254r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
These pigs tire very docile, and much petted 
bj'the Italian peasantry. They even train them 
occasionally to guard and drive their sheep, 
and in this way they supply the place of shep- 
herd-dogs. The people think so much of them 
as to have conferred upon them the title of 
Oittadine di Sorrcnti — that is, citizens of Sor- 
rento! Whether with this title they also add 
the privilege of the ballot, and admit them as 
representatives in their municipal councils, we 
are not informed ; but this much we might in- 
fer, judging from their sleek, round forms and 
polished limbs, that they at least enjoy a due 
"share of the spoils" of this highly favored 
and fertile region. Perhaps if introduced among 
us, and made citizens of New York, they might 
prove as creditable to it as some others who of 
late years have favored us with their ballots and 
counsels. "We think at least that they would 
keep us clear of the garbage which is now al- 
lowed to fester in our streets, polluting the 
atmosphere, and threatening us with the cho- 
lera, typhoid fever, and other deadly plagues. 
[The engraving is from life of a pair of 
Neapolitans imported by Mr. Allen. — Ed.] 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 103. 
" It seems impossible. It is so contrary to 
nature." 
So said a friend when I told him that a ewe 
would sometimes kill a new-born lamb by paw- 
ing it in order to make it get up. 
It is hard to tell, I replied, what is and 
what is not contrary to nature. Did you ever 
think if anything could tax infinite power and 
■wisdom what it would most likely be ? It seems 
to me that it would not be creating the world, 
•but rather in providing occupation for its mil- 
lions of inhabitants, generation after generation. 
Men are always trying to get along with as little 
labor as possible. They have sought out many 
inventions. And yet the more discoveries they 
make, the more "labor-saving" implements are 
employed, the more work there is to do. This 
is the grand central law of the world, as per- 
vading and fundamental as that of gravitation. 
The world was made for man, and what we call 
the laws of nature all tend to give him employ- 
ment. It is most wonderful how, in the minut- 
est things, these laws are contrived to encourage 
and stimulate us to work and study, or to pun- 
ish us if we are indolent and stupid. Weeds 
are a curse, but when an energetic farmer goes 
intelligently and perseveringh r to work to clean 
his land by repeated plowings, harrowings, and 
the free use of the cultivator and hoe, the weeds 
are not only destroyed, but the soil is enriched 
at the same time. The curse is converted into 
a blessing. Burying decaying animal and vege- 
table substances in the soil prevents them from 
polluting the atmosphere with offensive and 
deleterious gases. But this is not all. We get 
rid of a nuisance and enrich the land at the 
same time. Yonder swamp is now undermin- 
ing our health with its malarious exhalations. 
The doctors tell us we can not be healthy until 
we get rid of the water, and draining will not 
only remove the malaria, but give us in addition 
many acres of the richest land in town. 
It is certainly a "law of nature" that if we 
want any good thing we must work for it. 
You think no one doubts this simple truth ; but 
in point of fact there are thousands of people, 
and I am sorry to say not a few farmers, who 
act as though they did not believe it. They are 
constantly trying to raise good crops without 
using the means. " Why don't you sow that 
field to wheat ? " asked the Deacon. " It is no 
use sowing wheat on it until it is drained, and I 
can uot drain it until I get an outlet through 
your farm." The reply was a characteristic 
one : " I have known it to produce a good crop 
of wheat." 
And so, because once or twice during the last 
forty years some good wheat had been raised in 
spots on that field, there was no necessity for 
draining it! Not a word was said about the 
numerous failures. The prizes are remembered, 
the blanks forgotten, and the good Deacon 
would have me keep on buying tickets in this 
agricultural loiter)', while ten dollars per acre of 
honest industry expended in draining would 
double the value of the land. 
If we could get at the real truth, I am inclined 
to believe that the main reason why the Deacon 
aud others object to underdraining is a sort of 
indistinct feeling that it is "contrary to nature." 
If he would look at it in the right light he 
would find that plowing is at least equally so. 
The canker-worm is making frightful havoc 
in many apple orchards. It was thought by 
some that the intense cold of the past winter 
while the ground was free from snow, would 
kill the chrysalids ; but such was not the case, 
or at any rate there was plenty of them left, and 
I am glad to say that the farmers in this neigh- 
borhood are fully aroused to the importance of 
taking means to check the spread of this terribly 
destructive insect. The plan which seems to 
be simplest is to scrape all the rough bark from 
the trunk of the tree, and then take strips of 
paper about six inches wide and paste them 
round the trunk about three feet from the 
ground, aud then put tar (not gas-tar) on the 
paper. The females have no wings, or none 
that I can see, and as they crawl up the trunk 
in the evening after a warm day in winter or 
spring are caught by the belt of tar and die. I 
have seen hundreds caught in this way on one 
tree. This is the only time to fight them suc- 
cessfully, unless it is after they have attained their 
caterpillar growth and descend to the ground. 
