518 



XEW ENGLAXD FAR:\IER. 



Nov. 



plying in the fall more than offsets any loss of 

 gasesthat may take place. 



Top dressing to grass in the fall and winter 

 may be applied with less injury from the 

 wheels, and the treading of cattle and horses, 

 than in the spring. And where the surface is 

 tolerably level the loss from washing is very 

 slight. Most farmers who make manure in 

 the summer prefer to apply top dressing at 

 this season, ai.d find it afficadous in keep- 

 ing up the grass crop. 



In sod ploughing, if the soil is clay loam or 

 a moist black soil, we prefer to turn it over to 

 a good depth in the fall, and leave it exposed 

 to the action of the weather during the winter. 

 The soil that is brought up from a depth of 

 nine or ten inches, in this way, is mellowed, 

 and mixes better with the manure and the sur- 

 face soil, in consequence of this exposure, and 

 is ready for the plough or the harrow several 

 days earlier in the spring. Owing to its posi- 

 tion, the water drains from it sooner, and the 

 air penetrates it more completely. If the soil 

 is a light sandy loam, it is less important to 

 plough in the fall. Such a soil being finer, 

 may be worked into a good tilth at once, and 

 may be sowed or planted immediately after it 

 is ploughed. 



Old grounds, that are infested with worms 

 of any kind should be turned up late in the 

 autumn, just before the frosts set in. This is 

 a good practice, whatever the crop is to be. 

 It is especially important for garden soils, that 

 they should be ploughed or spaded deeply to 

 expose the eggs and larvje of insects to the 

 weather ; and if one has crude or uncompost- 

 ed cattle or horse manure, it is well to work 

 a good quantity into the garden soil late in the 

 autumn. When a garden soil that has been 

 thus treated in the fall is well stirred in 

 the spring, and a good dressing of well rotted 

 compost, or some commercial manure added, 

 it will be in a condition to receive the seeds 

 and plants at an early day, and to yield them 

 the nutriment they require until their growtli 

 is perfected. It will also be in condition to 

 receive a second crop after the first early crop 

 has been removed, if this is desired. Thus 

 the soil is fitted for its office during the whole 

 season, and is always ready for use. 



— Two pailfuls daily of flax seed tea has been 

 found to be the most successful remedy for cattle 

 attacked by the "Texas fever," yet tried at Chicago. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 VERMONT FARMS AND FARMING. 

 An Besay read hy Z. E. Jameson, of Iraeburg, at the 

 Wcdneeday Evening Bcst'ian, (Sept. 9,) of the Farm- 

 ers' Club, at the Court House in Burlington, during 

 the late Fair of the State Agriculturiil Society in that 

 city. 



The subject is so comprehensive that it will 

 be impossible to do more than glance at a few 

 of its prominent points. 



Vermont is emphatically an agricultural 

 State. The first settlers endured great priva- 

 tions, and practiced the most rigid economy 

 to obtain the mean^ of a bare sub>istence, in 

 a land full of beauty in summer and autumn, 

 and full of dreariness and desolation in winter 

 and spring. In the seaboard States, the fish- 

 eries, the coasting voj ages, the factories, and 

 the foreign export trade enabled many a 

 farmer to increase his income from purely ag- 

 ricultural pursuits, by other employments in 

 the winter months ; but the Vermonter had 

 no other resources than his home farm. If 

 untimely frosts or adverse seasons cut short 

 his crops, it was true he could convert his 

 wood into shingles for a neighbor's barn, into 

 charcoal for the blacksmith, or into salts for 

 the merchant. 



As the years passed by, the pioneer's axe 

 let the light in upon hills of rocks, hills of 

 clay, hills of sand, and valleys of every variety 

 of sod, from rock to the treacherous oozing 

 mud, that our present ditches have trans- 

 formed into fields of a fertility and depth that 

 can no where be excelled. 



Although the State may be hardly larger 

 than a Western county, yet it has a marked 

 vaiiety of climate. The moving waters of the 

 Connecticut on the East, and the beautiful 

 lake on the West, mellow the northern blast 

 and deadly frost, so that the season of Howers 

 and fruit in some sheltered locations will com- 

 pare favorably with a more southern clime. 

 Even lake Wemphremagog, lying at the border 

 of our northern plains, as well as every river 

 that finds its way from our mountains, serves 

 to mitigate the severity of the seasons ; so that 

 many a valley farm enjoys, when compared 

 with those on the surrounding hills, a com- 

 paratively mild cbmate. In these favored 

 locations, the corn matures its yellow grain, 

 the pear, grape, and even the peach ripen 

 their fruits. 



But not to deal with generalities alone,- per- 

 mit me to bring to your notice some unima- 

 ginative and unpoetical iac's in regard to Ver- 

 mont farming. As secretary of the Orleans 

 County Agricultural Society, I issued a circu- 

 lar in the fall of 18G7, to be filled by the 

 School District Clerks, designed to exhibit a 

 correct account of the products of the several 

 farms in their respective districts, based on 

 the estimates or positive knowledge of the 

 farmers themselves. 



Reports were received of 718 farms, in thir- 



