390 



NEW EXGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



not farmers' clubs and associations do this part 

 of the work? If the time and money now 

 devoted to "pure agricultural horse trots" 

 were expended in the collection of these sta- 

 tistics, farmers might soon have reports on 

 crop prospects on which they might safely 

 rely. We commend the following suggestions 

 on this point by an Illinois correspondent of 

 the Eural New Yorker to the consideration 

 of our readers : — 



If all local (town, district or county) societies 

 would attend to this matter and report monthly or 

 oftencr, during spring and summer to their i-espec- 

 «tive atcricultural journals for publication (or to 

 their State agricultural societies and the latter to 

 the Department of Agriculture) the object sought 

 would, to a great extent, be attained. With well 

 organized agricultural societies, managed by in- 

 telligent and pi-actical men in the farming interest, 

 in ail parts of the country, the desired information 

 could easily be obtained and communicated to the 

 agricultural press — provided always that each so- 

 ciety should make crop reports one of the special 

 duties of a committee or the secretary. Otherwise 

 litttle can be accomplished, for "what is every- 

 body's business is noliody's." Certainly agricul- 

 tural societies and journals ought to work together 

 in pi'omotiiig the interest of producers, and in our 

 view there is no matter in which a union of their 

 efforts would be likely to prove more beneficial 

 than the one under discussion. 



But as "big ships move slow," why may not 

 individual farmers resolve themselves into a 

 "committee of the whole" and furnish their 

 own agricultural papers with more frequent re- 

 ports as to the weather and crops within their 

 own circle of observation ? 



WOOL MERCHA.NTS. 

 Dr. Randall gives in the last Rural Neto 

 Yorker the names of seventeen firms of wool 

 merchants iu New York, and fourteen in Bos- 

 ton who have responded to his inquiries in re- 

 spect to the principles on which they sell wool 

 consigned to them by farmers and others. 

 Nine of these firms state that they uniformly 

 sell all wool on its merits, and eitheij state or 

 leave it to be inferred that they thus obtain 

 more favorable terms than would be secured 

 under the buyers' rules ; three merely State 

 that they uniformly sell wool on its merits ; 

 nine declare that they will (meaning, if so di- 

 rected by consignors,) sell wool in any condi- 

 tion on its merits ; two offer to sell wool on 

 its merits, but consider it difficult to sell un- 

 washed or unmerchantable wool favorably ; 

 two uniformly do or will sell unwashed or un- 

 merchantable wool on its merits, when it com- 

 poses an entire lot, or when there is enough of 

 it in a mixed lot to sell by itself — but will not 



separate out a small parcel from a mixed lot 

 to sell separately, — (this probably means same 

 as next) ; three sell unwashed, &c., lots of 

 wool on their merits, but avow that they allow 

 one-third discount to the buyer on such wool 

 where it is mixed with washed ; two sell un- 

 washed, &c., wool on its merits, but think it 

 generally requires more than one-third deduc- 

 tion to make it salable ; one sells unmixed lots 

 on their merits — but do not say what they will 

 do in cases of mixed lots. 



Not one of the above wool houses, says Dr. 

 Randall, practically adopts the buyers'' rules in 

 form or essence, and but few adopt any por- 

 tion of them. This is a striking commentary 

 on that pretence which has been put forward 

 by so many country buyers that the enforce- 

 ment of their rules is made necessary by the 

 demands of the trade ! 



He therefore advises farmers who are not 

 satisfied with the offers of the buyers who are 

 hampered by any fixed rules to correspond 

 with some wool house and learn their terms 

 for receiving and selling wool, and sug- 

 gests that farmers whose lots are small unite 

 with their neighbors in making up proper sized 

 lots to command attention. But iu doing this 

 let every man or body of men act with their 

 eyes open. 



What becomes of the Bumblebees? — 

 In reply to this question, C. V. Riley, the 

 State entomologist of Missouri, says through 

 the Country Gentleman, that "they all die off 

 on approach of winter, except a few females 

 who quit their nests and hibernate in any shel- 

 tered place they can find. These scattering 

 females are the Methuselahs, so to speak, of 

 their race, and with wonderful single exertion 

 dig the holes in which they lay the foundation 

 for a new colony, by forming their oval, un- 

 evenly built cells, and depositing eggs, which 

 produce workers. These soon develop suffi- 

 ciently to help her, and carry out her plans af- 

 ter she is dead." 



— The Urbana (Ohio) Citizen says that a farmer 

 of that county has made a discovery of great 

 value to sheep-growers. lie has used, with great 

 success, coal tar, for maggots in sheep. During 

 the past season several of his sheep were bixdly 

 injured, and when other remedies failed to remove 

 the maggots from the wounds, he applied the coal 

 tar, which eflfected a speedy cure. 



