PRACTICAL FARMER 



21 



the meantime for the purpose of draining them 

 on, thereby saving the liquor, which would other- 

 wise be soon exhausted. In this operation the 

 head of the sheej) is to be exempt from immersion, 

 and to be properly done three persons are necessa- 

 ry, one to manage the liead and the others the feet. 

 The lambs should undergo the same process, the 

 decoction being previously diluted with water, and 

 a little more care should be taken in draining 

 them. A second operation will be necessary in 

 about ten days after the first — this is indispensable 

 to effect the object intended. The intervening 

 time between the first and second immersion is 

 necessary for the eggs of the old ones to hatch, 

 and this young colony once destroyed, the cure is 

 complete. It may be well to remark, in relation 

 to this process, that its effect in the destruction of 

 "the scab," was equally as salutary and decisive in 

 the case of the ticks. If the foregoing remarks 

 are deemed worthy of a place in the columns of 

 the Farmer, insert them and oblige 



A Pennsylvania Farmer. 

 fFood Lawn, 3d. mo. 12, 1835. 



FENCE POSTS. 



Mr Editor — I have been desirous for some 

 time of addressing, through the medium of your 

 j)aper my farming brethren on an important subject, 

 viz. the means of rendering fence posts more dura- 

 ble, hut I have not found suitable leisure till this 

 day, which is by far the most tempestuous known 

 in this region for the last thirty years. In my 

 remarks I shall confine myself to my own expe- 

 rience. During winter when getting up my wood 

 I make a practice of selecting my hemlock logs 

 from ten to fourteen inches in diameter, clear from 

 shakes and pretty straight. These being carefully 

 peeled, I take them to a neigboring sawmill, and 

 have them sawed as follows : first through the 

 centre, and then turned on the side and sawed 

 through twice so as to form six posts from one log. 

 These I stick up under cover during one summer 

 at least, so as to have them thoroughly seasoned. 

 Then some time during the winter, I heat a large 

 kettle of tar and thoroughly smear with it about 

 three feet of the largest end of the post, and then 

 stick them up again ready for use. The tar ought 

 to extend a little above the. surface of the ground 

 so as to prevent the moisture as much as possible 

 from penetrating into the post. The reason of 

 prejtaring them so long before they are wanted for 

 use is to allow the tar to become hard by expo- 

 sure to the air. When posts are prepai-ed in this 

 way, I am confident from my own experience 

 they last more than twice as long as when set up 

 In the usual way. 



Some farmers of my acquaintance set their 

 posts green and with the bark on. In this case, 

 decoy commences immediately, the bark acting as 



a sponge to absorb and retain moisture and in the 

 course offi)ur or five years every high wind knocks 

 down a number of posts which fall so heavily and 

 with so much force as to break or to split the 

 boards, and thus do material damage ; and then by 

 not having a supply of posts on hand they are 

 obliged to take their teams (which are wanted 

 for other purposes) into the woods for a new set 

 of this miserable apology for fence posts. Taking 

 all things into consideration (and this farmers 

 ought to do) I think about one half of the expense 

 of supporting a post and board fence is saved by 

 this method. — J\''ational Eagle. 



Waste of Manure. — "But as an example 

 may perhaps bring this before you in a stronger 

 point of view than in any other way I can put it : 

 let me suppose that some of you should purchase 

 a little tea at a grocer's ; as long as you keep it 

 dry and shut up from the weather, it will preserve 

 its original strength, even for years ; but when 

 you put into a teapot, and pour water on it three 

 or four times, the strength is all gone, and your 

 tea becomes, I may say useless matter. It is just 

 so with your manure. I see it often placed in 

 such situations that the rain water from your 

 house and offices, and the seepage from the higher 

 grounds, all run through it ; thus every shower 

 floods it day after day, carrying off always some 

 part of the strength, until at length it is left as 

 dead and as useless as the leaves thrown out of 

 the teapot. 



" Surely no man in his senses will persist any 

 longer in such gross management. If you were 

 to observe a man quietly stand by and see his po- 

 tatoes destroyed, which are to be the chief sup- 

 port of himself and family, you would say he was 

 either mad or a downright idiot ; and if this would 

 be your opinion of him, what can you say of your- 

 selves when you stand by and daily look on at the 

 destruction of that manure by which your pota- 

 toes are to be produced ?" — Blacker''s Essay. 



Coal Trade of Pennsylvania.— The vast 

 increase of this trade, within a few years, renders 

 all authentic details relating to it a subject of gen- 

 eral interest : and in pi-oof of this increase; it is 

 only necessary to state, that in the year, 1820, 

 no more than 365 tons of anthracite coal 

 found their way to the market from the Lehigh 

 mines, while in 1834 the quantity sold amounted 

 to 374,222 tons, of which 106,500 were from the 

 Lehigh, 224,242 from the Schuylkill, and 43,700 

 from the Lackawana mines ; the Schuylkill mines 

 having been opened for the market for the first 

 time in the year 1825, and the Lackawana in 

 1829. 



The Lehigh Company employ on the Leliigh 



