62 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Feb. 



ble to the towns in that region. The towns of 

 Chester, Deny, Hampstead, Candia, Auburn 

 and Ra\'mond could get up an annual fair, and 

 make a display of stock, crops and fruits that 

 would be creditable to any county in New 

 England. We are obliged to our correspond- 

 ent for this favor, and hope he will soon send 

 us an account of his grapes. 



For the Kew England Farmer. 

 TIGHT BABNS. 



I have noticed lately that some of your cor- 

 respondents have again brought up the subject 

 of tight barns, contending that hay will keep 

 better in such ; also, that it will keep better, 

 and as I understand them to say would dry 

 better in the barn than in the stack. However 

 the flicts or theories in the case may be, it is 

 certain that the opinion of most farmers is 

 against all this. 



Some farmers put their early cut hay, which 

 is supposed to contain more sap than that which 

 is cut later, on the scaiibld side of the barn. 

 And I think farmers generally put their green- 

 est ha}' on the scaffolds or lofts, rather than 

 into bays which are generally much wider and 

 deeper. So in the season of haying, barns are 

 left more open for the draught of air than at 

 other seasons of the year. 



I have put good sweet hay into the tight, 

 nicely built stables in the village, where there 

 was no ventilation, and in a few weeks the out- 

 side would be mouldy and bad. And I have 

 heard other villagers that had tight barns say, 

 that they did not buy hay out of the fields be- 

 cause they had found that it would not keep in 

 their barns. 



We universally find that corn bams are made 

 very open, and the cribs narrow, for the better 

 circulation of air. I think that both hay and 

 corn Ijarns should have ventilation at the top as 

 well as near the bottom. 



Hay from the salt marsh is usually stacked 

 out ; and many a time I have heard farmers 

 say their hay was not dry enough to put into 

 the bam so they would stack it. Hay in the 

 stack ■H'ill dry better by being raised up from 

 the ground, to secure a draught of air under- 

 neath. Many even go so far as to build the 

 stack hollow ; that is, they fill a l)ag full of hay, 

 and on commencing a stack set the hag upright 

 in the middle of the stack, and as they proceed 

 draw the bag up until nearly finished when 

 some small sticks are laid over the iiole after 

 the bag is drawn out, and a little more hay is 

 pitchefl on, and the top finished. This method 

 of stacking hay has been found to work admir- 

 ably where hay must lie put up not more than 

 half cured, as it is sometimes on the marshes 

 on account of tides. 



1 am aware that much depends on the weath- 

 er about drying hay that is stacked green ; but 

 I think the more air we get, either by stacking 



hollow, or by big cracks in the bam, the better 

 for hay, unless it is perfectl}' dry. 



J. 'W. Brown. 



Kensington, N. H., Nov. 19, 18G6. 



Barometers. — In connection with the un- 

 qualified condemnation of the barometer by 

 the Solons of the New York Institute, the 

 following statement is made in the Bural Amer- 

 ican, by W. S. Langdon, of Lisbon, lU. : — 



First, a person having one must ascertain 

 from observation the average, or mean height 

 of the mercurial column ; then knowing that 

 he will find that his barometer, (if a good one) 

 will indicate unnd, as well as rain ; but gener- 

 ally the fall is more rapid for wind than for 

 rain. If the mercury is from any cause above 

 the mean, and it begins to fall, he should not 

 expect a storm ; but if at the mean, or below 

 it, a storm of some degree of severity will 

 surely follow a fall. A storm will follow a 

 great and rapid rise, when the wind is north- 

 east, and also the same with a fall in the mercui-y, 

 with the wind in that quarter ; but never during 

 my three years' observation has a stonu occur- 

 red (with the above exception) without notice 

 of from three hours to two days beforehand. 



A Hint in Breeding. — Mr. Torr, the well- 

 known breeder of Short-Horn cattle and 

 Leicester sheep, in the course of some remarks 

 at the recent letting of the latter, touching on 

 breeding in general, said : 



"The way to establish uniformity or family 

 likeness is to begin by putting the best male to 

 the best female, and to continue to put i/ie best 

 to the best;" secondly, "not to put opposite 

 characters together, or the ti'aits of both will 

 be lost ; but if any fresh characteristic is re- 

 c^uired to be imparted to the issue of present 

 stock animals, this must be done by degrees, 

 or by that discreet selection which will yield a 

 little more wool, or size and substance, the first 

 }ear, and a little more and more in the second 

 and third generations, and so on." 



Caxada Thistles. — A writer in the West- 

 ern Rural tells how he killed acres of Canada 

 thistles, thus: — "Plough early in the spring, 

 as soon as they are all out of the ground. As 

 soon as they are up the second time, plough or 

 cultivate with a wheeled cultivator, and so con- 

 tinue as often as they come in sight, which will 

 be about three or four times during the sum- 

 mer. If the season is wet it is all the more 

 favorable for killing — others don't agree with 

 me — because they sprout and make their ap- 

 pearance much more certainly than in a dry 

 season. In a dry season the roots lie in the 

 ground without coming up ; in a warm, wet 

 season they come up three or four times, and 

 that is their end if they are as often plowed." 



