50 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



aqbicuIiTUBaij items. 



—It is stated that "Lady Milton" produced 

 1595 quarts of milk, and 249 pounds of butter, 

 and "Cream Pot" produced 1533 quarts, and 239^ 

 pounds of butter in a year. 



— A savant in France has been trying how long 

 he can keep eggs, and he concludes that rather 

 thick linseed oil smeared over the shell as a var- 

 nish is better than lime or salt, or hot water. 



—It is stated that of all the holiday beef ex- 

 hibited last year at Chicago, there was not a sin- 

 gle animal with less than three-quarters Short- 

 horn blood in its veins. 



— The tobacco crop of Lancaster county, Pa., is 

 the finest in quality and largest in growth ever 

 raised there, and will be worth over one million 

 dollars. 



— Many persons have wondered why horse ches- 

 nut, horse-radish, &c., are so called. A Scotch 

 work says that the original word was "harsh" — 

 harsh-chestnut, harsh-radish, and that the French 

 and Swedes translated it "horse." 



— The following indicates the ruling prices for 

 choice butter in St. Albans during the season : In 

 May, it opened at thirty-two cents and closed at 

 twenty-nine ; June, twenty-eight to thirty ; July, 

 thirty-to thirty-two ; August, thirty -two to forty ; 

 September, forty to forty-one. 



—The silk culture in California is rapidly be- 

 coming an important interest, and bids fair in a 

 very few years to rival even the gold production. 

 A large number of silk establishments have re- 

 cently been organized, the largest of which is 

 known as the California Silk Culture Company. 



—Sheboygan county, Wis., has 21 cheese-facto- 

 ries, using the milk of nearly 1,000 cows. The 

 average amount of cheese produced per year is 

 about 400 pounds, which, at 13 cents, about the 

 average price of the season, would be $52 per cow, 

 or $47,372 in the aggregate. 



—The following gentlemen were recently elected 

 by the legislature of Vermont, Trustees of the 

 University and State Agricultural College :— Hon. 

 Frederick Billings, of Woodstock ; Hon. Horace 

 Fairbanks, of St. Johnsbury ; Hon. Paul Dilling- 

 ham, of Waterbury, and Henry Clark, Esq., of 

 Rutland. 



—Into the city of New York there flow five great 

 streams of milk each day. One over the Harlem 

 road, another over the Erie, another over the New 

 Haven, another by the Hudson, and yet another 

 by the Long Island, amounting to #25,000 worth 

 Qaily, besides that which comes in by numerous 

 small rivulets. 



—The Western Farmer says that Ira S. Hazel- 

 tine, of Richland Center. Wis., has kept as many 

 as 2000 Spanish ^erino sheep, and 500 or more 

 Long Wool sheep— Cotswolds, Leicesters and Lin- 

 colns. He has kept 300 of the latter in one fiock 

 through the winter and had them do well. He 



writes the Rural New Yorker that he is satisfied 

 that the Spanish Merinos will do much better in 

 large flocks than will the Long Wools, and he pre- 

 fers them for subduing rough pastures, and rough 

 usage in large flocks, but likes the Long Wools 

 best for raising lambs, and much the best for 

 mutton. 



— The Ohio Farmer says that thQ experiment 

 with Ayrshire cattle was tried in the north part of 

 that State twenty years ago and failed. The only 

 popular blood stock for our dairies is grade Short- 

 horns, and the most profitable of all are selected 

 natives purchased in the spring and turned over to 

 the butcher in the fall. 



— The apple crop in the interior of New York is 

 enormous. The estimated yield in Genesee county 

 alone is 30,000 barrels. Prices range from $1.30 

 to $1.50 per barrel. The potato crop is also im- 

 mense, and parties are buying heavily for ship- 

 ment, principally to the West, at prices varying 

 from fifty to sixty cents a bushel. 



— In growing spring sown wheat, as a general 

 rule, very early sown is better than late ; and in 

 order to sow early, the better way is to plough the 

 corn stubble, or other land intended for spring 

 wheat, in the autumn, and in the spring only use 

 the cultivator or harrow in preparing the land for 

 sowing. Such a course will generally greatly 

 facilitate the sowing, over the usual practice of 

 spring ploughing for a grain crop. 



— An Indiana correspondent of the Rural New 

 Yorker writes : "A friend of mine, a lady of un- 

 doubted veracity, recently informed me that sev- 

 eral years since she cracked a peach pit which 

 contained two kernels : desirous of noting the re- 

 sult she planted the kernels, which in due time 

 germinated, grew and bore, the one a large white, 

 and the other a large yellow peach ; each distinct 

 from the other in habit of growth, and appearance 

 and flavor of fruit." 



— An Illinois correspondent of the Country Gen- 

 tleman says that the present price of com in the 

 central part of the State is from twenty-five to 

 thirty-five cents per bushel, according to freight- 

 ing facilities ; and that it is usual in that section 

 to allow seventy-five pounds of corn in the car for 

 a bushel, till tha first of January, when the rate 

 is seventy pounds. Corn is unusually dry this 

 season and seventy-two to seventy pounds are now 

 often accepted as a bushel. 



— The Home Journal says that Kentucky shows 

 an increase in the past ten years of between two 

 and three hundred thousand souls. The popula- 

 tion will reach about 1,360,000; the farms will 

 number about 110,000, and the productive estab- 

 lishments about 5000. This is the largest actual 

 increase Kentucky has ever made in any ten years 

 since her first settlement. Some of the wealthiest 

 counties have been growing poor and some of the 

 poor counties have advanced in wealth. 



