. Not quoted.
Cows & calves. 20350 20n39 Notquoted. $;15a28

Shecp&liimbs. 2,50*13,75 1,8833,50 62S2,00 l,33ff3,00
Swine, stores.. 3c,<j5>^ 60^6% 2i.ic.a2^ 4cg4>i

These facts are gleaned from the reports of
Brighton market which have been published in the
.Daily Advertiser, and its predecessor, the Daily
Patriot, for a little over thirty-two years, pre-
vious to which it seems that farmers and drovers
in the interior depended for their information as

to the state of the market on mere rumors, private
letters, or an occasional notice in the newspapers,
like those so often seen in relation to crops in the
West or elsewhere, wi'itten sometimes, perhaps,
by an interested party.

Of tliese occasional statements or reports, the
following, which we find among the items of news
in the old New England Farmer, of February 9,
1827, will serve as a specimen :

"The number of cattle at Brighton on Monday
of last week was about 600. Many of them were
sold at from $3,50 to $4,00 per hundred, a few
went from $4,50 to $5,00, and a very fine pair of
OHcn from Hatfield brought $5,25. For several
weeks past about twice as many cattle have been
driven to Brighton as were required to su])ply the
market. Prices will be low as long as this glut
continues."

The old Boston Daily Patriot was the first pa-
per to employ a regular reporter of the Brighton
Cattle Market. The first of the series of weekly
reports which has been continued to the present
time, was printed in the commercial column of
that journal, Wednesday, June 3, 1829, and is as
follows :

"Brighton Cattle Market, Monday, June
1. — The number of beef cattle 120; sold from
$5,50 to $6,50 per cwt., all sold by 9 o'clock,
A. M. The sales were fifty cents per hundred
higher than any preceding week for the year
past."

In a few weeks these reports assumed the form,
substantially, in which they are now published,
and being evidently the work of an intelligent and
impartial person, they were at once, as they ever
have been since, copied into the weekly papers in
New England, and were much relied on by all
parties interested in the market.

But as agricultural papers became common in
New England, ftirmers began to demand a more
full report of a branch of trade in which they are
most directly interested. To meet this demand
we have volunteered to step out of the beaten
track, and instead of a stereotyped paragraph,
now give a whole column to a detailed report of
the great weekly Cattle Fair of New England.

We apprehend that the amount of business
transacted at this market is not fully ap]U'eeiated
by the public. Few even of those who are depend-
ent on it for the sale of their surplus stock, or for
the purchase of their meat, have the means of
knowing the amount of business weekly done liere.
Nor is it so easy a matter as it might seem to be,
to ascertain this fact. In the first place, the mar-
kets here were not established, but they grew;
and that Avithout being cramped or fettered by
the By-laws and llegulations of any Board of
Overseers, and subject to no other rules than such
as buyers and sellers tacitly adopt.

Many people, probably, think, of the opening of

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

513

a market as they do of the opening of a store, —
the "goods," in either case, being previously ar-
ranged in order for the reception of customers.

But this is quite incorrect. Dealers in stock at
this market do not wait for the "clerk" to open
the gates, nor even for the cattle to be yarded,
but are always ready for the first chance to trade,
whether occurring Tuesday, Wednesday or Thurs-
day, or whether presented in the cars, at the land-
ing-places, on the highway, or in the yards, at
Medford, Cambridge or Brighton.

To watch well the market, therefore, one must
needs post himself at the several steamboat
wharves in Boston, at the cattle-stations on the
Lowell and on the Eastern railroads, as well as at
those in Cambridge and Brighton, besides keep-
ing a look-out for droves by land ; and this not
for a single day only, but for the three market-
days above-mentioned.

A business "opening" upon such an extent of
territory, and continuing through one-half of the
working-days of the week cannot of course be
seen in its full proportions from a single point of
observation, nor is it strange that its amount and
importance should be underestimated.

From such a field are the materials which make
up our weekly reports of the cattle markets
gleaned ; and a year's experience therein, it is be-
lieved, will enable our reporter to make his labors
for the future more satisfactory to himself, and
more valuable to others, than those for the past
year have been.

FB.UIT AS A MEDICINE.

Ripe fruit is the medicine of nature. Nothing
could be more wholesome for man or child ; and
although green fruit, of course, almost as fatal as
.so mucli poison, the ripe is fully as thorough a
health restorative and health preserver. Straw-
berries are favorites with all classes, and constitute
a popular luxury. But who can compute the
amount of general health promoted by this relish
for strawberries ? Wlio can imagine how many
pills that relish throws out of the market ; or, in
other words, to what extent these pills prepared
by mother nature, and sugar-coated, as it were, to
render them more palatable, crowd out of use
those ))repared by the chemist and the apotheca-
ry ? Who can tell the number of disordered liv-
ers, deranged stomachs, and afflicted digestive ap-
paratus generally, the grateful acid of that deli-
cious fruit gradually restores to a sound condition,
mocking at all the skill of the ablest physician ;
vindicating the simple laws of Hygiea by their
radical action, and teaching us how often a pan-
acea for some of the most painful of human mala-
dies lies directly at our feet, and is contemned be-
cause it is so unassuming?

After strawberries, we do homage especially to
peaches and apples. They are the kind of drugs
that cost comparatively little and do comparative-
ly much, when the patient is not too far gone for
the use of such pleasant medicaments. We knew
a person once who, believing himself in a decline,

and having been completely worn out in patience
by the experiments of his doctors, determined to
eat from four to six ripe apples every day, and
note the result. In three months he was well !
We know of another who, without being afflicted
with any particular disorder, was never in good
health, and for twenty-five years could scarcely be
said to enjoy a single week's exemption from suf-
fering. He then commenced the nabit of drink-
ing a glass of plain cider every morning, and for
the next twenty-five years never had a single day's
illness. Such remedies are simple enough !

For the A'eu? Ennland Farmer.
NOTE YOUR PROGKESS— SHEEP.

The yellow leaf betokens that the close of our
tilling the soil is drawing near for this season.
When that period arrives, would it not be well for
our brother farmers who have made note of their
progress through the year, to give us the advan-
tage of their experience, so those of us who are
unlearned, can learn. In my turn through the
orchard I find that those branches of the fruit
trees that run up, take up most of the sap at the
expense of those running downward ; the latter
consequently languish. I also remarked certain
trees which seemed as if they possessed some
knowledge, for they were careful to guard and
protect their fruit, as a woman does her little chil-
dren. Among the vines and gourds certain leaves
had grown and arranged themselves so as to cov-
er the fruit, lest, perchance, the cold might de-
stroy them. The rose tree and gooseberry bushes,
to defend themselves against any who might
wish to strip them of their buds, had put forward
defences of sharp spines. But I marveled not at
the foresight of God, for He said, that even the
birds have their share in His protection, and fall
not without His will.

In the meadow I see the lambs frolicking and
kicking, leaping and sporting, also the shorn
sheep, but their inferiority in point of size to those
of the time of Heredotus, the historian, leads me
to think that, perhaps, they of that time might be
better posted, than we of the present day, although
Vermont boasts of her superior breeds of sheep.
Raising flocks was one of the first employments
that our progenitors followed, we are to infer, for
it says. Gen. 4 : 2, that Abel was a keeper of
sheep. Of the importance of sheep, no one ques-
tions. In sacred history, as well as profane, this
is duly noted (down to the present day.) In no
place do I find much as to the form and size of
sheep until the time of Heredotus, who speaking
of the sheejj of Arabia, says they have tails not
less than three cubits in length, in breadth nearly
a cubit ! I have not the skill to tell the exact size
of an animal by one part, as some have, but I am
part Yankee, therefore I am allowed to guess ; but
before proceeding further, let us see what the
word cubit implies. The word cubit is derived
from the Latin word Cuhitns, (the lower arm;)
it used to denote the distance from the elbow to
the end of the little finger. The length differs in
various nations according to the stature of the peo-
ple. The distance in men of average size is the
one in use. The lesser, or common cubit, is 18
inches, the Egyptian, or which is probably the
Hebrew, was 21. Now take the least, 18 inches.

514

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

Three cubits long, equal to 41 feet, such would be
an useless appendage to the sheep now extant.
God in all His works, designed all for some use,
therefore, we should infer by the length and
breadth of those now extant, that those of former
days must exceed ours in size some three or four
times. Perhaps then the lineage of that highly-
prized breed styled the flat-tailed sheep, might
be traced to those of olden days ; if so, why not,
in the days of improvement which we now claim
to live in, bring the breed of sheep up to the size
of former days ? How can our young men of this
day affect to despise country places and the art of
agriculture, which our old, honest ancestors and
prophets themselves did not disdain to exercise,
even to keeping flocks ? s. v. M.

Cape Elizabeth, Sept., 1862.

A WEW KEND OF BRICK.

A correspondent of the Journal of the Illinois
State Agricultural Society thus speaks of a new
method for making brick :

The amount of lime is ten bushels of good stone
lime, burnt but unslacked, to one thousand brick.
The brick are plump four inches thick, six inches
wide and ten inches long. By getting the cubic
measure of a thousand such brick you will have
the amount of material for their foundatisn : but
little allowance is made for the lime, as it adds
but trifling to the bulk. The ten bushels of lime
are slacked and diluted as for mortar, and then
passed into the box containing gravel and sharp
sand — these are well commingled together — and
then passed into a mould where the brick is sub-
jected to a pressure of, I think, 5,000 lbs., but I
am not quite certain. It is then taken out care-
fully and laid away to season, and must be pro-
tected a few days from heavy rains. The wall is
laid ten inches thick, on a deep, firm foundation.
The brick is laid edgewise in the wall, leaving a
hollow space between the outside and inside
courses, except where ingeniously tied by placing
the brick lengthwise across the wall. The air
space is designed to benefit the brick and the build-
ing. I think I could secure you, for a short sea-
son, a choice mechanic, competent to superintend,
in all particulars, the introduction of this new ma-
terial, and its best mode of construction, on rea-
sonable terms. We have a number of buildings
in this section of this description. I like them
well, and think that for the sparsely timbered por-
tions of j'our country it must be decidedly the
best style of building ; and so warm the bleak
prairie."

To Preserve Cider. — The following recipe for
preserving cider was tested last fall by a friend,
and found to be all that is claimed for it : "When
the cider in the barrel is in a lively fermentation,
add as much white sugar as will be equal to a
quarter or three-quarters of a pound to each gallon
of cider, (according as the apples are sweet or sour,)
let the fermentation proceed until the liquid has
the taste to suit, then add a quarter of an ounce of
sulphite (not sulphate) of lime to each gallon of
cider, shake well and let it stand three days, and
bottle for use." The sulphite should first be dis-
solved in a quart or so of the cider before intro-
ducinar it into the barrel of cider. — Prairie Far.

THE CONCOBD KIVEB MEADOWS.

We have had recent occasion to be upon these
meadows considerably, and to witness the annual
destruction of property occasioned by the standing
water upon them. This mischief we have no
doubt is caused by the dam across the river at
North Billerica, which stops the natural flow of
the stream, and throws the water back over an
immense tract of land that would otherwise be
among the best in the State.

The river being unusually low, we went into the
meadows with a gang of men and teams, and by
the use of broad cart-wheels, rackets on the feet
of the horses, and the wheelbarrow, succeeded in
getting a few hundred loads of muck out upon
higher land. Near the river the soil is alluvial,
upon which corn would grow in perfection, if the
land were not flooded during the growing season.
Farther back, it is composed, to a very great ex-
tent, of vegetable matter in a high state of decom-
position. It is black, unctuous and rich, having
"the feel" of soap when rubbed between the thumb
and finger, and has no appearance of being im-
pregnated with any salts or acids that would make
it unsafe to be applied immediately to the soil.
Prof. Dana states that where two loads of such
muck are mingled with one load of pure droppings
from the cow, each of the three loads is worth as
much as though all were pure droppings. Look,
then, at the immense loss which our people annu-
ally sustain in being deprived of the use of such a
fertilizer ; for the want of which they are expend-
ing large sums of money for guano and other spe-
cific manures !

This is the first time since the memorable
droughts of 1854, '55 and '56, that M'e have been
able to remove it from its bed — and now only
with difficulty, and at double the cost it would re-
quire if the water were not thrown back by dams.

On each side of these meadows, for a distance
of more than twenty miles, there are large tracts
of sandy lands that have been cultivated in rye for
two or three generations, that might be restored
to the most abundant fertility, if the people could
have access to these now drowned meadows. It
seems the order of n'ature herself, that where
tracts of weak and unproductive soils are found,
there are usually deposits of material in the neigh-
borhood, either of a vegetable or mineral charac-
ter, that will give such lands fertility and value.
It is only f >v man to avail himself of them, and
make the waste places smile with a cheerful and
profitable vegetation, that will gladden his heart,
and give strength to the State.

In this case, however, this beneficent order of
things is destroyed by the rapacity of man, who
seeks gain though it trample upon the plainest
principles of justice, and wrings the honest re-
ward of labor from him who has endured the pa-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

515

tient toil. These sandy lands must remain ghast-
ly and profitless aspects in the landscape, because
those who own them are deprived of the power of
dressing and keeping them by a combination of
soulless and wicked corpoi'atious.

As we labored in removing these rich deposits
from their native beds, we could see all around
us hundreds of acres of standing grass into which
a scythe had npt entered, nor will enter, this sea-
son. The water has been so high all through the
haying period, as utterly to forbid the harvesting
of this grass, and on the last days of September
men and teams were engaged in getting away a
portion of it, for litter, perhaps to the amount of
one ton in fifty. A gentleman who lives on the
margin of one of these meadows, states it as his
opinion, that he can look out from his windows
upon two thousand tons of standing grass ! That
is, grass that would make that amount if dried as
hay. Here is ten thousand dollars' worth upon a
single meadow, a loss to its owners through the
injustice and rapacity of others, who have not, in
our judgment, the slightest claim upon the land
or the slightest right to flow it.

This state of things cannot always last among a
people as just and intelligent as are those of Mas-
sachusetts. Sooner or later, the stupendous fraud
practiced upon the last legislature will be made
clear, and the punishment which such conduct de-
serves visited upon the heads of its perpetrators,
and those rights will be restored which have so
long been wrested from the land-owners in the
beautiful Concord River Valley,

For the New England Farmer,
SUMMER-MADE MANURES.

Mr. Editor : — Within the last few years many
of our best farmers have changed their mode of
saving their summer's manure, and now, instead
of yarding the cattle at night, they stable them,
using a sufficient quantity of some absorbent to
save the liquid portion, the whole being thrown
into the cellar or a tight shed ; but experience has
sometimes shown that such manure is unfit for
some purposes.

I have seen such manure carted out in the fall
into the fields, and the next spring shovelled over,
and at planting time put in the hills for corn, and
the result has been a very light crop, not as good,
I think, as it would have been without anything
in the hills ; so often has this been the case, that
some have felt inclined to return to the old meth-
od of making in the open yard.

Now it seems strange to me that the corn should
refuse to grow upon such manure. I suppose
many will say that "the reason is very plain — the
manure was too strong." I do not think that this
is all the trouble with it. I know of a small piece
of corn, which was planted upon manure made
last season by stabling and using loam to save the
liquid portion. Late in fall it was removed to the
field and when put in the hills at planting time a
spoonful of superphosphate was tlii'own over most

of it, but was omitted on a part. Where the
phosphate was put there is a fair crop, but next
to nothing where omitted.

Had it been owing to the strength of the ma-
nure, I think that the addition of the superphos-
phate would have only made the matter worse.
If you or some con-espondent would enlighten
me a little upon this matter, I should esteem it a
favor, as my object in writing is merely to draw
out the opinion of others who have had more ex-
perience in the matter. Li the instance which I
have just mentioned, the effect of phosphate was
more evident than in most other places where I
have seen it used this season, as in quite a num-
ber of cases its effect was scarcely perceptible.

Worcester County, Sept., 18G2. Tyro.

Remarks. — We can conceive of no objection
to such summer-made manure as our correspond-
ent describes. Such manure, if properly pre-
served until hauled out, must be very strong, and
of course ought to be judiciously used. At any
rate, he describes our own practice in collecting
and preserving summer manure, and we certainly
receive the most decided benefits wherever it is
used.

THE GRAY SQUIRREL,

The gray squirrel is one of the most beautiful
and graceful of the inhabitants of our forests, in
which it generally makes its home, hardly ever
venturing from them, unless occasionally, when
the Indian corn is ripe, it enters the fields to add
a little to its winter store of nuts ; the amount
which it pilfers could hardly be missed, however,
unless the field should happen to be in or near the
woods.

It prefers forests of chestnuts or oaks, in which
its winter store can be readily collected. The first
heavy frost is the signal for this work to com-
mence, and the dropping of the chestnuts and
acorns which the frost has loosened, accompanied
by the rustling of the squirrel through the newly-
fallen leaves as it gathers the nuts together, and
carefully deposits them in hollow trees and crevi-
ces of rocks, or buries them in some secure place
beneath the leaves, are the sounds most intimate-
ly connected with our woods in the autumn sea-
son.

The summer nest is built in some tall tree, at
the junction of several limbs with the trunk. It
is composed of sticks and leaves, and is lined with
soft grass and ferns ; in this the young are reared,
and live with the female till they are old enough
to shift for themselves. At the approach of win-
ter, some hollow in a tree is selected, sometimes
the abandoned nest of a woodpecker, in which a
warm nest is built, composed of grass and soft
leaves ; this is the winter home of usually the
whole family. In early spring the young are driv-
en off" by the old ones, who soon build the sum-
mer nest, in which to rear another family. The
young, after being driven off", soon pair, and in
their turn become heads of families.

The habits of this animal are very interesting.
You may be walking through the woods, and
shortly you hear what you at first think to be the
barking of a small dog ; on listening, you discov-
er your mistake ; the abrupt notes qua qua, with

516

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

chattering guttural additions, proceed from the
tall tree a few rods from you ; you cautiously
steal on tiptoe to the foot of the tree, but do not
see the animal, even after looking carefully on
every side. You know the little fellow is there,
for he could not possibly have got out of the tree
unless you had seen him. Now, if you go close
to the tree, and step quickly to the other side, you
will see him whisk suddenly to the opposite side
from you, where he is now closely hugging the
tree, and perfectly motionless ; your interest has
now become awakened, you are curious to see
more of him ; very well, you must retire a few
rods, and remain perfectly still. You had better
take a comfortable seat, for he will not move while
you are near the tree. Presently you see his head,
with its bright, lively eyes, slowly moving around
to the side where you are ; this is the first recon-
noitering movement. If you remain perfectly still,
he will soon take his position on a limb, where
jerking his tail and flaunting it in conscious secu-
rity, he gives vent to his satisfaction at your re-
moval in a series of chattering barks, which are
answered, perhaps, by other squirrels that you had
no thought wei'e in the neighborhood ; soon one
of them, with a challenging bark or chatter, chases
another, and shortly three or four of them are
scampering about, running through the fallen
leaves, and up and down the trees in high sport ;
presently one of them, in escaping from the others,
comes suddenly near you ; with a shrill whistle of
astonishment he scampers up the nearest tree, and
is soon as effectually concealed as all the others
were the instant he gave the alarm. You may as
well I'etire now, for you will see nothing more of
them ; as long as you remain near, they will not
budge a foot.

AUTUMWAL SCENES.

What a rich and attractive book might be writ-
ten by a person who has the genius, — it must be
almost a passion, — upon Autumnal Sigliis and
Sounds. How unlike the flush of Midsummer, the
new life and glow of May, or the grand march of
the Winter Months, would it be, in the scenes it
presents. And then in sounds, as well as sights,
how differently they strike the ear, — ah, the heart,
too. Now, they are full, but subdued ; uttered in
solemn cadences in the twilight, the shades of
evening, or hedge or forest aisles, — all unlike the
joyous notes of Spring, breaking from every throat
in the glorious sunlight, and from every bounding
creature that can lift its voice to Heaven ! What
surpassing Wisdom and Love is manifested in the
changing Seasons ! What a different class of sen-
sations, of hopes and delights, they bring to all
observing and reflecting minds — and how gently,
and confidently they lead us up to Him who ci'e-
ated and arranged them.

With what unusual quiet and beauty these
sights and sounds have come upon us this season.
No untimely frost has fallen upon foliage or flower
to lay them low in their prime, and they have been
left to assume their varied hues by the gradual
process of ripening. In low places, where the

roots of trees do not take deep root, they began
to put on their autumnal drapery early in Septem-
ber, and gave the hedge and copse a beautiful ap-
pearance at that early day. This process has been
going on until the highways and byways, and the
grand old forests, are beaming in a splendor of un-
rivalled hues. No wonder that the pott declares
that the "year grows splendid." What a gratifi-
cation it must be to the writer, to be able to ex-
press the thoughts given in this beautiful little
poem, on

OCTOBER.

Br LTDIA A. CALnWELL.

The year grows splendid ! on the mountain steep
Now lingers long the warm and gorgeous light,
Dying by slow degrees into the deep
Delicious night.

The final triumph of the perfect year,

Rises the woods' magnificent array ;
Beyond, the purple mountain heights appear.
And slope away.

The elm, with musical, slow motion, laves

His long, lithe branches in the tender air ;
While from his top the gay Sordello waves
Her scarlet hair.

Where Spring first hid her violets 'neath the fern,

Where Summer's fingers oped, fold after fold.
The odorous, wild, red rose's heart, now burn
The leaves of gold.

The loftiest hill — the lowliest flowering herb—

The fairest fruit of season and of clime —
All wear alike the mood of the superb
Autumnal time.

Now nature pours her last and noblest wine !

Like some Bacchante beside the singing streams.
Reclines the enchanted Day, rapt in divine
Impassioned dreams.

But where the painted leaves are lalling fast,
Among the vales, beyond the farthest hill,
There sits a shadow — dim, and sad, and vast—
And lingers still.

And still we hear a voice among the hills —

A voice that mourns among the haunted woods.
And with the mystery of its sorrow fills
The solitudes.

For while gay Autumn gilds the fruit and leaf.

And doth her fairest festal garments wear,
Lo ! Time, all noiseless, in his mighty sheaf
Binds up the year.

The mighty sheaf which never is unbound !

The Reaper whom our souls beseech in vain !
The loved, lost years that never may be found.
Or loved again !

Singing. — The effect of music is powerful. In
a school it has a tendency to promote cheerfulness
and help discipline. It also furnishes a pleasant
relaxation from study. Wherever it has been fttith-
fully and systematically tried, with well qualified
instructors, it meets Avith genei-al commendation.
To unite in singing at the opening of a school,
seems to compose the mind and fit it for study ;
and to sing at the close of the school, when the
perplexities and duties of the day are over, tends
to allay all irritable feeling — to unite hearts — to
bring rays of sunshine to clouded countenances,
and make the associations of the school-room
pleasant and inviting. — Maine Teacher.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

517

For the New England Fanner.
AGRICULTtTRE IN COMMON SCHOOLS.

Mr. Editor : — As this subject has been left
open for discussion by one of your correspond-
ents, I venture, without flattering myself that my
opinion will have much influence over the "solid
men" of the farm, to express my views of the
project.

The author of the "Retrospective Notes" says,
that "every study may, with perfect propriety, be
introduced into a common school, which has any
tendency or power, by its increasing knowledge
or invigorating mind, to fit and prepare the young
for the M'orthy discharge of the duties, oflices, re-
sponsibilities and transactions or business of adult
life." If this is the truth, and there is no reason
for doubting it, then, not only agriculture, but
law, medicine, theology, or any of the arts, scien-
ces, trades and professions, might, with equal pro-
priety, be introduced as studies into our common
schools. But, says one, who would think of send-
ing a child to a district school to learn law or med-
icine, or to acquire a practical knowledge of any
trade or profession ? No one would do so, and
for this reason ; Ave have no teachers who are qual-
ified, or i-equired to teach such things. Now the
facts are the same with regard to the study of ag-
riculture. There are but very few teachers who
possess even a theoretical knowledge of the agri-
cultural art. The pupil might as easily acquire a
book-knowledge of farming at home, as at school,
if the teacher is not qualified to instruct him.
AVhen a boy I commenced the study of astronomy
in the district school, but the teacher was not ac-
quainted with the science, and as there was no ap-
paratus to illustrate its truths, my progress was
slow — indeed, I might as well have learned and
recited my lessons at home.

With proper text books, and a practical, skilful
agriculturist for a teacher, a boy who intends to
become a farmer, might gain knowledge which
■would be exceedingly useful to him in after life.
But after all, the best place, in my estimation, to
learn the farmei''s art or profession is the farm,
under an experienced guide and wise instructor.
It is only there that a young person or prospec-
tive farmer can overcome, in some measure, at
least, his natural repugnance to hard work, and
acquire industrious habits, without which his
knowledge will be of but little use to him.

The scholar may have the right to study agri-
culture, or anything else he pleases in school, but
unless the teacher can assist him in his studies no
benefit will be received by going to school. Yet
I do not wish to discourage any plan which has
for its object the increase of useful knowledge
among the farmers, and being fond of new things
and new ideas, would like to have the study of
agriculture introduced into our schools for a year
or two, by way of experiment, for such a course
would certainly do no harm, and it might do some
good. S. L. White.

pretty short, so that he will not back too far. He
will try to kick, but Avill not be able. After a few
ineff'ectual eflbrts he will give it up. After one or
two years of such treatment, the horse will be
cured. The horse cannot hurt himself, for the
stick is too near his hips. I have two mares that
used to kick. I tried this plan, and cured them.
— •/. li. in llural New-Yorker.

To Cure Kicking Hokses. — In No. 13 I no-
ticed an inquiry about a kicking horse. If the
horse stands between two partitions, bore a two-
inch hole in each, on a horizontal line, about one
and a hatf inches above the horse's hip ; put a
round stick in the holes, and put a pin in each end
of the stick, so that it will not fall ; tie the horse

MATERIALS OF WHICH SOIL IS COM-
POSED.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOIL.

Soils are named from the amount, or propor-
tions, of the various substances which enter into
their formation.

If a soil consists of sand, it is called a sandy

SOIL.

If the largest portion is clay, it is called a clayey

SOIL.

When lime predominates, it is called a calca-
reous SOIL.

Those substances may exist together, but in
different proportions, in the same soil, in which
case it usually receives a distinct name.

A mixture of sand and clay, with a small por-
tion of lime, is called a loam.

If it contain much lime, it is called a CALCA-
REOUS loam.

If it is composed of clay, with much lime, it is
called a calcareous clay.

A certain proportion of these substances has
given specific names to soils.

Pure clay, whicli is commonly called PIPE CLAY,
is composed of about sixty parts of silica, and
forty parts of alumina, with a small quantity of
oxide of iron. This kind of clay contains no sili-
cious sand which can be separated by washing
with water. It forms but a small quantity of soil,
and is found in comparatively few localities.

Tile clay forms the strongest of clay soils. It
consists of pure clay, mixed with from five to fif-
teen per cent, of silicious sand, which can be sep-
arated from it by boiling or washing.

Clay loam contains from fifteen to thirty per
cent, of fine sand, which can be separated by boil-
ing. The diff'erent parts of this soil may be very
easily separated, and it is consequently more easily
worked. Such soil is very properly sought for in
the selection of a farm.

A LOAMY SOIL contains from thirty to sixty per
cent, of sand, which is retained so loosely that it
can be readily separated from it by washing.

A SANDY LOAM leaves from sixty to ninety per
cent, of sand.

A SANDY SOIL consists mostly of sand, and con-
tains no more than ten per cent, of clay.

In a MAliLY SOIL the proportion of lime must
be more than five per cent., but less than twenty
per cent.

Marls are called sandy, loamy, and clayey,
in accordance with the proportions they may con-
tain of these substances, provided they be free
from lime, or do not contain more than five per
cent, of this material.

Soils are denominated calcareous when the
proportion of lime exceeds twenty per cent., and
thus by its quantity becomes an important con-
stituent.

There are also CALCAREOUS CLAYS, CALCAREOUS
loams, and calcareous sands, which take their

518

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

names from the proportion of clay and sand which
they may contain.

Vegetable mold is sometimes a prominent
characteristic of a soil.

In PEATY SOILS, its proportion may be equal to
sixty and sometimes as much as seventy-five per
cent, of orsranic matter.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.

MUCK— APPLE TREES.

I have been digging muck, nearly half clay. I
wish to apply this to a gravelly loam, where I wish
to sow wheat in the spring. Will it do to apply
muck of that kind dug now, next spring, without
mixing with lime, or in other words, how shall I
apply it to make it pay ?

Also, I should like to learn if anybody knows
how to make fruit trees bear the odd year, espe-
cially apple trees. Last year I had next to none,
this year an abundance, and next year I shall have
none again. Will you, or some of your experi-
enced correspondents, give me light on these sub-
jects ? Young Farmer.

Deerfield Centre, Sept., 1862.

Remarks. — If the muck is black and fine, and
has little or no acidity, cart it to your intended
wheat land this fall and drop it in cart load heaps,
or spread it, if you have opportunity. It would
be well to sow lime on this if you can ; if not, the
muck alone will be an excellent dressing.

It is said that taking the blossoms from a tree
will cause it to bear the succeeding year. It
probably will. Did you ever take the blossoms
from a medium-sized tree that had a full blow ?
How long do you suppose it would occupy one
man to do the job? When you have completed
one tree, we think you will never begin another.
No other mode of changing the bearing year oc-
curs to us. We are all in the same condition
that you are.

POULTRY AND POULTRY-HOUSE.
1. It is said that salt hay will keep fleas out of
a dog-house ; now wouldn't it keep lice out of
hens' nests ?

No. Nor fleas out of a dog-house, in our opin-
ion. A great deal of labor is thrown away in at-
tempts to prevent the access of insects, or to de-
stroy them when they are in possession, by ex-
pedients similar to that suggested in the above in-
quiry. Insects are created to live and propagate
their kind exposed to the elements, and are capa-
ble of sustaining themselves against measiu-es
vastly more severe than scattering a little salt hay
about them. Perfect cleanliness in the hen-house,
with proper feeding, will usually be followed by
perfect health in the fowls who occupy it ; usu-
ally, but not always. With the best care, it is
surprising how a stock of poultry will sometimes
become infested with vermin all at once, and
seem to defy all the skill of the keeper to dislodge
them. Lideed, they are occasionally triumphant,

and destroy the whole family. We have known
this result with some of the most skilful persons
— but not often. If you find a fowl in your col-
lection that is sick in the least, or that has lice
upon it, take it away at once and give it all neces-
sary attention by itself, so that it shall not com-
municate the vermin or the disease to others.
This will be found much more easy than to cure.

2. The Country Gentleman says, "spread lime
dust on the hen-house floor." Does not this injure
the manure, and would not ashes do as well ?

The effect of ashes spread upon the floor would
be similar to that of lime, only less in degree.
Neither, however, would be objectionable, used
judiciously for the purpose suggested by the
Country Gentleman.

3. Why have any floor ? It seems to me that
a dry, smooth bed of sand or clay has several ad-
vantages over board flooring.

There is no need of a floor if the apartment is
dry. Your own views of the matter we think are
correct. We use no floor but such as you de-
scribe.

4. Would "tan bark" packed about the sides of
the house harbor lice ?

It would be quite likely to, and yet we should
not hesitate to use it for the purpose of keeping
the building warm.

5. I hear old farmers speak of getting their
pullets "too fat to lay." Is there any truth in
that?

We think there is. Laying hens that are fed
principally upon corn and corn meal made into
dough, become extremely obese, and we have
thought ceased to lay as liberally as when not
burthened with such a mass of fat. Perhaps a
good way to feed them would be to feed once each
day with a small portion of corn, and leave barley
and oats constantly before them, giving the boiled
potatoes, scraps, sour milk, &c., occasionally, as
they can be spared.

6. What is the proper way to scald poultry ?

Have a vessel of scalding water at hand, and
immerse the fowl, lifting it up and down gently
two or three times. But the water must not be
too hot, nor the fowl kept in too long. A little
experience, coupled with careful observation, will
soon teach you what the right temperature and
the right time is. Poultry, however, that com-
mands the highest price in market, is rarely
scalded. But it requires "knack" and patience to
pick a fowl well without scalding.

7. Is there any cheap machine suitable for cut-
ting livers, lights, &c., for hen feed ?

Yes. A small meat-cuttei", such as is used in
preparing sausage meat, may be purchased for
about two dollars and fifty cents, and M'ould an-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

519

swer the purpose very well. They may be found
at the agricultural warehouses.

8. Do you still think "Dorkings" the most pro-
fitable breed for marketing ? Gray or Avhite ?
Sept. 30, 1862. A New Subsckibeb.

Our opinion on this point should not be urged,
because we have not bred other varieties suffi-
ciently to know their merits.

CRANBEERY CULTURE.

I would like to make a few inquiries in regard
to the cranberry culture.

1. What time of the year should the plants be
set out ?

2. Which kind is the best ?

3. Where could they be obtained, and at what
price ?

4. How long after they are set out before the
plants will bear ?

5. How near should the plants be set out ?
New Hampshire, Oct. 6, 1862. "Farmer."

Rejurks. — 1. Set the plants in April.

2. There is but little difference in the varieties,
— the Bell, Bugle and Cherry.

3. They can be obtained from hundreds of
meadows, scattered all over the eastern portions
of this State and New Hampshire.

4. The plants will bear quite moderately the
second year after they are set ; the third year we
have taken a bushel of fine berries from a square
rod of land.

5. Set the plants as near as you can afford to,
— so that they will touch each other, if you please.
If set one foot apart each way, they will cover the
ground in three years, if they succeed well.

POTATO DIGGING.

I like the column of "Extracts and Replies,"
in the Farmer, for its valuable hints to learners
in the art agricultural. I have, in prospect, a long
siege at potato digging. They grow in straight
di'ills, in sandy loam.

Query. — Cannot potatoes, growing in straight
rows, be dug to better advantage by first using a
plow ? Would not even a common plow, facili-
tate the process, if carefully used along one or
both sides of the rows ?

Granting there would be some waste of pota-
toes, need it equal the extra time and labor re-
quired in using the hoe or digger alone ?

Framingham, Oct. 4, 1862. SUBSCRIBER.

Remarks. — A plow is sometimes used with ad-
vantage. The most effective implement we have
ever seen used is a long handled spade, especially
if in the hands of an Irishman who has practiced
with it in that direction. A prong hoe injures too
many of the potatoes, and is very slow, compared
with the spade. Try the spade.

STATE BOUNTY TO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.

I am glad that the topic which I suggested in a
late paper has drawn out some sensible remarks

as to the continuance of our annual shows. It
has really seemed to me, for a considerable time,
that improvement might be made in the mode of
appropriating the moneys received by our agricul-
tural societies from the State, if these bounties
are to be longer continued ; of which I have more
than once heard dou])ts expressed, as the State
has so much need of money for other purposes ;
and as matters now go on, is likely to have in-
creasing need. I know not how it may be in oth-
er counties, but in my own, I am fully satisfied,
we could get along well enough, without the boun-
ty from the State. I make the suggestion in the
hope of drawing out instructions from wiser heads
of better experience. Essex.

October, 1862. _

PLUM GROWING.

I have several times noticed in your paper allu-
sions to Mr. H. Vandine's great success in plum
growing, and desire a little information upon the
mattei". Cannot you persuade him to tell us,
readers of the Farmer, how he manages to grow
them "in spite of curculio and black knots ;" also,
which kinds are most free from curculio ?

Worcester Co., Sept., 1862. Tyro.

Rejl\rks. — We trust friend Vandine will
oblige "Tyro," and a great many others, by giving
them some of his experiences and opinions on the
raising of plums.

BREAD-MAKING MACHINE.

I saw an account of a bread-making machine
for family use, described in a communication in
your paper. I would like to know the address of
the proprietor. s. P. M.

Cape Elizabeth, Sept. 26, 1862.

Fur the New England Farmer.

OBSEBVATION AND EXPERIENCE.

When I was a boy of fifteen years of age, my
father gave me the use of a small piece of land
to plant. The soil was a deep loam, and rather
moist. A crop of potatoes was harvested from it
the year before, plowed and manured in the fall ;
the manure was dropped in heaps, to be applied
the next spring. He plowed the ground, and as
it was the custom among farmers in those days to
plant on the furrow, he thought nothing about
hari'owing it for me. I had observed that it was
difficult to plant on the furrow and make straight
rows, and I thought it would cause more labor to .
dress it. I had taken notice that when the sea-
son was a dry one, the soil dried more. I har-
rowed it smooth and planted it with corn, three
and one-half feet between the rows, and three feet
between hills. It came up well and quick ; the
soil being moist, I thought I would not cover it
deep, but took pains to press the soil with my
hoe, and was careful to keep it free from weeds.
I had observed that where the weeds were left to
grow until they had attained a large growth it i"e-
quired more labor to dress the soil, and that the
earth was dryer and more barren. The year be-
fore, my father planted a piece of land with pota-
toes ; it was wet, and could not be planted very
' early ; before they were large enough to hoe it

520

NEW EXGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

■was necessary to commence haying ; however, a
certain portion of them were hoed, and the re-
mainder left until a dull day in haying ; it was
my lot to assist while hoeing, and I observed a
difference in their growth. That part of the piece
which had been hoed grew rank, and looked very
healthy, while the remainder looked slender. I
helped harvest them, and that part first hoed yield-
ed well — the others were smaller. The crows
pulled up a little of my corn, which I transplant-
ed as faithfully as I could, being very careful to
take up some earth attached to the roots, and not
disturb them. This I did by the use of a brick-
mason's trowel. Some of the ends of the leaves
turned yellow and looked sickly, but immediately
I was favored with a rain, and I soon perceived
that it began to assume a more healthy appear-
ance. When I hoed it the second time it looked
as green and promising as the other, only the
stalks were lower. At harvest it would have re-
quired a close observer to perceive any difference,
and the soil gave me a good yield.

The next year I planted a piece with potatoes,
and fitted the piece well, according to my under-
standing ; harrowed it smooth and furrowed it out
with a small plow. The farmers in that vicinity
were in the habit of planting three and one-half
feet between hills and rows. I often observed
that there was a waste of land, and resolved to
try an experiment. I made my furrows three feet
apart, put manure in the hill, and potatoes about
one foot apart, and a less quantity in the hill.
It was a forward spring, and as I manured well,
they came up and grew vigorously. I hoed them
when about three inches high. I had often no-
ticed that when left to grow to a foot in height
before hoeing the weeds grew as well as the pota-
toes. I hoed the second time early, leaving no
weeds to grow. About the first of July they al-
most covered the ground with healthy tops. I
raised about one-eighth more, I thought, than my
father, though his soil was as good and as well
manured. They were almost all fit for table use.

w. E.

THE STOET OF AN ATOM.

The atom of charcoal which floated in the cor-
rupt atmosphere of the old volcanic ages, was ab-
sorbed into the leaf of a fern when the valleys be-
come green and luxuriant ; and there, in its prop-
er place, it received the sunlight and the d|'j/»r, aid-
ing to fling back to heaven a reflection of heaven's
gold ; and at the same time to build the tough
fibre of the plant. The stem was consigned to the
tomb when the waters submerged the jungled val-
ley. It had lain there thousands of years, and a
month since was brought into the light again, im-
bedded in a block of coal. It shall be consumed
to warm our dwellings, cook our food, and make
more ruddy and cheerful the hearth whereon our
children play ; it shall combine with a portion of
the invisible atmosphere, ascend upward as a curl-
ing Avreath to revel in a mazy dance high up in
the blue ether ; shall reach the earth again, and
be entrapped into the embrace of a flower ; shall
live velvet beauty on the cheek of the apricot ;
shall pass into the human body, giving enjoyment
to the palate, and health to the blood ; shall cir-
culate in the delicate tissues of the brain ; and aid,
by entering into some new combination, in educ-
incr fhp thouirhts which are now beinff uttered by

the pen. It is but an atom of charcoal : it may
dwell one moment in a stagnant ditch, and the
next be flushing on the lip of beauty ; it may now
be a component of a limestone rock, and the next
an ingredient in a field of potatoes ; it may slum-
ber for a thousand years without undergoing a
single change, and the next hour pass through a
thousand ; and, after all, it is only an atom of char-
coal, and occupies only its own place wherever it
may be. — Hibberd's "Brambles and Bay Leaves."

CTTBB FOB PLEURO-PNEITMOIflA TN
CATTLE.

A Mr. Clote writes to an Australian paper as
follows : "The cure is simply inoculating every
head of cattle on the farm with the diseased lung
of the first animal that has either died of it or
(having evidently the disease) has been killed for
it. Various modes of inoculating have been
adopted. The first time it showed itself in my
herd I lost 160 cows and heifers, when I had all
the cattle driven into the yard, and with a sharp-
pointed penknife punctured the skin at the very
point of the tail till I saw blood, the point of the
penknife being well moistened with the matter of
the diseased lung. The disease instantaneously
stopped ; and although I lost one or two after
that, it was entirely owing to the enormous size
they swelled, particularly at the root of the tail
and all about the rump, completely preventing
the animal from dunging. Whenever this hap-
pens now, we make an incision, and, by fomenting,
prevent all fatal consequences. Some of the in-
oculated cattle lose their tails, and some only the
points, whilst the great majority don't appear to
suffer at all. Two years ago, the disease broke
out again in my herd, and several had it before I
was aware of it ; but the moment I inoculated it
stopped. A few months since, it appeared again
amongst some oxen I purchased, but by inoculat-
ing all on the farm there roas an immediate end of
it. These diseased oxen had been running with
my herd of cattle for a considerable time, and not
a single animal that was inocrdated two years ago
caught it ; only two or three I had since then
purchased got affected. In short, the efficacy of
inoculating is as much believed amongst the
stockholders in the colony as vaccination for the
small-pox. It is no uncommon thing at a sale for
an auctioneer to warrant the oxen to have been
inoculated to enhance their value."

