416 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



respond with mine. I have spoken plainly, en- 

 deavoring to avoid all extravagance of expression. 

 But if it be true, that the same feed, when used 

 by a good animal, will produce products worth 

 twice as much as when used by a poor one, then 

 how important is it to endeavor to obtain the good 

 ones. Entertaining these views, Messrs. Gray, 

 Everett and Winthrop, and others associated with 

 them, have spared no pains or money, to teach 

 the farmers of the Commonwealth this lesson. — 

 In behalf of the farmers, I desire to acknowledge 

 the favor. p. 



July 24, 1852. 



Remarks. — We thank our intelligent and con- 

 stant friend for these brief impressions of his visit 

 at Mr. Motley's, and for his opinions of the 

 foreign stock. We have examined the stock of 

 which he speaks, and embrace this opportunity to 

 do what we intended to do at once, express our 

 obligations to Mr. Motley for the kind attentions 

 which we received while examining the stock and 

 walking over his beautiful estate. Those who 

 have not seen fair specimens of these animals, will 

 be quite likely to consider almost any description 

 of them as overwrought ; but to those who have 

 examined and tested them, most of the descriptions 

 given will not appear extravagant. The verbal 

 statements made to us by a gentleman who has 

 imported some of the Jersey cows, fed and milked 

 them, and made the butter from their cream him- 

 self, fully corroborate all that our correspondent 

 states. Persons engaged in dairy business will do 

 well to give their attention to this stock of cattle. 

 If their milking qualities are as favorable as their 

 form and color are beautiful, they must be pre-emi- 

 nently good. 



TREE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. 



REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE. 



A large white ash tree, in Lincoln, on the road 

 side in front of the house of Mr. Macintosh, was 

 struck by lightning, during the storm on Tuesday 

 afternoon, 22d June, and shattered in a most re- 

 markable manner. The tree was about 90 feet in 

 height, 11 1-2 feet in diameter, of fine vigorous 

 growth and one of the most magnificent forest 

 trees in the town-. The trunk rose nearly thirty 

 feet from the ground without a limb. The bolt 

 struck the tree on its highest branch, and in its 

 progress downward severed all the great limbs 

 above the trunk from each other, and they fell 

 on the ground over w T hich they grew and had so 

 long shaded. One of the great liinbs fell between 

 the trunk of the tree and the house, which was 

 only about 30 feet distant, and did no other 

 damage than the breaking of a few panes of glass 

 in the windows. The trunk of the tree was quite 

 equally divided, for twenty feet or more, into six 

 sections, as smoothly as though they had been cut 

 with a saw, and were left fixed to the roots, 

 spreading outwardly. The bark on some of these 

 sections was entirely stripped off, and the surface 

 of the wood, so suddenly exposed, was completely 

 covered with dust, thrown up by the falling limbs 

 and adhering to the sap. The body of the tree, 

 therefore, must have been completely denuded oi 



its bark, before the branches reached the ground. 

 As the sections of the tree were inclined out- 

 wardly, the heart of it, clinging by large slivers to 

 one of the great limbs, was drawn out of the tree 

 and thrown up into the air, when the limb fell over 

 by the weight of its towering top. It was left 

 standing like a great pair of shears, wrenched by 

 the tremendous force of the bolt from the very 

 centre of the tree, which was nearly three feet 

 in diameter. Large slivers from the inner wood 

 of the trunk and pieces of the bark were thrown 

 several rods distance into an orchard, which was 

 strewn with the fragments. One of the men who 

 saw the top part of the tree when it was struck, 

 said the tree seemed to sink down as if into the 

 earth, and represents the crash of the thunder and 

 the falling of the tree as perfectly tremendous. A 

 portion of the lightning followed the roots of the 

 tree towards the cellar wall of the house, where 

 some slight damage was done. There were only 

 two females in the house at the time, (about 

 1-4 past 4 o'clock,) the men being at work in 

 the field and the children at school. One of the 

 women was stunned but soon recovered and re- 

 ceived no injury. The scene of this remarkable 

 occurrence, which illustrates so clearly the im- 

 mense power of the lightning and the instanta- 

 neousness with which it executes its work, has 

 been visited by many hundreds of people from Lin- 

 coln, Concord and the adjoining towns. The 

 location of the tree is on the low ground of the 

 town, a few rods south west of Flint's Pond, at 

 the base of the highest hill in the vicinity. — Bun- 

 ker Hill Aurora. 



BIRDS—A CARELESS OBSERVER. 



J. C. H., of Syracuse, says, in a communication 

 to Mr. Downing, on "birds, insects and other mat- 

 ters," — "and now one word as to the utility of 

 birds. It is a common belief that they are great 

 benefactors of man in the destruction of pestifer- 

 ous insects. To this belief I am an inexorable in- 

 fidel. Who ever saw one of the whole race touch 

 a caterpillar, which, at this season, infests our or- 

 chards, — or other kindred nuisances, which, late in 

 the season, appear on all trees, indiscriminately?" 

 Now, we would ask, where has J. C. II. 

 been, all his days? Has he ever watched the op- 

 erations of birds 1 Has he ever killed and opened 

 any of them, and examined the contents of their 

 crops and gizzards? If he had, he would never be 

 caught asking such questions as he has, nor would 

 he ever intimate that birds do not destroy cater- 

 pillars and such like nuisances. We have seen 

 the Baltimore Oriole, or English Robin, often seize 

 upon the common tent caterpillar, as they are 

 called, which infest our orchards, and tearing 

 them open feast upon their entrails. We have re- 

 peatedly seen the common robin in gardens, ferret 

 out the cut w r orm and swallow him. The swallows, 

 at sunset, scale along the surface of the ground, 

 and snatch in their rapid flight thousands of in- 

 sects on the wing. Other birds devour other in- 

 sects, and if he is faithless, or has never seen the 

 birds catch them, let him just catch the birds, and 

 cut them open, and he will often find the insects 

 themselves safely stowed away in their gizzards, 

 or other parts of their digestive organs. We ad- 

 vise him to study ornithology a little, in a practi- 

 cal way, and mend his wisdom in this particular. 

 — Maine Farmer. 



