Foreign Notices. * * CANNING FRUITS. It may be interesting to some of your readers to know that in these times of high prices, many fruits can be preserved with little or no sugar. Currants, gooseberries, cherries, peaches and pears, require no sugar to preserve them. Raspberries and blackberries do not require more than 4 ounces of sugar to a pound of fruit, and strawberries but little more. We have now the different kinds nearly as fresh and good as when first gathered. Put them up the same way as if you used the usual quantity of sugar-that is, expel the cold air by heating the fruit after it is placed in the jars, by setting the jars in "The Cattle Melon."—Our foreign exchanges give currency to an article highly commending "a new green crop, yielding forty tons per acre of a food especially adapted for milch cows, as, being void of all aromatic flavor, it communicates none to milk," "It is readily eaten by cattle, sheep and pigs. It is easy of cultivation, exhausts the land less than any root crops, being less time in the ground, and deriving so much nutriment from the atmosphere through the large and luxuriant foliage, it is more certain to plant than root crops, having fewer enemies, and may be cultivated up-cold water, which heat to boiling. The jars that we use on all soils suitable for root crops." It seems that a farmer in Indiana first sent seeds of it to an English friend, who is now engaged in writing it up, and who accompanies his communication with an analysis of "part of a fruit which weighed 16 pounds," made for the purpose by Dr. Voelcker. We take this very estimable "fruit" to be nothing else than the common pumpkin. Good luck to it abroad; it is a serviceable crop enough here to deserve the compliment of foreign notice. Arab Horses.-A correspondent of the London Times recently wrote to that journal that "the muchvexed point as to the merits of English and Arab horses has just again been tried in Cairo. Ali Pasha, who has the finest stud of Arabs in Egypt, maintained that no English horse could run against an Arab for four miles. His Highness Halim Pacha offered to run Companion, a well-known racer here, against him for any sum he liked. The match was run from the first station on the Suez desert to Cairo. The English horse, which was bred by Lord Ribblesdale, won in a canter by more than half a mile. Such a crushing defeat has taken all courage out of the partisans of Arab horses. What astonished the natives most was that Companion, beating his adversary by so great a distance, was perfectly fresh, and quite ready to turn round and run the distance over again, while the Arab was quite exhausted and blown." Gas Lime.-In answer to inquiries about the use of are Mason's self-sealing, with zinc covers, which can be M. S. DYER. WAY TO REPAIR A WOODEN CISTERN. Sometimes cisterns that have been made of wood will not hold, only for a few inches in depth; and, sometimes they will let it all out in the course of a few days. When the water all leaks out, it is very evident that the leak is in the bottom. In this case, take the diameter of the bottom of the cistern, on the inside, and cut out a bottom of good boards, that will fit closely on the inside. Now, spread water lime cement over the bottom, about an inch thick, and lay this new bottom on the water lime, and press it down well. That part will be leak tight in a few days. If the leak or leaks should be on the sides, or, if some of the staves should be decayed a little in some places, lath the inside of the cistern, and lay on two thick coats of water lime cement. As soon as the second coat of mortar becomes partly dry, dress out staves, about four inches wide, and set them up, on the inside of the cistern, and nail every fourth or fifth stave, through the plaster into the old staves. This mode of repairing a wooden cistern is entirely gas lime for agricultural purposes, an officer of the Ed-reliable; and, in case a cistern is under a part of a house, inburgh Gas Company, writes that all the waste lime where a new one cannot be put in its place, it is a very from their works, consisting of the dry lime powder feasible and practicable way of making a repair. thrown out of dry lime purifiers, and the wet lime refuse Auburn, N. Y. dried partially like stiff clay-is sold, the former at 2s 9d. per ton, and the latter at 1s. put on trucks. He says: S. EDWARDS TODD. CARE OF STRAWBERRY BEDS. I believe that waste gas lime is equal in efficiency to fresh lime for most of the purposes aimed at in its use We usually pass through our beds about this time in farm lands. I sold all the lime thus produced at a with a fork hoe or potato digger, and loosen the surgas work in Forfarshire for sixteen years to several far-face of the soil