1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



499 



from without inward, making the foot to rest in a 

 concavity, which resists the natural expansion of 

 the hoof and forces the heel inward, the shoe 

 should be made level. 



— A sycamore tree in Mississippi Co., Missouri, 

 has a trunk forty-three feet in circumference ; an- 

 other in Howard county is thirty-eight and a half 

 feet in circumference. A cypress in Cape Girardeau 

 county is twenty-nine feet in circumference, and a 

 black walnut in Benton county is nearly eight feet 

 through. 



— The process of butter making, says the Scien- 

 tific American, depends mainly upon physical ac- 

 tion. The butter is formed in the cream, and the 

 etfect of the churning is simply to bring the iso- 

 lated particles into one mass. A high temperature 

 favors the pi'ocess of softening the globules of 

 butter and rendering them more adhesive. 



— The editor of the Woodstock, Can., Patriot 

 makes merry over the mistake of an old Shanghae 

 hen of his that has been sitting for five weeks 

 upon two round stones and a piece of brick. "Her 

 anxiety,'' lie says, "is no greater than ours to know 

 what she will hatch. If it proves a brick yard, 

 that hen is not for sale." 



— In describing the farm of W. H. Mann & Bro., 

 in McLean County, 111., of a little over one thou- 

 sand acres, the Prairie /^armer mentions a "patch" 

 of Osage Orange plants for hedges of 250 acres in 

 one body, in rows two feet apart ; one hundred 

 acres in corn and two hundred and fifty in wheat 

 and oats. Only two years ago the whole was a 

 wild prairie ! 



— While a Mr. Rice was eating cherries on his 

 farm, near Fredericksburg, Ind., and viewing the 

 working of his bees, one of the bees stung him on 

 the upper lip, when he immediately started for the 

 house, calling to his mother for some remedy, 

 laughingly remarking that a bee had stung him. 

 The remedy was applied, but in half an hour the 

 man was speechless, and soon after was a corpse. 



— The Sacramento Bee asserts that in the Ala- 

 meda and Santa Clara valleys the farmers have ac- 

 tually been driven by ground squirrels from some 

 of their best lands ; that their settlements, like 

 those of the prairie-dog extend for miles, each 

 buiTow sheltering from one to six inmates ; and 

 that it would hardly be an exaggeration to say 

 that they eat one-fourth of the annual wheat crop. 



— A few weeks since we copied a statement 

 made by a correspondent of the Prairie Farmer 

 tliat walking cultivators were taking the place of 

 the wheeled or riding ones, in the corn growing 

 regions of Illinois. Tins we see is very positively 

 denied by other correspondents, who say the 

 wheeled cultivators are becoming more and more 

 popular with farmers generally. 



— A correspondent of the Mirror and Farmer, 

 who has been down South, says, that during the 

 war large quantities of cotton were hauled by ox 

 teams from Texas to Mexico. Both Texan and 



Spanish teamsters were employed. The Spanish 

 oxen were yoked by the head ; the Texan by the 

 neck, or in our usual style. Working thus together 

 the superiority of the head gear was so manifest, 

 that it was generally adopted by the American 

 teamsters. He wishes that a few yoke of steers 

 might be trained to "walk Spanish," and be ex- 

 hibited at our Fairs. 



—A correspondent of the Western Rural in 

 Franklin County, Mo., mentions some fields of 

 com, in which the stalks were prostrated to the 

 ground as if a storm had levelled them. On exam- 

 ination, there was found at the root of the stalk a 

 little white worm, half an inch long, with a whit- 

 ish brown head— not the cut worm— but such as 

 harbor in logs cut in summer time. Quite an 

 amount of damage seems to have been done by 

 them. 



— The Boston Journal of Chemistry, edited by 

 Dr. J. R. Nichols, and published monthly at fifty 

 cents a year, says that when a person is mortally 

 bitten by the cobi-a, molecules of living germinal 

 matter are thrown into the blood, and so rapidly 

 multiply that in a few hours millions upon mil- 

 lions are produced. Chemical action is interfered 

 with, combustion is extinguished ; coldness, sleepi- 

 ness, insensibility, slow breathing, and death fol- 

 low. How mysterious is the influence o( poison ! 



— The editor of the Ohio Farmer, having visited 

 Mr. W. A. Flander's Apiarian Institute on Kelley's 

 Island, in Lake Erie, writes as follows: Talk of 

 big prices for merino rams ! Flanders can get more 

 money for an Italian queen bee, with three rings 

 around her tail, than any ram peddler can get for 

 the best Vermont Merino in his flock. Bugs is 

 I'is ! A little insect not so big as a tooth-pick, 

 worth more money than a Shorthorn bull ! The 

 idea would be ridiculous if it was not true. 



— The Columbus, Miss., Sentinel details a visit 

 of the editor to a cotton plantation, the work on 

 which was entirely performed by white laborers. 

 The number of acres cleared was about 900, of 

 which 600 were planted with cotton. There were 

 twenty-one men and seven or eight youngsters 

 who worked on an average about twenty acres 

 each. It was one of the best arranged and man- 

 aged plantations in the cotton region. The crop 

 promise was excellent, and estimated at 1,200 

 pounds to the acre. 



— Our readers will remember a statement that 

 we published some time since, of Capt. Geo. 

 Pierce's orchard of six acres on a naturally poor 

 soil, formerly known as Poverty Point, which pro- 

 duced, last year, apples enough, with some vege- 

 tables grown on the same land, to amount to about 

 $(1800. A cori'cspondent of the Boston Cultivator 

 says there is another abundant crop now on the 

 same trees, while nearly all the trees in other 

 parts of the town are destitute of fruit. The only 

 secret, Mr. P. says, is in the fact that he takes 

 care of his orchard. • 



