1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVrER. 



227 



montb, I had a nice smooth field containing 

 five acres of rich sandy loam, about sixty or 

 seventy feet above the bed of the thirl branch 

 of White river, on which my farai is situated, 

 and inclining to the north east. The spring 

 before, 1 had broken this field, planted it to 

 corn, manuring in the hiU at the rate of about 

 eight cords to the acre, and had a good crop 

 of about fifty bushels to the acre. The spring 

 of 18G7, 1 ploughed this piece nicely, pro- 

 cured the best seed I could find, and sowed it 

 to wheat the last days of April. Afcer plough- 

 ing I spread about seven cords of clear sheep 

 Qianure on the poorest parts to make the piece 

 as even as possible, and seeded with two and 

 a half bushels herdsgrass and forty pounds 

 clover seed. About the fir^t of June I spread 

 a light coat of leached a^hes on the whole 

 piece. On account of heavy showers just be- 

 fore the grain was ripe, it could not be cradled, 

 but it was mowed aud saved with much care, 

 not shelling at all. It was threshed with a 

 machine soon after and not exposed to waste 

 by threshing or oti erwise, and the yield was 

 sixty-four iRishels of inferior quality. 



Now I am sure that this crop was not as 

 profitable to me as oats would have been, but 

 perhaps what I lost in that crop I have, and 

 shall gain in the grass crops fiom the same 

 piece. Last year the t wo crops were estimated 

 at over three tons to the acre. 



This is the best wheat land I have, and it 

 seems t»o me that if I should follow Mr. Ba- 

 ker's advice of February 27, it would not pay 

 me very well "to sow wheat where I raise 

 corn the year before, without regard to the 

 location of the piece." s. 



West Randolph, Vt., March 1, 1869. 



For the New Kngland Farmer. 

 SUGAB MAKING. 



With most of the recommendation = sug- 

 gested by the members of the Westminster, 

 Vt., Farmers' Club, in the report of their dis- 

 <'.ussion of this subject recently printed in the 

 Farmer, I am well pleased, while there are a 

 few which 1 cannot approve. Mr. N. G. 

 Pierce says, he prtfers the wooden spouts, 

 with a bit of half inch, boring three inches 

 deep. He thinks the amount of sap drawn 

 from the tree depends more upon the depth of 

 the hole than on its size. Though but a boy, 

 I have made sugar every spring since I was 

 large enough to ilo so, and I find that I get 

 just as much sap by boring | inch deep as by 

 boring three or four inches deep. I bslieve 

 no tree should be bored more than one inch 

 in depth, if the perpetuity of the orchard is 

 desired. I prefer a three-tighths bit and 

 wooden spouts. Pare off the rough bark 

 bore I inch deep, and drive a nail just below 

 the spout and hang on the bucket. 



Mr. O. Teck says two spouts will run as 

 much again as one, and if the tree is of good 

 size you may pui two, three or four buckets 



to a tree. I have always noticed where we 

 have bored two holes, say from six to eight 

 inches apart, using two spouts and one bucket, 

 we get no more sap during the season than 

 we should from one spout. If the tree is of 

 good size we may tap twice, Ubing two spouts 

 and two buckets. Spouts should fit in the 

 bark and not in the wood. 



Perhaps a description of some of the arches 

 in use here will interest sugar makers in other 

 sections. In some cases, they are built of the 

 right length and breadth for the number of 

 kettles or size of pans used. For kettles, 

 they are three feet high; for pans, about t*vo. 

 The back end is built plain the same as the 

 sides — the chimney being on the left hand 

 front corner. Then through the middle of 

 the arch, lengthwise, is laid a tier of bricks as 

 high as the sides, and extending from the end 

 to within one foot and a half of the back, and 

 the lefc hand of the front being bricked up. 

 In the half of the arch next the chimney, 

 stones are raised so as to throw ^he blaze 

 against the bottom of the kettle. 



Another way which is very good, is to build 

 the arch about three feet high, and of a length 

 and breadth according to the number of ket- 

 tles you set. The kettles should be set in a 

 line one after the other ; the chimney being 

 upon the farther end. With arches properly 

 built afer either of these plans a great saving 

 of wood is efF'cted, and this is becoming with 

 us an object of much importance. In the first 

 plan the fire travels back on the opposite side 

 of the division, instead of blazing up into the 

 air, as I have ofcen seen it, through chimui^ys 

 of good height. 



Another convenient arrangement is to have 

 the sap- holder a little higher than the top cf 

 the arch, so that by the use of a piece of pipe 

 and a stop cock the sap may flow continuously 

 into the evaporator, but so slowly as not to 

 check the boiling as is done when a bucketful 

 of cold sap is poured in. a. c, jr. 



Bdhd, Me., March 8, 1869. 



ADVICE TO DAIRYMEN". 



At the recent meeting of the Illinois and 

 Wisconsin Dairymen's Association, iMr. Wil- 

 lardof New York, said some excellent things. 

 Among them were the following : — 



In the matter of securing fine flavor in both 

 butter and cheese, some points have been en- 

 tirely overlooked in previous discussions. It 

 is only recently that the true causes inlluenc- 

 in<^ the flavor of dairy products have attracted 

 ou^r attention. And among these the question of 

 clean, pure water far stock, has not been suflii- 

 cientl'y appreciated. Milk contains 87 per 

 cent, of water, and it would hardly seem rea- 

 sonable to expect that the animals could over- 

 step the laws of nature and manufacture good 

 milk from stagnant water ; yet, such has been 

 the case, and because manufacturers have not 



