206 



31. Tlie sediment of the fociila mixed with ilie 

 powder of charcoal, may be made into little billete 

 or bricks either for building or burning. 



All those uses are independent of the application 

 of the apples or fruit of the potato, the water of 

 which when immature might probably be used as 

 in 27, 28, and 29, and when ripe like the tomato. 

 The tender tops may be used as spinage. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



IMPROVED STOCK. 



Eltract of a lellfr from a senUeman in Washiti'-ton, Pa. to the 

 Editor of the New England Farmer. 

 ' I own a fine Bull by Denton, purchased some 

 years ago from John Hare Powel, Esq. This 

 animal has made a great change in our stock. His 

 calves are large, well formed, and promise to make 

 valuable animals for the dairy. They discover a 

 great disposition to fat, and with ordinary keep, his 

 calves of six months old, weigh from 5 to 600 lbs. 

 yearlings 7 to 800 lbs — and we have heifers of 3 

 years old, 12 to 1300 lbs. live weight.' 



tliQt he has obtained new facts since his first re- 

 I port. Why, then, does the' latter report differ so 

 J far from the first.' If the stock on the ' small 

 farm' is not kept on the produce thereof, we are 

 left to imagine what n.se is made of all the 'ex- 

 cellent hay and corn' so much extolled in the first 

 report. Also the ' excellent pasture.' 



I have made some inquiry of the Field-driver 

 of that district, who informs me that cattle are 

 not allowed to go at large in the town of Fra- 

 niingham, thalif he had found Mr B.'s cattle tei- 

 ing the bniefit of the act, he should have driven 

 them to the pound ; — and that the last cattle he 

 impounded for running at large belonged to the 

 chairman of the committee. 



Yours, very respectfully, 



A Small Farmer. 



Jan. 14, 1831, 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



EXAMINATION OF FARMS. 

 xMr Fessenden— The Chairman of the Com- 

 n,ittee on Farms in Middlesex, in your last num- 

 ber, under the signature of one of the gentlemen 

 who obtained a premium, complains that my re- 

 view of ilie Committee's report was not a fair one. 

 He says the reader would understand that the 

 nine years, during which Capt. Wheeler used the 

 manure from the large stable, were the nine years 

 last past; whereas the report says be purchased 

 no manure after 1S18. It is true I did not name 

 the years in which that stable manure was appli- 

 ed, because I did not then, nor can I now con- 

 ceive it at all material. The committee had taken 

 a full view of all the improvements made by 

 Capt. W. for at least 20 years, and stated that he 

 keeps now more than double the stock that was 

 kept by the former owner. Now, sir, unless Capt. 

 W. admits that his fann has deteriorated since 

 1818, I cannot see what dift'erencc can be inade 

 in the estimate, whether he used this [jurchased 

 manure during the first nine years, or the last. 

 It is true it woidd make a difference if the farm 

 had been growing poorer since 1810, but Capt. 

 W. would not admit this as a fact, and all who 

 know bis farm and his very judicio tis mode of 

 farming, know that it has not latterly become 

 lioorer. Further — the report states, 'Since that 

 time, (1810) all the manure has been made on the 

 ftrm, and the soil has been consu\erab\y improved.^ 

 So that the capacity of the farm for producing — 

 by the report — is even greater that at the end of 

 the nine years. In what then consists the nn- 

 fairncss of the review ? That review was founded 

 entirely on the Committee's report ; but it seems 

 I committt'd a gross mistake in taking the report 

 to he a true one; for we are noic presented with a 

 rc'ijort entirely different from the former. Which 

 are we to believe ? It woidd now appear, that 

 Mr Buckminster, far from keeping his stock on his 

 20 acres of land, maintains a part of it in the 

 highway; and the remainder principally on grain, 

 not raised on the farm,: This is indeed, blowin" 

 hot and blowing cohl from the saine mouth. Here 

 is ' language ofiiciaJand language confidential,' di- 

 rectly contradictory! It reminds me of the witness 

 in Court, who, on being asked why he did not tes- 

 tjfy a second time as at first, said, ' I've altered my 

 mind.' 



The writer dofs not inform us how he discov- 

 ered this new state of facts ; ho does not intitnnte 



HUDSON AND MOHAWK RAIL ROAD. 

 Conceiving that our readers will be gratified 

 with a knowledge of the progress and present 

 condition of this work, we have obtaineil the fol- 

 lowing information from an accmate source. 



Of the excavation and embankment, more than 

 two thirds of the whole work is finished ; the 

 whole will be completed by the 1st of April ; the 

 culverts and briiJges are all finished but the bridge 

 over Pearl Street. 



The stone blocks are all delivered ; tliese and 

 the broken stone will be laid along the line by the 

 1st of April, 



The limWer is all contracted for, and will be on 

 the line by the first of May; the iron rails will be 

 ready about the same time. 



Two locomotive engines have been ordered by 

 the Compiny, and are expected to be on the road 

 by the 15th of July. 



The company expect to set a locomotive engine 

 in operation by the 1.5tb of July between Lydius 

 Street, at Albany, and the brow of the hill, at 

 Sehenectailv. 



The whole work will be completed by the 15th 

 of October. 