A New Whippletree. — Many accidents oc-
cur from horses getting frightened and running
away, caused by the whipplctree being detached
and dropping upon the horse's heels. An inven-
tion to obviate this difhculty has been made, and
a model of the whippletree forwarded us by the
inventor, Jacob Muzzy, of East Eddington, Me.
The whippletree is hollow, and is strengthened by
an iron fastened upon the under side, of the same
dimensions as the whippletree. Through the wood
part a leather strap passes, playing at each end
over a roller. To the ends of this strap the fast-
enings for the traces are firmly placed. The
whippletree is designed to remain stationary, the
motion of the horse or carriage acting with ease
by means of the rollers at each end, and all noise
or clatter is done away with. — Maine Farmer.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

521

MANAGEMENT OF PASTUKES.

E are not aware
that any expe-
riments have
recently been
made in this
region to test
the practicabil-
ity of the sys-
tem we are
about to re-
commend, but
we, neverthe-
less, feel fully per-
suaded in our own mind, that it
cannot, if systematically and
rigidly carried out, be followed by other than the
best results. Every farmer is aware that a suc-
cessful process in the labor of enriching soils is
that of "turning them out to pasture," and that
soils which have been thus treated, and allowed to
recuperate during a series of years, are found, on
being again plowed and subjected to cultivation
to be endued with principles of fertility sometimes
equal to those which they possessed in their prim-
itive or virgin state. This, we conjecture, would
be the common result of the system when thor-
oughly carried out ; and we know of no instance in
which lands that have been depastured for a series
of years — no matter how carelessly they may have
been cropped — have been injured by it. On the
conti'ary, many exhausted fields from which all the
industry and skill of the cultivator were inade-
quate to secure a remunerating crop, have been
restored to productiveness in a few seasons, sim-
ply by "turning them out."

This was once a very common opinion in some
of our oldest agricultural districts. No sooner did
a field that had been robbed of its fertility by a
long course of severe and injudicious cropping fail
to produce liberally, than it was "turned out to
pasture." What the precise operation of natural
laws upon the land is, left in this condition, we
are not able to say with certainty, but have no
doubt that it may be fairly imputed to three caus-
es : the annual decay of the vegetable matter
which grows upon the surface, which serves as a
top-dressing, though it may be very slight — the
effect of the solar rays in attracting mineral mat-
ters from below, upward, nearer the surface, where
the roots of plants may readily find them, and the
fertilizing influences of the atmosphere, that great
ocean of light, moisture and quickening gases
ever spread over the soil and descending upon
it, to feed and perfect the vegetation that covers
the surface of the earth. We are inclined to think
that the principal advantage received by land in
a state of exhaustion, is from the latter source.

When land is thus partially or wholly restored
to a state of fertility, we too often find little in
subsequent details to recommend. After having
repossessed himself of a portion of valuable soil,
almost the first step of the proprietor is to re-
adopt the precise system of management, in crop-
ping, by which it was originally made poor ! In-
stead of carefully husbanding his re-attained
wealth, he goes immediately and blindly to work
to dissipate and destroy it.

The plan we have to suggest is this ; Let the
poor fields be at once "turned out ;" let them lie
two, four, or six years, as the case may seem 1o
demand, and until the soil has re-acquired its
former vigorous and healthy tone, and then, with-
out the intervention of any grain crop, or if the
object is grass exclusively, without any crop what-
ever, let them be laid down to grass. The period
for plowing should be that in which vegetation is
in its greatest vigor, although we should, if the
land is naturally thin and weak, prefer sowing the
seed the subsequent spring.

If thorough improvement is contemplated, the
grass may be turned in, in June, and a crop of
peas, millet, or buckwheat sown to be turned
down as a green dressing, and a few bushels of
ashes and gypsum sown, either before or after
plowing.

In no case should a ripe crop be taken, nor
should the young grass be fed by cattle untiL it
has thoroughly radicated or taken strong root.

In plowing, care should be taken to let the plow
run a little deeper, if possible, than in previous
plowings, in order to tui'n up some of the subsoil,
and completely to inhume whatever of soluble
matter of a vegetable nature there may be on the
surface, as well as to furnish a deep and genial
medium for the expansion and sustenance of the
young roots.

Lands managed in this way, we have no doubt
would produce bountifully for four or five years,
when they should again be plowed and laid down
as before. Four years is sufficiently long to crop
any land laid down to grass, unless it be copious-
ly manured, or it is moist, swale land, that receives
the annual wash of surrounding higher lands.
Long cropping and short feeding in the fall and
spring, and no dressing, will infallibly ensure short
crops, an inadequate return for the cost and trou-
ble of cultivation, and poverty in the end ! On
this topic a writer very truly remarks :

"However inveterate may be our prejudices
against book farming, as it is ignominiously de-
nominated, one great and startling truth is clearly
obvious, — we must either remove our former mill-
horse course of trudging blindfold through the
routine of those ancient customs and traditionary
usages which have been so long and fatally per-
petuated from father to son, or renounce our
farms. There is no alternative. We have out-

522

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

raged every principle of Nature in our system of
cultivation, thus far, and must now adopt a new
one ; not, however, immediately and at once, but
by degrees, just as the architect proceeds in the
reparation of a time-worn edifice, rejecting what is
worthless and rotten in its composition, but care-
fully retaining and improving, if possible, that
which is sound and goocl. Because our fathers or
our grandfathers persisted in hauling a tree from
the forest by the top, is no argument in favor of
our doing so."

These suggestions are applicable only to land
that is capable of being plowed. On those that
are not, a different system must be pursued, — and
what the system should be, we hope some of our
correspondents will inform us.

For tlve New England Fanner.
THEOKY AND PRACTICE.

Mr. Editor : — The object of every farmer, I
suppose, is to raise from a given extent of land
the largest amount of crops at the least expense of
time and labor. To accomplish this object, if he
be a M'ise man, he brings into operation all his
knowledge, Avhether it be theoretical or practical.
In his case there is a perfect harmony l^etween his
theory and practice. The one follows, as a natural
and necessary consequence, from the other. If
his theory be right, his practice will be right. If
his theory be wrong, his practice will be M-rong.
His theory and practice will both be right, or both
be wrong, according to circumstances. Many
things which appear to be right, and which are
received as true in theory, prove to be untrue
when tested by experience, and they are rejected
in practice. No one will practice false theories
when he knows them to be wrong. It is some
■what difficult to explain some true theories in
practical husbandry. The theories themselves
will sometimes explain useful practices, and point
out the circumstances under which they may be
adopted. Theories are generally the foundation
of all correct pi'actice, and form the basis of all
correct reasoning. Correct theories generally
lead to important practical results. But erroneous
theories frequently lead to grave errors in practice.
It is very important, then, and certainly we cannot
take too much pains to be right in theoi'y, which,
if we be consistent with ourselves, will ensure our
being right in practice.

Some seem to think that all theories are neces-
sarily wrong, merely because they are theories,
and that all practice is necessarily right. This is
a great and fatal mistake. It is difficult, I know,
to find two formers who agree in everything,
either in theory or practice. Plow deep, says one,
.if you wish to obtain a good crop. No, says
another, I shall do no such thing. I have tried
that long enough, and I know from long expe-
rience that it will ruin my land, and that I shall
only get a crop of stones for my pains. Compost
your vwnure, says one. I shall do no such thin^^,
says another, for it will not add to my manure,
and hy so doing I shall lose my time and labor.
Build you a good barn cellar to keep your ma-
nure, says one. Nonsense, says another, I shall
continue to throw all my manure into the yard,
as I always have done. Cut your fiay and /odder

for your cattle, says one. No, says another, it
does not increase the amount of nutrim.ent by
cutting it, and I shall only have my labor for my
pains. And so on, to the end of the chapter.

Now, here are theory and practice, truth and
error, all jumbled together in the most admired
disorder ! What is needed to solve the difficulty
is a little accurate thought and correct reasoning.
For instance, the theory of deep plowing may be,
and probably is, correct. But it will not do to
plow all lands, of every description, deep, without
regard to their condition and circumstances. It
will not do to turn up a great amount of the sub-
soil without a liberal supply of manure of some
kind. It will not do to subsoil twenty or thirty
acres with only manure enough for four or five.
It will not do to plow very deeply a great amount
of poor land, either Avet or dry, and then expect a
great crop because you have plowed it so deep.
No ; in order to secure this end, all the conditions
and circumstances essential to a good crop must
be complied with. The same is true with regard
to the use of compost manure, barn cellars, and
the cutting of hay and fodder for cattle. There
ai'e certain conditions and circumstances, in each
instance, which must be complied with, in order
to be successful. The same is true with regard to
theories generally.

Besides, there are some theories which, though
true, are yet of no practical importance, and which,
on that account, we should never think of reduc-
ing to practice. All useful theories, when rightly
understood, conduce to correct practice. In fact,
all practice, whether right or wrong, grows out of
some theory, as its germ, or root. It is theory
which produces practice — which gives it direction,
and renders it successful. We should endeavor
to understand this subject, and in the treatment
of the various kinds of soil — the proper mode of
preparing and applying manure — the adaptation
of particular crops to particular localities, and the
proper succession of crops, we need all the light
of science and of theory to direct and assist us.
Our want of success in these particulars is owing
to our Avant of correct theory and practice, which
alone can accomplish these objects.

TTT ■ J i\T lo^o John Goldsbury.
narwick, Mass., 1862.

A Novel Way of Curing a Breachy
H0R8E. — A correspondent of the Iowa Home-
stead was riding the other day with a friend, and
observed that one of the horses had a hole in each
ear. On inquiring the cause, he learned that it
Avas to keep the horse from jumping. "Why,"
said he, "a horse don't jump with his ears."
"You are mistaken," replied his friend ; "ahorse
jumps as much with his ears as Avith his feet, and
unless he can have free use of his ears he cannot
jump." He ties the tAvo ears together, and has
no more trouble Avith the horse. We give this
for Avhat it is Avorth.

"Thoughts on Economy." — The attention of
the reader is called to a capital article in another
column, on the subject stated above. We hope it
may lead many excellent men and Avomen to a
candid reflection of some of the matters so fairly
presented.

1862.

NEW ENGLAKD FARMER.

523

For the Ketc Ennland Farmer.
THS BIKDS OF M"BW EKTO-LAND — No. 22.

Yellow-breasted Chat — CeilarBird— Bohemian Wax-Wing.

The Yellow-breasted Chat {Iderla viridis,
Bonap.,) is exceedingly rare in New England, but,
being a more Southern species, is common enough
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the States
southward to Guatemala, and westward to the
Missouri. It is occasionally seen at Springfield,
and in different parts of Connecticut, and I have
recently been informed of a nest of these birds,
discovered in Lynn, the present year. It is a bird
of very singular habits, and peculiar characteris-
tics, and has long been a puzzle to naturalists, in
refei"ence to its place in zoological systems ; hav-
ing been placed in half-a-dozen different genera,
and in several families, but is generally regarded
as ranking near the Vireos. From Wilson's ad-
mirable account of this bird I borrow the foUow-

"In its voice and manners, and the habit it has
of keeping concealed while shifting and vociferat-
ing around you, it differs from most other birds
with which 1 am acquainted, and has considerable
claims to originality of character." "When the
male has taken up his residence in a favorite situ-
ation, which is almost always close thickets of ha-
zel, brambles, vines and thick underwood, he be-
comes very jealous of his possession, and seems
offended at the least intrusion ; scolding every
passenger as soon as thej' come within view, in a
great variety of odd and uncouth monosyllables,
■which it is difficult to describe, but which m<t\- be
readily imitated, so as to deceive the bird himself,
and draw him after you for half a quarter of a mile
at a time, as I have sometimes amused myself in
doing, and frequently without once seeing him.
On these occasions his responses are constant and
rapid, strongly expressive of anger and anxiety ;
and while the bird itself remains unseen, the voice
shifts from place to place, among the bushes, as if
it proceeded from a spirit. First is heard a repeti-
tion of short notes, resembling the whistling of the
wings of a Duck or Teal, beginning loud and rapid,
aud falling lower and slower, till they end in de-
tached notes ; then a succession of others, some-
thing like the barking of young puppies, is fol-
lowed by a variety of hollow, guttural sounds, each
eight or ten times repeated, more like those pro-
ceeding from the throat of a quadruped than of a
bird ; which are succeeded by others not unlike the
mewing of a cat, but considerably hoarser. All
these are uttered with great vehemence, in such
different keys, and with such peculiar modulations
of voice, as sometimes to seem at a considerable
distance, and instantly as if just beside you; now
on this hand, now oti that ; so that from these ma-
noeuvres of ventriloquism you are utterly at a loss
to ascertain from what particular spot or quarter
they proceed. If the weather be mild and serene,
with clear moonlight, he continues gabbling in the
same strange dialect, with very little intermission,
during the whole night, as if disputing with his
own echoes."

The nest is usually placed in the upper part of
a thick bush, in an almost impenetrable thicket.
It is built externally of dry leaves, lined with
strips of bark, fibrous rootlets, and dry grass. The
eggs are four, light flesh colored, sprinkled over
with specks of brown.

The length of this species is seven inches, stretch
of wings about nine. Upper parts deep olive
green ; throat and breaRt, bright yellow.

Of the sub-family BomhyrilliiKe (the Fruit-eat-
ers or Chatterers,) we have two species, one ex-
clusively American, and the other common to
both continents.

The common Cedau Bird or Cherry Bird,
{Ampdis Americana, Wils., A. cedronim, Baird,)
so well known to all fruit-growers, on account of
its depredations upon the small cultivated fruits,
may be taken as a typical representation of this
sub-family. It is found throughout nearly the
whole of North America, southward as far as Cen-
tral Amei'ica ; and throughout this extensive re-
gion it rears its young; and is even seen in winter
quite fiir to the northward, being influenced in
its migration more by the supply of food than
by climate. Small, roving parties are occasional-
ly seen in various parts of this State during this
season, stopping for a considerable time wherever
cedar berries abound, which, with a few other wild
berries, constitute almost their whole food through
the winter months ; yet I have found them, on
dissection, to be exceedingly fat, even in February.
These birds, ebgant and beautiful in form and
coloring, are most voracious feeders, subsisting at
all seasons chiefly upon fruits ; no kind that they
can manage to swallow, either wUI or cultivated,
comes amiss ; with which they occasionally gorge
themselves to such intolerable excess, that they
can scarcely fly ; and in May they sometimes stuff
themselves nearly to suffocation with the petals of
apple blossoms. Nevertheless they destroy many
insects, darting upon them as they pass, in the
manner of the Fly-catchers, or pursue them in the
air, like Swallows, for a long time together, as I
have often observed them do towards the close
of summer. Among their own species they are
very social, associating at all seasons in small com-
panies, varying from three or four to fifty, and
when they alight on a tree, they settle so closely
that a single discharge at them will bring down a
large ])art of the flock. In many places, epicures
consider them delicate eating. They possess no
song, their only note being a simple, feeble
screech, which is their call note. One striking
peculiarity of this species is its late breeding ;
while all the resident birds, and those that arrive
early, set about this occupation as soon as the be-
ginning of warm weather, some even in April :
these birds do not commence nesting till the early
broods of some other species have flown ; it being
generallj'^ late in June before the Cedar Birds be-
gin to lay ; and I have seen their young not fully
fledged the first week in September. The nest is
commonly placed in the orchard, and is large and
thick, composed of coarse grass and roots of plants,
well lined with fine rootlets, moss, and a wooly
substance found on several species of ferns. The
eggs are four, bluish white, blotched with dark
purple and black. Whenever the nest is ap-
proached, the female glides off silently, and how-
e'fer the nest may be disturbed, seldom makes her
appearance.

Length, seven inches ; extent, eleven. Head,
with an erectable, high, pointed crest, which, with
the neck, is a delicate fawn color, darkening on
the back, and passing into bluish slate on the
rump ; frontlet and lares velvety black ; chin very
dark, lightening into fawn on the breast, and pass-

524

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Noy.

ing into yellow on the lower parts ; tail tipped
•with bright yellow. The shafts of the secondaries
of the wings are prolonged into small, bright red,
oval appendages, resembling red sealing wax. The
whole plumage is delicate, the coloring soft and
pleasing, and the general contour and carriage of
the bird elegant.

The Bohemian Wax-wing {Ampelis garrulus,
Linn.,) is a little larger than the preceding, but
similarly colored and ornamented ; and some of
the earliest writers persisted in calling the above
a mere variety of this, from their near resemblance.
It is but little known here, being a Northern bird,
and is seen here only at long intervals, and in se-
vere winters. It is abundant farther northward,
and "millions" are said to be sometimes seen along
the borders of the lakes, between the United States
and Canada. It likewise inhabits the north of Eu-
rope, emigrating southward in winter. In habits
it appears to differ but little from the preceding.

August, 1862. j. a. a.

THE HIGHEST BALLOON ASCENT.

Late English papers contain reports of ascents
made by M. Glaisher, an aeronaut, who has reach-
ed a higher elevation than had ever before been
attained. On a recent trip he ascended to a height
of five miles and three-quarters (30,360 feet.)
Approaching that point, he observes, the correct-
ed barometer read 10.8 inches. "In endeavoring
to read the wet bulb, I could not see the column
of the mercury. I rubbed my eyes, then took a
lens and also failed. * * I endeavored to reach
some brandy which was laying on the table at
about the distance of a foot, and found myself un-
able to do so. My sight became more dim.

I looked at the barometer and saw it at 10 inch-
es, still decreasing fast, and just noted it in my
book. Reading was at this time about 9| inches,
implying a height of about o% miles, as a change of
an inch in the reading of the barometer at this ele-
vation takes place on a change of height of about
2500 feet ; I felt I was losing all power, and en-
deavored to rouse myself by struggling and shak-
ing. I attempted to look at the barometer again ;
my head fell on one side. I struggled and got it
right, and it fell on the other, and finally fell back-
wards. My arm, which had been resting on the
table, fell down by my side. It became more mis-
ty, and finally dark, and I sank unconsciously as
in sleep."

The writer continued insensible for some time,
but his place was taken by a Mr. Coggswell, who
ascended still higher, until the barometer is be-
lieved to have marked only eight inches, implying
that they were then six and a half miles above the
ground ! The temperature was then some degrees
above zero ; on leaving the surface it was fifty-
nine degrees Fahrenheit. The descent was made
without any accident. Pigeons let loose at an
elevation of four miles fell down like stones, and
were taken up dead on the ground.

Substitute for Yeast. — Boil one pound of
flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar and a
little salt, in two gallons of water, for an hour.
When milk-warm bottle and cork it close, and it
will be ready for use in twenty-four hours. — Ex-

For the New England Fanner.
THE VOICE OF AUTUMN".

Within a silent glen I, musing, walked alone ;

No flowers were tliere, no bird to cheer with merry tone

My lonesome way, and make my longing heart rejoice ;

But in that shady dell I heard a gentle voice,

A whispering soft, a low, melodious sound,

Amidst the fading leaves which strewed my path around.

It was mild Autumn's song, aa she, with busy hands.
Painted the leaves, and spread strange beauties o'er the land:
The words she sang were few, but wise, and softly fell,
Like sweetest music in that wild, secluded dell ;
And while she stained the woodland lake, and forest tree,
I treasured up her words, kind friend, for you and me.

Summer has passed away,
No blossoms deck the spray.
No bird with brilliant wings
Within the wildwood sings.

No breath of fra^ant flowers,
Lured forth by gentle showers,
Is borne on softest gales
O'er hills and fertile valea.

But I, with lavish hand,
Pour plenty o'er the land ;
And load, with yellow grain,
The cornfields on the plain.

And on the boughs I've hung,
Wliere summer birds have sung
And charmed the perfumed air,
The blushing peach and pear.

Among the tinted leaves
My fancy interweaves.
The golden apples shine—
With grapes I bend the vine.

Around their crowded bams,
Secure from rude alarms.
And want, and guilt, and woe.
The smiling farmers go.

The swamps, and forests old,
I tinge with red and jold,
Till pictures, rich and grand.
Make earth like faii-y land.

From nature's glowing book
I teach mankind to look,
With confidence and love.
To Him who rules above.

Her voice is hushed ; but mellow echoes of her song
Upon the hills and in the va!iej-s lingered long ;
And when her many charms, and magic beauty fled
From Winter's icy breath, and stern relentless tread,
I saw her gild with brightest hues the western sky.
As leaving earth, she soared to boundless realms on high.
Of<o6er 1,1862. s. l. tt.

Controlling the Inclination. — Tt is hard
work to control the workings of inclination, and
turn the bent of nature ; but that it may be done,
I know from experience. God has given us, in a
measure, the power to make our own fate ; and
when our energies seem to demand a sustenance
they cannot get, when our will strains after a i)ath
we may not follow, we need neither starve from
inanition, nor stand still in despair. AVe have but
to seek another nourishment for the mind as
strong as the forbidden food it longed to taste,
and perhaps purer, and to hew out for the adven-
turous foot a road as direct and broad as the one
Fortune has blocked up against us, if rougher than
if. — Chnrlotfe Brovte.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

525

HOUSE WABMING AND VENTILATION.

Those who have made experiments for the pui--
pose of determining the quantity of pure air re-
quired per minute b}' each individual vary in their
conclusions. They ])ublish from three to ten
cubic feet, but when physiological facts in relation
to size of lungs, health of persons and various
circumstances are considered, we concede the ac-
curacy of either amount.

We learn by science that the laws of nature do
not long permit the enjoyment of health where
pure air is not ; and also when health is lost
there can be no possible recovery of it without the
aid of pure air. When we breathe, although the
air in the lungs is on one side of a membrane and
the blood on the other, a reciprocal action takes
place between them. The blood receives,, through
the membrane, oxygen from the air, and at the
same time the air receives from the blood carbonic
acid gas and watery vapor. The amount of oxy-
gen and carbonic acid gas thus exchanged are
said to be equal — that is, pure air taken into the
lungs is expelled with about 85 jjer cent, carbonic
acid gas, and an equal amount of oxygen has been
taken from it by the blood.

It appears that a middle sized man, aged about
38 years, and whose pulse is 70 on an average,
gives ofl" 302 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas
from his lungs in eleven minutes, and supposing
the production uniform for 24 hours, the total
quantity in that period would he 39,534 cubic
inches, (agreeing almost exactly with Dr. Thomp-
son's estimate.) Meighing 18,GS3 grains, or rather
more than 11 ounces Troy. The oxygen consumed
in the same time will be equal in volume to the
carbonic acid gas. See Respiration, under Physi-
ology, in the Encyclo])edia Britannica.

It has been shown by experiment that pure air
once breathed contains 85 per cent, of carbonic
acid, and that the same air by continued respira-
tions would not take more than ten per cent.
Hence the necessity in the preservation of health
of breathing air but once as it enters and departs
from a room. Proper ventilation permits the air
to pass away after having l)een once breathed, for
in respiration the air expelled from the lungs be-
ing warmed ascends, and is not where it may be
received by their next expansion. But if by in-
sufficient ventilation air is breathed more tlian
once, it gives less oxygen to tlie blood and takes
less carbonic acid and watery vapor from it than
is nec^ssary for the preservation of health. The
efficacious action of the blood ceases because of
the deleterious presence of carbonic acid in the
blood and in the air. Carbonic acid gas has a lit-
tle more specific gravity than atmospheric air, but
the difterence is so slight that when in a current of
air it is carried upward, or if where there is no
current it tends downward. When a multitude
meet in a room M'hjch has not been planned to
admit fresh air, the carbonic acid gas descends to
the floor and from thence it accumulates upward.
When it enters the nostrils of the assembly the
ibices of all become pale, most of them think impa-
tiently of the pleasure of breathing out-door air,
and some, perhaps, faint. I am persuaded that
the germs of painful sickness and early death are
thus often fixed in the human system.

We reflect with astonishment upon the sad con-
sequences of bad ventilation — the great loss of
cheerfulness and success in the attainments of in-

tellectual power. A healthy circulation of air is
often disapproved by the untutored. As needful
medicine which is unpleasant to the taker may be
rejected, so a healthy circulation of air by a morbid
sensibility may be prevented. Because of bad
ventilation children in school may dread their
task. For want of pure air perhaps their diges-
tion is impeded. They then feel as if a heavy
burden was upon them. If they try to learn they
seldom succeed. If they succeed in committing a
])aragraph to memory it is soon forgotten. Being
ignorant of themselves and the cause of their mal-
adies, they judge themselves incapacitated for in-
tellectual pursuits.

It is from the same cause, very frequently, that
religious congregations have many members who
spend in church an hour of sleepy thoughtless-
ness, and return home without being able to tell
the points of the speaker's discourse, though they
had l)een where one of the most interesting and
instructive sermons was preached. It is doubt-
less because of bad ventilation that the power of
the advocate of the Gospel in the pulpit is much
less than it would otherwise be. Houses of wor-
ship are mostly so constructed that the impure air"
is driven, by opening the door, upon the preacher.
He, in the act of speaking, inhales it more injuri-
ously than others. Asa victim he may be marked
for an early death. The sympathy and defence
which he would have if a wild beast of the forest
should assail him in the pulpit does not appear to
defend him from the consequences of bad ventila-
tion, which fact is a proof of the absence of knowl-
edge in relation to the subject. — Artisan.

For the New England Fanner.
ESSEX CATTLE SHOW.

Mu. Editoii : — I have looked in vain for some
notice of the show in Essex County, which took
place at Georgetown this week, but find none in
your columns. Presuming that a word on the sub-
ject will be acceptable, having been present on the
last day of the show, I will give my impressions.

The Plowing Match. — This, as is always the
case in this county, was well contested, there be-
ing eighteen teams in operation. Everything was
done as well as it might be, on a field so poorly
fitted for the purpose. The field was the worst I
ever saw plowed. It was a miserable ])iece of poor
pasture, with no sod ; and full of cobble stones ;
neither fit to be plowed or to produce anything
when plowed. If the town cannot off"er a better
field, they may never expect another show. At
least, such would be my opinion.

There was a good number of animals present,
but few of them appeared to have been bred with
any special regard for improvement. If I do not
mistake, I could name farms in the county on
which are herds superior to all that were there.
This was not as it should be.

The show of horses was creditable ; some of
them being of the first order, but there were not
one-tenth part as many as there should have been
in a county where so many horses are owned, and
where so much good service is done by them.

Of the Working Oxen I cannot speak, never
having fancied the experiments of drawing loads
of rocks covered with boys, up a steep ascent.
This may be a good way of testing their capabili-

526

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

'Nor.

ty, but it does not suit my taste. I do not like
those modes of labor, that are out of the ordinary
way of work.

The sliow of fruits at the hall was limited, con-
sidering the abundance that is grown this season.
1 know of many a single garden in which a better
collection could be gathered.

But when we come to the meetings of the far-
mers, here is the rub. Some gentlemen had taken
u]) the idea that their talents had been hid under
a bushel too long, and started a project to secure
an election to the board of trustees. This, after
being thoroughly debated, was laid over for a year,
by being referred to a committee of one from each
town in the county. From which committee a
wise report may be expected, on which another
discussion will follow. A poor way to grow tur-
nips !

As I have before stated, I have attended every
meetmg of our Society, and of the Trustees, for the
last Jot ty-f our years, and I regret to say that we
are not any wiser than our fathers were, when I
first met with them. I think I can hear tlie shade
of old father Pickering saying, "O, wicked and
perverse generation — they seek a sign, but no
sign shall be given them." P.

October 4, 1862.

Remarks. — Our correspondent is certainly very
plain in his criticisms, but we think he has aright
to speak, as, if no error exists, it can be shown, —
and if there is, this may lead to its correction.
Our attention has been a little withdrawn from the
Farmer for a few days, in superintending a gang
of men wlw we-r£ ditching auil laying pipes on a
portion of our farm.

they plaee a kind of stone trough, covered with a
stone lid pierced with holes. These troughs com-
municate with each other by means of a small rill
made of bricks, and resting on the sand, and the
whole is then paved over. The rain water com-
ing from the roofs of the buildings runs into the
troughs, penetrates into the sand through the rills,
and is thus filtered into the well-hole by the con-
ical holes already described. The water thus
supplied is limpid, sweet and cool.

VENETIAN" WATER CISTERN.
The city of Venice is wholly supplied with rain
water, Avhich is retained in cisterns. Tho city oc-
cupies an area of about 1300 acres. The annual
average fall of rain is 31 inches, the greater j)art
of whicli is collected in 2077 cisterns, 177 of which
are public. The rain is sufficienily abundant to
fill the cisterns five times in the course of the
year, so that the distribution of water is at the
rate of 312 gallons per head. To constract a cis-
tern after the Venetian fashion, a large hole is
dug in the ground lo the depth of nine feet. The
sides of the excavation are sujjported by a frame-
work made of good oak timber, and the cistern
thus has the appearance of a square truncated pyr-
amid Avith the wider base turned upwuvd. A coat-
ing of pure and compact clay, one foot thick, is
now applied on the wooden frame with great care ;
this opposes an invincible obstacle to the progress
of the roots of any plants growing in the vicinity,
and also to the pressure of the water in contact
with it. No crevices are left which might allow
the air to penetrate. This ])reliminary work be-
ing done, a large circular stone, partly hollowed
out like the bottom of a kettle, is deposited in the
pyramid, with the cavity upward ; and on this
foundation a cylinder of well-baked bricks is con-
structed, having no interstices whatever, except a
number of conical holes in the bottom row. The
large vacant space remaining between the pyra-
mid and the cylinder is filled with well-scoured
sea-sand. At the four corners of the pyramid

DRAINING VP-ITH PIPES.

Since the admirable work of our Associate,
Judge French, upon underdraining, was publish-
ed, much more attention than formerly has been
given to the subject, and a new step in the Art of
Farming has been fairly inaugurated. Persons
who had no faith in the new power of the soil
when relieved of cold standing water under the
surft^ce, — or water so slow in motion as to have
the same efiect as standing water, — ^by giving in-
vestigation and a little thought to the matter,
have become so far convinced of its utility as to
make experiments, and thus demonstrate the rea-
sonableness and expediency of the process for
themselves. This has been done to a considera-
ble extent, — not only by those who are called
book farmers, but by many who have neTCT been
hasty to adopt new notions, and the more trials
there are made, the more popular the process be-
comes. Indeed, we think Judge French's book,
written as it is in a raanly and vigorous style, and
Avith so many happy illustrations and humorous
turns as to make it exceedingly attractive, is hav-
ing a decided influence upon our people in this
direction.

We have visited some old farms where the pre-
judices of their proprietors were as deep rooted
and tenacious as the roots of the skunk cabbage
which Infested their water-soaked lands, and found
portions of them wearing a new aspect in then-
crops, and smiling under the wholesome influences
of a warm, moist and porous soil. Most of the
experiments which we have witnessed are quite
limited, but are sufficiently large to afford com-
plete illustrations of the advantages to be gained
by the process, — and to satisfy the experimenter
that it is a money-maJcing operation ! When this
fact becomes common, little argument will be
needed to induce our people to make it a matter
of common improvement.

A part of the autumnal work on our farm has
been that of finishing the drainage of a piece of
land commenced in 1857. The locality is a nar-
row valley, sun'ounded on three sides by higher
land, and only the south-east side was then opened.
The upland on the edge of the valley was plowed
the preceding spring, but so wet was it, that the
work could not be done until the 27th of May,
and even then with difficulty, so thoroughly soaked

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

527

was the soil. Oa the following spring, and so on I was added a sprinkling of uninvited ox-eye daisy,
ever since, this land has been worked with com- [ or white weed, while the other side presented the
fort, and some portions of it even made into gar- : usual appearances of a wet meadow, — hassocks,

den beds any time after the 2()th of April ! At
the time of draining, the meadow was dotted with
hassock grass, rushes and skunk cabbage, which
all disappeared in the course of two years, with-
out the aid of plowing, reseeding or heavy ma-
nuring ; nothing being applied but a very light
dressing of composted manure. It will be seen,
then, that the season for farm operations on this
piece of land has been lengthened in the spring
about five weeks ! bevond what it was before

coarse cut grass, rushes, S:c. On retiring from
the field, one of the gentlemen observed, — "I
would give more for the crops of that land hereaf-
ter with ttco parts of manure upon it, than I would
for it as it now is, with six parts of manure.'' If
such is the case — and his experience in such mat-
ters entitles him to speak confidently — the crops
will repay the cost much sooner than our estimate
above indicates. The work has been done so ir-
regularlv, and so mingled with the other afi'airs of

drainage had taken place. The period of growth i the farm, that it will be difficult to arrive at the
und ripening has also been cousiderablrvxteuilsd. ! exact .cost jjor acre.

These results, however, would scarcely justify the i ■

belief that this land is capable of producing crops • BEST WAY TO DRY APPLES.

Buch as are matured in a climate several degrees j ^he best method that I have ever used to dry
farther south. Far from it. But it will produce i apples is to use frames. These combine the most
and mature the most abundant crops that it would j advantages with the least inconvenience of any
have utterly failed to bring before,— and bring ^^av, and can be used with equal advantage either
them at about one-half the cost of labor that is : '"' '^O^ng i" the house or out in the sun. In pleas-
. , Till. I ai^t weather the frames can be set out-doors

required on wet and heavy land ! i ^^.,5,^^^ ^.^^ ^j^^^ ^f ^ building,' or any other sup-

The drains have now nearly all been opened = port, and nights, or cloudy and stormy days, they
on the north-west side of the valley, there being can be brought into the house and set against the
some twenty-five or thirty laterals, of various ! «i'^le of the room near the stove or fire-place,
length, according to the pitch and position of the | ^ ^^^ femes are made iii the following manner :
. . . , , . ) Iwo strips 01 board, 7 leet long, 2 or 2;! inches

land, some ot them being not more than thirty , ^,5 je_t,^o gtj.jp, 3 f^g^ j^ng, U'' inches wide, the
feet in length, while others are two hundred, all | whole three-quarters of an inch thick— nail the
laid with pipe having an orifice two inches in di- i short strips across the ends of the long ones, and
ameter, and discharging themselves into the main j it makes a frame 7 by 3 feet, which is a conve-

, . , . , .^, . e ^\ • u 'c nient size for all purposes. On one side of the

dram, laid with iiipes 01 three inches orifice. , . . ., ' i . o • 1

' ' ' ' long strips nails are driven 6 inches apart, ex-

This side of the meadow being exposed to the \ tending from the top to the bottom.

drainage of a long hill with several acres of table- 1 After the apples are pared, they are quartered

land at its top, we have put the lateral drains only i and cored, and with a needle or stout twine, or

twenty feet aioart. They are all four feet deep, so j «tout thread, strung into lengths long enough to

, ,. , ^ 1 ^ ^1 ^i -11 I reach twice across the frame; the ends of the

that trom the centre, between them, there will be , • ^1 t- 1 4. ^u 1 ..1 » • i.

' ' .1 twine are then tied together, and the strin? hung

a fall from the surfiice to the bottom of the ditch j q^ the nails across the frame. The ai)ples will
oifour perpendicular feet, to every ten horizontal soon dry so that the strings can be doubled on
feet. That is, standing in the centre between | the nails, and fresh ones put on, or the whole of

two drains there will be a fall on the right hand
and on the left ot four feet to the bottom of the
ditch, for each of the ten feet from the centre to
the ditch itself. Under such circumstances, the
drainage of the soil will take place rapidly, and be
of the most thorough character, and the benefi-
cial results to the growing crops, having a warm,
moist and porous soil in which to extend and per-
fect themselves, will abundantly repay all the cost
incurred, during each five years hereafter, so long
as the land shall be properly cultivated.

On Thursday last several gentlemen came to
see the operation as it was going on, viewing, in
the first place, that portion of the land drained in
1857, and then the new portion, and comparing
the herbage and condition of the two parts. The
contrast was so striking as to arrest the attention
of all ; the drained side being covered with a thick
stubble of timothy and red top grasses, in which

them removed, and others put in their place.

As fast as the apples become suflicieiitly dry
they can be taken from the strings, and the same
strings used to dry more on. If large ap])les are
used to dry, they may be cut in smaller pieces.

I suppose that pears, quinces, and perhaps oth-
er fruits that can be strung, might be dried in this
way, although I have never dried any in this way
except ap])les. — C. T. Alvord in Coiintry (Jentle-
man.

Surface Application' of Manure. — From
the result of various trials, Professor Voelcker
seems to lean to the opinion that the spreading of
farm-yard compost on the surface of the soil, for
even a considerable period before it is plowed in,
is by no means so injurious a practice as we have
hitherto been led to suppose. He says, "that on
all soils with a moderate proportion of clay, no fear
need be entertained of valuable fertilizing substan-
ces becoming wasted, if tlie manure cannot be
plowed in at once. Fresh, and even well-rotted
dung, contains very little free ammonia ; and since

528

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

active fermentation, and with it the further evolu-
tion of free ammonia, is stopped by spreading out
the manure on the field, valuable manuring mat-
ters cannot escape into the air by adopting, this
plan." If this is a reasonable conclusion, it goes
far to remove our dread of losing, on such soils, the
better portions of farm-yard manure by top-dress-
ings. As the season will soon be here when these
dressings are commonly a])])lied to grass, it will
be useful to remember this fact. The best time
for applying the manure is held, by tlie great Che-
shire grass farmers, to be in the end of September
or the beginning of October, particularly in a
showery period, as the grass soon covers it, and
renders it less liable to be damaged by the sun or
drying winds. — Mark Lane Exjvess.

A QUESTION ABOUT MANURE.

Should Manure Ferment and Decompose in the Barn-yakd
OK TUB Field ?

It is the general practice in this country to al-
low the manure formed in the barn-yard duiing
the winter to remain there until seeding time in
the fall. Is this an economical plan ? Does not
manure undergo considerable loss in the yard
during the warm weather of summer ?

It has been calculated by those who have had
experience and the means of ascertaining, that for
every ten hundred weight of dry fodder, hay or
straw used, the farmer maj' expect from twenty to
twenty-five hundred weight of manure, in the
spring.

This ten hundred weight of dry food and straw
will, as before stated, i)roduce from twenty to
twenty-five hundred weight of fresh dung, which,
at the end of six weeks, will weigh but twenty-one
hundred ; at the end of eight weeks but twenty ;
when half rotten, but from fifteen to seventeen ;
when entirely rotten, but from ten to thirteen.

Thus, we see that, by the time the manure is
fully rotten, one-fourtli of tlie weight is lost, and
the mass is diminished in bulk one-half. These
remarks ap])ly to manure which is left exposed to
the action of the sun and rain.

The main loss is in water ; but there is a very
large loss in ammonia and other volatile substan-
ces, which are evaporated by the heat of the sun,
or washed out by the rain.

The question, then, is: Would it not be better
to haul the manure out to the field in the spring
and jilow it luuler, so that what loss by decom))o-
sition and fermentation iloes take ))lace may be
absorbed l)y the soil ?

If em-iching the soil was the only object in view,
it would, without doubt, by most econninical to
])li)W the manure under as soon as possible after
it is foruKid ; but there are other ])oints to be coir-
sidered, as, for instance, the state of the soil with
regard to texture.

If the soil is light and very open, it would not
be economical to ])low in long or fresh manure,
for it would have a tendency to make it still more
so ; the rain wovdd \vash the soluble portions of
the manure too deep before they could be ab-
sorbed by the soil, and in this way a greater loss
might be created than if the manure had remained
in the barn-yard. I5ut in heavy or common soils
it is undoubtedly more economical to plow in the
straw and other manure wliile in a long and fresh
Btate, for it will then have a tendency to render

the soil more open and permit a more free pas-
sage of the air.

English farmers think this is by far the better
plan, for it converts the whole field into a heap of
compost, and fermentation goes on slowly, and as
fast as the volatile portions are given off they are
absorbed and retained by the soil.

The crop for which the manure is applied must
also more or less influence the manner of applica-
tion. If the crop is one which grows quickly and
soon reaches maturity, it would not be economi-
cal to apply long, fresh manure, for the plant
would be done growing before the manure was
sufficiently decomposed to affect it much. But if,
on the other hand, the crop is one which grows
slowly, and it is desirable to furnish it with nour-
ishment throughout its M'hole growth, then long
manure will better accomplish the efl'ect desired
than common fermented or decomposed manure.

I consider that I obtain more from my manure
by spreading it on the sod and plowing it under
for corn, than I do by keeping it, even ivith the best
care, until fall, and a])plying it to the oats stubble
to be plowed in for wheat.

I think that the corn crop appropriates what
would be lost by evaporation, had the manure
been retained in the barn-yard in the usual way.
And when seeding-time comes in the fall, the ma-
nure is thoroughly incorporated with the soil, and
is ready to fertilize the wheat as soon as it begins
to grow.

I do not find from several trials that the oats
are sensibly affected by the manure, as I do not
turn it up when plowing for oats. — Qermantown
Telegraph.

For the New England Farmer.
AGRICULTUKE IN SCHOOLS.

I have often read the speculations of Mr. Golds-
borough, with respectful interest, but I must con-
fess, that I do not agree with him, when he says
that "boys cannot be educated for the farm in our
public schools." Pray tell me what is the pur-
pose of schools, if not to fit children for the busi-
ness they are to follow in after life, and what busi-
ness can be more important to the community
than the culture of the soil ?

