STONE WALLS—TURNIPS-HOUSING CATTLE DISHING COWYARDS. 
351 
Perhaps it does abound in such situations; 
but it abounds more where mountains are 
among the things heard of, but never seen by 
the younger portion of the community. It 
abounds fearfully in the central part of Illinois 
—in the vicinity of Yandalia, for instance* 
Again, along the Wabash River, and in several 
places in the interior of Indiana and Ohio, 
where there are no mountains and scarcely any 
hiils. As to the cause of milk sickness, my 
opinion is, it arises from the same cause which 
produces fever and ague—a poisonous miasma, 
which affects the human system in one way 
and the brute in another. 
Vermont Cattle Show. —Here is an article after 
my own heart. What you see, Messrs. Editors, 
to commend, receives your just meed of praise. 
But you will not praise everything with fulsome 
laudation when you know it deserves censure. 
I hope such plain talk will do the Vermonters 
some good. 
American Plows in Europe. —Laughable in¬ 
deed, to think self-conceited John Bull should 
have to come to cousin Jonathan, to teach him 
how to make a plow. There is a great change 
in the old fellow’s tune since he sung his jeer¬ 
ing notes over the “ solitary waste ” in the 
Crystal Palace. What with plows, reaping 
machines, locks, and long, low, black-looking 
schooners, he has had a reef or two taken in of 
his overweening conceit, and no doubt will keep 
a more civil tongue in his head until he forgets 
the sting of the threshing we have given him. 
We can send him several other things besides 
plows and pistols, which would astonish his 
burly proportions. 
Scalding Hogs. —The method described is cer¬ 
tainly far superior to the old way of heating 
water in kettles, and much less troublesome than 
by hot stones. The only objectien to it will be 
the expense. If a portable heater could be con¬ 
trived to ( set into any tub or cask, and heat the 
water, and then remove it to another, or till 
wanted-again, it would be a very useful article 
upon every farm. Mr, Harvey calls his scalder 
a tub, but describes it as a box, if I understand 
rightly. Until farmers are provided with better 
apparatus for heating water, I most earnestly 
recommend them to use hot stones, as the cheap¬ 
est and easiest method within their reach. 
New-York State Fair —The same person who 
showed up the Vermont show, has unveiled a 
few of the hidden mysteries at Rochester, 
though far too sparing of justly-deserved cen¬ 
sure. There are a good many things about 
these fairs every year, which ought to be blown 
up as well as shown up; and I am glad to see 
your fearless remarks, so far as they go. The 
truth is, nearly all the papers deal in nothing 
but soft sawder, when speaking of the State 
Fair, so that a stranger does not know from 
the published accounts, whether it was good, 
bad, or indifferent. 
Foreign News. — The Amende Honorable. —There 
is nothing like owning up when fairly cornered, 
But, although this is honorable, it strikes me it 
would have been much more so never to have 
published the base slander, which, being now 
refuted, compels the authors, very reluctantly, I 
have no doubt, to make the only amend in their 
power. And thus endeth all that I have to say 
of the contents of your October number. 
Reviewer. 
STONE WALLS—TURNIPS—HOUSING- CATTLE- 
DISHING COWYARDS. 
This article has been some time on hand, be¬ 
ing accidentally mislaid, or it would have had 
an earlier insertion. We shall leave Reviewer 
to defend himself in his own way. 
In the June No. of the Agriculturist, Reviewer 
sa y s: —“There is not a stone wall in New Eng¬ 
land but would be of more value to the owner, 
if buried beneath the surface, to drain the soil 
than it is above,” &c. 
With all deference to his experience, wisdom, 
and general sagacity, I think the remark is far 
too sweeping, not to say absurd. It is doubtless 
true, that on many farms, most of the small 
stone are best disposed of in draining low- 
grounds ; but to think of breaking stones of a 
ton weight and upwards, to the requisite size for 
draining, is hardly common sense. 
There are many farms in New England that 
hardl} r need or admit of a single drain, and on 
which stones are so abundant as to be a burden. 
Now, when the owner of one of these farms 
wishes to clear a piece of land to make it feasi¬ 
ble for cultivation, shall he pile them in huge 
stacks, here and there, or leave them half piled, 
just as it happens, amongst which he dodges 
around as best he can; or shall he put them in 
straight, substantial walls as partition fences 1 
Which would most disfigure the “landscape”! 
As to walls being an “ eternal torment,” I have 
known six persons tormented for want of them 
to one who has been troubled with them. 
I have often known large varmints making 
depredations where they ought not, when a sub¬ 
stantial stone wall would have prevented the 
mischief, and the frequent hard feeling conse¬ 
quent thereon. 
I have a favorable idea of wire fences, where 
