236 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:\IER. 



May 



says he has raised not less than seventy bushels of 

 corn to the acre for several years past, and was 

 very successful the pastyear in drill planting. 



— The Maine Farmer says that Mr. O. B. Church- 

 ill, of North Part-ontficld, recently sold a pair of 

 two-years-old steers, six feet two inches in girth, 

 to Mr. John M. Ames, of West Par^onsfield, for 

 $190. The latter gentleman very soon sold them 

 again for $213. Geo. H. P'arr, of West Gardiner, 

 has a pair of one year old, grade Durham steers, 

 closely matched, well proportioned, and girthing 

 six feet and two inches. 



— A Maine man gives his method of treating 

 baulky horses as follows: "Letmc inform humane 

 men and hosilers, and all who hold the rein, that 

 the way to cure baulky horses is fo take them from 

 the carriage and whirl them rapidly round till 

 they arc giddy. It requires two men to accom- 

 plish this, one at the horse's tail. Don't let him 

 step out. Hold him to the smallest possible circle. 

 One dose will often cure him ; two doses are final 

 with the worst horse that ever refused to stir. 



— Mr. H. Marsh, Hudson, N. H., says in the 

 Mirror and Farmer that he has made and used a 

 stump machine constructed as follows: — Take 

 three pieces of common joists, put them together 

 in form like the common harrow, letting the taper- 

 ing or forward ends lap by each other some six 

 inches, making a place for the chain to rest in. 

 Cut off the roots at any distance you please from 

 the stump, place the machine on one side of the 

 stump, tapering end up, hitch the chain on the 

 opposite side and pass it over the machine ; then 

 hitch a good yoke of oxen thereto and you will 

 see the stump rise. He has cleared about three 

 acres in this way. 



— Of the English sparrow, which has recently 

 been introduced into New York city, and is grad- 

 ually spreading into the country, the following 

 remarks were recently made by the chairman of 

 the Haddingstonshire, Scotland, Farmers' Club: 

 While it is true that they do some good by de- 

 stroying the caterpillar, and the green fly in the 

 bushes of the garden, yet they were destructive to 

 the gooseberries ; olten they did not leave a single 

 berry. They do great injury to the oat crop just 

 before the grain arrives at maturity. He consid- 

 ered the sparrows "blackguards out and out." 



— One rainy day a correspondent of the Country 

 Gentlema7i counted the number of clover seeds in 

 a cubic inch, and estimated that if he had counted 

 a whole bushel the number would have equalled 

 27,000,000. As there are 43,560 square feet in an 

 acre, he calculated that one peck would furnish 

 over one seed to each square inch of pround. His 

 estimates showed that a trifle over one pint of seed 

 to an acre would give ten plants to the square foot. 

 In seeding his land he waits until all danger from 

 freezing and thawing is passed, and has had good 

 success with less than four quarts per acre, sown 

 after May 1. 



ADAM RANKIN'S FARM. 



This farm is in Warren County, Illinois, and 

 contains eighty acres. Mr. Rankin recJvcd $20 

 at the Warren County Fair, for the best arranged 

 and cubivated farm ; the first premium of $15 on 

 twenty acres of corn at one hundred and ten bush- 

 els per acre; the State premium of $-50 for the 

 best five acres of corn. One hundred and fifteen 

 bushels per acre. 



The crop3 on this farm amounted to $7100. Com 

 $1800 ; Surprise and Norway oats, at $-3 1 er bu-hel, 

 $1530; pork $1800; oher hogs and hor.-es $500; 

 orchard and vineyard $1000. Cost of raiting c jrn, 

 $9 50 per acre, exclusive of his own l.ibor. He 

 says he has allowed no weeds to go to seed for 

 several years, and now the land is easily kept 

 clean. Thirty acres of corn was on meadow land, 

 trench ploughed. Ten acres had one hundred 

 loads of manure. This was ploughed and cross 

 ploughed to mix the manure, — the last ploughing 

 ten inches deep. There was not one hill mis>ing 

 on the ten acres. Three and four stalks in a hill. 

 This grew two feet taller than his other corn. 

 He wants to get one hundred and twer.ty-five 

 bushels per acre on this field next fall. Moit of 

 the money made has been returned to the farm in 

 improvements, drainage, manure, fine stock for 

 breeding, &c. 



His ploughing for potatoes and roots was ten 

 inches deep. He says, I will tell you how I man- 

 age my hogs, or what I give them besides grain 

 and roots : — 



• "I go to the coal banks and get a load, (twenty- 

 five Imshels) of slack coil and throAV ic on the 

 ground, upon which I put one barrel of air sla ked 

 lime, and on the lime one bushel of salt, an'l from 

 the way they eat it, and from the looks of their 

 skin and hair it roust he very good for the n. At 

 least I think it i-; just the thing tor tlicm, and they 

 will neva- need -nnything else to keep tlicra healthy, 

 provided thty have comfortable quarters and are 

 Jn-operly f^d. I have noticed my pigs wlien they 

 have been >hut up in pens tor one day, run to the 

 coal pile immediately on being let out and eat till 

 sati-fiid, and all my hogs eat it just as regiilarly 

 as they eat their feed. They eat ihe above amount 

 in one month." 



Certainly here arc some very remarkable state- 

 ments, especially when we remember that the av- 

 erage yield of com in the State of Illinois for 1807 

 was but 23 8-10 bushels per acre. That they are 

 correct is shown by the award of the premiums by 

 men who had the means of knowing the truth. 

 Such results show what faith in sound principles, 

 accompanied by corresponding works, can accom- 

 plish. Deep ploughing and clean culture were tha 

 secrets of success. "Go thou and do likewise." 



MiLTORD, Mass.— The officers of the Milford 

 Farmers' Club for the year 1809 are. President, J. 

 E.Eames; Vice President, Richard Carroll ; Sec- 

 retary, Abraham Mead ; Treasurer, Richard Car- 

 roll; Librarian, Elias Whitney; Executive Com- 

 mittee, Charles Leland, George H. Kendall, Henry 

 Chapin. 



