1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



291 



AQRICULTUBAIi ITEMS. 

 — A large vessel recently sailed from Boston for 

 Cork, her entire cargo being Canada peas. 



— The cranberry crop at Harwich, Mass., 

 amounted, during the past year, to 3,761 barrels, 

 which were sold for $39,590. 



— The Agricultural Editor of the St. Paul Press 

 says flax-culture proved unprofitable last year in 

 Ramsay Co., Minn., from a variety of causes. 

 The crop was good, but it was difficult to sell it 

 satisfactorily. 



— H. Stillson of Monkton, Vt., lost thirty swarms 

 of bees during the past winter. Others in that 

 section also lost their bees, and it is thought this 

 great dest ruction of the honey bee is owing to the 

 lack of bee bread, which they did not produce last 

 season. 



— The Fitch brothers of Hatfield, Mass., fattened 

 last season, 100 head of oxen and steers, and 165 

 sheep ; they also raised the past season 60 acres 

 of tobacco, and have that and about 40 tons that 

 they have bought on hand, making in all some 90 

 tons. 



— Almost every country paper published in the 

 northern portion of Ohio, contains accounts of 

 numerous cheese factories being built in their re- 

 spective localities. At the present rate of increase 

 there will soon be a factory in every school dis- 

 trict on cheese-making territory, not only in Ohio 

 but in other States. 



— At a meeting of the New England Agricultural 

 Society at Manchester, N. H., April 14, it was de- 

 cided to hold the fair in that city on the 6th, 7th, 

 8th and 9th of September. Colonel M. V. B. Ed- 

 gerly, of Manchester was chosen chief marshal, 

 and Colonel George W. Riddle, the treasurer of 

 the society, was appointed general superintendent. 



— The four famous oxen recently marketed in 

 New York, and fed by George Ayrault, averaged 

 3,300 pounds live weight when killed, having lost 

 eighty pounds each while at market. At one time 

 the largest weighed 3500 pounds. It is said that 

 no records can be found of heavier bullocks in 

 England or elsewhere. 



— To be able to successfully check the insect 

 scourge and eventually to destroy the more nox- 

 ious kinds, it is necessary to understand their 

 habits — the moth that lays the eggs, where and 

 when to look for them, when the transformation 

 takes place, &c., and the remedies to be applied to 

 destroy egg, larva, pupa, or adult insect. 



— A remarkably severe snow-storm occurred in 

 the south of France, on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean, during the past winter. So deep was the 

 snow, that hundreds of palm trees were crushed 

 and flattened down by it, like plants when pressed 

 in a herbarium. The olive, orange and lemon 

 trees, in the same district were nearly all de- 

 stroyed ; but the palms, though for ten or twelve 

 days encased in ice and snow, suffered but slightly. 



This fact leads geologists to doubt whether fossil 

 palms necessarily indicate, as has hitherto been 

 believed, the former existence of warm climates 

 in the regions in which they are found. 



— A committee of the Lexington, Ky., Farmers' 

 Club have been appointed to examine a new hemp 

 brake, the invention of a negro man, which was 

 spoken of in high terms by some members of the 

 association who had seen it in operation. Having 

 read the discussion of the negro question by this 

 club with much interest, we shall look for the re- 

 port of the committee with some curiosity. 



— If any dealer in evil prognostications should 

 happen to run short of "stock in trade" any of 

 these pleasant spring days, perhaps his drooping 

 spirits will be revived by the fact that it is reported 

 by some careful observer that exactly two hun- 

 dred and twenty-four new spots made their ap- 

 pearance on the sun during the year 1869, and that 

 it is predicted by some wise prophet that no corn 

 will ripen in New England this year. 



— The Lowell, Mass., Journal, gives the particu- 

 lars of the sickness of a family in that city from 

 eating a little raw ham, which subsequent exami- 

 nation proved to be filled with the trichina spiralis. 

 Four of the children and the father and mother 

 were prostrated, and for a, time were in a critical 

 condition, but with the exception of a lad about 

 ten years old, they are doing well. Strange to 

 say, two children have not been sick at all. 



— One of the highest authorities on the subject 

 of animal parasites is Dr. T. Sptncer Cobbold, an 

 Englishman. In a work just published, treating 

 of trichina, he says that not a single case of tri- 

 chiniasis in the living human subject has been dis- 

 covered in Great Britain or Ireland. The animals 

 have, however, been found in the bodies of some 

 twenty or thirty individuals who died from other 

 causes ; and in every instance, it is thought, their 

 presence was due to eating German pork-sausages, 

 or other preparations of foreign meat. English 

 swine are almost entirely, if not absolutely, free 

 from the so-called disease. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



DAIRY BARN. 



Having seen a number of plans of barns in your 

 paper, I thought I would send you a plan of one 

 that I think more convenient than those heretofore 

 given in respect to putting in the crops and in the 

 arrangement of the stables, the root cellar, &c. 



I notice that in all that have been published the 

 driveway is lengthwise of the building, by which 

 a large space is occupied, making the stable too 

 long, and necessitating room the whole length of 

 the floor to feed the cattle. 



My plan, supposes that the bam can be built 

 on a hillside (although that is not absolutely 

 necessary) driving in at one side. Hence one end 

 and one side may be supported by a stone \fall 

 the heignt of the cellar; leaving the other and 

 outer side and end to be built of wood or brick. 



The barn is supposed to be built of wood, 65 feet 

 long and 43 feet wide, with 16 feet post and a 



