370 



NEW ENGLAND' FARMER. 



Dec. 



Fvr the Netc England Farmer. 

 THOSE HUNNING "WHITE BEANS. 

 "How can they be harvested ?'' There are two 

 ways in which the thing can be done. If you have 

 a spare loft in any of your farm buildings, having 

 pulled the beans and hayed them two or three 

 days — turning them each day — lay them round on 

 poles, loosely, in said loft, and most of them will 

 ripen in a couple of weeks. Those too immature 

 will shrivel up, and will not thresh out with the 

 rest. If you have not the spare room, pull them, 

 and cut or break the vine, where the well-filled 

 pods end. These will dry by haying in the sun ; 

 and the green vines with the immature pods are 

 excellent food for jour cows, Avho will greatly rel- 

 ish them. By all means, don't let King Frost 

 touch them while standing in the field. He spoils 

 all that are not dry. 



Premature Birth of Calves. 



In the Farmer of Sept. o, this subject is briefly 

 touched upon by a correspondent and by the Edi- 

 tor. I have no theory on the subject ; but some 

 facts I have learned by ex])erience. Five years 

 ago one of my best and healthiest cows dropped 

 her calf in February, four months before the proper 

 time. She showed no signs of illness before or 

 afterwards. By careful treatment she came to 

 milk, and did tolerably well. The next Novem- 

 ber another cow, in full health and in milk, drop- 

 ped her calf in the pasture, just before sunset. 

 She showed no signs of injury or of excitement, 

 and continued to do well. It at once occurred to 

 me that when I salted my cattle that morning, as 

 I was in the habit of doing once a week, by lay- 

 ing a small handful on some flat stones in the 

 pasture, all the other cows refused the salt and 

 went after api)les, wliile this one ate greedily, tak- 

 ing most of what I intended for five cows. Since 

 then I have salted my cows in the stalls. I lost 

 no more calves till last February : I was feeding 

 to my milcli cows some clover rowcn, which was 

 put in the barn rather green and well salted. One 

 cow was particularly fond of it, and in giving the 

 last feed at night, I put in her manger a large 

 flake of this clover just as I took it from the mow, 

 without shaking it up at all. The next morning 

 she had dropped her calf. Thus in two out of 

 three instances I can connect it with the eating an 

 undue quantity of salt, whether the connection is 

 that of cause and effect, I cannot say. 



Framingliam, Sept. 28, 18G;}. a. H. T. 



Fur the New Enslaiid Fanner. 

 FRUITS IJN" THE NOKTH-'WEST. 

 The impression has not only prevailed here at 

 home, but' as gone abroad, that a~i)i)les, pears and 

 other hardy fruits, would not do well here. Un- 

 der this impression, few trees were planted out. 

 A few, more venturesome people, jjlanted out or- 

 chards. Although many of them were sadly neg- 

 lected had little care, and in some cases were posi- 

 tively abused — to say nothing of the sins of omis- 

 sion — yet under all these discouragements, they 

 have yielded their owners fair supplies of fruit, 

 for_ family use, for the last half-a-dozen years. 

 This year, and for two or three years, several or- 

 chards in this county have yielded their owners 

 from one to five hundred bushels of fruit. The 

 mass have taken courage. Almost every farmer 

 has, or is about to .»^t an orchard. Yet "the fail- 



ures will be numerous. Not caused so much by 

 the M'ant of the necessary constituents, either in 

 soil or climate, for successful fruit growing, but 

 from ignorance and want ot care in the oichardist. 

 No man, with a fair allotment of brains, ought to 

 expect a fruit tree to grow, bound down by grass 

 and weeds, or browsed down by cattle, or girdled 

 by mice and rabbits, or half-skiimed and torn out 

 by the roots, by long raking whifiletrees and care- 

 less drivers. Yet, this is the treatment that many a 

 farmer has given his trees. Such men begin al- 

 ready to cry out, that it is no use to try to raise 

 fruit in our climate. That they have tried it to their 

 satisfaction. Tell them to look at the orchard of 

 Farmer B. Thrifty, vigorous and ])roductive. 

 Trees loaded to the earth, with luscious fruit. 

 The reply is, "O, he has been uncommon lucky. 

 The first he will know his trees will all be dead," 

 Why can't these men see that Farmer B has suc- 

 ceeded because he has taken proper care of his or- 

 chard ? We defy the whole lot of croakers to 

 point us to a single instance of total failure, where 

 proper care was exercised in the selection, setting 

 and tending of the trees. You might as well ex- 

 pect Indian corn, or j)otatoes, to grow sponta- 

 neously, as a]3ples. or pears. You, at the East, 

 understand this matter. We, at the West, will 

 lear'n it by experience, if not by precept and ex- 

 ample. 



So far from the raising of hardy fruits, such as 

 the apple and pear, in the north-west, being a fail- 

 ure, the more intelligent vote it a decided success. 



In my next, I may detail some of the experience 

 and practice of our more successful cuiuvators. 

 L. L. Fairciiild. 



Rolllny Frairlc, Dodge County, Wis., Oct., 1863- 



FIGHTIlSra WEEDS RESOLUTEIiY. 



Mr. C. Close, of Grattan, gives the following 

 account in the Michigan Farmer, of his mistake 

 in sowing foul seed on a new farm, and of his late 

 persevering efforts for their extermination, until 

 they are now so scarce that he and his men pocket 

 all the stray intruders they find in the field, take 

 them to the house, aud put them carefully in the 

 fire. 



Nineteen years ago I commenced on the farm 

 I now- own. — it was new, the country here was all 

 ViCw — and I sliould have saved myself much trouble 

 if I had taken the pains I have since learned were 

 necessary to procure clean seed, and prevent the 

 growth of the numerous noxious weeds which in- 

 fest our farms. The first wheat which I sowed 

 contained considerable chess and ccckle. I con- 

 tinued to sow the same, without much effort to 

 clean the seed for six years ; at that time, on ac- 

 count of sickness, I was obliged to sow wheat af- 

 ter wheat. The result was, that I had to run my 

 wheat three limes through the mill to make it 

 passably marketable. Chess and cockle grew al- 

 most everywhere on my farm. I made u]) my 

 mind it would not do ; and I set about fighting 

 the wiiole noxious tribe, and I think I have about 

 conquered, as I have not found a single he?.d of 

 chess in my wheat this year, and but a very few 

 stalks of cockle; and without attempting to argue 

 the interminable chess question, I can say, that I 

 know that wheat never turns to cliess. My method 

 has been to sow none but dean seed; to plow my 



