ITEMS FOR THE FARMERS.

Why Vegetation is less Injured by Frost in the Hills.

[Correspondent of “ Sonoma Democrat. ”|] ,It must be new to many to leam that the so-called sheltered valleys are more liable to frost than the more exposed hill sides. ~ But this is shown very clearly in your interesting comparison of the daily 'sunrisb and midday temperature of De cember, in the Santa Rosa Valley, with those of 200 feet higher elevation. Of course by day, as every one knows, the hill is much cooler; it is at night only that the valley becomes the colder ; hence “a warmer belt of temperature,” is hardly a correct designation,, for had your comparison extended into the sum mer months, it would have shown (there are exceptions, of course) that the mean annual temperature; was greatest in the valley. Still your point holds good that i; the valleys are more liable to frost than the hills within a certain range of eleva t tioii t-. .. Probably the first clear demonstra tion of .this fact resulted from the estab lishment; of meteorological stations in : Switzerland. There the great height of flthe mountains and the narrowness of the „ valleys showed their difference much more markedly, and to as great a height as 5000 feet. Santa Rosa Valley is so large and wide in comparison to the height of its surrounding hills, that the-difference is neither so marked, nor can it extend to ; "so great a height. Probably in our smaller valleys, and the great Sacramento Valley near the foot of the higher Sierra, will be found many low-lying grounds subject to night frosts even late 1 in the spring season. .

The main cause of ’this peculiarity in ; the distribution of low temperatures is to ’be found in the but slight heating effect of the sun’s rays on the atmosphere. The sun' must first heat the soil, and the soil heats the air. Conversely the cooling of ! the 'air- js/ also affected by the soil ; and '" hence the air ; nearest .Die soil is always the hottest wher the sun is shining, and the coldest when the sun is absent. For the same reason the surface air experiences the greatest changes of temperature. So ! it domes that the air of the valleys being hedged in by a surface of soil on every side, gets rapidly heated when the sun * . {shines, whereas that of the hills has not only less surface for an equal quantity of air, but it is almost/constantly in motion, ’ ’ '"and 1 each new supply keeps down the temperature of the surface soil and air. The glaciers of the i Sierra and the snow capped peaks of high mountains even in the tropics', bear witness to. the fact that the direct rays of the sun have but little power to heat the atmosphere, for other wise the higher we ascended the warmer it would be. All solid bodies exceed air in the rapidity with which they receive rand.part with heat. This slowness to change its temperature is a valuable quality of air, and every gardener takes advantage of it when he covers his plants in frosty weather with old bagging, or any loose material that will confine the air about the plant. . If the night is calni it is simply astonishing how slight a cover ing will protect a plant from a pretty severe frost. This protection, too, is almost as valuable in the forenoon when the frost is thawing out,' for it prevents the sudden heating of the frozen plant, which is even more dangerous than its freezing. Few have any idea of the extreme . changes of heat experienced by the sur face soil. When the maximum ther mometer in the air will register 70 or 80 » degrees, one on the soil may reach 110 to •130 degrees. But even before the sun : sets, and as. its rays cease to heat the soil, the surface rapidly cools down, and after • a calm, clear night it will be found, as a - rule, from four to eight degrees colder at sunrise than the air four feet above it. How, as everyone knows, cold air is heavier than hot air, hence what forms in the valley remains there. But what of that on the hill 1 As the air on the hill cools; it begins, like water, to seek its lowest level, and as the cooling process ; . goes on, every watercourse, ditch and hollow becomes a channel down which the >T cold air flows just as if it was so much V water. Consequently near the foot of the hill every little valley and depression of the . becomes, a • little lake of the . frosty fluid. Here it accumulates in pro portion to the stillness of the night and y.j severity; of. the . frost. ;.;At the same time the//hill'.surface;/. as it loses its cool! air, must get a - new supply, and this, of course, can/only come from above, where the air of the day, being out of the reach of any solid .body to cool it, has lost only a portion of its heat. So by night the soil of the hills is constantly bathed with air of a comparatively mild temperature, whilst the valleys receive of cold far more than their share.

Constitution in Sheep.

{Journal of •Agriculture.')

A Cotswold sheep or Southdown has constitution for laying on flesh and early maturity under high treatment. Consti tution in a Merino sheep will admit of all these meanings of the term and still lack what we claim as the essential purposes a sheep is kept for. A sheep must produce a fleece and a carcass. The two must be in harmony and unanimity. If it has constitution to grow more wool than car cass it will be a failure. If carcass and a light fleece it will be unprofitable to its owner. If for the pastoral regions to run in the natural way with the flock, it must be constitutionally fitted to travel, do ser vice, and secure a living on the range. If for the purposes of breeding on a flock in the hands of the average farmer or breeder, the broad back and well-sprung ribs are sought for. They are found to be the better feeders and best to lay on flesh and grow large and heavy carcasses, and by some it is claimed heavy fleece. The claim is not as well sustained for fleeces as for carcasses.

