same. The curse of flowing a man's land without his consent, rests heavily upon many of the citizens of Massachusetts. That curse must be removed, and we earnestly hope that every farmer in the State, at least, will help on the good work. Let us hear from Norfolk soon, and give notice of a public meeting.

For the New England Farmer. EXPLANATIONS ABOUT SHINGLING. MR. EDITOR:-Your correspondent wishes me to be more explicit as to my mode of shingling. I will try.

After laying the first course, I line with red chalk. Then I whitewash down to the line, or a little lower. I do not intend to put a nail more than one inch from the centre of the shingle. If the shingle is more than four inches wide, I put two nails in it and I do not intend to drive the

nails down so as to sink the heads. I do not care

how the nails are placed if more than one is used, whether one above the other, or side by side; but if side by side, not more than two inches apart. If the roof is boarded up and down, be sure that both nails-if you put in two-are driven into the same board. I have never been troubled with the snow blowing in through the roof, although I lay the roof as open as I can, and have good nailing for the shingles. After I have shingled I whitewash

the whole roof.

My object in putting the nails near the middle of the shingle is, if the shingle is dry to keep it from huffing, and if the shingle is wet or green, to keep it from splitting. I am speaking of wide shingles. My object in not driving the nail quite down is, to hold up the butt of the next shingle

so that there will be a free circulation of air.

If we were to sow a coat of slaked lime or fine salt, or both, over the roofs of our bulidings once in two or three years, it would add greatly to the time the shingles would last. I like to have my whitewash made with brine, or salt put into it.

Your correspondent proposes to run a straight edge. I have tried that, but you do not see as readily whether you are breaking joints well with it, as you do with a line.

ASHES ABOUT YOUNG APPLE TREES.

Now is the time to put ashes around young apple trees exposed to mice in the winter. About a half a shovel full piled up around the body of a tree has always been a sure preventive to mice girdling them even when set by the side of a

wall.

Hollis, N. H., Nov. 12, 1860.

ED. EMERSON.

For the New England Farmer.

SUGAR AND SUGAR-MAKING. I have a camp on a side hill, 30 by 40 feet, with a wall on one side about 12 feet high. A cement cistern is situated in the bank above the camp by which the road passes. I have two haulers, or tubs, holding twenty-five 16 quart pails full each, with an India-rubber hose, one and three-fourths inches in diameter, connected with each hauler by a cast iron tube, made for the purpose. While gathering, I hook the other end on top of the hauler. I drive by the side of the cistern and let down the hose and the haulers are soon emptied through a strainer into the cistern. A one-inch lead pipe leads from the bottom of the dron kettle, with a faucet to draw sap out when cistern, through the wall, over the top of a caulneeded, and also for filling. There is also a selfthe kettle just so full. acting faucet of my own contrivance, which keeps There are three arches, with four pans, all passing around the cauldron to one chimney. The cauldron sets so as to have the sap 12 inches higher than the sap in the pans. from the cauldron to each pan, with the same I use a syphon made of half-inch pipe, running self-acting faucet attached to each, that keeps the pans at the desired height all the time while boiling. After heating in the cauldron, I use the galvanized have a crane to which is attached an apparatus pans to syrup down and sugar off in. I for raising the pans on a level, so that I can easily take off the syrup without putting out the fire. But the greatest advantage is in sugaring off. When I first put in my syrup I build a good fire I usually sugar about sixty pounds at a time. which will not need replenishing. As the sugar advances from one stage to another, I commence raising the pans from the arch, say four inches, then twelve inches or twenty-four inches, accordfor a cool breeze of air will pass freely under the ing to the fire, so there is no danger of burning, to the floor, where I use a tray 2 feet by 6 feet, pan. I can then swing it off and let it down on mostly level, and I tap 1100 trees. I should preand a new hoe for stirring. My sugar land is fer galvanized pans, 2 feet 2 inches by 5 feet 10 inches, in one sheet.

If any one wishes for more information I will freely give it.

