508 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



that was pining, I looked into his feathers and 

 observed thousands of the parasites. I employed 

 tobacco-water, also lime-water, under my then 

 master's orders, to no effect. In his absence, I 

 well damped him, and sprinkled him under the 

 feathers with black sulphur, when next day they 

 were examined with a microscope, and every one 

 •was dead. Having had some macaws, also par- 

 rots that were addicted to biting off their feathers, 

 I employed the black sulphur by well syringing 

 them with water, then sprinkling the sulphur over 

 their skins. If tame, sponge the skins, then rub 

 gently with the points of the fingers, with the sul- 

 phur, every other day, for about a fortnight, when 

 the parrot or macaw will cease to destroy his plu- 

 mage. It is not a remedy which has not been 

 proved, for 1 h^ve used it these two years with 

 success." 



MEMORY OF ANT ELEPHANT. 

 A female elephant belonging to a gentleman in 

 Calcutta, who was ordered from the upper coun- 

 try to Chittagong, in the route thither, broke 

 loose from her keeper, and making her way to the 

 woods, was lost. The keeper made every excuse to 

 vindicate himself, which the master of the animal 

 would not listen to, but branded the man with 

 carelessness or something worse ; for it was sup- 

 posed that he had sold the elephant. He was 

 tried for it and condemned to work on the roads 

 for life, and his wife and children sold as slaves. 

 About twelve years afterwards, this man, who 

 was well known to be acquainted with breaking 

 elephants, was sent into the country with a party 

 to assist in catching wild ones. They came upon 

 a herd, and this man fancied he saw among a 

 group his long-lost elephant, for which he had 

 been condemned. Having reached the animal, 

 he spoke to her, when she immediately recognized 

 his voice ; she waved her trunk in air in token 

 of salutation, and knelt down and allowed him to 

 mount her neck. She afterwards assisted in tak- 

 ing other elephants, and decoyed three young 

 ones to which she had given birth in her absence. 

 The keeper returned, and the singular circum- 

 stance attending the recovery being told, he re- 

 gained his character ; and as a recompense for 

 his sufferings, had a pension settled on him for 

 life. This elephant was afterward in possession 

 of Warren Hastings, when Governor General of 

 Hindostan. 



Flax Cotton. — The New York Evening Post 

 of the 16th says : — 



If King Cotton is not likely to be dethroned 

 by his uncrowned rival. Flax, he is destined to get 

 a severe poke in the ribs, which will make his 

 Beat uneas)'. We have seen several specimens of 

 the new commodity to-day, which come nearer to 

 the genuine article than any that have yet fallen 

 under our notice. They are to be seen at the of- 

 fice of Latson & Abbott, No. 159 Water Street, 

 ■where fabrics of the same material are also to be 

 inspected. Flannel, calico, drilling, and thread 

 have all been made of the new flax fibre, and 

 with a remarkable degree of perfection. New 

 processes for preparing the fibre give great en- 

 couragement to those who are embarked in the 

 business. Mills for the manufacture have already 

 ber-i erected in New York and in New England, 



and will soon be in operation, not only working 

 the flax by itself into fabrics, but working it in 

 connection with wool and cotton. American in- 

 genuity is about to succeed in a ]^ne in which the 

 English and French have hitherto failed. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "WOODLAND SCENES— No. 2. 



"Come out to the pines, to-day ! 



Come out to the grand old wood ! 

 And hear what the voices of Nature say 



In the forest solitude." 



Such is the invitation of a charming American 

 poetess ; and whose heart is so hard that he can- 

 not respond to the call, at a season when all na- 

 ture, animate and inanimate, is full of life and 

 beauty ? If the reader remembers, my first arti- 

 cle left us standing upon a huge rock, in the 

 heart of a large tract of woodland ; and as I then 

 promised to say something about the history of 

 these rocks, or boulders, I will fulfil the promise 

 before proceeding on our ramble. 



Modern geological research has discovered the 

 fact that the superficial covering of the solid rocks 

 which form the crust of the earth, was once solid 

 rock itself, that the materials of which it is com- 

 posed — gravel, sand, loam, clay, hard-pan, peb- 

 bles and broken pieces of rock of all sizes — have 

 been brought to their present state of decomposi- 

 tion and fineness, by the combined agencies of 

 heat and cold, rain, ocean waves and currents, 

 rivers, ground ice, glaciers, icebergs, earthquakes 

 and volcanoes ; and that these agencies have been 

 at work, either separately or together, and per- 

 haps with different degrees of intensity, for a 

 length of time extending so far back into the 

 past that the human mind cannot grasp or meas- 

 ure it. And the fact is also equally certain that 

 the process by which the rocks, of all kinds, have 

 been dissolved or disintegrated, and ground to 

 dust, is now going on in different parts of the 

 world ; and that new rocks are being formed at 

 the bottom of the present ocean, and in the sub- 

 terranean regions of the nether world, in the 

 same manner as the older rocks were formed. 



So the farmer can see what a long and wonder- 

 ful process has been going on for his benefit, and 

 that of every other inhabitant of terra firma ; for 

 without such a process there would have been no 

 soil in which to cultivate his crops, no vegetation 

 of any kind, nothing but naked, barren rock, over 

 all the dry land and the floor of the ocean. 



During a long period of time, in this unknown 

 past, which the geologists have named the drift 

 period, deposits of sand, gravel, hard-pan, peb- 

 bles and boulders or erratics, variously mingled, 

 were made over the northern parts of Europe and 

 North America. In this country, these loose ma- 

 terials, which had been accumulating previous to 

 the drift period, appear to have been brought 

 from the North, or from a point a little to the 

 west of north. The solid rocks, both of aqueous 

 and igneous origin, have been worn down, round- 

 ed and smoothed, and in numerous instances, 

 furrowed and striated, or scratched, by the trans- 

 port of drift material over them. These furrows 

 or grooves, and stria), can be seen in many places 

 in New England, and especially in Vermont. 

 Sometimes the furrows are from 12 to 20 inches 