A Spanish merino sheep that has a per fect constitution for the purposes for which a sheep is kept will have'constitu tion written all over it from top to bot tom. It ,will show it in every fibre of its fleece, in its bone, muscle, in its stand up and bright shapely appearance. In the merino the fineness of the fibre usually tells its constitutional vigor and stamina. The Saxons were tender and feeble under some climatic influences and systems of treatment. So are some of the finer nbered families of the American merinos. The stronger fleeced families are the heaviest shearers and most rugged, robust, healthy, long lived of sheep. They with

stand hardship, travel, bad treatment un» equalled by any sheep known as thorough bred. The Cotwolds, Leicesters, and Downs are constituted for an espepial pur pose, and fill it with perfect promptness and fitness. In them the indices of vigor are as plain, as sure as in merinos. The fineness of fibre may be less distinct in vital forces than in the' merino, but, doubtless, follow the same rules one as the other.

When a breeder says he breeds for con stitution, he ought to say for what pur pose, so that we may know just what good thing he means. If he says to grow wool, we should like to know if they grow too much wool to be healthy and vigorous with good treatment. If they are vigor ous from fullness of constitutional vigor, we would like to know how much they would shear in 365 days—an almanac yeah, hot a sheep shearing .year for breed ers who would show big fleeces. One of the handsomest .samples of wool we ever received came from a ram who had taken prizes at a Western s fair. I showed the sample to a judge of wool, and told him where it came from. He said he saw the ram, and. that he. was no, account to any man, for he had ‘no constitution at all. That he saw him at their last fair, and he stood up all the time and slept, with his ears hanging down like a sick mule. In this case there was a constitution to grow handsome long fibred fleeces, and not get up enough to lie down to sleep. We have seen some vigorous, bouncing, pounding, thundering rams without fleeces; at least too little to use in a vigorous flock of ewes. These had vigor ous, physical constitutions, but not of a character to grow wool. There has to be a proper combination of vital forces to make up what is desira ble in constitutional endowment. I once asked iny family physician what he would call constitution in an animal. He said an animal’s constitution was in its belly He said constitution meant stock with its capibilities of digesting and assimilating food to the various wants and purposes of the animal.

We think this true, but have seen a sheep with stomach vigor enough to insure health, large symmetrical carcass, but its skin so illy fitted for growing wool that for that purpose it might as well have been an imbecile scrub. Constitution is the culmination of a fostering system of treatment, and not as claimed by some who are ‘ignorant' of all laws of physical development; and think neglect and hard treatment hardens and toughens young animals. As if suffering and shivering could possibly aid in secur ing a perfectly full physical contour. Queer hygienic treatment for a feeble man or woman to put them out of -doors in cold, stormy nights to toughen up. Under such a system the frailest ones die and the hardier ones survive,, and the flock may appear more vigorous, but what a shame would come to a really intelligent man to think, what a cruelty he had been guilty of in securing the death of his feebly constituted animals. It’s as mean as turning the faithful, honest old horse into the road to find a living or die of hunger or thirst. i , : =;

The Price and Manufacture of Butter

jfFrom the Aberdeen Free Press. ]

When Wight, of Ormistoii, the Scotch Arthur Young, visited Muiresk, on Deveronside, about a century ago, he noted the excellence of the dairy manage ment and the superior quality of the butter. The best proof of the former, he remarks, was that the butter, • even in the heat of summer, was sweet and firm. “In general,” he writes, “I admire the quality and cleanness of the butter over all this country ;-’and yet the price is very low. They ought to salt the butter and send it to better markets.” The suggestion was acted upon, and north country butter long held a first place in the home market, a place which it has since lost ; and the fact was very explicitly dwelt upon at an agricultural meeting held some time ago at Turriff, in the very locality referred to by Mr Wight. The depreciation of value which the produce of the north has under gone represents a large sum annually, and it is worth inquiring whether it be pos sible to prevent it, and if so, how it is to be done.

