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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



with feathers ; plumage of the body and wings a 

 deep chocolate brown. The following extract 

 from Wilson's account may throw more light upon 

 its history. "Formed by nature for braving the 

 severest cold ; feeding equally upon the produce 

 of the sea and of the land ; possessing powers of 

 flight capable of outstripping even the tempests 

 themselves ; unawed by anything but man ; and 

 from the ethereal heights to which he soars, look- 

 ing abroad at one glance, over an innumerable 

 expanse of forests, fields, lakes and ocean deep 

 belov/ him, he appears indifferent to the little lo- 

 calities of change of seasons ; as, in a few min- 

 utes, he can pass from summer to winter, from 

 the lower to the higher region of the atmosphere, 

 the abode of eternal cold, and then descend, at 

 will, to the torrid or the arctic regions of the 

 earth." j. A. A. 



TREE PliAjSTTING. 

 "Have you never heard of the student, who, 

 on being told that the crow would sometimes live 

 a hundred years, bought a young crow to try the 

 experiment ?" Yes, indeed, we have heard of him 

 — the irony is excellent— and of Dr. Johnson's 

 growl about "the frightful interval between the 

 seed and the timber." Still, we say, plant trees. 

 They who plant at once, instead of wasting their 

 breath in selfish complaints of the shortness of 

 life, find luxuriant foliage waving over them 

 much sooner than they expected. But, whether 

 yoa live to see the maturity of your trees or not, 

 be benevolent enough to plant for posterity. 

 Transmit to your children the inheritance of ru- 

 ral beauty received from your fathers, greatly aug- 

 mented. By all means plant, and plant well, and 

 the result will overpay the labor. And let not 

 your work end with planting. Feed your trees 

 from year to year with generous food, and guard 

 them from injury. And, in the words (slightly 

 altered) of an old planter : "What joy may you 

 have in seeing the success of your labors while 

 you live, and in leaviug behind you, to your heirs 

 or successors, a work that, many years after your 

 death, shall record your love to your country ! 

 And the rather, when you consider to what length 

 of time your work is like to last." If you have 

 country homes to embellish, be content with sim- 

 plicity. R,craember that a great establishment is 

 a great care, and that the proprietor is apt to be- 

 come a slave to it. Let your dwelling-places be 

 marked with what painters call "repose." Make 

 them the abodes of comfort and refined enjoy- 

 ment, places which will always afford you agreea- 

 ble occupation, but not oppress you with care. — 

 North American Beview. 



To Protect a Shingle Roof from Fire. — 

 The editor of the Albany Knickerbocker says, that 

 a wash composed of lime, salt and fine sand or 

 wood ashes, put on the ordinary way of white- 

 washing, renders the roof fifty-fold more safe 

 against taking fire from falling cinders, or other- 

 wise in case of fires in the vicinity. It pays the 

 expense a hundred-fold in its preserving influ- 

 ence against the effect of the weather. The older 

 and more weather-beaten the shingles, the more 

 benefit derived ; such shingles are generally more 

 or less warped, rough and cracked. The applica- 

 tion of the wash, by ^vetting the upper surface, re- 



stores them at once to their original or first form, 

 there])y closing the space between the shingles, 

 and the lime and sand, by filling up the cracks 

 and posts, in the shingle itself prevents its warp- 

 ing for years if not forever. 



For Vie New England Farmer. 



MOWING MACHINES. 



"Lest men suspect your tale untrue, 

 Keep probability in view." 



Mr. Editor : — In your monthly for September, 

 I notice an article on the 427th page, "A new trial 

 of an old machine," you call it. You say that you 

 witnessed Nourse, Mason & Co.'s Ketchum mow- 

 ing machine cut an acre in twenty-four (24) min- 

 utes, and further state, that "Mr. Shurtleff and 

 several of the bystanders told you that an acre 

 was cut, and cut well, the day before, in fifteen 

 minutes." 



The mower cut a swath five and one-half feet 

 wide, (5^) or just one-third of a rod wide. Now an 

 acre one-third of a rod wide, would be four hun- 

 dred and eighty (480) rods long, or just one and a 

 half miles. Thus the team must have been driven 

 at the rate of six miles per hour, which is a good 

 smart trot. 



But suppose the acres to have been a square of 

 10 rods by 16, you must go round it fifteen times, 

 making sixty quarter {\) turns, and at each end, 

 the horses had to go about a rod beyond the 

 grass, and with the extra travel on the coming in, 

 will make another quarter of a mile travel, mak- 

 ing 6^ miles travel per hour. You do not give 

 the shape of the acre mowed, Taut the one I have 

 supposed, would be as favorable as would usually 

 be laid off. Then think of turning on a right an- 

 gle sixty times, and usually having to back a lit- 

 tle, owing to having gone out too far. It would 

 take the best part of 15 minutes to make the GO 

 stops and .j turns, particularly if you were turning 

 at the rate of Gj miles per hour. Why did they not 

 show you their best work, and not be about two- 

 thirds longer mowing their acre, that day, than 

 they were the day before ? That a paced acre can 

 be cut in 24 minutes, I will not doubt, but I do 

 not believe that a guessed acre can be cut in 15 

 minutes. 



I once heard a man say "he could reap a guessed 

 acre in a day with ease, and he could reap a paced 

 acre, but he'd be d — if he would reap a chained 

 acre, any way." FIGURES. 



Remarks. — We recognize the hand of an old 

 and valued correspondent in the above. We have 

 long been in the habit of pacing out acres in our 

 farm operations, and believe we come out pretty 

 nearly correct. We stated what we did, and saw 

 on Mr. ShurtleS^s farm, and cannot doubt now 

 but it was substantially correct. The horses em- 

 ployed did not trot, but they were large and 

 powerful, and moved all the time on a vei'y fast 

 walk. Our friend's quotation may answer for his 

 poetic temperament — but for our matter-of-fact 

 purposes, we did not pause to temporize with the 

 truth, but went straight forward to the work, and 

 stated it just as it occurred. When our horses 



