286 



XEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



Jr^E 



follows : select good wedge-shaped animals ; h(?avy 

 hind quarters, tapering towards the head ; with 

 light heads, long faces and long wax-colored horns ; 

 slim necks, small tails, capacious udders, run- 

 ning well forwards; milk veins large; teats good 

 size, rather long, and set well apart. 



— The Fartnei-'s Cabinet says a piece of lard as 

 large as a walnut mixed with dough, will cause a 

 hen to commence laying immediately after she 

 has been broken up from sitting ; and by giving 

 hens fat in this way, they may be kept laying all 

 winter. 



— Dr. Piper sends the New York Evening Post 

 the following remedy for garget in cows : hydrio- 

 date of potash, one ounce and a half; water, one 

 pint ; to be given in doses of one tablespoonful 

 two pr three times a day. It may be mixed with 

 meal, or put into a pail of water. This is probably 

 the best remedy known. 



— In a i-ccent discussion before the Bedford, N. 

 H., Farmer's Club, the question of applying ma- 

 nures to sod ground was discussed, and at the close 

 of the discussion twenty to one voted that manure 

 should be applied to the sod after it had been 

 turned over, and as near the surface as it is possi- 

 ble to cover it, not over three inches deep". 



^To prevent smut in grain, a correspondent of 

 the Prairie Farmer directs to spread the grain 

 thinly on a floor, sprinkled with brine strong 

 enough to bear up an egg. Then add two quarts 

 of slacked lime, and shovel over until the kernels 

 are uniformly coated. This should be done the 

 day before it is sown. It will kill the spores of 

 smut and quicken the growth of the seed. 



— At a late discussion by the New York Far- 

 mers' Club, Horace Greeley said, "I consider deep 

 ploughing a remedy for the woes of this country. 

 No garden or orchard ought to be planted unless 

 trenched two feet deep, so that the roots can pene- 

 trate to the moisture. Two feet is not deep enough, 

 but I am so modest I stop here !" With some of 

 our New England teams and on some of our New 

 England soils, we think, if obliged to "cither hold 

 or drive." one-half of that depth would fully satisfy 

 his "modesty," by dinner time of the first day's 

 trial. 



— A correspondent of the Country Gentleman re- 

 cently found the bees in a hive kept in a cellar, the 

 temperature at the time being about 38°, very un- 

 easy, trying to get out at the entrance and at the 

 holes in the honey board, both of which were cov- 

 ered with wire cloth. When 'dark he removed the 

 honey-board, made five additional holes, cleaned 

 out the dead bees from the bottom board by the 

 use of a bent wire, and all have been perfectly 

 quiet since. They were suffering from want of 

 sufficient ventilation. 



— Notwithstanding a scarcity of water which 

 rendered it impossible to work up the whole crop 

 of beets at the Chats worth factory, last fall, the 

 Frairie Partner says that sixty-five thousand 



pounds of sugar, of fine quality were produced, 

 and have been sold at good prices. The work will 

 be prosecuted with renewed vigor the coming sea- 

 son. It is also stated by the Western Rural that at 

 this establishment about 400 head of cattle have 

 been fed through the winter on beet pulp, with a 

 small amount of grain, the cattle fattening finely 

 on the pulp. 



— A correspondent of the New England Home- 

 stead has for the last twenty-five years, planted 

 potatoes, nbt larger, on an average, than an ordi- 

 nary hen's egg, and they yet produce as sound, 

 and as large a product as at first. Potatoes inad- 

 vertently left undug, if they do not freeze during 

 winter, invariably produce sound ones, larger and 

 more abundant than those kept in the cellar 

 through winter. This has lately suggested to him 

 the plan of keeping potatoes excluded from the 

 air from the time of digging and planting, which 

 has invariably prevented rot. 



— At the late meeting of the American Dairy- 

 men's Association, a committee was appointed on 

 statistics. The committee propose to obtain cor- 

 rect information in i-egard to the product, demand 

 and sales of American cheese and issue circulars 

 at frequent intervals to dairymen, advising them 

 of all useful information in regard to the cheese 

 and butter product and the markets. To carry out 

 this scheme money is needed, and the committee 

 has levied a tax at the rate of two cents per cow 

 on all the factories in America. If this should be 

 paid in, the work vrill go on, but if not, then the 

 money will be returned to such as do pay. 



— Some time ago, a cow belonging to a farmer 

 on the line of the Pittsburgh and Chicago i-ailroad, 

 ran upon the track in front of the train, throwing 

 the train off the track, and injuring several per- 

 sons. The railroad company sued the farmer for 

 the full amount of damages, and recovered a ver- 

 dict for $4000. An appeal was taken to the Su- 

 preme Court of Indiana, which affirmed the verdict 

 of the lower court. This is an important deci- 

 sion as it holds that persons living upon lines of 

 railroads cannot allow their stock to run at large 

 so as to endanger the safety of passing trains. 



— A correspondent of the Rural New Yorker, 

 who put 28 swarms of bees in his cellar, left 

 two on the stand and put one in his chamber, for 

 the purpose of ascertaining which was the best 

 place for wintering. The two left out on the stands, 

 the one put in the chamber, and two of those put 

 in the cellar were weighed December loth. March 

 2Gth, they were weighed again. One of those on 

 the stand had shrunk fourteen and the other six- 

 teen pounds; the one in the chamber fourteen 

 pounds, and of the two in the cellar one lost fifteen 

 and a-half and the other sixteen and a-half pounds. 

 As this does not settle the question as to the con- 

 dition of the bees for the summer campaign, he 

 promises to watch and sec which swarms first and 

 yields the most profit, and report next fall. 



