123 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



the .agency of reading, thinking, jjractical, matter 

 of fact men. It is the practice and experience of 

 such men that I solicit through your paper. And 

 in the mean time I may offer some remarks of a 

 practical nature for publication on this subject. 

 Bristol, Ct., Jan., 1855. C. Blakely. 



Remarks. — ^Thank you, sir. You are undoubt- 

 edly able to teach most of us in potato culture. 

 At a recent meeting of the "Concord Farmers' 

 Club" the subject of potato culture was pretty 

 fully discussed, and we believe all the practices to 

 whicli you have alluded were acknowledged to be 

 in use among the speakers. No persons, however, 

 produce finer crops than these gentlemen, and 

 scarcely any two cultivate alike. They all agreed, 

 however, in one thing, viz : that small potatoes 

 (not the smallest) or large ones cut are better for 

 seed than large whole ones. Please write us 

 often. 



FoT the New England Farmer. 



A GOOD COW. 



Friend Brown : — Much has been said about 

 j\Iackey, Berkshire and Suffolk iiogs, and about 

 Durham, Devon, Ayrshire, llerofurd and Alder- 

 ney cows. All of these have had their day, .and 

 all have moi'e or less. good qualities. I admire a 

 good hog or a good cow, let their h-ccd be what it 

 may. 



But have not the foreign breeds had the parlor 

 long enough, while the natives haee been shoved 

 into the back-room ? For thirty-six years I have 

 been trying to produce the best heifer in the world 

 for dairy use, both by raising and selecting from 

 other herds the best I could find, without regard 

 to name or breed, always raising my own bull 

 from my best cow. The best heifer I ever owned 

 1 sold to 1). D. Hart, Esq., Ticket-master at Bos- 

 ton and Lowell Railroad Dej^ot, Boston. 



I now have a heifer, two years old last spring. 

 She dropped her calf on the 23d of December last, 

 making the calf eight days old at the end of the 

 year. 



On the morning of the new year, we com- 

 menced milking her, and weighing the milk, and 

 making butter, which proved as follows : 



QUANTITY OF MILK. 



First Week. Second Week. Third Week. 



Lb. oz. Lb. 02. Lb. oz. 



January 1, 26 8 January 8, 27 12 January 15, 25 4 



January 2, 26 January 9, 27 January 16, 25 12 



January 3, 27 4 January 10, 27 8 J.anuary 17, 26 



January 4, 23 January 11, 26 8 January 13, 26 12 



January 5, 27 8 - January 12, 26 4 January 19, 29 



January 6, 27 4 January 13, 26 4 January 20, 25 12 



January 7, 24 13 January 14, 24 12 January 21, 24 



Total, 182 00 Total, 186 00 Total, 182 8 



550 8 

 QUANTITy OP BUTTER. 



First week 8i lbs. 



Second week 91 Uis. 



Third week 9| lbs. 



Total 27i 



The quantity of butter produced by her, the 

 first three weeks of January, I consider equal to 

 14 lbs. per week in June, provided she had calved 

 n May. Her recommendation is this ; if any 



man will bring to my stable, this winter, a heifer 

 of the same age, that dropped her calf about the 

 same time, of any breed, born in any part of the 

 world, and let them be f.'d and milked just alike 

 by one disinterested person, to be agreed upon by 

 the parties, the owner of the heifer that produces 

 the most butter in one month shall take both heif- 

 ers. Her breed I caW ''Impj'oved Lonf/'livcd Na- 

 \tive American,''^ springing from a race living and 

 ' doing well to the age of twenty-five years. The 

 [present owner of the mother of this heifer, (a 

 gentleman whose word I have not the least reason 

 to doubt, from all the transactions I have ever 

 had with him,) the last time I saw him, stated to 

 me that the mother of the heifer gave him 18 lbs. 

 of butter per week, each and every week, in the 

 month of June, last season. If any gentleman 

 should see fit to call .and examine this heifer, 1 

 would caution him not to be surprised if she pro- 

 duces more pounds of milk, in the mouth of Jan- 

 uary, than she weighs herself. 



Asa G. Sueldon. 

 Wilmington, Jan.2A, 1855. 



AGEICULTUKAL SOCIETIES. 

 Hampshire County. 

 Prc.sidc7it — William P. Dickinson, Hadloy. 

 Vice Presidents — Horace Henderson, Sunder- 

 land ; Cotton Smith, Amherst; George Chand- 

 ler, Belchertown ; x\lden C. Field, Leverett ; Ez- 

 ra Ingraham Amherst ; Rodney Ayres, Gran by. 

 Secretary and Treasurer — James W. Boydeu, 

 Amherst. 



Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin. 



At the meeting of this Society, held in North- 

 ampton, Jan. 3d, the following officers were 

 elected for the coming year : — 



Paoli Lathrop, of South H.adley, President ; 

 for Vice Presidents, Ahira Jjyman, Westhampton ; 

 Chas. Fowler, Westfield ; George Dickinson, H.ad- 

 ley ; Wm. N. Clapp, Easthampton. For Treas- 

 urer, Benj. Barret, Northaihpton ; for Secretary, 

 John W. Wilson, Westhampton ; Auditor, L. 

 I. AVashburn, Northampton ; for member of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, George W. Hubbard, 

 of Hatfield. 



Hampden County. 



For President — Francis Brewer, of Sjjringfield. 



A. A. Allen, Secretary and Treasurer. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WEIGHT OF BONES IE AHIMALS. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to inquire if you, or any 

 of your correspondents versed in animal physi- 

 ology, can give the general average proj^ortion 

 which the bones of different animals bear to the 

 whole weiglit of the animal. 1 have hitherto 

 sought in vain for the fact in various works on 

 Physiology ; and if the subject comes within the 

 domain of inquiries of interset to the agricul- 

 tural community, 1 should be glad to learn the 

 general fact ; for it is not to be presumed that 

 the question is one that can be answered very 

 definitely, because the relative proportion must 

 vary vei'y much at different times, even in the 

 same animal.. Yours, &c., 



Worcester, Feb. 5, 1855. Phineas Ball. 



