in October or November. If some of the plants The man who loves his wife, and wishes to make of this last sowing be taken up and laid in like his home a happy one, will regard her feelings, Broccoli, they will be more secure in case of cold, and never subject her to mortification or degradawet weather occurring at the end of the season.-tion. Nature has implanted in the heart of every Gardeners' Chronicle. hand. woman a desire to appear well in the eyes of others; this desire should never be contravened DUTIES OF THE FARMER TO HIS unless it oversteps the bounds of propriety, but should be indulged so far as your means will FAMILY. justify. It is associated in her mind with the Dr. J. REYNOLDS recently delivered a lecture feeling of self-respect, which is one of the best before the Concord Lyceum, upon the "Duties of safeguards of virtuous character. Never by unFarmers." We propose, with the Doctor's con- remitting toil, render that fair and blooming countenance, and those delicate features coarse sent, to present to our readers some extracts from and harsh, and cause that beautiful, active and this lecture. Under the head of "Duties to his symmetrical form to become bowed and crippled Family," he remarks, and distorted by incessant drudgery. Remember "Order and neatness are among the marks of that woman is not endowed by nature with the good farming. Where these are wanting in the same muscular strength and power of endurance, arrangements about the house and farm-build- that she has given to man. Her strength consists ings, they will be wanting on the farm. The far- in her weakness, which appeals to you for supmer is bound to train up his family in good hab- port and protection, and in her beauty and genits, and habits of order, by which everything tleness, which appeal to your love and affection. shall be kept in its place, and everything done in And in all the arrangements of the household, its proper connection, and habits of neatness you should remember that the duties of woman which shall lead to the instant detection and re are not to be accomplished by muscular power moval of every nuisance, are among the good and brute force, but rather by skill, by tact, habits in which children should be trained from by perseverance; and in proportion to the extheir infancy. The health, the comfort and the tent of her labors and cares, should be the farespectability of his family demand this at his cilities and aids supplied to her. Thus will her strength be spared, and her time saved for the culAmong the provisions which the farmer should tivation of her mind, for the instruction of her make for his family, are all those arrangements children, and for the performance of those gentle and utensils which are calculated to save time charities, that so peculiarly adorn the female charand labor and strength. There is much hard acter. And how much more cheerful, aye, and work to be done in the family of the farmer, and successful too, will be the labors of the field, when on certain days, and at certain seasons, the fe- the sweet and cheerful smile of the contented and males are tasked to the full extent of their happy wife meets you at the threshold, and strength and powers of endurance. Now, I would sheds sunshine through your dwellings. not recommend that you should get every new Another and most important duty which the pattern of cooking-stove, or washing machine, or farmer owes to his family, is to supply them with churn, that you may see advertised in the news- the means of moral, intellectual and religious papers. But I would have you keep those that culture. Let your children be trained from you have in good order, and in a condition al- their earliest infancy to be affectionate, kind, ways ready for use. Have them in a convenient obedient, truthful, industrious, and as fast as place, and so arranged as to save steps and their intellect is developed let it receive approstrength as much as possible. priate culture. Never grudge the cost of books, Provide for the happiness of your family. Many periodicals or papers, or taxes for the institutions little attentions to their comfort, and arrange- of learning. Money paid for the instruction of ments by which their labors may be facilitated, your children is the best investment you can contribute much to promote their happiness. make for them, and remember that as the world The mistress of the family has many things in advances in knowledge, and the comforts and conthe care of her children, and in the labors of the veniences of life increase, the standard of edufamily, to exhaust her strength, and to try her cation must be elevated from generation to generfeelings, and the good wife will not fail to appre- tion. It is not enough that your children are ciate all the arrangements you may make for instructed in those things that you learned in the her relief, and will amply repay you by her schools of your boyhood. They must be taught cheerful smiles, and increased patience and sweet- those things that you now, in your manhood, feel ness of temper. that you need to know. There has been as you Never require the females of the family to do all know, a great revival of interest in the cause those things which properly belong to the other of education, within a few