1S56. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



Our Initial Letter for January is indicative of an 

 important item of business for the month. iVfter 

 an abundance of genuine, heart-felt good nature in 

 the family, perhaps there is no one tiling which 

 adds more to its comfort than a plentiful supply of 

 good fuel, well prepared, and conveniently housed. 

 It sorely tasks the temper of the mother and 

 daughters to be obliged to coax and puff and blow 

 either wet or green wood into a generous flame, 

 when the morning is biting cold, and the children 

 are to l)e made ready for school, or the men to 

 take an early start for the woods or the market. 



It is a matter of economy, too, to burn dry 

 wood. Now is the favorable time to set this mat- 

 ter all right. 



Care of Stock. — Constant and kind care of 

 stock is something hke frequent hoeing to a corn 

 crop. The hoeing keeps the soil light, and suscep- 

 tible of receiving valuable influences from the at- 

 mosphere, and thus saves manure. So frequent 

 carding, and careful watering and feeding, saves 

 hay and roots and grain, and gives you a larger pro- 

 duct of milk and flesh than could be obtained on 

 even a larger amount of feed, without the extra 

 care. It is well to remember, too, that shelter and 

 warmth supply the place of food, in some degree. 



Sheep. — Feed them on clover hay, if convenient, 

 and make it convenient for them to go under cover 

 at will. 



Calves. — Examine your cattle — but especially 

 yom- last spring calves — and see if vermin have at- 

 tacked them. If so, a little warm lard or oil rub- 

 bed close to the skin about the roots of the tail, the 

 head and neck, will soon destroy them. Cattle 

 cannot thrive while feeding a little army of depre- 

 dators. 



Snow. — Bank the house well with snow and the 

 wood-pile will last longer. 



Jan'UARY — the Month of good wishes, new ])lans 

 and new hopes — let us all start right in it, in every 

 particular ; tlie resolution of all so to do, may be 

 wonderfully strengthened by a careful perusal of 

 the Life of the late Amos Lawrence. 



Surface of the ^Ioon. — ^The Earl of Rosse, 

 who has recently completed the largest telescope 

 ever made, alluded, at a late meeting in London to 

 its effects. He said that, with respect to the moon, 

 every object on its surface of 100 feet in height was 

 now distinctly to be seen ; and he had no doubt 

 that, under very favorable circumstances, it would 

 be so with objects GO feet in height. On its surface 

 were craters of extinct volcanoes, rocks and masses 

 of stones almost innumerable. He had no doubt 

 that if such a building as he was then in were u])on 

 the surface of the moon, it would be rendered dis- 

 tinctly \isible by these instruments. But there 

 were no signs of hal)itations such as ours — no ves- 

 tiges of architecture remain to show that the moon 

 is, or ever was inhal)ited by a race of mortals simi- 

 lar to ourselves. It presented no ajjpearauce which 



could lead to the supposition that it contained any- 

 thing lilve the green fields and lovely verdure of 

 this beautiful world of ours. There was no water 

 visible — not a sea or a river, or even the measm-e 

 of a reservoir for supplying town or facto rj- — 

 seemed desolate. 



WIND AND RAIN, 



Hattle the windows, winds '. 



Rain, drip on the pane ! 

 There are tears and sighs in our hearts and eyes 



For the life we live in Tain I 



The gi-ay sea heaves and heaves, 



On the dreary flats of sand ; 

 And the blasted limb of the church-yard tree 



Shakes like a ghostly hand I 



The dead are engulfed beneath it, 



Sunk in the grassy waves ; 

 But we have more dead in our hearts to-day 



Than the earth in all her graves ! 



Putnam's Magazine. 



WATEKBURY WILLOW ESTABLISH- 

 MENT. 



Feeling a deep interest in the i)artial experiments 

 now in progress for the introduction of the basket 

 willow into this State, we recently paid a visit to 

 the willow plantation of Mr. Erastus Parker, of 

 Waterbury ; and we confess om- gratification of wit- 

 nessing, not only the remarkable beauty of his grow- 

 ing crop, but the completeness of his triumph in 

 demonstrating the practicability of adding this prof- 

 itable crop to our other Vermont products. 



Mr. Parker's plantation consists, at present, of 

 about four acres, located on the banks of a small 

 mill-stream. About one-eighth of this was planted 

 two years ago last spring, and is now biu-dencd with 

 its third crop, Avhich stands, on an average, perhaps 

 six and a half feet high, and will yield at the rate of 

 three tons per acre. Two acres were planted one 

 year ago, the willows being about fi\e feet high, and 

 yielding a ton and a half per acre. And the re- 

 maining nearly two acres were planted last spring, 

 the willows only reaching the height of three or 

 fom- feet, and not being generally used for any oth- 

 er purpose but for cuttings for planting, -with wliich 

 Mr. Parker proposes, at a moderate price, to fur- 

 nish all who are desirous of going into the culture. 



The lowest market price of the A^illow is now $130 

 per ton, and the whole cost of cultivation, gather- 

 mg and preparing for market, does not exceed $30 

 per ton, and with the aid of Mr. Colby's successfully 

 operating peehng machine, this can be done for 

 much less. Indeed, we have become satisfied that 

 an acre of willows, at least, after the first planting, 

 can be ])roduced with very nearly the expense of an 

 acre of corn ; wliile the jjrofit, after tlie second year, 

 as can be reatlily calculated by the above statement 

 of what Mr. Parker has actually accomplished, will 

 be ten fold greater than one coulil reasonably ex- 

 pect from one of the ordinary products. 



The success, then, of the experiment for cultiva- 

 ting the l)asket willow in Vermont must be consid- 

 ered settled ; and our farmers have only to avail 

 themselves of the exam])le now before them to re- 

 alize profits of which before they had no conception. 

 Much information, however, is needed before the 

 business can be entered on understandingly. 



Green Mountain Freeman, 



