1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



335 



The stock wintered the past season is two 

 large, blooded, breeding mares ; one fifteen 

 hands high, stud colt ; four Ayrshire cows ; 

 two large two-year-old heifers and five year- 

 lings — fully equal to thirteen cows, besides 

 poultry. Dried dirt, India wheat hulls, saw- 

 dust, leaves and refuse straw is plentifully 

 used for bedding ia stables where the excre- 

 ments don't freeze in the coldest weather. 



Our house being commodious and near the 

 Normal School, we rent some rooms, not 

 needed by our family of eight, to self-board- 

 ing scholars, to the amount of $150 to $225 a 

 year. 



Now as partially answering K. S. D.'s last 

 query, I will mention that the hay, corn, pas- 

 turing of three acres and fall feeil, oats, India 

 wheat, English wheat, barley, apples, potatoes, 

 turnips, corn fodder and straw, pumpkins, gar- 

 den sauce, berries, &c., which we have raised 

 the last season would have sold at market pri- 

 ces for ($1001 47) ten hundred and one dol- 

 lars forty-seven cents, and the stock, butter, 

 eggs, milk, and poultry sold, and $150 student's 

 rent, amounts to ($950.00) nine hundred and 

 fifty dollars, — leaving the stock worth more 

 than it was a year ago. 



I have found that good stock, careful and 

 rational feeding, comfortable quarters, 'pay 

 better than the reverse ! Herd-book calves, 

 e. g., at three days old, readily sell for twenty- 

 five to one hundred times more than "scrubs," 

 or no breed. A four-year-old heifer has 

 just dropped her third calf. Her two former 

 calves brought me $161.00! One cow has 

 made over ten pounds best butter per week, 

 for three and a half months past ; and my mares 

 average me about $100, each, per year, by sell- 

 ing their colts at weaning time, besides work- 

 ing on the farm, road and tread-wheel, full 

 enough to pay for their keeping, &c. Good 

 butter, too, not only sells for a higher price, 

 but is always in demand. 



1 have also discovered that whenever any 

 man has anything to s-ell, it is a good plan to 

 let it be ^■/^02c?^ .' / Rai e extra good stock, 

 and then take it to the Fairs, and show it; — so 

 also of all farm produce — and there will be 

 found no lack of customers. 



Cut not less than two tons of extra good 

 hay per acre, and cut it early, before timothy 

 is in blossom, when it takes less poioer to cut 

 it and it makes better hay. Keep it well aired 

 with the "American Hay Tedder," (which will 

 save the labor of eight or ten hands) ; rake it 

 with "Warner's Revolving, Sulky Rake," and 

 put it into the barn, in the best of order, the 

 same day it is cut. Use only the best of all 

 farm implements ; raise the best of all farm 

 products, and then sell them for the highest 

 prices. Keep well posted as to market prices, 

 not only at the East, but as the Western prices 

 affect the Eastern, know aLo the Western. 

 Have the best fan-mill and separator and 

 prepare your best wheat, oats, &c., for seed, 

 and sell it for 25 to 50 per cent, extra price. 



As my sheet is full, I will only add that my 

 buildings and yards occupy the twenty-third 

 acre, so that the crops are from only twenty- 

 two acres ; — that half the labor of one man 

 and a horse will easily do all the work, if well 

 bossed, — (1 have hired it all done two seasons 

 for $70 each, the man finding team and tools) 

 — and that if K. S. D. or any other man, 

 wants more particulars, I shall be happy to 

 receive a call from him, and will do him all 

 the good I can, and get all from him possible ! 



R. Nutting. 



Randolph, Vt., May 17, 18G9. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CUBING GRASS. OR DRYING HAY. 



The idea has become somewhat prevalent 

 that grass after being cut can be dried so much 

 in the sun as to injure its nutritive value. 

 Some claim that drying darkens its color, 

 breaks off the leaves and turns the stock to 

 wood, and the better way would be to par- 

 tially dry the grass, store it in the barn and 

 put on salt and lime for a preservative. This 

 may be true ; still, it is usually safe to exam- 

 ine the reasons or causes of results, espe- 

 cially if such results are contrary to our or- 

 dinary observation. I believe that the quicker 

 and more completely grass is dried the better, 

 and that the sun has no damaging effV-ct upon it. 



In the summer of 1868, I took a handful of 

 clover, whirh is the most difficult of all grasses 

 to cure, and hung it in the sun during the day 

 on a post by the side of the house, and at 

 night removed it so that no dew could fall 

 upon it. After several days its color in blos- 

 som and leaf was quite fresh and green, and on 

 chewing leaf or stalk there was the same taste 

 as in freshly plucked clover. The sun did not 

 injure this sample. 



Then if we consider the ingredients of 

 grass, as given in an article in Hall's Journal 

 of Chemistry, — gluten, sugar and starch — are 

 any of these substances injured by drying? 

 Jn making maple sugar in warm days in spring 

 the sap and syrup speedily sour if exposed to 

 the air, and the sugar is better if the evapora- 

 tion of the water is < ffected quickly. In mak- 

 ing vinegar from maple sap or cider, the pro- 

 cess is accelerated by its exposure to the air 

 in small quantiti' s, as by filtering through a 

 barrel of shavings. So in wilted grass, the 

 diluted sugar is not only liable to sour, but 

 does so.ir, when lajing through a warm night 

 saturated with dew. 



If we take the constituents of grass as they 

 exist, in a more concentrated form, in corn, 

 wheat or barley, and pack them in a partially 

 dried state, as hay ^s often packed, and allow 

 them to ferment and steam as hay is allowed 

 to do, the gluten, starch and sugar are speed- 

 ily so changed as to .^puil the grain for food. 

 If the housekeeper uses meal from such dam- 

 aged grain, she may prepare it for food, but 

 those who partake of it will detect the 



