1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Vjz 



were equal in value to the crop of rye ; leaving 

 the ground iu fine condition for grass and clover 

 seed." 



— A correspondent writing to the Scmitific 

 American says : "Common brass clocks may be 

 cleaned by immersing the works in boiling water 

 Rough as this treatment may appear, it works 

 well, and I have for many years past boiled my 

 clocks whenever they stop from an accumulation 

 of dust or thickening of oil upon the pivots. They 

 sliould be lioiled in pure rain water and dried on 

 a warm stove or near the fire. I write this by the 

 tick of an eight-day clock which was boiled a year 

 ago, and has behaved perfectly well ever since." 



EXTKACTS AND KEPLIES. 



STICKS AND OTHER ORTS — DRAINAGE. 



1. The residuum of a cow's weekly allowance of 

 hay is often a bushel, more or less, of little sticks 

 of hardback, willow, rosebushes, and stout stalks 

 of vervain and other weeds, too coarse for bed- 

 ding. If cows eat all but this very coarse stutf, 

 without cutting in a hay cutter, is it worth while 

 to cut it ? Is there no danger of injury to the in- 

 testines of the stock ? 



2. No doubt properly laid tiles are best for 

 drains. But the first cost is a serious difficulty 

 with some farmers. If drains three feet or more 

 in depth, have one and a half feet of small stones 

 tipped into the bottom, and arc covered with three 

 inches or so of straw or brush, before throwing 

 the top soil, may they not ordinarily he expected 

 to answer the ])urpose of drains for some years. 



Paris, Me., Dec, 1867. e. 



Remarks. — We do not think it desirable that 

 cows, or any other stock, should be made to eat 

 the sticks and stems mentioned by our correspon- 

 dent ; still, we believe that corn stalks, straw and 

 other fodder, that contain more or less nutritive 

 matter as well as bulk, may be economized, under 

 some circumstances, at least, by cutting. And 

 certainly the manure with which the orts from cut 

 feed is mingled, is more comfortably worked over 

 than that which is bound together by full-length 

 corn stalks, straw, &c. 



If you are in the habit of throwing the corn 

 butts into the barnyard, let the sticks and other 

 orts go there too. When collected and fermented 

 in the spring, the orts will get softened and do 

 no harm among the manure. The finer such 

 materials are made — including the corn stalks 

 —the l)etter it will all be. We should anticipate 

 no trouble from the cattle eating any portion of 

 the coarse stuff" which they chose to. 



2. You say the first cost of laying drain tiles is 

 a serious difficulty with some farmers. So it is 

 with many. On high land, drains may be laid with 

 stones that will last for generations, by takmg 

 pains in making the passage for the water, and 

 placing the stones by hand, rather than dumping 

 them into the ditch from a cart. 



The mode which you suggest would be a good 

 5ne on hard land, if you were to make a gullet or 

 water passage, and lay the stones carefully around 

 t. 



Where drains are laid with stones on soft land, 

 the mice make holes from the surface down to the 

 stones, and the rain carries the soil down so that 

 the drain soon Ijecomes choked, and the water 

 breaks out at the surface. 



In Ohio, a sort of fresh-water lobster, called the 

 crawfish, has been found so efficient an agent in 

 keeping stone drains open, that a correspondent of 

 the Ohio Farmer expresses his prel'ercnce for 

 stones over tiles wherever this little creature 

 abounds. 



LICE ON cattle. 



A Waterbury, Vt., "Subscriber" is reminded of 

 the "pot calling the kettle black,'' by the man 

 who, after regretting that so dangerous a poison as 

 unguentum should be suggested, went on to re- 

 commend arsenic. Nor is he any better pleased 

 with the idea of carrying fire into the barn, or 

 building an expensive smoke-house or other ap- 

 paratus necessary to smoke out the lice with 

 tol)acco. 



Mr. L. E. Bicknell, of Windsor, Mass., also tes- 

 tifies to having seen this method tried, and the 

 result was, a pan of coals kicked across the staj^le 

 and a lively scramble of all hands to keep the 

 barn from burning. 



J. W. Nye, of Keene, N. H., pours whale oil on 

 the whole length of the back, which works its way 

 down on the body, and, by two applications, kills 

 all the lice without injury to the cow or other 

 animal. 



The "Subscriber" at Waterbury says that thor- 

 oughly dried sand occasionally sprinkled over ani- 

 mals from nose to tail will keep them as clear of 

 lice in winter as they are in summer. 



HENS and hen yards. 



I have a shed twenty by thirty feet for my sheep 

 to run in in the winter. I think of I»uilding a yard 

 at the south end of that shed twenty liy twenty- 

 five feet, and keep my hens in the ^hcd yard. How 

 many can I keep there and not have them too thick, 

 so as to bi'ecd distempers ? How high docs the 

 fence need to be ? How much grain will each hen 

 eat lietwecn the first of May and the first of Octo- 

 ber ? Will some one that has kept hens shut up, 

 answer this, and oblige Young Farmer ? 



Walling ford, Vermont. 



Remarks. — From twenty to thirty fowls are 

 about as many as we deem advisable to be kept 

 together. In this section we are much troubled 

 with vermin, which are very difficult to dislodge 

 when they have obtained possession of the prem- 

 ises. If the fence is picketed it need not be very 

 high. — perhaps six or eight feet. Something like 

 a gill a day of corn, wheat, rye or barley is a com- 

 mon allowance for hen rations. Mr. Bement con- 

 fined one cock and seven Poland hens for a feeding 

 experiment. • A peck of corn was consumed in 

 eleven days ; a peck of barley lasted seven days ; 

 peek of millet, eight days ; oats, six days ; wheat 

 screenings, seven days. 



The following statement which was received 

 about a year ago, "turns up" rather late perhaps^ 



