1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



367 



able the base to callous over, after which the roots 

 are quickly produced ; it may be known by its 

 commencing to grow. The cutting is then a per- 

 fect plant, and ready for potting off. For a few 

 cuttings, riower pots may be used, with bell or 

 hand glasses to cover them. Those kinds which 

 iiower more or less all the summer, as China and 

 Bourbons, strike very readily in the spring or fall, 

 or indeed at any season ; the hybrid perpetuals 

 best perhaps after the midsummer flowering, while 

 the last named are more usually propagated, as 

 are also all kinds of June or summer roses, by lay- 

 ers in the spring, from the greater difficulty in the 

 rooting them from cuttings. The cuttings should 

 be inserted about half their depth in the soil. — 

 Country Gentleman. 



Fur the New England Fanner. 



KEEPING DOGS. 



Mr. Editor : — As your paper is in part devoted 

 to the subject of raising and keeping stock, and as 

 there is one kind of stock which can be easily shown 

 to be not only unprofitable, but absolutely detri- 

 mental to the interests of our country, perhaps a 

 few words on that subject might be acceptable. 



A race of animals called dogs, considered by 

 some indispensable, and yet in reality, such a nui- 

 sance, I would look at in the light of economy. 



Now it is readily admitted that in some kinds of 

 business a dog may be useful and even necessary, 

 but I venture to say that in three cases out of four, 

 they are infinitely worse than useless. 



The farmer says a good dog is useful on the 

 farm to protect his crops against the depredations 

 of his neighbors' cattle, and to protect the lambs 

 and poultry from the foxes and other wild animals, 

 and his clover from the wood-chucks. I think no 

 man deserves the appellation of "farmer," who 

 needs a dog to protect his crops, and if we turn 

 our sheep with young lambs into back pastures on 

 our wild mountain farms, it is very few lambs that 

 will be saved by the dog, and if, like some of our 

 more prudent farmers, we keep them in a small lot 

 near the barn, there is certainly no need of such a 

 sentinel. The wood-chucks have done me some 

 damage, but not one-fourth part as much as my 

 neighboi's' dogs and boys in tramping down my 

 crops, and tearing down my stone walls. 



The mechanic, the doctor, the lawyer and many 

 others have no pretext whatever, only that "a good 

 dog is a good thing, and it costs nothing to keep 

 him," and "I like a good dog, and so I keep him." 

 Well, now, how is it about the cost of keeping him ? 

 I notice when I go into a neighbor's house at the 

 close of a meal that the good man or lady fills up 

 a large plate with rich food for the dog, sufficient 

 in quantity, if fed to the pig or the poultry, to 

 amount, at least to $5 a yearj I think §10 a "year 

 would be nearer the truth. Take the neighbor- 

 hood where I live for a sample. We have one dog 

 to every ten persons, or 272,811 in the New Eng- 

 land States. What an army of dogs ! 



Supposing one in four to be really useful (which 

 is the most I can possibly admit) and we have 

 204,608 useless dogs to support at a cost, according 

 to the lowest estimation, of $1,032,040. So much 

 for the economy, — and now a few words for the 

 convenience. 



1 have no disposition to abuse any dumb animal, 



and if I kept a dog, I should, like most others, suf- 

 fer him to lie on the kitchen floor by the stove ; but 

 if my wife, in doing her work, was obliged every 

 five minutes to step over or go round and kick out 

 of the way a great lazy dog, I should expect her 

 smiles would be few and far between, to say noth- 

 ing of the disgust one feels when knocking at a 

 neighbor's door to have the inmates obliged to 

 wage a war of extermination with the dog before 

 they can let us in and then ten to one but the first 

 salutation will be from the gentleman with four 

 legs. H. Briggs. 



Fairhaven, Vt. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



PLASTER, OR GYPSUM. 



There is much said of the value of plaster. As 

 I have a variety of land, I thought plaster might 

 suit some of it. I can buy it at my door at 70 

 cents per hundred. You would much oblige a 

 subscriber by informing me of the use of it, i. e. 

 kind of land, how applied to a hoed crop, at the 

 time of planting or weeding, and quantity per acre, 

 on run-out grass land, and season of year ? 



West Windsor, Vt., June, 1856. t. s. f. 



Remarks. — In a case like yours where you pos- 

 sess a variety of soil and have no particular knowl- 

 edge of the action of plaster, we think the true 

 course is to make an experiment on each kind of 

 soil by applying the same amount of plaster to one 

 or more square rods of ground, and carefully noting 

 the result. 



On soils that already contain a sufficient quanti- 

 ty of the sulphate of lime, little or no effect will 

 be observed ; while in those that are deficient in 

 this element, but abounding in others necessary to 

 the plant, the application of plaster will produce 

 the happiest results. 



Light, dry, sandy, or open soils, as they are 

 sometimes called, are those iqjon which plaster 

 generally operates the best — because the rain water 

 readily dissolves and conveys it to the roots of 

 plants. 



WIRE FENCE AND PLANTS. 



Mr. Editor : — Is the vnre fence, as manufac- 

 tured and varnished by J. E. Butts, Jr. & Co., in- 

 jurious to the vine or fruit, when used as a trellis 

 for the grape ? If injurious, would the difficulty be 

 obviated by applying a coating of white paint, or 

 is it the material that injures ? w. p. 



Remarks. — We have heard no complaint be- 

 fore, and do not think any varnish used would be 

 injurious to plants in the open air. 



PLUM TREE — 20 FEET GROWTH IN A SEASON. 



You ask if "I. T. W. does not mean twenty in- 

 ches instead of twenty /ee^ that grew in one year." 

 I am not in the habit of telling Har^e stories," 

 nor would I have the name of "stretching the truth" 

 for all the plums in New England ; and when I 

 stated that a single plum scion grew in one year 

 only some four or five inches less than twenty feet, 

 I meant just what I said — or in other words, not to 