years past. Catch this sex. They should not be required to split the spirit that now pervades New England, and let it wood, or even to carry it into the house; to enter into all the arrangements for the education shovel the snow from the clothes-yard, or to of your children. But I must cut short my resweep the paths and alleys around the house, or marks upon this copious theme and will only add, carry pails of food to the hogs, or dig the pota- that you cannot afford to dispense with the institoes for dinner. Many a farmer's wife has been, tutions of religion, for to these, we in New Engand now is subjected to drudgery of this sort. land, are greatly indebted for our worldly prosBut it is to be hoped that the days of such ser- perity. Teach your children to reverence the savice are nearly ended. All such labors should be cred word, to remember the Sabbath day, and to considered a part of the daily business of the do to others, as they would that others should do farm, and should be attended to in their season. to them; and never forget that in all these re JUNE REMARKS.-The cost per pound was stated by spects, your own example is the most efficient teacher, and that the lessons they are thus us at five cents, as estimated by practical growtaught, will make the deepest impression upon ers in this and other States. The cost must, their minds." EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. CALVES' TAILS AND WIND SPAVIN. MR. EDITOR:-Does it benefit calves to cut off their tails? (a.) Can you tell the cause and cure of wind-spavin on horses' legs? (b.) Will you, or some of your correspondents, answer the above? L. B. PETTINGILL. it. Weston, Vt., May, 1855. of course, vary according to circumstances, as value of land, location, labor, the amount of manure required, &c. We do not think the business profitable when the prices are less than ten or twelve cents per pound. The price has averaged more than fourteen cents for the last fifty years, at times, however, falling so low as six or seven cents, and once as low as five cents per pound, at which it is a losing business. RED RUSSETS. REMARKS.-(a.) The cutting off of the tails of calves or cattle is a cruel and barbarous custom, We have received from HERVEY TUFTS, Esq., of conceived in ignorance, and the practice is contin- Manchester, N. H., a box of apples which he calls ued because our fathers did it. It disfigures the the Red Russet-and the name is appropriate— animal, and subjects it to annoyance and suffer- which are now this tenth day of May, as hard, ing from insects in the hot season. So the old plump, and fair probably, as they ever were. and foolish notion prevails that cattle have the The color is a dark red, but bright on the sunny tail sickness, that the end of the tail becomes soft, side, and covered with minute grayish dots. and the only cure is to chop off the end of that They are of medium size, stem slender and about useful and graceful appendage, leaving an un- an inch long, calyx small and in a shallow basin, sightly stump which any cow would be ashamed They have a pleasant, sprightly flavor, and we to wear, even if her owner is not ashamed to see should pronounce them, judging from the specimens before us, apples worthy of extensive culti(b.) Spavin is occasioned by straining the ten- tion. We should be glad of a few of the scions. dons or little vessels which contain a liquid or The tree upon which they grew is a very old one, mucous to enable the tendons to slide over each supposed to be a seedling, and is on the farm of other easily. These vessels are enlarged by vio- S. W. MANSFIELD, Esq., of New Ipswich, N. H. lent exercise, too; one of them may frequently The tree was called an old one forty years ago. be seen on the inside of the hock at its bending, considerably increased in size. Spavin is of two kinds, bog-spavin and blood-spavın, and is diffi- MR. EDITOR :-Knowing you to be interested in all matters pertaining to horticulture, and seeing cult to cure. A close bandage continued for a an inquiry in one of the Farmers, in regard to long time, will sometimes effect a cure, but if the the white blackberry, I would announce a new horse has a hard pull again it is apt to return. fruit of which I claim to be the originator; it is Bleeding is resorted to by some, but is a danger- the white thimbleberry; if you, or any of your ous and not often successful remedy. We would correspondents, have ever seen any of this excellent fruit, I should like to know it. recommend frequent bathing of the enlarged parts with very weak, cold, arnica water, and to give the animal fair treatment, both in the carriage and in the field. But preventive is better than cure. Spavins are usually the evidences that the horse has had a hard master-but not always. years. -- HOPS. WHITE THIMBLEBERRY. A READER OF THE FARMER. South Reading, May, 1855. TICKS ON SHEEP. Will you tell us the best way to kill ticks on Yes, sir. In the first place keep the sheep in healthy condition by plenty of good food, say MR. EDITOR-I am a constant reader of the clover hay cured with the leaves on, a few turFarmer, and have had an eye, and some years a nips, beets or carrots cut fine, and an occasional hoe, to the hop business for more than twenty feed of grain or beans,-allow