May not thirty years of pedagogical drill have
warped the mind of Mr. Goldsborough, so that
he thinks more highly than he ought to think of
his mode of school teaching ? I think his com-
munication shows a little of that irritability for
which school teachers are apt to be distinguished.

South Danverx, Sept. 20, 1862. Sena.

How TO Make Cider Wine.— J. H Keck, of
Macon Co., 111., gives the following method in the
Cunntnj Gentleman :

Take pure cider, made from sound, ripe apples,
as it runs from the press, put 00 pounds of com-
mon brown sugar into lo gallons of the cider, and
let it dissolve ; then put the mixture into a clean
barrel, fill it up within two gallons of being full,
with clean cider: put the cask into a cool place,
leaving the bung out for forty-eight hours ; then
put in the bung with a small vent, until fermenta-
tion wholly ceases, and bung up tight, and in one
year it will be fit for use. This Mine requires no
racking; the longer it stands upon the lees the
better.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

529

For Vie New England Farmer.
EETBOSPECTIVE NOTES.

"How Shall the Farmer Improve his
Mind ?" — This is the caption of an article in the
Fanner of Sept. 20th, and in the monthly issue
for Oct., at page 478. It appears to have been
called out by a few remarks which were made by
the writer of the present communication upon an
excellent article on "Mental Culture," which may
be found at page 315 of current volume of the
Farmer, but unfortunately upon a misinterpreta-
tion of them. If Mr. White, the author of the ar-
ticle on Mental Culture, will once more refer to
the remarks made by the present writer, on page
386 of current volume, he will find that what he
calls a "pretty severe criticism" is in reality a very
mild one. He will find that his article was cred-
ited as containing some very good thoughts, while
only a small portion of them was considered as
"not well adapted for use among common (that is,
hard-working,) farmers." His ideas concerning
the cultivation of the farmer's mind were not con-
sidered nor called "Utopian and impracticable," at
least not in toto, and at most as only not well
adapted for use among hard-working farmers.
The present writer vecollects very well that he
highly appreciated and approved Mr. White's re-
marks on mental culture, when they fu'st ap-
peared, and most earnestly wished that the whole
fraternity of farmers would read and give heed to
them, as far as it might be possible for them, be-
ing confident that if farmers generally would give
heed to such suggestions, heaecolenUy submitted
for their profit and improvement, they would not
only secure an increase of power, of enjoyment,
and of self-satisfaction, but also contribute to the
elevation of the fraternity in the general estima-
tion, and to an increase of their influence, — usual-
ly a good one, and of a higher moral tone than
that of some other classes of society — upon the
choice of men for office, and upon the administra-
tion of public as well as all other afi'airs. Mr.
White's remarks were appreciated and credited as
highly meritorious, not merely for the aim or ob-
ject which he obviously had in view, viz., the im-
})rovement, advancement and elevation of the
arming fraternity, but also for the excellence and
utility of the suggestions and thoughts presented.
Such was the impression made by the bulk of the
article of Mr. White, and it was only feared that,
in recommending, as one essential requisite to
mental improvement among farmers, that they
should have a study or room by themselves, in
which thej' were to devote an hour or two of every
day to mental improvement, Mr. W. had not made
due alloicance for the difficulties and often insur-
mountable obstacles which stand in the way of
carrying out such a proposal into practice. Tired
and sleepy as most working farmers are in the
evening, how very few of them would think it
worth while to kindle up a fire in a study or sep-
arate room for any such purpose, and how few of
them would be able to keep from falling asleep
over their books or papers even if there were a
room already warmed and ready for use ! Here
and there, there may be one or a few, to whom
such advice is sufficiently well adapted, but for the
mass of hard-working farn-^ers it is still thought
that that one portion of Mr. White's suggestions
was "not well adapted for use." No one would

more heartily rejoice, or be more ready to indulge
in high hopes of a good time coming, than would
the present writer, if only he could banish such
fears, or even half persuade himself that a large
majority of his brother farmers were so resolutely
bent on the increase of their mind-power, and on
the elevation of themselves and their brother far-
mers to a higher rank, and reputation, and influ-
ence, that they would allow no winter evennig nor
any other leisure hours to pass without being
made to ccmtrilmte in some way to these worthy
objects. Were the farmers generally but fired
with such an ambition, and resolutely bent upon
making every day and every hour contribute more
or less to the accomplishment of the objects just
specified, they would then either adopt such a plaa
of separate study as that proposed by Mr. W., or
they would make the common sitting-room for the
family a scene like a school-room where either
some one read for all, and all made remarks on
what was read ; or the father heard some of the
children recite some appropriate lesson, or ques-
tioned them as to some study or course of read-
ing ; or each was busy in reading, writing, con-
versing and comparing ideas, or other mental ex-
ercise : — and all this mental activity and busy em-
ployment of leisure hours would naturally follow
as a spontaneous outflow from the fire of ambi-
tion and resolution within. Once let the love of
improvement, and the desire of possessing a well-
stored and a vigorous mind, be kindled up within,
and though individuals may here and there adopt
the plans proposed or followed by others, yet usu-
ally each individual and each family will have some
peculiarity in their methods of employing their
time and the materials at their command, accord-
ing to peculiarities in their circumstances, the
tastes, the means, the literary helps, &c., of such
individuals or families.

TJte great pre-requisite of mental culture is,
therefore, a deep, fixed, persevering, all-conqxier-
ing love of knowledge and of mind-power ; with
this each individual, family, or mutual-improve-
ment club, will readily devise or soon discover the
methods best adapted to their particular circum-
stances, better than an outsider could prescribe a
well-adapted plan ; and without this love of im-
provement and of knowledge as a mainspring
within to keep the mental machinery in motion,
the best plan that may be proposed will be un-
heeded and fruitless. Thanks and praise are due
to Mr. W. for his eff"orts to improve and elevate
the farming and laboring classes.

P. S. — The writer of the foregoing regrets very
much that, owing to a limited amount of space
and time at his command when he penned the
brief comments made on Mr White's article on
Mental Culture, he should have expressed his
views so incompletely, as to leave any room what-
ever for the construction put upon them by Mr.
W. He regrets that Mr. W. should have had any
occasion whatever for deeming the writer's re-
marks as "severe criticism," or for having his
feelings wounded in any degree whatever. Still, it
seems that, after perusing the foregoing remarks,
Mr. W. will perceive that he did not exactly un-
derstand the purport of the criticisms which to him
seemed severe, and that they were not so unap-
preciative or condemnatory as he seems to have
supposed them, most probably from a hurried
silance.

530

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

Notwithstanding the severe sentence which he
thought had been pronounced upon his views,
Mr. White deserves much credit for the unresent-
fid and truth-loving spirit in which he noticed
the su])posed severity. He represents himself
as perfectly willing to have his opinions called
in question, and subjected to a sifting process. He
obviously cares more for the establishment and
dissemination of the truth, than of any particular
or favorite views of his own. Would that such a
spirit were more prevalent than it is. There
would be less unseemly controversies and less em-
bittered feelings among those who differ in their
views.

How very different the spirit in which a writer
on page 474 notices the article of "More Anon,"
in which the latter calls in question some of the
opinions advanced by the former. It is a spirit of
wounded self-esteem, and of baseless resentment,
and not of love of truth more than of individual
opinions. More Anon.

THE APPliE TREE BOBEB.

We hear so much of the damage done by the
apple tree borer, and have so many personal in-
quiries in relation to the pest, that we make spe-
cial use of the following note, instead of trans-
ferring it, as usual, to the column of "Extracts
and Replies."

borers in apple trees.

I want to know if there is any way to get rid
of, or prevent, the apple tree borer ? I have an
orchard of about fifty-five trees, young and old,
and I have dug out about one hundred borers,
this season, from them. Some of the young trees
are badly hurt by them. I saw two articles, (in
the Monthly Farmer, I believe,) to get rid of
them ; one was to dig away all the dirt from
around the tree, and the other was to pile up dirt
around the tree. I have never tried either. For
three or four years past I have put a little pile of
ashes around each tree ; but it does no good ;
they increase every year. My trees are on good
ground, stony and warm, and top-dressed every
year. The apples are a good deal wormy, and I
always pick up the windfalls and put them in the
hog-pen. The trees grow middling well, and I
keep them well trimmed and cared for.

Charles D. Bartlett.

West Hatfield, Oct., 1862.

We have more than a thousand fruit trees on
our little farm, and have never yet seen a borer
among them, nor the effects of one on any of the
fruit trees. A few fine young locust trees were
entu-ely ruined by the beetle named Clytns pidus,
or the painted Clytus, we suppose, which stood
only a short distance from several apple and pear
trees.

The modes recommended on all sides, seem to
be simple and few, by which to prevent or destroy
these pests. Downing says the most effectual
mode of destroying it is that of killing it by
thrusting a flexible wire as far as possible into its
hole. We have practiced this on the trees of

some of our friends, and with pretty good suc-
cess. This practice will be a perplexing one at
first, by not understanding how to manage the
wire, and secondly, in being puzzled to find the
hole of the depredator. The first difficulty will
vanish after a little patient practice, and one will
be able to move a soft, flexible Avire in almost any
direction which the hole may take. The second
requires some knowledge of the habits of the in-
sect, whereby the evidences of its presence may
direct us to the creature himself. It ap]iears that
the butterfly, or miller, that produces the borer,
flies in the night, and deposits its eggs in the
bark of the tree, and generally quite near the
ground, during the months of June and July. It
is supposed that it remains in the tree, in the grub
state, two or three years, before it comes out in
the butterfly form. It is while here in the grub
state that it destroys the fruit trees.

Harris states that some of these borers always
keep one end of their burrows open, out of which,
from time to time, they cast their chips, resem-
bling coarse sawdust ; others, as they proceed, fill
up the passages behind them with their castings,
well known among us by the name of powder-
post. These borers live from one year to three,
or perhaps more years, before they come to their
growth. They undergo their transformations at
the furthest extremity of their burrows, many of
them previously gnawing a passage through the
wood to the inside of the bark, for their future
escape. When the beetle has thrown off its pu-
pa-skin, it gnaws away the thin coat of bark that
covers the mouth of its burrow, and comes out
of its dark and confined retreat, to breathe the
fresh air, and to enjoy for the first time the plea-
sure of sight, and the use of the legs and wings
with which it is provided.

It has been seen that the eggs are deposited in
June and July. By the middle of August they
have been hatched, and the grub so far grown as
to be able to go to horing into the tree, and to
cast its chips forth. Now is the time to detect
his whereabouts, and a little careful jjractice will
enable the orchardist to notice the chips which
adhere to the tree, by their damp appearance and
different color from the bark. They may also be
found on the ground, directly under the hole.
When this process is understood, it is not a diffi-
cult task to visit quite a large number of trees in
a day, and give the invaders their quietus. The
wire should be flexible, and the end held turned
over so as to enable the hand to grasp and hold
it firmly. File or grind the other end flat and
sharp, and then turn it up the sixteenth of an
inch, which will frequently enable the operator to
pull the grub out.

Some recommend to burn a sulphur match in
the hole, to plug it with camphor, to place a small

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMEE.

531

mound of ashes or lime about the collar of the
tree, to wash with potash water, soap-suds or
lime, and various other remedies. But the true
one, after all, we believe to be the use of the wire.
It is said by Downing, that where orchards have
already become gi'eatly infested with this insect,
the beetles may be destroyed by thousands, in
June, by building small bonfires of shavings in
various parts of the orchard.

Cole says, keep the trees smooth and well
washed, that insects may have no harbor. Wash
them in June, July and August, in a rather strong
lye of wood ashes ; or with
two quarts of soft soap and
one-quarter of a pound of
sulphur to two gallons of
water, which is still better
by adding tobacco, hen ma-
nure, and a little clay to
make it adhesive.
AVe present herewith a cut of the borer in its
perfect state, and of the full grown borer in the
grub form. It occa-
sionally deposits its ..leiflfflillW^
eggs in the trunk of
the tree several feet
above the ground, — but this is rarely the case, —
and it very seldom penetrates the limbs.

For the New England Farmer.
CATTLE SHOWS.

This is the season of the year for these institu-
tions to flourish. But the war, or some other
cause, has in a great measure put an extinguisher
upon them. If the same feeling should continue
for several years, they would have to be given up
entirely. I have seen no adequate reasons for
this feeling, and only speak of the fact, as it has
come to my obervation. On reflecting upon it,
the question has arisen, whether the plan hitherto
pursued, of exhibiting a few select superior ani-
mals, was the best to be adopted for improving
the breeds of animals ; or whether it would not
be better to bring forward entire herds of twenty,
or more, bred and reared on the same farm, in a
period of four or five years. This would lead to a
selection of the best animals as breeders, and
would establish the best modes of managing them.

October, 1862. Mass.

Keeping Winter Squashes. — There is just
this one simple rule for keeping winter squashes :
Put them in a dry, warm place, and they will not
rot. It is a warm, damp atmosphere, like that in
moist cellars, that causes decay. A dry stove-
room or furnace heated room, which never gets
cold, or a closet near the fire-place, which never
gets cool enough to freeze, are good places in
which to winter squashes and pumpkins. They
also keep well hung up in baskets or bags over-
head in the kitchen or on a hanging shelf. They
should always be stowed singly — never in piles —
when you wish to preserve them a long time.

THINNING OP FRUITS.

We attended the meetings of the U. S. Pomo-
logical Society, recently held in this city, and lis-
tened to the proceedings with much interest. We
found the members as earnest in debate, and as
tenacious of their opinions as though discussing
some grave question of a material character, and
the enthusiasm manifested gave the whole a lively
and pleasant character. Enthusiasm gives tone,
color and attraction to everything we do, and even
in our deliberative assemblies, without it, they
seem but a dignified set of owls or automatons.

The address of President Wilder was an ex-
cellent one, and was listened to with an unmista-
kable gratification. Below, we give some of its
leading thoughts, with the intention of quoting
again at a future time. What we present now, is
earnestly commended to every reader.

One lesson which experience has taught us, is
the importance of thinning the fruit, especially of
apples and pears. This branch of pomology has
received comparatively but little attention. There
is a limit to the capacity of all created things. If
you lax the energies of an animal too severely for
a long time, the result will be premature age and
decaj . Subject any vegetable or mineral substance
to too great pressure, and you destroy its powers
of cohesion. So if you permit a tree to bear be-
yond its strength, you injure its fruit, retard its
growth, and shorten its life. All have observed
that superfecundity one year, produces barrenness
the next. Hence we hear among our farmers and
gardeners of what they term the bearing year.
They invariably designate the Baldwin apple as a
tree that bears on alternate years. But is not the
cause of this alternation found in the fact that the
abundant crop of the bearing year exhausts the
energies of the tree, and absorbs the pabulum so
as not to leave sufiicient aliment for the formation
of fruit spurs the succeeding year ? Many varie-
ties have a tendency to overbearing, especially
those which produce their fruit in clusters. Na-
ture herself teaches us the remedy for this evil,
and a superabundance of blossom is generally fol-
lowed by a profuse falling of the embryo fruit.
When and where this dropping is not sufficient to
prevent overbearing, we should resort to the pro-
cess of relieving the tree of a portion of its fruit.

The organism which carries on healthful devel-
opment, in order to repeat its cycle of functions
from year to year, cannot be overworked without
time for recuperation. Whatever of nutrition goes
to the support of useless branches, or a redundan-
cy of fruit, abstracts that strength from the tree
which would otherwise be appropriated to the per-
fection of the croj), and the development of the
spurs which Avould bear fruit the next year. One
of the best cultivators in the vicinity of Boston,
has reduced this theory to pi-actice, with the hap-
piest efi'ect, in the cultivation of the pear. His
system allows no useless wood, nor more fruit,
than the tree can properly sustain. As a conse-
quence, he produces every year superior fruit,
which commands the highest price. Some have
doubted whether this practice can be made remu-
nerative, except in its application to the finer fruits.
But another cultivator, who raises an annual crop

532

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

of the best apples, afssures us that the secret of
his success is the thinning of the fruit, and he has
no doul)t of the economy of the practice. No good
farmer doubts the necessity of thinning his root
crops, no vif/neron the propriety of thinning his
grapes. Analogy of cultivation, therefore, justifies
the practice, and I entertain no question of its
great importance.

Light, air and moisture are essential to the pro-
duction of vegetable products, and especially of
fine fruits. Who has not observed that the best
specimens of fruits on a tree are ordinarily those
which are most exposed to these elements ? Who
does not select the full-sized ruddy fruit, which
has had free communion with light, heat, and air,
in preference to the half-fed specimen which has
shared its own proper nourishment with five or
six crowded rivals on the same spur ?

An experienced English cultivator says : "The
bending of branches of trees by an overcrop of
fniit, is most injurious, for the pores of the woody
stalk are strained on the one side of the bend, and
compressed on the other ; hence the vessels
through which the requisite nourishment flows, be-
ing partially shut up, the growth of the fruit is re-
tarded in proportion to the straining and compres-
sion of the stalk." This is illustrated in tlie over-
bearing of some varieties, which, from a redun-
dancy of fruit, without the jirocess of early and
thorough thinning, seldom produce good speci-
mens, and in a few years become stinted and un-
healthy trees. The overbearing of a tree is as
much a tax upon its energies and constitution, as
is the exhaustion of a field by exctssive crops of
the same kind, year after year, without a return of
nutritive materials. Liexhaustible fertility is a chi-
mera of the imagination. Sooner or later, the
richest soils will require a restoration of what has
been abstracted by vegetation. However fertile
at first, the constant overcropping of the soil is a
reduction of the elements on which health and
fruilfulness de])end. This great principle of sus-
tenance and reciprocal relation runs through the
whole mass of life, of mind and of matter.

Intimately connected with this process of thin-
ning, is the time when the work should be execut-
ed. It should not be done before we can distin-
tinguish the choicest specimens in a cluster of
fruit, nor delayed so long as to waste the energies
of the tree. This practice, judiciously followed,
will supei'cede the necessity of staying up the
branches, will prevent injury to the tree by their
breaking, and will prove decidedly economical.

Associated with the thinning of fruits is the ex-
pediency of gathering a part of the crop as soon as
it approaches maturity. The remaining specimens
will thereby be much increased in size and excel-
lence. The fruit of a tree does not all come to
maturity at the same time, hence this successional
gathering will turn the crop to the highest practi-
cal account, and will keep the productive energies
of the tree in a healthful and profitable condition.

Tkeatment of Horses' Feet. — Mr. Gamgee,
Sen., in the Edinburgh Veterinary Eeinew for Au-
gust, says : — "The day will, I believe, soon come
when people will not allow cutting instruments to
touch the soles of their horses' feet. I have said
in former papers that the wall, sole and frog are
so constructed that they mutually co-operate, and I

that the intermediate horn, which I have shown is
secreted between the wall and sole at their union,
is also required to be left entii'e ; but, by the pre-
vailing custom of cutting the hoof, these substan-
ces, which in their nature are rebounding springs,
are destroyed or greatly impaired. The custom
of thinning the sole, and likewise of keeping that
part always in cow dung, or other wet soddening
material, under the name of 'stoppings,' was
brought much into vogue after the establishment
of our fin'st veterinary schools."

BENEFITS OP AUTUMN PLOWING.

The tillage and drainage of the soil are very
closely related to each other. So indeed are the
tillage and manuring the soil. And these, not
merely as cause and effect, are related — though
drainage does enable tillage, and tillage does alter
composition — but as being operations of the same
class and kind. And thus Mr. Bailey Denton,
though engaged in a lecture upon land drainage,
could not help referring to the steam-plow — as
the great tillage implement of the future. And we
had from him, too, the striking fact bearing on
the composition of a fertile soil, that in a state of
perfect tilth one-quarter of its bulk is air.

Mr. Smith, of Lois-Weedon, says that in all
clay soils containing the mineral elements of grain,
perfect tilth dispenses with the need of manure ;
and there cannot be a doubt that a deep and.
thorough tillage enables the soil to draw immense-
ly on the stores of vegetable food contained in air
and rain. Messrs. Hardy again say that perfect
tilth dispenses with the need of drainage, and
there can be but little doubt that deep and thorough
tillage facilitates the operation of whatever drain-
age may exist, whether it be natural or artificial.

Li both these cases, the useful lesson is well
taught, that it is .true economy rather to put the
cheap and copious storehouse of Nature's agencies
to its fullest use, than by laborious and costly ar-
tificial means to imitate expensively their opera-
tion.

Such a lesson applies, beyond the advantage of
tillage, to the methods by which tillage is obtained.
Among the earliest suggestions of cultivation by
steam power was that of reducing by its means
the soil to tilth at once. The land was to be torn
down as the deal is torn down at the saw-mill ;
though before the machine it may have been as
hard and firm as wood, behind the tool as it ad-
vanced at work, it was to lie as light and fine as
sawdust. But it has at length been found that it
is better to leave this last refinement of the tillage
process to the weather, which does it without cost.
The land is now torn — smashed nj) — or moved and
thrown about by plow or grubber in great clods
and lumjjs. This is best done in dry autumn
vAeather, and thus it lies till spring. Certainly no
climate is better adapted for cheap tillage than the
English — the rains and frosts of winter following
a dry September and October must penetrate and
thrust asunder the clung and hardened masses of
the soil. No two jiarticles shall remain adhering
to each other, if you only give room and op])ortu-
nity to the cheapest and most perfect natural dis-
integrator in the world.

No rasp, or saw, or mill will reduce the indurat-
ed land to soft and wholesome tilth, so perfectly
as a winter's frost. And all that you need to at-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMEn.

533

tain its perfect operation is, first, to provide an
outlet for the water when it comes — by an efficient
drainage of the subsoil, and then to move the land
while dry, and break it up into clods and frag-
ments, no matter how large they be, and leave
for alternate rain, and drought, and frost, and
thaw, to do their utmost. — London Agricultural
Gazette.

EXTKACTS AND KEPLIES.
rULLING-BACK HORSES.

Can you, or any of your readers inform me if
there is any way to break a horse of the habit of
pulling back when hitched ? I have a horse, as
free fi-om faults, perhaps, as most horses, who will
break away v.iien hitched in a shed, stable or else-
where. As I am no horse jockey, I am afraid if I
trade him ofl' I shall got a worse one, and there-
fore think it is best to keep him ; but it is not safe
to leave him, either hitched or unhitched. I once
heard of a man who owned a horse with this hab-
it and accidentally broke him of it by hitching him
on the bank of a miil-pond, and the horse pulling
back landed in the water. But it seems to me
this might prove a dangerous experiment.

I once owned a horse who was lame most of
the time from corns on the feet. I cured him by
building a new stall for him so he could stand on
the ground, and I would recommend this to any
one having a horse similarly affected. N.

South Walpole, Oct. 12, 1862.

Remarks. — We once had a colt addicted to the
same bad habit. She would break a three-quar-
ter inch new rope as though it were a tow string.
We had a halter made double, and of the best
materials, and was confident that no horse could
break it. It was used upon her in the stable for
several days. Whether she made any experi-
ments upon it or not, we never knew, but were
always careful not to hitch her to a post, or any-
thing else, that she could start. In a few days we
had occasion to leave her while pulling a wagon
from the barn floor, and hitched her to a post firm
enough to hold two or three horses. When ap-
proaching her from the barn, she suddenly settled
back upon her haunches and gave two or three
tremendous jerks that made her tremble at every
joint. When near enough we gave her a sharp
touch over the head with the whiplash, when she
tried the experiment once more, and that was her
last. After that, a piece of common twine wais
sufficient to hold her in the stall or to any post.
It will cost little to make the trial, and it is at-
tended with little or no danger. So long as a
horse continues to break his halter, or to remove
what he is hitched to, ho is encouraged to have
his own way, and the habit is strengthened by
every repeated success. Let us know the result.

FENCES — AN EXPLANATION.

The Farmer for August contains a communica-
tion from South Amherst signed "A Farmer," in
which he complains that I had written two articles
in reply to his in relation to my fence and that I

"had associated him in an ungentlemanly manner
with a bad man, and furthermore had injured his
feelings by giving him the right to build it, to keep
him out of the way of tem])tation."

In reply to the first accusation I will say that
the first article was not intended for publication,
but a private note of explanation to the editor, al-
thougii I omitted to mark it as such. The reflec-
tion that no one but himself knows who is hurt,
should, at least, mitigate the second charge and
the third, "to be kept from temptation" has been
the prayer of the wise and good in all age of the
world.

If it will not be ungentlemanly I will ask him to
send me his name by letter, so that if further
apology is necessary I can make it in the same
way.

Perhaps this will not appear unreasonable,
Avhen it is known that I have caused inquiries to
be made and have been unable to find him or his
fences. C. R. Smith.

Haverhill, N. H., Oct., 1862. .

FOWL MEADOW SEED.

Noticing in the monthly Farmer for October an
inquiry for fowl meadow seed, I would say that I
have some two or three bushels of seed, pure and
fresh. A sample having been sent to the editor
of the Boston Cultivator, was pronounced very
pure. There is not much sale for it here, as our
farmers have not got in the way of using it, but I
think highly of it. On one piece I have, it is
slowly working its way into the lower land near
it, rooting out bulrushes and the like. I would
like to dispose of the seed, and would deliver at
the depot to any address, at market price.

William A. Swallow.

Nashua, N. E., Oct., 1862.

For tite Aew England Fanner.
FALL WORK.

The busy, I might almost say busiest, time of
the year has come suddenly upon us. Farmers'
wives step quickly, talk briskly and work myste-
riously. Various curious dishes are concocted,
and put away for winter use. The curtains are
stripped from the windows, the carpets from the
floors, and woman reigns as furiously, and a little
more so, as she did when spring cleaning engrossed
her attention. Up stairs and down she flies, ever
busy, ever cheerful, no matter how much work
she has on hand, if her heart only be easy. But,
alas , how many wives and mothers are doing
their fall work, now, with drooping spirits and lag-
ging steps, thinking of some loved one, who is far
from home, fighting, and perhaps dying, for his
country.

The nicely made pots of preserves are set aside
with a sigh, and may be a tear, as the half-uttered
wish wells up from the heart, that Jamie, or George,
or Fred might sip from its luscious sweets;
but they, dear fellows, think themselves lucky
to get enough good wholesome food to appease
thair voracious appetites, without hardly casting a
thought upon the sweetmeats they know are prob-
ably being prepared at home, and which operation
they once loved so well to watch. But cheer up,
wives, and mothers, and sisters of the brave men
who have gone to help save the "Dear old Flag"

534

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

from destruction, remember the fall work must be
done, and shall our women falter because the men
are away, because their loved ones are nobly doing
their duty ? No ! never ! but with true heart, let
every woman do her usual share of work, and
more, also, if need be, and leave the I'esult with
the Allwise Father, who ruleth over all things.
The pleasant month of September glided quietly
away, and soon October will be gone. With pre-
serving and pickling, sewing and cleaning, remak-
ing, removing and remodelling, the farmer's wife
has no spare time upon her hands. She is never
at a loss about disposing of the hours, but some-
times wonders how so much work can be done in
so little time. The sere leaf is rattling to the
ground, and each day she has new proof that win-
ter M'ill soon, with cold fingers, clutch all within
his icy grasp. Much is to be done, ere he succeeds.
Sometimes she gets almost discouraged, but as
one job after another is disposed of, she becomes
cheerful and happy, and with eager step performs
her round of duty.

O, for one more sight of a fanner's kitchen fif-
ty years ago. The open fireplace, with its rousing
back log, sending bright flashes of ruddy light
over the white sanded floor. Its long strings of
golden pumpkins hung to dry, its rack of apples,
cut and cored and drying also by the rosy fire, its
bunches of "herbs" hung high above the reach of
mischievous boys and girls, its hooks drove strong-
ly into the plastering overhead and supporting slim
strips of wood, upon which things can be spread
to air or dry, while on the ends swing "the hats
of all, both great and small," when the owners do
not need them on their heads. It was a picture
bright with love and comfort, but 'tis gone, and I
see only a small, warm kitchen, with its polished
cooking-stove and well arranged appurtenances.

I've sometimes thought I would discard all mod-
ern improvements, and go back half a century,
but ah, me ! we modern women could not stand
one-half the wear and tear our grandmothers did,
and it is well, perhaps, for us that we live in sui;h
an enlightened age, when everything goes by
steam ! Sarah.

West Amesbury, Oct., 1862.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTUBAL
SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of this Society was held on
Saturday for the choice of officers. Joseph Breck,
after serving the society as President four years,
declined a re-election. The following officers were
chosen :

President — Charles M. Hovey, Cambridge.

Vice Presidents — J. F. C. Hyde, Newton ; C.
O. Whitmore, Boston ; W. E. Strong, Brighton ;
George W. Pratt, Boston.

Treasurer — Wm. R. Austin, Dorchester.

Corresponding Secretary — Eben Dwight, Ded-
ham.

Eecording Secretary — F. Lyman Winship,
Brighton.

Professor of Botany and Vegetable Physiology
— John L. Russell, Salem.

Professor (>f Zoology — J. W. P. Jenks, Mid-
dleboro'.

Professor of Horticultural Chemistry — A. A.
Hayes, Boston.

HOW TO MANAGE FRUIT SEEDS.

The seeds of most kinds of fruit trees should
be planted in the autumn.

The seeds of stone fruit — peach, plum and
cherry — should be cleansed from the pulp as soon
as ripe, and either planted, or put into sand im-
mediately. If seeds are left in the pulp until
after fermentation has commenced, their vitality
will be injured, if not destroyed. So, too, if per-
mitted to remain out of the ground all winter and
become dry, they do not start so readily as if
planted in the autumn.

Cherry pits are sometimes put into a box and
mixed with sand, and placed where the frost of
winter will act upon them, and then planted in
the spring. I do not like this plan, because the
seeds start very early, sometimes before it is
convenient to plant them. The little plants are
very tender, and so easily injured that many are
destroyed by the removal from the sand to the
seed bed.

The safest way is to prepare the seed bed early
in the autumn, scatter the seeds in rows upon the
surface, covering lightly with earth, and leaving
spaces between the rows for the purpose of pass-
ing along to weed the bed. The rows may be six
inches, or a foot Avide. Some people sow broad-
cast, leaving no spaces, but in that case, if the
bed is a large one, the process of weeding will be
somewhat tedious, and many plants will be tram-
pled upon and destroyed.

At one year old, many of the seedlings Avill be
of a suitable size to transplant to the nursery
rows for budding.

Plum pits may be treated the same as the
cherry.

Peach pits sre sometimes left in barrels over
winter, cracked in the spring and planted in the
nursery rows. This is not a good plan.

Prepare a piece of ground in the autumn,
scatter the pits upon the surface, cover slightly
with earth and the frost of winter will crack them.

By the middle of May the plants will be com-
ing up ; they must then be taken up carefully,
with a transplanting trowel and set in the nur-
sery rows. The rows four feet apart, and the
plants about nine inches apart in the row.

By this method, the trouble and exposure of
cracking by hand is saved ; the rows are full, and
there are no gaps, where the seeds refuse to vege-
tate, as is often the case where the stones are
cracked by hand in the spring and the seeds
planted in the nursery rows.

Peach stocks should be budded the first year.
— Prof. J. C. Holmes, in the Ohio Farmer.

We would suggest an improvement in the
mode of planting the peach, founded on the nat-
ural planting, which occurs when the fruit dries
up and decays on the tree, and the pit afterwards
falls, planting itself in the soil.

The pits, uncracked, should be put out in the
autumn, in rows two feet apart, and one foot or
more apart in the rows — each pit forced into the
ground, point downward, so that the wide or
spongy end shall be upward. During the winter,
this spongy end will receive moisture, and when
frozen will split the shell, permitting the kernel
to germinate in the spring in precisely the right
position. For if the pit should lie on its side, it
will be likely to produce a diseased tree with the

1S62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

535

cot^-ledons below the surface of the soil. It is
well knoM'n that the germ is in the upper end of
the pit, and the tree, when formed, can only be
straight when the pit stands erect to germinate ;
otherwise the parts below the surfece of the
ground will be crooked, and if split when one
year old, the pith will be found to have changed
color just below the earth-color. If any of the
pits should foil to germinate the rows may be
filled up by transplanting. By this mode the nur-
sery rows will be formed at the outset, and the
plants will be ready for budding in due season.
— Working Farmer.

HEADING LATE CABBAGES.
It sometimes happens, either through the late-
ness of the season, or neglect in early planting,
that cabbages do not head completely before cold
weather sets in. These are often fed out to cat-
tle, or thrown away, while by a little care they
might be made to head during the fall and early
winter. To accomplish this, proceed as follows :
First, make a wide trench and transplant the cab-
bages into it, setting them together in a triple
row. At each end of the row, drive in a crotched
stake, and lay a rail from one to the other, to form
a ridge-pole a foot or more above the cabbages.
Make a roof of old boards or slabs, one end rest-
ing on the pole, and the other on the ground, so
as to shed water. Over this, lay a little straw,
six or more inches thick, and when winter sets in,
put on as many inches of earth, making the sur-
face smooth and hard, so as to be nearly rain
proof. At each end of the row, leave a ventilat-
ing hole, which must be loosely filled with straw
in cold v.-eather. Cabbages so managed, will con-
tinue to grow, and will fill up their heads consid-
erably before midwinter. When taken out in
spring, they will be tender, crisp and beautifully
blanched. — American Agriculturist.

Brackett's Seedling Grape. No. 1. — We
have had the pleasure of tasting this fine fruit and
desire to call the attention of our readers to the
description of it, given by the Committee of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society in their re-
port, which will be found in Mr. Brackett's adver-
tisement in this paper. In addition to what the
committee say of it, we will add that it is a very
large size grape, growing in large bunches, fre-
quently weighing a pound, and often shouldered,
though not always. This grape was the result of
careful hybridization, and while the vine has every
characteristic of the native variety, securing it
hardiness and vigor, the fruit possesses the rich
and vinous qualities of the foreign grape. Among
the many new varieties of this fruit which are be-
ing introduced, we have yet seen none which sur-
pass this one, and it is so incomparably above the
specimens of native grapes which are so frequent-
ly sent us, that no comparison can be made be-
tween them. It is far cheaper to bestow the care
and labor of transplanting and training a vine,
upon one such plant as this, than to attempt to
raise a good fruit by casting the same attention

upon a seedling from the woods. We bespeak for
the seedling of Mr. Brackett the share of atten-
tion which it merits, and shall have more to say of
it in future.

LADIES' DEPARTMENT.

For the New England Farmer.

BECEIPTS.

Perhaps a few well tried receipts will be of some
help to the numerous readers of the Farmer.

TOMATO PICKLE.

Take hard, green tomatoes ; wipe, slice and
sprinkle them over with fine salt. Let them stand
twelve or fourteen hours, then pour off the water
that has collected. Boil in good, sharp vinegar,
with a bag of spices, some whole mustard and a
few pieces of nutmeg ; strain the vinegar or not,
just as you choose, and put in the tomatoes ; boil
them till soft, skim them out very carefully into a
jar, so as not to mash the pieces up, and pour the
boiling vinegar over them. Keep in a cool place,
but do not freeze, as it will spoil it.

SWEET PICKLE.

Take peaches, pears, tomatoes, grapes or plums
ripe, but not soft, and peel them. Prepare vine-
gar by putting in brown sugar enough to make it
to suit the taste, and boiling in all kinds of spice,
clove in particular. Put in the fruit and boil till
tender, being very careful not to break it. Take
it out when tender and boil the syrup down very
thick and pour over the fruit. Eat with meat or
bread and butter. It will be found delicious.

TOMATO FOR WINTER USE.

Take nice ripe tomatoes, scald and remove the
skins, put in a pan and boil till all soft, then hav-
ing placed bottles in cold water and heated it to
a boil, pour your tomato into the hot bottles, and
seal with wax, made of resin and a little beeswax.
Seal hot. When wanted, open the bottle, pour
the tomato into a saucepan, put in a small piece
of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, two great
spoonfuls of sugar and a little pepper ; heat to a
boil, and eat with dinner or tea. If the bottles
are well sealed, the tomato will be found as nice
in Januaiy as it is now, and if you lose it, you
lose nothing but your labor and the tomato, the
Jixins not being in. Sarah.

West Amesbury, 1862.

Crinoline among the Orientals. — The
French papers publish accounts of the expedition
of M. Lambert to Madagascar. Its object being
primarily the spread of civilization and toleration,
the envoy took out for the princesses of that island
an abundant stock of crimson robes, having skirts
resplendent with embroidery, sent by her imperial
Majesty. But the object of universal interest
among the fair was the expanding crinoline, which
took everything else down, the only question being
whether it should be worn above or beneath the
dress. A French officer says that one of Ra-
dama's daughters decided on wearing the "cage"
on the outside, and probably that will be the
fashion in Madagascar.

536

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Nov.

THE BABY PAYS.

I have never known a house without a baby
that got along as well as other houses. I never
knew a baby that didn't pay its way in smiles
and kisses to deguile the toil-worn and M'eary.

"I was going out to-day to get some steers to
fat this winter, if that fellow had paid up his note
yesterday," says Wm. Nickson, as with a corru-
gated brow and sad look, he sat down by the
kitchen stove.

"My dear, I thought you had twenty steers
novv," gently replied the wife.

"Twenty ! and what are they to eat up a hun-
dred acres of corn that wont pay for hauling to
market at a sliilling a bushel. This miserable
war !"

"Wab, wab, wab," says the baby, and the fa-
ther's eyes mechanically wander to her, where she
is locomoting along the floor froglike, as fast as
hands and feet can carry her.

"Patty cake," says the older brother, and as
baby crowingly responds, the care-wrinkled brow
of papa relaxes, and the corners of his mouth be-
gin to twitch.

"You mind how she singed for a preacher on
Sunday ?" says little Charley.

"Thei'e never was such a baby !" says papa, as
he snatches up the little chit, and kisses the hands
that would fain twine themselves in his whiskers.

The steers and the cares are forgotten, and after
a merry jaunting of baby to "Banberry Cross," he
goes out to his field hands a better and happier
man.

For my part I pity the woman who hasn't got
any babies to win back the smiles to the stern
faces of the lords of creation. — Prairie Farmer.

Benefits of Relaxation in the Education
OF Children. — Sir Benjamin Brodie thus ex-
presses his opinion on this subject : — "It is only to
a limited extent that the education of children can
be advantageously combined with bodily labor.
Even in the case of grown-up persons, some inter-
vals of leisure are necessary to keep the mind in a
healthful and vigorous state. It is when thus re-
lieved from the state of tension belonging to ac-
tual study that boys and girls, as well as men and
women, acquire the habit of thought and reflec-
tion, and of forming their own conclusions, inde-
pendently of what they are taught and the au-
thority of others. In younger persons, it is not
the mind only that suffers from too large a de-
mand being made on it for the purposes of study.
Relaxation and cheerful occupation are essential
to the proper development of the corporal struc-
ture and faculties ; and the want of them operates
like an unwholesome atmosphere, or defective
nourishment, in producing the lasting evils of de-
fective health and a stunted growth, with all the
secendary evils to Avhich they lead."

I CATTLE MABKETS POR OCTOBER.

The following is a summary of the reports for the fire weeks
ending October 23, 1862 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

CnWe.
September 25... 3353

October 2 2S09

" 9 2706

" 16 2892

" 23 3466

Sheep and
Lambs,
6960
8557
8255
6726
7730

15,231

38,228

Shctes and
Piss.
600
450
400
400
250

210O

Lire
Fat Hogs.

2000

2500

2000

500

7000

The following table shows the number of cattle and sheep
from the several States, for the last five weeks :

Cattle.

Maine 3078

New Hampshire 1946

Vermont 5655

Massachusetts 365

Northern New York 897

Canada 326

Western States 2964

15.231

Sheep.

6849

2551

14832

2308
11498

1118

38,228

PRICES.

Sept. 25. Oct. 2. Oct. 9. Oct. 16.

Beef,^flb SgSQj 33.S63 35,g6J 83563

Sheep and lambs.. $2i(R3J $24333 $2|@3J $2^24

Swine, stores, wh'le.334 3 iQi 3ig4 - (g4

" " retail. 4 55 SigSJ 3136 4 (g5J

Dressed hogs 434J 4 (g4i 4^34^ 4|S4§

Oct. 23.
3327

$23341
4135^
5 ®6

Remarks. — The number of Western cattle at market this
month is smaller in proportion to the Northern, than it was in
September, and the average quality decideflly inferior. One
week something like 200 might have been selected out of the 600
at market, whose live weight would not have exceeded 900 fts.
each. October 9th, Mr. A. N. Monroe sold 42 such cattle, aver-
aging 814 lbs., 40 #■ cent, shrink. There have been, however,
some lots of choice, corn fed Western bullocks at market every
week, which have sold about 25c 4f 100 lbs. higher than the best
Northern o.xen. Occasionally a really extra pair of stall fed
Northern oxen have found their way to market this month. In
the report of Thursday, Oct. 23, a pair was noticed as follows:

Bouncers. — Mr. Berry Long had 1 pair of oxen on sale at
Cambridge, which, although not offered as workers, did never-
theless draw, pi-etty much all d.ay, a large crowd of men and
boys. Several experienced dealers laid the live weight of these
"steers" at 6000 tbs., or three tons, which the owner said was a
little too high, as they weighed at home only 5960 lbs. Mr. 3.
S. Learnard drove off these cattle, with the promise of further
particulars hereafter.

These oxen were not extravagantly fat or over-grown, but
were well-formed, active, and apparently in a thriving condition.

The number of Northern and Eastern oxen at market, October
23, was very large and the average quality uncommonly good.
As there were less than 400 cattle from the West, the trade was
quite brisk. Some of the marki't men said that more stock
changed hands on Tuesday of that week than on any other day
during the past two years.

