220 



NEW E N GLAND FARMER, 



JAN. I a, 184) I 



F..r llio N. E. Farmtr. 



jrrSCARRVING OF MARKS FROM SERING 

 FRESH I5I;EP. 



Mr PiTNAM — Sir — In your paper of 15th De- 

 cember, Mr B. inquires, if it be true that tlie sight 

 of " fresh beef will make a mare with f'>al miscar- 

 ry." lie observes that ho had " always considered 

 it a moon story." He thin relates n fact. The 

 fact I am nut disposed to dispnle. But 1 will re- 

 late another fact which will go to prove that this 

 old saying is in reality a "moon story." .SevHn or 

 CiKlit years ago, my brother had a mare with foal, 

 and ne were then living together: his mare and 

 my horse occupied a stall beside each other, open- 

 ing directly into our burn floor. It so happened 

 that we butchered some dozen of youn^ cattle dur- 

 ing the winter, and for want of a better place, we 

 butchered them all in this floor, in fair sight of my 

 brothel's mare, and not many feet from her stall. 

 I had always been told from a boy, that the sight 

 of fresh beef would cause a marc with foa! to mis- 

 carry, and I believed it to be true, and of course ad- 

 vised my brother to remove hia mare to another 

 part of the barn. But he considered it, as did Mr 

 B., a " moon story," and so she remained in fair 

 sight of the wliole process of butchering until the 

 whole was comj)lete. All of this did not in the 

 hast affect the mare. In due time, which was 

 three or lour months from the last butchering the 

 mare brouglu forth, aid the mare and the foal were 

 bright and right. So, Mr Editor, since that I have 

 considered that saying a "moon story." 



OTIS BRIGHA.M. 



ff'tatboro', Mass., Dec 28, 1641. 



ASTONISHING INCREASE OF CREAM AND 

 BUTTER ! ! 

 The following is from the Ky. Farmer. Wo 

 have little faith that the process described will be 

 of one tenth part the value ascribed to it; but pcr- 

 linp.=; there are some dairy women :vho may have a 

 disposition to give it a trial, iind if ;he?y should, we 

 shall be happy to hoar with what i'lccess. — Ed. N. 

 E. F. 



A Sccrtlfor a Farmer's IHfe. — While the milk- 

 ing of your cows is going on, let your pans be 

 placed ill a kettle of boiling water. Strain the 

 milk into one of the pans taken hot from the ket- 

 tle, and cover the same with another of the hot 

 pans, and proceed in like manner with the whole 

 mess of milk, and you will find that you will have 

 double the tjuantity of good, rich cream, that will 

 give you double the iiuanlity of sweet and deli- 

 cious butter. 



From the Kentucky Former. 



" ONLY HALF A DOLLAR." 

 We dined with our friend Tonison the other 

 day. It v/as the first time we had been to see him 

 since ho quit his large house in Walnut St. and 

 moved to liis present small one. His lands, his 

 loans, and his slocks have turned out to have no 

 more substance than the leather of (ilenn's Sapo- 

 naceous Compound. His fourteen sections in In- 

 diana and Illinois are from sonic cause or other, 

 reiiiolencss from a market, prcvnhmce of milk 

 sickness in the neighborhood, or something of that 

 kind — worth less than the original government 

 price. The Iliig-a-muj and Derry Down Rttil- 



road Loan, and the stock of the Flipflap Bank, in 

 which he was interested to the amount of forty- 

 eight thousand dollars, are now quoted so low that 

 lie considers them worth little or nothing. 



In dining, the conversation was partly about the 

 change in Tomson's style of living. We have al- 

 ways been very intimate, and he tells us all about 

 his affairs : " I have told Mrs. Tomson," said he 

 in the course of the talk, " at least one hundred 

 limes within the last month that I found our expen- 

 ditures must not exceed two thousand five hun- 

 dred dollars a year." " I will vouch for your hav- 

 ing said so a thousand timrs" rejoined our hostess. 

 " I hear nothing but retrenchment, economy and 

 reform ! The cry is as loud and fiequeiit in this 

 house as it used to be among the Harrison men be- 

 fore the election." Then Mrs. T. addressed herself 

 to us particularly. " Why sir, will you believe it, 

 I asked Mr. Tomson to order a quart of ice cream. 

 He knew you would dine with us ; but no, it would 

 cost eighty seven and a half cants, nnd so he must 

 economize, and now we have no ice cream !" Af- 

 ter the delivery of this speech Tomson took out 

 his pocket book and made a memorandum in it. 



