122 



NEW ENGLAND FAR]\rER. 



JIarch 



manure evenly, do not sufficiently add to the 

 manure heap at the barn, and their manure is 

 deficient in fertilizinjj properties. Advocated 

 Dairy farming, with keeping; of hogs, and ad- 

 duced as an instance the improvement of farms 

 in RIorristown by this kind of husbandry. 



Mr. Lyford said, we cannot devote ourselves 

 here in Vermont exclusively to one kind of 

 stock, but sliould practice mi.xed husbandry. 

 But we must have a specific object in view, 

 whatever stock we breed. In breeding we 

 should never lose sight of the object for which 

 we start. He woidd select for a cow for home 

 use, the Jersey, but considered them worth- 

 less for stock or beef. For the dairy, the 

 Avshire or cross between Ayshire and Short- 

 Horn, and for stock and beef would decidedly 

 prefer the Short-Horn. He thought perhaps 

 they were too large for our soil and climate, 

 but by judicious selection of animals and 

 proper treatment, would undoubtedly prove 

 profitable. He thought by proper breeding 

 and feeding a superior animal might have 

 been obtained from our native stock. He 

 said we should secure the best stock within 

 our means and take good care of it, if we 

 would succeed. 



He objected to the theory that sheep did 

 not enrich the farm. His experience has been, 

 that in keeping sheep on a small farm of fifteen 

 acres, he has enriched it more in one year, 

 than his predecessor in three years, feeding 

 the same amount of forage to cattle. He 

 made between eighty and one hundred loads 

 of manure from 100 sheep last year. Housed 

 his sheep through the summer, littered his 

 yards well and kept them moist. He said in 

 conclusion that we should raise the kind of 

 wool that the market demands. 



Mr. Sanders advised keeping but one breed 

 of whatever animal, whether sheep or cattle. 

 He preferred the Short-horn cattle for various 

 reasons : lirst, they bring tlie highest prices of 

 any cattle in the markets of the world ; second, 

 they best combine the desirable cjualities for 

 dairy and stock purposes. He has tried the 

 Jersey and thinks no animal consumes so 

 much with so little return. He said a good 

 Short-horn cow will give more milk and make 

 more butter tlian any Jersey cow in the world. 

 Another advantage of the Short-horns is that 

 if we are obliged to kill tlie animals at one or 

 two A ears old we realize much more for them 

 thin" for any other. He did not approve of 

 the pampered, over-grown Short-horns exhi- 

 l)ite(i at our Fairs, but advocated the breeding 

 of mediiuu sized animals adapted to our t.oil 

 and rlimate. Is himself Ijreeding with an eye 

 to the best milking qualities. Although he 

 could reeall no man, who had been eminently 

 successful in more than one of the three prin- 

 cipal branches of husbandry, he saw no reason 

 ■why a man could not breed all three, viz : cat- 

 tle, sheep and horses, having a definite object 

 in view in each, without interfering wilh each 

 other. He advocated the breeding of the Ver- 



mont Merino, as they yielded the heaviest 

 fleeces, were the best formed, best adapted to 

 our soil and climate, and brought the highest 

 prices of any sheep in the world. He consid- 

 ered the Morgan horse, such as Vermont for- 

 merly raised, an excellent animal ; and thought 

 we had the material by selecting the largest 

 and best mares and breeding to medium sized 

 trotting stallions for making the best horse in 

 the world. lie objected to the introduction of 

 the so called thorough-bred, as he has been for 

 centuries bred for racing purposes, and is un- 

 fitted both in anatomy and disposition to our 

 needs. 



Mr. J. Carter said, keeping sheep is the 

 best way to improve a pasture. Referreil to a 

 pasture on which sheep have been kept fifteen 

 years, which yielded this year more than forty 

 bushels India wheat per acre. The sheep re- 

 turns more to the soil than any other animal in 

 proportion to the amount carried off". It is an 

 animal from which the whole value of material 

 matter may easily be saved, and is next to 

 that of the hog in fertilizing properties. 



Mr. Rufus Nutting recommended keeping 

 stock that shall consume all the hay and grain 

 raised on the farm, selling nothing that could 

 be fed. Some classes of Durhams are too 

 large to be restrained by a lawful fence, and 

 are too large to thrive on our hills. Preferred 

 the Ayrshire on this account. 



Messrs. S. B. Carpenter, J. W. Atwood, 

 Col. Mead and others participated in the dis- 

 cussion. 



Onions as a Medicine. — "]Mary," in the 

 Western Rural recommends onions for the re- 

 lief of colds, coughs, &c. Mary is sound on 

 the onion, as we know from experience. 

 There is nothing better. She truthfully says : 



Hardly too much can be said in favor of 

 onions as a remedy for coughs and colds ; espe- 

 cially for children, they are invaluable. They 

 may be cooked, and eaten at meal time, or, 

 what is better, eaten raw with a little salt, or 

 stirred up in vinegar. A syrup made of them 

 has saved many a child from an attack of 

 croup or lung fever, and where these diseases 

 were fully settled, it has gone far toward a 

 speedy cure. To prepare the syrup, slice an 

 onion in a tin basin, pour upon it a half a tea- 

 cupful of molasses, or, what is better, honey; 

 adil a l)it of butter as large as a small chestnut, 

 set the dibit in the oven, and simmer slowly for 

 an hour. Leave one of the oven doors open, 

 so it will not be too hot. 



Cfieksk M.MvING. — Sylvester Green, Esq., 

 of Herkimer county, shows a new apparatus 

 for cheese making, which he claims simplifies 

 the process and lessens the labor while it saves 

 at least five per cent, of curd which is wasted 

 by the old process. 



He believes cheese making proper is a chem- 



