188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



Barre Central Cheese Factory. 



1,890 674 pr.unds milk, 194,ii66 pounds cheese; aver- 

 age 9.69 pounds tnlk to one of cheese cured. 



Barre South West Factory 

 361,075 pounas Etilb and ?6,100 pounds cheese. 



Petersham Factory. 

 673,55* pounds milk; being 9.95 pounds milk to one 

 of cheese cured. 



Frescott Factory. 



Capital $2000; .334,723 pounds milk and 33,472 potinds 

 of cheese, or 10 1-6 Douadsof milk to ore of cheese; 

 whole exp nee, $1160. Commenced making May 10, 

 closed October 10; help, one man, $75 per month. 

 Kept eighty cows. 



Oakham and Hardwick Cheese Factories. 



No report. 



The President having brought the subject of the 

 Government tax on butter and cheese, before the 

 convention, a committee consisting of A. H. Hol- 

 land, of Barre; N. S. Johnson, of Dana; D. S 

 Ellis, of Warren ; W. A. Warner, of Hardwick, 

 and Mr. Hall, of Greenfield, were appointed on 

 resolutions, who reported the following, which 

 were adopted : — 



Resolvrd, That the officers of this Association be 

 and are hereby instiuc'ed to petition Congress that the 

 ri venue laws of the Uuittd States be so amended that 

 the nunufacture of butter aud cheese may be exempted 

 from taxation. 



Resolved, That the thanks of this As? ooiation are 

 hereoy tei'dertd to Moe.'rs. Fli t, Iijde, and Goodman 

 for the ab!e and iastructive addresses with which they 

 have f .voredit. 



Resolved, That the thanks of the Association be ten- 

 dered to the citizens of Ilardwick for their courtesy 

 aiiii atttntion on this occasion. 



Orchabd Grass in KENTrcKY.— A correspon- 

 dent of the Lexington Farmer's Home Journal, 

 Mr. Richard Water.s, of Goshen, Ky., gives a favor- 

 able opinion of this grass in his section. He says 

 it is extensively grown in the north of England 

 and Scotland under the name of Cock's Foot, from 

 the resemblance of its top to a cock's foot. In 

 Kentucky it is sown from the first of January to 

 first of April. He prefers to sow it after corn, 20 

 pounds of seed to the acre, with about three quarts 

 of clover. Should be pastured hard to tread the 

 land. Rightly managed and on good land— would 

 not sow on light loam or sandy land— he says it 

 will afi"ord a quarter more than Timothy, bluegrass, 

 herdsgrass, or clover. It is of very rapid growth, 

 and is a permanent grass. If out when first in 

 bloom, it makes good hay ; but if suflered to ripen, 

 the stalks become too hard. In open wood4ands, 

 where weeds or briers will grow, the orchard grass 

 thrives wtU. He sows on such lands thirty pounds 

 of seed per acre, and by feeding shelled corn scat- 

 tered over the land, from day to day, makes his 

 hogs harrow in the orchard grass seed. Com- 

 mences tj pasture as soon as the grass is two 

 inches high, and pastures close to cause it to form 

 a sod. He says it will grow under the shade of a 

 beech tree. Cattle fatten rapidly on this grass. 



—The Stateof California has 800,000 peach trees, 

 enough to produce more than 100 pounds of fruit 

 annually for every person in the State. 



DIANTHUS HEDDEWIGII DIADEMA- 

 TUS. 



We present on the opposite page a fine rep- 

 resentation of one of the latest novelties in the 

 flower garden. The dianthus belongs to the 

 same family as the Carnation, Picotee Pink, and 

 Sweet William. It is of Japan or Chinese 

 origin, and may be regarded as among the 

 most beautiful and effective of our hardy an- 

 nuals. The recently introduced species, the Di- 

 antlius Heddewigii and L acini atus,yiiih their 

 large and rich colored flowers, three to four 

 inches in diameter, close, compact habit, and 

 profusion of bloom, are unsurpassed for effec- 

 tiveness in beds and mixed borders. In 

 Breck's Booh of Flowers, we find the follow- 

 ing description of these flowers : — 



Mr. Heddewig, the originator, gives the 

 following account of their origin : — "1 had the 

 fortune to raise from Japan seed, a new splen- 

 did Pink, which Dr. Kornicke describes al- 

 ready in Regels Gartenflora as Diantlmn lacin- 

 iattis. I raised last year 800 seeds from it, 

 which I sowed early ; and already at the end 

 of May they commenced to display their most 

 magnificent flowers, cf a diameter of four inch- 

 es. I was greatly rejoiced to see a part of 

 them of splendid,- dense, doixble flowers, in 

 the greatest variety of colors, viz. ; pure white, 

 rose, lilac, carmine, crimson, purple-violet, 

 the daikest black brown, spotted and stiiped; 

 a splendid sight, far beyond description. Au- 

 gust 3, 1859, 1 exhibited 18 plants in as many 

 different varieties, and received the highest re- 

 ward for novelties, 'The Golden Medal,' from 

 the Imperial Horticultural Society. This Pink 

 grows two feet high ; the small leaves have a 

 length of four inches, and the double varieties, 

 from their dense double form, and the laciniate 

 petals, somewhat resemble the flower Papaver 

 pcRonijlorum. Some plants endured our last 

 Russian winter without being covered." I 

 have had the pleasure, adds Mr. Breck, of cul- 

 tivating these novelties since 1861, and find 

 them to correspond nearly with these descrip- 

 tions. I have not had any that attained a 

 greater height than a foot, or foot and one- 

 half, but have had all the shades of color men- 

 tioned by Mr. Heddewig. The foliage is some- 

 what glaucous and lanceolate. Both varieties 

 produce double flowers. To ascertain wheth- 

 er they would survive our winters, I protect- 

 ed a large bed of them with leaves in the au- 

 tumn of 1864, and they came out bright in the 

 spring of 1865 and flowered supeibly during 

 the summer. If they are not hardy enough 

 to stand the winter without covering, tBey are 

 very valuable ac(juisitions to the flower-garden 

 as annuals. Like the China Pinks, they are 

 destitute of fragrance. 



The particular species shown in our engrav- 



