1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



143 



planting. IIow much ground he occupied he 

 does not say ; but be it more or less, I think 

 he would have raised twice the quantity on the 

 same ground had he seeded more liberally. 

 Planting a quantity of potatoes seeded in one 

 particular way, without planting any by the 

 side of them with which to institute a compar- 

 ison, seeded in a different wav, proves nothing. 

 Derry, N. H., Lee. 24, 1868. e. b. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 STOCK RAISING AND DAIRYING. 



Tho followiDg report of the discuasioa by the Irasburg, 

 Vt., FariiiLT.-*' Club of the question, "Could we make 

 as much profit in raising calves and growing them for 

 beef, as by dairying exclusively ?" was furniEhed for 

 our columna by Z. E. Jameson, Esq , Secretary of 

 the Club. 



Geo. B. Brewster said his opinion was that 

 dairying is the most profitable ; but there is so 

 much hard work, care and anxiety about it, 

 that if he could get two-thirds as much profit 

 without the work and care, he should be sat- 

 isfied. Pie was tired of dairying, and had 

 considered the subject of changing to other 

 stock. A dairyman is confined closely at home, 

 as generally all the work cannot be safely 

 trusted to hired help. If with twenty cows 

 we raise twenty calves, and do woll by them, 

 they will not be worth over $20 per head, 

 while the butter or cheese from the same cows 

 ■will amount to $50 or more, each. 



A. Tenney had not had much experience in 

 comparing the two methods of procedure, but 

 thought when the labor of dairying was con- 

 sidered, the profit derived from stock raising, 

 as it might be carried on, would be fully two- 

 thirds as much as from dairying exclusively. 

 He had some calves on his farm, little red 

 fellows, one might almost mistake them for 

 muskrats at first sight. He had raised calves 

 that would outweigh four such, and sell for 

 more than eight of them. He once raised a 

 pair of April calves in the following way : — 

 At the age of ten days the new milk was taken 

 from them, and the skimmed milk given them, 

 with a little oat meal, with the hulls sifted out. 

 At first only a spoonful of meal was given to 

 each, but the quantity was gradually increased. 

 They had milk in this way till September 20, 

 after that they had no milk. Every morning, 

 through the winter, I scalded one quart of oat 

 meal, then put in cold water to make it cool 

 enough to be drank without danger. At night 

 they had the same. This would be a quart of 

 meal each a day. They drank no cold water all 

 winter, but had plenty of hay. In the spring 

 he sold his farm, with his best stock. These 

 calves girted nearly five feet, though not a 

 year old, and brought $40 each. Last Jime, 

 he visited the herd of Devon cattle, owned 

 and bred by Mr. Hall in Burke. He there 

 saw ten full blooded cows and ten calves. Mr. 

 Hall was preparing to wean the calves, by 

 learning them to eat a little meal. They were 



noble animals, — he thought full fourteen inches 

 through the quarters. He was told that from 

 these cows milk enough was taken to make 

 butter for family use, — the cahes taking the 

 rest. He was told the price of these calves was 

 from $7,5 to $125 each. After the calves 

 were weaned, more butter could be made. 

 On this basis, he estimated Mr. Hall's income 

 at nearly $160 per cow. Good stock is 

 readily sold at good prices, while poor stock 

 always finds a dull market. He believed that 

 Devon cows will make more butter than any 

 other breed in the country, or any that has 

 ever been imported. This extra feed of calves 

 amounts, when summed up, to much less than 

 one would at first imagine. To raise good 

 stock he wanted cows that were right and the 

 calves must be fed so that they can grow. 



E. P. Church had visited Burke during the 

 past week. He said Mr. Hall's Devon oxen 

 were large and remarkably long animals. He 

 mistook a pair of calves for good sized year- 

 lings. One calf four months old, that had had 

 the milk of at wo-year-old heifer, weighed 330 

 pounds, and would bring $27 at the butcher's. 

 Would the income from the heifer have been 

 greater ii' she had been milked for dairying 

 l)urposes ? He thought that even for beef it 

 was profitable to raise calves, and that three 

 quarts taken from the cow by the calf, was 

 better than four drank, and then it requires 

 less care to feed the calf in that way. 



Geo. B. Brewster could not believe it a 

 good plan to have calves run with the cow. 

 He knew a calf that has been raised in that 

 way this past summer, that is valued at only 

 $8 now. When a calf is well fed and at lib- 

 erty, it will run and race so much that it will 

 not grow as well as when shut up. Sometimes 

 a calf will not take all the milk, and the cow 

 must be milked or she will dry up. 



Z. E. Jameson said that if a farmer raised 

 calves he need not use all the milk of his cows, 

 as the calves should come in spring when it is 

 most difficult to make choice butter, and then 

 during the summer and fall, considerable but- 

 ter could be made, and the calves would eat 

 about the same amount of grass as a sheep, 

 costing but little after weaning. Young stock 

 is scarce, and dairymen get heifers to replace 

 their old cows from a distance and at prices 

 that would make stock raising profitable. 



Secretary of the Board of Agricxil- 

 TURE. — At the lato meeting of the Board of 

 Agriculture of Massachusetts, it was voted 

 that the annual meeting shall be held at the 

 Agricultural College in Amherst ; that the sec- 

 retary's office should be removed to the col- 

 lege, and that the secretary shall have a pro- 

 fessorship, and perform such professional 

 duties as the trustees of the college may pre- 

 scribe. 



