Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-09-25

'ot little ihJurtu oy tne long exposure. To
meet whatever injury weather NAV infic
upon the harmless hay, the farmers often buy
"hay-sPice, warranted to improve al hay
In navor, smell and quality, and to give
rough. coarse hsv attractive favor AMI ARC.
matte smell. restoring damaged nav to a faad.
ing value, even when il is black an! rotten,
This is certainly an idea rot at,plgI in
America
English farmer ar atu-a givea T, Inc use
of composition fnri. Tor clttie. sheen. efr.
Thus htv- Seen widely advertised in En-.
hsh farming p4per-. cs3f n.qis. c,eAm d,
MIX, and M al 81 t>tItut->. 81 which calves
may be area ~ithput expenditure of milk.
Mixturr- cs.iei .%mbS' .o35s. rice meal
feeding k a"d other cii.iou. food com.
positions for ANIMALS, are also lsrge.v sold IA
English farmers.
County agricultural shows are very popular
IN England, aud from them we have copied
our farming exhibition customs. But in old
England these are held in June, july and
August, and not in autumn as with us. The
great men of the English shows are their NAT
rons.-memb=rs OF the royal families and
mobiles of high degree, whose names head the
handbills which saw posted in the farming
regions in letters of bis size.
Splendid crops of oats are raised Ia Eng.
land. In some instances, harvests of seventy
bushels to the acre are obtained Very few
cats are used upon the Englishman's table. in
any shape. | had expected to find oatmeal
popular with English housekeepers, but thew
use very little of it.
found sheep abundant wherever | trav-
eled in England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales ;
and soon came to the conclusion that live
mutton census of the United Kingdom would
ha had ,
producers. But | was not prepared for the
following sheep figures, which l obtained
from trustworthy English sources June |,
1882. there existed in the United Kingdom
1873 1874 sheep above one year; sheen un.
der one year old, S,745 SS4-a total of "a.
3l9,76S In all the vast area of the United
States and Territories, there are about As
100000 Of sheep and it should be remem-
bered that England, Scotland and ireland
contain together one-halt as many square
miles as our single State of Texas.
saw sheep washings occasionally. They
were conducted as with Us in America; bu
proper watering places for the work seemed
scarce in some parts of England for | have
seen a gang of farm laborers wA,,ing sheer
by the roadside. in dirty, GOO - nd >,rt o.
basin, and have wondered wheth, tn. -lo,o,
would not come out of the stagnant mud II
dirtier than when they went in.
In Scotland rambled considerably among
the Cheviot hills and valleys, and there mad,
quite close acquaintance with the fine breed
of sheep that Craze upon the heather covered
pastures of the region. and give their WOOL,
coats to make Cheviot fabrics In thes
broad pastures often saw little circular ne n,
made of stone, standing alone far from the
homes Of the farmers; and found that these
walled places in the fields were shelters for
the sheep in stormy weather Here the,
cluster when the snow drives hard and fast
and piles high on the bleak hillsides, plains
and valleys; and nesting close together,
manage to keep life aud warmth in each other
until the shepherds come to their relief.
was told by shepherds that they had often dup
their sheep out from under great depths O
snow that had suddenly fallen upon theil
tocks while they were huddled in these place,
of refuge from the weather
In travelling in the farming districts o.
England, often saw large f1ocks of sheen ir
the early spring penned 10 the fields near the
farmers homes. where they were fed nigh
and morning from great piles of turnips tina
had been kept in the open air, under a sligh
covering of straw and earth all winter, ant
which ere fed out to the sheep sliced by {
hand machine running somewhat on the hay.
cutter principle.
| also often saw the little shelter houses on
wheels standing amid the ''sheeperies. y
which are used by the shepherds who are
caring for the ewes in lambing-time
vast number of cows e kept in the city
of London, but the bulk of the milk there
consumed is brought in by rail from points
far back in the interior. | often tell in with
the milk contractors of the rural districts
No use is made by them of our own stvle o.
milkcan Wooden tubs and casks are favor.
lite English receptacles of milk, and their
general use of wood for this purpose is a
custom which deserves to be copied
England is a great place for Bookkeeping
The mild, equable climate of the country,
and the luxurious growth of both wild and
cultivated flowers everywhere observable il
the growing seasons of the year favor the
life and labors of the honey-bee.
1t is a curious fact that the honev-bee
(''ihe white mans fly" the American Indi.
ans used to call iD was never known in this
country till brought here from England: and
though they are now found in all parts of the
country, they did not reach California til
1850. and South America till lS45
| found practice in bee keeping prevalent
Early in August they transport the hives tc
the heath covered tracts, and there let them
remain while the heath flower is in bloom
Honey is on sale in Edinburgh known as
heath-tiower honey. Collections of forty or
tittv hives may sometimes be seen in Edin-
burgh under the care of single person, who
is experimenting their transportation in
spring carts to the heath fields.
Any one who has been constant reader OF
"Punch" has no need to travel up and down
England with me to discover that the ira
ditional, ingrained, agricultural laborer o,
the country is. in very many cases, so stupid
so ignorant, so devoid of all ambition to get
out of the ploughruts in which he and his
progentors have been travelling like cattle
for many hundred years, as to rank, in the
mind of the careful observer, only shade
above the domestic beasts among which his
life has been spent.
| walked and talked with these English
binds, and can testify that never met in nv
own country. outside of the imbecile asylum
so stupid, SO stolid and stunted class OF
human beings. They have dialect of their
own, which the stranger can hardly under
stand; a smock-frock sort OF an attire which
has been in fashion for a hundred years, and
way of life, as regards work and play and
general home habits, that il the same as was
their fathers and grandfather