1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



513 



ing the subjects of Associated Dairying, and Cur- 

 ing of Milk, were presented respectively by Rev. 

 "Wm. Gurney of Foxcroft, and Mr. Gold of Con- 

 necticut. 



On Thursday the Board went on an excursion to 

 Sebec Lake and Granite Mountain. In the even- 

 ing, Hon. Samuel Wai?son delivered a lecture on 

 Water — the subject being considered chemically 

 and practically. An allusion was made to the 

 natural advantages of Maine in furnishing sites 

 for mills and factories, and he believed by encour- 

 aging their establishment we were directly ad- 

 vancing the cause of agriculture, by creating a 

 sure and ready demand for all farm products. 

 After the lecture, a little time was spent in listen- 

 ing to the reports of the delegates from Farmer's 

 Clubs in attendance, to the number of perhaps 

 half a dozen, each speaker occupying but few 

 minutes — all showing the value of these clubs, and 

 tfcstifj ing to the good they have accomplished. 



The meeting of Friday afternoon being the clos- 

 ing one of the session, was largely taken up with 

 the formal business consequent upon the event, 

 tjnd what was done was performed in a hurried 

 manner. There was, however, something said 

 about dairying, a short paper by Mr. Bodge on 

 sheep farming, and some rather sensible«remarks 

 by Mr. Buck of Hancock County, a representative 

 of the Farmers' Club there. Some of these sub- 

 jects would have been discussed had there been 

 time. 



AQKICULTURAL ITEMS. 



— Of a flock of 1350 fine wool sheep in Bates 

 County, Missouri, all but 20 died of scab. 



— The Trustees of the Illinois Industrial Uni- 

 versity — Agricultural College — have decided to 

 admit females to all the benefits of the institution. 



— Forty years ago one could buy a good cow for 

 $V2; now it takes $80. Yet forty years ago flour 

 was bat little cheaper than in 1870. As a nation 

 we make too much grain, and do not raise enough 

 stock. 



— A writer in the Homestead, Iowa, asks what 

 the working man is going to do for meat, and 

 thinks the question will soon be a serious one. He 

 says that unless more stock is raised, laboring 

 classes will soon have to do without meat. 



— The Stockdale beef packery, near Brenham, 

 Texas, began operations last fall, and for its first 

 season's work killed 4500 cattle, packed 3000 

 tierces of beef, and shipped off 1,000,000 pounds 

 of hide and tallow. 



— A correspondent of the Germantown Telegraph 

 who lost seventy chickens by gapes last year, now 

 says that fresh water daily, with a lump of roll 

 brimstone kept in it, will be found a certain pre- 

 ventive. 



— A Western farmer noticed that almost all the 

 potato bugs in his garden had disappeared, and a 

 short time after he killed a large, striped snake 

 with his hoe, and found that it was full of the 

 larvai of the potato bug. It had about cleared 

 out the garden. He says he will tL 1 no more of 

 those snakes. 



— In Michigan the production of plaster in 1869 

 amounted to 90,000 tons ; amount of capital in- 

 vested, $650,000. The aggregate value of the 



plaster manufactured from its beginning in 1840 

 up to the present, is $1,298,075. The business is 

 rapidly increasing. The lands now comprising 

 the works number 3,727 acres. 



'Tis pleasant, on a fine eprlng morn, to see the buds 



expand ; 

 'Ti8 pleasant, in the eummer time, to view the teeming 



land; 

 Tis pleasant, on a winter's night, 1o crouch around the 



blaze; 

 But what are joys like these, my boys, to autumn's 



merry days I — Dickens, 



— A correspondent of the Country Gentleman 

 planted a few acres of turnips, which were large 

 enough to begin to feed the first week in July, 

 when they were fed to pigs, no other feed given 

 until the last week in September. No lot ot pigs 

 could have done better, growing and keeping in 

 good condition all the while. 



— The culture of flax has been recently intro- 

 duced in California. One farmer who has planted 

 thirty acres, will obtain from 1000 to 1200 pounds 

 of seed to the acre, bringing in a gross return of 

 $50 to $60 an acre. The stalks are worth $20 a 

 ton. The flax in California is not pulled from the 

 ground, but is cut with a reaping machine. 



— Luther Kendall, of Felchville, Vt., has sold 

 during the past year one hundred dollars' worth ' 

 of butter and cheese, made from one cow of the 

 native breed, besides supplying himself and wife, 

 and occasional visitors, with milk and butter, and 

 raising a calf for which he was oficred twenty dol- 

 lars. 



— When a horse refuses to eat, he should not be 

 made to do any more service that day, for it may 

 be known that he is tired out or sick. It is bar- 

 barous to compel a horse to perform labor when 

 in such a condition that he refuses grain, yet it is 

 often done, and by men, too, who think they are 

 merciful. 



--The St. Louis Journal of Agriculture thinks 

 the present is the time to attack and destroy bur- 

 dock. It says the old stems, with burrs on them, 

 should be cut with a spade or mattock just below 

 the surface, and carefully piled togethir while 

 green. After a few days of dry weather, set fire 

 to them, and stand by till the last burr goes to 

 ashes. This done, the young plants that have 

 grown from the seed this year should either be 

 pulled up or the roots cut off" below the collar, and 

 thrown upon the manure heap. 



— After losing a large number of chickens from 

 swollen, sore heads and eyes, a correspondent of 

 the Prairie Farmer found on close examination 

 that their heads were covered with a perfect mass 

 of nits, piled one upon another, and a long, flat 

 kind of lice, busy adding hundreds more. Among 

 the wing quills were thousands of a smaller kind 

 of lice in heaps. He made a quantity of sulphur 

 and lard ointment, and put it on several times. 

 Not one has died since, although his neighbors 

 are still losing as many as ever. 



