1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



471 



Upon the principle that we begun upon, that like 

 begets like in the vegetable kingdom, the nearer 

 the ears start to the ground, the less stalk, and the 

 longer time it has to rij)en, and the more ears will 

 grow on the acre. Now, as like begets like, so in 

 saving the top ear year after year, will not your 

 corn ear out some six feet high ? I have often no- 

 ticed ])ieces of corn, after topping, with ears stand- 

 ing from four to six feet high, I try to select from 

 stalks where the ears stand not more than two to 

 three and one-half feet high, and yet produce larger 

 ears. The way I select my seed corn, is, when toj)- 

 ping, or cutting up at the bottom, I find a stalk 

 with two or three ears, and stalks not larger, but 

 forward in rij)ening, I leave it standing as it grew, 

 for a week or so, and then cut up at the roots, bind 

 and stack them a week or two, then gather, and 

 trace, and hang them up. I have practised in this 

 manner for years, and have never had a failure 

 in my corn coming up. From the 1st to the 8th 

 of May is the time I plant, and I have not had a 

 crop of corn injured by frost in thirty years. 



Sonthwick, 1856. L. D. F. 



For the New England Fanner. 



NEIGHBOR DUMPBIET'S DAIEY. 



Mr. Editor : — As 1 sometimes write a little for 

 the papers for recreation, I propose to furnish you 

 with an account of the dairy of my neighbor Dump- 

 dirt, knov.ing that he can never find time to Hxvor 

 you with an account of it himself. 



You have probably seen my neighbor Dump- 

 dirt somewhere, most likely on the way to market, 

 for he is there more than anywhere else, for he goes 

 often and is a long time about it. Not that his 

 farm produces more than his neighbor's, but I have 

 thought it was because he took so much pleasure 

 in marketing ; and thus v.hen his wife churns or the 

 children find a hen's nest, he harnesses up his old 

 hammer-head horse and commences to work his 

 passage to Donklin Falls. 



But it is not mth Dumpdirt or his horse that I 

 have to do now, but his dairy ; and to begin at the 

 beginning, Mr. Dumpdirt has four cows — the old- 

 est the mother of the others. During the winter 

 they are fed on straw and poor hay, for Dumpdirt 

 thinks that feed good enough for covrs that don't 

 give much milk, and he don't want them to give! 

 much milk in the winter, for he has a theory that ! 

 they will not give so much in the summer if they' 

 do. He will not raise turnips for his cows, for the' 

 butter will taste of them ; he will not raise can-ots,! 

 because it talves so much time in haying to weed I 

 them, and beels ru-;t and do not come to much. j 



Under these circumstances, it cannot be expected i 

 that Dumpdirt's cows should come out in the spring 

 so fat as others that are kept without regard to ex- 

 pense or profit. And they do not give so much 

 milk when they calve, to be sure, but then "then- 

 is no great loss without some small gain" — it saves 

 the trouble of milking and taking care of what milk 

 the calves would leave, and it is about impossible 

 to get the girls to milk in the tie-up, for they de- 

 clare it to be too dirty for the hogs. 



But soon after they are ''turned out" they begin 

 to "give down," for they have the range "of the 

 whole farm. As soon as the calves feel the benefit 

 of the increase of milk enough to make them sala- 

 ble, they are disponed of by having their heads cut 



off, and being dressed as well as Dumpdirt knows 

 ' how, and carried to market. 



Then Mrs. Dumpdirt begins to make her but- 

 ^ ter. The oldest of the children at home are girls, 

 land they do the milking if Ben gets the cows at 

 I night, and if they do not get hungry and get out 

 I of the yard and "go to grass" before the girls are 

 I up in the morniug. Sometimes they get out of 

 the pasture and go away, and their bags do not 

 ache enough to induce them to go home, and they 

 !"lay out." But Mr. Dumpdirt thinks it does them 

 I good to "lay out" a night or two in the spring, for 

 it stretches their bags, and they are not so hkely 

 'to leak their milk. 



Now Dumpdirl's barnyard is not the cleanest 

 that ever was, and the girls are so hurried to get 

 through with the despised job of milking that they 

 cannot stop to clean the cows, and it is rather dis- 

 couraging work Mhen no pains is taken to keep the 

 yard clean. Some of this dirt finds its way into 

 the milk-pail, and when it rains the water drops 

 from the cow's sides into it also, and perhaps im- 

 proves the color of the butter if not the flavor. 

 But the Dumpdirt girls have a theory which they 

 have learned from their parents, that it is the lot 

 of every mortal to eat one peck of dirt during their 

 life, and they think it makes no difference how 

 soon they eat it, provided they do not know it at 

 the time. 



The heifer milks rather hard, and the girls have 

 agreed that the one who gets her first cow done 

 first shall have her choice of the other two, and the 

 consequence is that the two first cows are not al- 

 ways "stripped" as they should be. 



After milking, the milk is taken to the kitchen. 

 The pans have been washed the day previous, and 

 set up edgewise against the house to dry in the 

 sun. The chickens run at large on the premises, 

 and they run from the dough-dish and the swill- 

 tub to the milk-pans, to catch flies. The chickens 

 catching flies in the milk-pans, has nothing to do 

 with making butter, but I mention it to show that 

 one branch of business chimes in with another at 

 Mr. Dumpdirt's. The chickens thrive, and the flies 

 are destroyed. 



The milk is strained and carried to the cellar, 

 but Mr. Dumpdirt's cellar needs description, or the 

 peculiar flavor of some butter could never be ac- 

 counted for. 



The drain, if there ever was any, is filled up by 

 the rats, and as a consequence there is some water 

 in the cellar the most of the year. To prevent wet- 

 ting their feet, the "women folks" have carried 

 dov^n pieces of board, little and large, to step on. 

 They have lain rotting in the stagnant water for 

 years, and with other "culch" mixed among them. 

 Then there is an old pork barrel, a beef barrel half 

 full of brine, a soap barrel, a vinegar barrel, a ci- 

 der barrel, and a dozen other barrels, many of them 

 falling to pieces. Time would fiiil to tell of the fir- 

 kins, pots and boxes, and bushels of decayed and 

 growing vegetables and other stuff that are scat- 

 tered around. The cellar windows, or rather the 

 place where the windows ought to be, are filled 

 with a row of little stakes driven into the ground 

 outside, but notwithstanding all this precaution, the 

 cats (and there are many) will creep in and skim 

 the milk a little sometimes. 



As the milk is needed for (he pigs, it is skimmed 

 and the cream put in an earthern pot which stands 

 under the stairs. 



