54 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



of butter were made every day through the sum- 

 mer. This is what it is to live in a country where 

 there is grass. 



— After admitting the superiority of the coarse 

 wooled sheep for mutton, generally, and especially 

 for rearing early lambs for which butchers pay 

 large prices, a correspondent of the Prairie Far- 

 mer claims that "one hundred bushels of corn fed 

 to good full aged merinos will produce as much 

 value in meat as in any other breed." Four years 

 is regarded by him as the earliest age at which me- 

 rino sheep are fit for the feed yards. 



—Mr. W. C. Schofield of Coventry, Vt., has two 

 Leicester ewes which for the past three years have 

 each brought him two lambs each year. He 

 sold the lambs for sixty dollars, and the wool for 

 twenty. His four lambs this year weighed 59, 60, 

 57, and 50 pounds. He has also eight cows from 

 which he has made, since the first of April, 1200 

 pounds of butter, and reared four calves. The 

 butter brought him $490.22. So says the Vermont 

 Partner. 



— 'When on a tramp last summer, says S. P. May- 

 berry, in the Maine Farmer, there was pointed out 

 to me a farmer who seemed to get his work along 

 without much fuss and had more leisure time than 

 his neighbors, and still produced as large crops. 

 In conversation with him I found his mode of cul- 

 tivation was to have no old ground, consequently 

 no weeds to contend with. He planted his com 

 and potatoes on broken up ground manured in the 

 hill, and in the fall spread on manure and plowed 

 it under some three inches, then sowed it down to 

 grass. 



— After recording the death of a man in Dixfield, 

 who was killed by being struck by the hook of a 

 chain of a stump pulling machine, which gave way, 

 the editor of the Maine Farmer adds : "We came 

 veiy near losing our own life last summer by the 

 giving way of a bolt while using the horse pitch 

 fork. The bolt was fastened into the floor, to which 

 a pully was attached, under which a rope run. As 

 this was put to the highest tension, the bolt flew out, 

 passing near our head with great velocity." Mow- 

 ing, threshing and other machines, hay-presses, 

 stump-pullers, horse forks, &c., should be operated 

 with the greatest care. 



— A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer writes 

 from the southern part of Illinois, that the abun- 

 dance of acorns, &c., in the woods, is equivalent in 

 way of hog feed to doubling the corn crop, and is 

 not equalled once in forty years. They are exempt 

 from hog cholera, Itccause hogs in the woods never 

 have it. Sweet and Irish potatoes, turnips and 

 cal)l)agcs are excellent. No potato rot. Much to- 

 bacco, with low prices, and a dead market. Half 

 a cotton crop, at half of last year's prices. Hops 

 fine, not attected by the bad season, no insects. I 

 have picked many l)urs three inches long. This 

 crop promises to go ahead in "Egypt." 



From the Western Rural. 

 DAENING SOCKS. 



BY MRS. S. E. BUHTON. 



Lucy alone at the window 



Softly and cosily rocks. 

 Busily plying the needle. 



Darning her husband's old socks; 

 Loving and sweet little woman. 



Fond of each housewifely care, 

 No queen in her royal palace 



With Lucy in wealth can compare. 



White is the floor of the kitchen. 



Soft sings the kettle for tea. 

 And out in the bright Summer garden 



Children are sporting in glee. 

 Down in the clover-clad meadows 



Loud rings the blithe mower's steel, 

 Musical sounds of dear home-life 



As sweet, artless Lucy can feel. 



Skilfully plying the needle 



Over and under the yarn, 

 Klling sad rents with a patience 



Known to those only who dam ; 

 Lucy hems in with her stitches 



Thoughts bright with love as a gem, , 

 Happily toiling for Richard, 



The dearest .and noblest of men I 



Swift, and more swift flies the needle, 



The meshes are filled one by one; 

 At last the big holes are all mended, 4 



The week's task of darning is done. 

 But will Dick — ah I the dear careless fellow l-^ 



Know when his wife sings and rocks, 

 She fastens her heart in the stitches 



She weaves in his old, worn-out sockfl? 

 South Haven, Mich., 1866. 



HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 



CONTRIBCTED FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mr. Editor : — I send a few well-tried re- 

 ceipts for your domestic department. 



Bread and Butter Pudding, 

 Five or six slices of stale bread should be 

 buttered and cut about two inches square. 

 Warm a quart of milk ; pour a pint over the 

 bread ; to the other pint add two tablespoon- 

 I'uls of fine sugar ; a quarter of a nutmeg, and 

 the yolks of four eggs. Pour the whole into 

 a buttered dish and bake twenty minutes. 

 Then cover it with the beaten white of the eggs ; 

 set it back and brown. Eat with hard sauce ; 

 a tablespooniiil of butter beaten with nine 

 spoonfuls of sugar. 



