PROBATE COURTS IN MASSACHUSETTS.

COUNTY OF SUFFOLK. -At Boston, every Mon. in each month, except July.

COUNTY OF ESSEX.At Salem, 1st Tues. of each month; at Lawrence, 2d Tues. of each month, except April, May, July, Aug., and Oct.; at Gloucester, 2d Tues. of April and Oct.; at Newburyport, 3d Tues. of each month, except March, May, Aug., Sept., and Nov.; at Haverhill, 3d Tues. of May and Nov.; at Ipswich, 3d Tues. of March and Sept.

COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. —At Cambridge, 2d Tues. of each month, except July, and 4th Tues, of Jan., Feb., March, April, Aug., Nov., and Dec.; at Lowell, 1st Tues. of Feb., April, June, Sept., and Dec.; at Concord, 1st Tues. of Jan., Mar., May, and Oct.; at Groton, 4th Tues, of May and Sept.; and at Framingham, 4th Tues. of June and Oct.

COUNTY OF WORCESTER. At W. Brookfield, 2d Tues. of May and Oct.; at Clinton, 3d Tues. of May and Oct.; at Templeton, Thurs. next after 3d Tues. of May and Oct.; at Barre, Friday next after 3d Tues. of May and Oct,; at Milford, 4th Tues. of May, and Wed. next after 4th Tues. of Oct.; at Uxbridge, 4th Tues, of Oct.; at Fitchburg, Wed. next after 3d Tues. of May and Oct.; and at Worcester, 1st Tues. of every month.

COUNTY OF HAMPSHIRE. - At Northampton, 1st Tues. of every month; at Amherst, 2d Tues, of Jan. and Aug.; at Belchertown, 2d Tues. of May and Oct.; and at Chesterfield, 3d Tues. of May and Oct.

COUNTY OF HAMPDEN. — At Spring field, 1st Tues. of Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, July, Sept., Nov., and Dec., and 4th Tues, of April, Aug,, and Sept.; at Westfield. 3d Tues. of March, June, Sept., and Dec.; at Monson, 2d Tues. of June; and at Palmer, 2d Tues. of Sept.

COUNTY OF FRANKLIN.-At Greenfield, 1st Tues. of every month except Nov.; at Northfield, 2d Tues, of May and Sept.; at Orange, 2d Tues. of March and Dec.; at Lock's Village, in Shutesbury, 2d Tues. of July; at Conway, 3d Tues. of May; at Charlemont, 4th Tues. of May; at Shelburne Falls, 2d Tues. of Feb., and 4th Tues, of Oct.

1

COUNTY OF BERKSHIRE. -At Lenox, 1st Tues. of Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, Sept., Oct., and Dec., 3d Tues. of

July, and 2d Tues. of Nov.; at Great Barrington, Wed. next after 1st Tues. of Feb. and May, next after 3d Tues. of July, and next after 2d Tues. of Nov.; at Lanesboro', 2d Tues, of Jan. and Oct., and 4th Tues. of April and July; at Adams, Wed. next after 2d Tues. of Jan. and Oct., and next after 4th Túes. of April and July.

COUNTY OF NORFOLK. At Dedham, 1st Tues. of every month; at Quincy, 4th Tues. of Feb., May, Aug., and Nov.; at Roxbury, every Saturday, except the 3d, 4th, and 5th Sat. of July, and the 1st and 2d Sat. of Aug.; at Wrentham, 3d Tues. of May, Aug., and Nov.; at Medway, 3d Tues. of Feb., June, and Oct.

COUNTY OF BRISTOL. At Taunton, 1st Frid. of March, June, Sept., and Dec.; at New Bedford, 1st Frid. of Feb., May. Aug., and Nov.; at Fall River, 1st Frid. of. Jau., April, and Oct., and 2d Frid. of July.

COUNTY OF PLYMOUTH. At Plymouth, 2d Mon, of every month, except July and Aug.; at Wareham, 4th Mon, of Oct.; at East Bridgewater, 4th Mon. of Feb. and Dec.; at Hingham, 4th Mon. of March; at Middleboro', 4th Mon. of April and Jan., and 2d Mon. of July; at Abington, 4th Mon, of May, Aug., and Nov.; at South Scituate, 4th Mon. of June; at Bridgewater, 4th Mon. of Sept.

