ABOUT ROOTS.

THE root arop requires great labor, unless both the ground and the manure are very free from weed-seeds. But they form a most excellent and important article of feeding for stock, especially as an occasional change from other food. No farmer, therefore, can afford to neglect them. Ruta bagas and the English turnips are best fed out in the early part of winter. The mangel wurzel should be kept till later, say as late as March, before being used.

RUTA BAGAS. At eighteen inches apart, in drills, or in ridges, three quarters of a pound of ruta baga seed is enough for an acre. About a pound is usually allowed on an average. Skirving's King of the Swedes is one of the latest varieties.

The

MANGEL WURZEL. — The varieties of mangels most cultivated here are the Long Red, the Yellow Globe, and the Long Yellow. The Long Red is a very hardy root, and keeps well. It grows fast, and is usually very produetive. The flesh is sometimes marbled or mixed, varying very greatly, from almost uniform red to nearly white; but the color does not affect the quality of the root. The Yellow Globe is about ten inches in diameter when fully grown, and often weighs from ten to twelve pounds. The part under ground has a yellow skin, but above ground it becomes nearly brown. The flesh is white, marked with yellow, fine-grained and sweet. leaves are not very large, and stand erect. This is one of the most productive of all the varieties of beet, and is very excellent for stock of all kinds. It keeps sound and fresh late into the spring, and does not sprout as early as many other varieties. It is well adapted to hard and shallow soils. Yield from thirty to forty tons, according to soil and culture. Sow, like the long reds, in drills eighteen or twenty inches apart, and thin out to ten inches in the drills. About three or four pounds of seed are required per acre. Sow from the 1st of May to the 1st of June. Early sowings are most productive. It can be harvested with the common plough. The LONG YELLOW is a very productive variety. The roots are not smooth, but often forked into many branches. It is excellent for dairy stock, giving a rich color to the milk produced from it.

The WHITE SUGAR BEET is a valuable variety, much grown in this country for feeding to stock, very good for the table, and, when young, tender, well-flavored and sweet. It is cultivated like the Long Red Mangel, that is, sown from the middle of April to the last of May, in drills eighteen inches apart, thinned to ten inches in the drills, on deep, rich, mellow land.

SHEEP FARMING.

No branch of farming promises to pay better for the next ten years than the keeping of sheep, if the management is judicious. It will, of course, require judgment on the part of those who engage in it without previous experience.

What sheep shall we keep? Shall they be fine wool or coarse? Shall we make wool the primary object, or the raising of mutton and lamb for the market? These questions will be answered according to circumstances. If in a hilly section, and with short pastures, remote from market, we may come to the conclusion that fine wool pays as well, or better; for it costs little to transport wool to considerable distances. Here wool will become the primary object, and the carcass secondary. If nearer a good market, with pastures richer, and capable of carrying a large animal, long or middle wools, or in other words, a mutton sheep will pay better. The west, for instance, with its boundless prairies, or Texas, with its rolling table lands, can send us wool at a very trifling cost per pound, and we cannot, in the long run, expect to compete with them. But the west can hardly compete with the New England farmer in raising mutton and lamb to supply our eastern markets. Location, therefore, is suggestive of the course we shall adopt.

Then, as to the comparative merits of the different classes, the coarse or

middle wooled sheep are better adapted to beginners, since they are more easily raised. They are usually far better nurses, and the lambs are stronger, and can be got ready for market, often, at three or four months, to be sold at a high price. But it is an art by itself, almost, to raise merino lambs successfully. If the ewe owns her young, which she is very likely to refuse to do, ten chances to one against her having milk for it, particularly yearlings, or ewes coming two years old. Besides, the larger sized sheep are less likely to be unruly, and require less outlay for fencing. Both classes pay well, no doubt, under proper management.

