376 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



Aug. 



extent of one or two feet more. The cultivated 

 grass grows luxuriantly, and produces a heavy 

 crop of small, white, flinty seeds, which under the 

 microscope, very closely resemble ordinary rice. 

 When ripe it is carefully harvested, and carried 

 by the workers, chaflf and all, into the granary 

 cells, where it is divested of the chaff and packed 

 away. The chalf is taken out and thrown beyond 

 the limits of the paved area. 



"During protracted wet weather, it sometimes 

 happens that the provision-stores become damp, 

 and are liable to sprout and spoil. In this case, 

 on the first fine day, the ants bring out the damp 

 and damaged grain, and expose it to the sun till it 

 is dry, when they carry it back and pack away all 

 the sound seeds, leaving those that had sprouted 

 to waste." 



Effect of Exposure on Coal. — Prof. Rock- 

 well, in the American Journal of Mining, calls at- 

 tention to the deterioration which coal suffers from 

 exposure to the weather, and to the importance of 

 keeping it as dry as possible. Anthracite suffers 

 the least. According to the experiments of Grund- 

 man in Germany, coal exposed to the weather in 

 heaps, lost in a period of nine months, fifty per 

 cent, of its value as fuel, and about as much as a 

 gas-making material. It undergoes a slow com- 

 bustion, taking up oxygen, and giving off the vol- 

 atile products of oxidation, — air and moisture 

 playing the principal part, and warmth promot- 

 ing it. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HOW SHALL Wa IMPKOVS OUK 

 FARMS?— NO. 2. 



On the thirty acres of worn out land men- 

 tioned in a former article, (Weekly Jan. 23, 

 Monthly page 120,) was one held often acres 

 ■which had been about half seeded two years 

 before, and gave but little feed, and, in order 

 to know whether land could be brought to a 

 good state of fertdity by keeping stock on it 

 exclusively, I determined to test it on this 

 piece ; it being, like the other, remote from 

 the barns and difficult to get manure on to. 



On one end of the piece was a small hay 

 barn, and I made some sheds for shelter. I 

 then divided the field in the middle by a fence! 

 On one- half of it I turned twenty sbeep after 

 the feed had started so that they could live. 

 On the other half I sowed, early in the spring, 

 thirty pounds of clover seed, and one bushel 

 of timothy seed and kept it for meadow. 



The firtit half, or pasture, kept the sheep 

 through the summer and fall, it being a favor- 

 able season for feed, but the sheep went into 

 the winter pretty thin. From the other half, 

 or meadow, cut 2| tons ot hay which, with 

 seven bushels of oats, kept the sheep through 

 the winter, but they were not kept as well as 

 they should have been. 



The account the first year stood as follows : 



Ten Acre Field. Dr. 



20 Bbeep, cost $30.00 



Grass or hay seed 7,30 



Cutting hay, washing, shearing and care 



of sheep 40.00 



7 bushels of oats 3.00 



Total expense first year $80.30 



Cr. 

 90 pounds of wool at 52c per pound . . $46.80 



I eavlng tte ten acres in'debt . . $33.50 



The sheep were two years old and had no Iambs. 



The second year put the sheep back in the 

 same pasture and spread the manure on the 

 meadow, and during the latter part of April 

 sowed one ton of plaster of Paris on meadow 

 and pasture. Raised fourteen lambs this year 

 and kept them all in the pasture until fodder- 

 ing time. For this year the account stood as 

 follows : — 



Ten Acre Field. Dr. 



To total expense, labor, care, &c. . . . $fO 80 



Cr. 



112 pounds of wool at 45o $.50 40 



14 lambs 17.50 



Balance in f.wor of land the second year 



$7.00 



Deducting this from the balance of the first 

 year, and it appears that the land was indebted, 

 at the end of the second year, $26.40, but I 

 had about one ton of hay which lay over. 



The third year put in the old sheep and five 

 of the lambs, making twenty-five. Managed 

 the same this year as last, using the plaster on 

 both as before, and the total cost including the 

 price of the five lambs, and the amount back 

 on last year $104.65. Income from wool, 

 lambs — of which there was seventeen, — and 

 two tons of hay fed to other stock, $122.50,* 

 which brings the balance the other way by 

 $17.85. 



The fourth year putthe sheep in the meadow, 

 forty-two in number, and used $7.00 worth of 

 hayseed and one-half ton of plaster on the old 

 pasture, all the manure made the past winter, 

 and sowed one-half ton of plaster on the other 

 piece. Total cost this year $138,50, charging 

 the seventeen lambs, and $28 00 worth of 

 grain fed to get them through the winter. In- 

 come 251 pounds of wool at seventy cents per 

 pound, $175.70; sixteen lambs at $2 per 

 head, $32.00, together with balance of $17.85 

 from last year, makes $225 55. Deduct ex- 

 pense, $138. 50, leaves $87.05 to the credit 

 of the ten acre lot. 



The fifth year put in fifty sheep and man- 

 aged precisely as the previous year, at a total 

 cost of $147 00 and an income of $335.00, 

 the wool bringing this year $1.00 per pound. 

 The land then being $275.00 ahead. 



The sixth year left the lot $402.00 ahead. 



The original cost with interest for six years 

 at seven per cent was $282.00, taxes, $35,00. 

 Total cost and expenses $217.00. 



Therefore, the land has paid for itself, in- 

 terest, taxes and all other expenses, and $85 

 over, with sixty-si.x sheep on hand, worth 

 $132.00, which makes $217.00 for profit, and 



