284 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



majority of articles of consumption have advanced 

 at a frigiitfiil rate from tlie average prices tiien 

 quoted. Breadstuffs of all kinds are now nearly 

 double what they were in 1846. For example : 



Wlieat flour in 1840 was Si,"5 a bbl. In If 55, S9,Sli 



Ry« " " 3,06 " " 9,75 



Corn meal " 3,25 " " 5,25 



Wheat per bush. " 1,12 bush. " 2,80 



Oats " " 39 " " 81 



Corn " " 67 " " 1,13 



Liquors of various kinds have fortunately kept 

 pace witii breadstuffs. In 1846 Cogniac brandy 

 sold at $2.62 a gallon ; now, $4.70 is the whole- 

 sale price. 



Sperm oil in 1846 sold at 91 cts. a gallon for 

 crude and 93 cts. for manufactured ; now the 

 crude brings $1.79 per gall., and the manufac- 

 tured ,>J;2.05. 



Provisions of all kinds have advanced prnpor- 

 tiouably thus: — In 1846 mess pork sold at $10.68 

 a barrel ; now it sells at $17.37j| ; mess beef 

 then sold at §7.87, now, at $11.00 ; lard was 

 then 65 cts. a jiound, no^r it is 10 cents ; butter 

 was 17^, now 26 cents ; cheese was 7| cents, 

 now 11 cts. Rice was then sold at $4.00 a bar- 

 rel, now it is $6.00. The greatest rise on any one 

 article, however, we believe has taken place in 

 grass seed. In 1846 Timothy is quoted (per bar- 

 rel we presume) at $13.00, and now it is $28. 

 — Traveller. 



CORN PLANTS FOR FODDER. 



There are few articles brought to market which 

 are in greater demand than milk and butter — 

 none, which it is more desirable that they should 

 be sweet and pure, and presented in fine condi- 

 tion. The bext butter has brought from thirty- 

 seven and a half to fifty cents a pound in Boston 

 market for several years past, — not at the stalls 

 and market places, but supplied to families week- 

 ly, in small quantities. Beef is now, and will 

 remain for some time, scarce, and prices will 

 rule that will forbid a use of it in anything like 

 the amount consumed heretofore, and butter, in 

 one form and another will supply its place in a 

 considerable degree. Butter is also largely ex- 

 ported, at the same time that there is a constant 

 and rapid increase in the population, in a ratio 

 greater, perhaps, than the means are increased 

 for supplying it. There will unquestionably be 

 a demand, at fair and remunerative prices, for 

 all tlie farmer can spare. 



It is now generally believed that milk is a nu- 

 tritious and sul)stantial article of food ; that 

 with bread, baked apples, boiled rice, hominy 

 and other articles, it is better adapted to the sys- 

 tem, even of laboring men, than a diet mainly 

 made up of meats. In one or another of the 

 forms mentioned above, it is common at the ho- 

 tels and eating-houses in the cities, and hundreds 

 daily dine upon it who have heretofore only con- 

 sidered it fit food for children or persons not en- 

 gaged in laborious occupations. The change is a 

 wholesome one, especially in our hot summers, 



and milk, in almost any quantity, will be in de- 

 mand at fair prices. It is the only article, how- 

 ever, among the farm products, which has been 

 sold at too low a price until within the six 

 months just passed. 



These premises being correct, it becomes an 

 important consideration how cows shall be fed 

 in order to produce the largest quantity and the 

 best quality of each. Our pastures, throughout 

 New England, and especially in Massachusetts, 

 comprise the most unproductive lands we have ; 

 they have been overstocked and fed until ex- 

 hausted of most of their original elements of fer- 

 tility, and now require treble the number of acres 

 to support a cow that they did forty year .3 ago, 

 many of them are upon hill-sides too precipitous 

 for the plow, and others too stony to admit of 

 cultivation, their phosphates exhausted and their 

 vitality mostly gone. 



It is not our purpose now to inquire how these 

 may be reclaimed, fertilized, and made profita- 

 ble, but to speak of another source of supply 

 when close feeding and our scorching summer 

 suns have exhausted the natural pastures of their 

 grasses. 



The maize, or corn plant, of whatever variety, 

 is eminently adapted to our climate. It is har- 

 dy, easily cultivated, full of saccharine juices, and 

 abounds in nutritious matter for cattle. They 

 eat it greedily, including the stems when not 

 grown too rank, it produces an abundant flow 

 of rich milk, and yields two or three times as 

 much per acre as our usual crops of grass. In 

 addition to all these advantages, it costs so little 

 for seed, and is so easily cultivated and brought 

 to the cattle, that it commends itself to all who 

 need a larger amount of green food for their 

 stock than they are able to obtain from their nat- 

 ural pastures. 



Between two and three bushels of seed to the 

 acre is probably the quantity required for sow- 

 ing ; sow in highly manured drills, t " "^r 

 three and a half feet apart, cultivate and hoe 

 thoroughly, and the rapidity of growth and 

 amount produced will be surprising. In cutting 

 it up do not cut below the lower joint, as that 

 will materially check the after growth. 



Most persons use the white flat southern corn 

 for seed, but varieties of sweet corn, as well as 

 our common field corn, are used. We have suc- 

 ceeded admirably witli the white flat. 



A writer in the Alhany Cultivator, in 1843, 

 states that in the spring of 1842, he prepared 

 two squares in his garden, each 20 by 30 feet, 

 and sowed them with born — about two quarts to 

 each square, which he found too much. When 

 about waist high, he commenced pulling it up 

 by the roots, and feeding it green, to a fine Dur- 

 ham heifer and some pigs ; the latter devouring 