them a free choice I have the Farmer of Feb. 3, in which you to remain under cover or to go out doors as they state, in answer to "Culture of Hops," that the please, and then, if they are infested with ticks, cost of raising and curing a pound of hops is put a little yellow snuff close to the skin on vaabout five cents. The hop folks of this county rious parts of the body, or a little linseed oil, but must disagree with you as to the cost of hops per do not use spirits of turpentine or mercurial ointpound. Your remarks agree with my own views. About twenty years ago, I sold my hops in Mon- ment only as a last resort. There is an ingenious treal, for two years in succession, at six and a little article for sale to fumigate or smoke the half dollars a hundred. We think here that sheep and kill the ticks by blowing strong tobacco hops cannot be afforded less than ten or twelve smoke among them. cents per pound, at the least. BOILING WATER ON FRUIT TREES. GROUND NUT, OR INDIAN POTATO.. MR. EDITOR:-Can you tell me anything of Can any one give information concerning the the effect of boiling water poured around the Groundnut or Indian Potato? Has any attempt roots of choice fruit trees? A lady from New ever been made to cultivate it, and with what Jersey, who is much interested in horticulture, success? Is it not possible to improve this "child says, if poured over the roots of the cherry tree of mother earth" by care and culture so as to in spring, it destroys the germ of insects deposit- make it a valuable root? ed there, and makes the tree fruitful. I have never seen the experiment made, but I once rather mischievously poured a pailful of boiling water over the roots of a large grape vine, which SUBSOIL PLOW. G. F. N. To J. G., Northumberland, N. H.-Prof. Mapes' had shaded the window inconveniently for many diamond-footed subsoil plow is probably the best years, without yielding fruit, for the purpose of now used. destroying it; and the result was, that it matured fruit that season, and continued to, for many successive ones. GUANO FOR A SINGLE YEAR. Please inform me what kind of fertilizer to use R. HARRIMAN. If it is useful, at what season is it best, and upon a corn crop to the best advantage for this how much may be applied with safety? F. year. I intend to plant some eight or ten acres East Charlemont, May, 1855. of river-land to corn; the soil is a deep, sandy REMARKS.-The above inquiry and remarks are loam, and is inundated every spring. I have no evidently from one of our numerous female read-manure to put on it. The land has been previously pastured. ers, who are becoming interested in what relates Henniker, N. H., 1855. to the garden and farm. Hot water poured upon REMARKS.-We saw a field of land similar to the roots of peach trees will prevent the curl of that described above, manured with guano, the leaf, and rejuvenate the whole appearance of the tree. We have never tried it on plums or cherries, but it is not clear to us why it would not be as beneficial to either of them as to the peach. Apply it in April. HEMLOCK TREES-AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 300 pounds per acre, on two acres, and on two adjoining acres fifteen ox-cart loads of good manure applied; the result was 56 bushels of good corn to the acre. We have no doubt you may succeed in securing a fair crop for a single year with the guano, perhaps longer, but it is rather at variance with the true principles of the science that The farmer's MR. EDITOR-In answer to the gentleman at Gilford, N. H., upon peeling hemlock trees, I you should for successive years. should say let them alone, till you are ready to prime object must be to collect all the manure he peel them. My reason is this; all hemlock trees, can from the farm itself. as far as I have noticed, when blown down, if the roots are part of them fastened still in the HOW SHALL I SOLDER? ground, peel better than those which are broken off entirely. I suppose the circulation of the sap outlet of an aqueduct where there is 60 feet fall, Query-I have a pipe case to attend to at the commences in the spring, and is by the remaining and it is impossible to get at the upper end of the roots carried to the body of the tree, while those broken off have no roots from which the tree may to extend the main line four rods further. It is pipe to stop the water. I wish to solder a pipe, derive sap. Will you please ask those who advertise agri-pressing out. Will some brother tinker give me impossible to solder where a drop of water is cultural implements in your paper to write the the answer? price with the advertisement, and oblige many of your readers. Campton, N. H., 1855. AIR IN WATER PIPES. B. J. P. J. BOSTON VETERINARY INSTITUTE. We are glad to learn that Dr. DADD has succeeded in obtaining a charter to incorporate the A. S. Worthen, New London, N. H.