466 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



in siuall wooden boxes, with fine white sugar be- 

 tween every layer. Tomatoes prepared in this man- 

 ner will keep for years. 



A few apples cut up and boiled in the remain- 

 der of this syrup make a very nice sauce. — Mrs. 

 Eliza Marsh. 



It is only necessary for us to add, that the Com- 

 mittee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 awarded Mrs. Marsh the Society's Silver Medal 

 for excellent specimens exhibited November 21). — 

 They were tested by the Committee, and pronounc- 

 ed to be superior to any they had ever seen. They 

 were put up in small boxes, and to our taste were 

 far better than two-thirds of what are sold in our 

 market for the best Smyrna figs. — Ed. Horticul- 

 tural Magazine. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SONG OF THE FARMER. 



BT THE "PHASANT BAKD." 



Give to the lord his palace grand. 



And halls of splendid pride ; 

 A fig for all his dignities. 



And all his pomp beside ! 

 Give me the Farmer's peaceful home, 



Beneath the maples high, 

 Where Nature's warblers wake the song, 



The waters prattling nigh. 



Xhe citizen may love the town, 



And Fashion's gaudy show ; 

 The brilliant pa<:eanly of Art 



May please the eye, I know ; 

 But Nature's chaniis deligtit tJie heart, 



Ail simple tiiough they be 5 

 'Xhe acres broad, the streamy vales, 



The lowing herds for me ! 



What though the bronze is on our cheek, 



Toil-calloused is our hand, 

 With honest pride we stand erect, 



The Bcbles of the land ; 

 For "iiatriot Trtth,'" that spii'it bright. 



In this wide world so rare, 

 Points jiroudly to the Fanner's home. 



And cries, — My own are tiiere i 

 CHORUS. 

 Then here's to him who tills the soil, 



The true, the strong, the brave ! 

 Without htm Aht would fly the land, 



And CoKMEECB leave the wave ; 

 And yet no frown of hauteur cold 



Distajns his manly brow ; — 

 riail to the Farmer ! thrice all hail ,' 



Lord of the juighty plow ! 



How TO GET RID OF Rats. — Prof. Dascom, of 

 Oberlin, in a letter to the Ohio Farmer, says : 



"Would it not be well to call the attention of 

 your readers to the ease and certainty with which 

 they may be i-elieved from the annoyance of the 

 large brown rat. Tliis impudent intruder often 

 visits ray laboratory and other premises. As they 

 come singly, I 'take off' each, the night after I 

 discover signs of his presence, in this wise : I take 

 half a tea spoonful of di-y flour or Indian meal on 

 a plate or piece of boarcf, and sprinkle over it the 

 fraction of a grain of strichnine. This is set in a 

 convenient place, and I invariably find the cul 

 prit near the spot dead in the morning. Tne pe- 

 culiar advantage of this poison is, it produces 

 muscular spasms, which prevent the animal from 

 reaching his hole to die and decompose. It is need- 

 less to add that such a violent poison should be 

 used with care," 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



LEACHED ASHES WUEAT. 



Mr. Editor : — As you are liberal in answering 

 the inquiries of the inexperienced, 1 should be 

 very glad to be told through the columns of your 

 truly interesting and useful paper, the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, whether leached ashes can be used 

 with profit as a top-dressing on grass lands ; if so, 

 when and how they be applied ? I should be 

 pleased, and I presume many ef your readers 

 would be pleased, to hear from your field of "Blue 

 Stem Wheat as liandsome as ever stood on the 

 ground," and a little instruction on the subject of 

 raising wheat would be gratefully received, as I 

 should like to sow a little this fall. 



Inquirer. 



Raynham, Aug., 1854. 



Remarks. — Leached ashes arc excellent as a top 

 dressing for grass lands. Apply them in the fall, 

 if convenient, if not, at any other time. 



The field of W^inter Blue Stem wheat alluded to 

 will turn out about twenty bushels to the acre ; 

 the drought affected it materially. The day on 

 which it ought to have been cut was the 25th of 

 fjuly, and on that day it rained and continued 

 sultry for nearly a week, during which time the 

 straw rusted a little, and the kernel undoubtedly 

 received no benefit from it after that took place. 

 We have given in several recent numbers of the 

 Farmer all that seems necessary to be said at pre- 

 sent upon the cultivation of the wheat crop, 

 cows sdeddixg milk. 



One of 3'our readers of the New England Far- 

 mer would like to know the best mode to prevent 

 cows from shedding milk — any information from 

 your numerous readers on the above subject will 

 be thanklully received. Derby Smith. 



Derby, Aug., 1854. 



■• TVING DOWN BUDS. 



Mr. Brown : — Last season I noticed that some 

 of the buds I had set commenced growing. As 

 an experiment (with me) I tied down the buds 

 that had started by passing some matting around 

 the stock and directly over the growing buds. 

 This stopped their growth. This spring they start- 

 ed equally as well as those that did not start pre- 

 maturely. This season (rather early) I inserted 

 six buds of the Queen of the Prairie Rose into 

 one stock of another rose ; they all commenced to 

 grow. I tied down five of the buds, as above ; 

 these from pressure remain dormant, while the 

 one not tied, has grown some six or seven inches. 



Windsor, Vt, E. W. Smith. 



KENTUCKY OATS. 



Enclosed I send you a head from my field 

 of Kentucky oats, plucked green, and '■'■many such 

 might have been seen.'" On it 1 find 100 pods of 

 kernels nearly all of which contain two perfect 

 kernels. The head measures 16 inches, conse- 

 quenfly when fully ripe would have contained not 

 less than 240 perfect seeds of its own kind. I hav6 

 seen ten heads from on 3 seed, tlie smallest of which 

 contained 5G pods and the largest 189. The others 

 ranged between those two extremes. In extra 

 seasons I have weighed them at 49^ lbs. per bushel 



