50 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



BHORl-HORN STOCK IN VERMONT. 



An occasional correspondent, and a great 

 admirer of good stock, lately visited the Short- 

 Ilorn herd of A. M. Win^low & Son, Putney^ 

 Vt. Though he has seen miuh of the best 

 stock of New England, both at Shows and on 

 the farms of individual breeders, he says he 

 thinks the Messrs. Winslow's herd, taken all 

 in all, excels every thing he has seen else- 

 where. 



Among their herd of fifteen thorougbred 

 cows is Lady Sale, a very fine animal, which 

 has t.aken first premiums wherever she has 

 been exhibited ; and another cow, whose name 

 he does not mention, from the sale of whose 

 calves thiity-tix hundred dollars have been 

 realized during the past seven years. 



Rising Star, a bull six years old, weighs 2500 

 pounds, and is a fine specimen of the Durham 

 race of cattle. The bull calf, Duke of Putney, 

 by sixth Duke of Thorndale, out of Lady Sale 

 sixth, is ten months old, weighs 10 cwt., and 

 will be remembered by the visitors at the State 

 Fair, the past fall, as the winner of the first 

 premium. He was there spoken of by some 

 stock men as probably ecjual to any animal of 

 his age in the world. In color, the Duke 

 of Putney is of a dark wine, with a few 

 small streaks of white. One thousand dollars 

 have been refused for the calf, and two thou- 

 sand for its mother — prices that must be both 

 comfortable to the owners, and complimen- 

 tary to the stock. 



One pair of their thoroughbred oxen, weigh- 

 ing 3800 pounds, were very fine animals. 



Eight calves of a red color, with a very 

 little white, were nice and thrifty, for young- 

 sters. Among another lot of four calves, was 

 a heifer for which $50 had been refused. She 

 was very large and promising. When such 

 stock brings such prices, asks our correspon- 

 dent, "why do we not have more such herds, 

 and more such breeders as Messrs. Winslow 

 & Sons ? Doesn't such stock pay as well as 

 the seventeen, eighteen or twenty-dollar cows 

 that your cattle market reporter alluded to in 

 his last week's report?" 



Window Plants. — Window Plants should 

 not be kept very warm at this season. They 

 should have all the sun and air, and as little 

 of the artificial heat of the room as possible. 

 These remarks apply especially to Mignonette, 

 which is very impatient of in-door confine- 

 ment. Succulents, such as Cacti, are excel- 



lent window plants in this respect, as the dry 

 air does not alfect them. To keep the air 

 al>out the plants moist, is one of the secrets of 

 window-culture. Some who have very fine 

 windows well stocked with fine plants, make 

 glazed cases with folding doors of them, by 

 which, when the room is highly heated and 

 very dry, they can be enclosed in an atmos- 

 phere of their own. In such cases, ferns and 

 mosses can be grown to perfection, and pend- 

 ant plants in hanging vases give a Brazilian 

 forest appearance to our happy Christmas 

 homes. — Gardener'' s Monthly. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 FARM HELP. 



Although I have recently written upon this 

 subject, I desire to add a few more thoughts 

 suggested by reading the article and comments 

 thereon in a recint number of the Farmkr, for 

 it is one of vital importance, and its thorough 

 discussion cannot fail to awaken a deep inter- 

 est with every cultivator of the soil. When 

 it is freely admitted that the difficulty of pro- 

 curing good help is the main cause of slow 

 progress in making permanent improvements ; 

 that it takes away much of the pleasure of 

 farming, and is frequently the turning point in 

 the sale of the farm, it is high time for farmers 

 to consult together to devise and adopt, if 

 possible, some remedial measures. For one, 

 I see no reason why decided improvement can- 

 not be effected both in the supply and charac- 

 ter of the help, by individual exertion and 

 earnest co-operation. It may not be accom- 

 plished under the old nor under the present 

 system. Such an entire change in the charac- 

 ter of help demands corresponding change in 

 the mode of dealing with it. 



But fanners should remember that they are 

 not alone in their trials with help. Since the 

 first year of the war no industrial occupation 

 has been exempt from the evils of whicii they 

 complain. The concurrent testimony of all 

 employers is, that although they pay extrava- 

 gantly high wages, much less work is per- 

 formed in a day than formerly. So great was 

 the demand for labor, compared with the sup- 

 ply, that workmen had the advantage. And 

 it can hardly be said that any craft or class 

 of workmen rendered themselves particularly 

 conspicuous in disregarding the rights of em- 

 ployers. The same spirit of independence 

 and alertness to better one's condition has 

 been manifested by all classes, from the com- 

 mon laborer up to the professional ranks. Af- 

 ter all, this IS but carrying out the spirit of 

 the age. Time is the working man's capital, 

 and he only seeks to make the most of it, as 

 the man of wealth does of his investments. 

 But the tide is setting against them. Notwith- 

 standing the repeated strikes, and the extend- 

 ed and clamorous talk during the short-time 

 movements early in the year, wages have fallen, 

 and from one- fourth to one- third more labor 



