NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



21 



dered, the citadel would be lost. It was in the 

 glorious struggle to maintain these that they nobly 

 fell. But 



"Truth crushed to earth will rise again, 

 The eternal years of God are hers." 



In explaining the cause of the struggle in one of 

 his speeches. Kossuth said, — "For three centuries 

 Austria has exercised open violence and wholesale 

 threats to destroy the liberties of my countrymen, 

 and were it not for her municipal institutions, 

 would have succeeded. There was a time when 

 the principles of liberty were spreading through 

 Europe, and when I was myself almost alone stand- 

 ing against the assailants of Russia. Municipal 

 institutions are the best protectorsof liberty. There 

 is the French nation, which has, after three revo- 

 lutions, glory outside, but freedom within wither- 

 ing by the influence of centralization." 



He then proceeded to observe that he foretold 

 this would be fatal to them. England would al- 

 ways be great, glorious and free, by the preserva- 

 tion of her municipal institutions ; and when he 

 saw their race was the only one in both hemispheres 

 enjoying perfect fieedom, whether in kingly formed 

 governments in the one, or in republican institu- 

 tions in the other, he still saw it was by preserv- 

 ing these institutions intact. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 

 MEADOW HAY AND CRANBERRIES. 



BY SILAS BROWN. 



Messrs. Editors : — Although meadow hay and 

 cranberries bear no resemblance to each other, 

 their affinity is such that they thrive in the same 

 kind of soil and mingle together in society, and 

 almost necessarily belong to the same subject for 

 discussion. Experience is the best instructor ; 

 I have had as good an opportunity to discover the 

 virtues of meadow hay as any man in the State. 

 For more than 30 years I have had bountiful crops 

 of it, some seasons more than I have been grateful 

 for, ingratitude being my sin in this case. 



I have flat meadow land inundated from fall to 

 spring by a mill-pond. The wild grass and cran- 

 berry vines alternately occupy the whole lot with 

 contending bushes which are steadily encroaching 

 upon their territory unless care is taken to exter- 

 minate them. Where the cranberry vines grow, 

 very little grass grows, but when they have gone 

 through a course of bearing fruit they gradually 

 decay, and finally rot and disappear, then the wild 

 grass takes possession and has its turn and supplies 

 us with meadow hay. 



Cranberries do not produce well among grass, 

 the berries are of small size and seldom ripen be- 

 fore harvest time ; those are best which grow on 

 beds that occupy the whole ground to the exclu- 

 sion of grass; the berry grows larger and ripens 

 better, not being shaded by grass and bushes and 

 having the benefit of the sun. The seasons for 

 seveial years past have been unfavorable to the 

 growth of cranberries; the cold has continued 

 later than formerly through the spring and into 

 June, and the springs have been backward mostly 

 for ten or more years. The late frosts in May, 

 June and sometimes iu July, have had a blighting 



effect on the vines which for several years have 

 lost their green thrifty appearance and look stinted 

 and dingy. The cranberry vine, after the starting 

 of the blossom shoots, is extremely sensitive, and 

 meadow-land being more subject to frosts than up- 

 land, the vine is frequently injured when there is 

 no appearance of fiost on the upland. Meadow 

 grass is much more liable to be injured by frosts 

 than any of our varieties of English grass. I have 

 frequently seen the crop nearly ruined by June 

 frosts. Meadow grass makes much better hay cut 

 early than late ; the late cut hay is destitute of that 

 flavor which is so agreeable to the smell, and cat- 

 tle will only eat it as a, "life preserver," as the 

 famishing sailor eats his leather mittens. Meadow 

 grass ought to be cut in July to be relished by the 

 cattle ; the little nutriment which it contains is soon 

 dissipated to the winds if left standing later. 



Cattle do not like to be confined to one kind of 

 food any more than we do, and will eagerly, eat it 

 for a change if not repeated too often ; they will 

 winter very well upon it with a daily allowance of 

 the different kinds of roots. I have found my 

 young cattle, and oxen, when they do not labor 

 hard, winter much better upon it than cows, and 

 ought to consume a full share of the meadow hay ; 

 but cows must have good hay and other good food, 

 and their flesh kept on their ribs during the winter, 

 or it will be a summer's work for the poor brutes 

 to restore it, beside a serious deficiency to the in- 

 come of the owner by a diminished quantity of 

 milk. I have seen the cows of some respectable 

 farmers, in the spring of the year, which had been 

 fed during the winter on meadow hay, and per- 

 haps a scanty allowance at that, come out hide- 

 bound in such a manner as to require the three 

 summer months, in good pasture, to gain nourish- 

 ment enough to loosen their skins from their ribs. 



I have kept six or eight cows summer and win- 

 ter for a number of years, and fed them in the win- 

 ter on meadow ha)', the refuse of corn, and sparing- 

 ly on English hay; they would go dry three or 

 four months, and come out in the spring, spry, but 

 not burdened with flesh ; their calves would be 

 light at five weeks old, and fetch me 3 or 4 dollars 

 each, and it would take all the best part of the 

 grazing season for them to regain a "respectable 

 appearance in the world," and be in a condition to 

 give a decent quantity of milk. I have kept two 

 cows, fed them with a supply of good hay, corn- 

 fodder, pumpkins, the various kinds of roots, and a 

 dose of swill occasionally, and they supplied us 

 with milk every day through the year, and pro- 

 duced two calves worth 12 or 15 dollars at five 

 weeks old, and wore a good loose hide, all the 

 while unannoyed by blood-thirsty vermin. Those 

 two cows while nursing their calves furnished us 

 with milk and butter sufficient for a small family. 

 Here we see the difference between feeding cows 

 on nutritious articles of food and dry indifferent 

 fodder. There is an advantage in having a con- 

 stant supply of meadow hay in the barn as we have 

 occasion for its use when our crops of English hay 

 are cut off by drought. 



We have reports at intervals of a few years, of 

 short crops, famine and starvation among cattle in 

 those places where farmers are dependent upon up- 

 land or English hay to winter their stock of ani- 

 mals ; but in the regions of meadow hay in the 

 county of Middlesex and elsewhere, it is very sel- 

 dom we hear of farmers sustaining such losses ex- 



