1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



539 



in a recent tour from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, 

 found tiic farmers feeding liay to tlieir cattle as in 

 mid winter. A correspondent of the Country Gen- 

 tleman, writing in central Illinois, says half the 

 wells in the county are waterless, and pasturage is 

 very short. This lias caused a rush of cattle to 

 market and brought prices down as low as 2^a3c 

 per lb., live weight, for good thin steers. 



— Italy continues to supply large quantities of 

 cattle to France. 



— In Florida, peaches will not grow. Where 

 peaches end, oranges commence. 



— A few years ago, a committee was appointed 

 by the House of Commons, to examine and re- 

 port as to a remedy for the hop louse, but could 

 find none better than hand picking. 



— Several capitalists of Dutchess county, N. Y., 

 have recently purchased 1200 acres of land, on the 

 Lake Shore railroad, between Dunkirk and Erie, 

 for extensive vineyard planting. Germans from 

 the Rhine districts are to be obtained as laborers. 



— Just now the Kerry cattle are commended, 

 because they thrive in cold climates and on little 

 food, and give such rich milk. In England a 

 Kerry cow is valued at ^GoO. It is suspicious that 

 fancy stock is always scarce. 



— Mr. T. Jones, of South Hadley, Mass., who 

 has three acres in strawberries, says in the Home- 

 stead, that after having tried more than twenty va- 

 rieties he has settled down on the Wilson and Fill- 

 more for the main crop, and the Early Scarlet and 

 Triomph de Gand for early and late. 



— Anxious to help the speculators in their blood- 

 chilling stories of the drought, a western paper 

 records the fact that in some parts of Illinois the 

 drought is so severe that not only are the wells 

 destitute of water, but the holes themselves have 

 dried up. 



— The cattle reporter of the Prairie Farmer says, 

 "it will cost farmers 10 cents per lb., at the present 

 price of corn, to make pork, and as they cannot 

 reasonably expect to realize over $6a6.7'5 for live 

 weights, it is to their advantage to sell their grain 

 and send in their hogs, although but partially 

 fattened. 



— Having been often told that anything would 

 do for seed potatoes, a correspondent of the Rural 

 New Yorker planted four rows of twenty hills 

 each, in the centre of his field with the following 

 result : — 



Marketable 



1 large potato in a bill yielded 67 



4 small 



4 cut " 



8 ejes only 



Small. 



24 



37 



37 



13}^ 



— On opening the State Fair of Iowa, President 

 Melendy, in the course of his remarks, said : "We 

 do not desire a great overshadowing federal insti- 

 tution, which shall attempt to direct or control ag- 

 ricultural matters. We hang our hopes for agri- 

 cultural progress in this country upon the common 



schools, the State agricultural colleges, the agri- 

 cultural newspapers, and agricultural associations 

 established so tliickly throughout the f ountry." 



American Short Horns in tiik Royal 

 Stables. — We recently noticed the arrival of 

 Mr. II. O. Sheldon's shipment of New York 

 Short Horns in England, and the fact that the 

 animals were sent into quarantine. Tlie state- 

 ment is now made in the Country Gentleman 

 that Mr. Tait, bailiff to her Majesty, has ten- 

 dered to Mr. Page, who has these cattle in 

 charge, the use of the royal stables at Wind- 

 sor Park, and the privilege of offering them 

 for sale in connection with the herd of the late 

 Princess Consort, which was to be sold on the 

 16th of October. 



We regret to learn that the farm buildings 

 of Mr. Sheldon, at Geneva, N. Y., were re- 

 cently destroyed by fire, with the loss of one 

 of his Duchess cows and three calves. 



From Dr. Holland's new Poem, "Kathrina." 

 A DAY IN AUTUMN. 



The breezy dayB 

 Over whose waves my buoyant life careered, 

 Rolled to October, falling on its beach 

 With bursts of mellow music; and I leaped 

 Upon tho longed-for shore; for, in that month, 

 My dear betrothed dtferiing to the stress 

 Of my impatient wish, had promised me 

 Her band in wedlock. 



Ere the happy day 

 Dawned on the world, the world was draped in robes 

 Meet f ir the nuptials. Baths of sunny haze, 

 Steeping the ripened leaves from day to day, 

 And dainty kisses of the frost at night, 

 Joined in the subtile alchemy that wrought 

 Such miracles of change, that myriad trees 

 Whicli pranked the meads and clothed the forest glooms 

 Bloomed with the tints of Eden. Had the earth 

 Been splashed with blood of grapes from every clime. 

 Tinted from topaz to dim carbuncle, 

 Or orient ruby, it would not have been 

 Drenched with such waste of color. All the hues 

 The rainbow knows, and all that meet the eye 

 In Ilowers of field and garden, joined to tell 

 Each tree's close-folded secret. Side by side 

 Rose sister maples, some in amber gold, 

 Others incarnadine or tipped with flame; 

 And oaks that for a hundred years had stood. 

 And flouted one another through the storms — 

 Boai-ting their might — proclaimed their pique or pride 

 In dun, or dyes of Tyre. The sumac leaves 

 Bbized with such scarlet that the crimson fruit 

 Which hung among their flames was touched to guise 

 Of dim and dying embers; while the hills 

 That met the t-ky at the horizon's rim — 

 Dabbled with rose among the evergreens, 

 Or stretching ofl' in sweeps of clouted crimson — glowed 

 As if the archery of sunset clouds. 

 By squads and fierce battalions, had rained down 

 Its barbed and feathered fire, and left it fast 

 To advertise the exploit. 



In such pomp 

 Of autumn glory, by the simp'lest rites, 

 Kathri a gave her hand to me, and I 

 Fledged truth and life to her. I bore her home 

 Through shocks of maize, revealing half their gold, 

 Past gazing harvesters with creaking wains 

 That brimnn-d withfrui age— my adored, my wife, 

 Fruition of my hope — the proudest freight 

 That ever passed that way I 



