Tol. X.— No. 43. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



333 



— her sons, in niaulinass and strength. " She 

 looketh well to the ways of her household and 

 eateth not the hread of idleness. Her children 

 rise uj) and call her blessed ; her husband also, 

 and he praisetli her." 



And is it the man who has.drawu all these com- 

 forts around him, that complains of hard times ? 

 Oh, 110 ! It is one of a very ditferent character. 

 It is either the man, who, from ignorance, ingrati- 

 tude, or cherished discontent, dashes away the 

 the cu() of good, which a boimtiful Providence 

 proflers to his lips ; or else, it is that thriftless and 

 beggarly being, who, lagging far behind in the 

 march of improvement, and wholly uninspired by 

 the spirit of the times, is seen at the resorts where 

 loungers " most do congregate," dragging himself 

 lazily about, to the tune of" hard times, hard times." 



Let us look at his farm. A continuous and 

 unbroken line of brush aud briars, having in- 

 trenched themselves about his walls and fences, 

 are steadily advancing to the centre of his fields, 

 aud he looks with dismay upon the narrow extent 

 of territory that remains to him, and upon the 

 stinted and miserable crop that it produces. His 

 fences have decayed or fallen down, and upon 

 their ruins he lops a sapling birch or shrub oak, 

 with here and there the half consumed aud weath- 

 er beaten fragment of a rail or post, the remnant 

 of a better day, and ingeniously contrives to rear 

 a fabric so frail aud unsubstantial, that it luust fall 

 if even " the winds of heaven visit it too roughly." 

 It only serves to invite and provoke attack; and 

 if his cattle have any decent share of spirit remain- 

 ing, his stinted 'and miserable crop is destroyed. 

 The pruning of his orchard has been entrusted 

 wholly to his cows, and if among its scrubby and 

 entangled branches, fruit is found at all, it is of 

 those varieties that wdl give to the countenance of 

 him that eats it, the expression of an inujate of 

 purgatory. Thei'e is seen rambling about his pas- 

 tures, a beggarly account of nondescript animals, 

 denominated stock — gaunt, lean, houndlike skele- 

 tons — emblems of famine, images of leanness, at 

 which Pharaoh would have himg his head aud 

 blushed. Scattered about, as chance directs, are 

 found the broken and blunted instruments with 

 which he toils. And in keeping with the rest of 

 the scene, there is exhibited by the wayside,'a long 

 array of condemned and su])eraniuiated carts, and 

 carriages and ploughs. Through unhinged and 

 disjointed gates we approach his buildings. Our 

 path is obstructed at every step by nameless and 

 useless rubbish ; and the ma»s of vegetable and 

 animal matter, that fe' decaying around, like the 

 offence of Claudius, " is rank, it smells to heaven." 

 His barn seems to be made with special reference 

 to the accommodation of the four winds. Its con- 

 tents are neither sheltered nor preserved ; and its 

 tenants are left to cringe and cml before the blasts 

 of winter. His house, a strange combination of 

 boards and shingles, gives no promise of comfort 

 within. The winds sigh and howl through its 

 shattered roof and walls. The loosened clap- 

 board flaps mournfully against its side. Ancient 

 and time-worn hats, with garments not to he nam- 

 ed, from the scanty and tattered wardrobe of its 

 iumates, are thrust through its broken windows. 



Shall we enter here, and contemplate the scene 

 of confusion and discord within ? No ! The 

 spirit of idleness, ignorance, or intemperance, 

 reigns here, and none are welcome but its vota- 

 ries. It is the man who calls this place home, 

 that talks of " hard times," of the smallness of the 



farmer's profits, and of the advantages of emigra- 

 tion to the far West. It is he that is forever chant- 

 ing his Jeremiade over the fallen glories of Agri- 

 culture. And well he migh*, if the evils that at- 

 tend him were inseparable from his lot. But they 

 are not. They are the consequence of his own 

 bad management. No skilful and enterprisiug 

 cultivator can be found, who will say, he has not 

 full confidence in the success and profits of his 

 business. 



To be concluded next week. 



SHEEP. 



A writer in the Gardner (Maine) Standard, in 

 answer to an inquiry as to the best mode and the 

 expense of keeping sheep, says : — 



» Sheep do best in summer on high, dry, and 

 rocky land. In a pasture which has a more or less 

 northerly aspect and plenty of shade, they may 

 run in large flocks, for they seldom crowd togeth- 

 er in hot weather, where the shade is in different 

 parts of the pasture. They should have salt by 

 them to lick when they please. If two or three 

 pastures can be furnished, to change their location 

 ouce a week, so much the better. Hard stocking 

 ke,eps the grass short and sweet, and of this they 

 are more fond than after the seed stalk springs. 

 It is hardly possible to keep sheep through the 

 winter on hay alone, in as good condition as they 

 come to the barn ; they should have some succu- 

 lent food.daily, and tlie more the better, or they 

 lose flesh. To judge from my own experience, 1 

 should say, give a sheep dady four pounds Ruta 

 Baga, and as much hay as she will cat, which 

 wili be about one pound, and she carries her sum- 

 mer fat through the winter, and is much more sure 

 to raise her lamb than if fed on hay alone. 



