332 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



books only, the differences in climate and soil, 

 in the prices of labor and of products, which 

 must modify our operations. 



With some practical experience on his own 

 land, with careful observation in Europe and in 

 America of the details of drainage operations, 

 with a somewhat critical examination of pub- 

 lished books and papers on all topics connected 

 with the general subject, the author has endeav- 

 ored to turn the leisure hours of a laborious pro- 

 fessional life to some account for the farmer. 

 Although, as the lawyers say, the "presumptions" 

 are, perhaps, strongly against the idea, yet a pro- 

 fessional man may understand practical farming. 

 The profession of the law has made some valua- 

 hle contributions to agricultural literature. Sir 

 Anthony Fitzherbert, author of the "Boke of 

 Husbandrie," published in 1523, was Chief Jus- 

 tice of the Common Pleas, and, as he says, an 

 '■^expcyenced farmer of more than 40 years." The 

 author of that charming little book, "Talpa," it 

 is said, is also a lawyer, and there is such wisdom 

 in the idea, so well expressed by Emerson as a 

 fact, that we commend it by way of consolation 

 to men of all the learned professions : "All of 

 us keep the farm in reserve, as an asylum where 

 to hide our poverty and our solitude, if we do 

 not succeed in society." 



Besides the prejudice against what is foreign, 

 we meet everywhere the prejudice against what 

 is new, though far less in this country than in 

 England. "No longer ago than 1835," says the 

 Quarterly Beview, "Sir Robert Peel presented a 

 Farmers' Club, at Tamworth, with two iron plows 

 of the best construction. On his next visit, the 

 old plows, with the wooden mould-boards, were 

 again at work. 'Sir,' said a member of the club, 

 'we tried the iron, and we be all of one mind, 

 that they make the weeds grow !' " 



American farmers have no such ignorant pre- 

 judice as this. They err rather by having too 

 much faith in themselves, than by having too lit- 

 tle in the idea of progress, and will be more 

 likely to "go ahead" in the wrong direction, than 

 to remain quiet in their old position. 



and hard. The luxuriant but distasteful herbage 

 is constantly increasing, and in time crowds out 

 the finer kinds, already lessened by being cropped 

 so closely and continually. Another advantage 

 is, that stock are more quiet, and consequently 

 feed better and keep in better health. 



The succession of the various kinds of stock 

 must be regulated by the circumstances of the 

 owner. _ Thaer says, that in spring the best pas- 

 turage is often given to ewes, because it is need- 

 ed to increase their supply of milk, and give 

 them strength to nurse their lambs. The graz- 

 ing of lands with sheep in spring, if not allowed 

 too long, has a tendency to thicken the growth 

 of grass. But they cannot be followed by cattle 

 immediately, with advantage ; at least three 

 weeks should intervene, to allow the smell of 

 their dung to dissipate, and the grass to get a 

 fresh start. — Country Gentleman. 



For the New England Farmer. 



FEEDING- OFF PASTUBE LAND. 



"It is certainly advantageous to pastures," says 

 Thaer, "to remove the cattle from them now and 

 then, in order that the grass may have time to 

 recover itself. For this reason, on the best con- 

 ducted farms, the pasture land is divided into 

 separate parts. The animals which require the 

 most succulent and nourishing food are first 

 turned to each separate division, and after they 

 are removed, the other kinds, which need a small- 

 er quantity of nutriment, are fed there. By this 

 means the whole of the grass is eaten, those kinds 

 to which cattle are least partial with the rest 

 The herbage is then left to recover itself for a 

 sufficient time, and afterwards the first herd is 

 again allowed to feed upon it." 



This system possesses decided advantages over 

 tlie practice of suffering the cattle to wander over 

 the whole extent of pasture ground. If the 

 space is large, a great deal of herbage is spoiled 

 or' destroyed by the trampling of the cattle ; the 

 pasturage is never uniformly eaten off, but some 

 iiortions ai-e left to grow until it becomes dry 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Mr. Editor : — I do not see as any of the ad- 

 vocates for the preservation of robins advance 

 one idea in their favor, except their singing ; no 

 injurious insect do they prove that they destroy. 

 I will admit that for fructiferous birds nature re- 

 quires some animal food, but the robin never 

 takes any except the angle-worms, where they can 

 be found. 



In Vermont and New Hampshire angle-worms 

 are very scarce ; in many places in these neigh- 

 borhoods one square foot Avill contain more of 

 these insects than hundreds of acres in those 

 States. Trout fishers know well that one dollar 

 per gill is the standard price at the White Moun- 

 tains for them to be used for bait. Such scarcity 

 will account for writers in these States asserting 

 that they eat grubworms, which, under those cir- 

 cumstances, I will not dispute. But where angle- 

 worms abound, grubworms need procure no life 

 insurance. 



To my mind, the robin possesses no taste ; it 

 selects and takes its food to the fancy of its eye ; 

 for we observe them eating every variety o£ 

 fruit, selecting the most beautiful and mellow, 

 including all kinds, from the strawberry to the 

 most sour apple, providing it is yellow and hand- 

 some ; but after these are gone, they eat, with 

 apparent relish, the cedar and buckthorn seeds, 

 though intensely bitter. Sometimes I am led to 

 think, when I see him attack an angle-worm, and 

 gulp him down his throat, as if he loathed him ; 

 like a child taking Epsom salts, he is only grati- 

 fying his vicious destructiveness. 



The two lower counties of New Jerseyare al- 

 most entirely covered with wintergreen loaded 

 with berries. Extracting essential oil from the 

 plant is the employment of many of the inhabi- 

 tants. Those extended wastes are the home of 

 the robin, in winter, living exclusively on the 

 berries of that plant. That locality is the robin's 

 northern winter limit, extending fiom there 

 south to the Gulf cf Mexico. 

 I Our statute law fines us two dollars each for 

 every robin which we may put in a pot-pie ; so a 

 Lrespectable sized pie may cost us fifty dollars, 

 j beside's the materials, the fine to go to any re- 



