616 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



not thrive with me. If I break, up sward land, I 

 do not first spread the manure, but turn with a 

 double plow, spread ra^v manure, generally com- 

 post, and plow it in wiih one horse, lightly, not 

 disturbing the sod. The same course I pursue 

 on my sandy land for corn and potatoes. I use 

 a double or Michigan plow even on old ground 

 and do not like to put the manure so deep, as 

 such a plow buries it. I top dress my heavy 

 land grass fields, once in three or four years in 

 autumn, with compost, and should practice this 

 more, were it not that my land produces white 

 weed and briars and other weeds, and I like to 

 plow it occasionally to give the grass the advan 

 tage of them. Where grass is the most valua- 

 able crop, top-dressing is, on heavy lands, though 

 there be some loss of manure, convenient and 

 profitable. 



I certainly have not yet concluded to spread 

 fresh manure a month exposed to the air in sum 

 mer, before plowing in, though I cannot deny 

 that my Lincolnshire friends may be correct in 

 their opinion that in their climate and with their 

 system, they get more wheat by this praclice. 

 Still, this method does not yet look right, nor 

 smell right, nor seem right, for our adoption. 



For the Neir England Farmer. 



A WSLL ARRA-NGED COW-STABLE. 



Sufherland Falls, Vt, Sept. 13, 1859. 

 Hon. F. Holbrook :— Z>eor Sir, — 1 am keep- 

 ing a small dairy of twenty-lwo cows, and intend 

 to keep about thirty. Will you oblige me by tell 

 ling me the best plan of arranging stables to 

 keep them in ? Would it be good economy to 

 stable them nights during the summer, givinp 

 them a little extra feed in the stables ? What li- 

 the best plan for fastening them in the stalls ? 

 Yours truly, A. C. Powers. 



Brattltboro\ Sept. 22 1859. 



A, C. Powers, Esq,:— i^fa?- *S'tV,— 1 have joui 

 favor of the 13th inst., inquiring for a good ar 

 rangement of stables for cows. As I occasional- 

 ly have letters of similar import, I take the lib 

 erty of answering yours through the medium ol 

 the New England Farmer, hoping that other per- 

 sons may thereby find the information they art 

 seeking for in common with yourself. 



I would make the mangtr of your stables 

 about two feet, and six inches wide, and aboui 

 three feet and six inches long — the latter dimen- 

 sions, of course, being the width of stall or space 

 in the clear, allotted to each cow. The mangers 

 should be suitably divided off, by partitions, tr 

 each animal, so th t you can feed each one as 

 you please, without the interference of one cow 

 ■wiih the food of another. The bottom of thi 

 mangers should be elevated three or four inches 

 from the stable floor, for the convenience of tht 

 cows when eating. If the sides of the mangers 

 are made perpcndicuUtr, the right angled or 

 sharp corners formed by their junction with tht 

 bottom should be filled out with narrow strips 



of board or plank, nicely fitted in, so as to pre- 

 vent meal or other fine messed food from lodg- 

 ing ; but a better way would be, to make the 

 sides considerably flaring, and then the cattle can 

 get their noses into the corners of the manger, 

 and clean them of meal or other fine food. Each 

 manger should have an upright post or standard, 

 firmly set, and roun ed part way up, and with an 

 iron ring to slip up and down on this rounded 

 part, for the purpose of fastening the animal, and 

 of allowing it to raise or lower its head at pleas- 

 ure. The board or plank forming the side oi the 

 manger next to the animal, should be about one 

 foot high or wide, and the ring on the standard 

 should not slip below that height. 



Leather straps, with strotig buckles and loops, 

 to go around the necks of the cows, are better 

 than chains or stanchels. The straps should be 

 one and three-foui ths inch wide, and ab'Ut three 

 and a half feet long ; and there should be a halt* 

 ring, of iron, slipped on to the strap, and made 

 fast to it, by stitching a strong loop on the inner 

 side of the strap, and nearest the end which has 

 the buckle ; and then there should be a swivel 

 link, connecting the strap-ring to the ring on the 

 standard or manger post. This swivel arrange- 

 ment prevents the strap from becoming twisted 

 on the neck and choking the animal. You can 

 readily judge for yourstlf where is the best place 

 in the strap to confine the half-ring, so as to ren- 

 der the fastening and loosening of the cow iiandy 

 and convenient every way. Leather straps will 

 last many years, and are very safe and conven- 

 ient for tying up the cattle, as well as comforta- 

 ble to their necks. 1 have a set which have been 

 in use some fifteen years, and are still as good as 

 new. There is an oily or lubricating substance 

 imparted to them from the necks of the cattle, 

 which preserves the leather perfectly, and keeps 

 i ofl and pliable. 



The floor-planks should be placed lengthwise 

 the stalls, or, in other words, parallel with the 

 way the cows stand ; they should be about five 

 feet and six inches long, outside the mangers ; 

 and should rise sliahll} from the rear end to the 

 manger, so that liquids will not stand on them. 



1 here should be a water-tight trench, immedi- 

 ately behind the cows, made four inches deep 

 and about twenty inches wide, in t! e clear, and 

 extending through the whole range of stables, 

 and Ijiiglevtl from end to end. Here is the 

 place of all places to make compost manure. 



Then there shouUl be a walk, of about two feet 

 in width, between the trench and the rear side of 

 the stable. 



Throw the manure out of the stable windows, 

 under a shed-roof, or through scuttles in the 

 walk behind the trench, whichever you may pre- 

 fer, though I should prefer a deep shed, on the 

 .south side of the buildings. 



Provide a dry, warm place, for the storage of 

 compost materials, conveniently accessible fiom 

 the stables, and in the summer, or fall, fill the 

 storage-place with swamp muck, dug and piled a 

 tew months, or a year previously, so as to have 

 become dry and fine, and a good absorbent of li- 

 quids and gases, or with leaves and vegetable 

 mould dug up in the hollows and rich places in 

 the woodlands. Each day, throughout the fod- 

 dering season, clean out the trench, and then fill 

 it again with muck or leaf-mould, putting about 