and pick out all weeds. It is then a mers, who uniformly expressed their satisfaction there- good plan to scatter a liberal quantity of well rotted hills.' After which with. One very usual application of it was its mixture manure among the vines or with the "wrack"-viz., the large piles of weeds and mulch well-say one inch deep, with sawdust or tantangled roots of grass cleared off the fields annually. | bark or clean straw or hay. If any of the readers of On being composted in this way, the lime gradually kill this article should have an old bed in which the vines ed all the vitality of these weeds, and returned them to have run together so as to become a thick mat of plants the land in the way of manure. It also served the pur- spade under strips about one foot wide, leaving strips pose of opening up stiff clay soil, being first spread over of plants about the same width. Work among these the surface and then plowed down. But the chief and vines with a fork hoe-pick out all weeds and scatter most beneficial use of gas lime is found in its admixture a very liberal supply of well rotted manure among with farm-yard manure at the time it is applied to the them, over which scatter the mulching. fields. This is explained by the fact that the lime from To those who think they will not get as much fruit gasworks, while retaining all its original properties as a hydrate of lime, has acquired, in addition, a large amount in this way as by leaving the whole mass of plants, I of sulphur, much of which is free, and when openly ex- would advise to try the experiment on one part of their posed, is taken up readily by the oxygin of the atmos-beds, and report the result, especially in the size of phere. This sulphur so readily parting from the lime their fruit. enters into combination with the volatile ammoniacal elements of the fresh manure, retaining them in the form of sulphate of ammonia, to be afterwards taken up grad: ually by the crop to which it has thus been applied. It is in the first and last mentioned application that gas lime has proved most beneficial in those cases coming within my own knowledge. It is not equal to newly burned lime shells for breaking up stiff clays. After the beds are through fruiting, spade over the ground, leaving narrow strips of plants-say 3 to 4 inches wide. Work well among these with the fork hoe-manure highly, and as the plants throw out "runners," train them along the edges of the rows. Before fruiting season next year give them the same treatment as before described. A. M. PURDY. The Red-winged blackbird, or Swamp Blackbird, or Marsh Blackbird, as he is respectively called in the different States of the Union which he frequents, arrives in the middle States in the latter part of March, although the time varies according to the season. They immediately return to their old haunts-preferring meadows, swamps and ponds, and the borders of such creeks as have low banks. About the middle of April they begin to select their mates and to retire in pairs to form their nest and rear their young. In the early part of May they begin to construct their nest. They generally choose some meadow or swamp for this purpose. On the low bushes found growing in such places, or among tall clumps of reeds, the nest is often placed. The nest is constructed of BARN SWALLOW-Hirundo horreorum. BARTON. Barn Swallow. It is a sociable bird, preferring the habitations of man to its native wilds. There can be little doubt but that this bird built its nest and reared its young in caves and hollows of trees, in the mantion of this country. It has, however, embraced the ner that the Chimney Swallow did before the civilizasuperior facilities for raising its young, afforded by the the Barn Swallow is to be found almost exclusively rapid increase in the population of this country. Now around the habitations of man. In this respect-that of adapting itself to circumstances it seems to have shown a remarkable degree of intelligence. The Barn Swallow arrives in the Middle States about the last week of March or the first week in April. Much, however, depends upon the weather. Sometimes they have been known to arrive much earlier, and vice versa. considered that with them comes spring-spring with Their arrival is hailed with joy, as it is generally its flowers, green grass, birds, and a thousand other delights which we associate with the name. long rough meadow grass, sometimes of reeds, and is friends to man. Even the greatest haters of birds have Swallows of all kinds have always been considered lined with fine grass. The nest is ingeniously con- been unable to find any injury which they can charge structed, and when placed in a meadow which is some- them with perpetrating. So that when our friends, times