474 



KEW ENGLAND FAEI^IER. 



Oct. 



are di.-poacd to change their system of fanning to 

 (.■onform to every fluctuation of prices: — "The 

 fanner who .would make his business pay, must 

 have a policy and must adhere to it." 



— H. Capron, Paris, Province of Ontario, assures 

 the Rural Neio Yorker that he succeeds in keeping 

 his grounds clear of the stripped bug, by pulling 

 up and burning the vines, as soon as done bearing, 

 with the weeds whit-h grow among them, and bum 

 them all up clean, believing that he thus destroys 

 the eggs or germs of the incoming crop of bugs. 



— An appropriation of $2000 was made at the 

 last session of the N. Y. Legislature for the benefit 

 of the heirs of the Rev. Chauncy C. Goodrich, the 

 producer of the Goodrich seedling potatoes. The 

 heirs of Jethro "Wood, the inventor of the cast 

 iron plough, have received an appropriation from 

 the same Legislature of $2000, in consideration of 

 the services of thek father. 



— The remark of Mr. Mechi that he could enlarge 

 very much on the advantages arising from drain- 

 age, such as greater and earlier crops, of better 

 quality and easier ploughing, and increased tem- 

 perature of soil and subsoil, is copied by Ameri- 

 can agricultural papers, without informing their 

 readers that much of his farm consists of such a 

 stiff, tenacious clay that, without draining, its sur- 

 face would not be dried during the whole season, 

 by the feeble rays of the sun in that climate. 



— A writer in the Journal of Agriculture says 

 that for the purpose of determining the propagat- 

 ing power of a plant of purslane, he counted the 

 number of seed pods upon it. There were 4,613. 

 Fourteen of these— seven small, four medium and 

 three of the largest — were selected, and the seeds 

 counted. They gave an average of ninety seeds to 

 the pod, or 415,170 seeds to a single plant. 



L. S. Abbott, of Ohio, says, in the Farmer, that 

 transplanting has a peculiar effect on the form of 

 the turnip. An experienced eye can determine 

 ■whether the turnip has been transplanted or sown 

 where it grew to maturity. Transplanted plants 

 always produce turnips of irregular shape with 

 sundry large roots running down into the gi'ound ; 

 those not transplanted have a round, smooth bulb, 

 with a single tap root extending into the earth. 



— The Greenville (111.) Advocate says, during last 

 week some five or more boys died very suddenly — 

 supposed to result from eating mulberries. The 

 supposition is that the mulberries were in some 

 way poisoned by the locusts, which have been so 

 plentiful of late. It is also suggested that it is pos- 

 sible that they were stung by those insects, — the 

 Sling of which is considered by some as a deadly 

 poison. 



— The Journal of Agriculture says that poas are 

 aijExccllent preparatory crop. They mellow the 

 soil, and hcem to enrich it also. They obtain their 

 strength, like clover and other leguminous plants, 

 largely from the atmosphere. On this account 

 they are used on barren soil to Improve it — by 



ploughing in. We have had experiments in this 

 way that were highly satisfactory. 



— A correspondent in New York city of the JSm- 

 ral New Yorker, says the first arrivals in that mar- 

 ket of Antwerp raspberries were sold at 75 cents 

 per quart, — prices averaging about 45 cents ; Doo- 

 littles and Philadelphia were sold as low as 25c; 

 gooseberries $4 to 6 per bushel ; currants were 

 taken by the preservers at 18c per quart; wild 

 blackberries at 25 to 30c ; Dorchester, Wilson, &c., 

 at 40 to 45 cents per quart. Small fruits unusually 

 scarce and high. 



— The Maine Farmer is informed by Mr. Am- 

 herst Alden, of Bangor, who keeps eight or nine 

 cows and carries their milk to the city, that from 

 his experience in feeding milch cows he is satis- 

 fied that cows fed on hay cut from the 5th to the 

 10th of July, would give nearly double the amount 

 of milk that the same cows would give kept on 

 hay cut from the 25th to 30th of the month. In 

 1867 Mr. Alden sold something over a thousand 

 dollars worth of milk from nine cows. 



— The Pennsylvania Farm Journal says that Mr. 

 Oliver P. Stoughton, of Lawrence County, clipped 

 this season from fifty- six three year old Spanish 

 Merino ewes, six hundred and forty pounds of 

 wool ; and from a three year old buck of the same 

 breed nineteen pounds. He purchased the sheep 

 some time ago from Mr. Chamberlin, of Rutland 

 County, Vt. He sold the wool at the low price of 

 forty-one cents, and yet the flock netted him over 

 two hundred and seventy dollars cash. 



— Cows that hold up milk, Mr. Johnson says 

 can be cured if they will drink sour milk. After 

 drinking, and as soon as they begin to lick the 

 pail, they will give down freely. He has tried it 

 with cows that would give about two thirds the 

 proper quantity, retaining the other portion. 

 Then he gives them the milk to drink, and waits 

 until they begin to lick the Jail, when he has no 

 trouble in obtaining the remainder. He has tried 

 meal, salt and various things, but found nothing 

 to produce such an effect as sour milk. 



— A correspondent of the Country Gentleman 

 gives the following as the origin of the term "dea- 

 con" as applied to veal and calf skins. In the 

 early days of cheese making in Herkimer county, 

 there lived a good deacon in the town of Norway, 

 who, like many other good men, had a sharp eye 

 for profit. He fatted and killed many veal calves 

 and sold to the mechanics at the "Corners." The 

 love of gain with the old deacon was stronger than 

 the fear of public opinion, and he did sell or was 

 accused of selling veal quite too young, and so the 

 villagers, by way of reproach and ridicule, called 

 his veal "deacon" veal, and from this the term be- 

 gan to be applied to young calves, and has spread, a 

 and is used quite generally in dairy sections. 

 Young calves are "deacons ;" when killed they are 

 "deaconed," and calf skins are "deacon skins." 



