1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



and breathe pui'e air. See that no cracks let in 

 a stream of cold air directly upon a cow or an 

 ox while it is tied up and cannot get away from it. 



The Cellar should be so tight as to- prevent 

 cold draughts fr-om coming up under the stock 

 as it is lying down at night, and also to prevent 

 manure from freezing, so that it may be over- 

 hauled or carted out during the winter. 



Give the Horses a few carrots at noon, and 

 they will soon show you a sleek coat. Cover 

 them with blankets for an hour or two when they 

 return from work in a sweat. 



Let the Hogs and store pigs have warm and 

 dry sleeping rooms, if you mean to find a profit 

 in them. 



Feed the Poultry with a variety of food; 

 boiled potatoes, mashed and mixed with cob 

 meal ; corn, oats, barley, scraps or bits of fresh 

 meat, gravel or pounded oyster or clam shells. 

 These, with a warm, sunny shelter, will please 

 them so highly that they will yield you an abun 

 dance of excellent eggs. 



Feed out roots daily to all the stock; to milch 

 cows immediately after being milked in the 

 morning ; to young cattle, dry cows, horses and 

 sheep, whenever it is most convenient. But if 

 you have no roots — ah, — make up your mind 

 that you will have iJiem next year. 



Those of you who are blest with plenty of 

 wood, and can enjoy the luxury of good, cheerful 

 wood fires, gleaming upon your hearths and 

 throwing its ruddy light into the glad faces of 

 your healthy and happy children, will need no 

 suggestion of ours, perhaps, to prepare it in sea 

 son, and never to make the wife anxious and un- 

 happy by attempting to burn it in an unseasoned 

 state. 



There is one thing more, at least, appropriate 

 to the Month of January, and well worth remem- 

 bering, that 



" 'Tis not in title nor in rank, 



'Tis not in wealth, like Lon'on bank, 



To make us truly blest. 

 If happiness have not her seat 



And centre in the breast — 

 We may be wise, or rich, or great, 



But never can be blest." 



Gross and Net Weight of Sheep. — A few 

 years ago we ascertained the live and dead weight 

 of a large number of sheep slaughtered for the 

 tallow near this city, and found that the carcass 

 weighed about three-Jifihs of the live Aveight. 

 These were common sheep, affording only about 

 twelve pounds of tallow. Had they been in bet- 

 ter condition, they would have afforded a higher 

 proportionfite weight of carcass. 



In England, with the coarse-wooled mutton 

 sheep, fatted for the butcher, it is generally esti- 

 mated that a stone live weight (14 lbs.) will give 

 a stone dead weight (8 lbs.) The live weight 

 (ascertained after the sheep have fasted for twelve 



hours) is divided by seven, and this gives the 

 weight of the carcass in quarters. Thus a sheep 

 weighing 140 lbs. alive, is estimated to weigh 

 20 lbs. per quarter. We have known whole 

 flocks to exceed this estimate. The fatter the 

 sheep, the greater the dead weight in proportion 

 to the live weight. — Genesee Farmer. 



EXPERIENCE "WITH MUCK. 



In the summer of 1855 I had an upland lot, 

 preparing for wheat or rye, aad having no funds 

 to spare for the purchase of guano, bone dust, 

 &c., I concluded to try what could be done at 

 home. With a team and man we commenced 

 drawing muck from a pond, and in four days had 

 one hundred loads on two acres of ground. The 

 ground was again plowed, thus mixing the muck, 

 and on the loth of September was sown with 

 wheat. It was harvested the following July, and 

 when threshed and exhibited at the County Ag- 

 ricultural Fair, received the premium for being 

 the best wheat exhibited. The next season the 

 plot was sown with oats, and such a crop was 

 never raised on the old Jiomestead, and all with- 

 out any other manure. This season we have put 

 eight hundred loads on five acres, sown to wheat 

 and rye, and expect to be able to give you and 

 the farming community as good a report, if not 

 better, from the crops next summei-. In addi- 

 tion to the above, on the first lot, we this sum- 

 mer cut, per acre, three tons of as good timothy 

 hay as was ever housed, and up to this present 

 writing, the feed is good, and cows easily fill 

 themselves from it daily. Let every farmer, who 

 can, try an acre with muck, and he certainly will 

 be repaid four-fold. — American Agriculturist. 



Another Mowing Machine Wanted. — It 

 may sound alittle singular to those who know the 

 number of patents granted to hear us say that 

 another is wanted ; and each particular patentee, 

 we suppose, will hoot the idea that we now ad- 

 vance, when we assert that very much the larger 

 portion of the farmer's of the Eastern and Northr 

 ern States are as yet unprovided with a machine 

 suitable to their wants. There are thousands of 

 farmers living in comfortable circumstances, that 

 do not and should not keep but one horse, and 

 yet the tendency of all mowing-machine inven- 

 tors, with but the trifling exception, has been to 

 cater for men who keep strong teams, such as 

 can operate one of the heavy two-horse machines, 

 only working half a day, and then changing for 

 a fresh pair or else over-woi'k a single pair. 

 Now what we want, and it is what inventors 

 should turn their attention to, is a compact, light 

 one-horse moAving machine, that can be afforded 

 at a price within reach of the large class who 

 keep but one horse, yet who are under just as 

 much necessity of using labor-saving machinery 

 as the largest owners of broad fields. We can- 

 not advise small farmers to l)uy large machines, 

 because we do not believe it would be profitable 

 for mowing-machine manufacturers to give them 

 one suitable to their circumstances, which they 

 could and would afford to buy. — New York Tri- 

 hune. 



