132 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



and reported many years ago. "P." says he 

 thought at the time there must have been some 

 "humbugging" in the case ; now I suppose this 

 means there was collusion between the supervisor 

 and myself. 



Some larger crops have been reported since, 

 against which reports, similar suspicions are ex- 

 pressed. If it be true that the Plymouth County 

 Agricultural Society has always selected unprin- 

 cipled scamps as their agents, then the censures 

 passed on them may be just ; but if the agents 

 have been upright and fair men, their accusers 

 are without excuse. For the rules established 

 by the Society for the measurement of corn are 

 easy to understand, and sufficiently precise and 

 rigid to secure justice among the applicants, and 

 present the public with just views of the experi- 

 ments. 



Some of our reports have been pretty roughly 

 handled by men regarded as holding high rank, 

 as agriculturists ; intimations from such men that 

 statements are incredible will soon pass very cur 

 rently as falsehoods with some of less calibre. 



Unless the art of agriculture is to be swallowed 

 up in parade and Avar, we think the senior editor 

 of the Plot(ghnan and the Secretary of the Board 

 of Agriculture may yet live to credit reports of 

 larger crops of corn than they have yet seen. 

 The editor of the Ploughman, it is believed, has 

 already relinquished the first opinions expressed 

 by him, that sixty bushels of corn to the acre is 

 an extraordinary crop. No doubt large stories 

 are sometimes told of the amount of crops and 

 products ; some years ago, it was said one hun- 

 dred and seventy bushels of corn had been raised 

 on an acre in the State of New York, and the 

 man expressed belief (hat he could raise two 

 hundred ; all this seems to me less incredible 

 than a statement that four quarts of milk will 

 yield a pound of butter, or that from eighteen 

 to twenty-one pounds of butter per week are 

 made from the milk of a single cow, for a sue 

 cession of weeks. M. Allen. 



Pembroke, Mass. 



MAINE BOARD OF AGRICULTUBE. 



We have been favored by the accomplished 

 Secretary of this Board, S. L. Goodale, Esq., 

 with this neatly printed volume, of more than 

 two hundred pages. It gives evidence of having 

 been prepared with much care and attention, and 

 is in a form to instruct those who carefully ex 

 amine its pages. They are not made up of loose- 

 ly drawn reports and extracts, merely to fill a 

 certain space — but seem to be well-digested and 

 continuous, calculated to give a general view of 

 the condition and progress of fixrm culture 

 throughout the State. This is as the Secretary's 

 report should be — and when it is otherwise, it 

 shows a want of clear comprehension of duty, or 

 a want of ability to perform it. This is the sec 

 end report of Mr. Secretary Goodale, and it fully 

 sustains the high chasacter of his first report. 



In another column a Maine correspondent ^Ives 

 a more lengthened notice and review of the re 

 port. 



I^or the New England Farmer. 



ABOUT BARNS. 



Mr. Editor : — The following appears In the 

 last Issue of your paper : 



"I am about to build a barn In addition to two 

 others I now have. I want a cellar for my sheep 

 in winter, and what I wish to know is, can I have 

 stables In an L so as to make it handy, as I do 

 not want the stables In the cellar nor in the barn 

 over the cellar. Any plan or Information you or 

 any of your numerous correspondents may give, 

 will be thankfully received by 



A Subscriber." 



Upon a New England farm a good barn with a 

 cellar under the whole is as essential as a good 

 house with a cellar under the whole Of It. The 

 health and comfort of the doipestic animals de- 

 pend much upon their winter quarters. It Is true 

 economy to be liberal to them. A barn should 

 be at least thirty-six feet wide, with twenty feet 

 posts. Forty-two feet wide Is a better dimension. 

 The length may be eighty feet, one hundred feet, 

 or longer if needed. Even two hundred feet In 

 length Is better than three separate barns. It 

 should have one or more ventilators at the rldgfe- 

 pole. The cellar should be under the whole of 

 it, the walls should be made of rock pointed with 

 mortar, with brick underpinning two feet high, 

 containing, at suitable distances, small doors 

 eighteen by sixteen inches, for the purpose of 

 light and ventilation. The cellar should be at 

 least eight feet deep, with two rows of brick piers 

 eight feet apart — the whole length of the barn. 

 The entrance to the cellar for teams should be at 

 one end, secured by a tight door. A barn cellar 

 thus made will keep vegetables secure from frost 

 in winter, and will be the proper place to store 

 farming tools, carts, wheels, plows, harrows, &c. 

 In such a cellar any quantity of manure can be 

 made by the mixture of muck, soil, scrapings of 

 streets, leaves and straw, with the solid and liquid 

 manure made by the oxen, cows, sheep and hors- 

 es housed above. Stables should never be In the 

 cellar, but always above and over It. Hogs may 

 be kept In the cellar to work over the manure. 

 No farmer should forget that his success depends 

 upon the amount of manure he shall annually 

 manufacture. His fancy fertilizers should be 

 manufactured by himself, in the cellar of his barn. 

 He should have an under-ground drain from the 

 house to the barn cellar, In which all the soap- 

 suds, Avashings of the sink and chamber water 

 should be conveyed to the manure heap. In this 

 way neatness about the house and purity of air Is 

 preserved. 



Sheep should never be wintered In the cellar 

 of a barn. The dampness Is Injurious to Its 

 health. That animal has a natural protection 

 against the cold, and does best In a dry, rather 

 than a warm place. 



The Interior of a barn may be arranged to suit 

 the fancy, but several things are essential. That 

 the stables be over the cellar. That the arrange- 

 ment be such that the heads of the cattle be to 

 wards the open space, or barn floor, and that a 

 convenient trap-door be had in the barn floor, 

 through which to tip a cart-load of muck at a 

 time. Pine Hill. 



January, 1858. 



