1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



655 



smooth fruit, and have continued to bear well 

 ever since, 



Suel Foster, of Muscatine Iowa, reports 

 as follows in the Transactions III. State Hart. 

 Society, 1867, p. 213 — : "1 have twenty -four 

 acres of mv orchards seeded to clover,* and 

 last year I turned the hogs in. I now ob- 

 serve that where the hogs ran last year, the 

 apples have not one- fourth the worms that they 

 have on other trees. I this year turned the 

 hogs into my oldest (home) orchard." 



It is important, when ho^ are employed for 

 the purpose of picking up fallen i'ruit, that 

 they should be kept moderately hungry, and 

 not he gorged every day with com so as to 

 make them too lazy for work. — American E n- 

 tomologisi. 



Economy of Kerosene. — By a recent ex- 

 periment, it was ascertained that one pint of 

 coal oil, costing six cents, fed one lamp dur- 

 ing six evenings, or for the space of twenty- 

 eight hours, averaging four hours and forty 

 minutes eai;h evening ; two lamps of lard oil hav- 

 ing been required for the same service. Th-e 

 cost of the lard oil was four cents per even- 

 ing ; that of the coal oil one cent. The ad- 

 vantage of coal oil over sperm oil is about the 

 same. 



EXTKACTS AND KEPLIES. 



KEEPING CABBAGE THROUGH THE WINTER. 



Can any of your readers tell me the best way to 

 keep cabbage through the winter till the middle 

 of March ? Will they not keep just as well with 

 the stump cut otf? Phili.p. 



Middlesex County, Mass., 1868. 



Remarks. — The method which we have prac- 

 ticed for years for preserving cabbages for family 

 use, is as follows : — Cut off the stump close to the 

 head and pull off loose leaves. Cut clean straw or 

 hay and cover the bottom of a barrel or box with 

 it and sprinkle the straw with clean water until it 

 is quite wet. Add a layer of heads, then cover 

 with more wet straw and go on. Put the whole in 

 a cold plaie and they will keep until May in ex- 

 cellent condition. No matter if they freeze a little. 

 This is a clean and easy method. The barrel need 

 not be headed. 



Our correspondent L. M., of Hatfield, Mass., 

 says, "I have tried hanging cabbages in the cellar, 

 but they wilt and lose all their flavor. My way is 

 this : — I kt them stand in the fall as long as possi- 

 ble ; dig a trench about a foot deep, cut off the 

 Btumps close to the head, strip off the loose leaves 

 and cover them with the earth taken from the 

 trench. They must freeze and thaw with the 

 ground, which maiicsthem brittle and tender, and 

 very much improved in flavor. Tney must be 

 taken out of the ground as soon as the frost leaves. 



otherwise they rot. I have practiced in this way 

 for forty years and never had a head rot. By way 

 of experiment I have thrown in a few apples with 

 the cabbages; they all came out sound in the 

 spring. Try it. 



The Frame Farmer gives the following, as the 

 method practiced by the gardeners of Chicago. 

 Select a dry knoll where the water will not settle, 

 dig a pit say five feet wide, twelve feet long and 

 two feet deep, throwing the dirt a little back from 

 the edge of the pit. Set strong posts eight feet 

 long, two feet in the ground in the middle of each 

 end, and lay on these a good stiff riiJge pole and 

 pin it fast. Make a roof of stakes or planks long 

 enough to reach from ridge pole to edge of pit, and 

 cover them with a little straw and six or eight 

 inches of dirt, digging a trench around the pit; 

 beat down the dirt hard and smooth, so that it 

 will shed water, or, what is better, sod it over in 

 the spring. Make a door in each end of pic to 

 ventilate in mild weather. Store the cabbages 

 head down, two layers deep. A pit cf the di- 

 mensions mentioned will h(jld nearly 200 heads of 

 cabbages. In very severe winter weather bundles 

 of straw may be set against the doors. A very 

 cold winter may require a thicker coveiing than 

 here recommended. But generally we think this 

 will do. 



cement water pipes. 

 The danger of the poisonous effects of lead pipes 

 for the conveyance of water for domestic purposes 

 has caused much inquiry for some sa'er material 

 for the construction of aqucdutts, and we have 

 received several inquiries for information and ad- 

 vice upon the subject. In reply to a late inquiry 

 by a correspondent, we have received from Ben- 

 jamin Livermore, of Hartland, Windsor County, 

 Vt., a cnxular in whieli he claims to have discov- 

 ereel and patented, after a long expeiienee in the 

 busir ess, a process by which he can lay a continu- 

 ous cement water pipe at a less cost than lead or 

 iron. Attached to his circular are the recommen- 

 dations of Hiram Harlow, late Su|ierintendent of 

 the State Prison, for whom be laid 220 rods; of 

 N. B. Safford, of White River Junction, Vt., who 

 has had nearly a mile in length in use for more 

 than three years; of Washington Whitney, of 

 Winchendon, Mass., 42 rods; of L. M. Hills, Am- 

 heri-t, Mass., 180 rods; and of many oihers. In 

 one case the lead pipe removed was sold for 

 enough to pay the expense of the cement pipe 

 which took its place. 



fine and coarse wooled sheep. 



Much has been said in your valuable paper dur- 

 ing the past year as to ihe relative profits of fin( 

 and coarse wooled sheep. 



I commeneed farming life thirty years since 

 with keeping fine sheep, but very soon found it a 

 losing business, and immediately se)ld my fine 

 sheep at a loss of a large per cent., and bought 

 Cotswolds, which I have been breeding ever since. 



It may help some of the readers of your paper 

 to say, that while my tine sheep did not pay for 



