NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



MARSH'S PRAIRIE STEERS. 



We present our readers this week with a view 

 of a pair of mammoth steers, raised on the prai- 

 ries in McLean County, Illinois, by Mr. Isaac 

 Funk, a celebrated cattle raiser, and subsequently 

 purchased and stall-fed by Mr. Sylvester Marsh, 

 of Chicago, the present owner. They are estimat- 

 ed to weigh nearly 4000 pounds each, and Mr. 

 M. claims that they are the largest and handsom- 

 est cattle in the United States. They measure 

 fifteen feet from the nose to the end of the tail, 

 and over three feet across the hips, and are five 

 feet ten inches high. Their girth is between nine 

 and ten feet each. They were never yoked, but 

 run upon the prairie till within about a year. 



Mr. Marsh, who is the largest beef packer in 

 the United States, went from this market to Ohio 

 in 1828, and thence to Chicago in 1834, and 

 packed the first beef that came through the Erie 

 Canal. He commenced business in Chicago be- 

 fore a slaughter-house had been built, and hung 

 his first beef upon a tree. Now, 70,000 barrels 

 are packed in that city annually. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 COWS AND CARROTS. 



BY J. G. HOYT. 



Friend Brown : — I have a heifer two years old 

 last spring, which did not take the first prize 



the 



; i •-. mt season at our State Cattle-show, for the 

 simple reason, undoubtedly, that she did not, from 

 a shrinking delicacy peculiar to her sex, " go to the 

 Fair." But however this may be, I am very proud 

 of her, and though she is now, with the thermom- 

 eter 16° below zero, giving me seven quarts of 

 milk chat is milk per day, yet I am fully convinced 

 that her "faculties," as somebody says in Barna 

 by Rudge, " are not half drawed out." It is as 

 yet an unsolved problem with us small farmers in 

 country villages, how we shall get the most milk 

 with the hast expense out of our one cow. 



A gentleman, who owns a very extensive farm 

 in Bradford, Mass., and whose fifty cows "give 

 down" some $2000,00 worth of milk per year to 

 the Haverhill people on the other side of the river, 

 made some suggestions a few days since, in a con- 

 versation with a neighbor of mine, which are new 

 to me on this subject, and which, if I mistake not, 

 are not in accordance Avith the current notions of 

 the day. He stated, as his deliberate opinion, that 

 carrots, of the virtues of which we have heard so 

 much of late years, do not contribute in the slight- 

 est degree to increase the amount of milk in a cow. 

 This proposition he bases upon the result of re- 

 peated experiments. He has, for instance, fed Ins 

 cows, or a certain number of them, on good hay 

 for a fortnight, and, measuring the milk exactly, 

 night and morning, " taken a note of it and turned 

 a leaf down," as Capt. Cuttle says. He has then, 

 the next fortnight, in addition to the good hay, 

 given the same cows carrots, varying the quantity 

 from a peck to a bushel per day, for each cow, and 

 yet without any increase whatever in the amount 

 of milk. He maintains, therefore, that while the 

 quality of milk may be improved by carrots, the 



quantity is not perceptibly affected. He thinks, 

 further, that the carrots, when fed out in ordinary 

 doses, do not diminish in the least the quantity of 

 hay necessary for his cows ; but that they serve 

 merely as condiments ; on the same principle, I 

 suppose, that pickles and cranberry sauce enhance 

 rather than lesson the enthusiasm with which we, 

 bipeds, invest roast turkey. Under all these cir- 

 cumstances, he is decidedly of the opinion that $3 

 per ton is quite as much as a man can afford to 

 pay for carrots to tickle the palate of a pet cow. 



Now, Mr. Editor, can these things be so 1 Is 

 the prevailing impression in regard to the good 

 qualities of carrots altogether erroneous 1 Have 

 no other -milk-makers made careful experiments, 

 which, if stated with precision in your journal, 

 might confirm our wavering faith in carrots ? Why 

 not let James, your Corkonian " divine cowherd," 

 as Homer calls him, " devote his behaviors," in 

 part, for a month or so, under your eye, to experi- 

 mental researches into this subject, and then give 

 us an eclogue from your own Bucolics 1 We shall 

 then " know what's what." 



Of the various other articles of fodder given to 

 cows in the winter, it was the impression of the 

 Bradford farmer referred to, that linseed oil-cake 

 was most efficient in increasing the quantity of 

 milk, corn-meal next in order, and shorts third. 

 The principal effect of beets or mangel-wurzels is, 

 according'to his observation and experience, to de- 

 teriorate the quality of the milk without exerting 

 a compensating influence upon the quantity. Po- 

 tatoes, however valuable they may be in this con- 

 nection, at their present high price are of course 

 eaten only on stone china and with silver forks. 

 Now in regard to the three first articles, the oil- 

 cake, when flax-cotton becomes a substitute for 

 Southern cotton — " a consummation devoutly to 

 be wished" — will undoubtedly prove a luxury to 

 cows and a source of wealth to dairy-men, but the 

 present crops of flax are so " few and far between," 

 that oil cake, like some other kinds of cake which 

 we wot of, can be dealt out only on rare and ex- 

 traordinary occasions. The choice, then, if the 

 preceding views of one of the most extensive far- 

 mers in your State are just, must lie between corn- 

 meal and shorts — a choice which can be deter- 

 mined only by a careful comparison of the relative 

 prices and virtues of each. Pray tell us all about 

 this matter and more too. As Hamlet hath it, 

 " Carrots, corn-meal or shorts, that is the ques- 

 tion." Yours, truly, 



Exeter, N. H., Jan., 1852. J. G. Hoyt. 



Remarks. — The subject which our friend treats 

 so pleasantly is one of more importance, perhaps, 

 to us who "make milk" for market, than to the 

 villager "with his one cow." We have often 

 made inquiries of experienced persons in relation 

 to this matter, and will state their opinions, but 

 without being able to furnish any exact informa- 

 tion as the result of reliable experiments. In a 

 conversation with Mr. Holbrook, our associate, 

 he stated that he had raised and fed out roots in 

 large quantities, and watched their effects upon 

 the flow of milk, flesh and general thrift of the 

 animals, and after some years of experimenting 

 came to the conclusion, that carrots do not, ma- 



