38 



NEW ENGLAND EAEMER. 



Jan. 



more than some persons think they do ; and they 

 ■will not love a milker v.ho has nothing lovely 

 about him, and who will not treat them kindly ; 

 and they will give him as little of their milk as 

 possible. S. Edwards Todd. 



Lake Ridge, Tomp. Co., N. Y. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HO"W TO SAVE MONEY. 



IMr. Editor: — I thought I would solve the 

 mystery of money-getting on a ft\rm for a woman, 

 and enlighten the mind of Miss Sallie. She says, 

 by her own exertions she has partly managed to 

 get an education for herself, and now inquires 

 how she can earn money. I am somewhat sur- 

 prised at such an inquiry from her, but neverthe- 

 less will try to elucidate the point. 



In the fivst place she must have prudence and 

 industry, witliout which she cannot get money off 

 or on a farm, as money in the hands of a spend- 

 thrift is of no account. 



My own experience in living on a farm is to 

 the point. When a mere child I had money to 

 loan that I had earned. My father had a large 

 family that I helped to bring up. I had not only 

 money enough for my own but other's comforts, 

 all out of my earnings. Sallio says she has part- 

 ly educated herself; that is very well ; the ex- 

 penses of a school education were mere trifles to 

 me. 



For twenty years last past I have lived in a 

 city ; but now I am on a farm laid up with a frac- 

 tured limb by being thrown from a carriage. It 

 is more than a year since the accident, and I 

 cannot now take a step ; but since I have been 

 able to sit up, I have earned plenty of money by 

 merely braiding palm leaf hats at four cents 

 apiece. I have bought all I want, and scarcely 

 know what to with the surplus. 



Industi-y and prudence well carried out will 

 work wonders. I often see, as 1 sit by my win- 

 dow, a woman riding in her own carriage, which 

 was bought by palm-leaf hats made by herself at 

 four cents apiece ! What does Sallie think of 

 that ? Prudence and industry startle young 

 America. She must have instead the skating- 

 park and the race-course, where the young woman 

 prepares herself for a wife and mother Avith 

 sprained ankles and perverted tastes. 



A Farmer's Daughter. 



N. H., Nov., 1860. 



An Old Apple Tree. — At the late exhibition 

 of the Hartford County Horticultural Society, a 

 basket of apples from Mr. D. F. Robinson bore 

 the following label : 



"Enr/lish Peamain from Charter Oak Place. 

 — The tree from which these apples were gathered 

 is said to have been planted by George Willys, 

 the original proprietor of the estate, about 224 

 years ago. Though tottering, it has yet strength 

 — trembling at once with energy and age. New, 

 but vigorous branches, amid a few withered hands 

 that still stretch out, continue to shoot from its 

 dilapidated trunk, as if it hated to yield its life, 

 and clung, monument and memorializer of the 

 sturdy hands that planted it.'' 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HABITS OF THE "WOODPECKER. 



Much has been published recently in the agri- 

 cultural, and other papers, in relation to the mer- 

 its and demerits of the woodpecker. None of 

 them come quite up to my impressions on the 

 subject. Did the woodpecker confine its opera- 

 tions to the seat of the borer, near the roots of the 

 apple tree, there could bo no doubt of the merits of 

 its labor. It may be that, sometimes, in search for 

 the worm, sad havoc is made on the bark and wood, 

 but generally their billing and boring cannot but 

 be beneficial. But the bird does not confine its 

 labor to the seat or retreat of the worm. It per- 

 forates the smooth bark of the tree in a succes- 

 sion of rings from the ground up, into and among 

 the branches. The closest scrutiny cannot dis- 

 cover any traces of worms in or about the holes 

 in these rings. It used to be said, and may be 

 so still, that these birds are sap-suckers, and that 

 these perforations are made to extract sap from 

 the tree. 



It has been said that these woodpeckers or sap- 

 suckers select the bodies of the sweet apple tree 

 as affording the most acceptable juice. The facts, 

 as I have investigated them, do not warrant such 

 conclusion. It is true, the bird makes selection 

 of the tree it operates upon, but I could never 

 discover that it had any connection with the char- 

 acter of the fruit it bears. Watch the labors of 

 the bird, and you cannot discover any appearance 

 of its tasting the sap if any ooze from the wounds. 

 It drills the holes an inch, more or less, apart, 

 with diligent haste, without stopping to suck sap 

 or search for worms. Sometimes it appears to be 

 a mere amusement of the bird, and with no ob- 

 ject in view. Probably, however, it is obeying an 

 instinct of the species to make holes for the use 

 of the insects for the deposit of their eggs, and 

 for the future feasting on the grubs by the provi- 

 dent depredator. Such was the opinion impressed 

 upon me in ray boyhood ; and in my youthful 

 sports many woodpeckers found their death in 

 obedience to instruction to save the orchard. 



The instinct of birds is a curious speculation, 

 and many of their doings are difficult to account 

 for. The oi'dinary acts of woodpeckers, in ex- 

 ploring old trees for their daily food, are mere 

 business transactions ; but when they perch on 

 the top of some dead, dry and sound tree, and 

 hammer and drum upon it for a long period, lean 

 hardly determine its object, whether for its own 

 amusement or that of its mate's, or any other ob- 

 ject, I know not. It may be instinctively a trial 

 of its power and skill, both in its drumming on 

 the dead tree and the perforations of the body of 

 the green apple tree. It does not, however, con- 

 fine its operations on the apple tree, but attacks 

 in the same manner many trees of the forest. The 

 bird is becoming scarce, and does but little mis- 

 chief to what it did sixty years ago. 



RuFus McIntire. 



Parsonsfield, Maine, Nov., 1860. 



Composition of Apples. — Every one will un- 

 derstand that the various sorts of apples differ 

 much in composition, yet, in an average condi- 

 tion, 100 lbs. of fresh apples contain about 3.2 

 lbs. of fiber, 0.2 lbs. of gluten, fat and wax, 0.16 



