134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Marc 



PORTABLE GRAIN MILLS. 



What kind of portable mill do you consider 

 the best for grinding all kinds of grain for far- 

 mers' use, and what is the price ? 



Chaplin, Jan., 1858. J. S. Ross. 



Remarks. — In the December number of the 

 monthly Farmer, p. 574, may be found some re- 

 marks on this subject. The price of mills varies 

 from $35 to $65. 



ARE GOATS PROFITABLE? 

 I wish to inquire about goats, whether they are 

 profitable to keep for their milk ? 

 Faxton, 1858. A Subscriber. 



R.E1IARKS. — It depends entirely upon circum- 

 stances, whether it is profitable to keep goats for 

 their milk. If the keeping a cow is absolutely 

 precluded, and milk cannot readily be obtained 

 in any other way, it would probably be profitable 

 to keep goats for their milk. It is sweet, nutri- 

 tive and medicinal, and less apt to curdle on the 

 stomach than that of the cow. When yielding 

 milk a good goat will give, for several months, at 

 the average of two quarts a day. Mr. Pringle, 

 of Kent, England, in an article in the Gardener^s 

 Magazine, says that two goats are equal to one 

 small Shetland cow. The flesh of the goat is 

 strong and indigestible, and is rarely eaten. 



A BIG EGG AND QUEER EGG. 



I send you a description of a hen's e^^ that 

 was recently presented to me by Mrs. Monroe, 

 of Burlington ; it is a great natural curiosity ; it 

 measures in circumference within a fraction of 

 eight inches one way and nine inches the other, 

 and it has inside another e^^, with hard shell, 

 perfect in appearance, and about the size of a 

 common hen's egg. Peter Wait. 



Danvers, 1858. 



WHEN TO FEED MILK COWS. 



I wish to knoAV through the Farmer at what 

 time cows should be milked to yield the greatest 

 amount ? Whether before they are fed, or dur- 

 ing the time of feeding (in M'inter,) or how long 

 after they have fed to the full ? p. f. 



East (Jharlemont, 185". 



now TO RAISE POP CORN. 



In ansAver to your correspondent who inquires 

 about raising pop corn, I would say that there is 

 no mystery about it ; the culture is the same as 

 for any other corn ; the difiiculty is in the kind of 

 soil on which it is raised ; that raised on light, warm, 

 sandy soil, being very much the best, while that 

 raised on strong, ridi land, is almost -worthless for 

 popping. B. F. Cutter. 



Fdham, N. IL, 1858. 



pure black POLAND FOWLS. 

 "An Old Subscriber," who inquired some time 

 since M'here he could find these fowls, is informed 

 that he can procure them of Mr. James M. Ciiat- 

 TERTOn, at Centre Rutland, Yt. 



For the New England Farmer- 

 THOBOUGH DRAINAGE AND 

 IRRIG-ATION. 



In the first volume of the monthly Netv Eiuj- 

 land Farmer, page 74, may be found the follow- 

 ing history and definition of the term Thorough 

 Draining, credited to ROBERT JaRDINE: 



"Draining, as understood thirty years ago in 

 England, meant merely the making of channels 

 to carry oft' surface water, and underground drains 

 to dry bogs, or cut off springs. It has noAV an 

 entirehj different meaning in the agricultural world. 

 Mr. Smith, of Deanston, near Ivlinburgh, was 

 among the first to practice and explain Thorough 

 Draining, as it is called. His system is, that all 

 land requires to be drained; that the depth of 

 luam, or soil, containing the food of plants, sel- 

 dom exceeds a few inches, resting on a subsoil, or 

 pan of clay, or hard gravel, saturated ivdh water. 

 By making drains from two and a half to five 

 feet in depth, at every twenty or thirty feet, the 

 land becomes dry, air takes the place of water," 

 c^-c, (S:c. 



Portions of this extract to which I direct the 

 attention of the advocates of Thorough Drain- 

 ing in this country are put in italics. 



Here we have the English idea of soil and 

 subsoil. Add to this the humidity of the Eng- 

 lish climate, and the necessity of the herculean 

 task of making drains "from two and a half to 

 five feet in depth, at every twenty or thirty feet," 

 all over the farm, and the necessity, too, of the 

 enormously thick and heavy hob-nailed shoes 

 which are worn by English laborers, are natural 

 inferences. 



But must the English practice of Thorough 

 Draining and hob- nail shoes be followed in the 

 United States ? Is draining with tiles "the next 

 great step to be taken in the march of improve- 

 ment on all our old farms" in New England ? 

 Will any one who ever did so much at farming 

 as to dig a hole in the ground in this country, 

 adopt the language of Mr. Smith, which I have 

 put in italic letters, when he draws up a descrip • 

 tion of the soil and the subsoil through which 

 he penetrated ? Or will he infer from the dry sand 

 and the loose gravel which here generally lies 

 from five to fifty feet over any thing "saturated 

 with Avater," that the American farmer must ex- 

 pend twice the value of his farm to rid himself 

 of 'the "surplus fluid ?" May he not rather adopt 

 the language used by Prof. Nash, in his adilress 

 before the Hampden Socictj', in 1854, and say: 

 "The Almighty has done this work so well that 

 the owners need expend nothing with the hope 

 of doing it better ?" 



The dift'erence between the moisture of both 

 air and soil in this country and England is ad- 

 mitted to be great. An English laborer of my 

 acquaintance, after making his "pile" in this 

 country, returned home with the intention of 

 spendip.g his days with the friends and amid the 

 scenes of his boyhood. In a short time, howev- 

 er, he was back again and at his old tasks in New 

 England. lie said that he found he could not 

 stand the climate there. The ground was so 

 damp that it seemed to strike through his shoes 

 as soon as he stepped ashore, and gave him the 

 rheumatism, so that he was sick and lame all the 

 time he was at home. 



