340 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRIL 28, 184 I. 



EXTRACTS PROM A LETTER TO THE ED- 

 ITOR. 



Mr Putnam — * * — My experience in feeding 

 roots in the winter to milcli cnws, has been this. — 

 Arranging according to their value, I place them 

 as follows : Potatoes, sugar beet, carrots and then 

 turnips. The difJerence I have found between the 

 same quantity of feed has been from fuur to six 

 quarts of milk daily in favor of potatoes, given to 

 nine cows, which I have milked this winter: from 

 one -week's feeding carrots to nine cows, they fell 

 off in milk on the seventh day six quarts ; and on 

 return to potatoes, the milk made its return in the 

 same ratio as the decrease on carrots, or nearly the 

 same. 



I consider it was the drought that injured my su- 

 gar beets, which I made mention of in my last. 

 And further, I believe they or some of them were 

 injured by thinning them out too much at the last 

 hoeing in July. 



Seed Sower — once more. Is Willis' Seed Sow- 

 er drawn by horse or by hand .' Is it adapted to 

 planting corn in the field ? If so, I think I shall 

 order one in a few weeks. 



[It is wheeled by hand. It is intended soon to 

 have some fitted for planting corn, beans, &c. as 



well as smaller seeds Eu.l 



The muck I spoke of in my first, made from the 

 waste of a calico factory, is now frozen in places 

 to the depth of four or five inches, after having 

 been drawn out on to a piece of high-dry land. 

 What do you think of such materials as these for 

 manure.' Where some of the same slufl^ was 

 drawn out and spread on meadow land last tall, it 

 has a green and fresh appearance of forward grass. 

 And while I am on the subject of manures, let me 

 say a few words on the importance of manure. — 

 You, Mr Putnam, cannot say too much through the 

 columns of the Farmer on this subject. The vast 

 importance of this article has not been sufficiently 

 attended to by farmers in general, although it is 

 the principal source of their riches. Without it, 

 after all their care and labor, they can have but 

 miserable crops. Therefore every farmer who 

 wishes to reap the fruits of his labor, should care- 

 fully attend to the increase of his manure. The 

 true farmer will endeavor to thrive by increasing 

 the quantity and quality of his manure; — he never 

 allows heaps of manure to remain under the win- 

 dows of his stables, exposed to the wash of rain 

 and other injuries that may befal it in such a situa- 

 tion : where it is practicable, he will have a suita- 

 ble cellar under his barn for the reception of his 

 manures, to be there well mixed with other and 

 different materials, by his Berkshire or other kinds 

 of swine. And here I would observe that the hog 

 sty, properly attended, will be found to be one of 

 the best and richest sources for the increase of this 

 important article. Almost any quantity may be 

 made in connection with a well regulated piggery, 

 provided the owner will be as careful to feed his 

 hog sly as the swine confined in it. I firmly be- 

 lieve more can be done under this head, than has 

 yet been accomplished, if we make the best use of 

 the means within our reach: — all the waste, pro 

 and con, ahimld be daily collected, from all the 

 places where it may be found, and deposited in the 

 best bank of discount, which every true farmer has 

 within his own premises, viz : //og- Sly Bank. This 

 bank should have a suitable situation, for fear that 

 the various enemies might come within its walls, 

 and injure, if not finally purloin and carry off, a 



large share of the precious metals that should be In reply to the first of these questions we find 

 deposited within its vaults for the furtherance and ! nothing to communicate. One fact, however, is 



maintenance of the solidity of the character of the i 

 institution in the public mind. Mr Putnam, make ', 

 a long and strong appeal to my brother farmers of 

 New England, to rebuild and maintain within Iheir 

 own possession such a bank as I have been speak- j 

 ing of, and then be careful to attend daily to the 

 payment of all demands in favor of the institution : 

 success will be certain to follow in the dividends 

 of this institution. I believe there is no other 

 branch of husbandry that is more valuable on the 

 whole than this. For if it be true that sometimes, 

 and even often, the proceeds of pork in the market 

 do not much if any exceed what might have been 

 taken for the grain and other things which have 

 been consumed in the various operations of the dif- 

 ferent functions of the institution, still the manure 

 is an ample dividend for all services rendered the 

 establishment; and it is what the farmer must have, 

 and what he could not procure in sufficient quanti- 

 ty in any other way. Ecimomy must be used in 

 this as in all things else: — true economy consists 

 in supplying the officers of this institution with 

 food to eat, mud and other materials to keep the 

 precious metals in constant employment — not with 

 a parsimonious hand to deal out the food and other 

 materials necessary for the full operation of tlie 

 bank. 



