570 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



a lilan!- et to protect his shoulders and luns?, 

 ond he will get cold sooner than men. — Ex- 

 cliange. 



WHY THE PLACE "WEJSTT DOWN. 



I was riding past a large farm a fQ"!} days 

 since in a public conveyance, when a man re- 

 marked, as he looked out, "This place seems 

 to tyke to red sorrel the best of anything. I 

 shoalJ rather have it in r^d clover." 



Then followed some conversation between 

 him and the driver with regard to the owner 

 cf the properiy. Once he was offered eight 

 thousand dollars for it; now it would not 

 br ng ha'f the money. The fences were all 

 broken down, the boards of the barn were 

 swinging in the wind, the old plows and 

 wagons stood about unsheltered in the neg- 

 lected barn-vard, and the house just opposite 

 was in keeping wirh all the rest. 



'•The old man's sons mostly hang around 

 the old pljce, but don't seem to do much 

 towards keeping it up. They are a lazy lot. 

 All three of 'em are at home now living off 

 their father. How they live wish their fami- 

 lies I can't see. They never have anything to 

 sell off their place." 



One could readily believe that, when he 

 took a survey cf the broad fitlds, which 

 sht>uld have been covered with waving grain, 

 but which instead wtre red with sorrel. There 

 sat the lazy } oung men looking out on the 

 passers by, as if tht^y had no other business in 

 life. The old fainier smoked his pipe and 

 saw his valuable place going to wreck and 

 ruin, with the coolest indifrtrence. The wo- 

 men of such a household Avere well deserving 

 of piry. for on them ftrll the principal burden 

 of liiukirg biicks without straw. In such a 

 '•sletpy hollow" atmo phere, the most ener- 

 g'tic wonid feel a lethargy creep over the 

 spirits, ( ffjctua'.ly checking all advancement. 



Would you like to know the secret of such 

 thrif lestness ? It was a whitkey barrel in the 

 cellar. 



Salks of Stock. — John Dimon, E-q., of Pom- 

 fret, Conn , has sold to IL nry C. Bowen, of the 

 New York Indtpendent, the thoroughl)rcd Ayrshire 

 cow "Lida," No. .547, American Herd Book. 



Mr. AVni. Birnie, Springtitid, Mass., has sold to 

 II. L. Stewart, Middle Haddam.Conn., as we learn 

 from the Country Genthman, the two-year-old 

 Ayrshire heifers Nellie (002,) Siisie (769,) and 

 H'Mio (430 ) 



Mr. D. B. Fearing, Newport, R. I., has sold to 

 II. G. I'a k, Long Lslacd, his imported Jersey bull 

 Earl Jersey ; to L. P. Morton, heifer Blueberry, for 

 $:joO; and to another buyer hi- cow Faimy. 



The Toronto Globe says that cf aliout sixty 

 Leicester and Cotswold sheep oflered at public 

 salcne-.trly all were sold at #4G to $14 for rams; 

 ^■40 to $10 for ram lambs; Cotswold ewes at .p.5 

 to $18 iicr pair ; young Short-horn bulls, $100, and 

 $9.5 ; heifers at $80, 61, and 51. 



AGKICULTUEAL ITEMS. 



—Texas has more than 3,000.000 head of cattle, 

 and ean export, annually, 1,000,000 beeves. 



— The average home production of wheat in 

 Epgland for the three past years is stated at 12,- 

 278,066, and the importation at 8,413,312 quarters. 



— The farm in Yorktown, Va., upon which Lord 

 Cornwallis surrendered his forces and signed the 

 articles of capitulation, was recently sold for $8000. 



— Twenty years ago Pennsylvania was the larg- 

 est wheat-producing State in the Union — now it is 

 about the twelfth on the list. 



— A lot of Mestiza wool, of the clip of 1865 and 

 1866, was recently sold in New Y<n-k at a reported 

 loss of over 200,000, in the way of interest, insur- 

 ance, commission, storage, ditference in prices, &c. 



— Mr. Charles Downing says that there is a rasp- 

 berry in cultivation, whi^h is being grown under 

 the following difierent names : "McCormick, Mia- 

 mi, Large Miami, Colliusville Miami, Superior 

 Miami, and Mammoth Cluster." 



— Mast is unusually abundant in Mississippi this 

 season. In Big Black Bottom, beech mast, acorns 

 and hickory-nuts are very plentiful, and firmcrs 

 will be able to fatten their pork with a small 

 amount of corn. 



— Good butter sells quick in Champaign Co., 

 111., for 50, and ordinary at 3.5 to 40 cents per pound, 

 probably at retail; and even at thete prices its 

 production is Ijelieved to be less profitable than 

 raising and fattening cattle and sheep. 



— J. H. Flickinger, of Santa Clara Valley, Cal., 

 raised 200 tons of beets last year, which averaged 

 twenty-five beets to the ton. There were many of 

 them that exceeded one hundred pounds to the 

 beet. 



— A correspondent of the Southern Ctdtivator 

 adduces many facts in support of the theory that 

 rust is a disease as permanently fixed in some va- 

 rieties of wheat, as the consumption i-! in some 

 families. He classes the Tappahannock with the 

 diseased varieties. 



— The following is recommended by the South- 

 ern Cultivator as an excelUnt salve for wounds or 

 or galls on horses and mules: Take one gill of 

 turpentine and one-half pound of tallow; melt 

 the tallow and pour the turpentine w ith the tallow 

 while hot; rub the animal's shoulder with it while 

 it Is warm, with a woolen rag, three times a day 

 until it is cured. 



— A correspondent of the Davenport, III., Gazette, 

 put two hundred measured bushels of corn in a 

 crib in November, 1868, which were recently mar- 

 keted. The corn was kept in a well protected crib, 

 and was in excellent condition when ^o'd. It was 

 found to have shrunk forty-eight bushels, equal to 

 twenty-four per cent, discount from the original 

 amount. There was no unusual exposure to rats, 

 bad weather, &c. ; the corn was first quality, and 



