322 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



selves would have succonibed and been lost. As 

 it is, stock of the larger kinds are thin, except where 

 they have received attention and feed. Sheep are 

 in tolerable condition and good heart." It is also 

 remarked that during the past month (February) 

 the ploughs have been going briskly, and are still 

 going, preparing for spring crops." It is said that 

 owing to the late setting-in of the autumn's rain, 

 not more than one-half the usual amount of wheat 

 was sown last fall. 



The editor alludes to the scarcity of good cows, 

 to the lack of attention to their management and 

 care, and believes that those who have suitable 

 land — very much, he admits, is unsuitable — will 

 find a dairy quite profitable. Drovers pay four to 

 eight dollars for calves, ten for yearlings, fifteen 

 for two-year-olds, and about twenty dollars for 

 cows, in store condition ; sheep about $1.50 per 

 head, with half that value of wool on their backs. 



We also notice among the many appropriate ar- 

 ticles which fill the columns of this first number of 

 the Willamette Farmer, the commencement of a 

 series of articles on the agricultural and geo- 

 graphical statistics of Oregon, beginning with Clat- 

 sop County, which has the Pacific Ocean for its 

 western boundary and the Columbia river for its 

 northern. This part of the State, as you approach 

 it from the water, has a rough and forbidding ap- 

 pearance. The coast mountains and a range of 

 hills and bluffs along the river shuts out of view 

 the beautiful valleys, which have a rich soil, adapt- 

 ed to grass, grain, vegetables, fruit, &c., while coal 

 and iron are known to exist, though mines have 

 not yet been developed. Extensive tracts are still 

 unoccupied, not even surveyed. This section is 

 very healthy, even fever and ague being unknown. 

 Here the thermometer seldom indicates over 75 

 degrees in summer or under 15 in winter. The 

 timber is fir, cedar, spruce, hemlock, ash, maple, 

 alder, &c. In mineral wealth it is claimed that 

 Oregon is not one whit behind California. 



But, really, we did not propose to copy the whole 

 of this paper by way of "notice," but we find so 

 many good things in it, so much information in 

 relation to the resources of this far-ofi" portion of 

 our great country, that we hardly know where to 

 stop. If any word of ours could reach the people 

 of Oregon or those interested in its prosperity, (hat 

 word would be to advise them to sustain this new 

 enterprise by their money and their pens, as 

 it is very evident it is now in the hands of men 

 who have the right idea of what an agricultural 

 paper should be. Bat in these days "brick is not 

 made without straw," nor good agricultural papers 

 without the proper material, which farmirs alone 

 can furnish. 



Poisonous Flour. — Last year considerable ex- 

 citement was occasioned in the State of New York 

 by the fact that all who ate of a certain lot of flour 

 ground in that section were more or less poisoned. 

 This was accounted for at the time on the hypoth- 



esis of a small quantity of lead having been ground 

 up with the flour. In the American Entomologist 

 for May, Dr. Walsh, suggests that the flour was 

 made from a lot of very buggy wheat. He says 

 that the black Snout-beetle, — Sitophilus granarius, 

 — about one-fifth of an inch long, which is com- 

 monly found in granaries, has been used success- 

 fully at the South as a substitute for the Spanish 

 Blister-beetle — Cantharides, which are known to be 

 fatally poisonous when taken internally. He also 

 quotes the opinion of a medical man that these 

 grain weevils were about as poisonous as the Can- 

 tharides. 



ISWQfr PUBLICATIOSrS. 



Land and Fresh Water Shells of North America. 

 Pd,rt I. PuloQonata Geopbila. By W. G Binney and 

 T. Bland, Smitbsouian Institution. Washington, 

 1869. 



In one of his articles on insects. Dr. Walsh, of 

 the American Entomologist, says "it is astonishing 

 how the great majority of mankind go through the 

 world with their eyes shut." Here is a volume of 

 328 pages, illustrated by about three times as many 

 cuts, mostly drawn by E. S. Morse, of Salem, 

 Mass., all about the snail and other shells found 

 on the land and in the fresh water of North Amer- 

 ica. And yet how few of us think these little 

 shells worthy of notice, or care to know anything 

 of the history or habits of the beings which pro- 

 duced them. Did you ever see a snail eat ? Mr. 

 Binney says, "their natural food is vegetable ; and 

 the formation of the mouth and the organs with 

 which it is armed seems to be peculiarly well 

 adapted for cutting fruits and the succulent leaves 

 of plants. The dental (tooth) edge of the upper 

 jaw being applied against the substance to be eaten 

 the semilunar (half-moon) rough instrument called 

 the tongue is brought against it, cutting out and 

 carrying into the mouth semicircular portions of 

 nutriment. This operation is carried on with great 

 rapidity, and the substance to be eaten soon disap- 

 pears," although the snail has become with us a 

 proverb of slowness. This important member, — 

 the toothed tongue — varies much in different spe- 

 cies, of which a great number of illustrations are 

 given. 



This work, however, is so strictly scientific that 

 it will be more interesting to the student of natu- 

 ral history than to the general reader. 



Agricultural Education. — It is generally 

 understood that to be an expert in either chemistry, 

 or geology, or physiology, or botany, or meteorol- 

 ogy, or zoology, one must devote himself pretty ex- 

 clusively to its study and practice. The talk there • 

 fore of acquiring a full knowledge of a/^ these and 

 several other sciences by a few terms at an agri- 

 cultural college is so absurd as to create doubts in 

 the minds of many as to the practical value of all 

 agricultural education. But if old or young far- 

 ers can learn just enough of these sciences to un- 

 derstand the teachings of those who make them a 



