urine or the drainings of dunghills; to destroy all weeds carefully by the hand and the hoe, and to thin the plants in the rows to the distance of five or six inches or more, according to the richness and depth of the soil. Although the carrot, when it grows most vigorously, does not throw out any considerable fibers from the upper part of the root, and appears to draw its chief nourishment from its lower end, yet it is a great advantage to keep the ground stirred and light between the rows; for exceedingly minute horizontal fibers shoot out to a considerable distance from the sides of the root, and tend much to increase its size.

The seed of the carrot has numerous hooked hairs which spring from the husk, and make the seeds adhere together; on this account, carrot seed is usually mixed with earth or sand, and well rubbed in the hand before it is sown. Two pounds of seed are sufficient for an acre, if the seed is drilled; it requires double the quantity if sown broadcast. In this last way very heavy crops are sometimes obtained, but the expense of weeding the carrots by hand is so great, that the drilled crops, besides being more certain, are more profitable. Seed which is two or three years old will vegetate, and it is more essential that it should be ripe and heavy than new. Too much care cannot be taken in selecting good seed. The finest and largest carrots should alone be chosen to plant out in spring to produce seed. They will throw out vigorous stems bearing numerous umbels, which, as the florets fade and the seeds ripen, contract into the form of a bird's nest. Those who are curious in the choice of the seed, take only such seeds as grow on the outer border of the umbel. The tops of the carrots are frequently cut off before they arrive at the full size, as food for cattle and sheep, who are very fond of it; but this is not a judicious plan, as the loss in the growth of the roots from being deprived of the leaves is much greater than the value of the tops as food, especially if they are cut off repeatedly, which is sometimes done when fodder is scarce.

When the plants begin to wither, and the outer leaves to droop to the ground, the tops may be safely mown, and the roots left in the ground. They have then acquired their full growth, and will remain sound in the earth till there is danger from the winter's frost.

The best method of taking up the carrots to store them for winter use is by means of three-pronged forks, such as are used in digging asparagus beds. They should be rather blunt at the point and sides of the prongs, and be stuck into the ground vertically by the side of the rows; by pressing down the handle, the carrots come up without injury. The plow is sometimes used after the coulter has been removed; but with all the care of the plowman, the plow and the horses will cut and bruise many of the finest carrots. Carrots may be kept all winter in dry cellars, if they are protected against the frost. The more common way is to store them with straw in long trenches, like beets. The produce of carrots on good light land is nearly double that of potatoes, and they do not impoverish the land so much. From twenty to forty pounds of carrots, with a small quantity of oats, is a sufficient allowance for a hard-working horse for twenty-four hours. Where hay is scarce, it is a most economical substitute; and where the value of urine

is known, carrots are much prized, as they greatly tend to its increase. One bushel of boiled carrots and one of corn are said to be worth as much as two bushels of corn to feed to pigs. They are excellent for feeding horses and milch-cows, and for this purpose are the most profitable of all roots in deep fertile soils.

Special Manures.-Common salt is very beneficial to the growth of the carrot, as are also ashes, plaster, and bone-dust.

THE PARSNIP.-The soil for this vegetable is essentially the same as that for the carrot, and its cultivation and treatment are also the same. The seeds cannot be depended upon for more than one year.

Varieties. Guernsey Parsnip, an improved variety of the common, grows large, and in deep light soils will attain the length of two feet. Sugar or Hallow Crown.-This is the best variety for garden culture. It is of more uniform growth, has a smoother and cleaner tuber, and is equally as hardy and better flavored than the former, from which it is easily distinguished by the leaves arising from a cavity on the top or crown of the root.

Use. The parsnip is a very wholesome and nourishing root, though its peculiar sweetish taste is disliked by many persons. It is, however, a very agreeable addition to our supply of winter vegetables. Its fattening properties are great, and it is therefore an excellent root for feeding all kinds of farm stock. Cows fed upon it will yield milk abundantly, and butter of the best quality. Its seeds are sometimes employed in intermittents.

