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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



some of his most laborious and irksome tasks; — 

 in his dwelling are necessary comforts and conve- 

 niences, with many of the luxuries which commerce 

 has collected from distant climes and ingenuity 

 has prepared for his use ; — in his family a beloved 

 partner of his bosom and dutiful children, who 

 kindle while they reflect the glance of a parent's 

 eye, and to whose steps all paths to usefulness 

 and distinction are wide open. 



Such is the farmer of New England ! He is 

 more than all this. He is a man in authority — a 

 part of the government whose jurisdiction he ac- 

 knowledges, and whose poAver he is ready to en- 

 force with all the energy which has been acquired 

 by the fixed habit of doing his own work and mak- 

 ing his own laws. 



For the Neie England Farmer, 

 A TROT ON THE ICE, 



A trot came off on the 14th April inst., on the 

 ice, between black mare Fanny Barrett, of this 

 town, and bay mare Green Mountain Queen, of 

 Bridport, Vermont. The town of Crown Point is 

 situated on Lake Champlain, on the New York 

 side, and Bridport on the Vermont side. The 

 trot was on Lake Champlain, between the two 

 places. There was a large number of people upon 

 the ice to witness this trot, attracted there not so 

 much to look upon the speed of these two beauti- 

 ful "nags," — but the idea of a trot upon the ice, 

 on the 14th day of April, excited the curiosity, 

 and for that reason, much interest was taken. 

 The mares made a good race, but the result be- 

 came a disputed point, and was finally left unset- 

 tled. Years will roll away, before the people in 

 this vicinity will witness a scene so novel and rare, 

 as a horse trot upon the ice on Lake Champlain 

 on the 14th of April. 



The snow has been in this vicinity from 3 to 4i 

 feet deep, but now, before the genial rays of old 

 Sol, the snow is fast wasting away, and the roar 

 of the brook mingling with the shrill note of the 

 bluebird, says, all hail once again, happy spring. 



W. W. MoorvE. 



Crown Point, N. Y., April 17, 1862. 



Old Times and New. — Compare travelling as 

 it is now with what it was when the apostles went 

 out. I could go around the earth and come home 

 again quicker than Paul could go from Jerusalem 

 to Ptome in his day. In the time that was required 

 to write one Bible in his day, I can print a million 

 now. It cost a fortune to own a book then ; now 

 there is not a pauper in the poor-house that is not 

 able to own a book. Literally, knowledge may 

 said to be without money and without price ; when 

 for a penny a man may have a newspaper that 

 covers the contemporaneous news of the globe, so 

 that he can sec more than if he were put on an ex- 

 ceeding high mountain — with a devil at his elbow 

 at that, to tempt him withal. Books are cheaper 

 than bread, and none are so poor that they cannot 

 have the reading of the events of every single day. 

 — H. W. Beecher. 



BARLEY. 



This valuable grain is now much cultivated in 

 many sections of our State, and is used, not unfre- 

 quently, as a substitute for corn and wheat. The 

 constituents of barley — taking the gi-ain and 

 haulm together — have, on burning, 7.04 per cent, 

 of ashes, while the straw and grain of oats leave 

 but 5.73 per cent. The analysis of these ashes 

 demonstrates the position of barley, and places it in 

 the category of silicious plants. The same remark 

 applies, also, with equal correctness to oats — the 

 ashes of the latter furnishing 62 per cent, of silica, 

 and 25 per cent, of lime salts ; the ashes of barley 

 25 per cent, of lime salts, and 55 of silica. We 

 mention these grains in connection, because some 

 have affected to believe that oats require an ali- 

 ment essentially different from that demanded by 

 other cereal grains. 



Oats flourish on any good corn land, but barley 

 requires a sandy, or even gravelly loam ; a soil 

 that is light and warm. Very fine barley is now 

 brought from California, and may be purchased for 

 65 or 70 cents per bushel. This is probably taken 

 as ballast, or in preference to returning with 

 empty bottoms. 



Barley has risen in the estimation of farmers, 

 and is now cultivated more freely than it has been 

 for many years. 



THE BEST GATE. 



In the Farmer of February 15th, an article on 

 fencing of barn-yards, etc., says : "The best gate 

 is made of scantling and boards ;" to which I say 

 as the Irishman did of his friend's dinner, which 

 was meat and potatoes ; "that it was just his, bai'- 

 rin' the meat." So this gate is just mine, barrin' 

 the scantling. Formerly I used scantUng, two by 

 three, and two by four inches, for the frame of my 

 gates ; but one time, now some twelve years since, 

 I had no scantling, and therefore built my gate, 

 which was ten feet long, frame with strips of board, 

 one by four inches for the latch end, and one by 

 eight inches for the hinge end of the gate ; brace, 

 one by six inclies. My lower board, one by eight 

 inches ; next above, one by six inches ; next two, 

 each one by four inches ; the whole secured by 

 wi'ought nails clinched, and hung with strap hin- 

 ges. This gate is now, and has been all the time 

 from its construction, in daily use, and has never 

 sagged an inch. From that time to the present, I 

 have always built my gates without scantling, and 

 have found them equally as good barriers as those 

 built with scantling, while they are lighter, cost 

 less, and do not sag. Any one can build such a 

 gate and hang it — the jjosts being set — in two 

 hours. — Cor. Ohio Farmer. 



Won't Grow. — Mr. Goodale, Secretary of 

 the Maine Board of Agriculture, in the recent 

 discussions of the Board, stated that there is a 

 tract of land in ]Maine both south and north of 

 which Indian corn could be grown, but Upon which 

 it would not grow. 



