

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ALL ITS VARIOUS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Honor waits, o'er all the earth, The art that calls her harvests forth. — Bryant. 



VOL. I. 



SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1849. 



NO. 6. 



S. W. GOLE, Editor. 



QUINCY HALL, BOSTON. 



J, NOURSE, Proprietor. 



PREPARE IMPLEMENTS. 



Before spring's work commences, farmers should 

 have all their implements in readiness, whether they 

 purchase or make them. "Wheels, carts, ploughs, 

 harrows, drags, rollers, and various other implements 

 and machines should all be in good order in due 

 time, that there may be no delay in the busy season 

 for want of these useful things. 



A farmer who has timber, and is ingenious, or can 

 get a neighbor who is skilled in the use of tools to 

 assist him, can often construct coarse, rude imple- 

 ments cheaper than he can buy them. But small 

 tools, and all machines and implements that require 

 nice work, may be purchased at a much cheaper rate 

 than the farmer can make them. 



It wiU cost a farmer tliree times as much to con- 

 struct a plough in the old-fashioned mode of employ- 

 ing the carpenter and blacksmith, as it will to buy 

 ploughs of the best construction. And the improved 

 ploughs now sold at the agricultural stores require 

 80 much less draught than the old, rude implements, 

 that they are cheaper at the usual prices than the 

 home-made ploughs are at nothing. Tiiese remarks 

 are unnecessary, at the present day, in most parts of 

 the country. 



Some tools have been so much improved, chat they 

 bid defiance to all competition, excepting that which 

 has been the result of long experience, great inge- 

 nuity, and expensive implements and machinery in 

 their construction ; and it is far better for the farmer 

 to buy such superior tools at a moderate price, than 

 to use heavy, bungling implements, if he could have 

 them as a present. 



Let a farmer procure his implements as he may, 

 he should now commence his preparations, if he is 

 not already about it ; for spring, with its long, busy 

 train of operations, will soon be upon us, and we 

 must be careful, lest, in the sudden change from the 

 rigid cold of winter to the genial warmth of spring, 

 old Time shall gain an advantage, and find us un- 

 prepared. A good preparation for spring and sum- 

 mer's work, by having all implements prepared and 

 of the best construction, is a great deal towards the 

 accomplishment of the labor. 



EVERGREENS FOR SHEEP. 



Evergreens are not only excellent food for sheep, 

 which may often be used to considerable extent as a 

 matter of economy, but they are very wholesome as 

 a green food when sheep are kept long on dry fodder. 

 Sometimes evergreens may be used as a matter of 

 necessity, when hay is scarce, and save animals 

 from great suffering and starvation, which occasion- 

 ally occur fi-om unusually long and cold winters. 

 Colds and other diseases in sheep have been cured 

 by the use of evergreens. 



Pines of diff'erent kinds are among the best ever- 

 greens for sheep ,• hemlock is also excellent ; spruce 

 and fir, if not equally good, are very useful. Sheep 

 are fond of browse of almost every description. 

 Thcv bear with difficulty a long confinement to dry 

 fodder, and they should be relieved by the use of 

 roots, evergreens, or browse ; all of which they eat 

 ivith great eagerness. 



PURE AIR FOR ANIMALS. 



As the weather becomes warm, those farmers who 

 have been careful to make their animals comfortable 

 by close buildings, during the cold winter, should be 

 equally careful to supply them with pure air, as 

 warm weather approaches. If many animals are in 

 the same apartment, or near each other, in close shel- 

 ters, and exposed to the gases arising from the manure, 

 the atmosphere around them becomes contaminated, 

 and the animals are very liable to become diseased. 



In ventilating a barn or stable while the weather 

 is rather cool or chilly, carefully avoid directing a 

 fresh draught directly on the animals, for, lilce hu- 

 man beings, they are liable to colds, under great 

 exposure. Plaster, charcoal powder, and various 

 other absorbents, spread on the floor where stock are 

 kept, are excellent for imbibing the gases arising 

 from manures, and rendormg the air pure. Com- 

 mon earth, of almost every description, as loam, sand, 

 gravel, pulverized peat, and sods, &c., are good ab- 

 sorbents, tending to render the air purer, and save ' 

 the manure ; and some of these are -i^-ithin the reach 

 of every farmer in the country. 



