438 ^ 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



medicine put an open bridle on the horse, take 

 him into the barn floor, step upon a girt or scaflbld, 

 draw the horse's head gently over the beam, hold- 

 ing up on the bridle, when his lower jaw will drop ; 

 then insert the neck of a bottle, and pour the con- 

 tents gently down the horse. Do not gag the 

 horse or pour the medicine into his nose. This is a 

 simple remedy, easily applied, and I hope our Quid- 

 nick friend will try it and report the result in the 

 Fakmer. I have seen it tested, and am convinced 

 of its efficacy. D. l. 8. 



East Madison, Me., July, 1869. 



TOMATO SrPPORT AND MULCH. 



Among the many contrivances to support tomato 

 plants, the best and cheapest method I have ever 

 adopted, is to place straw around and under the 

 foliage some six to eight inches thick, which will 

 afford all the support required, and when the tops 

 become heavy, they will fall gracefully over on 

 the straw bed so invitingly offered them, and thus 

 display the fruit to the sun, where it will ripen 

 cleanly and sound. The straw cushion also is an 

 excellent mulch, highly beneficial to the plant. 



Shoreham, Vt., July 20, 1869. w. 



AGRICDTiTUKAL ITEMS. 



— The Pennsylvania farmers believe the average 

 crop of rye straw to be one ton. 



— Salt sprinkled between the leaves of cabbage 

 is said to be an efficient remedy for lice. 



— A. root of clover five feet long has been exhib- 

 ited at Centerville, Mich. 



— A little spirits of ammonia is said to be the 

 best known remedy for bee stings. 



— A California paper says many farmers in that 

 vicinity cut off the top of young wheat, with mow- 

 ing machines, to prevent too rank growth of straw. 



— A lot of Texas beef was recently received at 

 New Orleans in a steamer fitted up with refrigera- 

 tor apparatus, in good order, after a five days' 

 voyage. 



—While Mr. Aaron Buzzell, of Gilmanton.N. H., 

 was driving a cultivator through his corn field, the 

 implement struck a stone, throwing its handle 

 against Mr. B.'s side and breaking one of his ribs. 



— The Corydon, Iowa, Monitor says a farmer 

 near Bloomtield s-old the crop of timothy on 300 

 acres, as it stood, for $2400 cash. The parties 

 purchasing bailed it on the ground for the St. 

 Louis market. 



—Mr. Cooper Sayre, of Ontario Co., N. Y., 

 sheared 150 pounds of wool from eleven yearling 

 Cotswold rams. He left at the office of the Coun- 

 try Getitleman a sample of wool, fourteen inches 

 long, of one year's growth from a yearling ewe. 



—Mr. C. R. Fuller states in the Rural New 

 Former that his father killed a horse by adminis 

 tering sassafras tea by turning it from a bottle into 

 the animal's nose. On opening the horse its lungs 

 were found full of the tea. 



—Jonah Swan, of Milton, Vt., has a grade Dur- 

 ham cow, five years old, that averaged through 

 the month of June forty -three pounds of milk per 

 day, and did it without any extra feed, running 



with nineteen other cows, and^ having the same 

 feed. 



— Mr. S. D. Hayes, of Boston, has analyzed a 

 snecimen of the weed known on the Connecticut 

 river farms as "Fox Tail" or "Colt's Tail," sent to 

 him by Mr. Wm. Fairbanks, of St. John&bury, 

 Vt. , and concludes that it is not poisonous to horses 

 or cattle. 



— A poisonous bush has proved very destructive 

 to sheep in Australia. It is a nretty shrub about 

 four feet high, wiih a bright scarlet blossom. The 

 botanical name is gastrolobium grandiflorum, and 

 over 2000 sheep have been lost out of one flock 

 from eating this bush. 



—George W. Penney, of Newark, Ohio, sheared 

 484| poCinds of wool from forty two-year old Me- 

 rino ewes, an average of twelve one-sixth pounds. 

 Last year the same ewes gave fleeces of the aver- 

 age weight of eleven one-eight pounds. Such is 

 the remarkable report he furnishes the Rural New 

 Yorker. 



— A horse that is in the harness every day need»3 

 an abundance of food and the right kind. Oats 

 make more muscle than com, and should always 

 form part of the food of a hard-working horse. 

 Corn gives plumpness and imparts warmth. The 

 colder the weather, the more corn ; the harder the 

 work, the more oats. 



— Mr. Meehan, of the Gardener's Monthly, is 

 very positive as to the uselessness of attempting 

 to preserve the tap-root in transplanting. He says 

 "the shortening of a tap-root is of no more injury 

 to a tree than the shortening of the finger nails to 

 a man.* This matter was settled by Senebier and 

 others over a hundred years ago. Their experi- 

 ments we have repeated ; and no intelligent man 

 teaches any other doctrine." 



— The Laconia N. H., Democrat says there is a 

 calf in Gilmanton, otherwise all right, that hus not 

 a sign of a tail. While a group of persons were 

 looking at the calf, the other day, and wondering 

 how he would manage in fly time, they were joined 

 by a city bred individual, a graduate of Dartmouth 

 College. The learned graduate, after listening to 

 the comments, inquired how old the calf was, and 

 on being informed, innocently asked, "Do calves 

 of that age usually have tails ?" 



— A correspondent of the Missouri Journal of 

 Agriculture says that flies are so troublesome to 

 horses on the prairies of that State, that though 

 the feed may be plentiful, they gradually fall off 

 in flesh, and if a horse is sick in fly-time they soon 

 make an end of him. He says all washes he has 

 ever tried are useless ; nothing but a net or s-heet 

 will protect the animal. He recommends that 

 those not used be shut in a dark stable during the 

 day and turned out at sundown. In this way he 

 says you will not only confer a comfort on jour 

 animals, but have the satisfaction of seeing them 

 grow fat and sleek. 