COUNTY OF BARNSTABLE. — At Barnstable, 2d Tues. of Jan., Feb., March, Aug., Sept., and Dec., and 3d Tues. of May and June; at Sandwich, 2d Tues. after 1st Mon. of Nov.; at Falmouth, 2d Wed. after 1st Mon. of Nov.; at Harwich, 3d Mon. of April and last Mon. of Oct.; at Brewster, Tues. next after 3d Mon. of April: at Dennis, Thurs. next after 2d Tues. of Oct.; at Orleans, Wed. next after 3d Mon. of April, and Tues. next after last Mon. of Oct.; at Wellfleet, Wed. next after last Mon. of Oct.; at Truro, Thurs. next after 3d Mon. of April; and at Provincetown, Frid. next after 3d Mon. of April, and Thurs, next after last Mon, of Oct.

DUKES COUNTY. At Holmes' Hole village, in Tisbury, on the 3d Mon. of April, and 1st Mon. of Sept.; at Edgartown, 3d Mon. of Jan. and July, and 1st Mon. of March and Dec.; and at West Tisbury, 1st Mon. of June, and 3d Mon. of Oct.

COUNTY OF NANTUCKET. At Nantucket, on the Thurs. next after the 24 Tues, of every month. (CORRECTED 1865.)

THE PERMANENT MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COUNTRY will be organized on the following basis: General officers-one general, five lieutenant-generals, fifty major-generals, and seventy-five brigadier-generals. The strength of the army will be nearly as follows: Regular infantry, 45,600; regular cavalry, 14,400; regular artillery, 12,000; colored troops, 50,000; Hancock's corps, 30,000; veteran reserve corps, 25,000. Total, 177,000 men.

ELEVATE YOUR CALLING

THERE is a very mistaken notion prevalent in some farming communities that any other calling is more respectable than theirs. The hard handed farmer looks up to the retailer of tapes and teas, to the pettifogging lawyer dabbling in politics, to the mechanic delving at his bench or his forge, as if he were a superior being, gifted with powers or talents greater than his own. This idea works down from father to son, and as the farmer 18 willing to send his son, the son is willing to go, to run on errands from behind the counter, to copy briefs at the lawyer's desk, to do any of the lowest drudgery of any mechanical employment, rather than stay at home and share in the labors and the profits, the toils and the pleasures, of the paternal acres. It is this impression that fills our academies and colleges with youth who might far better devote their time to a sensible course of reading and studies relating to the nature of soils, the principles of growth, and the best modes of cultivation, than to think of graduating, half educated, with a diploma on which they are to base their respectability and fame.

There are of course many, who possess a peculiar talent for some particular pur suit. Que will have a skill in drawing, which will enable him to meet with eminent success as an architect, another will manifest ability in argument; a third possesses a remarkable memory, which will enable him to acquire languages with facility, or a peculiar quickness in mathematics. All these natural and strong inclinations are to be taken into consideration.

But the question comes home to the farmer with peculiar force, What is he to do? How is he to elevate himself? He has much to do. Let him first gam and feel a proper degree of self-respect, and a just appreciation of his calling. Begin on the farm itself. Begin by making improvements, and think and study modes of cultiva tion best adapted to your particular soil and position. Don't disdain to take advan tage of the experience and observation of others. In a word, educate yourselves for your calling by reading the best books and the best papers, and if you don't believe in book knowledge, prove to the world that your own way is best, by calling the at tention of the makers of books, the agricultural committees, to your own farm, and let them see that these things, which are conned and written in a book, are after all inferior to your own unstudied and practical labors.

Thus will you elevate your calling in the eyes of the community.

POULTRY.

THE poultry upon the farms of New England, insignificant as it seems to be, forms no mean part of our wealth, while it contributes largely to our comfort and prosperity. It pays better, in a small way, in proportion to the cost of food consumed, than any other stock on the farm. It would be well to exercise more care in the selection and management.

What kind of fowls shall we keep? That depends on circumstances. If the object is to get the largest amount of eggs for market, there can be no doubt that we should select the everlasting layers, those that show a constant inclination to lay, and little desire to sit. Such are the Black Spanish, and all the varieties of the Hamburgs. Now, as there must be some to sit and to continue the race, suppose you keep one of these fine breeds to do the laying, and buy a few good Brahmapootra pullets in the fall to bring up broods the next spring. You would then get a fine lot of eggs from them by midwinter or very early in spring, and they would manifest an inclination to sit by the time the Black Spanish got ready to fill their nests with eggs.