As parsnips contain six per cent. more mucilage than carrots, the difference may be sufficient to account for the superior fattening as well as butter-making qualities of the parsnip. In the fattening of cattle, the parsnip is found superior to the carrot, performing the business with as much expedition, and affording meat of exquisite flavor, and of a highly juicy quality. The animal eats it with much greediness. It is reckoned thirty perches of parsnips, when the crop is good, will fatten an ox three or four years old, in ordinary store condition, in three months. The parsnips are given in the proportion of about thirty pounds' weight, morning, noon, and night-the large ones being split into three or four pieces, and a little hay given in the intervals of those periods. The result of experiment has shown that not only in neat. cattle, but in the fattening of hogs and poultry, the animals become fat much sooner, and are more healthy than when fed with any other root or vegetable.

The special manures are wood-ashes and bone-dust.

THE GRASSES.-The plants which form the natural sward are not confined to the family of the graminæ, but many other plants, chiefly with perennial roots, form part of the herbage. In the richest soils the variety is exceedingly great. When a sod is taken up, and all the plants on it are examined, the species will be found more numerous than we should have believed possible.

In laying down a field to grass for a very few years, the mode of proceeding is somewhat different from that which is recommended for producing a permanent pasture. Clover in this case is always a principal plant, both the red and the white; these, with annual or perennial

rye-grass, are sown with spring-grain, and begin to show themselves before harvest.

The seeds usually sown on an acre, when the land is laid down to grass, are as follows: red clover, twelve pounds; white, six pounds; trefoil, four pounds; rib-grass, two pounds, and two pecks of Pacey's rye-grass. Sometimes cock's-foot grass (Dactylis glomerata) and cowgrass (Trifolium medium) are added. This is for a field intended to remain four or five years in grass.

Recent experiments have established the value of late fall seedingsay as late as the 20th of November, and after the ground is frozen hard. It should previously have been plowed and leveled. The seed vegetates early in the spring, and produces a fine crop the first season. No other than grass seeds should be sown. The increased quantity and vigor of the crop more than compensate for the apparent sacrifice.

The grasses are often mown the first year after they are sown, on account of the abundance and value of the red clover, but the best farmers recommend the depasturing them with sheep, to strengthen the roots and increase the bulk. Various circumstances, such as a greater demand for clover-hay, or for fat cattle, may make mowing or feeding most profitable; but when there is not a decided advantage in making hay, feeding should always be preferred. At all events, the great object of the farmer should be to have his land in good heart and tilth, and free from weeds, when the grass is sown. If his grass is good, he is certain of good crops after it with little trouble or manure.

Another reliable authority* gives the following as the kinds to be sown on the soils named:

The principal grasses for permanent pasture on heavy soil aremeadow fox-tail (Alopecurus pratensis); meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis); cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata); crested dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus); rough-stalked meadow-grass (Poa trivialis); timothy grass (Phleum pratense); perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne); perennial red clover cow-grass (Trifolium pratense perenne). For light and medium soils-meadow fox-tail, lark's-foot, meadow fescue, meadow cat'stail, perennial red clover, white clover.

There should be no penurious saving of seeds, as the whole surface ought to be thickly covered with them. However, three bushels per acre may be set down as the maximum; ten pecks is a very sufficient allowance. The proportions in which the seeds should be mixed may be left to the discretion of any seedsman of experience and reputation for integrity and judgment. Some seeds should be sown in greater proportions, such as the rough-stalked meadow-grass, the cock's-foot, the meadow fox-tail, and the meadow fescue, either from their very nutritive properties or early growth, or some other peculiarity of a useful kind. Some, such as trefoil, though good for two years, perish afterward; and yet as intermediate occupiers, until some of the tall and leafy grasses are established, they are useful. In sowing grass seeds, three points are to be specially considered-viz., the length of time. during which the land is to be occupied by them, the purpose for which

* Martin Doyle.

