304 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



the Boston Journal of Chemistry , Dr Nichols 

 says some hard things against the birds. Last 

 year they took all his cherries, many of his 

 strawberries, and all of his Delaware grapes, 

 and his neighbors were subject to similar losses. 

 He says "birds were never so plenty in New 

 England as during the past 6ve years, and the 

 ravages of insects and woims never were more 

 disastrous than during that period," and he 

 thinks the time has come when the birds must 

 be thinned out, in order to save our valuable 

 fruits. 



On the other hand, Mr. S. D. Greenleaf of 

 Starks, Me., writes to the Maine Farmer that 

 he thinks farmers are doing themselves an in- 

 jury by declaring war against the crows. The 

 only damage they have ever done to his crops 

 is in pulling up some of his corn, for which he 

 finds the following remedy cheap and sure. 

 He says : — 



I sow evenly over the ground about three quarts 

 of shelled cora to the acre; upon that and wh.t 

 insects the crows devour while travelling over the 

 ground, they subsist, without disturbing the young 

 corn. I take a walk every few days over the fields, 

 to see if the corn I sowed is all gone ; if so, 1 scat- 

 ter more, as in the first instance, and pursue that 

 course until the young corn is so large that they 

 will not meddle with it. I find this method to be 

 cheaper than it was to use twine or images, which 

 with me were never a sure remedy. 



CABE OF MILK VESSELS. 

 In an article in the Ohio Farmer, written 

 by a cheese factory man, we find the following 

 suggestions on washing cans, which are equally 

 applicable to pans and other dishes in which 

 milk is kept : — 



When a can is to be washed, do not put hot 

 water in it at first, but put in water not above 

 milk warm which will readily dissolve the milk 

 if any is dried on to the tin, and it works off 

 very easily ; while if hot water is applied at 

 first, it has a tendency to cook the milk on the 

 tin, in which condition water will not very 

 readily dissolve it, but warm milk will. It is 

 therefore very important to give strict heed to 

 this matter, and see that the milk is thor- 

 oughly removed by washing before any boil- 

 ing hot water is applied. Care must be taken 

 to remove every vestige of the milk about the 

 seams of the cans and covers, as here is where 

 the trouble always begins. My attention is 

 always directed to the seams first, if I suspect 

 a can is not properly cleansed, especially the 

 seams in the cover. The little tube in the 

 center of the cover, is also a place to be es- 

 pecially looked after in cleaning the can. 



Very many people who consider themselves, 

 and are considered by others patterns of neat- 



ness, fiil to keep their milk cans perfectly 

 cleansed ; many times no doubt through igno- 

 rance of how to do it, and many times from 

 a lack of appreciation of the extreme neatness 

 of that scrupulous care necessary to keep 

 ever) thing used about milk immaculately 

 clean. 



TO KEEP FOWLS HEALTHY. 



The way I keep my fowls in health, I clean 

 out the. hjiise once a week; put wood ashes 

 under the roosts ; have iron basins for them 

 to drink from ; whitewasii inside of hen house 

 with hot lime ; put a little kerosene oil on the 

 roosts once a month. The main food is oats, 

 and cake of scraps to pick on. I never feed 

 but once a day — at noon, or when I shut then 

 up at four o" five P. M. When they run out. 

 then give them all they will eat. In my ex- 

 perience, there is no way to get diseased fowls 

 easier than t) keep them stuffed; it makes 

 them lazy, and they won't work as much as 

 they ought to, to keep in a healihy condition. 



1 never bad any gapes in chickens. Wnen 

 any fowl begins to droop, I give three large 

 pills of common hard, yellow soap ; 'tis the 

 best thing to cleanse a fowl I know of. I fol- 

 low it for three days, give them nothing to 

 eat and plenty of pure water to drink. In 

 desperate cases, give a half teafpoonful of 

 tincture of lobelia. It will seldom, if ever, 

 fiail of curing. It is a very cleansing and 

 powerful medicine for fowls. — H. C. Wheeler, 

 Foxhoro, Mass., in Bural New Yorker. 



Premium for Corn. — John D. Lyman, 

 Farmington, N. H., offers the following pre- 

 miums on corn grown in that State the pres- 

 ent year. For the best 100 ears of eight- 

 rowed corn, $35 ; for the second best 100 ears 

 of eight-rowed corn, $15; for the best 100 

 ears of more than eight-rowed corn, $35 ; for 

 the second best 100 ears of more than eight- 

 rowed corn, $15. The corn must be well 

 traced, and so secured by cords as not to 

 break, and to be forwarded free of expense, 

 so as to reach the subscriber at Smyth's Hall, 

 in Manchester, by noon of the last Tuesday 

 of December next, at which time and place 

 the premiums will be awarded. Size, beauty 

 and quality, both of ears and grains, are 

 among the things to be considered in awarding 

 the premiums. Each 100 ears must be grown 

 upon one firm, and none of it selected from 

 plots of less than one acre. The four pre- 

 mium traces are to belong to subscriber, and 

 all others to their owners. Method of culti- 

 vation to be furnished in writing. 



PlSCATAQUA, N. H., AORICULTUHAL SOCIETY. — 



The following officers were recent!}' elected -. — 

 James H. Butler, President ; C. H. Hayes, Secre- 

 tary ; F. W. Miller, C. B. Mason, Benning Morrill, 

 Trustees. 



