296 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



NORTH CORNWALL, CONN., FARMERS' CLVB. 



Twenty-five years since, the farmers of North 

 Cornwall, Conn., organized a Farmers' Club, which 

 for the first two winters was held in the district 

 schojlhouses. Afterwards it was held in the 

 houses of its members, a'd then not only ihe far- 

 mers themselves, but their wives and sons and 

 daughters were present at these meetings. 



A few incidents in the history of this society will, 

 I have no doubt, be of interest to some of the read- 

 ers of the New England Farmer. The first 

 propoition for a Co. necticut State Agricultural 

 Society was made in this Club. A committee was 

 appointed to present the subject to the Litihfield 

 County Agiiculiural Society and request their aid. 



After tiic proposition was made, the Litchfield 

 Society ai pointed a committee to confer with oi her 

 county soeicties and request their co-operation. 

 Most of these societies were found ready to co-op- 

 erate, and in due time the State Society was or- 

 ganized. The member who made this proposition, 

 Sir. T. L. Hart, was successful in obtaining the 

 fourfirst premiums offered by the society on cheese, 

 amounting to thirty-two dollars. 



Another proposition was made and avote passed 

 by this club, that each member of the club should 

 set out in the highway at least five shade tiees 

 each year, until his highway was filled with good 

 tnr.fty young trees. The member who made 

 this proposition has his highway nearly filled with 

 about two hundred trees, all growing and thrifty. 

 Other members have set out in numbers varying 

 from fourteen to tifcy or more. Would that all far- 

 mers would follow this example. 



At a late meeting the club passed a vote to cele- 

 brate its twenty-fif'th anniversary, or in modern 

 phrase, have a sort of silver wedding. It was 

 arranged that this meeting should be held at the 

 liou;e of Mr. T. S. Gold, its Secretary. Ab mt one 

 hundred and fifty members and invited guests were 

 in attendance, and afccr mutual congratulations 

 and introductions, the meeting was called to order, 

 and after a review of the history of the club by its 

 secretary, the members and guests sat down to a 

 most ei'joyable repast provided by the society. 

 After the repast, short speeches were made by 

 various persons present, and the meeting broke up 

 at a seasonable hour, with the best wishes of all 

 present fur the future prosperity of the "North 

 Cornwall Farmers' Club." A Member. 



SEASON IN SOUTHERN NEW YORK AND VERMONT. 



I have just taken a flitting through the States of 

 Vermont and New York, and have been thor- 

 oughly surprised at the great difference a few 

 miles can make in climate and vegetation. In the 

 Schoharie Valley, N. Y., the farmers are busy 

 planting. Asparagus and peas are already an inch 

 out of ground, and winter wheat is very promis- 

 ing. Mayflowers and butterflies are abundant, 

 and all nature is rejoicing at its release from ihc 

 icy bouds of winter. But in Vermont, they 

 scarcely think of even ploughing, the weather is 

 still so cold and the snow so deep. We endeav- 

 ored to reach Bondville, but not even a horse could 

 1)0 hired to convey us from the depot at Manches- 

 ter. The stage had been obliged to suspend its ac- 

 customed trips, and the mail had been conveyed on 

 the back of a resolute man for several daw. 

 "Twenty feet in some places, and you will slui^j 

 clean through if you try it," we were told. Where 

 there's no snow the freshets have overflown corn- 

 fields, potato- fields and meadows, and many houses 

 and burns are, like islands, "entiiely surrounded 

 by water." All the farmer can do is to smoke liis 

 pipe and resignedly wuit for the waters to subside. 

 One farmer thinks he may get his plouging done 

 by July. For many years tlie season hus not been 

 60 backward as this and last spring. But people 



live to a great age among these green hills. Open 

 fire places or wood-stoves, early hours, fresh air 

 and hard work, develope muscular strength and 

 longevity. I found people aged seventy, eighty and 

 ninety. One old lady of seventy, looking not a day 

 older than fifty, told me about her mother, only 

 07ie hundred and one, and who is "as chirk as ever 

 you did see a' most," she tays. 



These hills are full of excellent white marble. 

 In Manchester and Dorset the depots are sur- 

 rounded with it in blocks, shafts and slabs boxed 

 for transportation. To one who has always re- 

 garded marble as a "precious stone," its use for 

 garden and street side walks, even for cellar walls 

 and fences, seemed extravagant and wasteful. 



May 1, 1869. Susie Vogl. 



ROSE BUGS. 



Permit me to say to your correspondent who is 

 troubled with rose bugs, that I find it an easy 

 matter to keep four or five hundred vines entirely 

 clear of those pests. I have also about twenty 

 common blush roses. I go out early in the morn- 

 ing, with a pail and pick roses and hugs together, 

 as nearly all the bugs will sleep in the roses. Ten 

 minutes is time enough to go through the whole. 

 Follow this a few years and you will exterminate 

 nearly the whole of them. V. B. Follansbee. 



Lawrence, Mai>s., April 26, 1868. 



Remarks. — This corresponds with our own ex- 

 perience; but instead of doing all the work our- 

 selves, we paid the children a small price per hun- 

 dred for rose bug scalps. 



A cow supposed to be made sick by eating 



pumpkins. 



Can you or any of your correspondents give me 

 a remedy for a cow tliat has I een sick all winter ? 

 Her sickness was caused by eating pumpkins last 

 fall. Her bowels have been very much relaxed, 

 probably one-third part of the time ; especially if 

 she cats any early cut hay, or succulent food of 

 any kind, the disease will return. Several of my 

 neighbors have lust stock by this di-ease, and it is 

 here considered incurable. A Subscriber. 



Tunbridgc, Vt., April 24, 1869. 



Remarks. — We doubt whether the disease was 

 caused by eating pumpkins. As some of the 

 neighboi ing cattle have the same disease we should 

 think it epidemic. Give her powdered chalk in 

 her feed, and once a day a quart of lime water in 

 her drink. Have no cows had the disease except 

 those which eat pumpkins ? Were the pumpkins 

 rotten or frozen ? 



PARSNIPS. 



Please to inform me of the best way of rais- 

 ing parsnips; also the quantity of manure per 

 acre, how deep the soil should be ploughed, 

 and the time of planting, and oblige an old" sub- 

 scriber. A. I. Tabor. 



IlolUslon, Mass., May 7, 1869. 



Remarks. — We have found parsnips as easily 

 raised as any other roots — more easily than most. • 

 The land should be worked as deeply and as highly 

 manured as you can afford. The seed should be 

 sown as early in the spring as convenient, though 

 good crops arc grown when put in as late as the * 

 middle or last of May. Make the drills about 

 eighteen inches apart, and sow at the rate of five 

 or six pounds to the acre. 



