1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



617 



laid on thick, in courses, as you would thatch, 

 and on top of that two feet of earth, well 

 packed and sodded. The lower end was 

 double boarded and straw packed between, 

 and the door built in the same way. 



The cellar was built three }ears ago, and 

 keeps roots as good as can be desired, and 

 never leaks or freezes. It cost nothing to me 

 but the labor and the price of a few nails and 

 boards for the end. — Cor. Blind Home. 



Xatural Selection. — Disburdened of cir- 

 cumlocution and all extraneous details, his 

 (Darwin's) argument takes this shape : Be- 

 cause by select bi-eeding, and the accumula- 

 tion of small modifications through many gen- 

 erations, men have succeeded in producing 

 from the beautiful and handsome wild rock 

 pigeon, such a monstrosity as the English 

 pouter, represented in Mr. Darwin's work ; 

 therefore, it may be concluded that God — no, 

 not God, but an abstraction callled "Natural 

 selection," acting without intentional or special 

 guidance, may, by a similar accumulation of 

 small modifications through countless genera- 

 tions, have formed the human species from 

 some other species of an inferior grade in the 

 organic scale. This analogy is not only weak 

 but false. It would have been more accurate 

 to have argued that because man had succeeded 

 in degrading the wild rock pigeon into a pout 

 er, natuual selection might, by an accumula- 

 tion of small modifications, have degraded 

 some abnormal, inferior specimen of the hu- 

 man species into a gorilla. — The Beginniny: 

 Its When and its How, hy Mimgo Fonton, F. 

 E. S. E. 



Don't I5e Discouraged. — Many think they 

 never saw such discouraging times. The 

 young people probably never did ; but we old 

 ones have seen much worse. In 181G I com- 

 menced farming on my own hook. I had just 

 got married, and was full of courage. The 

 spring was dry, and we got in our crops in 

 good season. On the 6th, 7th and 8th of June 

 it snowed each day, and a sleigh passed my 

 house in Lancaster, N. H., for the village, on 

 the 8th. Not a bushel of sound corn was 

 raised in the north of New Hampshire or Ver- 

 mont, nor a bushel of ripe potatoes except 

 Early Blues, and most of the wheat was frost 

 bitten, and hay crops light ; yet nobody starved, 

 all were healthy and received the bountiful 

 crops of 1817 with thankful hearts and good 

 appetites. The year 1835 was another hard 

 time — harder than this, for people were poor- 

 er, and means of transi>ort less. I repeat, 

 don't be discouraged. Trust in Providence, 

 keep trying, and all will come out right. — 

 John H. Willard, of Wilton, in Maine Far- 

 mer. 



— Improved lands in California are lower than 

 they were three years ago. 



AQRICULTURAIi ITEMS. 



— The "Woodstock, Vt., Standard says that Ivory 

 L. Vaughan of that town has this season raised 

 53^ bushels of fine winter wheat from two acres. 



— Over 28,000 acres of land were taken by home- 

 stead and pre-emption at the Vermillion, Dakota, 

 laud office, during August. 



—It is estimated that nearly $300,000 worth of 

 tobacco will be raised in Jefferson Co., Wis., the 

 pi'esent year, providing past prices are obtained. 



— Aliout 1000 acres of flax were sown in the vi- 

 cinity of Morning Sun, Louisa Co., Iowa, this 

 spring, and is now being harvested. It proves a 

 valuable crop. 



— There is a cheese on exhibition at Buffalo, 

 weighing 3000 pounds, the product of one day's 

 milking of 2200 cows, yielding 30,105 pounds of 

 milk. 



— A correspondent of the Green Bay Advocate 

 writes from Edgerton, Rock county. Wis., that to- 

 bacco in that region is clearing, for those who 

 raise it, from $75 to $150 per acre. GroAvers get 

 from 13 to 19 cents per pound for the leaf. 



— The Rochester (Minn.) Post says that prob- 

 ably one-third of the crop of 1870 in Olmstead 

 county, Minn., was lost by careless or bad stack- 

 ing, or not stacking at all, before the wet spell 

 which succeeded the harvest, — an actual loss of 

 half a million dollars to the farmers of the county. 



— Dr. Randall, in the Bural New Yorker, coun- 

 sels a "new departure" as to Merino sheep, now 

 that interest in them is revived. He thinks the 

 production of excessive quantities of gum, the 

 constant housing and the unnatural pampering and 

 forcing of the sheep should be discouraged. 



—A good harness blacking is made of four 

 ounces of hog's lard, si.xteen ounces of Neat's-foot 

 oil, fuur ounces of yellow wax, twenty-nine ounces 

 of ivory black, sixteen ounces of brown sugar, and 

 ten ounces of water. Heat the whole to boiling, 

 and stir it until it becomes cool enough to handle, 

 then roll it into balls about two inches in diameter. 



— Mr. Cyrus Brown, of Lincoln, Mass., was 83 

 years old July 2, 1871, yet works regularly upon 

 his farm, which is located southeast from the cen- 

 tre of the town, and on the 7th of August, ci-adled 

 oats steadily one-half of the day, and a few days 

 later, handled the same tool from morning till 

 night, working as many hours as his hired man. 



— Opposition to the use of machinery in agricul- 

 ture does not so often assume the form of violence 

 as in some of the trades. English papers report a 

 case, however, in which an attempt was success- 

 fully made to break a new mowing machine by 

 driving iron bars into the meadow, leaving aboiit 

 three inches above ground. ^ 



— An exchange saj's that a fire proof fence can 

 be made by following these directions : "Make a 

 wash of one part fine sand, and one part wood 



