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SWEET HARVEST-AUGUST SWEETING-YELLOW BOUGH.

Fruit nearly round, sometimes a little longer on specimens of fruits, which we have had sketched, one side than on the other, and in size from medi- and shall present at some future time.

For the New England Farmer. FINE SQUASHES.

um to large. Skin smooth, taking a damp, sticky polish. Color, greenish-yellow, with a pale dull blush on one side, spotted with small dark brown spots and little patches of russet. Stalk, short and I saw at the Exhibition in Haverhill, six squashes slender, rarely extending close to the level of the of the crook-necked variety, said to weigh on an ridge of the cavity in which it is set, which is deep average 30 lbs., as handsome as any squashes I and cylindrical. Flesh, white, tender and sweet; have ever seen. I learn that their meat was fine neither very rich nor juicy, but very pleasant to the grain and superior for cooking. I had the curiositaste; when over-ripe it becomes rather dry and ty to inquire of Mr. D. Buxton, Jr., of S. Danvers, mealy. Calyx, narrow and deep, extending tube- who presented them, how they were reared. He said these, with others to the amount of 400 lbs., like into the heart of the fruit. Ripens in August as he judged, all grew on two vines. They grew in Massachusetts; is hardy, bears well in light soils, in one corner of his onion field, with no other exand COLE says is the "best early sweet apple tra attention, except one bushel of good manure in known." It is too sweet for pies or sauce, but is an the hill. They were all thus planted, and all the excellent baking or table apple. plants in the hill except the one most vigorous were taken out. Care was taken to keep the bugs away, The apple from which the above engraving was and the product was at least 200 lbs. to a hillsketched grew in the fine garden of our fellow-worth at lowest estimate, one cent per lb.-all this townsman, W. W. WHEILDON, Esq. Mr. W., though on a space not exceeding one rod of land. This engaged in conducting a newspaper and printing-shows what can be done by careful cultivation. So house, finds time to direct the affairs of one of the great was the admiration of these squashes, that Mr. B. left them in the keeping of the door-keeper finest gardens in our neighborhood, and to culti- at the Hall, that Haverhill might have the benefit vate many varieties of the best fruits and flowers. of the seed. He will please accept our thanks for this and other

S. Danvers, Oct., 1855.

P.

FACTS FOR FARMERS. The following hints, for a wonder, appear to be, without exception, good:

family training of children by catechisms being similar to that which used to prevail in New England, and various other parts of our country. The Welsh, the Norwegians and Irish use oatmeal extensively for food.-Scientific American.

ATTACK BY CATTLE UPON A RED
WAGON.

"Never keep your cattle short; few farmers can afford it. If you starve them they will starve you. It will not do to hoe a great field for a little crop, or to mow twenty acres for five loads of hay. Enrich the land and it will pay you for it. Better farm thirty acres well, than fifty acres by halves. In dry pastures, dig for water on the brow of a The following extract is from one of Col. Claihill. Springs are more frequently at the surface bourne's letters from the pine woods of Mississippi, on a height, than in a vale. published in the New Orleans Delta :—

The foot of the owner is the best manure for his land.

summer,

Cut bushes that you wish to destroy in and with a sharp instrument; they will then bleed freely and die.

When an implement is no longer wanted for the season, if you carefully lay it aside, you will have it in good order for use next season.

your

"I set out for Augusta, bowling merrily along in a blood-red buggy. The road is beautiful, roofed over with trees and vines, and the air fragrant with the breath of flowers. There was only one drawback-the myriads of flies, of every species, that swarmed around, and ravenously cupped the blood from the ears, neck and flanks of my horse. It is what is appropriately termed here fly-time-that is to say, the period when this numerous family of scourges have it all their own way, and neither man nor beast can venture into the woods with impunity. Now the cattle from a thousand hills, and even the wild deer, seek the abodes of men, and huddle farm.-around some smoking pine, or stand in some open field to escape their periodical tormentors. On a sudden curve of the road, I found myself in one of these stamping grounds,' and a simultaneous roar from five hundred animals gave notice of my danger. It is well known that the Spanish matadores

Cultivate heart aright, as well as your soil, remembering that 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.'