I for one say, friend Putnam, call often upon the 

 farmers of New England to make the most on this 

 subject of manure, for it is the main-spring of all 

 the operations of the farmer. And I shall ever re- 

 main your well-wisher and friend, 



O. CHACE, Jr. 

 Tiverton, R. I., April 15th, 1841. 



We heartily join in the call of friend Chace upon 

 the farmers, to invest in the bank which he recom- 

 mends, and shall reiterate the call in the loudest 

 possible tones. And we advise them forthwith, as 

 soon as they have drawn out their spring dividends, 

 to supply the officers of the bank with means for 

 profitable operations in the favorable business 

 months of April and May. Farmers, do not wait 

 until after planting for a leisure time for picking 

 up something to put into the hog sty, but go and 

 get materials for the pigs to work upon the very 

 day that you finish cleaning out the sty. — Ed. N. 

 E. Fab. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MANAGEMENT OP COWS AFTER CALV- 

 ING. 



Mr Editor — I lately attended a meeting of an 

 agricultural society, where remarks were made on 

 the mana^iement of cows after calving. The ques- 

 tions presented for consideration were the follow- 

 ing : 



1st Is it advantageous to let cows drink the 

 biestingB or the first milk after calving? 



2d. Is it beneficial or detrimental to have cows 

 eat the afterbirth .' 



3d. When the secundine adheres, and nature is 

 obstructed in her operations, can any thing be giv- 

 en to the cow to remove it ? 



On the above questions the members of the soci- 

 ety difl^ered in opinion, as people do on all ques- 

 tions and subjects. As the questions I believe are 

 important, I wish, Mr Editor, you would give your 

 opinion, or any of your correspondents. 



H'estboro: A HERDSMAN. 



obvious. Nature having designed the milk for the 

 oflTspring, it is unnatural food for the mother. , 



In reply to the other inquiries, we extract the 

 following from Youatt's Treatise on Cattle — pages 

 544 and 5 : ' 



" Attention after Calving. — Parturition having 

 been accomplished, the cow should be left quietly 

 with the calf; the licking and cleaning of which, 

 and the eating of the placenta, if it is soon dis- 

 charged, will employ and amuse her. It is a cruel 

 thing to separate the mother from the young so 

 soon; the cow will pine, and will be deprived of 

 that medicine which nature designed for her in the 

 moisture which hangs about the calf, and even in 

 the placenta itself; and the calf will lose that 

 gentle friction and motion which helps to give it 

 the immediate use of all its limbs, and which, in 

 the language of Mr Berry, " increases the languid 

 circulation of the blood, and produces a genial 

 warmth in the half exhausted and chilled little ani- 

 mal." A warm mash should be put before her, 

 and warm gruel, or water from which some of the 

 coldness had been taken off. Two or three hours 

 afterwards, it will be prudent to give an aperient 

 drink consisting of a pound of Epsom salts and 

 two drachms of ginger. This may tend to prevent 

 milk fever and garget in the udder. Attention 

 should likewise be paid to the state of the udder. 

 If the teats are sore, and the bag generally hard 

 and tender, she should be gently but carefully milk- 

 ed three or four times every day. The natural and 

 the effectual preventive of this, however, is to let 

 the calf suck her at least three times in the day if 

 it is tied up in the cow-house, or to run with her in 

 the pasture, and take the teat when it pleases. The 

 tendency to inflammation of the udder is much di- 

 minished by the calf frequently sucking ; or should 

 the cow be feverish, nothing soothes or quiets her 

 so much as the presence of the little one. 



" The Cleansing. — The placenta, or after-hirlh, 

 or cleansing, should be discharged soon after the 

 calving. It soon begins to act upon the uterus as 

 a foreign body, producing irritation and fever ; it 

 likewise rapidly becomes putrid and noisome, and 

 if it is then retained long, it is either an indication 

 of a weakly state of the cow, or it may produce a 

 certain degree of low fever that will interfere with 

 her condition. Every cowleech therefore, has his 

 cleansing drink ready to administer ; but it is too 

 often composed of stimulating and injurious drugs, 

 and which lay the foundation for after disease. 

 The aperient drink recommended to bo given after 

 calving, with the addition of half a pint of good 

 ale to it, will be the best assistant in this case and 

 the only thing that should be allowed. 



" Should the cleansing continue to be retained, 

 some have recommended that a weight of six or 

 eight ounces should be tied to the cord, the gentle 

 and continual action of which will usually separate 

 the placenta from its adhesions, without any risk of 

 hemorrage ; but if the after-birth should still remain 

 in the womb, and decomposition should evidently 

 commence, the hand must be introduced into the 

 passage, and the separation accomplished as gently 

 as possible. 



"There is, however, a great deal more fear about 

 this retention of the after-birth than there needs to 

 be, and it is only the actual appearance of incon- 

 venience or disease resulting from it, that would 

 justify a mechanical attempt to extract it." 



