150 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



FRIDAY, DECEMBE R 3, Iti2 4. 



0:5=Our iriends ia Newburyport and its viciuity are 

 informed that Mr Ebenezer Stedmabt, Bookseller, 

 of Newburyport, has been appointed Agent for the 

 New England Farmer, and is authorized to receive 

 subscription?, moneys, &c. on our account. 



0:5= We are again under the necessity of cautioning our 

 friends in Maine, agfiinst paying any moneys to trav- 

 elling agents. JV» ;>eriore M7io(fi'e?' is authorized to 

 receive moneys on our account, except M.S.JirDKiNS 

 Esq. of Castine, — H, Little, Esq. ofBucksport, — L. 

 Jarvis, Esq. of Ellsworth. — and A. Bctterfif.i.d, 

 Esq. of Machias. (A certain Mr Jlnws is nol an 

 authorized agent.) If, after these repeated notices, 

 subscribers pay pretended agents, they do it at the 

 risk of being called upon again for payment by the 

 publisher. 



jF.irmrr's €alrnU.tr. 



It is quite time to be on the look out for cold 

 weather, as it will assuredly make you a visita- 

 tion about this time, as (lie almanac-makers 

 phrase it. We apprehend that what is called 

 the Indian summer is near a close. Gener.il Bo- 

 reas is reviewing; his airy force.', and has already 

 issued orders for a general attack on the North- 

 ern States. You will, therefore, barricade your 

 buildings against the intrusions of tbat person- 

 age, and his retinue, and secure good winter 

 quarters for yourself, your family and domestics, 

 Hot forgetting your cattle, sheep, sivine, and 

 poultry. Your cellars, and other repositories 

 of provisions for man and beast, should, you 

 know, be rendered proof against frost by bank- 

 ing them up with earth, chip manure, or what 

 is still better, spent tan. Next to a scolding 

 wife, and a smoking chimney, a freezing cellar 

 is to be deprecated. Indeed, we are not pre- 

 pared to assert that the last is not the greatest 

 evil of the three. And now, while we are 

 speaking of cellars, we will mention a mode of 

 obviating the dangers arising from the sudden, 

 or frequent breathing of the damp and vitiated 

 air often generated in cellars, which sometimes 

 creates fevers, without their cause being sus- 

 pected. Open a channel of communication be- 

 tween your cellar and the principal chimney of 

 your house, and where there are more cellais 

 than one, make a communication between them, 

 by means of an opening over or near the doors 

 and neiit the ceiling, three feet long, and one foot 

 deep. Parallel iron bars may be placed in the 

 openings. By this means tlia cellar may he 

 continually ventilated, so as to expel the damp 

 and noxious vapours, which are usually collect- 

 ed in thctn ; while the draught of the chimnc}' 

 is in a considerable degree promoted.* 



We should imagine that a tin or sheet iron 

 tube leading fiom a cellar, and entering the 

 chimney at a considerable distance above the 



* See Willirh's Domeslio En'^ynlnpeili;!, Art,. Cellar. 



fire-place, might form a convenient channel of 

 communication, and keep a cellar alivays venli- 

 lati'd. And we see no reason why bed rooms 

 and other apartments may not be ventilated by 

 similar means, provided that the end of the tube 

 which projects into the apartment to be venti- 

 lated, be closed with a perforated plate, which 

 will admit air, and exclude any sp.uks from the 

 chimney. A contrivance of this nature would 

 answer a valuable purpose, even when there 

 was no fire in the chimney, though its operation 

 would, in that case, be less effective. 



You will likewise turn your attention to your 

 stalls, stables, racks, &c. for your cattle. Your 

 stables should be enclosed in such n manner as 

 to defend the beasts from wmcis and storms ; bul 

 should not be too warm, lest it make them ten- 

 der, and liable to be (lisordered when exposed 

 to the weather. " Slables for horses, (says Judge 

 Peters of Pennsylvania) should not be too close. 

