844 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



July 



CIESIITM (CARDDTJS) ARVENSE. 



"Vitium agrorum apud nos primarium est.''"' 

 This will be readily translated by many a far- 

 mer's boy who never studied Latin at all. 

 Just look at the picture ! — "Canada Thistle — 

 it is the greatest pest of our fields." Right, 

 first time. 



But why call it Canada Thistle? If you 

 look in Webster's large Dictionary, you will 

 see what it is called in some half a dozen Eu- 

 ropean languages, where it is execrated as 

 heartily by barefooted children, and bare- 

 handed boys and men — by the- Latins, the 

 French, Germans, English, &c., — as it is by 

 us here in America. It is supposed that it 

 emigrated to this continent with the Canadian 

 French, who came from Normandy, where it 

 was known to abound. From Canada it might 

 have been smuggled into the States, or possi- 

 bly it crossed the Line under sonae "reciprocity 

 treaty" of old. At any rate, it is here, to our 

 sorrow, and the question now is what shall we 

 do with it? Is it to go wherever we go, bud- 

 ding and Ijlossoining on every acre wc culti- 

 vate, and extending the germs of its pernicious 



existence on the wings of the wind, over the 

 broad prairies and fertile valleys of the West, 

 as it has over so large a portion of our New 

 England farms ? 



Soiling and Wheat in Massachusetts. 

 — Mr. Jas. L. Humphrey of New Bedford in- 

 forms the New York Farmers' Club that he 

 tried spring vetches for soiling last summer, 

 and likes them much. He sowed them on 

 ground which was prepared for barley, and 

 obtained a large crop, which his cows relished 

 highly. He fed it alternately with sweet com. 

 He had always found one difficulty in feeding 

 largely on sweet com, — it has a tendency to in- 

 duce garget ; but as he fed it last year, there 

 was no trouble in that direction. After clear- 

 ing the ground from the vetches, which it left 

 very mellow, plowed and sowed to white win- 

 ter wheat and grass seed, giving an application 

 of ashes at the last harrowing, and now the 

 wlieat looks finely. He has never had trouble 

 in raising good wheat on rich ground, early 

 sown and fed off once during the fall ; having 

 once raised 32 bushels Southern white wheat 

 to the acre. 



Caterpillars. — Thanks, that we have a 

 partial deliverance from the pest. We have 

 visited some hundreds of trees, and among 

 them all have not yet found half so many cater- 

 pillars as we found last year on two dozen trees. 

 Who can tell us what has arrested them so 

 suddenly ? We have been told, June 2, that the 

 canker worm has not made his appearance in 

 any large numbers. How utterly beyond the 

 power of man the progress of these minute 

 creatures has been, and yet how silently and 

 effectually their march has been stayed by Him 

 who ruleth all things. "Thus far shalt thou 

 go," is the fiat which they must obey, as well as 

 the proud waves of the sea. How well it be- 

 comes us to be humble, trusting and hqpeful, 

 in a position where we know so little of the 

 operation of natural laws about us. 



Heavy Fleece. — We are informed by a 

 correspondent that O. C. Burton, of Wind- 

 ham, Vt., sheared a fleece of thirteen months' 

 growth, that weighed 25 lbs. 2 oz., from a 

 ram four years old in June, that weighed 133 

 lbs. after being shorn. He was sired by the 

 famous Ilotchkiss buck, Hampton, N. Y., and 

 was bought by Eli Ray, of East Foultney, Vt. 



