1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



189 



eaten by his stock of cattle, except hay — using for 

 the purpose a six-horse engine with the necessary 

 steam vats. Last summer he pitched all the hay 

 in his barn with the engine, sawed his wood with 

 it and threshed all his grain. He has a large herd 

 of cattle, and he claims that they do much bettef 

 on cooked food than upon the raw. 



— A New Hampshire paper says : "A red squir- 

 rel was recently caught in the barn of D. C. Brown, 

 of Berlin, which had in less than three months' 

 time carried two bushels of corn up a flight of 

 stairs and safely stowed it away for future use. 

 The same squirrel, it is thought, -some two years 

 since carried up stairs a barrel of ears of corn, 

 and to make a sure thing of it bottled them up by 

 dropping them through the bung hole of a cider 

 barrel, in which Mr. Brown found them." 



— Charles F. Quinby, of Kangely, informs the 

 Maine Farmer that he raised 29^ bushels of wheat, 

 thresher's measure, on one and one-fourth acres of 

 ground; on half an acre of which he raised pota- 

 toes, half an acre oats, and the rest corn and beans 

 last year. The oat and potato ground was plough- 

 ed the fall before, on which twelve cartloads of 

 barnyard manure were spread and harrowed in. 

 The first day of April he sowed two and a half 

 bushels of wheai on the piece. 



— In addition to the utmost neatness in washing 

 the milkroom and all vessels used for milk and 

 cream, the Prairie Farwier recommends that dishes 

 containing pulverized charcoal be placed about the 

 room to absorb ammonia and other biases that can- 

 not be otherwise removed. The charcoal should 

 be freshly prepared, and by heating it after it has 

 become partially saturated with gases, they are 

 driven off and the charcoal rendered as effectual 

 as at first. 



— According to experiments made in England 

 by Mr. Lawes, the proportion of offal to each 100 

 pounds of live weight, made on the bodies of six- 

 teen oxen, two hundred and forty -nine sheep and 

 fifty-nine hogs, was as follows: — In oxen, 38.9 

 pounds ; sheep, 40.3 pounds ; hogs, 16.7 pounds. 

 The proportion of the stomach and contents was, 

 on an average, in oxen, 11^ pounds; in sheep, 7.J 

 pounds; in hogs, 1| pounds; of the intestines in 

 oxen, 2| pounds ; in sheep, 3^ pounds ; hogs Q\ 

 pounds. 



— A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, in 

 • discussing the question whether the hazel bush, 

 which at the West is considered a reliable indica- 

 tion of good soil, is the cause or the result of fer- 

 tile land, says, in the first place, the hazel is an 

 earth worker ; its roots spread wide and extend 

 deep, going much below the greatest depth ever 

 reached by the sub-soil plough. These roots, 

 when they decay, form minute drains for the pas- 

 sage of water and air ; while the wood of which 

 they are composed, goes to the nourishment of 

 plants. The branches and foliage stop the move- 

 ments of the carbonic acid as it is carried along | 



in the air, and cause it to be readily taken up by 

 the leaves. These leaves in turn fall to the 

 ground, and in this manner help to manure the 

 land. Thus the hazel bush digs the soil, drains 

 it, waters it, and manures it by substances taken 

 from the air. Clover is supposed to do about the 

 same thing. 



— A correspondent of the Rural New Yorker 

 says, the only way that I know for keeping chest- 

 nuts in good order for planting is to gather them 

 from the tree while green, and put up barrels with 

 one layer of dirt and one of chestnuts. That is the 

 only way that they can be kept green ; for if packed 

 without dirt they will heat and not come up, and 

 if they are dried in the sun they will not germi- 

 nate. They may be sown broadcast on the land 

 and ploughed in. The fall is the best time to plant 

 or sow them. , 



— A Missouri farmer writes to the Utica Herald, 

 that like all other warm Western States, Missouri 

 has her malarious diseases, but they yield readily 

 to medicine and care, and are not much dreaded. 

 Lung diseases are much more seldom here than in 

 the East. Mankind seldom cough here. Horses 

 never heave, so far as I have seen. AVe have much 

 more sunshine, consequently less cloudy and damp 

 weather. Our heat is a little greater and a little 

 more enervating, but we seldom have what you 

 call sultry weather, but commonly a refreshing 

 breeze. Sometimes a day comes when we like to 

 sit in the shade and sing softly — "blow, breezes 

 blow. ' 



EXTRACTS AND EEPLIES. 



KICKING COWS. 



I have for a number of years succeeded in break- 

 ing the worst of cows and heifers of kicking by 

 taking a piece of bed cord, make a loop large 

 enough for the cord to slip through easily ; then 

 put the cord around the cow's hind legs, just above 

 the gambrel joints ; slip the end through the loop 

 and draw the legs together by pulling upon the 

 cord. The cow will try to kick, but hold the cord 

 so tight that she cannot get her legs at liberty, and 

 she will soon give it up. Now hold on to the cord 

 while another person milks. In this way I not 

 only break my heifers of kicking, but of stepping 

 about, which is nearly as bad. After two or thre« 

 miikings if they continue to plague, I buckle a 

 strap about the hind legs, then sic down and milk 

 as though I had a gentle cow, which is sure to be 

 the case in a short time. A Farmek. 



Dudley, Mass., Jan., 1869. 



I wish to inform your Long Plain correspondent, 

 and all the rest of mankind, of a better way to 

 break a kicking cow, than to clinch her dirty hind 

 leg and hold it up as high as her head. Just place 

 a log chain across the cow, back of the shoulders, 

 while milking, for a week or so, then a light chain 

 or even a rope will answer. In ten or twelve days 

 she will be as gentle as her mother ever was. 



New fane, Vt., Jan. 13, 1869. S. G. Broavn. 



To break a cow of the habit of kicking, 1 make 

 a stall at one end of the stable just wide enough 

 for her to stand in. This will require two posts 



