1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



243 



to spreading manure on the snow in winter. Sev- 

 eral years ago, I spread a quantity on the snow in 

 Feln-uary, on about one-half of a piece, to be sown 

 with barley and seeded to grass. The other half 

 of the piece was manured in the spring. And now 

 for the result, which I cannot give in bushels and 

 pounds, but merely by observation of myself and 

 neighbors, whose attention was called to this field. 

 Where the manure was spread in the winter, there 

 was not more than two-thirds as much barley as 

 where it was manured in the spring, and the grass 

 showed about the same proportion. The land was 

 flat, so that the manure did not wash off more than 

 it usually does from such land. Does it not wash 

 from all land when there comes a heavy rain, and 

 the ground is covered with solid ice, as it often is 

 when we have heavy rains in winter and early 

 spring ? I believe it a better way to haul the 

 manure out, put it in large heaps to be spread in 

 the spring. I think there is a great waste in 

 spreading manure in winter. The brooks and 

 streams carry off too large a part of it. Still some 

 of my neighbors spread their manure as Mr. 

 Cheever recommends. a. l. "w. 



Hope, Me., March 13, 1868. 



RED WATER IN COWS. 



I think the cases of "red or bloody water," re- 

 ''^rred to hy "B. B. S.," in Farmer of March 21, 

 is a disease of a different character entirely from 

 that I alluded to in a former article. I never knew | 

 an ox, or any other animal, but the cow attacked 

 with the disease, and she alwaj's within ten days 

 after calving. I think a man would be very fool- 

 ish to knock an animal in the head as long as it 

 would eat sufficient to fatten, as in the case of his 

 father's ox, or in any other case where there is any 

 prospect of a cure being effected. I admit I did 

 not give a description of the disease which I will 

 now do as well as I can : — 



The urine in the above disease does not have the 

 appearance at all of blood mixed with water, but 

 the color is very much that of a strong decoction 

 of hemlock bark. The cow appears in much pain 

 and refuses food of all kinds, eyes glassy, and she 

 grows weak very fast ; and in my experience, has 

 always died in from two to three weeks, if the dis- 1 

 ease was not checked in its first stages. A year 

 ago this spring a townsman came to me and said j 

 he had been told that I had doctored cows for the 1 

 red water, with success. Upon inquiry, 1 learned 

 the cow had a calf two weeks old, had been sick 

 eight days, and was very weak. I gave him the 

 prescription, but told him I thought it was too late 

 to save the cow. He procured the medicine and 

 administered it according to directions, but with 

 no effect, and the cow died a week after. I think 

 ii" I could see friend "B. B. S.," I could convince 

 him that there are times where it is best to knock 

 an animal in the head. Some people can write 

 better than they can talk, but I can talk better 

 than I can write. Leander Taplin. 



Chelsea, Vt., March 20, 1868. 



PAID UP THE MORTGAGE. 



In reply to "C. B. E..," I will say, I have paid 

 for my farm in the way to which he alluded. I 

 was a poor boy; my father let me work for a 

 farmer till I was twenty-one years of age ; but I 

 had none of the pay, my father taking that, and 

 clothing me very cheaply. At one and twenty, I 

 left to learn a trade. At twenty-seven years old I 

 was married, bought a house and shop in the vil- 

 lage for $1000, running in debt for it. I paid $200 

 with annual interest yearly, until all was paid in 

 five years. I lived there eighteen years, when for 

 the good of my seven children, I sold out in 1850, 

 for $1200, and bought my farm for $2050. I paid 



down, and had time on the rest. Every cent 

 of it was paid long ago. When I commenced 

 farming, 1 bought stock, tools, seed and fruit trees. 

 I always kept in mind the improvement of the 

 farm. 1 have been offered $4000 for it twice, and 

 refused it. I never was sued in my life for a debt 

 of my own contracting. I have been careful to 

 see that my children were educated, and have con- 

 tributed something for the support of the gospel, 

 and have paid for newspapers, especially agricul- 

 tural journals. I am now sixty-three years old, 

 with poor sight and little education. c. 



Norwich. Vt., March 18, 1868. 



Remarks. — Something over thirty years ago, 

 we had some personal acquaintance with our cor- 

 respondent, with his shop, and with the farm on 

 which he now lives, and we are pleased to learn of 

 his success and prosperity. The reminiscence, 

 however, is saddened by the reflection that of four 

 of his sons who were in the Union anny, only two 

 i-etumed to their pleasant home — of the others, one 

 rests in Louisiana and one in Virginia. 



beans for sheep. — WATER FOR GEESE. 



In reply to an inquiry in the Farmer of the 7th 

 inst., in regard to beans being injurious to sheep 

 with lamb, I will saj% though it is the first time in 

 my life that I have ever written anything for pub- 

 lication, that I have fed beans to sheep more or 

 less for twenty years, and always with good effect ; 

 never having lost a lamb, to my knowledge, in 

 consequence, but have saved many by the judi- 

 cious feeding of beans, when the sheep were thin 

 in flesh. I have fed them ground and unground ; 

 but, as I believe all grain should be ground when 

 fed to stock, I think the best way that 1 have ever 

 fed them is by mixing and grinding together one 

 bushel of beans with two of corn in the ear. 



To "Anser," of Taunton, Mass., I will say that 

 I have kept geese with good success, in a pasture 

 along side of a stream of running water, into which 

 they were never known to go for theseason, being 

 supplied with water to drink from a trough where 

 the cattle drank, and do not believe they need 

 more than enough to drink, any more than other 

 fowls. Farmer. 



Dover, Maine, March 14, 1868. 



UNDERDRAINING FOR ORCHARDS ON WET LAND. 



In reply to the inquiry of Henry Bell, of South 

 Halifax, Vt., in the New England Farmer of 

 February 22, 1868, as to managing an orchard on 

 cold land, too rough for cultivation, I would recom- 

 mend under-draining as the best thing that can be 

 done for such land. As different individuals have 

 different notions about under-draining, I will give 

 my way of doing it. If the land is very wet, the 

 drains should not be more than four rods apart. 

 I go in for a good drain, say three feet wide and 

 from three to four feet deep, throwing the first 

 twelve or eighteen inches on one side, and the bot- 

 tom, or last that is dug out, on the other side. 

 Where small stones are plenty, I fill the ditch to 

 within one foot of the surface with stones, then 

 cover the stones with hemlock or pine boughs, 

 then fill in with the earth last taken from the 

 ditch or drain. Sometimes it is necessary to have 

 cross drains. After draining, 1 should take a grub 

 hoe or a pick and dig up the grass around the trees, 

 say some four feet each way from the tree, then 

 mulch or manure. Pasturing sheep is a very good 

 thing for an orchard, but it is death for the sheep, 

 and I think it would be for the calves. R. 



New Gloucester, Me., March 23, 1868. 



