1867. 



NEW ENCxLAND FARMER. 



419 



sow Clover, Timothy, Hunffi'rian and Fowl Mead- 

 ow, and if so, how much of each to the acre ? I 

 wish to stock heavy and cut the grass for one or 

 two years, then turn it into pasture again and see 

 if it pays. I will at some future time give you 

 and your readers of the good old Farmer the cost 

 per acre and the gain by so doing. The land is a 

 sandy loam, warm, quick soil, with an east slope 

 hut too far from my buildings to manure with 

 barn manure. Let me hear from you through the 

 columns of the Farmer. A Subscriber. 



Peacham, Vt., July, 1867. 



Remarks. — Sow 8 to 10 quarts of timothy seed, 

 1^ to 2 bushels of red top, and add to these two 

 quarts of Kentucky blue grass, per acre. This 

 latter will not add materially to the crops of hay 

 you may take off, but will come in and make a 

 permanent pasture grass. We shall be glad to re- 

 ceive the result of your experiments. 



WILD grasses. 



I wish to know the names of these tjvo grasses, 

 and their value as gi-asses for hay, and if they do 

 well on wet or dry land, and if they have to be 

 seeded in the spring; and which is the best gi"ass, 

 one that has got a beard on the leaf or the other ? 



Blackstone, Mass., July, 1867. A Subscriber. 



Remarks. — The gi-ass with the broad leaf is 

 probably l]\& blue joint, and is considered a valua- 

 ble grass when cut early — that is, while in bloom. 



The other is undoubtedly a valuable grass. Both 

 are wild and probably do not require sowing or 

 culture. 



crops in western VIRGINIA. 



One of our subscribers in Hardy county. West- 

 ern Virginia, in remitting his subscription for the 

 weekly Farmer, communicates the following in- 

 teresting facts in relation to the crops, the season, 

 &c., in that section : — 



I have not sold my last year's tobacco crop. This 

 coming winter I shall try to work it up into cigars. 

 I have out another acre of tobacco, eight of coni, 

 one of cane, and one of potatoes. It has been too 

 wet forcoin, cane and tobacco. My com is turning 

 red on this account. There will lie, I fear, agrcat deal 

 of wheat injured in the shock. If it continues wet a 

 few days longer. There is a large quantity of corn 

 planted in this valley (Capon). The following are 

 some of our current prices: — wheat flour, 6 cents 

 per pound; corn $1 \Kr bushel; butter 12^ cents 

 per pound ; eggs 10 cents per dozen ; bacon 10 cents 

 per pound. 



Eardy County, W. Va., July 9, 1867. 



fine steers, and calves. 



While at West Fitchburg, Mass., the other day, 

 I saw some fine cattle at the farm of E. D. Works. 

 One pair of yearling Uuvhara steers particularly 

 attracted my attention. They were well matched, 

 and weighed 1800 lbs. He expects they will weigh 

 2000 by Fair time. 1 noticed a pair of native steers 

 of the t-ame age, which though a fine pair were 

 not as large as the other. Mr. Works takes a 

 laudable interest iathe iini)rovemeut of his stock, 

 and showed me a pair of four-year-olds which, 

 considering that thc.v were kept mostly on meadow 

 hay until the pist winter, were very creditable an- 

 imals, and weigh 3000 lbs. 



On pas^ing the farm of Jos. Whitney, in Ster- 

 ling, I saw a pair of calves, which were larger and 

 better than any I have seen this season. These 



were actually larger than three-fourths of the 

 yearlings to be seen in our pastures. I did not 

 learn their weight. Too many farmers sell their 

 best and most promising calves for Brighton, and 

 then depend on the little dwarfs from Canada to 

 fill their places. b. d. w. 



AGRICULTUKAL ITEMS. 



—To save time in looking for lost pruning knives 

 and other small garden tools, a bright red paint is 

 recommended for the handles. 



—If you would have your daughter's husband 

 pleased with his breakfast, teach her to get a 

 breakfast. 



—In England, land is rented, first to the gentle- 

 man farmer, next to the managing farmer, who 

 employs poor laborers. 



— In long summer days, between the Atlantic 

 and Pacific coast, our farmers have daylight for 21 

 hours and 40 minutes. 



— The States of the Pacific coast are as populous 

 and as wealthy as were the whole Colonies in the 

 time of the Revolution. 



— Somebody has calculated that the time and 

 strength wasted in one year's churning would 

 build a railroad across the continent. 



— Secretary Klippart, of Ohio, has ascertained 

 that there are about fifty different draining-tile 

 manufacturies in Ohio. 



— Air slacked lime sprinkled over currant 

 bushes will prove a perfect preventive to the 

 ravages of the currant woi-m. So says a corres- 

 pondent of the Rural New Yorker. 



— A pound of copperas dissolved in four gallons 

 of water and poured over the sink three or four 

 times will, it is said, completely destroy all oflfen- 

 sive odor. 



— Governor Crawford, of Kansas, is building a 

 stone fence around his farm, the entire length of 

 which when finished will be one thousand two 

 hundred and eighty rods. 



— The Canada Farmer publishes a list of town, 

 county and district agricultural societies, in Can- 

 ada West, numbering three hundred and twenty- 

 nine. 



— A con*espondent of the Country Gentleman 

 made a clean sweep of the currant worm, which 

 was destroying his currant and gooseberry bushes, 

 by a thorough dusting of a mixture of equal parts 

 of plaster, wood ashes and slacked lime. 



— The investigation into the causes of abortion 

 in cows, for which an appropriation was made by 

 the late legislature of New York, has been com- 

 menced by Prof. John C. Dalton, aided by scien- 

 tific assistants. 



— At a recent meeting of the Little Falls Far- 

 mers' Club, Geo. W. Davis gave the results of a 

 comparison of cost of making cheese at factories 

 and in private dairies. The calculation was l)ased 

 on thirty cows, and the result was as $271.00 to 



