316 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



in a furrow, from twelve to fifteen inches deep, 

 not below the soil. The advantages are, I choke 

 all the grass so that it does not trouble me ; it 

 tills so much easier that it operates in two ways ; 

 if the season is dry, the roots will run down and 

 find the moisture, and if there is an excess of 

 •water, it will settle down below the roots, thus 

 acting beneBcially either way. It would not an- 

 swer to plow thus deep in a soil that has a tena- 

 cious subsoil within six or eight inches of the 

 surface, but might do to go an inch or two at a 

 time into the subsoil. 



Some persons say that sandy, porous land 

 leeches. I do not believe in that doctrine. I be- 

 lieve in consequence of the land being porous the 

 heat penetrates, and decomposition and evapora- 

 tion is much more active, and thus the strength 

 of the manure is much sooner spent than in soil 

 of a more tenacious formation ; in other words, it 

 leaches up and not down ! 



Allow me to say to your correspondent asking 

 what he shall do to improve a cold, miry piece of 

 meadow, that I would recommend to spread in the 

 spring twenty loads of manure per acre, and sow 

 on six or eight quarts of timothy ; harrow six 

 times with a sharp harrow, any way to make it 

 look dirty, and I will warrant a good crop of 

 grass the second year if he does not get it the 

 first. S. Byington. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NEW DISEASE AMONG LAMBS. 



Mr. Editor : — For the benefit of your readers 

 ■who may profit by my experience, especially as it 

 is dear bought, I describe a disease which has 

 aSected my lambs for three successive years ; 

 causing a loss of not less than 30 and as high as 

 50 per cent. 



The symptoms are swelled throat, snuffling at 

 the nose, and laboring hard to breathe. They 

 live from one to forty-eight hours, when they ex- 

 haust themselves in laboring so hard to breathe 

 through their swelled throats. They are gener- 

 ally large and fat and otherwise well developed. 



Now for the cause : It cannot be in the ewes, 

 for last year I made an addition to my flock from 

 that of a neighbor who never lost a lamb from 

 this disease. 



It cannot be in the ram, for last year I used a 

 South Down, whose lambs, have, with a neighbor, 

 proved free from this disease. 



It cannot be in the mode of feeding, for an ac- 

 quaintance feeds in the same way with desirable 

 success ; being two feeds of hay and one feed of 

 unthrashed oats, equal in bulk to a feed per day. 



The cause I believe to be in the sheep-stable ; 

 it being the basement of a barn set in a side-hill, 

 three sides of wall, with front boarded up with 

 door and window constantly open for going in 

 and out of the sheep at will, and for ventilation, 

 the air being too close and confined for sheep. 

 The breathing over and over of this close and im- 

 pure air by the ewe, causes an irritation or aSec- 

 tion of the throat, which is imparted by a law of 

 transmission from the ewe to the lamb during 

 gestation. 



From ray past experience, I believe that sheep 

 should be kept in dry, open sheds ; as basement 

 stables are too damp and close, besides keeping 

 too many in one stable and yard. Twenty-five 



coarse-wooled sheep in one stable and yard are 

 said to be equal to fifty fine-wooled sheep in con- 

 sumption of air. I hope by removing the boards 

 from the front side of the sheep-pen, together 

 with a thorough cleaning, whitewashing and 

 sprinkling with lime, and by keeping a less num- 

 ber in the same stable, to avoid the disease. Those 

 lambs which escaped the disease are looking fine- 

 ly ; showing the advantage of good feed over the 

 old method of confining sheep on hay alone. I 

 would prefer, however, the feeding of roots to 

 breeding ewes instead of grain. 



George Bacheldeb. 

 Stanstead, C. E., May 18, 1861. 



For the New England Parmer. 

 A CBOP OF EIGHT-KO"WED CORN. 



Mr. Editor : — A writer in your last monthly 

 recommends twelve-rowed corn to plant in pref- 

 erence to eight-rowed. 



Let me state my experience in eight-rowed 

 corn. I plant my com 3^ feet apart, both ways, 

 which makes 4000 hills to an acre. I harvested 

 last fall, from the stoutest part of my corn 144 

 hills which yielded 4.^ bushels sound corn, or 32 

 hills to a bushel. Now, divide 4000 by 32, and 

 we shall get 125 bushels of corn to the acre. 

 Seventy-five ears filled a bushel basket. Some 

 of the ears were fourteen inches long, and were 

 exhibited at the Boston Corn Exchange by my 

 friend Hastings, from East Cambridge. My 

 ground was manured with only ten cart loads of 

 manure to the acre and twenty bushels of ashes. 

 The ground was kept mellow by passing the cul- 

 tivator both ways through it seven times. The 

 ground was mowed last year and the manure 

 turned under. 



The way to get large crops of corn is to plant 

 long ears, and keep the ground all the time mel- 

 low. Four hills of such corn make a bundle large 

 enough to handle conveniently. My large ears 

 and large stalks don't come from and exhaust the 

 land, as many suppose, but from the atmosphere, 

 in the form of carbon, hydrogen, &c. 



This can be shown by drying the stalks and 

 burning them, as decomposition takes place and 

 carburetted hydrogen gas is set at liberty in the 

 form of blaze. 



Farmers should let the King Philip, the Dut- 

 ton and the pop com alone. Of these kinds we 

 have to husk from two to three hundred ears for 

 a basketfull. E. MoBSE. 



Walpole, N. E., 1861. 



A New Windmill.— Mr. N. F. Mathewson, 

 of Providence, R. I., has shown us a model of a 

 windmill he has invented, which seems to us more 

 simple and perfect than any we have before seen. 

 From his account of one he has in use, and from 

 an examination of the model, we think this must 

 be an exceedingly valuable motive power. It is 

 so constructed as to be completely under the con- 

 trol of the operator, and may be easily checked 

 or entirely stopped in a moment, even in a gale 

 of wind. The model may be seen at our office 

 for a few days. 



