260 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[.July, 
The artist lias represented the American Pan¬ 
ther awaiting his prey, and in so doing has 
given ns a pleasing picture. The shadow in 
this case is more telling than the substance. An 
animal so large and active as the Panther is very 
destructive to game, and a single pair will hold 
the animals over a large territory in terror. In 
the case of the panther and the deer we have a 
nearly equal match. The deer has the most 
acute scent and hearing to warn him of danger, 
and great fleetness to allow him to escape it; 
while the panther has all the crouching cunning 
of the cat, and the power of limb that will al¬ 
low it to make a sudden spring upon its prey. 
Not only is the panther destructive to the more 
useful of the wild animals, but its inroads upon 
the domestic ones of the new settlements are 
the cause of serious losses, and its complete ex¬ 
tinction within our borders cannot be far distant. 
Absorbents. 
An empty barn-yard at this season is the sign 
of a slack farmer. He has cleaned out his styes, 
yards, and the barn cellar, and the planting is 
all finished. Weeks or months go by, perhaps, 
before he thinks of laying the foundation for the 
next crop of manure. The cows are yarded at 
night, but there is nothing to absorb either liq¬ 
uid or solid manure. It is exposed to the hot 
sun, the rains, and the winds, and much of its 
value is lost. The summer is the best time to 
make manure, if the materials are seasonably 
furnished. The process of fermentation goes 
on much more rapidly, and the valuable gases 
are diffused through the whole mass of absorb¬ 
ents. While the yards are bare, no farm work 
will pay so well as gathering absorbents, at 
least enough to cover the whole surface an inch 
or two in depth. It is not necessary to fill the 
yards all at once. A few loads added every 
week will prevent loss. Shore farmers begin to 
gather the new crop of sea-weed this month, 
and no one who has access to this article should 
fail to use it. All waste vegetable matter makes 
a good absorbent, and swells the compost heap. 
Peat and muck thrown out during the past sea¬ 
son and weathered, arc excellent; but that 
freshly dug soon cures in the yard and should 
not be overlooked, if the others fail. If these 
are not available, use surface soil. The value 
of dry earth as an absorbent has not begun to 
be appreciated. Turf makes a good absorbent, 
and by its decay adds value to the manure. It 
is much better for a farmer to peel a few 
rods of his best meadow, than to have his ma¬ 
nure wasting all summer for want of absorbents. 
How to get Work Done on a Farm.— 
Every farmer is at times oppressed with a sense 
of the overwhelming number of things that re¬ 
quires to be done. We have seen a nervous 
man in such circumstances commence one job 
and before he had got fairly started, abandon it 
for something that seemed more pressing, mere¬ 
ly to leave this in the same unfinished state; 
and when night came he had accomplished lit¬ 
tle or nothing, and passed hours tossing about 
on a sleepless bed thinking what he should do 
on the morrow. A young farmer could not 
adopt a better rule than to repeat to himself 
every morning, “ Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with thy might,” and act upon it. 
When a job is commenced, finish before begin¬ 
ning another; but, at the same time, attend to 
the little things. But if you happen to get 
behind, strike a lively gait, do one thing at a 
time, and when it is done, take a little rest by 
immediately commencing another, and in this 
way you will pull through in good time. 
