1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



421 



she stands quiet, loosen up a little. A few doses 

 of this will cure a cow so well that she may be 

 milked anywhere iu the yard without trouble. 



— Whitewash, as ordinarily made, rubs off the 

 walls after it becomes dry, soling clothes and every- 

 thing coming in contact with it. This may be ob- 

 viated, it is said, by slaking the lime in boiling 

 water, stirring it meanwhile, and then applying, 

 after dissolving in water, white vitriol (sulphate of 

 zinc) in the proportion of four pounds to a barrel 

 of whitewash, making it the consistency of rich 

 milk. A pound of white salt should be thrown 

 into it. 



— At the Agricultural College at Cirencester, 

 England, a field of ten acres of wheat, in a very 

 forward state, was divided into two equal parts at 

 the first of April and one hundred ewes with lambs 

 put on one portion, and left there sixteen days, in 

 which time they had eaten the wheat close to the 

 ground. These five acres were harvested four days 

 after the other part of the field, and appeared fully 

 equal to the rest, but did not yield quite so much. 

 The diflfercnce was made up by the value of the 

 feed of the sheep. 



—One of the great English landlords that own 

 whole neighborhoods and villages, and who has 

 employed steam plows for seven years, stated at a 

 late public meeting that he finds that the men who 

 are connected with the steam plow, have become 

 a species of aiistocracy among their fellows, that 

 they pride themselves on their position, and are 

 educating their sons for the same profession. 

 Hence he calls attention to the fact that steam is 

 to effect a revolution in the habits, manners, and 

 morals of the people, as well as in the tillage of 

 the land. 



CONTENTMENT. 



For me, could envy enter in my sphere, 



Which of all human taint is clean and quit, 



I well might harbor it 



When I behold the peasant at his toil. 



Guiding his team, untroubled, free from fear. 



He leaves his perfect furrow as he goes. 



And gives his field repose 



From thorns and tares and weeds that vex the soil. 



Thereto he labors, and without turmoil 



Entrusts his work to God, content if so 



Such guerdon from it grow, 



That in that year his family shall live; 



Nor care nor thought to other things will give. 

 — Song of Fortune, by Guido Cavalcanti, an early Ital- 

 ian poet. 



— Melilot clover (Melilotus Leucantha) is re- 

 commended by an Illinois correspondent of the 

 Isew York Farmers' Club, as the best plant for bee 

 pastures. The plant grows rapidly, often attain- 

 ing the height of from six to eight feet, and shades 

 the ground completely. The tap root grows to 

 considei'able length, and is seldom out of rsach of 

 moisture. Early frosts injure the blossoms but 

 little, and even when wholly destroyed, the plant 

 is again in full bloom in the course of three or 

 four days. Bees can work on the blossom in this 

 latitude, thirty miles west of Chicago, one hun- 

 dred days at least, which is time enough to give 

 eveiy good, strong hive of bees a surplus of fifty 



pounds. Ten acres of this clover, it is thought, 

 will give full employment to an apiary of one hun- 

 dred families. 



— Speaking of two adjoining farms, one of which 

 was well cultivated, every field being clean and 

 in fine condition, the other filled with thistles, 

 whitcweed, thoroughwort, &c., a correspondent 

 of the Ohio Farmer says : If I keep a dog and he 

 jumps over my weed-growing neighbor's fence and 

 kills a half starved sheep, I am accountable for 

 the damage, and the sheep owner is looked upon as 

 a deeply injured person ; while at the very time, 

 he is seeding my fields with the most noxious 

 weeds that will cost me time and money to eradi- 

 cate, yet I have no redress. 



— M. W. Leland, of Rochester, Minn., informs 

 the New York Fanners' Club that the bee has no 

 more to do with the mechanical construction of its 

 comb than has a fowl with its eggs. Bee comb is 

 the oil extract of honey, and instead of its being 

 mechanically made it grows (!) In well-fed and 

 well-conditioned swarms, where they remain in 

 contact for any length of time, the temperature 

 being sufficiently high, comb commences to grow, 

 and the bees cannot help it. It is the perspiration 

 or secretion of this oil from the bee which cools 

 and is naturally formed into comb cells, and the 

 size of those cells depend on the linking of the 

 bees, whether at the first or second joint. 



BUYING AND MAJNTUFACTURINQ 

 WOOL. 



Mr. William Hayden, an experienced wool 

 manufacturer of Auburn, N. Y., attended the 

 Wool Growers' Meeting at Rochester, last 

 May, and on being called upon made some 

 very sensible remarks upon the wool trade. 

 In consequence of these remarks wool grow- 

 ers and others have since addressed more let- 

 ters of inquiry to him for further information 

 than he has time to answer individually. He 

 therefore condenses his replies and explana- 

 tions into an article for the Rural Neio Yorker. 

 We think he demonstrates very conclusively 

 the injustice of any uniform price, or any fixed 

 rate of shrinkage for unwashed wool. Though 

 all his views may not be endorsed by wool 

 growers, we think his communication will be 

 read with interest. The resolutions referred 

 to were published in the Weekly Farmer of 

 June 8th, and in the Monthly for July. 



"Wool buyers are asking me why I do not 

 endorse the resolutions adopted at their con- 

 vention held in Rochester, April 19th, 1867. 

 To them I would say that I consider some of 

 their suggestions good, while others are en- 

 tirely superfluous, and such as no buyer or 

 seller will adhere to longer than for his inter- 

 est. If Mr. A. or B., although a good judge 



