166 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEIIIBER 5, 183a. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DEC. 5, 1832. 



TO THE PUBLiIC. 



The Subscriber, on account of his impaired 

 liealth, has sold out his interest in the New 

 England Farmer, and general Agricultural and 

 Seed business to his late clerk, Mr. George C. 

 Barrett. The Farmer will continue under the 

 direction of Mr. Fessenden, be published in the 

 same superior style that it has been the last two 

 weeks, and no exertions will be spared to render 

 it worthy of the distinguished support it has so 

 long received. 



To the friends of this Establishment the sub- 

 scriber returns thanks for the patronage so long 

 bestowed on him ; and trusts that it will be contin- 

 ued to his successor, who brings health, activity, 

 and a perfect acquaintance with the business 

 to the task. J. B. RUSSELL. 



Boston, Dec. 4, 183-2. 



05^ In consequence of the above change in 

 the business it is necessary that all accounts for 

 seeds, trees, &c. should be immediately adjusted. 

 Mr. Barrett is authorized to settle the same. 

 Persons indebted to the Establishment will please 

 take notice of the above. 



FARMER'S AVORK FOR DECEMBER. 



No farmer, who carries on b\isiness on a large 

 scale, ought to be without a Steani B6ilei-, es- 

 pecially if he feeds cattle, as well as swine, with 

 roots. This may bo cheaply made by setting a 

 kettle, holding about ten or twelve gallons, in a 

 fin-nace of brick or stone, and over this a hogshead, 

 with one head taken out, and the other bo)-ed full 

 of holes, which is set so close that the steam of 

 llie kettle, when boiling, can only rise through the 

 holes, and thence ascend among the articleB to be 

 steamed in the hogshead and pass off at tie top. 

 In this way a hogshead of roots may be coolid at a 

 very small expense. The kettle should be so closed 

 as to prevent any steam from passing of" but 

 tlirough the bottom of the liogshead, and of 

 course a pipe or tube should be set on one|side, 

 through which, with the aid of a funnel, the water 

 may be poured as occasion reipiires. As soon as 

 the water has been j)oured in, the tube shouli be 

 stopped with a plug made for that pui-ppse. 

 When grain is steamed it will be necessary to coyer 

 the bottom with a cloth to prevent the grain from 

 running through the holes in the hogshead over 

 the boiler. 



Judge Buel, of Albany, however, prefers boiling 

 to steaming food for swuie, and a description of 

 his appai-atus for that purpose may be seen in the 

 New England Farmer, vol. x. p. 121. It is some- 

 times most convenient and economical to cook 

 food for domestic animals on whiter evenings 

 over a kitchen tire, and in that case little or no 

 extra fuel need to " be consumed to prepare food 

 for that purpose. 



Cattle. When young animals are pinched for 

 food at an early part of their growth, or fed on 

 such as is not of a quality sufficiently nutritious, 

 they never thrive so well afterwards, nor make 

 so good stock. You will, therefore, do well to 

 keep your last spriug calves by themselves, and 

 give them food of a somewhat better quality than 

 you may think proper to afford your other stock. 



It is of great importance that your barn yard 

 should be ])rovided with pure and wholesome 

 water, especially if the winter food of your cattle 

 consists chiefly, or altogether of hay, straw or 

 other dry fodder. It has been ascertained that a 

 bullock, with water at command, will drink of it no 

 less than eight times a day. Cattle, which are 

 obliged to wander away to some distance from the 

 yard to water, through deep snow and slippery 

 paths, exposed to be harassed by dogs, and gored 

 by each other, and by neighboring cattle, suffer 

 more than is imagined. Nor is this all, rather 

 than adventure on such a pilgrimage, they, gener- 

 ally, stay in and about the yard, or loiter along tlie 

 highway, and injure themselves by eating snow, 

 which chills them, and too often is the cause of 

 horn distemper, a disease brought on by poor keep- 

 ing. You likewise lose a great part of their 

 manure as well as thrift. Besides, unless you 

 furnish some escort to your cattle, while on their 

 way to water, you must leave the barn yard bars 

 down, or gate o])en, that the animals may "wend 

 their weary way" to some pool or slough, which 

 they find, perhaps, almost as inaccessible as the 

 cave of Eolus, or tlie centre of gravity. It is 



Mr. Lorain has the following remarks on this 

 subject. " Salt appears to be actually necessary 

 to domestic animals, if their stomachs have been 

 long habituated to it, nmch like whiskey or brandy 

 to us, or opium to a Turk ; therefore it seems 

 best for a farmer to give it to them ; especially if 

 he is fattening them. 