Build a spacious barn when you have learned to raise a crop to fill it, and not before.

Keep notes of remarkable events on the To record your errors even will be of benefit. Good fences make good neighbors.

The better. animals can be fed, and the more comfortable they can be kept, the more profitable they are.

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Clover sowed deep, is secured against a drought-provoke the wounded bulls of the arena by flauntcows fed well in winter give more milk in summer, and what ought to be done should be done to-day, for to-morrow it may rain.

You may laugh at this advice if you proper."

ing the moleta or blood-red flag before them. It was the color of my equipage that excited this bellowing herd. They snuffed the air, planted their think heads near the ground, tore up the earth with their hoofs and horns, and glared at me with savage eyes. The fierce phalanx blocked the road, and they OAT MEAL AND THE INTELLECT. plunged on every side, crushing down everything in their course, goring and tumbling over each othAt the annual meeting of the American Associa- er, filling the woods with their dreadful cries, and tion for the Advancement of Education, recently gathering nearer and nearer in the fearful chase. held in this city, Prof. Haldeman advocated the use The contest now became desperate. In five minof high phosphorized food for teachers, they hav-utes we should have been overturned and trampled ing much expenditure of brain. He said "the to death; but at this juncture I threw out my overreason why the Scotch were so intellectually acute coat, and, with an awful clamor, they paused to and active must be attributed to the use of oatmeal fight over it and tear it into shreds. Driving at in their youth. Oats contain more phosphorus full speed, I tossed out a cushion; the infuriated than any other vegetable.' He also recommended devils trampled it into atoms, and came rushing on, eggs as excellent food for teachers, in order to in- their horns clashing against the buggy, and ripping crease their intellectual capacities. But the mental up the ribs of my horse. At this fearful moment acuteness and general intellectual strength which we were providentially saved. A monstrous oak, characterize the people of the above-named country with a forked top, had fallen near the road, and into cannot be due to the phosphorus of their oatmeal, this I plunged my horse breast high, and he was which is their common breakfast food, for it so hap- safe, the back of the buggy being then the only pens that wheat contains more of it than oats. The assailing point. At this time the whole column quantity of soluble phosphates in wheat, according made a dash, but I met the foremost with six disto Prof. Johnston-himself a Scotchman-is more charges from a revolver; two bottles of Sewell than one per cent. greater than in oats. In his Taylor's best were shivered in their faces; next a work on Agricultural Chemistry, pages 503 and cold turkey, and finally a bottle of Scotch snuff510, the composition of wheat and oats is given in the last shot in the locker. This did the business. tables. Oatmeal is, no doubt, very excellent food Such a sneezing and bellowing was never heard befor man and beast, and so is Indian corn meal, but fore; and the one that got it put out with the whole neither of them will confer intellectual acuteness troop at his heels, circling round, scenting the blood upon any man. Dull teachers or dull men cannot that had been spilled, and shaking the earth with be made philosophers either by the use of eggs or their thundering tramp. I was fairly in for it, and We must look to some other cause than oat- made up my mind to remain until sunset, when meal for the metaphysical mind of the North Bri- they would disperse, as in 'fly time' cattle graze at tons. That cause is, no doubt, to be found in their night. I was relieved, however, by the approach of education. Common schools have been in existence some cattle drivers, who, galloping up on shaggy in that country for two centuries, and the strict but muscular horses, and with whips twenty feet

oats.

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long, which they manage with surprising dexterity, made a wide, close-fitting leather belt for each tree, soon drove the herd to their cow-pens,' for the and over this laid a thick mixture of tar and india purpose of marking and branding. This is done rubber, but after a short time, the coating became every year in fly time.' The cattle ranging, scat- hardened in places, and Mr. Moth marched triumphtered thirty miles around, are now easily found col-antly up. The next winter I set to work in earnlected at their stamping grounds, and are driven to est, determined to barricade the persistent enemy, a common pen or pound, where the respective own- if the thing could possibly be done. Commencing ers assemble and put their marks and brands on the in October, every fair day when the temperature increase of the season. Thus the Egyptian plague is turned to a useful purpose."