Among the mutton-producing sheep, the south downs rank very high, and, for early maturity and profit, they are hard to beat. The cotswolds are very large, and require generous keep to bring them to a high state of perfection; but they are a very useful breed, and, for their size and the high quality of their mutton, deservedly popular. The Oxfordshire downs are not very unlike the cotswolds. They make an excellent cross with our native sheep. Of the fine wools, the merino is unsurpassed. It is a source of great profit to the farmers of western Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, and there is a large infusion of merino blood in the flocks of Maine.

Sheep require good shelter in winter and careful feeding. Root crops constitute an important means of keeping them in condition, particularly towards the latter part of winter. Do not confine sheep to close yards any longer than is absolutely necessary. Do not overstock a sheep pasture. If the ground is shaved bare it will be injured. Do not let sheep run down in flesh. No animal is so hard to bring up into thrifty condition again. Sheep should be in high condition at the beginning of winter, and kept up. If poor in November and December, they will remain poor the best you can do. Oats make lambs grow rapidly. It is less necessary to cut hay for sheep than for most other kinds of stock. It is important to avoid a sudden and radical change in the mode of feeding, as the wool is injured by it.

TRANSPLANTING.

THE question is often asked whether spring or fall is the best time for transplanting trees and shrubs. My opinion is that the choice may be controlled by circumstances. If trees are properly set out, they are pretty sure to live at either season. The fall has the advantage of being a more leisure time. In the spring everything is hurried, and the work is too apt to be slighted. The manner has more to do with the success of transplanting than the season; and the maxim, that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well, applies especially to tree culture.

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.

THE success of this important institution is now a fixed fact. Through the strenuous efforts of its president, Prof. W. B. Rogers, and the liberality of the State and individuals, the funds of the Institute are ample for its immediate wants, and measures are now in progress to enlarge its sphere of action, by the erection of a commodious building on the Back Bay lands in Boston, in close proximity to the new and elegant building erected by the Boston Society of Natural History.

The Institute of Technology will soon offer ample facilities for instruction in the arts and sciences, embracing the requisite appliances of museums or collections designed to illustrate the practical arts, a school of design, etc. We heartily congratulate the people of Massachusetts and of New England on the prospect of complete success, and the promise of great usefulness to the public which the prosperity of this enterprise now offers. It cannot fail to be useful to all classes of the community, and will receive a large measure of public appreciation.

THE DOMINICAL LETTERS,

AND HOW TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF THEM.

THE Dominical Letter for any given year is the letter usually placed in our Almanacs against Sunday. For this purpose the first seven letters of our alphabet are taken, and they vary annually for a definite number of years. The reason of this may be shown in a few words. A common Gregorian year consists of 365 days. Now, if this sum be divided by 7, the number of days in a week, the quotient will be 52 and 1 remainder. If there were no remainder, it is obvious, our years, in regular succession, would always commence on the same day of the week. But, since there is 1 remainder, every common year commences and ends on the same day of the week; that is, the commencement of every common year is carried forward one day in the weekly account. It is plain, therefore, if all years were common years, that is years of 365 days, the seven letters, taken in a retrograde order, would complete a circle in seven years, and repeat themselves perpetually. But every fourth year, except the excluded centismal years, is a leap year, consisting of 366 days. A year, therefore, immediately following a leap year, comes in two days later in the weekly account, and the Dominical letters fall back two in the series. The order of recurrence is, therefore, interrupted once in four years, and, necessarily, leap years have two Dominical letters, one for January and February, in which last month the intercalation takes place, and another for the remainder of the year. If, then, we know the Dominical letter for any given year, we can tell on what day of the week such year did or will come in. But as there are not always calendars or tables at hand to show this, there should be some rules for determining the Dominical letter for all time, and such there are. The following, for the current century, will be found easy of recollection: Add one fourth to the given year, omitting fractions, and divide the sum by 7. If nothing remains, the Dominical letter is A. If there be a remainder, subtract it from 8, and the remainder will indicate numerically which of the seven is Dominical letter.

EXAMPLE.-Suppose we wish to determine the Dominical letter for 1864.

