1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



487 



e:§:tracts and kbplies. 



WILLOWS FOR FENCE. 



Allow me to make a few inquiries concerning 

 willows for fence. I have a large meadow that 

 needs fencing — will branches taken from the 

 common willow tree and set in the mud, make a 

 durable and good fence around it ? If so, what 

 season of the year, how large and how deep 

 should they be set, and how far apart ? Will 

 they grow in the form of the weeping willow by 

 reversing the ends ? J. S. Ellis. 



Boston, Sept., 1858. 



Remarks. — Willows will grow readily, cut in 

 April or early in May, and set from one to two 

 feet in the ground, where it is usually moist 

 through the summer. If they are intended for 

 fence without other aid, they must be planted 

 quite close, within two feet of each other, and 

 then headed down annually so as to dwarf them. 

 They may be set much further apart, and when 

 stiff enough have rails or strips of board nailed 

 across them, which will be sufficient to keep out 

 cattle, but not sheep or swine. A willow stick, 

 whether half an inch, or an inch and a half in di- 

 ameter, will grow if set under favorable circum- 

 stances. 



A willow fence answers the purpose very well 

 where the land is liable to be inundated, or where 

 the posts are badly thrown by frost. 



A NEW STUMP PULLER. 



Your Pittsford correspondent, who ■vyants his 

 pine stumps put into a fence, may address Julius 

 M. North, of Shoreham — who has a machine 

 that extracts stumps on the same principle of the 

 large two-wheel stump machine which he de- 

 scribes. The machine is moved on four wheels, 

 a common ox-cart in front, (minus the box or 

 body,) and two trunk wheels in the rear, with a 

 pulley attached to the power to be used when 

 necessary. The stump frame was borrowed from 

 a lever stump machine purchased here about 

 twenty years ago, which was a failure, as every 

 stump machine will be that extracts the stumps 

 by manual strength only, at the present or past 

 prices of labor. HiRAM RlCH. 



Shoreham, Vt., Sept., 1858. 



cure for the poison of ivy. 



In answer to a request for a cure for the poi 

 son of ivy, I send you a receipt, which its use for 

 ten years warrants me in considering a specific 

 It is as follows : take a handful of the lobelia in- 

 fiatUi make an infusion by pouring on it in a tin or 

 earthen vessel, a pint oi warm water, not hot ; set 

 it about an hour in a warm place, reserve a little 

 to sip occasionally, and wash with the remainder 

 frequently and thoroughly the parts affected, and 

 a speedy and certain cure will be the result. 



This plant is easily known by its small, light 

 blue flowers and bladder-like capsules, and as if 

 to be an antidote ever at hand, grows wherever 

 ivy is found, on high or low, wet or dry ground 

 The green plant is best. It may cure dog-wood ; 

 it will be safe to try it. M. A. D. 



BocJqjort, 1858. 



CURE FOR A WIND SPAVIN. 



I saw a communication in your valuable paper 

 signed "H. S. G.," of West Bethel, Vt., in rela- 

 tion to his colt, wishing to know whether it waf 

 spavined, and what remedy to apply. 



I should call it a "wind spavin." It may be 

 cured with the following remedy : take equal 

 parts beefs gall, neatsfoot oil, brandy and spirits 

 of turpentine ; shake well together, and apply it 

 thoroughly once a day until cured. I have cured 

 them in this way in eight weeks. 



mil, N. H., 1858. N. F. Morrill. 



THE WAY TO HAVE FRESH TOMATOES WITHOUT 

 SELF-SEALING CANS. 



Some afternoon when you think everything 

 will be killed with frost at night, pull up your 

 vines that are loaded with green tomatoes, and 

 hang them in the cellar ; they will ripfen off finely. 

 I took some from my cellar last Christmas day, 

 that were very nice. J. C. Norton. 



Bridgeioater, Sept. 14. 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



THE HAUNTED HOUSE. 



Speaking of ghosts, I have heard that some 

 years ago there was a lone house standing by 

 itself, near a plantation, not far from Guilford. 

 The house nobody A\ould ever take because it was 

 haunted, and strange noises heard in it every 

 night after dark ; several tenants tried it but were 

 frightened away by the noise. At last one in- 

 dividual, more courageous than the rest, resolved 

 to unravel the mystery. He accordingly armed 

 himself, and having put out the light, remained 

 sentry in one of the rooms. Shortly he heard on 

 the stairs, pit pat, a full stop again. The noise 

 was repeated several times, as though some crea- 

 ture, ghost or no ghost, was coming up stairs. 

 At last the thing, whatever it was, came close to 

 the door of the room where the sentry was listen- 

 ing ; his heart, too, chimed in with pit pat rather 

 more than it was wont to do. He flung open 

 the door, hurry-skurry, bang ; something went 

 down, down stairs with a tremendous jump, and 

 all over the bottom of the house the greatest 

 confusion, as of thousands of demons rushing in 

 all directions, was heard. This was enough for 

 one night. The next night our crafty sentry estab- 

 lished himself on the first landing, with a heap 

 of straw and a box of lucifer matches. Soon all 

 was quiet. Up stairs again came the pit pat, pit 

 pat. When the noise Avas close to his ambush 

 he scraped his match, and set fire to the straw, 

 which blazed up like a bonfire in an instant ; and 

 what did he see ? — only a rabbit, who stood on 

 his hind legs, as much astonished as was the 

 sentry. Both man and beast having mutually 

 inspected each other, the biped hurled a sword at 

 the quadruped, who disappeared down stairs 

 quicker than he came up. The noise made was 

 only the rabbit's fore and hind legs hitting the 

 boards as he hopped from one stair to the other. 

 The rabbits had got into the house from the 

 neighboring plantation, and had fairly frightened 

 away, by their nocturnal wanderings, the rightful 

 owners thereof. The more courageous sentry 

 was rewarded for his vigil, for he held his tongue 



