&I)C .farmer's ittontljto t%ttor. 



157 



owing mainly to Railroads — mid very much to a 

 system of low fares and frequent trains on the 

 Railroads. — Railroad Journal. 



Gradually has the railroad passenger fare be<" n 

 reduced between Concord and Boston from $2 75 

 at first down to §1 50. Every reduction in price 

 has ns yet, we believe, increased the revenue and 

 gains of the road. When the roads building 

 above shall extend lo their long reach, lower and 

 lower still may the price of transport for passen- 

 gers and merchandise be reduced, for the benefit 

 of the roads not less than for the benefit of the 

 people. A man may now go seventy-five miles 

 out and the same distance back, and do in one 

 day what would formerly he done in a fatiguing 

 journey including the same opportunity for busi- 

 ness in the time of three days: the stage fare 

 and expense in the one case would exceed elev- 

 en dollars— in the other only three dollars and a 

 half. So cheap has become the loco-motion up- 

 on the railways that within the next five years 

 we anticipate the price of merchandise per ton 

 will not exceed one cent 'o the mile, and the 

 passenger price not exceed one cent to one cent 

 and a fourth the mile: if the interest of the 

 roads is consulted, so great is becoming the 

 business created by the reduction itself, that 

 the minimum prices will generally be adopted. 



The farmers of some neighborhoods in New 

 England are taking up the stock and excavating 

 and grading the railroads with as little ado as 

 they formerly built turnpikes. There is some 

 danger that they may undertake too much at 

 once ; bill there can he little doubt that nearly 

 every road yet contemplated, will ultimately be- 

 come a good investment. 



A National Pomnlogical convention has been 

 sitting at New York, composed of the most emi- 

 nent fruit growers from the northern, middle 

 and western States. After three days discussion 

 they recommended the following select list of 

 fruits for cultivation throughout the country, as 

 thriving the best in the different soils and cli- 

 mates of the United States. 



Peaches — varieties recommended for general 

 cultivation. — Grosse Mignonne, Early York, (ser- 

 rated,) Old Mixon, (free,) Coolidge favorite, Craw- 

 ford's late, Bergin's yellow. For particular lo- 

 calities — Heath Cling. 



Plums — recommended for general cultivation. 

 — Jefferson, Washington, Green gage, purple 

 favorite, Coe's golden drop, Bleecker's gage, 

 Frost gage, Purple gage. For particular locali- 

 ties — Prince's Imperial. 



Cherries — varieties recommended for general 

 cultivation. — Black Fagle, Mayduke, Bigarreau, 

 Black Tartarean, Knight's Farly Black, Downer, 

 Late Red, Elton, Downton. 



Apples — varieties recommended for general 

 cultivation. — Early Harvest, Large Yellow Bough, 

 American Summer Pearman, Gravenslein, Sum- 

 mer Rose, Early Strawberry, Fall Pippin, Rhode 

 Island Greening, Baldwin, Roxbury Russet. 

 For particular localities — Yellow Bellflower, 

 Swaar, Esopus Spitzenburg, Newtown Pippin. 



Pears — varieties recommended for general 

 cultivation — INI ade line, Oeai born Seedling, Blood- 

 good, Tyson, Bartlett, Seeker, Louisa Bonne de 

 Jersey, Flemish, Beauty, Benrre, Bosc, Winter 

 Xelis, Beurre D'Aremberg, Golden Be u ire of 

 Bilboa. For certain localities — White Doyenne, 

 Gray Doyenne. 



Effects of Agricultural Papers. 



It is not to be denied that these papers have 

 bad an effect in setting farmers and mechanics 

 to thinking and writing on the subject that is 

 nd dear to them. The old prejudice 



portion to tiie improvement introduced into these 

 papers. Practical and experienced fanners are 



the only men ca|iable of conducting such jour- 

 nals. It is absurd to suppose that a mere theo- 

 rist can he depended on to point out the various 

 modes of improvement that may be adopted in 

 husbandry. A farmer should not meddle with 

 the helm of a ship; nor a sailor with a team. A 

 theorist may by chance suggest new means of 

 improvement, but he is not to be trusted with 

 the compass at sea ; nor with the edge tools of 

 the farmer and mechanic. 



Farmers require reliable information. They 

 are too prudent to depart far from the beaten 

 track before they have discovered another that 

 will be as straight and good. Changes are not 

 always improvements, and though many farmers 

 are proverbially wedded to the practices of an- 

 tiquity, they are more safe guides than the fanci- 

 ful theorist. — Massachusetts Ploughman. 



Feeding Work Horses. 



We have long been convinced that the best 

 mode of feeding horses that are kept in the sta- 

 b|i:s, is to mix the grain in a ground state, with 

 the bay or straw, after the latter has been cut 

 with a machine. Experiments have demonstra- 

 ted that a considerable saving both in bay and 

 grain may, in this way, be made. We have 

 lately met with an account of a method 81' feed- 

 ing said to be practised by Dr. Sully, of Somer- 

 set, England, which, it appears to us, may be 

 worthy of adoption, to some extent. He has no 

 racks for hay, as he deems it wasteful to feed 

 uncut fodder. The horses are fed in mangers, 

 over the top of which, to prevent the horses 

 from tossing out food, cross-bars are nailed at 

 about a foot apart. The cut hay and straw and 

 grain are regularly weighed out" The foot) is 

 sometimes varied ; hut thirty pounds of food is 

 given to each horse every twenty-four hours. 

