1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



bodies or break their legs. Feed and tend 

 them well, and they will make your purse ple- 

 thoric, by-and-by, as prices for horses are going 

 now. 



Look after the yearlings and two-year-olds 

 carefully. A warm place, good hay and a little 

 grain, will make you fond of showing them to 

 your neighbors occasionally. 



The Poultry. — This branch of farm stock 

 probably pa}-s more for the money invested in 

 it than any other. Treat the poultry fairly and 

 the poultry will treat you to flesh and eggs 

 accordingly. They need an airy, dry, sunny 

 place, where they are protected from winds 

 and dampness, and can bask in the winter sun- 

 shine, whenever it condescends to come into 

 their windows. They like variety as well as 

 sheep. Boiled potatoes, mashed with corn and 

 cob-meal, dry com, oats, barley and butchers' 

 scraps arc aU excellent. Corn and cob meal is 

 better than clear meal, as they are apt to get 

 too fat on the latter. 



Swine. — Look out for the store pigs. They 

 are sometimes "nasty creatures," but they like 

 good victuals and warm nests notwithstanding. 

 There is no profit in keeping them meanly. 



The House. — Pile up the first snow about 

 the house, and you will save fuel by it. It is 

 a fine blanket. 



January is the starting point on our jour- 

 ney for the year. If we begin well, we shall 

 be more more likely to end well. Let us try 

 it this year. Certainly, agreed, all round. 



ACQUATNTANCESHIP. 



Fifteen years have now gone by, friends, 

 since we first went forth to meet you in your 

 fields and by your firesides, and began to record 

 our experiences in the great art of farming, and 

 to collate for your pleasure or profit the opin- 

 ions of those among you who have communi- 

 cated to these columns. 



The profit has been mutual. They certainly 

 have been years of progress and profit to us. 



You have been teachers in turn, not only in 

 the excellent articles you have steadily fur- 

 nished, but in the examples so often witnessed 

 in your agricultural practice, and in the sound 

 opinions often expressed in your fields and 

 around your firesides, during our numerous 

 visits among you. 



Our whole intercourse with you has been 

 pleasant. Our opinions have been sincerely 



given, and have been received for all they were 

 worth. They have sometimes been contro- 

 verted, but in that spirit of comity which could 

 give no offence. 



Most of the articles we have presented have 

 grown directly out of our daily practice on the 

 farm, either in personal manipulations, or in 

 the supervision of others. They have not been 

 transcriptions from books, nor the theories of 

 those who write from the representations of 

 others, but, as every practical farmer will see, 

 remind one of the soil in every line. We 

 practice what we preach. 



That these pleasant relations may continue, 

 and that the Neic Year upon which we have 

 entered may be one of great moral and agri- 

 cidtural progress, is our sincere wish. 



Ferocious Bees. — On driving into liis yard 

 with a load of wood, a Mr. Berry, a farmer in 

 Madison county, Illinois, was met, as we learn 

 by the Prairie Farmer, by an enormous cloud 

 of bees, and before he could possibly turn his 

 team out of the way, they covered himself and 

 his horses to the depth of two or three inches, 

 stinging both horses to death in a few minutes, 

 and greatly endangering his own life. His 

 men hearing his trouble came to his relief and 

 carried him to a neighbor's house. A physi- 

 cian was called, and by the use of proper anti- 

 dotes, his life was saved. They also attacked 

 the family in the house and they had to save 

 themselves by flight. Mr. B. is an old and 

 veiy successful bee raiser, and could handle 

 them in ordinary management without even 

 gettmg a sting. 



Apples in New Hampshire. — Last Octo- 

 ber we published a paragraph relating to the 

 fruit crop in New Hampshire. Since that time 

 we have visited two or three of the eastern 

 counties of that State, and find that in these 

 counties there has been from one-third to one- 

 half of a good crop of apples. In June there 

 was little prospect of so favorable a result. 

 Then, insects were abundant, and the young 

 fruit was falling from the trees in great num- 

 bers. The apples which we saw were fairer 

 than they are in Massachusetts, and more highly 

 colored. The best Baldwins were selling for 

 $4 to $4.50 per baiTcl. Considerable cider 

 was being made, for which there was a ready 

 demand on every hand, at rather high prices. 



