138 



NEW ENGLAM) FARMER. 



March 



the native grass as valuable as timothy. It is cer- 

 tain, however, that Fall frosts take out its life, and 

 cattle quickly fall away. But it is singular that 

 combined with a very little green grass in early 

 spring, cattle quickly get fat. 



— The plan of planting a few acres with foi-est 

 trees, to be used as fuel, and allowed to grow up 

 again, thus furnishing a perpetual supply, is strong- 

 ly recommended to prairie farmers by some recent 

 writers. 



— A Scotch paper says a farmer in that county 

 found two lambs in a culvert where they had been, 

 without any food, for 21 days. A third lamlj had 

 died, but these two were still alive, although very 

 weak. 



— Hon. Sanford Howard and T. T. Lyon have 

 presented a memorial to the legislature of Michi- 

 gan for the adoption of some measures to prevent 

 the needless destruction of forest trees in that 

 State. 



— The Utica Herald quotes Messrs. Corderoy's 

 Annual Circular, Londou, January 1st, as saying 

 that American cheese "where the description is 

 really choice, is as readily taken as first-class 

 Cheddar by ordinary consumers." 



— A writer in the American Stock Jour^ial says 

 that costivcncss and its accompanying evils are the 

 main cause of sows destroying their young, and 

 that green and other proper food are the preventive 

 and cure. 



— A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer thinks a 

 sow should not be allowed to breed until at least a 

 year old. He thinks that until the boar and sow 

 reach the age of four or six years, their progeny is 

 better than from young hogs. 



— J. Harris saj's, in the American Agriculturist, 

 ohat, on the whole, he does not think it will pay to 

 cook food for neat cattle. He has tried it with 

 milch cows, and thinks it too much trouble. Cook- 

 ed food for hogs pays best in his opinion. 



— Comstock's Rotary Spader, from which much 

 was expected a few years since, as a substitute for 

 the plow, does not seem to be adapted to small 

 farms, nor to those in which there are any stumps 

 or stones. It is liable to choke with weeds or grass, 

 and docs not prove to be snfflciently substantial. 



—The agricultural statistics of France for the 

 [>ast year are decidedly unfavorable. The grain 

 crop is below an average ; potatoes rotting in the 

 itorc houses ; tobacco also alfccted with a rot ; ai'.d 

 ■'he silk business presents, perhaps, the darkest fea- 

 ture of the picture. 



— A. S. Fuller, of Bridgcwood, N. J., offers, 

 through the New York Farmers' Club, one hun- 

 ■Ircd dollars for the best four quarts of raspberries, 

 for general cultivation, as a market fruit. The 

 only restrictions are that the plants shall be hardy 

 ind proliiic. 



— C. Booram, Jr., of a flax mill in New Jersey, 

 told the Now York Farmers' Club, that in Western 



Illinois they are beginning to learn the value of the 

 flax crop. Estal)lishments have been erected for 

 M'orking up flax, which this year yielded a profit of 

 from $30 to $40 an acre. 



— The Executive Committee of the Illinois State 

 Agricultural Society, at their recent meeting at 

 Springfield, passed resolutions strongly urging that 

 the funds for the establishment of an Industrial 

 University in the State should be kept together, 

 and that no scheme for their division should be 

 listened to. 



— The average price of domestic fleece wool in 

 the United States from 1827 to 1861, was, for fine, 

 50 3-lOc. ; for medium, 42 8-lOc. ; and for coarse, 

 3.5 5-lOc. Average price for four years, from 1861 

 to 1865, (during the war,) for fleeces, 63 to S3c. ; for 

 pulled, 56 to 61c. Average price for the year 1866, 

 Fleeces, 45 to 72c. ; pulled, 29 to 64c. 



— A correspondent of the Country Gentleman 

 who has this year 1700 bushels of beans to feed to 

 his sheep, considers them worth equally as much 

 as corn. He says it is necessary to feed carefully 

 at first, mixing in some lighter feed, till the sheep 

 l)ecome accustomed to them, as beans will clog 

 them sooner than any grain he ever used. 



— The rose bugs destroy the grapes of a Never • 

 sink, N. J., correspondent of the Country Gentle- 

 man. He says, fumigation and sprinkling with 

 villainously smelling compounds do not seem to 

 have the least effect. Why, you can soak the little 

 rascals in a mixture of kerosene and sulphur, and 

 they will, after a six hour's bath, come out as lively 

 as ever. 



— In consequence of the effects of the cattle 

 plague in England, which appears to have been 

 more disastrous to the products of the dairy than 

 was anticipated, the markets of that country en- 

 ter upon the year with a meagre stock of inferior 

 quality. American cheese is taking its place by 

 the side of the best English made, and commands 

 so high a price that the Utica Herald quoted the 

 price at Little Falls, January 21, at 20c per lb. In 

 London, January 1, from 58 to 74 shillings per 100 

 lbs. 



— A Norfolk, (Eng.) correspondent of the Courv- 

 try Gentleman, says that the average rent of farms 

 in that county, the soil of which is by no means 

 first rate, is between twenty-five and thirty shil- 

 lings — four to five dollars per acre — the tenant pay- 

 ing, tythcs, taxes, &c., and finding all the live 

 stock, implements, &c. The old calculation that 

 the tenant ought to have a capital equal to $50 per 

 acre is found of late years to be too small. He 

 says that the rental system, on the whole, "works 

 admirably well." 



Good Steeus.— Mr. C. P. Wliitncy, of 

 Westminster, Vt., has a pair of steers, 19 

 montlis old the first of Noveml)er, weighing 

 219(5 lbs., being a gain of nearly 50 lbs. per 

 month since the first of April on simple pasture 

 feed. 



