488 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. S 



cows HOLDING UP THEIR MILK. 



From the Main'; Fanner. 



3Iessrs. Editors: — You will recollect that in a 

 late No. ol' (he Farmer 1 mentioned that 1 had a 

 eow that iravo very little milk in the morninj^, and 

 that she y;ave more at night as a consequence, 

 &c. ; and ihat a Mr. Foss had a cow that did the 

 same. 1 requested the why and wiierelbre ol'you 

 or some of your correspondents, and also the cure. 

 You remark that you had a cow with the same 

 complaint, and thought possible some one milked 

 her besides yoursell! 1 hear that many other 

 people are making similar complaints of their cows. 



As I think I have discovered the cause, I will 

 state it as respecis mine. She lodges on sand or 

 gravel in a yard where there is no sward or orts, 

 hay or straw, and during this long spell of wet 

 weatherherlodginghad beencold. Althesugges- 

 lion of a neighbor, after the cow was milked at 

 night, 1 sent her back to the pasture where she 

 might lay on a ledgy warm place, and the cure 

 has been etl'ccled; whether by this or not you and 

 others may judge. 1 know that in the lall, when 

 the weather is colder, and the nights longer, the 

 same result does not take place when our cows 

 lay out. But then their hair is longer, — mine 

 having recently shed her old hair and ihe new 

 being very short. I wish that others having cows 

 that hold up their milk will try my remedy, and let 

 me know the result. Sam'l. Wood. 



LIQUID LEATHER. 



From the Maine Farmer. 



We have seen it stated that some one in Europe 

 has invented what he calls liquid leather. Tiie 

 process he keeps a profound secret, but it is said 

 the matter is liquid, and may be cast into any form 

 such as bootg, shoes, &c. 



The nuiterial is probably some preparation of 

 animal gelaniine, at any rate we will guess so. If 

 animal gelatine be mingled with the proper quan- 

 tity of tannin, such as the strong liquor ot hem- 

 lock or oak bark, it coagulates and becomes solitl. 

 Now if the two ingredients can be ])ropcrly pro- 

 portioned, no doubt it can be Ibrmed into any shape 

 whatever. 



It is this which changes skins or hides into 

 leather. Hides however have fibers which add 

 to the toughness and strength ol the leather, which 

 might not be the case in changing gelatine to 

 leather. Some one who has leisure to experi- 

 ment upon it, can take glue and bark licjuor and 

 amuse himselii and perhaps find out something 

 new to him, if he don't get the real secret. Il'you 

 epit into strong bark liquor, u coagulum is Ibrmed 

 occasioned by the slight quantity of mucus niailer 

 contained in the s|iillle. I)" raw hide be put into 

 a Papin's digester, which is a small steam boiler 

 with a safety valve so that the water can be heated 

 much higher than boiling water,(212'^) and heat- 

 ed for some httle time, it will become almost wholly 

 or quite dissolved, and in this form it might be bet- 

 ter lor experimenting upon perha|)s than a simple 

 solution of glue, which is purer and has less ani- 

 mal fibre. 



Horns may thus be rendered almost or quite 

 fluid in this way, and undoubtedly might be put to 

 many more uses than they are at present. 



TO FATTEN POULTKV. 



h torn the Maine Fanner. 



An experiment has lately beeti tried of feeding 

 geese with turnips cut in small pieces like dice, but 

 less in size, and put into a trough of water; with 

 this ibod alone, the etlect was that 6 geese, each 

 when lean weighing only 9 lbs., actually gained 

 20 lbs. each in about three weeks fattening. 



Malt is an excellent tbod (or geese and tuf- 

 keys; grains are prelerred lor the sake of econ- 

 omy, unless lor immediate and rapid liittening: the 

 grains should be boiled afresh. 



Other cheap articles Ibr fiittening are oatmeal 

 and treacle ; barley-meal and milk ; boiled oats and 

 ground malt. 



Corn belbre being given to fowls should always 

 be crushed and soaked in water. The ft)od will thus 

 go lurther, and it will hel[) digestion. Hens led 

 thus have been known to lay during the whole of 

 the winter months. 



EARLY CUT CLOVER. 



From tlie Boston Cultivator. 



In 1818, when living on the banks of the Ken- 

 nebec, in Maine, we had a fine ()iecc of clover 

 that we leared would grow too rank to be relished 

 by our cattle. We therefbre mowed it on the 

 twenty-filth of June when not one-half the heads 

 had blown fully out. 



We suffered it to lie in ihe sun for three days 

 — turning it over at night to bring the greenest 

 side up to take the dews. On the third day it 

 was raked and carted. We cannot say we saved 

 all the heads and the leaves, but we looked to the 

 main chance; we saved the stalks — the substance 

 — and our cattle would insist on eating them all. 



In feeding out this hay we could not but note 

 the dillerence between a fbrkful of it and a fork- 

 ful of hay cut late. It was apparently one-third 

 heavier. Our cattle never throve better on any 

 hay, and their manure, not black as when their 

 keeping is poor, or late cut hay, looked precisely 

 as il' they had been kept partially on Indian meal. 



TEaiPERATURE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE 

 UNITED STATES 



From tlie Gcnescc Farmoi'. 



While the average tem|)erature of the year in 

 England exceeds that of the northern part of the 

 United States, the average of the three summer 

 njonths there, falls very much blow the average 

 of the same months here. Thus in the agricultural 

 reports of some of the English counties for last 

 year, it was stated that "frosts were (iecjuent du- 

 ring the months of July and August." We have 

 t)een sometimes asked why corn as well as wheat 

 cannot be grown in England. The true reason is 

 Ibund in this low temperature of the summer 

 tnonilis ; which while it proves not unfavorable Ibr 

 wheat, renders the ripening of corn impossible. 

 Wheat will be best in u tem|)erature that averages 

 from 60 to 70 degrees, as Ihe stalk takes more time 

 to grow, does not suffer Irom drought, and irives a 

 finer, heavier berry than is usually produced where 