overflowed, the Blackbird takes care to place it the Barn Swallows, take up their abode in our barns, high enough to escape damage from water. This is they meet with a cordial welcome, and are never deequally the case whether it be placed upon a bush or stroyed except perchance by some brainless idiot who in a clump of rushes, and when in such positions, it is would fain improve himself in "shooting on the firmly affixed at the top to the adjoining twigs or rushes as the case may be. In this receptacle, the fe- wing." Did they really afford this, there would not be male deposits four or five eggs, never more, of a pale so much harm in it. But it does not follow that a light blue, marked with faint rings of purple and long person who can shoot every Swallow that comes sailstraggling lines and spots of black. They exhibit con- ing past him, can drop a Partridge, for it is nothing siderable variation in the markings. On an average but a knack after all. they measure an inch in length by three-quarters of an inch in breadth. It is very hard to get an average measurement of these eggs, for, although I have compared over fifty, I have not yet found two exactly agreeing in size and markings. When an intruder approaches the nest, the male flies to meet him, and keeps fluttering over his head, uttering all the while loud notes of distress. By his acting thus he often discloses the site of the nest, which might not otherwise have been discovered without considerable trouble. It is not uncommon to find three or four nests of this bird in close proximity to each other-sometimes on the same bush. About the middle of August the young birds assemble and fly in flocks, consisting of forty or fifty-sometimes greatly exceeding this number. At this age they closely resemble the female-the males being distinguishable, however, by a little orange on the shoulder. This increases in brilliancy and space as the season advances. J. P. N. Well, supposing the Barn Swallows to have arrived, we first notice them arranging their plumage, and then in a few days more they begin to construct their elaborate nests in which to rear their young. This is usually placed on, or adhering to, a rafter of a barn or some other out-building, and is generally constructed so as to be under the shelter of some projecting beam. The nest is of the shape of an inverted cone, with a perpendicular section cut off where it joins the rafter. At this point it is much the thinnest. It is constructed of pellets of mud which the birds form at a neighboring creek and carry in their bills to the chosen spot, and of layers of grass interposed between the layers of mud. When this hardens it forms a hard and substantial nest which weighs nearly two pounds. The hollow of this inverted cone is filled nearly to the top with fine grasses, and on top of these are laid soft feathers. J. P. N. SHADING CROPS. His corn is larger in consequence, and his fields are as clean as a floor when the corn is cut up. There are some erroneous opinions entertained in Some of our readers are well acquainted with such relation to the advantages of shading growing plants. facts as these, and our object in making these remarks A parched surface soil is supposed to be detrimental is not so much to impart what may be new, as to into successful growth; hence the opinion that a cover- vite distinct and accurate experiments in relation to ing of living weeds or grass protects the roots of young the subject, in order to enforce more thoroughly its trees from the hot sun and drying up, and also that aimportance, now that the season for making such young crop of newly seeded grass will succeed better trials is near at hand. the first season under the heavy shade of oats and wheat. FEEDING AND WINTERING SHEEP. MESSRS. EDITORS-Mr. Chas. P. Rowell of this place It is familiar to most of our readers that plants in dry weather pump up large quantities of water out of the soil, and dissipate it freely from the surface of the slaughtered a good sheep the past week; it was of the leaves in the form of vapor. It would impress a valu-native breed, with a little tincture of Merino. He able lesson on the mind of any one not familiar with this fact, to try the following experiment: Allow a piece of ground, say ten feet square, to grow up with a dense mass of grass or with a crop of rank weeds; adjoining it let a similar portion be perfectly free from vegetable growth, and keep the surface mellow by a thorough raking or hoeing once a week or oftener. The superficial observer would say that the exposed and bare soil thus subjected to the burning rays of a summer sun, would soon become dry and all the moisture dispelled from it, while he would take it for granted that the dense covering