1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



89 



can restore such soils to fertility, so as to get 

 highly remunerative returns in wheat. We 

 dressed our wheat field with pure bone dust, 

 well rotted, 500 lbs. to the acre, and with it we 

 mingled about 50 lbs. of nitrate of potassa. 

 This gave us splendid results. Doubtless a 

 thorough dressing of well-seasoned barn-yard 

 manure would have furnished a sufficiency of 

 the needed elements to have met the wants of 

 a single crop ; but 'we prefer the lime and salts, 

 as being directly applicable to wheat on most 

 lands, and rendering a crop certain. With 

 flour at sixteen dollars a barrel, it is a pity far- 

 mers should not raise at least a home supply of 

 wheat. We obtain the most delicious sweet 

 bread from our wheat, ground fine, in an old- 

 fashioned stone mill. We keep it out of the 

 holt, as it is certain we cannot improve upon 

 nature in adjusting the parts of the grain to be 

 used as food. More attention should mani- 

 festly be given to wheat-raising in this section 

 of the country. So long as the high price of 

 flour continues (we are of the opinion that the 

 days of cheap flour are past,) it is the most 

 profitable crop. The kind of seed that appears 

 adapted to our soils is what is known as the 

 "Black Sea" variety. This is a summer wheat. 

 — Dr. J. R. Nichols, in Journal of Chemistry. 



EXTRACTS AND KEPLIES. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF HOOTS AND OOllN. — CROP OF 

 POTATOES. 



"Will you please give me the relative value of 

 early flat and ruta baga turnips, potatoes and corn 

 for feeding animals. 1. Potatoes for horses that 

 are not worked very hard ; 2. turnips for cows ; 3. 

 potatoes for hogs. I estimate two bushels of 

 steamed potatoes equal to three bushels of raw for 

 all animals. Am I correct ? "Would you feed rye 

 whole or ground to a fattening hog ? 



Lest you should think me rather ungenerous to 

 ask so many questions without contributing any 

 thing, I will say I have raised 260 bushels of extra 

 potatoes from less than one and a half days' labor 

 of self and hand, with horse and cultivator part 

 of the time. The piece of land on which they 

 grew is less than two acres, and no bam manure 

 has been put upon it within the last fifty years. 

 This year I used two casks of Bradley's Super- 

 phosphate. Unless on burnt land, who has done 

 better ? A Subscriber. 



Plymouth, N. H., Nov., 1867. 



Remarks. — "A Subscriber" is referred to John- 

 son's Agricultural Chemistry. He will there find 

 tables containing the nutritive elements of corn, 

 potatoes, turnips, &c. He will find that corn con- 

 tains about 93 per cent, of nutritive matter ; pota- 

 toes from 11 to 21 per cent, according to varfety ; 

 turnips somewhat less. From these data he can 

 figure out answers to his questions. Roots, how- 

 ever, may possess a value not indicated by scien- 

 tific analysis. During our many long winter 

 months our stock are deprived of the succulent 

 feed of the pasture, and confined to hay and other 

 dry fodder. Men on shipboard are liable to dis- 

 eases for which vegetables are the cheapest and 

 surest preventives and cures. In the house we do 



not inquire into the exact amount of the nutritive 

 value of a nice bowl of apples. We eat them and 

 feel they do us good. In the barn, then, as well 

 as on shipboard or in the family, the proof of 

 vegetables — of anything green and juicy, even 

 browse, — must, like "the pudding," be tested hy 

 "the eating." The farmer must not be a man of 

 one idea. There is yet much in our philosophy 

 that cannot be expressed dogmatically. "We live 

 and learn — one thing, at least, that circumstances 

 alter cases. There is no doubt that roots are ren- 

 dered more digestible by cooking. As to their in- 

 creased nutritive value, see an extract from an 

 English paper in the Farmer of the 7th inst. 



TIGHT vs. OPEN BARNS. 



Having noticed several communications in the 

 Farmer on the above subject, in favor of open 

 barns where hay is stored, I venture to oppose the 

 theory, premising, however, that as I know where- 

 of I write, what I say is 'practice as well as pen 

 and ink," with all deference to Mr. Bancroft, in 

 the Farmer of Nov. 30. 



I have two barns, one of which is shingled all 

 over, and has a double floor ; the other is old and 

 open. I have for years been putting hay into the 

 former, made at least from one-third to one-half 

 less than that put into the latter, and never 

 yet have taken any poor or smoky hay therefrom. 

 While from the old l^arn the hay is always poor 

 on the sides of the mow. 



A neighbor of mine had an old house well 

 shingled, lathed and plastered, which Ife filled 

 with grass, cut and housed on a cloudy but dry day. 

 In the spring it was taken out, when all but a few 

 inches on the top was beautiful and much better 

 perfumed than Lubiu's Extract, called "New 

 Mown Hay." 



Col. , of New Bedford, filled some new oil 



casks with grass, green from the meadow. After 

 a year had elapsed he found it in the same condi- 

 tion as when headed up. Keep the air from your 

 hay as well as from the fruit which you put into 

 cans, and it will keep. 



Let those building barns think of these things 

 and not go back to the days of their grandfather, 

 "when grass was allowed to go to seed hafore 

 mowed, and corn was planted five feet apart and 

 the plough loas tised instead of the cultivator. 



Somerset, Mass., Dec. 13, 1867. Anon. 



LETTER FROM VERMONT. 



When the mercury is forced to zero, and still 

 down to 25 degrees below, by the power of the 

 freezing cold, how can we improve a little time 

 now and then to better advantage to ourselves and 

 others, than by writing for our ngricultural papers ? 

 The chores must be attended to as a matter of 

 course. The colder the winds and the more severe 

 the weather^the more careful should we be of the 

 creatures entrusted to our care and protection; 

 striving as far as we are able, to make them com- 

 fortable, and to keep them in a condition to thrive 

 and grow. 



"Billy Black" and "Fanny Grey" would fully 

 appreciate an extra bedding of clean straw, and 

 an additional rubbing down with the comb and 

 brush ; "Old Speck" and "Brindle" would gladly 

 accept something of like treatment, with an extra 

 nubbin of corn, these biting cold mornings ; and 

 they richly repay us for all our extra care in this 

 direction. 



The young stock out of doors, whose only shel- 

 ter is the shed, the sheep in their yards, and the 

 pigs in their pens, should not be forgotten as re- 



