346 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



skies ; that is, they have attained all they need, 

 to enable them to fulfil the object of their exist- 

 ence. Brief lessons, yet how perfectly acquired, 

 and how competent to enable them to gratify 

 their wants. 



The Dog-Star rages. The air seems to lose its 

 freshness and elasticity — the heat is more op- 

 pressive than ever — man and his animals get tired 

 sooner than in July, and the returning Sabbath 

 is welcomed with grateful delight. 



"How sweet the Sabbath wakes its rest again ! 

 Anil on each weary miml what rapture dwells. 

 To hear once more the pleasant chiming bells, 

 Tliat from each steeple, jjeeping here and there, 

 Murmur a soothing lullalty to care." 



Appropriate and peculiar duties also belong to 

 August. The first of the month may be im- 

 proved to get in a crop of flat turnips, where cir- 

 cumstances have prevented its being done earlier. 

 Superphosphate of lime will be an excellent ma- 

 nure for them, if the barn manure is not to be 

 had. Let the sowing immediately follow the 

 harrowing, while the soil is fresh and n|ioist. 

 Thin them early and hoe frequently, and a good 

 crop may be expected. Nothing will prove more 

 advantageous to your milch cows than a plentiful 

 supply of roots with their winter feed. They 

 largely incease the flow of milk, and keep the 

 system in a healthful condition. If there is a 

 mixture, comprising turnips, beets, carrots, pars- 

 nips, ruta bagas and mangels, so much the better. 

 If the hay crop proves short, sow a liberal 

 breadth to turnips, in order to make up the de- 

 ficiency. 



Weeds. — Keep down the weeds. Each fully- 

 developed dock, or wormwood, sorrel, mullein or 

 mallows, leaves seeds sufficient to propagate its 

 kind for y^iars to come. The thorough cultiva- 

 tion of this year lessons the labor of the next, 

 and gives vigor and weight to the crop now under 

 your hands. Do not "lay down the hoe" yet. 

 What a proud moment it is, when the best far- 

 mer in your neighborhood declares to you that a 

 handful of weeds cannot be found in your six 

 acre lot of potitoes and corn ! Weeds perpetuate 

 their kind, steal nutrition from the crop and ex- 

 haust the soil. Who can afford to let them grow ? 

 Haying. — Some persons do not cut their mead- 

 ows — that is, low land bearing an inferior grass — 

 until late in August, or even September. But 

 these grasses are far more valuable cut as soon as 

 they are in bloom, made as little as possible, so 

 that they will keep, and put away with three or 

 four quarts of salt per ton. Cattle will eat one 

 or two foddorings of this each day in preference 

 to feeding entirely on good upland hay. It af- 

 fords a variety, and they like this as well as tlie 

 rest of us. 



Pastures. — There is a general belief that Au- 

 gust is the favorable month for cutting bushes. 



How that is, we do not know. But it is evident 

 that a vast amount of labor is annually expended 

 in '"bush-whacking," and it is labor that willnot 

 stay done. In a summer or two they are up again 

 as large as ever, and the work must be done over 

 again. Now suppose an experiment is made, and 

 the results watched, so as to know what a'dvan- 

 tages may be derived from it ? Burn the bushes 

 on a single acre after they are cut, and then plow 

 as well as it can be done, say two, three or five 

 inches, and apply some sort of manure — guano, 

 bone-dust, or superphosphate, if other is not to 

 be had. We should prefer the bone-dust, 500 

 pounds to the acre, and then sow a mixture of 

 grasses, in which white clover seed should make 

 a part. Will some person make this experiment, 

 and let us know whether it proves better than the 

 annual cutting of bushes? 



Draining. — Our summer droughts usually af- 

 ford a fine opportunity in August to ditch and 

 drain the wet portions of the farm. Let it be 

 improved. 



Meadow Muck. — No one thing has wrought 

 higher advantages to the farmer, than the ex- 

 change of a portion of his sunken swamp land to 

 the high ground, and returning some of the sand 

 and gravel to the low. It greatly benefits both. 

 It is not necessary to recapitulate these advan- 

 tages here, but only to suggest that the time is 

 at hand. 



As an absorbent to the manure heap, meadow 

 muck is worth, at least, $2,00 per cord, where 

 the farm contains what is usually denominated 

 plain land. 



California Trees. — The San Joaquin (Cal.) 

 Republican tells some famous great stories about 

 the mammoth trees of Calaveras County. In one 

 grove of them, it says, there is a first-class ho- 

 tel well fitted up, and with fine accommodations 

 for travellers. Near the hotel is a building 

 eighty feet long by fourteen feet wide, divided in- 

 to two fine bowling alleys and built upon the top 

 of a fallen log ! The lower part of the log, which 

 is separated from the main portion, is placed on 

 end, and is to be hollowed out and converted into 

 a spacious ball-room more than thirty feet in di- 

 ameter. ^^ 



'trees for Railroads.— The Chicago Press says 

 that the Illinois Central Railroad Company have 

 contracted for the planting of three rows of locust 

 trees on each side of the Illinois Central Railroad 

 for tlie distance of one hundred and twenty 

 miles. The rows are to be set eight feet apart, 

 and the trees three feet from each other. In eight 

 years, it is said, the trees will furnish ties in 

 place of those which have become rotten. They 

 will also furnish a delightful shade in summer, 

 and a protection from the snow drifts in winter. 



