184 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



Great Barrington, where, upon the same land, a 

 good crop (about twenty -eight bushels to the acre) 

 had been taken for twenty-eight years in succession. 

 The soil was of a limestone character. 



Rev. Mr. Farnham, of Boston, spoke of the 

 value of salt-marsh hay. He had been acquainted 

 with salt-marshes in Marshfield and vicinity, from 

 which place much hay was formerly carried into 

 the interior. Recently its value has decreased 

 for some cause, he thought it might be made 

 valuable. 



Mr. Choate said it was now worth in Essex 

 county, sixteen dollars per ton at the barn, and 

 could scarcely be obtained at that price. They 

 were accustomed to ditch the marshes to the depth 

 of three feet, the ditches being very narx-ow and 

 running parallel about sixteen or twenty feet apart. 

 There was a great difficulty in getting otf the hay, 

 because heavy animals could not go upon the 

 marshes. 



Mr. Darling gave the result of an experiment 

 in raising rye. He sowed one and three-fourths 

 acres upon new land where brush had been burned, 

 in August ; he then fed it down, and obtained as 

 a crop, forty-nine bushels of grain and three tons 

 of straw. 



Mr. Parsons had raised on new land, where 

 brush had been burned, thirty bushels to the acre, 

 many times, and from large fields. He had done 

 this when it was sowed from the 20th of October 

 to the last of November ; and therefore he ques- 

 tioned whether it was any better to sow in August, 

 on new land. Until the present season, straw had 

 not been worth more than five dollars a ton in 

 Hampden county. But now, as the hay crop is 

 short, it is worth ten dollars a ton in Springfield. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WARM DRINK FOR COWS. 



Friend Brown : — Having been a careful peru- 

 ser of your paper for several years, and not observ- 

 ing much with regard to warm drink for cows, I 

 will, with jour permission, give my experience dur- 

 ing the present winter. My cow dropjied her last 

 calf August 27, 1855. At the age of four weeks it 

 was taken away. She then gave fourteen quarts of 

 milk daily, and continued to do so as long as the 

 warm weather lasted. When I put her in the barn 

 for the winter, I adopted the following plan for 

 feeding, viz : — 1 pint cob meal, 1 pint rice meal, 

 and 1 quart shorts, with ^ bushel cut hay, twice 

 a day. The quantity of milk decreased daily, until 

 she gave but seven quarts. I had allowed her all 

 this time to drink from a tub in my yard. 



I concluded to adopt another method. About 

 the middle of December, I fed her in this manner ; 

 1 pint oil meal, 1 pint cob meal, 1 quart shorts, 

 mixed with hot water in the form of a swill, after 

 standing half an hour. I give it to her morning 

 and night, and one-half peck of carrots at noon. 

 All the water she drinks is warmed in the propor- 

 tion of one quart of warm water to one pailful of 

 cold. At present, she gives ten or twelve quarts 

 daily. Her dry hay is English rowcn and husks 

 in equal quantities. F. E. BiGELOW. 



Concord, February, 1856. 



Remarks. — In the excellent remarks, above, of 

 the Hon. Mr. Choate, of Essex, he expresses sur- 

 prise that an agricultural paper should recommend 

 plowing to extirpate Canada thistles. No persons 

 plow, we believe, in this country, and leave the 

 ground in fallows ; but wherever they plow, they 

 cultivate ; and if the Canada thistle can withstand 

 this process, it is a more obstinate plant on other 

 lands than on our own. 



For the Netc England Farmer. 



MEASURING WOOD. 



The shortest way to measure a pile of M'ood, is to 

 find the height and length of the pile — five feet and 

 six feet, for example — multiply those figures to- 

 gether — thirty feet — and divide by four. The an- 

 swer is, cord feet — seven and one-half cord feet. 



If you have a load on a wagon two tiers, which 

 measures five feet high by three and one-half, mul- 

 tiply these together — seventeen and one-half, and 

 divide by two. Answer eight and three-fourths 

 feet. w. D. p.. 



Concord, Mass., 1856. 



For the IS'etc England Fanner. 



THE KING BIRD AND ITS NEST. 



Friend Brown : — The February number of the 

 Fanner came to hand this day, and, as usual, I have 

 enjoyed the perusal of it very much, and ])ropose 

 to say a few words on some of the articles contained 

 therein. 



The article on tlie "King Bird," I like very 

 much, and agree Avith Mr. Fowler, in all he says, 

 but in one particular trait, and that is, that this 

 bird, so far as I have observed, always builds his 

 nest on the top of a tree, where he can see in all 

 directions, instead of a secluded place. He stands 

 as a sentinel, and is almost sure to give the first 

 alarm to other birds, when an enemy appears. 



I have seen them start off from the nest after a 

 hawk that was nearly half a mile off'. They built 

 in a tree that stood in the corner of my nursery for 

 more than twenty years, and as long as tlie tree 

 stood, and so exposed was the nest that it could be 

 seen in the road for more than fifteen rods each 

 way. B. F. Cutter. 



Pelham, A'. H., 1850. 



Canker Eggs. — Now is the time to rid young 

 trees, and such branches of older ones as can be 

 reached, of the eggs of the canker-worm. They 

 are found in patches of all sizes, up to as many as 

 one or two hundred in a patch. They are attached 

 to the stem and twigs, particularly in the crotches 

 of the boughs ; and can be readily detected by the 

 eye, aided by the strong light from the snow be- 

 neath. They may be scaled off" with the fingers and 

 destroyed. If thrown on the ground they are apt 

 to hatch, and the worms thus find their way up the 

 trees. Hundreds and even thousands of eggs may 

 be removed in this way with very little trouble, and 

 in a vorv few miiuitcs. — Bosioii Journal. 



