S'o. 9. 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



137 



jrotractcd, there is nine chances out of ten, 

 ;hat every cow, long before spring arrives, is 

 ihUer dry, or so near it, that the milk she 

 A'ill give is not worth the trouble and cost of 

 dripping, so that many farmers with half a 

 lozen or more cows have neither milk nor 

 jutter sufficient for the domestic uses of their 

 ,at)les, during the latter part of each winter; 

 ind by the time that the cold and bleak winds 

 )f March arrive, many of the cows are on 

 ,he lift. How is it possible that it can be 

 jtherwise"? There is little or no succulence 

 n the food we have described in its dry state, 

 md consequently cows fed upon it, must, for 

 he want of matter convertible into milk, 

 !ease to yield it. In every other country 

 iave our own, it forms a part of the business 

 )f every farmer or planter, to provide full 

 supplies of nutritious food for his stock of 

 ;very kind, and for those which comprise the 

 iairy cows, especial pains and care are taken 

 ;o provide a sufficient quantity of such roots 

 IS are heartening and succulent, so that by 

 bus providing a substitute for the grasses of 

 he pasture, or the soiling stalls or yards, his 

 iairy, even through the dreary and inclement 

 Deriod of the winter, may continue to contri- 

 jute largely to the comfort of his family, and 

 the increase of his fortune. No good farm- 

 ir, then, will keep more cows than he can 

 teep well, and in so keeping them, he finds 

 [lis interest rewarded, and has besides the 

 latisfaction of knowing, that in thus acting 

 le has fulfilled an obligation imposed upon 

 lim by every humane consideration, and dis- 

 charged a duty required by Him, who, in 

 dacin^ the beasts of the field in subjection 

 man, enjoined that he should extend to- 

 vards them his kindest protection and care. 

 Ne frequently hear gentlemen complaining 

 iif the difficulty of procuring such cows as 

 i'ill make profitable returns, and of the im- 

 ossibility of keeping them to their milk dur- 

 ^^s winter. The reason is obvious. No cow, 

 nd we care not what her breed may be, whe- 

 ler she be of the improved Durham Short 

 lorn, the Devon, the Mderney, the common 

 ow of the country, or any other kind — we 

 iy no cow can be kept to the milk pail un- 

 ;ss you give her something which will both 

 ourish her system and replenish her udder. 

 'o make a cow yield a liberal supply of milk 

 irough the winter, she should have, in addi- 

 on to full supplies of good, wholesome hay 

 ■ fodder, at least half a bushel of roots of 

 ime kind, or an eqivalent of cabbages or kale 

 r day. And if the hay should be fed lon^, 

 ich cowshould have, at least two days in the 

 eek, messes of chopped rye and cut straw, 

 be either steamed or mixed up with boil- 

 g water, and permitted to remain until it 

 ; fermented before feeding. The ambition 

 procuring fine breeds of animals of all 



kinds, is one worthy of every praise; but 

 that of taking good care of what we have, is 

 equally if not more laudable. Besides these 

 considi'ralions, liu; interest of every farmer it» 

 always promoted by feeding his cows welL 

 If fed in the niggard manner we have de- 

 scribed, their keeping, such as it is, is a dead 

 loss to their owners; they, make no manure 

 worth speaking about and the animals them- 

 selves are comparatively valueless;, and if 

 ke\>i generoitslij through the winter, and' shel- 

 tered from the weather, each cow will give 

 her two gallons of milk per day, and make 

 from four to seven pounds ofbutter per week, 

 which latter should be set down as the profit, 

 as the milk and cream consumed by the fam- 

 ily will more liian compensate for the feed. 

 In addition to this, animals thus fed make 

 three times the quantity of manure, and are 

 always in acondition to command good |)rices.' 

 We have indulged in no speculative theories 

 in what we have said, but have addressed 

 ourselves to the common sense of the agri- 

 cultural community, in the hope that they will 

 see the propriety of adopting some plan by 



which our object can be obtained Western 



Advocate. 



Plantinij Trees-. 



The best month for j)lanting trees is No- 

 vember; observing the old saying of a cel- 

 ebrated gardener — " Take them witli their 

 old leaves to their new graves." — Just as the 

 sap begins to go down — and the leaves to 

 turn, there can be no better time for planting 

 all sorts of fruit, and other deciduous trees ; 

 but with respect to ornamental shrubs, and 

 particularly evergreens, early planting is 

 of the greatest consequence. When the 

 weather is open, fruit trees and forest trees 

 may be planted from the beginning of Octo- 

 ber to the end of February ; but those that 

 are planted before Christmas will do the best, 

 especially if the following summer should 

 be very hot and dry. But evergreens mus',-. 

 be planted early, so that October is a better,, 

 month for them than November, that the soil! 

 may get settled about the roots before the. 

 frosts come, and that the trees may h^ve, at; 

 least, some hold of the ground before they.. 

 have to encounter the heat of the sun and tha 

 cold east winds of March, the most trying, 

 month they have to stand againsi. It is folly 

 to ask a gardener whether it be a good time, 

 to plant, if he is standing in market with, 

 trees to sell. Persons who have done so, 

 and at their recommendation, planted ever- 

 greens in February and INlarch, found that 

 they almost all died, while to the gardener, 

 who was paid for his trees, it was no loss at- 

 all; but, on the contrary, he had to supply- 

 others at Michaelmas . — "In the borders o^' 



