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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ABOUT DOGS. 



Mr. Editor : — I had thought that we had 

 heard about enough of the case of "Dogs vs. 

 Sheep ;" but I see that I was mistaken. Mr. H. 

 M. Couch advances some ideas which are worth 

 examining. What a splendid insight he has giv- 

 en into the physiology of the Sheep ! Hear him. 

 "They carry concealed between their hoofs a sack 

 of poison adequate for the destruction of quad- 

 ruple their numbers at any time !" Well, all that 

 I have to say is, that I have seen as much as one 

 sheep's trotters mj'self, and would be much obliged 

 to him if he would show, or tell me, where it ex- 

 ists. I have never seen such a thing in a state of 

 health, nor heard of it till the dog-fancier, H. M. 

 C, advanced the idea. I do not know what your 

 Massachusetts dogs are, but suppose that they 

 belong to the canine race, which if they do, and 

 are like the same race in the Green Mountain 

 State, they like mutton ; up here, they take a 

 wonderful fancy to it ; if a man has a few sheep, 

 and does not watch them as close as a cat does a 

 mouse, the next thing he knows they are non est 

 inventus, and if he makes an inquiry about the 

 cause, the dog-fancier comes forward and says 

 they have died of their own poisonous contami- 

 nation ! 



Seeing in our State that we have not a dog 

 law, the best thing we can do is to arm and equip 

 ourselves with guns, and poison, in lieu of guns, 

 and take the matter in our own hands, by secur- 

 ing every dog that is away from home without his 

 owner. If I had a flock of sheep, I would shoot 

 every dog that came inside the enclosure in which 

 the sheep were kept ; for as sure as dog is their 

 name, they would be chasing or killing the harm- 

 less creatures that minister so much to the wants 

 of man. 



I agree with H. M. C, in regard to the "near- 

 ly extirpated crow ;" here they lack considerable 

 of being extinct ; the best and only means of rid- 

 ding ourselves of this nuisance is the rifle and 

 strychnine, and then we can hardly live with them 

 at that ; the black-coated gentry seem to think 

 every thing is toll that comes to their mill ; corn, 

 chickens, young and feeble lambs, grain of vari- 

 ous kinds. I would say but little about his grain 

 proclivities, if he would only let our flocks and 

 poultry alone, but as he will not, I declare war 

 against him, to the utmost extent ; still, the crow 

 has some good qualities which entitle him to 

 mercy. 



One word to our Saugus friend. The reason 

 why the dogs do not kill as many sheep as in your 

 section is, that the owners of dogs are more fear- 

 ful of retribution, and so keep them at home 

 more ; but dogs will be dogs wherever they go, 

 80 we have to keep our eyes open and our guns 

 loaded. Regulus. 



Jiipton, Vt., June, 1861. 



Sucking Cows. — Several years ago I had a 

 young cow which persevered in sucking herself 

 in spite of all the rigging I could contrive to pre- 

 vent her, and the only way I succeeded in stop- 

 ping her was to tie her up in a stall so narrow that 

 the sides of it would touch her sides, and feeding 

 her plenty of corn meal until she was fat enough 



to butcher, and then butchering her. Last spring, 

 I had another likely three-year-old heifer, that had 

 just come in for the first time, commence the same 

 vicious habit. Remembering my former ill suc- 

 cess in preventing mechanically, I determined to 

 appeal to her taste, which I did by smearing the 

 teats night and morning with soft grease, and 

 then dusting them thoroughly with pulverized 

 cayenne pepper. After continuing the applica- 

 tions about a week, they were discontinued. The 

 cure was perfect, she never having repeated the 

 ofi'ence,upto the present time. — Ganesee Farmer. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LOVE FOB THE PROFESSION. 



Mr. Editor : — Having in a former article de- 

 monstrated the fact that "the successful farmer 

 loves his profession," I shall now picture to your 

 readers another class of persons who also "love 

 their profession," and who call themselves "farm- 

 ers," but who would more appropriately be called 

 "shirkers." This class of people "don't believe 

 in killing themselves by hard work," nor in do- 

 ing anything they can avoid. Still, they are of- 

 ten known to be carrying on a farm "to the 

 halves," and the reason they assign is, that it is 

 cheaper. But I am rather inclined to think it is 

 more on account of a habit into which they have 

 fallen ; for they have long been accustomed to 

 doing work "to the halves," even when they 

 worked on their own farms. 



True to the maxim, they "love their profes- 

 sion ;" to wit, to do what must be done with the 

 least possible labor. This class of farmers love 

 to keep half a team, or none at all ; because, say 

 they, it don't cost so much. They love to get 

 over the ground as quick as possible ; conse- 

 quently, they only half plow it, half harrow it, 

 half seed it, with poor seed, because good seed 

 costs too much, neglect to cultivate the growing 

 crops properly, and finally, in a slovenly manner, 

 only harvest half a crop, inferior in quality, and 

 well mixed with noxious weed seeds. Thein stock 

 is managed after the same sort ; that is, left to 

 take care of itself. In fact, they have no care for 

 any thing ; and one would come to the conclu- 

 sion, to look over their premises, that "care," in 

 every sense of the word, was unknown to them. 



Now one would naturally suppose that these 

 fourth rate farmers would soon get sick of this 

 way of doing business ; but no, the love of their 

 peculiar profession predominates ; and they will 

 go on, year after year, (if they do not run out en- 

 tirely,) in the same way. The reason is, not that 

 they do not love good crops, or good stock ; but 

 because they love their own peculiar habits bet- 

 ter. For the same reason, they neglect to keep 

 good fences, which makes unruly cattle and crab- 

 bed neighbors. Speaking of poor fences, re- 

 minds me of what I once heard a thorough going 

 young man say to a careless father. Said he, 

 "Instead of keeping the cattle out of the field, 

 you have been training them to jump. You at 

 first built a fence only two rails high, and after 

 you found that would not stop them, you put on 

 another rail. Soon, they could jump this, and 

 you put on another, and another, till at length 

 they could jump a six rail fence ! Now if you 

 had built a good four foot fence in the first place. 



