1862. 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



545 



ENCOURAGEMENT FOR HUSBANDMEN. 



For many years there have not been so great 

 inducements for farmers all over the country to 

 put forth their best efforts to produce largely of 

 horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and other stock, and 

 grain and vegetables, as at present. The war in 

 which the country is engaged, and which may, for 

 anything that can now be seen to the contrary, 

 continue for one, two or five years, has created 

 an extra demand for horses, mules, beef, pork 

 and wool, and taken from the farming districts 

 many young men heretofore actively engaged in 

 producing them. 



The stock on hand of these products of the 

 farm was very large when the rebellion broke out, 

 and consequently prices have not as yet been 

 very much increased in the Northern and Western 

 States. The foreign demand for grain increases 

 from year to year, and it will probably be a long 

 while before Europe will be able to produce enough 

 to feed its people. The United States will be 

 looked to to feed the hungry poor of England, 

 Ireland and Scotland. 



Demand and supply always have and always will 

 govern and regulate the price of the products of 

 the earth. Speculation may step in and control 

 for a time, but not long. The time has come 

 ■when every thing produced by manual labor will 

 command a remunerative price. Husbandry will 

 be respected according to its importance to the 

 other industrial interests of the country, and the 

 profits derived therefrom. 



The demand for horses for army and other pur- 

 poses is such that the prices paid for them are 

 from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent, higher 

 than the same quality of horses sold for one year 

 ago, and yet they are rising, and will continue to 

 rise so long as the supply is inadequate to the de- 

 mand. Farmers who give their attention to the 

 raising of good horses, will find it a remunerative 

 business for the next few years. Cattle for beef, 

 work and milk, though not materially higher than 

 one year ago, must advance considerably in price 

 in the year to come, or we much mistake the signs 

 of the times. 



Those who have large stocks, or who have the 

 means to produce them, will do well to double 

 their efforts, with a certainty of realizing large 

 profits. Wool, and especially the coarser grades, 

 has not been so high for many years as now, and 

 it is still rising. We have heard the opinion ex- 

 pressed by intelligent gentlemen, in whose judg- 

 ment in such matters we place much confidence, 

 that should cotton continue as high as now, wool, 

 in fair lots, will bring from eighty cents to a dol- 

 lar per pound within the coming year. 



In these facts the farmer will not fail to see 

 much to encourage him to greater exertion to put 

 into the market the greatest possible amount of 

 the products of his farm, of whatever kind, and 

 wisdom would dictate to many who are engaged 

 in other pursuits, the propriety of giving their best 

 energies to the proper cultivation of the earth, 

 with every assurance of a bountiful return. — 

 American Stock Journal. 



ment mules is novel. The most of these mules, 

 being very careful of their feet, will not allow 

 them to be handled. Consequently a machine is 

 built called the "stock." The mule is pounded 

 into it, two straps put under his belly, then hoist- 

 ed up, so that his feet will touch the beams below. 

 In that situation each foot is fastened to the beam 

 below by iron bands — the bands being tightly fas- 

 tened between the hoof and joint above. After 

 being made secure, he commences his frightful 

 struggle, which lasts until he finds himself pow- 

 erless, when four workmen approach him, one at 

 each foot, and in five minutes he is "done, fin- 

 ished." There are two of these shops in that vi- 

 cinity, shoeing about 1000 mules daily. In these 

 shops thousands of men are employed by the gov- 

 ernment ; and it is but a tithe of the immense 

 amount of government mechanical labor that is 

 employed in and about the city at the present 

 time. 



Mule Shoeing for the Government. — In 



Washington, from 200 to 500 mules and horses 

 are constantly waiting for their turn at the sham- 

 bles. The modus operandi in shoeing govern- 



THE LINDEN TREE. 



Few trees connected with rural economy are of 

 more value than the Linden. In some countries, 

 and especially in Russia, scarcely a village or ham- 

 let can be found where it is not to be seen. The 

 wood is valuable, and much sought after by cabi- 

 net-makers, by whom it is wrought into furniture 

 of various descriptions. It also furnishes material 

 for other artificers, particularly the turner and 

 carver, by whose skill it is made to assume the 

 form of a variety of domestic utensils. From the 

 inner bark, cards and matting are manufactured. 

 Its blossoms, which exhale a most aromatic per- 

 fume, are available to the bee-master as pasturage 

 for his bees, and to the botanical practitioner as 

 useful to the invalid. 



The peculiar hue, fine aromatic odor, and ex- 

 quisitely delicious flavor of the honey of Circassia, 

 it is said, are derived from these blossoms. The 

 small limbs and tender shoots, gathered with 

 their foliage, and mixed with corn or other meal, 

 are fed to stock during winter, and are reputed 

 valuable. 



There was one of these trees standing, some 

 years since, in the upper Mall, in Boston. It 

 was very ornamental, being, in every respect, a 

 most noble and beautiful tree. Its propagation is 

 attended with little difficulty, and it appears to 

 accommodate itself with facility to almost every 

 description of soil, from the heaviest and most 

 ponderous clays, to the lightest and thinnest sands. 



Ashes for Sm^ne. — A con-espondent of the 

 American Stock Journal, writing from "out in 

 the West," thus briefly relates his experience : — 

 "I have twenty swine running in a three-acre field 

 without grass, with access to jjlenty of water, and 

 fed well on corn. I gave them, for several weeks, 

 two pails of ashes a week, and they ate them with 

 a relish. Ashes are said to be a preventive of 

 hog cholera, in proof of which is the testimony of 

 Cassius M. Clay and numerous other residents of 

 southern localities, acquainted with this disease." 



