514 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



Three cubits long, equal to 41 feet, such would be 

 an useless appendage to the sheep now extant. 

 God in all His works, designed all for some use, 

 therefore, we should infer by the length and 

 breadth of those now extant, that those of former 

 days must exceed ours in size some three or four 

 times. Perhaps then the lineage of that highly- 

 prized breed styled the flat-tailed sheep, might 

 be traced to those of olden days ; if so, why not, 

 in the days of improvement which we now claim 

 to live in, bring the breed of sheep up to the size 

 of former days ? How can our young men of this 

 day affect to despise country places and the art of 

 agriculture, which our old, honest ancestors and 

 prophets themselves did not disdain to exercise, 

 even to keeping flocks ? s. v. M. 



Cape Elizabeth, Sept., 1862. 



A WEW KEND OF BRICK. 



A correspondent of the Journal of the Illinois 

 State Agricultural Society thus speaks of a new 

 method for making brick : 



The amount of lime is ten bushels of good stone 

 lime, burnt but unslacked, to one thousand brick. 

 The brick are plump four inches thick, six inches 

 wide and ten inches long. By getting the cubic 

 measure of a thousand such brick you will have 

 the amount of material for their foundatisn : but 

 little allowance is made for the lime, as it adds 

 but trifling to the bulk. The ten bushels of lime 

 are slacked and diluted as for mortar, and then 

 passed into the box containing gravel and sharp 

 sand — these are well commingled together — and 

 then passed into a mould where the brick is sub- 

 jected to a pressure of, I think, 5,000 lbs., but I 

 am not quite certain. It is then taken out care- 

 fully and laid away to season, and must be pro- 

 tected a few days from heavy rains. The wall is 

 laid ten inches thick, on a deep, firm foundation. 

 The brick is laid edgewise in the wall, leaving a 

 hollow space between the outside and inside 

 courses, except where ingeniously tied by placing 

 the brick lengthwise across the wall. The air 

 space is designed to benefit the brick and the build- 

 ing. I think I could secure you, for a short sea- 

 son, a choice mechanic, competent to superintend, 

 in all particulars, the introduction of this new ma- 

 terial, and its best mode of construction, on rea- 

 sonable terms. We have a number of buildings 

 in this section of this description. I like them 

 well, and think that for the sparsely timbered por- 

 tions of j'our country it must be decidedly the 

 best style of building ; and so warm the bleak 

 prairie." 



To Preserve Cider. — The following recipe for 

 preserving cider was tested last fall by a friend, 

 and found to be all that is claimed for it : "When 

 the cider in the barrel is in a lively fermentation, 

 add as much white sugar as will be equal to a 

 quarter or three-quarters of a pound to each gallon 

 of cider, (according as the apples are sweet or sour,) 

 let the fermentation proceed until the liquid has 

 the taste to suit, then add a quarter of an ounce of 

 sulphite (not sulphate) of lime to each gallon of 

 cider, shake well and let it stand three days, and 

 bottle for use." The sulphite should first be dis- 

 solved in a quart or so of the cider before intro- 

 ducinar it into the barrel of cider. — Prairie Far. 



THE CONCOBD KIVEB MEADOWS. 



We have had recent occasion to be upon these 

 meadows considerably, and to witness the annual 

 destruction of property occasioned by the standing 

 water upon them. This mischief we have no 

 doubt is caused by the dam across the river at 

 North Billerica, which stops the natural flow of 

 the stream, and throws the water back over an 

 immense tract of land that would otherwise be 

 among the best in the State. 



The river being unusually low, we went into the 

 meadows with a gang of men and teams, and by 

 the use of broad cart-wheels, rackets on the feet 

 of the horses, and the wheelbarrow, succeeded in 

 getting a few hundred loads of muck out upon 

 higher land. Near the river the soil is alluvial, 

 upon which corn would grow in perfection, if the 

 land were not flooded during the growing season. 

 Farther back, it is composed, to a very great ex- 

 tent, of vegetable matter in a high state of decom- 

 position. It is black, unctuous and rich, having 

 "the feel" of soap when rubbed between the thumb 

 and finger, and has no appearance of being im- 

 pregnated with any salts or acids that would make 

 it unsafe to be applied immediately to the soil. 

 Prof. Dana states that where two loads of such 

 muck are mingled with one load of pure droppings 

 from the cow, each of the three loads is worth as 

 much as though all were pure droppings. Look, 

 then, at the immense loss which our people annu- 

 ally sustain in being deprived of the use of such a 

 fertilizer ; for the want of which they are expend- 

 ing large sums of money for guano and other spe- 

 cific manures ! 



This is the first time since the memorable 

 droughts of 1854, '55 and '56, that M'e have been 

 able to remove it from its bed — and now only 

 with difficulty, and at double the cost it would re- 

 quire if the water were not thrown back by dams. 



On each side of these meadows, for a distance 

 of more than twenty miles, there are large tracts 

 of sandy lands that have been cultivated in rye for 

 two or three generations, that might be restored 

 to the most abundant fertility, if the people could 

 have access to these now drowned meadows. It 

 seems the order of n'ature herself, that where 

 tracts of weak and unproductive soils are found, 

 there are usually deposits of material in the neigh- 

 borhood, either of a vegetable or mineral charac- 

 ter, that will give such lands fertility and value. 

 It is only f >v man to avail himself of them, and 

 make the waste places smile with a cheerful and 

 profitable vegetation, that will gladden his heart, 

 and give strength to the State. 



In this case, however, this beneficent order of 

 things is destroyed by the rapacity of man, who 

 seeks gain though it trample upon the plainest 

 principles of justice, and wrings the honest re- 

 ward of labor from him who has endured the pa- 



