NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



91 



BARREN SOILS. 



This terra is often used, and is supposed by many 

 to mean a soil incapable of being rendered fertile. 

 No such soil exists. Barren, then, is only applicable 

 when intended to convey the idea of soil which, in 

 its present state, will not repay the cultivator. 



The unproductiveness may arise from many causes, 

 but none of them are without remedy. If from a 

 deficiency of some of the earths, let them be added ; 

 if from an excess or deficiency of either animal or 

 vegetable matters, the fault is easily corrected ; if 

 from stagnant water, either under-drain or subsoil, 

 03 may be required ; if sand, clay, or chalk be defi- 

 cient, add them ; if either be in excess, add the 

 other two. Peaty soils are generally reclaimed by 

 draining alone ; sometimes paring and burning are 

 necessary to induce decomposition of organic matter 

 in excess. The same result can be obtained in most 

 or all eases, by the addition of the salt and lime prep- 

 aration which Ave have recommended for composts. 

 When the soils are found to be incompetent to pro- 

 duce any special crops required, the farmer should 

 have them analyzed, and then compare their inte- 

 grants with those of such soils as do produce the 

 required crop readily. The difference will point out 

 the means vv'hich must naturally be resorted to, for 

 the purpose of restoring their fertility. 



AN ANCIENT APPLE. 



Colonel Samuel Jacques, of the "Ten Hills Farm," 

 near Boston, has presented to the American Anti- 

 quarian Society an apple more than fifty-six years 

 old. It was given him on the 1 2th of September, 

 1792, as a birthday token, by a lady, the period of 

 whose entrance into life happened to correspond with 

 his own. 



The original size of the apple was about that of a 

 large cranberry ; and what is somewhat remarkable, 

 it grew out from a small bud starting out of a stout 

 limb, while the rest of the fruit of the tree (the Sum- 

 mer Ilorvey) was large, the apples weighing from 

 twelve to fourteen ounces each. 



This venerable specimen is as well preserved as 

 an Egyptian mummy. It has as many Avrinkles as 

 usually belong to extreme old age, and exhibits the 

 complexion to v.-hich every thing mortal is wont to 

 come at last. — Worcester Spt/, 



SALT AND SOOT. 



The power of soot as a top-dressing to either 

 wheat or pasture land, is materially increased by the 

 admixture of one fourth of common salt. In the 

 fourth volume, p. 270, of the Iloyal Agricultural 

 Society's Journal, it is stated that iifty-four bushels 

 of soot and six of salt produced larger crops of Al- 

 tringham and white Belgian carrots than twenty-three 

 tons of stable manure and twenty-four bushels of 

 bones, at half the cost. It is best to hoe the land, 

 where used as top-dressing for wheat, after the soot 

 is spread, as that prevents the evaporation of the am- 

 monia, which is the most essential part of the manure. 

 To mix it with lirno is most injurious, as that alkali 

 causes the rapid dissipation of the ammonia. Mr. 

 Dimraory, of Stinchorabe farm, in Gloucestershire, 

 uses nothing but soot as a manure for potato crops, 

 which he grows in drills, using soot at the rate of 

 twenty-five bushels to the acre. 



HOW TO CATCH HAWKS. 



The following ingenious method for destroying 

 these pests to the farmer is given by S. Webb, Esq., 



of Waldo county, Maine, in a late number of the 

 Belfast Republican : — 



"Erect a pole, twelve or fifteen feet high, in a 

 place where there will not be any thing else near for 

 them to light upon, and upon it set a common fox- 

 trap, on which they will light. A strong rat-trap 

 will answer the i)urpose, by tying it to the pole 

 lengthwise,with the jaws raised above the end, the 

 pole being a little leaning, so that the jaws will not 

 fall together. When one hawk is taken, tie it on the 

 ground near the pole, and its mate will be in the trap 

 in a short time. The season is near for the hawks to 

 reappear, and if farmers do not wish to have their 

 chickens destroyed by them, they will do well to 

 adopt this method of putting a stop to their depreda- 

 tions. 



BIRDS. 



It is proved that a pair of sparrows, during the 

 time they have their young to feed, destroy, on an 

 average, every week, three thousand three hundred 

 and sixty caterpillars. This calculation is founded 

 upon actual observation. Two parents have been 

 known to carry to thcu- nest forty caterpillars in 

 an hour ; and, supposing the sparrows to enter the 

 nest only twelve times during each day, they would 

 cause a consumption of four hundred and eighty cat- 

 crinllars : this sum gives thirty-three hundi'ed and 

 sixty caterpillars extirpated weekly from a garden. 

 But the utility of the birds is not limited to this 

 circumstance alone, for they likewise feed their young 

 with butterflies and other winged insects, each of 

 which, if not destroyed in this manner, would be- 

 come the parents of hundreds of caterpillars. 



CURE FOR GRUBS IN THE HEAD OF 

 SHEEP. 



It was in the latter part of winter one of my flock 

 was taken sick, and became so weak it could not rise 

 without being lifced. I supposed its ailment to be 

 the grub in the head ; and knowing something of tho 

 virtue of flaxseed oil, I resolved to try an experi- 

 ment on it. I laid the sheep on its rump, or rather 

 on its back, with its nose a little inclining backw.ards, 

 and poured in near a tablcspoonful of the above oil, 

 part in each nostril. The next morning the sheep was 

 able to get up and eat with the rest of the flock, and 

 speedily recovered. After that, and while I kept 

 sheep, when I discovered any of tlicm snotty-nosed 

 and coughing, (an indication of the grub,) I put a 

 little oil in their noses, as above, and they soon be- 

 came clean and healthy. I do not remember that I 

 failed in one instance. Some of my neighbors als« 

 received benefit by the above process. — Selected. 



WORK! WORK! 



If you would be free. work. Wlien a man stops 

 working, he in effect dies. He starves in the mi(&t 

 of abundance ; for what is dyspepsia but the worst 

 sort of starvation ? God may have cursed the ground, 

 but he blessed labor. He made man to subdue the 

 earth. Yet he is also the blessed Creator of sleep, of 

 rest, of recess, of mirth, hilaiity, and fun. Enjoy super- 

 fluity ? Yes, but only in one way — helping the needy. 

 Hoarding up a fortune to live in idleness, is not en- 

 joying superfluity, nor rest. It is being miserable, 

 and that no man has a right to be. He who works, 

 and has enough to work with, and is sure of enough 

 to live on while he Avorks, enjoys the conditions of 

 happiness. Idleness is no less a crime in the rich 

 than the poor. 



