188 



NEW ENGLAND FARIilER. 



April 



salable milk that would satisfy customers can be 

 made from roots. There is more body in 20 cans 

 milk raised from oil meal, Indian meal and shorts, 

 than in 25 cans produced from roots and shorts. 

 The great aim i^liouldbe to stimulate rich, creamy 

 mrlk, not an indefinite amount of slops. 



Good Steers. — AVe noticed last year a pair 

 of oxen fatted by Mr. Jonathan Slade of Som- 

 erset, Mass., that weighed 44:00 pounds 

 dressed. We understand that he has recently 

 sold to Mr. A. White & Co., of Taunton, a 

 pair of four-year-old steers that dressed ofiF 

 3980 pounds, with a loss of only 20 per cent. 

 of live weight in ofFal. They were very 

 closely matched, and varied only six pounds in 

 weight. Mr. Slade also fatted this season a 

 litter of nine pigs, which at eight months of 

 age averaged 373a pounds. The good feeders 

 have not all left New England. 



AGKICULTUKAL ITEMS. 



— It is stated that the cherry trees are failing in 

 the vicinity of Cleveland, and that large numbers 

 are being dug up. 



— An Australian inventor has built a machine 

 for shearing sheep by steam, which it is hoped will 

 prove a success. 



— Southern men are boasting that this year's 

 cotton crop is of more advantage to the country 

 than all the gold California has ever produced. 



— The Lexington, Ky., Farmers' Journal says 

 that few farmers in that State are willing to ex- 

 change their country homes for a residence in 

 town. 



— H. G. White, of South Framingham, Mass., 

 has sold the noted Short-horn bull, "Ninth Duke 

 of Thorndale" and six heifers, to Mr*. D. S. Pratt, 

 of Brattleboro', Vt., for POOO. 



When a ton of wheat is marketed it leaves 

 nothing behind but $'5 worth of straw. When a 

 ton of meat is sold, it has left behind it a large por- 

 tion of the manurial value of the food consumed 

 in making it. 



— The Maine farmers in convention at Augusta 

 decided that the Orono, as it is called, was the 

 best potato to grow in the State. It is also called 

 the Carter, Reed and Foote potato, but the con- 

 vention held to the name — Orono. 



— Mr. A. Morse recently told the Craftsbury, 

 Vt., Farmers' club that the hog brake may be de- 

 stroyed by mowing three times in one season, cut- 

 ting them each time about the time they reach 

 their full stature. The third time there will be but 

 few to mow. 



— In the Western States and in Kentucky there 

 is a singular epidemic among bees. In some cases 

 whole swarms have disappeared leaving a good 

 supply of honey. It is said that great numbers of 



dead bees are found about streams of water and 

 on ice. No satisfactory cause has as yet been dis- 

 covered for this unusual mortality. 



— The Portland Advertiser says that the potato 

 crop for 1868 is the heaviest since 1862, when there 

 were exported from the State one million bushels. 

 As less than half the usual quantity has come for- 

 ward to market, the idea of an advance in prices 

 under the influence of which farmers are still 

 holding their crops bids fair to be disappointed. 



— The Prairie Farmer says that the State of 

 Indiana has as yet made no effort to establish her 

 agricultural college. The land scrip has been 

 sold, amounting to $212,238 50, and the proceeds 

 invested In 5-20 bonds. Gov. Baker reports to 

 Congress that it is believed the present legislature 

 will act upon the subject of the location of the 

 college. 



— Mr. A. B. Tilson, of Sidney, informs the 

 Maine Farmer that he sowed one and three-fourths 

 acres of wheat the first of May last, from which 

 he harvested twenty-seven bushels. On a portion 

 of the field he put one bushel of salt, and on an- 

 other a mixture of ashes, plaster and lime, but 

 saw no difference. The variety sown was the 

 Canada Club. 



— Emmet Wells, who reports the New York hop 

 market for the Utica Herald, says there is a scar- 

 city of fine hops, and that an early and material 

 advance in the price of such would not bo sur- 

 prising, but that there is no hope of improvement 

 in the price of medium and low grades. There is 

 a large exportation to Europe. In two weeks 

 3839 bales were shipped ft-om New York. 



— If old hay is well stacked, or in the barn, it is 

 worth about as much the second year as the first. 

 It is a good plan to keep over a few stacks to meet 

 the emergency of a short hay crop. It is a poor 

 plan to buy hay when it bears the highest price. 

 The most thrifty farmers have hay to sell in years 

 of short grass crops, and the extra price pays very 

 well for keeping. 



— The President of the State Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation, Michigan, in his annual report, condemns 

 the system of instruction pursued at the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, on the ground that the stu- 

 dents generally abandon farming after graduating, 

 instead of becoming "model" farmers. He thinks 

 the object of the Agricultural College ought to be 

 to train young men to be fixrmers. 



— To illustrate the injurious effects of fall-feed- 

 ing grass land, Mr. I. D. 11. Collins, at a meeting 

 of the Craftsbury, Vt., Farmers' Club, said, "I 

 have three-fourths of an acre of land which I 

 fenced in with my garden some years ago, since 

 which no cattle have been on it fall or spring, and 

 it will produce good crops of grass twice as long 

 as precisely similar land the other side of the 

 fence treated with the same amount of manure." 



— James L. Ingolsbc, a farmer of South Hart- 

 ford, Washington county, N. Y., cooks all the food 



