1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



571 



he thinks the experiment was in all respects a fair 

 test of the profit and loss of holding over. 



— A correspondent of the Country Gentleman re- 

 marks that not within the memory of the olde=t 

 farmer have hills and plains been covered wiih 

 such a sod as now. The long spring and fall rains 

 of last year cstaldished the sod, notwithstanding 

 the drought that intervened, and the present moist 

 season, has given it the finishing touches. He ad- 

 vises farmers to take advantage of this fertility 

 from the air by fall ploughing. 



— To encourage wheat growing at home, and in 

 the most profitable way, Mr. B. F. Griffin, of Her 

 nando. Miss., says, in the Southern Cultivator, 

 that the ordinary yield, by ordinary cultivation, 

 in his county, is from three to seven bushels per 

 acre, wiihcut manure. By deeper plouginng, bet- 

 ter cultivation, and some manuring,— in one case 

 at the rate of 100 Inishels of cotton seed per acre, 

 — crops ■were raised this season, within his knowl- 

 edge, of 18, 20, 27, 29, and 31 bushels per acre. 



— Mr. B. F. Cutter, of Pelham, N. H., has given 

 us some curious observations in rega'd to crickets. 

 His theory is that the singing of tbe "merry 

 cricket" is governed very largely by the tempera- 

 ture of the weather, and that the change of one 

 degree even, makes a corresponding change in its 

 mufic. According to his experiments when the 

 temperature is at 74° the cricket gives loi "notes" 

 in a minute; at 72°— 145; at 70°— 134; at 67°— 

 120 ; at G3°— 100 ; at 48°— 10. 



— The Vermont papers notice, recently, crops 

 of 116 heaping bushel baskets of sound corn 

 husked from a little over one acre of Gen. Blair's 

 farm in Jay ; J. Ervin Crane, Bridgewater, 3000 

 pounds of honey ; Hon. H. S. Tallman, of Greens- 

 boro', measured up 132 bushels of wheat from four 

 acres; George Kent, Calais, has harvested 2o0 

 bushels of Garnet Chili potatoes from three-fourths 

 of an acre; J. L. Page, West Charleston, has 

 raised 5000 bushels of the same v.ariety, at the 

 rate of 400 bushels per acre. 



— A correspondent of the Gardener's Monthly 

 says that in the vicinity of Philadelphia, the Early 

 Goodrich was very inferior last year, being pasty 

 and almost unmarketable. This year it is much 

 better. He planted Early Goodrich, Jackson 

 White and Mercers, April 9th. The Goodrich 

 ripentd first, Jacksons second, and Mercer third ; 

 producing, as named, 3|, 2h and 3} bushels to an 

 equal number of hills. In regard to qualiiy the 

 preference is given to the Goodrich ttiis year, 

 while last year they were inferior to either. 



I likely to do so for all time to come. He says, "if 

 English farmers, with their abundance of labor ; 

 with their skilful rotation of crops ; their wheat 

 fallows and their roots; the high culture of their 

 land, that has been under the plough perhaps for 

 ages — if they cannot eradicate this accursed this- 

 tle, I think it needs no stronger argument to urge 

 upon American, and especially upon Western far- 

 mers the necessity of grappling with this intruder, 

 and never to let it gain a foothold on our soil, if 

 possible to prevent it." 



The Canada Thistle. — A correspondent of the 

 Rural U'orld who has recently visited England, 

 was surprised to find this pest so common there 

 that these who handled the grain had to wear 

 Bheepskin gloves. He says the Canada thistle is 

 the great bug-bear of English grain fields ; it has 

 existed there from time immemorial, and seems 



Smut, Chess and Cockle. — Mr. S. B. Britt, 

 Georgetown, Tenn., gives in the Sout/iern Cultiva- 

 tor the particulars of an experiment by which be 

 thinks he has discovered a preventive of ali three 

 of these pests. His seed wheat was badly adul- 

 terated with chess and cockle, and was also 

 smutty. Not having patience to hand-pick his 

 seed for thirty acres he concluded to run his chance 

 with the cheat and the cockle ; but to prevent smut 

 he thought he would try a steep of one pound of 

 blue vitriol in water enough for six bushels of seed. 

 After steeping one mess about thirty-six hours, he 

 found the cockle seed "rotten," and was satisfied 

 it could not grow, and this led liim to h'^pe the 

 steep might prove injurious to the cheat. His an- 

 ticipations were verified at harvest, as not a sprig 

 of either cockle or chess was seen in his wheat thus 

 treated. 



An Old-fashioned Farmer. — The style of 

 farmmg to whieh New England is largely in- 

 debted for her prosperity, — a prosperity whith has 

 long been an enigma to the planters of the South, 

 — is well illusti'ated by the following sketch fur- 

 nished by a correspondent of the Maine Farmer: — 



Col. Francis Hill, of Exeter, Me., a man now 

 about 80 years old, took up wild land and com- 

 menced farming aDout 60 years ago. He lives on 

 the same farm lo-day, and in thao time has never 

 bought a pound of flour or meal of any kind, a 

 kernel of corn or grain, a potato or apple, a pound 

 of luuter or cheese, of pork, beef or muUon, or 

 any other namealjle thing which farmers in Maine 

 ordinarily produce from their farms. He has une 

 ot the Ijest farms in his town, and wi))ks it ytt 

 liimself ; and was seen to-day guiding the plough 

 and turning as straight and handsome a furrow as 

 any young man in the land could do. 



EXTRACTS AND KBPLIES. 



■wool and lamb raising. 



In an article of mine published in the Farmer 

 of August 21, mention is made of the great num- 

 ber of finewooled sheep feeding inthe fields of Ver- 

 mont farms. In my journey through Vermont to 

 the State Fair, it appeared to me that there were 

 not in sight of the railroad as many tens now, as 

 thtre were hundreds of sheep last November. 



I infer therefore that a very large proportion of 

 the fine wool sheep of Vermont have been disposed 

 of and large flocks reduced to suitable dimensions 

 for raising wool in connection with market lambs. 

 A glance at the Brighton market reports shows 

 that the flocks have so far been reduced that the 



