454 



NEW ENGLAND F^MIIMER. 



Oct. 



of late of the "enormous" shrinkage of "greasy 

 Merino wool.' We liave been told that while the 

 wool o£ certain other breeds shrinks only 15 to 2.5 

 per cent, in cleansing, that of the Merino shrinks 

 60 or 70 percent. Well, what of that, providing 

 the Merino j'et carries the greatest proportion of 

 wool (cleansed wool) to meat ? The scouring tests 

 of the past have sufiQciently demonstrated this 

 fact. 



CLOVER AS MANUKE. 

 In an article published in the Report of the 

 Agricultural Department, a Mr. Wolfinger 

 says, the cheapest, most easily attainable and 

 best of all manures for a cojn crop, is a dense 

 mass of red clover, either in its green or 

 ripened and dried state, ploughed down three 

 or four inches only ; just deep enough to pre- 

 vent wastage, and yet near enough to the 

 surface of the ground to be acted on by the 

 sun's heat and the air. In its decay, clover 

 thus affords certain, active and constant nour- 

 ishment to the young and expanding roots of 

 the corn. Both corn and wheat grown over a 

 clover lay are very generally free from dis- 

 ease and insects, and better in yield and qual- 

 ity than crops grown on or with animal 

 manures. But to secure this, we must manure 

 the clover while yet young, with liberal sup- 

 plies of plaster, lime or fine well rotted 

 r^manure spread broadcast over the growing 

 plants. 



PAILUKE OF FKUIT. 

 TP^thin a few years past special attention has 

 Tjeen paid to the cultivation of fruit in the 

 southern part of Illinois, where the season is 

 considerably earlier than in the central and 

 northern portions of the State, and great stories 

 have been told of the amount of money real- 

 ized from small pieces of land devoted to 

 strawberries, peaches, &c. The editor of the 

 Mural World recently met a committee of the 

 lUinoie Horticidtural Society, who were on 

 their way home from a visit to the famous 

 fruit regions of "Egypt." The report of 

 these gentlemen is exceedingly discouraging. 

 Hardly a sound peach was seen by them, so 

 thoroughly has the curculio done its work. 

 The yellows is also destroying the trees. The 

 Cloncord grape is badly affected by the rot. 

 In some cases full one half of the crop was 

 Already destroyed. A new and apparently 

 formidaVjle disease has appeared among pear 

 trees. In one orchard in South Pass of 1500 

 trees, all of which appeared to be quite 



healthy early in the season, the committee 

 found — in different places — first one tree, 

 then two, and then five ; all affected — not 

 with blight or anything they had ever seen 

 before, — but sick and dying, from an unknown 

 disease. They finally dug up a tree and 

 found a fungus growth spread over the roots 

 of the tree, and only in one case was it found 

 on a limb. It had cut off the entire connec- 

 tion, and with it a supply of sap, and so death 

 ensued. Dr. E. S. Hall, of Alton, W. C. Flagg, 

 and H. D. Emery, Senior Editor of the Prai- 

 rie Farmer, were among the members of this 

 committee, whose representations may be 

 taken as another caution against reliance on 

 specialties in farming. • 



HEREFOED CATTLE. 

 It is customary for the breeders of blooded 

 stock to confine themselves to a particular 

 breed, and it is not often that one has an op- 

 portunity of comparing the respective merits 

 of different races on the same farm. Mr. F. 

 W. Stone, an English farmer of Guelph, Can- 

 ada, who occupies some 800 acres of the rich 

 land in that section, has some fifty head each 

 of Short-homs and Herefords, besides grades, 

 the decendants of the best animals from Eng- 

 lish prize stock. l*n an account of a late visit 

 to this farm, Sanford Howard, Esq., thus 

 speaks of JMr. Stone's appreciation of the Here- 

 fords. We copy from the Country Oentle- 

 man : — 



The Herefords have latterly been increasing in 

 numbers on the fann, and this increase will prob- 

 ably be allowed to continue. After seven j'ears' 

 experience with them, their good qualities have 

 been so prominently displayed that Mr. Stone has 

 determined to adopt them as a permanent stock. 

 They are found to be healthy, hardy, easily kept, 

 fattening rapidly, whenever they have a fair 

 chance, and producing the finest quality of beef. 

 They are bj' no means the inferior milkers which 

 the advocates of rival breeds frequently represent. 

 Comparing them with the Short-Horns kept on the 

 farm, all persons who have had anything to do 

 wi'h them concur in stating that "the Hereford 

 cows give, on the average, at least as much milk 

 by the season as the Short- horns, while some ex- 

 periments that have been made, show that in 

 richness of milk the Herefords are superior. 



Many ot Mr. Stone's grade cattle are half Here- 

 ford, and a few are three-quarters of that breed. 

 They show the leading characteristics of the Here- 

 fords very strongly. Some of them are cows, now 

 giving rniik, and they arc good-sized, handsome 

 animals, with indications of being good milkers. 

 A lot of yearling and two-year old steers arc al)Out 

 as promising, in reference to thirftiness and fatten- 

 ing tendency, as any grade animals of their age 

 that I remember to have seen. Some of the steers 

 have been subjected to the yoke, and bid fair to 

 make active and powerful oxen. 



