572 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



sales are reported at one to two cents a pound 

 higher than they were one year since, with the 

 prospect that in one year more they will be two 

 cents a pound higher than now. 



One thing I think is clear to every discerning 

 mind, and that is, that our supply of fine wool 

 will hereafter be grown at the South and West in 

 great measure. At the present prices of beef, pork, 

 and the prospective prices of mutton, there is no 

 business in which the farmers of New England 

 can engage which promises more remunerative 

 prices than the raising of wool and market lambs. 

 The Chicago wool market report shows a falling 

 offofGOO.OOO pounds of wool in one month from 

 the conespondmg month of last year. It does not 

 therefore require a "prophet nor the son of a 

 prophet" to show that the prices of wool must soon 

 be higher, especially if we take into account the 

 fact shown by reliable agricultural reports, that, 

 in nearly all of the western and southern States the 

 losses of sheep from grub, scab, foot-rot and other 

 diseases, mostly arising from want of protection 

 and want of care, are diminished flocks from ten 

 to thirty-three per cent. The parts of flocks still 

 remaining in the New England States are now in 

 a condition to realize more clear money from rais- 

 ing wool and market lambs than they have been 

 for many years past. Farmers who are wise 

 enough to breed only to good strong thorougbred 

 bucks will see their account in it. 



The Merinos, if well fed and housed in win- 

 ter, so as to be at all limes in really good condi- 

 tion, are good nurses, and when bred to full- 

 blooded Cotswold bucks will sometimes produce 

 lambs that will outgrow the full-bloods. Indeed 1 

 have sometimes known them to weigh more than a 

 hundred pounds at seven months old, and sell for 

 eight cents a pound live weight. Add to this the 

 fleece, at say two dollars, which it will bring when 

 the sheep is kept well enough to make the lamb 

 weigh a hundred, and we have an income of ten 

 dollars a year for the keep and care of a sheep. 

 For rearing market lambs, there is probably no 

 sheep better adapted than the first cross of the 

 Cotswolds on the Merino ; none that will prove 

 more prolific and thrifty. T. L. Haet. 



West Cornwall, Co?m., Oct., 1869. 



puffing and blowing for any, or all, the different 

 varieties of vegetables, grains and animals, with- 

 out a slight sprinkling uf manual labor, tinctured 

 with economy, sobriety, and at least a coloring of 

 honestv. c. n. 



Marlborough, N. H., Oct. 4, 1869. 



CURING HAY. — FANCY PRICES OF NEW THINGS. 



I cannot well get along without the Farmer, 

 notwithstanding some of the writings therein have 

 produced in me a diseased state of mind and purse, 

 commonly known by the name of restlessness and 

 emptiness. For instance, the Metcalf half-dried, 

 salted-and-limed hay theory affected me badly, as 

 it did also my cattle, whicn probably might have 

 died, if I had not had a large supply of early-cut, 

 nictly-cured, sun-dried hay, which I administered 

 freely as a medicine, with most encouraging re- 

 sults. Good early cut hay is, in my opinion, the 

 great panacea for horned cattle and horses; and 

 will not kill sheep when given in proper doses. 

 No farmer should be without it summer or winter. 

 I next came down with the potato fever. It run 

 high. Drs. Early Goodrich, Sebec and Hose pre- 

 scribed for me until I was salivated. Age and 

 constitution saved me, no doubt ; for having dis- 

 Eiissed my physicians I entirely recovered. 



1 am naturally somewhat given to experiment- 

 ing. I like to read all that I can find time to, of 

 what is written upon the subject of agriculture. 

 Still, I do not feel that I am bound to te=t, by prac- 

 tice, all the new-fangled doctrines advanced by 

 those whose pecuniary object is as obvious as in 

 case of the advertising, puffing and selling Early 

 Rose and other potatoes at ^'3.00 per pound, or 

 S'180 per bushel; or Norway and other oats at 

 similar prices. No sir, not I. For I have yet to 

 learn that we farmers can all live and prosper by 



MILESTONES AND GUIDE BOARDS. 



Every day some of us are asked the distance or 

 the direction to such and such a place, and of 

 course we give the desired information as accu- 

 rately as we can. But why need a stranger be put 

 to this trouble of stopping every now and then by 

 the way, and hailing some man or boy in regard 

 to the distance he has got to travel ? Milestones, 

 that poets tells us of on "the journey of life," are 

 as real as those which the bewildered traveller 

 searches for in vain on many of our highways. 

 Indeed such guides are so scarce that when one is 

 visible, many passers-by wonder what that stone 

 stands there for, and some even inquire Who /vas 

 buried there ? And what few are to be seen at 

 long intervals by the roadside, are mostly old 

 relics, partly covered with lichen, and are as illeg- 

 ible from age as headstones in an ancient grave- 

 yard. In front of my house stands one of these 

 venerable specimens, half sank in the earth, but 

 serving as a convenient place to stick handbills. 



When traveling by rail, milestones all run to- 

 gether, and, besides, the conductor's check rea- 

 ders them superfluous, as a table of distances is 

 usually found on its back, very convenient for ref- 

 erence by passengers as they are whirled from 

 point to point. But when we are journeying with 

 our own teams, it is a matter of personal conven- 

 ience to man and beast to mark each successive 

 mile. No wager may be pending on the speed 

 made, as when fast horses go the round of the 

 "mile track ;" but a considerable amount of per- 

 sonal comfort and enjoyment is. How often are 

 individuals puzzled in their own native villasre to 

 tell a new comer the distance from this and that 

 house to another farther on, or from one district 

 to another on the same street; or just how far it 

 is to the church and post office ? We have an im- 

 pression that it is a mile, or some fraction of one, 

 Irom one point to another, and that the main 

 street is jast about so long ; but what visible, tan- 

 gible means have we at hand for verifying our im- 

 pressions ? Even the road surveyor is very apt to 

 proceed in this vague way, and take it for granted 

 that nobody expects an exact calculation of dis- 

 tance. Now regular milestones may not be as es- 

 sential to peace and harmony as are bound-stones, 

 but if established at regular intervals along our 

 highways, they would save a deal of breath and 

 uncomlortable suspense. Why not have public 

 measures of distance as well as of time ? 



Guide boards are tolerably frequent in every 

 well regulated neighborhood, but sometimes this 

 very fact is the cause of bewilderment. Fur ex- 

 ample, you travel intelligently under their guid- 

 ance to a certain fork in the road, where you miss 

 the accustomed sign, and are the more contused 

 from having thus far depended upon them. You 

 wonder why one should be missing now, and your 

 only alternative is to venture ahead, till you over- 

 take somebody, or arrive at some house where you 

 can obtain the needed information. Ic may be a 

 mile or two ; and then, perhaps, your weary hurse 

 must be turned back on his hard journey, "till the 

 right road is struck at last. Sumctimcs the guide- 

 post is flanked with as many boards as there are 

 points of the compass, and enligUtens you con- 

 siderably on the geography of the whole region. 

 You proceed with full assurance till all of a sud- 

 den you come to a halt belbre a naked post, or a 

 faded dilapidated sign, better off than on. I'hea 

 you wonder why the lathers of the town did not 



