1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



435 



The management of our pastures is as bad as 

 that of our fields, and in some cases more so. 

 They are fed year after year without being 

 manured. Where they can be, they are some- 

 times plowed and crops taken off, but seldom 

 is any manure put on. Sometimes pine and 

 other trees are permitted to grow till they 

 cover one-half of the ground, and then are 

 cut down. Now unless you mean to make a 

 wood lot of your pasture, why not destroy the 

 bushes before they are large ? Sumac, sweet 

 fern, hardback and whortleberry bushes some- 

 times nearly ruin a pasture. I have seen one- 

 half of the surface of some pastures covered 

 with what is variously called juniper, ground 

 hemlock, &c. Its branches lay close to the 

 ground and completely kill the grass so far as 

 they extend. When small they can easily be 

 pulled up. When large they may be destroyed 

 by burning or by cutting otF the branches in 

 June. Where pastures can easily be plowed, 

 I think we had better make mowing ^!elds of 

 them. If by this means our pastures should 

 prove to be insufficient, the deficiency can be 

 supplied by soiling. In this way we can keep 

 more stock and keep it better. Where pas- 

 tures cannot be plowed, all kinds of bushes 

 ought to be kept from growing, and I think it 

 would pay occasionally to top dress. Some 

 different system in the management of our 

 pastures is certainly imperiously demanded ; 

 for they are every year growing poorer and 

 poorer. Even now pasture land is half wasted. 



Deny, N. H., 1S67. e. b. 



WASH FOR BARNS. 



There is no cheap substitute for oil paint. 

 All the different kinds of white-washing are in- 

 capable of shutting out moisture. The sides 

 of buildings especially exposed to rains, will 

 lose a portion of any kind of wash by the com- 

 bined action of frost and moisture. Oil paint 

 obviates this difficulty. There are many dif- 

 ferent kinds of wash recommended ; but with 

 a single exception we have never found any- 

 thing better than a mixture of good lime and 

 water. This exception we have made a thor- 

 ough trial with. A rough barn, which re- 

 ceived a coating four years ago, now retains 

 most of it, although a considerable portion is 

 scaled off on the most exposed side. This 

 wa>h is made substantially as follows : One 

 peck of fine beach sand, three pecks of water 

 lime, and four quarts of salt. These propor- 

 tions might vary without detriment — there 

 should be as much sand as can conveniently be 

 applied with a brush. A farm laborer applied 

 this mixture early last summer to two rough 

 barns, one about thirty by fifty-five feet, the 

 other twenty by thirty, in three and a half 

 days, consuming two bushels of water lime, 

 which was nearly the whole cost of material. 

 This coating, now nearly one year's standing, 

 appears to be as good as the day it was put 

 on. It will be perceived that the expense is 



only about one-tenth the cost of a coat of 

 paint. 



Fireproof Wash for Shingles. — A wash 

 composed of lime, salt, and fine sand or wood 

 ashes, put on in the ordinary way of white- 

 washing, renders the roof fifty per cent, more 

 secure against taking fire from falling cinders, 

 in case of fire in the vicinity. It pays the ex- 

 pense a hundred fold in its preserving influ- 

 ence against the effects of the weather. The 

 older and more weather-beaten the shingles, 

 the more benefit derived. Such shingles gen- 

 erally become more or less warped, rough, 

 and cracked : the application of the wash, by 

 wetting the upper surface, restores them at 

 once to their original or first form, thereby 

 closing up the space between the shingles ; 

 and the lime and sand, by filling up the cracks 

 and pores in the shingle itself, prevent its 

 warping. 



To Keep Tires on Wheels. — Hear a prac- 

 tical man on this subject : "I ironed a wagon 

 some years ago for my own use ; before put- 

 ting on the tires I filled the felloes with linseed 

 oil ; and the tires have worn out and were 

 never loose. My method is as follows : I use 

 a long cast-iron heater, made for the purpose ; 

 the oil is brought to a boiling heat, the wheel 

 is placed on a stick, so as to hang in the oil, 

 each felloe an hour. The timber should be 

 dry, as green timber will not take the oil. 

 Care should be taken that the oil is not made 

 hotter than a boiling heat, or the timber will 

 be burned. Timber tilled with oil is not sus- 

 ceptible to injury by water, and is rendered 

 much more durable by this process." 



Value of Grass Land. — The time has not 

 yet come when farmers appreciate, as they 

 should, the value of grass. Every year dairy 

 products are becoming dearer, because the 

 grass region is limited, and only a few years, 

 will be required to give any farm natural for 

 grass a value which now would be thought ex- 

 cessive. If I wished to buy a farm for my 

 posterity, which would continually increase in 

 value. I certainly should choose it in the re- 

 gion of grass. For I do know that during the 

 course of one's life, a grass farm will bring 

 more money and comfort and with less work 

 than any other farm, whether on the Sciota, 

 the Wabash, or the Mississippi bottoms nor 

 can a farm of ecjual value be selected and 

 made anywhere within the belt formed by the 

 tiopics, the whole world around. — iV. C. M., 

 in N. Y. Iribune, 



— Hon. Sidney Clarlv, member of Congress from 

 Kansas, has addressed a letter of inquiry to the 

 leading men of that State for facts bearing on the 

 Texas cattle disease, with reference to some ac- 

 tion on the subject by Congress. 