the grass land is to be applied, and its condition and quality. On ground intended for permanent pasture, it is obviously unwise to sow short-lived grasses; in such case, the perennials which are found to abound in the best old pastures of soils of analogous qualities should be chosen and proportioned accordingly. Our efforts should be to imitate the bounty of the Creator in supplying the appropriate kinds for a permanent pasture, and to combine the new plants in such proportions as nearly as a careful analysis of the grasses of any given area of good sward will permit. Such good grasses, then, as experience proves to be congenial with the soil, should be selected. Some of the indigenous grasses are the very best. And where there is a strong tendency to their growth, those of good quality will, in the course of time, spontaneously appear, and perhaps struggle successfully with the artificially introduced plants for possession of the soil, and at length constitute an excellent sward when the others have disappeared, from incongeniality of soil or other causes tending to render them but short-lived occupants. "An important law in the natural economy of the grasses governs all those species of most value to the farmer-viz., individual plants of the same species will not grow close to each other for any length of time; for however thickly planted from seed, in one or two seasons intermediate plants decay, and leave vacant places, which are soon filled up with spurious grasses, weeds, or moss; but when a variety of different species, adapted to the soil, are mixed intimately together, they grow close, form a dense bottom, and continue permanent.'

Special manures-plaster, lime, and ashes.

THE SUN-FLOWER. The sun-flower produces a greater quantity of seed than any other plant. It is easily cultivated, and as it forms a valuable food for domestic animals, it should be largely grown by every farmer.

CANADA THISTLES.-To rid a farm of this pest, it is only necessary to understand, and to act accordingly, that no root, however deeply it may permeate the soil, or however hardy it be, can live unless it can produce a plant during the season of growth. Small patches of thistles, therefore, can be destroyed by covering them tightly with board, thus smothering the tops and killing the roots, and larger quantities by such frequent use of the plow and cultivator as shall effectually prevent any growth of the tops.

DAISIES. To get rid of daisies, a careful cultivation with hoed crops for about three consecutive seasons only is necessary-enriching the soil, and, when laid down, let it have about twice the ordinary quantity of seed; and should it so happen, which is rarely the case, that any daisies reappear, none should be suffered to seed.

DEPREDATING ANIMALS, BIRDS, AND INSECTS.

THIS title is applied to those animals, birds, and insects which injure or destroy the farmer's crop or stock; still it must never be forgotten, that what are depredators in one sense of the word, may in another be beneficial in an equal, or perhaps a greater degree, and that some of the animals, etc., known as vermin, are quite harmless.

Thus, the fox, though he destroys poultry, yet benefits the farmer by his destruction of rabbits; the stoat and weasel repay an occasional chicken killed, or egg sucked, by destroying numbers of mice and young rats. The crow, by the number of wire-worms and other insect vermin. it destroys, quite compensates for its occasional injury to our cornfields. The sparrow, although one of the greatest bird-pests, no doubt destroys, especially when feeding its young, numbers of caterpillars. Of those quite harmless, the barn owl, as destroying mice and rats, ought to be encouraged by every farmer. The badger lives principally on wild roots; and the hedgehog, although ridiculously accused of sucking cows in the night, and injuring their dugs, is quite harmless to the farmer, although it may occasionally destroy the eggs of game birds.

The domesticated animals occasionally become the worst of vermin. Thus the dog will destroy more sheep and lambs in one night than the fox would in a year. And the cat, either when gone wild, or in a domesticated state at home, will destroy chickens and pigeons to a great extent, and poach for partridges and rabbits.

The knowing the kinds of vermin by their foot-marks is very useful. One may know what animal is the infesting culprit, by laying some damp and finely-sifted sand or mould in its haunts. A cast for future study and comparison may be taken from this in plaster of Paris. The fox's foot-mark may be known from the dog's, in the former having comparatively no ball to its foot, a female fox less than a male.

Vermin are destroyed by using their natural enemies to kill them, as dogs and ferrets for rats, etc.; taking advantage of their habits and of their appetites, either for food or in the mutual affection of the sexes: thus, by imitating the call of one sex to the other, we attract and catch birds; and by a peculiar method, to be afterward described, the most wary male fox or dog may be caught.

I shall now proceed with the subject, dividing it into animals, birds, and insects.

DEPREDATING_ANIMALS.—Among four-footed animals, the rabbit, rat, and mouse, are the most prejudicial to the farmer, yet the fox, mole, etc., etc., are also of this class.

The Fox. This enemy to lambs and poultry is destroyed in the following manner: five or six circles, about three feet in diameter, are cut in different places, about four inches deep, and refilled with sifted mould. The operator then takes a sheep's paunch, rubs his feet on it to prevent the fox smelling them, ties a string to it, and drags it to each circle of mould; in these he strews several pieces of strong old cheese; after