1871. 



NEW EXGLAXD FARMER. 



69 



£XTBACTS AUTO BJEPUJSB. 



LICE ON CATTLE. 



"Will you or some of your correspondents inform 

 us here what is the best remedy for lice on cattle ? 

 My whole stock are covered with these pycsts, and 

 they seem to laugh and grow fat and increase in 

 numbers by every exertion on our part to remove 

 them. If any of your readers can give ns a method 

 by which we can pot rid of them, they will be con- 

 ferring a great favor on A Constant Reader. 



Alfred, Me., Dec. 22, 1870. 



Remarks. — Healthy cattle are seldom lousy in 

 the summer season. Why should they be lousy 

 in the winter ? Where did the pests come from 

 that now cover your stock and "laugh you to 

 scorn ?" Are your cattle poor ? Is your barn in- 

 fested ? Sulphur fed with salt; applications of 

 carbolic acid and oil ; a thorough saturation of the 

 whole body with a pint of strong soft soap in a 

 pail of warm water, to be repeated in half an hour, 

 and m half an hour more wash out all the soap and 

 dead lice, and cover the animal with a dry blanket ; 

 brick dust, obtained by rubbing two soft bricks 

 together, sifted over and well rubbed into the hair ; 

 a wash of one pound of sal-soda to two quarts of 

 water ; have the cattle fat when they come to the 

 barn in the fall, and, during the winter, keep the 

 tallow gradually increasing about the kidneys ; 

 applying on a warm day to a space six inches wide 

 on either side of the back bone from head to tail, 

 a mixture of a little sulphur mixed with melted 

 lard, — these are among the prescriptions recom- 

 mended in the Monthly Farmer for 1870. It' you 

 have lice in Maine that will laugh and grow fat on 

 all these infallible cures, then we must join in your 

 appeal to our r >aders for something that will turn 

 their joy to grief. 



WHY THE TOUNO MEN LEAVE THE FARM. 



I have been very much interested in perusing ar- 

 ticles bearing upon thfs subject in the Farmer and 

 Other papers, and now, with your permisbion, I 

 will state a few of my ideas concerning the same, 

 because I am one of "the boys," and think I know 

 the reason why so many of them become dis- 

 couraged with farm life. 



I think one reason is to be found in the unat- 

 tractive appearance of the place, together with 

 shiftless management. As a naturnl consequence, 

 labor on such a place being unprofitable, the boys 

 seek some other employment. Again, they are 

 obliged to work harder and longer on such a farm, 

 because of the rocks, brush, rubbish, tumbledown 

 buildings and "scragej" walls. 



Then, the nef.'ect on the part of the parents to 

 make work interesting. The boys notice these 

 things; they also notice that the workmen in the 

 cities and town* command good wages. Hence 

 they flee td the cities and towns as soon as possi- 

 ble, in the hope of bettering their condition; for, 

 you know, they are ambitious, — they think of the 

 future. Now, I ask, do you blame them ? /don't. 

 But at the same time I don't like the idea of their 

 leaving the farm, and for this reason I write this 

 article. I want to have the parents of these way- 

 ward boys think of these things. I want to have 

 them take the matter in hand, and cause the boys 

 to love home, to love the farm. Teach them in tne 

 art of farming ; provide them with instructive read- 

 ing matter and with amusements ; take an interest 



in their fntnrer welfare ; do it all in a kind manner 



and the boys will remain. 



I will close with the following, which I take from 

 •'Recollections of a Busy Life," by Horace Gree- 

 ley, which contains the gist of the whole matter. 

 "Our farmer's sons escape from their father's call- 

 ing whenever they can, because it is made a mind- 

 less, monotonous dru(ig<^ry, instead of an enno- 

 bling, lii>eralizin£r, intellectual pursuit." 



Westboro', Mass., Dec. 21, 1870. Youno Man. 



Remarks. — We have done with worrying alxiut 

 the boys leaving the farm. We believe that the 

 whole matter will regulate itself in due time. For 

 the last twenty-five or more years manufacturing 

 and trading have been very prosperous throughout 

 the land, and these pursuits have been unusually 

 lucrative. Farmer's boys have crowded into them 

 until there is scarcely standing room for anybody. 

 Cities 'and villages have outgrown the country. 

 But "it is a long lane that has no turning." We be- 

 lieve we are now on the corner of one of those 

 turns. 



A few years ago a trader would fill a store with 

 goods, put up a sign, perhaps advertise, and then 

 sell his goods "over the counter." Customers 

 came to his store or shop, then. Now the city 

 merchant must add to all these expenses the cost 

 of "runners" enough to cover the whole country. 

 Last fall when we were down some one hundred 

 and fifty feet under ground, in one of the marble 

 mines of Vermont, the superintendent of the 

 works was looking over specimens of files which 

 filled the travelling bag of a runner who had 

 found his way thither from some manufactory or 

 hardware establishment. And so it is with all kinds 

 of goods — they must be carried to the consumer, 

 whether on the top of the mountains or in the 

 bowels of the earth. 



A few years ago the farmer that fattened a pig, 

 or made a tub of butter, or a few cheeses, or dried 

 a bag of apples, &c., must fry a box of doughnuts, 

 harness up the old horse, tuck in a bag of oats, and 

 make a journey of one to fourteen days to reach a 

 market, and that often one of exchange, merely. 

 Then it was the farmer that had to hunt up and 

 seek out the consumer, as best he could. Now the 

 city folks, who command the great wages that 

 "Young Mfti" talks about, besiege every farm 

 house, with the money in their fists, begging to 

 buy everything raised, at prices which would 

 have been deemed fabulous in those old truck-and- 

 dicker times. So far as butter is concerned, Fan- 

 euil Hall has been moved up to St. Albans, Vt., 

 and the cheese mart of the nation has migrated 

 from New York city to Little Falls, N. Y. City 

 people are beginning to be alarmed at the cost of 

 living. Some cry out for a "Free Market ;" some 

 denounce "speculators ;" some curso "capitalists, 

 — some one thing, some another, — any thing or 

 any body, by which they can express their sense 

 of the deplorable condition to which they arc re- 

 duced by the "extortionate people" who raise and 

 furnish their daily food. A beautiful place, the 

 city, for young men "who think of the fuiu'e"— 



