1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



179 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



HOW TO GET GRASS CROPS. 



Old Fields — Ashes — Lime — Salt and Brine — Keeping Stock up — 

 Sivitching them for Exercise — Ventilation — Remarlis. 



Mr. Editor : — I am in trade. Have 145 acres 

 of land, three miles I'rora place of business ; thirty 

 acres in grass. Soil, coarse gravel ; bears one-half 

 to three-fourths ton good hay per acre. Now as 

 liay is the most profitable crop grown in this lum- 

 bering region, I wish to keep the soil, if possible, in 

 condition to bear one ton per acre, by top-dressing, 

 and sell my hay. Ashes can be delivered on the 

 farm for twentv cents per bushel, (unleached.) 

 Rockland lime, $1 G2h per bbl. Plaster, $10 per 

 ton. Will all or any of them be profitable to buy 

 for top-dressing ? Hay is worth, (average price,) 

 $10 per ton on said land. If so, when and how 

 should they be applied ? («.) 



I have the salt and brine that remains in retail- 

 ing fifty bbls. of pork and fish annually — would it 

 be right to scatter the salt and brine on to the 

 mowing field, or mix with muck, lime or ashes, 

 or even charcoal ? In answering these questions, I 

 deem it of the greatest importance to be sure, be- 

 yond a reasonable doubt, that it will pay, for invest- 

 ment in manure is often like "railroad stock," the 

 balance sheet may show money out of pocket. (6.) 



A neighbor of mine asks your ophiion of the pol- 

 icy of keeping stock tied up all the time, in the 

 barn. In his case, it is less labor to drop the ma- 

 nure into the cellar, and water the stock at the stan- 

 chions, than to turn them out of the barn. But the 

 main question is, is it as well for the health of the 

 stock ? One argument advanced by him in favor of 

 his new plan is, that the stock are more comfort- 

 able or warmer, and hence, will do better. Anotli- 

 er is, that they are in no danger of injuring each 

 other, as is often the case, the stronger beating the 

 weaker ; and cows, especially, being more quiet, 

 will give more milk. 



In answer to my objection that they will suffer 

 for want of exercise, he proposes to make them 

 stand about to the right and left pretty lively, with 

 a switch, once each day. His barn is forty by fifty 

 feet, three stories high, including the basement, and 

 claj)boarded. I urge to ventilate by raising the 

 windows in either gable end — from the fact that the 

 moisture from fifteen head is so great, the roof, and 

 even the walls of the barn, are completely covered 

 with frost an inch thick in places, and constantly ac- 

 cumulating. As our neighbor is a reader of your 

 valuable paper, I hope, should you agree with me 

 in my suggestions for more ventilation to his barn, 

 it might induce him to reduce it to practice, (c.) 



C. S. Weld. 



Olamon, Penohscot Co., Me., 1856. 



Remarks. — (a.) If your grass land has been 

 mowed for several years, the roots are probably 

 scattering and feeble, so that if you manure ever so 

 highly, a good crop could not be reasonably expect- 

 ed until the new grass, stimulated by the dressing, 

 had formed new and vigorous roots. To do the 

 work properly, therefore, the land should be plowed 

 and re-seeded ; then with a plentiful application of 

 ashes, together with a little barn manure, {/possi- 

 ble, for the first year, you would probably get an av- 

 erage crop of a ton and half of the best hay for sev- 



eral years. But an annual application of ten to 

 fifteen bushels of ashes per acre would be required. 



(6.) Mix your salt and brine and lime with peat 

 muck, for a top-dresssing. 



(c.) Your doctrine is undoubtedly correct with re- 

 gard to the stock. On a sunny day, turn out three 

 or four of the cattle to stay an hour or two, and 

 on the next as many more, until all the stock have 

 their turn. The card, drawn in vertical lines down 

 the sides of the cattle vdih a careful hand, would 

 be an excellent substitute for "the switch." The 

 evaporation from the manure, with the breath and 

 perspiration of the cattle, will soon destroy the 

 strength of the timber and boarding of the barn, 

 making it weak and rotten as "punk." But, not- 

 withstanding, your "neighbor" is more than half 

 right. A long experience has satisfied us that cat- 

 tle do better tied up most of the time. 



WONDERS OF THE CREATED UNI- 

 VERSE. 



What mere assertion will make any one believe 

 that in one second of time, in one beat of the pen- 

 dulum of a clock, a ray of light travels over one 

 hundred and ninety-two thousand miles, and would, 

 therefore, ])erform the tour of the world in about 

 the same time that it requires to wink our eyelids, 

 and in much less than a swift runner occupies in 

 taking a single stride? What mortal can be made 

 to believe, without demonstration, that the sun is 

 almost a million times larger than the earth ; and 

 that, although so remote from us, that a cannon 

 ball shot directly towards, and maintaining its full 

 speed, would be twenty years in reaching it, it yet 

 affects the earth by its attraction in an inapprecia- 

 ble instant of time ? Who would not ask for 

 demonstration, when told that a gnat's wing, in 

 its ordinary fiight, beats many hundred times a 

 second ; or that there exist animated and regularly 

 organized beings, many thousands of whose bodies, 

 laid close together, would not extend an inch ? 

 But what are these to the astonishing truths which 

 modern optical inquirers have disclosed, which 

 teach us that every point of a medium through 

 which a ray of light passes is affected with a suc- 

 cession of periodical movements, regularly recurring 

 at equal intervals, no less than five hundred mil- 

 lions of millions of times in a single second ! That 

 it is by such movements conmunicated with the 

 nerves of our eyes that we see ; nay, more ; that 

 it is the difference in the frequency of their recur- 

 rence which affects us with the sense of the divers- 

 ity of color. That for instance, in acquiring the 

 sensation of redness, our eyes are afiected four 

 hundred and eighty-two millions of times ; of yel- 

 lowness, five hundred and forty-two millions of 

 millions of times ; of violet, seven hundred and 

 seven millions of times jjer second. Do not such 

 things sound more like the ravings of madmen than 

 the sober conclusions of peojile in their waking 

 senses ? They are, neveitheless, conclusions to 

 which any one may most certainly arrive, who will 

 only be at the trouble of examining the chain of 

 reasoning by w'hich they have been obtained. — Her- 

 schel. 



