278 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



were assigned to another regiment. Col. Clark 

 now took com mand of some eastern troops, crossed 

 the Alleghany, and for a time was stationed at 

 Mount Sterling, Kentucky. 



Col. Clark was a member of the legislature of 

 Massachusetts in 1864, 'G.5 and '67, the latter year 

 receiving all but seven votes out of 772. In 1866 

 he was appointed Professor of Botany in the Ag- 

 ricultural College, retaining at the same time his 

 professorship in the old college. 



In 1866 he was appointed President of the insti- 

 tution, and on the second of October of that year 

 the first class met to receive his instruction in the 

 first term of that institution. 



In 1853 he was married to the adopted daughter 

 of Samuel Williston, East Hampton, Mass., and 

 has seven children now living. 



••THE SOUTH LAND." 



Since the close of the war a large number of ag- 

 ricultural papers have been started at the South, 

 and we have watched their progress with much in- 

 terest, believing they were the natural result of a 

 resolute purpose to begin at the foundation of real 

 improvement of the interests and prosperity of the 

 people of that section. Having a practical knowl- 

 edge of the "creeping before we can go," which 

 nearly all agricultural papers experience in their 

 infancy, and which is well illustrated by the fact 

 that for several of its first years the weekly circu- 

 lation of the New England Farmer was short of 

 five hundred copies, we have sympathized with the 

 publishers of these new papers at the South. Some 

 of them, it is true, appear to have started off at 

 once in the full vigor and strength of manhood, 

 while others have had a longer "day of small 

 things." The latter we judge has been the expe- 

 rience of the Southern Ruralist, which has shown 

 a wonderful tenacity for life, and after many 

 changes and migrations, now appears, together 

 with the Gulf States, as The South Land, pub- 

 lished at New Orleans, weekly at $i, and monthly 

 at $2 per year; D. Redmond, Editor; "The 

 South-Land Company" publishers. 



The following extract from the salutatory of the 

 Sotith Land will indicate better than any words of 

 ours the ability and spirit of our new contempo- 

 rary. After a brief review of the past history of 

 the South, the editor says : — 



In the Southern culture to which we advert, the 

 distinguishing and deci-sive factors were the 

 planter, the political leader, the forensic orator, 

 the punctilious cavalier. These would have done 

 well enough in co-operation with other elements ; 

 but by themselves they proved wofully inadequate 

 to fill the circle of a consummate development. In 

 those days, the artist or the artizan, of Southern 

 origin and education, was rare to such a degree as 

 to be phenomenal. In those days, the applied sci- 

 ences, outside of what are called the learned pro- 

 fessions, could boast of few Southerners among 

 their votaries. In those days, literature was 

 scarcely known in the South, except as an el- 

 egant pastime. In those days, the press of the 

 South was for the most part rather an incident in 

 the plans of politicians, than a political power in 



itself; and the rising politician was supposed to 

 have his editor, as the knight of old was supposed 

 have his esquire. Few Southern papers could 

 then afl^ord to be independent, because few were 

 then self-sustaining. Had literature taken a firmer 

 root there, had the press been a more powerful 

 and fruitful institution there, had industry been 

 more diversified there, had culture been more 

 comprehensive and manifold there, it is not con- 

 ceivable that, for the South of ten years ago, such 

 a catastrophe, as actually befel her in the inter- 

 vening period, could have impended. 



But we feel persuaded that in respect to all the 

 requisites of a complete and symmetrical develop- 

 ment the South is to grow hereafter as she never 

 grew before. Nothing less than the assurance that 

 the future of the South is to be widely different 

 from her past, and infinitely more satisfying than 

 her present, could have prompted, or would have 

 justified, the enterprise to which the founders of 

 this publication have deliberately and unreservedly 

 committed themselves. 



THE KAFE PLANT. 



In Fond du Lac and Calumet counties, Wiscon- 

 sin, some of the German farmers have introduced 

 the rultiv.:tion of this oil-producing plant, so gen- 

 erally cultivated in Europe. The quantity mar- 

 keted at Fond du Lac in 1869 was 4000 bushels, 

 and in 1866 over 20,000 bushels. About two gal- 

 lons of oil are made from a bushel of seed. The 

 Prairie Farmer says, the average yield of rape 

 seed by good farmers has been from ten to eighteen 

 bushels per acre; though some have raised as 

 high as thirty-five bushels. The price for a series 

 of years has ranged from $2 to $2.50 per bushel. 

 So far from impoverishing the soil, it is found that 

 the ground, the year after a crop of rape is taken off, 

 will yield from five to eight bushels more of wheat 

 than it will if any other grain has been sown. The 

 soil is also in excellent condition for almost any 

 other crop. The chaff is relished by cattle, and 

 when it is mixed with roots it makes an excellent 

 food. The straw may be used for bedding pur- 

 poses. The rape seed cake — the portion that re- 

 mains after the oil is expressed — is a most valua- 

 ble food for cattle. As a food for dairy cows it 

 has long been celebrated in Europe. The ground 

 cake has sold this year at from $16 to $20 per ton. 



How TO Kill Lice on Cattle. — A coi^ 

 respondent, "R. N," of the Country Gentle- 

 man, "dissolved about a pint of strong soft 

 soap in a pail of warm, soft water, and satu- 

 rated the whole surface of a lousy cow's body 

 with it ; after about thirty minutes, repeated 

 the operation, and in thirty minutes longer 

 took a pail of clean warm water and quickly 

 and thoroughly washed out all the soap water 

 and dead lice in large quantities, put her in a 

 warm stable and covered her with a dry blan- 

 ket. The next day, after being thoroughly 

 dried, she looked, and seemed to feel, like a 

 new animal ; more than doubled her quantity 

 of milk within twenty-four hours and immedi- 

 ately commenced gaining flesh and general 

 thriftiness. 



