Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-01-25
AGnIcrLrUnAL ITEMs.

One Kentucky farmer appropriates the
yearly product Of one acre Of his farm to the
purchase of reading matter for himself and
family
The expenses of the Massachusetts Agri-
cultural College last year were so, 5G1, and
the receipts S2l, 1SG. For the first time the
farm was self-supporting
1t is stated that New Hampshire produc-
ed in 1877 over two millions of bushels OF In
dian corn. or more than was raised in any
other New England State.
1t is claimed that by the canal system
adopted in Egypt by the Khedive, 100000
acres have been reclaimed from the desert
during the last fifteen years, and that 300 600
more are in course Of reclamation.
-Chas Napier. m English scientist, says II
vegetable diet is remarkable help to the
cure of drunkenness. He mentions the case
of an old man whose constitution had been
shattered by repeated attacks of delirium
tremens, and who was cured of his appetite
for liquor in seven months by dispensing with
meat.
Some farmers in Waldo County, Ne, are
trying the Miller system of feeding stock in
winter, which consists of corn meal alone,
disusing hay entirely. One farmer in Unity
has fed COW for twenty days upon three
quarts of meal daily. and the animal tmiyes.
II is said that n COW can be wintcred by this
system for Sl2.
The L. S. Consul at Odessa reports that
the grain crop of Southern Russia for 1877
has been the largest harvested III twenty-five
years. Great quantities were bought by for
eign agents at very low prices, and stored for
shipment rs soon as hostilities cease. When
it comes into market it will seriously affect
the price of grain from other countries.
A citizen of New Bedford, Mass, has de
tected indications of inconsistencies in his
horse He took the animal to Newport re
Gently During the two days they remained
the horse seemed detected and spiritless, hard
" reviving even in the presence of its muster
and refusing to eat anything. On returning
home however, the animals spirits and APP
petite returned together, and it ate almost IN
ordinately.
A spot in the Atlantic ocean. Il little west
of the Azores. is described by Humboldt as
being of very great extent and covered with Il
dense mass of marine vegetation. y French
man now proposes 20 take from the place
some of this rank growth for fcrtlizing pur-
poses His plan is to have the cod-isnng
vessels. in such seasons rs fish are scarce, to
make n cargo of this matter, and lie has esti-
mated that from this inexhaustblc source may
be taken annually fertilizing material for over
1000, OOO, 900 acres of land.
No animal is so extensively diffused over
the globe or increases so rapidly. as the hog.
| Marshal Vuuban calculated that the produce
of a single SOW in ten years, assuming six pigs
at a litter would increase to G.434, $50 pigs,
or as many as any of the chief European
States could support. If this calculation were
carried on to the twelfth generation We should
find they would fill all Europe with a supply,
and by the sixteenth cover the entire globe.
The newest industrial feature in the
world is the introduction by Kansas land OWL
ers of the contract system IN raising wheat.
Large tracts of prairie arc broken. seeded,
and narrowed by the poorer emigrants for the
older settlers, at a fixed price per acre. The
plan permits the cultivation of immense areas
I BY capitalists at a small expenditure, while ii
brings ready money to the doors of those ar
rivals who require employment for Themselves
and teams while cultivating their own home
| steads