1871. 



XEW ENGLAND FARilER. 



139 



feed, mixing the meal with the cut feed, or 

 feeding without mixing, and report the result 

 to the Farmer, we might all obtain a gi-eat 

 deal of most valuable information, for want of 

 which, we all lose more than twice the amount 

 of time and trouble of doing it. 



Will not your readers set apart some of 

 these long winter evenings in doing so and re- 

 port the result of such experiments. 



T. L. Hart. 



West Cornwall, Conn., Jan., 1871. 



FAKMEBS' CLUBS. 



A true Farmers' Club should consist of all 

 the families residing in a small township, so 

 far as they can be mduced to attend it, even 

 though onl}' half their members should be 

 present at any one meeting. It should limit 

 speeches to ten minutes, excepting only those 

 addresses or essays which eminently qualified 

 persons ai-e requested to specially j^rcpare and 

 read. It should have a President, ready and 

 able to repress all ill-natured personalities, all 

 irrelevant talk, and especially all straying 

 into the forbidden regions of political or theo- 

 logical disputation. At each meeting the 

 subject should be chosen for the next, and not 

 less than four members pledged to make some 

 observations thereon, with Uberty to read them 

 if unused, to speaking in public. These hav- 

 ing been heard, the subject should be open to 

 discussion by all present, the humblest and 

 youngest being specially encouraged to state 

 any facts within their knowledge, wliich they 

 deemed pertinent and cogent. Let every per- 

 son present be thus incited to say something 

 calculated to shed hght on the subject, to say 

 this in the fewest words possible, and with the 

 utmost care not to annoy or offend others, 

 and it is hardly possible that one evening per 

 week devoted to these meetings should not be 

 spent with equal pleasm-e and profit. 



The chief end to be achieved through such 

 meetings is a development of the faculty of 

 observation and the habit of reflection. Too 

 many of us pass through life, essentially blind 

 and deaf to the wonders and glories manifest 

 to clearer eyes all around us. The magnifi- 

 cent phenomena of the seasons, even the 

 awakening of Natitre from death to life in 

 spring-time, make little impression on their 

 senses, still less on their imderstanding. There 

 are men who have passed forty times through 

 a forest, and yet could not name, within half 

 a dozen, the various species of trees which 

 compose it ; and so with everything else to 

 which they are accustomed. They need even 

 more than knowledge an intellectual awakening, 

 and this they could hardly fail to receive from 

 the discussions of an intelligent and earnest 

 Farmers' Club. 



A genuine and lively interest in their voca- 

 tion is needed by many farmers, and by most 

 farmers' sons. Too many of these regard 

 their homesteads as a prison, in which they 



must remain until some avenue of escape into the 

 great world shall open before them. The farm 

 to such is but the hollow log into which a bear 

 crawls to wear out the rigors of winter and 

 await the advent of spring. Too many of our 

 boys fancy that they know too much for far- 

 mers, when in fact" they know far too little. 

 A good Farmers' Clubj faithfully attended, 

 would take this conceit out of them, imbuing 

 them instead with a reahzing sense of their 

 ignorance and incompetency, and a hearty 

 desire for practical wisdom. 



Almost every good farmer or gardener will 

 sometimes have choice seeds or grafts to spare, 

 which he does not care or cannot expect to 

 sell, and these being distributed to the Club, 

 will not only increase its popularity, but give 

 him a right to share when another surplus is 

 in like manner distributed. If one has choice 

 fruits to give away, the Club will afford him 

 an excellent opportnnity, but I would rather 

 not attract persons to its meetings by a pros- 

 pect of having their appetites thus gratified at 

 other's expense. 



The organization of a Farmers' Club is its 

 chief difficulty. The larger number of those 

 who ought to participate, usually prefer to 

 stand back, not committing themselves to the* 

 effort until after its success has been assured. 

 To obviate this embarrassment, let a paper be 

 circulated for signatures, pledging each signer 

 to attend the introdnctoi-y meeting and bring 

 at least a part of his family. Wlien forty 

 have signed such a call, success will be well- 

 nigh assured. — Horace Oreeley. 



Gas Lime as a Fertilizer. — A writer in 

 the Scottish Farmer says: "I believe that 

 waste gas hme is equal in efficiency to fresh 

 lime for most of the purposes aimed at in its 

 use in farm land. I sold all the hme thus 

 produced at the gas works in Foi-fershire, for 

 sixteen years, to several farmers, who uni- 

 fonuly expressed their satisfaction therewith. 

 One very useful application of it was its mix- 

 ture with the large pile of weeds and tangled 

 roots of grass cleared off the fields annually. 

 On being composed in this way, the lime grad- 

 ually killed all the vitality of the weeds, and 

 returned them to the land in the way of ma- 

 nure. It also served the purpose of opening 

 up stiff clay soils, being first spread over the 

 surface, and then ploughed down." 



To Cleanse Musty Barrels or Casks. — 

 Put a quarter of a peck of unslacked lime in 

 the bung hole of the ban-el, into which pour 

 a gallon or two of boiling water to slack the 

 lime, then put in the bung and shake the cask 

 well so that the contents of it will come in 

 contact with all of the inside. Let it stand 

 a day or two, after which rinse out well with 

 plenty of cold water. If the barrel or cask is 

 still musty, the same operation must be re- 



