422 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



full, and cool the air ; the sun does not get at the 

 earth to heat it up to a boilins point, and the winds 

 play over the surface and make the hottest days 

 delightful. When these prairies are settled and 

 cultivated, if the climate modifies, as I think it will, 

 the heat in summer will be nearly insuflFerable." 



— In the Monthly Report for April, of the De- 

 partment of Aiiriculture, it is said, "It is worthy 

 of careful mention and notice, that in every loca- 

 tion where wheat suffered from freezing, those 

 fields that were planted with the drill are compar- 

 atively unscathed, while the broadcast sowing is 

 in a miserable condition. It is also found that 

 thorough tillage enables the thrifty and well rooted 

 plant to endure the action of the frost, while the 

 carelessly sowed wheat is ruined." 



— The Maine Farmer gives the following recent 

 sales of thoroughbred stock in that State : from 

 the Short Horn herd of Hon. Warren Pcrcival, 

 Cross Hill, are the following: Yearling buU 

 "Prince," 712-5, to Clinton Howe, of West Sum- 

 ner; yearling bull "Royal Turk," 7240, to Willard 

 Lothrop, Esq., of Leeds; bull calf "Roan Prince," 

 and yearling heifer "Sunrise, 2d" and "Pink," to 

 S. N. Briggs and Brother, of Livermore ; and two 

 two-years-old heifers to Joseph Miller, Esq., of 

 Waldoboro'. 



—Mr. E. B. Slocum, Grass Lake, Michigan, gives 

 the New York Farmers' Club the following plan 

 for milk shelves: Erect a post, say four inches 

 square, in yoiTr milk room. About two feet from 

 the floor, nail one lath on the post in a horizontal 

 direction ; then on the opposite side, nail another 

 lath the same way, letting the lath extend far 

 enough from the post, to set a milk pan upon each 

 end. Immediately above and close to these laths 

 nail two more laths in a similar manner, but in 

 opposite directions. You will then have a tier 

 which will hold four pans. Eight inches above 

 this, then eight inches still farther, and so on. 

 One post can hold twenty -four pans. 



— An Erie county correspondent of the Ohio 

 Farmer, says that in consequence of the drought 

 last year, short keeping with little grain during 

 the winter, and exposure of the sheep to many 

 long spring rains, the wool clip is generally light, 

 many estimating the average yield per head fifteen 

 to twenty-five per cent, less than last year, but the 

 staple is more varluable, looking white and clean 

 and unusually free from oil. Evidently farmers 

 are improving in putting their wool in better con- 

 dition for market. But the prices offered by the 

 buyers, from thirty-five to forty cents per lb., is 

 not satisfactory to the sellers, and the larger lots 

 are not generally disposed of. 



— All wrinkled peas are superior to,-and more 

 delicate in flavor than those that present a full and 

 perfect fonn ; like sugar com, the saccharine mat- 

 ter which they contain causes them to shrivel 

 when dried. 



PRESERVATION OP FORESTS. 



The earnest manner in which our correspon- 

 dent presents "the other side" of this subject 

 in another column may strike some of our 

 "standard authors" differently from what it 

 does the writer of this article, who was among 

 the first "crop of children" raised in one of 

 the new settlements of an interior town in New 

 England. 



At the time of his early recollection there 

 were but few framed houses in the neighbor- 

 hood, although from the elevated out-look of 

 his home, it was one of the amusements of a 

 cold winter's morning to count the ten or a 

 dozen columns of smoke that rose from as 

 many "openings" in the almost universal for- 

 est which clothed the adjacent hill-sides and 

 valleys. For a distance of some three miles 

 on one road, which he most frequently trav- 

 elled, he can now count on his fingers ten such 

 log houses without a single framed one. The 

 district school house was a deserted log "camp" 

 or hut. There was not a wagon or even a 

 cart owned or used in the whole district. Hay 

 and grain, corn and potatoes, were drawn on 

 sleds. Marketing was mostly done in the win- 

 ter season, as in summer the roads were little 

 better than bridle-paths. Butter was carried 

 to the store and grog brought home on horse- 

 back. The sight of a wagon, with which some 

 pioneer drover or persevering pedlar occasion- 

 ally worked his way thus far up the stream 

 formed by the mountain springs, was an event 

 in the life of the young folks, that caused more 

 excitement than the passage of a caravan with 

 music and elephants would now. 



We have recently visited the scene of these 

 recollections. It was sad to find that even 

 here we were a stranger and in a land of 

 strangers. The country itself seemed changed. 

 The mountains were higher and closer together 

 than formerly. The "flats" wer§less flat, less 

 broad, less long. The "big brook" was 

 smaller and more crooked, and had got 

 out of place, at manj' points. The old mills 

 that once stood on its banks had been 

 washed out clean, or crumbled piecemeal. 

 The forests had been driven towards the sum- 

 mit of the hills, taking with them the mosqui- 

 toes and fleas, and we believe a large share of 

 the seeds of the summer fevers which formerly 

 prostrated hard-working men and women. 

 The log houses are no longer seen ; but com- 



