1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAE^JER. 



521 



of soft soap and corn meal with a little water, and 

 in severe cases a little mustard, is one of the best 

 drafts for the feet or lungs of children. Mothers, 

 try it on your little ones when they have a good 

 deal of fever and cough, so you "can't sleep of 

 nights." Put the drafts on feet and breast. Don't 

 put in but little mustard, so they can keep it on 

 all night. It is well to oil the bottom of the feet 

 and across the lungs first with hen's oil, or lard is 

 very cood. n. 



Fairfax, Vt., Aug. 22, 1869. 



ACCOUNT WITH A BAELEY CROP. 



AVhile harvesting their own crops, farmers like 

 to hear how others have succeeded. And possi- 

 bly some readers of the Farmer may be inter- 

 ested in the following statement of the cultivation 

 and yield of a crop of barley on a hill farm. I 

 kept an exa t account of every item of expense, 

 &c". The field measures sixty-two rods, and was 

 broken up and planted to potatoes last year. Nine 

 loads of manure were applied to the laud, but as 

 I think manure properly applied will serve for 

 three crops, I charge the barley with one-third of 

 the value of the manure. 



Barley Field, Dr. 



To one-third of nine loads manure at $1.C0 . $3,00 

 PlQUghingand barreling % day, spanhorses, 



at $3.75 2.50 



Seed barley, two bnehels, at $1.75 3.50 



Bowing 15 



Cuttii g and raking 1.50 



Getting in 75 



Th eshing, three d lys, at $1.25 3.75 



Cleaning up 75 



Interest on land at 6 per ct. on $23 per acre 4S 



$16 36 



Barley Field. Cr. 



By 21}^ bushels barley, at $1.25 $26.87 



Btraw 5.00 



$31 87 



Profit $15 51 



George H. Pierce. 

 Marlow, N. H., Sept. 6, 1869. 



BAROMETRIC SPRING. 



A never-failing spring of pure soft water on our 

 farm not only supplies a refreshing drink to the 

 stock, 1)ut is a perfectly reliable rain prophet. 

 Without any fee by way of bribe, or any incanta- 

 tions, or a7iy known procuring cause, it overflows 

 with a sudden rush, and within thirty-six hours 

 thereafter, there comes a rain fall. Summer 

 and winter, in wet seasons and iu the severest 

 drought, it never fails to give its seasonable pre- 

 monition. 



The hidden arteries which supply this spring 

 have been traced to some rocky highlands, with 

 swampy intervales, a fourth of a mile from the 

 place of out-flow. The main artery has been 

 tapped by a well thirty rods from the spring, and 

 found to" be twenty-four feet below the surface. 

 The well, like the spring, is never dry. 



In wet seasons, the spring sends forth, on the 

 average, a stream sufficient to fill an eight or ten 

 inch pipe. After running about one hundred rods, 

 this stream loses itself in a swamp. In the dry 

 season, this stream loses itself in a course of about 

 fifty rods. It diminishes in volume regularly, as 

 other neighboring springs do, with the progress of 

 the summer, or a drought, — except as already in- 

 dicated. 



During the last week of August, and the first 

 four days of September, the water diminished rap- 

 idly, scarcely enough flowing to fill a two-inch 

 pipe. Ou Sabbath, Sept. 5., the stream was un- 

 usually sluggihh, reaching only about forty rods 

 from the f^pring. Monday morning, the 6th, it was 

 pouring forth, having more than doubled in vol- 



ume, and filling its channel for a distance of not 

 less than eighty rods. Tuesday noon, as I write 

 this, the blessed rain is falling copiously, and my 

 little spring has, for perhaps the thousandth time 

 since our acquaintance began, proved a true 

 prophet. 



Here are the facts, who will explain the caiise ? 

 J. H. Temple. 



Framingham, Mass., Sept. 7, 1869. 



SALTPETRE FOR BLOODY MILK. 



I have a heifer that gave bloody milk six weeks 

 or more this season. There was no trouble with 

 the bag that I could see or feel. I gave her salt- 

 petre every other day most of the time, wl iie the 

 milk was bloody. Her milk is all good now. 



Westboro', Mass., Aug. 29, 1869. W. S. Grow. 



"G. W. C," Berwick, Me. — Our correspon- 

 dent is informed that the condition in which he 

 finds his cow is not an uncommon one, but one for 

 which no remedy is known. We have known 

 some in heat so often, and always barren, that 

 they were utterly worthless as dairy cows. 



AGHICULTURAL ITEMS. 



— An experienced Iowa wool-grower gives $1.50 

 as the probable average cost of keeping a sheep a 

 year in that State. 



— Capt. F. Randall, of Lyndon, Vt., reports a 

 hill of potatoes in his garden in which the tops are 

 covered with tubers and none In the hill — an ex- 

 hibition of nature reversed. — i. w. s. 



— A premium of $60 offered by the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society for the best seedling 

 pear, has been awarded to the variety known as 

 the Clapp's Favorite, after a trial of five years. 



— The apple crop of Michigan this year is abun- 

 dant in some places and very light in others. Or- 

 chards which have been kept in tillage are more 

 productive than those in grass. The present crop 

 of pears is said to be the largest ever produced in 

 Michigan. 



— The Massachusetts Agricultural College open- 

 ed its fiill term September 3, with additions to its 

 corps of instructors of Captain H. A. Alvord, of 

 the United States Army, as Professor of Military 

 Science ; E. H. Barlow, of Amherst College, in- 

 structor of rhetoric and elocution ; and Dr. A. S. 

 Packard, Jr., of Salem, leading lecturer on ento- 

 mology. 



— A correspondent of the Maine Farmer says 

 that for the two last seasons he has been using 

 wooden boxes lined with slate, for packing butter, 

 which answer a very good purpose and have many 

 advantages above anything that he has ever seen. 

 The boxes can be made of any required size. The 

 joints can be made water tight, they are very cool, 

 easily kept clean, and free from any risk on ac- 

 count of breaking. 



— Mr. S. D. Lewis, of Rock County, Wis., writes 

 to the Prairie Farmer that he bought a perfectly 

 white, thoroughbred, three-year-old Short-horn 

 heifer, of the W. R. Duncan stock, in spring of 



