be done by willing man in wresting fertility from sterility, and in making, most literally, the desert to bloom and blossom like a rose. No contrast, indeed, can be more striking than that presented to the weary wayfarer as he plods along through the wild tracts of the Campine, when he comes across a little farm, the boundaries of which are made up of the surrounding sand, and within which there is a little oasis of verdure and plenty. On one side of a narrow and deep furrow or ditch, you see a strip of rye or of colza; on the other, the sandy desert stretches out in its wildness, and you wonder at the magic which has transformed the glad greenness of the one from the dull dreariness of the other. Proud thoughts possess you as you think of the warfare thus kept up by man with the desert, and you look upon the little farm

Sandy Lands and their Improvement. We have often taken occasion to disabuse the minds of our readers of the very low estimate so commonly entertained of the value of what we call "sandy lands." There are tracts of such lands very common in Maryland and the more Southern States, the intrinsic value of which are entirely lost sight of, under a hereditary impression that as they have been easily "worn out," they will poorly repay the cost of improvement. We have also repudiated frequently the idea of the so early wearing out of that which was manifestly destined by Providence to last very long. If soils can be worn out so readily as common opinion allows, men would seem to be nomads of necessity, wandering over the face of the earth for new fields to exhaust, and to be brought ere long to the goal of the Macedonian warrior, with-environed by the desert, the enemy, as the citadel out another world to conquer. It is not, how. ever, for the purpose of extended remark, or to suggest means of improving the class of soils named at the head of this article, but to show rather by example what has been done in this direction, under circumstances far more unfavorable than any our readers are called to deal with, for we have not seen or heard of here, any thing so hopeless by half, as the blowing sands of the Campine plains of Belgium. In the lesson conveyed, we have a striking proof of what can be effected by pains-taking industry, and by a careful saving and expenditure of manure, in reducing to smiling fertility tracts of land, which, from their normal condition of utter barrenness and wildness, may be taken as a type of all that is sterile, and all that is most hopeless, and most forbidding of aspect to the husbandman. We quote from Notes taken during a Tour in Belgium, Holland, and on the Rhine, by Scotch farmer:

"The Campine is the name given to the largest plain in Belgium, which extends over a great part of the provinces of Antwerp and of Limbourg. It is impossible by words to convey any idea of the wild and apparently hopelessly unproductive condition of large tracts of this plain. Sand every where huge mounds of it glistening in the sunlight-sand so thin and fine that it runs down the sides of the heaps in rills, moved by the passing breeze, or driven into clouds under the feet of the toiling wayfarer; long tracts thinly covered with heath, or with marshy plants, and interspersed here and there with pools of water, patches of stunted firs, or miserable brushwood. But every now and then, as if to raise the spirits of the wanderer, otherwise too much oppressed by the desert around him, patches of smiling verdure greet his eye, and, presenting a glad contrast to the barrenness beyond, show what can

which issues the mandate: "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther;" and from which will go forth the intelligence and the industry which will ultimately gain other victories, and transform in process of time the wild heaths around, level the sand heaps, fill up the marshes, and make the wild desert a rich garden of delights, to gladden the heart and please the eye of the husbandman, Slowly, but not the less surely, is this process of reducing the desert to fertility going on throughout the Campines. Farms are daily multiplying, irrigation is being rapidly proceeded with, roads, canals, and large tracts of meadows are being formed. One of the great instruments in this work of transformation has been the canals.These have been formed on a very complete system, and at a large expense. By these canals the practice of irrigation is greatly aided, and they form the high roads so to speak, by which on the one hand the produce of the farms is taken to the markets, and by which, on the other, the manure is taken from the towns to the farms.Such, in fact, is the whole essence of a treatise on Campinoise agriculture-"With the water, the grass; with the grass, the cattle; with the cattle, the manure; with manure, every thing nearly which one desires on a farm." Many of the richest gardens and the most fertile farms, in the neighborhood of the towns of the Campine, ten, twenty, and thirty years ago, were tracts of the most barren heath, and stretches of the dreariest sand. Whenever manure has been easily obtained, there it has been the most carefully preserved, and the most prudently applied; and in the history of facilities for obtaining abundant supplies of manure, you read the history of the culture of the deserts of the Campine.