Notwithstanding the large number of cattle and sheep which
have been offered for sale during the month, it is evident that
prices are higher at its close than at its commencement.

Hides are now quoted at 7 (g 7,'jC ^ lb. ; tallow 7^4 3 8c ; and
sheep's pelts at $1,50.

Working oxen were quoted in report for October 23, as follows:
6 ft. oxen $50 3 75 ; 6 ft. 6 iu. $00 3 85 ; 7 ft. $90 3 110. Ex-
tra somewhat higher.

Milch cows which are really good sell readily at good prices,
while poor ones, being by far the largest class, sell low and hard
at any price. Sales from $20 to $50 — many cows with young
calves are sold at about $30.

The trade at the swmo market is also improving, although the
number of stores reported is small.

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES.

VOL. XIV.

BOSTON, DECEMBER, '1862.

NO. 12.

NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors.
Office.... 100 Washington Street.

SIMON BROWN, Editor.

HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor.

SUGGESTED BY DECEMBER.

"Now, all amid the rigors of the year,
In the wild depth of winter, while without
The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat
Between the gi-owing forest and the shore,
Beat by the boundless multitude of waves ;
A rural, sheltered, solitary scene.
Where ruddy fire and beaming tapers join
To cheer the gloom. There, studious, let me.sit,
Sages of ancient time, as gods revered.
As gods beneficent, who blessed mankind
With arts and arms, and humanized a world."

Thomson's Seasons.

HE last breath
of the Old
Year has de-
parted, and
the new one,
with its icy
brow and chil-
, ling storms,
commenced. -
We can do
but little out
of doors with
advantage at
this season,
but we can
accomplish much within. While, in a great meas-
ure, the winter, with icy hands, excludes us from
communion with our fellow men, it, at the same
time, opens to us the treasury of literature and
science, and the advantages of retrospection and
self-communion. Well may the farmer, imbued
with a thankful and hopeful spirit, exclaim, with
the poet :

The work is done, the end is near,

Beat heart to flute and tabor.
For beauty, wedded to the year.

Completes herself from labor ;

» ♦ * *

There is a hush of joy and love.

Now giving hands have crowned us—
There is a heaven up above —

There is a heaven around us."

The earth is frozen ; the implements of husband-
ry have gone into winter quarters ; the herds and
flocks — the trees, the shrubs, the grasses — are all
hybernating. We have reached another stage,
attained another segment in the round of life, and
enriched by the fruits of our previous toils, we can
contentedly and quietly rest from our labors. We

can now

"Gather round the evening fire

And crack the jokes that never tire."

The best period of rest in the circle of the wide
year is now at hand. The business of cultivating
the earth and securing the crops, — the appropri-
ate employment of the husbandman — is complet-
ed. He has passed through the busy and labori-
ous cares of seed-time and tillage, the "joys of the
early and later harvests," and has, in the spirit of
true thankfulness and the cheering songs of
"Harvest Home," welcomed the last of his crops
to his cellars and his barns. The last of the
flowers have faded — the frosts have turned field
and forest to a russet brown, and the leaves that
during the kaleidoscopic changes of maturer au-
tumn, put on such gorgeous coloring, are now
changed to a sad and sombre hue, and scattered
over the icy ground. The roseate hues of summer
no longer brighten the skies, which look chill and
wintry, and even the few clear days that are oc-
casionally interspersed through the solar chain of
diurnal changes, are succeeded by cloud and storm.
Nature bids us pause and look back over the van-
ished year. The paling stars, the purpling dawn
and the rising sun usher in his morning, and the
splendid coloring of the evening heavens, with
their ever new and changing features of illuminat-
ed clouds, are his for a perpetual possession. He
is daily in the school of Nature — of the Great Ar-
chitect whose silent teaching, more eff'ectually
than those of the Garden, the Porch or the Aca-
demy— of sage or sophist, open up to his vision
the pathways of knowledge, and of the mysteri-
ous Inve wbr^'jp posenro i«! rli"ir\pcit, lorp.

538

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

The farmer, of all men, has the best opportuni-
ty to cultivate his taste. He may not, indeed,
have access to the studios of the painter and
sculptor, or the privilege of gazing upon the au-
gust creations — the breathing wonders of genius
on canvas or in marble ; but he has the privilege
of studying the forms fresh from the hand of a
Master infinitely greater than any that have
graced the earth, and whose inimitable and unap-
proachable productions meet him at every turn.
In comparison with these, what are the treasures
of the richest collections and galleries of art?
There may be no Apollos, no Psyches, no Venus-
es,no nude embodiments of ideal beauty and love-
liness, to excite unholy passions — no exaggerated
representations of heroism, to ai'ouse sympathies
which should never find place in the human
breast ; but he may gaze on forms and develop-
ments which have a refining and elevating influ-
ence upon liis mind and aflections, and from
which he may derive instruction that, if taken in
the proper spirit, cannot fail to make him both

'a wiser and a bettennaUi'

If he is a cultivated man, this is of infinitely
more importance than the mere mechanical drudg-
ery of the farm, the cultivation of acres, which, at
best, produce but a perishable product. The food
of the spirit — the material which is, "like the ban-
quetting of the gods," capable of sustaining a di-
Tine nature, has not simply an earthly origin ; it
assimilates to itself principles of a purer and di-
viner nature than can be developed by simple
processes of germination and physical accretion.

How true it is, in the language of the poet,
that —

"Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain,
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain:
Awake but one, and lo ! what myriads rise !
Each stamps its image as the other flies !"

The works of nature, like the works of immor-
tal mind, are eminently suggestive. When we
strilgs the chain of harmony in one of its links, it
vibrates through its whole extent. Within the
narrow limits of a hand's breadth, there is accu-
mulated the material for a history which would
supply a study for life.

"All over does this outer world

An inner world unfold,
And we can hoar its voices ring.

Over its pales of gold."

SINGULAR FACTS IN HUMAN LIFE.

The average length of human life is about 28
years. One-quarter die previous to the age of 7 ;
one-half before reaching 17. Only one of every
1000 persons reaches 1()() years. Only six of every
100 reaches the age of 65, and not more than one
in 500 lives to 80 years of age. Of the whole pop-
ulation on the globe, it is estimated that 90,000
die every day ; about 3,700 every hour, and GO

every minute, or 1 every second. These losses
are more than counterbalanced by the number of
births. The married are longer lived than the sin-
gle. The average duration of Ufe in all civilized
countries is greater now than any anterior period.
Macaulay, the distinguished historian, states that
in the year 1685 — not an unhealthy year — the
deaths in England were as one to 20, but in 1850
one in 40. Dupui, a well-known French writer,
states that the average duration of life in France
from 1776 to 1843 increased 52 days annually.
The rate of mortality in 1781 was one in 29, but
in 1850 one in 40. The rich men live, on an aver-
age 42 years, but the poor only 30 years. — Free
Nation.

ESQUIMAUX ARCHITECTUKB.

As the days lengthen, the villages are emptied
of their inhabitants, who move seaward on the ice
to the seal-hunt. Then comes into use a marvel-
ous system of architecture, unknown among the
rest of the American nations. The fine, pure snow
has by that time acquired, under the action of
strong winds and hard frosts, suflScient coherence
to form an admirable light building material, with
which the Esquimaux master-mason erects most
comfortable dome-shaped houses. A circle is first
traced on the smooth surface of the snow, and the
slabs for raising the walls are cut from within, so
as to clear a space down to the ice, which is to
form the floor of the dwelling, and whose even-
ness was previously ascertained by probing. The
slabs requisite to complete the dome, after the in-
terior of the circle is exhausted, are cut from some
neighboring spot. Each slab is neatly fitted to its
place by running a flenching knife along the joint,
when it instantly freezes to the wall, the cold at-
mosphere forming a most excellent cement. Crev-
ices are plugged up, and seams accurately closed
by throwing a few shovelfids of loose snow over
the fabric. Two men generally work together iu
raising a house, and the one who is stationed
within, cuts a low door, and creeps out when his
task is over.

The walls being only three or four inches thick,
are sufficiently translucent to admit a very agree-
able light, which serves for ordinary domestic pur-
poses ; but if more be required, a window is cut,
and the apertui'e fitted with a piece of transpar-
ent ice. The proper thickness of the walls is of
some importance. A few inches excludes the
wind, yet keeps down the temperature so as to
prevent dripping from the interior. The furniture
— such as seats, tables, and sleeping-places — is
also formed of snow ; and a covering of folded
reindeer skin or seal-skin renders them comforta-
ble to the inmates. By means of ante-chambers
and porches, in form of long, low galleries, with
their openings turned to leeward, warmth is in-
sui-ed in the interior ; and social intercourse is
promoted by building the houses contiguously,
and cutting doors of communication between
them, or by erecting covered passages. Store-
houses, kitchens, and other accessory buildings,
may be constructed in the same manner, and a de-
gree of convenience gained whicli would be at-
tempted in vain with a less plastic material. These
houses are durable ; the wind has little eff'ect on
them, and they resist the thaw till the sun acquires
very considerable power. — Sir John Bichanhon

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

539

Fur the New England Farmer.

TOMATO, SQUASH, CURRANT, GRAPE
VINE AND MANURE.

If we ask of the mechanic who has a small lot
of land with his buildings, why he buys his vege-
tables, the answer usually is, I have no land or
time to spare. Such replies I rarely find true.
They do not intend to speak falsely, but the small
plats escape their notice. I raise my tomatoes
on a piece 7X10 feet. I set out 15 plants ; each
hill was trailed, and the result was that I had
enough for my family. On the side of my out-
house and top of the division fence, I lead the
squash vines, and on the shady side find a place
for the currant bushes. Some other bj'-place finds
the rhubarb roots. The grape vine roams over
the side of my dwelling. The plat under the
clothes-dryer need not Avant for cultivation even.
Here a fine bed of beets might grow luxuriantly,
nor need a few pole beans take much space.

Most farmers find too much spare time after
finishing haying. One day among the crops in
eradicating the weeds, saves three days' labor in
the month of June hoeing. No time can be found
better for attending to the manure pile. If all the
long manure is collected, mixed with muck, and
shovelled over two or three times in the warm
months, it will be better prepared for the next
years' growth of vegetables, than it can be pre-
pared in the spring. The plant will not take hold
of its stimulants unless it is in the right state.
Therefore, it is better to have it ready to be acted
upon when the seed is put in contact with it. If
every one labelled all the seeds, many mistakes
might be avoided. Also, if he took pains to gather
the seeds from those species designated as females,
he would not find so many that do not germinate.
The lice which infest apple trees do not like to be
treated to a sprinkling of ashes in a wet day, I
guess, for they generally leave. s. P. M.

Cai^e Elizabeth, Oct., 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
BETHEL, MAINE.

Mr. Editor : — I propose in a brief manner to
furnish you a few of the most important facts
which serve to make this village one of the most
delightful in New England. It is surrounded on
all sides by mountains pointing far toward the
skies, which, clothed as they are in magnificent
autumn foliage, with its changing hues, present
many scenes most pleasant to behold. The lim-
pid waters of the noble Androscoggin flow gently
through the valley, near the centre of the town,
on their way to the ocean.

The intervals, cultivated highly and jielding a
abundant produce, show clearly the industry of
the husbandmen, and seem to bring them a mu-
nificent reward. Your instructive paper finds its
way to many of their homes, and perhaps this
may account for their success in part.

Bethel has not been backward in furnishing
brave men to represent it in the impending
struggle, as more than one Imndred and fifty have
voluntarily gone forth, and strong, sturdy men as
ever breathed the mountain air, now are ready
if needed. A noble young officer, Harlan P.
Brown, a citizen of this place, fell at the battle
of Autietam, and his remains have been brought

home and interred. Sadness seems to be cast
over the whole community in consequence. Ed-
ucated, refiiied, beloved by all who knew him,
under a sense of duty he went forth ; nobly he
did his duty, and fell bravely on the altar of his
country.

The Grand Trunk Railroad runs through the
village, and has a station here, making public in-
tercourse easy and direct. A good hotel is kept
here, (what maeiy villages have not,) William F.
Loopy, proprietor. Situated in a retired and
most pleasant part of tlie village, is the Highland
Boarding School, N. T. True, A. M., ])rincipal
and proprietor. This institution is an honor to
the State. Here the intellectual and moral, as
well as the physical wants of the students are at-
tended to, and a pleasant home is found for all
who come under its charge. Amicus,

Bethel, Me., Oct., 1862.

For the New England Farmer.

THE BIRDS OP NE"W ENGLAND — No. 23.

FINCHES.
Shore Lark — Pine Grosbeak or Bullfinch — Purple Finch.

The sub-order Conirostres, or the Cone-
hilled Birds, is characterized by the generally
more or less conic form of the bill, and is regard-
ed as the "typical tribe of the perching order." It
embraces many extensive families and sub-fami-
lies, as the Larks, Orosbeaks, Tanagers, Finches,
Orioles, Starlings, Crows, &c.

Of the Larks proper (Alaudidce,) we have but
one species ; of the others, so called, one is a
Starling, (the Meadow Lark,) and the other a
Warbler, (the Brown Lark.)

The Shore Lark or Sky Lark (Eremophila
cormita, Boie ; Alauda comuta, Wilson,) "inhab-
its evei'j'where on the prairies and desert plains of
North America," and according to Prof. Baird,
embraces two varieties. The "northern and east-
ern" variety inhabits the fur countries in summer,
breeding in Labrador, and descends into the At-
lantic States in winter ; the "southern and west-
ern" variety inhabits the Western prairies and
high central plains, breeding as far south as Wis-
consin, and passing in winter as far southward as
Texas. The Shore Lark comes to us from the
north in Octoljer, spends a few weeks with us,
and passes to the southward to winter, being
abundant, it is said, in New Jersey at that season,
and is seen as far south as Georgia. A few are
sometimes observed in New England throughout
the winter. They are often seen at Springfield, in
this State, in October and in spring. About the
middle of March they depart for the north, and
early in May are seen at Hudson's Bay. While
here these hardy birds frequent open plains, old
fields and the dry shores and banks of bays and
streams, keeping con.stantly on the ground and in
small parties, roosting together closely by a sliel-
tering weed or tuft of grass, on the dry and grav-
elly groiwid, abiding the frost and storm with
hardy indiflference.

Audubon says the Shore Lark breeds on the
high and desolate tracts of Labrador, near the sea,
where he found its nest. It is placed with great
care in the mosses and lichens that cover the dark
granite, embedded to its edge in the thick moss.

540

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

JJEC.

It is composed of fine {grasses, forming a bed
about two inches thick, and lined with the feath-
ers of birds. The eggs are deposited early in Ju-
ly, which are four or five in number, "large, graj'-
ish and covered Avith numerous pale blue and
brown spots." Like the Sky Lark of Europe, the
Shore Lark sings as it mounts in the air, and is
said to be quite musical, and its call note is mel-
low and pleasing.

This beautiful species measures about seven
inches in length, and about twelve in alar extent.
Above, pinkish brown, streaked on the back with
black ; a fan-shaped spot of black on the breast,
and spot of blac^ beneath the eye ; sides streaked
with pale reddish brown ; belly and vent, white ;
tail forked, black, the exterior feathers marked
with white. Two erectable tufts of feathers on
the head hence its name of Horned Lark.

The extensive family Fringillidcr, as common-
ly established by naturalists, contains those birds
known as Finches, Sparrows, Buntings, Linnets,
Grosbeaks, Szc, &c., and embraces many familiar
and well-known species. Following Prof. Baird's
arrangement in this family, we have the sub-fam-
ilies Coccothranstince, Spizellince, Passerellincc,
and Spizince. The sub-family Coccothranstince
embraces the Bullfinches, Purple Finches, Gold-
finches, Linnets and Snoio Buntings, the most of
which are more or less brightly colored species,
and are generally quite boreal in their habitat, mi-
grating southward only in the severity of winter.

The Pine Grosbeak, or Pine Bullfinch of
some writers, {Pinicola Canadensis, Cabanis,) in-
habits the Arctic regions of America, and descends
into the United States only in severe winters, and
is consequently a casual and irregular visitant in
New England, though sometimes found as far
south as Philadelphia. The present, or a very
closely allied species, (P. enucleator,) inhabits the
extreme northern region of the eastern continent,
migrating southward in winter ; in all countries it
is considered rare.

In March, of 18(50, a considerable party of these
Bullfinches visited Springfield, spending a week
or ten days in the vicinity, feeding unsuspiciously
in yards where the houses were standing thickly ;
many specimens were taken by collectors, includ-
ing two pairs taken alive by my friend. Dr. HoRS-
FORD, who is quite a practical ornithologist, and
ever alert for rare specimens. They very readily
became reconciled to confinement, and as the
warm weather advanced the mellow warble of the
males was often continued through the greater
part of the night. The last one was living until
quite recently, if not still alive in New York, where
it was highly prized as a song bird. The follow-
ing interesting note from the doctor to myself, re-
lates an incident that occurred nearly a year after
their capture :

"As I was sitting by the window to-day," he
says, "contemplating the mild and inoff'ensive
habits of my Arctic Bullfinches, and the delight
they expressed when I placed a mass of snow and
ice in their cage, they suddenly and with a scream,
dashed from side to side against the cage, every
crest erect, and every beak open. On looking up
I was surprised to see a Northern Shrike or Butch-
er Bird clinging to the sash near my head, which
he instantly left for a tree near by. The Shrike,
from the neighboring trees, had discovered his bo-
real neighbors, and making a dash at them, had

brought up against the window, while the Bull-
finches, not yet having forgotten their old and
mortal enemy, the Shrike, were thrown into a
state of terror and desperation. For full ten min-
utes they remained in the attitude of defence, the
feathers of the crest and neck erect, and the beaks
open, expecting the return of the Shrike. After-
wards, by way of experiment, a stuffed bird of
their own species being brought to the cage was
greeted with a friendly note of recognition, while
a stuffed Shrike v/as met with a scream of terror."

The Pine Bullfinch, says Richardson, leads a
quiet, retired life in the gloomiest recesses of the
pine forests of the higher latitudes, feeding upon
the seeds of the pine and spruce, and the buds of
northern trees and shrubs. Their nest is said to
be placed in their favorite evergreens, at no great
height from the ground, composed of twigs exter-
nally, and lined with feathers. The eggs, four or
five in number, are Avhite.

Length, about nine inches; extent, fourteen-
Adult male tinged Avith reddish orange, quite
bright on the head, neck and rump ; feathers of
the back centred with black ; two bands of Avhite
on the Avings ; tail forked. Individuals vary in
color according to sex and age. After moulting
in confinement they lose their brilliant colors, like
the Purple Finch.

Of the four species of Purple Finch, (genus
Caiyodacus,) said to inhabit the United States,
we find but one in New England, the remaining
three being more Avestern in their habitat.

The common Purple Finch, {Carpodacus pur-
piireus. Gray,) is well known here as a cage bird,
and highly prized for its excellent poAvers of song.
It is widely distributed over the continent, many
going to the northAvard in summer to breed, spend-
ing the winter generally in the Southern States.
It is not very common here, and in the summer,
in many parts of the States, it is very rare. It
comes here from the South early in April, and re-
tires southward again about the first of October.
The song of this bird is remarkably clear and mel-
low, somewhat resembling the beautiful song of
the Warbling Vireo, but is louder and more va-
ried. "At times," as Nuttali observes, "the war-
ble is scarcely audible, and appears as at a dis-
tance ; it then, by a fine crescendo, bursts into
loudness, and falls into an ecstacy of ardent and
overpoAvering expression ; at such times the usual
pauses of the song are forgotten, and like the va-
ried lay of the Nightingale, the ravishing perform-
er, as if in serious emulation, seems to study every
art to produce the effect of brilliant and Avell-
contrasted harmony."

In spring, they feed much upon the buds of
fruit trees, at the time they are just bursting into
leaves and blossoms, particularly those of the ap-
ple tree, of which they are extremely fond ; but
the species is not numerous enough to cause seri-
ous harm from this habit. In the fall, they are
more numerous than at other seasons, Avhen those
that have spent the summer northAvard are re-
turning, frequenting the garden and feeding upon
the seeds of various weeds, remaining till October.

It commonly nests in low trees, laying three or
four eggs of a bright green color, Avith black spots,
in a nest composed Avith no great care of dry
grass and rootlets.

The Purple Finch, or Linnet, by which name it
is commonly kucnvn as n cage bird, is about six

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

541

inches in length, and nine and a half in alar ex-
tent. Color crimson, deepest on the head and
chin ; back streaked M'ith dusk}' ; wings and tail
dusky tinged with red. The female and young,
until the third year, are olive brown streaked with
dusky. The young males sing while in this pale
brown dress, from which some have inferred that
the females sing as well as the males. The brown
colored birds are much the most numerous at all
seasons, and I think undoubtedly breed in their
immature plumage. j. a, X.

Cambridge, Mass., Oct., 1862.

PUMPKINS AND APPLES FOK CATTLE.

There has much been said in regard to the value
of pumpkins as food for stock. Some write in
their favor while others do not see any value in
them ; some saying the seeds must be taken out
or they are an injury to cattle ; others do not dis-
cover any harm in feeding them with the seeds. I
have been amused to hear farmers who have de-
voted years to their calling, say that pumjikins
dry up their cows ; also, that apples do the same
if given to them ; and that they are not worth
gathering for that purpose.

For the ])urpose of ascertaining the value of
pumpkins for feeding purposes, I had one yoke of
oxen (7 years old,) weighed about the 1st of Oc-
tober ; also a pair of stags 3 years old, (that had
just been castrated,) and a yearling steer, fed with
them, as they were taken from the field, (that is
ripe or green as they might be,) but as the fall
was fine they were mostly ripe ones, and were
nearly all gathered and housed before any frost,
which I think should always be done to get the
value of them. The oxen were unruly, and were
fed about two bushels each per day, and then run
loose in a large stable, and eat from a mow of
wheat, that was partitioned off" from one side of
the stable and filled when I threshed my wheat,
and so fixed that they would get what they would
eat without wasting. The stags were also kept
in the stable, but fed hay and cornstalks, with 1.^
bushels per day, and the steer had half a bushel
per day and run in the pasture, except he was
brought to the stable for his feed.

The result : The oxen gained 300 pounds, one
stag 100 pounds, the other 120 pounds, and the
steer about 100 pounds, which 1 think was as
cheaply done as could be with meal or any other
feed, 'fhe stags I have no doubt would have done
much better, but they were not well when the ex-
periment commenced, as they were ])ut in the sta-
ble and commenced their feeding immediately af-
ter castration ; they were fed without any regard
to seeds, some being taken out of the best ones
for seed, the rest fed as they were. Having plen-
ty of pumpkins, some were given to two farrow
cows, and they nearly doubled their milk in the
months of November and December, till they were
all fed out.

This year apples were too scarce to feed, but
I think from some experiments I have made, that
they tii'e at least equal to carrots in weight for
feeding to neat stock, and especially to milch cows,
they always gaining both in milk and flesh with
me, when fed on them. Apples and pumpkins
should not be suffered to freeze, as that injures
their feeding properties very much. — JoNA. Tal-
COTT, in Country Gentleman.

For the New Eglnand Farmer.
MANURE, MUCK, DRAINING, &c.

Not many years has it been my lot to live, but
in those few years I have given son:e attention to
agriculture. 1 find that the first thing in farming
is to have a good supply of manure. Now, the
question comes up, how shall the supply be ob-
tained ? One answers, haul muck into the yard,
and yard the cattle upon it. My experience with
muck is this, — as an absorbent and to ])rotect the
dropjjings of stock from the sun's rays by mixture
with it, it is first-rate ; but for a farmer to cart
more than that quantity, is useless. Great value
is placed on land inclined to muck, by many, and
they clear it up at great expense, but I have yet
* to learn of its superiority over other good soils.
It looks to me that a soil washed from neighbor-
ing hills submitted to a leach of time unrecorded,
is not equal to the virgin soil, which has in a
measure been protected from the storms of time
by the forest, and enriched by the productions of
that forest.

On every fiirm there is vegetation, if properly
cared for, winch is the farmer's mine. It can be
con\ erted into a stimulant for the ]n-oduction of
other crops. When we see a tiller of the soil who
looks well to his manure heaps, we may be sure
that his cellars, barns and granaries are well filled ;
that his buildings are properly cared for, that his
stock is in a thriving condition, and that his purse
is not empty.

Judge French, who has done more with his pen
than any other man in New England to incite
farmers to the benefits of underdraining, errs, in
my opinion, relative to the superiority of tile over
stone for under drains. I think that tile are more
liable to be choked than stone. I have seen the
latter, which have been used for years, seemingly
as free as the day when laid ; but I may eiT.
Farmers on almost all farms have stone which
would be a benefit to remove, and of course, if in
the process of removal they are transferred to the
place to be drained, without much extra cost, then
he has the material to build without buying. To
procure tile within himself he must go to the ex-
pense of manufacturing, which only a few farmers
have the convenience to do. I have yet to learn
that there are many cases where one can lay tile
drains cheaper than stone, if the farmer has stone
upon his estate. s. P. N.

Ca2)e Elizabeth, Oct., 1862.

God Governs Barns. — A wealthy capitalist,
who had made the most of his own fortune, and
what was harder, taken care of it, gives the follow-
ing as the secret of his success : "Honor the I.-crd
with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all
thine increase ; so shall thy barns be filled with
plenty, and thy presses burst forth with new
wine." The philosophy of the matter is simply
this, God governs barns. We arc willing to allow
that he governs nations, and guides parliaments,
and directs battle-fields. But Solomon, more-
over, knew that he presides over wheat-fields, sta-
bles, and wine-presses. We acknowledge that
God is to be worshipped in churches with prayers
and psalms ; but Solomon will have it that he is
to be praised also with thrashing implements and
gi-ain wagons. Reader, do you act as if you
agree with him ?

542

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

For the Neio- England Farmer.
TO THE YOUNG MEN

Who read the Ncio England Fanner, and all
others whom I wish to do so. In the first place,
you will please examine the paper, quality of type
and g-eneral aspect, and then the character which
goes to make up its contents. Take the present
number as a specimen — and now, if you choose,
compare it with any other paper in New England
devoted to the same class of interests, and tlien
decide whether it is not the best of any of them,
and for your interest to subscribe for it. Let this
be your first duty.

Then there are other duties which I wish to call
the attention of our young men to, which we must
perform in this life, if we would be useful and a
man. How is it with you, young reader, — have
you settled the point whether you will be a man ?
If you have firmly settled this point in your char-
acter, then one-half the work is done ; all things
else come almost as a matter of consequence.
Very few young men in this country can depend
upon family or friend, and none who are in health
will, for what is necessary in this life, to make up
a noble manhood. There may be those who are
called men, who have but to ask and they receive.
I have nothing to do with such ; they are the
blanks in human society, to all intents and pur-
poses, but I mean the thousands of young, clear-
headed, strong, healthy men, scattered all over
New England, who have got their character and
fortune to make in life ; their social and cash-
standing among their fellow-men. To these I ad-
dress myself. Having settled the point that you
will be a man, such as God approves and mankind
acknowledge as such, the next thing is, how you
shall accomplish your purpose. Decide u])on some
pursuit, no matter what, if it be honest, and then
follow it — stick to it — stick, stick, stick. Thou-
sands fail here. Llet nothing turn you from it ; if
you fail once, twice, yea seven times, do not give
up, but still stick to it, and in the end success is
just as certain to come as God spares your life and
time moves on ! I speak from observation which
has been somewhat extensive, and exi>erience, now
at the age of forty-four. 'I'housands of young men
have proved nearly worthless to the world, from
not attending to these suggestions ; because, per-
haps, at their start in life, a few failures and dis-
appointments came, they became discouraged and
gave up. I tell you, my young friend, t'nere is no
man here, not a particle of the genuine article such
as I mean. If there had been, instead of giving
up and ever after passing a useless life, these fail-
ures and disappointments would only have stimu-
lated them to review the ground where they stood,
and passed over, and with redoul)led energy the
blows would have been laid on heavier and more
rapid, and success compelled to come and lay its
trophies at their feet. She will not come, howev-
er, by giving up — only "be sure you are right,
then go ahead." Never look back unless to gain
strength to push more constantly, steadily forward,
and the end sought for will come. Is there any
exception to this law ?

Su]jpose you decide on being a farmer, and
agriculture is the most noble of all human em-
plojments, you have nothing to begin with but
your manhood, and strong arms. I would say to
you, do not be in too great haste to have a large

farm ; a few acres paid for will bring more profit
than a large number and a heavy debt to carry.
Still, I am one of those who believe there is profit
in farming — that the right man, in the right i)lace.
can nm in debt for his farm, stock and tools, main-
tain his family, pay for his farm and take the pa-
per besides. It has been done often ; I know of
those now doing it, but so far as I am capable of
observing, it is not the best course to follow by
the majority. There is more in the vtayi, than
any defect or fault in the business. I may safely
say this — get your money first, and the farm comes
as a matter of course. To do this you need not
abandon farming — on the contrary, while getting
the money you will be learning valuable lessons
for future profit. N. Q. T.

King Oak Hill, 1862.

"WHAT A VOLCANO CAN DO,

Cotopaxi, in 1738, threw its fiery rockets 3,000
feet above its crater, while in 1744 the blazing mass
struggling for an outlet, roared so that its awful
voice was heard a distance of more than 600 miles.
In 1797 the crater of Tunguragua, one of the great
peaks of the Andes, flung out torrents of mud,
which dammed up rivers, opened new lakes, and
in a valley of a thousand feet wide made deposits
six hundred feet deep. The stream from Vesuvi-
us which, in 1737, passed through Torre del Gre-
co, contained 33,600,000 cubic feet of solid matter,
and in 1794, when ToiTe del Greco was desti'oyed
a second time, the mass of lava amounted to 45,-
000,000 cubic feet. In 1679 Etna poured around
a flood which covered 84 square miles of surface,
and measured nearly 100,000,000 cubic feet. On
this occasion the sand and scoria? formed Monte
Rossi, near Nicolosi, a cone two miles in circum-
ference and 4,000 feet high. The stream thrown
out by Etna, in 1810, was in motion at the rate of
a yard per day, for nine months after the eruption ;
and it is on record that the lavas of the same
mountain, after a terrible eruption, were not
thoroughly cooled and consolidated ten years af-
ter the event. In the eruption of Vesuvius, A. D.
79, the scorife and ashes vomited forth fiir exceed-
ed the entire bulk of the mountain, while in 1660
Etna disgorged fnore than twenty times its own
mass. Vesuvius has thrown its ashes as far as
Constantinople, Syria, and Egypt; it hurled stones
eight pounds in weight, to Pompeii, a distance of
six miles, while similar masses were tossed up 2,-
000 feet above its summit. Cotopaxi has projected
a block of 109 cubic yards in volume, a distance
of nine miles, and Tomboro, in the island of Sum-
bawa, in 1815, during the most terrible eruption
on record, sent its ashes as far as Java, a distance
of 340 miles. In the district of Tomboro, alone,
out of a population of 12,000 souls, only twenty-
six escaped. — Recreative Science.

Gigantic Pitchke. Plants, (NepentJies, vari-
ous species.) — In "Life in the Forests of the Far
East," a new work on Borneo, by Spencer St.
John, we learn that Kina Balu abounds in many
species of those curious ])lants, more than twenty
species having been collected by Mr, Hugh Low,
son of i\Ir. H. Low, of the Clapton nurseries, who
has now been long attached to the establishment
of Sir James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak. One

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIMER.

543

of these is thus described by Mr. St. John : "The
morning, while the men were cooking tlieir rice,
as we sat before the tent enjoying our chocolate,
observing one of our followers carrying water in a
splendid specimen of Nepenthes Ilnjah, we desired
him to bring it to us, and found that it held ex-
actly four pint bottles. It was nineteen inches in
circumference. We afterwards saw others appar-
ently much larger ; and Mr. Low, M'hile wander-
ing in search of flowers, came u])on one in which
was a drowned rat." — Scottish Farmer.

CARE OF ANIMALS IN NOVEMBER.

One of the most dreary aspects of life in the
country is that of animals roaming over barren
pastures and exhausted fields, in the month of
November. They are turned out from the shel-
ter of the barn-yard, after a stinted breakfast of
dry husks, to ^vander through the gusty day where
there is nothing to eat, and Avhere the sharp north
wind is blowing away the very heat and moisture
which animate their empty bodies ! Under such
treatment their hair soon looks long and frowzy,
their ears flop about as though hung on a single
pinion, their eyes lose lustre, and the countenance
is dejected, while they stand in the blast with all
their feet so close as almost to touch each other.

This is the poorest possible beginning for a
stock of cattle as cold weather approaches, and it
^vili cost the farmer twice as much money to re-
store the fat and flesh which they lose under this
treatment, as it would to add an equal amount if
the cattle were properly cared for. Between the
time of a plentiful supply of grass, and that of
feeding upon dry fodder, is a trying period for
stock,^ — one in which they require unusual care
rather than neglect. They are deprived of their
accustomed supply of green and succulent food,
at a time when the cold weather is making unusual
demands upon the animal heat of the system, and
for this reason alone they should be fed with good
ha}^ a little corn, pumpkins, and other heat and
fat-making food. If to these are added the leaves
of cabbage, mangolds, beets, carrots, or turnips,
a small foddering at a time, two or three times in
the day, they will lay on fat and flesh rapidly, and
enter upon their winter course in excellent con-
dition to grow or yield milk in abundance. On
the other hand, cattle that go to their winter-
quarters in a thin and shabby manner, cannot be
brought up to a sleek and healthy condition short
of extraordinary eff'ort and cost. It is poor econo-
my to neglect cattle in the month of November.

Varnish and Whitewash. — A very free flow-
ing black varnish is made with 1 pint of Canada
balsam, 4 of bitumen (Judea,) and 4 of chloroform.

A thick wash composed of lime, some salt, a
little molasses and some fine sand, applied to
shingle roofs render them nearly fire-proof and far
more durable.

SPREADING MANURE IN AUTUMN.

In your issue of Nov. 7, under the above head-
ing, II. Goodman says "you startle New England
farmers by the advice of Mr. Thomas to Cayuga
county farmers, to spread their manure for s])ring
])lanting, in the fall. It is the general fjupposition
with us, and practiced upon, that by no doing, the
best part of the manure will be washed away, but
if put on just before planting, and then plowed and
harrowed in, all the good of the manure will be
retained ; * * * andj I do not know a farmer of
my acquaintance in Massachusetts or Connecticut,
who would not think it wasteful farming to spread
manure in the fall on land to be plowed in the
spring." . . , •

Mr. Goodman's article is followed by editorial
remarks, which go to show very clearly that the
loss, if any, can be but trifling, and gives two rea-
sons why autumn manuring is better than s])ring
"1st, It accords with experience, and 2d, It agrees
with theory."

It is to be pi'esumed that a great majority of
our farmers entertain the same ojjinlon in this
matter that Mr. G. has expressed. Whether this
opinion is correct or not, is practically a matter of
great consequence in the aggregate to the farm-
ing community. I believe Mr. Thomas is correct
in his "advice to Cayuga county farmers," and
whatever course in this method of a])plying ma-
nure is profitable to the farmers of that county,
will also be found equally so to the farmers of oth-
er counties and States.

It is but about a dozen years since the quality
of clayey and loamy soils for combining with, and
retaining the fertilizing ingredients of manures,
has been thoroughly investigated and rightly un-
derstood, even by the scientific.

Prof. Liebig, in his "Modern Agriculture," says
"There is not to be found in chemistry a more
wonderful phenomenon, one which more confounds
all human wisdom, than is presented by the soil
of a garden or field.

"By the simplest experiment, any one may sat-
isfy himself that rain water filtered through field
or garden soil, does not dissolve out a trace of
potash, silicic acid, ammonia, or phosphoric acid.
The soil does not give up to the water one parti-
cle of the food of plants which it contains. The
most continuous rains cannot remove from the
field, except mechanically, any of the essential con-
stituents of its fertility.

"The soil not only retains firmly all the food of
plants which is actually in it, but its power to pre-
serve all that may be useful to them extends much
further. If rain, or other water holding in solu-
tion ammonia, potash, phosphoric and silicic
acids, be brought in contact with soil, these sub-
stances disappear almost immediately from the so-
lution ; the soil withdraws them from the water.
Only such substances are complcfcb/ withdrawn by
the soil as are indispensable articles of food for
plants ; all others remain wholly or in part in so-
lution."

"It must be so," Liebig, "thou reasonest well,"
else the millions of acres of fertile prairie land
would have been as barren as the sands of Cape
Cod. And the fertility of the alluvial soil border-
ing on the Nile, would have had its fertility
leached out by the annual overflowing of that riv-
er, thousands of years before the sons of Jacob
went to Egypt to purchase corn, and that, accord-

544

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

ing to Biblical chronology, was 3,568 years ago.
There has been an annual overflowing of the same
land ever since, and j'et these 3,500 and odd fresh-
ets have not lessened the fertility of the soil — they
are as productive now as in the time of the Pha-
raohs

Thousands of our swamps have been saturated
with water most of the time "ever since the flood,"
— yet drain them, throw up the muck, sow oats or
grass seed, and such is the fertility of these wa-
ter-soaked soils, that they will yield as heavy crops
as can be grown by the use of farm-yard manure.
The fertilizing ingredients of a rich alluvial soil,
swamp muck, and stable or other animal manure,
are identical — with this difference, these fertiliz-
ing ingredients in the manures can be mostly
leached out, but not so in the soil. Now, if the
farmer applies his farm manure to grass land in
autumn, the rain and melting snows will leach out
a large portion of the fertilizing constituents of
the manures. These, before the spring plowing,
Avill have mostly soaked into the soils, which seizes
upon and retains them as a miser does his gold,
and the soil will not part with them, only to grow-
ing crops and the crucible of the chemist.

Scores of facts and ex])eriments might be cited
to prove the correctness of Mr. Thomas's advice.

This power of absorption in soils was published
by Prof. Way, in 1850, he having experimented
largely, by filtering the foul water from the sew-
ers of London, and fetid water in which flax had
been steeped, putrid urine, &c. It was found that
when three-fourths sand and one-fourth white clay,
in powder, were placed in jars to the depth of six
inches, the foul liquids came through the filter free
from smell, and scarcely to be distinguished from
ordinary water. But to make a short story of this
matter, it was discovered that the clay or alumi-
nous portions of soils possess the power of chemi-
cally combining with not only the gaseous com-
pounds of decomposing animal matter, but also
with the alkalies, ammonia, potash, soda, phos-
phates, magnesia, &c.

This, said Prof. Way, is a wonderful property
of soil, and appears to be an express provision of
nature. "A power is here found to reside in soils
by virtue of which, not only is rain unable to wash
out of them those soluble ingredients forming a
necessary condition of vegetation ; but even these
compounds, when introduced artificially by ma-
nures, are laid hold of and fixed in the soil, to the
absolute preclusion either by rain or evaporation."

Mr. Charles Lawi'ence, an eminent English ag-
riculturist, about that time stated in the London
Agricultural Gazette, that autumnal manuring im-
mediately followed and covered by the plow, is the
most valuable discovery, perhaps, in its results,
for which agriculture has been indebted to sci-
ence. This statement was founded ujion the then
recently published experiments ot Prof. Way, who,
he says, "has clearly established the fact tliat the
soil has the peculiar property of absorbing and ap-
propriating all those elements of manure inter-
mixed with it, which are essential to the growth
of plants."

Most of the farmers in this section plow their
green sward in autumn, to be planted in the spring
with corn. They cart out their manure in the foil,
and place it in large heaps on or near the plowed
field. In the spring re-load the manure, lay it out
in heaps, spread and harrow in. It is no trifling

job to re-load an hundred loads of manure next

spring, and cai't it over the furrows, which are
much more soft in the spring ; besides, it is usu-
ally a busy season with farmers, and their teams
are not then usually in as good working order as
they are in the fall.

If the farmer has manure to draw out in autumn,
and wishes to invert his green sod at that season
of the year, it is my opinion the better way is to
first plow, then cart on the manure, spread it and
harrow in. If he does not wish to "break up" till
spring, then cart and spread the manure on the
grass lands intended for spring plowing. If the
manure is intended for grain or corn stubble, then
apply it in the fall, and plow in shallow.

If there is any reliance to be placed on the state-
ments of Prof. Liebig and Way, and those of John
Johnston and hundreds of other good practical
farmers, there will no loss of manure arise from
autumnal manuring — but much saving of money,
for with the farmer — "time is money." — Levi
Bartlett, Warner, N. II., in Country Gentleman.

For the New E^igland Farmer.

THE VINTAGE,

'My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill."-
IsAiAU 5:1.

'Tis the time of the vintage, and laden to fill
The harvesters come from the vineyard and hill ;
They bear in their arms the I'ich fruits of the soil,
And sweetly are paid for their labor and toil.

With rich grapes of Eschol these vie in their size,
Each cluster in richness and bloom a fair prize,
The fine early Amber, so luscious and sweet.
The Concord and Sage from their trellises meet,

And gently repose in their beauty and bloom
With the Black Cluster, rich in hue and perfume.
The Delaware, tiny, transparent and sweet,
And fit for the fairies in smiles will you gi-eet.

The Hartford Prolific in regal hues shine.
Less frail than their neighbor, the fair Muscadine.
All rich in their sweetness and delicate change,
The Orient vineyards you care not to range ;

But fancy the vision is being fulfilled
When each shall the walls ot Jerusalem build,
"And they shall plant vineyards and eat of the fruit,"
And peace, love and truth be tlieir constant pursuit.
Harvard, October, 1862.

