1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



125 



bell as at those three "dwarfish, insignificant, 

 dirty, scrubby merino lambs." And I think it 

 was also intended to prove an extinguisher to the 

 whole race of merinos. But I am happy to say 

 that. some of them "still live;" and if Mr. Weld 

 wants to see evidence that they deserve to-live, he 

 must accept this challenge • He is at liberty to se- 

 lect the best and most profitable 'flock of any of 

 the English breeds within the limits of the United 

 State, and show on undoubted authority the real 

 net profit per head of keeping the same for a year ; 

 and if I am not able, on equally reliable testimo- 

 ny, to prove that merino flocks, equally large, 

 have given their owners twice as great profit per 

 head as said mutton sheep, I will write no more 

 in their defence. I do not wish to be understood, 

 in anything I have said, to approve the cross of 

 the merino with the Leicester and South. Down. 

 I interpret the article as a fling at the merinos, 

 and hence my challenge. And until finally beat- 

 en, I claim for the merino a position second to no 

 other breed of sheep, and perfectly adapted to 

 each and every county of Maine. 



A. B. Palmer. 

 Orfordville, N. H., Feb. 22, 18G4. 



A New Remedy for tiie Borer. — In conver- 

 sation with one of our subscribers the other day, 

 he casually stated that his apple trees were not 

 troubled by that pest, the borer. Upon inquiry 

 we learned that he applied the earth and sub- 

 stance taken from where bis sink-spout emptied, 

 to the trunk, or rather around the collars of his 

 apple trees each autumn, and then dug it away or 

 removed it the next summer. He considered this 

 an effectual remedy, as the borer did not trouble 

 them, and further, it was a good dressing for the 

 soil around the tree, after being dug away. Of 

 course the soil where the spout emptied would 

 have to be renewed yearly, by supplying a cart- 

 load of earth, sods, &c, to absorb and hold the 

 refuse liquid. If not used in this manner, the 

 slops from the sink should always be added to the 

 compost heap, or applied to the garden crops dur- 

 ing the growing season, as they are too valuable 

 and rich in fertilizing material, to be wasted. 

 Maine Farmer. 



How to Grow Peaches E\ery Yea^-^ 



^^^Miti^^S^SZi deli- 

 cious fruit : Procure your trees grafted upon the 

 wild plum stock. The tree partakes of the na- 

 ture of the plum, being hardy, and will never 

 winter kill, and putting out late in the spring, will 

 never be injured by the frost. It is a certain pre- 

 ventive against the workings of the peach grub, 

 while the natural lifetime of the tree is beyond 

 that cf our own ; so you may depend upon peach- 

 es every year, and for a long period of time, with- 

 out the destructive and discouraging influences 

 attending the growth of the common peach. 

 They can be obtained at from fifty to seventy-five 

 cents per tree, and you had better pay five times 

 the amount than not to obtain them, being cer- 

 tain of peaches every year. Try it, and our word 

 for it, you will be satisfied with the result. 



Cultivate your own heart aright ; remembering 

 thai \vb..iboe\er a man suwtJ^h, that shall be also 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 METEOROLOGICAL RECORD FOR 

 JANUARY, 1864. 



These observations are taken for and under the 

 direction of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The average temperature for January was 22° ; 

 average mid-day temperature, 28°. The corres- 

 ponding figures for January, 1803, were 27° and 

 32°. Warmest day, the 25th, averaging 39°; 

 coldest day, the 7th, averaging 4 3 below zero. 

 Highest temperature 43° ; lowest do. 8° below 

 zero. 



Average height of mercury in the barometer 

 29.22 inches; do. for January, 1863, 29.35 inch- 

 es. Highest daily average 29 02 inches; lowest 

 do. 28.72 inches. Range of mercury from 28.54 

 inches to 29. (39 inches. 



Rain or snow fell on seven days ; amount of 

 snow 14 inches ; amount of rain and melted snow, 

 2.35 inches. Fifteen stormy days with 26.75 

 inches of snow and 3.66 inches of rain and melted 

 snow, in January, 1863. There were two entirely 

 clear days. On two days the sky was entirely 

 overcast. 



The winds have been very light, and but little 

 snow, as will be seen ; only about half as much as 

 same month last year. A. C. 



Clarcmont, N. II, Feb. 22, 1864. 



Green Cheese. — The one grand error in 

 American cheese-making, is the want of care in 

 not ripening the cheese before it. is sent to market. 

 We all know that there is considerable d.fference 

 between a green pear and a mellow one ; between 

 a Baldwin apple in the fall and after it has been 

 kept a few months to ripen. So there is much 

 difference between curd and cheese The curd is 

 the grren apple, the cheese the ripened fruit. If 

 you were going to send hay to market you would 

 not, send the green grass fresh from the field, and 

 yet you often sell your cheese when it is as green 

 us graRS. 



In the Cheshire dairies of England, so celebrat- 

 ed for che-se— none is ever sold until it is six 

 months old. The cheeses are kept in a moder- 

 ately warm room unt jl thoroughly ripened and 

 cured, with that 0ft»~4 e mo pj so indicative to a 

 practiced eye of a rich, u- fl avoredj rine c ^ eese# 



the 



Core for Consumption. — Dr. Hal 

 February number of his Journal of Health, hi 

 the ''essential, the fundamental, the all controll- 

 ing agency in the arrest of any case of consump- 

 tive disease, and a return to reasonable health for 

 any considerable time, is an active, courageous, 

 and hopeful out-door life, in all iceathers and in 

 any latitude, with some rousing motive, other than 

 regaining the health, beckoning them on, to do 

 and to dare." 



Paste may be made with flour in the usual 

 way, but rather thicker, with a proportion of 

 brown sugar, and a small quantity of corrosive 

 sublimate. A drop or two of the essential oil of 

 lavender, peppermint, anise, or bergamot, is a 

 complete security against molding. Paste made 

 in 11. is manner, if kept in a close covere I pot, may 



