374 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



June 6. 1832. 



Boston, Wednesday Evening, Jnne 6, 1832. 



NOTICE. 



■' TTlie IM!iss;icluisetts Society for Promoting Ag- 

 riculture will liolil tlieir annual meeting at tlie 

 hall of the Union Bank, ou Wednesday, ihc IStli 

 day of Juuc next, at 11 o'clock, A. M., for the 

 choice of officers and such other business as may 

 come before tlieni. 



BENJ. GLILD, .%. Rec. Sec'y. 



THE SEASON. 

 The present season is backward and unpromis- 

 ing beyond all precedent, so far as our memory or 

 reading extends. For about eighteen days, imme- 

 diately preceding this, June 5th, we have had 

 nearly uninterrupted northeast winds, lulling and 

 shifting a little, occasionally, as if to take breath 

 for fresh efforts, 



" See now a dull northeast wind blows 



From liori'ible ice islands, 

 Now blasts from everlasting snows, 



Which crown the polar highlands." 



Although Indian corn had in many iustances 

 made its appearance above ground, it is now yel- 

 low, sickly, and we fear incurably consumptive. 

 Many kinds of garden seeds have rotted in the 

 ground, and those which have germinated are in 

 a worse state as respects the prospects of a crop, 

 than if they had never been, but were to be plant- 

 ed. We have seen early cabbages, however, in 

 the garden of Mr Lowell, which appeared to enjoj- 

 this Siberian weather ; but beans, squashes, &.c, 

 had barely remains enough of vegetation, to show 

 that they had existence ; but most of them were 

 so far gone that no summer's sun could be ex- 

 pected to resuscitate them. Grass, particularly 

 lucerne and tall meadow oat grass, (of which Mr 

 Lowell hiis a flourishing field,) were very back- 

 ward, but thick at the bottom, and promised an 

 abimdant crop of hay. 



Mr Lowell had cut down between si.xty and 

 seventy of the trees of his orchard, which were so 

 thoroughly smitten by the plague of the last season 

 as not to put forth any leaves, and he apprehends 

 that many more are mortally diseased. All his 

 Baldwin apple trees are gone ; all or most of his 

 peach, cherry, and plum trees. And Mr Lowell 

 thinks that he shall not be certified of the full ex- 

 tent of his loss, till about the 15th of Jnne, as some 

 trees show signs of vegetation, notwithstanding 

 the hand of death is upon them, from the same 

 principle which causes twigs which belong to 

 sticks of wood, cut and lying on a wood-pile, to 

 show leaves in the spring, which the first hot sun 

 will destroy. 



If we New Englandci-s can receive any conso- 

 lation from companionship in our miseries of the 

 season, we have it in this case. The Nashville 

 (Tennessee) Republican of May 24th, says, "The 

 weather still continues cold and unfavorable for 

 agriculture. Corn and cotton must suffer much 

 Since Monday the 7th inst., on which day we were 

 visited by a tremendous tempest, there has been 

 hardly a day of fine growing weather ; for three 

 mornings in succession, our thermometer at sun- 

 rise has stood as low as fifty degrees. Besides 

 the direct bad eflect of such a temperature, it must 

 lead to great destruction from the worm. 



" We have discovered further evidence of the 



extreme cold of last winter, in the destruction of 

 a great number of forest trees. Nearly all the 

 large and lofty sweet gum trees at the bottoms 

 are entirely killed; making the forest in many 

 places still bear the appearance of winter. Many 

 trees of other descriptions have suffered in the 

 same way." 



The Providence Daily Advertiser, likewise com- 

 plains as follows : — • 



" Ou Thursday night last, [May 24,] there was 

 a fall of snow in this vicinity, and on Friday 

 morning the fields presented the novel appear- 

 ance, for this season of the year, of being covered 

 with snow. Our oldest inhabitants say, they do 

 not remember of having seen so much snow ou 

 the ground in a former year, so late as the 25th of 

 May. The thermometer on Thursday and Friday 

 last, fell to forty degrees. Great-coats, cloaks and 

 fires, were in great demand. It is thought that 

 the storm will not have an unfavorable eflect- upon 

 the fruit, grass, or English gr.aiu. The growth of 

 Indian corn will probalily be vei-y much retarded 

 by the wet and cold ; though we believe there is 

 very little corn up, as yet, in this vicinity." 



SHEARING SHEEP, &c. 



Deane's New England Farmer states, that " wc 

 shear oiw sheep in general too early in this coun- 

 try. In England, where the spring is more for- 

 ward than in this country, the approved time of 

 shearing is from the middle to the latter end of 

 June. They should be washed in a warm time ; 

 after this they should run three or four days in a 

 clear pasture, before they are shorn. It is good 

 for them to have time to sweat a little in ihcir 

 wool, after washing." 



