S90 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Atjg. 



In many cases, especially where tile are used, it 

 will be more economical to sink the drain one foot 

 deeper, and by so doing save one-seventh of the 

 tile 5 but where tile can be cheaply procured this 

 is not always the case. 



For a farm drain I prefer them about four feet 

 deep, with an opening, formed of flat stone, in the 

 bottom, and this covered with small stone to with- 

 in twenty inches of the top ; the latter are not 

 necessary if those forming the opening are cov- 

 ered with reversed sods.-^ Germantomii Telegraph. 



EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES. 

 RATS AND MICE. 



Will you inform me of a speedy and efTective 

 method of getting rid of i-ats and mice ? 



They infest our house, which is rather an old 

 one, from attic to cellar, and we have been unable 

 to drive them away, though using a great number 

 of traps, &c., and in fact, trying everything we 

 thought might prove effectual. They cause con- 

 siderable damage to milk, cream, butter and 

 everything eatable, compelling us to cover up as 

 carefully as possible anything we wish to preserve 

 from destruction. 



Now, if you, or any of the subscribers of the 

 Farmer, can inform me of any such way, please 

 do so, and oblige A Readex and Admikeu. 



Framingkam, July, 1862.' 



Remarks. — We were once troubled in the 

 same way, loaded the double-barrelled gun, re- 

 solved upon "eternal vigilance," shot nineteen in 

 the course of a few weeks, and had no further 

 trouble from rats for several years. But they are 

 great travellers, and in process of time we had 

 them again, and being mostly from home, resort- 

 ed to traps without success, and then to strych- 

 nine, which proved a quietus to many a poor rat. 

 Spread it upon bread and butter and place it a 

 short distance from the house, or under some 

 back building, where other animals cannot reach 

 it. By doing this they have never returned to 

 the house to die there in the walls. 



MILK-SPREADING TEATS. 



Having had some experience in milking cows 

 whose teats spread milk, and having been in all 

 cases able to overcome the difficulty. I am dis- 

 posed to give you the result. I find it to be, so 

 far as my observation extends, a protrusion of the 

 inside of the teat, and the remedy consists in 

 bringing tlie hand quite low down so as in some 

 measure to press 6ac/i:rather thanowf. I even let 

 my little finger come below the teat, so as to hold 

 it up. With a little practice this becomes quite 

 easy, and effects the cure. E. C. PiASE. 



Athol Depot, July 7, 18G2, 



FARR^VR'S LADDER IIOOKS. 



I bought one of Farrar^s Ladder IIooTcs, soon 

 after seeing the illustration which you gave of it 

 in a late numbel of the Farmer, and soon had an 

 opportunity of using it to good advantage. 



You know in what great peril my dwelling- 



house wa.s when the factory burned so near me. 

 It was desirable to get buckets of water at once 

 upon the roof; tliere were two ladders leaning 

 against the house. I called for my Farrar's Lad- 

 der Hook ; this I attached securely to the upper 

 rounds of one ladder in a second, by turning a 

 screw, and slid the ladder over the ridgepole. In 

 my distress and anxiety as I dashed the water 

 upon the smoking shingles, I blessed the simple 

 contrivance which served me so timely. Here- 

 after I shall look upon Farrar's Ladder Hook as 

 one of my safeguards against fire, as it M'ill equip 

 any ladder so as instantly to be thrown upon a 

 roof. 



I think I shall patch my roofs to better advan- 

 tage now that I can get over them more safely. 



Wm. D. Brown. 



Concord, Mass., June 24, 1862. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 MOWING MACHINES. 



Mr. Editor : — I have noticed several articles 

 on mowing machines in your excellent journal 

 during the last twelve months, one of which was 

 an inquiry about Ketchum's, as to which was the 

 best, the 1860 machine, or the 1861. I have used 

 one of the pattern of 1860, and it gives good sat- 

 isfaction. It does the work well, and is of light 

 draft. I have a pair of horses that do not weigh 

 more than fifteen or sixteen hundred, and they can 

 draw the machine with ease. It is not so hard for 

 them as ordinary plowing. I can mow an acre 

 per hour, and where the land and grass is suita- 

 ble to mow with a machine, I can commence at 

 twenty minutes past nine in the morning, on three 

 acres, and put it through in two-forty, and put my 

 horses up before noon with dry coats, if the tem- 

 perature of the weather is not more than 8<5° 

 above zero ! 



The principal difference between the patterns of 

 1860 and 1861 is in the finger-bar. That of '60 

 is bolted on tight ; that of '61 is connected by a 

 hinge, so that the bar can rise over objects with- 

 out tipping the driver's seat. But where the land 

 is smooth the hinge is not necessary, and where 

 the land is rocky, the hinge is dangerous. The 

 weight of the bar will prevent the machine from 

 tipping to the left ; but where the driving wheel 

 runs over a rock, or the hinge slides into a hol- 

 low, there is danger of throwing the driver over to 

 the right, and on to the knives, while it is next to 

 impossible to tip the stiff bar machine over to the 

 right. I should choose the stiff bar. There are 

 several kinds of machines in the market, and all 

 claim to be the best. But I doubt if there is a 

 better machine (taking all things into considera- 

 tion,) than the Ketchum machine ; if there is, it 

 would pay for almost every farmer to buy one ; if 

 not, it would pay to buy one of Ketchum's, for 

 it is better to pay ten or twelve dollars for the 

 wear and tear, and interest on the cost of a mow- 

 ing machine, than to pay twenty or thirty dollars 

 for a man to mow, and board hmi at a cost of six 

 or eight dollars more. In addition to this, grass 

 mowed with a machine is already spread, while if 

 mowed with a scythe, it would take as much time 

 to spread it as it would to mow it with a machine. 



Amherst, N. H., July, 1862. D. N. 



