380 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



up four in a place leaning against each other, and 

 spread the swarth if it needs it, can secure two 

 acres in a day, both top and bottom. The bundles 

 should stand in the field till most of the top heads 

 become naked, and then carefully secured. After 

 it is thrashed the chaff should be run through 

 fanning mill with the wind regulated so as not to 

 carry off the seed with the chaff, and then, in or- 

 der to make it perfectly clean, pass it through a 

 suitable sieve — a coarse wire meal sieve will do, if 

 no better is at hand. Newly cleared lands produce 

 the largest crops, but has to be reaped — after that 

 newly seeded old lands ; both require to be seeded 

 thin if for seed. I never stock any land expressly 

 for seed, but always sow clover or red top with 

 herds grass and seed heavy and select a piece after 

 the clover has run out. 



On such land that will cut from a ton to a ton 

 and a half of hay to the acre I usually get from 

 five to seven bushels of seed ; the bottom makes 

 an inferior kind of hay-on which colts and young 

 cattle do well in the winter, and the straw is an ex- 

 cellent litter for horses and cattle. One of the 

 greatest objections farmers make to raising herds 

 grass seed is that it runs the grass out immediate- 

 ly, which is in consequence of leaving a high s rub- 

 ble ; but by this method the grass will last, I be- 

 lieve, longer than if cut early. It is a well known 

 principle in vegetable physiology that trees and 

 plants are more likely to die when cut off at a cer- 

 tain distance above the ground than when cut 

 close — a close mowed field will start up quicker 

 and last longer than one that is cut high. 



Hartford, Vt. j. L. l. 



RBVERBNCE FOR TREES. 



Prof. Park, in his sermon on the life and char- 

 acter of the late Prof. B. B. Edwards, of Andover 

 Theological Seminary, relates a beautiful incident, 

 illustrative of the gentle, genial spirit of that em- 

 inent divine. "He bought a half acre of land ad- 

 joining his house," says Prof. P., "principally for 

 the sake of an old oak which grew upon it. He had 

 long desired to own such a tree — for the oaken 

 wreath is rich with classic associations, and angels 

 of the Lord sat under the oak of old — and many a 

 sermon did he hope to write under its shade." We 

 hope the time is coming, when something of the 

 reverence that is entertained for sacred places, and 

 for works of art, will be cherished towards the 

 trees. Much has been done in many of our towns 

 and villages, within a few years, to remedy the 

 sad error of our fathers, who seem to have sup- 

 posed that forest trees, like savages, were to be 

 thoroughly extirpated from the soil ; but there are 

 yet some barbarians among us, who see nothing 

 in a tree but so many cords of wood. We could 

 point to a certain town in this vicinity — a town, 

 too, whose greatest blemish is a "plentiful lack" of 

 ornamental and shade-trees — where several large 

 and handsome elms, walnuts, oaks, &c. , standing in 

 public highways, have been chopped up for fire- 

 wood, within a short time. It is time this vandal 

 spirit were froAvned down, by a purer taste. The 

 Jews of old were forbidden to cut down the fruit 



trees even of an enemy, (see Deut. xx., 10, 20,) 

 "for the tree of the field is man's life." There are 

 reasons abundant why the same prohibitory care 

 should be extended among us to ornamental trees, 

 and be sacredly observed by the community gen- 

 erally. 



AN HOUR IN A SLAUGHTER-HOUSE. 



If any of our readers delight in witnessing the 

 effects of system in facilitating labor, let them step 

 into a Cincinnati slaughtering establishment dur- 

 ing the killing season. 



Aside from the prodigious number of hogs, cat- 

 tle, sheep and calves disposed of there is an inter- 

 est in watching the machine-like order of the work. 

 The butcher's yard and building is, of course, not 

 a very neat place, while the blood and offal of two 

 thousand hogs a day pass through them. The 

 slaughter-house is situated in some retired hollow, 

 with a small stream passing beneath it, and is gen- 

 erally a cheap, temporary building. 



The hogs of each drove are kept in a separate 

 pen till the hour of execution, when a devoted few, 

 say thirty or forty, are compelled, much against 

 their will, to march up a platform within the build- 

 ing. Here, a man with an iron sledge goes among 

 them, and strikes them on the head with a dull, 

 sickening sound, and they fall without a squeal. 

 While in a senseless state, they are thrown upon 

 a grating near the scalding vats, where they are 

 stuck, and the blood flows into the stream below. 



The vats are wide enough to place a hog cross- 

 wise, and long enough to hold ten or twelve at a 

 time ; and there are, in large establishments, two 

 vats, on each side of which are five or six men, 

 making twenty in all. The water is kept hot by 

 steamy and the carcases are constantly kept turn- 

 ing and stirring as they pass along, so that when 

 they reach the farther end of the vat, they are 

 stripped of the hair, and are hauled out and hung 

 up by the heels for gutting. 



The man who strikes them puts a mark on the 

 leg of each, to show who is the owner. A hog is 

 pushed from the grating, all quivering and bloody, 

 into the scalding water, about once in half a min- 

 ute, and a clean carcass is hauled out of the other 

 end of the vat as frequently, and also another ta- 

 ken from the gambrel and carried to the hooks as 

 often, where he hangs till the next morning, to 

 cool. For tw r o vats, about 50 men are required. 



The next morning, a four or six horse team ap- 

 pears at the slaughter-house, bright and early, 

 and piling the stiff carcasses into a huge rack, con- 

 veys them to the packers. The butcher, instead of 

 being paid for his expense, pays the drover some- 

 thing — eight, ten, or twelve cents a head — for the 

 chance; and all the offal belongs to him, including 

 everything taken from the animal. 



At the packer's, which is in a more public part 

 of the city, the hog is weighed, and the two men 

 place his body on a bench. On each side of the 

 bench stand two strong men, with huge cleavers, 

 more dreadful than an executioner's axe, on which 

 they put a keen edge between each blow. One 

 blow given simultaneously by each, severs the 

 head, and also the hind quarters, from the trunk. 

 These are fhrown in different directions, to be 

 trimmed and cured. 



One of the cutters turns the trunk on its back, 

 and holds it open, while the other splits it along 