-Is the Boston Veterinary Institute. The corporators, upper end of your pipe below the surface of the water in the well? If not, the air is drawn in and their associates, are invested with University and partially prevents the passage of the water powers, and permitted to hold property to the until it is forced through the entire pipe. When amount of twenty-five thousand dollars. the pipes are below the water, a chemical action We learn that the first session of this instituby the water on the pipe generates a gas, which, tion will commence in the month of October. in many cases, has the same effect as common air. I have frequently been obliged to use a force pump to remove this gas, when no air could possibly get into the pipes. PROF. TINKER, P. J. Plumberton, Vt., April 20, 1855. ΡΟΤΑΤΟ ΟΝΙΟΝ, Thanks to a "SUBSCRIBER," at Nantucket, for a box of the potato onion. We shall plant them. A prospectus will soon be issued, so that the public may be informed of the objects of this novel enterprise. DR. DADD.-The attention of the reader is called to an article in another column, upon the subject of re-mastication by our neat stock. Dr. DADD has kindly permitted us the use of an expensive diagram, for a short time, which hangs in our office, and may be examined by the curious. For the New England Farmer. A long and severe winter has just passed, and perhaps a summary review of the weather in this vicinity may not be uninteresting to New England readers. Cold weather commenced early in the 11th month, 1854. On the morning of the 5th, the mercury fell to 14°, and I learn by the New England Farmer that it fell to the same degree in the vicinity of Boston. From the 1st to the 4th, the range of the mercury was 40°, which was also the range for the month, the extremes being 54° and 14o. With the 12th month, winter began to reign in reality. Snow fell every day of the first seven, and it was two feet deep in the woods. On the morning of the 19th, the mercury fell 18° below zero, and the 22d it was below zero all day. The mean temperature from the 17th to the 23d, inclusive, was only 3.95° above. The mean of the 19th was 99, of the 22d 8°, and of the 23d zero. The 1st month, 1855, was milder, yet the mercury fell to 14° on the morning of the 25th, and we had some severe snow storms; not less than four and a half feet fell during the month. The 2d month, however, caps the climax of cold. On the morning of the 5th, the mercury fell to 28, which is lower than it had fallen here in twenty-five years; yet we were destined to experience a greater degree of cold than this. The 6th was the coldest day on record in this county. At 6 o'clock, A. M., the mercury fell to 38°, and the mean temperature of the day was 243. The highest temperature of the day was 9° below zero. The extreme cold weather was not confined to this section of country, but it extended over a large area in this latitude. In Carroll county, N. H., a little south of us, and 400 miles east, the mercury fell to about the same degree. At Watertown, and some other places in the northern part of New York, it fell to 40°. At this place, the mean temperature of the month, at 6 o'clock, A. M., was 6.96°. The weather in the 3d month was variable, yet its blustering reputation was fully sustained. We had a great deal of wind, and some tedious days, yet the mercury did not fall below zero. At the beginning of the 4th month, a great deal of snow lay upon the ground; but, "At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun," For the New England Farmer. A HOME PICTURE. BY MRS. ANN E. PORTER. An old man sat by the chimney side, His face was wrinkled and wan; His coat was of good old-fashioned gray, The old man liked to stir the fire, So, near him the tongs were kept; What did he see in the embers there? And now and then they wakened smiles, His good wife sat on the other side, In the high-backed flag-seat chair; She wears a "blue checked" apron now, And she says "they are growing dim."" I like to call and tell the news, And chat an hour each day, For it stirs the blood in an old man's heart Be kind unto the old, my friends, They're worn with this world's strife, They taught our youthful feet to climb Then let us lead them gently down the snows dissolve, and earth, divested of her winter mantle, assumes her vernal robes. Sleighs were in use until the 5th. People began to talk of the certainty of a late spring, but the snow melted rapidly, and there being little or no frost in the ground, it dried fast, and at this time the LETTERS.-The April number of the New York season is as forward as usual. Considerable plow- Quarterly Review has an article on "Post Office ing has been done, and some grain sown. Grass Improvements," in which it is stated that the starts finely, having been well washed by winter Boston people annually average about thirtyrains, and the greater part of winter grain looks three letters each; those in New York about remarkably well. I think the prospect for a crop twenty-four; in Philadelphia fourteen; in New is considered good. Robins, black-birds, swallows and blue-birds, Orleans about sixteen; and in Baltimore ten. came about the middle of the month. Larks are In the aggregate of the large cities of the United now singing their matin songs, and we have now States there is an annual average of about twenty a full choir of vernal songsters, which, with the letters to each person. In the country districts few wild flowers that are seen in the borders of forests, serve to enliven the heart of nature's there are only about three letters annually to each person, and in the whole United States about We have had some sudden changes in tempera-four to each person. lovers. NEW ENGLAND FARMER. For the New England Farmer. 