For the New England Farmer.
BOUNTY TO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.

I perceive your correspondent from the county
of Essex throws out the hint that the bounty of
the State may be withholden from our agricultur-
al societies hereafter, saying they can get along
well enough without this bounty ; having so man-
aged their income as to establish a permanent fund,
for the support of exhibitions ; whereas some soci-
eties have cx])ended all their income, and some-
thing more. There is nothing very extraordinary
in this course of proceeding ; it has been common
in the world, ever since our Saviour's parable of
those, a part of whom were wise, and a part were
foolish — when those that were foolish, having
wasted their funds, called upon the wise to contrib-
ute of their abundance. No, said the wise, we
apprehended what was coming, and prepared for
the emergency. *

October 20, 1802.

1862.

XEW ENGLAND FARMER.

545

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR HUSBANDMEN.

For many years there have not been so great
inducements for farmers all over the country to
put forth their best efforts to produce largely of
horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and other stock, and
grain and vegetables, as at present. The war in
which the country is engaged, and which may, for
anything that can now be seen to the contrary,
continue for one, two or five years, has created
an extra demand for horses, mules, beef, pork
and wool, and taken from the farming districts
many young men heretofore actively engaged in
producing them.

The stock on hand of these products of the
farm was very large when the rebellion broke out,
and consequently prices have not as yet been
very much increased in the Northern and Western
States. The foreign demand for grain increases
from year to year, and it will probably be a long
while before Europe will be able to produce enough
to feed its people. The United States will be
looked to to feed the hungry poor of England,
Ireland and Scotland.

Demand and supply always have and always will
govern and regulate the price of the products of
the earth. Speculation may step in and control
for a time, but not long. The time has come
■when every thing produced by manual labor will
command a remunerative price. Husbandry will
be respected according to its importance to the
other industrial interests of the country, and the
profits derived therefrom.

The demand for horses for army and other pur-
poses is such that the prices paid for them are
from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent, higher
than the same quality of horses sold for one year
ago, and yet they are rising, and will continue to
rise so long as the supply is inadequate to the de-
mand. Farmers who give their attention to the
raising of good horses, will find it a remunerative
business for the next few years. Cattle for beef,
work and milk, though not materially higher than
one year ago, must advance considerably in price
in the year to come, or we much mistake the signs
of the times.

Those who have large stocks, or who have the
means to produce them, will do well to double
their efforts, with a certainty of realizing large
profits. Wool, and especially the coarser grades,
has not been so high for many years as now, and
it is still rising. We have heard the opinion ex-
pressed by intelligent gentlemen, in whose judg-
ment in such matters we place much confidence,
that should cotton continue as high as now, wool,
in fair lots, will bring from eighty cents to a dol-
lar per pound within the coming year.

In these facts the farmer will not fail to see
much to encourage him to greater exertion to put
into the market the greatest possible amount of
the products of his farm, of whatever kind, and
wisdom would dictate to many who are engaged
in other pursuits, the propriety of giving their best
energies to the proper cultivation of the earth,
with every assurance of a bountiful return. —
American Stock Journal.

ment mules is novel. The most of these mules,
being very careful of their feet, will not allow
them to be handled. Consequently a machine is
built called the "stock." The mule is pounded
into it, two straps put under his belly, then hoist-
ed up, so that his feet will touch the beams below.
In that situation each foot is fastened to the beam
below by iron bands — the bands being tightly fas-
tened between the hoof and joint above. After
being made secure, he commences his frightful
struggle, which lasts until he finds himself pow-
erless, when four workmen approach him, one at
each foot, and in five minutes he is "done, fin-
ished." There are two of these shops in that vi-
cinity, shoeing about 1000 mules daily. In these
shops thousands of men are employed by the gov-
ernment ; and it is but a tithe of the immense
amount of government mechanical labor that is
employed in and about the city at the present
time.

Mule Shoeing for the Government. — In

Washington, from 200 to 500 mules and horses
are constantly waiting for their turn at the sham-
bles. The modus operandi in shoeing govern-

THE LINDEN TREE.

Few trees connected with rural economy are of
more value than the Linden. In some countries,
and especially in Russia, scarcely a village or ham-
let can be found where it is not to be seen. The
wood is valuable, and much sought after by cabi-
net-makers, by whom it is wrought into furniture
of various descriptions. It also furnishes material
for other artificers, particularly the turner and
carver, by whose skill it is made to assume the
form of a variety of domestic utensils. From the
inner bark, cards and matting are manufactured.
Its blossoms, which exhale a most aromatic per-
fume, are available to the bee-master as pasturage
for his bees, and to the botanical practitioner as
useful to the invalid.

The peculiar hue, fine aromatic odor, and ex-
quisitely delicious flavor of the honey of Circassia,
it is said, are derived from these blossoms. The
small limbs and tender shoots, gathered with
their foliage, and mixed with corn or other meal,
are fed to stock during winter, and are reputed
valuable.

There was one of these trees standing, some
years since, in the upper Mall, in Boston. It
was very ornamental, being, in every respect, a
most noble and beautiful tree. Its propagation is
attended with little difficulty, and it appears to
accommodate itself with facility to almost every
description of soil, from the heaviest and most
ponderous clays, to the lightest and thinnest sands.

Ashes for Sm^ne. — A con-espondent of the
American Stock Journal, writing from "out in
the West," thus briefly relates his experience : —
"I have twenty swine running in a three-acre field
without grass, with access to jjlenty of water, and
fed well on corn. I gave them, for several weeks,
two pails of ashes a week, and they ate them with
a relish. Ashes are said to be a preventive of
hog cholera, in proof of which is the testimony of
Cassius M. Clay and numerous other residents of
southern localities, acquainted with this disease."

646

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

BELATIOlNr OF FODDER TO MAKTURE.
The fullowing article is by the Rev. John Wil-
son, author of the Rural Cyclopedia. It contains
some curious and certainly very interesting facts :

Fodder bears a direct and important relation to
farm-yard manure as well as to the feeding of
stock. The weight of the excrement of a sheep, or
an ox, or a horse, bears a definite proportion to
the weight and quality of his fodder; and the
weight of the entire manure obtained may easily
be cither calculated or pre-determined by the al-
lotment of litter, the selection of animals, and the
duration of confinement within the house or yard.
Let a man simply reckon how much allotted fod-
der an animal is allowed in the day, how much
litter is laid down to him in the day, what propor-
tion the weight of tlie fodder bears to the weight
of the excrement, and what degree of decomposi-
tion is allowed to take place upon the litter and
the excrement, or what proportion of loss is oc-
casioned by gaseous dissipation, and he may know
to almost the smallest fraction of a pound what
quantity of manure will be realized. According
to an average of experiments and observations
made by Veit and Block, and published by the
former, 1 pound of ordinary meadow hay yields Im-
pound of manure from a sheep, li pound from a
horse, and 2 pounds from an ox or cow ; 1 pound
of straw fodder yields L2 pound manure from a
sheep, 1.4 pound from a horse, and 1.9 pound
from an ox ; 1 pound of green grass or green clo-
ver yields 0.37 pound of manure from a sheep, 0.4
pound from a horse, and 0.6 pound from an ox ;
1 pound of potato tubers or of turnip bulbs yields
^ pound of manure from a sheep, h pound from a
horse, and 0.7 pound from an ox ; 1 pound of
grain }-ields 1 pound of manure from a sheep, 1^
pound from a horse, and 2 pounds from an ox;
and 1 pound of straw litter yields 1.37 pound of
manure with a sheep, 1.7 pound with a horse, and
2.2 pounds with an ox. '"It is known," adds Veit,
"that the dry fodder and the juicy, estimated ac-
cording to hay value, with litter employed for the
cattle, for manure in general, will give double the
weight in moderately decomposed manure. For
the production of 19,800 cwt. of manure, there are
therefore necessary, of materials for the manufac-
ture of manure, 9,900 cwt." He then shows that
50 morgens of potatoes, 20 of winter rape, 20 of
winter wheat, 20 of winter rye, 40 of summer rye,
20 of barley, 20 of oats, 20 of peas, 10 of beet, 20
of red clover, 10 of lucern, 60 of thrice-mowed
meadow, 117 of twice-mowed meadow, and 90 of
once-mowed meadow, may, after deducting the
loss of dung on the meadows, be compuceu' to yield
12,147 cwt. of immediate fodder and litter ])ro-
duce, and 24,224 cwt. of manure. Professor Bur-
ger says, "The dry nutritious substance, or that
which is reckoned by its dry weight, suffers in the
bodies of beasts a considerable diminution by the
loss of that which the absorbing vessels appropri-
ate to themselves from it, and which with the ex-
crements secretory of nutritious substances, are so
easily decomposed by the process of putrid fer-
mentation, that in a short time its substance as
well as its weight is very considerably diminished.
If we therefore say that 100 pounds of dry sub-
stance of consumed fodder, with a proportionate
quantity of litter, gives 200 pounds of manure,
this must be understood of stall-manure, where

the greatest amount of urine is mixed in part with
solid excrements, or if they should be dissipated
on the dunghill, would be replaced again by rain.
The more raw, more recent, stall-manure is, the
more the beasts drink, the more they take of juicy
food, the greater is the proportion of the weight
of stall-manure compared with the weight of the
fodder eaten ; wherefore there is more raanui'e
from horned cattle than from horses, and the least
from sheep."

USE OF WASTE.

Our doctrines are — feed the earth and it will
feed you — feed the apple-tree and it will yield fair
fruit.

Ashes. — Take especial care of all the ashes
made on your place. Don't permit them to be
exposed to the weather, but keep them under
cover. Five bushels of ashes, mixed with two
double horse cart-loads of marsh river mud, muck,
or peat, will convert the whole into good manure.
A hogshead or two of soap-suds would do the
same thing — therefore, among your other savings,
save and utilise them.

Poultry Dung. — Have this regularly swept
up every Saturday, packed away in barrels, and
sprinkled over with plaster. Dana, with force
and truth, says : "The strongest of all marmres is
found in the droppings of the poultry yard."
Next year each barrel of it will manure you half
an acre of land. Save it, then, and add to the
productive energies of your soil. Don't look upon
it as too triji'mg a matter for your attention ; but
recollect that the globe itself is an agrjregation of
small matters.

UuixE. — Save this : in every hundred pounds
there is 72 per cent, of nitrogen in its humid state,
23.11 in its dry.

Woolen Rags. — These are rich in the elements
of manure. They contain, when dry, 20.26 per
cent, of nitrogen, and should be used as manure.
Dana says they should be nearly thirty-four times
stronger than fresh cow-dung.

In a word, save everything in the shape of refuse
or offal ; it is all good to make the crops grow — •
all good to sustain vegetable life, and through its
products to sustain animal life. Let your eyes,
your mind, your heart and your hands, be intent-
ly directed to the accumulation and preservation
of the materials to make manure. Follow our
advice, and your lands will grow rich, and your
pockets heavy.

ECONOMY OF FEWCES.
The question of fencing is attracting consider-
able attention. It is thought in some quarters
that our cultivated fields are too much cut up,
and that the expense of fences might be diminish-
ed one-half. In many localities in this State the
fences are built chiefiy to get rid of the stone, and
many a farm is weighed down with huge double
wall which woukl be useful only in cases of inva-
sion. In cold, bleak and windy situations, fences
serve as a shelter, and are thus a benefit to the
crop. On level farms, where machines can be
used, the fewer fences the better ; as to the stones,
better jnit them under than above ground. There
are very few farms that would not be benefited
by the drainage efl'ected by casting the stones reg-
ularly into ditches opened for the purpose each

1S62.

NEW ENGLAXD FARMER.

547

year as it became necessary to haul them off.
These of course are not equal to tile drains, but
they serve two purposes, and are very useful.
Probably half the stone fences on many farms had
better be sunk in this way. We know of scores
of acres of wet swamjjy land, always late because
wet, and of endless runs, where huge piles of stone
lay in unsiglitly confusion on the borders and all
about. If the ground were thoroughly ditched
and the stones buried out of sight, there would be
a fine mowing field, producing good crops every
year, and the laud Avould be transformed in its
nature. Where fences have to be made of wood,
the farmer is not so likely to chop his fields too
small ; but even in this case it is well for him to
consider if he cannot get along with less fencing.
Often a division is made from pure fancy, with no
necessity. When it comes to mending, consider
if you cannot use a part to ])atch the rest. The
two systems are exemplified in England and on the
continent. The fields in the former place are cut
into small lots by hedges and ditches ; in the lat-
ter vast expanses are without fences or other sep-
aration, it being chea])er to hire herdsmen or boys
to tend cattle or sheep than to build fences. The
subject is of some importance, especially when
thought of in connection with drainage. — N. H.
Journal of Agriculture.

UPRIGHT TREES.

When crooked, lop-sided, leaning trees are seen
in a wild forest, we call them picturesque, and let
it go. But when we see them in a neighbor's or-
chard, (or our own,) or by the roadside, or in a
lawn, we say somebody is to blame, for generally
it comes from sheer neglect. As to leaning trees,
the history is something like this ; when first trans-
planted from the nursery or tlie woods, they are
straight and tall. They are set out in exposed
places, and not being staked and tied up, they
soon get out of the perpendicular. This is not to
be wondered at, considering the smallness of the
roots, and the softness of the soil. It is a very
easy matter to prevent this. Let every newly-
planted ti'ee be staked and tied up, using broad
and soft bands to prevent chafing the bark. Or,
in the l?,ck of stakes and bands, use heaps of stones
laid over the roots on the windy side, which will
ballast them. In case a tree gets thrown over, it
can be righted up by loosening the earth about the
roots, and drawing it up, and fastening it to a
stout stake. If it has stood leaning for several
years, it may be necessary to use an axe on one
or two obstinate roots. But by all means, get
every tree up straight, and then keep it up. — Ag-
riculturist.

Hay and Corn Shrinkage by Drying. —
The loss upon hay weighed July 20th, when cured
enough to put in the barn, and again Feb. 20th,
has been ascertained to be 27^ per cent. So that
hay at $15 a tun in the field is equal to $20 and
upwards when weighed from the mow in winter.
The weight of cobs in a bushel of corn in Novem-
ber ascertained to be 19 pounds, Avas only 7-i
pounds in May. The cost of grinding a bushel
of dry cobs, counting handling, hauling and mil-
ler's charge, is about one cent a pound. Is the
meal worth the money ? — Scientific American.

For the New England Farmer.
RETROSPECTIVE NOTES.

"Keeping Orchards Cultivated. — Farmer
for October, page 443. — There is, still, after cen-
turies of observation and experiment as to the
best mode of manuring orchards, quite a surpris-
ing unsettlodness and difi'erence of o])inion, as al-
so of practice, as to the point indicated in the
above heading, — some maintaining tliat it is best
to keep orchards under the plow, or cultivated for
other crops, and some that the plow should sel-
dom or never be used in an orchard, it being best,
and altogether most convenient, to keep it in grass,
with occasional topdressings of manure, while a
few Avould so far modify the last-named method
of management as to have a strip along each side
of the rows of trees stirred occasionally or annu-
ally with a one-horse plow, or the grass kept down
around the trees by a mulch of chip dirt, or other
suitable material, or by the use of the hoe. ' That
tliere should be so much unsettledness of opinion
as to this branch of soil culture, after millions of
men have been observing and experimenting for
centuries, is really an occasion for surprise. In
endeavoring to account for the difference in men's
opinions and practice as to keeping an orchard in
grass or under tillage, I have thought it highly
pi'obable that much of this apparent difference
would disappear if greater precision of language
were employed in the statement or the question
at issue. For example, if an advocate of keeping
an orchard in grass were asked if he thought that
mode of management best during the first five
years of the growth of an apjjle orchard, he would
very certainly acknowledge that such was not his
meaning, and that he would by all means keep an
orchard under hoed crops, or under tillage of some
kind, for the first five years of its growth, or even
longer. It would be found, if his precise idea
were precisely expressed, that the advocate of
grass in orchards, or the opponent of plowing,
intended only that he deemed it best to manage
orchards in his favorite way, after they had at-
tained their matm-ity or had begun to bear crops.
However fond of his favorite notion, no observ-
ing and truth-loving advocate of gras's rather than
tilled crops in an orchard could be found, who
woidd deny the obvious and oft-observed fact that
both apple and peach trees grow but a few inches
in a year when set in grass, unless the soil is very
rich ; while those set or growing where the ground
is cultivated will make an annual growth of two,
or sometimes nearly or quite three feet.

Other points of difference might be taken, and
it might be shown that if those who apparently
differed very widely would only define exactly the
positions they maintained and the positions they
opposed, the difference between them would either
vanish altogether, or be much less than it ap-
peared before the point at issue was exactly de-
fined. iNIy object in the foregoing remarks has
been to show that the difference among farmers
and fruit culturists as to keej)ing orchards in grass
or under the plow, like a good many other diSer-
ences and confiicting opinions, would either dis-
appear entirely, or be greatly shorn of their ap-
parent magnitude, if the positions taken by the
opposing parties were but clearly defined and ex-
pressed in precise and unambiguous terms. Were
this done as to the points at issue, at present un-

548

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

der notice, it seems highly probable that several
on both sides would find the difference between
them more apparent than real, more in words than
in belief, and that the)' could assent readily to the
remark made by the editor of this journal in re-
ference to the conflicting views on this subject,
namely, "The true course, it seems to us, lies be-
tween the two extremes." That is, neither mode
of treatment should be exclusively followed, but
rather alternated, for orchards continuously in
grass do not flourish, and a continuous course of
tilling and manuring would so force the trees as
to make them tender and liable to disease, as also
dispose them to grow wood rather than fruit.
Fortunately for those who are willing and apt to
be taught by the signals which are given, of either
too much or too little care and food, by most of
the plants, &c., which we cultivate, the trees in
almost every orchard proclaim very plainly what
they need in order to attain their best estate.
They do so, however, only to those who take no-
tice of the amount and length of the new wood
or sprouts produced every year, and who know
how rightly to interpret this sign or signal.
Whenever the growth of new wood is scanty and
short, — say only a few inches or under a foot in
the course of anyone season, — then the trees pro-
claim that they need more nutriment and more
care, or in other words, that the soil around them
needs stirring, cultivating and manuring ; on the
other hand, when the growth of new wood and of
sprouts is abundant, and two feet or more in
length, then the trees proclaim tliat they could bear
to be stinted in nutriment, and that the soil around
them might bear a crop or two of grass without
any detriment to them. Let this guide, signal or
request furnished by fruit trees themselves, be
carefidly noticed and judiciously interpreted by
all v/ho have orchards under their care, and there
will then be no difficulty, we think, in deciding at
any time, whether those orchards Avould would be
better in grass or under the plow, and whether in
need of fertilizing applications or not ; and no dif-
ficulty either in deciding that neither course of
treatment should be continued many years at a
time, unless, indeed, the annual topdressing of
grass in orchards, proposed in the Gardcne/s
Monthly, should be sufficient to prevent the usual
growth-checking effects upon the trees, which
grass crops, as usually managed, and without top-
dressings, have, times without number, been ob-
served to produce. Watching the annual growth
of new wood in trees has certainly been a great
help to more than one in enabling them to deter-
mine what was chiefly needed for the prosperity
and success of the trees, and whether it would be
better to put the orchard in grass or under tillage.

More Anon.

The quantity of gas obtained from a ton of or-
dinary gas coal is commonly within the limits of
9300 and 9500 cubic feet, although if the distilla-
tion wei-e continued beyond the usual period of
si.x hours, an additional quantity of gas would be
obtained, but of inferior illuminating power. The
coke left on the distillation of a ton of coal is
usually one chaldron of 36 bushels, weighing be-
tween 13 cwt. and 14 cwt., or about two-thirds of
the original weight of the coal before it went into
the retorts.

GBAMMAB IN RHYME.

The name of the author of the following efi^usion
should not have been allowed to sink into oblivion
"unwept, unhonored and unsung." On the con-
trary, he deserves immortality, and the gratitude
of generations j'et unborn, for we have never met
with so complete a grammar of the English lan-
guage in so small a space. Old as well as young
should commit these lines to memory, for by their
aid it will be difficult if not impossible for them to
fall into errors concerning parts of speech :

1. Three little words you often see
Are Articles o, an and the.

2. A Noun's the name of any thing,
As school or garden, hoop or swing,

3. Adjectives the kind of Noun,

As great, small, j)retti/, tehite or brown.

4. Instead of Nouns the Pronouns stand —
Hfr head, his face, your arm, 7!ty hand.

5. Verbs tell something to be done —

To read, count, sing, laugh, jmnp or run }

6. How things are done the Adverbs tell,
As sloiclij, quicklij, ill or icell ;

7. Conjunctions join the words together —
As men and women, wind or weather.

8. The Preposition stands before

A Noun, as in or through a door.

9. The Interjection shows surprise,
As oh ! how pretty — ah ! how wise.

The whole are called Nine Parts of Speech
Which reading, writing, speaking teach.

For the New England Fanner.
BEING IN" SEASON,

Farmers' wives, as well as all other wives, should
always be in season about everything. If "fall
work" is to be done, do it in the fall, not linger
till winter sends his cold, whistling winds to warn
you of his near approach.

Be diligent, and in season. Never cause your
husband to wait a moment, if possible to prevent
it, for, although he may have waited an hour when
a lover, without complaining, as a husband he will
not do it.

Be punctual as clock-woi-k in all things. Have
a regular hour for dinner and supper, and break-
fast also if need be, and have the meal always at
the appointed hour, unless some very important
event prevents.

Never neglect your work to gossip with a friend.
If one call Avhen your duties are in the kitchen, in-
vite her to take a seat there, or if it be a stranger,
politely ask to be excused, but never give to your
husband as a reason for a late, or badly prepared
dinner or tea, that you had callers, and could not
attend to it. It will be no excuse to him. Better
wait fifteen minutes yourself, than have him wait
five, by your tardiness. But your not being punc-
tual, will not only be a disadvantage to your hus-
band, but also to yourself — for by not having your
meals all nicely prepared at the appointed time,
you will feel nervous, heated and cross — will be
more irritable than usual, and if one word of fault
is found, it will be like a spark fallen upon pow-
der, and you will construct a great cause of un-
happiness from it, and imagine yourself after
thinking and weeping a few hours, the most mis-
erable of your sex. If your husband comes from
the field, tired, dull, out of spirits, and almost cross,
and finds you ready to meet him with a pleasant

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

549

smile and kiss of welcome, backed by a nice din-*
ner or tea all ready and waitina^, believe me, un-
less he is love-proof, he will come down from his
lofty pinnacle of sternness, and mef-t you with an
answering smile, and the meal will pass ofl' pleas-
antly.

Learn, then, to have everything done in season,
and the only way to do so is to commence what-
ever you have to do, early. Don't sit and read,
or even sew, till you feel the time is passing where-
in you know you ought to be getting dinner. No,
no ! gee the dinner, and then improve the remain-
ing time in reading, writing, playing or sewing,
just as suits you best, and do so with an easy con-
science.

If you attend to this little point, believe me,
you will save many sighs and tears, many lament-
ings and repinings, and will live a far happier life,
than in indulging in a dilatory process of living.

It is woman's duty to make home as happy as
possible, to remove all just cause of complaint,
and to be the bearer, rather than the doer of
wrong, and no one thing will tend more to pro-
mote domestic harmony than strict ])unctuality in
everything appertaining to household affairs.

Try it, and see if my words are not true.

West Amesbunj, Oct., 1862. Sarah.

For the New England Farmer,
AGRICULTURE IN" COMMON SCHOOLS.

Mr Editor : — Your learned and respected cor-
respondent, "More Anon," seems to be sadly af-
flicted in the use of language without accomplish-
ing any precise or definite object, or casting one
ray of light on the question at issue. It is not my
province to dictate to him how he shall write upon
this, or upon any other subject ; but it is my right
to suggest to him, that, if he expects me to re-
ply to him, he must say something bearing on the
merits of the question ; in other words, he must
answer the objections which I have already made,
and those which I may hereafter make, to the
study of agriculture in our common schools.

It is in vain for him to pretend, as he does, that
he has answered my objections already "in the
Farmer of August 30th." And he adds, "To this
refutation of the objections of Mi". G. in the Farm-
er of August 30th, iie has not yet seen fit to reply."
In the article of August oOth, there is no answer
to the three objections which I had made. I
need not repeat these objections here, because in
my reply I stated them at length ; but this I will
saV, he has not answered them, because he cannot
answer them, and moreover, I have reason to be-
lieve, he will not make the attempt.

It is vastly easier for him to deliver a long and
leai'ned lecture on agricultural text-books, and tell
us, poor ignorant souls, what Prof. J. A. Nash has
said and done upon the subject, and what the
learned gentleman himself has said and done about
it, and what several other wiseacres have said and
done, who have had "axes to grind" for their own
private use and benefit ; it is vastly easier, I say,
for him to fill up a long communication in this
way, than to meet and grapple with the real rug-
ged question, "Can agriculture be successfully
taught in our common schools, without doing more
harm than good ?" The gentleman is called upon
to meet and answer this question — to meet and

answer my three objections fairly and fully, and
to the satisfaction of the public — to meet and an-
swer each objection separately, so that the ques-
tion may stand on its own merits, and not on the
^'ipae dixit" of any one. When he does this, or
attempts to do it, he will be sure to receive a re-
spectful reply from me. I insist upon it, that the
gentleman shall show, or attempt to show ; 1, that
agriculture, in all its multifarious branches and
departments, can be successfully taught in our
common schools, without detriment to the schools ;
2, that all our teachers, male and female, both in
summer and in winter, are amply qualified, and
have all the means and appliances to teach it the-
oretically and practically ; and 3, that all our com-
mon scliool scholars are capable of understanding
and reducing it to practice.

Let "More Anon" stand up and face the music,
and not back down from what he has undertaken.
John Goldsbury.

WarioicJc, October 14, 1862.

PREPARE FOR WINTER.
Many farmers too long delay the necessary
preparations for winter. In this cold and change-
able climate, it shows a great want of propei- fore-
sight and economy to neglect such repairs and
preventives as will secure shelter and warmth
for themselves and their stock, and tend to the
preservation of the harvests of every kind which
have been secured. A board off, or a pane or two
of glass gone here and there, may prove the loss
of young and tender animals, or of a portion of
the potatoes, roots or apples which have been
stored away. In such case there is a double loss
— a loss of the property itself and of the labor
which produced it, and to which is to be added the
inconvenience of supplying a like amount, if it be
absolutely required for wintering out the stock.

But this is not all. If the places where animals
are kept are windy and damp, a large amount of
the food that would otherwise go to increase the
bulk of the carcass is consumed in making good
the waste induced in meeting the large demand
for animal heat. It is said by those who have given
special attention to this matter, that from one-
fourth to one-third more food is required to keep
up the proper amount of animal heat, for an ani-
mal exposed to the cold, than is required for one
that is protected from the elements by proper
shelter.

So with regard to the house. A day or two
spent in making all tight about the underpinning,
in supplying whole, for broken glass, and in mak-
ing the ledges about the windows so close as to
prevent them from rattling, or admitting the wind
— and similar attention given to the doors — will
save considerable expense in the amount of fuel
required during the winter, and greatly promote
the comfort and happiness of the family. No barn
or house can be kept warm at a moderate cost,
where the wind is allowed to pass freely under the

650

yEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

floors, as the air which is warmed in the room is
made lighter, and is rapidly driven up by the con-
stant current of cold air from below. This condi-
tion of things in the room is expensive, uncom-
fortable and trying, and has a decided effect upon
the spirit and manners. No person could long
preserve a cheerful equanimity, and be exemplary
in tone and manner, under such circumstances.
They make a class of trials which no considerate
husband should allow his family to contend
against.

These are only suggestions. Many other things
are to be looked after, which a discreet foresight
will i)lace in proper order.

For the New England Farmer,
PREMIUMS FOR HERDS.

Mr. Editor : — I am pleased with the sugges-
tions in your paper just received, (No. 43, of Vol.
17,) as to the hest manner of offering rewards for
improving the breed of animals. It certainly must
be better to offer them for the best herds bred and
reared on the same farm, in a term of years, rath-
er than for the best animals collected at random,
without regard to parentage or manner of rearing.
In the one case it is merely a reward for skill in
selecting, in the other it would be an encourage-
ment to the culture of the "science of breeding."

I remember when my attention was first direct-
ed to this subject, hearing a venerable man of 80
years say, there was nothing whatever to be
gained, by the first mode of ofl'ering premiums.
In proof of this, I have more than once known the
first premiums for milch cows to be awarded to
mere jockeys, who, having heard of a cow that
gave a large quantity of milk, purchased her to
present at the show, as a matter of speculation, in
securing the premium, and a large price after-
wards, for the premium cow. The committee ex-
amining could have no other knowledge than the
appearance of the animal, and the certificates ac-
companying. What is true of cows, is more like-
ly to be true of horses, and may be more or less
true in regard to all other animals. But where
they are reared on the same farm, and kept for a
series of years, in the ordinary way of keeping,
there would be little chance for imposition.

Od. 2o, 1862. Essex.

Cure for Thumps in Hogs. — About a month
since I noticed that a very valuable hog, which
I procured for breeding purposes, began to lose
his appetite, and soon his respiration become hur-
ried, and attended with a quick, jerking motion of
the sides. lie also coughed considerably. Nev-
er having had any experience with such a disease,
I searched for a description of the disease, and a
remedy. In the August No. of the Valley Far-
mer I found what I considered a case similar to
mine, i. e. Tlmmps. I tried the remedy, veraitrum
viride, ten drops, in milk. His appetite improved
immediately, but it was a week or two before
his breathing was less rapid or his cough dimin-
ished. He is now about cured, and thriving very
fast. I also turned the pig out of his pen in
which he had been confined before. — Valley Far-
mer.

ANALYSIS OF FRUIT.
We copy the following analysis of fruit from
an excellent article on "Food," in the Patent Of-
fice Report for 1861, by Professor L. C. LooMis.
Hereafter we will present the reader another ex-
tract, from the same article, on the subject of
Unripe Fruits,

The most of our common garden and orchard
fruits are composed of nearly the same constitu-
ents— a little woody fibre, more or less sugar, and
several acids, the most common of which are the
malic, the citric and the tartaric. Two or more
of these acids are usually found in every fruit,
though one preponderates, giving the fruit its pe-
culiar flavor ; as the malic in apples and pears,
the citric in currants.

At different stages of the growth of the fruit,
these various substances are in different propor-
tions, the woody fibre or cellulose usually being
the most abundant.

It has been previously mentioned that woody
fibre differs but slightly from sugar, so that it M'ill
not be difficult to comprehend the fact that, by
the action of the acid of a fruit, what is cellulose
at one time may be found to be sugar at another.

"Previous to maturity, fruits are formed of a
compact cellular tissue, containing the elements
of woody fibre, and filled with a liquid containing
very little sugar, a gummy substance and a large
quantity of free acid. During maturation a part
of the acid disappears by the action of oxygen of
the air, the cellulose tissue diminishes, and the
proportion of sugar increases, insomuch that in-
stead of hard, Avoody, acrid fruits, we obtain, if the
maturation has been complete, fruits that yield
a sweet, sirupy juice." — Turner.

The chief elements of ripe fruits, therefore, ap-
pear to be water, gum, sugar and acids, of which
the only one requiring our attention is the acid ;
sugar, gum and wood having been previously con-
sidered.

In medicine the vegetable acids are included
among the refrigerants ; that is, as possessing in
an eminent degree the properties of counteract-
ing the heat of the system. There is much di-
versity of opinion among writers as to the manner
in which this is accomplished and as to the chem-
ical changes that occur in connexion, but all agree
that the effect of acids in weak dilutions is to re-
duce animal heat.

Reasoning a priori from this general fact, we
might have drawn a fiiir probability that the spring
productions would possess or require acids.

We bore find the philosophy of salads. The
temperature is daily increasing ; the system re-
quires additional means of resistance ; nature ]n'o-
ceeds to the growth of cooling acid fruits. But
before juices can be secreted the structiu-e of stalk
and leaf must be erected. At this point we seize
the new growth of cellulose and add to it the
acid, which would appear in due time. A salad
is, therefore, a sort of impromptu, fruit, having
the cellulose of this year and the acid of last.
Were the acid unessential, and the cellulose all
that our systems demanded, the taste would be
appeased by it alone, and there would be no more
demand for vinegar with the salad than for butter
or sugar.

In the ripened fruit we find all parts fullv bar-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAnMER.

551

monizecl, not only to the taste but to the season.
The water quenches thirst and supplies material
for increasing perspiration ; the sugar is nutritive
and imparts an agreeable taste to the whole ; the
acid dissolves the cellulose and reacts beneficially
throughout the sj-stem.

Summing up these facts, w'e find — ■

1. In the new supplies of food which the spring
and summer bring, the calorific element is nearly
or wholly wanting.

2. In the same manner that we found a heating
element added to nutrition proper on the approach
of cold weather do we find a cooling added on
the approach of warm. This is fruits, and partic-
ularly their acids ; from which we conclude,

3. That ripe fruits are not only the most health-
ful of all food in summer, but actual, conservators
of health, and necessary in the economy of na-
ture.

But if such is the hygienic character of fruit,
whence arises the general opinion of its injurious
eflfects, especially in sickly seasons ? and what
shall be said of those well authenticated facts of
fatal results having been induced by them in the
extreme summer weather, and of the generally
untov\-ard effects attendant upon a free use of the
earlier kinds, particularly strawberries, apples,
pears and melons ?

So far from attempting to deny that such re-
sults do frequently follow eating these fruits, we
not only admit that the fruit is the direct cause,
but that, under the circumstances usually accom-
panying those particular cases, it is almost im-
possible that any other result should ensue. This
question, or fact rather, of the injurious effects of
early fruits demands our careful consideration.

It is alleged that in certain cases fruits are in-
jurious, whereas our considerations above led to
the conclusion that they are not only harmless
but positively beneficial.

We are, therefore, brought directly to the con-
siderations whether fruits are always uniibrm in
their action, and whether they may not be, and
are not, in some cases hurtful.

Before any adverse conclusion can be drawn,
two conditions must be fully shown ; first, that
the fruit was fully ripe ; and second, that it had
not commenced to decay. An examination of the
chemical condition of fruits and food in general
in these respects may serve to elucidate the points
at issue.

FABEWELL TO THE MILKMAID.

Every one knows the charming part the milk-
maid has borne in all English pastoral writings.
Poet and novelist alike have written of her simple
charms ; but if all accounts are true, a recent Yan-
kee invention will banish the milkmaid into the
limbo of wooden ships and other obsolete matters.
It appears that a milking machine, which had not
previously excited any great attention in our own
country, was on exhibition at the great London
Fair. Every day at eleven o'clock, the inventor
milked a cow, to the admiration of a multitude of
spectators. It is done by the application of a sort
of pump by which the four teats are all milked at
once. Orders began to come in for it, and the
inventor sold his right for £5000, with a per cent-
age on each sale. It is said that enough have al-
ready been sold to cover the first cost. — Journal
of Agriculture.

ON FATTENING ANIMALS.

The common farmer, who fattens, annually, on-
ly a pair of oxen, a cow or two, or a heifer, steer,
and two or three hogs, gives too little thought to
the process, and has too little system in it, to re-
alize Avhat a percentage of loss he incurs in the
want of more systematic management. It is quite
clear to us, that twenty-five per cent, more fat and
flesh can be made, under one set of circumstan-
ces, on the same amount of food, than will be
produced on the same animals, under another set
of circumstances. We have seen it illustrated.

The first requisite to be supplied is, that the
animal to be fatted shall have a warm, and every
way comfortable apartment in which to stand, or
to lie down, or sleep. Without these prelimina-
ries, there will, inevitably, be loss in all the sub-
sequent proceedings.

In the first place, the temperature about the
animal must not be extremely variable, but kept
as evenly as possible at a point that will confer
the highest degree of comfort. If it be too
warm, the animal will become languid and lose
appetite ; and if too cold, the energies of the food
will be required to keep the animal warm, instead
of producing fat and flesh. In his article on
"Food," a portion of which we have copied into
another column from the Patent Office Pep(jrt for
1861, Prof. Loomis says: "The power of a liv-
ing body to generate heat or to preserve it is no
greater nor more mysterious than that of a stove.
When the fire is once started, each will keep warm
so long as there is a supply of fuel, and no longer.
The one is combustion with flame, the other, com-
bustion without flame. Chemically considered,
the processes are not only similar, but identical ;
the material consumed, the chemical action and
the results of the combination being the same.
Heat can no more be generated in the animate
body without the consumption of fuel than in the
inanimate. The living organization must then in
the cold season consume, and therefore, by some
means, be supplied with a large amount of fuel or
heat-generating food, in addition to that needful
for sustaining health and strength in the warm
season." This high authority shows us how im-
portant an even comfortable temperature is, in
sustaining health, — and it is only in this condition
that good beef and pork can be made.

The next consideration is, that the animal he
fed at regular periods, so that it may expect its
food, and receive it, at a particular time, and not
be kept uneasy all the time by an appetite kept
sharp and always uncertainly supplied. This may
seem unimportant to some, but to the careful ob-
server it will be found to have a decided bearing
upon the health and prosperous condition of the
animal.

Animals that are stall-fed are often so much

552

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

neglected in regard to cleanliness, as to become
disgustingly filthy and a burden to themselves.
This is an unnatural condition, and must tend to
decrease the power of the food used. It makes
the creature uncomfortable, and probably prevents
that important action of the skin which promotes
health and vigor, and indeed, is essential to the
preservation of life itself. An ox that is kept
clean, by being carded, and even washed occa-
sionally, will be quite likely to improve faster on
the same amount of food, than one who is forced
to lie down amidst the accumulated droppings of
the stall.

"If given irregularly, the animal will consume
his food, but he soon acquires a restless disposi-
tion, is disturbed at every appearance of his feed-
er, and is never in that quiet state so necessary
to take on fat. It is surprising how readily any
animal acquires habits of regularity in feeding,
and how soon the influence of this is felt in the
improvement of his condition. When at the reg-
ular hour the pig has had his pudding, or the
sheep his turnips, they compose themselves to
rest, their digestion is not unseasonably disturbed,
or their quiet bi'oken by unwonted invitation to
eat." Some persons make the places where the
animals are kept quite dark, but this is a needless
and even cruel process. It is only necessary to
observe other essential circumstances.

Next to regularity in feeding, there should be
a judicious selection of food, and great care ob-
served in the manner of feeding it out ; that is,
not to give the animal all hay or vegetables, one
day, and then nothing but grain the next, or the
reverse of these. There is also much to be ob-
served in the preparation of the food. "The ox
that is obliged to wander over an acre to get the
food he should find in two or three square rods —
the horse that is two or three hours eating the
coarse food he should swallow in fifteen minutes
if the grain were ground, or the hay cut, as it
should be — the sheep that spends hours in mak-
ing its way into a turnip, which, if it were sliced,
it would eat in as many minutes — the pig that
eats raw potatoes or whole corn, when either
cooked could be eaten in one-quarter of the time,
may indeed fatten, but much less rapidly than if
their food were given them in a proper manner.
All food should be given in such a state to fatten-
ing animals, that as little time as possible, on the
part of the animal, shall be required in eating."
It will not do to stuff" and starve by turns.

Vegetables of various kinds, such as turnips,
potatoes, beets, mangolds and carrots, are excel-
lent in fattening, but they must not be depended
upon so much as some of the grains, which are,
eminently, fat producing substances. Corn, with
us, stands first and foremost among them all.
■Pnf fV'^- s;' — M >^" T-N-r,,, in the form of meal.

Oil meal is also excellent, in proper quantities.
A cow may be well fatted on turnips, with what
good English hay she will eat ; but it may be
doubted whether such a course would be the most
profitable one for the farmer. It would depend
upon circumstances.

The essential points to be observed, are, —

1. Warmth and comfort in every way.

2. A variety of sweet and nutritious food, and

especially food containing heat giving and
fat making principles ; and

3. The utmost regularity in feeding and tending.

THE LARGEST BARN IN THE COUNTRY.

Lancaster County has always been famous for
its large barns, and perhaps no county of the
same extent in the United States can show so
many ■well built and well-appointed barns as the
Old Guard. The Shakers of Lebanon, New York,
however, have a barn which, in point of size and
completeness is nowhere equalled, and a descrip-
tion of which we feel sure will interest our numer-
ous rural readers, and we therefore give it a place
among the "locals." It was recently erected at
an expense of $15,000, and it is thus described:

It is 196 feet long, 50 feet wide, five stories
high ; the walls of good flat, quarried stone, five
feet thick at the foundation carefully laid in lime
mortar, cement pointed outside ; roofed with
tarred paper, cement and gravel. It also has three
wings, wooden buildings, which form four sheds
about 100 feet long upon the east and west side
of the cattle yards, on the south of the main build-
ing, with lofts for straw and grain connected with
the barn.

