Vol. IV. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



35r> 



their clothe."! — which should alway.s happen by 

 twfilve at noon every Montlay — take the old v,-a«h 

 pail full of the .'iuds — mops^tick and ail — apply the 

 sud.s to the nest — break that open and rub the mop 

 airainst it till you have given each inhabitant a 

 wet coat, and you viill have no more trouble with 

 them. Every individual wet with this liquor, will 

 immediately die. 



If your mopstick be not Iorj enoujjh to reach a 

 lofty nest, lash a pole to it, or nail some old rag.s 

 to the end of a long pole, and you may avoid that 

 most unpleasant salutation — taking caterpillars by 

 the hand ! and that unseemly sight a beautiful tree 

 eaten up of vermin ! 



" Investio-ator," who fa'-o-jred the community in 

 your last number with the result of his experi- 

 ments with a mullen stalk, should know that mul- 

 len-stalks arc not '^ pUniy''' on well cultivated 

 farms. He should know, too, that all mullen-stalks 

 have not the same virtue, for I saw a man cut 

 down two of his largest apple trees in despair — to 

 kill the caterpillars I presume — afler having rub- 

 bed the nests with mullen-stalks till he was tired. 



" Investigator" should have told us the "time of 

 the moon" when he made his experiment — for as 

 the moon is thought to effect the sap of trees — 

 and as caterpillars live upon the sap thereof, when 

 she is in a certain position of the heavens, these 

 vermin may, perhaps, be much more easily des- 

 troyed than at other times. 



Yours, &c. W. 



Framingham, May 2P, 1826. 



ON REARING CALVES. 

 Mr pESSENrrEN — I send the following commu- 

 nication on raising calves, for insertion in the New- 

 England Farmer, should ynu think its publication 

 would be in any degree useful. It is the result of 

 my own observation and experience for many years 

 past. 



Those calves which I design to keep, I choose 

 to have come some time during the month of March, 

 as thev will do without milk in season to make use 

 of it for other purposes ; and the cows will be 

 more valuable for the dairy tlian they would, were 

 they to calve earlier. 



I allow them to suck the cow three or four days 

 at first, then take them off, and learn them to drink, 

 which is no difficult task, for by indulging them 

 with the use of the finger a few times they, in most 

 instances, afterwards drink freely without any as- 

 sistance. I give them new milk during the first 

 week after they are taken from the cow, then keep 

 it 24 or .36 hours, then have it skimmed and warm- 

 ed and given to them, allowing to each calf five or 

 six quarts night and morning. I feed them in this 

 way eight or nine weeks, then give them their 

 Tisual allowance but once a day during another 

 week, and then wean them. 



I think this method of raising calves preferable 

 to having them suck the cows as they will eventu- 

 ally appear thriftier and do bettter. 



They may be weaned without pining or making 

 much complaint, two evils which generally follow 

 when weaned from the cow. It is better for the 

 cows to be milked as it prevents sore teats,a calam- 

 ity which occasions them much pain and suffering 

 and causes not a little trouble and vexation to those 

 who milk them. The profit which is derived from 

 the butter produced by this kind of management is 

 an object of some consequence and importance. 



I am the present season raising four calves in 

 the way end manner I have described. They are 

 row nine weeks old, appear thrifty and promising 



and feed upon hay and grass as freely as ?ny of 

 my older cattle. These four calves duiing fight 

 weeks past have been allowed each five quarts of 

 milk at a time, night and morning. The milk has 

 generally been kept thirty-six hours, when, after 

 taking off the cream, it was warmed and given to 

 them. The cream has produced on an average 

 sixteen lbs. of butter per week ; making 198 lbs. 

 during the whole time which at 17 cents for each 

 Ih. amounts lo .S'21,76 a sum nearly or quite equal 

 to what the calves would have brouglit had they 

 been fattened and sent to market. Thus by hav- 

 ing my calves drink milk instead of sucking, they 

 are really worth more ; the cows are in better 

 condition, and I have saved twenty-one dollars and 

 all v\ith very little if any extra trouble or inconve- 

 nience. 1 always make it a point to raise so many 

 calves as not to be under the necessity of buying 

 cattle from time to time to keep my number com- 

 plete. 



In my view the practice, which now prevails 

 with many, especially among our dairy farmers, of 

 slaughtering all their calves is an evil of no small 

 magnitude, and ought to be abandoned. It is a 

 practice which must be considered altogether im- 

 prudent and .unwise, for let the case be as il may 

 with regard to present profit, it is undoubtedly a 

 most sure and direct way to prevent that improve- 

 ment in our race of cattle which is so desirable, 

 and which would secure for them a proper estima- 

 tion, and eventually supersede the necessity/ of in- 

 troducing foreign breeds which necessarily causes 

 no little trouble and expense. W. L. 



Worcester County, May 29, 182(1, 



A FRUITFUL VINE. 



Mr Ffssenoej; — There were raised, from one 

 woter-melon seed, in the garden of Dr Peck of Fox- 

 borough, 170 pounds of melons. The largest weigh- 



! ed 29 pounds, several exceeded 20, and the most 

 of them 12. 



