54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



g]f)oiled by a farmer walking into the dairy-room with his 

 cow-stall boots on, covered with animal excrement. Butter 

 and milk are extremely sensitive to odors, and absorb them 

 rapidly. Apples of good quality packed in barrels loosely, 

 without placing a layer in concentric circles, stems down on 

 the bottom, sold at fifty cents less the past autumn than th*ey 

 would if a little more attention had been bestowed upon 

 packing. Timothy-hay pressed or loose, which contains 

 perhaps a hundred or two of lowland or meadow grasses in 

 the ton, is often depreciated five or six dollars by the care- 

 less admixture. It is wise to aim at high excellence and 

 uniformity in products. If any thing is grown upon the 

 farm of second or third quality, sell it as such at the highest 

 price it will bring, and never attempt to force it off under 

 cover of better articles. This policy is manifestly the best, 

 and it must be considered as established or settled. 



The old, threadbare question as regards the utility or 

 profitableness of raising green-fodder corn for forage should 

 no longer be discussed : it is settled, and is or ought to be 

 forever at rest. The sum of the matter is embraced in this 

 statement : it is, under all ordinary conditions, in New- 

 England farming, advisable and advantageous to plant corn 

 for fodder in drills, with at least twenty inches space between, 

 so that air and sunlight can have free access to the growing 

 plants ; but it is not good husbandry to sow it thickly broad- 

 cast, as has been the practice. The new agriculture sup- 

 plies the reasons for this decision. It teaches that all plants 

 depend for healthy growth and nutrition upon actinic light 

 and heat, and upon access of air; and any plant that is 

 deprived of these agencies in its growth is abnormal, and 

 not suited for the food of animals. This is the whole matter 

 in a nutshell. It is not necessary for us to spend any more 

 long winter evenings discussing this question. In such 

 discussions farmer A. gives his experience to show that he 

 secured a great flow of milk from a herd of cows fed upon 

 abnormal corn-stalks grown in the shade. This statement 

 is given with the view of controverting the statements of 

 farmer B., who is a better observer and more honest, who 

 declares that he failed of success in similar experiments. 



The questions as regards the best methods of feeding 

 animals, and the most nutritive forms of food, are adjusted 



