1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



875 



der into the Tiair next to the skin. Common brush- 

 ing or earcle^s working it, witli thotiugurs don't do 

 it. It kills every louse in thirty niiniUes. Possi- 

 bly some nits may escape, but a second application 

 four days after will make sure death of them. 

 This api)lication is as harmless to the colt as so 

 much dry i-and. l. t. t. 



South Roijalton, Vt., Juiie 11, 1867. 



BLOSSOMING OF APPLE TREES IN MAINE. 



Having a record of the time of the blossom of 

 apple trees for eleven years, I forward it to you, 

 supposing it may be interesting to your numerous 

 readers. These observations were taken in lati- 

 tude 44° 30' north. 



1857 June 4. 



1858 " 6. 



1859 May 27. 



1860 " 24. 



1861 June 6. 



1862 Miiy 26, 



1863 May 24. 



1864 June 1. 



1865 May 28. 



1866 " 30. 



1867 June 9. 



It will be seen that the present is the latest by 

 three days, of the eleven years ; fifteen days later 

 than 1860 and 1863, and about seven days later 

 than the average time of blossoming. 



Oliver Pettinoill. 

 Rumford, Maine, June 10, 1867. 



Remarks. — V.e thank our correspondent for the 

 foregoing facts, which are far more valuable than 

 the guess work with which we too often test the 

 seasons. 



In this connection we print the following table 

 of the blossoming of apple trees in Mansfield, 

 Mass., about four degrees south of Rumford, Me., 

 and 28 miles south-west of Boston, where vegeta- 

 tion is probably ten or twelve days earlier than at 

 Rumford, which was furnished to the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, June 4, 1849, by Isaac Stearns, Esq., 

 who remarks that "May 9, 1830, and June 2, 1812, are 

 the two extremes. Difference, 24 days ; the mean 

 of which is May 21. The mean annual blossoming 

 for the whole lifty-two years, is exactly May 21. 

 The mean of the first 26 years, is May 22, nearly ; 

 and of the last 26 years, is May 20." 



A ROLLER GATE. 



I saw a gate last week at one of my neigh1)or's 

 farm that was hung on a roller. He said there 

 was a jiatent on it, and that it had Ijeen advertised 

 in the Farmer. It is a common gate, very sim- 

 ple. If you cannot inform me who has the patent 

 will you please make the iii(|uiry in your paper. 



J'assun.psic, Vt., June 10, 1867. E. A. Parks. 



Remarks. — We do not recollect about the ad- 

 vertisement, but in looking over our back volumes 

 in an attempt to find what was referred to, we 

 came across the following directions for making a 

 cheap and simple gate of inch boards. Make the 

 latch end piece four inches wide; the hinge end, 

 eight inches ; lower board, eight inches ; next 

 above, six inches ; next two, four inches each ; 

 brace, six inches ; the whole secured by wrought 

 nails clinched, and hung with strap hinges. Such 

 a gate, the writer says, can be made and hung, 

 after the posts are set, in two hours. Now, who 

 will answer Mr. Parks' inquiry ? 



The next year Mr. Stearns sent us the time of 

 blossoming for 1850, wliich was June 3, one day 

 later than the late season of 1812. 



FALL FEEDING. 



Sometime ago, I saw among the "Extracts" in 

 the Farmer, a piece headed "Fall Feeding." 

 Many acknowledge fall feeding to be wrong, but 

 practice it on the plea of necessity. I think one 

 might as well justify himself in hiring money at 

 100 per cent., by the same plea. After a field of 

 grass is mowed, let a child pass through the field 

 two or three times a day, for several weeks in one 

 beaten path, and this patn can lie distinctly seen 

 the next summer, although not used at all that sea- 

 son. By this fact we may form some estimate of 

 the damage done to a mowing field by the much 

 heavier pressure to which it is subjected by being 

 fed by cattle and horses. e. b. 



Deny, N. H., 1867. 



a large wheat crop. 



A field of a trifle over one acre of ground was 

 snmmei'- fallowed and sowed with wheat in Sep- 

 tember, by one of my neighbors. It yielded forty- 

 one and a half bushels of good wheat, besides some 

 poor wheat. But for a storm in July which greatly 

 injured the crop, it is thought the produce would 

 have been still greater. A Subscriber. 



at. George, Vt., May 29, 1867. 



Remarks. — For the honor of St. George, of the 

 Champlain Valley, and of your "neighbor," may 

 we not ask for a more particular statement of this 

 crop ? 



KING-BIRDS CAL'GHT CATCHING BEES. 



Mr. Eli Cooper of Winchester, Mass., informs 

 us that while sitting near his hives watching the 

 operations of the little busy bee, which so earnest- 

 ly improves each shining hour, he has repeatedly 

 seen the king-bird descend, and, hovering for a 

 moment immediately in front of a hive, seize a bee, 

 always in its middle, with its body at right angles 

 to the bill, and therefore plainly to be seen, and 

 at once fly off with its prize. As Mr. Mosely, in 

 the Farmer of May 2.5, found no bees in the crops 

 of those king-birds which he killed, as he thought, 

 in the very act of catching them, Mr. Cooper sug- 

 gested that the bird may swallow only the honey, 

 &c., and reject the carcass or shell of the bee. 



In his valuable work on Bee-keeping, Mr. Quinby 



