1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



50r 



mnch swollen, and it proved effectual, the hog 

 Laving fully recovered. 



My experience goes to show that a cellar is an 

 unhealthy place to keep hogs in. They should 

 have a dry, warm bed, or place to lay in, with 

 plenty of fresh air and sun. E. E. Berry. 



Farmington, N. H., Aug. 30, 1869. 



I have had several hogs that have shown the 

 symptoms described by Mr. Brewster. My way 

 of treating them was showering them often and 

 freely with cold water. All that I treated in this 

 way speedily recovered. One which I neglected 

 to shower, on account of the intensely cold weather, 

 died. s. M. w. 



Holderness, N. H., Sept. 1, 1869. 



FARMING BY A GRADUATE OF HARVARD COLLEGE. 



My old Friend and Classmate: — I am now, to- 

 day, just through with my harvesting, and stack- 

 ing of small grain, thirteen large stacks. Though 

 I do not work much myself, yet it requires my 

 constant attention and care to see that everything 

 is done up right, and in a farmer-like manner. 



Our next business is to thresh out the grain, 

 which is done with a ten-horse power threshing 

 machine ; and then haul it, or so much of it as 

 we wish to sell, to the depot, which is less than a 

 mile from my farm, and take the going price in 

 cash for the lot. 



I have already been ploughing for fall wheat. 

 We commence sowing with a one or two-horse 

 wheat drill, about September 1, and put in about 

 eight acres per day. All crops in this section of 

 the country are very good this year. 



The improvements in machinery, and the use of 

 the most approved kinds, have rendered farming 

 a very pleasant, interesting and profitable business. 



I have the Marsh harvester to cut my small 

 grain, wheat, oats, barley, &c. One man drives ; 

 two men ride and bind up the grain as it is cut, 

 and throw the bundles from the machine ; and one 

 man follows and shocks up the grain, putting 

 about a dozen bundles in a shock. This machine 

 is drawn by two stout horses with ease, and cuts 

 from eight to ten acres per day. 



I am under much obligation to you for "Old 

 Town Folks," the new Triennial Catalogue of Old 

 Harvard, and numerous other favors. c. l. 



Troi/, Kansas, Aug. 4, 1869. 



Remakks. — We have been permitted to copy 

 the above from a private letter addressed to a gen- 

 tleman in this city. When the graduates of such 

 institutions as Harvard College find that agricul- 

 ture offers inducements superior to those of the 

 professions or of commerce, may we not safely 

 allow the students at our agriculturfil colleges, 

 and even the sons of farmers, to take their course. 



DEATH OF STEPHEN RICHARDSON, OF ■WATER- 

 FORD, VT. 



From time immemorial the world has given 

 generous praise to its heroes and great men. This 

 i- well. But has it duly hoiioied its good men, 

 espicilly those whose lives have been passed in 

 what may have been regarded as the narrow 

 fptierts of action ? Believing that it has not, we 

 take our i)en to write a brief obituary cf a good 

 citizfn, a valued neighbor and a true friend. Mr. 

 Kitliardson was a succe.'-sful farmer. In his farm 

 management and operations he was systematic 

 and particular. He was an admirer of good stock, 

 raised it himself and took much pleasure in ex- 

 amining that of others. He kept good fences and 

 was careful that his own animals should not en- 



croach on the premises of h\^ neighbors. He took 

 great interest in our agricultural fairs, in which 

 he was not only an exhibitor, but an active and 

 prominent manager, and was for many years ? 

 reader of the Nkw England Fakmeu. 



But it is chiefly as a citizen and neighbor that 

 his loss will be felt by the community. As such 

 he was intimatelj- known to the wiiter. During 

 the war he was one of our foremost men in the 

 performance of every patriotic duty. In every 

 thing calculated t j promote temperance and mor- 

 ality, he was an rffieient worker. He was espe- 

 cially well qualiSud to assist families in siekness 

 and in the houi of mourning and sorrow, and 

 theie is hardly a Household in the neighborhood 

 which has not cat se to remember with gratitude 

 the ministries of his sympathizing heart and open 

 hand. His sober ftonesty and independent man- 

 hood secured the confidence of all. But he has 

 left us, and we mty well exclaim with one of oltl, 

 "All ye that are about him, bemoan him ; and all 

 that knew his name, say How is the strong staff 

 broken and the beautiful rod." p. 



Waterfoid, VL, Aug., 1869. 



CROSSING MERINOS "WITH COARSE "WOOL SHEEP. 



Seeing Mr. Hart's communication in the Far- 

 mer of August 21, 1 am induced to say, for the 

 benefir. of such as wish to retain their fine wool 

 sheep and raise lambs for mutton, and have doubts 

 of the safety of the sheep at the time of lambing, 

 that accepting Mr. Hart's advice last fall, I selected 

 twenty from my flock of fine wools, selling the 

 balance for pelters. My sheep were not large, 

 — hardly medium size compared with others. 

 Fearing the result of using the large buck I re- 

 ceived from Mr. H., I used a lamb from the same 

 stock, and must say I was happily disappointed in 

 regard to the anticipated trouble of taking care of 

 the sheep and lambs in the spring. From the 

 twenty esves I raised seventeen lambs — no twins — 

 and did not lose a lamb. They seem to possess a 

 hardier constitution. All they require is milk, in 

 want of which from the moiher, they must be fed. 

 I fed the sheep well, but did not feed the lambs, 

 except that they came to the trough to eat with 

 the sheep. I never had so little trouble with lambs 

 in the spring before. They went to market Au- 

 gust 16, at an average age of less than three months, 

 and were worth at least a dollar each more than 

 lambs from same thecp last year, at six months' 

 old. A townsman driving lambs at the same time 

 remarked, that one of mine was worth two of his, 

 the lot through. I would not recommend that lambs 

 of this cross should come early, for the reason 

 that the merinos do not usually have a large sup- 

 ply of milk at hay without extra feed, but at grass 

 will do very well. I have Cotf wold lambs dropped 

 in the month of April whose wool will measure 

 six and a half inche s. A. D. Arms. 



Montpeher, Vt., Aug. 23, 1869. 



a good colt. 



Perhaps the following facts will suggest to some 

 of our agricultural fi iends the importance of breed- 

 ing from good stock. 



Mr. Wm. Hanson, of Williamstown, Vt , sold 

 to Mr. V. M. Hubbard, of Rochester, Vt., a two- 

 year-old colt, standing fifteen and a half hands 

 high, and weighing the day before he was two 

 years old, ten hundred and thirty-tive pounds, for 

 the sum of four hundred dollars. Said cult was 

 sired by the well known Benedict Morrill. Its 

 dam a black Bullrush Morgan mare, weighing in 

 fair flesh eleven hundred and filty-five pounds, 

 and stands fifteen hands high. If any one has a 

 better colt we should tike to hear from him. 



Williamstown, Vt., Aug. 30, 1869. "W. H. 



