342 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



"If our present horse Is well-bred, he is as a rule 

 so light and so devoid of substance as to be unable 

 to carry anj' decent weight; if he is strong, he is 

 so coarse as to be totally devoid of the mettle or 

 courage necessary for a charger." 



Professor Ferguson, of the Veterinary Depart- 

 ment of the Privy Council Office, Dublin, ascribes 

 the degeneracy of horses to the modem plan of 

 testing horses in short heats and light weights, 

 instead of the four to sixteen miles, and heavy 

 weights of former years,_and says : — 



"Of late years the distances run are short, and 

 the weights carried but light. Horses are bred ac- 

 cordingly. Speed is the great desideratum ; weight- 

 carrying power is not retiuired. As a general rule, 

 power must be sacrificed to obtain an increase of 

 speed." 



AGRICULTtTKAL ITEMS. 



— During April the Union Pacific Railroad sold 

 241,202 acres of land in Nebraska, at an average 

 price of §'4.13 per acre. 



— Don't waste the soap suds, but apply them to 

 garden, vines, bushes, evergreens or lawn. They 

 are too valuable to be turned out at the back door. 



— Elijah Nye, Esq., of Berlin, Tt., during the 

 past season wintered ten sheep, and has had from 

 them twenty-two lambs, twenty-one of which are 

 now living and doing well. 



— A correspondent of the Maine Farmer smokes 

 the barrel instead of the hams. Turn the barrel 

 bottom up over a pan or kettle of coals covered 

 with com cobs. After the barrel is well smoked 

 inside put the hams and pickle into it, as you would 

 before smoking. 



— Joseph HaiTis, of Moreton Fann, near Roches- 

 ter, N. Y., is ploughing up an oat stubble field, 

 and on the advice of an English friend purposes 

 . sowing it with cole-seed and white mustard — to be 

 fed off by sheep next fall — seeding it to clover and 

 grass at the same time. 



— If screws are warmed and dipped in melted 

 tallow it will prevent their rusting, and they can 

 always be unscrewed with ease. A large quantity 

 of screws can be greascc^in a few minutes, and the 

 operation is one which vnW ultimately result in a 

 great saving of time and labor. 



— M. J. Carter wi'ites the Rural New Yorker that 

 if those who have crib-biting horses will nail a 

 sheep skin, wool side up, wherever there is a chance 

 for tlie horse to bite, he will not do very much 

 cribbing in the stable. His father has tried it suc- 

 cessfully. 



— The Carolina Farmer snys to destroy the vital- 

 ity of the stumps of willow trees, peel portions of 

 the bark two or three inches broad from five or six 

 feet up the trunk, down to the ground, in May or 

 June, and a few months after the tree can be cut 

 down without the aimoyance of the stump suck- 

 ering. 



— Mrs. Smith, of Enterprise, Missouri, who took 

 a four hundred dollar premium on cotton at the St. 



Louis fair, picked the cotton with her own hands. 

 Her husband is a well-to-do farmer, and she is en 

 tircly removed from the ncessity of hard work, 

 yet she is not ashamed of it, and her industry has 

 been handsomely rewarded. 



— The UHca Herald, from the present condition 

 of the dairy interest, draws the moral that no large 

 section of country can afford to depend entirely on 

 one kind of crop, but that each locality' must aim 

 to supplj' its own markets with necessaries. As 

 the West is now manufacturing cheese and butter 

 for itself, the Herald thinks the East must gi'ow 

 its own breadstuffs. 



— The Western Rural recommends boiling com 

 on the ear for stock, and says cooking shelled corn 

 has never given us satisfaction. There seems to be 

 a principle contained in the cob, probably the pot- 

 ash, which materially assists in softening the hull 

 in the corn, when submitted to strong and contin- 

 ued heat, rendering it nearly like hulled corn. 

 The water in which it is boiled, what little remains, 

 may be fed with the corn. 



THE CUERAUT WORM. 

 Look out for the Enemj- — His Skirmishers have ap- 

 peared — Prepare for the Battle. 



Every person who saw the foliage of his 

 currant bushes devoured last year, after a 

 hard fought battle to save them, will remem- 

 ber how the crop of fruit was imperilled if not 

 utterly destroyed, and what a sorry spectacde 

 the bushes themselves presented at the close 

 of the season. All will be desirous to find 

 some preventive of destruction sufficiently 

 early to save the crop both of foliage and 

 fruit on their currant and gooseberry bushes. 



Many substances were employed last year, 

 the most effective of which seemed to be the 

 white hellebore. It is better to use this than 

 to lose the crop, but there are some objec- 

 tions to it. In the first place, it is a poison- 

 ous article, and in careless hands might be the 

 means of much suffering, or prove fatal to 

 human life. In a small way, in private gar- 

 dens, its cost might not prove burdensome, 

 but where currants are raised for market, it 

 would be objectionable. Again, it is a slow, 

 disagreeable, and tedious task to apply it to 

 the bushes so as to prevent the ravages of the 

 worms. The fiy comes from the ground and 

 deposits its eggs on the under sides of the 

 leaves, and at first usually on that part of the 

 foliage near the ground. If the hellebore is 

 sifted on the foliage it must pass down into 

 the centre of the bush quite freely, and cover 

 most of the leaves, or the worms will continue 