"The white land-of which a large portion of the Antwerp Campines is formed-is so light and

careful about breeding from too old stallions. No matter how famous a horse has been, and what his stock has proved, if he has lost his vitality, let him go he will only work mischief in your herd if you try him.

had previously been feed two months six quarts corn meal each, twice a day; they gained two pounds each per day. Changed to feed of rye, corn and oats, increasing gradually, two weeks, until I had got up to one and a half bushels to the pair per day, and roots twice a week to keep their appetite good. They gained three pounds each per day for six weeks, at which time they were taken to market. Had they been kept six weeks longer, they would not, upon same feed, have gained over two and a half pounds.

In this business no one point demands more attention than the kind of a stallion with which the young mare is first coupled, as there can be but little if any doubt now, but that the first union will in a great measure influence all the after progeny. After a mare has been coupled, she should be kept from bad company-away from horses that are badly marked, with a big blaze in the face, a "wall-eye," or "white-stock-quality, while an excess lessens it, and part of ings" and she should always have the kindest treatment. Mares transmit more of their good qualities to the male offspring. You seldom if ever knew of a first rate stallion out of a poor

mare.

But after you have exercised the best judgment in selecting your animals and coupling them, you will make but little progress in your work without the best of care. To raise first class horses, they must have "care first, care last, care in the midst of all things, and care without end." ERION.

My experience is that a little grain increases the appetite for hay, which must be of the best

the grain passes off undigested. Where grain is cheap, worth less than good hay proportionally, more grain would be economical, as in some portions of the West. There, undoubtedly, the amount of grain mentioned above, will look small, but here in the old Bay State we have learned to make good beef on hay alone, and with a little grain, some mammoth oxen.-Country Gentleman.

North Stockbridge, Mass.

Cattle for Feeding.

B. M. C.

There is much good sense in the following extract from a recent writer on this subject:

Winter Feeding Cattle for Beef. L. TUCKER & SON-Noticing in your last issue an inquiry as to how many pounds of beef can To ensure success in feeding for the butcher, be made with one hundred pounds of corn meal the great essentials to be provided are shelter, and and good hay, I will state what little experience a regular and plentiful supply of nourishing I have had in that direction. I feed usually from food. There is, however, another important two to three hundred bushels of grain to fatten- matter to be attended to, and that is the selection ing cattle every winter. My plan is to buy good, of the animals themselves, as, without the most thrifty three and four years old steers and oxen, careful attention, and the cautious and cool exthat are well started-feed lightly at first, after-ercise of mature judgment, it will be useless to wards from two to eight quarts. Feed twice a attempt the fattening of cattle with the reasonable day, according to size of animal-a fifteen hun-hope of being able to realize a handsome profit. dred steer or ox four quarts each feed, giving The shelter may be very inadequate, and the them the best of care, to wit: good hay, fed at food not nearly so good as it should be, and yet short intervals during the day, well carded once the beasts will thrive, do well, and leave a profit, at least, and watered twice in the twenty-four if they are well bred and moderately good spebours; stables kept clean and warm, but well cimens of the breed they represent. On the ventilated. My feed is usually corn, rye (or other hand, if they are badly bred-that is to barley) and oats-equal parts by measure, well say, too much crossed, and more particularly if mixed and ground fine. Think I have never they are the offspring of a cross-bred bull-bitter failed of one and a half pounds live weight, disappointment will almost invariably be the equal to one pound dressed weight, per day, with result. Place such animals in the best stalls that four quarts each feed, and have frequently done can possibly be constructed for accommodation much better. Much depends upon the animal, and warmth, and pamper them with every conand as much upon the care given them. I do not ceivable variety of food; yet they will scarcely advocate very heavy feeding for profit. You can attain to such a state of ripeness in six months as make more beef at less expense by taking longer well-bred animals, (which, although they may still time. All the undigested food is wasted. be crossed, are the produce of a thorough-bred bull,) will do in little over half that time.