Butter has a natural price. Tbe same quantity of food that will produce a pound of beef j will produce half a pound of butter. It follows that the price of butter ought to be double that of meat. Butter, indeed, is not the sole product of the food which produces it. It is asso ciated with casein or cheesy matter, and the sugar of milk, which gives sweetness to whey. But these are required to com pensate :the extra.care and labor which; the dairy requires. We find, accordingly, that at different times and places the average price of butter is rather more than double the price of meat. Caird, for instance, in his recent book on “ The Landed Interest and the Supply of Food,” states the price of meat and butter in Englond, at different dates, thus :

1770. 1850. 1878. Price of meat per lb. Os 5d Os 9d Price of butter per lb. 5d Is Od Is 8d Ingli3, the well-known traveller, in his tour through Switzerland about fifty years ago, was careful'to note the prices of pro visions at the different towns through which he passed. The price of meat varied from 2-kd to 3Ad per lb., that of butter from 7d to 8d", falling only in a single case to 4|d. We have thus a simple test by which we can judge whether the price of butter is what it ought to be. If the price of butter be not about double that of beef there is something wrong. Now, in the north of Scotland, we may safely say that none of the butter fetches anything like this price, that, in fact, the price which the producer obtains for it ap proaches more closely to the price of meat than to double that figure. In this part of Scotland the production of butter is not one of the chief ends of agriculture, but our system of husbandry involves the keeping of a large number of milk-yielding animals, and it is, of course, desirable to turn their productive power to the best possible account. The value of butter as an article of food depends on its flavor, and that, though differing naturally in different samples, is liable to still greater variation according to the amount of care which is bestowed on its preparation, and particularly on the degree of cleanliness with which it is prepared. As long as only one price is paid for butter, whatever may be its quality, as is usually the case in the country districts, there can be no hope that north country butter will regain :the place, it once held in the market. 1

iq gqo4 buiitoy to ba Had, and it ought to pay the producer and curer better than an inferior article ; but the dealer will not pay for it a price corresponding to its value, and when he gets it he mixes good and bad together, and brings down the former to the level of the latter. By bestowing proper care and attention on butter making and curing, the dealers and “ goodwives” of Aberdeenshire alone might divide an additional £40,000 a year among them. To produce butter of good quality it is not necessary •to have rich old pasture. Butter made in Suffolk on land little better than a sheep-walk, and not worth 10s per acre, fetches Is 6d per lb. in London, beating Danish and Normandy butter. Wight, in his account of the state of husbandry in Scotland a hundred years ago, states that the best butter he ever tasted'was made at a roadside inn in Perthshire, where the cows had nothing to feed on but young heath and the short grass under it, and that the Marquis of Breadalbane preferred this butter to his own, though he had the best cows feeding on rich old pasture. It is the same with cheese. Mr Harding, a well-known Eng lish cheesemaker, who introduced the making of Cheddar cheese into Ayrshire, stated that whether it was made from old pasture, from forced Italian ryegrass, or from heather, the cheese was uniform ; in texture, quality, and flavor ;if there was any difference, he thought the best article was made from the heather.

The highest priced butter in the world is made in the district of Isigny, in Normandy, in the north-west of France. It sells by auction in Paris during winter at 3s. per lb., wholesale, sometimes reaching 3s. sd. During the summer it falls to 2s. The care in the manufacture of this butter is something extraordinary, and much of the superiority of the quality is attributed to this : the hand never touches the butter, it is beaten up in cloths, the utensils are of marvellous cleanliness, and if a drop of milk or :cream falls: on the floor it is immediately sluiced away. The cream is churned twice or three times a week in a barrel churn. While the churning is. going on the churner listens attentively so as to detect in an instant the slightest altera tions in the sound of the churning cream. As soon as any alteration is thought to be detected, a spigot which closes a hole through the bulg'ag part of the churn is withdrawn, and the matter adhering to it is carefully examined. If this is still cream, the churning is continued, but if there are on the spigot particles of butter, no larger even than a pin’s head, the churning proper is finished. The-butter milk is emptied out, the small particles of butter accompanying it being caught on a sieve and replaced in the churn, into which fresh spring water is also put until it is half full. Three or four turns are then given, and the mixture of water and buttermilk is again withdrawn as before. The process is repeated, often seven or eight times, until the water comes out of the churn as bright and clear as it went in. The butter is thus thoroughly cleansed from the buttermilk, and con solidated into one mass. When removed from the churn -by large wooden spoons, it requires no more working than is sufficient to press out the clear water from its interstices. Mr. Jenkins, the secre tary of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, to whom we are indebted for this description, states that a careful inquiry into the manner in which butter is made in several/districts of Normandy has convinced him that—other things being equal—the quality. of the butter depends upon the “ earlier or later period at which the washing of the butter is commenced. ” This is so far recognised by some of the dairy farmers that they have their churns fitted with a glass win dow, to enable the eye to see and thus assist the ear to hear when the butter begins first to be formed.

A VERSATILE GENIUS.