" Indian corn, in quantity of a gill daily, or even 

 half a gill is of great service. Every farmer is 

 more than paid for his corn in the weight of the 

 fleece alone, to say nothing of the benefit to the 

 animal. 



" Last winter, as you know, I fed largely with 

 the turnip, there was not a sheep in the flock at 

 all disordered during feeding time. I a:n well 

 satisfied that a good proportion of succident food, 

 suits the stomach better than all dry food of any 

 kind. 



" An acre of pasture will feed six sheep with 

 their lambs, through the season — most farmers say 

 seven or eight. I have weighed out two pounds 

 of hay per head to my flock, several days in suc- 

 cession, in clear cold weather, and found that alone 

 as much as a sheep will eat. This corresponds 

 with the experiment of Dr Daubenton in France, 

 although he does not inform us what breed his ex- 

 periment was tried with. We feed about one 

 hundred and forty days on an average. A ton of 

 hay will therefore winter eight sheep. If we es 

 timate die cost per ton af $2,50, the expense of 

 wintering on hay alone is thirtyone cents. But it 

 is better to winter at more expense, in order to in- 

 sure a good fleece and the life of the lamb." 



DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS, &c. 



Among the various examples of improvident 

 legislation, (says the Baltimore American,) may be 

 reckoned the laws in which our State legislatures 

 sometimes think it wise to encourage, by rewards, 

 the slaughter of birds, &c, which have unluckily 

 incurred odium with the farmers. The New York 

 American gives some examples of similar foolish 

 hostility among the people, to these luckless /er<£ 



naturee, the effect of which is generally to substi- 

 tute a greater evil, by a supposed removal of a less. 

 The ruinous increase of the Hessian fly some 

 years since, was attributed, and justly, it says, to 

 the groat previous destruction of the woodpeckers 

 and other birds feeding on insects. In one dis- 

 trict, a war of two or three camjiaigns Was valor- 

 ously waged against the owls ; and straightway 

 the fic'lds were overrun with field-mice. In an- 

 other, the garter snakes were put under ban, and 

 the consequence was, that the grass-hoppers, on 

 which the garter snake feeds, infested the fields in 

 clouds. It is not out of a mawkish humanity, but 

 from a belief thttt nature will manage this matter 

 best in lier own way, that we recommend to those 

 who would take it out of her hands, the lines of 

 Southcy to the s))i(lcr : — 



I won't humanely crush thy bowels out, 

 Lest Ihou shouldst eat the flies. 



The same journal very properly censures those 

 wholesale hunts, to which bushels of squirrels, 

 rabbits, partridges and other game, fall victims in 

 indiscriminate slaughter. 



Savings of Tern perance'.-r— Before the formation 

 of the Temperance Society in the town of Hector, 

 Tompkins Co. N. Y., it is stated, that there was 

 scarcely sufficient grain raised for the supply of 

 the inhabitants. Nov/, after two or three years' 

 operation, sixt>i thousand htshels are supposed to 

 sent out of the town. This extra or increased 

 production is not, it is probable, to be attributed to 

 the former drinkers alone, but to that general 

 stimulus to industry and healthy state of the com- 

 munity, which follow such reformations. Will 

 the readers of the Farmer communicate facts sim- 

 ilar to the above.' — A". Y. Farmer. 



To promote the grmvth of trees. — Some separate 

 the dry bark of fruit and forest trees to promote 

 their growth, and prevent the bark binding too 

 much. This disfigures the tree, making seams in 

 the trunk, and makes it grow in angles. The best 

 way is, when the sap is forced up by warmth of 

 spring, to scrape off all the scaly particles of the 

 dead bark, and wash the trees repeatedly during 

 the week with soap suds, Szc. Trees of consider- 

 able age will then have a youthful appearance ; be 

 more thrifty ; and in the caSe of fruit trees, the 

 fruit will make more cider than that grown on 

 scurvy moss-grown trees. 



Put cindens, bones, stones, about the roots of 

 pear trees ; it will increase their growth one third 

 and save them from the blight. — Genesee Farmer. 



Young Peaeh Trees. — Twenty years ago, peach 

 orchards flourished in many parts of the State of 

 New York ; they now seem to decline. The 

 cause may be ascribed to the grub or peach borer. 

 A neighbor of mine found six of these an inch long 

 in a tree near the roots, and the tree dying. He 

 put some of the worms into a strong solution of 

 corrosive sublimate, which di^ not kill them ! — 

 He then removed the dirt from some of his young 

 peach trees, and placed a little box around the 

 tree and filled it with tan bark. These trees did 

 well. It is a cheap remedy — try it. — i6. 



Feeding Cattle. — When there is a white frost on 

 the grass, keep your cattle in the yard and give 

 them a little dry fodder. When the frost is melt* 

 ed off, turn them out and they will do welh — ii. 



