294 Summer — July. 
First, because much is lost by shattering; secondly, the straw is, 
when cut under such circumstances much more nutricious, and 
better relished by stock; thirdly, because the soil is thereby re- 
lieved from a source of great exhaustion. Experience also teaches 
us that grain cut before it gets entirely ripe, furnishes much more 
flour and of a superior quality. 
But while the haying and harvesting is going on weeds will 
spring up among the corn and the potato roots, and rob them of 
their food. At this time we know it will be hard to hang up the 
scythe or cradle and take the hoe, but is it better to let the weeds 
get possession of our tilled lands, or leave the corn and roots with 
the earth unstirred among them? All crops should be kept free 
from weeds, and more especially when young and tender. Our 
plants are much impeded in growth by these intruders upon the 
cultivated lands; and when they are permitted to ripen their vSeeds 
the future crop will call for much more labor for their extermi- 
nation, or which will be vastly injurious to our grain crops. We 
have found great benefit in stirring the earth, especially when a 
drought occurs, until our corn is in tassel. 
For a drink in the hay and harvest field, we recommend oat- 
meal and water. It is grateful, wholesome and nourishing, with- 
out a single bad property. Put two or three table spoons full of 
meal into a three pint pitcher with water; let it stand fifteen 
minutes and it is fit for use. N. B. "When taken, to be well 
shaken." A very good drink also, and some prefer it, is to mix 
molasses, ginger and vinegar with water, in proportions most 
agreeable to the palate. Spirituous liquor, is, we believe, entirely 
abolished, and we have the satisfaction of believing we were the 
first in this section, to prohibit the use of it in our hay and harvest 
field. 
TREES MOST AFFECTED BY LIGHTNING. 
Fig trees and cedars are rarely struck with lightning; the beech, 
larch-fir and chestnut, are obnoxious to it; but the trees which 
attract it most are the oak, yew and Lombardy poplar; whence it 
follows that the last are the trees most proper to be placed near a 
building, since they will act as so many lightning conductors to 
it. Again, the electric fluid attacks in preference such trees as 
are verging to decay by reason of age or disease. — Mechanics' 
Magazine. 
