186 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



don Times, the largest journal in the world, is 

 printed on beet paper, of which they consume seven 

 tons per day, or 2o55 tons per annum, at a saving 

 to the proprietors of $100,000 a year. 



So the beet, duly considered, is a most useful 

 and wonderful vegetable. Its adaptation to trans- 

 formation into so many articles of use to man, 

 seems without limit, and is, therefore, astonishing 

 to contemplate. Beef, pork, mutton, milk, butter 

 and cheese, sugar, brandy and paper, are but a 

 few of the articles into which this root can be 

 ti-ansformed, and time is only requu-ed to develop 

 its future usefulness in tliis wide country, to the 

 wants of man. 



I have written to France for fresh information 

 regarding the quantity of roots required under or- 

 dinary circumstances to produce a given quantity 

 of sugar, &c., and when I receive an answer I will 

 lay it before you. And in the meantime, I remain 

 respectfully, Thos. Cruickshank. 



Beverly Farms, March 4, 1862. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FARM BUILDINGS. 



Mr. Editor : — In a report of the Legislative 

 Agricultural Discussions upon farm buildings, sev- 

 eral very important points were brought out, and 

 I refer to them, hoping to elicit more valuable sug- 

 gestions upon the same subject. 



Shall we not have the diagram of the position 

 of farm buildings, with explanations, hints about 

 size, construction, &c., presented by the Editor of 

 the Farmer, at said meeting, at an eai'ly day, in 

 the Farmer'} 



I confess to a liking of farm buildings being 

 connected and being under as fcAV roofs, as a gen- 

 eral rule, as circumstances will allow, tliinking the 

 conveniences and economy in labor in and about 

 them, more than equal to the disadvantages aris- 

 ing from their connection, beside the saving in 

 walls and roofs. 



In the "shelter" required for buildings, do they 

 not need the rays of the sun, the "balmy breezes," 

 the south-east storms, modified, in the southern 

 aspect, as well as in any other direction, though 

 to, perhaps, a less amount ? And here, in reading 

 your remarks, the fact occurs to mind that the 

 pine is injured by winds more than the other ever- 

 greens mentioned ; (here in Maine, at least.) 



It is a subject of thought, how to have a suita- 

 ble shelter around the buildings, and not obstruct 

 the view of the fields and pastures, where the 

 building site is nearly on a level with them, which 

 by some is considered one of the important requi- 

 sites to have a full view of the fields from the 

 buildings. 



Would you have shade trees, which grow to a 

 large size, set out so near to buildings, that in 

 case they should be blown down, they could fall 

 upon the buildings ? Though no serious accident 

 of this Idnd is just now called to mind, yet when 

 seeing maples, elms, pines, and the like, growing 

 within a few feet of the house, a feeling of fear 

 would steal over me that in some of our New Eng- 

 land gales, sonic of the large branches, or the 

 whole top, might be wrenched ofi" and hurled upon 

 the roof with a crushing weight. 



Why does Mr. Fearing think it "not good econ- 

 omy to ])aint" his sheep-sheds, as well as other 

 out-buildinc-s ? 



That "new hind of paint" of Mr. Taylor's. — 

 Such a description as given m the report viz., 

 " the base was whiting, with perhaps a little 

 lime and oil, with colors to suit," is, to say the 

 least, quite indefinite. If you know the import of 

 perhaps a little lime and oil, and what really made 

 up the bulk of the paint, with the base, I shall be 

 glad to receive more light. If such a paint, or 

 wash, as there referred to, can be procured, it is 

 truly a desideratum — an improvement worthy of 

 the nineteenth centurj- — one Mhich many a toiling 

 farmer will be thi'ice glad to obtain, and to test, 

 upon the weather-beaten walls of his buildings. 



Near Fhillips, Me., 1862. O. W. True. 



Remarks. — The diagram we presented was im- 

 provised for the occasion, and was intended only 

 to show the position of the buildings in their rela- 

 tion to each other. 



Shade trees should never come so near the 

 buildings as to exclude all the rays of the sun, 

 either in summer or winter. On the north, they 

 may be nearer than on the other side. Elms and 

 maples should be fifty feet from the dwelling, and 

 all trees should be so arranged as not to obstruct 

 any prospect that is valued. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SMITH'S IMPBOVED FENCE. 



Mr. Editor : — As you have Smith's Improved 

 Fences upon your farm, I -wish to inquire whether, 

 in your opinion, his fence No. 2 can be advanta- 

 geously used, as a road fence, to prevent snow- 

 drifts ? 



The answer to this question will concern every 

 person who is obliged to pass over our roads in 

 winter. If his fence has this advantage, and no 

 other, I will guarantee him patronage enough in 

 this State to satisfy any reasonable man. 



Over a great part of the State, and during the 

 greater part of the winter, our common roads 

 have been literally buried under immense snow- 

 drifts, and the only way to get through them has 

 been to dig through ; and after every driving 

 storm, we have been compelled to do the same 

 over and over again. 



Thousands of dollars will not pay the cost of 

 keeping our roads open the past winter, and busi- 

 ness over them has been about as brisk, as it usu- 

 ally is on the coast of Greenland. Upright road 

 fences are the cause. Vermonter. 



Burlington, Vt., March 6, 1862. 



Remarks. — See cut and description of Smith's 

 Fence in another column. 



Goats. — An article upon Goats, recently pub- 

 lished in the Farmer, has been extensively pub- 

 lished and commented upon. We did not thinli 

 it necessary to say at the time, that if a person has 

 a tree or a plant which he values, he must not al- 

 low goats to run at large. They are exceedingly 

 destructive to nearly all kinds of herbage, and will 

 surmount almost any obstacle to get at it. 