of the cool, shading leaves on the other portion, would keep the soil cool and moist below. If he is not already aware that the exposed mellow soil forms a perfect mulch for the earth below on one part, and that the thousands of stems of living plants on the other are bringing up and discharging water into the air at a rapid rate, he will be very much surprised on thrusting a spade into different places, to find that the exposed soil is quite moist below the surface even if there has been no rain for weeks, while the "shaded" part will come up dry from the full depth the spade has gone down. We advise every one to try this experiment on account of the clear occular demonstration it affords. weighed alive 240 lbs. The dressed meat weighed 135 pounds; rough tallow, 30 pounds. The price obtainfor the sheep after it was killed was $33. The carcass was sold in the Boston market. ber for $20; the weight at that time was 220 pounds. Mr. Rowell purchased the sheep the first of DecemHe was fed on hay, with one pint of corn a day, up to the time he was slaughtered. Mr. R. has been quite successful in feeding sheep the past 3 or 4 years, purchasing the best Merino weathers in the fall, and feeding them about three months. The mutton sells as quick and at as good prices in the market as that from any other breed, and is much better adapted to the palates and stomachs of the working classes than mutton from the fat sheep mentioned above, which is only fit to tickle the palate of an Englishman. Warner, N. H. S. C. PATTEE. DESCRIPTION OF A HAY-RACK. MESSRS. LUTHER TUCKER & SON-I have just been reading Mr. INGALSBE's description of how to make and use a horse-fork; so I thought I would try and give a description of a hay-rack I used last season, on which were drawn 125 loads of hay and grain, and never lost a load though it was all loaded by boys under 12 years old. As we use a horse-fork to unload, they thought it fun. each side of the wheels; then take four pieces of oak The practical deduction to be made from these facts, are that a mellow soil with a mellow surface will retain moisture better than in any other condition. A First get two pieces of pine, 3 by 6, and 16 feet long, mulching of straw or other litter, (this matter being for sills; then get two pieces of oak, 3 by 3, and 7 feet in a dead or decaying state,) answers a good purpose long, for cross-pieces; then two pieces oak plank, the to keep the soil moist below, but it is not so good nor same length and 6 inches wide, 1 inches thick; then efficient as the mulching of an equal thickness of pul- mortice four posts, 18 inches long, into the sills 6 inverized earth. Pass down through a stratum of straw ches from the ends; then set the sills 3 feet apart and mortice on the 3 by 3, and bolt on the plank 5 feet four inches thick, and observe the degree of moisture; from the posts; then get four pieces of ash or oak, 16 then remove four inches of mellow top soil from an-feet long, 4 by 1, bolt them to the cross-pieces, one on other place, and a greater degree of moisture will be evident. A hard, bare and unpulverized soil will not retain moisture nearly so well as one that frequently has the crust broken and kept mellow. Still worse than a hard surface, is a growth of grass and weeds. If these facts were sufficiently appreciated and understood, the instances would be less frequent of treeplanters allowing their young orchards and fruit-gardens to become hard and crusted, or to grow up with weeds; and few would ever think of setting out young In summer peel the bark from walnut or other bushtrees in grass, sooner than they would plant a crop of es a little larger than your trees-take a sharp knife, potatoes in an unplowed pasture or meadow. A fur-cut around the bush the desired length, say about 15 ther illustration is furnished by the practice of one of or 18 inches apart-then cut lengthwise, peel it off and our best farmers, who cultivates his corn crop once a place it on your trees while green. This will prevent a great many insects from climbing the tree-they week regularly, the whole season through, or until the will be deceived by this false bark. large encroaching ears forbid the passing of the horse. Oak's Corners, N. Y. W. G. WALKER. To Keep Rabbits from Fruit Trees. NOAH EVINGER. left, I almost "feel like one who treads alone, some banquet hall deserted." Mr. Faile has left us the grateful example of a wise, good, and generous man. Honored THE CULTIVATOR. be his name." ALBANY, N. Y., JUNE, 1864. Death of Dr. Pugh.