1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



263 



old, and 19 inches thick in the trunk, yields from 

 6000 to 8000 pounds of grapes annually. 



— The Hearth and Home in reply to a correspon- 

 dent who asks, shall I buy a Jersey cow ? replies 

 by saying there is little risk in buying a healthy 

 young Jersey cow, if her cost does not range much 

 above $250. 



— There are 12,000 windmills in constant use in 

 Holland at the present day, for the simple purpose 

 of drainage. They are almost of colossal size, 

 each lifting from 10,000,000 to 50,000,000 gallons of 

 water every twenty-four hours. 



— Brazil is the greatest producer of coflFee, fur- 

 nishing the article known in the market as the 

 Rio coffee to the amount of 400,000,000 pounds 

 yearly, or more than one-half of what is supplied 

 by the whole world, viz : 713,000,000. 



— The people in the northern part of Dupage 

 county, 111., are putting their farms in their pock- 

 ets. The Wheaton Illinoisan reports sales of 

 nearly $30,000 worth of real estate in a week. In 

 Jaspar county, Illinois, during the year 1869, over 

 80,000 acres have changed hands. 



—Mr. John T. Alexander, of Illinois, who grazed 

 last season, 7000 head of Texas cattle, informs the 

 Springfield Journal, that he has found it a losing 

 business, and that hereafter he will give the Texas 

 long-horns the go-by, and graze and feed none but 

 native cattle. 



— At a recent term of the Criminal Court of 

 Chester Co., Pennsylvania, a man "charged with 

 having obnoxious weeds on his farm, and allowing 

 them to grow, to the great damage of his neigh- 

 bors," was found guilty and sentenced to pay a 

 fine of $10 and costs of prosecution. 



— Last summer was so unfavorable for the pro- 

 duction of honey that the bees in Berkshire county 

 could not gather enough to carry them through 

 the winter. Peregrine Drew of Pittsfield, has lost 

 all but one out of 19 swarms. John Barnard all 

 but three out of twenty-five swarms. 



— At the West where timothy raised for seed is 

 stacked up as soon as cut there is a dust or some 

 emanation from the hay while threshing which 

 causes severe headache, loss of appetite, nausea, 

 and feverishness, while that which is weather- 

 beaten before it is stacked does not produce these 

 results. 



— The rise of sap in trees and plants has been 

 explained on the principle of capillary attraction, 

 but M. Becquerel considers that electricity is an 

 acting cause. A capillary tube that will not al- 

 low water to pass through it, does so at once on 

 being electrified, and he considers that electro- 

 capillarity is the efficient cause of sap travelling 

 in vegetable life. 



— Those who think our cultivated lands must 

 grow poor as they grow old, will find food for re- 

 flection in the fact that not many years back, the 

 average yield of wheat per acre in England was 



about ten bushels — it is now over thiity bushels. 

 The result of better economy of home-made ma- 

 nure and the extensive use of imported fertilizers. 



— What stupid fellows farmers must be in the 

 eyes of the American Stock Journal, which says, 

 "we can go into a dairying neighborhood, and 

 point to farmers who are losing from two to three 

 thousand dollars by keeping cows yielding two 

 hundred pounds of butter per year, instead of 

 those that would yield from five to six hundred 

 pounds in the same time." 



— The Lee, Mass., Gleaner says that the dairy- 

 men of New Lenox have decided to establish a 

 cheese factory in that town and the stock for this 

 purpose is pretty much raised. It is proposed to 

 put up a building with fixtures costing $2500, and 

 the shares are put at $100 each. In Lenox village 

 also the money for a cheese factory is subscribed ; 

 the shares in the latter factory are $250 each. 



— A correspondent of the Mirror and Farmer, 

 says that the ice of frozen sap is not worth saving ; 

 that as some trees give much more sap than others, 

 it is a good plan to have tubs of difierent sizes ; 

 that sugar stirred dry is the most profitable ; that 

 the sooner sap is boiled the better ; that a damper 

 in the chimney of the arch saves much heat ; that 

 trees should be tapped on the south or westerly 

 side; that tubs and holders should be perfectly 

 sweet, &c. 



— An agricultural paper printed in a New England 

 city can see but one cure for the high prices of 

 beef, butter, flour, pork, fruit, &c., and that is 

 "The people must form strong combinations of 

 their own in opposition," as "the consumers have 

 something to do with the laws of trade." Such a 

 movement will require a leader and an organ ; but 

 notwithstanding the apparent earnestness of our 

 contemporary, we must hope that a "leading agri- 

 cultural paper" will not volunteer its services in 

 either capacity. 



— The cheese factory at Rochdale, Chenango 

 county, N. Y., has been rented by a company 

 who propose to make both butter and cheese 

 and to adopt the plan of buying the milk of far- 

 mers, instead of manufacturing it on the usual 

 co-operative system. The Utica Herald says, if 

 the manufacturers discriminate in the purchase of 

 milk between the rich and the poor grades, the 

 system would be an improvement in point of jus- 

 tice upon the present one ; but the question would 

 still remain as to the satisfaction such a method 

 would give, and consequently as to its success. 



— C. Hills, of Delaware, Ohio, writing to the 

 Western Farmer, says : — "The long wools, Leices- 

 ters, are being rapidly introduced into our State, 

 and are largely used now for crossing upon meri- 

 nos. They cross well upon good sized fine wools ; 

 the produce being of good mutton carcass, matur- 

 ing early, and producing a sort of wool usually 

 called DeLaine ; fleece of about six pounds, and 

 commanding as much in market as the best XX 