The lower story of the barn is a manure cellar,
and at the west end it is level with the ground, so
that carts can be driven out with ease. The next
story is the cow stable, which is on a level with
the yard, the cows standing with their heads to-
ward the centre, with a passage between supplied
with Avater pipes and cocks. In this passage roots,
cut feed or water can be given in iron feed boxes,
which swing on a pivot into the passage. Behind
the cows the floor drops a couple of inches, a space
of three feet, and back of that rises again. The
depression is to hold the manure. On the rise
behind are iron rails, upon which cars run into the
west end and over a space about '15 feet wide, and
discharge their loads, the rails and a turn-tal^le
being so contrived that the manure is well distrib-
uted with but little labor. The idea is entertained
of making the whole cellar into a liquid vat, which
could be distributed by its own gravity iqoon the
lower part of the farm, or sent liigher uj) by the
water power that drives the mill not far distant.
The cows are all fastened to their stalls at each
milking, in sunnner, and all at one movement.
They are driven in all together, and cacli one
takes her place where her name is printed over-
head, and then by a pull of a cord all the movable
stanchions are closed. They are opened by a re-
verse motion, and all the cows hurried out in a
drove, so that they never make a deposit on the
floor. They arc left a few minutes to do that in
the yard, before sending them to pasture.

There are six large ventilators from tli'^ '"''"r of

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

553

the stalls to the roof. The floor above thcin sup-
poi'ts the great hay mows, between which is the
floor for feeding hay, which is sent clown to the
cows through Ijox tubes, and these, when empty,
also assist ventilation. There arc ojjcnings from
this floor into the straw lofts over the sheds, and
also to the store rooms for roots and grain.

Enext floor is the grand drive way for loads
16 feet high and 196 feet long, with ample
space at the west end to turn around. This floor
opens upon a public road, and is but little above
its level, so that loads come in easily at the top of
the barn. Over this floor is a flfth story, only the
width of the floor to give room for work, ventila-
tion and light. Half of the many windows are
glass and half slatted blinds. The hay is nearly
all thrown down. In case of need, the large space
at the end could be filled, but it is thought that it
will not be necessary, except with corn, which can
be husked there and thrown down a spout into a
large, airy granary over the western shed.

THE AGE OP OUB EAKTH.

Among the astounding discoveries of modern
science is that of the immense periods that have
passed in the gradual formation of the earth. So
vast were the cycles of the time preceding even
the appearance of man on the surface of our globe,
that our own period seems as yesterday when com-
pared with the epochs that have gone before it.
Had we only the evidence of the deposits of rocks
heaped above each other in regular strata by the
slow accumulation of materials, they alone would
convince us of the long and slow maturing of
God's work on earth ; but when we add to these
the successive populations of whose life this world
has been the theatre, and whose remains are hid-
den in the rocks into which the mud, or sand, or
soil of whatever kind on which they lived has
hardened in the course of time — or the enormous
chains of mountains whose upheaval divided these
periods of quiet accumulation by great convulsions
— or the changes of a diff"erent nature in the con-
figurations of our globe, as the sinking of lands
beneath the ocean, or the gradual rising of conti-
nents and islands above; or the slow growth of
the coral reefs, those wonderful sea-walks, raised
bv the little ocean architects whose own Iwdies
furnish both the building stones and cement that
binds them together, and who have worked so
busily during the long centuries that there are ex-
tensive countries, mountain chains, islands and
long lines of coast, consisting solely of their re-
mains— or the countless forests that have grown
up, flourished, died, and decayed to fill the store-
houses of coal that fed the fires of the human race
— if we consider all these records of the past, the
intellect fails to grasp a chronolog)' of which our
experience furnishes no data, and time that lies
beliind us seems as much an eternity to our con-
ception as the future that stretches indefinitely be-
fore us. — Agassiz.

Pulling at the Halter. — To cure this bad
habit, some recwnmend hitching a rope to the
horse's tail or hind leg, then to tie him to a post,
in such a way that, when he puUs, he will be thrown
down, or at least be made very uncomfortable.

^ .-i.oov:i.-.r riTT-fV.

"V;

strong halter, and hitch him to an outer limb of
an ap])le tree. Now, gently tease him, and pro-
voke him to pull. The l)ranch will yield, but stiU
hold him fast. Tease him again and again, until
he finds that he can not break his halter or eft'ect
anything but his own discomfort. Repeat weekly
until the lesson is thoroughly learned, and he will
at length cease to pull when tied to a post." — Am.
Agriculturist,

For the Nctr England Fanner,
THE PATENT OFFICE REPORT.

It ■would seem as if some ingenious individual
about the Patent Office must have taken out a
patent for improvement in the names of distin-
guished agriculturists. Going to the war for glo-
ry, being killed and having your name entirely
misreported in the dispatches, is nothing to writ-
ing for the Patent Office Report. When we fur-
nished an article on English Agriculture for the
Report of 1860, and the first half of it was pub-
lished, and the other half omitted, without a note
to indicate that there was any other half, we thought
it rather a poor exhibition of ourself. To be sure,
the then Commissioner paid us for the whole,
which, in a business way, was honest enough, and
he promised to publish the rest in 1861, which,
no doubt he intended to do ; but as the principle
of rotation has been applied to that office, two or
three times a year, for some years past, and each
incumbent repudiates all that his predecessors
have agreed to do, we have suff"ered, no more, it
is presumed, than others.

What sort of head we have now, in the agri-
cultural department of the government, remains
to be seen. Mr. Holloway is responsible for the
Report of 1861, but he is gone, and another Pha-
raoh reigns in his stead. We trust Mr. Hollo-
way took his proof-reader with him, for their own
mothers would not recognize some of the contrib-
utors that are made to figure in this book. Here
is an article on sheep-breeding by Joseph Cape,
of Pennsylvania, written in fact by the well known
breeder whom we know as Joseph Cope. And
who, do you suppose, wrote the next article, pur-
porting to be written by Richard S. Tray, of Lynn,
Mass. ? No less a personage than our good friend
Mr. Fay, as good an indorser of an opinion on
sheep, as any in New EnglancL It is bad enough
to write the name of Mr. Grinnell, of Greenfield,
who contributes an excellent article on Farming
in the Neiv England States, as Mr. Uunnell, al-
though he is alive to defend himself, and is now,
we believe, chief clerk in the Agricultural Depart-
ment at Washington; but when it comes to re-
cording, for the benefit of posterity, the name of
the old patriarch in agriculture, Jethro TuU, as
Jethro Oull, as is done in Mr. Warder's article
on Strawberries, at page 181, it is adding insult
to inviry At nage 449, Mr Rotch. wb-^ '-"ild

554

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

be among the last to make such a mistake, is made
to call Tluhhack, the famous ancestor of the short-
horns, by the name of Hidback. How many
more goodly names are so buried under these in-
excusable blunders, we may never know. It is
no excuse to say the handwriting is not plain.
A man that does not know the names of the
Apostles, has no business reading proof for the
New Testament.

The present volume contains many valuable ar-
ticles. As its contents have before been noticed
in the Farmer, we will confine our remarks to a
few subjects which deserve the attention of many
of our readers.

RECLAIMING SALT MARSHES.

The article by j\Ir. Clift, of Stonington, Ct., on
"Salt Marshes, the mode of reclaiming them, and
their value," is of very great practical utility.
The index, by the way, refers to it as at page 243,
which is a mistake for 343. There is a vast ex-
tent of this marsh land, all along the Atlantic
coast, and as far up the rivers as the tide flows,
and we have never known of an acre of it that
has been thoroughly reclaimed, which has not
proved of great value. To thoroughly reclaim it,
the sea water must be excluded, and kept out ; for
although salt is an excellent article for manure,
when we get above three or four bushels to the
acre at a dose, it is too much for common crops,
although mangolds and some other crops are fond
of a higher seasoning. There is always fresh wa-
ter running into the sea, and of course, for the
streams that pass through the marsh, and for the
rain water, as well as for any leakage through the
dikes, there must be floodgates, opened and closed
like canal gates, by the water itself. We use the
ward dike, which primarily means a ditch, in the
sense of embankment, which has good authority.
A dike usually includes a ditch and bank, as con-
structed for drainage purposes. If, by means of
a dike, the salt water can be excluded, and fresh
water raised over the land, the salt will be washed
out far more readily. It will be recollected, that
salt does not go off by evaporation, which is, in-
deed, the very means used to separate it from wa-
ter, but washes downward. The freer the pas-
sage downward, the sooner will the salt marsh be
civilized into arable land. It is said that about
three years, in our climate, give sufficient time
for the salt to wash out, by rains, from salt marsh
so as to freshen it for ordinary cultivation.

The experiments recorded by Mr. Clift would,
of themselves, be sufficient to show that these
marshes are readily adapted, not only to the pro-
duction of hay, in the largest quantities, but for
fruit gardens, market gardens and grain and hoed
crops. But all who have visited the immense
tracts of reclaimed marshes in England, or read

the accounts of them, know very well that the
very heaviest crops of wheat in England grow on
just such lands.

Much of the land reclaimed from the sea, in
Great Britain, has been rescued at once, from un-
der the tides, by building sea-walls, and this land,
which is a sort of silt or fine sand, soon becomes
good, arable soil. This is not, however, properly
salt marsh. The Lincolnshire Fens, on one level
of which there are 300,000 acres, seem to be very
much like our salt marshes, having a black soil of
varying depth, from one to six feet, and more.
We saw upon them crops of wheat ready for the
reaper, estimated, by good farmers, at fiSty-six
bushels to the acre, and it is not an uncommon
practice to follow such a ci'op with a crop of oats,
cut in with a drill without plowing or manuring,
a severity of cropping never thought of on any
other land, except in California, where two crops
of wheat are sometimes taken from one sowing,
the last being raised from the scattered seed of the
first, and known as a volunteer crop.

To make salt marsh arable, we think it should
be regularly tile-drained. Mr. Clift has found
that the ordinary narrow open drains used in salt
marsh are sufficient for the drainage of these
lands, for the best grass crops, but such drains are
an obstruction to all cultivation, and by their lia-
bility to partial obstruction, are far less efi'ectual
than tiles.

Mr. Clift suggests that where these marshes lie
in large tracts, and are too extensive for indi-
vidual capital, companies might be formed to re-
claim them. He gives accurate statements of sev-
eral experiments, in which every crop adapted to
the climate was found successful. One gentleman
has 500 acres, in New Jersey, a part of which he
has reclaimed, and gets from it two crops of grass
annually, which at $20 a ton, nets him $60 an
acre in New York market. He thinks his 500
acres will yield him $30,000 a year, clear income !

BREEDS OF SHEEP.

Mr. Fay's short essay upon this subject con-
tains the true idea upon which it is for the inter-
est of New England farmers promptly to act;
namely, to stock their farms with sheep valuable
for the greatest yield of both wool and mutton.
Climate, soil and market are the three considera-
tions in choosing] the breed for a given locality.
The climate and soil of New England are well
adapted to almost any breed. Perhaps the Lei-
cester, as being too delicate and luxurious in its
habits, may be an exception. The markets of
New England are near enough and large enough,
to consume all the wool and mutton likely to be
produced. Indeed, Mr. Fay states that more
sheep are annually sold in Brighton and Cam-
bridge markets, than are raised in all New Eng-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARIMER.

555

land. Wool, being lighter, and easily kept on
hand foi' a better market, is a more convenient
product than mutton for remote localities. The
Down sheep, of which the famous South Downs
were so long regarded as the type, are recommend-
ed by Mr. Fay as the best for all purposes. His
own flock of Oxford Downs, from which he has
done much to sujiply our farmers, give him the
best foundation for this opinion. There are larger
breeds, and there are finer-wooled breeds, and
there are breeds which mature earlier, but consid-
ering quantity and quality of wool, and of mutton,
eai'ly maturity, fecundity, aptitude to fatten and
hardiness, the Oxford Downs probably stand at
the head of the list, though other crosses of the
Downs may not be far below them. Many farm-
ers find it profitable to sell their lambs, so as to
keep down their stock through winter. Early
Iambs often bring more in the meat market, than
the same animals Avould bring, at eighteen
months.

conclusion:.
This volume contains many valuable essays, but
it plainly indicates the want of any clear compre-
hensive head, to give it shape and system. Per-
haps such a report is worth what it costs the gov-
ernpient, but certainly it does no credit to the
country, or its compiler. A private publisher,
■who should -issue such a series of blunders in or-
thography, or a work so devoid of system, would
be disgraced. We hope to see a government re-
port upon agriculture, that we should not be
ash^ned to send out of the country

H. F, French.

SAIiT AND ITS OFFICES.
Some modern agricultural writers have doubted
the necessity of giving animals salt. The re-
marks as to the effects of salt upon health, by
prof. Johnston, may be relished by those who still
put salt in their own puddings, and allow their
cattle a little now and then. He says :

The wild buffalo frequents the salt licks of
Northwestern America ; the wild animals in the
central parts of South Africa are a sure prey to
the hunter who conceals himself behind a salt
spring ; and our domestic cattle run peacefully to
the hand that offers them a taste of this delicious
luxmy. From time immemorial it has been known
that, without salt, man would miserably perish ;
and among horrible punishments, entailing cer-
tain death, that of feedin^j culprits on saltless
food is said to have prevailed in former times.
Maggots and corruption are spoken of by ancient
writers as the distressing symptoms which salt-
less food engenders ; but no ancient or unchemi-
cal modern could explain how such sufferings
arose. Now we know why the animal craves salt,
■why it suffers discomfort, and why it ultimately
falls into disease if salt is, for a time, withheld.
Upward of half the saline matter of the blood —
57 per cent. — consists of common salt, and as this

is partially discharged every day through the skin
and the kidneys, the necessity of continued sup-
plies of it to the healthy body becomes sufficient-
ly obvious. The bile also contains soda as a spe-
cial and indispeusal)le constituent, and so do all
the cartilages of the body. Stint the supply of
salt, therefore, and neither will the bile be able
properly to assist the digestion, nor allow the car-
tilages to be built up again as fast as they natu-
rally waste.

MUCK— TREATMENT OF.

The kind of muck to which we shall in the
present instance refer, is that found in low jilaces
in u))lands, or forming the soil of fresh marshes
on the edges of rivers, in consequence in part of
washings from the upland, and in part from sedi-
mentary deposits from overflowings. Such muck
usually contains a large amount of organic, and a
still larger proportion of inorganic matter, result-
ing from the decay of organisms during all time.

For want of aeration this muck is frequently
acid, and' therefore requires treatment before it
has any value as manure, unless it be intended to
be used as a manure for ])otatoes, for which pur-
pose it is generally successful if placed in the
drills, and the potatoes thrown upon it, and al-
ways successful if the muck be accompanied with
slight applications of wood ashes, or the lime and
salt mixture we have so often recommended. For
all other crops, however, the muck in its raw state
has not sufficient value as a manure, to pay for its
carriage, manipulation, etc.

If treated in the following manner, muck may
be rendered of high value. It should be dug in
the summer or fall, and left exposed on the ditch
banks for the winter; if deposited sufficiently
early in the season on this ditch bank, to part with
its water, it may be mixed with the lime and salt
mixture, first thoroughly prepared, at the rate of
four bushels of the mixture to each cord of the
muck. The following spring it will be ready for
use, not as manure, but as a valuable adjunct in
the vicinity of a manure shed. Near stables, etc.,
and underlying the bedding of animals, it has a
high value, for it receives the nioxious gases em-
anating from the surface of their bodies, absorbs
urine, and acts generally as a deodorizer ; on the
removal each day of the solid excretia from the
stalls, this may be mixed under the manure shed
with sixteen times its bulk of the decomposed
muck, and all the gases emanating from the de-
composition of the manure be absorbed and re-
tained by the muck.

The treatment at the ditch bank is quite neces-
sary to save cartage, for if treated there as we
have recommended, it will lose half its weight
without parting with any of its value ; the por-
tions parted with being simply water, M'hile the
freezings and thawings, assisted by the lime and
salt mixture, will tear it apart, correcting its acid-
ity, and rendering it as pulverulent as ashes.
Some prefer leaving it exposed for the winter,
carting it in the vicinity of their barn-yards, and
there mixing the muck with the lime and salt mix-
ture ; where wood ashes can be procured, they
may be used instead of the lime and salt mixture.

In the compost heap, this decomposed muck
has great value, not only as a divider of manure,
and in being capable of absorbing all gaseous and

'56

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

"[ueous products of decomposition, but by hav-
g its own integrants so altered in condition as

■ ) become food for plants. If, at the lower end
t' the compost heap, a cistern be sunk, supplied
ith a pump, so as to return the drainage fre-

■•'.cntly to the top of the heap, the decomposition
ill go on without fire-fcmging, and the soluble
■'ilions of the manure will become equally di-
'ded throughout the mass, and after sixty days
le whole mass will be sufficiently homogeneous
1 cliaracter to be ready to be carted to the field
lien it is required for use.
W'e observe many writers now recommending
10 carting of the muck from the swamp directly
■ the field, leaving it thei'e in heaps to be bene-
rnj by the disintegrating influences of the win-
■r. but they certainly overlook the fact that the

■ eat value of the rauck as an assistant in the
'm;)ost heap, is not availed of by such practice.

— Working Farmer.

TOP-DRESSING MEADOWS
NOVEMBER,

nsr

There will be many days during this month
• 'len hands cannot conveniently work at any-
ling, on account of snow and frost. On such
.ys manure may be collected with broad hoes
r.o heaps, and hauled out on meadows, and
u\ ad evenly over the entire surface of the
. ')und. If it is fine, well rotted manure, or com-

st, the better way is to spread it as it is hauled
i:, instead of putting it in heaps. It will require
i!y a few minutes longer to spread a load from
c wagon or cart with a shovel than to unload it
. heaps ; and if it is spread as fast as it is drawn
it, the job will be conipleted in a more farmer-
^0 manner than it usually is when the manure

left in heaps, because when it is spread fi-om
,c cart it will usually be distributed much more

i.-aly than when left in heaps. Unless a man is

ly careful, he will not leave enough in a heap,
. he will leave too much.

.\ thin coat of well rotted manure spread over
irtoadow in November will be the means of pro-
..■ngaheavy crop of grass next season. But

;^ not the best policy, by any means, to allow
i luure to remain in heaps during the winter, and
i);ead it in the spring. It would be better to
.y a hand a double price per day in order to

ve it spread before winter comes than to allow

.1) remain in heaps on meadow land until next
'.iiig. Surface manuring in late autumn on
ii ..lows, pastures and lawns, will start the grass
ly next spring, and produce a bountiful crop
iiing the season, providing the soil is not too
.;. — S. Edwards Todd, i/i Country Oeatleman.

has secured patents in all the great European
States for extracting the maize fibre in a form like
flax, so that it can be spun or woven like flax
thread. In these days, when there are so many
experiments to procure a substitute for cotton,
the trial of the maize plant is of iotereat. — Provi-
dence Journal.

Iaize Papek and Maize Cloth. — Mr. John

.'ones, of this city, has received from his son

at Vienna, and has shown to us, some very

dsome specimens of paper made from maize

v, at the im])erial paper manufactory, Schloe-

irnihle, near Gloggnitz, Austria. We believe

:f it cannot yet be produced so cheaply as paper

■i(le of rags. But in the experiments necessary

• r.iaking the paper, it was discovered that the

i;',e i)lant contained a fibre capable of being

'n or woven, which furnishes in its waste a

• i;) paper. Dr. Von Welsbach, the Director of

" Imppvinl Pvintin'T F.s*''^'>lis)'n->f>r\t in V'.^imi-

For the New England Farmer.
CliEEGYMEN IN "WAR TIMES.

Messrs. Editors : — We read in the history of
the war of 1775, that patriotic clergymen were in
the country, and that they took an active part, by
every possible means, to assist in its defence
against a powerful enemy, and ultimately gain its
independence. Since my remembrance, these cler-
ical heroes were active preachers of the Gospel in
almost every neighboring town. It does me good
to look back and see with what enthusiasm they
engaged in every good work. In war time, they
would mount their pulpits to attentive audiences,
and proclaim the dangers of the country, and the
necessity of repuls-ing the enemy, and at the same
time kindling the patriotism of the young men in-
to a flame. These good ministers made more vol-
unteers than all the recruiting officers, or the
edicts of government, put together ; tbey, (the
volunteers) were forced by no threats of penalty,
but persuaded by a sense of necessity and duty,
and as conscripts, they did not labor under the
stigma of being "drafted."

In those days, clergymen shared privations
losses and sufferings with their people ; an anec-
dote will illustrate how they got along in a neigh-
boring town to help their minister ;. the inhabi-
tants were mostly formers, and in small towns, all
were included in one society. In the pressing ne-
cessity of the times, when money was scarce, or
rather not to be had, the members of ^L-. C.'s so-
ciety were summoned to meet in convention, to
consult upon some method to supply the gastric
requirements of the minister and his family. Af-
ter some deliberation and talk, one loquacious
member, noted for doing business for every body,
got up and made a speech, stating that Mr. A.
could furnish a certain description of jiroduce, and
Mr. B. another Idnd, and Mr. C. a third sort, and
so on to the middle of the alphabet, and I can do
the rest, and I am sure the Rev. Mr. C. cannot eat

the d and all. In the present struggle, a most

gratifying ciixumstance is the unanimity of all de-
nominations of good Christian ministers, in using
their influence to suppress the rel>ellion.

Now, as in revolutionary times, the ministers
have done as much, if xiot more, to collect an ar-
my of volunteers as the recruiting officers. All
religious prejudice appears to l>e out of the ques-
tion, and the main question, the best way to sub-
due the rebellion, and conquer a peace by restor-
ing all mankind born into the world, to equal nat-
ural rights and privileges. The time has come
again which "tries men's souls," and if there are a
few clergymen taking a South side view, or halt-
ing between two opinions, it will not excite our
wonder, making allowance for the fallibility of
human nature, but I believe most of them are
sound to the core. In the days of the revolution,
there were a few tory, or loyal ministers, but they
had to keep their tongues in their heads, and their
heads between their shells. Silas Brown.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FAR:MEII.

5-/

"WIIfTEB CABE OP TENDER PLANTS.

Now, before the ground freezes, is the time to
give attention to such tender or half hardy plants
as we wish to ])reserve. The losses that annuall}^
occur for the want of it are numerous and vexa-
tious, when a little pains at the proper time would
be quite likely to prevent both.

We have no good r)ut-door grapes yet, that are
sufficiently hardy to bear the changes of our win-
ters. The Isabella is often killed to the ground,
and the Concord is occasionally. If either of
these are sev€rely pruned soon after thej' shed
their leaves, and then carefully bent over upon th«
ground and covered three or four inches with
soil, they will be kept in a' state of perfect preser-
vation until spring. They may then be raised
early or late, accordins? to their locality or the
state of the season. When a late frost is feared,
they may be kept down until the '20th of ^Nlay,
and upon being taken up then, will be found fresh
and plump, and their blossoms will be quite likely
to escape iujury by frost. Covering with straw,
It aves, sawdust or hay, does not have the same ef-
fect as covering with soil. Under these the plants
shrivel a little, and do not present that fresh and
full appearance that they do when covered with
soil. They are probably partially dried by the
searching fall and f5pring winds, or by winter
winds when the ground is not covered with snow
— while those that are covered with soil do not
seem to lose a particle of their juices.

Blackberry and raspberry bushes may be treat-
ed in the same way, though the operaUon is a
more difficult one, on account of the thorns on
tlie blackberry, and the brittleness of both the
blackberry and raspberry. But where they are
so laid down tliey come out in very fine condition
in the spring.

With tender rose bushes another course may be
pursued. Head them down — which is usually fa-
vorable to the rose — and bind hay or straw around
them, and then insert short and thick white pine
boughs into the ground and tie them about J-he
hay that encloses the bush. But in a mellow soil
h is not difficult to heel the bush over a little upon
the surface with the aid of a spade, and cover it
with soil.

The Wistaria, and any other climber or shrub
that is not perfectly hardy, may be greatly pro-
tected by laying it upon the ground and covering
with evergreen branches, or where they cannot be
conveniently laid down, have the branches set
against and tied ai'ound them. Under this treat-
ment the plant will come out in the spring full of
sap and vigor, and immediately start into a rapid
and healtlw growth. When this takes place, the
cultivator is amply repaid for his care, and greatly
enjoys the results of his labor. The appearance
of the garden and lawn depends considerably up-

on the preparation which is bestowed upon th
plants during their winter life — for when neglect
ed, they come out in the spring in a starved ar
shrivelled habit that requires half a summer"
warming aiid watering and fostering to brii,,
them up to a flourishing condition. Let this h-
reraembei'ed, and the profDer care bestowed i
season, and there wiU be less regret for the loss ( ;
favorite plants, and less complaining because tin ;
do not make a better appearance.

A NOVEL RAM.

There is safety in a multitude of rams, as ( ."
counsellors. Yankee invention does not rest co:;-
tent with its "Monitors," "Puritans" and "Kei.-
kuks," but keeps on trying to make somethir.i;
simpler and better than these. About a thousani
models of novel M'ar vessels have been lodged ;.:
the Patent office; and for many hundreds of thc:;^
patents have been issued. Some are good froi.:
stem to stern ; others are bad all over ; and som
have one or two new points which, if combine I
with other inventions of tried and improved excel-
lence, would be worthy of immediate adoption i:.
the American navy. The newest and oddest ram
of the season is an oflspring of the mechanical
genius of Mr. King, of this city. The hull is thai
of aji ordinary steamship, built of iron, with i\\\>
screw pro]>ellers at the stern. It is roofed like
the exi)loded Merrimac, not with rails, however,
but with iron plates, lapping over each other liko
the slates of a house roof. The thickness of ti:j
plate is three inches. Behind the plates is a sec-
ond roofing of India rubber, of the same thick-
ness. The whole is compactly joined together, an .1
(such is the theory of the inventor) will vibratj
and yield elastically to a cannon ball, but cann'';t
be pierced or knocked down. The angle of tl, ;
roof is such as to make the missile glance ofi";
and the iron plates are lapped over in a manner
reverse to that of house-slating, .so that they can-
not be turn up at the edge. Nothing but actual
experiment can demonstrate how f\ir this nov !
plan may be trusted in a close encounter with the
tremendous modern artillery. The prow of the
ram is a long cast steel beak, fashioned on a fa-
miliar model, entirely submerged, and capable of
dealing a terrific blow. Supplementary to this is
i a novel and (literally) a striking point. It is a
sharp steel prong which is thrust out suddenly
and with great force, or drawn back, by a sepa-
rate engine at the middle of tlie vessel. This
prong is worked wiih great rapidity, and woul.i
tear a hostile vessel to pieces with a succession i;;"
staggering blows. The ])urpose of the inventor
is to strike with the cutting prow, and then t ■
finish up with a dose of the prong, until the ene-
my cries, "Hold, enough !" This singular ram
may be seen at the Americair Lloyds, 35 Wall
Street, — Journal of Commerce.

Lampas in Horses. — When lampas appear,
sponge the horse's mouth a few times with a solu-
tion of alum water. We have practiced this sim-
ple remedy, in many cases, and always with satis-
factory results. — Working Farmer.

558

NEW ENGLAND FARRIER.

Dec.

For the New England Farmer.

THE BIBDS OP NEW ENGLAND— No. 24.

GOLDFINCHES — CROSSBILLS — REDPOLLS.

Yellow Bird— Pine Finch— Red Crossbill— White-winged Cross-
bill-Lesser Redpoll— Mealy Redpoll.

Prof. Baird describes eight species of American
Goldfinches, (genus Chrysomitris,) of which two
only are common to New England, the Yellow
Bird and Pine Finch.

The Yellow Bird, or American Goldfinch,
{Clirijsomitris iristis, Bonap.,) is a well-known,
common and resident species, generally distribut-
ed over North America. In the winter they roam
about the country in flocks, sometimes of several
hundreds, in their humble attire of plain flaxen
color, subsisting entirely upon seeds, of which
they seem to find an abundance, apparently im-
mindful of the severity of the winter. On the re-
turn of warm weather they resume their bright
livery of gold and black, and pass the summer in
constant gaiety, ranging the fields at will in small
parties, or are engaged in rearing their young. So
strong is their gregarious and wandering disposi-
tion that considerable parties are seen in mid-
summer, the males tuning their lively songs to-
gether, and often seem striving to excel each oth-
er in the delivery of their varied, cheerful and
highly agreeable warble.

They delay the duties of incubation till late in
the season, breeding mostly in July and August,
when the newly ripened seeds of the various plants
on which they feed are matured. The nest is
commonly placed in the fork of a tall bush, apple-
tree, or forest sapling, and is built of bark and
rootlets, and lined with down from thistles, dan-
delions and willow catkins. The eggs are pure
white, usually four. In winter and spring their
rovings seem to be directed by the abundance or
scarcity of food, rather than by climatic influences.

The length of this bird is five inches ; alar ex-
tent, eight. In summer the male is bright, lemon
yellow, fading into white on the rump, with the
forehead, wings and tail black ; the female is palci-.
In September the yellow changes to brown olive,
and through the winter the sexes resemble each
other.

The Pike Finch, {Chrysomitris pinns, Bo-
nap.,) spending the summer much farther to the
northward, is seen here only in winter, and its
migrations being governed by the supply of food,
it proves but an irregular and uncertain visitant,
at times being seen in considerable flocks, and
again not seen for severr.l seasons. I have taken
tiiem at Springfield in November, and in almost
every winter month ; they also often winter in
Pennsylvania, and have been seen in tlio Caroli-
nas. While here they subsist almost wholly on the
seeds of evergreens, as the larch, spruce and hem-
lock, and of alders and birches, and are quite un-
suspicious. In their call-notes and in their man-
ner of flight, they greatly resemble the preceding
species.

Audubon met with them on the coast of Labra-
dor, toward the end of July, accomj^anied by their
young broods, but in no case was he able to find a
nest, though they doubtless sjjent the summer in
that vicinity. He observes that they are always
abundant in winter in the State of Maine. Its
habitat extends across the continent, from the At-
lantic to the Pacific.

The length of this species is four inches, breadth
eight. Upper parts dark olive brown, streaked
with black ; beneath, whitish, streaked with dus-
ky ; concealed bases of the tail feathers and quills
sulphur yellow.

The Red Crossbill, {Curvivostra Americana,
Wilson,) is another of those transient visitors
from the north, chiefly seen here in the v.inter,
but is not unknown at other seasons. It is sup-
posed to inhabit the northern parts of the conti-
nent generally, migrating southward in winter ;
but it is not mentioned in the Fauna Boreali-
Americana as a bird of the fur-countries. It is
known to spend the whole year among the moun-
tains of Pennsylvania. Some ^vinte^s it is quite
abundant in this State, as in the winter of 1859-
60, which was so remarkable for the appearance of
many rare northern birds, when large flocks of
them inhabited tlie pine woodsf or several months,
and were even quite common as late in the sum-
mer as June. A few remained till September, but
since that time have been rare. In the spring
months they often visited the orchards, for the
seeds of decayed apples, of which they were very
fond ; but generally the cones of the pitch pine
were their chief dependence for food, the seeds of
which they extracted with great dexterity. This
species is generally regarded as a regular winter
resident in all those extensive pine forests lying
north of latitude 40° ; Audubon says he found
them more abundant in Maine, and in the British
Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,
than elsewhere ; and in Maine was assured of its
nesting on the pine trees in the middle of winter,
while the ground was snow-covered ; and we have
accounts of a closely allied species breeding at the
same season in Europe.

During the months of Februaiy and March,
1860, the males were full of song, often chasing
each other through the wood, and for several
weeks I looked in vain for iiests, though from ap-
pearances I strongly suspected them to be nesting.
At this time the males had a very agreeable, low,
warbling song. The flight of this species is strong,
swift and undulating, and while on the wing a
constant chattering is kept up, wdiich often pro-
duces an agreeable eft'ect where the flock is some-
what numerous. Their common call-note is a
quickly repeated chip, chip, chip, chip, but while
feeding they are quite silent, or only utter a fee-
ble whittitish, scarcely audible beyond a few paces.

The Red Crossbill is seven inches in length, and
ten in alar exent. Color of the old male, dull light
red, wings and tail black ; female, greenish olive
tinged with yellow on the rump and head. Says
Baird, "The immature and young birds exhibit all
imaginable combinations of the colors of the male
and female." I have found the males, while here,
a])parently much more common than the females.
When confined in wire cages they use their bill
and feet in climbing, much like parrots. But to
give a particular account of the peculiar habits,
and ways of feeding, of these interesting birds,
Avould require mucli space.

The WiirrF.-wiNGKi) Crossbill, {Curvirostra
leucoptcra, Wilson.) like the preceding species, is
a general inhabitant of the northern j)arts of
America, migrating southward in winter, and said
to be more commonly seen here than tliat species.
Like them, they are gregarious, and sometimes
appear here in immense, half-famished flocks in

1866.

NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER.

559

the depth of winter, coming suddenly, stopping a
few days or weeks, and then disappearing as sud-
denly as they came. Some, however, at times re-
side in our fine forests regularly tliroughout the
winter, but I have never seen them after the re-
turn of warm weather. Generally, they seem to
, be less common, and less regular visitants to the
United States, and appear to be rather more north-
ern in their habitat. Dr. Richardson says this spe-
cies "inhabits the dense white-spruce forests of
the fur-countries, feeding ])riacipally on the seeds
of the cones." In September he says they collect
into small flocks, and in the depth of winter retire
from the coast to the thick woods of the interior.
Nuttall quotes from Hutchins respecting its nest,
which is said to be built half-way up a pine tree,
of grass, mud and feathers ; the eggs are five,
white, with yellowish spots. This species is
slightly smaller than the Red Crossbill, is more
sprightly in its motions, and feeds almost wholly
on the small cones of spruce, hemlock and white
pine, leaving the large cones of the i)itch pine to
its stronger relative, the Red Crossbill.

The males are bright carmine red, whitish on
the belly ; wings, with two bars of white, which
•with the tail are black. Female, brown, tinged
with olive.

The Lesser Redpoll, (Aegiothus linaria,
Cab.,) is likewise -of boreal habits, only known
here in winter, and then at uncertain intervals,
though sometimes straying as far south as Phila-
delphia, where it is seen but once in many years.
This small, interesting, and beautiful species is
sometimes seen in this State in large flocks, as in
the latter part of the winter of 1 809-60, resemb-
ling in its notes and in many of its habits, our
common Yellow Bird, but generally it is rare and
but little known. Dr. Richardson speaks of it in
the Fauna B or eali- Americana as "one of the few
permanent residents in the fur-countries, where it
may be seen in the coldest weather, on the banks
of the lakes and rivers, hopping among the reeds
and canes, or clinging to their stalks." In the
spring of 1860 they remained here till April, roving
about the fields in large flocks, feeding on the
seeds of weeds, and of the birch and alder ; were
at times quite musical, and always appeared un-
suspicious. They also inhabit the north of Eu-
rope, and are said to build a nest almost like the
nest of our Yellow Bird, laying five bluish-white
eggs, marked with reddish spots.

Length, five and a half inches ; alar extent,
eight and a half. Above, grayish, inclining to
yellowish, and streaked with dusky ; crown, dark
crimson ; below and rump, pale crimson, ap-
proaching white on the vent. The female is with-
out the roseate tint below and on the rump, and
the breast is streaked with dusky.

The IMealy Redpoll, {Aegiothus canescens,
Cab.,) I introduce with hesitancy as a bird of Nevv'
England. It is said, however, to now and then
visit Maine, and is commonly reckoned as a bird
of this State. De Kay describes it as a bird of New
York. Audubon procured specimens of this bird
in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, and states
that at one time he had in his possession sjjeci-
mens that were taken in the State of New Jersey,
and others taken near Baltimore, in Maryland. He
found them in Newfoundland in August, where he
had an opportunity of observing their habits for a
time, which he says do not much diff"er from those

of the common Lesser Redpoll, which is described
above. Evidently it may be somelimes found in
our limits. It is not mentioned in the Fauna Bo-
reoli- Americana, or Northern Zoology, of Richard-
son and Swainson as a bird of the iur-countries,
neither is it described by Nuttall.

It is very nearly the size of the preceding, and
quite similarly colored. J. A. A.

Cambridge, Mass., 1862.

HO"W TO BUKN COAL.

At this season, when this important article of
housekeeping is so costly, it would be well to
practice the closest economy in its use. This is
not, by any means, done ; coal is either wasted in
consumption or else thrown out in the ashes.
Nearly all, or at any rate, the greater part of our
ranges and stoves have four doors, two large ones
opening on the grate, and two smaller ones for
lessening the draft and putting in the fuel ; now,
when the fire is started in the morning, it should
be built only in one end of the grate, the other be-
ing full of coal ; by this means tlie amount of
wood required (which has also increased in price)
is much reduced, and the coal ignites more quick-
ly, the fire soon spreading to the green fuel first
applied. When the stove is not in use for any
especial purpose, such as baking or roasting, rake
the fire clean and fill the grate as full as it will
hold, then close up the draft o])enings, oven and
all, and throw the small doors wide open, tlie fuel
is then slowly roasted away to ashes and a good,
clear fire at all times readily obtained. By far too
much fuel is thrown away in the ashes ; buy a pa-
tent sifter [Sanford Adams', — Ed. Farmer.'] and
screen them, picking out all the refuse, white cin-
ders, Szc, and you will be astonished at the result,
fully one-third of the ashes may be rescued from
the pile and re-consumed. These hints should
not be neglected ; we have tried them and know
their value.

KAPID GROWTH OP VEGETABLES IN
NORWAY.

In a valuable treatise on the vegetable produc-
tions of Norway, which has been published by Dr.
Mueller, in connection with the Norwegian depart-
ment of the Exhibition, some extraordinary facts
are related respecting the influence of the long
duration of light, during the summer months, on
the growth of vegetables in the higher latitudes in
Norway. At 70° N., it was found that ordinary
peas grew at the rate of three and a half English
inches in twenty-four hours for many days in sum-
mer, and that some of the cereals also grew as
much as two and a lialf inches in the same time.
Not only is the rapidity of growth afi"ected by the
constant presence of light, but those vegetable se-
cretions which owe their existence to the influence
of actinic force on the leaves, are also ])roduced in
fiir greater quantity than in more Soutliern cli-
mates ; hence the coloring matter and pigment
cells are found in much greater (quantity, and the
colored part of vegetables is conse(j\iently deeper.
The same remark applies to the flavoring and
odoriferous matters, so that the fruits of the north
of Norway, though not equal in saccharine prop-
erties, are far moi'e intense in flavor than those of
the south.

560

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

For the New England Farmer.

AN" AUTUMNAL DAY.

"The melancholy days have come,

The saddest of the year —
Of wailing winds and naked woods,

And meadows brown and sere." — ^Brtawt.

Thus plaintively and beautifully sings one of
our most valued American poets. Who that has
spent a week in the country at this beautiful twi-
light of the year, when all nature is dressed in the
varied colors of the rainbow, and is breathing forth
inspiration from hill-side and valley, woods and
mountains, can fail to join with the poet in sing-
ing—

"The melancholy days have come,
The saddest of the year."

This is the season when it is well for the mer-
chant to leave his store, the professional man his
study, and the mechanic his shop, and, taking a
walk over the brown fields, and through the va-
riegated woods, to listen to the voices of nature as
she proclaims them in the falling leaf, the fading
flowers and the departing birds.

Our joy is different from that experienced in
midsummer. Who can gaze upon an old, desert-
ed homestead, where once the voices of happi-
ness and merriment resounded, and one where a
ha]3py family once dwelt, united together, and
not feel a melancholy that rarely comes over the
soul at any other time ?

In autumn we miss the fragrance of the lovely
flowers, and the singing birds, but are not pleas-
ures and enjoyments found both within and with-
out, that belong peculiarly to this season of the
year ? Do not, then, remain housed at this season,
weeping over the "Last rose of summer," and the
sudden departure from your garden of some favor-
ite bird, that has been gaining your affection by
his confidence and his songs, but go up and down,
and you will find new pleasures that present them-
selves on every side, and offer to your mournful
spirit sweet consolation for the departed joys of
summer.

How very clear and bracing is the air. Let It-
aly boast of her sunny skies and mild atmosphere,
I think nothing can excel the weather wc have in
some days of early autumn. Now, far distant ob-
jects can be distinguished, that have long been en-
wrapped in obscurity. The summer flowers that
smiled on us in our summer walk, are, for the
most part, faded and gone, — but the golden rod
is still growing along the edges of the walls and
the wayside ; these still greet the eye as we look
over the brown fields, and their presence assures
us tl)at winter is not yet upon us. The tall and
stately sun-flowers still nod their heads in the pass-
ing breeze, in the corners of the garden, as if de-
fying the cold and frost that have laid their kin-
dred low. And now and then a modest little vio-
let peeps forth from beneath the leaves that have
almost covered it. In the summer, we jiassed
these flowers by unheeded, in the dazzling array
of beauty that met us at every step, but we now
welcome their i)resence, as one turns to the friends
that do not flee at the approach of triluilation.

Most of the birds have departed on flieir annual
journey, while others are preparing to follow, and
are daily seen drilling their forces for the sunny
South. As the cold approaches, their numbers
lessen, whilst occasionally is heard the short, im-

patient twitter of some bird who is fearful he is
left behind his brothers.

The stuixly husbandman is busy in gathering in
the fruits of his labors. All is busy activity in
storing up the fruits of the eai'th for the coming
winter. How still the woods are. I only hear
the distant, happy laugh of little children, who are
out a nutting, and the cheerful chirrup of the in-
dustrious squirrel, who is laying in his stock of
provisions for the coming winter. Loads of the
bright and golden corn are on the way to the barn,
and the old cider-mill is merry with the voices of
those who are engaged in the pleasant task of
making cider. Occasionally is heard the whistling
of the wind, as it sweeps over the deserted corn-
field and harvested fields, which reminds us of the
gleaming fireside, of pleasant conversation, crack-
ing of nuts and sparkling cider. The cattle roam
over the sere fields, or He basking in the warm
sunshine of noonday, on the lee side of the walls,
and as they wend their way homeward at nightfall,
they cast lingering looks to the well-filled barns,
from which their wants will be supplied, when the
cold weather and frozen ground cuts off" their sub-
sistence in the pastures.

