1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEJ^IER. 



879 



adapted to our keeping, which is not the best 

 with the majority of farmers, having much 

 swamp hay and corn fodder and hay of infe- 

 rior quality. I knew a mechanic who had ac- 

 quired money by his trade, who bought a farm, 

 and having read much of the crack stock in 

 the agricultural papers, bought a Durham bull 

 and commenced raising stock. As he fed 

 much inferior hay, his stock was inferior to 

 that of his neighbors who kept the native 

 breed, being gaunt, long legged and poor. 

 Take care to breed from the best native stock 

 and all will be well. 



The Orchard. 



Next comes the orchard in our programme. 

 I do not believe in continually ploughing it or 

 that it should be heavily manured, as trees 

 thus treated soon die. There are millions of 

 small roots that run close to the surface and 

 carry sustenance to the tree from the best of 

 the soil. Cut these often, with the plough and 

 you oblige the tree to draw sustenance through 

 the lower roots from the barren subsoil. 

 Neither should orchards go to grass and have 

 it mowed off every year or fed off by cattle. 

 They should be fenced as in old times, when 

 no complaint was made of barren trees, and 

 the grass that grows up suffered to fall down 

 and rot on the surface, forming a mulch and 

 keeping the surface of the ground loose and 

 rich. 



The Forest. 



Last of all I shall mention the forest. Many 

 of the New England farmers, from the in- 

 crease of taxes or lack of agricultural skill 

 in keeping up the fertility of their fields, have 

 encroached and committed vandalism upon 

 the forests left them by their prudent fathers. 

 Now that the price of wood and timber has 

 more than doubled since the commencement 

 of the late war, I think the way for you "to 

 make the most money from the farm," is to 

 stand guard with gun and bayonet if need be 

 over your forest trees. I quote from an arti- 

 cle in the New York Sun : — "There is danger 

 that before many years have passed that the 

 United States will become a country without 

 trees. A treeless country is equivalant to an 

 arid desert land, in which agriculture is an 

 impossibility. As trees disappear from the 

 Leads of the great water courses from whence 

 much of our timber comes, the rivers lessen 

 in volume, the annual fall of rain throughout 

 the cleared district diminishes and the agricul- 

 tural product is reduced. Should the destruc- 

 tion of timber in this country continue with 

 its present rapidity, and no provision be made 

 for replanting forests, all the States will prob- 

 ably become a rainless region, like Arizona, 

 where crops can be raised only by expensive 

 irrigation. The present consumption of wood 

 in the United States is enormous. One hun- 

 dred and fifty thousand acres of the best of 

 timber is cut every year for railroad sleepers 

 alone. For railroad buildings, repairs and 

 cars, the annual expenditure in wood is thirty- 



eight millions of dollars. In a single year the 

 locomotives in the United States consume 

 forty-six millions of dollars worth of wood. 

 There are in the whole country more than 

 four hundred thousand artizans in wood ; and 

 if the value of their labor is one thousand dol- 

 lars a year each, the wood industry of the 

 country represents an amount of nearly five 

 hundred millions of dollars per annum." 

 Thus, if the statements of this article, from 

 which I make but a meagre quotation, be true, 

 one more way to make the most money from 

 the farm, is to preserve the growth of the 

 wood and timber. 



Epping, N. E., March, 1870. 



A ■WHOLESOME DRINK FOB SUMMER. 



More than once we have had occasion to 

 speak of the injurious effects of drinking 

 large quantities of cold water during the hot 

 weather ; and have also advised our readers 

 to follow the suggestion of an old and es- 

 teemed physician, long in successful practice 

 in this State years ago, to use only hot or 

 warm drinks during the excessively hot weather 

 of summer. This physician advised the house- 

 wife to always have the teapot upon the stove, 

 that the workmen at haying might have warm 

 drink, as it satisfied thirst much better than 

 cold water, was more healthful, and when ac- 

 customed to its use would be preferred by the 

 men themselves. In our desire to suggest all 

 the comfort possible to men obliged to labor 

 hard in the heat of a summer sun, we again 

 mention the above, and also present the fol- 

 lowing receipt for a wholesome field drink, 

 furnished by "a farmer's wife" to the Oer- 

 mantoicn Telegraph : — 



"Take of the best white Jamaica ginger 

 root, carefully bruised, two ounces ; cream of 

 tartar, one ounce ; water, six quarts, to be 

 boiled for about five minutes, then strained ; 

 to the strained liquor add one pound of sugar, 

 and again place it over the fire ; keep it well 

 stirred till the sugar is perfectly dissolved, 

 and then pour it into an earthen vessel, into 

 which you have previously put two drachms 

 of tartaric acid, and the rind of one lemon, 

 and let it remain till the heat is reduced to a 

 lukewarm temperature ; then add a tablespoon- 

 ful of yeast, stirring them well together, and 

 bottle for use. The corks must be well se- 

 cured. The drink will be in high perfection 

 in four or five days. This is a very refresh- 

 ing and wholesome beverage, and one which 

 may be largely partaken of without any un- 

 pleasant results even in the hottest weather." 

 Maine Farmer. 



—Mr. J. N. Bagg, of West Springfield, Mass., 

 editor of the Ayrshire Herd Book, is about to pre- 

 pare another volume of that valuable work. It 

 will be issued in the latter part of this year, and 

 breeders of Ayrshire stock are invited to forward 

 pedigrees, &c. 



