40 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



wheat. The fall may be bad for planting, the spring may- 

 be bad, the fly may take the crop or the rust may strike it ; 

 escaping all these, the weevil may damage it ; and, after all 

 this, it may not bring a justifying price Avhen got to mar- 

 ket. Is it wise for a man to put his yearly support or gains 

 upon one ci'op and that one crop depending upon six or seven 

 contingencies ? If there is a large crop and high prices, he 

 makes largely. Eighty acres at thirty bushels the acre 

 yields 2,400 bushels, Avorth, say, seventy cents, or $1,680 

 gross receipts. Elated beyond measure, the lucky fellow 

 buys some forty acres more of cleared land, reduces his 

 pasture, shaves off a portion from his meadow, plants a few 

 acres only of corn, and puts every inch he can command 

 into wheat ; a good operation if he can find guaranty for 

 as good seasons and as good market as before. But there 

 are at least ten chances against for one in favor. 



A farm which depends for its profit on butter, cheese, 

 fruit, timber, cattle, hogs, corn, wheat, potatoes, flax, etc., 

 makes, perhaps, but a little on each crop ; but the rains 

 that come in drops are useful, while those that come in tor- 

 rents and raise freshets, leave great mischief behind. 



Ticks on Sheep. — ^A clergyman, who was early in life a 

 regular-built shepherd, after the old-fashioned style, living 

 with his flock, requests us to call the attention of all interested 

 in sheep, to the prevention of ticks adopted " in the place 

 he came from." A trough, large enough to hold a sheep, 

 was filled with a decoction of tobacco ; as soon as the sheep 

 are sheared, they are plunged all over in, except the nose 

 and mouth (these organs being sacred to chewers and snuff- 

 ers). The lambs are treated in the same way, and a world 

 of trouble to the owner and yet mc>re to the flock, is saved 

 by this nauseous bath. 



