NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



991 



intrusted ^vith the inspection of the farriers. At 

 what period horses' shoes, as we now have them, were 

 introduced, is, like many other things, lost to us for- 

 ever. Historians inform us that the Emperor Nero, 

 when he undertook short journeys, was drawn by 

 mules which had silver shoes, and those of his wife, 

 Poppaea, had shoes of gold. But these shoes appear 

 to have been a kind of plait of gold and silver stripes, 

 covering the hoofs. About the year 1038, when the 

 Marquis of Tuscany, one of the richest princes of his 

 time, went to meet his affianced bride, (Beatrix,) his 

 horses were shod with silver : the nails were of the 

 same matcriaL Yet in much more modern times, an 

 English ambassador at the court of Paris had silver 

 shoes to his horses, and caused them to be so slightly 

 fi.xed that they soon came off. This appears to us, 

 in the nineteenth century, extravagant folly, and 

 scarcely to be believed ; yet we have evidence of the 

 truth of it. — Fanner s Magazine. 



FARMING SCENES IN THE WEST. 



-Vbout eight years ago, a Dutchman, whose only 

 English was a good-natured " yes" to every possible 

 question, got emplo)Tnent as a stable man. His 

 wages, six dollars and board, that was thirty-six dol- 

 lars in six months, for not one cent did he spend. 

 He washed his own shirt and stockings, mended and 

 patched his own breeches, paid for his tobacco by 

 odd jobs, and laid by his wages. The next six 

 months, being now able to talk good English, he 

 obtained eight dollars a month ; and at the end of six 

 more, had forty- eight dollars ; making in all, for the 

 year, eighty-four dollars. The second year, by vary- 

 ing his employment, — sawing wood in the •winter, 

 working for the corporation in the summer, and mak- 

 ing gardens in the spring, — he laid by a hundred 

 dollars ; and the next year, one hundred and fifty- 

 five dollars ; making, in throe years, three hundred 

 and ninety- nine dollars. With this he bought eighty 

 acres of land. It was as wild as when the deer tied 

 over it and the Indian pursued him. How should he 

 get a living while clearing it r Thus ho did it : he 

 hires a man to clear and fence ten acres ; he himself 

 remains in town, to earn the money to pay for clearing. 

 Behold him already risen a degi'ce — he is an em- 

 ployer. In two years' time, he has twenty acres well 

 cleared, a log-house and stable, and money enough to 

 buy stock and tools. He now rises another step in the 

 world, for he gets married, and with his ample, broad- 

 faced, good-natured wife, he gives up the town, and is 

 now a regular farmer. In Germany, he owned noth- 

 ing, and never could own any thing ; his wages were 

 nominal, his diet chiefly vegetable, and his prospect 

 was, that he would be obliged to labor as a menial 

 for life, barely earning a subsistence, and not leave 

 enough to bury him. In five years he has become 

 the owner in fee simple of a good farm, with com- 

 fortable fixtures, a prospect of rural wealth, an inde- 

 pendent life, and, by the blessing of Heaven and his 

 wife, of an endless posterity. Two words tell the 

 story — industry and economy. These two words 

 will make any man rich. — Indiana Farmer. 



THE WAY TO PULL TURNIPS. 



The Yankee grasps the root by its top, and pulls it 

 with his hand, and then cuts off the tops with a 

 knife. The Englishman has a better way. He 

 sharpens his hoe, and, passing along, cuts, with a 

 single stroke, the tops of the turnip ; then, with the 

 same implement, strikes under it, so as to cut off the 

 t«p-re«t, aa«l brings it out of the earth. In cutting 



off the tops, he guides his hoc so as to throw them 

 into a sort of row in one place, and in digging, he 

 guides it so as to throw the roots together in another 

 row. He will dig the roots about four times as fast 

 as one Yankee with his pulling and knife. — Prairie 

 Farmer, 



PRIZE HAM. 



At the recent Agricultural Fair in Montgomery Co . 

 N. Y., a prize was awarded to Nathan White for tl.e 

 best haras exhibited. His mode of curing is as f al- 

 lows : — 



The pork should be perfectly cold before being ont 

 up. The hams should be salted with fine .salt, with 

 a portion of red pepper, and about a gill of mola.sses 

 to each ham. I^et them remain in salt five week?", 

 then hang them up and .tmoke them with hickory 

 wood for five or six weeks. About the first of April, 

 take them down, and wet them with cold water, and 

 let them be well rubbed with unlcached ashes. Let 

 them remain in bulk for several days, and then hang 

 them in the loft again for use. 



SHEPHERD DOGS. 



Among the wonderful animals exhibited at the 

 State Fair, says the Albany Journal, was Kobert 

 Middlemist's intelligent shepherd dog. He is a beau- 

 tiful animal, and has performed many wonderful ex- 

 ploits. Among those which come strongly authen- 

 ticated, was one where he had followed up a .stray 

 sheep, and after scenting him for a mile, found him 

 among a flock of forty, picked him out unaided by 

 any person, and, after a hard struggle, separated him 

 from the flock, and drove him home. Mr. M. is an 

 old Scotch shepherd, and his dog is one of the best 

 from the Highlands. He attracted general admira- 

 tion. — Rural Neto-Yorker. 



Useful Method. — M. Mammere, the professor ot 

 chemistry at Ilheims, has pubUshed a method of de- 

 tecting cotton or linen in wool or sUk goods. His 

 method consists in ajiplying to the stuff which is 

 suspected a chloride of tin, {chlorine (fittiin.) If 

 there is in the stuff any linen or cotton, its presence 

 is immediately indicated by their coloration in black, 

 which thoy undergo under the action of the chloride 

 of tin, while it has no action upon the wool or silk, 

 this salt being -without action upon animal sub- 

 stances. — Maine Farmer. 



Mammoth Ox. — At the fair of the American In- 

 stitute, New Y'ork, there is an ox supposed to be the 

 largest ever known. Ho is purely of American 

 stock, and will be exhibited at the approaching 

 World's Fair in London. The animal is eight years 

 old, 18i hands high, and measures J 4 feet in length, 

 and 1 1 in girth. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

 Of Gen. Josiah Newhall, Lynn field, a large ap- 

 ple, rather flat, dark red, very fair and beautiful ; 

 the quality about middling. Also, Oakes apple. 

 We have heard different opinions, from fruit-growers 

 in E.sse.x county, as to the identity of the Fall Har- 

 vey and Oakcs apple. But bom these specimcas, we 



