138 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



NoTember 14, 1833. 



probable tliat it will produce all the desired ad- 

 vantages of keeping the roots free from plants 

 which will exhaust the soil ; at the same time 



they retired so early to rest, that they seldom need- ; flocks and herds, and are the proprietors or own- 

 ed a candle to light them to their beds: and they j ers of the soil, they are but little more than stew- 

 rose as early in the inorningas they could see to ' ards to their laborers. And this slioidd excite 

 that it will secure our trees from the eflects of our j work. In the heat of the day, unless a showerior them to labor industriously with their own hands, 

 severe droughts." something extra called them to e.xert themselus, ! and to do all they can within themselves. Wheii 



Mr John Spicer of East Barrington, N. Y., in an | they laid aside their labors for an hour or two, j ad j diet and labor are scarce and dear, and a man has 

 article republished in tiie N. E. Farmer, vol. x. p. ! indulged themselves in a comfortable nap ai er I several farms, or more land to improve and culti- 



387 "ives a method, which he adopted with suc- 

 cess to protect his nursery and other grounds from 

 field mice. He says, " I took in a basket a bush- 

 el of shelled corn, and sowed it throughout the 

 nursery in the grass. I then turned in twenty or 

 thirty young hogs, and after a day or two, 1 sowed 

 another bushel ; the shoats rooted the grass all 

 over, and destroyed the mice in their habitations. 

 Last fall I practised the same method, and find 

 no appearance of mice. I have probably a thou- 

 sand apple trees that are from one and a half to 

 three inches in diameter, standing in grass fields. 

 I pastured sixty or seventy hogs in them that con- 

 tained the apple trees, and many times the hogs 

 ran in the other fields, and there is no ap|)earance 

 of mice in any field where the hogs have run. I 

 was so much in favor of the plan, that I turned 

 them into the meadows, and let them into nil my 

 fields, except where grain was sowed ; and al- 

 thoufh inice have been so numerous, I can dis- 

 cover very little of their work on my flirm con- 

 taining three hundred acres of improved land, and 

 quite a portion of mucky land, such as is general- 

 ly selected by mice as their residence. I would 

 observe, that there have been great complaints, 

 and much damage done about this section of 

 the country. Now it remains for others to say 

 whether the hogs eat up the mice as they do the 

 rattle snakes, or whether their trampling and con- 

 tinual rooting drive them oft'." 



With regard to cultivatiug the birch, JVicol's 

 Planter's Kalendar, says in substance, that birch 

 seed should be gathered in September, in Eng- 

 land. It occurs in small pendulous cones, which are 

 easily shaken off when ripe even by light winds ; 

 so that by the end of the month it has generally 

 disappeared, or at least the best and first ripened 

 has been shed. It is therefore necessary to em- 

 brace the earliest opportunity of collecting it after 

 it is ripe. The ripeness is easily ascertained by 

 the looseness of texture of the cones. When ripe 

 they will part into pieces in the hand, in the act of 

 pulling. If it is intended to sow these seeds in au- 

 tumn,they should be sowed as soon as gathered 

 from the trees, and before they become dry. 



If birch seeds are to be sown when gathered, it 

 is a matter of little moment whether the cones be 

 in a dry state when gathered or not. But if the 

 seed be intended for spring sowing, the cones 

 must be gathered when in a dry state ; and every 

 day's gathering should be carried to a dry loft and 

 spread thin ; for if a large quantity of cones be 

 put together, when new gathered, they will soon 

 grow hot, and so be destroyed. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



AGRICULTURAL ESSAYS, Nos. lU. & IV. 



dinner. This gave them fresh strength and vigi r 



and they went forth to the labor of the eveni 



with siiirit and pleasure. And if farmers woi Id 



work as early and late as they could in the su i- 



mer season, they might rest from eleven until t o 



o'clock, anj escape the intense heat and thirst jf letting or putting out a farm, as abov 



the day; aivd not be one half so much fatigu d i duce of which may amount to ei"htv 



as others, wh« begin their labor late in the mot - i dred pounds, would be twenty, oi^ twcntyfive per 

 ing, at six or lerhaps seven o'clock, and who, o cent in favor of the proprietor. And he will not 

 perform the \aho-s of the day, must bear the he t have the trouble of providing for, and paying a 

 and burden of it, :ind go to their beds at night e - number of people ; some of whom, alter all his 

 ceeding weary, and<^uite exhausted. From clevd attention and punctuality toward them, willnotac- 

 till two, you may wah, round your farm, stir ha , I knowledge themselves satisfied and contented, 

 or do any light labor, v\^thout fatiguing yourself i ' Good help, as it is called, is generally scarce and 

 t!ie least. This walk willrefresh your spirits; ar 1 ' clear, and with difiiculty obtained; an<' a farmer 

 may save your lands from -Jie inroads of unru r who hires careless, ignorant and slothful laborers, 



cattle, sheep, swine, &c. W-dls and other fencfe 

 should often be inspected, if yiu wish to preser 

 the fruits of your labors, and hailan hour, ormoi , 

 in the time and season of it, devoipd to this pii 

 pose, would not fail of being well re^vjiiled. Th 

 Iiints may be improved on ; and I ol»se this f ;• 

 per by observing, that mowing and li(»ing, bt h 

 for comfort and profit, should be pcrfi)rm-'.rj eai y 

 in the morning and late in the evening. 



