1S62. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



467 



progressed and valuable inorganic contituents of 

 the surface, and carries them to the nearest ditch 

 or brook. 



Tlie same truths apply in degree to sub-soil 

 plowing, and when the two are combined, a longer 

 season is the consequence. 



The continued downward evaporation in well 

 prepared soils renders the feeding of the plants 

 continuous and not unequal, as with soils badly 

 prepared, which supply the necessary amount of 

 moisture for the solution of surface fertilizers only 

 during rains and at moments of heavy dews, leav- 

 ing the soil incapable of permitting the free ac- 

 cess of atmosphere and the accompanying humid 

 condition. — Working Farmer. 



PLTEE WATER FOB, STOCK. 



A good draught of good water is, probably, as 

 refreshing to beasts as it is to people. But in the 

 month of August nearly all domestic animals suf- 

 fer far more than we imagine for w'ant of good wa- 

 ter. Sheep will thrive far better if they can have 

 access to ])ure water. Teams will endure the heat 

 far lietter if they can have a plenty of pure water, 

 and if milch cows must drink stagnant water 

 wherever they can find it, hov.- is it possible for 

 them to give their usual (low of good milk ? It is 

 impracticable for them to do it. 



Some people allow water to stand in troughs 

 day after day, many times, and compel their ani- 

 mals to drink it all up. Did such people ever 

 drink water from an old dirty slop-pail, after it 

 had been allowed to stand in the sunshine for two 

 or three days ? Let them try the experiment of 

 drinking such water, and wait for the result ; and 

 then they will be prepared to express a correct 

 opinion, whether or not such water is as good for 

 stock, in the sultry days of August, as pure cold 

 water would be. 



Water troughs and water tanks should be 

 cleaned frequently during the hot days of August, 

 and fresh water pumped into them several times 

 during the day. 



Milk cows require a vast quantity of pure water 

 in hot Aveather, in order to produce their usual 

 flow of good milk. — Country Gentleman. 



Bruce's Patent Fruit Gatherer. — This is a 

 very simple contrivance for selecting specimens of 

 fruit from the tree while standing on the ground, 

 or for gathering apples on the outside branches of 

 trees where they cannot be reached by the hand — 

 and where a ladder would injure the tender twigs 

 by resting against them. It is made by inserting 

 several bent wires into an iron collar. A narrow 

 bag of cotton cloth is inserted in this collar to 

 catch the fruit when it has been gently pushed or 

 twisted off ; it then falls into the bag and rolls 

 down to the hand, into a basket or upon the 

 gi'ound. By care, this can be done so as not to 

 injure the fruit. 



This Fruit Gatherer is manufactured and sold 

 by A. H. Caryl, Groton Junction, Mass. The 

 retail price is 7j cts., or with a short bag, 50 cts., 

 and to those who purchase to sell again at a still 

 less price. 



For the Neic England Farmer. 



THE BIRDS OF ISTEW EWGLAND— No. 21. 



VIREOS. 



Red-eyed Vireo — White-eyed Vireo — Yellow-throated Vireo— 

 Solitary Vii-eo — Warbling Vireo. 



The YlREOS or Greenlets, (forming the sub- 

 family Vireoninceoi Swainson's family Ampclidce,) 

 form one of our most useful and interesting groups 

 of birds, subsisting nearly the whole year upon 

 insects, and at no time are they found feeding 

 upon cultivated fruits. In the form of the bill 

 they resemble the Shrikes, it being large, stout 

 and toothed, but in their habits have considerable 

 similarity to the common Flycatchers ; so much 

 so that they were first described under the genus 

 Muscicapa, by all of the earlier ornithologists. 

 Thirteen species of Vireo are described by Baird 

 as found in the United States, five of which inhab- 

 it the New England States. They are all migra- 

 tory, spending the winter far southward, and ap- 

 pearing here in ^lay. 



The Red-Eyed Vireo, {Vireo Olivaceus, 

 Yieill.,) is perhaps our most common as well as 

 the plainest colored species, reaching here early in 

 ]May, when its song is at once heard, loud and 

 lively, as it hunts in the woods and thickets for its 

 winged food. It continues with us often till late 

 in September, and throughout the summer it war- 

 bles its agreeable, but slightly varied notes with 

 hardly a season of intermission ; during the hot 

 July days, when most liirds are quite silent, the 

 lively lay of this harmless songster is heard from 

 the tree-tops, and only interrupted now and then 

 to dispose of a captured insect, throughout the live- 

 long day ; and in August, when nearly every for- 

 est-warbler has become silent for the season, the 

 sprightly notes of this bird are still heard in the 

 woodlands, outside of which it is seldom seen. It 

 constructs a neat and pensile nest, suspended by 

 its upper edge between the twigs of a sapling oak 

 or maple, seldom more than four or five feet from 

 the ground, though sometimes quite elevated. 

 The materials are quite various, generally em- 

 bracing fibrous grass, strips of the bark of grape 

 vines, pieces of withered leaves, caterpillars' webs, 

 etc., the whole com])actly woven and glued with 

 the saliva of the bird. The eggs are four or five 

 white, with a few small, dark brown specks at the 

 larger end. This bird is often the foster-mother 

 of the Cow Bird. This species inhabits the whole 

 of eastern North America, from Greenland to 

 Guatemala. 



Length, five and a half inches ; alar extent, sev- 

 en. Above, yellow-olive ; crown, ash ; line of 

 black over the eye ; beneath, pur e white ; sides 

 tinged with greenish. Iris of the eye bright red. 



The White-Eyed Vireo, ( Vireo Xoveboracen- 

 sis, Bon.,) inhabits the whole of the eastern part 

 of the United States, southward to Texas, and is 

 said, like the preceding, to be quite common. It 

 is frequently taken in the eastern part of the 

 State, but in this vicinity I am inclined to think 

 it more rare, having examined several collections 

 of birds made here in the last three years, amount- 

 ing in all to more than eight hundred specimens, 

 without finding a single individual, and in collect- 

 ing more than five hundred specimens myself in 

 the woods and thickets, I did not meet Avith it. 

 Wilson says, "This is another of the Cow Bird's 

 adopted nurses ; a lively, active and sociable little 



