1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



485 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "BEWARE OP DOQS."— St. Paul. 



Such was St, Paul's admonition, and it is be- 

 lieved that the same caution is applicable in our 

 time. 



I have noticed with peculiar satisfaction, Mr. 

 Editor, the remarks of your several correspond- 

 ents on the canine race. For myself, I have nev- 

 er seen good reason why one man should be al- 

 lowed to keep a dog to the injury or annoyance 

 of his neighbor, to range through his neighbor's 

 fields to the injury or inconvenience of that neigh- 

 bor. Why should an unruly dog run at large any 

 more than a bear or tiger ? Why should not all 

 animals be confined within the limits of their 

 owner's enclosures ? 



Your correspondent, "J. C. D.," says, "I would 

 not be understood to justify the keeping of ill- 

 bred, ill-fed, and uncared for curs." "J. C. D." 

 ought to know that a large majority of dogs in 

 towns and cities are of this class. A well trained 

 dog will keep at home, and not leave his master's 

 grounds. Such an animal will injure no one. It 

 is dogs that are permitted to roam abroad of 

 which we complain. Every man, who wants a 

 dog, should know the importance of keeping that 

 dog at home. Why our city should, for the tri- 

 fling sum of two dollars, permit a man to keep a 

 dog to range the streets, bite men, women and 

 children, or whatever falls within his reach, has 

 ever been inexplicable to me. In the country the 

 range for dogs is still more extended, and they 

 have the privilege of doing more harm. 



We hear of wonderful feats of dogs that have 

 found lost children, lost cattle, saved grown peo- 

 ple and children from being drowned. Suppose 

 one dog out of a million to have performed such 

 feats. What is that to the immense injury that 

 the race may have done ? How many persons 

 have been bitten by mad dogs, and have sufi'ered 

 the most excruciating deaths ! Instead of two 

 dollars being the tax for keeping a dog, the fee 

 should be two hundred dollars, and the owner put 

 under bonds to make good all damages, and pay 

 a heavy fine, if the dog be found at large, unac- 

 companied by his master. 



A well educated dog or cat may be desirable for 

 some families ; but let them be kept at home, and 

 not allowed to roam about. I repeat it, that a 

 dog ranging through farms, villages or cities, is 

 a great nuisance, which should be abated by the 

 action of our Legislature at its first session. 



Boston, Sept. o, 1861. Delta. 



DISAPPOINTMENT IS DISCIPLINE. 



"Well, all disappointment is discipline ; and 

 received in a right spirit, it may prepare us for 

 better things elsewhere. It has been said that 

 heaven is a place for those who failed on earth. 

 The greatest hero is perhaps the man who does 

 his very best, and signally fails, and still is not 

 embittered by the failure. And looking at the 

 fashion in which an unseen Power permits wealth 

 and rank and influence to go sometimes in this 

 •world, we are possibly justified in concluding that 

 in His judgment the prizes of this Vanity Fair 

 are held as of no great account. A life here, in 



which you fail of every end you seek, yet which 

 disciplines you for a better, is assuredly not a 

 failure," 



We copy the above from among the striking 

 thoughts which occur on almost every page of 

 those attractive and instructive books, "TAe 

 Becreations of a Country Parson.''^ This single 

 thought, that "a?Z disappointment is discipline," 

 may cheer on many a weary pilgrim in his tedious 

 pathway to the grave, — and through the dim vista, 

 show him a better life, unclouded by the feara 

 and suflferings that surround him here. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 PIGS IN CLOVEE. 



I have a pen of pigs some four months old, 

 which I am feeding for slaughtering this fall, and 

 wish to inquire which will be the better way — to 

 allow them the privilege of running in a fine fresh 

 field of clover of about an acre, and feeding them 

 there, or confining them closely in the sty ? In 

 other words, will the advantage which they will 

 have of eating the clover counterbalance the lack 

 of manure which they would manufacture in the 

 sty ? I might state, by the way, that the clover- 

 plat is a place I am desirous of enriching, design- 

 ing it for roots, another season. 



W. J. Pettee. 



Salisbury, Ct., Sept. 5, 1861. 



Remarks, — We have no doubt that you will 

 get more pork and more real value in manure, by 

 keeping the pigs in a commodious pen, where 

 they can come to the ground or retire to a dry 

 bed at will. Cut and feed to them the fresh clo- 

 ver twice or three times each day ; give them a 

 little salt as often as they will eat it, and as much 

 nutritious food as they will take with a good ap- 

 petite, and they will aff"ord you the means of en- 

 riching the clover field, provided you keep them 

 supplied with muck and suitable litter to receive 

 all their waste. 



RACCOONS. 

 Being a reader of the Farmer, and having no- 

 ticed that through the medium of its valuable 

 columns you are willing to impart useful knowl- 

 edge to all its perusers, I would thank you, or 

 some correspondent,^ to imform me of the best 

 method of keeping raccoons out of my corn-fields 

 without keeping a dog, and paying a tax on him, 

 to hunt them ? They are breaking down and de- 

 stroying from half a bushel to a bushel of ears of 

 corn every night. Adin Whitaker. 



Wendell, Sept. 4, 1861. 



Remarks, — We used to enjoy rare sport in 

 taking raccoons of a moonlight night, when the 

 'coons had become fat. No better haunch ever 

 graced the table than that of a young, fat raccoon. 

 But we had a good dog in the neighborhood which 

 was trained for the purpose of hunting 'coons. 

 We do not know any mode of trapping them — 

 perhaps some of our correspondents may aid you. 



