40 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



leares carefully up to the top bunch to give the 

 sprouts a better chance to jirow. 



When I came to America I brought some seed 

 with me, that I bou£iht at a seed store. Whether 

 it was tiie fault of the seed, or of the location 

 where it was sown, I don't know, but I had poor 

 6uccess. It was sown upon a clry, santly loam, 

 exposed to hot suns, and I did not get any sprouts 

 larger than a marble. It is a very delicate vegeta- 

 ble to raise, but when raised is very delicious. As 

 you say, in your remarks, it is cultivated mostlj' 

 for private use. even in England. Not being fully 

 acquainted with climate or the soil at the time I 

 first commenced with them, I lost the seed, and 

 have not since I'urther cx|)erimented with them. 

 I think if the plants could be got ready to be set 

 out as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and 

 transplanted upon very rich and well prepared 

 land, not. too wet nor too drj', they could be made 

 productive and worth cultivating for the sake of 

 having a dish of greens lit to set before an epicure. 

 Unless "Inquirer" lives in a warmer climate than 

 I do. I prcsun)e it is too late to secure another start 

 of the sprouts by breaking otf the leaves as is 

 done in England. e. h. 



Jeffersonville, Vt., Nov. 5, 1867. 



MLTLCHING TREES. 



I noticed a statement in the Farmer that it was 

 beneficial to protect peach trees liy covering the 

 root«. Will it do to put hay around the trunks ? 

 Will not the mice make it their winter quarters 

 and gnaw the bark from the trees. Would it be 

 aidvisable to put hay around pear trees ? . j. p. 



IVesf Chelmsford', Mass., Nov. 15, 1867. 



Remarks. — From our own experience, and from 

 that of others, we have a high opinion of mulch 

 for all kinds of fruit trees. See how nicely trees 

 are mulched in the woods, and then think how 

 different it is wMth those which stand in most of 

 our orchards, both in winter and summer. We 

 hear of the failure of fruit in almost all parts of 

 New England, but in almost evety locality there 

 arc men who succeed in raising apples, pears, &c. 

 We must learn the secret of their success. Mulch- 

 ing, if not one of the secrets of the success of Capt. 

 Geo. Pierce, of Arlington, an account of whose 

 orchard we pulilished a few week since, is one of 

 his practices, particularly for the summer protec- 

 tion of his trees. In applying mulch we have not 

 generally placed it against the trunk. Where it is 

 BO applied, it is but a short job to haul it away 

 and make a mound of earth some twelve to eigh- 

 teen inches high around the trunk, and then you 

 aeed not fear that the mice will girdle the trees. 



"domestic training." 

 "Mattie's" remarks upon "Domestic Training" 

 were so good, I could but echo the editors' hope 

 that they might be "continued." Judging from 

 the tone of her remarks, we should conclude Mat- 

 tie to be a notalile house wife, although her mod- 

 esty deterred her from giving her own way of doing 

 work. Will she not favor us with some of her 

 own experience ? That an unskilful housekeejicr 

 works herself ill, in doing what a skilful one 

 would call an easy task, we all know. How many 

 times we have seen it exemplified ; and I, for one, 

 have seen it in my own house work. Although 

 taught by a judicious mother, and feeling when 

 married quite accomplished, I have found to my 

 iorrow that experience is the best teacher, and I 

 will venture to suggest one point upon which 



young house keepers may meditate — doing too 

 many things at once. 



When young, ambitious, and inexperienced, we 

 try to wash, bake, and iron in one forenoon. Now 

 it may seem veiy plausible theory, that by so do- 

 ing we save wood and time ; but ah, the wear and 

 tear of mind and body far out balances the saving 

 of wood or time. Dinner time finds us heated, 

 fretty, and unfit to do the honors of the table, and 

 night finds us exhausted and care worn, discour- 

 aged and blue, even if we can say, "I have done a 

 good day's work." 



Woman is veiy much inclined to work under 

 excitement. Let her Icara her own disposition, 

 the strength of her own body, and govern herself 

 accordingly. System and order must be learned 

 by experience. Each day brings its duties. Let 

 them be faithfully performed every day and no 

 more, and then the strength will be husl)anded for 

 the next day's work. Overwork to-day, and to- 

 moi-row's work must be neglected. Then another 

 hard day will be the result to bring the "work up," 

 and so the housewife will become worried and 

 care worn over the same work that a stead> , every- 

 day worker would enjoj'. The education may be 

 all right, and sti'l the woman fail to make a good 

 wife. Practice makes perfect. Sarah. 



West Amesbury, Mass., Nov., 1867. 



LICE ON cows. 



I wish you would send through your paper a re- 

 ceipt for the best thing to kill lice on cows. T have 

 tried tobacco and chamber ley, snuff, sulphur, 

 &c., &c., steeped together and it don't kill them. 



Franklin, Mass., Nov. 10, 1867. J. Jordan. 



Remarks. — A judicious application of tmguen- 

 tum, thoroughly rubbed in with the hand, never 

 failed to destroy vermin on cattle when we have 

 used it. Use a very little at a time, and rub until 

 every hair is touched with it. The cattle ought 

 not to be exposed to rain or cold while it is being 

 used. Unguentum is a powerful and rather dan- 

 gerous application. When lice and their eggs 

 have got a strong hold it is a very diflBcult matter 

 to exterminate them, and it can be effected only 

 by the repeated and thorough use of medicine. 

 "Your prescriptions are all correct, only double 

 your doses for such a powerful constitution," said 

 an old practitioner, who was called to consult with 

 a young doctor who attended a friend of ours in a 

 violent atiack of fever. This may afford a hint to 

 our correspondent to double the thoroughtiess of 

 his applications. 



a bounty on woodchucks 

 Would remedy the evil a correspondent com- 

 plained of in the Farmer, a few weeks ago. Every 

 where that the dog law is enforced, dogs grow less, 

 just as the framers of that law desired. In New 

 Hampshire, as well as in Massachusetts, wood- 

 chucks have increased in numbers until we cannot 

 raise peas or beans beyond a stone's throw of the 

 house. Hence beans have been scarce and costly. 

 It would be unwise to return to the first evil — dogs 

 — to remedy the present evil of woodchucks ; an 

 animal so easily destroyed by traps and guns. It 

 was an act of the wise men to offer a bounty for 

 crows — the farmer's friends ; an act of wiser men 

 repealed it for reasons that would ostraci-e the 

 woodcliuck. Let the dog-tax be used to pay the 

 bounty on the woodchuck's head. It is but 

 right, if the protection given the wool grower by 

 the dog law is indirectly a burden upon all other 

 farmers, that the income from the wool growers' 