Some of the caterpillars come down the trunk, 
and might be caught with tar or killed with car- 
bolic soap ; others let themselves down with a 
silken thread to the ground. Now, can not 
some plan be contrived for killing these cater- 
pillars before they burrow into the soil ? If my 
orchard was affected, -I believe I should spread 
from one to two bushels of slaked lime on the 
ground under every tree, just before the cater- 
pillars began to descend, which iu this section 
is in July. If this did not kill them, it would 
at any rate be valuable as a manure. As I un- 
derstand the matter, f hey all leave the trees 
pretty much at the same time, and it would be 
worth while to keep a roller with Thomas's 
harrow attached behind going up and down the 
orchard for a few days. 
The drouth is getting to be quite alarmiug. 
The winter wheat does not look as promising 
now (May 15th) as it did a month ago. I have 
not seen a good whole field of wheat this 
spring. There are many fields that will not 
give back the seed. The immediate prospects 
of farmers at this momeut are anything but 
bright, though I still think that we are pretty 
sure of good prices in the near future, and those 
farmers who have their land in good condition 
will get pay for their pluck. It has required 
more than ordinary faith in good farming to 
sustain any one in doing much in the way of 
improvement for the past two or three years. 
I am inclined to think there never was a time 
when farmers were employing so little labor on 
their farms. Iu this section, men never were so 
scarce nor wages so high. I do not recommend 
any one to spend money iu building or similar 
improvements, but I feel sure that those farmers 
who make special efforts to clean and enrich 
their laud will get their reward. 
Iu 1868 one of my ueighbors had a heavy 
field of clover. He commenced plowing it un- 
der for wheat in June, but the ground was hard 
and the crop so large that he abandoned the 
job. The clover dried up on the land, and 
formed a kind of mulch that kept the ground 
-moist, and the clover commenced to grow 
through it. Sometime in July the whole was 
turned under, and the field afterwards sown to 
wheat. It was a noble crop. After the wheat, 
the field was planted with corn, aud it was the 
best piece of corn I saw that year. The next 
spring it was sown to barley, which was also 
heavy, and then, last fall, the field was again 
sown with wheat, and I have not seen a more 
promising crop this season. 
We have just weighed (May 15th) a couple of 
our grade Cotswold-Merino lambs. One, born 
March 2d, weighed 51 h lbs., and the other, born 
March 4th, weighed 54 lbs. At the same time 
we weighed some of the thoroughbred Cots- 
wold lambs. They were all born within a few 
days of the grades, say from the 1st to the 8th 
of March. The weights were respectively, 48J 
lbs., 50 lbs., 48i lbs., 47i lbs., 46i lbs., and 48t 
lbs. each. These thorough-breds are the per- 
fection of the article. I do not believe there 
are auy purer or better bred Cotswolds. They 
are all from the Mapleshade flock, imported by 
Mr. Wing, and, as I understand the matter, they 
were selected from the best flocks in England, 
without regard to cost. I never saw handsomer 
lambs than those whose weights are given 
above. And yet the grades, tested by the scales, 
beat them as early lambs for the butcher. The 
advocates of cross-bred animals are welcome to 
these facts, though I fear they will make a bad 
use of them. What they really prove, aud all 
they prove, is the great benefit to be obtained 
from using thorough-bred rams on cross-bred 
or common ewes. What many say is : " Cross- 
bred sheep are the best ; I want none of your 
fancy thorough-breds." It is lucky that mules 
will not breed, or Spanish Jacks would be kept 
only by the few who know something of the 
principles of breeding. 
One of my neighbors has just driven past 
with a load of wheat. He has a strong wagon 
with four-inch tires, and rigged for three horses 
abreast. I stopped him to pay my respects aud 
thank him for a good example. I have for 
years advocated the use of three-horse teams 
for all agricultural operations — plowing, har- 
rowing, cultivating, rolling, drawing in hay, and 
for marketing the crops. We must study to 
economize labor. This man had on 108 bushels 
of wheat, and he thought it would " overrun " 
enough to weigh 110 bushels. The road was 
good, and the horses certainly showed no fatigue. 
Iu fact, when he left me, they trotted along gayly, 
and the man looked quite jolly mounted up on 
this high load of wheat. He got $2.30 per 
bushel for it, or say $253 for the load. 
I have contended ever since last harvest, in 
the columns of the Agriculturist, that wheat 
would bring a high price this summer. I based 