' This plant of chance appeared the last of June, 

 (182.5; in a carrot bed formed of yellow loamy soil, 

 sloping gently to the south. The land was prepar- 

 ed for the culture of carrots, by deep ploughing, 



j and incorporating a plentiful quantity of manure 

 with the soil. The carrot seed not being good, 

 very little came up. Soon after the vine appeared, 

 it put forth branches in every direction, which 

 grew with astonishing rapidity, and soon covered 

 a large piece of ground. The drought of July and 

 August did not appear to impede its growth, nor 

 did the succeeding rains unusually affect it. Every 

 leaf was green, and numerous melons of various 



I sizes, exhibiting every mark of thrift when the 

 frost carne, gave prool' of the healthy and vigorous 



\ state of the vine. The length of this vine in all its 



I parts was not measured : but the various computa- 

 tions made by those who saw it, w ere from a quar- 



1 ter to half a mile. 



We are often furnished with statements of the 

 wonderful production of plants, which have acci- 

 dentally sprung up in good ground. It seems to 

 be generally admitted that chance has exceeded 

 calculation in producing great crops of vines and 

 their fruits ; yet very few seem to profit by the in- 

 structions so naturally given by these accidental 

 occurrences. Vines are generally placed too near 

 each other ; hills are made near together, and sev- 

 eral plants are permitted to grow in a hill, by 

 which means the vines act on each other as recip- 

 rocal counter agents, and of course little fruit can 



i be expected. OBSERVATOR. 



SPONTANEOUS INFLAMMATION. 



Many sub-.trdirp.s under cert'iin oircinistanc'es. 

 are disposed to spontaneous infiaminaiion, respect- 

 ing vihich, it may he useful to caution the reader. 



1. Oiled cloth, which hnd been painted on one 

 side, dried in the sun, and stowed away in a store- 

 house in the town of Brest, inflamed, and destroy- 

 ed the house, 



2. Heaps of linen rags, which are thrown to- 

 gether in paper-manufactories, the preparation of 

 which is hastened by means of fermentation, often 

 take fire, if not carefully attended to. 



•3. Parched rye bran, wrapped up in a linen cloth, 

 smoked in a few minutes, ifnd in a short thne the 

 rag became black ; and the bran being hot, fell 

 through it on the grouml in little balls. Mr Tookf, 

 from whom the above fact is taken, accounts for 

 the frequent fires in Russia, from the common 

 practise of binding roasted bran about the necks 

 of cattle, when affected with thick necks. 



4. Mr. TooKE also mentions, that the hemp 

 magaiine at Petersburgh, containing several hun- 

 dred thousand lbs. of hemp and flax, took fire 

 without any appearent cause ; that a roll of cere- 

 cloth took fire in a vaulted shop, where neither 

 fire nor candle were allowed ; and that a bundle 

 of matting, containing Russian lamp-black pre- 

 pared from fir-soot, moistened with hpmp-oil var- 

 nish, caused a fire in a ship's cabin, in the road of 

 Cronstadt. See the account at length, by Tooke, 

 in the Rep. of .Irt.i. 



5. Pieces of woollen cloth UDscowered, heaps of 

 moist woollen yarn, or wool combing/s, impregna- 

 ted with rape-oil mixed with butter, which is used 

 in the combing, and packed away in unventilatcd 

 rooms, have also inflamed. 



6. Cotton cloth wetted with drying linseed oil, 

 and confines! in a box, began to smoke in three 

 hours : aSd o»t^e box being opened it immediate- 

 ly inflamed. 



7. A quantity of candles had been melted by a 

 tallow-chandler in Philadelphia, and put in a brass 

 sieve to drain, in the evening : in the course of the 

 night they inflamed. A similar accident occurred 

 to the same person from a mass of candle-wick 

 having been thrown into a barrel, after the fat had 

 been melted from the candles. 



8. A child at Hartford, Connecticut, having been 

 burnt, was anointed with oil in March, 180.3. — 

 .'Vbout three gallons were consumed, and a great 

 part of that quantity was absorbed by the bed. — 

 The bed afterwards lay until June, in a garret, 

 when it inflamed. 



9. The spontaneous inflamation of stacks of hay 

 is well known to farmers. [ Domest. Encyclopedia.] 



Sleam Carriage. — Mr Stevens has at length put bis 

 steam carriage in motion. It travelled round the cir- 

 cle of Hoboken Hotel on Thursday, at the rate ofabout 

 six miles an hour. The curve of this circle is very 

 crank, much more so than can be possibly required ia 

 pursuing the route of a road. This srreat deviation 

 from a straight line gives ri?e to an enormous friction, 

 the greater part of which, however, Mr S. has contriv- 

 ed to obviate. His engine carriage weighs less than a 

 ton, whereas those now in use in England weigh from 

 eight to ten tons. His original intention was to give 

 the carriage a motion of sixteen or seventeen miles an 

 hour ; but he has deemed it more prudent to move, is 

 (he first instance, with moderate velocity, and has ac- 

 cordingly altered the gearing, which renders it more 

 impracticable to move fast. It will be in motion again 

 to-day, from three o'clock till aun down. — N. Y, pap. 



