1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



553 



the stalls to the roof. The floor above thcin sup- 

 poi'ts the great hay mows, between which is the 

 floor for feeding hay, which is sent clown to the 

 cows through Ijox tubes, and these, when empty, 

 also assist ventilation. There arc ojjcnings from 

 this floor into the straw lofts over the sheds, and 

 also to the store rooms for roots and grain. 



Enext floor is the grand drive way for loads 

 16 feet high and 196 feet long, with ample 

 space at the west end to turn around. This floor 

 opens upon a public road, and is but little above 

 its level, so that loads come in easily at the top of 

 the barn. Over this floor is a flfth story, only the 

 width of the floor to give room for work, ventila- 

 tion and light. Half of the many windows are 

 glass and half slatted blinds. The hay is nearly 

 all thrown down. In case of need, the large space 

 at the end could be filled, but it is thought that it 

 will not be necessary, except with corn, which can 

 be husked there and thrown down a spout into a 

 large, airy granary over the western shed. 



THE AGE OP OUB EAKTH. 



Among the astounding discoveries of modern 

 science is that of the immense periods that have 

 passed in the gradual formation of the earth. So 

 vast were the cycles of the time preceding even 

 the appearance of man on the surface of our globe, 

 that our own period seems as yesterday when com- 

 pared with the epochs that have gone before it. 

 Had we only the evidence of the deposits of rocks 

 heaped above each other in regular strata by the 

 slow accumulation of materials, they alone would 

 convince us of the long and slow maturing of 

 God's work on earth ; but when we add to these 

 the successive populations of whose life this world 

 has been the theatre, and whose remains are hid- 

 den in the rocks into which the mud, or sand, or 

 soil of whatever kind on which they lived has 

 hardened in the course of time — or the enormous 

 chains of mountains whose upheaval divided these 

 periods of quiet accumulation by great convulsions 

 — or the changes of a diff"erent nature in the con- 

 figurations of our globe, as the sinking of lands 

 beneath the ocean, or the gradual rising of conti- 

 nents and islands above; or the slow growth of 

 the coral reefs, those wonderful sea-walks, raised 

 bv the little ocean architects whose own Iwdies 

 furnish both the building stones and cement that 

 binds them together, and who have worked so 

 busily during the long centuries that there are ex- 

 tensive countries, mountain chains, islands and 

 long lines of coast, consisting solely of their re- 

 mains — or the countless forests that have grown 

 up, flourished, died, and decayed to fill the store- 

 houses of coal that fed the fires of the human race 

 — if we consider all these records of the past, the 

 intellect fails to grasp a chronolog)' of which our 

 experience furnishes no data, and time that lies 

 beliind us seems as much an eternity to our con- 

 ception as the future that stretches indefinitely be- 

 fore us. — Agassiz. 



Pulling at the Halter. — To cure this bad 

 habit, some recwnmend hitching a rope to the 

 horse's tail or hind leg, then to tie him to a post, 

 in such a way that, when he puUs, he will be thrown 

 down, or at least be made very uncomfortable. 



^ .-i.oov:i.-.r riTT-fV. 



"V; 



strong halter, and hitch him to an outer limb of 

 an ap])le tree. Now, gently tease him, and pro- 

 voke him to pull. The l)ranch will yield, but stiU 

 hold him fast. Tease him again and again, until 

 he finds that he can not break his halter or eft'ect 

 anything but his own discomfort. Repeat weekly 

 until the lesson is thoroughly learned, and he will 

 at length cease to pull when tied to a post." — Am. 

 Agriculturist, 



For the Nctr England Fanner, 

 THE PATENT OFFICE REPORT. 



It ■would seem as if some ingenious individual 

 about the Patent Office must have taken out a 

 patent for improvement in the names of distin- 

 guished agriculturists. Going to the war for glo- 

 ry, being killed and having your name entirely 

 misreported in the dispatches, is nothing to writ- 

 ing for the Patent Office Report. When we fur- 

 nished an article on English Agriculture for the 

 Report of 1860, and the first half of it was pub- 

 lished, and the other half omitted, without a note 

 to indicate that there was any other half, we thought 

 it rather a poor exhibition of ourself. To be sure, 

 the then Commissioner paid us for the whole, 

 which, in a business way, was honest enough, and 

 he promised to publish the rest in 1861, which, 

 no doubt he intended to do ; but as the principle 

 of rotation has been applied to that office, two or 

 three times a year, for some years past, and each 

 incumbent repudiates all that his predecessors 

 have agreed to do, we have suff"ered, no more, it 

 is presumed, than others. 



What sort of head we have now, in the agri- 

 cultural department of the government, remains 

 to be seen. Mr. Holloway is responsible for the 

 Report of 1861, but he is gone, and another Pha- 

 raoh reigns in his stead. We trust Mr. Hollo- 

 way took his proof-reader with him, for their own 

 mothers would not recognize some of the contrib- 

 utors that are made to figure in this book. Here 

 is an article on sheep-breeding by Joseph Cape, 

 of Pennsylvania, written in fact by the well known 

 breeder whom we know as Joseph Cope. And 

 who, do you suppose, wrote the next article, pur- 

 porting to be written by Richard S. Tray, of Lynn, 

 Mass. ? No less a personage than our good friend 

 Mr. Fay, as good an indorser of an opinion on 

 sheep, as any in New EnglancL It is bad enough 

 to write the name of Mr. Grinnell, of Greenfield, 

 who contributes an excellent article on Farming 

 in the Neiv England States, as Mr. Uunnell, al- 

 though he is alive to defend himself, and is now, 

 we believe, chief clerk in the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment at Washington; but when it comes to re- 

 cording, for the benefit of posterity, the name of 

 the old patriarch in agriculture, Jethro TuU, as 

 Jethro Oull, as is done in Mr. Warder's article 

 on Strawberries, at page 181, it is adding insult 

 to inviry At nage 449, Mr Rotch. wb-^ '-"ild 



