Connecticut western news., 1881-02-16
FARM AND GARDEN.

B. M., Hampshire County, Mass, writes: "In regard to farm gates, | believe that they ought to swing freely | both ways and that the toe of the gate should rest upon post or stone when open or shut. This latter provision is to keep the gate-posts upright and the gate from sagging. Tn sections of country where timber is scarce there is, it appears to me, no question about the desirability of wire fences. In fact, think they pay in any case around all inclosures where horses and cattle are confined. Among the advantages gained by wire fences are security against stock of all kinds, saving of land, no harbor for briars, thistles or snow drifts, and great durability. There has been, I know, great hue and cry raised against barb fences because of the liability of stock to injure themselves against the barbes. Now, this is non- sense at first, animals that have been in the habit of jumping the old worm and rail fences may get @ scratch or two from the short steel thorns, but it will occur but once. In a surprisingly short time the whole herd will have learned to give the barb wire fence wide birth; they will neither press against 1t nor will they attempt to jump it. As barbed wire of course costs more than the plain wire, very good plan is to build the fence of posts and plain wire-say three wires, with the lower one of barbed wire. This last will keep stock from pressing against the fence. Posts set twelve or even fourteen feet apart, and four wires, three plain and one barbed, form 8 frst-rate fence for confning stock. Barbed and plain wire can both be obtained at most hardware stores. As to the best variety of barbed wire, it would take wiser man than I to say; the only way to decide is to examine the various kinds and then decide upon their merits"
 THE ORoHARD.-An extensive apple grower of York county, Pa., stated that he cultivates his orchards six or eight years after planting, and fertilizes with bone-dust and wood-ashes. Then the soil is sown to grass and annually enriched with good stable manure as top-dressing mulch. Strong lye is used as wash for the bodies of the trees, and the pruning is done in late autumn and early winter.
 PRUNING. There is much difference of opinion as respects the proper sea- son for pruning, but if done in June, July and August the wounds will heal over more rapidly than at any other sea- son of the year; but there are occasions, especially when trees are young, and the branches small, that pruning can be performed whenever the knife is sharp. Rubbing off the tender shoot is preferable to cutting away the branch in after years. One essayist alluded to the curious tree forms he had seen in China, where the likeness to birds and animals was startling, and this was ac- complished by systematic constant pruning or pinching off the young shoots.
 WHAT AN OLD FARMER SAYS.
 This is the advice of an old man who has titled the soil for forty years:
 am an old man, upwards of three score years, during two score of which I have been rich and have all I need do not owe a dollar; have given my children good education, and when I am called away shall leave them enongh to keep the wolf from the door. My experience has taught me that
 1. One acre of land, well prepared and well titled, produced more than two which received only the same amount of labor used on one.
 2. One COW, horse, mule, sheep or hog well fed is more profitable than two kept on the same amount necessary 10 keep one well.
 3. One acre of clover or grass is worth more than two of cotton where no grass or clover is raised.
 4. No farmer who buys oats, corn or wheat, fodder and hay, can keep the sheriff from the door to the end 5. The farmer who never reads the papers, sneers at book-farming and i'm provements, always has a leaky roof, poor stock, broken-down fences, and complains of bad "seasons."
 6. The farmer who is above his busi- ness and entrusts it to another to man. age soon has no business to attend to.
 The farmer whose habitual beverage , is cold water is healthier, wealthier and wiser than he who does not refuse to |