At the recent Denbigh Assizes a case was tried which resulted, in some curious revel ations as to the manner some “companies ” are carried on. It was elicited from the leading spirit of the Coffee Palace Com pany that he had had much experience in the management of public companies. In about half a dozen which he named he had filled the post of managing diaector with a salary in each case of from £SOO to £750. All of these speculations had failed, but he had gained so much experience that he felt competent to discharge single-handed the duties of a variety of : offices that are usually distributed among many. When therefore the Coffee Palace Company was started, Mr. Clench Stanley, the leading spirit afore said, was “ sole manager ; ” he further acted as general council,” officiated as provincial councial,” and “ everything. ” He was, in a word,, facto tum, and not the least agreeable part of his multifurious duties was that of voting his own salary. . He, arranged with “ him self,” that his salary should be £SOO per year for seven years. In order, however, that the manager should take an interest in the prosperity of the undertaking and exert himself to promote its best interests, he required himself to take 100 shares in the concern (only paying for one, however); and as plenty of money flowed in for shares —£7,000 having been altogether collected —there was no difficulty in the “ manag ing director (himself) carrying out the decision of the “ general council ” (him self) as to the amount to be paid to the “general manager” (himself), through whose hands all the money passed. Sub sequently, however, a retrenchment of annual expenditure became desirable, and “acting as company and manager, he agreed with himself ” to accept a reduction of his salary to £350 a year, upon condi tion that he be paid £SOO down. Dick Swiveller’s festive meeting with the Mar chioness, and judicious distribution of the shares of beer, was not more humorous than the manipulation of his own salary by this self-constituted “ general council,” “ provincial council,” and “ general mana ger. ’’

Ladies beyond the thirties choose wide ribbons for decorating costumes" —“Al- bany Argus. ” See here ; have you got a grudge against some man who has a lot of wide ribbons for sale 1 Jacob’s Weed. —Near the site of Jacob’s well, in the city of Samaria, Palestine, there is a Baptist church, with a congre gation numbering a hundred. The Ups and Downs op Life. —The son of Saxby (the famous weather prophet a quarter of a century ago), who is in Pentridge for beating his wife, has been left £20,000 by his father.

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Printed and published by Horace John Weeks and Charles Dixon, at their Printing Office, East Street, Ashburtoa Tuesday, October, 7 1879,



W&efaaaiq tuisl Roft&H &Q. BOOKS! BOOKS! CLEARING OUT SALE Reduction of ss. in the Pound. WEEKS AND DIXON • I ~jp&EG to call special attention to their Clearing-Out Sale of the undermentioned Books, at a Great Reduction on former prices, in order to effect a Speedy Clearance, as they intend giving up the Book Trade, and carry on the Stationery and Account Book Business on a more extensive scale. .o::'y' ■■ ;V ■ j \'i .X •.< .1 • o.:: L ‘ /f. [ ; ■: ■] i ; 1 ' j : Particular attention is invited to their Large and Varied Assortment of Church Services, Wesleyan and Presbyterian Hymn Books, some of which are in Very Elegant Bindings, all to be Sold Out at 25 per cent, reduction. REDUCED PRICE LIST.



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Scott’s Poems, 3s. Lyric Gems of Scotland (2), ss. each. ~ ~ morocco binding, 6s. 6d. Goldsmith's Poems , 4s. 6d. Sunday School Speaker, Is. 2d. Sabbath School Reciter, Is. 2d. Temperance Speaker (4), Is. 2d. each. Excelsior Reciter, Is. lOd. Afloat and Ashore, 2s. 3d. Sons of the Cross and Crown Is. 6d. Under the Microscope, Is. 9d. Humming Birds, 2s. 3d. City Sparrows, 2s. 3d. Conrad and Columbine, 2s. 9d. The Children and the Robin, 2s. Stories of the Apostles, Is. lOd. Diversions at Holycott, 2s. 3d. The New Year’s Bargain, 2s. Child’s Corner Book, 2s. 9cL The Absentee, 2s. Children of the Line, Is. lOd. Philip and his Garden, 2s. The Boy’s Book of Recreation, 4s. 6d. The Boy’s Prize Book, 4s. 6d. The Boy’s Book, 4s. 6d. Every Boy’s Annual, 6s. Once a Week (2;, 3s. 9d. each. Nails Driven Home, 2s. 3d. Nettie’s Mission, 3s. 6d. Revolt of the Field, 2s. Kate Brunton, 2s. Homely Proverbs, 2s. Phrenological Works (2), 4s. 6d. each. Ball Room Companion, 7d. Ready Reckaners, 6d. each Mercantile Letter Writers, Is. each Carpenters Spelling, 7d. Comprehensive Letter Writer, Is. 2d. Advice to a Mother, 2s. British History, 2s. Royal Readers, 2s. 3d. Grammar and Analysis, 2s. 10A.



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