But if you are so situated as to prefer to raise chickens and poultry for sale, the Dorkings present themselves as the most desirable for early sales. They are full and deep in the breast, furnishing a great amount of fine-grained white and delicate meat, with less offal or waste than any other breed. Besides, they attain a greater weight in proportion to the food consumed. The speckled or gray Dorkings are a little hardier than the white.

Either of these breeds, the Black Spanish or the Dorking, would pay better in the long run than our chance fowls, a mixture of little of every thing. The larger Asiatic breeds are not very remarkable as layers, as a general rule, though some of them, like the Brahmas, will lay through the winter better than many other varieties. They come often, but not uniformly, to early maturity; that is, they begin to lay younger than some other breeds.

The game fowls are also superior table birds, pretty good layers, and, on the whole, profitable to keep, if it were not that they are so pugnacious that even the chickens will tear each other's eyes out if they can.

We need to take more pains with poultry in the winter. A good warm shelter, with a glass front open to the sun, and the floors well supplied with sand and loam, often renewed, will make them do better than if allowed to shirk for themselves in the barn. A little fresh meat, potato skins, oyster-shells, &c., are eaten with avidity, and induce an earlier laying than the ordinary mode of treatment. Fresh, pure

INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION.

ONE of the greatest drawbacks to success in farming is the immense loss to which we are subjected from the ravages of insects. It is seldom that they are so numerous or so destructive as they were last year; but they are a source of great annoyance and injury every year. In many cases we could guard against them by well-known means of prevention. That it is for the farmer's interest to use every means in his power to protect himself, no one will deny; and yet, from laziness, inattention, or ignorance, many neglect to use the proper means at the proper time, and hence the loss of crops which would be a source of great profit and satisfac tion.

One of the most common of our insect enemies is

THE TENT CATERPILLAR.

It makes its nests upon the apple tree, and especially upon the wild cherry. It should be followed up with the utmost care, first by searching for its eggs near the ends of the small branches and twigs. They are easily seen, any time during the late fall and winter to the end of April, in little round bracelets encircling the twigs, to which they are glued on by a kind of water proof varnish. Each cluster contains a great many eggs, three or four hundred, and when found, as it can be without diffi culty in young orchards, the twigs should be taken off and burned. The advantage of this mode is, that it may be done at a leisure season, when other work is not pressing. If you want to get familiar with these clusters of eggs, look for them first on any wild cherry by the roadside, and then go and examine the orchard

trees.

The next method is to destroy the nests, which are begun soon after the apple and cherry trees put forth their buds, early in May. Take a long pole and fix a brush upon the end of it, dip the brush into common rock oil, or crude petroleum, aud twist off the nests. To do this effectually, watch the habits of the young worms, so as to take them when they are in their nests, which is early in the morning, usually about noon, and just at night. They go in also during a shower. Sometimes this has to be repeated two or three times, but it pays to do it thoroughly. In many places the trees suffer beyond measure from

THE CANKER-WORM.

This insect is rapidly spreading. It appeared last year in many places where it had not been observed before, and whenever it gets hold of a section, wide spread destruction is sure to follow. It is more difficult to attack than the caterpillar, from the fact that it is more minute, and peculiar in its habits. To understand it fully, it should be borne in mind that the female insect, which lays the eggs, is wingless, and that she comes up out of the ground to ascend the trunk of the tree. The male moth is winged, and flies about the tree to meet his mate. The first and surest mode of attack is to prevent the ascent of the tree by the female. If this can be done you may be sure of your fruit.

There are various ways invented (some of them patented) for effecting this. The most common is that of tarring the tree around its trunk. The objection to this is, that it requires to be frequently renewed. A cold night so stiffens the coating of tar that the insect can walk over it. But if begun in season, and followed up, it is effectual. The failures in this mode, if there have been any, arose from not beginning till the insect had begun to run up, or from doing the work imperfectly.

A cheap and simple mode would be to take a strip of sheepskin, with the wool on, and tack it around the trunk, then moisten it occasionally with rock oil or crude petroleum. The oil would require to be renewed every few days, and after a smart rain. It should be applied as early as the middle of October, perhaps as early, some years, as the first, and continued till the cold weather in December, then again from about the middle to the end of March. This mode of protection might cost twenty five cents a tree. I would strongly recommend its careful applica tion. The time when the insect comes out of the ground varies somewhat according to the season, but usually the middle of October will be quite early enough.

