240 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



and we promise you kind treatment and the grat- 

 itude of warm hearts. You can render a service 

 in this way hardly to be estimated in dollars and 

 cents, but which will be appreciated by all intelli- 

 gent farmers. We make the proposal in all sin- 

 cerity, and we earnestly hope it may be accepted. 

 Danvers, June 4, 1863. I. L. 



Remarks. — And so do we. A vast amount of 

 good may accomplished without a single unpleas- 

 ant result. The effort may soil the hands, but will 

 not tarnish the reputation. Listen to the fair 

 jiroposition, matron and maiden, abandon your 

 hoops for hoes, for a season, and show the m6n of 

 the country that you are not a whit behind them 

 in any patriotic effort. 



EE-ROOTING OF PEAK TKEES ON 

 QUINCE STOCK. 



At a late meeting of the American Institute 

 Farmer's Club, Mr. John G. Bergen made the fol- 

 lowing statement : 



This spring, I had occasion to move twenty-five 

 pear trees on quince, which I set five years ago, 

 at two years old, budded low on the stock, so that 

 it was easy to set them two to four inches below 

 the junction. Upon about one-third of these trees, 

 I found that there were plenty of quince roots, but 

 none from the pear. About one-third had both 

 pear and quince roots, and in some instances, 

 when the pear roots were vigorous, the quince 

 roots, though still in place, were dead or dying. 

 Upon the other third, there were no quince roots 

 left, the whole tree being sustained by the new 

 roots formed from the pear. In one case, the tree 

 was budded upon pear, and that had straight 

 roots, reaching downward. On the trees where 

 new pear roots had formed above the quince, they 

 all appeared disposed to spread out horizontally. 

 The trees still retaining quince roots are not as 

 large as the others, and those with both pear and 

 quince roots proved that the latter do not always 

 die as soon as pear roots form. 



Abortion in Cows. — Complaint of trouble in 

 this respect has been quite frequent of late in ag- 

 ricultural papers. Among other causes, it has 

 been suggested that it might be the result of in- 

 fection by a diseased male. A correspondent of 

 the Boston Cultivator combats this idea, and 

 says : 



There is a weed growing in some localities, 

 which is fatal to a cow with calf. It does not al- 

 ways grow in one particular spot, but will spring 

 up sometimes in one place, and again in another. 

 I do not know the proper name for it, but it is 

 known among old people and farmers by the name 

 of "slink-weed." I once knew a herd of thirty 

 cows all lose their calves in this way at one time ; 

 and although it was a great many years ago, noth- 

 ing of the kind has since occurred on that farm. 

 I have very recently known a case of abortion 

 where the cause was aaid to be traced directly to 

 the existence of this weed in tne hay. I am not 

 able to describe the weed, having never seen it 

 myself; but it grows in my neighborhood, and is 

 known by some of the people in this vicinity. 



"CATCHING COLD," 



A large number of fatal diseases result from 

 taking cold, and often from such slight causes, 

 apparently, as to appear incredible to many. But, 

 although the causes are various, the result is the 

 same, and arises from the violation of a single 

 principle, to wit — cooling off too soon after exer- 

 cise. Perhaps this may be more practically in- 

 structive if individual instances are named, which, 

 in the opinion of those subsequently seeking ad- 

 vice in the various stages of consumption, were 

 the causes of the great misfortune, premising that 

 when a cold is once taken, marvellously slight 

 causes serve to increase it for the first few days — 

 causes which, under ordinary circumstances, even 

 a moderately healthful system would have easily 

 warded off. 



A promising young teacher walked two miles 

 for exercise, and on returning to his room, it be- 

 ing considered too late to light a fire, sat for half 

 an hour reading a book, and before he knew it a 

 chill passed over him. The next day he had spit- 

 ting of blood, which was the beginning of the end. 



A mother sat sewing for her children to a late 

 hour in the night, and noticing that the fire had 

 gone out, she concluded to retire to bed at once ; 

 but thinking that she could "finish" in a few min- 

 utes, she forgot the passing time, until an hour 

 more had passed, and she found herself "thor- 

 oughly chilled," and a month's illness followed to 

 pay for that one hour. 



A little cold taken after a public speech in Chi- 

 cago, so "little" that no attention was paid to it for 

 several days, culminated in the fatal illness of 

 Stephen A. Douglas. It was a slight cold taken 

 in midsummer, resulting in congestion of the 

 lungs, that hurried Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

 to the grave within a week. A vigorous young 

 man laid down on an ice-chest on a warm sum- 

 mer's day, fell asleep, waked up in a chill, which 

 ended in confirmed consumption, of which he died 

 three years later. A man in robust health and in 

 the prime of life, began the practice of a cold bath 

 every morning, getting out of bed and standing 

 with his bare feet on a zinc floor during the whole 

 operation ; his health soon declined, and ultimate- 

 ly his constitution was entirely undermined. 



Many a cold, cough and consumption, are ex- 

 cited into action by pulling off the hat or overcoat 

 as to men, and the bonnet and. shawl as to wo- 

 men, immediately on entering the house in winter, 

 after a walk. An interval of at least five or ten 

 minutes should be allowed, for however warm or 

 "close" the apartment may appear on first entei'- 

 ing, it M'ill seem much less so at the end of five 

 minutes, if the outer garments remain as they 

 were before entering. Any one who judiciously 

 uses this observation, will find a multifold reward 

 in the course of a lifetime. — Hall's Journal of 

 Health. 



^W Wool-growing is now receiving much atten- 

 tion among the Kansas farmers. Large numbers 

 of sheep have been sent into the State, a great por- 

 tion of them from Missouri. The clip tliis year is 

 good, and will yield a handsome profit. The ex- 

 pense of keeping sheep there is a trifle when com- 

 pared with the cost of keeping them here. 



He who loves only himself dislikes nothing so 

 much as to be alone with the object of his affec- 

 tion. 