Mr Lawrence says, " June seems {in England] 

 to be the general sbeiuiug month, and where no 

 extraordinary precautions are tak(m, the business 

 had better be delayed till towards mid-summer, 

 more especially in cold backward springs ; because 

 in such seasons we seldom, until that period, have 

 any settled fair weather. Besides, a more perfect 

 fleece is obtained, and fuller of yolk from the pcr- 

 sjiiralion of the animal. 



" Washing previous to clipping the sheep is the 

 general custom, with few exceptions, in this coim- 

 try ; indeed it ispro])er with all long-wooled sheej), 

 but not so easily j)racticable with the matted, 

 greasy, and imjienetrable fleeces of the Spanish 

 and carding-wool breed, which in Spain they in- 

 variably shear diy, as has been the practice in 

 Devonshire, with the short-wooled sheep, for cen- 

 turies." 



It is observed by Loudon, that "sheep shear- 

 ing in Romney INIarsh, [England] commences 

 about mid-suimner and finishes about the mid- 

 dle of July. Those who shear latest apprehend 

 that they gain half a pound weight in every fleece, 

 by the increased perspiration of the shec]) and con- 

 scipient growth of the vvool. Besides, tluy say, 

 in early shearing the wool has not the condition 

 which it afterwards acquires. But then in late 

 shearing the fleece will have the less time to grow, 

 so as to protect the animal against the rigors of 

 the succeeding winter; and if a year's interval is 

 allowed between each clipping time, after your 

 routine is established the wool will have had the 

 same period for its growth, whether you shear 

 early or late. Sheep with fine fleeces, which arc 

 shorn without being washed on the back of the 

 animal, may be clipped earlier in the season than 



those which are exposed to softer for half an hour 

 or more in cold water." ■ 



Lemuel W. Briggs, Esq., of Bristol, R. I., in 

 articles published in the New England Farmer, 

 volume HI. pages 273, 287, stated certain facts, 

 which would seem favorable to early shearing; 

 and in certain circumstances, and particularly with 

 sheep which are not washed, there can be no 

 doubt but the ])ractice is beneficial. Mr Briggs 

 stirted in substance, that Mr Rouse Potter, of Pru- 

 dence island, Naraganset bay, Rhode Island, who 

 kept nitie hundred and fifty sheep and lost but two 

 the [ireceding winter, begins to shear them by the 

 first of fllay if the weather is favorable, and con- 

 tinues daily until he completes his shearing. For 

 the firj't week, he puts those sheared under cover 

 or in close yards every night; by that time the 

 wool will grow so as to give them a sufficient cov- 

 ering. By this practice of early shearing, he gains 

 much wool, which formerly, when he put his 

 shearing off till the middle of June, the sheep 

 would shed ; and farther, when thus early sheared, 

 the wool begins to start and grow much quicker 

 than when shearing is deferred to the usual time. 

 He says, that formerly, being exposed inunediately 

 after shearing to the rays of the sim, their bare 

 backs would frequently become sore and scabby, 

 when no wool will grow till healed, and then what 

 does srow from these scars is thinner and coarser 

 than the rest. 



" Mr Potter states, that he has found from actual 

 experiment, that he not only gets morc^wool wbieh 

 would otherwise be lost, but the succeeding wool 

 will be from half an inch to an inch longer, if 

 sheared early, than it will be if delayed to the 

 usual time of shearing. And further, there is not 

 the same necessity for washing the sheep, as the 

 wool is much cleaner, more free from sand and 

 dirt, when taken oft' early, than it would be if suf- 

 fered to remain on their backs until a hot sun had 

 comi)elled them to seek refuge under walls and 

 fences." 



The foregoing authorities arc apparently alto- 

 gi'ther contradictory, as respects the time of year 

 in which to shear sheep. But it is to be observed, 

 that Mr Potter did not wash his sheep before 

 shearing, which nuist make considerable differ- 

 ciu-e with regard to the risk from cold ; and Mr 

 Potter a|)pcars to have been careful to shelter his 

 sheep aller shearing, which must in a great meas- 

 ure obviate the disadvantages of early shearing. 



From the Halifax Kccordcr of May 16. 



THE SEASON IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



The Apostle's virtue of being content with what- 

 soever state he is placed in, should be j)raciised 

 now when it is so much required, and when dis- 

 content and grumbling find so many excuses for 

 creeping in and spoiling our bosoms. In this tliird 

 week of May, when we were wont to have the at- 

 mosphere balmy and the face of nature blooming, 

 and perhaps v\ hen we were wont to treat those 

 blessings slightly, we have blackness and dark- 

 ness above, and the melancholy tinge of March 

 u])on oiir fields. Monday and Tuesday vvc had a 

 gale from the east, accompanied with heavy chil- 

 ling rain ; the wind veered from the southward 

 round by the east to the north, " against the sun ;" 

 and this, not fhvorable prognostic, has been follow- 

 ed by appropriate weather. The large sea-coal 

 fire or the stove, is still a most necessary append- 

 age to in-door comforts. Added to this, we have 



