250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



ing. The cholera has made such havoc with the 

 hogs for a few years past, that many are discour- 

 aged about keeping them. Cattle-breeding is, by 

 the smaller farmers who cannot command means 

 for buying herds, followed pretty generally. As 

 now managed it is, I think, far from profitable. 

 The cow is rarely milked, except for the purpose 

 of getting a little milk for table use, or to prevent 

 disease when the calf is unable to take the whole, 

 which is of rare occurrence, as the cows give but 

 little milk, owing, I think, to wrong management 

 when young. The calf, when a year old, is now 

 worth about five dollars. This, of course, allows 

 a very small margin for profit on the cow. Horses 

 are bred much more profitably. As keeping is so 

 low, it might be made a very good business. 

 Sheep ai-e the most promising bregding stock 

 ■here. I think, with judicious management, they 

 will pay 100 per cent., annually. This may seem 

 rather extravagant, but the figures will tell the 

 story. After shearing, last season, sheep could be 

 bought from $1 25 to $1 50 per head. To keep 

 these until now, costs comparatively nothing — to 

 winter them on corn at 12A cents per bushel and 

 hay four dollars per ton, would not exceed 75 cents 

 each. As soon as the grass starts in April, they 

 get their own living. A flock of 1500 on the farm 

 where I am now writing, averaged four pounds 

 each. Lambs in the fall are worth $1 each. Now 

 you can appraise the wool at what it sold for last 

 July, viz., 42 cents per pound, and we have $1 68 

 for wool, and $1 for lamb, or $2 6S for product 

 of one sheep one season, at an outlay of 75 cents, 

 or a profit of 125 per cent., sure. I think this profit 

 might be greatly augmented by keeping better 

 breeds and providing better shelter for them. 

 There is a flock of a thousand in sight from my 

 windov,', that are lambing, and about every fourth 

 lamb dies on account of the exposure to wet and 

 bad weather. Prairie wolves are at times a little 

 troublesome, but are being rapidly exterminated. 

 Dogs, as in New England, are far the worst foe to 

 the sheep. One thing is quite sure, I think, as to 

 the profitableness of farming here, compared with 

 New England, in favor of this section. A man of 

 good judgment on stock, is sure to succeed in 

 making money, providing he has means to start 

 with. Money is worth ten per cent, interest, and 

 must be soon turned over if a man looks for p^'ofit 

 in using it. Were it not for the want of good 

 roads, good society, religious privileges, and the 

 prevalence of the ague, no place would suit me bet- 

 ter to locate my boys than this county, (Benton.) 

 To an Eastern man, they are indispensable to his 

 happiness — especially, if past the prime of life, as 

 he cannot hope to see them fully developed in his 

 day. K. O. 



Important Decision. — A wool suit in Ohio 

 was recently decided against a seller who inserted 

 dirty tags in each fleece, and represented the whole 

 as clean washed wool. The buyer sued for the 

 difference in value fifteen cents per pound, when 

 the seller pleaded that he was not liable, as it was 

 a customary practice, and if not, the buyer should 

 have examined the wool. Several respectable 

 farmers testified that it was not the usage. The 

 judge held that the buyer was not obliged to ex- 

 amine the wool, when the seller gave his word 

 that it was clean, and rendered a decision in favor 

 of the buyer for the claim and interest. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CANKER WORMS. 

 Mr. Brown : — I send in a phial for your in- 

 spection, a few specimens of what were, six days 

 ago, canker worms, preying upon my trees to my 

 infinite disgust. I dug them from the ground this 

 morning, finding others three to five inches below 

 the surface. You will observe that they are now 

 in their pupa stage, having thus suddenly lost all 

 their characteristics as worms, and having the 

 usual legs of their last, or propagative stage, 

 plainly visible beneath the covering. As there 

 has been some discussion as to the time when this 

 change takes place, I send these specimens to 

 show that it is very soon after leaving the trees. 

 They live in the ground, perfecting this stage, as 

 you well know, until the fall of the year, when 

 they begin to ascend the trees to deposit their 

 eggs for the next year's crop ; and when, if ever, 

 they must be looked after. 



I say begin to ascend the trees, because while 

 some assert that they go up in the fall, others say 

 in the spring. Having watched them carefully for 

 several years, I can assert that chey go up at all 

 times when the ' weather and the state of the 

 ground is favorable, from the 13th of November, 

 in each year, to the 20th of April following. 

 Sometimes, (and oftenest,) the most of them go 

 up in the fall ; sometimes the most in the spring ; 

 frequently, a great many can be found in warm, 

 muggy weather in the dead of winter, while I have 

 seen them on their travels with the mercury at the 

 freezing point and below. 



How shall they be got rid of? This is a serious 

 question to every orchardist in districts where this 

 pest operates ; but, so far, no simple, practical 

 remedy has been discovered. The oil-troughs are 

 undoubtedly a perfect stopper, but much too ex- 

 pensive. Tarred bandages come next. But these 

 have their objections. The application is an odi- 

 ous and an unnatural one ; the tar defaces and in- 

 jures the trees, and is, besides, liable to become 

 hard, and serve the slugs as a bridge. There 

 must be a simpler remedy than either, or than any 

 yet discovered ; and it is for those interested to 

 put their wits at work and find it out. 



One or two facts in relation to these fellows are 

 really remarkable. They always disappear from 

 the trees on the 1.3th day of June, never varying, 

 according to my observations for seven years past, 

 two days either way, be the season backward or 

 otherwise. And they all drop down their tiny 

 lines and go at once. Your trees may be covered 

 one day, and not a solitary worm can you find 

 twenty-four hours afterwards. 



Then I have noted their "first appearance" in 

 the fall of the year. Somehow or other, it always 

 happens on, or very near, the 13th day of Novem- 

 ber. In our variable climate, where the crops in 

 the spring are sometimes at least three weeks 

 earlier than at others, how does it come to pass 

 that these creatures are so regular in their exodus ? 

 And in the fall, too, so liable among us to become 

 cold winter before the husbandman is aware of 

 it, or to extend its many-colored geniality far 

 towards the coming new year ; how does it hap- 

 pen that, at nearly a fixed date every year, tliese 

 clumsy bearers of life in the future should com- 

 mence their pilgrimage ? 



But, interesting as these living preachers are, I 

 shall do my best to exterminate some of them at 