Here, on the division by 7 there is a remainder of 6, which subtracted from 8 leaves 2, which 2 represents the second letter in the Dominical alphabet, namely, B, and B is the Dominical letter for 1864. But this year being leap year, B applies only to the months after February. For January and February the next letter, namely, C, is the Dominical letter. It is not within the scope of this article to explain why the last remainder is subtracted from 8. Our young readers will find it a pleasant exercise to

work out for themselves the true solution.

Having now the means of determining the Dominical letter, it becomes easy to find on what day of the week any month has fallen or will fall. But, to avoid in part the mental labor, the whole process has been transferred to the fingers, under the name of

THE HAND ALMANAC.

Let it be understood that the same Sunday letters invariably adhere to the same days each and all the months respectively. The first day of January is always represented by A, the second day by B, and so on; the first day of February by D; the first day of March by D, also; the first day of April by G; the first day of May by B; the first day of June by E; the first day of July by G; the first day of August by C; the first day of September by F; the first day of October by A; the first day of November by D, and the first day of December by F.

Suppose twelve words so arranged that their initial letters correspond with the order of the letters just named. The words themselves are noth

ing; their initial letters possess all the importance they are endowed with. They are the following:

At Dover Dwells George Brown, Esquire,

Good Christian Friend And David Friar.

The initials of these twelve words answer to the Dominical letters which belong to the first day of each month, in their order, beginning with Jan. Now, suppose it were important to ascertain on what day of the week the first day of June will fall in the year 1875. By the rule above given C will be found to be the Dominical letter for 1875. Count the months off on the fingers of the left hand, calling the little finger Jan., the next Feb., the next March, the next April, the thumb May, and then, returning to the little finger, call that June. Here stop, for June is the month sought. Now begin again at the little finger, and say "At"; then pass to the next, and say "Dover"; the next call "Dwells"; and so on till the little finger is reached, which will be represented by "Esquire," and here stop, as this little finger represents June, remembering that the initial letter of Esquire is E. Begin now with Dominical letter for 1875, which is C, and, touching the little finger, call it C; call the next finger D; the next E, and here stop, for this E corresponds with the E initial in Esquire. Remember, also, the finger on which this E rests.

Return now to the little finger, and call it Sunday; pass to the next, and call it Monday; the next call Tuesday, and here stop, for here we stopped when reading off the Dominical letters. Tuesday, then, we have found by the process, and the first day of June, 1875, will be Tuesday.

Having found the day of the week on which any month falls, any given day of the month in question may be found by a slight mental operation.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

THE National Government has come forward with the liberal proposition to give each State thirty thousand acres for each member of Congress, for the purpose of enabling the States to establish Agricultural Colleges. That would give Massachusetts three hundred and sixty thousand acres, which the Legislature, at the last session, took measures to secure. act of incorporation was passed, and measures will be taken to make the public lands available as soon as practicable.

An

Much good will no doubt result from a well-conducted Agricultural College; but we must have patience, and not fix our expectations too high. It takes time to work out great results, and it would be unreasonable to expect a revolution in our practical farming.

FOOD OF HORSES.

The

THE best food for roadsters in this country (says a recent report on horses submitted to the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture), consists of hay, oats and carrots or grass, with a moderate supply of water. quantity of hay depends upon the size and work of the horse, but there is more danger of giving too much than too little. From eight to ten pounds. of the best and sweetest hay is an abundant daily allowance. The oats should be of the best quality, the quantity varying from eight to twelve quarts per day. One or two quarts of corn meal will be a valuable addition to the daily food of such horses as are inclined to leanness. Corn alone is too heating, and produces more fat than muscle, and rye is thought to be very dangerous food for roadsters, inducing a condition which often results in founder, especially of the feet. Four to eight quarts of carrots, fed to a horse daily, improve the digestion, prevent diseases of the respiratory organs, etc. Salt should not be given on the food, but should be offered to the horse once a week, or a lump may be kept in his manger. They should also be allowed access occasionally to chalk, ashes or common earth, which are said to be preventives of cribbing, wind-sucking, eto.

