1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



421 



plants, having narrow leaves, should depend 

 more upon the resources of the soil than they 

 seem to do. But this apparent anomaly may per- 

 haps be explained in this manner : — The green 

 crops weighing so very much heavier than the 

 grain ones, from three to eight times, they ought, 

 as a matter of course, to take a larger quantity 

 of mineral ingredients from an acre of soil ; and 

 as all plants require to absorb a large quantity 

 of water daily, in order to keep the saline ingre- 

 dients within them in a constant state of solu- 

 tion, it seems necessary that the green crops 

 should be provided with a large system of leaves, 

 to enable them to draw, both through the roots 

 and from the atmosphere, the large supply of 

 water which they require to have in order to 

 hold in .constant solution the larger quantity of 

 the saline ingredients they contain. 



If this doctrine is correct, Indian corn, pota- 

 toes, wheat, rye or oats, will be suitable to fol- 

 low a turnip crop. We invite some of our ex- 

 perienced farmers to give us their opinions on 

 this subject. 



A BIG BUG. 



I send you an insect which I found in my 

 door-yard this day. I do not know its name. I 

 have shown it to a dozen or more of my neigh- 

 bors, and they never saw or heard of any insect 

 like it before. Can you tell us through the col- 

 umns of the Farmer, or otherwise, what it is ? 



Ashland, July 21, 1858. A. Waufield. 



Remarks. — We certainly never saw anything 

 like it before. Why, he has a pair of mandibles 

 in his head like the hooks the ice men carry 

 their huge cakes with. What a monster ! We 

 hope there will be only one in each State in the 

 Union. 



INFLUENCE OF SEX IN STOCK. 



In a late number of your paper, reference is 

 made to the opinion expressed in the Report of 

 the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, that 

 "the male is of less consequence in rearing stock 

 for dairy purposes than the female." Believing 

 this idea to be erroneous, I was pleased to meet 

 to-day an authority corroborative of my views. 

 You will find it in a letter from Mr. S. W. Pom- 

 roy, of Brighton, to Mr. Quincy, Agricultural 

 Report, vol. VI., p. 87, and seq. He says, "in the 

 selection of bulls, most farmers confine their at- 

 tention to form and color only, instead of tracing 

 their descent from a valuable dairy stock." I re- 

 member this Mr. P. as a very sensible man, who 

 thought much and heard but little. j. w. P. 



July 22, 1858. _ 



USE OF COAL TAR. 



A subscriber informs us that he found coal tar, 

 placed around his squash and cucumber vines, 

 saved them entirely from the ravages of all kinds 

 o£ bugs. Also that the smoke of coal tar will 

 drive away rose bugs. 



FINE FLEECES. 



J. Smart, of Vergennes, Vt., beaten. L. T. 

 Herrick, Esq., of Milton, Vt., sheared a four- 

 years' old buck this season, whose fleece weighed 

 10^ lbs. of clean washed wool; this buck was 

 not a cosset, and has had no extra feed from the 

 rest of his flock. He also sheared 125 ewes, whose 

 fleeces averaged 5 lbs., and 25 of that number av- 

 eraged 7 lbs. of clean washed wool, and 118 of 

 that number had lambs. A READER. 



West Milton, Vt., Jtdy, 1858. 



SUCKERS AMONG CORN. 



Is it proper or important, at any time to cut 

 away the suckers from among corn ? 



If so, at what stage of its growth should it be 

 done ? Ephraim Barker. 



Londonderry, Vt. 



Remarks. — From what we have read and ob- 

 served with regard to taking suckers from corn, 

 we are of the opinion that it ought not to be done 

 at any time. 



LEACHED ASHES. 



Formerly it was supposed that the process of 

 leaching abstracted all the active virtues of wood 

 ashes, and that, after having gone through this 

 process, the only proper place for them was the 

 road-side or the highway. Experience, however, 

 has of late sufficiently demonstrated the errone- 

 ousness of this view, and many farmers who have 

 tested the value of leached ashes as a stimulant 

 of growing crops, as well as an alterant in phys- 

 ically ill-conditioned soils, are willing to purchase 

 them at very nearly the same price which ashes 

 formerly commanded before being leached, and 

 convey them many miles to their farms. Millions 

 of bushels are now used annually in the United 

 States for agricultural purposes, and the demand 

 increases in proportion as their value becomes 

 known. 



BLACK LAMBS. 



At the farm of Chester Pike, in Cornish, N. 

 H., we saw, a short time since, a curious freak 

 of nature in the production of ten black lambs 

 in a flock of seventy Spanish Merinos. The ewes 

 were descended from sheep imported by Consul 

 Jarvis, and had never before produced any black 

 lambs. The buck had been used in the neigh- 

 borhood for two or three years, and had (so far 

 as Mr. Pike could ascertain) begotton no other 

 black lambs. 



We were much surprised at this, and made 

 many inquiries concerning the circumstances at- 

 tending the care and management of the sheep 

 during the winter, but could learn nothing wor- 

 thy of notice, except that the man who had charge 

 of the flock during the fall and winter was con- 

 stantly followed by a large, blacJc Newfoundland 

 dog. It would seem that the color of the lambs 

 must be attributed to the influence of the black 

 dog. — Vermont Stock Journal. 