It is intended to put the branch line, for the ac- 

 commodation of the northern and central parts of 

 Albany imder contract, as soon as the legislature 

 authorizes the sanie. 



The branch alluded to is designed for tlie con- 

 venience of passengers, and will probably enter 

 the city at the head of Washington Street, extend- 

 ing down that street as far as Cruttenden's and the 

 Parks. The importance of this work, both for 

 purposes of gei;eral utility and as a pattern im- 

 provement must be obvious to every man. The 

 Company deserves the highest praise for the rapi- 

 dity with which they have pressed its construction 

 since its commpnceinent. The proposed branch 

 will be of great convenience to passengers, and of 

 advantage to the city.-^The Company will apply 

 to the legislature, at its present session,' for leave to 

 construct it; and the a].plication will be entitled to 

 their earliest con.sideration, from the circumstance, 

 that they wait only the legislative sanction to of- 

 fer the contracts. — Mhany Argus. 



A good Cow. — Mr William Chase, of Somerset, 

 has a cow, that during the past .season has given, 

 on an average, 20 quarts of milk per day. Nearly 

 14 pounds of butter per week have been made 

 from her milk during the season. 120 lbs. were 

 made in 10 weeks, 108 of which were brought to 

 this market. We understand that she has been 

 kept upon graRs, and without grain. Such a cow- 

 ls valuable property. Mr Chase refuses to sell 

 her. — Fall-River Monitor. 



kp 



I Wool — The last fortnight nearly all the fleec 

 wool in market has been sold without any reduc 

 tion from former prices. A fair detnand for pulle 

 lamh.s, at 50 a 55c. a considerable parcel of th; 

 discription has been sold at 53(!. 3 mo. We ap 

 advised of the shipment from London of a con 

 siderable quantity (or this market, which may b 

 daily expected. A letter from London, Dec. 4 

 says,—' Shipments of Wool have not been mad. 

 to the U. S. to the extent that we antici|)ated ; ii 

 fact our market until recently has been so bare 

 that many conditional orders have been from neces 

 sity cancelled— of late the imports from Germany 

 have been upon a liberal scale, and our market "i:._^, 

 fiat in consequence, and prices for the next month '[ 

 may go rather lower ; but we anticipate .some in*. H 

 provement in February, of Spanish and Portuguea* 

 Wool, for which the market is very barely supjilied 

 and we do not look for any n)aterial augmentation, 

 3070 bales Wool were imported into London from 

 Hamburg, week ending Nov. 30. — Boston Cour. 

 JVew York, Jan. 8.— Wool.— The importationa ^' 

 I frotn London mentioned in our last, have been fol- 

 lowed this week by 276 bales from Lisbon to thiw 

 port, and 38 bales from Cadiz to Philadelphia, 

 besides one or two small parcels of Saxony to thi*^ 

 port and Boston. The influence of these supplies,, iC 

 which are for the most |)art, still on shipboard^, 

 does not yet manifest itself. A few bales Portu~ 

 guese, F. were re-sold this week, at auction, andl| In 

 brought 44c. cash, being about the price obtaiue(K j^ 

 for them a few weeks since. — Daily Mv. 



EXTRAORDINARY UTILITY OF THE NETTLE^j 

 In the weekly newspaper of the Bavarian Ag.- 

 ricultural Society, the nettle is said to have th«. 

 following properties: 1. Eaten in salad it cureSf 

 consumption ; 2. It fattens honied cattle whether* 

 eaten green or dried ; 3. Experience has shown that 

 it not otdy fattens calves but improves their breed }: 

 4. It is an antidote to most maladies ; 5. Sheep, 

 which eat it bring forth healthy vigorous lambs j, 

 6. It promotes the laying of eggs in hens ; 7. It 

 improves the fat of pigs ; 8. The seeds mi.xed 1 

 with oats are excellent for horses ; 9. It grows all j "^ 

 the year round even in the coldest weather ; 10. 

 The fibres of the stem make au excellent hemp. 



It is certain the nettle is much vahied in Hol- 

 land, where its young shoots are used as a pot 

 herb ; its roots for dying yellow ; where the horse* 

 dealers give the seeds to horses, to make them 

 brisk and gi\e them a fine skin ; and where cot*.- 

 siderfble portions of fields are planted with it, and 

 mown five or six times a year as green food. * 



Charcoal Dlst — A writer in the Gardener's'iS 

 Mag-azine asserts that six years' experience has'/ 

 convinced him that charcoal dust is a remedy for 

 the grub and mouldiness in onions ; and he has 

 repeatedly proved, that it effectually jjrevents the -^ 

 ■hibbing in the mots of cabbages and cuuliflow— A 

 ers. • 



The Newburyport Herald states, that in a large 

 fnmily named Poor, in West Newbury, there have 

 been only six deaths within the last 40 years, and 

 that four of tliese were of persons over 90 years 

 of age, and the other two, of persons bver 80. 



Affecting Anecdote. — A heart-rending story 

 is told of a young Scottish plough-boy who being 

 disa,ppointe(l in a love affair, was driven so near to 

 the verge of despair, that, with a rope in his hand, 



he entered his master's barn, and tied all 



of the coivsUails together! — Pawtuckei Chronicle. 