" When hay has been badly cured, or when it 

 is rough, spongy and light, or when cattle, horses 

 or sheep, are kept on any ordinary food, which 

 nothing but necessity can justify giving to them 

 Salting such food induces them to cat more freely 

 of it : consequently in cases of this kind, salt is both 

 useful and economical. It is also useful when 

 cattle reject good food because they have not been 

 accustomed to it. This has several times occurred 

 in the course of my practice. They have also re- 

 jected with me food that they had formerly been 

 accustomed to, but had not eaten for some time 

 previously to its being refused by them. Last fall 

 when I commenced feeding with dried fodder, 

 the com tops and husks were rejected by a pair of 

 oxen, until it appeared that they would prefer 

 starving to eating them. 



" I do not allow salt to be given to any of my 

 live stock except those which have l)een long used 

 to it, or as medicine, or to promote an appetite on 

 particular occasions. As soon as some brine made 

 for tlie pm-pose was sprinkled over the fodder, the 

 oxen ate freely of it, and became so well recon- 

 ciled to it, that notwithstandmg the sprinkling of 

 brine was omitted in the course of three or four 

 {lays, they have continued to feed as freely on the 



therefore nmch more eligible, generally sjieakuig, l"p8 and husks through the winter as they do on 



to take water to cattle in a barn yard, than to take 

 cattle to water. 



Salt for Cattle. One would think from the re- 

 marks of foreign writers on agriculture that salt 

 as an ingredient in the food of domestic animals 

 was quite a rarity, and of late introduction. Sir 

 John Sinclair mentions it as something remarka- 

 able that " in America salt is given to cows, oxen, 

 horses, and to sheep,but not to pigs." He also says 

 that hunps of rock-salt might be kept in troughs, 

 protected against the effects of rain in the fields, by 

 covers but accesssible to sheep or cattle." A patent 

 has been obtained in England, by I\Iessrs. Martin 

 and Co., for a peculiar mode of preparing salt in 

 large cakes, by which it is rendered less liable to 

 melt and waste by rain than common salt. It is 

 recommended, by the same writer, to allow calves, 

 especially, to have constant access to fine salt, to 

 be kept in a trough near them, sejiarate from their 

 other food. He svipposes that it prevents and cures 

 the rot and flukes in sheep ; and prevents inj ury to 

 stock by moist food. Likewise when horses are 

 afflicted Avith salivation, or a running of saliva 

 from their mouths salt will mitigate if not cure 

 the complaint. But we doubt whether cattle or 

 sheep ought to be suffered to have at all times 

 access to as much salt as they will consume, for 

 reasons hereafter expressed. 



ood hay ; which is never given to them except 

 when they happen to be working at a distance 

 from the farm." 



This writer, accorduig to the tenor of some sub- 

 sequent observations, considers the liabitual use of 

 salt, may render its occasional use of the less 

 value ; and concludes his observations on this sub- 

 ject with the followmg suggestion : — 



" If the farmer will omit salting a part of liis 

 younger live stock, and salt the remainder, as 

 usual, he may readily determine how he ought to 

 act. As this experiment will cost him neither 

 labor nor money, he cannot err widely by giving 

 it a fair and im])artial trial." 



Our readers will recollect a communication for 

 the New England Farmer, published in vol. x. p. 

 268, written by John Prince, Esq. of Roxbury. 

 In this, that worthy aiul intelligent agriculturist, 

 .states that he had lost valuable shee]), and had 

 formerly supposed that the cause of his loss was 

 their eating the leaves of the wild cherry. But 

 circumstances there detailed led him to suspect 

 that his losses might have been caused by a too 

 free use of salt. They had salt at all times to go 

 to ; and by watching, it was found as soon as the 

 sheep had eaten salt they immediately went to 

 drink, and the supposed consequences were sick- 

 ness and death among them. "For about six 

 years," he contmues, " I have furnished the miner- 



