Vol. IV. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



s:>7 



no insects rising, they may suspend till March, and 

 try again. If they then perceive, that they are ex- 

 empt from the calamity, they need not continue 

 the operation. If it were possihle that all fanners 

 should be so provident, we might stop their pro- 

 gress at once. A PARMER. 



TO PREVENT CATTLE FROM CHOKING. 



It not unfrequently happens, when neat cattle 

 are fed witli potatoes or turnips, and sometimes 

 with pumpkins, and it so happens that they break 

 into orchards or come at apples accidentally and 

 get choked therewith, as it is commonly expressed; 

 tiiat is they get an apple or potatoe, &c. down the 

 gullet, and have not power to swallow iter to fling 

 it up, and often die for want of proper assistance. 

 There are many applications applied by inex- 

 perienced persons, which are very improper and 



LIGHTNING RODS. 



The season (July) is near at hand, when your 

 barns will be filled with the products of your fields. 

 And it is certainly desirable after the labor and 



expense of filling them has been met, that they, unsafe, and the animal too often expires under the 

 should be preserved to remimerate this labor and I operation. — The following is not only safe and 

 expense. You must howevef, be sensible, at least ' effectual, but the application is easy, and may be 

 you will be, if you will recur to facts, that your performed by a child, or any person who has .suf- 

 expectations of reward for your toil are often cut ficient streno-th. 



short by a sudden stroke of lightning. This you Take a whip-stick, or any tough elastic smooth 

 can pre-veiit by erecting lightning rods to your stick, about tliree feet in length and one fourth of 

 barns. The last season after tlie summer crops an inch in diameter, make one of the ends smootli 

 were gathered, a greater amount of property was and apply a ball of woolen yarn about two or two 

 destroyed by lightning, in the county of New-Ha- ! and a half inches in diameter, over which strain 

 ven alone, than would have furnished lightning a soft piece of washed leathef, enough to be made 

 rods to every barn in the state. It must then cer- very fast to the stick, by a strong waxed twine, 

 tainly be unwise to risk sucli an amount of proper- open the creature's mouth and bring the head ud 

 ty, when it can be insured at so low a premium.— so that the passage may be as straight as possible. 

 After close observation for fifteen years, I fear- apply the ball down the throat, gently pushin.^ 

 lessly assert that during the montlis of July and the obstruction forward, which will relieve thr 

 Augu.st, that is, after yonr summer crops are lodg- ; beast immediately, without the least harm, 

 ed in your barns, a greater number of barns are 



struck by lightning, by twenty to one, than any 

 other object of equal height and number. The 



DATE TREES. 

 Some Date Trees, planted in New Orleans about 



reason is obvious to a careful observer, at least it 7 years since, are this season in blossom. Thi^: 



is so to a philosophical one. The exhalations ' tree grows slowly, and it is said to produce in 1} 



which arise from a barn filled with hay and grain, years from the planting, but will live and bear 30!) 



recently gathered, are great, and forma cokunn years. Besides the value of its fruits, mats and 



of rarefied air, which reach to a great height in baskets are made of the leaves, ropes of the fibres, 



the atmosphere. This column is a direct attr.-ictor and the trunk is good for building or firewood. — 



and conductor of the electric fluid ; as much so. Its appearance is beautiful, elevating its trunk 30 



as the smoke of an extinguished handle is tc an ^'' ''*^ 'eet without branches, the le:ues whicli 



approximating flame. Erect lightning rods to your spring out at the top form a kind of capital to tlie 



barns, and the fluid is conducted harmlessly to tlie pillar. 

 earth. 



[It is a fact which we think none will deny, that 

 barns that are stored with hay and grain, are much 



more frequently struck by lightning than any other 

 building, let the cause be what it may — Conn. 

 Journal, 1824.] 



FENELON. 



"In one of his charitable walks," says the Car- 

 dinal Maury, "Fenelon met a peasant, still young, 

 but plunged in the deepest affliction. He had re- 

 cently lost a cow, the only support of his indigent 

 family. Fenelon attempted to comfort him, and by 

 giving him money to buy anotlier, alleviated his 

 sorrow ; still he had lost his own cow and the 

 fall. Pursuing his journey. 



ARABIAN METHOD OP PREPARING 



COFFEE. 