-Dr. EVAN PUGH, President of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural College, died on the 30th of April at Bellefonte, after a short illness, of typhoid fever. Beyond the brief statement of the event in the papers we have received no particulars. Dr. PUGH was devoted, most earnestly, to the cause of Agricultural Education. We had long known him by correspondence, but only met him personally once-at Rothamsted, in 1859, where he was employed for some time in pursuing his chemical studies and carrying on various important investigations, not only as assistant to Mr. LAWES and Dr. GILBERT, but also those instituted and conducted by himself. He was wholly a selfmade man, having as a teacher at home economised sufficiently to enable him to spend several years abroad in securing a thorough scientific education, both in Germany and England. His aim in this was mainly if not solely, to fit himself to carry on the work upon which he entered immediately on his return in 1860-the management of a high school or college for the education of farmers' sons. He was indefatigable and self-denying in study and effort; and had an unfaltering confidence in the practicability of adapting such an institution to the wants of those for whose benefit it should be established, and whose progress in intelligence and in skillful practice, it was the highest end of his life to promote. He has been taken away just as success seemed dawning before him. His place, we might almost say, it will be impossible to fill. We had hoped that he might be an acknowledged leader (as indeed he was so far as he had gone) in solving the great problems of the course of instruction best suited to fit our farmers for their pursuit, and of the widest and most effective application of science to the demands and duties of the practical cultivator. Cautious in his conclusions; earnest and painstaking in whatever he undertook; conscientiously fearful of wrong and antagonistic to decelt and humbug; possessing a mind marked by solidity of acquirement and soundness of judgment, rather than by peculiar brilliancy or specious polish; warmly interested in the branch of science, to secure the mastery of which he had exerted himself so long and zealously; qualified in a high degree for the control and instruction of the young; undaunted by the difficulties which try the faith and quell the courage of most men-he had before him a career second to that of no one associated in name and labors with the progress of American Agriculture, and his untimely death is a loss, not to the farmers of Pennsylvania only, but to those of the whole country, and to the friends of agricultural education in every State. The Death of Mr. Faile.-Among other tributes to the memory of the late EDWARD G. FAILE, Hon. LEWIS F. ALLEN writes to the senior editor of this paper, under date of Black Rock, May 2d: "I am much grieved at hearing the death of our excellent friend, Mr. FAILE―a most useful, worthy man, and a public benefactor. Our State Agricultural Society owes him a debt of gratitude for his services in its cause, and it should be prompt to acknowledge it. For one, I feel that I have lost a dear and valuable friend. Thus we are passing away, and you and I are getting into the advanced rank, not long hence to follow. As I look back the round of thirty years, since I first became associated with our State Society, and see how few of its early veterans are The following extract is from a private letter to the Treasurer of the Society, from Hon. T. C. PETERS, dated at Darien, May 3d:-"I sincerely subscribe to what was so well said in the last issue of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN in regard to our late excellent friend and colleague, Mr. FAILE. Any man may well be proud if he can feel or know while living, that so just a tribute will be paid to his memory when dead. I was never ranked among his friends, though always treated with kindness. But I always admired the purity of his character. He was an excellent specimen of the honest, upright business man; one of the best I ever saw. In my estimation of men, he was a great and good man. Gradually we seniors drop away, and you juniors will soon remember us, or some of us, only when you seek for members to fill our vacant places. I fear, however, that few can truly bear as good a report as our departed friend." Personal. We understood some time ago that SANFORD HOWARD, Esq., of the Boston Cultivator, was to remove, this season, to a new sphere of effort at the West. Before leaving, he was entertained at dinner by the Massachusetts Agricultural Club and others, and presented with a massive silver pitcher, as a token of appreciation of his services for the improvement of agriculture, and respect for his character. Mr. Howard has been connected with the press for twenty-one years, his communications for our journal having led to an engagement with us at Albany in 1843, which continued until his removal to