442 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



world. He who habitually violates a single moral have been our friends during the summer's labor ; 

 duty, will scarcely be found true to all others. The well fed and groomed,they will enjoy it too. The air 



careless and indifferent farmer will be likely to in 

 troduce his habits and tastes into the household, 

 because they are contagious, and as all the duties 

 of life are so intimately interwoven into each other. 

 And these are the natural suggestions of October, 

 because October will faithfully discharge its offices 

 of the seasons, and be true to itself. Such should 

 be our fidelity. 



Culture brings refinement of taste and feeling, 

 gives us new and better views of life, and an in- 

 creased power over the elements, as well as our- 

 selves. But even culture must be tempered by 

 prudence and reason. There may be too high cul- 

 ture in the field for the best good of the plants ; 

 there may be too high culture for the intellect, and 

 there is always danger that the appetites may be 

 too highly excited or trained. Even among farm- 

 ers, engaged in the most healthful occupation, a 

 large amount of the sickness and disease which pre- 

 vails, we think may be traced to an undue cultiva- 

 tion of the appetites. We are too refined in our 

 diet ; our food is not only deprived of certain ele- 

 ments indispensable to health, but it is taken in too 

 concentrated a form. The grains of wheat from 

 which our flour is made, contain, among other 

 things, iron, a certain portion of which is necessary 

 to health, and ought to be taken in the minute 

 quantities in which we should naturally get it in 

 our bread. But by the cultivated art of the miller, 

 this is refined away, and consequently, we suffer. 

 This sufficiently illustrates our point. 



October suggests that all the harvests should be 

 carefully secured ; 



That cattle should not feed mowing fields very 

 closely ; 



That Indian hills should be split, and stubble 

 grounds plowed ; 



That walls may be built or repaired ; 



That swamps may be reclaimed, wet uplands 

 drained, and stones in fields to be cultivated, sunk 

 below the reach of the plow. 



October suggests that the gathered apples 

 packed in barrels should not be left exposed to the 



is pure, cool, and elastic, the scenery attractive and 

 beautiful beyond description, and the roads usually 

 ood. Do not, then, deny yourselves of this com- 

 mon means of a higher intellectual and agricultural 

 culture, so that you shall be able to say that you 

 have found more true wisdom in this than in any 

 former month of October. 



GATHERING CLOVER SEED. 



A writer in the • Valley Farmer gives the follow- 

 ing method of collecting clover heads. 



"We once made and used for many years, a 

 very simple machine for gathering clover heads, 

 with which a man and horse can go over and gath- 

 er the seed from double the quantity of land in a 

 day than he can cut over with a scythe ; and when 

 the heads only are gathered, they require no other 

 labor, except drying, to prepare them to run through 

 the hulling and cleaning machine. Any tolera- 

 ble workman can make one of these machines in 

 two days. It is upon the following plan : Make 

 an ordinary sled with sides or runners 14 inches -wide 

 and 6 feet 6 inches long. These may be placed 5 or 

 6 feet apart, and secured together with two cross 

 pieces only at the back end, leaving the forward 

 part open to the length of 3i or 4 feet ; then a 

 box is made to nearly fill the width between the 

 runners. The box is 4 feet long and 15 inches 

 deep, with the forward end open. To the cross 

 pieces at the bottom of the box, at the forward 

 end, teeth of hard wood are secured so as to pro- 

 ject about 12 inches ; they should be | of an inch 

 thick and 1 inch wide on the top, and made a quar- 

 ter of an inch narrower or beveling on the underside. 

 These teeth are placed three- sixteenths of an inch 

 apart, so as to form a comb. If the upper side of the 

 teeth were capped with hooped-iron, neatly fitted, 

 it would be better. This box is hung between the 

 sides of the sled upon two gudgeons or pins two 

 inches in diameter, just as cannon is hung in 

 its carriage. With two handles, four feet long, se- 

 cured to the box and projecting behind, the box 

 may be moved on the pins so as to lower or raise 

 the teeth to adapt them to clover of any height. 

 A man with a horse can strip the heads from four 

 or five acres of clover in a day with this machine, 

 and collect it in the box. With one of these ma- 

 chines a farmer can gather as much seed in a day 



as would be required to seed forty or fifty acres, 

 sun, because they are heated during the day, and jit needs no hulling or cleaning unless it is designed 

 suddenly cooled during the frosty nights, thus fre- for market. Some_ prefer to sow the seed in the 

 quently changing their temperature, and hastening chafi' to that which is cleaned. 

 decay ; 



It suggests that apple trees that were not pruned 

 in June, may be attended to now ; 



That aqueducts may be laid, water-courses 

 cleaned, cisterns formed, and matters about the 

 house arranged for the comfort and convenience of 

 the women and children. 



Lastly, October suggests to us all that this 

 month is usually a delightful one in which to visit 

 our friends in adjacent towns or States ; not shut 

 up in a railroad car, but drawn by the horses who 



^s:^ Will some one inform us of the post office 

 address of Mr. Haywaed, editor of the Gazetteer 

 of J^ew England '7 



^° Hon. B. Murray, in a letter to the rrairie 

 Farmer, nublished at Chicago, 111., proposes to be 

 one of 105 subscribers to a fund of $50,000, to be 

 awarded as a premium for a perfected steam plow 

 suited to farm use, and capable of performing the 

 work at an expense in money not greater than the 

 average cost of performing the same work under the 

 present system. 



