1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



483 



one of our leading buyers, that he never lost mon- 

 ey when he boaght the Eagle. The Eagle and 

 branches were making sixteen ninety-pound 

 cheeses a day. 



AGEICULTUKAL ITEMS. 



— One California sheep ranch includes 200,000 

 acres. 



— The excursions of the bees to collect honey 

 are variously estimated at from one to three miles 

 each, and they are supposed to make each about 

 ten trips a day. 



— Julius Riley, of Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, 

 has two geese that he has had in his possession 

 upwards of forty years. He purchased them about 

 the year 1829, and they were at that time "middle 

 aged geese." 



— The Bucyrus, Ohio, Journal has measured an 

 honey comb which was four and a half inches 

 through, the cells on one side being three inches 

 deep and on the other side an inch and a half, all 

 one mass of sweetness. 



— The editor of the Horticulturist, says that he 

 has known quite a number of instances in which 

 old orchards apparently dying out, have been 

 brought back to fruitfulness by the liberal use of 

 wood ashes, in connection with stirring the soil. 



— A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune men- 

 tions a case where cows were poisoned by eating 

 potatoes that had the sprouts on. He says before 

 old potatoes are fed the sprouts should in all cases 

 be removed. 



— The crops are suffering severely throughout 

 Cape Cod, in some parts of which no rain has 

 fallen for six weeks except a slight shower, and 

 prospects of the cranberry crop are said to be very 

 poor, owing to the want of moisture. 



— The New Haven Register says : "TVhat we 

 know about gardening" will be interesting. The 

 "senior" has picked, this season, three cucumbers, 

 two cauliflowers, seven ears of corn, and four 

 tomatoes, which cost him $'4.48 each. 



— A Chicago journalist divides the inhabitants 

 of that great hive of population into two classes — 

 those who follow life insurance and those who do 

 not. The latter class, he tells us, is too insignifi- 

 cant to bestow any attention upon. 



— Pleuro-pneumonia has broken out among Mr. 

 Dinsmore's imported cattle, at Poughkeepsie, N. 

 Y., and it is feared that fatal results will follow. 

 An Alderny bull, valued at $1,000 is in a critical 

 condition. 



— The General Omnibus Company of Paris em- 

 ploy 10,000 horses. They are nearly all Percheron 

 stallions purchased at five years old. A little 

 over two per cent, died in 1869. Hay and oats are 

 fed. They require shoeing once in about 27 or 28 

 days. 



— The toad, which is an efficient bug hunter'in 

 the garden, is said by the Ohio Farmer Xo eat honey 



bees with an equal relish, and bee keepers are ad- 

 vised to arrange the lighting boards of the hives 

 in such a manner as not to be accessible to his 

 toadship. 



— The negro in Tennessee, says the Memphis 

 Ledger, is fast becoming proprietor of the soil he 

 formerly tilled for his master. About 500 negroes 

 own farms in the vicinity of Memphis, and all 

 their farms are well cultivated, while the farms of 

 a great many white men are covered with weeds. 



— The leading agricultural periodicals of Great 

 Britain are the Mark Lane Express, The Field, 

 Bell's Messenger, Farmer's Magazine, all published 

 in London ; North British Agriculttirist, and the 

 Farmer published at Edinburgh, and the Irish 

 Farmer's Gazette, Dublin. 



— A letter from Claremont, N. H., says: "Such 

 a dry time has not been known here since John 

 H. Warland edited the Claremont Eagle, some 

 twenty-five years ago, when he said it was so dry 

 that he had to soak his pig to make him hold 

 swill." 



— The Editor of the New York Horticulturist 

 says there are enough acres in blackberries to 

 supply Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and 

 thinks it not wise to advise any more to engage in 

 the business. He thinks there are near one thou- 

 sand acres in blackberries within thirty miles of 

 Philadelphia. 



— An implement maker in France has constructed 

 a species of plough, by means of which the beet 

 bulbs are lifted from the ground and thrown aside 

 by a swinging mold-board, and then topped by 

 women and children who followed the machine. 

 One of these, worked by a man and a pair of 

 horses, will dig about two and one-half acres per 

 day. 



— It is stated in the Oregonian that a party of 

 French, who had camped at Wilhoit's Soda 

 Springs, killed a deer which was found to be liter- 

 ally alive with trichinae. A number of families 

 ate of it before the discovery. The discovery -of 

 trichince in venison killed in its "mountain fast- 

 ness" has created quite an excitement among the 

 hunters. • 



— The Diehl wheat, which has recently been ex- 

 tensively introduced into Michigan, is said to be 

 liable to sprout and grow in harvesting when the 

 weather is damp and moist, as it has been this 

 year in that State. In some cases, the Michigan 

 Farmer says, the shocks on whole fields of forty 

 acres are almost green. Other varieties withstand 

 the weather better. 



— Stock from Southern California is being driven 

 over the mountains, whenever practicable, in 

 large numbers, to save it from the drought. Sheep 

 are, for the same reason, being forced into market 

 in larger numbers than usual. It has been de- 

 cided to reduce a flock of 50,000 in the island of 

 Santa Cruz to 40,000, in order to increase the 