It is found that the only certain mode of retain- tears continued to 

 ing the pure flavour of the coffee, is to roast, Fenelon found the very cow which was the object 

 pound and boil it, all in quick succession, the of so much affliction : and like the good shepherd, 

 roasted berries soon losing their flavor if laid by ; he himself drove it back before him in a dark night 

 for a day, and the pounded coff"ee becoming insipid, I to the young man's cottage. This (says the Car- 



even in a few hours. The Arabs of the desert, 

 who are from necessity economical in the use of 

 this article, follow the same process, even if they 

 require only two cups of the liquid, roasting a 

 handful of berries on an iron plate, pounding thi'm 

 in the pestle and mortar while warm, and the in- 

 stant the water boil3,which it generally does by the 

 time the other preparations are completed, so that 

 no time is lost, putting the pounded coffee into it, 

 and suffering it to boil, stirring it at the same 

 time for a minute or two, when it is poured out to 

 drink. As tlie beverage is taken without sugar or 

 milk, the slightest difference in flavor is percepti- 

 ble ; and long experience having shown this to 

 be the best way of preserving it in perfection, 

 it is perhaps worth mentioning in detail, partic- 

 ularly as the use of this article has become so 

 general even in England. [Buckingham's Travels.] 



dinal) is perhaps the finest trait in Fenelon's life, 

 wo be to those who read it without being affected. 

 The virtues of Fenelon give his history something 

 of the nature of romance, but his name will never 

 die. The Flemings bless his memory, and call him 

 the good Archbishop." 



A late Louisiana Advertiser says, a box arrived 

 by steam boat the day before, at the Post Office, 

 containing about five bushels of northern news- 

 papers, which had been detained by bad roads. 



ON THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER 

 AND CHEESE. 

 By S. De Will, Esq. of Albany. 

 On the subject of manufacturing butter I cannot re- 

 frain from saying something more. It will be simply 

 concerning the operation of churning. I last summer 



visited a farmer sear Itttaca, who kept a dairy, sup- 



plied by about sixteen cows, and conducted iu the 

 manner I have been accustomed to see in Ulster and 

 Orange; the butler from which commanded a higher 

 price than any other in that pai I of the country. The 

 working of tlie cliuin was done hy a dog. The ma- 

 chinery for this purpose was simple. It consisted of 

 a circular platform im lined (o the plane of the horizon, 

 and moving on an axle through its centre. The dog 

 was placed on it near its edare, with a rope fastened 

 round his nerk and altacbtj to an adjoining fixture. 

 In this situation, the platform being put in motion, the 

 dog was obliged to perform the operation of walking 

 on it upwards; hy which means the motion was con- 

 tinued, and by means of a simple contrivance com- 

 municating with the churn stick, the thuruing in this 

 manner was perfornifd and completed in about an hour; 

 when the dog was dismissed aud received his custom- 

 ary reward, a plentiful repast on milk, i;c. Thus 

 treated, he riturned to his labour with alacrity when 

 it was again required. The churn held of milk and 

 cream put together in it, about the contents of a barrel. 

 I staid during the process of one churning, and was 

 highly gratified with it ; and what contributed much 

 to my gratifica'i<in was the delicious beverage of but- 

 termilk with which the mistress of the dairy treated 



I have met with a remark in some English Irratlse 

 on the subject under consideration, that "a good pas- 

 ture is too valuable ever to be broken up." If this be 

 he case, let the man who undertakes to prepare a 

 d iry farm, soliloquize in this manner, when hi- is pre- 

 paring his pasture tields : I am now about doing what 

 is to be done only once in my life-time, on the farm 

 from which I am to obtain my living ; therefore let no 

 pains or expense be spared to have it done in the best 

 possihle manner. I will plough, harrow and hoe my 

 field, aftd i-aise such crops on it as are best calculated 

 to destroy every kind of vegetable now growing on it, 

 I will make use of every means that can be contrived 

 to enrich the ground. I will pulverize (he soil, and 

 level it as much as possible, and then I will make a 

 selection of the best and most suitable grass seed, and 

 sow them in abundance on it, remembering that / can- 

 not sou- loo much in order to have full crops immedi- 

 ately, and to prevent the growth of noxious plants; 

 and if any of these should notwithstanding spring up, 

 I must go over my fields and eradicate them, and in a 

 few years I will have a good clean pasture, which will 

 last my life-time, and be retained in the highest state 

 of perfection by means of occasional top dressing, or by 

 scattering some pulverized gypsum over it, and some- 

 times, perhaps, by a scarification, all which will cost 

 me but a trifle compared with the benefits I will receive 

 from them. 



The late Governeur Morris had several dairy estab- 

 lishments on his estate at Morrisania. On the exqui- 

 site flavor of the butter thoy produced I have often 

 feasted at his table. In rambling over his fields and 

 visiting his dairies, among the numerous instructive 

 observations he made on agricultural subjects, one was 

 new to me, and I considered it worthy of being remem- 

 bered, and of having the truth of it investigated. It 

 was this — " The older the pasture, the better will be 

 the milk and butter which it produces." Whether this 

 be correct or not, 1 cannot from my own experience or * 

 observation decide, further than this thatsome of the 

 most luxuriant pastures about Morrisania, appeared to 

 he very aged, and I know that the butter they produc- 

 ed was most excellent. 



