1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



221 



required a high degree of good judgment and care- 

 ful observation. He thought horses were much less 

 frequently abused than formerly, in the city of Bos- 

 ton. When we see faithful animals willing to do 

 all they can, it is our duty to interfere in their be- 

 half, when they are abused. There is no necessity 

 for abusing cattle in training them. He depreca- 

 ted the practice of having the time at cattle shows 

 taken up by exhibitions of fast horses. It was 

 wrong, in his opinion, to encourage the tendency to 

 fast driving, by such exhibitions. 



Dr. Fisher, of Fitchburg, spoke of the relative 

 value of mules as farm stock, and especially for 

 work. He purchased a pair last spring that weighed 

 700 pounds each, and he found that they could be 

 kept very cheaply compared with horses. His 

 horse, which weighs between 1 100 and 1200 pounds 

 eats more than both the mules, while they will do 

 nearly double the work that he will. They will 

 work more hours, are less subject to diseases and 

 accidents, need but little grain, — none except when 

 worked hard. He had not found any bad tricks 

 in them, though it is often objected to them that 

 they are apt to be tricky. They will pay for good 

 treatment as well as a horse, and will bear poor 

 treatment much better. They know how to shirk, 

 it is true, and in that respect seem to be more intel- 

 ligent than the horse. They will draw as much on 

 a drag as a pair of oxen that weigh 2800 pounds. A 

 pair of mules weighing 1400 pounds will do nearly 

 or quite as much work as a pair of horses that 

 weigh 2200 pounds, and they will not eat more than 

 half as much. 



Mr. Emerson, of Boston, added that the life of 

 mules is much longer than that of horses. It is a 

 proverb in Virginia that a mule never dies. Their 

 working life is nearly fifty years. He thought them 

 a better working animal than any other. He also 

 spoke of the comparative profits in keeping differ 

 ent kinds of animals. Fowls require less suste- 

 nance, in proportion to the amount of meat they 

 will furnish, than any other animal; and next to 

 them was the sheep. He had found great difficulty 

 in keeping sheep, however, because they were so 

 apt to be unruly. 



Mr. R. S. Fay, of Lynn, said sheep might be 

 trained so as to be kept within their proper limits 

 as well as any other animal. His own sheep pas- 

 tures were enclosed with low walls, and though the 

 feed was often poor, and there were vegetable gar 

 dens and much better feed adjoining the pastures 

 he had never known his sheep to go over the walls. 

 He bought them in New Hampshire and put them 

 on to his farm five years ago, and though they were 

 as wild as any sheep when he purchased them, he 

 had found no trouble in keeping them within their 

 proper bounds, though they were tended only by a 

 boy fourteen years old. They had become perfect- 

 ly docile, and literally exemplified the Scripture 



language, "My sheep hear my voice," &c. If sheep 

 are kept under the care of any particular person 

 they will always come at his call. He thought noth- 

 ing was more important for farmers than to have a 

 certain proportion of his farm stock consist of sheep. 

 There is no manure so fertilizing as that of sheep, 

 and it does not so readily waste by exposure as that 

 of other animals. Sheep are gleaners after other 

 cattle, and will help to keep the cattle pastures in 

 good condition by being turned upon them occasion- 

 ally to eat the coarser plants which have been left by 

 the cattle. They will enrich the land, too, and may 

 be made exceedingly useful in helping to prepare 

 land for a crop. A German agriculturist has calcu- 

 lated that the droppings from one thousand sheep 

 during a single night would manure an acre suffi- 

 ciently. By that rule a farmer may determine how 

 long to keep any given number of sheep upon any 

 particular piece of land. Mr. Fay said he was ac- 

 customed to fold his sheep upon land that he de- 

 signed for corn and other crops ; and in doing so 

 he shut them upon half an acre at a time, keeping 

 them there by a wire fence, which was easily moved 

 from place to place. He kept his flock of three 

 hundred, five nights upon half an acre, and then re- 

 moved them to another half acre, and in this way 

 his land was well manured without the labor of 

 shovelling or carting. He thought that the lambs 

 and manure paid for keeping, and the wool was 

 clear profit. 



For the Neie England Farmer. 



GRAPES AND SWEET POTATOES. 



Mr. BRO^\'^• : — I noticed in the JV. E. Farmer 

 for February, on page 97, a paper on the cul- 

 tivation of grapes, in which you give full informa- 

 tion how to prune the vine, &c. Now if in your 

 March number you will point out to us all the 

 kinds of grape vines that are best adapted to our 

 climate, giving directions, first, what kind of grape 

 vine is best to purchase ; second, how they ought 

 to be set out; and at what time each kind ripens in 

 your state, I, and many of my neighbors, will give 

 them a fair trial. Three years ago I sent to Bos- 

 ton and got three Isabella vines, and set them ; 

 last season they bore thirty-six pounds, and ripened 

 well. I took them off the vines Nov. 11, I have 

 one later vine that bore last season, but the fruit 

 did not ripen. I have two Diana vines, not in bear- 

 ing ; one Concord vine, not in bearing ; one Am- 

 ber, and one Sage. Now as I wish to get more 

 vines in the spring, will you direct me what kinds 

 to purchase, and how old vines it would be best to 

 get, and insert in your March number ? 



Now one word about the 



CAROLINA SWEET POTATOES. 



Last spring I got half a peck from Boston, split 

 them lengthwise, made a kind of hot-bed, and there 

 placed the pieces side by side each other. About 

 the last of May or the first of June they were three 

 or four inches high ; I then cut the sprouts or slips 

 in very small pieces, and set them out in the same 

 way I do cabbage plants ; they grew well, the vines 

 I run on the ground two or three yards long, and as 