For the New England Farmer.
THE CANKER WORM AGAIN.
CAN WE PROTECT OUR ORCHARDS FROM HIS RAVAGES?-SEVERAL

PLANS THAT HAVE BEEN TESTED, AND THE RESULTS.

was such that the moth could possibly be stirring, each tree received a fresh coating of tar. This plan, as might be conjectured, did the work pretty effectually, and had I commenced the work a little earlier, probably not a canker worm would have shown himself on the trees for that season. But, Would such a course pay? Very obviously it would not, when applied to orchards of any size, unless a This is an old question, Mr. Editor, a very old man could bring to his task the patience of a Job, one, as your man of the type very well knows; and after having taught every other department of the it is a question which has proved as perplexing a farm to take care of itself. Besides, this plan puzzle to our brother farmers, as ever could have brought an after and unlooked for harvest; for bebeen propounded by the famous Sphynx of old. tween the running of the tar down the trunks of That little pest, the canker moth, though he has the trees, and the hidden work of the borer behind been exorcised in every way that Yankee ingenuity the leathern band, we barely escaped the loss of put to the rack, could suggest, and though repeat- some of our most valuable trees. Then I tried the edly condemned to death by divers goodly inven- cotton-batting discovery. The result of this is very tions, still climbs the trees as large as life and as generally known; it did check the ascent of the natural as ever, and still carefully deposits his eggs, moth, but was by no means a protection. Again, I big with destruction to the most interesting depart- attempted to balk the instincts of the little intrument of all our farming. The little insect which der by enclosing the trunk of each tree at the surproduces the canker worm is the indirect cause of face of the earth, with a box having the form and serious pecuniary loss to the farmer, and he is, position of an inverted truncated pyramid, and bortherefore, compelled to protect himself from his dering the upper edge with a hedge of dry tree ravages; but who is there of us so wise, or so good, trimmings, none of which touched the tree. We that we cannot learn from it "some lesson of wis- had hoped that the insect, not finding ready access dom?" I did not take up my pen to moralize, but to the tree, would ascend the sides of the box, and consider what an example of self-devotion this lit- then, instead of descending within to get access to tle creature is. The closing act of its life is to prop- the tree, would continue ascending, and deposit its agate its species; when its instinct warns it that eggs among the dead trimmings. But I was dethe period approaches for this, the great business of ceived; their instincts proved too nice and too true its life, how directly it sets out on its mission, how for the success of my plan, and eventually they diligently it seeks a safe home for its future off- generally got access to the trees, and deposited spring, and with what untiring devotion it travels their seeds of mischief. Next year I sent for a straight on to destruction, rather than locate its workman in a neighboring town, and employed precious burden, it may be but an inch lower down him, at a heavy expense, to protect each tree with the trunk of the tree, than might be for their best a leaden collar. This collar, as your readers are good. Its love for its offspring appears to be great- doubtless aware, is composed of a leaden trough er even, than its instinct of self-preservation. When surrounding the tree, and designed to be filled with civilization felled the wild fruit trees of the forest, it oil, and a roof of lead which projects over the deprived him of his natural home, and driven by men trough and sheds the rain. The leaden collar, from his native retreat, he has entered our gardens, when properly applied and carefully attended to, is, and this, with no more evil design, than one who is doubtless, as efficient a protection as can be designnot a moral and intelligent being, bears in his tiny ed. But there are several objections to the use of body. May we all be as faithful in our several du- the collar; it is costly; the rain in our driving ties, with the light and guidance of our moral and storms is apt to drive in under the roof and float intellectual nature, as this little creature is in com- out the oil; the substance from which the collar is pleting his part of the great design, though without made will not allow of much plugging, and if they the aid of either. are not watched, the weight of the material is apt In common with my neighbors, my garden has to give the trough a slant, and so drain the oil from suffered much for several years past from the rav- one side, and thus give free passage to the moth; ages of the canker worm. I perplexed myself again, the oil soon becomes a thick, glutinous mass, with the various inventions the ingenuity of man needing but the addition of the dead bodies of a has given birth to, as means of preventing the moth few moths to furnish ample means of passage to the from ascending the trees; for here is where the enemy; or the dust and dirt may blow in, and furnwork of defence begins and ends. First, I did fair ish bridging on a larger scale; and, lastly, spiders, battle with the enemy, and slaughtered at "hand to from the near proximity of the edge of the trough to hand" conflict; but the experience of a few days the edge of the roof above, are much in the habit of demonstrated that, in projecting this campaign, I connecting the two by their webs, and so give another had, like the allies before Sebastopol, altogether means of avoiding the snare of cruel man. There are "underrated the resources of the enemy." Next, other objections that might be made against the I collected all the old boot-legs about the premises, use of the leaden collar. As the time is now at hand carried them to the garden, and with awl and thread when the intelligent farmer will be devising some

