1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



5T5 



warm bedding for the animals next winter. If 

 you can get sawdust by going not over four miles 

 for it, lay in a quantity of that also. It is good as 

 a bedding, and as an absorbent of urine. Thus 

 you will add to the com fo-rt of your animals and 

 to the size of the manure heap. "The merciful 

 man is merciful to his beasts," and here in New 

 England we must learn to be merciful to the soil. 



CLAY AS A DRESSING. 



If clay can be procured by carting not over one 

 mile, and on a road not too steep for drawing a 

 decent sized load, I can recommend, from experi- 

 ence, its application in small quantities to all 

 lands except those wet or already sufficiently 

 clayey. Now is the time for carting it. The 

 frosts of winter will prepare it for spreading in 

 the spring. 



BE GENTLE WITH ALL ANIMALS. 



Boys, if you start with the milk pail in a bad 

 humor, remember that the great law, Do unto 

 others as you would that they should do unto you, 

 should govern your conduct towards the dumb 

 beasts under your care, as well as towards your 

 equals. When your fingers are cold and stiff a 

 hard and rough squeeze of them gives you pain ; 

 the same is true of the teats of the cow you grasp 

 to milk in a frosty morning. Be gentle, be rea- 

 sonable and considerate. 



O, ye people, who profess righteousness, and be- 

 lieve that you shall be judged by your works, 

 don't abuse by kicking, striking, starving or ex- 

 posing to cold or storms, any of the noble, but 

 patient animals, that are dependent on you for 

 comfort or discomfort, — for pain or pleasure, dur- 

 ing the long days and cheerless nights of the 

 coming wiater. T. A. C. Nichols. 



Phjmouth, N. H., Nov., 1870. 



DR. SHURTLEFF's SEEDLING PEARS AND APPLES. 



I send you a few specimens of my Seedling 

 pears, and a Seedling apple that I call Trout ; also, 

 an apple which I call Victoria, that came from the 

 western part of the State of New York. 



The Pemberton Pear is a rich fruit, and the tree 

 a good and regular bearer. The Matming is a 

 good and handsome pear. The Admiral Foot is a 

 good bearer, and a sweet and vinous pear ; also 

 my seedlings. Gen. Grant and Shurtkff's Favorite. 

 The one unnamed is also a rich pear. 



L. A. Shurtleff. 



Spring Grove, Brookline, 3Iass., 1870. 



Remarks.— The fruit was received in good or- 

 der, and bur venerable friend, who, though seventy- 

 eight years of age, is still active in his efforts to 

 improve fruit and benefit his fellow men, will 

 please accept our thanks for his kind remem- 

 brance, and for the pleasure which so rich a box 

 of fruit affords both eye and taste. The New 

 York apples are very large ;— one weighing 12^, 

 two full 10, and one 9^ ounces; flatish, but of 

 handsome form; very light green, striped or 

 splashed most beautifully with red. Altogether 

 the Victoria is a splendid apple. 



We do not know that we can add anything to 

 Dr. Shurtleff's description of his seedlings, and 

 will only say that the Pemberton is a green pear 

 with dark red cheek ; the Manning a light yellow, 

 with a pale blush on some specimens, and of good 

 flavor ; the Admiral Foot is dark green, russet at 

 the crown, and specked with brown; the variety 

 unnamed is dark yellow, shaded with dark red, 

 crown light russet. The Gen. Grant is a large 



handsome yellow pear, handsomely dotted, and a 

 little russet about the stem. Shurtleff's Favorite 

 is smaller, also yellow. At the late Pomological 

 Convention at Philadelphia, the president, Hon. 

 Marshal P. Wilder, spoke of the forty or more 

 varieties produced by Dr. Shurtleff, mentioning 

 particularly the President, Gen. Grant and Ad- 

 miral Farragut, as large. He said they were gen-' 

 erally vigorous, and all about alike in quality. 

 On account of the large size of the varieties above 

 named, he advised their trial by fruit growers. 



The seedling apple is mostly red, somewhat 

 mottled and specked with light yellow MUd, 

 sub-acid, and we should judge ripe in October. 



gargett c#w. 



I have a splendid cow, four years old, that has a 

 swelling of the udder. The first that I noticed of 

 the trouble was a bunch in the teat, near the middle, 

 about the size of a bean. This increased till it 

 shut off nearly all the milk in that quarter, and 

 the bag swelled considerable. In a few days it 

 commenced in another teat in the same manner. 

 It has now taken the third teat, and the milk is 

 not fit for use. The cream was quite stringy 

 sometime before I noticecf the bunch. 



Zoar, Mass., 1870. A. A. Hawkes. 



Remarks. — We presume that the trouble with 

 your cow is what is usually called garget, which 

 may possibly have been induced by high feeding, 

 as you remark she is a splendid animal. In the 

 bound volumes of the Monthly Farmer much has 

 been published on the treatment of this disease. 

 Prof. Law recommends a dose of one pound of 

 epsom salts, to be followed the next, and for a few 

 successive days, with an 'ounce of nitre and a 

 drachm of iodide of potassium. Also to rub the 

 udder daily with an ointment composed of one 

 part of iodine to twelve parts of lard. 



Since writing the above we have received the 

 following :— 



CURE FOR garget. 



Give the cow three or four quarts of strong 

 tansy tea, which she will drink freely if troubled 

 with garget, and it will eflFect a cure. I have tried 

 this remedy several times with good success. 



East Rumford, Me., 1870. A Subscriber. 



OATS AND EARLY ROSE POTATOES. 



Several months ago I noticed a suggestion in the 

 Farmer that your correspondents record their 

 failures as well as success in their farming opera- 

 tions. 



Acting upon that suggestion, I will give you an 

 item or two from my experience. Many friends, 

 whose solicitude for my welfare was equalledonly 

 by their anxiety to dispose of the grain in their 

 possession, have advised me to cultivate the Nor- 

 way oat, extolling its enormous yield, weight, 

 superior quality of straw, &c., while I, crusted 

 over by old fogyism, turned a deaf ear to their im- 

 portunities. Thus the matter stood until some- 

 time in the month of February last, when sud- 

 denly, as if by magic, in the columns of nearly 

 every journal in the land, there appeared a coarse 

 wood engraving representing a man standing be- 

 tween two massive columns towering majestically 

 above his head, said to be a couple of bundles of 

 Norway oats. "That was the unkindest cut of all." 

 "Photographed from life" said the veracious ad- 



