14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



provement; science has made new develop- 

 ments, and received new apjilications in the 

 artd ; peace has prevailed in our borders, and 

 our country has increased in influence and in 

 the respect of the nations of the earth. 



Not only may we rejoice in the past, but we 

 lijve everything to animate and encourage our 

 hopes for the future. The completion of the 

 Pacific Railroad ; the establishment of regular 

 lines of steam communication with China and 

 the East ; the laying of telegraphic lines to 

 connect this country with the continent of Eu- 

 • rope ; the large immigration from Europe, and 

 the great increase of the use of farm machinery 

 must greatly extend our commerce and in- 

 crease the amount of our productions. A new 

 world for cultivation and stock raising is fast 

 opening up in the western half of our wide 

 empire, and the means of communication with 

 it are opening up as fast, which will secure to 

 it facilities for reaching a market, and to the 

 eastern manufacturers an outlet for their pro- 

 ductions. All these and many other circum- 

 stances that we nped not particularize, are full 

 of promise, and prophetic of glorious results 

 in the future. 



We will, then, commence the labors of the 

 year with renewed feelings of gratitude to the 

 Giver of all good, with an increase of charity 

 in our hearts towards all men, and work for 

 humanity, — work with all diligence, and work 

 on with patience, — and may it be to us all "A 

 Happy New Year." 



tember worth two of corn in November. The 

 peas can be grown on soil too poor or too foul 

 to give a good return in corn, are more easily 

 raised and harvested, make solid, sweet pork, 

 and the straw greath' improves the quality of 

 the manure, — mixed with other grain it is the 

 best food for horses he ever used. He soaks 

 the peas twenty-four hours in water, when the 

 hogs eat them greedily and flitten rapidly. 

 We have no doubt that a good crop of peas 

 may be raised with less manure than wheat or 

 corn. They should be put in early with us, 

 as late peas are apt to blight. Peas were for- 

 merly raised to a considerable extent by New 

 England farmers, and ground up with oats, 

 &c., for pig "provender." 



PEAS INSTEAD OF CORN". 



We have been frequently told that the Can- 

 ada farmers use peas instead of corn to fatten 

 their hogs, and that they make very firm and 

 sweet pork. 



A writer in the Itural New Torlcer says he 

 planted last year two and a half acres in peas ; 

 seed nine bushels. Land fair but very weedy. | 

 Sold green peas to the amount of $13. Fed j 

 to two hogs and five pigs seventy-eight dollars 

 worth, and has on hand forty bushels, worth | 

 eighty dollars, making the whole crop worth 

 $171 ; deducting the seed, $18, leaves value of 

 crop, $153. He began to feed in July and | 

 fed in August, September, October and No- 

 vember, whereas his corn would not have 

 been ripe enough to feed till October and No- 

 vember. It is easier to fatten pork in warm j 

 weather. He thinks a bushel of peas in Sep- 1 



SEASONING BAILS AND BOARDS. 



After some remarks on the advantages of 

 cutting rails and boards designed for fencing of 

 a uniform length, the Country Gentleman 



seasoning them : — 



There is tinotlicr point of importance in provid- 

 ing fence stiilT. This is to have the boards sawed 

 or the rails split immediately after the trees arc 

 felled, or as soon thereafter as possible, and set up 

 at once to dry. The reason that summer cut lum- 

 ber lasts so much longer than winter cut suitf, is 

 the rapidity with vv'hieh the seasoning process is 

 effected in the dry summer air. Iflogsarecut 

 and then allowed to lie several months, they will 

 inevitahly hccome more or less "sap-rotten," and 

 the stuff from them prove inferior both in strength 

 and durability to that which is quickly seasoned 

 while yet fresh and sound. Probably logs cut in 

 early summer, and remaining untouched, would 

 become thus injured more rapidly during hot 

 weather than in a colder temperatui-e ; Ijut when 

 split or sawed as small as ultimately desired, the 

 same heat that would promote fermentation in the 

 large log, would dry and season the small split or 

 sawed portion into a horny durability. The best 

 time to cut and split rails is at midsummer, as we 

 have learned by repeated experiment ; the softer 

 woods, as basswood for instance, lasting more, 

 than twice as long bafore decay sets in, as when 

 cut in winter or spring. We have, therefore, pre- 

 ferred paying a higher price for the work in sum- 

 mer than at other seasons. But if rails must bo 

 cut in winter, let them be split at once, and placed 

 where they can dry as rapidly as possible. In 

 woods, where there is no wind, the drying process 

 will be slow; luu if drawn out near some point 

 where they will be wanted, and set up where 

 strong winds will sweep through the pile, the sea- 

 soning will advance with much greater rapidity. 

 When the warm weather of spring arrives, they 

 will have the additional advantage cf sunshine, in- 

 stead of the shade of woods. The same care 

 should be taken with boards. Make an early 

 agreement with the sawmill man to saw them soon 

 after drawing; and as soon as sawed, stick them 

 up in ihe wind where they will season as rapidly 

 as possible. 



— The Agricultural College of Michigan grad- 

 uated a class of ten young men this fall. 