Of the patent tree protectors, some propose to use a grooved inverted glass gutter, extending around the tree; others to furnish a trough, to be filled with some fluid, like bitter water obtained in evaporating salt water; and one of the best, a simple square box around the tree, with plain horizontal glass jutting out around the top.

Most of these modes, if applied in season and followed up, will perfectly protect the trees, and ought by all means to be resorted to. After planting a tree, and nurs ing and tending it for years, till it comes into bearing, it is poor economy to neglect to protect it from the ravages of insects and the destruction of fruit.

But the eggs can be found and removed, like those of the caterpillar, by searching in the winter or in April. They are glued on to the small branches near the ends, not in bracelets extending round the twig, but in round clusters, each containing about two hundred eggs. Search for these and remove them, if you have neglected to prevent them from being laid.

ASHES AS MANURE.

UNLEACHED wood ashes contain a larger amount of potash and other alkaline salts than leached, but in leaching a certain proportion of lime is used, and they likewise contain a considerable percentage of alkaline salts, and nearly all the phosphoric acid which they originally held. We have always regarded leached ashes as less active and efficient, and of course not quite as valuable for farming purposes

as unleached.

It is for their mineral or inorganic constituents that we apply ashes at all. They furnish these constituents in a form easily accessible to plants, and the most obvious rule in their application is to put them upon lands which already abound in organic substances, or else to apply them in connection with organic manures. On old grass lands, or on lands newly broken up, they have a very marked ef fect, especially on grain crops. They help restore the proper balance between the mineral and organic constituents of the soil. But in practice it is probable that it is more judicious to use them in connection with, and as an auxiliary to, other manures. They mix readily with bones, night soil, plaster, and other similar manures, and are highly beneficial. For reclaimed peat and swale lands abounding in vegetable mould or humus, they are most excellent.

Ashes are good when applied to all soils. Being made up of the inorganic or mineral constituents of plants themselves, they are easily rendered soluble by the influence of various salts with which they come in contact in the soil, or the air, and by the vital power of plants, so that they are readily taken into the circulation, and again do the service which they have already done in the plants from which they came; but they act less perceptibly on soils which contain already a supera bundance of mineral in proportion to the organic constituents of plants.

Leached ashes are good on all the soils where unleached may be used to advantage. The difference in their action is one of degree, and not of kind. Like pure wood ashes, they possess the power, to some extent, of neutralizing the free acids in the soil. This is due to their alkaline constituents. They have the effect also of rectifying the excess of vegetable matter in rich soils, and of acting, to some extent at least, as absorbents of ammonia. Their mechanical effects upon the soil must be very similar.

In practice it is generally of greater economy to buy leached than unleached ashes. But then it is important to know, if possible, the kinds of wood from which they are made. The ashes of different kinds of wood differ widely in composition and value. Made from the burning of beech wood they yield nearly a fifth part of their whole weight of phosphates, while those made from oak contain only four or five per cent. of these valuable ingredients. Every sensible farmer can see that there must be a very great difference in their value as manure. The amount of phosphates in pines and firs is from nine to fifteen per cent., while the percentage of these constituents in the poplar is about seventeen. In a hundred pounds of the leached ashes of the beech there are as many phosphates as there are in four hundred pounds of fresh human excrements or night soil; that is, there are enough for the growth of four thousand pounds of grain.

We believe the farmer is too apt to overlook the great difference in the real value of ashes. If he buys ashes, they are ashes, without much question as to what kind of wood they come from. Now see what this difference amounts to. You put on, say twenty bushels of pine ashes, and in them you add to the soil about 21 pounds of potash, 27 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 22 pounds of sulphuric acid. Now put on the same quantity of beech ashes, and you add to the soil 221 pounds of potash, 56 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 76 pounds of sulphuric acid. This makes a vast difference in the crops. If, therefore, only pine ashes are accessible, they should be used in far larger quantities to effect the same results.

We would say in conclusion, apply ashes, leached or unleached, on soils full of organic matter, if they are to go alone, or else in connection with other and ammo niacal manures. The farmers of Westphalia have a proverb. that" He pays double who buys no ashes." If there is any thing in this, no farmer can afford to sell his ashes, as too many of our farmers do. Let him put them as a top dressing upon his oats, or his clover and grass crop, not on clays, but on lands which have been previously manured with barnyard or other coarse manures, and he will find that he pays dearly in the loss of his crops who sells ashes to go off his farm.