How splendid the woods look now, dressed in
their gorgeous colors ! What can be more splen-
did ? Every color and hue imaginable is here
represented. But they are too beautiful long to
last, and soon the wind will strip them from the
tree where they have made ])leasant shade and
shelter to the flocks and the passing traveller.
The days are growing shorter, and the farmer has
now less hours to labor in the field, and more to
spend by his own fireside with his family, and in
social conference with his neighbors. Everything
about us denotes glad fruition. The gathered
crops, the merry husking, the fattening swine, all
suggestive of the end of the labors, excite grate-
ful emotions in the heart of the husbandman.
How happy is the man who can look with pleasure
on his past labors of the fields and the garden,
and forward to a season of comparative rest, when
he can improve his mind and lay his plans for the
ensuing year. That sucli is the happy lot of many
of the subscribers of the N. E. Farmer, is the sin-
cere wish of Freeman.

THE CHECK EEIN,

Who beside the British use the check rein, sav-
ing their general imitators, the Americans ? The
French do not use it, the Germans do not, the
Indians and Spaniards of South America, who
literally live on horseback, and are perfect horse-
men, do not, the Spaniards of Europe do not, nor
do the Turks. Tiie most observant and most nat-
ural people in the world are free from this error.
It is strange to us, that the English and ourselves
tlid not, years and vears ago, reason upon the
constantly witnessed fact that when a check rein
was loosed at a tavern-stooj) or in a stalile, the
])oor horse always stretched out his neck and
hung down his head. That was his language for
saying that the strap hurt and wearied him. and
that he was heartily glatl to be relieved from it.

The genius that first ]iroposed the mechanical
feat of lifting himself u]i by the breeches, must
have been the author of the theory that the
check-rein held the horse u]) and kept him from
falling. The mechanical action in the two cases

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

561

must be precisely the same. If the reader will
reflect for a moment, he will see that no suspend-
ing power can be derived, except from without
the animal.

The check-i-ein should be abolished. It wastes
motive power. Its use is unhealthy for it dis-
turbs the otherwise naturally and eqiuilly distri-
buted vital forces. It shortens the life of the
horse. It diminishes his speed, and lessens the
free and quick action so essential to the animal's
safety and that of his driver.

Brethren of the press, let us emancipate the
horse from the British check rein. — Bvjfalo Dem-
ocrat.

For the New Eglnand Farmer.

DEEP AND SHALLOW CULTURE FOR
CORJNT.

I notice that a correspondent of the Farmer
recommends four inches as a sufficient depth to
plow, where Indian corn is to be planted. I hold
this to be one of the most valuable crops grown i
in our climate, and should 1)e sorry to have it mis-
placed in a soil too shallow pulverized to aid its
growth. After many years experience of its cul-
ture, I think cicfht inches depth of plowing will
be better than four, provided sufficient fertilizers
are applied ; and no man may expect a fair crop
without such application.

I remember to have heard, when a boy, of two
farmers travelling together from Massachusetts
over the plains of Nashua, N. H., when they saw
a man engaged in planting corn on the plain
lands of that town. They spoke to the laboring
man, and one of them inquired what crop he ex-
pected to realize on that land. The venerable
man reverently replied, "With the blessing of
heaven, ten or fifteen bushels to the acre." The
questioner rather harshly exclaimed, " Give me a
good shovel-full of dang to a lull" this is the
best blessing that I want."

How much labor is lost every year on our farms,
by neglecting the preliminaries for insuring a
crop. Our lands that have been long cultivated
are not fit to be planted with any crop, without
being thoroughly pulverized, and liberally fertil-
ized. The man who presumes to plant without at- j
tending to these pre-requisites greatly mistakes
his own interests. Essex.

Nov. 1, 1862.

Animal Instinct. — I knew of a jackdaw that
often used to eat the gum that exuded from plum
trees, and always did so when it was unwell. In
connection with this subject, it may well be men-
tioned that a careful observer would find himself
repaid by watching the modes of care employed
by sick and wounded creatures. We all know
that the dog and cat resort to grass when they
feel out of health, and hares to a species of moss.
I was told, on the authority of an eye-witness,
that a goldfinch which had been struck by a hawk
and wounded, made its way to a dry puff" ball, tore
it open with its beak, and dusted the wounded
shoulder with the spores, thereby stopping the ef-
fusion of blood. The spectator was greatly sur-
prised at the incident, and being induced to try
the same remedy upon a wounded finger, found
that the experiment was completely successful. —
Routledge's Illustrated Natural History.

BUSINESS IN -WAR TIMES.
The Bangor Times, in a recent issue, had some
sensible ideas in relation to the prosecution of
general business, or the carrying out of the pub-
lic enterprises in war time. We ask the especial
attention of every reader to these appropriate re-
marks. So far as the common business of life is
concerned, in its thousand forms among us, all
we need is confidence in each, other. Stop im-
portations of all articles of luxury, so as to stop
the demand for gold to send abroad, and then our
currency, whether of gold and silver, or paper,
will have a steady value, and the prices of articles
will have as little fluctuation as they have hereto-
fore. All we need is, confidence in each other, and
confidence in the government, that it will faithful-
ly discharge its obligations to the people. Let
us, then, one and all, cultivate this confidence,
and press on, not only to complete the plans al-
ready made, but to initiate others that shall intro-
duce new elements of industry and prosperity.

He who stands idly by with folded hands and
a doubting, halting heart, is a coward, as such
conduct leads directly to the loss of everything
which we have so nobly gained, — name, nation
and prospects, — and would result in reducing us
to subjection to an unprincipled oligarchy, which
would introduce slavery, and wailing and woe all
over our fair and beautiful land.

Let us, then, we ask again, have confidence in
the government and in each other. Our soil does
not withhold its bounties, nor our sons and daugh-
ters their industrial labors, and the Lord of the
harvests is ready and willing to give the increase
to intelligent and faithful application. No mat-
ter what amount is demanded for the army and
navy, in addition to that required for home con-
sumption, if we are courageous, faithful and in-
dustrious, we can reproduce, annually, to supply
the demand to any extent that supplies may be
exhausted.

In this respect, we are the favored nation of
the world. The monstrous waste occasioned by
the rebellion, the withdrawal of hundreds of thou-
sands of productive laborers from our farms, and
the constant demand from abroad, does not ex-
haust the vast granaries of their means of sup-
port.

And so of the mechanic arts. The opening of
the rebellion found us utterly incapable either of
assault or defence. Our arsenals had been stript
of arms and ammunition. Our ships of war —
what few were afloat — had been ordered into for-
eign seas ; two only, the Brooklyn and Harriet
Lane, remaining on a coast stretching along the
Atlantic border for two or three thousand miles.
And this was not all. The high officers of the
government, the faithless and perjured wretches,
who had sworn upon the altar of God to preserve

662

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

the Constitution and the laws, with one hand up-
,on the Bible swearing allegiance, were throttling
the nation with the other, in the corruption of the
officers of the army and navy, and in reducing
the power of the free States by every means which
a most ungodly ambition could devise.

This state of things seemed necessary to arouse
the energies of our too confident people in the
free States. And it did arouse them. See what
they have done. The civilized nations of the
world are astounded with a knowledge of the ex-
tent of our resources and the industrial energy
and skill of our people. It is almost as though
the fiat of Heaven had gone forth and covered
the broad lands with bristling bayonets, with
thundering cannon, with the tramp of mighty
war* horses, and more than half a million of men,
ready to sacrifice everything but liberty and the
free exercise of our holy religion, to quell and
quench the cause of all this woe — human slavery.

And the same mighty energies have been dis-
played in regard to the navy. It is scarcely more
than a twelvemonth when the pennant of an
American war vessel could rarely be seen in the
Atlantic seas, so thoroughly had the right arm of
our power been reduced by the shameless treach-
ery of high officials of the government. But, lo !
the change ! Our naval vessels now number some
four or five hundred, and are staunch, strong and
well appointed, with hearts as courageous as ever
beat on decks of oak or iron ! Of this number
twenty are iron-dads, already afloat, and tliirty-
seven iron-clads in a great state of forwardness,
soon to hover over every coast of the enemy, to
visit every river, bay and inlet, and to bring back
to obedience and duty, every fort, arsenal and
people, and tear away the black flag of slavery
and rebellion from this fair and glorious land !

Confidence, friends, in each other, is all we
need to make us still prosperous, and to avert, as
far as possible, the real evils that visit us all,
springing out of a wicked and mad ambition.
Words alone, even though they may be, as Luther
said, "half-battles," will not answer now. We
must have systematic, energetic and persistent
action, — action that will produce all that is de-
manded by the exigencies of the times, and bring
our insane brethren to obedience and duty.

But we are keeping the reader too long from
the excellent views which have suggested the
above remarks. They are as follows :

Many people seem to suppose that because we
have a great war upon our hands every one must
stand back and look on as an inactive spectator
— that he must enter into no speculations and ex-
hibit no enterprise. This is an erroneous idea,
and should be corrected. There are serious du-
ties for those who remain at home. We must
keep up and if possible increase our usual spirit
of business enterprise, so that we may be able to

sustain those we send to the field. We owe it to
the country and to our soldiers as well as to our-
selves, that we be active and vigilant in all that
shall help to sustain the business prospects of the
country. There never was more money in circu-
lation in the country than now, and business need
not be allowed to suff'er seriously for want of sup-
port. The trouble is, that attention being with-
drawn to the movements of the armies, immedi-
ate business and social enterprises are neglected
in proportion. We are all engrossed with the one
idea of the war, and our energies are sufl'ered to
lie dormant. Retren<iiiment in private and public
amusements is commendable and highly proper
at this time. But there is danger that our people
will run into the extreme of unthriftiness, losing
confidence in all enterprises of a private nature,
and then, that we shall lose confidence in the na-
tional ability. It does not take long, when once
a people get started on this down grade, to ruin a
State by universal private doubts and dejection.
We repeat, we who remain at home have our du-
ties to perform, serious duties, too. Upon us de-
volves the burden of sustaining this war by all
the material aid at our command, and all that pri-
vate enterprise can possibly produce. It is the
business of communities that goes to make a na-
tion strong and durable, in war as well as in peace,
and this community has only to sustain its usual
reputation of thrift, to do its share in giving con-
fidence to the affairs of the country.

KIIiliING RATS— A NOVEL TKAP.

The premises of a good many farmers are in-
fested with rats, and we are often asked for modes
of destruction. A resident of Brooklyn is vexed
with an increasing family of rats that seem to
grow fat on arsenic and rat exterminators. He
doesn't like rats, and refers his case to the San-
day Times. That journal recommends a trap
made as follows :

"Take a mackerel barrel, for instance, and fill
it to about one-third its height with water. Then
place a log endwise in the water, so that one end
of it will just remain above the surface. Make
the head of the barrel a little too small to fit, and
suspend it by two pins to the inside of the top of
the barrel, so that it will hang as if on a pivot and
easily tip by touching either side. On this head,
thus suspended, secure a piece of savory meat.
The first rat that scents it, will, to get the meat,
leap on the barrel head. The head will tip, or
tilt, precipitate him into the water, and resume
its position. The rat in the water will swim to
the log, get on the end of it, and squeal vocifer-
ously. His cries will bring other rats, all of wliom
will be tilted into tlie water, and all of whom will
fight for the only dry spot in it — viz., the end of
the log. As only one rat can hold it, the victor
will drown all tlie rest, and can, in the morning,
be drowned himself. We have seen twenty rats
caught in one night by such a trick."

Relief of Neuralgia. — As this dreadful dis-
ease is becoming more prevalent than formerly,
and as the doctors have not discovered any meth-
od or medicine that will permanently cure it, we
simply stale that for some time past a mem])er of
our family has sufl'ered most intensely from it, and

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

5B3

could find no relief from any remedy applied, un-
til we saw an article, which recommended the ap-
plication of bruised horseradish to the face, for
toothache. As neuralgia and toothache are both
nervous diseases, we thought the remedy for the
one would be likely to cure the other, so we made
the application of horseradish, bruised and applied
to the side of the body where the disease was seat-
ed ; it gave almost instant relief to the severe at-
tack of neuralgia. Since then Ave have applied it
several times, and with the same gratifying results.
The remedy is simple, cheap, and may be within
the reach of every one. — Laurensville Herald.

A NE^W BUTTER- WORKER.

We recently saw an invention by Mr. Geo. W.
Putnam, to separate the butter-milk from butter,
which appeared to us to effect the object in the
most effective manner. It is simple in its con-
struction, not expensive, and very easily managed.
We saw some dozen pounds passed through, and
on examining it with the aid of a magnifier, could
not detect any buttermilk left, or any injury to
the grain. If tliis proves to be the general result
— as it is stated to be by the inventor — the inven-
tion will be one of_great value. It is said by those
best qualified to express an opinion, that only one-
tenth part- of all the butter brought into Boston
market can be included in the class of very good
butter, or what is called Jirst -rate butter.

This great defect in an article so generally used,
.and one which has come to be considered one of
prime necessity, is principally owing to the butter-
milk left in it at the time of making. It is, in-
deed, as all butter-makers know, a somewhat dif-
ficult matter to remove it thoroughly ; it is hard
work, and too often required of women who are
overburdened with cares. Under such circum-
stances, the work is often imperfectly done, and
the result is, that a very large proportion of the
butter is unfit to eat. We think the use of this
machine will prove a remedy for this defect.

We have not learned where it is to be sold, or
at what price.

A Fine Seedling Pear. — We have received,
from our old friend and correspondent, Dr. S. A.
Siiurtleff, of Brookline, a seedling pear raised
by him, to which he has given the name of the
President Pear. The tree upon which it grew is
now twelve years old, and bore for the first time
this season, producing about a peck. The fruit is
quite large, of the turbinate, or top-shaped form,
stem slender, and half an inch long. The flesh
of this was fine, juicy and high-flavored, and we
think it will be a valuable acquisition to our pres-
ent list of good pears. We learn that the Doc-
tor has now some twenty seedlings that have
fruited, ten of which are good, and five or six of
the ten of a decidedly superior character.

FOOD.

QU.VLITIES AND CHANGES REQUISITE TO HEALTH
AND STRENGTH.

Last week we gave a few extracts from a paper
with the above title, by Prof. L. C. LoOJils, in
the Patent Office Reports for 18G1. On looking
over the paper again, we are so impressed with
the justness and importance of the things stated,
that we are induced to begin with the writer and
present such portions of his able paper as we
think will be profitable to the readers of our col-
umns. He says : •

In discussing this subject we shall consider —

1. What the human system requires and what
nature supplies ;

2. The changes required by the change of sea-
sons ; and

3. Unripe and decaying food.

The two prime physical necessities of man are
food and clothing. These vary chiefly according
to the circumstances of latitude, or what is equiv-
alent, temperature.

Without entering upon the question whether
the earth was made to correspond in its changes,
temperature and productions to the nature and
wants of man, or man to the condition of the
earth, it is sufficient for us to know that not only
does such adaptation exist, but that the measure
of its perfection is the measure of our physical
perfection, and consequently, of our physical en-
joyment.

To a large extent this harmony already exists
in the natural condition of the lower orders of
animals. Food and clothing are with them what
nature provides. This is ordinarily sufficient for
their life and comfort ; but when it fails they are
endowed with no intelligence or power to create
other supplies, or to arrest or avoid the death that
must of necessity follow.

In the case of man, as he is designed to inha?>
it all portions of the earth, from the frigid to the
ultra torrid, he is designedly adapted partially to
all climates and fully to none, the completion of
this adaptation as may be required being left to
his own higher intelligence. To a limited extent
he is made the judge of what, in every vai'iety of
season and circumstances, will contribute to his
health and comfort. It is reason enough for an
animal to eat that it has an appetite and finds
what v.'ill appease it, and as an almost unvarying
law, such food is adapted to and was intended for
that animal. Its taste, being circumscribed to a
limited number of qualities, is exact and decisive.
With man this general law of nature is subject to
certain limitations, upon the correctness of our
determination of which depends much of our
physical comfort and enjoyment. That our taste
does not reject a substance does not constitute a
sufficient reason that it is proper food.

In the animal economy there are three essential
sources of demand for new material :

1. To restore the loss consequent upon the nat-
ural wear.

2. For the production of strength.

3. For maintaining vital warmth.

But though these separate wants are indicated
indiscriminately by the sensation of hunger, yet
so distinct are they that those substances which

d64

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

may most fully respond to one may not afford any
element for the others.

Muscuhar effort involves the expenditure of
nervous force and of the substance of the muscle
itself, and consequently necessitates a restoration
of each. The abstraction of heat requires a new
supply of fuel. But that which may yield heat
in the animal system may yield neither muscle
nor nervous energy.

A substance to be nutritious must yield to the
digestive forces some element that is needed in
the system. It may and in a few instances does
several ; but if it bestows none, then it is abso-
lutely useless in the animal economy. On the
other hand, any substance that readily supplies
the system with whatever is being continually
consumed becomes of essential value, even though,
from its inability to supply all the demands, it
cannot sustain life.

The demands of the system being numerous
and variable, and each article of food yielding but
a few specific elements, it follows not only that
there must be some varietj-, but that, to be pro-
ductive of health and strength, this variation
must correspond precisely to the fluctuating con-
dition of the system.

But as the wear of the frame as well as the ex-
penditure of the strength and nerve power in any
individual case may be assumed as quite uniform,
and the demand in these respects nearly constant,
while every month brings a temperature unlike
the preceding, it is manifest that the chief chang-
es required in nutrition are those to adapt the sys-
tem to the great annual change of temperature.

I. — OF THE TEMPERATURE OF THE HUMAN BODY.

While the external temperatui'e varies more
than a hundred degrees, the thermometer indi-
cates that in health the blood keeps invariably at
the same degree of heat. Neither the prostrat-
ing heat of summer nor the benumbing cold of
winter reaches the animal, vital warmth. This
fact, which is more or less well known, is general-
ly accounted for upon the vague but erroneous
impression that a living body has some mysteri-
ous power of preventing itself from losing its
heat. The jjower of a living body to generate
heat or to preserve it is no greater nor more mys-
terious than that of a stove. When the fire is
once started, each will keep Avarm so long as there
is a supply of fuel and no longer. The one is
combustion with flame ; the other, combustion
without flame. Chemically considered, the pro-
cesses are not only similar, but identical ; the
material consumed, the chemical action and the
results of the combustion being the same. Heat
can no more be generated in the animate body
without the consumption of fuel than in the inan-
imate. The living organization must, then, in the
cold season consume, and therefore by some means
be supplied with a large amount of fuel or heat-
generating food, in addition to that needful for
sustaining health and strength in the warm sea-
son.

Having, then, the facts that the Avants of the
system in respect to the calorific or heating ele-
ment are variable, and that the various articles of
nutrition are equally or more variable in their
supply, it will be readily inferred that these ine-
qualities are intended the one to meet the other ;
that calorific or warming food is intended for win-

ter, and non-calorific food for summer ; and not
only so, but that the heat-producing food in the
season of already oppressive warmth must prove
injurious, and that the non-calorific must be ex-
haustive and insufficient in the winter.

But before we can properly enter upon a con-
sideration of the changes in food required by the
change of temperature, it will be necessary to
examine the chemical composition of food in
general.

II. — OF THE CHANGES IN FOOD REQUIRED BY
THE CHANGE OF SEASONS.

Thus far our inquiries in regard to food have
been limited to the question of the ordinary and
constant demand for healthful growth and action,
and to the proper supply. We are now prepared
to enter upon the consideration of the extraordi-
nary and fluctuating demands arising from the
change of seasons.

The great heat-producing agent in the animal
economy is carbon, aided somewhat by hydrogen.
In the union of these elements with oxygen heat
is evolved, sometimes with a flame, as in the case
of burning wood, and sometimes without, as in
the case of most chemical action. What, there-
fore, is needed in the animal economy for the pro-
duction of heat is a supply of carbon, hydrogen
and oxygen.

Recurring to the former table [which we have
omitted] of the proportion supplied by vegeta-
bles, we find an average deficiency of ten per cent,
carbon, eight hydrogen, and an excess of seven-
ty-seven in oxygen.

Having thus already a large amount of oxygen
in the system unexpended, we have now to look
for substances containing a relative excess of car-
bon and hydrogen.

Let us examine the fatty substances. The prox-
imate elements in the oils, lard, beef and mutton
suet, are oleine, stearine and margarin, of which
the proportions are :

Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxysen.

Miirgarin 46 46 7

Stearine 47 47 6

Oleine 46 44 8

The diflferent degrees of hardness in different
fatty substances arise from variation of propor-
tion in the mixture, a preponderance of stearine
giving more solidity, and of oleine an opposite
quality. But whatever may be the proportion,
the elements are so slightly varied as to make no
appreciable difference in our present estimate ;
and we may hence take the average as the com-
position of oils, butter, fat meat, suet and pork.
This gives in fatty substances 46 carbon, 46 hy-
drogen, 7 oxygen ; reduced to weight, carbon
723, hydrogen 122, oxygen 155 pounds in a thou-
sand.

Having already 168 pounds excess of oxygen
in the previous nutrition, we have, as fuel, 723
pounds carbon, 122 hydrogen and .323 oxygen.

To consume this amount of carbon and hydro-
gen requires about 2000 pounds of oxygen, a
quantity much greater than ordinary food can
supply. _

Respiration here meets nutrition and restorea
the equilibrium. The air drawn into the lungs
freely imparts its oxygen, which combining with
the carbon and hydrogen, forms carbonic acid and
water, to be expired in turn — an interchange of

1862.

NEAV ENGLAND FARMER.

565

elements too familiarly known to need further re-
mark.

The facts, then, thus far seem to be :
1st. That fatty substances are the great source
of animal heat.

2d. They are, properly speaking, fuel rather
than food.

3d. The demand being suspended in summer,
their presence in the system can only be detri-
mental, either from over heat, if the combustion
necessary to their elimination goes on, or from
debility of the surcharged organs, if it does not.

These deductions of science are fully coi'robo-
rated by the indications of nature.

1st. As a general law, fat accumulated in ani-
mals in the fall, is consumed in winter, leaving
them thin or lean on the approach of warm
weather.

2d. The time of man's laying in his store of
winter subsistence is precisely that of the fatness
of animals.

3d. The appetite or relish for animal food in-
creases in the fall, continues during winter, and
passes away on the approach of summer.

4th. Milk and butter are most abundant, and
of best quality, in the fall, the butter of spring
being distasteful, and the milk mostly needed to
supply the young of the animals.

From these considerations we conclude :
1st. That in cold weather fat is not only a prop-
er but a necessary article of food.

2d. That lean meat and vegetables having a
much inferior heat-sustaining power, a due amount
of fat is the cheapest food for winter, especially
for those much exposed to cold.

3d. On the return of summer its use should be
discontinued, as being both needless and injuri-
ous.

4th. In all inflammatory diseases, milk, butter,
cakes and pastry made with butter or lard, and
fat meats, having, from their heating powers, a
tendency to increase the inflammation, should be
entirely discarded.

Having examined the requirements of food ne-
cessary to enable the system to meet the increas-
ing cold, we are the better prepared to understand
what may be necessary to prepare the system to
meet the alternation of heat.

Whenever the temperature daily increases or
decreases, so that the system is more and more
taxed to maintain its exact equilibrium, addition-
al material will be required, of one kind or other,
as the case may be, to sustain this new expendi-
ture of vital force. In the autumn we found a
special supply and a correspondent appetite. In
spring we may justly look for similar indications
in both external nature and ourselves. As the
one was food of calorific properties, so the other
should be food of a cooling nature.

The productions of spring and summer are sal-
ads, fruits, vegetables, and the cereals, of which
the two latter classes ripen so late as to bring
their consumption in the cool rather than the
warm season, leaving as the productions of the
early summer only the salads and fruits.

Salads can hardly be considered as nutritious
productions, but as they are the first departure
from winter food, and are, therefore, the precurs-
or of the more general change to follow, they
cannot be omitted. We shall include under this

well as salads proper, both being the early shoots
or foliage of any innoxious vegetable — eaten raw,
if tender and tasteless ; otherwise, boiled, to soft-
en its texture and remove its unpalatable juices.

Salads consist of little more than uncorapacted
cellulose, the various oils and acids peculiar to
each plant not yet having been to any extent elab-
orated. The first thing to be remarked of the
whole class of salads is, that they are seldom eat-
en without vinegar. Indeed, it is questionable
whether the vinegar is not essential to a salad —
whether most salads without the vinegar would
not be rejected by the taste. At all events, tak-
ing salads as universal taste constitutes them, acid
must be considered as a constituent. We have,
then, cellulose, acid, and not unfrequently a little
sugar added — a compound so nearly resembling
fruit as to lead to its examination before proceed-
ing further.

PLOWEB-GARDEIT IN NOVEMBER.

In November, in our latitude, the flower-garden
is not very attractive. Flowers are few in num-
ber, and those few look pinched and cold. The
pleasure of cultivating them is over for the season,
unless, as every lover of flowers will do, a few of
the favorite plants have been selected for in-door
culture during the winter. Many persons, partic-
ularly those somewhat advanced in years, find
more actual enjoyment with their plants in winter
than in summer ; for in winter they are cultivated
in comfortable rooms, with no damp ground under
foot to suggest unpleasant thoughts of colds and
rheumatism.

The work out of doors this month will consist
in planting spring bulbs Avhere this has not been
performed sooner ; in preparing the borders for
another season by digging and manuring, being
careful to leave the earth rough and loose for the
frost to operate upon during the winter ; in trans-
planting hardy shnibs and perennials ; in taking
up and potting tender roses, and attending to
multitudes of little odds and ends, which will al-
Avays present themselves at this season.

Plants in the house will need but little care at
this season. Most of them are in a state of rest,
not yet having commenced their growth to any
great degree. At such times, water must be spar-
ingly given them. While in this state they should
also be kept as cool as possible, waiting until they
have made some progress in growth before bring-
ing them into a warmer atmosphere.

I have generally observed that where ladies
have the exclusive care of plants, they are not
usually cut back sufficiently when potted, many
being left exactly as they were in the ground. I
presume this is on account of their tender-heart-
edness, which will not allow them to hurt the poor
things by so severe a process. But whatever may
be the reason, whether this, or because they wish
to save a few flowers, it is a mistake in every re-
spect, for the plants will grow better, bloom bet-
ter, and be more healthy where vigorous pruning
is adopted, than when the shoots are left long and
straggling.

Sticks which have been used for tymg plants
to in the garden should be gathered up, tied in
bundles, and laid away for another season. Dahlia
roots should be labelled, packed in sand, and kept

566

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

TAN" BARK AS A FERTILIZER.
I am a tanner bj' trade, though my attention
now, and for the past ten years, has been given
exclusively to agriculture. When engaged in
tanning, one of the most annoying matters con-
nected with it, was the disposition of the spent tan
bark. A large stream at no great distance from
our tannery received the principal part of it, while
the balance was spread over the roads, rendering
them almost impassable in wet weather. We were
always glad to have persons cart it away, and were
ready at any time to assist in loading their carts
and wagons. This went on until I left the tan-
nery, when it occurred to me that a better use
might be made of it than to cart it to the creek,
give it away to the neighbors, or spread it over
the roads. I resolved to try an experiment, the
details of which I will give you in brief:

I carted about one hundred loads of spent tan
bark to my premises, over which, I spread at in-
tervals, all the refuse lime from the tannery, to-
gether with about one hundred bushels of caustic
lime from the kiln. I then allowed it to remain
in that condition about six months, when I cut it
down with digging forks, mixing the whole thor-
oughly. Three months from that time I applied
it to a field of three acres, spreading it over the
surface before plowing. The soil was a stiff clay,
which had always been very hard to work, and
had never yielded well. It was seeded with wheat,
and produced twenty-four bushels to the acre.
The clover crop which followed it was as fine as
could have been desired, turning off more than
two tons to the acre. The next season it was
plowed again and put in corn, yielding a very
handsome return. The only manure the corn re-
ceived was a handful of ashes to the hill at the
time of planting. The field is now in wheat, and
looks well after an application of farm-yard ma-
nure.

I observe that the soil which was formerly stiff
and hard to work, is now friable, and pulverizes
much more readily than before the aj)plication of
the spent tan. How much of the productiveness
and easy working of these four acres is attributa-
ble to its application, I leave your readers to de-
termine. My own impressions are, that a vast
amount of most valuable material is annually lost
in the shape of spent tan. I shall use it again,
being entirely satisfied that it is valuable when
used properly, and especially upon stiff soils like
mine. — Farmer and Oardener.

CUBING PORK.

A French chemist has lately asserted, that scur-
vy will never arise from the use of salt provisions,
unless saltpetre be used in the curing ; that salt
alone answers all the purposes, provided the ani-
mal heat be entirely parted with before salting.
He claims that the insertion of pork in pickle
alone is not sufficient, but that it should be rubbed
thoroughly with dry salt after it has entirely pa,rt-
ed vi^ith its animal heat, and that then the fluid
running from the meat should be poured off be-
fore packing the pork in the barrel. This should
be done sufficiently close to admit no unnecessary
quantity of air, and some dry salt should occupy
the space between the pieces, and then pickle, and
not water, should be added. Great cure must be
taken to fill the barrel entirely full, so that no

portion of the meat can at any time project above
the surface of the fluid ; for, if this occur, a change
of flavor ensues such as is known with rusty pork.
The pickle, of course, must be a saturated so-
lution of salt and Avater, that is, so strong that it
is incapable of dissolving more salt. It must be
remembered that cold water is capable of dissolv-
ing more salt than hot water. — Working Farmer.

For the Neip England Farmer.
HUNTERS.

BY R. F. PULLER.

So long beside that sunny stream,
"Who gazes in its brmmiing gleam f
That mirror all, or naught, displays,
According as the eye surveys.
It may, like the enchanted glass,
Make wonders in its picture pass.
The thoughtful, in its deeps, may find
Time and eternity, combined.
As this repeats (he sky, below.
Its counter through the heart may flow-
River of peace, serenely fraught
With golden sands of sunny thought ;
A Factolus of precious treasure.
Pure, tranquil and ideal pleasure.
The river may be such, we know,
With full and meditative flow ;
Or, it may nothing be ; as they
The mirror element survey.
It copies and projects to view
The soul, such as it is in you.
An empty mind its mirror reads.
In muddy bottom, grown with weeds.
And there discerns the aimless eye,
A lazy cloud, waft idly by.
To childhood's look of innocence.
The azure clear it represents ;
And shows the sunny heaven's smile,
For Israelites, who know no guile.

— What views this man, there ? Can you tell ?
My life ! It is a pickerel !
I did not see his pole, before,
A thread of shadow reaching o'er.
Well I ho, too, on his likeness looked:
And here, at last, he hath it, hooked 1
Both man and fish are hunters — they
Have each their own peculiar prey.

This man must be the same, I saw.
Where I was little looking for ;
Some days since, in a wood withdrawn,
Where I for solitude had gone,
■ To hunt impressions, fancies, moods,
And influences, in the woods.
Such shun, now, cities, villas, lawns ;
And hide in forests, with the fawns.
I find them there, abundant game, "
But little hunted, too', and tamo.
And I was having, on the day
I speak of, great sport, in my way ;
For I had quarried, caught and hit
A bag-fall, with the shafts of wit !
— But I was startled, and turned back,
By a sharp rifle's sudden crack !
'Twas "all day then with me ;" for lo !
Away my thoughts and fancies go ;
And, I imagine by the flight, •
They will not, very soon alight.
Now, who, I thought, is sporting here ? , ■
This hunting-ground, 'tis very clear, •
Is not fur both— one doth Intrude
And trespass on this ancient wood.

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

561

What shall I do ? If we dispute,

Though I talk best, the man may shoot.

And, if the fallen creature should

Find I'd a fancy for this wood,

He might conceive a fancy, too,

As tough wills, when you drive them, do.

No ^ I must, with my ready wit,

More certain than his rifle, hit I

I"ll beat before him, in the van.

And give all warning of the man,

Except the hunter.

So, I scare
Quail, partridge, rabbit, cowering there.
And thus my friend, the sportsman, got
Nothing, but tired of the spot.
No more of game he caught, that day ;
And, by-and-by, he went away.
And then, I came upon him ; and
Bid him good day, and shook his hand ;
Designing him to closely scan,
And in my fancy catch a man !
— And so I did ; he proved to be
The best of game, that day, for me.
An ancient hunter — all the ground
And streams he knew, for miles around.
And, though he saw there but the real,
Nature had shaped to her Ideal
His manners, which expressed her well,
As once did Wordsworth's "Peter Bell."

COMPOST FOR PEAR TREES.

For those who have a poor soil, or those who
are desh-ous of making the culture of pears a spe-
cial object, the compost described below will be
valuable. Take of vegetable muck, one cord;
stable manure, half a cord ; wood ashes, ten bush-
els ; and, if it can be obtained, twenty pounds of
horn shavings ; add to these two bushels of
crushed or ground bones, and from two to three
bushels of charcoal, reduced to a fine powder, and
two of plaster.

The ingredients should be intimately incorpor-
ated by frequent stirrings, and kept moist by dai-
ly effusions of urine, mixed with the wash from
the sink or laundi'y. This compost is highly stim-
ulant in its effects, and when applied to trees,
causes a rapid and healthy development. The
above quantity will be sufficient to manure from
fifty to seventy-five trees. It should be applied
in the fall, and thoroughly mixed with the soil,
and then the trees mulched in the spring.

HEALTHFULITESS OP APPLES.

There is scarcely an article of vegetable food,
says Hall's Jour7ial of Health, more widely useful
and universally loved, than the apple. Why
every farmer in the nation has not an apple or-
chard, where trees will gi-ow at all, is one of the
mysteries. Let every family lay in from two to
ten or more barrels, and it will be to them the
most economical investment in the whole range
of culinaries. A raw, mellow apple is digested
in an hour and a half, while boiled cabbage re-
quires five hours. The most healthy dessert which
can be placed on a table is a baked apple. If
taken freely at breakfast, Avith coarse bread and
butter, without meat or flesh of any kind, it has

an admirable effect on the general system, often
removes constipation, correcting acidities and
cooling off febrile conditions more effectually than
the most approved medicines. If families could
be induced to snbstitute the apple — sound, ripe
and luscious — for the pies, cakes, candies and
sweetmeats with which their children are too often
indiscreetly stuffed, there would be a diminution
in the sum total of doctors' bills in a single year,
sufficient to lay in a stock of this delicious fruit
for a whole season's use.

FLAX— PIBRILIA,

Some time since, the subject of the culture of
flax to a considerable extent in the free States
was discussed in our columns, but failed to excite
that general attention which it seems to us its im-
portance demands. Very few people among us
at this day are acquainted with the crop, or the
nature of the material derived from it, so thor-
oughly has its cultivation ceased on New England
farms. Rut since the discussion occurred, the con-
dition of things in our country has widely changed,
and all are now eagerly looking for some staple
that will take the place, in part or in whole, of the
cotton which we have drawn chiefly from the slave
States. On the eleventh of February, 1860, Ste-
phen M. Allen, Esq., addressed a meeting in the
Representatives' Chamber, at the State House, and
gave much interesting information in relation to
the culture of flax and its manufacture into fibrilia,
and about that time furnished us with some fur-
ther facts bearing upon the subject which we did
not then pubhsh, for fear of pressing the matter
too fully upon the reader. As the subject has as-
sumed a new importance, we now give what he
then furnished, as follows :

If we should take from the tillable lands of each
State, one-quarter, and devote it to the cultivation
of flax, and estimate the product as one bale of
fibrilia, 500 pounds to the acre, which would be a
small estimate, the aggregate would be 16,003,809
bales, and would be apportioned nearly as follows :

Maine 509,899

New Hampshire 562,872

Vei-mont 650,352

Massachusetts 533,359

Rhode Island 89,121

Connecticut 442,044

New York 3,102,241

New Jersey 441,997

Pennsylvania 2,157,154

Delaware 145,215

Total number of bales of 500 lbs. each... .16,003,809

The value of this, cottonized at the mill, would be

20 cents V lb., or $50 W bale, making $800,190,450

The seed from the crop, at market, would be at $1

^bushel 240,057,135

Maryland 699,

Ohio 2,462,

Michi gan 482,

Indiana 1,261

Illinois 1,259

Missouri. 734,

Iowa 206

Wisconsin, 261

Minnesota 1

476
,873
,277
,635
,886
,606
,170
,374
,258

$1,040,247,585

The seed from flax will pay all expenses of cul-
tivation, and yield a small profit beside, to be add-
ed to the value of the fibre, arid feed from the
straw — which, in the aggregate, will render it a
profitable crop to the farmer.

568

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

Well cultivated lands will yield two tons of
straw per acre, and twenty-five bushels of seed.

The seed in New England is worth $1,50 W bushel, or. . . $37,50
The straw in New England is worth, unrolled, $lu #■ ton. .20,00

$57,50
If the unrolled straw is broken on the farm, two tons will

yield 1000 lbs. of lintin, worth, in New England $40,00

And 2')00 lbs. of unrolled shives, which make the best

of food for cattle 20,00

Seed from two tons of straw, 25 bushels 37,50

$97,60

One ton of flax straw will make 400 pounds of
pure fibrilia.

From an extended experience in fibres and their
growth in the United States, I feel fully assured
that the North-west can pi'oduce any quantity of
fibre for cottonizing which may be needed, and
this branch of national industry is becoming more
important every year. In fact, the traveller
through the United States cannot fail to see the
great influence of this branch of agriculture and
manufacture upon the national government
through its individual prosperity. As early as 1846,
while travelling in the South, I became convinced
that the question oi fibrous agriculture a.nd fibrous
manufactures would yet control the peace and sta-
bility, for good or for evil, of the American Union,
and in 1851, while a member of the Legislature
of Massachusetts, I had the honor to write the re-
port on flax as shown in Senate document No.
106, of that year, and stated therein the great im-
portance of flax culture as a controlling influence
upon the country — its stability and prosperity.
The following is a quotation from the close of said
report :

"Time and nature are constantly exerting their
recuperative energies. Nations have risen and
flourished, with prospects of perpetual duration,
quite as well founded as those which we indulge
at this moment in regard to the permanency of
our own political organization ; yet history, at this
day, only tells us that they once existed, and that
others have sprung up in their stead. Trade, and
every species of human intercourse, continually
undergo fluctuations ; but the ])rinciple of regula-
tion is ever at hand, to equalize and harmonize
the various conflicting interests which might oth-
erwise destroy each other. We are too often de-
ceived into a belief that our individual or national
prosperity is so unchangealily established, that
there remains to us no further duty than to live
on in the enjoyment of present possessions. But
civilived life produces, daily, new wants, to meet
which new means of gratification must be as often
devised ; for the sources of support, both for na-
tions and families — as well as the character of all
the wishes and demands of mankind, whether in
power or in poverty, diff'er essentially in the pres-
ent age from those of the last ; and are perpetual-
ly varying and multiplying — perhaps reforming
and refining — from century to century, as our race
presses onward in the 'march of improvement.' "

No Man can leave a better legacy tc the world

EXTRACTS AND BEPHES.
BONES — ANIMALS — BOOKS.

I think the time has come when the farmers of
New England, in oi'der to compete with western
agriculturists with their cheap and fertile lands,
must begin to avail themselves of every means
within their grasp for rendering their farms more
productive and remunerative. It strikes the
mind of the writer, that of all manurial substances,
the bones of animals, and the blood of those
slaughtered are the most universally neglected
and wasted, while chemical analysis proves these
substances to be composed of the most powerful
stimulants and aliments for the growth of all cul-
tivated crops.

Can you inform me, therefore, through the col-
umns of your journal,

1. What is the best method of preparing bones,
say to commence during the present autumn or
coming winter, in order to have them thoroughly
dissolved and most available for next year's crops ?
The method given by James S. Grennell, in your
weekly of December 7th, is too slow. If the bones
were ground or pounded, the action of the ashes
might reduce them in two or three months in-
stead of a year.

2. Can bones be ground in a common grist
mill, or are there mills made on purpose for this
work ?

3. How can the blood of slaughtered animals
be best saved and composted, or otherwise pre-
pared as a fertilizer for crops ?

4. How of hen manure, which I observe many
farmers sufi'er to accumulate and be greatly
wasted ?

5. I wish to obtain the best work now extant
on scientific farming ; one that treats fully on the
chemical constituents of plants and animals, with
special reference to their value in the preparation
of manures ; perhaps some of the back volumes of
your monthly Farmer would be just what I want.
If you have preserved the back volumes through
the whole fourteen years of its publication, how
will you sell any or all uf them ?

Charles A. Derby.
Leicester, Addison Co., Vt.

Remarks. — 1. Dissolving hones. We have a
lot of bones packed in ashes about four months
ago, that are now so soft as to be easily crushed
by the hand. We know of no better way to ac-
complish the end desired than this. They should
be kept in a warm place in the winter, such as the
cellai". The process is cheap, easy and eff'ective.

2. Bones cannot, probably, be ground in a
common grist-mill, as the marrow and other fatty
matter contained in them would soon choke the
stones and render them inefi[icient. If bones are
deprived of this matter before being ground, they
are greatly reduced in value as manurial agents,
— but it is possible that they are ground in iron
mills constructed for the purpose. We do not,
however, know any such.

