STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 97 



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destroyed, the top dies inevitably in the open air. If the top is 

 destroyed the root may sprout again and again, but whenever the 

 top can be cut below the earth's surface, it generally destroys 

 both root and branch. It is necessary to know the tenacity of 

 life in the different vegetables, in order to attack them success- 

 fully. My method of killing thistles has been by frequently 

 cutting off the tops, and depriving them of atmospheric support. 

 They resist my assaults with great tenacity, but in two or three 

 years they yield the contest and disappear from the field. The 

 few stragglers that remain, after the general warfare, are followed 

 up by "The Thistle Puller," and eradicated, root and branch. 



My stock consists of a span of horses, three cows, and ten 

 sHeep. The neat cattle are common breeds. The sheep are a 

 cross of the Merino and South Down. My sheep average from 

 four to five pounds of wool per head, which brings about tlurty- 

 eiglit cents per pound. The annual increase generally doubles 

 the flock. The old sheep bring about five dollars a head, and 

 the lambs two and a half. 



I usually buy two pigs in the spring. They are fed on milk 

 at first, but after a few weeks I boil roots, add meal and milk 

 and allow fermentation to take place before feeding. The ani- 

 mals are confined in a pen, and kept clean as possible and supplied 

 with all the food they will eat. Experience has convinced me 

 that the pig is the only animal whose idle life is more profitable 

 to the farmer than one of industry. If he is allowed to shift for 

 himself he learns habits of mischief, and becomes a loafer of the 

 first class, lean, lank and careless of appearances, and ready to 

 prey upon the unwary and unsuspecting by night and day. 

 Tlitse swine are kept till they are eight or nine months old, and 

 when slaughtered generally exceed three hundred pounds each. 



Carrots are the most sure of the root crops, and the best for 

 animals in tliis countrv. 



My orchard was commenced with trees from Rochester, which 

 failed. I have since set trees, grafted on seedlings, which thrive 

 well and begin to bear. I wash the trees with soap suds every 

 spring, and the bark is smooth and the growth vig(»rous. 



I have one hundred and sixty rods of stone wall, three feet 

 wide at bottom, twenty inches at top, and four feet and a half 



[Ag. Trans. J G 



