1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



519 



with plane and liammei"; the mason, with trowel 

 and mortar ; or the wheelwright, in the midst of a 

 confused multitude of hubs, spoiies and felloes, the 

 subject of a picuire or a poem. The blacksmith 

 has Ijeen a little more fortunate; his work being 

 suggestive of Vulcan and the Cyclops. The soli- 

 tary shoemaker has also been casually remembered. 

 But a 7ioisy shoe shop could hardly be an :fttrac- 

 tive place for the "sacred nine." It is far other- 

 wise with farm life. Almost ever}^ branch of agri- 

 cultural labor as performed in the days of our fore- 

 fathers — from the preparation of the soil in early 

 spring, to the ingathering of the harvest in late 

 autumn — has been made the theme of the poet's 

 song. 



It is to be feared, however, that the spirit of pro- 

 gress will rather stand in the way of further at- 

 tempts of this kind. Is not the clatter of a mow- 

 ing machine, for instance, sufficient to scare away 

 every poetic thought ? How different from the 

 noiseless swing of the scythe ! But wo will try and 

 take a hopeful view of the nmtter. Perhaps there 

 may arise a class of poets who can meet the exi- 

 gencies of these utilitarian times, and make even 

 mowing machines and horse rakes subservient .to 

 their genius. Mattie. 



Marlboro, Mass., July, 1871. 



AaRICULTURAL ITEMS. 



— An early spring — Jumping out of Ijcd at four 

 o'clock in the morning. 



— Henry Clay's old home, Ashland, has been pur- 

 chased by the University of Kentucky for §'90,000. 



—The Maine Farmer says, "We observe that 

 the beech trees have blossomed abundantly this 

 year, and the nuts appear to be now well set." 



— The cultivation of tobacco in Missouri is fall- 

 ing off every year ; not more than one-third as 

 much is raised there now as ten years ago. 



— An exchange says that if tree-planting contin- 

 ues in Iowa for ten j'ears at this year's rate, 1885 

 will find the State beautified with great forests. 



— The Missonrians appear to have arrived at the 

 conclusion that, for the raising of stock, fblue 

 grass" is the best possible feed. 



— According to the amended game laws of New 

 York, all persons are prohibited from destroying 

 or robbing the nest of any wild bird whatever, un- 

 der penalty of $25 for each offence. 



— The State agricultural societies of Vermont and 

 California propose to exchange fruit specimens this 

 year, each sending to the other's annual fair three 

 specimens of ten different kinds of apples, pears 

 and grapes. 



— No plant yields anything like as much nutri- 

 ment from the same extent of soil as the banana. 

 Baron Humboldt estimated that it returns 20 times 

 as much as the potato, and 113 times as much as 

 wheat. 



— The Geneva (111.) Republican says that the 

 potato bugs have entirely disappeared from that 

 neighborhood, and attributes this freak of fortune 

 to the salutary influence of the seventeen-year 

 locusts. 



— The Western Farmer says : "The probabilities 

 are that more tobacco will be raised in Wisconsin 



this year than ever before. In a number of neigh- 

 borhoods where it has not hitherto been grown, 

 there will be many acres planted. 



— A Western editor, who doesn't know much 

 about farming any way, suggests that for garden 

 making, a cast-iron back, with a hinge hi it, would 

 be an improvement on the spinal column now in 

 use. 



— Advices from Louisiana report the State in a 

 deplorable condition agriculturally. The excessive 

 rains and floods have so saturated the ground that 

 it has been next to impossil)le to work it. Cotton 

 has no stand at all, and the feeble corn crop is over- 

 whelmed by weeds and grass. 



— V. P. Richmond says in the Kational Live 

 Stock Journal, that he has removed from the neck 

 of one of his horses eight or more hard and bleed- 

 ing warts, some of them as large as a hen's egg, ■ 

 simply by rubl)ing on fresh lard twice a-day. 

 Others, he says, have had the same success. 



— The Sycamore, (111.) cheese factory now uses 

 over 17,000 pounds of milk daily ; a larger amount 

 than any other factor}' in the United States. The 

 Belvidere factory uses 11,000 pounds, the Garden 

 Prairie factory 7500 pounds, and the DeKalb fac- 

 tory 3000 pounds. 



— The form of Senator Chandler of Michigan, 

 near Lansing, comprises 3,087 acres, of which 900 

 acres are uplaiid and the remainder marsh. The 

 marsh has been drained so that it is comparatively 

 free from water. Experiments are being made to 

 test its value for farming and grazing purposes ; 

 and thus tar with very satisfactory results. 



— To destroy moths in carpets, wring a coarse 

 towel out of clean water; spread it smoothly on 

 the carpet ; iron it dry with a good hot iron ; re- 

 peat the operation on all parts of the . carpet sus- 

 pected of being infested with moths. No need to 

 press hard, and neither the pile nor the color of the 

 carpet will be injured, and the moths will be de- 

 stroyed b_v the heat and steam. 



— The Portland, Me., Transcript tells of a citizen 

 of Kennebec county, who has a goose twenty-four 

 years old. "In March she laid twelve eggs and 

 hatched twelve goslings; when they were two 

 weeks old she began to lay again, the gander tak- 

 ing care of the goslings ; she laid nine more eggs, 

 and hatched nine more goslings, making twenty- 

 one goslings in one season, and they are all alive 

 and doing well." 



— This is one of the "insect years." The West 

 swarms with potato bugs, chinch bugs and locusts ; 

 the Hessian fly and clouds of grasshoj^pers are de- 

 vastating the fields of Los Angeles county, Cat ; 

 the black caterpillars are worse in Arkansas than 

 ever known before, and are stripping the leaves of 

 the forest; Virginia planters complain that never 

 were the tobacco flies so numerous and destructive 

 as tliis season ; and throughout the South is dis- 

 may at the number, size and voracity of the mos- 

 quitoes. 