WASTE OF MANURES.

MANURES may be lost by direct washing or leaching. The most precious ingre dients of manures are lost m this way, such as potash, phosphoric acid, and am monia. Salts of lime and soda, especially sulphates and chlorides, are readily washed out; hence they are found in all well waters. The loss by leaching is, therefore, small, except in the lightest and gravelly soils. By chemical change manure may be lost, or become inactive. Boussingault found that in the soil of his garden, which had been highly manured for about six centuries, and which contained a large proportion of nitrogen, about ninety-six per cent of this ingredient was in active. He limed his garden, and thus rendered a portion of this nitrogen active.

PLOUGHING.

WHAT is the object of ploughing? It is to prepare a proper seed bed as the basis of all economical cultivation. We often plough in the fall. Is it merely to get through so much work? It ought to be to lay up the soil to the mellowing influences of the frosts of winter. Properly ploughed, the frequent freezing and thawing have a wonderful effect in making the soil loose and friable for the reception of seed in spring.

In our frequent and repeated ploughing in spring, our object is to expose a fresh surface to the air, to be acted upon by the weather, and thus to get the soil into a loose and mellow condition for the growth of plants. We may, at the same time, often effect other and incidental objects, such as extirpating or burying weeds, covering manure, &c.; but the ultimate object is, in all cases, the formation of a proper seed bed.

Every farmer knows the conditions essential to this object. He knows his land must be in good heart, either naturally rich or enriched by manure; he knows it must be mellow enough to give free access to air and water, without which the manures he has buried in it will not decompose in the soil to hasten on the germination of seeds.

To form an opinion of the work of two ploughs it would be useless to try them on land already in a tolerably loose and friable condition. Scarcely any plough could fail to do good work on such land, or at any rate there could be no fair and satisfactory test of the capabilities of the two implements. We must take them upon sward land, where the form and position of the furrow will be preserved, with the sod as the mould-board left it.

If, as we have intimated, the great point of ploughing is to expose a fresh surface to the air, it is demonstrable that this is effected by laying the land in the form of ribs. The greatest quantity of soil is thus exposed, and the greatest amount of earth is thrown up in ribs, when the furrow-slices are laid up at an angle of forty five de grees; and this is effected when the depth is to their breadth as 7 to 10. This does not limit or affect the depth of ploughing, but refers to the proportions only, and these depend very much on the make of the plough. If the edges or cutting surfaces of the implement are so set that the cut surfaces of the sod are at right angles to each other, and the surface of the mould-board where the furrow-slice is given off is at the angle of forty five degrees to the share, the conditions are in favor of laying the furrow-slice as indicated above.

Now, for sward land ploughed in the fall, it appears to us of considerable advantage to plough as suggested, so as to give the soil the greatest possible benefit of the long weathering of winter. But in some cases it becomes desirable to plough and plant sward land in spring. Then the mellow surface left behind the double mouldboard, or Michigan plough, is often very desirable, and by this the surface sod is completely and flatly buried, not to be turned up the same season. has a patung - Elupil 11- bas

IT may not be known to everybody that toads are very useful in destroying insects injurious to vegetation, especially such as abound in the night. The more toads you have in the garden the better. They are not, to most people, particularly | agreeable objects to meet; they are not, by any means, remarkable for beauty, but many of their habits are curious, and worthy of careful study. Never suffer them to be destroyed, therefore, but rather give them the range of the garden unmolested. noqu vom after drota az

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. You THIS excellent institution, located in the city of Boston, has entered upon its career of usefulness under the most favorable auspices. It is designed to teach the practical application of the sciences to the mechanic arts, to establish a museum of practical art, a school of design, a school of mines, and to act as a Society of Arts, Though still young in years, its endowment, though wholly inadequate to its future wants and its vast and varied plans of usefulness, already exceeds a quarter of a million of dollars. One wing of its building has been erected upon the Back Bay lands, and it is now ready for occupation by the classes that attend its instructions. The Institute will be in a position to employ the highest scientific talent in the country in the development of our vast material resources. We heartily commend it to the attention and patronage of the public. -idgin vitantifsins al kosy to iggoma Laxity ma

THE MASS. AGR. COLLEGE, now located at Amherst, is not yet in a condition to receive students. The buildings are in process of erection on a farm of four hundred acres, and another year will probably witness the opening of the institution.