374 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



the two outside rows to act as fertilizers, and the 

 inside being one sheet of the Hovey. Paths are 

 now cut, dividing the Hovey into sub-beds, three 

 feet wide and running the length of the large bed. 

 The winter covering is then put back, as a mulch, 

 upon the paths and worked into the beds wherev- 

 er any vacancy occurs. The ground is now so 

 thoroughly possessed by strong plants that weeds 

 will give little trouble, the planter may await with 

 complaoency for liis reward. 



Four thousand quarts are considered a fair crop 

 for an acre. The fruit is of such size that the cost 

 of picking and arranging is greatly diminished. 

 Superior fruit is always saleable, and at advanced 

 prices. In our market, fruit of third quality will 

 average to the grower about 15 cents per quart. 

 The best growers say they average 25 cents per 

 quart. 



From these data, the profit of strawberry cul- 

 ture may be easily calculated. One crop is all. 

 As soon as this is taken, the .field is plowed and 

 is ready for any late crop. The testimony is uni- 

 form, that this is the wisest course. In case a 

 second crop is grown, the sub-beds are cut to sin- 

 gle rows, three feet apiirt, immediately after fruit- 

 ing ; manure is again applied, and in the follow- 

 ing spring the old plants are cut out for paths, re- 

 liance for fruit being placed entirely upon the run- 

 ners of the previous season. 



In regard to varieties, none of the new comers 

 yet equal those above-named. Jenny Lind is a 

 fine early fruit and productive. It deserves cul- 

 ture and might be substituted for the Brighton as 

 a fertilizer, though it is too early to fructify the 

 later blossoms of the Hovey. Triompho de Gai-tfi 

 proves quite hardy, large and prolific. Its sha{)e 

 and color are objectionable, and it separates from 

 the calyx with some difficulty. Still, its perfect 

 flower, its size and f Vuitfulness, we think will make 

 it valuable. La Constante went up like a rocket, 

 but the reverse curve is less brilliant. If, in Eng- 

 land, the pump is the "best manure for the straw- 

 berry," what shall we say in our dry climate ? La 

 Constante will give the amateur a chary quantity 

 of sjdendid berries, he first giving large supplies 

 of food and drink ; but for general culture it is 

 useless. Wilson's Albany has quite vanished. 

 So have the score of other new kinds. They may 

 do for the south or west. I only speak for this 

 latitude. W." C. Sthonc. 



— Oardener^s Monihhf. 



The Titans of America. — A correspondent 

 of the American Phrenological Journal says: 



"While you have spoken of the I{<entuckians, 

 Tennesseeans, West Virginians and Marjlanders, 

 as being so large and finely developed, permit me 

 to say that the true Titans of America have es- 

 caped your notice — men among whom, though 

 nobody myself, I have walked, feeling myself 

 among gods — physically speaking, of course — men 

 beside whom the Highlanders are in a measure 

 pigmies — men among whom six feet three inches 

 are not uncommon — I mean the backwoodsmen of 

 Maine, to whom three generations, spent for the 

 most part in the open air, battling with the piny 

 monarchs that girt the Umbagog, the Moosehead, 

 and other lakes and streams of that wild, bracing. 

 Northern climate, have given the most gigantic 

 development of physical power which I ever saw 

 or had any authentic acconnt of." 



/''or the New England Farmer. 

 A BAT IN A TILE DBAOT. 



A fact is often worth more than a theoi-y, and I 

 will give you a liict about the obstruction of one 

 of my drains in a field at Elxeter, N. H. Last 

 spring I observed that on a side-hill, along the 

 course of a principal drain of three-inch tiles, the 

 water had burst out and was overflowing the sur-> 

 face for many rods below. It had no definite 

 channel, but spread out and produced precisely 

 the effect of a natural spring, rendering the ground 

 which was in heavy grass, soft and swampy. The 

 flow of water was so great that we were unable to 

 open the drain till after haying, when we dug down 

 at the point of obstruction and found a dead rat 

 in the passage. Which way he headed I do not 

 know, but there are only two points at which he 

 could enter. One of these is at a peep-hole some 

 five or six rods above, and the other at the outlet 

 some ten rods below. 



The importance of securing the outlets of drains 

 cannot be too much insisted on. True, it is very 

 little labor to open a drain and remove an ob 

 struction, if one has accurate plans of his drains, 

 and knows how to find the point where the ob- 

 struction is. A frog or mouse, even, in a small 

 tile, may entirely stop the water for a whole sea- 

 son, and en flat land, the cause might not be so 

 readily determined. 



One great advantage of tiles over stones, for 

 drains, is that the former are more easily taken up 

 and repaired. Another is that tiles can be laid so 

 as to exclude vermin, which stones cannot. 



Henry F, French. 



SALT AISTD COLD WATER FOR SWINE. 



It is not a common practice, we think, to give 

 salt to swine occasionally, while every farmer would 

 consider it a prime duty to offer it to his' neat 

 stock, horses and sheep, as often as once a week. 

 To be sure the swine get a little compared with 

 the amount given to other animals. In propor- 

 tion to their weight, why do they not need as 

 much salt as the other stock on the farm ? We 

 find an article going the rounds of the papers upon 

 the use o^ suit for fattening sicine. The writer 

 states (hat he "selected two pairs of barrow hogs 

 weighing 200 each. One pair received, with theii' 

 daily allowance of food, two ounces of salt ; the 

 other, similarly fed, none. In the course of a week 

 it was easily seen that the salted pair had a much 

 stronger appetite tlian the others, and after a fort- 

 night it M'as increased to two ounces apiece. Af- 

 ter four months, the weight of the salted hogs was 

 350 pounds, while that of the unsalted, five weeks 

 later, reached only 300 pounds. The experiment 

 was repeated with almost precisely the same re- 

 sults." 



If such should prove to be the general result, 

 most farmers have not gained all the good advan- 

 tages they might have done from the food fed out. 

 From the example cited there is no indication that 

 the salt excited a morbid appetite, and produced 

 unnatural flesh and fat. Of course a sound judg- 

 ment must be exercised in the use of salt, as well 

 as of grain or any other food. Another neglect of 

 swine — and sometimes it must be a cruel one — is 

 that of not giving them a plentiful supply of j^i'^e 

 cold wafer. Why it is supposed that the hog 

 should not need water as well as the cow and 

 sheep is more than we .can tell. They do require 



