ISoS. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMF.Il. 



91 



ESSEX COUNTY TRANSACTIONS. 



This annual is again before the public, filling 

 nearly 200 pages, with much readable and useful 

 matter. Through the watchful care of the in- 

 telligent- and industrious Secretary, Allen W. 

 Dodge, the members find an ample reward for 

 their investment in this annual publication. 



First comes the Address of Dr. Kelly, of 

 Newburyport, of more than thirty pages — a pa- 

 per of no ordinary merit — combining the pleas- 

 ant and the useful in agreeable proportions. This 

 address shows much research, and a good share 

 of practical experience and observation. 



Then follow the reports on the various sub- 

 jects entrusted to committees ; some of them full 

 of useful hints and valuable instruction ; others 

 bare skeletons giving a mere outline of awards, 

 without a single fact or suggestion of any sort in 

 them. Among those which will hereafter be re- 

 ferred to, as containing valuable instruction, are 

 those on farms, by Mr. Loring, of Salem, and 

 on farm implements, by Mr. Proctor, of South 

 ]")anvers. Both these papers show a degree of 

 attention in their authors, worthy of commenda- 

 tion. Then follows an Essay by Mr. Flagg, of 

 Andover, which, like all other emanations from 

 his pen, will be found to contain valuable instruc- 

 tion, chastely and beautifully expressed. The re- 

 port on Vegetables, by J. J. H. Gregory, of Glou- 

 cester, is an excellent paper. The reports on 

 "Milch Cows of Native or Mixed Breed," by Jo- 

 seph Howe, and on "Heifers" by Wm. R. Put- 

 nam, are also papers worthy of preservation, and 

 afford instruction. 



We shall have occasion to refer to this report 

 again, and to extract from it some of its valua- 

 ble pages. The Essex County Society is doing 

 great good, and is Avorthy of its honored founder, 

 the late Timotuy Pickering. 



most kinds of feed for stock, somewhere in this 

 direction ? 



If you give a cow pumpkins, carrots, turnips, 

 or shorts, when they have a plenty of nutritious 

 feed, and thereby diminish their capacity or dis- 

 position to partake of their feed to the usual 

 extent, you cannot reasonablj expect to receive 

 the benefit of the extra feed over and above the 

 product of the usual feed. A cow cannot eat all 

 you can lay before her ; ana if she did, she might 

 be unable to digest it properly. 



Give a cow that is kept on straw, a plenty of 

 good hay, and it is reasonable to expect more 

 milk. But if you give her a very little hay each 

 day, and that hay begets such a disrelish for the 

 straw that she will not eat it, she will do the best 

 on a plenty of straw. So I believe that feeding 

 pumpkins, potatoes or shorts, will not be produc- 

 tive of an additional quantity of milk, when it 

 withdraws the appetite from the usual food, or 

 when the cow thereby eats the value of the extra 

 feed less in hay. 



One cow may have digestive power and appe- 

 tite for the extra feed in addition to the usual 

 feed, and will probably give more milk, unless 

 the extra feed tends to fat or flesh. We cannot 

 make every good cow a machine to transfer any 

 kind of feed into milk or fat, as we please. The 

 best Ave can do, is to observe their tendencies to 

 milk or fat, and feed accordingly. There is a dif- 

 ference in animals that will not be overlooked 

 by the careful farmer. J. Q. A. w. 



Addison, Vt., Dec. 21, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PUMPKINS FOR MILCH COWS. 



Mr. Editor : — I observed the following state- 

 ment in the Farmer q{ the 19th inst. "It has 

 long been an unsettled question with farmers, 

 whether pumpkins fed to milch cows, were ac- 

 tually beneficial." Last September, I had a 

 young cow that I kept in a lot where there was 

 a large supply of the best of feed. I com- 

 menced feeding her daily with shorts ; increasing 

 the quantity until I gave her some four quarts 

 per day. I noticed that she did not appear so 

 anxious for grass as formerly. I do not know 

 as the quantity of milk was materially increased. 

 After feeding in this way some ten days, I stopped 

 giving the shorts, and the quantity of milk re- 

 mained about the same. The cow appeared to eat 

 more grass. I have often fed shorts in the win- 

 ter, and am noAV doing it, receiving a decided in- 

 crease in the quantity of milk in every case. 



Now is not the ti'uth of the case, in relation to 



UNDEHDRAINING WITH TILE. 



I am glad to see so many inquiries in regard to 

 tile drains. It looks as though farmers were 

 waking up to the benefit of underdraining. 



I Avill make a few inquiries. If the bottom^ of 

 the drain is very hard, and the descent not too 

 great, will not the horse-shoe tile do, witkout 

 soles ? 



Should the dirt be thrown in immediately on 

 the tile, or should a course of small stone be 

 placed above it? — J. W. Lequeaii, French- 

 totcn, N. J. 



In reply to the above inquiries, we copy the 

 following from a late English work : 



"Draining tiles and pipe have been made in a 

 great variety of forms ; of these, the earliest 

 since the introduction of thorough draining was 

 the horse-shoe tile ; so called from its shape. 

 The horse-shoe tile has sometimes been used with- 

 out the addition of any sole or flat to form the 

 bottom of the drain ; but there cannot be any 

 question of the impropriety of such false econo- 

 my. Even the most obdurate subsoils become 

 soft when exposed to the action of air and water ; 

 after which the edges of the tile are apt to sink, 

 and thus destroy the drain. Various devices have 

 been fallen upon to prevent such an accident, and 

 yet to save the expense of laying the drain 

 throughout Avith soles ; such as providing the 

 edges of the tile with flanges, or using only pieces: 

 of soles on Avhich to rest the ends of the tiles j 

 but all these plans are open to the most serious 

 objections. They all leave the bottom of the drain 

 unprotected against the Avearing action of the 

 Avater. and they all leave the conduit exposed to 

 the entrance of the burrowin>i; animals Avhich ia* 



