374 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



CATTLE. 



Few people arc aware that it is nearly as easy to 

 alter the frame ol' our cattle as it is to alter the style 

 of our dwellings. John Bull, for instance, has gone 

 on to improving his oxen until he has got a breed 

 almost without legs. From the returns of the last 

 census, it is safe to say that 1,000,000 cows are now 

 milked in this state, which are supposed to yield 

 about .s20 per head. To improve these up to an 

 average annual product of $31 each, (that is, to one 

 half what the best large dairies in the country now 

 yield,) would add ,$12,000,000 to the income of the 

 citizens of a single state. This gain, by the improve- 

 ment of one kind of rural machinery, would be 

 equivalent to creating a capital of $200,"000,000, and 

 placing the money where it would yield over six per 

 cent, interest in perpetuity. If the thirty millions 

 of sheep in the United States gave as good returns 

 in wool for the food consumed as the best hundred 

 thousand now do, it would add at least sixty million 

 pounds to the annual clip of this important staple 

 There are not far from six million horses and mules 

 in the United States ; and it is not too much to say, 

 that iu a few generations these animals may be im- 

 proved full $30 a head on an average. If so, the 

 gain by this increase of muscular power, and its 

 greater durability, will be $180,000,000. If we 

 study critically the machinery for converting grass, 

 roots, and gn-in into beef and pork, the difference is 

 found to be still more striking. If the facts relating 

 to this subject were spread before the people, great 

 improvement would soon follow, and all classes share 

 equally in the profits of more productive labor. — 

 Albany Knickerbocker, 



THE GUINEA HEN. 



The Guinea hen, or Pentado, is near an everlasting 

 layer. They are said to unite the properties of the 

 turkey and the pheasant. They are a native of Af- 

 rica, though said by some to belong equally to this 

 country, and are easily domesticated. Its flesh is 

 more like that of the pheasant than the common 

 fowl, both in color and taste, and is reckoned a very 

 good substitute for that bird. It assimilates perfectly 

 ■with the common fowl in its artificial habits and 

 kinds of food. Its gait is peculiar, as are also its 

 cries. They are fond of marshy places — always 

 perch during the night in high situations or on 

 trees. It is a little singular that American farmers 

 do not turn their attention to these fowls. A know- 

 ing Jcrscyman, named David Bonner, from England, 

 hired a patch of five acres four years ago, and com- 

 menced raising eggs for the New York market. — 

 Bonner has never hired any help, and at this moment 

 owns a farm, for which he paid $ 4700, of which the 

 buildings cost over $3000. His farm is all paid for, 

 he owes not a cent in the world, and he owns a flock 

 ■which varies from 800 to 1200 Guinea hens. — tiuf- 

 folk Donocrat. 



PLANTING TREES. 



The most remarkable, if not the most culpable 

 neglect — that which indicates an imamiable and 

 uncultivated, as well as an improvident nature — is 

 the omission, on the part of gentlemen in the coun- 

 try, to plant trees about their homesteads, for shade 

 and ornament, if not for fruit and profit. Let any 

 one who would be convinced how easy it would be 

 to provide, iu a few years, even in the most exposed 

 and barren situations, all the beauty and luxury of a 

 Ratural fonsl, only walk as fai- as the Lunatic Asy- 



lum, between Spruce and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, 

 and see how thriving is every one of the handsome 

 trees so thoughtfully planted out there last autumn, 

 at the instance of Mr. Cresson, in anticipation of the 

 failure, some years hence, of the old sycamores. The 

 work is only to be once well done, and the trees -well 

 protected, and then they may be left to endure for- 

 evci^, as monuments of the good taste of the planter, 

 transmitting his memory with gratitude to posterity. 

 AVe remember now, at the moment of scribbling 

 this hasty but earnest exhortation to all young friends 

 to plant trees, — maples, horsechestnuts, locusts, lin- 

 den-trees, (any thing but Lombardy poplars,) — that 

 there is in the garden, near the house at Douraghn 

 Manor, Maryland, the classic residence of the late 

 venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a weeping- 

 willow, stately and graceful, like her who placed it 

 when a child, that will always be associated with the 

 name of Mrs. Caton. How much more are such 

 memorials to be coveted, than monuments stained 

 with blood, and cemented with the tears of the 

 widow and the orphan! — The Flou(/h, Loom, and 

 Anvil, 



RYE-WHEAT. 



"\\'e received, several days since, from Mr. B. F. S. 

 Griffin, of West Newbury, a bag of the most beau- 

 tiful white rye we have ever seen, and, since then, 

 have fully tried its value. Served up at the table in 

 the form of pancakes, it is food fit for the table of a 

 queen, and nutritious and healthful far beyond any 

 preparations of wheat flour. It is well known that 

 the northern nations of Europe, even the Germans, 

 subsist principally on rye, making comparatively but 

 a limited use of wheat and potatoes. We have often 

 thought, in view of the poor, dark-colored rye which 

 is seen in this country, that they were to be pitied 

 for the coarse and hard fare upon which they fed, 

 although it might be pronounced wholesome food. 

 If, however, they have an article of rye any thing to 

 be compared to that which Mr. Griffin has produced, 

 our ej^icures may envy rather than pity them. Mr. 

 Griffin has been quite successful in growing wheat 

 and rye. He informs us that he has measured his 

 wheat, and found the product fifteen bushels to one 

 bushel of sowing, or at the rate of thirty bushels to 

 the acre. His rye produced twelve bushels to one 

 bushel sown. 



The potato fails us so frequentl}', that our Ne^wr 

 England farms are in danger of becoming sadly de- 

 jireciated in value, unless some improvements in 

 husbandry are adopted. We are strong in the belief 

 that it is time for our farmers to bestir themselves in 

 this matter, and pay less attention to the potato, and 

 more to other substitutes for food. We learn that 

 many of them are about to sow wheat this season. — 

 We do not see why this section of the country can- 

 not grow wheat as well as the old lands of Europe, 

 which have been laid down to it for many genera- 

 tions. Let the experiment be tried, and liberal re- 

 wards offered for those who succeed best in keeping 

 off the rust and the weevil, its two great enemies. 

 If wheat fails, then why not try rye, barley, and 

 buckwheat, as a substitute for the potato r In Penn- 

 sylvania, Western New York, and Ohio, on the best 

 wheat land in the country, the farmers use only a 

 limited quantity of their own wheat, and grow fat 

 and hearty on rye and buckwheat a!id barley cakes. 

 All that we need is, that the farmers should under- 

 stand the cultivation, the millers the preparation, and 

 the girls become adepts in cooking these, to supply 

 our tallies with more nourishing and healthful food 

 than wc now have. We do not know but the potato 

 rot may be sent to save mea from indolence iu Itie 



