468 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



died. Not having any idea of the cause of 

 their death, I made a post mortem examination 

 and found them the fattest sheep that 1 ever 

 dressed. When I came to the intestines I 

 found them in a very bad condition ; apparent- 

 ly imder the inner lining of the intestines there 

 had formed hard balls of various sizes, which 

 proved upon examination to be Hungarian seed, 

 and I came to the conclusion that that occa- 

 sioned their death. Many of them would hun- 

 ger along for a week or ten days and finally 

 recover. My Hungarian was ripe when I cut 

 it. — S. M. Y., in Prairie Farmer. 



AGRICULTURAL ITEMS. 

 — It is estimated that Sauk countj', Wis., will 

 yield $2,000,000 wortli of hops this year. 



— Mr. Oliver Wilkinson, of Townsend, Vt., has 

 a ewe sheep that has had and raised twenty-two 

 lambs in eleven years. 



— Mr. Horace Hurlbut, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., 

 Bhearcd sixty-seven sheep in one day this season 

 for Mr. Moses Huntley, and he did the work well. 



— In the upper part of New Hampshire, the 

 storekeepers pay farmers but a shilling a pound 

 for excellent butter. 



— Harvest hands get $2 a day in Marion county, 

 Iowa, and reaping machines get $1 an acre for 

 cutting. 



— Less skill is required to make whiskey than 

 vinegar. In Germany, they have a vinegar school 

 where the students graduate in four months. 



— L. Lindley, Connellsville, Fayette County, Pa., 

 says that his father always kept on hand pickled 

 pork as a preventive of the ague, while families 

 which did not have a supply had the disease. 



— There are now in the State of New York more 

 than 500 cheese factories, using the milk of over 

 200,000 cows. P'rom Herkimer county alone, 

 18,172,913 pounds of cheese were shipped last year. 



— The term "spare rib," as applied to the rib of 

 a hog, is of English origin. The custom there of 

 cutting the sides of a hog lengthwise into "flitches," 

 close to the ribs, leaves the ribs very sparely sup- 

 plied with meal ; hence the term. 



— G. W. IIowc, Mt. Vision, N. Y., assures the 

 New Y(n-k Farmers' Club that he has not known 

 the following prescription to fail of curing bots in 

 a single CISC for over thirty years : — One pint of 

 lard a little above milkwarm and poured down a 

 a horse. 



— In rc;ily to a correspondent at the North, who 

 asks to liHow the best place at the South to raise 

 small fruits for market, ISIr. Meeker of the Tribune, 

 says, "Stay where you arc. The earliest cucum- 

 bers ill New York arc not from the South, but 

 from Boston. Let those who will, languish with 

 fevers, and long for the cooling stream, where 

 insects (ill the air and drop from the ceiling; let 

 who will, crush cabbage worms by the hour ; start, 



while at work, from the hiss of the adder, and 

 anxiously look to the south west, over parched 

 fields for signs of rain; but let us cling to the 

 grassy horizon of the North." 



— A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer says 

 that throughout the corn region of Central Illinois, 

 the riding or wheel cultivators are fast becoming 

 unpopular, and the walking double cultivators are 

 taking their place. An improved double-shovel 

 plow is becoming very popular there, and it is 

 thought will prove of great value in cotton and 

 tobacco fields. 



— Mrs. M. W. Hayward,of Natick,Mass., ^^Tites 

 to the New York Farmers' Club, that some of her 

 neighbors have been paying a dollar fortius recipe 

 for washing fluid : 2 lb. of sal soda, | lb. of un- 

 slaked lime, 2 gallons boiling water. Let it stand 

 till perfectly clear, then put in bottles. Soak the 

 clothes over night — half pint fluid to a boilerful — 

 soap them and boil an hour. It is good. 



— One beet sugar establishment in Germany has 

 a capital of f 16,000,000, employs 3000 operatives, 

 and occupies buildings which cover twelve acres 

 of land. European makers annually dispose of 

 400,000 pounds. The importance of the attempts, 

 in this country, to encourage this branch of indus- 

 try is illustrated by the statement that during the 

 year ending July 1, sugars valued at $39,595,677 

 in gold, were imported into the United States. 



— Texan papers assert that the various patent 

 processes for preparing beef fur northern markets» 

 by canning, infiltration, &c., have practically failed. 

 By the introduction and use of ice machines, by 

 which ice is manufactured on the premises, the 

 atmosphere of the rooms in which the beef is 

 packed, is kept so cool that the meat docs not spoil 

 during the operation, and cattle may now be 

 slaughtered during the warmest months of the 

 year, at which time they are in the best condition. 



— A contributor to the Farmer's Adcertiser, says 

 that l)y feeding young colts a considerable amount 

 of grain, in conjunction with hay and other light 

 articles of food, they thrive better, and their liuibs 

 liecome better knit than when fed only on light 

 food. If a pi'oper supply of food be withheld 

 while an animal is young, it will be injured in its 

 constitution, and conseiiueiitly in its value, to a far 

 greater extent than any saving that can be etloeted 

 in its feed. 



— Man's inhumanity to cows is often illustrated 

 by abuse of the animal for restlessness caused by 

 tlie i)ain inflicted in milking by sharp finger nails. 

 Mr. J. F. Furman. Segel, Iowa, writes to the New 

 York Farmers' Club that one of his co-.vs had al- 

 ways been very sensitive, but that affter he com- 

 meneed milking by clasping his fingers clean 

 around her teats so that his nails could not hurt 

 her, she become gentle. Sonic cows will bear the 

 Itressurc of the finger-nails and not resent it, while 

 others will flare upon the first grasp, and knock 

 the pail across the yard; then comes pounding and 