MOWING MACHINES, ETC.

season, and am well satisfied with it. I shall fix I bought one of Ketchum's mowers, the past it so as to cut my grain next year. I use a onehorse power for threshing, also a circular saw, and I attached last June, what is called the lazy man's saw, on a new plan. It runs on a level and works well. It also runs a grater for making cider. I AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.-The Country grate from ten barrels to fifteen barrels per hour. Gentleman notices the fact that the official tables of our exports published at Washington, throw no light upon the value of agricultural implements sold to other countries; for, strange as it may seem, while they descend to such items as "printing presses," "candles," and "combs,"-plows, horse-powers and hoes are left in the heterogeneous mass of "manufactures of iron," or "manufactures of wood."

Also, I lead my horse in and wash every week. I can do a common washing for five or six persons in from twenty to forty minutes; I do not mean boiling and rinsing. It does not wear the clothes, though wristbands and collars need some rubbing. I am one for improvements.

Sutton, Vt., Nov., 1860.

ERASTUS WAY.

LARGE CHEESE.-A cheese weighing 1,620 lbs. was exhibited at the Wisconsin State fair.

For the New England Farmer.

breeding in trees, and laying white, globular eggs.

THE BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND---No. 7. "Its power of sight during the day," says Audu

OWLS.

American Barn Owl-Cinereous Owl-Barred Owl-Long-Eared

Owl-Short-Eared Owl.

bon, "seems to be rather of an equivocal character, as I once saw one alight on the back of a cow, which it left so suddenly afterwards, when the cow moved, as to prove to me that it had The AMERICAN BARN OWL, (Strix Americana, mistaken the object on which it had perched for Aud.,) is found throughout the United States, something else;" yet the same ornithologist speaks and is seen as far north as the 44th degree of of having seen them fly more than two miles, latitude, but, according to DeKay, is more par- from one piece of woods to another, in broad dayticularly a southern species, and is observed to be light. The whole of Mr. Audubon's account of quite common in the Southern States, where it is this Owl is very interesting, and I transcribe a resident. It so closely resembles the Barn Owl single passage. "How often," says he, "when of Europe, (Strix flammea,) that it was former- snugly settled under the boughs of my temporary ly described as identical with it, and accordingly encampment, and preparing to roast a venison the history of both species was blended together. steak, or the body of a squirrel, on a wooden spit, Its favorite food is meadow mice, and other small have I been saluted with the exulting bursts of quadrupeds, swallowing them nearly whole, and this nightly disturber of the peace, that, had it afterwards expelling by the mouth, in small, dry not been for him, would have prevailed around balls, the hair, bones, and the other indigestible me, as well as in my lonely retreat! How often portions; this practice prevailing throughout the have I seen this nocturnal marauder alight within Owl tribe. The favorite places of resort of this a few yards of me, exposing his whole body to Owl are hollow trees, in which it doubtless breeds; the glare of my fire, and eye me in such a curiand it is sometimes found reposing in old barns; ous manner, that, had it been reasonable to do so, hence, probably, the origin of its name. Its I would gladly have invited him to walk in, and European congener is famed for making old ruined castles, towers and churches its favorite haunts, from whence its savage cries at night give, to many minds, a cast of supernatural horror to those venerable, decaying piles of antiquity.

The length of this species is fifteen inches; breadth of wings, three feet, eight inches; the disk of radiating feathers around the eyes is remarkably concave and extended, rendering the physiognomy of this bird more remarkable than that of any other night-bird; whole upper parts bright tawny yellow, variegated with oblong spots of white, and finely sprinkled with whitish and pale purple; lower parts white, interspersed with blackish spots.

The GREAT GREY OWL, or CINEREOUS OWL, (Syrnium cinereum, Aud.,) though one of the largest and most formidable of the Owls, is but little known in this part of the country, it chiefly residing in Labrador, and around Hudson's Bay, occasionally retiring southward in the severe weather of winter, visiting us at rare intervals, but is probably more common in the northern parts of New England. Only one or two instances are recorded of its having been taken in this State. It is described as common in the desolate northern regions of the eastern continent.

join me in my repast, that I might have enjoyed the pleasure of forming a better acquaintance with him. The liveliness of his motions, joined to their oddness, have often made me think that his society would be at least as agreeable as that of many of the buffoons we meet with in the world. But as such opportunities of forming an acquaintance have not existed, be content, kind reader, with the imperfect information which I can give you of the habits of this Sancho Panza of our woods."

