1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FABIVIER. 



191 



1867, was #5,400,000, which helped pay our taxes, 

 or debts. We believe that when the above pro- 

 ducts were landed in our markets and duties paid, 

 they cost their producers less than our products 

 did our farmers ; for land, taxes, labor, clothing, 

 board, &c., are about 50 per cent, lower in Canada 

 than in New England. We may live to see our 

 farmers sold again by Reciprocity. 

 Middlesex, Mass., 1869. A Fakmer. 



BONES AND OTHER FEED FOR HENS. 



I see by the last Farmer that Mr. Thos. Snell 

 cannot find suitable bone meal for his hens. With 

 your permission, I will give my mode of feeding 

 bones to hens : I burn them until I can pound 

 them easily with any light instrument, or even 

 with the heel of my boot; and if any are left so 

 large that the hens cannot swallow them, I then 

 pound them finer. I use any bones I happen to 

 have, whether large or small. I think the burning 

 does not change or injure any principle of the 

 bone. In feeding my hens, I give that which I think 

 will do the best for the purpose for which I feed. 

 If eggs are my object, I feed on corn, oats, boiled 

 potatoes mixed with ))ran or oat meal, or any other 

 feed that does not tend to fatten them ; if I wish 

 to fatten them to kill, I feed on corn meal made 

 into dough by scalding, mixed with boiled pota- 

 toes, and two or three times a week give them a 

 feed of curd, made by scalding sour milk. They 

 fatten very fast on this feed. Curd is the best 

 feed for young chickens or turkeys. 



Lancaster, N. H., Jan. 28, 1869. Z. Black. 



P. S. — As I am not in the habit of writing for 

 publication, you will pardon imperfections. If 

 you would like, and will take the trouble to correct 

 errors, perhaps I may give some account of farms 

 and farming up here in upper Coos. z, b. 



Remarks. — We shall certainly be much pleased 

 to receive any account of farms and farming in 

 "Upper Coos ;" that you can find time to fur- 

 nish; and, judging from the foregoing, we thinlj, 

 our part of the covenant will be pretty easily 

 performed. Farmers iu one section like to hear 

 from farmers in other sections of the country. 

 Don't forget your promise. 



CATTLE FEED. 



To make beef and milk, which of the various 

 kinds of feed shall we use ? We have our choice 

 of com, oil cake, cotton seed meal, shorts and 

 middlings, but do not know what to buy. We 

 meet men engaged in manufacturing milk, and 

 hear one denounce cotton seed meal and another 

 praise it ; a third man is ready to tell of his success 

 in making milk and flesh with shorts and hay, 

 giving great credit to shorts, while another's cows 

 were growing poor with the same feed, viz : shorts 

 and hay. Supposing there is a difference in the 

 value of shorts, and knowing there are different 

 qualities of hay, we are still in doubt what to buy. 

 There has been but little said of the dififerent 

 qualities of hay, in the reports of farmers' discus- 

 sions. I believe that much of the difference re- 

 sulting from the various methods of feeding is ow- 

 ing to the different qualities of the hay used, and 

 feeling sure that what is termed good hay by 

 farmers generally is not the best, and believing, 

 likewise, that they seldom know which their best 

 hay is, I have lost all hope of learning the rela- 

 tive value of grains in that way. How are we to 

 learn ? Not by our own experience, for we are 

 not scientific or systematic enough to determine 

 the question. Were it not that we compete with 

 others who are just as much in the dark as ourselves, 

 our failure would be sure. Since, as producers, we 



rmtst live, the consumers have to pay for our igno- 

 rance. If some scientific and philanthropic man, 

 who would give to the millions cheap food, will 

 tell us what combination of grass and grain will 

 produce the most milk and meat for the least 

 money we will willingly (as we should be forced 

 by competition to do) give to the consumers the 

 benefit of the information. f. 



Mast Yard, N. H., Feb., 1869. 



SYKES' PLOUGHS — RAPE. 



In an account of the New England Plough trial, 

 the Hines and Sykes' Swivel plough is spoken of 

 as the best on trial. Where can I find said Sykes 

 plough ? 



In the Farmer rape is spoken of for soiling 

 cows. Some say rape is millet, others that it is 

 kale. Please tell me what it is. 



JuDSON Thompson. 



Morrisville, Vt., Feb. 11, 1869. 



Remarks. — We do not know where that plough 

 is made or sold, and doubt whether it is any better 

 than those advertised in our columns. 



Webster's dictionary gives the following botani- 

 cal description of rape: "A plant of several species 

 of the genus Brassica, belonging to the cabbage 

 tribe, especially B. naptis, and also B. campestres, 

 much cultivated for their roots, which resemble 

 the turnip, and afford a valuable food for sheep 

 and cattle, and for their seeds, from which oil is 

 extracted." Mr. Burr says the best variety for 

 oil is not sufliciently hardy for the Northern States. 

 The more hardy varieties he thinks might succeed 

 here. 



CHANGING SHEEP FOR COWS. 



The wool growers are having dull times now, 

 and some are thinking of changing their sheep for 

 cows, I would like, with your leave, to ask them 

 a few questions. Will it lie safe business to change 

 sheep for cows at this time ? If they do so, how 

 long will it be before prices of dairy products will 

 fall, so that they will be worse off than they are 

 now ? Is not the importation of foreign wool the 

 cause of all this trouble ? How long will farmers 

 sit still and let the importers have the market 

 under their control ? Is there any good reason 

 under heaven why this nation should buy of for- 

 eign nations what we can raise to as good profit as 

 we can wool ? Why not organize a gi'and move- 

 ment of wool growers; call every man of them, 

 and invite the dairymen to join them, and perhaps 

 now that the Pennsylvanians have their ore beds 

 well railed over with English iron they will join 

 the movement, and all go to Congress, and, if pe- 

 tition will not do, demand in respectful lan- 

 guage such a recognition of the agricultural and 

 mining interests of the country as shall make our 

 nation truly independent ? W. S. Grow. 



Westboro', Mass., Feb. 16, 1869. 



ANSON, ME. 



This town is in all probability the most exten- 

 sive wool growing town of its size in the State of 

 Maine. It contains about thirty-six square miles, 

 and is estimated to feed 20,000 sheep this winter, 

 mostly merinos, and that its clip next spring will 

 be about 100,000 pounds of wool. Great interest 

 is manifested in the wool market, as many farmers 

 have on hand from 1000 to 5000 pounds waiting 

 for a rise in the market ; for some of which one 

 dollar per pound has been refused. Sheep have 

 been bought and sold in this town for a thousand 

 dollars per head, which can be bought back, or 



