92 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



fest our fields. In every case, therefore, in which | A cap four feet square will cover a hundred weight 

 the horse-shoe tile is used, no consideration of of hay, 16 sheaves of oats, 10 of wheat or 8 of 

 economy ouglit to prevent the protecting of ewry .stalks, and keep them perfectly dry on the top as 

 portion of the hottom of the drain with soles or long as you please to keep it on. Hay standing 

 some other substitute. jon moist land, Avill gather moisture from the 



In laying horse-shoe tiles, they should be made ground if left to stand long, either with a cap or 

 to rest ])artly upon two adjoining soles, or to \ without one. 



break bond,_ as it is called. The object of this j If my friend Buckminster will come up to 

 proceeding is to prevent, as far as possible, the Hollis some morning after a hard rain in hay 

 chance of any sinking taking place. | time, and examine our hay that has been capped 



In forming this kind of drain, the bottom of and that which has not, if he does not agree that 

 the trench must be of the same Avidth as the sole, caps are worth having, I will pay his fare, divide 

 which is generally an inch Avider than the tile. ! my dinner with him, introduce him to some of 

 The bottom of the drain must be carefully smooth-^ our best farmers, show him some of our best 

 ed, so that the soles may lie flat, and close to the farms, and make his visit as pleasant as I can. 



Hollis, N. H., Dec. 26, 1857. 



bottom at all points. It is advisable that a little " E. Emerson. 



straAV, or some other fibrous material, be placed 



upon the tiles before the earth is returned into 



the drain, in order to prevent the loose soil from 



entering by any of the crevices." PARSWIPS AS A FIELD CROP. 



We copied into the Bural last spring, an arti- 

 cle recommending the field culture of parsnips 

 for stock, and thought we would try the experi- 

 ment in order to satisfy ourself on the subject. 

 We accordingly sowed side by side of our man- 

 gel wortzels and carrots a few rows of parsnip 

 seed, and tended them as we did the other roots. 

 The soil was the same in all respects. ITie pars- 

 nips were more easily wed out and tended than 

 the carrots, because they came up with a broader 

 leaf and were more easily distinguished from the 

 weeds. They grew luxuriantly — many of them 

 as large, at the crown, as a man's arm, and run- 

 ning down so deep, that if the Chinese on the 

 oiher side of the earth had suspected their op- 

 portunity, they might have drawn them through 

 or their own benefit. The result was that the 

 same quantity of ground gave us tAventy per cent, 

 more of parsnips than Ave harvested of carrots, 

 and about an equal weight with the mangel Avort- 

 ,- , Ti 1-, , ' "^^Izuls. We have dug one-half of them — onlytAven- 



them one season that did not like them or that , bushels— for winter's use, and the other half 



laid them aside. Ihey are in common use here. 



I have about 200 of them, and they are fre- 



For the Neiu England Farmer. 

 HAY CAPS. 



My old friend of the Ploughman is out again 

 in a long article against hay caps.. He cannot 

 bear to let them lay in quiet through the Avinter 

 in the garret. His reasoning on the subject is 

 almost as strong as it would be to say that be- 

 cause a man could not live sealed up tight in a 

 glass case, that Avould just fit to him, it is dan- 

 gerous to Avear a hat. 



As I have probably used hay caps longer than 

 any other farmer in this part of the country, and 

 as they have saved me a good deal of labor and 

 money, I feel at all times like defending them ! {■ 

 against the objections raised by men Avho have 

 never used them. 



The best argument I can use in favor of hay 

 caps, is, that I have never knoAvn a man to use 



quently all, or nearly all, in use. AVhen I do not 

 "want them all, my neighbors Avho have not enough, 

 are glad to use them. I use them for hay, grain 

 and stalks, and find them very useful for all. 



The kind I like best are made of four foot cloth 

 torn into squares, with a loop in each corner, and 

 four small sticks about tAventy inches long each, 

 one to hold each corner. I do not want them oiled 

 or hemmed or painted, or anything else done to 

 th-em. If it is asked Avhy I would not have them 

 piled or painted, I Avould" say that it is a needless 

 expense, as there has not been a storm hard 

 enough to Avet a cock of hay through a good plain 

 cap Avell put on, as much as a heavy dcAV would, 

 since I have used them. As to the work of put- 

 ting them on, I will go into the field Avith any 

 man of my ability to work, and put up hay and 

 cap it, as fast as he can turn it u]?, so that it 

 will do Avithout a cap, as it takes twice the Avork 

 to trim a cock without a cap that it does with a 

 cap. I have tried the weights at the corners, but 

 I prefer the sticks to the weights on two accounts. 

 First, weights heavy enough not to blow off, (half 

 a pound to the corner,) are heavy to carry about, 

 and then the sticks bind the hay together and 

 keep the cocks from bloAving over, or the tops 

 from blowing off". 



we have left in the ground to be taken out in ear- 

 ly spring as a fresh and delicious repast for the 

 ncAV milch cows then. They are improved by 

 being kept in the earth through Avinter. This is 

 an additional recommendation in their behalf. — 

 Ihiral Intelligencer. 



HINDRANCES TO AGRICULTURE IN 

 MASSACHUSETTS. 



Messrs. Editors : — Your Ncav Hampshire 

 correspondent omits one item that, in this vicini- 

 ty, does much to retard the spirit of progress and 

 improvement in agriculture. That is, a proper 

 use of capital that should be invested in the bus- 

 iness. It is quite the custom in these three "riv- 

 er counties," as Ave call them, for the "old folks" 

 to accumulate all the money they can, by the sale 

 of their sheep, cattle, Avood .and timber, and 

 eventually the farm itself, and invest the pro- 

 ceeds in some stocks of banks, insurance compa- 

 nies, or Avestern lands, for two reasons — 1st, to 

 dodge the tax collectors and assessors ; and 2d, 

 to get an extra per cent, for the use of their money. 



The consequence is, not that their business 

 lacks the eclat of respectability, but that their 

 sons must follow the dollars, and you may fimd 

 them scattered all the AA-ay from the nearest rail- 

 road station to the farthest verge of Kansas and 



