42 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



Jan. 



to it a lump of beeswax tlfc size of a walnut ; thor- 

 ouglily dissolve; apply freely every night. It will 

 keep the hands soft, and i.s healing. 



— In Minnesota the Red Astrachan apple proves 

 tender when cultivated and not mulched, and per- 

 fectly hardy when well mulched the year round. 



— A cheap way of saving rain water is to take 

 any old ca.-k, coat the out^ide with coal tar, sink 

 it in the ground, bedding the bottom and sides in 

 clay well packed and at least six inches thick. 



— Forest leaves arc worth more than straw, and 

 they give to manure the character of mold from 

 the woods. They have no superior for the cover- 

 ing of fldwcr beds, for frost does not go straight 

 through the leaves, it must crook around. 



— The only fruit which grows in every climate 

 is the strawberry. It is the only fruit which some- 

 where on the earth is picked every day the year 

 round. 



—Old animals of every kind arc unprofitable, 

 4ind should be got rid of before they become so 

 deteriorated in value as to be difficult to sell even 

 at a very reduced price. 



— Poor feed makes poor cows. When we hear 

 of a cow that gives milk in unusual quantity or 

 quality, we set it down for certain that her owner 

 is a good feeder. 



— A Northern man who recently emigrated to 

 Jctfcrson county, in the lower Valley of Virginia, 

 made 1500 i)0unds of honey from 50 bee stands 

 last summer, which he sold for $450. 



— In Germany, seed wheat is changed from high 

 and poor land to low and rich land. The seed of 

 the first has the most vitality, and makes the best 

 bread. 



— If the best time to engage in a business is 

 when others are leaving it, the present is a good 

 time to buy sheep, says J. Harris, in the Agricul- 

 ■ turist. 



— On some of the Western prairies which have 

 been considered uninhabitable for want of fuel, 

 peat is found that can be pressed by machinery 

 into good fuel. 



— When the cold, wet weather of autumn comes, 

 men and boys put on thick shoes or boots. But 

 women and girls hardly ever make any change 

 until winter comes in dead earnest, and very fre- 

 quently not then. 



— It is advisable, in the construction of poultry 

 houses, to use pine lumber — the more pitch it con- 

 tains the better — as this is very offensive to poultry 

 vermin. Some think it pays well to make the 

 roosting cribs of pine boughs as a protection from 

 their greatest enemy — lice. 



— Dr. D. Walsh, of Rock Island, Illinois, well 

 known as an entomologist, says that all his exam- 

 inations have resulted in the conviction that the 

 black knots on the j)liim tree is the effect of a 

 fungus, and is not a disease nor a gall. He thinks 

 the spores or seeds are formed about the end of 



July, in latitude 40 deg. 30 min., and therefore if 

 the cxcresccn( cs be all cut off and destroyed by 

 the early part of July, an effectual stop will be 

 put to their further spread. 



— The roots of perennial flowers fhould be pro- 

 tected during winter by a muleli of light manure 

 or dead leaves. Nature affords protection to the 

 roots of trees, shrubs and plants, by the fallen 

 leaves. It is a great mistake to remove them for 

 the purpose of making a place look neat. 



— A Southern writer says that the Bermuda grass 

 will renovate old worn out lands in time, stopping 

 gullies, and ( ovcring the galled and scarred spots 

 of earth with its mantle of giecn, where all other 

 things refuse to grow. He also says it can be con- 

 trolled and subdued by proper cultivation. 



— How easy it is for the rich farmer, who can 

 ride around his improved acres, and gaze with de- 

 light on his heavy crops, his blooded stock, and 

 his first class implements and labor-saving ma- 

 chines, to say to his less fortunate neighbor, " Why 

 don't you do this, that, or the other thing ?" 



— In New B: unswick the beech has been used 

 with good success as a hedge plant. The Maine 

 Farmer is convinced that it would yield readily 

 and without detriment to the treatment necessary 

 to form a good, compact hedge, of any form de- 

 sired. 



— A Georgia coiTCspondent of the Southern Cul- 

 tivator says, what with frosts and borers, and yel- 

 lows and rot, the peach, our most delicious fruit, 

 has become so uncertain that many have given it 

 up. The pear is not much better. After all, the 

 apple is the most reliable of all our fruits ; but 

 Northern trees are not fit for Southern culture. 



— The following rule for ascertaining the num- 

 ber of bushels of apples, potatoes, &c., in bins and 

 boxes, is recommended as simple and accurate : 

 for the number of "even" bushels, multiply the 

 number of cubic feet in the bin by 8 and point off 

 one decimal. For "heaped" bushels, multiply by 

 8 twice and point off two. 



—The soil exhibited by Hon. Marshall P. Wil- 

 der, at the American Pomological Society's meet- 

 ing in St. Louis, as the best grape soil of the Rhine, 

 was a hard, tough, yellow clay, the like of which 

 may be found in many places along the south shore 

 of Lake Erie, and over the hills of Hermann, 

 Bluffton, and other points in Missouri. 



— S. J. Woodman, of Chicago, 111., writes to the 

 New York Farmer's Club, that a barrel or a cask 

 of new sweet cider, buried so as to be well covered 

 with fresh earth, will turn to sharp clear, delicious 

 vinegar in three or four weeks, as good as ever 

 sought affinity with cabbage, pickles, or table 

 sauce. 



—A correspondent of the New Hampshire For- 

 mer says: Repeated trials on as many different 

 pieces of land, and each trial a complete success, 

 have convinced us that December, the time that we 



