1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



545 



The heat is produced by lamps at each end 

 of the cabinet, as seen in the cut ; but we shall 

 not attempt a description of the ingenious 

 means by which this self-regulation is effected 

 further than to say that a glass tube filled with 

 spirits, inside of the cabinet and connected 

 with a column of mercury on the outside, fur- 

 nishes the moving power by which one valve 

 increases or diminishes the volume of flame, 

 as the inside temperature rises or falls below 

 the desired degree of warmth, and by which 

 other valves which regulate ventilation and 

 moisture, are opened or shut. 



So satisfactory is the operation of this self- 

 regulating apparatus that it has run, in one 

 case at least, forty-eight hours with a variation 

 of only two degrees. The same principle is 

 also applied to what is called an "Artificial 

 •Mother," a box or coop lined with lamb's 

 wool, for brooding the chickens. 



The chicks which we saw just out of the 

 shell, appeared to be as healthy and smart as 

 those hatched by a hen. 



Whatever may be thought of the practica- 

 bility or economy of artificial incubation, this 

 machinery is certainly ingenious and interest- 

 ing. 



Get Leather Bits. — One of the crudest 

 things done to dumb beasts is putting hard 

 frozen iron bits into a horse's mouth. It is 

 not only painful but a dangerous act. For 

 every time living flesh touches a metal much 

 below the freezing point, the latter extracts 

 the heat from the former and freezes it. 

 Thus a horse's mouth becomes frozen by the 

 cold iron every time it is put into it ; each 

 time causing these freezings to go deeper 

 and deeper, to end at last in extensive ulcera- 

 tion. With such a sore mouth the poor horse 

 refuses to eat and pines away, which calls the 

 horse-doctor in. They call it bots, glanders, 

 horse-ail, etc., and go to cramming down 

 poisonous drugs, in do^es ; and the next you 

 know of the poor abused creature, he is trotted 

 off to be food for fish or the crows. Many a 

 valuable horse has been "mysteriously" lost 

 in just that way. Thinking and humane people 

 avoid this by first warming the bits ; but this 

 is much trouble, and sometimes impossible as 

 in right work, like staging and physician's 

 work. Now all this trouble and loss are en- 

 tirely avoided, as we have found on large 

 trial, by getting the harness-makers to get 

 leather bits for winter use, so made that no 

 metal substance can touch the flesh. They 

 are durable and cost only half a dollar. We 

 wouldn't exchange ours for a gold one, if it 

 couldn't be replaced. Don't fail to try it. — 

 Eural >T orld. 



CROPS IN SPITE OF DROUGHT. 



^ NDOTJBTEDLY all 



the changes ia 

 the operations 

 of nature, have 

 their compensa- 

 tions. Storms 

 tear up the trees 

 and sometimes 

 demolish our 

 buildings or de- 

 stroy life, but 

 Ihey equalize in 

 the end the cur- 

 rents of air by 

 scattering their 

 impurities, or 

 change them into healthful breezes. In the 

 rains that undermine bridges and destroy 

 other works of art, come many elements that 

 descend into the soil and fit it to sustain the 

 plants we rear. The whirlwind and earth- 

 quake, sand-storm and lightning's flash, do 

 not destroy, but change things from one form 

 into another, and the result of all is the gen- 

 eral good. 



So it is with the drought. If he will but 

 give attention to it, the farmer will find com- 

 pensations in the operations of nature them- 

 selves, and in the practical lessons which he 

 may draw from them. 



Some twenty years ago, the opinion was 

 common that deep ploughing tended to pro- 

 duce large crops ; that is, ploughing from 

 nine to twelve inches in depth. That opinion 

 was adhered to quite steadily until recently, 

 when many doubts have been expressed as to 

 its soundness. 



At the December meeting of the Massachu- 

 setts Board of Agriculture in 1867, when the 

 subject of ploughing was discussed, a majority 

 of the speakers expressed themselves as opposed 

 to the practice of deep ploughing. At the 

 winter meeting of the New Hampshire Agri- 

 cultural Society in 1869, the prevailing opinion 

 was, that deep ploughing is essential to profit- 

 able farming. 



It seems as though this question ought to 

 be settled by this time, so that every beginner 

 may enter upon the work without a shadow of 

 doubt on his mind whether he shall plough 

 deep or shallow. 



A careful observation by the farmer will 