Boston in 1852. He has now accepted the office of Secretary of the Michigan Board of Agriculture and of the Agricultural College of that State. His duties will place him among the Faculty, and will embrace those of making himself acquainted with the agricultural resources of the State, of making annual reports concerning the progress of improvement, of advising in regard to the farm of six hundred acres attached to the college, and to report upon agricultural experiments made thereon. He will carry with him the good wishes of all his friends, and the ability to be of great service to the agriculture and the farmers of the young and very prosperous State which is to be his future home. decided to accept the offer of the proprietors of the The New-England Agricultural Society have Hampden Park at Springfield, Mass., of the use of their grounds for the fair, provided suitable arrangements can be made with the railway companies for the transportation of stock and visitors. The time of the fair will probably be the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th of September next. Lightning Rods Inefficacious.-The Fayette (Ind.) Courier gives a statement of the death of George W. Spitter, by lightning, his house being furnished with a good lightning-rod, the upper part being copper and the lower iron. The disaster is ascribed to the inferior conducting power of the iron, the discharge passing from the rod into the house, and causing the death of the owner. It is most obvious that the wrong cause is assigned. Iron, although not so perfect a conductor as copper, is incomparably better than the dry wood of which the house was built; and no charge would leave it for the latter, unless the communication was broken with the body of the earth. There is no doubt that the imperfection existed which is so common with rods otherwise good and efficient, namely, a want of proper connection with the earth. The rod was not sunk deep enough-it did not penetrate the soil deep enough to reach a permanently moist stratum. Silica is a non-conductor, and dry sand is very poor. The dry sand ridge failed to carry off the great discharge. The rod should have penetrated at least eight or ten feet of soil-have been furnished with several radiating arms at the lower end, to dissipate the fluid, which should have been laid in a bushel or two of charcoal, which is a good conductor. It would have been better for the copper to have been at the lower end, and to have passed into the earth, as it will not, like iron, become rusted through and destroyed in the lapse of years, by contact with moisture. A good rod, high enough above the building-continuous or well connected throughout-and passing deep enough into moist earth-has never failed to afford pro tection. cultivation, if by it is meant reversing the surface so as to bring up this sterile subsoil. Is not the rule a safe one to say that in a district where it is proven that the earth dug from cellars, wells, &c., produces good crops the first season, deep plowing there is good-while in cases where it is true that the subsoil will not produce good crops the first season, even by the use of manure -that in such cases the deepening of cultivation must be gradual and slow." Sugar Pan Elevator.--Our correspondent, G. W. F., has furnished us with a description of a Sugar Pan Elevator, invented by E. D. Newton, Magog, C. E., who has used it with success the past three dears. Its object is to lift the pan from the fire and move it aside on rollers, at pleasure. The rough sketch accompanying the description is too imperfect for the engraver; but we The De Sora Poultry Humbug.—In the COUN-shall endeavor to make the description intelligible withTRY GENTLEMAN of March 3d, we referred to the state-out it. There are two horizontal beams overhead, on ment so frequently repeated by writers on the Feeding which the rolling frame moves, directly above the pan. and Management of Poultry, as regards the system of The frame, which somewhat resembles that of a chair fattening Fowls and producing Eggs for market adopt- with the back cut off, is furnished with rollers, or trucks, ed by a certain M. de Sora near Paris. This story has which rest on these beams or joists. The four legs of been several years going the rounds of the papers, Eng- the frame descend to within about fifteen inches of the lish and American, and we referred to it at that time be- top of the pan. Near the lower end of these legs are cause it had then just been republished in the London two horizontal rollers, each turned with a crank, and Mark Lane Express of Feb. 1st. It will also be found furnished with a rachet-wheel and click. From cach of in condensed form on page 349 of the last Report of the these rollers