means of protecting his trees for the coming sea- crop, and causes the moisture of the soil, in which son, my practical experience, though hastily pre- the plant gets its nourishment, to evaporate. sented, may possibly prove of some value to him. Though there seems to be an inconsistency in this, The question again returns, can our trees be pro- it is only an apparent inconsistency, which vanishes tected from the ravages of the canker worm? I when we reflect upon the manner in which the moisbelieve they can; and that by a very simple remedy, ture is abstracted from the ground. The evaporawhich, with your permission, Mr. Editor, I will pre- tion takes place at the surface, and the moisture

sent in the next number of the Farmer.

J. J. H. GREGORY. Marblehead, Mass., Oct. 4.

THE DEW.

from below is brought to the surface by capillary attraction. Now think of the degree of porosity at which this attraction will go on and the matter is plain. This hint will be sufficient for those acquainted with the laws of natural philosophy. "J.'s" crust, which he seems to value as a retainer of moisture,

The following quotation from Dr. Wells on dew I consider to be just the reverse, unless it covers a is highly instructive: "I had often smiled in the layer of very porous dry soil, or is impervious to pride of half-knowledge at the means frequently water. Another objection to the crust is that it employed by gardeners to protect tender plant from prevents the air from circulating under the ground, cold, as it appeared to me impossible that a thin as well as it would if it were broken. mat, or any such flimsy substance, could prevent But to express the idea without philosophical them from attaining the temperature of the atmos- terms, one may easily test the matter by a simple phere, by which alone I thought them liable to be experiment. Fill three boxes six inches deep with injured. But when I had learned that bodies on earth, and pour over them equal quantities of the surface of the earth became, during a still and water, enough to wet the earth thoroughly. Then serene night, colder than the atmosphere, by radiat- pack the earth in one box, leave two undisturbed; ing their heat to the heavens, I perceived imme- (they will be in the condition of plowed land after diately a just reason for the practice which I had a good rain, while the first will be in the condition before deemed useless. Being desirous, however, of unplowed land.) As soon as the crust forms of acquiring some precise information on the sub- and becomes dry, break it to the depth of one and ject, I fixed perpendicularly in the earth of a grass one-half inches on one of the two and leave it on plot four small sticks, and over their upper extre- the other. If my theory is right, the packed box mities, which were six inches above the grass, and will dry first, the one with the crust pulverized last. formed the corners of a square, whose sides were If we add a fourth box, and stir it from the bottom two feet long, I drew tightly a very thin cambric occasionally, it would show the effects of deep plowhandkerchief. In this disposition of things, there- ing. The boxes, of course, should be exposed day fore, nothing existed to prevent the free passage of and night.—Southern Cultivator. air from the exposed grass to that which was sheltered except the four small sticks, and there was MISTRESS STRONGATHAM'S CHURN. no substance to radiate downward to the latter grass except the cambric handkerchief. The shel- Speaking of churns, we have never seen any othtered grass, however, was found nearly of the same er labor-saving contrivance in that department, that temperature as the air, while the unsheltered was for practical convenience and utility could compare five degrees or more colder. One night the fully-with that of Mistress Strongatham, a notable Engexposed grass was eleven degrees colder than the lish housewife, whose acquaintance we had the air, but the sheltered was only three degrees colder. pleasure of making in one of the rural districts of Hence we see the power of a very slight awning to New York some years since. Having occasion to avert or lessen the injurious coldness of the ground. call upon her one summer morning, we found her -Hunt's Elementary Physics-Bohn's Scientific occupying her huge chintz-covered rocking chair, Library.

