26 



NEW ENGLAND FARI^CER. 



Jan. 



growth of common field (black-eyed) peas 

 not exceeding six inches in height. This crop 

 of peas was designed to be made the basis of 

 improvement, but we should expect little re- 

 sult from the small quantity of vegetable mat- 

 ter thus furnished. Nevertheless with it Avas 

 applied fifty bushels of fresh lime. After this 

 twenty bushels of coarse ground bones were 

 put on and a dressing of three hundred pounds 

 of Peruvian guano, to produce a crop cf wheat. 

 It was sown at the same time with clover and 

 grass seed, which after standing two years was 

 followed by corn. After this another crop of 

 peas, with a moderate dressing of bones and 

 guano, brought forty bushels of wheat to the 

 acre. The land was from that time considered 

 improved, and ever since has brought highly 

 profitable crops. All expenses were paid in 

 five years' crops." 



CAUSES INFLUENCING THE YIELD 

 OP MILK. 



At a recent meeting of the Connecticut 

 Board of Agriculture, when the subject of 

 neat cattle was under discussion, one farmer, 

 a Mr. Weller, made some very pertinent re- 

 marks in regard to the care and management 

 of milch cows. He had a dairy of nineteen 

 cows, and he finds that it is important to keep 

 his stock where they will not be disturbed or 

 excited. He gives an instance of the effect of 

 any unusual noise in lessening the quantity of 

 mitk, since it was found that the noise from a 

 threshing machine made I hem fall off twenty 

 quarts per day. We have no doubt as to the 

 truth of this statement, since we have repeat- 

 edly observed similar results, in the yield of 

 milk from cows disturbed by any unusual noise. 



Many farmers do not seem to understand 

 the fact that fear, or any undue nervous ex- 

 citement of the cow has a powerful infiuence 

 in lessening the quantity of her milk, when 

 the most common observation should teach 

 them that it is so. We have seen men used to 

 stock all their lives, who understand and prac- 

 tice milking every day, who will not believe in 

 any such infiuence, at least if their manage- 

 ment of s'»ock be taken as an Index. We have 

 often wondered why men who are of a naturally 

 saving disposition, and who would be shocked to 

 see a pint of milk spilled in the milk house, 

 should allow quarts and gallons to be lost ni their 

 bad management of the herd in the stable, kick- 

 ing cows with heavy boots, striking with stools, 

 and keeping the animals in a constant strain ot 

 nervous excitement and ftjar. We have no 

 doubt that the quality as well as the quantity 

 of milk is iniluenced by undue excitement and 

 nervous agitation. Indeed, In more than one 

 instance have we found milk badly injured on 

 account of the animal being put in a fright, 

 and we do not see why any extreme agitation 

 of the cow should not at all times have more 

 or less Infiuence on the character of milk which 

 she gives, especially If it be drawn during or 

 immediately after such nervous excitement. 



Whatever view may be taken upon this ques- 

 tion, it must be observed that those persons 

 who are so careful of their milk stock, keep- 

 ing the animals quiet and having them familiar 

 so as to be easily handled, always succeed best 

 in obtaining extra quantity of dairy products. 

 We have been about a good deal among dairy- 

 men and farmers and we have yet to learn of 

 any herd producing an extraordinary quantity 

 of milk when the animals were harshly treated 

 or kept in fear during the milking, no matter 

 what the breed of cows or their exira feed. 

 We have uniformly found the best results 

 where the animals were treated tenderly and 

 no talking or noise allowed while milking. 

 We hear much complaint of late years cf poor 

 milch stock, bad luck with herds and low yields 

 of milk, and we are sometioes inclined to be- 

 lieve that the fault is not so much in the four 

 legged beasts, for it has come to be quite rare 

 that "help" can be employed that will treat 

 stock kindly unless constantly under the mas- 

 ter's eye. We have a State law affixing a 

 penalty and fnaking it an ofience to be caught 

 adulterating milk carried to the factories. We 

 need another law making it a penal offence to 

 be caught abusing milrh stock.; for if it be 

 true that diseased or bad milk comes from such 

 abuse, then the|person cfFending is in every 

 way as guilty oi a crime as he who simply puts 

 water in his milk. — Utiea Her aid. 



THE SACBIPICE OP SHEEP. 

 After giving some instances of recent sales 

 of sheep in Michigan at ruinously low rates, 

 and alluding to previous extreme ups and 

 doiyns in prices, to illustrate the tendency of 

 the American people to run into extremes, Mr. 

 Sanford Howard, of that State, in an article 

 written for the Lansing Eepublican, says : — 



It is a common result in all undue excite- 

 ments, that the reaction produces the opposite 

 extreme, and an article which has "been valued 

 too high, falls too low. This is the case in re- 

 gard to Merino sheep. They are valuable; 

 tbclr importance to the country is beyond esti- 

 mation, and the sacrifice of them is to be de- 

 precated. 



But the late speculation in Merino sheep was 

 based to a considerable extent on two errors : 

 it looked too much to the production of one 

 kind of wool only, and It attempted to set up, 

 in many cases, a wrong type or model. In re- 

 ference to the sheep producing this wool. 

 The country requires various kinds of wool, as 

 any one might know who would pay attention 

 to the different styles of goods used. It is to 

 a great extent the glutting of the market with 

 wool adapted only to one class, or to similar 

 classes of goods, that has brought the price so 

 low. We have confined ourselves almo?t en- 

 tirely to the production of Merino wool. To 

 be sure it has not all been full-blood, but that 