descend two short ropes with books at the Department of Agriculture (1862.) lower end to hook into the handles of the pan. Whenever it is necessary to remove the pan from the fire, these are hooked into the pan, the rollers are turned with a crank, and the pan lifted to any desired height, and held there by the rachet-wheels, while it is rolled off from the fire by the trucks rolling on the beams above. Thinking that its truth was, to say the least, exceeding ly doubtful, and that it had been in circulation quite long enough to deserve exposure if false, we had become quite anxious to investigate the matter, and therefore brought it to the notice of a friend who left for France in March last. We have now the pleasure of laying the results before our readers. Our friend writes us, under date of * * * * * * * HAVRE, FRANCE, 14th April, 1864. "As to M. de Sora and his chicken establishment-at the Halles, the great market of Paris, I inquired of several large dealers in eggs and fowls, and none of them had ever heard of him, or any establishment of the kind conducted on the scale his was said to be. At the Comptoir National d'escompte, where, had he any paper out, or did he any banking business whatever, they would have known him, they could give me no information. Two of the large hotel-keepers of Paris also knew nothing of him. I wrote to one of the largest dealers in game and volailles in the Palais Royal-he had never heard of either M. de Sora, his chickens, his capons, or his eggs. I searched the Almanach Bottin, which contains the name, one might say, of every individual of any note doing business in France-that of de Sora was not to be found. After all this, I think you can safely put him and his establishment down as existing only in the imagination of some farceur, who from time to time amuses himself by gulling the public with the statistics of this great affair, which no one else has ever either seen, or even heard of, except through him in the Journals." This seems to settle the matter definitely enough. The following dimensions are given by our correspondent of the different parts of this apparatus: The truck sills resting on the beams above are 4 by 4 inches and 5 feet long; mortices are made through each of these truck sills 111⁄2 by 6 inches, for receiving the wheels, which are 5 inches in diameter, and turn on a 1-inch hard wood pin. The rollers below are 4 inches in diameter-the rachet-wheels 6 inches in diameter. A strip of 1⁄2-inch board should be nailed on the beam to keep the truck sills in their places. Massachusetts.-The State Board of Agriculture have decided to hold a public meeting for business, lectures and discussions, at Greenfield, Dec 13-15, 1864, similar to that at Springfield in December last. Also, an Annual Meeting at Boston, Jan. 26th to Feb. 1st, 1865. It is a good thing to institute such meetings as these, and they will afford evidence of increased vitality on the part of the Board, both useful and gratifying to the farmers of the State. Prolific Sheep.-Mr. JNo. I. GROESBECK of Bethlehem, has three ewes that dropped 10 lambs. All of the little ones are strong and doing well. They are the common sheep of the country. Two of the four drop Deep versus Shallow Plowing.-This question has lately been up for discussion in our columns, and a friend in Onondaga county, in the course of a private let-ped by one ewe are being raised by hand. ter, makes the following sensible remarks, which we take the liberty to extract in substance as below: "Here deep plowing is good. I have seen a cellar dug, and the earth spread over the ground about a foot deep. Oats sown on this earth, coming from a depth of say five feet, grew wonderfully. So, when wells are dug here, the earth coming from them produces well. This is our case. In Westchester, on the other hand, I have seen places where the soil had been removed to grade the surface, and the new earth heavily manured, but apparently to little purpose-the next crop grown being feeble and unpromising. Such land, I think, will not bear deep Stamped Rivets for Marking Sheep.-In a recent number of the Co. GENT. I gave a description of my way for marking and numbering sheep. Since then I have received 4 125. W (JOC) several letters and orders for the stamped rivets. Now I wish to say to the wool growers through your paper that I can furnish them with the rivets, stamped to order, for $1.25 per hundred; where the age is to be kept, 25 cents will be added, The rivets are of copper, and stamped (like the one represented above, with the number of the sleep on the head and initials on the washer: the 4 stands for 1864. This is to be inserted in the ear of the sheep. Address Adv.-w&m. J. W. CLEMENT. Warner, Merrimack Co., N. H. |