48 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Jan. 



very clieap. It had then been in use five years. 

 Its component parts are : 50 of resin, 40 of 

 finely powdered chalk, about 300 of fine, hard 

 sand, -i of lin.seed oil, 1 of red oxide of lead, 

 and 1 of sulphuric acid, all to be mixed. The 

 resin, chalk, sand and linseed oil are heated 

 togetlu T in an iron boiler ; the red lead and 

 the sulphuric acid are then added, and all care- 

 fully mixed. The composition is applied while 

 hot. If not found sufficiently fluid, it may be 

 made thinner by adding more linseed oil. 

 When cold and dry it is said to form a varnish 

 of the hardness of stone. 



Another mode of preserving wood, either in 

 or out of the ground, is by saturating it 

 with some substance, which either fills the 

 pores or hardens them, so that dampness and 

 air have little effect upon them. In building 

 important works, the Government prepares 

 the lumber by "Kyanizing,'" or filling its pores 

 by immersion in creosote or some kind of acid. 

 A solution of blue vitriol is, perhaps, as good 

 as anvthinsr that we can readily command. 



It is easily obtained and prepared, and is 

 cheap. About one pound of vitriol to twenty 

 quarts of water will give it sufficient strength. 

 Pine posts, soaked in such a solution, have re- 

 mained firm and sound after having been in 

 the ground eight or ten years. It is excellent 

 to preserve the stakes in vineyards, trellis posts 

 and small stakes used about the garden for 

 tying up shrubbery, raspberry, and other 

 bushes, dahlias, &c. 



Seasoned posts may be long preserved by 

 putting on three or four coats of hot coal tar. 

 All the parts that touch the ground, and for 

 six inches above, should be covered. This 

 will be worse than nothing unless the post is 

 seasoned. 



A Large Grape Vixe. — Mr. Stewart, Or- 

 ford, C. W., has a Clinton vine 70 feet long — 

 that is, 35 feet each way from the root, run- 

 ning over and on an eight-foot picket fence, 

 which hung this year with one mass of grapes 

 from end to end. He entirely ignores our 

 idea of cutting grape vines l)ack to five or six 

 feet, arguing that the leaders should not be 

 cut at all. The vine referred to is in his gar- 

 den, and has had all necessary care ; and 

 thougii the grapes had been somewhat injured 

 by hail, both in bum-h and berry, they would 

 compare favorably with the CMintons 1 have 

 elsewhere seen. I do not see why this should 

 not be the best way of growing, especially for 

 wine making. — Country Ucntleman. 



COOKING CATTLE FEED 



Some ten or a dozen years ago Mr. Thomas 

 Ilorsfall, of England, published a detailed and 

 well written statement of his plan of cooking 

 the feed for the cows of his dairy, which was 

 quite generally copied, either in, whole or in 

 part, by the agricultural papers of this coun- 

 try. Ilis success in economizing bean and oat 

 straw and other coarse, and when uncooked, 

 unpalatable articles of feed, attracted much 

 attention both in England af^d in the United 

 States ; and in both countries many farmers 

 have experimented more or less thoroughly 

 with cooked feed, but so far as we have been 

 able to ascertain, without developing any very 

 satisfactory results. Even in England, where 

 labor is comparatively cheap, and capital 

 abundant, very few farmers have realized the 

 success claimed by Mr. Horsfall, or by the 

 speakers at one of the evening meetings dur- 

 ing the late Fair of the New York State Ag- 

 ricultural Society at Buffalo, some of whom 

 claimed that the value of feed was doubled or 

 tripled by cooking. 



This subject was not long since discussed at 

 one of the stated meetings of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England. From the report 

 of this discussion we infer that it was gener- 

 ally admitted that there was some gain in 

 cooking feed for fattening animals, but the 

 question was, whether that gain was etjual to 

 the cost and trouble of cooking. Thus much 

 even some of the members appeared to be un- 

 willing to admit. The following statement was 

 made by a Mr. Lawes : — 



Anxious to try the etfccts of cooking, lie last 

 autumn ordered 10 beasts to have 2 lbs. of hean 

 meal l)oiled and poured over the chaff, \\ liich was 

 to stand 24 hours; 2 lt)s. of cake were then added 

 to the mixture, and it was served out. Of those 

 ten beasts, however, one obstinately refused to cat 

 the mixture ; it was a white bullock wiihalilack 

 nose, and decidedly the wor.-^t of the lot. It so 

 stoutly resisted the mixture that it would even eat 

 the straw turned out from the cait-hor.^e stable 

 rather than the prepared food. It was then or- 

 dered to have the bone meal unboiled, but still 

 mixed with straw that had been nioi.Ntened the 

 day before, and with a small quantity of malt 

 combs; and at this moment that very animal 

 which had been the worst ot the t( n was by far the 

 best. It weighed at least 8 stone more than those 

 which were of the same size at Michaclnias, 1 cwt. 

 more in live weight than the smaller aniujals when 

 they c:inie in, and 56 lbs. more than any other 

 beast in the lot. 



Another question was as to the (luality of 

 the meat produced by the animals kept on 

 cooked feed. 



On this point, the same gentleman was dis- 

 posed to think that the quality of the meat 



