232 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



of April, in a warm place, with the ground well 

 filled with fine compost. 



Parsnips and onions should be planted early, 

 in a deep, fine soil, slightly covered and well 

 rolled. 



Last season, after we had prepared the 

 ground for our onions, we sprinkled on a good 

 dressing of fine soot and raked it in, and then 

 sowed the seeds and had a good crop, — the 

 maggot giving us no trouble. 



Last foil we prepared the ground and planted 

 some tomato seeds in hills and covered them 

 with last year's tomato vines. We expect 

 they will start early, and that by means of our 

 plant protectors, they will thrive without being 

 disturbed by transplanting. 



Whoever will prepare and sow a bed in this 

 way will soon find a few scores or hundreds of 

 plants pricking through the soil and putting on 

 their green robes, and will watch their growth, 

 and open them to the sunshine, and protect 

 them from the cold air, and give them water 

 and find more pleasure In taking care of them 

 than In any other part of his garden or field. 



In watering tender plants it is well to add 

 enough warm water to take off the chill, and 

 to' add to each pailful a teaspoonful of sul- 

 phate of ammonia or a quart of urine from the 

 house. 



"WEIGHT OF MANURE. 

 Over-loading of horses and oxen is one of 

 the principal causes of the thousand Ills with 

 which they are afflicted. Especially is this the 

 case with horses, as they move quicker and are 

 more nervous. This over-loading does not 

 always arise from a desire to get along faster 

 with the work, but from an ignorance of the 

 weight of the materials that are being handled. 

 We have often seen a horse struggling 

 through ploughed ground with a cart full of 

 wet manure behind him, which did not, prob- 

 ably, weigh less than one ton ! The same 

 error Is often committed in hauling bricks, 

 stones, gravel and sand. Every person who 

 is not acquainted with the weight of such sub- 

 stances, should fill a bushel basket with some 

 one of them, and weigh It, and then ascertain 

 how many baskets his cart will hold. In this 

 ■way he can usually tell how much weight he 

 is requiring his horse or oxen to draw, and 

 will not be likely to overload them. The fol- 

 lowing will give him some idea of the weight 

 of manure. A solid foot of half rotted sta- 



ble manure will weigh, upon an average, 56 

 pounds. If It Is coarse or dry, it will average 

 48 pound to the foot. A load of manure, or 

 3G cubic feet, of first quality, will weigh 2016 

 pounds; second quality, 1728 pounds. Weight 

 to the acre — elglit loads of first kind, weigh- 

 ing 16,128 pounds, will give 108 pounds to 

 each square rod, and less than 2| pounds to 

 each square foot. Five loads will give 63 

 pounds to the rod. An acre containing 43,- 

 560 square feet,^the calculation of* pounds per 

 foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily made. 



The Disteibution of Seed. — "Behold 



how great a matter a little fire kindleth." A 



single spark is the cause of destruction to the 



city. A single seed becomes the source of 



food for hungr}' millions. One fact is the 



counterpart of others. 



A quart package of Tappahannock wheat, sent 

 to a county in Pennsylvania, produced a bushel 

 the first year, and five hundred bushels in three 

 years, which was sold for $2000 for seed. Other 

 wheat was destroyed h.v the fly. This was tvyo 

 weeks earlier and escaped. There are now prob- 

 ably millions of bushels of this variety, produc- 

 ing annually more than one million dollars more 

 money than the deteriorated varieties which it 

 displaced. 



For the Keio England Farmer, 

 FARMIlfa- IN" BARTOW, VT. 



DUTCH CATTLE AND FARM BUILDINGS OF THOMAS 

 BAKER, ESQ. 



The pleasant and thriving village of Barton, 

 Orleans County, Yt., was for a few years the 

 terminus of the Passumpsic River railroad, 

 and received great benefit from the business 

 transacted here with the surrounding country, 

 and some thought it would hardly survive the 

 withdrawal of business consequent on the ex- 

 tension of the road to Canada line. But a 

 very superior water power had so attracted 

 capitalists that the village still continues to 

 grow rapidly in wealth and population. 

 Another desirable feature Is the co-operation of 

 the village residents with the farmers in carry- 

 ing out plans and enterpi ises for the public good. 

 It was this regard for each other's welfare that 

 enabled them so easily to raise three thou- 

 sand dollars to fit up a fair ground and present 

 its use to the cotmty agricultural society for 

 five years. This society has one executive 

 committee in each town. Barton ib represented 

 by Thomas Baker, whose stock and farming 

 operations are worthy of extended notice. 

 During a recent visit there I made a few notes, 

 the substance of which may interest my fellow 

 farmers . 



His farm consists of seven hundred acres, 

 lie has now four hundred sheep, well bred 

 Alerinos, that yield a washed lleece of about 



