1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



349 



him, and grasping him by the hand, thanked him 

 for inviting him to the meeting of the club ! Nor 

 did the march of improvement stop here — the 

 fields afterwards were better cultivated, the chil- 

 dren better clothed, the Avife happier, and the man 

 himself, instead of spending his winter evenings 

 at the village tavern, is now spending them with 

 his family, and on each Wednesday evening he 

 attends as Secretary of the Farmers' Club ! 



A few days after my arrival at the homestead, 

 I wished to write a letter to a city friend, and on 

 signifying my wish to Mr. Allen, he invited me 

 to walk into a room that he called 



LIBRARY. 



I entered a moderate-sized room, and found a 

 comfortable desk, with all the ntcessary writing 

 materials at hand. After I had finished my letter, 

 I looked at the cases of books that lined one en- 

 tire side of the room. I found them to be most- 

 ly agricultural works of wortli. Here was "Allen 

 on Farm Buildings," a well-known and reliable 

 work ; at its side was "Dadd on the Horse," "The 

 Complete Cattle Doctor," by the same author, and 

 Stephens' "Book of the Farm," "Cole on Fruits," 

 "Youatt on the Sheep," and all the back volumes 

 of the "Monthly iVew England Farmer," neatly 

 bound. Judge French's new book on "Drain- 

 age" lay on the table, and had evidently been 

 studied with care. Freeman. 



Sunnysidc, February, 1860. 



S-WEENEY IN" HORSES. 



Will you tell what you believe to be the best 

 remedy for curing the sweeney in horses, as it is 

 very troublesome to cure when it once gets fairly 

 seated, and is very painful to the horse ? A. A. 



Ansicer. — The sweeney is a shrinking of the 

 muscles of the shoulder, usually caused by a sud- 

 den strain in drawing, or by alighting hard upon 

 the fore feet after a jump. We have had consid- 

 erable personal experience with this difficulty in 

 horses. If taken fresh, it is best to bleed the horse 

 in the leg from the vein on the inside of the arm, 

 called the plate vein, which will allay the inflam- 

 mation, but for an old case, this is nearly useless. 

 Also physic the horse, and apply fomentations 

 upon the shoulder blade, and the inside of the 

 arm. In all cases, take off" the shoes, and give the 

 animal rest in a pasture, or on a dirt bottom in a 

 large stall. If the case is not of too long stand- 

 ing, it is well to rub the shoulder with penetrat- 

 ing oils, like oil of spike. Our practice was to 

 rub with a corn-cob, and hemp crash cloth. When 

 once seated, be careful of overdriving and cooling 

 off, as you would for a case of founder. A long 

 rest in the pasture is the best remedy we ever 

 tried. — Ohio Cultivator. 



Catching Bees. — A simple contrivance has 

 been invented by M. Dagon, of Moret-sur-Loing, 

 in France, for receiving and inclosing bees from 

 the hive, or Avhen swarming. It consists (says 

 the London Bulletin) of an elongated muslin bag, 

 distended on cane hoops, and opening and shut- 

 ting at the mouth by a running string. The bag 

 being attached to the branch on which the bees 

 are swarming, and the inside rubbed with honey, 

 all the bees will soon make their way to the bot- 



tom, when the mouth can be closed, and the bees 

 conveyed away in the bag. The same contriv- 

 ance is applied to abstract the bees from the hive 

 and obtain the honey. 



For the New England Farmer. 



LUWAB IISTFLUENCE ON THE TEMPERA- 

 TURE OP THE EARTH. 



Mr. Editor : — I did not intend to trouble you 

 with anything further upon this subject, but it 

 seems not well to cherish error when the truth can 

 as well be known. In your issue of Feb. 11,1 find 

 your correspondent, "N. T. T.," of Bethel, Me., 

 has again responded on this subject, and wishing 

 to gratify him, and as many of your readers as 

 take an interest in the subject, and if possible set 

 the matter in a correct light, I send you the fol- 

 lowing list of observations on the occurrence of 

 frosts in September, and their connection with 

 full moon, for the last 20 years. And here, (as 

 my temperature tables cover only the last four 

 years,) I with pleasure acknowledge my indebted- 

 ness to Joseph Weatheriiead, Esq., of this city, 

 who has kept accurate meteorological tables for the 

 last twenty years, embracing temperature and ba- 

 rometrical, and of falls of rain and snow, &c.,and 

 who kindly granted me the privilege of consult- 

 ing them. 



I have noted all the instances in which the tem- 

 perature has fallen to 39° in September, as a light 

 frost in some sections generally occurs at that 

 point, as well as every frost in August, and when 

 none occurred in September, the first that occurred 

 in October, as in 1841. I give the lowest observed 

 temperatures at each frost, and that the reader 

 may judge of their extent, will state : When the 

 temperature becomes reduced to 35° or 36°, a gen- 

 eral frost usually occurs, quite severe in marshy 

 localities; 34° will produce a severe frost in most 

 situations, and 32° or lower a very severe one, ca- 

 pable of destroying most tender plants. The rec- 

 ord is as follows : 