 The following shows the articles of food given, 

 and the different modes of preparing it, as well 

 as the quantity which each horse daily receives: 



No. 1st. 2d. 3d. 4th. 



1. Farinaceous substances, 

 consisting of bruised or 



ground beans, peas, wheat, lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. 

 barley, or oats, 5 5 10 5 



2. Bran, fine or coarse, 7 



3. Potatoes, boiled or steam- 

 ed, mashed in a tub with 



a beater, 5 5 



4. Fresh grains, (boiled bar- 

 ley,) a o o o 



5. Hay cut down into chaff, 7 8 10 8 



6. Straw, ditto, 7 10 10 8 

 7 Malt-dust, or ground oil- 

 cake, 2 2 



With two oz. of salt in each 



class. — — — — 



30 30 30 30 



Of the four classes into which the ingredients 

 are divided, Dr. S. most recommends those two 

 which contain the steamed potatoes. — Cultivator. 



Easy way of gaining or losing five years of life. 



Early rising has been often extolled, and ex- 

 tolled in vain ; for people think that an hour's 

 additional sleep is very comfortable, and can 

 make very little difference after all. But an 

 hour gained or wasted every day makes a great 

 difference in the length of our lives, which we 

 may see by a very simple calculation. First, we 

 will say that the average of mankind spend six- 

 teen hours of every twenty-four awake and em- 

 ployed, and eight in bed. Now, each year hav- 

 ing three hundred and sixty-five days, if a dili- 

 gent person abstract from sleep one hour daily, 

 he lengthens his year three hundred and sixty- 

 five hours, or twenty-three days of sixteen hours 

 each, the length Of a waking day, which is what 

 we call a day in tl«£se calculations. We will 



| 

 ue decreased or aUilcd lo iiy sioiti or energy. A 

 person sleeping eight hours a day, has his full 



average of three hundred and sixty-five clays in 

 the year, and may therefore he said to enjoy 

 complete his forty years. Let him take nine 

 hours' sleep, and his year has but three hundred 

 and forty-two days, so that he lives otdy thirty- 

 seven and one-half years; with ten hours in bed, 

 he has three hundred and nineteen days, and his 

 life is thirty-five years; in like manner, if the 

 sleep is limited to seven hours, our year has 

 three hundred and eighty-eight days, and, in- 

 stead ol forty, we live forty-two and one-half 

 years; and if six hours is our allowance of 

 slumber, we have four hundred and eleven days 

 in the year, and live forty-five years. By this we 

 see that in forty years, two hours daily occasion 

 either a loss or gain of Jive years. How much 

 might be done in this space! What would we 

 not give at the close of life for another lease of 

 five years 1 And how bitter the reflection would 

 he at such a time, if we reflected at all, that we 

 have wilfully given up this portion of our exist- 

 ence merely that we might be a little longer in 

 bed in the morning '. — Chambers'' Journal. 



The Onion Worm. — We have been informed 

 by Mr. J. A. Jenner, of Burlington, that he has 

 succeeded in preventing the ravages of this 

 troublesome insect, by applying ashes between 

 the rows of onions. His method is to make a 

 trench between the rows about three inches 

 deep with the corner of a hop, and to fill it with 

 unit-ached ashes — the rows being about seven 

 inches apart, and the ashes not reaching the 

 plants. He adopted this plan on the recommen- 

 dation of a farmer from Orleans county, who 

 has practised it successfully for several years. 

 The ley from such a quantity of ashes as this, 

 must completely saturate the soil, and were the 

 application a safe one for the onions, we should 

 think it a decidedly dangerous one for the 

 worms. — Vermont Agriculturist. 



Shoeing Horses. — At a meeting of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, some time 

 since, Professor Sewall remarked that he found 

 old horses shod with a layer of leather, forming 

 an artificial sole between the shoe and the hoof, 

 recover from the severe affections causing injury 

 to the hoof— such, for instance, as contractions, 

 britlleness and cracks, or even disease of the 

 foot itself, as thrushes, canker, corns, &c., and 

 perfectly regain its original elasticity and firm- 

 ness. — Exchange paper. 



Top-Dressing for Grass Lands.— Bones 

 dissolved in muriatic, acid, will be a good top- 

 dressing for grass lands. Boiled will be more 

 easily dissolved than raw bones. They must be 

 put in a vessel, wetted till they will take up no 

 more water, and then have the acid poured over 

 them. — Eng. tanner's Herald. 



Compost Sheds. — Among the objects most 

 worthy of our agriculturists' attention, are com- 

 post sheds; a cemented pit, roofed in, with 

 walls on three sides. In this kind of shed, ma- 

 nure, may bo economically manufactured, with 

 as much industry and care as on a Flemish fiirm. 

 These kinds of sheds are kept constantly filled 

 with vegetable and animal refuse of all kinds, 

 amongst which is mixed from time to time a bag 

 of guano, to promote the decomposing fermen- 

 tation ; with the aid of liquid manure the mass 

 soon com rted into a highly exciting 

 compost, and conveyed away either for immedi- 

 ate application, or to be preserved in a casing of 