USEFUL FACTS AS TO WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. COAL.Coal put into bins and levelled can be measured, from 1 to 1000 tons, with as much accuracy as it can be weighed on scales. For instance, Lehigh white ash coal, per ton of 2000 lbs., of the egg or stove size, will uniformly measure 34 feet cubical, while white ash Schuylkill coal will measure 35, and the pink, gray and red ash will reach 36 cubic feet per ton of 2000 lbs., or 40 feet for 2240 lbs., the difference of cubical contents between a net and gross ton being exactly 4 feet. The length, breadth and height of the bin multiplied together, and divided by the aforenamed contents of a ton, must show the number of tons therein. FARM PRODUCE. - Rules of Measure practised and adopted by the State Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts.—Wheat, Potatoes, Sugar Beets, Mangel Wurzel, Ruta-Bagas, White Beans and Pease, 60 lbs. to the bushel; Corn, Rye, 56; Oats, 32; Barley, Buckwheat, 48; Cracked Corn, Corn, Rye and other meal, except Oat, and English Turnips, 50; Parsnips, 45; Carrots, 55; Onions, 52.

A BUSHEL MEASURE. -The legal bushel of America is the old Winchester measure of 2,150.42 cubic inches. The imperial bushel of England is 2,218.142 cubic inches; so that 32 English bushels are about equal to 33 of ours. Although we are all the time talking about the price of grain, etc., by the bushel, we sell by weight. A hoop 18 inches diameter, 8 inches deep, holds a Winchester bushel. A heaping Winchester bushel is 2,747.7 cubic inches.

A GALLON MEASURE. - An English imperial gallon is 10 lbs. of distilled water at 62° Fah., when the barometer stands at 30. This is 277.274 cubic inches. The old wine measure in use here is 231 inches ; and "beer measure" 282 inches.

LAND MEASURE.-An English imperial acre is 4,840 square yards, or 160 square rods. A square, 13 rods upon each side, is commonly counted an acre; it is nine rods over measure. A square acre is 43,560 square feet. A square mile, or section, is 640 square acres. The size in square yards of acres in different countries, is as follows: English acre, 4,840 square yards; Scotch, 6,150; Irish, 7,840; Hamburg, 11,545 ; Amsterdam, 9,722; Dantzic, 6,650; France (hectare), 11,960; Prussia (morgen), 3,053. This difference should be borne in mind in reading of the products per acre in different countries.

BOARD MEASURE.

Boards are sold by superficial measure, so much per foot of one inch or less in thickness, adding one-fourth to the price for each quarter inch thickness over an inch.

GRAIN MEASURE IN BULK.-Multiply the width and length of the pile together, and that product by the height, and divide by 2,150, and you have the contents in bushels. If you wish the contents of a pile of ears of corn, or roots in heaped bushels, ascertain the cubic inches, and divide by 2,747.7.

A TON WEIGHT.-. -A ton is 2000 lbs. In most places, a ton of hay, etc., is 2240 lbs., and in some places that foolish fashion still prevails of weighing all bulky articles sold by the ton, by the "long weight," or tare of 12 lbs. per cwt. A ton of round timber is 40 cubic feet; of square timber, 54 cubic feet. "A quarter" of corn, or other grain sold by the bushel, is 8 imperial bushels, or a quarter of a ton. A Tun, of liquid measure, is 252 gallons.

THE STONE WEIGHT, so often spoken of in English measure, is 14 lbs. when weighing wool, feathers, hay, etc.; but a stone of beef, fish, butter, cheese, etc., is only 8 lbs.

HAY.-In England, a truss, when new, is 60 lbs., or 56 of old hay. A truss of straw, 40 lbs. A load of hay is 36 trusses. In this country, a load is just what it may happen to weigh; and a ton of hay is either 2000 lbs. or 2240, according to the custom of the locality. A bale of hay is generally considered about 300 lbs., but there is no regularity in the weight.. A cube of a solid mow, 10 feet square, will weigh a ton.