The conversation turned. We remarked that 

 the streets had not looked very nice recently, and 

 ventured to suggest thai the new city administra- 

 tion had not yet got warm enough in their places 

 to take a peep out of the windows and see in what 

 a dirty condition are the thoroughfares. To this 

 remark Mrs. Tomson assented, and added that for 

 her part she regretted nothing so much as the giv- 

 ing up of her carriage. " Indeed," she added, " I 

 hate cabs, but this morning 1 was out shopping, 

 and the streets were so uncleanly, that I got into a 

 cab in Second street, and rode home." " Were 

 you tired, my dear, so that you could not walk ?" 

 asked Tomson. " No, but I did'iit want to walk, 

 and the cab was only twenty five cents ?" Tom- 

 son took out his pocket hook and made another 

 memorandum in it. 



" You were out, my dear, shopping this morning, 

 you say. What did you buy ?" inquired Tomson. 

 " Nothing at all. I saw fifty things I wanted, but 

 I knew you would begin to lecture about economy 

 the instant you should see them." " Well 1 ad- 

 mire your self-denial in buying nothing." " Noth- 

 ing ! Oh no, I bought this little pink plush cravat 

 for myself — the cheapest thing I ever saw. They 

 ask a dollar and a quarter in Chesnut street for the 

 same article, and what do you think I gave for it ?" 

 " Well," replied Tomson, " have you not a pink 

 silk one, and do you need this new one ?" " Not 

 positively, but then it was only three quarters of a. 

 dollar." Tomson took out his pockelbook and 

 made another memorandum in it. I 



" Well, Mrs. Tomson," said we, " yon have cer- 

 tainly not given your husband cause to lecture you | 

 to-day on retrenchment, economy and refiiriii, if 

 three quarters of a dollar is the amount of all your 

 shopping." " Slop," exclaimed the lady, " I have j 

 not shown you one purchase I made, cheaper than [ 

 the plush cravat. Do you see this pair of milts ? | 

 What do you think I gave fiir them •'" Wo could i 

 not guess, but Mr. Tomson asked of what use Ihoy 

 were. " Oh, none at all," answered his wife, '• but I 

 thoy are so pretty and so very cheap. 1 gave only I 

 half a didlar for them !" Tomson took out hi^ 

 pocket-book nnd made another nn-morandum in it 



" Tomson ! what are you writing in that book ?' 

 we asked, inquisitively. " Well, I will show yon,' 

 said ho, and then placed the book in our hands 

 where we read in pencil the following entries : 



OcTOBEa ^sJr 

 Credit J. T. for Ice Cream not 



bought, 87 1-2cei|!' 



Charge Mrs. T. for Cab hire 



when she could walk, only 25 cents- 



Charge Mrs. T. for pink plush ' 



cnivat not wanted, only 75 cent«. { 



Charge Mrs. T. for Milts not j 



wanted, only 50 cents, f 



(I 



$1,50 cenu. ' 

 After we had examined these, during which tii' 

 Mr. and Mrs. Tomson sat silent, he took the bo< * 

 wrote something more in it, and then returned ' 

 to us with his calculation : | 



$1,50 I 



Multiplied by 3C5, the number of days in l' 



year. ' 



750 

 900 

 450 



$'547,50 — Five hundred and forty ae 

 en dollars and fifty cents 

 year. 

 " You sec," said Tomson, " only twenty 

 cents, only half a dollar, is at a rate of more t 

 five hundred dollars a year out of my pockeL' 





CORN ROOT. 



.\bout a year since, a gentleman called at 

 office and gave us a partial account of a rep 

 which was said to abound in a certain swam] 



the town of Brookfield in this Stale, which pc 



ed remarkable nutritive qualities, and was foun 

 be equal if not superior to Indian corn for fall 

 ing hogs. 



It was stated by our informant that the discovi 

 of this root was somewhat on this wise : A fai 

 whose premises bordered on and extended into 

 swamp, a few years since fenced olfa lot adjoii: 

 it, for the uccommodation of his hogs during 

 summer months. The swine not only had 

 range of the hog pasture, but were allowed 

 access to the swamp. After a few days occupu 

 of their new territory, it was but seldom that 

 hogs would come up to feed at their wonted 

 and fears were entertained that they would 

 "hold their own" through the summer. It 

 soon apparent, however, that they were thri 

 rapidly, although they at length wholly rej 

 the food offered them. Finally, the owner on 

 occasion followed them into the swamp, and wal 

 ed their operations; when he found that they i 

 busily engaged in turning up the surface of 

 swamp, and feeding greedily on something 

 their researches develo|>ed. On examination, 

 whole swamp was found to abound in large 

 live roots, on which the hogs were thriving rema 

 bly, and on which feed alone they finally bee 

 uncommonly fat; and the pork proved to be of 

 tra quality. 



This fact becoming generally known to the 

 mors along the borders of the swamp, it bei 

 customary for them all to turn their hogs into 

 swamp \.o fallen. The superior quality of the 

 thus made, was a means of obtaining the hij 

 market price ; and our informant stated that 

 made in this swamp was always sought for in 

 fcrence to any other, and always commanded 

 extra price. 



These roots are represented as gfrowing to I 



