1870. 



NEW ENGLAND EAEMER. 



409 



of an acre of land. The land was in good condi- 

 tion and was seeded to orchard grass. Each 

 mornlDg while the dew was on he cut enough to 

 last until the next morning. Besides the grass, 

 he fed but one peck of oats a day. 



— Joseph Harris, Esq., in his "Walks and Talks 

 on the Farm," in the American Agriculturist, says : 

 "No matter what branch of farming we discuss 

 either theoretically or practically, we are brought 

 back to the old, old story, that, as a basis of suc- 

 cessful operation, we must have dry, clean land. 

 Everything must be directed to this one point. 

 We can do nothing without it ; we can do every- 

 thing with it." 



— Charles Carlisle of Woodstock, Vt., writes to 

 the New York Farmers' Club that he experimented 

 last year with ashes on corn, to which he apolied 

 a shovelful of rotten manure in the hill. Fifty 

 hills were left without the ashes ; a handful being 

 put with the manure on the other part of the field. 

 He weighed the product on the fifty hills unashed, 

 and a corresponding number of hills with the 

 ashes. The gain on the part ashed was estimated 

 to be equal to a bushel of corn for each bushel of 

 ashes used. He asks, is it not possible that the 

 corn is benefited by the mixing, if we cover with 

 the mellow soil to receive the liberated ammonia ? 



— Strips of zinc half an inch wide and two and 

 a half inches long, written on with an ink, made 

 of six grains of sulphate of copper, m-'xed with 

 one ounce of water; dissolve and add three grains 

 of sal-ammoniac and twenty drops of sulphuric 

 acid, all to be had of an apothecary, is said l>y 

 the Germantown Tdegraph to be the best style of 

 fiwit-tree labtl that he has found during twenty- 

 five years experience with labels of many differ- 

 ent styles. Copper wire, No. 17, 18 or 19 must be 

 used for fastening the labels upon the trees, and 

 be cut of sufficient length to allow for growth of 

 the tree. Such ink if well made and put on will 

 last twenty years. 



with weeds, bushes and wood, and the farmers 

 who, fifty years ago lacked barn room for their 

 upland hay, are now compelled to resort to the 

 sour, boggy land for the coarse fodder which was 

 then considered hardly worth cutting. 



Bog-Meadow Hat in New England. — In 

 one of Mr. Greeley's articles in which he is telling 

 the readers of the New York Tribune what he 

 " knows of firming," he says, "Fifty years ago, 

 I judge thit the greater part of the hay made in 

 New England was cut from sour, boggy land, that 

 was devoted to grass simply because nothing else 

 could be done with it. I have helped to carry the 

 crop off on poles from considerable tracts on which 

 oxen could not venture without miring." Mr. 

 Greeley spent his boyhood in New Hampshire and 

 Vermont, the same States in which we learned 

 much of the little that we know of farming; but 

 we cannot agree with him in this estimate. In 

 the sections with which we were acquainted we 

 should estimate the proportion of hay from sour, 

 boggy land would not exceed one ton in twenty- 

 five of the whole amount cut. The hill sides 

 which were then productive in clover, herdsgrass 

 and redcop, are in many cases now overgrown 



AMEBICAM" DAIRYMEN IN ENGIiAND. 

 From a letter dated Longford, Eogland, 

 May SO, 1870, written by Mr. C. Schemer- 

 horn, one of the American cheese-makers who 

 have gone to England to introduce the factory 

 system there, and published in the Utica Her- 

 ald, we make the following extracts : — 



After my brother arrived he took charge of 

 the factory at Derby, and I struck out for 

 Longford, 10 miles west of Derby, where the 

 other factory was under way, which was com- 

 pleted in a short time, and commenced opera- 

 tions the 5th of May, The building is a new 

 one, thirty-two feet by ninety and two stories 

 high ; make-roora sixty feet long. It has the 

 drop flocm and gates in the vats, saving the 

 labor of dipping the curds by hand. There 

 are twenty-live patrons, and I am making 

 twenty-two cheeses a day, ten inches deep and 

 pressed in a fourteen inch hoop. I have now 

 in the curing room upwards of 600 cheeses in 

 number. It astonishes all to see how fist 

 ihey accumulate. It is more than was ex- 

 pected. I color the cheese some, and use 

 Nichol's fluid exfra(,'t of annatto, which takes 

 the preference in this country, and ought to 

 in America. It is free from sediment, so 

 tisere is none to settle in the bottom of the 

 vat while the milk is coagulating, to leave 

 a streaked color in the cheese afttr curing. 

 This annatto cannot be shipped in basket s. but 

 comes in keg^ or casks, and is a paste before 

 preparing, and is the pure annatto, while it 

 has to be reduced to a great extent to allow 

 shipping in baskets. Ic takes bur. a small 

 quautity to color a large amount of cheese or 

 outter, and gives the best shade desired. 



England is suffering fjr rain. The grain is 

 backward on this account, and unless rain 

 comes so- n it is anticipated the crops will be 

 light. The grass has not suffered as much, 

 although crops in some sections are turning 

 brown and are getting dry. 



Saturday, the 21st, was the warmest day of 

 the season. Thermometer stood at 83°, while 

 the i>Jd, in the afte '^noon, it stood at 5t°. The 

 fcky is generally cloudy, smoky or foggy. In 

 the evening the bght of the sun fades away 

 slowly. A few evenings ago I was reading at 

 'dh o'clock y-n the twilight, while in the winter 

 time I have been told darkness commences at 

 oi o'' clock in the afternoon, especially in Lon- 

 don, which is a very smoky city. 



The cattle here are good size, and chiefly 

 short-horn. After being in the dairy for thrae 

 or four years they are tatted for beef, (that 

 is, in this section.) They fat very quickly 

 and make good beef. England cannot pro- 



