1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



221 



arrow, and to see ten, twenty, forty, or one hun- 

 dred sets of ploughs in our own grand valleys all 

 at work at the same time, some single owners hav- 

 ing forty "gang ploughs," two, four, or six ploughs 

 each at work. Let our Eastern farmers come here 

 and we will show them such ploughing scenes as 

 they never dreamed of before." 



— The Germantown Telegraph says that the old 

 Montgomery County Agricultural Society, Pa., 

 has never encouraged horse racing, and its fairs 

 have been well-attended by the best and most re- 

 spectable practical farmers in the county, and 

 always satisfactorily sustained. 



— The Australian Meat Importing Company re- 

 cently gave an entertainment to a company of 

 English working men and their wives, at which 

 Australian meats preserved with sugar and salt 

 was served in various forms. Though some of 

 the dishes were rather salt, the meats differed but 

 little from that of animals slaughtered in England. 



— It is said that the government of Ontario, 

 (Can.,) is about to undertake the experiment of 

 draining the "Greenock Swamp," comprising some 

 92,000 acres. The expense is estimated at some- 

 thing over $241,669. On a portion of this track it 

 will be necessary to raise the water by steam 

 power. It is believed that after draining, the land 

 will be worth about twice the cost of the work. 



— A Detroit correspondent of the Boston Com- 

 mercial Bulletin, says that one reason why more 

 sheep than usual have been slaughtered the past 

 season in Michigan is the fact that the demand for 

 sheep to be taken West to stock new farms, here- 

 tofore amounting to many thousand a year, has 

 ceased, and consequently this surplus must be 

 otherwise disposed of. The writer says the far- 

 mers of Michigan to-day have all the sheep they 

 can feed, and more than were on hand one year 

 ago. 



— Previous to the war but little India cotton was 

 sent to Europe. But during the war one and a 

 half million bales were sent to England alone. 

 The sudden development of this trade had a 

 strange effect. Fabulous fortunes were made in a 

 few months, and gold became so plentiful as to be 

 a positive burden. The people went crazy about 

 cotton and neglected to grow food, until a famine 

 brought them to their senses. The Dixie Farmer 

 thinks the South may take a lesson from the ex- 

 perience of India. 



— A correspondent of the Maine Farmer writes : 

 Three years ago last spring I took up several small 

 elms from a thick growth, (they were from two to 

 four inches through, and from twelve to fifteen 

 feet high,) and transplanted them. I cut the tops 

 of the trees off, broke a piece of glass as near the 

 size of the tree as I could, and placed on the top. 

 I then put a piece of woolen cloth over the glass, 

 brought it down six or eight inches over the end, 

 and tied with woolen yarn. The sprouts started 

 oat close up to the top, and on one a sprout started 



within half an inch of the glass, broke through 

 the cloth, and in two years grew eighteen inches. 

 Every tree remained perfectly sound. I left one 

 tree without protection, which died. 



— A member of the Oneida Community writing 

 on the importance of mulching fruit trees and 

 plants of every kind, says, that he mulched a row 

 of the Franconia raspberry, and also one of the 

 Philadelphia, side by side. The effect was very 

 marked. While the Franconias which were not 

 mulched were literally scorched, and the leaves 

 crumpled in the sun, the row which received the 

 mulching, carried through nearly double the crop 

 of fruit. The material used for mulching was old, 

 half-decayed buckwheat straw. 



— Quite extensive preparations are being mad*" 

 for engaging in the cultivation of silk in California. 

 One firm in Los Angelos county is putting out 

 60,000 mulberry trees, as a first instalment toward 

 making silk on a very extended scale. Thf y have 

 a beautiful rancho at San Gabriel Mission, nine 

 miles above Los Angelos. They have hired forty 

 families of Chinese, skilled silk-workers, who are 

 engaged for four years, and will be comfortably 

 housed in adobe cottages, with ample gardens. 

 At the expiration of the term, each family will be 

 entitled to a deed of ownership for its house and 

 garden. 



— The Maine Farmer makes honorable mention 

 of large colts belonging to the following parties: 

 Joseph Knowles of Belgrade, two years old last 

 May, weight 1110 lbs.; M. A. Goodrich of Bing- 

 ham, two years old last June, weight 1100 lbs.; 

 H. B. Knight, Hollis Centre, a "Gideon" colt, three 

 years old, 16;| hands high, weight 1250 lbs. ; Chas. 

 Shaw, Dexter, one year old last June, good bay 

 color, weight 1145 lbs. The sire and dam of this 

 last mentioned colt were both raised in Woodstock, 

 N, B., and are of Clydsdale and Messenger blood, 

 and superior work horses. The sire, now five 

 years old, weighs 1300 lbs., and the dam, still 

 owned by Mr. Shaw, also weighs 1300 lbs. — a clean 

 limbed, good styled animal. 



HoESE Racing at the West. — At the recent 

 Iowa Agricultural Convention, all the speakers 

 but one objected to the continuance of ihc turf 

 tests. They could not see the use of pay in y; $ 00 

 or $'400 to owners of horses that were go ;d for 

 nothing but racing. The State Board changed the 

 premium list for 1869 so as to exclude all horses 

 that have ever "gone for money." 



The Illinois State Board at its late meeting, ad- 

 hered to Its resolution of last year, prohibiting 

 racing under the rules of the track. 



The Michigan State Agricultural Society at its 

 late annual meeting discussed the prohibition of 

 r icing at Agricultural Fairs, and Itft the nutter in 

 the hands of the Board of Managers of the several 

 county societies. 



