1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



83 



becomincf more scarce and valuable every 

 year. Mattresses may be conducive to good 

 health and early rising ; but for resting, com- 

 mend me to a well ventilated bed in the farm 

 house where ducks and geese are raised. 

 With a lot securely fenced, and with ne^t- 

 houses, the profit from geese and ducks will be 

 more satisfactory than under ordinary manage- 

 ment. A lot for breeding sows and young 

 shotes will tend to cheapen pork, Ci-pecially if 

 it have a good clover sod and running water. 

 Colts and young horses should not be allowed 

 to exercise in yards where other stock is kept. 

 A high smooth fence will not tempt them to 

 jump. 



There should also be plenty of material pre- 

 pared for temporary fences to surround a piece 

 of field turnips, cabbages, potatoes or corn, 

 wht n it is desirable to graze some animal in 

 the jest of the field. If posts and boards are 

 used, sharpen the posts to drive into holes pre- 

 pared with a bar. Use twelvepenny nails that 

 have been toughened by Heating to a red heat 

 and slowly cooled, and they will ^e!dom break, 

 if drawn with a hamrier after being driven. 

 Stakes with boards will make strong fence 

 •without nails. There are also several kinds of 

 panel fence and hurdles, that are so prepared 

 that they can be put up at little expense. 



In the fall of the year when lambs are 

 weaned, bucks taken up, and the lloek divided, 

 these lots will be needed again ; especially if 

 a choice breed is kept, or if some are put up 

 to fatten. 



It is quite startling to see the statistics that 

 show the immense cost of fences. Such sta- 

 tistics prove nothing in regard to their neces- 

 sity or economy. Statistics could prove that 

 shoes worn instead of boots would make a 

 great saving ; but not one man would cut off 

 his boot legs to economize. It will often hap- 

 pen, where fences are removed and a large 

 Held made of small ones that serious incon- 

 veniences will be experienced. z. e. j. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 FOOD. 



If the subject of food has not claims on the 

 attention of Nev/ England 'farmers I am at a 

 loss to know what has. With this idea, here 

 are some of Dr. Letheby's views, from his ad- 

 mirable lecture On Food, which I find in the 

 Chemical News. Though. we live in a land of 

 corn, and he does not, yet we may learn ,of 

 him. Speaking of Indian Corn, he says : — 



"It is one of the most extensively used grains 

 in the world ; entering largely into the food 

 of the inhabitants of America, Italy, Corsica, 

 Spain, the South of France and the Danubian 

 Principalities ; and, since the famine, in Ireland, 

 it has there become a common article of food, 

 especially when potatoes are scai-ce or dear ; 

 though its flavor is harsh and peculiar, and 

 nothing but a scarcity of more agreeable food 

 reconciles people to its use." 



This last remark hardly accords with the 

 taste of mo^t of us of New Engl3.nd ; yet with 

 those not educated to its use, and who proba- 

 bly do not have it in its most desirable condi- 

 tion, but resort to a stale article, under neces- 

 sity, ic is doubtless true. 



"The farina is peculiar when examined 

 under the microscope, and will thus serve to 

 identify it. The meal is rich in nitrogenous 

 matter and fat, yet it does not make good 

 bread. It is, therefore, either cooked by bak- 

 ing it into cakes, or by stirring it into boiling 

 water or boiling milk, and thus making it into 

 a sort of hasty pudding or thick porridge. 

 This is the nn thod of using it in Ireland. It 

 is flavored with salt, or butter, or treacle. 

 The favorite mess, ca'led corn lob, by the 

 Creoles of British Honduras, is prepared with 

 milk in this way. Indian meal mixed with 

 maple sugar and baked into cakes, formed at 

 one time the chi; f article of diet of the al- 

 most extinct Delaware Indians. 



"When deprived of its gluten and harsh 

 flavor, by me ns of a weak solution of caustic 

 soda, and then dried, it forms the expensive 

 food called Oswego or corn flour, which is so 

 largely used for puddings. It is also mixed 

 with wheaten flour and baked into bread, but 

 its harsh taste is scarcely ever completely cov- 

 ered. 



"The grain is said to cause disease when 

 eaten for a long time and without other meal, 

 — the symptoms being a scaly eruption upon 

 the hands, great prostration of the vital pow- 

 ers, and death afierayear or so, with extreme 

 emaciation. These effects have been fre- 

 quently observed among the peasants of Italy, 

 who use the meal as their chief food, but I am 

 not aware of any such effects having been seen 

 in Ireland, where it is often the (July article 

 of diet." 



Have any of the readers of the New Eng- 

 land Farmer seen any such diseases or ill 

 effects from the use of corn meal 2 



"The nutritive power of Indian meal is very 

 high, and considering its price, it is almost, if 

 not altogether the cheapest food for the poor. 

 Calculated according to the physiological wants 

 of the system, a week's diet for an adult will 

 only cost about 10-:^ pence, and excepting split 

 peas which are of doubtful digestibility, there 

 is nothing approaching it for economy." 



These statements are valuable because they 

 are the latest physiological views of the sub- 

 ject from a chemical stand point, as far as I 

 am aware. The variation of prices in differ- 

 ent localities affects the relative cheapness of 

 wheat flour and corn meal to the user. It is 

 undoubtedly true that meal requires more "fix- 

 ino-s" to make it palatable to the laboring man 

 than flour, — a fact which should be taken into 

 consideration. O. W. True. 



Farmington, Me., Dec. 1-i, 1868. 



