1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



565 



A GOOD FARM MAKES GOOD STOCK. 



OME one has said "the 

 character of the stock on 

 a farm depends essen- 

 tially upon the cultiva- 

 "•;^"--\ t'°" '^^^ condition of the 

 ^s^g soil." Grass is not only 

 the natural food but the 

 best food for stock. The 

 better the grass, the more I 

 nourishment does it con- 

 tain. When grass is 

 coarse and sour and full 

 of weeds, a great quantity of it must be 

 consumed to obtain a little nutriment. The 

 animal must go through the labor of digesting 

 a large bulk to gain a small result ; whereas 

 if the grass is sweet and free from all foreign 

 admixtures, the nourishment is concentrated, 

 and a small quantity of it contains more nutri- 

 ment than can be extracted from a large 

 amount of bushes and weeds. 



The success of the breeders of good stock 

 generally depends upon the quality of the 

 grass grown upon the firm, quite as much as 

 upon blood and skill. A gentleman purchased 

 a fine cow, remarkable for the quantity and 

 quality of her milk, and took her to his home, 

 where she soon fell oiF in the quantity of her 

 product. When he complained that she did 

 not sustain her reputation, her former owner 

 replied, "When I sold you my cow, I did not 

 sell you my pastures." 



When we read in the papers accounts of 

 the sale to the butcher of fine three-year-old 

 steers, or two-year-old heifers, at a high 

 price, we consider it evidence not only of good 

 blood, possessing early fattening qualities, but 

 also of good soil, well cultivated. The John 

 sons, the Lathrops, the Chenerys, the Mor- 

 risses and other celebrated breeders, all raise 

 good hay, on a clean soil, and cut it and put 

 it into their barns while it still retains the qual- 

 ities of grass. 



Fifteen or twenty pounds of butter a week, 

 not only prove the superior character of a cow, 

 but also that she is kept on a good soil, well 

 cultivated. For we hold it impossible to bring 

 a cow up to the condition in which she will 

 yield such an amount by any other means. 



Grain may be given for a short time to fin- 

 ish off a fattening animal, but it will not secure 

 the necessary conditions of health and growth. 

 These can be obtained only by good grass and 



hay. So when a cow has been brought up to 

 the condition in which she will yield a large 

 quantity of butter by good giass and hay, the 

 quantity may be increased by corn and oil 

 meal for a short time, but this forcing process 

 cannot be continued with safety. 



Farmers have a lesson to learn in these re- 

 spects. Experience and observation are the 

 best teachers. 



If a farmer wishes to keep or breed first rate 

 stock he must begin by putting his pastures 

 and mowing fields in first rate condition. It ia 

 a waste of capital to buy expensive animals 

 and undertake to keep them upon poor pas- 

 tures or poor hay. To attempt to make up 

 the difference by feeding upon grain will take 

 off all the profit, and the animals will inevita- 

 bly deteriorate. There is no food that can be 

 profitably substituted, in the long run, for grass 

 and hay. Feeding upon large quantities of 

 coarse food will injure their forms and change 

 their characters. Feeding largely upon grain 

 and concentrated food will injure their health 

 and capacity for breeding. Milch cows fed 

 chiefly upon good grass and hay will often do 

 good service till they are twelve or sixteen 

 J ears old. T. e cows in the city stables rarely 

 last through the second year, fed as they are 

 upon brewers' grain, and distillery-house slop. 



A well- drained, well- worked soil will make 

 good hay, and ro other soil will doit. Until, 

 then, the soil is in this condition, the best re- 

 sults, either in dairy products or in beef, can- 

 not be reached. 



The Small Fruit Business.— Instances in 

 which great profits have been made under favora- 

 ble circumstances by raising small fruits, berries, 

 and other special crops, have ofien been published. 

 Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries have paid 

 from two to bix hundred dollars per acre per year. 

 New Jersey and the Western part of Michigan are 

 localities of which great stories have been told. 

 P. S. Linderman of South Haven, Mich., presents 

 a view of the other side of the subject in the 

 Western Rural. He shipped 12 crates, 192 quarts 

 of LawtQns to Chicago. Freights, truckage, com- 

 mission and crates cost #7.55 ; the berries sold for 

 $12 64; leaving §'5.09, or 2 cts. 6.^ mills per quart 

 for picking, shipping, postage, &c., to say nothing 

 of raising, capital invested, &c. He tried a patch 

 of strawberries, but had ploughed them up. Ona 

 of his neighbors had one and one-half acres; he 

 tried them two years and has ploughed up most of 

 them. His only object, he says, in confessing 

 these failures is to caution those not acquainted 

 with the berry business to "make haste slowly," 