"PLOWING IN DROUGHT PHILOSOPHI

CALLY CONSIDERED."

rocking and knitting as though the salvation of the family depended upon the assiduity with which she applied herself to these occupations. Not that she was uncivil or unsociable by any means, for the moment we had taken the proffered chair she set in EDITORS SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR :-In the June with a steady stream of talk that was as instructive number of your paper is an article with the above as it was entertaining, for besides her admirable caption, and as you invite your "practical and ob- qualities as a housewife the lady possessed rare conserving readers" to give their opinion on this im-versational powers.

portant subject, you have here the opinion of one During our call she directed one of her daughwho is not a practical tiller of the soil, and who pro- ters to some duty in a distant part of the house, fesses to know no more of the matter than can be adding, "I would attend to it myself, but I must learned by observation and reflection. The present fetch this butter." Now, we had known something season has no doubt caused many to philosophize of the process of "fetching butter" in our early on this subject, and among others the writer, who days, and the idea of a snow-white churn and an has arrived at a very different conclusion from your irksome expenditure of elbow grease was as natucorrespondent "J." This conclusion is, that in a rally associated with it in our mind, as was the dry season, the surface of the ground (say one and-compensatory slice of new bread and butter after a-half inches,) should be thoroughly pulverized, but the achievement of the victory. We therefore cast that deep plowing is injurious. our eyes about us involuntarily for these indica

The pulverizing of the surface answers the pur- tions, but we looked in vain. Of either churn or pose of mulching, and prevents the moisture of churning there was no more appearance than might the soil below from evaporating; while deep plow- have been seen in Queen Victoria's drawing-room ing is injurious, because it breaks the roots of the any day in the week. Our curiosity was excited,

and we resolved to keep our eyes open, satisfied you will say. But the hardening comes next. that if we did, "we should see what we should see." They are heated in batches in a furnace, and when And we did. During a momentary pause in the red-hot, are thrown in a pan of cold water. Next, conversation, the lady rose from her chair, removed they must be tempered: and this is done by rolling the cushion, raised a sort of trap door underneath, them backward and forward on a hot metal plate. and looked into the apparent vacuum with an earn- The polishing still remains to be done. On a very estly inquiring eye. The secret was out. Under coarse cloth, needles are spread to the number of the seat in her rocking-chair was a box in which she forty or fifty thousand. Emery dust is strewed deposited the jar of cream, and the agitation pro- over them, oil is sprinkled, and soft soap dashed by duced by the vibratory motion of the chair, con- spoonfulls over the cloth; the cloth is then rolled verted the liquid into butter. up, and, with several others of the same kind, By this arrangement the lady was enabled to kill, thrown into a sort of wash-pot, to roll to and fro not only two, but four birds with the same stone. for twelve hours or more. They come out dirty She could churn, knit, take her ease in her rocking- enough; but after a rinsing in clean hot water, and chair, and entertain her morning guests at the same a tossing in sawdust, they look as bright as can be, time. And such butter as she made! Yellow as and are ready to be sorted and put up for sale. gold, sweet as the meat of the cocoanut, and as hard, But the sorting and the doing up in papers, you too; it always brought the highest price in the "ru- may imagine, is quite a work by itself. ral" market. You may brag of your patent churus if you will, but for novelty, economy, convenience, and immaculate butter we defy them, one and all, when brought into competition with Mistress Strongatham's incomparable contrivance. Of her butter we shall retain a lively and grateful remembrance to our dying day; her churn we shall never forget either.-Springfield Republican.

