82 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oet. 5, 



AGRICULTURAL SELECTIONS. 

 The French have paid particular attention to 

 sheep since the time of Colbert, and there are 

 now considerable flocks of short wooledand Span- 

 ish breeds in some places, besides several nation- 

 al flocks. Sheep are housed and kepi in folds, 

 and in little yards or enclosures, much more than 

 in England. One third of the sheep in Friince j 

 are black. Birkbeck considered the practice of 

 housing as the cause '.vhy the foot-rot is so com- 

 mon a disease among the sheep of France. The | 

 shepherds have thatched huts placed upon wheels 

 when they attend the flocks at night, and are ac- 

 companie ! iy dogs to defend the flocks from 

 wolves, whKi still abound in Picardy. Hay is the 

 general wintor food, and in some parts of Picar- 

 dy, turnips. 



The beaL:Ls of labour are chiefly the ox on small 

 farms, and the liorse on the larger. Both are 

 liept under cover the greater part of the year. 

 The breeds of oxen arc very various ; they are 

 generally cream-coloured, but the best are in 

 Normandy, which furnishes also the best breed 

 of working horses, as Limousin does for the sad- 

 dle. In the south of France the ass and mule are 

 of frequent use in husbandry. 



A royal stud of Arabians has been kept up in 

 Aurilla in Eimousin, for a century ; and another 

 has been formed at Nismes, from an extensive 

 importation. 



The best dairies are in Normandy ; but in this 

 department France does not excel. In the south- 

 ern districts, olive, almond, and poppy oil supply 

 the place of butter; and goat's milk is that used 

 in cookery. 



Poultry is an important article of French hus- 

 bandry, and well understood as far as breeding 

 and feeding. It is thought that the consumption 

 of poultry in town is equal to that of mutton. 

 The poorest cottager owns a few hens, and a neat 

 little roost in which they pass the night secure 

 from dogs, wolves and foxes. 



The brood of swine ia in general bad; but ex- 

 ■ oellent hams are sent from Bretagne, from hogs 

 reared on acorns, and fatted off with maize. Pig- 

 eon houses are not uncommon. 



The management of fish ponds is well under- 

 stood in France, owinj to fish in all catholic coun- 

 tries being an article of necessity. In the inter- 

 nal districts, there are many large artificial ponds, 

 as well as natural lakes, where the eel, carp, pike 

 and a few other specias are reared, separated and 

 fed, as in the Berkshire ponds in England. 



The forest culture of Fn nee is scientifically 

 conducted, both in the national forests and on 

 private estates. The chief object is fuel; char- 

 coal, bark ; and next, timber for building ; but in 

 some districts, other products arc collected, as 

 acorns, mast, nuts, resin, &c. 



The cultivation of the vine is an important ob- 

 ject in France, where it is kept low, and treated 

 more as a plantation of raspberries or currants 

 would be in England. It is either planted in 

 large plots, in rows ttvo or three feet apart, and 

 then plants at two or three feet distance in the 

 row ; or it is planted in double or single rows al- 

 ternating with ridges of arable land. ° The sorts 

 cultivated are almost as numerous as the vine- 

 yards. Fourteen hundred sorts were collected 

 from all parts of France by order of the Comte 

 Chapal, and are nov/ in the nursery of the Lux- 

 embourg. The pineau of Bergovne, and the au- 



ViTTiat of Orleans, are esteemed varieties, and 

 these, with several others 'rown for wine-making, 

 have small berries and braixhes like the English 

 Burgundy grape. Small berries, and a harsh fla- 

 vor arc preferred for wine-naking both in France 

 and Italy. The oldest viu' s invariably give the 

 best grapes and produce the best wines, The 

 Baron Peyrouse planted a vineyard twenty years 

 ago, which, though in full bearing, he says is too 

 vigorous to enable him to judge of the fijeness 

 and quality of the wine which it may one dly af- 

 ford. In the Clos de Vagois vineyard, inWhioh 

 the most celebrated Burgundy wine is proluced, 

 new vine plants have not been set for ihrej hun- 

 dred years ; the vines are renewed by layiig the 

 old trunks, but the root is never separatee from 

 the stock. This celebrated vineyard is nevr ma- 

 nured. The extent is one hundred and! sixty 

 French arpents. It makes in a good yearl from 

 jone hundred and sixty to two hundred hogseads, 

 ! of two hundred and sixty bottles each boghead. 

 jThe expense of labour and cooperage in |uch a 

 year, has arisen to 33,000 francs, [£1,-32J) and 

 I the wine sells on the spot at five frincs a jottle. 

 I The vineyard is of the pineau grape. Tip soil, 

 I about three feet deep, is a limestone gravt on a 

 I limestone rock. ) 



! The white mulberry is very extensivelyiculti- 

 j vated in France for feeding the silk worm! It is 

 ! not placed in regular plantations, but in crners, 

 I rows along roads, or round fields or farms| 



The trees are raised from seeds in nuijeries, 

 I and sold generally at five years, when thej have 

 j strong stems. They are planted, stakes and 

 treated as pollards. Some strip the leaves from 

 the young shoots, others cut these off twic one 

 year and only once the next ; others pollaj the 

 tree every second year. 



