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NEW ENGLAND EARTHIER. 



I^Iay 



dustrial University. The number of competitors 

 in each has ranged from one to twenty. 



— The Minnesota State Agricultural Society re- 

 solved that "this association is entirely opposed to 

 any encouragement or permission on the part of 

 the executive committee of any gambling or 

 jockeying whatever, in cAinection with trials of 

 speed at our State Fairs." 



— There is, with many persons, a prejudice 

 against white on the legs or faces of horses. Some 

 one has called attention to the fact that Lexing- 

 ton, the most famous thoroughbred stallion, and 

 Dexter, the fastest trotter in America, have four 

 white feet and a white nose each. 



— A correspondent of the Iowa Homestead ad- 

 vises fruit growers to be very cautious how they 

 apply tar, coal oil, turpentine, salt, &c., to their 

 trees ; he has seen trees lulled by these so-called 

 remedies for the canker-worm, borer, &c. He 

 uses molasses with the most successful results. 



— It is important that every one should know 

 that if hot ashes, containing some tire, are put in 

 a wooden box or barrel containing cold ashes, 

 although they may not come in contact with the 

 cask, they may first set the cold ashes on fire, aud 

 then whatever combustible materials are near it. 



— Norton Clark, of Turin, N. Y., raised from one 

 acre, ninety-five bushels and fovty pounds of yel- 

 low, eight-rowed corn. Twenty loads of stable 

 manure were spread and ploughed under, upon a 

 piece of land that had been in grass ten years, 

 well harrowed, furrowed and planted in rows three 

 feet apart each way. Manured in hill with hog 

 manure, and hoed well three times. 



— Peanuts are raised in North and South Caro- 

 lina and Florida, generally on new land, where 

 the trees are girdled preparatory to clearing, and 

 before the ground is ready for anything else. The 

 cost of planting and cultivating ft about $30 per 

 acre, and the produce from 100 to 200 bushels. 

 The great labor has been in digging, but this is 

 now much lessened by improved implements. 



^A strong extract of blood root, made by cut- 

 ting up the roots and putting them into spirit, and 

 kept in a bottle, is said to be a cure for laurel and 

 other vegetable poisons in sheep, cattle and calves. 

 Give in doses of a table spoonful to calves and 

 sheep, and repeated as necessary at intervals of a 

 few hours. 



— Henry Atwood, Lancaster, Erie County, New 

 York, gives the following as his method of raising 

 wheat on his poorest clay soils. Plough the land 

 in June. Drag well, and cultivate with wheel cul- 

 tivator several times. After the turf begins to 

 ferment or rot, about August 20, plough again, 

 then drag, draw out j'our manure and lay it in 

 heaps 12 feet apart along the center of each land, 

 and be careful not to make your heaps too small ; 

 then spread evenly over the ground; sow your 

 wheat as soon after spreading the manure as pos- 



sible, then put the cultivator on again, drag or 

 harrow, and have it all done by the 1st of Sept. 

 I have never yet failed of getting good wheat. A 

 dairy of 20 or 30 cows is very convenient for treat- 

 ing this kind of land. 



— In Illinois, one student is admitted free to the 

 Industrial University from each county. The 

 j Board of supervisors of Cook county offered, in ad- 

 dition a prize of $30 each to five students who 

 would enter the college at the opening, March 2. 

 ' On Saturday, Feb. 8th, the examination of appli- 

 cants for prize and honorary scholars from Cook 

 county was held at Chicago. The Prairie Fanner 

 regrets that only two young men presented them- 

 selves for examination. 



— At a recent meeting of woolen manufacturers 

 at Chicago, it was voted that "Merchantable wool 

 should be the standard for price, and must be well 

 washed, free from tags and all filth, and tied with 

 only what twine is sufficient to hold the fleece 

 compactly together," and that on unwashed bucks' 

 fleeces a deduction of one-half should be made ; 

 on all unwashed lots a deduction of one-third. 

 As well fix a standard for "merchantable" butter, 

 and then vote to "shrink" all other lots "one-third." 

 That convention was a "big thing" on prices ! 

 "Wonder when they meet again ! 



— After giving the figures of an estimate of the 

 amount of cheese consumed in Europe and in this 

 country, and also of the amount produced, X. A. 

 Willard saj-^s, "we must either get in the habit of 

 eating more cheese in this country, or, if we go on 

 producing at the rate indicated by the above fig- 

 ures, both the home and foreign market will be 

 glutted and cheese will not command 12^0 a pound. 

 While the price of cheese has been declining, that 

 of butter has been rising ; hence if the factory 

 system is continued and more largelj- developed, 

 the lesson of these figures is rather to stand by the' 

 churn." 



—The February Report of the Department of 

 Agriculture contains a summary of the answers 

 received from the Southern States to certain in- 

 quiries of the Commissioner in relation to farm re- 

 sources and products. Reports from two-thirds 

 of the counties of Virginia show a decrease of 

 from ten to sixty per cent, in the value of land 

 since 1860, while an advance is noticed in several 

 counties. In North Carolina the general average 

 of depreciation for the same time is put at fifty per 

 cent.; South Carolina, sixty per cent.; Georgia, 

 from fifty to sixty ; Florida prices are merely 

 nominal; Alabama, about sixty percent.; Louisi- 

 ana, from thirty-three to ninety ; Arkansas is av- 

 eraged at fifty-five per cent. — two counties, New- 

 ton and Benton, an increase ; Jefferson reports 

 lands "almost for nothing ;" Drew, "what creditors 

 please bid ;" Clark, eighty to ninety per cent, de- 

 crease ; Sebastian reports decrease at "ten-tenths," 

 but looking up ; Maryland, reports an advance in 

 price from 1860 of ten to fifty per cent., with a 

 lew exceptions. • 