3. We invite some of our correspondents better
acquainted with the means of saving and prepar-
ing the blood of animals for manure, to answer
t]io tbi"'] innn!—-

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

569

4. The droppings of poultry may be saved in
excellent condition, by covering them every morn-
ing with meadow muck, coal ashes, loam, or even
sand. They will then be in convenient form to
apply to the hills of corn or other plants in the
spring. Care must be observed that they are not
too strong.

5. The Farmei-'s and Planter's Encyclopedia,
and Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Chemis-
try and Geology, are both excellent works. The
back volumes of the Monthly Farmer contaiu nu-
merous articles on the points you specify, and on
almost all other topics of a kindred nature. The
price of them is only $1,25 per volume, or for
some second-hand volumes, fifty cents per volume.

BKAHMA POOTRA FOWLS.

You will oblige me, as well as some of my
friends, if you will state in the next paper where
we can get the Bramwall fowls.

I have heard that there was an advertisement
or description of these fowls in the paper for 2d
March, 1861. Thomas Barxes.

Paiotucket, Nov. 4, 1862.

Remarks. — In tlie paper to which you refer
there is an article from the pen of Mr. John S.
Ives, of Salem, describing the Brahma Pootra
fowls, which is as follows :

I have kept upwards of thirty different breeds
of fowls, but have never, until this winter, found
the breed that comes up to my idea of a perfect
farm fowl, viz.: the pure Brahma Pootra, which
seems to possess all the good qualities requisite to
a perfect breed of fowls. They are very large,
yet well proportioned, the hens weighing from 8
to 12 pounds; legs yellov,-, flesh fine, yellow and
tender ; very domestic ; cannot fiy upwards of
three feet, therefore are not troublesome by roost-
ing about the premises to the great annoyance of
the animals, and all who may visit the barn.

FOE.ETELLING STORMS.
The American liailroad Journal, in an article
referring to the late disastrous rain storm and
freshets in Pennsylvania and New York, says :

The science of meteorology has now ai-rived at
such a pitch that every general violent storm, such
as that of Wednesday week, can be predicted with
almost absolute certainty twenty-four hours in ad-
vance. By means of the telegraph, this informa-
tion might be communicated to all parts of the
country in a few minutes, so that signals could be
displayed along the coast, while in the interior,
works could be put in a state of readiness to re-
ceive the expected visitor. Every reservoir could
thus be run dry ; every canal lowered ; even the
boatmen could be forewarned. A large number
of valuable lives were lost during the late freshet,
every one of which might have been saved to their
own families and the community at large.

AVe are here making use of no reckless asser-
tions. The experiment of "forecasting" the
weather has been tried in England. It is con-
ducted on strict scientific principles by a Depart-

ment under the suj)crvision of Admiral Fitzroy.
To defray the necessary expenses in connection
with it, the British Government makes a small ap-
propriation annually. A leading English journal
remarks that this invention has already been the
means of saving hundreds of lives annually. It
is admitted on all hands that though Fitzroy has
made frequent mistakes as to the local gales, yet
that no great general storm has visited the coun-
try during the past year without being heralded
for several hours in advance by the display of sig-
nals along the coast, warning seamen to keep off
shore or not to venture out for the time being.
In this country, owing to uniformity of our gen-
eral coast lines, the laws of the storm Avill doubt-
less be found more simple than in any part of Eu-
rope.

AMERICA— THE GRANARY OF THE
WORLD.

In his book of travels in the United States, re-
cently published, Mr. Trollope says : I was at
Chicago and at Buff;ilo in October, 1861. I went
down to the granaries, and climbed up into the
elevators. I saw the wheat running in rivers
from one vessel to another, and from railroad vans
up into huge bins on the top stories of the ware-
houses ; for there rivers of food run up hill as
easily as they do down. I saw corn measured by
the forty bushel measure with as much ease as
we measure an ounce of cheese, and with greater
rapidity. I ascertained that the work went on,
through the week and Sunday, day and night in-
cessantly ; rivers of wheat and rivers of maize
ever running. I saw men bathed in corn as they
distributed it in its flow. I saw bins by the score
laden with wheat, in each of which bins there was
space for a comfortable residence. I breathed the
flour, and drank the flour, and felt myself to be
enveloped in a world of breadstuff's. And then I
believed, understood, and brought it home to my-
self as a fact, that here in the corn lands of Mich-
igan, and amid the bluffs of Wisconsin, and on
the high table plains of Minnesota, and the prai-
ries of Illinois, God had prepared the food for the
increasing millions of the Eastern World, as also
for the coming millions of the Western. 1 began
to know what it was for a country to overflow
with milk and honey, to burst with its fruits, and
be smothered by its own riches. From St. Paul
down the Mississippi, by the shores of Wisconsin
and Iowa, by the ports on Lake Pepin, by La
Crosse, from which one railway runs eastward, by
Prairie du Chien, the terminus of a second, by
Dunleith, Fulton and Rock Island, from which
thi-ee other lines run eastward, all through that
wonderful State of Illinois — the farmer's glory —
along the ports of the great lakes, through Micli-
igan, Illinois, Ohio, and further Pennsylvania, up
to Buffalo, the great gate of the Western Ceres,
the loud cry was this — "How shall we rid our-
selves of our corn and wheat ?" The result has
been the passage of 60,000,000 bushels of bread-
stuffs through that gate in one year ! Let those
who are susceptible of statistics ponder that.
For those who are not, I can only give this ad-
vice : Let them go to Buffalo in October and
look for themselves.

Science must be combined with practice to
make a good farmer.

570

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec

CORU-STALKS FOK FODDER.

There is scarcely a New England farm that does
not produce more or less Indian Corn — a crop
beautifully ornamental in the fields, and as rich
and life-sustaining as it is beautiful. The farmer
would scarcely feel that his harvests were com-
plete without a bin of the golden ears. No other
grain can be so universally and acceptably em-
ployed. It serves both man and beast. No bread
is more gratefully received upon the breakfast ta-
ble than the corn-cake, slightly crusted, orange-
brown, sweet, delicious ! Or the smoking loaf of
"brown bread," hot from the oven, tempered with
rye meal and, if of the highest order, a portion of
those yellow globes that grow near to the ground
among the upright corn. Or the "flannel-cakes,"
light yellow, tender, and surpassing even the best
buckwheat. Or the "hominy," coarse or fine, as
fancy dictates, or the brimming dish of "hasty pud-
ding," like golden sands from the river, whose cu-
linary steam encircles the great pitcher of milk
standing by its side ! It is no wonder that the poet
could sing through many pages, of the excellencies
of this rich and gladdening grain — the crowning
glory of our autumnal harvests. The bosom of the
farmer swells with honest pride, as, with his
friends, he looks upon the ample reward of his
labors in the full granaries of this bountiful crop.
There seems to be no other grain which the ani-
mals that ai'e dependent upon us so much relish
as this. In a cooked or vmcooked state, in the
kernel, or ground into meal, it is always eagerly
eaten. Horses are abundantly sustained and per-
form constant and hard labor upon it. With a
quart per day, cows increase their flow of milk,
and also increase in flesh. Fed sparingly to hogs,
in connection with less nutritious food, they grow
rapidly and assume large frames, and if fed plen-
tifully in the form of meal, lay on flesh and fat at
the rate of one pound to two and a half pounds
per day — and they seem never to tire of it. Poul-
try enjoy it vastly, and will generally leave all
other grain for the bright Indian corn ! It is a
universal favorite — wild animals, such as bears,
raccoons and squirrels, all being fond of it, as well
as the crow, blue jay and other birds.

Indian corn is, also, a pleasant and convenient
crop to plant, cultivate and harvest — and when
harvested, easily kept, without loss, except from
unimportant depredations by rats and mice. If
in a suitable place, winter's cold or summer's heat
does not afl'ect it, and after it comes from the mill
and is properly cooled it may be kept sweet and
good for months, if in a dry place. It is, in truth,
the "staff of life," this beautiful Indian corn !

But the grain is by no means its only excellence.
The average product of the mowing fields of New
England is about one ton of hay per acre — not
more than that, perhaps a little less — while the

average product of the stalks and husks of our
cornfields must be at least double that quantity —
and this is a gain that is scarcely looked for in
the cultivation of the crop — the eye of the hus-
bandman being steadily on the shining grain.
Nevertheless, the fodder of the crop is an impor-
tant item, and we think is not yet properly appre-
ciated. But in order that it shall be acceptable to
stock it must be,

1. Secured with its rich juices retained.

2. Preserved from rust, mould, and partial de-

composition, and

3. Properly prepared before it is laid before the

stock.

In the first place, the tops of corn are too often
cut and thrown upon the ground, where they re-
main for several days, scorched by each return-
ing sun, and dampened by the dews of each suc-
ceeding night, or intermediately soaked by the au-
tumnal rains. They are then tied into bundles —
often quite too large — and shocked or stooked,
and stand upon the ground, uncovered, through
an indefinite nuniber of weeks. At the close of
this process, there can be little left that is nutri-
tious and attractive. Nothing seems to extract
the valuable qualities of plants from them so rap-
idly, as contact with the ground after they have
been cut. What the precise process is, we are
not able to say, but long observation has con-
vinced us that such is the fact. Corn, or other
plants, cut and laid upon the stone wall, or upon
rails, where it is kept entirely from the ground,
will retain a lively green color, and its natural fra-
grance for weeks longer than that laying upon the
ground. This fact is probably noticed every year
by hay-makers. It cannot, we think, be entii-ely
owing to the free circulation of air about the
plants that are elevated, as they are as often wet
with showers or dews as those on the ground.
They undoubtedly dry more readily, but that alone
will not account for the striking difl'erence that
exists between them. The soil evidently has a
power of securing to itself whatever of a nutri-
tious nature comes in contact with it, and of hold-
ing it in reserve for the growth of future plants.
Chemical changes, also, are undoubtedly going on
more rapidly in the moist plants near the ground,
than in those more elevated and dry. The
first defect, therefore, in securing corn fodder, is
in the slovenly and wasteful manner in which it is
sometimes done.

The second is in packing away for winter use.
Where fifty bushels of corn per acre are harvested,
the stalks are usually rank, quite stout, and full of
juice, and it is no small labor to dry such so thor-
oughly as to prevent rust or mould, if they are put
away in large amount together. We have observed
that cattle will eat corn fodder readily that is

1862.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

571

slightly mouldy, but that may be fairly accounted
for in the fact that such fodder is a little moist,
and is, therefore, preferred by them to that which
is dry, hard and tough. When stalks are so pre-
served as to retain a lively green color, and to
throw off their natural fragrance when moistened,
and when liusks and butts retain the color they
had when the corn was harvested, then they are
in the best condition for fodder — are wholesome
nutritious and palatable, and make an acre of corn
fodder as valuable as our average acres of English
grass.

The next step is to prepare them properhi to be
laid before the cattle. It is thought by many to
be a wasteful practice to throw corn fodder to the
cattle, and allow them to take off the husks or
leaves, and reject the juicy stems. Beside this, the
long stems then go into the manure, where they
make it exceedingly difficult to be overhauled or
bandied in any way, and are usually in the spring
a vexatious hindrance when labor is exceedingly
valuable.

An easier and more economical process is, to
run them through the hay-cutter, perhaps mingled
with hay, and then moisten them and sprinkle on
a little salt, and meal of any kind, or with roots
chopped fine. In this way, nearly every portion of
the fodder will be eaten by the stock with avidity,
and they will yield a flow of milk, or lay on flesh
as rapidly as upon the best upland hay. Indeed,
we have known a stable of livery horses kept well
upon corn fodder, with the same amount of grain
that was fed to them when using English hay.

The labor of cutting the fodder will be found
light, where a good machine is used for the pur-
pose— but it should not be one of small size.
With proper care it will last a life-time, with
slight repairs, and a true economy will be found
resulting from the process.

DRYING PUMPKIN'S.

We love pumpkin ])ies, especially when there is
not an abundance of tree fruit. We have tried
all modes of drying, but no plan is equal, we
think, to this : Take the ripe pumpkin, pare, cut
into small pieces, stew soft, mash and strain
through a cullender, as if for making pies. Spread
this pulp on plates in layers not quite an inch
thick ; dry it down in the stove oven, kept at so
low a temperature as not to scorch it. In about
a day it will become dry and crisp. The sheets
thus made can be stowed away in a dry place, and
they are always ready for use for pies or sauce.
Soak the pieces over night in a little milk, and
they will return to a nice pulp, as delicious as the
fresh pumpkin — we think more so. The quick
dryina; after cooking prevents any portion from
slightly souring as is always the case when the
uncooked pieces are dried ; the flavor is much
better preserved, and the after cooking is saved.
This plan is quite as little trouble as the old mode,

to say nothing of the superiority in the quality
of the material obtained. Try it, and you will
not return to the old method, we are sure, and
you will also become a great lover of pumjjkin
pie, "all the year round." — Oermantown Tele-
graph.

For the New England Farmer,
LITTLE THINGS:

Or a Walk in My Garden.

While preparing my grape vines for winter, I
was led to a train of thought arising from the
articles in the Farmer on

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Having had something to do with teaching in
almost every grade of school for many years past,
I feel that the subject is one beset with many diffi-
culties. Many of them have already been stated
by your correspondents. It is the besetting sin
of many teachers to have a hobby in the school-
room. Now it is of the utmost importance that
the teacher carry into the school-room a well bal-
anced mind, in order to give a due proportion of
his time to the different branches of instruction,
according to their importance.

But few persons are aware how little individual
attention the teacher can render to his scholars,
and do justice to all. Now suppose a school of
forty scholars be under one teacher. He must
have classes in arithmetic, grammar, geography,
penmanship, reading and spelling each day, in or-
der to accomplish anything. Suppose he has three
classes in arithmetic, which is a much smaller
number than is usually found in our schools, two
in grammar, two in geogra])hy, one in penmanship,
three in reading and spelling, making fourteen
different exercises in five and a half hours, giving
twenty minutes to each class. But then there
must be a portion of time alloted to assisting
scholars in arithmetic and to other matters in the
school, such as its discipline, and perhaps some
higher branch of study is introduced, so that
classes rarely receive so much attention at each
lesson. This individual attention must be re-
garded, or the scholar will feel neglected, and
complaints will be entered against the teacher.
Now, what one of the studies would parents be
willing, or which should be struck out of the
school-room? I have only supposed that scholars
read and spell but once in a day, whereas they are
usually expected to read and sj^ell at least twice a
day, especially the more juvenile members of the
school.

There may be cases in which agriculture mifflit
be introduced into the common school, liut I think
they are rare. A teacher may often introduce
something incidentally into his school that will be
of great value to his pupils. I have often done so.
This very term I liave given a course of nearly
forty lectures to a class of boys on mineralogy and
geology. Each boy has his note book, and takes
down the most important part of the lecture, ex-
amines the specimens and collects a cabinet of his
own, which he carries home with him in vacation,
and which he prizes higlily. These lectures are
not more than fifteen minutes long, and are given
out of the regular school hours, but they are such
as unfold to them a vast amount of useful informa-
tion. They become familiar with the composition

572

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

of rocks and soils without any interference with
their regular studies. To them it is a pastime.
Now the same method may be adopted in agricul-
ture, when there is an oppnrhtnity to do it. I
have adopted the same plan on other subjects, and
have found it to work admirably. Some of your
most popular Boston teachers have in years past
received my instruction in this way with not a little
pleasure and profit to themselves.

Sometimes a school may have a class of scholars
who can study chemistry, natural philosophy,
physical geography, or some other higher branch,
with great advantage. At other times it would
be impossible to do anything of the kind. I am
not now speaking of graded schools in our villages
and cities, but of those found in rural neighbor-
hoods among the farmers. The truth is simply
this. It is as much as the teacher can possibly do
to give sufficient instruction to meet the intel-
lectual wants of twenty scholars under his charge
in the studies usually taught, so as to keep their
minds vigorously employed and keep them out of
mischief. Advanced studies must generally be
attended to in the higher graded schools, and any
young man who has aml)ition enough to study
them, can, in this country, find some place where
he can gratify his inclinations. The common
school will become more and more elevated, but it
must be the elementary school to a large portion
of our youth, and elementary studies must occupy
the greatest portion of the teacher's attention. I
would gladly see agriculture taught wherever it
can do any good, but I think that we teachers,
who are compelled to give instruction in grammar,
arithmetic, geography, reading and spelling every
day, have but little time to devote to agriculture
in school or out. N. T. T.

Highland Boarding School, }
Bethel, Me., Nop. 1st. ]

AKT ICE PALACE ON THE ST. LAW-
RENCE.

Mr. Edward Hassel, a Berlin architect, who was
employed for a number of years on the Petersburg
and Moscow Railway, and constructed many of
the far-famed ice palaces of St. Petersburg, propo-
ses constructing an ice palace on the river op])o-
site this city next winter, if he can meet with suf-
ficient encouragement from the citizens. The
building will be 40 feet high, 114 feet long, and 5(5
feet deep, and constructed much in the same style
as the Court House, but with this addition, that it
will be surrounded by a colonnade and topped
with a dome, all, witli the exception of the windows
and doors, to be l)uilt of ice. A large skating ring
will be annexed to the building. The rooms,
w^hich will include a large ball-room, ladies' and
gentlemen's rooms, halls, &c., will be all heated
by stoves, and warranted not to melt ! Mr. Has-
sel says that the climate is peculiarly adapted to
the erection of such buildings. He may well do
so. And that the palace would be built in three or
four weeks at a cost of $3,500. This sum he pro-
poses to raise in subscriptions of $10, which will
entitle the shareholders to have exclusive control
of the building. A building of this nature would
attract large numbers of visitors to the city. The
hotel-keepers and other interested parties would,
therefore, do well to look upon the scheme with
favor. — Montreal Herald.

EXTRACTS AND REPLIES.
THE SEASON.

Autumn, up to the sixth instant, was as fine as
could be desired. Crops of all kinds ripened fine-
ly and were nearly gatliered, in good condition.
In the forenoon of the 6th, we had a slight fall of
snow, which, in low lands, soon melted. Friday
forenoon was very chilly, and the heavy clouds
gave indications of a severe storm. Snow com-
menced foiling about one o'clock, P. M., and con-
tinued, with a northeast wind, until about eleven
at night. Saturday was mild, and the snow melt-
ed through the day. The storm commenced anew
about midnight Saturday, and the snov; fell rapid-
ly until nine o'clock, A. M., Sunday, when it
turned mist and rain, which continued at intervals
until four o'clock P. M., when the wind changed
to north-west, with snow squalls, continuing bois-
terous through the night. Monday morning,
snow covered the ground a foot deep, on an aver-
age, besides snow drifts that would be in charac-
ter with a February snov/ stoi-m. Tliis snow lay
very solid, and the quantity that naturally fell in
this storm, allowing for what melted, would not
have been less than eighteen inches. Notwith-
standing the heavy crops of forage gathered in, if
this should prove the comjnencement of a winter
to continue as late as the last did, there must be a
scarcity before spring, as nearly every farm is
stocked to its utmost capacity. The prices of
wool promise so well, that every one is keeping as
many sheep as they deem it possible to carry
through.

Yet with the unfrozen ground beneath and ge-
nial skies above, the snow has rapidly wasted to-
day, and we anticipate its speedy departure, and a
fine turn of open weather, before the final setting
in of winter. The lowness of springs and streams
indicate that Avinter is not to come yet.

liiclimond, Nov. 10, 1SG2. W. Bacox.

STATE BOUNTY TO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.

In the monthly paper just at hand, I notice an
elaborate discussion of a suggestion that I threw
out a few weeks since, as to the expediency of
continuing the bounty of the State to our agricul-
tural societies — a privilege they have experienced
for forty years. If these societies cannot be
sustained under discreet management without this
bounty, I would continue it; but if they can, it is
very clear that the State will have for a long time
to come other and more pressing necessities de-
manding its attention. I say discreet vianage-
7neiit, for it must be apparent to all that the mon-
eys thus distributed to societies have often been
used without sound discretion.

It is easy so to conduct exhibitions as to have
them sustain themselves. A small fee of ten cents
from each visitor, will give an income of $500,
when the show is held in the midst of a dense
population, as all shows should be held, and this
will cover all incidental expenses of the show. If
the society has a vested fund, let the income there-
of be paid out in ]n-emiums. If it has not such a
fund, let the members thereof raise one by volun-
tary contribution. A payment of one, two or
three dollars a year would not be seriously felt.
I wish some of the leading men of the State would
give their views on the subject. While we fight
the rebels with a vigorous arm on their own soil,

1862.

NEW EXGLAXD FARMEK.

573

let us look well to ourselves and our posterity at
home. What is worth doing at all is worth doing
with energy. I forbear to say more lest my gar-
rulity should be too apparent. Essex.
Nov. 7, 1862. _

SAMPLE OF MEADOW MUCK.

I have taken the liberty to send you a sample
of my peat muck, a part of it green and a part
dried, having been dug more than a year. Will
you have the goodness to inform me through the
Farmer whether this sample is as good for man-
ure as the peat muck which you have examined
will average. There is a large quantity of it in
this neighborhood, and our farmers now make
but very little use of it. I have more than a thou-
sand cords within one hundred rods of my barn.
The meadow is very wet, and cannot be drained
without too much expense. I have to cart or
sled the muck off" after the ground is frozen. I
have a heap that was dug more than a year since,
which has been mixed two months with lime
slaked with strong brine, at the rate of a cask of
lime to a cord of dry muck. How shall I use it,
to derive the most benefit from it? Shall I
spread it on my grass land this full, or spread it
on the ground in the spring, that I intend to seed
down with barley, or mix it M'ith my winter man-
ure in the spring and apply it to my planting
ground ? j. p.

South Hampton, N. H., 1862.

RemaPvICS. — We have examined the sample
sent, and believe it to be worth two dollars per
cord, on what are called light, sandy lands, and
quite valuable on heavier uplands of granite for-
mation. It appears to be of excellent quality.
You cannot, probably, make any better use of
that which you have composted, than to spread it
on your grass lands immediately. If you cover
the droppings of the cattle with it during the win-
ter, as often as twice or three times a week, you
will, in the spring, have a manure heap that will
offer a good example for all your neighbors to imi-
tate, and one which will essentially assist in cov-
ering your fields with the most productive crops
of every kind.

QUANTITY OF JOLK FOR A POUND OF BUTTER.
I notice the retiring of the veteran Editor of
the Massachusetts Ploughman to his farm in Fra-
mingham, where I wish him many years of peace
and contentment. For a long time I was accus-
tomed to con his lucubrations with much interest,
until I had the misfortune to differ with him in
opinion as to the quantity of milk necessary for
the production of a pound of butter — he having
asserted and maintained that /bw,/' quarts of the
milk of his Devon stock was sufificient for this
purpose. I thought then, and am of the ojiinion
now, that his assertion was not correct. I be-
lieve that it requires from six to ten quarts of the
milk of the best of cows to produce a pound of
butter, and oftentimes nearer three gallons than
one is necessary for this purpose. So say those
who have the making of my butter, and I believe
them as honest and intelligent as any other but-
ter-makers, p.

now TO SAVE GIRDLED TREES.

While examining some apple trees in the gar-
den where I live, I found that the mice had gir-
dled several of them, one of wliich was a Porter,
it being seven inches through at the but, and I
thought I would save it if it could be done. In
April I cut some scions from the tree and insert-
ed the ends of them in the tree between the bark
and the Mood, above and below the girdled space,
placing them two inches apart ; tlien covered the
space with green cow dung, and wound a cloth
around it to keep it from falling oft' or drying up.
The tree leaved out and blossomed and has grown
finely, besides bearing several bushels of nice ap-
ples. On examining it last week, I found that it
was healing over nicely. I believe that ninety-
nine out of every hundred girdled trees, can be
saved. I write this that others may be benefited
by it. C. B. Rathbun.

Berlin, Nov., 1862.

I'^or the New England Partner.

THE LATE ESSEX COUNTY CATTLE
SHOW.

Mr. Editor : — I have noticed a communication
in the Farmer of the 18th of October last, from
your correspondent "P.," giving his "impressions"
on various matters connected with the Essex Cat-
tle Sliow. 1 think his "impressions" must tend to
mislead the pul)lic in some, if not in all the par-
ticulars about which he speaks.

"P." says, in speaking of the plowing-match,
"the field was the worst I ever saw plowed." If
his impression was correct in this particular, it is
much to be regretted that he has not spent some
of the time he has devoted "for the last forti/-four
years" in attending "every meeting of our socie-
ty, and of the Trustees," to the examination of
plowing and ])lowed fields. I should suppose a
man of "P.'s" observation, or means of observa-
tion, would know that of all the land plowed iu
Essex county, full one-half is worse to plow than
the field then plowed. "With no sod," he says,
"and full of cobble-stones, &c." One would think
"P." did not see the part of the field that was
plowed, at all. There was some sod on the field
plowed, but not enough ; if there had been, it
would not have needed plowing. There were no
"cobble-stones" on more than one or two lands,
and on those, but a few on one end. There was a
little gravelly knoll at one end of the field, on
which the "Trustees" stood, and "P." I su])pose
with them. On this knoll was not much sod, and
some "cobble-stones." Is it not jn-obable, and en-
tirely certain, that "P." got his "impressions"
wholly from this knoll, and failed to see the
plow-field at all ? The town could ofi'er a l)etter
field, but the same one having been plowed at the
show in Georgetown twenty-two years ago, it M-ns
deemed no insult to offer it again. And it is
thought by some good farmers, that fields the
smoothest and easiest to be plowed, are not so de-
sirable to test the plows, plowmen and teams, as
those more difficult.

As to the quality of the "animals," many would
disagree with "P.'s" conclusions. I hope he Mill
name the farms where the sui)erior herds can be
found. I don't know as the plow-field is in fault,
because there were not more horses present. I

574

NEW ENGLAND FAEMER.

Dec.

suppose "P. was aware that at the time of the
show, tliere was much excitement in the commu-
nity on acconnt of the war. And the first day of
the sliow there were "appearances of rain," and
the second day rain came.

I am surprised at "P.'s" "impressions" as to the
"shovv' of fruits." I fear he is disposed to find
fault, because the show was in Georgetown, and
not nearer his home. I know fruits are not cul-
tivated in so extensive varieties in Georgetown
and its vicinity, as in some portions of the county.
And I Avould suggest this as a reason why "P."
should see to it that the show shall be in George-
town next year, and that a better collection from
a "single garden" shall be gathered and exliibited,
to give a stimulus to fruit-growing in this town
and vicinity. I would further add, for the benefit
of all turnip-raisers, that "P.'s" impressions in re-
gard to "a project to secure an election to the
Board of Trustees" are incorrect. The project had
been referred to a committee, the committee have
reported ; the report of the committee has been
rejected, and the committee dischajrged, and con-
sequently, no report caa reasonably be expected
uext year. GEOBXiETCrwT^.

Nov. 6, 1862.

THE CLOSE OF THE YEAB.

The preparation of an Index to the annual vol-
ume of the Farmer — made up in book form of
the numbers which are issued for the respective
months — leads us to a sort of review of our edi-
torial labors during the past year. It is necessary
in this part of our pleasant duty to get the title
or subject of the articles, and in so doing we rap-
idly scan many of them, in order to catch anew
their spirit, to impress more firmly upon the mind
some suggestion or truth, or to learn whether the
work, upon the whole, is adapted to the wants of
the farmer, and will have that influence in his
household for which it was intended.

We have now finished that review, and cannot
see how any material change in the objects sought
can be advantageously introduced. What we have
written has sprung from a love of the occupation
of the farmer, and from a real life on the farm,
— not occasional and incidental, — but from a con-
stant oversight and contact with every variety of
labor that any farmer is called to engage in. It
has grown out of our strong, li\"ing faith in the
necessity and beneficent influences of rural life.

Our correspondents have been numerous, intel-
ligent and practical, — what they have said, being
generally the result of their observation or exper-
iments on their own premises. They have usual-
ly written in clear and forcible language, in cour-
teous and gentlemanly terms, and evidently with
a desire to contribute to the common stock of
knowledge which is demanded by intelligent and
progressive farmers. That they have not labored
in vain, we have the testimony of thousands of
skillful cultivators of the soil, as well as of me-
chanics, merchants and professional men.

But the field labors of the year are now over.
The grand round of the seasons has once more
brought to the vegetable kingdom, as well as the
husbandman, a period of comparative repose. The
trees have cast their leaves, and now their brawny
branches stand out in bold rehef against the open
sky. But though stript and exposed to the win-
ter blasts, they are full of life and energy, and
have already upon them the germ of future crops
of health-giving fruits. The embryo buds arc al-
ready set, which will be quickened into beautiful
life by future vernal showers and solar rays. Fit-
ting type of what our lives should be, — filled with
every manly virtue and grace, and thus setting
the bud of immortality which shall blossom and
forever exhale its fi-agrance in the skies. Sombre
days have come ; the clouds are thick and dark j
cold winds whistle in the bare branches ; occa-
sional snow-flalies fly, and night shuts in sudden-
ly upon us after four o'clock. The domestic ani-
mals seek shelter, and look wistfully for the care
of man, or chew the cud of contentment, in sim-
ny places, if they can find them.

It is the Fall of the year — nothing but that fa-
miliar New England term will express it. The
sun falls short of his long summer journey; the
Months have one after another fallen away from
our grasp ; fruits and leaves fall, and the glories
of the garden fall by the first perishing frost. So,
with the departing Year, fall^ another period of
our mortal life.

It is not strange, then, with all these signs- of
decay about us, though they are the natural and
indispensable operations of nature — that the mmd
should sometimes partake of their hues, and be
less elastic and ho}:>eful than in the glowing hours
of Spring or amidst the plenitude of mid Sum-
mer.

This, then, is peculiarly the-season to seek new
measures of Faith and Hope. To clothe the Mind
withj fresh inspirations of these qualities, and
firmly establish it in the promise that seed time
and harvest shall not fail, and in the belief that
God loveth a cheerful heart, as well as a "cheerful
giver."

The year has been one of new exj>erienccs to
most of us. The Great Rebellion which we are
now living through, will become the theme of fu-
ture ages, and this sharp trial of our free institu-
tions, the terrible destruction of human life and
property, and the derangement of business at
home and abroad, will be recorded in their true
colors by the pen of the historian. Only those ac-
tually engaged in the strife will be able to realize
its horrors. Not us, at home, however deeply the
foundations of civil liberty may be shaken. Actu-
al contact can only bring a realizing sense of the
horrors of war.

At such a period as this, the farmer -will feel its

1S62.

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

575

sad effect upon his business less than those en-
gaged in most other occupatioas. His home re-
mains undisturbed, and ids pursuits untrammelled,
while the demand for all he can produce will be
quick. None have more reason for a thankful
spirit than he. So, with the poet, he should sing :

"Then heap up the hoarthstono with dry forest branches.

And f;alher about nie my cliiidren in glee ;
For cold on the upland the stormy wind launches,

And dear is the home of my loved ones to me."

Por the New England Farmer.

AMOTfG THE GREEN MOUNTAIIXTS.

The Reasons — Crops— Orchards — Wool, Mutton and Lambs —
Army Horses — Caledonia Farmers' Club — Patriotism.

Mr. Editor : — The season is past and the har-
vest ended, and in many respects it has been a
profitable one. During the earlier months of
Snring, the prospect bid fair for a wet season, with
an abundance of hay ; but this extreme was fol-
lowed by the opposite, so thai hay came in un-
usually light, and some other crops sufi'ered some-
what from the effects of the drought. Very little
rain fell during the summer months till August.
We then enjoyed refreshing rains, and vegetation
generally seemed to renew its vigor and spring
forth into a newness of life and growth. The
grain crop was very good. Indian corn was in-
jured in some iastauces by the late spring frosts,
and the workings of the worm. No appearance
of the aphis was noticed, and I think it did not
venture among our Green HUls this season. Po-
tatoes yielded well. In some localities, on low,
moist lands, they were some diseased, but not to
cause any serious loss as a whole. They are now
sold at 25 cents per bushel, and shipped to the
soldiers, it is said. Fruit is quite plenty, where
there are fruit trees. Many of our largest and
best orchards have become so reduced in trees that
scarcely a fourth part as many apples are gathered
from them as formerly. Very few orchards stand
as full and thrifty as they did ten years ago. We
shall have to wait for a new growth.

Store sheep are in demand, at prices from $3,00
to $6,00 for the common wools. Our wool-grow-
ers have realized large profits from their sheep the
present year. Wool lu'ought 50 and GO cents, and
mutton-lambs $2,50 to $3,00. When such prices
rule, wool gi'owing is profitable.

Beef has been in demand, but at much less re-
munerative prices. There is quite a call for army
horses. The medium grade is wanted, — just such
"stock" as many of our farmers can best afford to
spare at this season of the year.

The Caledonia Farmers' Club held its third an-
nual Fair at Lyndon, Oct. 8th. The day was ex-
ceedingly warm for the season — 84° in the shade !
— the hottest October day known for years, — so
says the "oldest inhabitant." The Fair was very
successful and satisfactory. The show of stock
was good, as was that of the other departments.
The attendance was large — from five to six thou-
sand people were present during the day. We
are at present having fine weather for November.
No snow to speak of has fallen ; nor has there
been frost to prevent farmers from plowing and
completing their fall work preparatory for the
snows of the coming winter.

Patriotism among the Green Mountains is quite
at par. The Green Mountain Boys liave pr()m])tly
responded to every Government call, — and Ver-
mont's entire quota is full o/ volunteers! Six-
teen regiments are now hi the field, in readiness to

"Strike for their altars and their fires,
For God and their Natice Land!'"

Lrpidon, VL, Nov. 6, 1862.

I. W, Sanborn.

Wintering Horses. — A Connecticut fanner
winters his horses on cut hay and carrots. In the
morning each horse receives six or eight quarts of
carrots, with half a bushel of cut hay ; at night
he has the same quantity of hay mixed with thi'ee
quarts of provender, consisting of oats and corn
in the ear ground together. This keeps them in
fine health and good worldng order.

LxyDIES' DEPARTMENT.

^^HAT IS A LADY?

A gi'eat deal of argument is going the rounds
respecting the title of lady and the name of wo-
man. The expression "Lady" is so much abused,
that I infinitely prefer the sweet, unpretending ti-
tle of woman. If we could but sift the chafi from
the wheat, abrogate all the self-styled "ladies,"
there could be no objecting to the title ; but min-
isters of grace defend us from some ladies of the
present day, who do not even know Avhy a woman
should be so called. A lady must possess perfect
refinement and intelligence. She must be gra-
cious, affable, and hospitable, without the slightest
degree of fussiness. She must be a Christian,
mild, gentle, and charitable, unostentatious, and
doing good by stealth. She must be deaf to scan-
dal and gossip. She must possess discrimination,
knowledge of human nature, and tact sufficient to
avoid offending one's weak points, steering wide
of all subjects which may be disagreeable to any
one. She must look upon personal cleanliness
and freshness of attire as next to godliness. Her
dress must be in accordance with her means, not
flashy. Abhorring everything like soiled or faded
finery, or mock jewelry, her pure mind and clear
conscience will cause the foot of time to pass as
lightly over the smooth brow as if she stepped
on flowers, and, as she moves with quiet grace
and dignity, all will accord her instinctively the
title of lady. If I had time and your patience, I
could present the other view of the case, looking
upon this picture and upon that. But when one
constantly comes in contact, in omnibuses, cars,
stores, the promenade, places of public amuse-
ment, wherever women are generally found, with
those who loudly arrogate to themselves the con-
tested title, can you wonder at the disgust it pro-
duces ?

To Copy Ferns. — The most perfect and beau-
tiful copies imaginable of ferns may be made by
thoroughly saturating them in common porter,
and then laying them flat between white sheets of
paper, (without more pressure than the leaves of
an ordinary book bear to each other,) and let
them dry out.

576

NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

Dec.

PSINTIUG PAPER AI>rD THE MONTHLY
PAKMER.

The disturbance in business relations is general.
It not only paralyzes commerce and manufactures,
but descends to the minutest ramifications of social
life. All arts and trades feel it, and perhaps none
more than newspaper publishers. The great ad-
vance iu paper — about one hundred per cent. — is
not the only difficulty in the way. A more grave
question is behind, — Whether it can be obtained
at any price ? When the materials must be im-
ported, and the gold to pay for them is at a pre-
mium oitliirty percent., the question certainly be-
comes a grave one. Our prices for the Farmer
are established, and we are unwilling to disturb
them, and our patrons, we feel sure, will not allow
us to publish at a loss. In times like these, pub-
lishers and patrons must have a generous confi-
dence in each other, and mutually share the bur-
den which they bring, as alone, they would break
either party down. We shall not change the price
of the Monthly Farmer, as many of our contem-
poraries have done with their papers, but reduce
the number of its pages, until the paper can be
obtained at a price that will not be ruinous. In
the meantime we shall condense as much as possi-
ble, so that the reader will find a full remunera-
tion for the low sum which he pays, and as the
price of paper decreases, we shall add pages until
our usual number is reached again.

TiiUNDEK IN Winter.— If it is asked why we
have no thunder in winter, though the tops of the
storm clouds rise even in this season to a region
where the air is at least considerably charged with
electricity, perhaps the answer may be found in
this — tliat the storm clouds in the winter are of
great extent, and of course the tension of the elec-
tricity, being extended over a very large surface,
is very feeble ; and the substance of the cloud be-
ing itself framed out of vapor much less dense
than that of summer clouds, this tension may not
be able to strike from one particle of the cloud to
the next adjacent one ; no general discharge can
take ])lace. Besides, even in the M'inter, during a
very warm spell of weatlier, with a high dew point
for the season, we sometimes have a violent thun-
der storm from a cloud of very limited horizontal
extent, as the thunder clouds always are in the
summer. Such a cloud is in reality an insulated
pillar of hot air mingled with condensed vapor,
having just given out into the air itself its latent
caloric, causing the air at the toj) of this cloud, in
many cases, to be sixty degrees warmer at its top
than the air on the outside at the same level. —
Frof. Espy.

CATTLE MARKETS FOR DECEMBER.

The folldwiag is a sammai-y of the reports for the four weeks
ending November 20, 1S62 :

NUMBER AT MARKET.

S.ieep and Shotes and Lire

CaWe. Lambs. Pias. Fat Hogs.

Octohsr 30 3774 5412 250 1800

November 6 4436 6388 600 3000

" 13 3562 5727 600 2500

" 20... 4413 7807 600 4500

16,185 25,334 2050 11,800

The following table shows the number of cattle and sheep
from the several States, for the last four weeks :

Cattle. Sheep.

Maine 3940 4577

New Hampshire 2239 2555

Vermont , 6259 8843

Massachusetts 370 —

Northern New York 848 1884

Camuia 435 6952

Western States 2094 618 '

Total, last four weeks 16.585 25,334

Corresponding four weeks, \ ,-, -an lo -no

last year, '[....n,o60 18,, 08

PRICES.

Oct. 30. Nov. 6. Nov. 13. Nov. 20.

Beef, ^?' lb 355.7 3Jii6J ^a^ HM^h

Sheep and lambs $3 (g44 $2i34i $3 (g4| $3 (g4|

Swine, stores, wh'le... 4 .g4^ 35S4^ 3|g4i 3|a4|

" " retail... 4^,g6 4ifi6 4 g6 4iff6^

Fat hogs, live weight.. .4|g4J 4^n45 4|yj5^ 4^35^

Remarks. — The number of cattle and sheep reported for the
month is very large, being an avei'age of 4046 cattle and 63S3
sheep per week. La^ t year for the corresponding four weeks the
average was 2S90 cattle and 4677 sheep, per week. In other
words, there have been at market, the last four weeks, 1156 cat-
tle and 1556 sheep more, per week, than the average number of
the four corresponding weeks last year.

Perhaps something like one-fourth of the above number of cat-
tle may bo reijorted as stores — working oxen, milch cows, and
young cattle.

The supply of beef, however, during the past month has beea
greater tlum the demand, especially for the last three weeks.
Prices have consequently declined, especially on the medium
qualities of beef. More or less cattle have remained unsold at
the close of each of the last three weeks, — a most conclusive ev-
idence of hard markets for the drovers. They understand very
well the expense and trouble of keeping stock in the vicinity of
Boston, from one week to another, and will not do so if any rea-
sonable otters are made for their cattle.

Although the price of most of the productions of the farm, as
well as of goods in general, has greatly advanced within a short
time, and although the liide and tallow of beeves is worth some
two dollars per hundred more than they were one year ago, live
cattle have sold little if any better during the past month than
they did then.

The jiroportion of oxen among the beef cattle has been unusu-
ally large during the month. If the farmers send off their oxen
earlier than usual this year, on account of the high price of grain,
or other reasons, the winter's supply may fall short.

i-heep and Lambs have found a ready sale the past month
within the range of our quotations. From 4!, to 5c per lb. has
been the top price for extra sheep and lambs, — poorer ones
much lower, although the hich price of pelts, from $1.50 to $1,75
each, helps to keep up the price of all grades. It will be noticed
that full one-thii-d of the sheep and lambs are rejjorted from
Northern New York and Canada.

Working oxen have been quoted during the month at from
$50 to t?110 per i)air. Extra somewhat higher. A large number
at market ; some of which have l)een kept over one or two weeks.

Milch cows liave been sold better perhaps than any other stock.
Comparatively few at market. Forward two-year old heifers
and cows from $15 uy>wards. Cows and calves from $20 to
$50 ; most sell at $30 to $40.

Fat hogs have improved during the month, but declined some-
wliat at its close. (Jood at about 6'4C, dressed.

Iliile-: anil tallow advanced. Hides 7 (g 8c. Tallow 8 Q 8>^c.
Calf skius 12>2C per lb.

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