! The eggs of the moth {Borabyx mori) are htch- 

 ed in rooms heated by means of sto'.es to sigh- 

 teen degrees of Reaumur. One ounce of ejgs 

 I requires an hundred weight of leaves, and will 

 produce from seven to nine pounds of raw silk. 

 The hatching commences about the end of April, 

 and, with the feeding, is over in about a month. 

 I Second broods are procured in some places. The 

 : silk is wound off the coccoons or little balls, by 

 , women and children. This operation is reserved 

 for leisure days throughout the rest of the seasoi, 

 or given out to women in towns. The eggs an 

 small round objects ; the caterpillar attains i 

 considerable size ; the chrysalis is ovate ; and tht 

 male and female are readily distinguishable. 



silk! 



The statute book of Connecticut now contains 

 regulations for inspecting silk, as the growing 

 and manufacture is still carried on extensively inj 

 some districts. The trees planted thirty and forty] 

 j years ago are yet standing, of giant growth ; many 

 i of them are cutting down to be used as steam-boat 

 \ timber. I know of one person who rents out his 

 trees to feed the silk-worm at a very handsome 

 rent : equal to that for a good farm. 

 ] The timber of the mulberry is said to be as last- 

 ! ing as the cedar or the chesnut, its growth ia rap- 

 id ; in Ohio it will come to maturity in a little 

 ■ more than half the period required in the eastern 

 states; it is tlierefore an object of the first impor- 

 jtance if used only for timber ; no farmer should 

 I delay'a single monaent the planting of his nursery. 

 I The amount of silk manufactured yearly in Enn-- 

 jland is fifty million dollars ; exports half a million. 



With a little attention the United States will be f| 

 come the greatest silk country in the world ; a hun- 

 dred millions a year will be a small estimate for its 

 ability.— ff'est Tiller. 



SYMPTOMS AND PROGRESS OF THE ROT 

 IN SHEEP. 



In the first stage of the rot, the sheep is in the 

 frequent habit of rubbing the under lip against 

 the'fold, or its own fore legs, or any other hard 

 substance ; also of drinking a greater quantity of 

 water when at the sheepfold than those that are 

 sound, and showing a disposition rather to lick off 

 the moisture from, than to croi. the grass. In the 

 second stage, the lips, nostiils, and throat, be- 

 come swoln ; the animal is feverish, insatiably 

 thirsty, and almost incessantly visited by a sort of 

 dry cough. In the third and last stage, the eyes 

 become sunken; the eye-veins, small, discoloured 

 and nearly bloodless; the eye-balls livid and dim, 

 with whites exceedingly pale, the burrs of the 

 ears swoin, and free from wax ; the liver, lights, 

 and throat ulcerated ; and the passage of respira- 

 tion being stopped, the animal is suffocated. " 1 

 was led to this experience," says the writer, 

 " when very young in business, by an old shep- 

 herd who had been more than forty years upon 

 the farm. Pointing to a sheep rubbing its lip 

 against the fold, and acting otherwise in the man- 

 ner above described, 'That sheep, master,' said 

 he, 'is touched with the rot. The best thing I 

 can recommend you to do with him is, to take him 

 home before he is too far gone, give him some 

 ground oats, and make him tidyish meat, and kill 

 him.' I did so, as sheep will thrive upon oats for 

 some time after they are first affected ; and when 

 the sheep was opened, I discovered that the liver 

 was full of things resembling plaice, and its lights 

 just beginning to become ulcerated. The next 

 sheep I found in the first stage as above mention- 

 ed, I suffered, by way of experiment, to take its 

 chance, and it died, by suffocation, ia the third 

 itage, as above stated, which was the result of at 

 leett a dozen experiments." — AT. Y. Memoirs. 



SEED WHEAT. 



The wheat generally raised in this province, is 

 of two kinds, called the bearded and the bald. 

 The be;.rded wheat is very liable, in wet seasons, 

 to be affected with mildew or rust, and the bald 

 wheat to the attack of the Hessian fly ; and we 

 are sorry to siy, that the very fine prospect of a 

 wheat crop, which was so general in the early 

 part of the season, both in this province and in 

 Kova Scotia, from the various accounts which we 

 have heard, is in a great measure cut off. We 

 have now to call the attention of our readers to a 

 new species of wheat lately introduced into this 

 province. The history of it, we are informed, is 

 as follows : 



Four years ago, a Mr Camp, living at Jemapg, 

 bought a chest of tea in this city, and when he 

 opened it, he found a few grains of wheat in it— 

 these he carefully sowed, and the seed has been 

 kept and sowed from year to year since, and it is 

 now supposed, at a low calculation, that from 500 

 1000 bushels of this wheat will be raised this sea- 

 son. It grows larger and stouter in the stalk, 

 and is more prolific than any previously raised in 

 this province. And what renders it peculiarly 

 Valuable, is, that in every different situation in 

 which it has been sown, it has never been affect- 

 ed with either mildew; Wissian fly, smut, or blast 



