20 



NEW ENGLAND FARJ^IER. 



Jan. 



when spring manure is very finely broken by 

 repeated harrowings, that it proves of much im- 

 mediate value. — Country Oentleman. 



AGKICULTUKAL ITEMS. 



— If a poor man in England kills a rabbit with- 

 out a license, he is liable to be sent to jail and to 

 be fined #100. 



— All wrinkled peas, says an exchange, are more 

 delicate than those that are full and perfect in 

 form ; like sugar corn, the saccharine matter con- 

 tained in them, causes them to shrivel when dried. 



— At a late sale of sheep, at Worcester, Eng- 

 land, fifteen Shropshire Down rams brought from 

 £6 6s to £23 2s. Twenty Leicester rams averaged 

 £G 16s. 6d. Ten Oxford Down rams from 14A to 

 7 guineas. 



— A correspondent of the New England Far- 

 mer writes that Mr, Hoit Day, of Chesterfield, 

 N. H., caught year before last twenty-OAe foxes; 

 last year twenty ; this year, up to October 29, ten, 

 in steel traps. 



— A mail carrier in Western Michigan uses a 

 yoke of Texan oxen for carrying the mail. They 

 are yoked to a cart and trot as well as horses ; 

 making fifty miles a day for two days in each 

 week, that being the number of times the mail is 

 transported. 



— It is well known by butter makers that the 

 cream which first rises on milk makes nicer butter 

 than that which rises after standing a long time. 

 It is said that the milk that makes the butter that 

 Queen Victoria eats is skimmed twice, and twelve 

 hours afterwards it is churned. 



— A farmer on digging a well on one of the 

 Western prairies, found the remains of an ancient 

 well, thirty feet below the surface, which had man- 

 ifestly been dug and walled in centuries ago. It 

 is believed to have been sunk by the race of peo- 

 ple who were the architects of the remarkable 

 mounds and parallels which abound in most of 

 the Western States. 



— The students of the Massachusetts Agricultu- 

 ral College having finished harvesting, and staked 

 out operations on a swamp, have commenced the 

 lecturing season. Dr. Calvin Cutter, of Warren, 

 as we learn by the Amherst Record, delivered his 

 §rst lecture on Physiology, Nov. 11, and Charles 

 L. Flint, Esq., is expected to commence a course 

 on Dairy Farming, this week. 



— A correspondent of the Mirror a?id Farmer 

 eays that the owners of three adjoining farms kept 

 turkeys the past season. The first had over a 

 hundred. They were heard to be in trouble, and 

 on going to the rescue a fox was seen at work and 

 driven away, but not till he had killed fifty-three 

 Of the young turkeys. He then went directly to 

 the flock of the next neighbor and killed nine bc- 

 ioi-Q he was discovered and driven away, and be- 



fore night he found the flock of the third neighbor 

 and killed eighteen, one of them an old turkey. 

 Making eighty in all killed in one day by a single 

 fox that escaped unharmed. 



— A Kentucky correspondent of the Country 

 Gentleman says, twoyears ago sorghum was great- 

 ly over-planted. This fact gave that interest a 

 tempoi'ary shock ; but it is reviving and rooting 

 itself firmly in the affections of the people, and I 

 believe now, as I did years ago, that it supplies the 

 one need Kentucky had, to be the most abundant 

 and blessed home a farming people ever claimed. 

 You may set it down as a staple now, and the av- 

 erage price of syrup one dollar per gallon. 



— A little boy, about eight years old, son of Mr. 

 Eli Bates, exhiljitcd at the late Fair at Milford, 

 Mass., a pair of black calves, twins, probably, not 

 over five months old, which were perfectly broken 

 to draw a little blue cart which was made for them. 

 The deserving little fellow, while exhibiting his 

 team, in all the pride of childhood, was made the 

 recipient of "scrip" to the amount of several dol- 

 lars, by gentlemen who witnessed his exhibition. 

 They noiy filled his hat with currency, whereat 

 he was so overcome with joy, pride, gladness, and 

 all the emotions of his young heart, that he cried, 

 laughed, tried to talk, broke down, and finally 

 turned away, his mind stored with rich memory 

 of the kind persons who had done him so much 

 good. 



— A correspondent of the Mirror and Farmer 

 says, sometime last September I went out to salt 

 my sheep and noticed that one of them appeared 

 quite dumpish, as though she was sick. I noticed 

 also quite a number of green flies around and upon 

 her back. Upon examination I found the wool 

 upon her back packed full of fly blows. I also 

 noticed the same kind of flies around another 

 sheep, but she appeared as well as the rest. In 

 about six days I went to the pasture again and 

 these two sheep were missing. I found the car- 

 cass of one of them literally alive with maggots. 

 They were both young sheep and in good condi- 

 tion. Can any one tell what ailed them and give 

 a remedy ? 



— The farmers in the vicinity of Lexingt-on, Ky., 

 are bragging on large ears of corn. Among the 

 specimens sent to the office of the Home Jourtial, 

 an excellent agricultural paper printed in Lexing- 

 ton, are one ear of White Dent, ^ inches long, 7 

 inches in circumference, 12 rows of GO grains each ; 

 in all 720 grains; another 9 inches long, 8 in^'hcs 

 in circumference, 14 rows of 4G grains ; in all G44 

 grains. A Dent corn, not named, W.\ inches long, 

 7^ inches circumference, 18 rows of 60 grains; 

 making 1080 grains in all. Yellow corn, 10 inches 

 long, 8 inches in circumference ; it had 18 rows of 

 52 grains ; in all 936 grains. Orange Yellow, one 

 ear, 9.^ inches long, 8 inches circumference, and 

 18 row5 of 49 grains — 882 grains; another 10^ 

 inches long, 8 inches circumference ; had 20 rows 

 of 46 grains— 920 grains. 