 Diseases are generated by confined air ; — and 

 horses kept too warm cannot safely encounter 

 cold and wet " Col. Poweli, of the same state, 

 a very scientific as well as practical agricullur- 

 ist, says, '• It is scarcely possible in this state, 

 where the changes of climate are sudden and 

 severe, to guard I'arm stock from sufTeriiig, when 

 they are made warm throughout the night, and 

 necessarily left exposed to '.he pelting of storms 

 during part of the day. i am convinced that 

 milch cows, and very young calves, require pro- 

 tection from cold. All other cattle, if guarded 

 from wet, and currents of wind, feed with more 

 appetite, digest with more case, work \vith more 

 vigour, and encounter accidental exposure with 

 less danger of harm, than if they be confined 

 within thick stone walls, inhaling an impure at- 

 mosphere, iVom which by the instinct of nature, 

 if not thwarted by the ill-judged contrivance ot 

 man, they would lly."* Col. Powell however, 

 in this pas.^age, adverted to the barns of Penn- 

 sylvania, which the German population of that 

 stale usually build wilh stone, the walls very 

 thick, and the buildings " as tight as a bottle." 

 Our New F.ngU-.nd barns have generally cracks 

 and air holes enough, (and some to spare) to 

 serve all the puriioses of ventilation. It is well 

 enough, hosvevei for our culiivators to recollect 

 that ourcattle and horses will breathe with more 

 convenience and advantage in fresh than in foul 

 air, and that they can overdo the business of mak- 

 ing their cattle comfortable in cold weather. — 

 In case a great many cattle are housed in the 

 same bnilding, and if it is apprehended that the 

 air is liable to be vitiated by their breath, efflu- 

 via, &,c. a few small augur holes bored in oppo- 

 site sides, a liitle higher than the heads of the 

 animals, will promote the circulation of air, anil 

 not admit snow or rain in such quantities as to 

 be injurious. 



You will likewise bear in mind that light is 

 of Same importance to yeur doiricslic animal?, 

 especially to horses ; and Dr Deane directs that 

 some of the windows of stabiles be made of "lass. 

 It is also important to adopt proper methods foe 

 preserving liquid manure, the stale of your an- 

 imals, &iC. by methods suggested by your own 

 ingenuity, or by such as are described in our 

 1st vol. [lages 44 and 219. 



The Report of the Committee of the Essex Ji^-- 

 ricuhurul Society, appointed to examine the 

 farms for which premiums were claimed, &c. 

 which we have given in this day's paper, will 

 he found highly worthy the attention of every 

 cultivator. It gives a [irecedent, which we 

 hope will be imitated by Agricultural .Societies 

 generally, and contains important information 

 relative to the manner in which similar exami- 

 nations may be well performed and correctly 

 described. Reviews of this kind not vJ.y open 

 new inlets for the acquisition of knowledge ia 

 husbandry, but form very powerful incentives 

 to improvement in every branch of rural econ- 

 omy. By such means eslablished errors may 

 be exposed and avoided, ar'l improved modes 

 of cultivation, sanctioned by successful experi- 

 ments, introduced wilh a fair prospect of their 

 general adoption. Culiivators, anticip.iling the 

 inspection of well qualified judges, will be ac- 

 tuated by the strongest motives to excel in their 

 occupations. Every farmer will i'eel that not 

 only the eyes of his neighbours, but the atten- 

 tion of an enlightened community is fixed on 

 Inm and his operations; and conscious that not 

 only wealth but repulalion will reward his skill 

 and industry, he will rightly appreciate the im- 

 portance of his vocation, and exert every facul- 

 ty of mind and body to " act well the part 

 where honour lies." 



* So*, fnrlhpr, N. 11 Farmer, vol. ii. page 141. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE IVEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Worcester, J\"ov. 29, 1824. 

 Dear Sib, — You may probably recollect that 

 in a late discus-ion in your paper, on the supe- 

 rior value of (lie Bediord or English breed of 

 Hogs, 1 stated my belief that 1 should be able 

 from my ou'n stock to corroborate the evidence 

 I had adduced in their favour. On the l.jth 

 inst. I sold to a gentleman in Ihis town tor Bos- 

 ton market, two o( this clear breed, — one weigh- 

 ing at 2 years old 551 lbs. the other 447 lbs; — 

 This last was the mother of the Ibrmer, and of 

 one fattened by Maj. Burt last year, which 

 weighed at the satrie age 573 ib's. 



These Hogs were particularly commended at 

 our late Cattle Show. From the certificate of 

 'my man, who tended them, it appears that Ihey 

 j were not fed willi a vie<» to t':it(ening tbcm, un- 

 til the first week in Seplemlier. By moderate 

 kecpino;, they were then in high order. They 

 were led IVom tlip field .so long as the corn was 

 soft. After uhicb they bad cq'cal parls of corn 

 an<l oats, in the liu'in of pToveiuler, three limes 

 per duj , with a few ears of corn in the interim. 