MAKING A NEEDLE.

For the New England Farmer. "STATE OF MAINE POTATO." MR. EDITOR :-I feel it a pleasure as well as duty to reply to the second article of "South Danvers" respecting the "State of Maine Potato." He admits that he knows but little about this variety of pototo from his own experience, but was led to make the statement concerning it, from what he heard from another, and he, one who is little accustomed I wonder if any little girl who may read this to raising potatoes, and who probably never in his ever thought how many people are all the time at life has raised as many sorts as I have raised the work in making the things which she every day past two years. And, though I would not doubt uses. What can be more common, and, you may the truth of any statement that might be made by think, more simple, than a needle! Yet, if you do the worthy "President of the Massachusetts Hornot know it, I can tell you that it takes a great ticultural Society-the best of observers"—and a many persons to make a needle; and a great deal better man does not live in the State-still I do of time too. Let us take a peep into a needle very much question his experience in regard to factory: In going over the premises, we must pass raising potatoes, and especially the sort referred to; hither and thither, and walk into the next street and I think your correspondent will not be able to and back again, and take a drive to a mill, in order get a statement from that source that will sustain to see the whole process. We find one chamber of his position; if he can, I should like to see it. the shops is hung round with coils of bright wire, And suppose he can find one man in the State who of all thicknesses, from the stout kinds used for is not pleased with this potato, does it follow that cod-fish hooks to that of the finest cambric needles. it is "a miserable concern and entirely unworthy of In a room below, bits of wire, the length of two regard?" On that principle, almost every variety of needles, are cut by a vast pair of shears fixed in the vegetable and fruit we cultivate would be condemwall. A bundle has been cut off; the bits need ned. Has not "South Danvers" been rather fast straightening, for they just came off from coils. in condemning this potato, because one of his The bundle is thrown into a red-hot furnace; neighbors raised a few, and because those did not and then taken out, and rolled backward and for- quite suit him in size-when he had little, or no ward on a table until the wires are straight. This knowledge of the thing himself? If this course process is called "rubbing straight." We now see was pursued in respect to everything else, where a mill for grinding needles. We go down into the should we be? He intimates that the reason I puff basement, and find a needle pointer seated on his this potato is, because I have them for sale; very bench. He takes up two dozen or so of the wires, true, I have them to sell for seed, and so have I got and rolls them between his thumb and fingers, with a great many other sorts, among which are an huntheir ends on the grindstone, first one end and then dred and fifty bushels of Davis' Seedling, a sort he the other. We have now the wires straight and praises so highly, and which is really good. But shall pointed at both ends. Next is a machine which my opinion be entirely set aside, because I have poflattens and gutters the heads of ten thousand nee- tatoes to sell? Who ought, and is expected to dles an hour. Observe the little gutters at the know the most about a thing, if it is not he who head of your needle. Next comes the punching of grows it most extensively? Again, he attempts to the eyes; and the boy who does it punches eight impeach my testimony, because he says I wrote— thousand an hour, and he does it so fast your eye or he thinks I did—an article several years ago, recan hardly keep pace with him. The splitting fol- specting the "Danvers Winter Sweet Apple." lows, which is running a fine wire through a dozen, Now all I have to say to that, is, one thing at a perhaps, of these twin needles. time, if you please; I want no side issues dragged in A woman, with a little anvil before her, files to prevent a fair discussion of the question before us. between the heads and separates them. They are If my opinion is not worthy of notice, I can give now complete needles, but rough and rusty, and, the testimony of more than twenty-five, if not douwhat is worse, they easily bend. A poor needle, ble that number of persons, who have raised this

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