1868. 



KEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



449 



sired for winter use, and preserve in the cellar, 

 packed in sand or soil, as directed for beets. 

 As frosts rather improve than injure the pars- 

 nip, it is better to let the main crop remain in 

 the ground till spring, and then dig before 

 they begin to grow. 



Seeds. — Select the best, as they ripen, and 

 after well drying store them away in labelled 

 paper bags, boxes, »&c., in a dry, cool place. 



Turnips. — Store, 'feed' or market early va- 

 rieties. Rutabagas and other late kinds will 

 grow as long as the ground remains open, but 

 should be harvested in reason to prevent being 

 caught by the freezing of the ground. 



Trenching. — This is important, when prop- 

 erly done, and this month, or any time before 

 the ground freezes up for winter, is a good 

 time to do it. It is seldom advisable to turn 

 the upper soil down and bury it with a mass 

 of cold, comparatively barren earth, but the 

 loosening up and mixing in of manure with 

 the subsoil, to the depth of two feet or more, 

 atid bringing a small portion up, works advan- 

 tageously, often renewing an exhausted sur- 

 face soil ; and the deep working furnishes a 

 greater range for the roots of plants, from 

 which to draw their food, while the soil thus 

 worked is less liable to be injuriously affected 

 by either drought or wet, the loosened earth 

 acting similar to a sponge in absorbing, hold- 

 ing and imparting moisture as demanded by 

 vegetation. W. H. White. 



South Windsor, Conn., Sept., 18G8. 



EXTRACTS AJfTD REPLIES. 



Improvement of Land with Sheep.-^— 

 Mr. Nathaniel P. Atkinson, who was doing 

 business in Montreal in 1812, being an alien, 

 was ordered out of the country on the declara- 

 tion of war between the United States and 

 Great Britain. On leaving he went directly 

 to Washington City, where he paid $180.80 

 for 52 Spanish sheep, which had just been im- 

 ported. He put them on a farm in Elm Grove, 

 West Virginia, where he has remained ever 

 since — some 56 years — engaged with good 

 success in raising fine wool. In a communica- 

 tion to the Planter and Farmer he says : — 

 "With sheep and clover I can make any land 

 productive, unless it has the barrenness of the 

 sands of Sahara." 



—The Utica Herald complains that the public 

 are kept in ignorance of what the State Commis- 

 sion for the investigation of the causes of abortion 

 in the cows of the dairies of central New York are 

 doing, and calls upon the New York State Agricul- 

 tural Society, which has the custody of $'5000 ap- 

 propriated by the last Legislature, to show what is 

 being done with the raonej^ and what progress is 

 being made in this very important work. 



STtTMP EXTRACTOR AND WALL BUILDER. 



The above apparatus, manufactured bj Messrs- 

 Packer & Fish, Mystic River, Conn., is an inge- 

 nious and exceedingly etfcctive combination of me- 

 chanical powers, by which an immense force can 

 be exerted in taking out stumps and rocks. With 

 a single yoke of cattle, rocks weighing five tons 

 and upward are lifted from their bed without any 

 digging around them. The arrangement is such 

 that after being taken out they are easily trans- 

 ported by the same team without change from the 

 carriage, and deposited upon the wall or elsewhere 

 in the position wanted. In this way masses can be 

 handled which othe^ise could not be made avail- 

 able without great expense. The price of the ma- 

 chine can be realized in a few days by the saving 

 of labor, where there is even a moderate amount 

 of this work to be done. One should be owned at 

 least in every neighborhood where ifields need 

 clearing. It would pay well for a party to own an 

 apparatus and clear land by contract. Full par- 

 ticulars as to prices, &c., can be had by addressing 

 the patentees as above. 



WHITE SPECKS IN BUTTER. 



I have read with interest the articles about white 

 specks in butter, and I fully agree with Mrs. 

 M. E. C. and Mrs. S. S. Pearce,spoken of in the Far- 

 mer, of July 4, that it is caused by the cream 

 standing too long. The milk that settles in the 

 bottom of the dish sours, and a part turns to whey, 

 and a part becomes hard like cheese-curd. In hot 

 weather I churn every other day, and avoid the 

 trouble. But it it so happens "that I go a visiting 

 to-day and churn to-morrow," and thereby ?*>-«; 

 white specks in my butter, I wash it in cold water, 

 working it well with a paddle; it don't hurt the 

 butter, although I don't wash it at other times. 



I thiiik that S., of August 22, is right about 

 striped butter, and that she is a careful dairywoman, 

 and churns often, for she don't seem to know what 

 speckled butter is. R. h. 



Kent County, R. 7., Sept. 8, 1868. 



SINGULAR DEATH OF A COW. 



Last Sunday morning while one of my neighbors 

 was looking at his cows which were feeding as 

 usual, one of them threw up its head and com- 

 menced to roar as cattle sometimes will at the 

 smell of blood. The creature soon commenced 

 moving around in a circle of some five rods in di- 

 ameter, which she continued for three hours, when 

 she fell down apparently exhausted and died. The 

 verdict of some neighbors who made an examina- 

 tion of the animal was that "she died of horn ail 



