NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



291 



which at birth weighed twelve and a half pounds, the land and saves culture. It is not always those 



from a sheep one year old. Mr. R. P. Gilbert, of 

 Gilead, Conn., has a two year old sheep which 

 brought a pair of twins weighing nearly 19 pounds 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 



While we deem it our duty to encourage the 

 better cultivation of the farm, we deem it also of 

 the first importance, that the mind and the heart 

 be not neglected. They need cultivation as much 

 as the earth, and will as readily yield good fruits. 

 Cultivate the intellect. Few instances can be 

 found, of men who have struggled with difficulties 

 in acquiring knowledge, and so must have acquired 

 habits of industry, diligence, self-government, and 

 self-denial, who yet have remained bad men. 

 Such instances are rare. There may be distin- 

 guished scholars and men eminent in the sciences, 

 and as statesmen, who are bad men ; but we know 

 not how much worse they would have been, but for 

 their love of knowledge. Knowledge is dh-ectly 

 power, and indirectly virtue ; and is generally pro- 

 ductive of happiness. No man needs it more than 

 the farmer. It is his duty and his interest to cul- 

 tivate knowledge and a love of knowledge himself, 

 and give to his sons and his daughters the means 

 of obtaining it. What amusement is so innocent, 

 and at the same time so cheap, as a good book ? 

 There are corrupting books — and the world is full 



that make the earliest and best ; but those who 

 thin judiciously and cultivate understandingly. 

 Most gardeners plant seeds too thick, trusting to 

 thinning out in their growing state, but alas ! they 

 look so uninviting, and plead so eloquently for life, 

 that degenerate inferior plants are the rewards of 

 our false philosophy. — Exchange. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



W. B. W., Gilford.— Mr. Willaud speaks of 

 the grass mentioned by him as "a new variety." 

 He must have been acquainted with the "witch 

 grass," as it is called in New Hampshire, and 

 "piper grass," in Massachusetts, and would not 

 be likely to confound his new variety with this. 



G. A. C, Amherst, N. H. — Hogs should always 

 have access to the ground, and in warm weather a 

 wallowing hole with water. This is necessary to 

 their health and thrift. But, they also require a 

 warm, dry bed. Wallow as they will, no animal 

 enjoys a soft, warm, dry lodging, better than the 

 pig. All animals have their parasites — even the 

 common house-fly has its louse, so very small as 

 to be totally invisible to the naked eye ; we have 

 recently examined him through the microscope, 

 of them — but generally speaking, they are less and a curious chicken he is. The pig has his ene- 



corrupting than idle and vicious companions ; both 

 should be avoided. Who ever knew a young man 

 idle himself, and the companion of idlers, that was 

 not ignorant, corrupting and conceited'? And 

 ''who ever knew an old man towards the close of 

 life, amid all his regrets, grieve at the time and 

 efforts devoted to useful studies, feels knowledge 

 a drag on the heaviness of old age, or Avho would 

 exchange it for anything but true virtue, or the 

 pure joy of heaven V — Vermont State Journal. 



THINNING OUT VEGETABLES. 



There is a greater loss in suffering vegetables to 

 stand too thick, than most cultivators' are aware 

 of. It does require considerable nerve to commit 

 indiscriminate slaughter upon fine growing plants. 

 For instance here are ten beautiful melon vines, 

 just beginning to run, with fruit blossoms forming. 

 Now, who has the bold hardihood to draw them 

 all out but three or four, and throw them wilting 

 away 1 Who can take the beets just as their tops 

 giveevidence of roots below, and separate them to 

 ten inches ? It is a hard matter, we must confess, 

 and is not properly done one time in twenty ; but 

 to have bulbs, top-roots, melons, cucumbers or 

 squashes, it must now be done, and the increased 

 vigor of the remaining plants will repay the trouble. 

 Then fall to and spare not ; no top-rooted plant or 

 bulb should stand so thick that the hoe will not 

 pass freely between them. No vine should have 

 more than four or five plants left to a hill. 



Snap beans look so pretty growing thick that we 

 hate to disturb them ; but if you would have the 

 bushes yield their pendant treasures, thin out to 

 ten inches. We know of nothing that will bear 



my too, in the shape of lice, one of which would 

 make about ten thousand of that of the fly. When 

 the animal is neglected, these increase and gather 

 along on the top of the neck, back, and about the 

 roots of the ears. By wallowing in the mire, he 

 not only cools himself, but becomes encrusted with 

 mud, which, in being rubbed off, takes the vermin 

 with it. If hogs lie on a plank floor, great care 

 should be taken that a cold draft does not rush up 

 between the cracks of the floor. 



Every animal on the farm requires a dry and 

 warm shelter to resort to when it pleases. 



J. W. B., WolJboto\ N. H.— Trees girdled by 

 mice may frequently be saved by inserting strips 

 of healthy bark from other trees. Trim the edges 

 of the girdled bark with a sharp knife and insert 

 the strips, running up and down, so as to fit very 

 close ; in a tree three or four inches through insert 

 several strips ; bind a cloth round the whole and 

 bank up with earth. Another method is to plant 

 young seedlings at the root of the girdled tree, and 

 splice their ends to the upper portion of the 

 girdled part. We have known this mode success- 

 ful in some instances. 



A good whitewash may be made by slaking 

 good lime, adding a little salt, ana sifting in half 

 a pint of hard wood ashes to two gallons of the 

 wash, for outside work. This is cheap, and upon 

 the whole, about as good as anything in a cheap 

 way. 



H. E., Practical Suggestions. — Excellent, and 



as^ thick planting as English peas ; in place of 



thinning them, shade the ground around them; , 



now that they are in bloom and in pod, they will sha11 have a P lace *J- &nd - h J- The J ™" be a PP r0 " 



continue in fruit much longer; the shade enriches' priate at any time, and are, therefore, postponed 



