1870. 



NEW ENGLAND F.IRMER. 



441 



GOING ON TO A FARM. 



"Will you please to give your opinion, whether a 

 man with only $500 could get a living at farming, 

 allowing he sbould attend to his business ? There 

 are a number here with about this amount of capi- 

 tal, that think of moving back, into the country 

 and locating near each other, that they may assist 

 one another in cultivating the land. Perhaps some 

 of your readers can give us their experience in 

 this matter. t. e. p. 



Newburyport, Mass., July, 1870. 



Remarks. — We second the motion that this 

 question be referred to "some of our readers." 

 We have so often tried to express our opinion 

 about the probable success of village and city peo- 

 ple in farming, that we should much rather print 

 the experience of those who have tried it, than to 

 repeat our own views. As a general rule we think 

 it is not advisable for men to change either busi- 

 ness or location. The process of acclimation 

 which change of location often implies, and of ap- 

 prenticeship and adaptation which is Inevitable in 

 entering upon a new business, are neither pleasant 

 nor profitable. Many village and city people who 

 get a little book-farming knowledge into their 

 heads, overlook the fact that farming is a trade, 

 and entertain a vague notion that almost anybody 

 can run a farm and do it up in much better style 

 than is done by the old do-as-their-fathers-did far- 

 mers. If our Newburyport friends belong to this 

 class of "progressive farmers ;" if they propose to 

 engage in farming before learning the trade; if 

 they never swung an axe or pulled a hoe or worked 

 a pair of sheep shears all day long; if they have 

 never known how heavy a bushel basket full of 

 potatoes is late in the afternoon after having toted 

 them to the cart sterdily from early morning; if 

 their wives have had no experience in butter and 

 soap making, in trying lard or filling sausages, in 

 taking care of poultry, lambs and pigs, then our 

 advice is most emphatically expressed by just four 

 letters — d-o-n-t ! 



But perhaps T. C. P. and his friends were 

 brought up on farms and have learned the trade 

 by a regular apprenticeship. If so they do not 

 need our advice. They must know that some peo- 

 ple succeed at farming, and some do not ; and that 

 like causes in their own case will produce like 

 eflFects. Failure or success depends on the man, 

 not on the business, whether on a farm or in a shop. 



SURPRISE OATS. 



I have just cut a piece of oats of which I send 

 you a small package. The stalks are the product 

 of one singKi oat. The seed came from the Patent 

 Office three years ago, and a few farmers beside 

 myself have them in my immediate neighborhood. 

 I used one and a half bushels per acre, as I sup- 

 posed, but found after sowing I had a little over 

 an acre and one fourth. They are plenty thick. 

 I shall probably get from fifty to seventy-five 

 bushels from the piece. Last year at thrashing 

 they weighed forty-five pounds a bushel, being 

 altogether ahead of the nasty looking black Nor- 

 way in weight, color, yield and every particular. 

 The stalks sent are about the average length of 

 the piece. The drought here has caused the grain 

 on the lower branches to blast, as you will per* 



ceive. I think with a favorable season and well 

 fitted ground the yield would be large. These 

 grew on a side hill on rather light soil. Some of 

 my neighbors, on heavier land, have a larger 

 growth than mine y. z. 



Rutland, Vt., July 23, 1870. 



Remarks. — The stalks received, seven in num- 

 ber, are over five feet in length, and are certainly 

 very handsome specimens, both as to straw and 

 grain. We suppose it is the variety known as the 

 Surprise, which some say is identical with the 

 New Brunswick. The Surprise Oat has been well 

 spoken of by many who have grown it. 



hens with scurvy legs. 



Can you, or any of your correspondents, tell the 

 cause of a sort of a warty or scaly substance that 

 grows on my hens' legs ? Is there any remedy ? 



Ossipee, N. H., June, 1870. 



Remarks. — We never heard anything of this 

 disease until the large foreign breeds were intro- 

 duced ; and we suppose they are still more liable 

 to it than other breeds. It is generally supposed 

 that the disease is caused by damp, foul apart- 

 ments, and want of proper care, but we under- 

 stand that fljcks that have good attention have 

 suffered of late. A correspondent of the Rural 

 New Yorker says that fowls that show any symp- 

 toms of scurvy legs should at once be separated 

 from the others and placed in warm dry quarters. 

 Give them plenty of wholesome food, and as often 

 as once a day some animal food. Wash the legs 

 with a weak solution of sugar of lead, in the 

 morning, and annoint them with clean lard, mixed 

 with ointment of creosote, just b 'fore they go to 

 roost. Keep them from wet. Others advise to 

 wash the legs with kerosene oil ; annointing with 

 salt grease. 



feeding bone and oyster shells to hens. 



In one of the late Boston agricultural papers 

 there appeared a statement of the loss of a large 

 number of hens in consequence of feeding them 

 with ground bone, supposed to have been poisoned 

 in some way. 



Having had experience in raising poultry, I am 

 led to remark for the information of new begin- 

 ners, that bone or oyster shells should never be 

 mixed with meal, or anything else, when given as 

 feed. Bone and shell must be kept entirely sep- 

 arate from all other feed, and made accessible to 

 the fowls, all the year round, and they will, of 

 themselves, eat just as much as is needed, but not 

 a particle more. Shell is generally preferred by 

 fowls, and should be somewhat coarse. The way 

 I adopt to supply these articles is to use a box 

 about six inches square and eight inches long, for 

 a dozen hens. If it stands out doors the roof 

 ought to slope in order to shed the rain. Take out 

 about one-third of the width of one side — the top 

 part — and have a partition in the middle to separ- 

 ate the two kinds. g. b. s. 



Boston, July 21, 1870. 



REMEDY FOR SCRATCHES. 



Take a piece of alum as large as a chestnut, dis- 

 solve it in half a teacupful of boiling water ; add a 

 tablespoonful of saleratus, and a teacupful of 

 strong vinegar, and use warm. I have found this 

 to be an excellent remedy. T. Roby. 



North Staton, N. H., 1870. 