This is an extremely noisy species, uttering its cries from all parts of the woods at the approach of evening, and in lowering weather becomes extremely vociferous, even in the day-time, and in the evening they respond to each other in tones so strange, that one might suppose some extraordinary fete about to take place among them; and their gesticulations when approached, are of a remarkable and very ludicrous nature. If shot at and missed, it utters its cry of whah-whah-whah, with much pomposity. Though the usual food of this bird is mice and small game, it sometimes attacks young rabbits, partridges and poultry.

There is much difference in the size of the males and females of this species, the male generally measuring sixteen inches and a half in It constructs its nest in the tallest trees, usual-length, and thirty-eight inches in extent; the fely selecting evergreens. This Owl is thirty inch-male twenty-two inches in length and four feet in es in length, and four feet in alar extent; color, extent. Upper parts, pale brown, barred with grayish-brown, variegated with grayish-white on the upper parts, and with yellowish-white below. Like all the species of Owls yet described, it is destitute of ear-tufts, or "horns.".

The BARRED OWL, (Syrnium nebulosum, Aud.,) the American representative of the Tawny Owl of Europe, (Strix stridula, Linn.,) is described as one of our most common species by Wilson and Audubon, being found abundantly in various parts of the United States, particularly in Louisiana, according to Audubon, and generally seems to be more common in the Southern States than elsewhere, though resident in most parts of the country. It has been seen quite far to the north, and is said to be rarely met with in Northern Europe. It prefers the solitude of dense forests,

transverse spots of white, and on the wings with dark brown and white; breast, barred with transverse rows of brown and white dots; belly, yellowish, streaked longitudinally with long stripes of brown, without ear-tufts.

The LONG EARED OWL (Otus vulgaris, Flem.,) observes Nuttall, "like several others of this genus (Strix of Linn.,) appears to be almost a denizen of the world, being found from Hudson's Bay to the West Indies, throughout Europe, in Africa, northern Asia, and probably China, in all which countries it appears to be resident; but seems to be very abundant in certain places in winter, following rats and mice to their retreats in or near houses and barns. They commonly lodge in ruined buildings, the caverns of rocks,

or in hollow trees." They are known to breed, however, in the tops of trees, often in the deserted nest of some other bird. It lays four eggs, nearly round in form, and pure white. This Owl is frequently seen abroad by day, but has nothing

remarkable in its voice or habits.

This species is fourteen inches and a half long, and three feet two inches in extent; ear-tufts large, of six graduated feathers, black, edged with rusty yellow; upper parts, dark brown, sprinkled and spotted with white, pale, ferruginous, and dusky; throat and breast, clouded with rusty cream, and black and white; belly, beautifully streaked with large arrow-heads of black. A fine specimen of this beautiful Owl was taken a few days since in this vicinity.

CIDER---HOW TO PREVENT ACIDITY.

Levi Bartlett, in the Country Gentleman, describes the stumming process (burning the cider with burning brimstone,) which he says he practiced many years ago with perfect success, thereby having cider which would exhilarate but not fuddle, nor produce headache:

ness.

