440 



NEW ENGLAND FARJ^IER. 



Sept. 



likely there will be an abscess, which at the proper 

 time, may require opening. You had better poul- 

 tice at present. 



A SICK cow. 



I have a four-year-old heifer. She calved early 

 in May, gave a good mess of milk for a while, but 

 the last few weeks has gradually fallen ofiF in her 

 yield, and continues to daily. She is also very 

 poor; her appetite is good, always seeming hungry. 

 If you or some of the readers of the Farmer can 

 inform me of what would benefit her, through its 

 columns, I should be very grateful. J. t. 



Braintree, VL, July 4, 1870. 



Remarks. — This description does not enable one 

 to decide what is the matter with the cow. One 

 thing, however, Is certain: — her food does not 

 nourish her, — either it is not digested, or the 

 proper organs do not take up the nutriment. 

 Give her sulphate of iron, pulverized, one drachm, 

 rubbed with ginger, one teaspoonful once a day. 

 Some internal organic disease may have taken 

 place. 



AGBICUI.TnBAL HORSE BACINQ. 



Right glad was I to see that noble protest against 

 horse racing at our agricultural Fairs, in the Far- 

 mer of July 16. Since the introduction upon our 

 Fair grounds of the race course and the machinery, 

 more or less complete, of the sports of the turf, I 

 have had only one mind as to their final result, — 

 which is that they will ultimately prove the sub- 

 version and ruin of our "cattle shows" and farm- 

 ers' festivals, if not held in check or entirely ex- 

 cluded. Exactly what course to pursue under the 

 circumstances I do not assume to advise. But 

 this much I may say, the great object, the polar 

 star, — agricultural progress, — must be kept stead- 

 ily in view. Amusement and diversion should not 

 be excluded, but the aim and goal must be the 

 social, moral, and profesiional improvement of 

 farmers. However efficiently and judiciously 

 our Fairs may be managed, unquestionably there 

 will be those who will find occasion to grumble 

 and criticise. But with a firm purpose to encour- 

 age a healthy competition in honorable industry 

 and superiority in productions, and at the same 

 time to discourage every thing that tends to excite 

 ambition to get a dollar without earning it squarely 

 and fairly, we fully believe that our agricultural 

 associations may do much to encourage and bene- 

 fit farmers, and to show them and others that ag- 

 riculture can stand alone and even walk without 

 the leading-strings of any jockey club. 



Farmington, Me., July 18, 1870. 0. W. True. 



SIGNS OF THE WEATHER. 



The writer has been a close observer of signs of 

 the weather for a number of years past, which are 

 far more reliable than any baromerer, he thinks, 

 ever invented. All indications of rain are said to 

 fail in a dry time. With such exceptions, the fol- 

 lowing rules are quite reliable. 



1. The state of the weather during the last quar- 

 ter of the moon, is a fair sample of what it will be 

 during the remaining three-quarters, whether wet, 

 changeable or dry. 



2. When the spiders spread their nests on the 

 grass so that they are visible in the morning with 

 a heavy dew upon them, though a heavy vapor or 

 fog may hang over the hills and not in the valleys 

 — ominous of storms — yet the insect has shadowed 

 forth with unerring instinct a fair day, though 

 Bometimes slight showers may fall. Some other 



habits of this cunning and intelligent creature are 

 equally interesting, which cannot be noticed from 

 want of space. Who has not, when travelling 

 through a wood in the morning, in summer time, 

 felt a tiny line drawn across his face, that was the 

 highway bridge of the aerial traveller. At other 

 times they will gather up the corners of their web, 

 and like the aeronaut suspended from a basket ^\ill 

 sail through the air to a new field of operations. 



3. A heavy fog on the hills and little or none in 

 the valleys, is often a fair indication of rain, al- 

 though not perfectly reliable. 



The following observations copied from the 

 "Farmer's and Mechanic's Manual," are claimed 

 to be reliable, which the writer has not fully tested 

 to his satisfaction. 



1. The nearer the time of the moon's change, 

 first quarter, full, or last quarter are to midnight — 

 from 10 P. M. to 2 o'clock, A. M. — the fairer will 

 be the weather during the seven days following. 



2. The nearer to mid-day or noon the phases of 

 the moon happen, the more foul or wet weather 

 may be expected during the next seven days. 

 The space of this calculation occupies from 10 

 o'clock, A. M. to 2 P. M. These observations re- 

 fer principally to summer, though they afiect 

 spring and autumn nearly in the same ratio. 



Barre, Mass., July 4, 1870. Caleb Rvsset. 



PROTECTING TREES FROM MICE AND BORERS. 



In the winter of 1868-9 I lost sixty beautiful 

 young apple trees out of my orchard of 180 trees, 

 in consequence of the mice gnawing the bark. In 

 the fall of 1869 I procured a roll of builder's tarred 

 paper, cut into pieces IJ feet by 2J feet. I then 

 coiled one of these papers around each tree, leav- 

 ing a space of about two inches all around the 

 tree, so that the atmosphere could circulate freely 

 between the tree and paper. I then tied a small 

 twine around the paper at the top and bottom to 

 hold it in place. At the same time I placed about 

 two bushels old chip manure about each tree, so 

 that the first (reezing weather in November fas- 

 tened the manure to the paper, rendering it stiff 

 and steady, thereby making a complete fortifica- 

 tion against the little intruders. 



Last April, after the snow was gone, I removed 

 the papers and found erery one of my trees that I 

 had thus papered in a perfectly healthy condition 

 and untouched by the mice. There were thirty 

 trees in the same orchard which I did not paper, 

 eight of which were completely girdled and killed 

 by the mice. Osmyn Smith. 



Smith's Mills, P. Q., July 11, 1870. 



Last fall, before the snow fell, I wound my 

 young trees with felting paper, put as hi^h as the 

 snow was likely to fall. It was tied on at the top 

 and bottom, also in the middle, with wool twine. 

 All my trees thus protected came through the 

 winter and spring uninjured, while those in by- 

 places not protected were destroyed. Soine of my 

 neighbors did the same with like results. I had 

 two apple trees in my fruit yard six inches in 

 diameter, standing near a fence north of them. A 

 severe north snow storm, the 16th of March, 

 banked the snow up to the limbs of these trees. I 

 directed my man to tread the snow down hard 

 around them. He did it well ; but when the snow 

 melted away we found that the Httle hungry mice 

 had girdled the trunk completely for eighteen 

 inches above the ground. I have banked them 

 up high with earth and they are btaring full thia 

 season, but I think they will die next season. 



I have succeeded in keepmg the borer from my 

 apple trees for the last twenty years, by applying 

 charcoal dust from old coalpit bottoms. 



J. N. Smith. 



West Addison, Vt., July 12, 1870. 



