142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



if we may judge from the progress already made, we 

 have now the means in hand of extending tea plan- 

 tations throughout such sections of our country as 

 may be found adapted to their cultivation. — Journal 

 of Commerce, 



♦ 



EXPORTATION OF COWS. 



Maine has long been a stock-growing state, and 

 one of her staple products has been neat stock, 

 thousands and thousands of which are driven away 

 every fall. The heavy oxen are mostly driven east, 

 into the provinces, for beef, and to be used in the 

 lumber business. The lighter cattle and stores are 

 driven to Brighton and there sold. Ilccently we 

 met with a gentleman from Springfield, Mass., who 

 was in pursuit of tirst-rate cows. lie understood 

 the properties of a good cow, and could read one 

 with great accuracy. He started last week with a 

 small drove, which he had collected in the towns of 

 Winslow, Waterville, Belgrade, &c. They were 

 prime animals, and will report themselves favorably 

 to the farmers of the Old Bay State. Here, then, is 

 opened a new branch of the stock trade, viz., the 

 rearing of first-rate milkers for sale, to supply the 

 milk farms of other states. 



In order to follow this successfully, it will be 

 necessary to pay more attention to the milking 

 properties of the breeders, and to breed from those 

 that have proved themselves good milkers. The 

 principles of breeding cows for great milking qualities 

 are not so well understood as those for breeding for 

 beef. The qualities and points which make an ani- 

 mal excellent for the latter are more tangible, 

 depending on the peculiar conformation and arrange- 

 ment and shape of different organs. This is not 

 wholly the case with an animal for milking qualities. 

 True, the form and position of certain organs are 

 indicative of these properties ; but there are also 

 certain physiological principles involved in the 

 formation of large quantities of rich milk, that are 

 not always manifest to the casual observer. — Maine 

 Farmer. 



CLIPPING HORSES. 



Clipping undoubtedly enables a horse to perform 

 his work with greater ease, in the same way that 

 a man can work easier in his shirt sleeves than in a 

 great coat ; besides this, he can be dressed quicker 

 and more readily. Extra clothing is required, and 

 the horse should not stand about in cold weather. 

 Where, however, he is obliged to do so, singeing is 

 better than clipping, as it does not remove so much 

 of the coat, but can be repeated during the winter. 

 — Ag, Gazette. 



CURE FOR SCRATCHES ON HORSES. 



Feed a horse one or two tablespoonfuls of sulphur 

 per day, (in order to cleanse his blood,) for three or 

 four days, wash the feet in clean, soft water, then put 

 on dry sulphur, and wind a linen cloth around the 

 sore, and twice or throe times a day drop in dry sul- 

 phur between the cloth and the sore. Be careful to 

 keep the feet dry, as it is of no use to doctor the feet 

 until the blood is put in order. This seldom fails in 

 the worst cases. 



SEASONS FOR FELLING RESINOUS 

 TIMBER. 



In cutting timber, of all kinds, advantage should 

 be taken of the season which will favor their dura- 

 tion and strength. Thus oak and most other kinds 

 of non-resiniferous trees, as far as the knowledge of 



practice extends, are stronger and more durable 

 when felled in early winter, at the time the pores 

 contain but little sap. On the contrary, the timber 

 of pine, larch, and other resinous trees, cut in spring 

 or early summer, when the pores ai"e filled with 

 resin, M'hich is, in fact, a sort of embalming, pos- 

 sesses a greater degree of strength, and will endure 

 longer, than if cut when the resin is absent from the 

 wood, which is more or less the case in autumn or 

 winter. 



We have no hesitation in stating, that good heart 

 pine, cut in spring, or early summer, Vv'hen full of 

 resin, is fully equal in lasting qualities to any hard- 

 wood timber that can be produced, quite putting in 

 the shade the processes of Payne, Kian, and Burnett, 

 from the efforts of nature being more freely carried 

 out than can possibly be clone by the very best ex- 

 hausting engme and hydi'aulie presses that have yet 

 been made. — American Aijriculturist. 



TEXAS WHEAT. 



It is stated by a gentleman from Corsicana, in 

 Limestone county, that about forty thousand bvishels 

 of wheat have been raised in Navarro and Limestone 

 counties this season. A part of this Avas harvested 

 as early as the 9th of May, and it is of an excellent 

 quality. The grains are plump and large, and the 

 wheat, it is believed, will average over sixty pounds 

 to the bushel. A large quantity of wheat has been 

 raised in Trinity Valley, above Dallis. The experi- 

 ments in the culture of this grain indicate that the 

 whole region, Avaterec^ by the Trinity and its tribu- 

 taries above Smithfield, is as well adapted to the 

 culture of wheat as the best wheat-growing regions 

 in the Middle States. The soil, in this section, con- 

 tains a large proportion of lime ; and it is probably 

 owing to the presence of this mineral that it is better 

 adapted to the culture of wheat than the soil near 

 coasts. There is a belt of country extending quite 

 across Texas, from the Red River to the Rio Grande, 

 and including most of the undulating region of that 

 country, that is as well adapted to the culture of 

 wheat as any portion of the Union. This section 

 comprises at least thirty millions of acres, and may, 

 at some future clay, yield bread stuffs sufficient for 

 the consumption of more than ten millions of people. 

 — Lancaster {Pa.) Farmer. 



IMPROVEMENT OF VARIETIES. 



A writer in the Gardener's Chronicle gives some 

 interesting results of experiments in improving the 

 varieties of vegetables. He began with long pod 

 beans. He took for seed none with fewer than live 

 seeds in a pod. The following year there were many 

 six-seeded pods, and some with seven. Still select- 

 ing the best, he procured many six and seven-seeded 

 pods, and some with eight. In this way new and 

 distinct varieties were formed ; for while some re- 

 mained with five-seeded pods, it was found that they 

 rarely had a six-seeded pod upon them ; while those 

 with six-seeded pods were nearly all so, and some 

 seven-seeded. New varieties are only produced from 

 seed ; hence the importance of a constant care in 

 selection in all crops which are annually reproduced 

 in this M-ay. A skilful market gardener, in Western 

 New York, by constantly selecting the earliest seeds 

 of the Washington pea, in a few years had them 

 more than a week earlier than his neighbors, who 

 cultivated the same variety. Plants not reproduced 

 by seeds, as the potato by eyes or tubers, and fruit 

 trees by grafts and buds, remain perfectly unchanged 

 for ages ; for this is only a continuation of the same 

 original plant, which cannot change its own being. 

 — Albany Cultivator. 