293 small seed, that they would soon run out, if S. P. MR. EDITOR:-As it is now becoming neces- been written, as you know, and I presume much farmers on this question, and a large majority of the only right way. For the New England Farmer. PLOWING. Many years ago my father began to carry on a farm. He was told he must plant large potatoes, so the best were selected for the field and second quality for the table. He dug the next fall, heard that "faith" is essential to salvation, and about 100 bushels of potatoes, not one of which MR. EDITOR-From my boyhood up, I have was large enough for the table. The next year to be aware how necessary faith is to good farmno serious farmer doubts it. But very few seem these little potatoes, on the same land, produced an excellent crop of good potatoes. After that ing, It is only through faith that most of us he kept the large ones for the table and the in regard to agriculture. Not one in a hundred smaller for the field. Nor can I allow that our of us can test the truth of the chemical doctrines avail ourselves of the teachings of modern science crops were inferior to those of others on similar land. We once planted on a bog meadow we laid down upon this subject. were reclaiming, some small potatoes left of the to believe on trust. If some of "our order" We are compelled previous year's produce, and some assorted potahave been too ready to believe, their disappointtoes purchased in Boston. We could see no dif-ments and losses have arisen, not from their wilference in the result. lingness to be directed, but from their failing to a custard. Some four years since, I took possession of a house in Connecticut. I found in the cellar about a peck of potatoes, not larger then robins' eggs, literally. I took them into my garden to plant, and a neighbor to whom I had let a portion of the garden, fairly ridiculed me for it. He planted only large potatoes without cutting in the row next my small ones, his having the important part of their work to much greater best cultivation When we dug them, my small profit, if they would only settle it in their own But to plowing. Farmers would perform this potatoes showed full as many and as large as his. minds what plowing is for. From what I have Last year I planted some assorted, and some sorted out; yield so nearly the same as not to be per- the process of plowing as being to the earth what seen, I should judge that some farmers regarded ceptibly different. Now I have never made any currying is to the horse. They scratch the surexperiment by weight, but I think these not with-face a little, and expect that the crop will be out value. I have to-day spoken with a farmer on tickled into smiles. this subject. He was rather in favor of large potatoes, but said he often used small ones, and for results produced by plowing; and, if my conWith your leave, I will specify two important aught he could see, with as good results. He jectures are right, your readers will perhaps be thought they might run out, as the seed was less induced to "speed the plow" with new zeal. In perfect, a point which we will consider present- the first place, one cause of sterility in our New ly. He mentioned a farmer noted for his pota- England soil is the exhaustion of the vegetable toes, who cut his potatoes so as to put but six or element from the land by the removal of crops. seven bushels seed to the acre, and thought the This must be replaced; and how? We go into crops better for it. our meadows, and, at great expense, procure and So far as I have seen, the argument for large prepare meadow-mud. But cannot we do this seed seems rather theoretical than practical. more easily? When we stir the earth, fermentaThere are certainly too few well conducted ex- tion ensues, vegetation in its lowest forms begins, periments to demonstrate the principle. We myriads of plants (cryptogamia) spring into life constantly hear men appeal to the imperfectness and become developed. We plow again; they of the small seed. To this the rot has also been perish, and upon their remains a higher order attributed. If we recur to the native growth of the pota- time? Not at all. Have you never seen those succeeds, and so on. to, we shall find the tubers very small, and broad-brimmed toad-stools, big enough, if they Do you say this requires this is the natural and healthy growth of the were only beef-steaks, for an alderman's breakplant. Large potatoes are an artificial growth, fast, which spring up in a single night? The and are certainly no less in an unnatural condi- Lord knows whence they come; but they come, tion than the smaller ones on the same stem. If and they serve to show how rapidly, under ceranything the smaller potatoes are more nearly a tain circumstances, vegetable material is pronatural growth than the larger ones, and I can duced in the earth. If plowing stimulates the see no reason why these should not be planted earth to this kind of productiveness, is it not rather than the larger ones by the sticklers for much cheaper to restore the vegetable element in the "depreciation" theory. It is urged when good crops are raised from hauling mud? I think so; and therefore feel that, this way, than in the common one of digging and |