1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



291 



to four months ; the Marshalls, from four to 

 four and a half months ; Pottle, from three to 

 three and a hajf months ; Sanford, five months ; 

 Wright, from lour and a half to live months. 

 We prefer four months, but might shorten or 

 extend the time according to circumstances. 



Tegs— Pasturage after "Weaning. 



A lamb is called a teg after weaning and 

 thencelbrth until it is shorn, at the usual time. 

 As the kind of pasturage most suitable for tegs 

 has been the subject of considerable discussion, 

 and consequently doubt, in England, ve put 

 the following question to our correspondents • 

 "Do you prefer to put tegs on pasture lands, 

 or on the after-growth of meadows ?" Baker 

 prefers, if the season is wet and the feed good, 

 to return them to the pasture they are used to ; 

 Brown, the Clapps, Elithoi-p, Hammond, the 

 Marshalls, Pitts, Saxton and Wilcox, prefer 

 the after-growth of meadows ; Pottle prefers 

 pasture if fiesh and good ; Rich, good pasture ; 

 Sanford would prefer good, fresh pasture, but 

 not having it at that season, uses the after-growth 

 of meadows ; W^ right thinks he would prefer 

 good pastures if fed close and allowed to start 

 up fresh ; E. O. Clapp likes to put tegs on 

 stubbles, (especially wheat stubbles,) where 

 the land has been seeded down to grass ; Pot- 

 tle objects to this, because "the sharp ends of 

 mown stubbles hurt them." 



Our own experience was given in the Prac- 

 tical Shepherd thus: — "The moist, mild cli- 

 mate and constant rain in England, alfect pas- 

 tures very differently from the scorching and 

 often very dry summers of the United States ; 

 and as a general thing I have found good, 

 fresh rowen or after-math on meadows, or the 

 new seeded grass in grain stubbles, better feed 

 for lambs than rested pastures, unless the latter 

 have been seeded the same or the previous 

 year, and the grass on them is tender and 

 fresh." Such is our continued experience, 

 though it might not be so, nor do we feel at 

 all confident it would be so, under the condi- 

 tions named by Wright ; but in our climate, 

 and on heavily stocked farms, those conditions 

 are seldom conveniently attainable. 



There is unquestionably force in Pottle's ob- 

 jection to stubbles. Whether they ever pro- 

 duce sore mouth, as some believe, is very 

 doubtful ; they certainly have never affected 

 our tegs in that way, — but they cut off wool 

 from their legs and heads, and thus injure 

 their appearance in points where "fashion" is 

 very exacting. 



agkicdtiTdtiaIj items. 



— S. F. Dike, of Bath; Abner Cobum of Skow- 

 hegan; Lyndon Oak, of Garland; Isaiah Stetson, 

 of Bangor ; \Vm. P. Wingate, of Bangor ; Nathan- 

 iel Wilson, of Orono; Geo. P. Sewall, of Oldtown, 

 have been appointed Trustees of the State Indus- 

 trial College of Maine. 



—A gentleman near Rochester, N. Y., has a 



plantation, some thirteen years old, of the verita- 

 ble "Big Trees" of California. They are growing 

 finely, but it seems a long time to wait two or three 

 thousand years for the maturity of a tree. 



— In opposition to the theory that butter made 

 from the millj of cows kept on limestone soils will 

 not keep well, a correspondent of the Country 

 Gentleman cites a case in which a crock of butter 

 made on the "Lime Rock Ridge" of Onondaga 

 Co., N. Y., was sold for an extra price, after it was 

 twenty-two months old. 



— In an article on abortion in cows, Dr. Miche- 

 ner, in the Gennantoicn Te^ef/rw^j/t says : "You will 

 always see a herd of cattle excited and distressed 

 at the sight of an aborted calf hi their midst, (and 

 so is the abortcr herself;) on the other hand where 

 the embryo remained its full time, the whole herd 

 seem to enjoy it from an instinct of their nature 

 that all is right." 



— Dr. Lenain states that carbolic acid vapor will 

 kill flies, ants, lice, bugs, ticks, acari, musquitoes, 

 aphides, l)utterflies, earwigs, wood lice, cockcha- 

 fers, centipedes and other insects of this size, but it 

 does not seem to act injuriously on animals larger 

 than mice. It possesses also most wonderful prop- 

 erties as a disinfectant, and was used with encour- 

 aging results in treating the cattle plague in Eng- 

 land. 



— Z. A. Leland says in the Country Gentleman^ 

 that the main roots of the thistle run horizontally 

 deep underground. When digging cellars, he has 

 found them plenty three or four feet below the 

 surface. Troublesome as the tops arc, he regards 

 the roots as good subsoilers, and the plant as a 

 great ameliorator of the soil. He has seen noth- 

 ing which restores the woijp soil to 'the state it was 

 in just after being cleared, like the Canada thistle. 



Cost of Raising Stock. — The cost of rais- 

 ing calves and up to two years of age, was 

 discussed at some length, at a meeting of the 

 Herkimer county, N. Y., farmers. The gen- 

 eral opinion was that the cost of raising stock 

 for the first two years was about $50. The 

 following is Mr. Lewis' estimate by items : — 



Value of calf if slaughtered for hide or rennet . $1 50 

 Seven quarts of milk per day for a month, estimat- 

 ing cheese at 15c 7 20 



One hundred pounds oil meal fed during summer 2 GO 



Whey fed during summer 1 00 



Pasturage first season 2 00 



Wintering first winter, hay at $12 per ton .... 10 00 



Pasturage second summer 8 00 



Hay second winter 18 00 



Total $49 70 



Vermont State Fair. — The next Annual 

 Fair of the Vermont State Agricultural Socie- 

 ty will be held at Brattleboro', on September 

 10, 12 and 13. 



