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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



SQUASHES AND PUMPKINS. 



Will you inform me where is the most prefera- 

 ble place to keep squashes and pumpkins through 

 the winter, so they will be free from rot ? Also, 

 what species of squash and pumpkin you would 

 prefer to plant the next year as the most profita- 

 ble ? A Young Farmer. 



East Saugus, Oct. 9, 1861. 



Remarks. — That place which is dry, and has 

 the most even temperature, will be likely to keep 

 squashes and pumpkins the best. We keep them 

 perfectly every year until May, in a brick oven 

 and an ash pit for which we have no other use. 

 On shelves, high up in the kitchen, they will usu- 

 ally keep well. The Marrow and the Hubbard, 

 are the two squashes mostly in demand in mar- 

 ket. The old Canada Crook Neck is also an ex- 

 cellent squash, but does not sell as readily as the 

 others mentioned. 



SOIL STICKING TO POTATOES. 



I wish to be informed what is the cause of my 

 potatoes being completely covered with dirt, 

 which cannot be washed off, but which sticks so 

 tightly that, in many cases, the potato must be 

 entirely pared to free it from dirt. I do not know 

 but it may be caused by mixing ashes with the 

 plaster I put on them. 



Will some one give an opinion upon the sub- 

 ject? A Reader of tue Farmer. 



Ware, Oct. 8, 1861. 



HOW TO "WALK: IN COMFORT. 

 SOMETHING ABOUT BOOTS AND THEIR EVILS. 



The bootmaker, ignorant of the relative use 

 and importance of the different parts of the foot, 

 has steadily persisted for centuries, and at this 

 day usually persists, in so shaping the shoe that 

 the great toe is forced upon the other toes more 

 or less out of its right line with the heel. Nine 

 civilized people in ten, perhaps, have their great 

 toes thus by a course of submission to mishappen 

 boots and shoes so far turned inwards, that a line 

 run down in the middle of them from point to 

 ball, if continued, would not fall any where in 

 the heel at all, but several inches away outside 

 the body. The necessary consequence is, that the 

 full strength of the natural lever for raising the 

 body is destroyed ; the effort has to be made at a 

 disadvantage, and with pressure ; the act of walk- 

 ing loses some of its grace and much of its ease : 

 80 that although the boot may be so well adjusted 

 to the spoilt shape of the foot, as to cause no pain, 

 an honest twenty or thirty mile walk is more than 

 hampered foot-machinery has power to sustain. 



For this reason, says 13r. Meyer, it is wrong to 

 suppose that because a shoe is easy it is right, or 

 that a cast of the foot, unless it be a healthy one, 

 would make the best last for the shoe it is to 

 wear. Allowance should be made for the gradual 

 return of the great toe to its place, by leaving its 

 place (to some extent at least) vacant for it, and 

 permitting gentle pvessure where the joint has 

 been forced into undue projection. When the 

 shoemaker now tells a customer that he treads very 

 much on one side, he in fact compliments him by 

 the information that he has a healthy and unsub- 



jugated foot, determined to tread straight. It is 

 precisely because children's feet are only in the 

 first stage of injury, and are more nearly as God 

 made them than as they are destined to be made 

 by the shoemakers, that children especially come 

 into trouble with the shoemakers, or with the pa- 

 rents and guardians who believe rather in shoes 

 than in feet, for "treading on one side." A strong 

 and healihy foot tramples a foolish shoe out as 

 far as possible into the form it ought at first to 

 have had. Even the distorted foot, after the shoe- 

 maker has done his worst, will often tread over 

 the leather of the inner side of the boot-heel, be- 

 cause of a natural effort of the foot-heel to bring 

 itself into some approach to the right line with 

 the great toe. 



In a properly made shoe, then, the great toe 

 and the heel have their right relative places fur- 

 nished for them. And, since they are to be in a 

 line together, it must follow that if a well-made 

 pair of boots be placed side by side so that their 

 heels touch, their sides also will touch through 

 the whole space in front of the instep from tho 

 place of the ball of the great toe to the very end 

 of it. They will diverge only at the rounded 

 ends, where the great toes round off into the lit- 

 tle toes, along whose line, and nowhere else, any 

 possible pointing of the shape of the boot-sole 

 can be got. — Dickens' All the Year Bound. 



Bristol Co, Central Exhibition. — The ex- 

 hibition of stock of all kinds was particularly 

 fine, and some idea of the rivalry stirred up 

 among the farmers may be formed from the num- 

 ber of competitors. There were thirty each of 

 working and drawing cattle, the same number of 

 breeding horses and colts, of fat cattle and steers 

 twenty, working horses fifteen, family horses ten, 

 sheep and swine twenty-four, bulls seventeen, 

 and poultry twenty-one. 



The important entries in the other depart- 

 ments were in the plowing match seventeen, ag- 

 ricultural products and vegetables thirty-nine, 

 butter, cheese, honey and bread thirty-one, fruits 

 and flowers nineteen, spading three, domestic 

 manufactures one hundred and seven, and heavy 

 manufactures sixteen. The programme, as car- 

 ried out, gave much satisfaction to the several 

 thousands assembled, and was about as follows, 

 including a meeting of the society to nominate 

 officers, earlier in the morning : At dh, spading 

 match ; 10, plowing match ; 1, drawing match ; 

 2i, trial of family horses ; and 4, foot races. Be- 

 tween the plowing and drawing matches, a pro- 

 cession of town teams and all the stock on exhi- 

 bition moved round the half mile track. Dinner 

 and speeches in Railroad Hall. 



Removing Sunburn. — If our young lady read- 

 ers would like to know what will take off tan and 

 sunburn, let them take a handful of bran, pour a 

 quart of boiling water on it, let it stand one hour, 

 then strain. When cold put to it a pint of bay 

 rum. Bottle and use it when needed. 



