PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Ac.ricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1834. 



NO. 30. 



C£ 



H— ( 



hi 



hi 

 I— I 



1'SEFCL.NESS OF THE STRAW CUTTER. 



The following letter gives conclusive testimony, 

 in addition to many proofs we have heretofore pub- 

 lished, of the value of the important implement 

 here named. 



B'verly, Jan. 25, 18 



Mr. J. R. Newell — Dear Sir, It is with pleas- 

 ure that I comply with your request, asking the 

 result of my experience on the subject of feeding 

 stock. My stock consist of 51 head, viz. 8 horses, 

 6 oxen, 35 cows and 2 yearlings. This stock was 

 fed in the usual way with English, salt and fresh 

 meadow hay, with meal and potatoes as their con- 

 dition required, to the 1st of December last, at 

 which time I commenced chopping my hay. In 

 giving the result of my experiment I must in some 

 measure ask the privilege of a yaukee, viz. that of 

 guessing ; but in this case I think I can guess 

 pretty correctly, as much of the Hay has been 

 loaded in consequence of having to remove it from 

 one barn to the other, and calculating the number 

 of days a load would last, the result is as fol- 

 lows : 



700 lbs. English hay, at $16 per ton, 

 200 " „ fresh " 4 " 



100 " salt " 8 " 



3 bushels corn meal, 

 S " long red potatoes, 



$5,60 



40 



40 



2,25 



1,60 



Per day, $10,25 



400 lbs. English hay chopp'd, $16 per ton, 3,20 



100 " fresh " " 4 " 20 



100 " salt " " 8 " 40 



3 bushels corn meal, 2,25 



4 " long red potatoes chopp'd, 80 

 140 gallons pure Water, 0,00 



1 man at $3 per month, 31 



Board of man at $1,50 per week, 23 



Per day, $7,39 



Balance in favor of Straw Cutter, $2,86 per day. 



In addition to the above balance, may be added 



an increase of six gallons of milk from twenty five 



cows then in milk, and likewise something for the 



improvement of the condition of my whole stock. 



Yours respectfully, Amos Shelden. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 DISEASED HORSES. 



Messrs. Tucker & Co. — I have read the re- 

 marks of Onondaga, in the Farmer of Dec. 21, res- 

 pecting the Black Tongue, and the doctoring of 

 horses generally. I am pleased with some of his 

 observations, but I think he is mistaken in some 

 things. In speaking of the pulse of the horse, he 

 says that 50 to a minute and upwards, indicates a 

 high fever. So say I, if enough upwards of fifty. 

 The pulse of a horse in good health, with low 

 feeding, beats from 36 to 40 per minute ; if high 

 fed, his pulse may go 45, and some more, without 

 any more fever than is occasioned by the high feed. 

 In simple and symptomatic fevers, the pulse will 

 run from 60 to 72, and incases of inflammation of 

 the lungs or pleura, in the early stage of the dis- 



ease, the pulse is often from 62 to 80, when noth- 

 ing but excessive bleeding with continued clysters, 

 will be of any service. 



The best place to ascertain the pulsation of a 

 horse, is under the jaw-bone, where the artery 

 passes on to the side of the face: In this situation 

 the artery is covered by the skin oidy, and as it 

 rests against the bone, its strength or weakness may 

 be ascertained with the nicest exactness and accu- 

 racy. When a horse is in health, the artery feels 

 neither hard nor soft, but perfectly elastic ; but, 

 when in a fever, the artery becomes often so hard, 

 as to resist the pressure of the finger, and will heat, 

 as said before, from 60 to 80 a minute. 



As there is nothing like comparing notes to come 

 to the truth, I wish you to give the above a place 

 in your Farmer. A Scotchman. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN AND 

 HAMPDEN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY; 



Delivered in Greenfield, Oct. 33, 1833. By Henrv Colmar 



FUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 



CContinued froni p. 'J i'.».) 

 III. I pass hastily along to the subject of arable 

 farms. Indeed I can do no more than suggest a 

 few imperfect hints for your consideration, as I 

 fear I may trespass upon the kindness of a portion 

 of my audience, who feel little interest in the 

 humble details of agriculture. Few will deny that 

 the details are proper to this occasion. I need not 

 bespeak the candor of farmers' wives and farmers' 

 daughters, if indeed the old race of milk maids 

 and working girls be not wholly extinct; and I 

 may whisper even to the gentlest, the sweetest 

 humming birds and the most gorgeous butterflies 

 of the fair sex, that they may gather honey from 

 the wildest flowers of the most neglected field. I 

 may crave too that they would not disdain the 

 husbandman's bumble toil, since they are not too 

 ethereal to be beyond the need of its fruits ; I may 

 say more, that love is so wayward, perchance 

 some sturdy ploughman may yet he eligible to the 

 highest honors, which they have to bestow ; but 

 let them not be unduly alarmed at an accident of 

 this kind ; under his tanned skin, his rough hand 

 and his coarse exterior, there is often found as 

 true a heart and as devoted a duty, as in the most 

 polished beau that ever emerged from a city band- 

 box. 



The territory, embraced under the auspices of 

 this society, comprehends a great variety of soil ; 

 and much of the best arable and meadow land in 

 New England. Nor is there any extraordinary 

 discouragement here to cultivation ; labor is not 

 more expensive than in other parts of the country, 

 though it is too high compared with the value of 

 the produce ; vast quantities of bread stuff are im- 

 ported into the country ; and whatever grain is 

 raised will for the present command a higher price 

 in cash than the same articles on the sea-board. 



There are, however, some serious obstacles to 

 success. One of the principal is the worn-out 

 character of our lands. They have been so long 

 under cultivation as to become exhausted, and 

 yield small returns to the cultivator. Our crops 

 of Indian corn do not average more than thirty 

 bushels to the acre; of rye not more than twelve; 

 of potatoes not more than two hundred ; and of 

 hay, excepting on alluvial lands annually inundated 

 by the river, not more than one and a half ton. 

 These crops are by no means what they might be. 

 Now whether it is owing to too severe a cropping 

 by the repetition of the same crop on the same 

 land without intermission ; or to too scanty manur- 

 ing ; or to an injudicious cultivation, I shall not 

 presume to decide. In some cases, these several 

 causes are combined. 



Liberal manuring is the basis of all successful 

 agriculture ; and it fs folly, under any circumstan- 

 ces, excepting the virgin lands of the West, where 

 there has been for centuries, an accumulation of 

 untouched vegetable matter, to disregard the great 

 law of nature, which requires that the soil should 

 be often replenished, in order to obtain its prod- 

 ucts, as muth as that the cow, which is daily milk- 



