176 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



some flesh as any with which we are supplied. 

 We know persons v/ho eat fresh pork with as 

 much comfort as they can the finest mutton chop 

 or beef steak; and we have never known any to 

 be injured by its use, who ate in the moderation 

 that all such concentrated food should be taken. 

 The truth of the matter is that fresh pork is so de- 

 licious that persons eat too heartily of it, get sick, 

 and charge the consequences to the unwholesome- 

 ness of the food ! 



EFFECTS OF FERTILITY. 

 Though wheat is wheat, hay is hay, potatoes 

 are potatoes, apples are apples, it is well 

 known that there is a great difference in the 

 qualities of these several articles of the same 

 varieties grown on different soils and in differ- 

 ent years. What influence on quality have 

 the different soils on which they grow, or the 

 same soils when differently manured ? In a 

 discussion of this question a correspondent of 

 the Bural N'.w Yorker alludes to an analysis 

 of two parcels of oat straw grown on the same 

 farm, in the same year, from the same seed, 

 but one on bog and one on dry land, which 

 showed a proportion of 1.90 per cent, of silica 

 in that from the bog, and 3 42 per cent, in 

 that from the dry land ; wheat grown in dif- 

 ferent places varies from 18 to 1 G per cent, in 

 gluten ; grass from land to which salt has been 

 applied was found on analysis, by C. W. 

 Johnson, to contain a larger proportion of 

 soda than other grass in the same field to 

 which salt has not been applied. The writer 

 then says : — 



A lew years ago, when applying a top dressing 

 of fine raw bones to a meadow, which had run 

 into blue grass, the bones were carried to the field 

 in bags, early in spring, and these bags dumped 

 upon the ground at equal distances, so the piles 

 could Ijc taken into bat^kets and sown evenly over 

 the field. These piles were not gathered up clean, 

 and a larger proportion was left than was sown 

 over other parts of the field; and the grass on 

 these spots grew taller and of a deeper, darker 

 green. These were cut by themselves and bound 

 in bundles to preserve them separate. In winter, 

 when feeding the hay from this field — which was 

 a fair cropand saved in good order— the caitle and 

 horses were occasionally given some of these bun- 

 dles, and they would leave the hay and devour 

 these as greedily as if they had been oats. They 

 readdy knew the ditference, although of the same 

 kind of hay and grown in the same field. The 

 larger amount of phosphate of lime and nitroge- 

 nous matter applied to these spots produced a more 

 perfect development of these qualities in the grass, 

 and probably gave the hay a finer odor, and, there- 

 fore, a belter relish. The animals seemed to dis- 

 tinguish the difl'erence the moment it was brought 

 withm smelling range. 



We have also tried the experiment of salting 

 spots here and there in the pa»tiu-e, and dressing 

 others with bones or superphosphate some weeks 



before cattle were turned out in spring, and have 

 unilbrmly found that they delighted to feed on 

 these spots. 



These facts may suggest a reason for the 

 diverse opinions of farmers on different soils 

 as to the necessity of giving salt to stock, and 

 suggest a cause for the "unnatural appetite" 

 of stock on some farms for bones, boards, &c. 

 Every cook knows the difference between the 

 quality of eggs from half-starved and well fed 

 hens ; and why should there not be a differ- 

 ence in the quality as well as f^aantity of vege- 

 tation on poor, exhausted land and on that 

 in which all the elements of fertility exist in 

 abundance ? The subject also suggests in- 

 quiries in relation to the effect of barn- yard 

 and special manures which we leave to the 

 consideration of farmers, with the remark 

 that there is much in our soils, our crops, and 

 our manures to think of and study into. 



Washington County, Vt. — The farmers 

 of this county met at Montpelier, Feb. C, and 

 organized an Agricultural Society. The Jour- 

 nal says its most sanguine hopes, both in re- 

 spect to numbers present and the degree of 

 earnest purpose manifested, were far exceeded. 

 A constitution and by-laws were adopted. 

 The following officers were elected : — 



Prfsident — Levi Boutwell. 

 Vice President— D. B. Wheelock. 

 Secretary— A.\is\.\n D. Arms. 

 Treasurer — Clark King. 

 Auditor— Jioa P. Carpenter. 



A Board of Directors consisting of one in 

 each town in the county was also elected. 



ITEW PUBLICATIONS. 

 Entomology. 



Notwithstanding the immense loss which the 

 farmers of this country annually sustain from the 

 depredations of insects upon their crops, little of a 

 practical or popular character has been published 

 on their history or habits until within a compara- 

 tively few years past. Books enough on entomol- 

 ogy it is true have been issued, but they have gen- 

 erally been written by that intensely learned class 

 who believe that "the man of science who follows 

 his studies into their practical application is false 

 to his calling." But this literary pedantry is giv- 

 ing place to broader views, and learned men are 

 now willing to aid the practical man by their theo- 

 retical knowledge. As evidence of this we take 

 pleasure in calling attention to two magazines de- 

 voted to entomology, both of which are conducted 

 by scientific men, and both of which avoid or ex- 

 plain technical terms, are fully illustrated, and de- 

 signed for the common reader. 



