1! 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



91 



lambs are worth, in some of our village markets, 

 six cents per pounds, to which add the value of 

 the fleece, $1,50, make $14,80. At these figures, 

 v/hat can a farmer do better than to breed mutton 

 sheep ? I one year exhibited a Cotswold sheep and 

 her three lambs, (all at a birth) whose average 

 weight was one hundred and four i)ounds ; at anoth- 

 er time, one with three, weighing one hundred 

 pounds each. These were all brought up on the 

 sheep, without extra feed, and weighed, at six 

 months old, the above weights. In an adjoining 

 town, last winter, wethers of this breed three years 

 old were sold for $25 per head, and sent to New 

 York market. These jirices give larger profits 

 than can be realized from breeding any other kind 

 of stock. Yet remunerative as the raising of this 

 breed of sheep is, for market purposes, there is 

 still a greater profit in rearing them for breeding 

 purposes. There is a demand for this breed of 

 sheep, from all parts of the country, which is not 

 half supplied, and can not be for years to come. 



My flock at the present time consists olF fifty- 

 three, and so orderly are they, that a si one wall of 

 three feet in height is, in most cases, suflicient force 

 against them. The Bay State, surrounded as it is 

 on every side with the l3est markets, must be well 

 adapted' to the raising of mutton sheep. Who of 

 your enterprising farmers will form themselves into 

 a comjvany for the purpose of breeding fine flocks 

 of Cotswolds ? 



In im{)Iements, too, there has been as great im- 

 provement as in anything. There is a plow of your 

 construction (Eagle No. 73^) beggars any attempt 

 at further improvement on the plow. From sever- 

 al years' experienee in the use of this j)low, as well 

 as from very extensive and minute observation, I 

 am convinced that this No. 73i^ is the most perfect 

 plow ever made, and one which will not soon be 

 surpassed in excellence. T. L. Hart. 



ffest Cornwall, Ct. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



V/HEAT. 



It has been remarked that wheat could be raised 

 on land where potatoes would do well. That was 

 probably before the disease in potatoes, and when 

 they were generally planted in moist and rich 

 ground, which now- a- days is not the surest way of 

 raising sound ones, at least. Dry land, and not 

 very rich, is now the rule. Will the first remark 

 hold good applied under this later rule ? I think 

 that 8 or 9 bushels from 1 of seed, can be raised 

 on ordinary dry land, and l)e made as sure a crop as 

 corn, [n the first place, lime, at the rate of 2 casks 

 per acre, must be applied. Dr. Jackson said 2 to 

 4 casks at first, then afterwards as much as appears. 

 to be needed. An old way, and perhaps as good as 

 any to prepare the seed, is, to soak it in brine an 

 hour or two, and then roll the seed in lime. Sow 

 pretty early, when the ground is in the right condi- 

 tion for it. Seeds come up besr always when the 

 land is newly plowed. This grain is the best of 

 anything to sow with grass seed, as the young grass 

 seems to do better with wheat stubble than, any oth 

 er. A little guano sown on the grain and grass in 

 a wet day the early part of their growth, will help 

 both amazingly. Try it. A kind of the spring 

 grain is coming about here which looks well, and 

 succeeds well, so far. It is called the China wheat. 



Winter wheat does not answer the expectation of 

 those who have tried it here ; this should not be 

 sown after the first week in September, and should be 

 btn'ied deeper than spring grain. In the middle 

 States oats are sown with the wheat; the frosts kill 

 the oats, thereby protecting the wheat from cold. 



Winter grain should be free from standing wa- 

 ter, which in the wheat-growing States is effectually 

 done by plowing and sometimes cross plowing, so 

 that the dead furrows are not more than 12 feet 

 apart, one or both ways, as they happen to plow 

 once or twice. For winter grain a good covering of 

 snow is the main thing, north, east, south or west. 

 Joseph W. Brown. 



Kensington, .V. It., Dec, 1856. 



For the New England Farmer. 



mSECTS THAT INFEST THE APPLE. 



Mr. Brown : — The Concord Farmers' Club re- 

 cently discussed this question nearly as follows — 

 making suitable allowances for the imperfections of 

 the secretary's record : 



J. B. Farmer said, * * * * the borer exists in 

 three stages or modes of life; first, as a larvtc, or 

 grub ; second, in an inactive or transitory state, as 

 a pupa ; third, as a beetle, or bug. The beetle lays 

 its eggs during the latter part of June, or first of 

 July, in the bark near the foot of the tree. From 

 these the larva? are hatched, and in course of the 

 season eat their way to the wood. After feeding on 

 the wood for about three years, during which time 

 they usually eat from ten to twelve inches in an 

 upward direction, they come out of the wood and 

 make a cell between that and the bark, remaining 

 here in the pupa state till they grow into the bee- 

 tle form ; and then, usually about the first of June, 

 they gnaw out, and appear as full-grown and per- 

 fect beetles. They come out in the night. It is 

 also theip habit to fly about and to feed only during 

 the night, remaining concealed during the day. 

 Trees that have suckers around the trunk, Mr. F. 

 thought, are more likely to be infested by the bor- 

 er, because the suckers serve to protect the eggs 

 and grubs from their enemies, the chickadee and 

 woodpecker. If neglected, the infested tree is al- 

 ways injured, and often destroyed. The full-grown 

 borer is about three-fourths of an inch in length; 

 the under side of the body being of a dull white 

 color. It is, in its general appearance, much like 

 the borer that infests the pine. A strong potash 

 lye, applied in July, will destroy the eggs and 

 young larva^. The aphides, or lice which infest the 

 young shoots of apple and other trees, are exceed- 

 ingly prolific. Reaumer calculates that "one indi- 

 vidual in five generations may become the progen- 

 itor of six thousand millions of descendants." Mr. 

 F. quoted Harris, as saying that the egg of this 

 louse is laid in autumn, upon or near the leaf-bud 

 of the plant upon which it lives ; and is hatched in 

 the spring following. All these spring hatched 

 lice aJ-e females, and without wings; and they have 

 the ability to produce their young without the as- 

 sistance of males. Their progeny are produced 

 alive, not hatched from eggs. They also are all 

 females ; and the race is thus continued for several 

 generations, all wingless, too, till the fall of the 

 year. Then a generation is produced, consisting of 

 both males and females. These soon acquire wings 

 and pair ; and the females lay the eggs which are 



