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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



In this universal school we are to lay hold of 

 all possible helps and take hints from all nature 

 both animate and inanimate, around us. Dr 

 Beecher says "that in no other way can so much 

 varied, so useful information be imparted, and 

 under circumstances so favorable for educating 

 the child's mind, as through a judicious, well-con 

 ducted newspaper. Once, a liberal education 

 could only be obtained by foreign travel. The 

 sons only of the wealthy could indulge in this cost- 

 ly benefit. But now the poor man's son can learn 

 as much at home as a hundred years ago a gen- 

 tleman could learn by journeying the world over. 

 It is the poor man's privilege to have the world 

 come to see him. The newspaper is a great Col- 

 lector, a great Traveller, a great Leeturer. It is 

 the common people's Encyclopaedia — the Lyceum, 

 the College." It greatly aids conversational pow- 

 ers, gives ease to manner, and supplies a constant 

 stream of useful, general intelligence. 



But our last and emphatic injunction is — Edu- 

 cate your Daughters. For, after all, the educa- 

 tion of the sons mainly rests upon the mother. 

 And upon the intelligence and virtue of these sons 

 will depend the perpetuity of our institutions and 

 the progress and glory of this nation 



For the New England Farmer. 

 VEGETABLES FOR MILCH COWS. 



Mr. Editor : — The pleasant discussion agitated, 

 by your intelligent correspondent from Exeter, of 

 the feed best adapted to milch cows, and particu- 

 larly as to the value of carrots for this purpose, I 

 have read with much interest. It would seem, 

 that there need not be any difference of opinion, 

 on a matter of so common occurrence. But still, 

 on this, as on most other subjects, we find very 

 different opinions entertained, by those of equal 

 intelligence and observation. 



In regard to carrots, it seems to be admitted by 

 all, that they improve the quality of the milk, 

 however it may be as to the quantity. It is also 

 admitted, that they have a healthy and fattening 

 influence on the animal that eats them. It is cei> 

 tain that they are palatable, for there is no class 

 of roots devoured by the animals with more avidi- 

 ty. For many years have I been familiar with a 

 stock of cows, kept for dairy and milk purposes, to 

 which carrots have been fed more or less every 

 year. Without any exact experiments as to then- 

 value or feed, the impression has ever been that 

 they were equal to any other root. If this im- 

 pression is erroneous, I should like to have it de- 

 monstrated. But I cannot relinquish an opinion, 

 without well digested facts to the contrary, that I 

 have cherished from my youth, and which was 

 taught me by a working man of much practical 

 observation. 



I remember, a few years since, some of the best 

 fanners of my acquaintance put forward the idea 

 that green com; cut and fed to cows in the 

 months of August and September, when the feed 

 of pastures came short, for want of moisture, was 

 •if little or no value. Coming from such sources, 

 1 thought there must be sometldng in it; and that 



Pickering and Colman and others, who had en- 

 couraged the use of this article, as valuable for 

 milch cows, might have been mistaken. Notwith- 

 standing, opinions thus put forward, I find many 

 careful men, who rely on their milk products, con- 

 tinue to grow corn for their cows. And I strong- 

 ly suspect, that the same class of men will hesi- 

 tate, before they discard the use of carrots entire- 

 ly. Among the many projects of improvement 

 now agitated, I know of no one more worthy the 

 attention of careful cultivators than the compara- 

 tive value of crops as feed for milch cows. Every 

 family in the land is interested in this subject. 

 No sooner does the infant inhale the air of Heaven, 

 than some preparations of milk begin to be made 

 for its nourishment, which preparations continue 

 to be administered, in some form or other, while 

 life lasts. Time Avas, when the potato was culti- 

 vated for the feed of stock ; but of late the voracity 

 of man is such, that few potatoes can be spared 

 for this purpose, unless they are suspected of being 

 impregnated with the rot. Turnips also, especial- 

 ly the ruta baga, have been cracked up, as excel- 

 lent for milch cows ; but there are those, who turn 

 up their noses, when turnips are named, and say 

 they cannot endure the taste of the milk of cows 

 that have fed on turnips. Cabbages also come 

 within the same category. If it were not for the 

 peculiar flavor imparted to. milk, by feeding on 

 turnips and cabbages, I should think these crops 

 would yield a more abundant feed for stock than 

 any others that can be cultivated. On looking 

 over the number of the Transactions of the Essex 

 Society, recently published, I perceive the crop of 

 cabbage raised by Mr. Mason, of Beverly, exceeds 

 any vegetable product that has come to my knowl- 

 edge. The sales from his grounds the present 

 year exceeded $450 per acre, for several acres. 

 When it is considered, with how little labor this 

 crop is grown, the land being properly prepared, 

 there would seem to be no occasion to go West to raise 

 wheat at 50 cents a bushel, when labor can be so 

 much better rewarded by growing cabbage in the 

 East. p. 



Danvcrs, January 26, 1852. 



Curious Cause of Complaint. — J. Breck, in a 

 communication which we find in the last Massa- 

 chusetts Ploughman, complains in the most severe 

 terms, of the present publishers of that excellent 

 paper, the New England Farmer, for taking the 

 same name as he adopted some twenty years ago, 

 for a similar publication, and which gave up the 

 ghost in July, 1846 ! He denounces it not only 

 as in bad taste, but as a "gross outrage upon those 

 now living" who were connected with the defunct 

 paper, "and something near of kin to sacrilege to 

 the memories of those who sleep in the dust" — of 

 course including in the list that old Farmer ! 



Are there no straight jackets in New England ? 

 — Germantovm Telegraph. 



Grass under Trees. — By sowing nitrate of soda 

 in small quantities in showery weather under trees, 

 a nmst beautiful verdure will be obtained. I have 

 used it under beech trees in my grounds, and the 

 grass always looks green. Having succeeded so 

 well on a small scale, I have now sown nitrate of 

 soda amongst the long grass in the plantations, 

 which cattle could never eat. I now find that the 

 herbage is preferred to the other parts of the field. 



