1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



199 



but in all districts of country where corn costs 

 nearly or quite ten times the price just named, 

 the suggestions of Q. N. are needed, and will be 

 thankfully appreciated we doubt not, by many. 



As a slight improvement upon the method of 

 preparing meal adopted by Q. N., we would sug- 

 gest that a teaspoonful or so of salt should be 

 thrown into the mess each day instead of more 

 only once a week, and that instead of a table- 

 spoonful of wood ashes occasioiudlij only, that 

 amount should be given daily. Cora is very apt 

 to sour in human stomachs and why not also in 

 those of a cow, ox, or pig? Ashes will serve to 

 prevent or correct this. 



"Experiments in Feeding Pigs." — On page 

 160 of the May issue of this journal, we find a 

 fact in regard to the feeding or fattening of a pig, 

 which, being given us by so reliable an authority 

 as that of Mr. O. P. Mead, goes far to settle 

 some questions which seem yet unsettled in the 

 minds of some farmers. One of these questions is 

 — How much ]Jork may usually be obtained from 

 feeding a bushel of corn? To determine this 

 question, we made some experiments two years 

 ago, and at the same time made a collection of all 

 the facts bearing upon it which we could find on 

 record in agricultural books and journals, and the 

 result of the whole was. that, on an average, 1 lb. 

 of pork might be obtained from every 5 lbs. of 

 corn consumed. In some cases more, and in oth- 

 ers less than this result was obtained, the amount 

 being influenced apparently sometimes by the 

 breed, sometimes by the age of the pigs, some- 

 times by the age of the corn, old corn being worth 

 much more than new, and sometimes by unascer- 

 tainable influences. The amount named above 

 •was, however, a fair average of a large collection 

 of cases, in most of which the corn was fed in the 

 usual way on the ear. 



Another question which the fact stated by Mr. 

 Mead will go a good way towards settling is this 

 — How much farther will cooked food go in fat- 

 ting pigs than uncooked ? Almost all admit that 

 there is some superiority; but, judging from gen- 

 eral practice, few seem to be convinced that a 

 bushel of corn will produce twice as much pork 

 when cooked, as it would if fed raw in the usual 

 way. But this, and more than this amount of su- 

 periority, is proved by the facts recorded by Mr. 

 M. A pig weighing 400 lbs. at nine months old, 

 had consumed 747 lbs. of meal, mostly in mush, 

 which shows that less than 2 lbs. of meal cooked 

 produced one pound of pork. More Anon. 



Lice on Calves. — Nature is the best teacher. 

 When cattle are pastured they Mill paw dirt upon 

 their backs and rub their heads and necks against 

 banks of earth, for the purpose of destroying the 

 lice. Moved by this suggestion recently, after I 

 having bought a new milch cow which was lousy, 

 I dried some dirt under the stove, pulverized it, 

 and rubbed on the head, neck and such parts as 

 •were most afi'ected by lice, which subdued them. 



Two or three applications should be made, and 

 again repeated after the nits or eggs are hatched, 

 as the dirt does not destroy the eggs or nits. 



Try it, if your calves or cattle are lousy. It 

 costs nothing, and has no injurious eff"ects like 

 poisonous applications which are most in use. — 

 George Bachelder, Stanstead, C. E., in Coun- 

 try Oentleman. 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



A PARA.GRAPH FOB LADIES. 

 Most of our fair readers have a decided aversion 

 to that part of their duty which Aills under the 

 "patching and darning" denomination. They are 

 of opinion that "a rent may be the accident of a 

 dav; a darn, premeditated poverty." But if they 

 only knew how pretty a well executed piece of re- 

 pair looks, when you see in its warp and woof the 

 bright threads of economy, and independence, 

 and womanly thrift, crossing and recro.ssjng one 

 another, they would lay aside embroideries and 

 crochet work, and take up, instead, the mending 

 basket. We rode down town the other day, when 

 the only other occupants of the stage were a young 

 gentleman and a lovely girl of, we should think, 

 about eighteen. She was the prettiest, freshest 

 looking girl one would want to see — there were 

 no tell-tale traces of midnight parties and head- 

 achy mornings in those peach blossom cheeks and 

 clear, bright eyes ; and all the numberless little 

 items of her dress were as fresh and trim as she 

 herself— from the pink bonnet strings down to the 

 neatly fitting gloves ard delicate gaiter boots. If 

 ■we had been an old bachelor, or a young one 

 either, we would certainly have fallen in love with 

 that girl, particularly after we had discovered that 

 she was as industrious as pretty. And how do 

 you suppose we found it out ? The handkerchief 

 that lay in her lap told us so. The neat little 

 darn, elaborately executed, in its corner, with the 

 small white stitches and skilful handiwork, had a 

 tongue quite audible to our ears. Time, and pa- 

 tience, and wise economy had been there. The 

 gentleman sitting opposite saw the little token al- 

 so ; we noticed his eye turning from the handker- 

 chief to the blooming face, and back to the hand- 

 kerchief again, and we knew perfectly well what 

 he was thinking of — the good wife that young lady 

 would make, and how neat her husband's cravats 

 and stockings would be ! Poor fellow, the edges 

 of his shirt bosom were a little frayed, and one or 

 two buttons Avere missing, whose detection the 

 most skilful arrangement of his cravat ends could 

 not conceal. Perhaps lie had a wife who didn't 

 believe in mending and darning — perhaps he had 

 he hud none at all. However that may have 

 been, his admiring eyes appreciated the darn 

 on the handkerchief more than if it had been the 

 richest and most sight-destroying embroider) — 

 not for what it was, but what it betokened. Girls ! 

 don't shrink from a mended place as if it were a 

 plague spot ; the longer your old things last, the 

 better able you will be to have new ones by-and- 

 bye. Sensible people read your character in little 

 things ; and nobody will think the worse of you, 

 whatever may be your station in life, for the exer- 

 cise of economy and thrift. A stitch in time 

 saves nine, and sometimes it saves a great deal 

 more than that. — English paper. 



A Woman's mission, as the world goes, is to 

 make home happy; a man's to find the means 

 wherewith she may do it. Woman's work should 

 be, as woman was herself, the completion of all la- 

 bor. From her must come those final touches and 

 culminating graces which make a dinner of herbs 

 a pleasant banquet, and a cottage starred over 

 with jespamine a palace of contenlment. 



