330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



management generally. We employ correspon- 

 dents, ransack our exchanges, and do all in our 

 power to collect these facts, and feel that breeders 

 and farmers do not consult their own interest in 

 relying on others to advertise the people of their 

 operations. "The gods help those who help them- 

 selres," and if a man puts his light under a bushel 

 or shuts it up in a stable, ought he to complain 

 that his neighbors don't know that it is burning ? 



INQUIRY ABOUT DRAIN TILE. 



In reply to an inquiry from a correspondent in 

 West Gloucester, Mass., about the size, shape and 

 cost of dram tile, we copy the following from 

 "French's Farm Drainage," which is the best 

 work on the subject yet published in this country. 



"Drain tile, he says, are made of clay of almost 

 any quality that will make bricks, moulded by a 

 machine into tuoes or into half-tube or horse-shoe 

 forms, usually fourteen inches long before drying, 

 and burnt in a furnace or kiln to be about as hard 

 as what are called hard bui*nt bricks. They are 

 usually moulded about half an inch in thickness, 

 varymg with the size and form of the tile. The 

 sizes vary from one inch to six inches, and some- 

 times larger, in the diameter of the bore. The 

 forms are also very various and this is one of the 

 most essential matters, as ettecting the eliiciency, 

 the cost and the durability of tile drainage." 



The burnt tiles are about thirteen inches long. 

 The two-inch sell at the factory for about $18 per 

 thousand pieces, and larger sizes at an increased 

 cost. It was recently stated that there are over 

 fifty manufactories of drain tiles in New York, 

 and there are several in New England. J. E. 

 Edmond & Co., 394 Federal street, Boston, adver- 

 tise both drain pipe and that glazed for sewerage 

 and other purposes. 



ONION SETS. 



I should feel greater pleasure in replying to 

 your correspondent, "E. R. C," and another 



somebody without any name of Roxbury, 



Mass., if they had appended their names, yet I 

 will answer their inquiries. 



I generally grow several sorts of onions. When 

 my black seed onions require thinning out in the 

 bed the second time, I draw out those with the 

 largest bulbs, about the size of horse Deans, and 

 lay them on the ground in rows to dry. They will 

 enlarge considerably after being drawn. Let them 

 lie till the tops are all quite dry and dead, — no 

 matter if they have a shower of rain or two upon 

 them, if turned over often to dry again. When 

 quite dry I tie them up in small bunches by the 

 tops, and hang them up where the sun can shine 

 on them, taking care to stow them out of frost's 

 way in winter. Soon as spring opens put them in 

 rows about six inches apart each way, and we get 

 early green onions, either to eat green as a salad or 

 to use with "sage" for stuffing ducks to roast. 



Potato onions I plant twelve inches apart each 

 way, on not too rich soil, but that well pulverized. 

 Rich soil makes the bulb grow to a larger size, 

 but they rot and won't keep. Multiplyers and 

 Shallots I plant on good soil. I find llie Top or 

 Tree onion to pay the best here, as they are a sure 

 crop. I plant the large bulbs for raising the seed 

 on good licli ^oil, u'ld kl llic little bunclies of 

 small ones remain ou thu old stalk till it i-; quite 

 dried and dead — tiieu gatiier the tops, spread on a 

 boarded floor to dry, and put away in open baskets 



or boxes with many holes or cracks to admit of 

 plentyof air, till the next spring. Pull the bunches 

 to pieces, and plant each little bulb separately 

 about six inches apart in the rows ; the rows be- 

 ing wide enough to admit of a hoe between them. 

 These small onions bring good crops of large ones 

 if kept clean from weeds and planted on good 

 rich soil. I suppose the above is what yourcor- 

 respondents requires to know about onion sets. 

 John Whatmore. 

 Bridgnorth Farm, ) 



Dunleith, III., April, 27, 1869. ^ 



PEACHES IN VERMONT. 



I have a small place and am a great lover of 

 fruit, especially peaches ; but our latitude is just 

 beyond the peach limits. Could we not succeed 

 by training flat so as to cover as we do grapes ? I 

 have procured a few pits from Michigan of early 

 varieties to try with, thinking that natural will do 

 better than grafted trees. I am located about two 

 and one half milts from the east shore of Lake 

 Champlain. Apples, pears, cherries and plums do 

 very well ; peaches were productive here when 

 the country was new. L. M. Macomber. 



North Ferrisburg, Vt., 1869. 



Remarks. — For several years past peaches and 

 peach trees have failed in most parts of New Eng- 

 land where they once flourished. Many anticipate 

 a return of former fruitfulness. More than twenty 

 years ago we saw fine plates of peaches grown by 

 the late S. Earl Howard and other gardeners in 

 Burlington. The broad lake at that place, how- 

 ever, protects vegetation from early fall frosts, 

 which we suppose it would not do at your distance 

 from its shore. Branches of evergreens placed 

 around peach or other tender trees serve to pro- 

 tect them in winter. The plan of growing them 

 in pots or tubs which can be removed to the cellar 

 in the winter has been considerably practiced, on 

 a small scale. 



SOFT shelled eggs. 



What is the cause of hens laying soft shelled 

 eggs ? Is it not abortion ? I have frequently 

 found them under their roost, but do not remem- 

 ber of ever finding them in a nest. 



L. M. Macomber. 



North Ferrisburg, Vt., 1869. 



Remarks. — This is no uncommon event in the 

 poultry yard. The late Mr. Bement suggested 

 that it might be caused by the hen hitting herself 

 against the side of the building, or striking hard 

 on the floor, in alighting from high roosts. Miss 

 Biddy's ambition is never satisfied short of the 

 top pole, and instead of coming down in the morn- 

 ing by degrees, as she went up the evening before, 

 she takes a single leap, and often jars her basket 

 severely in alighting; apparently forgetting how 

 fat and clumsy she is. 



knee-knocking horses. 



Can any of the readers of the Farmer tell how 

 to shoe a kree-knocking horse so that he will go 

 clear? Should the outside or the inside heel of the 

 shoe l)C made the heavier? or should tluy be of 

 the same v eight, and the toe heavy or light ? I 

 believe a knee knocker hits with the toe. 



East Madison, Me., 1869. Reader. 



