348 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Auo. 



into the earth, among obstacles that impede weeds 

 and common grass, is a fact very observable, and 

 one that can be turned to good account, in giv- 

 en localities. 



For one or two seasons past, an inexplicable 

 blight of my onion crop has come on when the 

 tubers are but half-grown. The best manuring 

 and tillage of mine does not prevent it. It comes 

 on in August, with a decay of the tops of the 

 plants, when the extremities turn white. This 

 symptom extends to all the crop, and increases, 

 till the tubers cease expanding, and their tops 

 wither down and die. The onions gathered rot 

 in the winter, and few remain sound till spring, 

 whether traced up, or spread out in the cellar. 

 These facts I have not seen stated in the Farmer, 

 and therefore mention them, that if they have 

 been witnessed by others, they may, peradven- 

 ture, be explained, and the cause and cure be as- 

 signed. 



The apprehension that a species of butterfly, 

 observed in the summer of last year, a specimen 

 of Avhich I sent, was parent of a destructive for- 

 e*st insect, a migrating worm, that infested our 

 forests in 1857, was happily not verified by ob- 

 servation. Still, numerous worms appeared upon 

 our hard maples, in our street, and consumed 

 the foliage fast, in August. They seemed not 

 travellers, like those of the preceding season, 

 and generally were seen more clustered together. 

 They disappeared earlier than those of 1857, and 

 our friends, the chipping birds, were so numerous 

 and industrious, that very probably they stopped 

 their depredations. 



Many cherry trees decay here ; peaches are de- 

 spaired of, and for some cause, vines, the Isabel- 

 la especially, are greatly damaged by the winter 



Salisbury, Conn., June 6, 1859. J. Lee. 



there are two estimated values of hay given, the 

 highest of which is less than the present current 

 value. 



Mr. N. Fessenden made a trial Avith 5 cows 

 for one day, fed as usual, with the following re- 

 sult. The provender consumed was, 



English Hav, 86 ft,3., al $17 ^ ton $ ,73 



Sail Hay, 20 fts., at $11 ^ ton ,11 



Oil Meal, 9 lbs., 1^ cts. p- ft ,13 



Rice Meal, 8 fts., IJ cts. ^ ft, ,10 



Husks, quantity and value guessed at OS 



25\$l,15/,046 

 Per can $322 



The quantity of milk produced was 25 quarts. 

 The mean time since dropping their calves is 8 

 months. Three will come in again in a mean 

 time of 4 months ; the other two are farrows. 



Lexington. 



For the New En^lancl Farmer. 

 COST AND PKICE OF MILK. 



At a recent meeting of the Lexington Farmers' 

 Club, the question under discussion was whether 

 pure milk could be afforded in this town for less 

 than 25 cents per can. The general impression 

 was that it could not be afforded at that price 

 in winter, but none had exact estimates as the 

 result of experiments, except Messrs. Reed and 

 Fessenden. 



Mr. N. Reed had made a trial with 20 cows by 

 carefully ascertaining, one day in each week for 

 three successive weeks, the amount of provender 

 fed to them, and also the amount of milk produced 

 by them, and by dividing the amount by three 

 he obtained the mean result for one day as fol- 

 lows, viz. : 



Estimated value. Estimated value. 



Oil Meal, 30 fts $ ,54 $ .54 



Shorts, 43 fcs ,43 ,43 



Fine Feed, 20 fts ,27 ,27 



Roots, 5 bush 1,00 1,00 



English Hay, 300 fts 1,95 2,40 



Meadow Hay, 200 fts ,»0 ,60 



Depreciation of stock, 22c ^ day. ,22 ,22 



iBtereet and taxes, 15c ^ day... ,15 ,15 



140\5,06/-,i 

 P«rcan $ ,252 



,036 ^ qt. 

 7 



140 \5,61/4 



$ ,2S 



The amount of milk produced in one day was 

 found to be 140 quarts. It will be perceived that 



For the New England Farmer. 



MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR PRO- 

 MOTING AGRICULTURE. 



BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



When a man has lived so long and so faithful- 

 ly, in this thankless world, that he has become, 

 at length, content to labor quietly and constant- 

 ly, to promote the welfare of his fellow-men, re- 

 ceiving and expecting no other reward than that 

 which an approving conscience may afford, he 

 has become once more "but a little lower than 

 the angels." As the elder Mr. Weller remarked, 

 by way of consolatory reflection, on the death of 

 his wife, such a person is almost "too good a 

 creetur for this place," and might be translated 

 with no great change to a better sphere. 



It is true of most machinery that the more 

 perfect its workmanship, the less noise it makes. 

 It is the friction, and not the power, that attracts 

 common notice. The big engine that propels 

 the ocean steamer Vanderbilt, with a power equal 

 to that of thirty thousand horses, makes less 

 noise than a single, idle, braying jackass. 



"Stillest streams, oft water fairest meadows, 

 And the bird that flutters least, 

 li longest on the wing." 



The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Ag- 

 riculture, ever since the 7th of March, 1792, has 

 been modestly, quietly, but steadily keeping the 

 even tenor of its way, like the steamship, re- 

 gardless of the shifting breeze and the incon- 

 stant waves, straight onward, by her compass. 

 And now at the end of almost threescore years 

 and ten of its life-voyage, we have an abstract 

 of its log-book, in a modest pamphlet of 149 

 pages, from the hand of its accomplished secre- 

 tary, Richard S. Fay ; given to the World, not 

 in a spirit of boasting, to show how much good 

 this Society is now doing, or proposing to do, 

 but rather as a memorial of the worth and un- 

 selfish labors of those who have "finished their 

 course" on earth. 