There are three stages of fermentation to which cider is subject, viz.: the vinous, the acetous, and the putrefactive. When cider has passed through the vinous fermentation, if left unchecked it soon runs into acetous, and from this it soon passes into the putrescent fermentation, becoming ropy The SHORT EARED OWL (Otus brachyotus, and worthless. Most of the cider put up by farCuv.,) is another species common to both conti-mers passes into the second or acetous fermentanents. It is occasionally seen in England; is tion, becoming more or less sour and inebriating, abundant in the forests of Labrador, and Sir W. and when drank, by many persons, producing a Jardine speaks of having received specimens from flushed face and headache, and what is worse, proCanton, in China. It is a bird of passage, coming that use it as a common beverage, and guzzle it ducing crossness and ill temper in many of those to us from the north in November, and leaving down in large quantities. It would be far better us again in April for its northern breeding places. It feeds upon mice and other small game, silently to convert all such cider into vinegar. This watching for its appearance from some convenient making of a man into a cider cask is poor busiperch, instead of hunting for it on the wing, as do most of the Owls. Wilson has the following obIf new cider is fermented in an open cask, after servations concerning it. "It flies frequently by a time, longer or shorter, depending upon cirday, and particularly in dark, cloudy weather, cumstances, all the heavier portions of extraneous takes short flights; and, when sitting and looking matter, pomace, &c., will settle to the bottom of sharply around, erects the two slight feathers that the cask, and the lighter flocculent matter will constitute its horns, which are at such times rise to the surface, forming a spongy, brown noticeable, but, otherwise, not perceiveable. No crust. Just as soon as the vinous fermentation person, upon slightly examining this bird after be- has ended, cracks or fissures will appear in the ing shot, would suspect it to be furnished with crust, and small white bubbles of carbonic acid horns; nor are they discovered but by a careful will fill the fissures of the crust. The liquor at search, or previous observation on the living this precise time is clear and bright. The grand bird." In England it is known as the Woodcock secret of having a cider equal to pure wine, is to Owl, from its appearing at the same time with check the fermentation. If the cider is left to itthat bird; but in the extreme north of England, self, the acetous fermentation follows-the sedand in Scotland, it is known to breed. Jardine de- entary matter at the bottom of the cask rises, and scribes the nest as placed on the ground, among the liquid becomes muddy-this, acting as yeast, the heath; the bottom of the nest scraped until produces a second and more violent fermentation, the bare earth appeared, on which the eggs were resulting in hard cider. placed, five in number, without any lining or other accessory covering.

very

The length of this Owl is fifteen inches, breadth of wing three feet four inches, general color above, dark brown, broadly skirted with pale yellowish brown; beneath, yellowish, streaked with dark brown; tail long, rounded, crossed by alternate bars of dark brown and yellow ochre, and tipped with white.

J. A. A.

CROPS IN ILLINOIS.-A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, at Fair Haven, Carroll Co., writes that the threshing machines are disappointing the people this year just as much as they did last, but in a different way. Then every one expected more than he got; now every one gets more than he expects. People who expected 20 bushels of wheat to the acre get 25; those who expected 25, get 30. A part of ours has been threshed, and yielded 33 bushels per acre. Last year we had 17 bushels per acre, and the year previous but 6! and ours was a pretty fair average (I think) of this part of the country.

When the white bubbles begin to appear the crust should be removed, and the liquid drawn off without disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the cask. Pour two or three pailsful of the liquor into a clean, strong, tight barrel; then fumigate

that is, have prepared a long tapering bung with a looped wire inserted in the smaller end of it; in the lower end of the loop fix strips of cotton or linen cloth, dipped in melted sulphur, to form a good sized match, light it, and thrust it into the bung-hole of the barrel; the match will burn till the oxygen in the barrel is used up; then withdraw the match, put in a common bung, and tip the cask in "double quick time," to the right and left, so as to mix, as far as possible, the liquor and gas in the barrel; then fill it full, put in a tight-fitting bung, place it in a cool cellar, and in the course of a year or so, there will be a barrel of apple juice that "temperance" ladies and children can partake of without "a blush or a scowl."

and a mixture of falsehood is like alloy in gold ROUND dealing is the honor of man's nature; and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it debaseth it.

SCIENCE IS KING.

reducing the flax into an almost silken fibre far more capable of receiving and holding colors than cotton.

Hundreds of acres will be added next year to this source of prospective industry and wealth. Thousands and millions will be added hereafter.

We are often told, perhaps for the purpose of intimidating the good Republicans of the North and their electors, that the South will not sell us her cotton if Mr. Lincoln goes into the Presidential chair, and if they cannot have their way another four years; and moreover, that they will dissolve the Union, fancying that that will punish us worse even than cutting us off from their cotton. But there is a material interest at present coming into existence, which providentially will make us quite independent, comparatively speaking, of the cotton crops of the Southern States. Southern politicians declare cotton to be king; and as they grow cotton, they fancy themselves the dic-pelled to sell her cotton very cheap, and to beg tators of Northern interests, which they know are largely connected with manufactures. But SCIENCE is king not cotton nor (as Broderick on one occasion boldly responded to one of those haughty Southern gentlemen) gold. Science and art are the sovereign rulers of our national greatness and commercial prosperity.

