1871. 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



297 



It is important to cover the seed carefully, so 

 that the corn will come up straight, and take 

 a good start. If there are stones or coarse 

 earth over the seed, so that it comes up on a 

 slant, it does not grow well, and the crop is 

 injured. 



Then I do not plant many pumpkins in a 

 cornfield, for I am satisfied they injure the 

 corn more than they are worth. 1 have seen 

 a field dressed with thirty -five or forty loads 

 of good manure to the acre, the corn covered 

 in a Ciareless manner, and pumpkins planted in 

 nearly every hill. The pumpkins grew so lux- 

 uriantly that they nearly smothered the corn, 

 and the result was a yield of only about 

 forty baskets to the acre, where there should 

 have been nearly twice as much. 



My advice to farmers where they buy seed 

 corn is to satisfy themselves in regard to the 

 yield of the field from which it was taken, the 

 amount of manure applied, then examine the 

 kernels, and if the sample ears are not more 

 than nine inches long, you cannot measure 

 more than fort}' bushels to the acre from that 

 seed. Seedmen cannot always be depended 

 upon. Some of them Avill not pay an extra 

 price for an extra quality of seed, but bu}' of 

 a farmer who will sell at twenty-five or fifty 

 cents a bushel above the price of corn for 

 seed. J. n. 



Shreicsbury, Mass., April, 1871. 



AGBJCUIiTimAIj ITEMS. 



— At present prices, eggs are cheaper than beef. 



— George Wood, of Harrisville, N. H., has made 

 2300 pounds of sugar from four hundred trees this 

 j'car, and only one spout to a tree at that. 



— There is a curious plant now at the Govern- 

 ment green house, in Washington, which closes its 

 palm on anything put on it. 



— One blacksmith in Boston has taken from 

 horses' feet two hundred nails which had been 

 trodden upon and buried in the feet of the horses, 

 by being carelessly thrown into the street. 



— Including loss ft-om shrinkage, rats and mice, 

 interest on uioney, &c., a farmer in Ohio thinks it 

 more profitalile to sell com at fifty cents a bushel 

 in the fall, than at seventy cents the next summer. 



— George W. Carr, 2d, of Waterford, Vt., Jias a 

 flock of thirty-five Leicester ewe sheep that aver- 

 aged 170 pounds each a few days before they begun 

 to drop their lambs. 



— The first American rail was rolled some thirtj^ 

 years smce. Last year more than 600,000 tons 

 were made, more than half in Pennsylvania, and 

 the rest in New York, Troy, Rome, Syracuse, El- 

 mira and Buftalo. 



— A hen belonging to Mr. Abraham J. Borden, 

 residing on the Chase road, Dartmouth, Mass., was 

 recently noticed to move about lazily, and appeared 

 to be very hea^y. She was killed, and found to 

 contain sixteen full-sized eggs, half of tliem hav- 



ing hard shells, and the others partially shelled 

 over, four more about half the usual size, and 

 man}- others, as is usual in hens, in all stages and 

 sizes. She weighed, after being dressed, two pounds 

 and ten ounces. 



— No broom com is to be raised in Northern 

 Illinois this year, the present ruinous prices having 

 terrified the farmers. The market price is now 

 only from twenty to sixty dollars per ton, and the 

 corn cannot be raised for less than seventy dollars. 



— The toad is a great destroyer of insects, and on 

 this account has been found very useful in gardens 

 for exterminating the striped bug, squash bug, flea- 

 beetle, &c. It is very destructive to bees, and 

 should be banished from the apiary. 



— It is stated in the Horticulturist that one of the 

 most successftd cold graperies near Philadelphia 

 has every third section of lights made entirely of 

 blue glass. It is an important foct that colored 

 glass does atfcct very materially the growth of 

 vegetation beneath it. Thus, blue glass admits the 

 chemical rays, to the exclusion, or nearly so, of all 

 others ; yellow glass admits only the formation of 

 lunnnous rays, while red glass cuts off all but the 

 heating raj-s. Yellow and red rays are destructive 

 to vegetation ; violet, indigo, or blue, are favorable 

 to it. 



— Elias Burncll, of Franklin, N. H., infomis the 

 New York Farmers' Clul) that granite boulders can 

 be split cheaper with fire than with powder and 

 drill. Make a slow fire across the rock in the di- 

 rection in which you wish it to break ; keep it up 

 for one hour, more or less. When the rock begins 

 to heat thump on it with the point of a bar where 

 it is hot, and if it has started a scale, remove it, 

 and keep up your fire as before. The heat will 

 swell the rock near the fire, and if the rock is 

 soimd will crack it where it is not hot. Put your 

 ear to it while the fire is burning and hear it crack. 

 One man will break more hard rocks with fire in 

 that way than a half dozen with drills and powder. 

 You need not throw on water, as that will not do 

 the least good. 



Farmers' Clvb.— The fanners of Elvaston, III., 

 have formed a club, which in addition to the ob- 

 jects generally contemplated by club organizations, 

 embraces the purchase of such flu-ming imple- 

 ments, fruit trees, and other supplies as may be 

 needed by its members, and also assistance in the 

 sale of produce, stock, &c., by which hea^y com- 

 missions, &c., will be saved. The constitution and 

 by-laws are pulilished in the Prairie Farmer. An 

 admission of fifty cents is required of members. 

 Those who wish to order any implement or other 

 article are required to advance at least twenty per 

 cent, of the probable cost, and full freight, the bal- 

 ance to be paid on delivery. There are to be three 

 regular shipments of implements, yearly. Those 

 having produce, stock, &c., for sale are to furnish 

 the secretary Avith a stc.tcracr.t thereof. 



