1871. 



XEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



327 



milking is done in the stables — the cows being 

 fastened by short chains to round posts. The 

 cows stand thus fastened until they are turned 

 out the next morning while the cleaning is 

 done, and are made to eat all they will during 

 the whole day. 



Treatment of Calves. 



The calves are selected with care, and are 

 only fed milk until the milk of the mother is 

 fit to sell. After this, the condensed steam 

 ■which is under the slatted floor of the steam- 

 ing-box, in the form of water, strongly loaded 

 with the juices of the cooked food, is used for 

 calf feed, having been strengthened by cook- 

 ing with it corn meal, well salted. If there is 

 any tendency to relaxed condition of the bow- 

 els, strong coffee is given, and great care is 

 taken not to allow calves to run on the fresh 

 grass produced in meadows after they have 

 been mowed, as this rowen, Mr. Avery says, 

 is to be avoided if the calves are to be kept 

 healthy. Mr. Avery's farm has considerable 

 low land that neVer suffers from drought, and 

 thus he has green pastures every summer, and 

 is not under the necessity of providing for 

 soiling in droughts. 



All things considered, I think Mr. Avery 

 has avoided extremes, and made as successful 

 an attempt to avail himself of the advantages 

 of cooking food for farm stock, and at the 

 least cost, as any that has come under my ob- 

 servation. 



Fairmount, N. ¥., April 1.9, 1871. 



FARMERS' WIVES. 



Tlie farmer's wife has plenty of hard work 

 to do. We all know that. She has plenty of 

 dirty work besides. She cannot fold her soft 

 white hands, and sit in her elegant parlor and 

 await a stream of fashionable callers, No ! 

 Farm life means work — hard, rough, contin- 

 uous work. It means something else, too. 

 Let us see. 



Fu-st of all the farmer's wife lives much in 

 the companionship of her husband. She has 

 him, body and soul. To her he can bring all 

 his vexations and cares. She can understand 

 them all — can sympathize with all. The day's 

 work done, how sweet the twilight hour, the 

 evening converse ! There is time for inter- 

 change of thoughts and feelings. Husband 

 and wife are partners in all business relations, 

 and can fully understand each others' cares, 

 trials, and perplexities. 



Very different is the case of the merchant 

 or the professional man. There is no partner- 

 ship here. Day by day the husband enters the 

 lists in the keen competitions of business, 

 anxious to gain wealth or honor that he may 

 thereby gain wealth. He only cares for the 

 money, so that his wife may spend it. She 

 does not understand his business — cannot un- 

 derstand it. So their paths in life diverge. 

 They have few interests in common. The 

 beautiful dreams of "united hearts and hopes," 



which maidenhood revels in are forever unful- 

 filled, and the married pair go on in separate 

 paths to the end of their journey. 



The farmer's wife has also the companion- 

 ship of her children. In the farm house there 

 is plenty of elbow-room for the little ones in 

 their mother's presence. They can go with 

 her wherever she goes ; she can always listen 

 to their prattle, can direct their first efforts at 

 thinking and doing. No "kindergarten" ever 

 invented, presents so good a school for the 

 little ones, as is afforded in the farmer's home. 

 Could some hard working farmer's wife who is 

 discouraged at the difficulties of her post, 

 once step into these city palaces, and see how 

 utterly impossible it is there to afford children 

 the development, physical and moral, they 

 ought to have, she might be reconciled to her 

 lot of seeming hardship. 



Lastly, the farmer's wife is sure of the fu- 

 ture. The house she has labored so hard to 

 beautify and render comfortable may, in al- 

 most every case, be hers till she removes to 

 the better land. No fear of a turn in busi- 

 ness, or an adverse wind of popular disfavor 

 which shall in a moment reduce her to penury. 

 No ! the small accumulations are, in all hu- 

 man probability, never to be suspended. The 

 quiet little stream will continue its course, not 

 like a "Summer fountain dried when our need 

 is sorest," but, fed by springs that heaven 

 opened up when the foundations were laid for 

 this solid earth, when seed-time and harvest 

 were ordained, — it will grow deeper and 

 broader till lost in the boundless ocean. 

 Think of these things, my good lady, and 

 don't complain of the toil, the dust, and the 

 roughness of your rural life. — Western Rural. 



THE SORE HEAD IN POULTRT. 



I notice in the March number, a cure for 

 "Sore Head" in Poultry, ^nd desire to give 

 your readers the benefit of a remedy which 

 has never failed me. 



In the absence of a better cognomen, I 

 have called the disease the "swell head." 

 The first symptoms are a watery and frothy 

 collection of matter in the eye, often accom- 

 panied by warts or sores on the head. If not 

 attended to, the formation, a white, tough 

 matter begins inside of the eye lid, and always 

 below the eye, accompanied by considerable 

 inflammation. The swelling increases rapidly, 

 frequently extending to the inside of the 

 throat, which becomes ulcerated. The fowl 

 becomes blind in one, or both eyes — as the 

 disease sometimes attacks only one eye at a 

 time — and death ensues. The disease is highly 

 contagious, and frequently sweeps the poultry 

 yard, if not arrested. I have never failed to 

 cure a case even when the fowl's eyes were 

 completely shut, from the swelling. The 

 frothy matter first collects in the front or 

 outer corner of the eye, then to some extent 

 impairing the vision, which will be perceived 



