238 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



For the New England Parmer. 

 HORSE HOE— CORN— POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor : — The farmer seems to have his 

 full share of all the improvements of the day, and 

 the last invention is the "horse hoe," which looks 

 like a thing of great utility, and far surpassing 

 the cultivator or horse plow, the latter the only 

 implement known to me when a boy for working 

 among the corn and potatoes. 



All that seems to be needed now to complete 

 the farmer's list, is a perfect potato-digger, a corn- 

 husker, an apple-gatherer and a sheep-shearing 

 machine. It may not be too much to expect per- 

 haps, that the time will come when a flock of 

 sheep may be driven, full run, single file, through 

 a machine, and all come out sheared from tip to 

 tip. Genius, machinery and horse power, have 

 immeasurably lightened the labors of the farmer, 

 and his hard work has almost become a pastime. 



In regard to hilling corn, or scarcely making 

 the form of a hill, is it necessary ? Will not this 

 farmer's "horse hoe" do nearly all the work ? 

 See the corn roots diverging from every point, 

 like so many guys, to hold it erect against heavy 

 winds. Hoeing deep and hilling high, must cut 

 off many roots, and the holes that are made leave 

 a fine escape for the water, without doing as much 

 good as if the land was level. 



What can we say of potatoes, with their long, 

 clinging roots ; the umbilical cord, connecting the 

 potato with the vine, (tough as a whip-lash ;) the 

 little brush-like roots around the vine, to give 

 growth to the top, while the combined powers of 

 earth and atmosphere contrive to give us our 

 mother earth's best esculent vegetable ? Is hoe- 

 ing deep and hilling high the better practice for 

 this crop ? While we doubt it to some extent, 

 we would beg to ask the practical farmer what is 

 best. He ought to know. It would be a simple 

 test to hill, half hill, and barely add a little fresh 

 earth in weeding the third row, and at digging 

 time the experiment would be fairly tested. 



These suggestions may be of no avail to your 

 readers, yet cultivation of these two most impor- 

 tant crops, cannot be too well understood. I 

 trust they may elicit a reply from some of your 

 thousands of readers that till the soil. 



Brooklyn, L. L, 1864. H. Poor. 



Remarks. — Excellent suggestions. We hope 

 some of our progressive farmers will give us their 

 views on the subject of*hilling, with reasons for 

 and against. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE APPLE TREE APHIS. 

 Mr. Editor: — The apple tree aphis mentioned 

 by your correspondent J. J. Watson, of Wash- 

 ington, Vt., in the Farmer of June 18th, is not a 

 new thing under the sun. It has been known 

 here for a long time ; and though somewhat inju- 

 rious to the apple trees, has not caused any such 

 painful evils as your correspondent fears. The 

 insect is most noticed late in autumn and early in 

 spring, being more concealed in summer by the 

 abundant foliage of the trees. It is most seen 

 in summer on young sprouts growing from the 

 hedges and limbs of neglected trees, where the 

 wood is new and tender, and new leaves are con- 

 tinually putting forth. I write to speak of the 



enemies of this insect. The greatest preventive 

 of its increase is the protection of the birds, many 

 kinds of which feed extensively upon it. Some of 

 our seed-eating birds, the sparrows and finches, 

 which most people suppose do but little good, or 

 harm, to the farmer, are very fond of them, and 

 destroy multitudes of them in autumn and spring. 

 I have often noticed the tree sparrow and the chip- 

 ping sparrow picking them off the trees ; and for 

 weeks about the last of October and the last of 

 April and fore part of May, the pine finches and 

 the common yellow birds frequent the apple trees 

 in small parties, and seem to derive a large part 

 of their food, especially the pine finches, from 

 these insects. When the buds are opening in 

 May, they may be seen clinging to the extremi- 

 ties of the small branches, often head downwards, 

 searching for and devouring the aphis. At these 

 times I have found hundreds at a time in their 

 stomachs on dissecting them, and rarely much 

 other food. Many kinds of warblers destroy 

 them in great numbers, particularly the yellow- 

 crowned warbler or myrtle bird, the Nashville 

 warbler and the blue yellow-backed warbler, which 

 are so beneficial to our trees in May, when a va- 

 riety of destructive insects are swarming among 

 the opening blossons and tender leaves, upon 

 which these species and many others exclusively 

 feed. J. A. A. 



Springfield, Mass., June 20, 1864. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT OP STOCK. 

 Read before the Concord Farmers' Club by John B. Moore. 



The term breed, as I understand it, applies only 

 to the distinct families of animals who have been 

 bred without admixture of blood with other ani- 

 mals, for so long a period of time as to have their 

 various points become so fixed and permanent as 

 to render it certain that the offspring bred from 

 the male and female of such stock will always 

 show the same points possessed by the family to 

 which it belongs ; and if an individual animal said 

 to belong to any one of the different breeds should 

 produce an offspring not having the points be- 

 longing to that breed, it would be sufficient cause 

 for saying that the animal was not of pure blood. 



The following distinct families of animals are 

 among the number usually designated as pure 

 bred animals, namely : — Durham, or Short Horns, 

 Herefords, Devons, Jerseys and Ayrshires. The 

 term Native Breed, which we so often hear used, 

 is true in only one sense, that is, that the animals 

 to which it is applied are born here, and the term 

 native could be applied with just as much propri- 

 ety to the Devons, or any pure-blooded animals 

 who have been bred in this country, through many 

 generations, as if they were also born here, and 

 in some instances their parents before them. Per- 

 haps the term grade would be a better name for 

 all animals not of pure blood, and I will venture 

 to say, that no animal can be found in this vicini- 

 ty, called native, but that has more or less of 

 blood in its veins of one or more of the breeds be- 

 fore named. And if you examine the best author- 

 ities upon breeds and breeding you will find that 

 those classes of cattle that I have named have 

 been bred for special purposes, and in each case 

 with a particular object in view. Thus the Dur- 

 hams and Herefords for beef certainly excel all 



