186fi. 



NEW ENGLAND F.\RMER. 



317 



THE MOKQAN HOBSB "VERMONT." 



In consequence of the well de- 

 served popularity of Vermont 

 horses abroad, fears have been 

 expressed of a deterioration in the 

 quality of the home stock by the 

 sale of too many of the choicest 

 animals. That there is danger of 

 such a result we believe many of 

 her most intelligent breeders are 

 fully satis6ed, and we hope they 

 will carefully guard against it. As 

 evidence that the good horses are 

 not all suffered to leave the State, 

 we are informed that the animal, 

 of which the above cut is as good 

 a representation as could be made - ^ 

 from a photograph, has been own- 

 ed in Bradford, Vt., for sixteen years, and 

 that his colts have commanded better prices 

 than those of any horse ever kept in that 

 portion of the valley of the Connecticut River. 

 He is still owned by J. H. Peters, Esq., of 

 Bradford, Vt. 



USES OF MILLET. 



In consequence of the high culture of arable 

 lands, many farmers are enabled to winter 

 more stock than they have pasture or "fall 

 feed" for. Instead of fifteen hundred or two 

 thousand pounds of good hay per acre, it is 

 not at all uncommon now to get a ton and a 

 half and two tons per acre, as an average, on 

 some good firms. In extraordinary cases three 

 tons, and up to five tons are sometimes se- 

 cured. We have known the last amount to be 

 got from an acre in a single season, — from one 

 acre at three cuttings. 



In order to eke out the grazing period, the 

 stock is turned upon the mowing fields in 

 autumn, which are considerably injured by be- 

 ing fed too close. This process injures the 

 roots of the grass by preventing them from 

 penetrating deeper into the soil, throwing out 

 new fibres and generally strengthening them- 

 selves. This is one reason why so much grass 

 is winter killed. The theory is probably a 

 correct one, that the roots of plants must bear 

 a pretty nearly equal proportion to the tops, 

 in order that ihey may be progressive and vig- 

 orous. If such is the fact, it is not strange 



that the roots of grass die out, whose leaves 

 have been eaten off perhaps a dozen times in 

 the course of the autumn. 



Where a heavy crop of grass has been taken 

 from a field, and a second or third crop springs 

 up, it is no injury to turn stock upon it and al- 

 low them to graze it moderately. Indeed, it 

 is perhaps beneficial, as a dense mass of after- 

 math if covered with snow for many weeks in 

 succession, sometimes rots the grass and the 

 crowns of the roots, so that large numbers die. 



What is needed, then, is something to feed 

 the stock upon when the pastures are ex- 

 hausted by grazing them, or by drought or 

 any other cause. 



To accomplish this, resort is had to Indian 

 corn, by sowing it thickly in drills, at differ- 

 ent periods, and cutting and feeding it while 

 in a green and juicy state. This is of easy 

 culture, is quite a certain crop, and is said to 

 be nutritious and causing a free flow of milk. 

 What is not needed in this way, is usually 

 dried and used as winter fodder. Sweet corn 

 is said to be far preferable for this purpose. 



Various ether plants are employed for the 

 same purpose, such as oats, Hungarian grass, 

 rye, clover, &c. One among them, and of 

 great merit, is millet. 



There are several varieties of millet, but in 

 this connection we shall speak of only one, 

 the "common millet," such as has been culti- 

 vated in New England for many years. It 

 rises with a reed-like channeled stalk, from 



