520 



NEW EXGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



■was necessary to commence haying ; however, a 

 certain portion of them were hoed, and the re- 

 mainder left until a dull day in haying ; it was 

 my lot to assist while hoeing, and I observed a 

 difference in their growth. That part of the piece 

 which had been hoed grew rank, and looked very 

 healthy, while the remainder looked slender. I 

 helped harvest them, and that part first hoed yield- 

 ed well — the others were smaller. The crows 

 pulled up a little of my corn, which I transplant- 

 ed as faithfully as I could, being very careful to 

 take up some earth attached to the roots, and not 

 disturb them. This I did by the use of a brick- 

 mason's trowel. Some of the ends of the leaves 

 turned yellow and looked sickly, but immediately 

 I was favored with a rain, and I soon perceived 

 that it began to assume a more healthy appear- 

 ance. When I hoed it the second time it looked 

 as green and promising as the other, only the 

 stalks were lower. At harvest it would have re- 

 quired a close observer to perceive any difference, 

 and the soil gave me a good yield. 



The next year I planted a piece with potatoes, 

 and fitted the piece well, according to my under- 

 standing ; harrowed it smooth and furrowed it out 

 with a small plow. The farmers in that vicinity 

 were in the habit of planting three and one-half 

 feet between hills and rows. I often observed 

 that there was a waste of land, and resolved to 

 try an experiment. I made my furrows three feet 

 apart, put manure in the hill, and potatoes about 

 one foot apart, and a less quantity in the hill. 

 It was a forward spring, and as I manured well, 

 they came up and grew vigorously. I hoed them 

 when about three inches high. I had often no- 

 ticed that when left to grow to a foot in height 

 before hoeing the weeds grew as well as the pota- 

 toes. I hoed the second time early, leaving no 

 weeds to grow. About the first of July they al- 

 most covered the ground with healthy tops. I 

 raised about one-eighth more, I thought, than my 

 father, though his soil was as good and as well 

 manured. They were almost all fit for table use. 



w. E. 



THE STOET OF AN ATOM. 



The atom of charcoal which floated in the cor- 

 rupt atmosphere of the old volcanic ages, was ab- 

 sorbed into the leaf of a fern when the valleys be- 

 come green and luxuriant ; and there, in its prop- 

 er place, it received the sunlight and the d|'j/»r, aid- 

 ing to fling back to heaven a reflection of heaven's 

 gold ; and at the same time to build the tough 

 fibre of the plant. The stem was consigned to the 

 tomb when the waters submerged the jungled val- 

 ley. It had lain there thousands of years, and a 

 month since was brought into the light again, im- 

 bedded in a block of coal. It shall be consumed 

 to warm our dwellings, cook our food, and make 

 more ruddy and cheerful the hearth whereon our 

 children play ; it shall combine with a portion of 

 the invisible atmosphere, ascend upward as a curl- 

 ing Avreath to revel in a mazy dance high up in 

 the blue ether ; shall reach the earth again, and 

 be entrapped into the embrace of a flower ; shall 

 live velvet beauty on the cheek of the apricot ; 

 shall pass into the human body, giving enjoyment 

 to the palate, and health to the blood ; shall cir- 

 culate in the delicate tissues of the brain ; and aid, 

 by entering into some new combination, in educ- 

 incr fhp thouirhts which are now beinff uttered by 



the pen. It is but an atom of charcoal : it may 

 dwell one moment in a stagnant ditch, and the 

 next be flushing on the lip of beauty ; it may now 

 be a component of a limestone rock, and the next 

 an ingredient in a field of potatoes ; it may slum- 

 ber for a thousand years without undergoing a 

 single change, and the next hour pass through a 

 thousand ; and, after all, it is only an atom of char- 

 coal, and occupies only its own place wherever it 

 may be. — Hibberd's "Brambles and Bay Leaves." 



CTTBB FOB PLEURO-PNEITMOIflA TN 

 CATTLE. 



A Mr. Clote writes to an Australian paper as 

 follows : "The cure is simply inoculating every 

 head of cattle on the farm with the diseased lung 

 of the first animal that has either died of it or 

 (having evidently the disease) has been killed for 

 it. Various modes of inoculating have been 

 adopted. The first time it showed itself in my 

 herd I lost 160 cows and heifers, when I had all 

 the cattle driven into the yard, and with a sharp- 

 pointed penknife punctured the skin at the very 

 point of the tail till I saw blood, the point of the 

 penknife being well moistened with the matter of 

 the diseased lung. The disease instantaneously 

 stopped ; and although I lost one or two after 

 that, it was entirely owing to the enormous size 

 they swelled, particularly at the root of the tail 

 and all about the rump, completely preventing 

 the animal from dunging. Whenever this hap- 

 pens now, we make an incision, and, by fomenting, 

 prevent all fatal consequences. Some of the in- 

 oculated cattle lose their tails, and some only the 

 points, whilst the great majority don't appear to 

 suffer at all. Two years ago, the disease broke 

 out again in my herd, and several had it before I 

 was aware of it ; but the moment I inoculated it 

 stopped. A few months since, it appeared again 

 amongst some oxen I purchased, but by inoculat- 

 ing all on the farm there roas an immediate end of 

 it. These diseased oxen had been running with 

 my herd of cattle for a considerable time, and not 

 a single animal that was inocrdated two years ago 

 caught it ; only two or three I had since then 

 purchased got affected. In short, the efficacy of 

 inoculating is as much believed amongst the 

 stockholders in the colony as vaccination for the 

 small-pox. It is no uncommon thing at a sale for 

 an auctioneer to warrant the oxen to have been 

 inoculated to enhance their value." 



A New Whippletree. — Many accidents oc- 

 cur from horses getting frightened and running 

 away, caused by the whipplctree being detached 

 and dropping upon the horse's heels. An inven- 

 tion to obviate this difhculty has been made, and 

 a model of the whippletree forwarded us by the 

 inventor, Jacob Muzzy, of East Eddington, Me. 

 The whippletree is hollow, and is strengthened by 

 an iron fastened upon the under side, of the same 

 dimensions as the whippletree. Through the wood 

 part a leather strap passes, playing at each end 

 over a roller. To the ends of this strap the fast- 

 enings for the traces are firmly placed. The 

 whippletree is designed to remain stationary, the 

 motion of the horse or carriage acting with ease 

 by means of the rollers at each end, and all noise 

 or clatter is done away with. — Maine Farmer. 