As an experiment, I last winter took a pair of four years old steers, weighing 3550 lbs.; they

Eng. Paper.

six to ten miles an hour is considered a good gate for a pair of driving mules. If good driving mules are wanted, don't use a whip about them; never let them become accustomed to a continual touching up."

Management of Young Pigs.

trough kept scrupulously clean, and constantly supplied with pure fresh water.

I presume the hog and her young family to be comfortably located in a roomy and detached stye, which, like the troughs, should be kept scrupulously clean, for though pigs undoubtedly will "thrive in muck," they will do so not because of the muck, but in spite of it, just as many a dirty and ill-fed boy lives, in spite of dirt and privation, to be a stout man. But who will venture to deny that he would have been still more robust if he had grown up without the dirt and privation instead of in spite of them.

"Pigs, young or old, will eat anything, and pigs thrive in muck." During the last fifty years or so of my long life, I have at least thrice fifty times heard that singularly stupid remark from the lips of men whose experience, to say nothing about their possession of at least average In a good cleanly stye, rather high roofed, and common sense in regard to matters and things with a ventilator above and behind her sleeping in general, should have taught them better.- place, our Lady Bessy Hog, well fed, and reguExcepting young humans, I know of no creature larly fed, will support her little family with profit that requires for the attainment of its greatest to her keeper, and without visible injury to her physical perfection, greater attention, or more own condition, for a full month. Then, let an skillful management than a young pig. And, opening be made at one side of her breeding stye, in truth, as to internal structure, there is far less just large enough to allow of one of her youngdifference than people in general suppose, between sters getting from the stye into a narrow but the young child and the young pig. Let the enclosed adjoining slip, in which a shallow pan child be kept in comparative darkness, and on or trough of really good stuff, (barley-meal, unwholesome food, and you will have in the re-thinly at first, mixed with milk, warm skimmed sult a stunted, weakly man or woman, of a scrofulous body and an intellect to match. In the case of the pig, of course, the intellect is out of the question. What you want to secure in piggy's case, is the greatest capacity in fattening, that it may be the earlier production, as to time, and yield the largest possible quantity of pork in cash. If you would ruin your pig, as to both of those requirements, pray take as your rule of porcine management the profound maxim quoted at the head of this brief paper, but be assured that, in doing so, you will make pig-feeding a mighty unprofitable pursuit, whether as to your larder or your purse.

Remember, young pigs, like young children, find weaning anything but a pleasant process. The former, like the latter, should be weaned gradually, and the gradation should be commenced very early. In my native county, Hampshire, England, we pay so much attention to pig management, that we have obtained the soubriquet of Hampshire hogs, and a few words as to our management of our porcine stock may not be unserviceable. We keep our breeding sows, when in pig, in all but actual fattening condition. Her food, besides being good, is always boiled, and always fed to her at about the temperature of new milk; it is given to her at regular hours, so that she may never be so hungry as to fret; it should always have a light sprinkling of salt, and, in addition to her feeding trough, she should always have a small cast iron

milk and water,) should be placed at three regular hours daily. The little pigs will at first feed in a slovenly fashion enough; their paws will be as deep as their snouts in the tempting mess, and their jaws will get more on the outside than on the inside. But magister artium venter—the belly is the great master of arts, applies no less truly and strongly to pigs than to men, and after a day or two your young pigs will require a larger supply of their outer stye food. Two great objects are thus accomplished: the young pigs, without privation to themselves, are gradually weaned, and the mother pig suffers the less from their appetite, increased with their growth. I have known in my own management of my styes, at Upton Grey, in Hampshire, a single fortnight to wean a large litter of pigs, both mother and little ones being in really splendid condition.

Let it be remembered that air, sunlight, cleanliness, are as congenial to properly kept pigs as to humans. Pigs thrive in muck, eh? Yes, and so do measles and foot-rot, neither of which would afflict the porcine family if the above brief directions be complied with; the troughs being of cleanly kept iron, and the styes having a Southern exposure.-W. T. H., Practical Far

mer.

THOUGH rapid growth is desirable in succulent vegetables, this is not the case with most flowering shrubs, which form bushy, and therefore handsomer plants when grown slowly.