We shall not need so much cotton in a year or two as we have been in the habit of using; and if compelled to pay a very high price for it, and pay the cash in advance, we shall the sooner be disposed to encourage Northern agriculture and free labor. England will not be long in following our example; and if, in ten years from now, the South finds less use for her slaves, and is compurchasers wherever she can find them, even on the curb-stones of Boston, she will have only South Carolina to thank for the prostration of her great interest.-Boston Journal.

For the New England Farmer.

KING PHILIP OR BROWN CORN.

The cotton gin has made the South rich, important, proud and imperious. But the same North- This corn has, in years past, been highly reern ingenuity that invented a cotton gin has also commended in the Patent Office Reports. I prorecently invented another machine calculated to cured some seed of it, three or four years ago. make as great a revolution in our commercial af- Hardly half of the seed was brown, the rest yelfairs as the invention of Eli Whitney brought low. I have raised it ever since, but found that about in the culture and manufacture of the cotton last year the corn was mostly yellow-but few plant. The inventive intelligence of a Northern brown ears. The brown ears I took pains to save man has now brought forth, and is perfecting the for seed, and this year planted only the brown, machinery for converting common flax into a fibre but on harvesting it, as much as four-fifths of the and staple as white, fine, soft and silky as any cot-ears are yellow. Is this the experience of others ton grown in Alabama or Georgia. Besides, the who have raised it? operation of the machinery is so simple, rapid and effective, that an incredible quantity of raw material can be worked in a short space of time.

Among the old sort of yellow corn that I raised several years ago, there would be a few ears entirely red. I have planted, in a piece by itself, this entirely red corn, and the produce was but a few red ears, the rest flesh color and yellow. The red, when planted in a field with the yellow, would not mix by the kernel-here and there a scattering corn, like other sorts; but the ears would be all yellow or all red.

This

THE POTATO ROT.

year the long red potato rotted badly in this vicinity. Of a piece which I dug the last of October, from which I had eighteen bushels, but two bushels and three pecks were sound. About the same time I dug a quantity of the Jackson Whites, and all of them were sound-not a rotten potato among them. As for the Davis Seedlings, but few were rotten. White Apple potatoes also some rotten. Black potatoes escaped the rot.

The entire North and the boundless West can raise flax at the cheapest rate; and in two years we should not be dependent on the South for cotton fibre, if necessity compelled our manufacturers to turn their encouragement to textile materials of pure Northern growth. We have been recently informed that one manufacturing establishment alone can use (judging from their practical experiments) this flax cotton as a mixture with their cotton fibre, so readily as to make a saving of seventy thousand dollars per year, over their present profits; and that, to do this, it is not necessary to alter their machinery or the shape of a spindle. It is utter madness for the Southern States to think of national prosperity, internal security and domestic happiness, when disunited from these Northern States. The prosperity of the North would not be interrupted by the secession of all the slave States. National prosperity depends I am satisfied, and have been for a long time, on agriculture, manufactures, and a mercantile that the rot is caused by a blast upon the vines marine. We lack in the North only one agricul- which causes a stagnation of the circulating sap, tural product to make us wholly independent of and hence putrefaction. I have perceived that the South-that is a textile fibre fit for a substi- when the potato leaves turn suddenly black, the tute in our manufactures for their cotton fibre. rot soon follows. We have it in flax, and it can be raised by free A neighbor of mine, in August last, found that labor in the Middle and Western States, and in his potato vines were suddenly turning black. all temperate latitudes, cheaper than cotton can He immediately pulled up the tops and dug his be grown by slaves anywhere on the earth. The potatoes. He told me the other day that they inventive genius and the capital of Massachusetts were all sound-not a rotten one among them. have already commenced this vast agricultural and commercial revolution. Machinery has already been set up in several regions of the West to effect the first processes in the manufacture necessary to prepare the raw material for bleaching and

ISAAC STEARNS.

STOCK IN MAINE.-There are in the State of Maine 54,508 horses, 61,578 oxen, 132,645 cows, 374,095 sheep, and 45,923 swine.