172 



Mode of preparing Land for "Ruta Baga. 



Vol. IV. 



the fermentation cannot run on to putrefac- 

 tion. Tiie dairymen say that the slow and 

 slight degree of fermentation which goes on, 

 tends to the greater developernent of the sac- 

 charine and nutritive principle, and they will 

 have as large a stonk upon liand as they can 

 afford, and not open the pits until they are 

 compelled. It is not uncommon for two, 

 years to pass before a pit of grains is touch- 

 ed ; and it is said that some have lain nine 

 years, and been perfectly good at the expira- 

 tion of that period. The dairyman, however, 

 must know his brewer, and be able to depend 

 on him. The grains from a lai-ge ale brew- 

 ery are the most nourishing. Those from 

 the porter brewery are not so good; and those 

 from the little brewers, who first draw off 

 their ale, and afterwards extract every parti- 

 cle of nutriment in the formation of table 

 beer, are scarcely worth having. 



Each cow is allowed a portion of salt. In 

 Rhodes' establishment it is given with the 

 grains. Laycock salts his rick when it is 

 lirst made — a most excellent plan, for the hay 

 is not only effectually secured from becoming 

 mow-burnt or mouldy, but it is rendered more 

 grateful to the animal, and we may venture 

 to say, almost doubly nourishing, from the 

 developernent of the saccharine principle. It 

 is to be doubted, however, whether the cows 

 obtain a sufficient quantity of salt in this 

 way. Some should be given with the grains. 



The grains are usually given about three 

 o'clock in the morning, and two o'clock in 

 the afternoon, being a little before the usual 

 milking hours. Between the milkings they 

 have green meat, as long as the season will 

 permit. Cut grass is a favourite and excel- 

 lent food ; but where it can be managed, the 

 plan of Mr. Laycock to let the cows cut the 

 grass for themselves is a far superior one. 

 Tares come in before the grass, and are af- 

 terwards given alternately with it. In win- 

 ter, t'.irneps, potatoes, and mangel wurtzel, 

 are given as long as they can be obtained at 

 any reasonable price; and then the dairyman 

 is driven to hay or chaff: the superiority of 

 chaff is now generally allowed. 



Both of these gentlemen fatten off their 

 dry cows with grains, oil-cake, and clover 

 chaff, to which Mr. Laycock adds boiled lin- 

 seed. Our readers may recollect the experi- 

 ments made by the Duke of Bedford on the 

 fattening quality of linseed, boiled and un- 

 boiled, and in which the simple unboiled lin- 

 seed fattened the anim.als more expeditiously 

 than any cooked preparation of that seed. 

 Mr. Laycock boils the linseed in a common 

 boiler, and when reduced to a palp, conveys 

 it by tubes into large^woodcn cisterns, where 

 it is mixed with clover chaff roughly cut, and 

 sometimes with grains. 



These wholesale dairymen usually agree 



with the retail dealers, that they (the dealers;) 

 shall milk the cows. The dealer knows the 

 quantity of milk that he wants, and the dairy- 

 man knowing the usual quantity of milk 

 yielded by each cow, calculates what num- 

 ber of cows will meet the demand, and the 

 retail dealer attends at three o'clock in the 

 morning and two in the afternoon, to milk 

 these cows. He carries it into the measur- 

 ing room, where its precise quantity is per- 

 tained. If, as cows often vary consid"bly 

 in their flow of milk in the course of two or 

 three days, he has milked more than his 

 quantity, it is put into a vessel belonging to 

 the dairyman ; or if the cows should not have 

 given their usual supply, the deficiency is 

 made up from the dairyman's vessel. The 

 milk which is left on hand is put into shallow 

 vessels, the cream skimmed and made into 

 butter, and the skimmed-milk thrown into the 

 pit for the hogs. 



Tlie joint-stock dairies which a few years 

 ago sprang up in such abundance, have either 

 ceased to exist, or the number of cows much 

 diminished, have fallen into private hands. 

 While there were many partners, and the 

 business was controlled by a committee of 

 persons who knew nothing at all about the 

 matter, they all proved to be lamentable fail- 

 ures. Some of them, even in the hands 

 of private individuals, who brought with thera 

 little or no experience, were sadly ruinous 

 concerns. The Metropolitan dairy was a 

 striking illustration of this ; but now, under 

 the management of those who have been 

 drilled into tlie business, it is doing better. 



From the Farmers' Register. 



Mode of preparing Liand for Ruta Bagtu 

 Yield of Three Acres. 



Middletown, Monmouth Co., N. J. 

 November I2th, 1839. 



Dear Sir — In your October No., there is 

 an article on the culture and cost of three 

 acres of ruta baga, copied from the Monthly 

 Visitor, published in New Hampshire, which 

 I read with considerable interest as 1 do all 

 other communications Iiaving reference to 

 the progress of root culture, that important 

 auxiliary to sacc^sstul farming. In fact, the 

 writer is perfectly convinced from many 

 years experience and observation, that no 

 plan or system of agriculture can be complete 

 without roots forming a very prominent part 

 in the rotation ; and the time will come, 

 though now apparently distant, when not only 

 Virginia, but all the eastern states will be 

 independant of the western country for their 

 supply of beef cattle. It is possible, however, 

 that the American farmers, who are so sen- 

 sibly alive to every principle of selt-interest, 

 may obtain a complete knowledge of the cul- 