E X C n A N G I N G WORK. 



Farmers who handle but little money, sh-n d 



vate than he can take care of, unless he hires a 

 number of laborers, he should let, or put them to 

 the halves, as it is called, to honest and industri- 

 ous men, if he can find them. For, the diflerence 

 between hiring laborers and boardinj.' them, and 



', the pro- 

 a hun- 



notwithstanding all his own industry, will never 

 row rich. 



WORCESTER CATTLE SHOW. 



Reports of Committee, on ff'orking Oxen, made ai 



the Cattle Shoiv, Oet. 10, 1832. 

 Committee .-—George Folsom of Worcester, Chair- 

 man. Job Kainger of New Braintree, John R. 

 Nye of Barre, Stephen Davis of Oxford, Henry 

 Snow of Shrewsbury. 



Among the numerous objects claiming the atten- 

 tion of agriculturists on an occasion like the pre- 

 be cautious of entering into cash erigagemeivj;! sent, that noble animal, the Ox, stands preeminent, 

 they will find it more convenient to exchange Ld In expressing this opinion, your Committee do not 

 bor, than to hire and pay money. Neighbors w hi mean to depreciate the merits of any oilier com- 



tnl • 



ave lands to break up, and teams to connect to^ 

 gethcr, may do this business cheaper, by exchang- 

 ing with each other, than by hiring help and cat- 

 tle. It will often be found mutually beneficial to 

 make exchanges even in mowing and lioeinf, 

 Through a diil'erence in the situations and soils if 

 farms, though adjoining each other, and througi 

 early cultivation in the one, and late in the othe, 

 it frequently happens, that the corn, grass, fla, 

 &c, on one, is forwarder and ripe sooner by se- 

 eral days, that on the other. In this case it woul 

 be prudent to unite their labors and not to hire; 

 this would be almost so much saved. But th(n, 

 these exchanges should never make any alteratio, 

 cither in meats or drinks, in the farmer's famiV. 

 For, if any extra provision is made, an cxtraord- 

 nary expense is incurred. The chief use of lam 

 and that which makes it principally beneficial an 

 profitable to a man, is this, it gives him em])loj 

 ment ; it is of very little advantage or profit t 

 him who does not labor upon it in person. . 

 farmer should therefore be cautious of hiring muo 

 help ; and at no time more than he can fully ad 

 profitably employ and readily pay. And to o 

 this, if he hires for a month, or for a year, e 

 1 should endeavor to raise a surplusage of soie 

 one, or of several articles to the amount of the i- 

 I borer's wages at least. And if he does this, evii 

 then, he finds that a year's wages are not easir 

 paid ; it will take off a considerable part of h» 

 corn, flax, dairy, or some other produce. 



Those fanners who hire much labor done, wil 

 soon be convinced, if men of sense, that scarci 

 any farm will yield six per cent and keep up thi 



ON LABOR. 



When I have been riding in the ceuntry in a 

 very hot day, and seen farmers mowing and hoe- 

 ing in tlie full blaze of the noon day sim, the cus- 

 tom of those farmers with whom I was conversant 

 when a lad, has immediately occurred to my 

 mind. In the months of June, July and August necessary repairs ; and that although they possesi 



l>(tUors for popular favor ; on the other hand, we be- 

 heve that very high importance may be aliached to 

 each, and yet the palm of superior usefulness be 

 awarded to the Ox. The horse, the sheep, and the 

 hog, may be allowed to possess merits and attrac- 

 tions of quite an elevated character, but after all, 

 their claims to distinction are far below those of 

 their brother animal, whose limbs are the very per- 

 sonification of strength, whose flesh is the most 

 substantial, as well as savory, of aliments, and 

 whose bide is the best of all applications to the 

 soles of honest men, and backs of rogues. 



By a very wise and happy arrangement in the 

 economy of nature, no other animal is tnore exten- 

 sively diflTuscd throughout every part of the habita- 

 ble earth. He exists amidst polar snows, and under 

 a tropical sun, in the dreary wastes of the norlh, 

 and in the burning heats of the south, the same 

 patient, laborious and noble animal, though various- 

 ly adapted to the nature of the regions he occupieF. 

 It has been remarked of man, that " he is not 

 only a being working, but he is a being formed to 

 work in society." The same observation may be 

 applied with equal justice and truth to the ox. 

 Side by side with his fellow, he will toil froiu 

 earlisst dawn to latest eve, without uttering a sin- 

 gle note of complaint ; but place him alone in the 

 harness, detached from the society of bis kind, 

 and his moans and bellowings resound on every 

 side ; at least this is quite probable from what we 

 know of his disposition and habits. It is true that 

 in ancient times, and even now among semi-barba- 

 j-ous nations, the unyoked ox is employed in a 

 tervice assigned by modern improvement to man 

 and the flail. " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that 



