258 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



1.73 iiiolies for each month, while the whole 

 amount for the past year is 27.42 inches, which is 

 much below the usual average. 



David Buckland. 

 Brandon, VL, Ajyril 7, 1860. 



EXTRACTS AND KEPLIES. 



ADVANTAGES OF UNDERDRAINING. 



The advantages of thorough drainage are given 

 by the dozen. It is all very well, and desirable, 

 tliat the soil should be deepened, should be made 

 more friable, ivarmer and cooler, better able 

 to resist drought, &c., but we want to know how 

 much greater crops can be obtained from a piece 

 of land after drainage than before ? How many 

 more bushels, per acre, of corn, wheat, or M'hat- 

 ever any one has experimented with, can be raised, 

 the treatment, maimring, &c., being the same ? 

 Unless the crops bring back the money, but few 

 fai'mers can bear the expense of drainage. 



April 12, I860. Quantum. 



Remarks. — Try an acre, good friend, and sat- 

 isfy yourself. Our opinion is, if that is what you 

 want, that the increased crop occasioned by thor- 

 ough drainage, will, as a general rule, pay the whole 

 cost of drainage in two or three years. It cer- 

 tainly has proved so with us, and we believe such 

 is the testimony of those who have made fair ex- 

 periments. 



Of course, profit is what we are after. We do 

 not dig and drain merely for fun ! We not only 

 want increased crops, but we want to get them at 

 an easier and cheaper rate. So we underdrain, 

 and thereby do the work easier, get larger crops, 

 and avoid many losses, such as those occurring by 

 frosts, droughts, &c. Do, "Mr. Quantum," try an 

 acre, and report results ? 



LOGS FOR CONVEYING WATER. 



A reader of the Farmer wishes to know which 

 of the various kinds of pipe in use is best to draw 

 water from a well twenty feet deep to a pump 

 about one hundred feet distant on a level. From 

 actual experience, and not from theory, I would 

 6ay, use pump logs. They are cheap, and work 

 well ; they must be air-tight, and to work easy 

 the logs ought to be rimmed out about 1.^ inches, 

 so that the pump will feed well. At the place you 

 wish the pump to stand, fit on a common wood 

 pump, or any kind you choose ; care must be tak- 

 en to have the joints air-tight. 



I know of pumps that have been in use years, 

 ■where the pump stands more than a hundred feet 

 from the well, and they work quite as easy, as 

 though the pump was directly over the well. Any 

 man that can make an old-fashioned Avood pump, 

 can make one of the above, and soon have a 



Plenty of Water. 



what fertilizer shall I use ? 

 I have about three acres of moist strong land ; 

 upon the sward I wish to put barn-yard manure 

 and turn under, and as I have no manure for the 

 hill, I wish to inquire which of the numerous fer- 

 tilizers sold in Boston, one hundred miles from 



here, will pay the best to buy ? Ashes are scarce 

 and high here, worth twenty or twenty-five cents 

 per bushel. The manure I wish to apply is very 

 coarse, which would render it difficult to harrow 

 in. s. 



North Charlestoion, N. 11., April 9, 1860. 



Rem.\rks. — We have no hesitation on giving 

 as our opinion, that the best fertilizer you can use 

 under such circumstances is the American guano, 

 sold at $40 per ton, by Mr. W. B. Haseltine, 

 Foster's Wharf, Boston. Cannot you supply your- 

 self with home-made guano by preserving all the 

 droppings of the fowls, and mixing them carefully 

 with loam through the year ? If so, you will find 

 your corn crop greatly benefited by such an ap- 

 plication. 



NEW MODE OF RAKING STRAWBERRIES. 



Will those who have tried for their strawber- 

 ries forest manure from the pine, saw dust, or 

 tan, try laying slabs, of that kind of wood that Avill 

 not spring, between the rows. Beds may be made 

 6 or 8 feet broad, the slabs cut long enough to 

 reach across the beds. I think they will find the 

 fruit freer from dust, the runners more easily cut, 

 (if they wish to take them oflT,) less weeds, and 

 the ground to remain moister during summer. 



Neio Haven Coimty, Ci. c. A. 



worms in horses. 



I have noticed in your valuable paper inquiries 

 for remedies against worms in horses. I believe 

 I have tried all suggested, but have never yet 

 found anything so effectual as the following : — 

 Put into the horse's provender, three successive 

 mornings, each time about as much fine cut to- 

 bacco as would fill one of the common clay pipes. 

 If after applying it as above, I still find appearan- 

 ces of the horses being troubled with them, by 

 giving a dose or two occasionally, I believe I 

 have eradicated them entirely. In my experience, 

 it is very far before ashes. H. Nelson. 



Bockville, April, 1860. 



A contumacious pear tree. 



I have a thrifty pear tree that has never pro- 

 duced any fruit. I want to knoAV what will make 

 it bear. The body is about eight inches in diam- 

 eter, one foot from the ground. It has a good top 

 twelve or fifteen feet high, grafted eight years 

 ago. The soil is rich, warm, stony and gravelly, 

 Charles D. Bartlett. 



S. Hampton, N. H, Ajjril »; 1860. 



Remarks. — Who can give the desired infor- 

 mation ? 



TUMOR on an ox. 



I have a valuable yoke of oxen, and one of them 

 has a large swelling about the size of a pint bowl 

 on the neck, back of the jaw bone. It is a very 

 hard substance, and grows fast. It does not ap- 

 pear to be attached to the bone, and is very loose 

 in the skin or flesh. Can any of your readers in- 

 form me in relation to it ? A Subscriber. 



Tuftonborough, N. H, April 7, 1860. 



