1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



473 



thought I would weigh the hay alluded to. One 

 lot of 43 square rods was a piece of wet land en- 

 closed by my garden fence. The hay on this lot, 

 when well made, weighed 1860 pounds. The other 

 lot measured 215 square rods, and was also origi- 

 nally wet ground, and the crop here weighed 9946 

 pounds. Both of these pieces had been drained, 

 the largest piece by 39 rods of ditching. To both 

 of these patches I applied last fall a dressing equal 

 to about 25 loads to the acre, that I compost prin- 

 cipally from muck. When I commenced reclaim- 

 ing the low piece of 215 rods, it did not produce 10 

 cwt. of hay. I do not give these weights because 

 I think the produce remarkably large this year, 

 for I think I have cut ar, large or larger crops in 

 previous years, but I never weighed them before, 

 as I hud not the convenience for so doing, which 

 my scales now afford. 0. Foster. 



Tunbridge, Vt., Aug. 15, 1868. 



AGRICULTUEAIi ITEMS. 



— The Western Rural says that the parings of 

 cucumbers will disperse roaches. 



— There are said to be over 250,000 seeds of red 

 clover in a pound. 



— Love's labor lost — a hen setting on wooden 

 eggs. 



— Early hatched chickens make early layers 

 next winter. 



— They have big trees in Australia. One was 

 lately cut down there, nineteen feet in diameter 

 and 330 feet high. 



— Dr. Franklin introduced broom com into this 

 country, previous to which brooms were made of 

 evergreen boughs, peeled birch, &c. 



— The Iowa Homestead has accounts from vari- 

 ous parts of that State of large crops of wheat, 

 com, vegetables, and — grasshoppers. 



— ^To whiten straw hats, scrape stick-sulphur 

 with a knife, mix the powder to a mush with water, 

 plaster it thickly over the straw, place in the hot 

 sun for several hours, brush oflf when dry. 



— At a meeting of ^e St. Louis merchants on 

 'Change, a resolution was adopted that after Aug. 

 1, thirty-two, instead of thirty-five pounds of oats 

 should constitute a bushel in that market. 



— The Belvidere, 111., Standard says that several 

 farmers in that vicinity complain that their Osage 

 Orange hedges were injured last winter, although 

 they were six or seven years old. 



— The first shovel ever manufactured in Fairfield 

 County, Ohio, was put up at auction by the mak- 

 ers, Messrs. Motherwell & Co., and sold for $45. 

 That's encouraging home industry. 



— "Brief is the misBion of the fragile flowers ; 

 Some droop and die e'er close the sunny hours ; 

 Still some with vigor lift their lordly heads. 

 Imparting splendor to their cultured beds." 



— In whatever you engage, pursue it with steafl- 

 iness of purpose, as determined to succeed. A 

 wavering mind never accomplished any thing worth 

 naming. There is nothing like a fixed, steady aim. 

 It dignifies your nature and insures you success. 



— John Howe, says, in the Western Rural that 

 he has been successful in preserving his cabbages 

 from the attacks of the "flea" by puttij;ig upon the 

 plants water in which potatoes had been boiled. 



—Where bees forage on grazing lands, all the 

 honey they get is so much sweetness and nutri- 

 ment taken from the pasturage. It is not certain 

 that the loss is not a serious one to the dairy. 



—Sheep are said to be so plentiful in Australia 

 as to be sold by travelling butchers at a cent a 

 pound, and in two colonies alone no less than 

 60,000 are boiled down each week. 



—A correspondent of the Canada Farmer says 

 the Alsike clover seems to do best in ditches or 

 holes where the plants are nearly or quite covered 

 with water in winter and spring. This is a marked 

 advantage over the red clover. 



— Farming is a trade ; and a man has to learn it, 

 however much he may know ; the knowledge must 

 be applied, and made the man's business. He 

 cannot learn it in a day, but must expect to im- 

 prove constantly. 



— ^An Qgg beat up with a teaspoonfnl of molas- 

 ses and a large teaspoouful of ground black pepper, 

 and set where flies can get at it, will thin them out 

 rapidily, according to the experience of the West- 

 em Rural. 



— A Lorain county correspondent of the Ohio 

 Farmer says that during the late excessive heat 

 and drought, cows dried up nearly one half in yield 

 of milk, but not that difierence was made in the 

 product of cheese. On short feed, milk is much 

 richer than on a flush growth of grass. 



— A prize of a silver pitcher was offered by an 

 association at Milledgeville, Ga., to the one who 

 should raise the greatest number of bushels of 

 wheat to the acre. Eighteen persons competed, 

 the largest yield being forty-three and three-fourths 

 bushels, the next nearly as large, and five of the 

 eight being above thirty-six bushels. 



— Dr. Trimble recently informed the New York 

 Farmers' Club that "the canker worm has of late 

 disappeared from New England." It is true that 

 comparatively few were seen last year, but we are 

 son-y to see that several orchards in the vicinity of 

 Boston now bear unmistakable evidence of the 

 re-appearance of this destructive pest. 



— A Minnesota paper states that a new bug has 

 made its appearance in that State, whose mission 

 seems to be to destroy the potato bug. It is de- 

 scribed as being flat, one- third the size of the po- 

 tato bug, and yellow or reddish, with black spots. 

 Its mode of operation is to thrust its sword-like 

 proboscis into its victim, which is then dragged 

 off to be devoured at leisure. • 



— The American Farmers' Magazine closes an 

 article with the following statement, which we 

 commend to the attention of those fanners who 



