1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ground, while one old shnib, which had for a long 

 time been battling between life and death, bore a 

 dozen fine quinces. Peaches are among the things 

 that were. AVe shall raise no more until our sea- 

 sons change. There is reason to fear that cher- 

 ries will follow in their wake. We have had none 

 for two seasons, and most of the trees give signs 

 of approaching dissolution. 



But enough of this. We have other and more 

 formidable foes than the weevil, the curculio, the 

 borer, and even Jack Frost himself. The vermin 

 which have poisoned our political atmosphere are 

 now boring into the roots of the tree of liberty, 

 and stripping it of its foliage. Our farms should 

 not be neglected, and need not be ; but the prin- 

 cipal energies of the whole loyal portion of our 

 people should be concentrated upon this vilest and 

 most formidable enemy of the body politic. 



Amherst, Jan. 7, 1862. 



THE PTJZZLED ■WHEN. 



I was sitting one June morning at the open win- 

 dow of a pleasant country-house, when I observed 

 a busy wren flying back and forth through the 

 thick boughs of a large English cherry tree, bring- 

 ing bits of Avood and grass to the little round hole 

 which she had made in the bottom of the tree, for 

 a place, I suppose, to hide her nest in. After a 

 while she came lugging a burden that looked 

 heavy enough for two wrens. She had been to the 

 wood-pile, and picked up a stick longer than she 

 was, and I watched her as she flew up to the hole 

 with it, and attempted to go in just as she had 

 done with her other sticks and bits. I laughed to 

 see how puzzled she was when her burden butted 

 against the sides, and pushed her back from the 

 entrance. She tried it again and again with the 

 same result, fluttering up to the hole, knocking 

 the stick against the sides, and then obliged to 

 flutter back again. It was very rude in the un- 

 gainly twig, she seemed to think, and the little 

 lady actually looked as if she felt insulted. I al- 

 most expected to see her give it up ; but no. 

 Fastening her feet firmly on the edge of the open- 

 ing, she placed the stick perpendicularly, and 

 tugged with all her might to thrust it through, but 

 in vain ; then she turned it and tried it horizontal- 

 ly, but it would not go in. At last she tried it 

 endwise, and I could not help clapping my hands 

 as it slid to the bottom of the nest, and the little 

 bird hopped in after it, with a kind of provoked 

 triumph in her manner, as if she said, "What a 

 fool ! Why didn't I know that before ?" 



Manual of Agriculture. — We leam that this 

 work is already largely called for by the towns in 

 Massachusetts, to be placed in their schools. One 

 town has ordered tivo hundred copies, another one 

 hundred, and many others twenty-five to fifty 

 copies each. We learn, also, that where it has 

 been introduced, the pupils, both boys and girls, 

 are delighted with the study. We supposed that 

 such would be the case. Our youth will readily 

 comprehend the importance to them of such a 

 study — a study that is always highly pleasing, 

 while it instructs. 



■WINTEK CABE OP STOCK. 



In a climate so variable as that of New Eng- 

 land, where the extremes of the temperature 

 sometimes range from forty degi'ees above zero to 

 twenty degrees below, within twenty-four consec- 

 utive hours, it becomes us to provide a pretty 

 thorough shelter for the animals who depend upon 

 us, as well as for ourselves. Stock mcnj be kept 

 out of doors all winter, or in cold and cheerless 

 bams, and come out in the spring looking well, — 

 but it must always be at the considerable cost of 

 a large additional amount of nutritive food over 

 what would have been required, if the stock had 

 been warmly housed. 



The body of an animal may be compared to a 

 stove, — place it in an ordinarily tight room, and 

 half a dozen pounds of fuel will heat its sides red 

 hot ; but Avhen set out in the open air, where cold 

 currents are constantly sweeping from its sides 

 the heat imparted to them by the fuel, two or 

 three times six pounds will scarcely heat it too 

 hot for the hand to rest upon it. The food which 

 the animal eats imparts heat to the system some- 

 thing as the fuel does to the stove. We find a 

 few words to the point in the Tribune. "Farmers 

 do not pay sufficient attention to the warmth of 

 their stock, but suffer them to roam about in the 

 open air, exposed to the inclement weather. The 

 amount of exercise is another most important 

 point to attend to. The more an animal moves 

 about, the quicker it will breathe, and the more 

 starch, gum, sugar, fat, and other respiratory ele- 

 ments it must have in its food ; and if ai> addition- 

 al quantity of these substances is not given to sup- 

 ply the increased demand, the fat and other parts 

 of the body will be drawn upon, and the animal 

 will become thinner ; also, as before observed, 

 every motion of the body produces a correspond- 

 ing destruction of the muscles which produce that 

 motion. It is, therefore, quite evident that the 

 more the animal moves about, the more of the 

 heat-producing and flesh-forming principle it must 

 receive in its food. Hence, we see the propriety 

 of keeping om* cattle in sheds and yards, and not 

 suffering those (particularly which we intend to 

 fatten) to rove about, consuming more food, and 

 wasting away more rapidly the various tissues of 

 the body already formed, and making it more ex- 

 pensive and difficult to fatten them." 



We are perfectly aware of the fact, that it is al- 

 together easier to sit and talk about what is best 

 to be done, than it is to do the thing itself, or to 

 furnish the "ways and means" of doing it. Nev- 

 ertheless, we believe a tolerably warm i)lace can be 

 provided for stock in seven cases out of ten among 

 the farmers, and that Avithout the aid of a carpen- 

 ter ! We were strongly reminded of tliis the oth- 

 er day, while ^^siting a very old barn, by observ- 

 ing how completely the arrangement of the hay, a 



