222 



NEW ENGLiVND FARJClER. 



May 



the State. The agiicultural college is a home 

 enterprise, and the interests of manufacturers, 

 mechanics and of every consumer should 

 prompt them to favor every public meas- 

 ure for the better development of our own 

 resources, and instead of wishing that the 

 State should do less, they may regret it has 

 >not done more to develop our agricultural 

 resources. If but a tithe of the money loaned 

 from the public treasury to railroads to gain 

 access to the West, had been devoted to the 

 cause of agriculture, the State, in my opinion, 

 would have been richer and more independent 

 to-day than it now is. N. s. T. 



Lawrence, Mass., Feb. 27, 1868. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 BOAKDS vs. HAY. 



If I "free my mind" now, I suppose three- 

 fourths of your readers will think I am a fit 

 subject for an insane asylum, so contrary to 

 general usage will appear my notions ; but the 

 fact is, I am getting waked up on the subject 

 of boards ! Ever since I had the correspon- 

 dence with Mr. Scott, of Craftsbury, Vt. , in re- 

 gard to his remarkable cow, manner of keep- 

 ing, &c. (the substance of which went the 

 rounds of the papers,) I have had a constantly 

 growing conviction that thousands of dollars 

 and "cords of mercy" have been annually lost 

 in New England for want of a proper appre- 

 ciation of boards and nails. Farmers have 

 had a kind of vague idea that they were use- 

 ful for fencing, — for enclosing barns so as to 

 keep the snow and rain off the fodder, — and 

 some, within a few years, have got to thinking 

 that is was well to use a few to protect their 

 farm stock from the severest part of our winds 

 and storms ! But the idea that comfort is ap- 

 preciable by dumb beasts ; or that boards and 

 nails can afford it, or that the loss of it 

 amounts to the same as the loss of dollars, — 

 is one yet to enter the minds of at least not a 

 few of our farmers ! I assume it as an in- 

 controvertible thesis that whatever detracts 

 from, or lessens, the comfort of farm stock is 

 a pecuniary loss to their owners, and a net loss 

 by so much as the value of it exceeds the cost 

 oi' affording it. For example : if, at an ex- 

 pense of two dollars, for boards nails and la- 

 bor, I can so enclose a cow stable that no ma- 

 nure dropped after shutting it up at night, 

 shall be frozen before opening it in the morn- 

 ing, in the coldest nights ; that there shall be 

 no frost on any creature ; that the five cows 

 shall each yield one quart more milk, worth 

 five cents, and each reijuire five cents less ex- 

 pense for feed each day for one himdred days, 

 I have saveil fifty cents for each day, or fifty 

 dollars for the hundred days. Now deduct the 

 two dollars expenses and there is left forty- 

 eigfet dollars, which would have been lost had 

 I not used these boards and nails ! 



The above is not a mere fancy picture. The 

 like of it I did myself two years ago, the first 



warmish day after receiving a description of 

 Mr. Scott''s stable, and the like ought to be 

 done in nineteen-twentieths of the stables in 

 New England. 



It is a very common observation, when mild 

 weather comes after a cold snap, "that the 

 cows give more milk." Although the effect 

 may be thus traced to the cause, reasoning stops 

 there instead of going on and considering why 

 we may not have such mild weather for our 

 stock all the time. 



It is surely attainable, and at a much less 

 cost than the value of the result. Stables for 

 all kinds of stock may very easily be made so 

 tight that the animal heat from the stock will 

 entirely keep out the frost. If a stable is tol- 

 erably well enclosed on all sides and so situ- 

 ated that the rievere winds are broken before 

 striking it, each animal v/ill warm a space of 

 four or five times the size of its own body. 

 Many stables are sufficiently enclosed except 

 the front, where a few boards can easily be 

 hung on hinges, for a dollar or two, so that in 

 severe weather the stable can be entirely en- 

 closed, and in milder weather easily ventilated 

 to any desired extent. • 

 • The same that causes the cow to give more 

 milk in warm winter days, woula cause the ox or 

 horse to take on more flesh if the same food 

 is consumed, or not lose flesh although allowed 

 a less amount of food. Dollars and cents are 

 what we are apt chiefly to consider in regard to 

 our farm stock, but if we looked more to their 

 comfort, the dollars would be more likely to take 

 care of themselves. With a light expense for 

 boards, nails and labor, I believe an average 

 loss of two to ten cents a day, on every horse, 

 cow and ox in New England can be saved ! 

 besides the very comforting consciousness of 

 doing to others as we would be done by. Af- 

 ter two years' experience myself with warm and 

 yet ventilated stables, I will say to all who 

 will Immediately put my recommendations into 

 practice, that, after one year's trial, if they do 

 not think it was a pa\ing investment, and will 

 send me the bills incurred, I will forthwith 

 remit them the amount from my own hard-earned 

 and scanty resources. 



Jack Frost is surely a robber, but still he is 

 so polite that he would not enter your cow's 

 bedroom without your leave. Use boards and 

 nails enough and he won't be all the time car- 

 rying off your feed on the road through your 

 animal's stomachs ! If your stable has an open 

 basement underneath, just nail on refuse boards 

 under the sleepers and fill between them with 

 spent tan, straw or chaff, and see that the lloor 

 over them is covered at least a foot deep with 

 hay, straw stalks or something to keep ni the 

 animal heat. i». x. 



llandolp)i, Vt., 1868. 



— It is proposed in the Massachusetts Legisla- 

 ture that all land devoted to growing forest trees 

 sliiUl Ijc free from taxation. 



