NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



335 



Again, our native berries — the blackberry, 

 •whortleberry, &c, such large quantities of which 

 are annually hawked about the streets of our ci- 

 ties — is there no chance for improvement? Has 

 not every one noticed the superiority in sizo and 

 flavor of some berries over others'? Last season, 

 in passing through one of in}' fields, I noticed a 

 blackberry bush the fruit of which was 'nearly 

 twice as large as any I had ever before seen, and 

 as much superior in flavor as in size. I intend to 

 transplant and cultivate this, and I hope some day 

 to present yuu, Mr. Editor, with a dish of "im- 

 proved blackberries." Would it not be advisable 

 for our agricultural societies to offer premiums for 

 the best display of our native berries? Perhaps 

 we might sunn see as great improvement in these, 

 as in strawberries and other fruits. — Rural New- 

 Yorker. 



FEEDING STOCK. 



Auburn, Dec. 23, 1851. 



T. C. Peters :— Dear Sir,— In the fall of 1850 

 I weighed out two tons of hay, and bought one 

 hundred and thirty bushels of shorts, and put them 

 in a barn by themselves. The hay cost $12, and 

 the shorts 10 cents per bushel — $13 50 ; in all 

 $25 50. On the first day of December, 1850, I 

 put in the stable three milking cows, and fed them 

 on the above bay and shorts as follows : — One 

 bushel of cut hay with three quarts of shorts to 

 each animal, three times a day from Dec. 1, 1850, 

 to May 10, 1851, making 160 days in all. They 

 were fed regularly, and the feed carefully measured. 

 The cows gave twelve quarts of milk a day, each, 

 all this time, and came out in the spring good 

 beef. This is three bushels of cut hay and nine 

 quarts of shorts per day to each animal, which I 

 think is wintering cattle cheap. The above are 

 the facts of the case ; if you think them worth 

 anything you can put them in shape to suit you, 

 if not, pass them by as worthless. The weather 

 is very cold, and has been this month. 



I am now feeding in the same manner, and have 

 done so for the last four years. It is the only way 

 farmers should feed, as it more than pays to cut 

 every thing that is fed at this time. Cut all hay 

 and straw, grind all corn and oats, and stable all 

 stock, and then farmers will be doing their duty to 

 their stock. 



I am yours respectfully, Jonx B. Dill. 

 — Wool Grower. 



Remarks. — We are happy to see an increased 

 attention given to this subject, believing that a 

 large amount of fodder may be annually saved by 

 a more systematic course of feeding. Although 

 we have entered into no exact experiments in the 

 feeding of cut and uncut fodder, we have come to 

 the opinion that a horse, for instance, may be well 

 kept at about one-half the expense by having the 

 same quantity of meal usually fed to him mixed 

 with cut hay. We have come to this opinion by 

 observing the effect upon the animal and the 

 quantity of feed used, through a long practice in 

 both ways of feeding. The profits of the farm are 

 increased just in proportion to the saving of fodder, 

 provided the stock thrives as well with the less 

 quantity. 



For the New Eiis-ftnul Fanner. 



EVERY MAN A SOVEREIGN. 



BV N. C. TOWLE. 



My Dear Farmer Brown : — Some six months 

 ago, while I was luxuriating in the enjoyment of 

 my annual privilege of inhaling the invigorating 

 atmosphere of my native New England hills, I had 

 the pleasure of visiting your beautiful town of Con- 

 cord — so glorious upon the pages of our country's 

 chronicles, as the soil privileged to imbibe the 

 first precious libation of the dawning spirit of 

 Liberty; then scarcely visible in the horizon, but 

 now beaming an effulgence that makes the Russian 

 bear pant and tremble amid the icebergs of his 

 arctic lair. That libation was distilled in the 

 hearts of the sons and daughters of the farmers of 

 New England. 



Content to course quietly through the veins of 

 the unobtrusive cultivators of the plain and hill- 

 side — with no ambition but to infuse life and vigor 

 and healthful enjoyment, and to feed the perpetual 

 fire that burned upon the domestic altar — yet its 

 province once invaded and its rustic altars over- 

 thrown, it burst forth with a power and fervor that 

 confounded and overwhelmed the mighty hosts of 

 its enemies, as the dry stubble disappears before 

 the consuming fire. Such was the blood that 

 flowed in the veins of our sires. It did not inflame 

 the brain with ideas of pride and conquest and 

 glory, to be gratified by injustice and oppression 

 and interference with the rights and independence 

 of others. It bore the good old Yankee motto, 

 "Mind your own business." It bore the invin- 

 cible, indomitable love of personal and individual 

 freedom ; and it had the wisdom and sagacity to 

 perceive its own right to freedom, and its obligation 

 not to interfere with that of others, were insepa- 

 rable. It said — "Cultivate your own farm in your 

 own way — let your neighbor enjoy the same free- 

 dom. He is God's image as well as you — why 

 should you intermeddle in his affairs? Will you 

 permit him to meddle in yours?" "If your 

 neighbor chooses to plow shallow and skim the 

 surface — show him, by the superiority of your 

 crop, the advantage of the sub-sailer. If he insists 

 that a luxuriant growth of w T eeds improves his 

 crops — show him what good husbandry will do 

 for yours." These were the precepts of our good 

 old New England fathers, and they applied them 

 as well to their moral, religious and political cir- 

 cumstances, as to their farming operations. They 

 claimed no supervision over each other's farm, or 

 church, or form of civil government. Massachu- 

 setts took no cognizance of the fact that the pro- 

 prietary and governor of the neighboring colony of 

 Pennsylvania wore his hat in church, and deno- 

 minated Sunday "First Day," nor of the still more 

 ominous fact that the government of Maryland tol- 

 erated and even encouraged the catholic religion 

 — nor did the episcopalians of Virginia call the 

 round-heads of New England to account for sub- 

 stituting Thanks giving and pumpkin pics in the 

 place of Christmas and plum-puddings. The con- 

 scious dignity of freemen would have induced 

 either to have indignantly repelled any attempt of 

 another to enforce the adoption of her innovations 

 or peculiarities — but each was content to leave the 

 other in the same freedom, she was determined 

 to maintain for herself. And hence it was, that 

 when this principle of individual, social and civil 

 liberty and independence, which had impelled the 



