1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



373 



machinery or carries a watch. As machinery is 

 introduced upon the farm, a knowledge of mechan- 

 ical movements becomes necessary to those who 

 run mowing machines, tedders, threshers, planters, 

 &€., and we advise farmers and farmer's boys to 

 procure this little volume, from which much may 

 be learned of the principles of machinery, and of 

 what it is capable of doing. 



IOWA AGKICUIiTURAIi COLLEGE. 



An. important business meeting of the Board 

 of Trustees of this College was held May 11th. 

 Officers and Professors were elected as fol- 

 lows : — 



President — Professor A. S. Welch, formerly of 

 the Michigan State Normal School. 



Professor of Chemistry and Practical Mechanics 

 — Prof. W. A. Anthony ,"of Antioch College. 



Professor of Mathematics— Mr. G. W. Jones, 

 Principal of Franklin Institute, New York. 



Professor of Practical Agriculture — Mr. Norton 

 S. Townsend. 



Professor of Geology and Natural History — ^Mr. 

 M. St. John. 



A Board of Non-Resident Professors or 

 Lecturers was also recommended, consisting 

 of Prof. Agassiz, Hon. J. B. Grinnell, J. J. 

 Thomas, Dr. John A. Warder, Dr. Dadd, and 

 Prof. Johnson. 



A resolution to admit females to the privi- 

 leges of the College on the same condition as 

 males was adopted by a vote of nine to three. 

 From the report of the committee to whom 

 this subject was referred, we make the follow- 

 ing extract : — 



If young men are to be educated to fit them for 

 successful, intelligent, practical farmers and me- 

 chanics, is it not as essential that young women 

 should be educated in a manner that will qualify 

 them to properly understand and discharge their 

 duties as wives of fixrmers and mechanics. The 

 greatest defect in the education of girls and young 

 ladies of the present day, is the tendency to limit 

 their acquirements to the superficial, frivolous ac- 

 complishments that unfit them for rational enjoy- 

 ments, useful or satisfactory pursuits. Influenced 

 by the fashionable course of instruction so preva- 

 lent, they soon learn to despise labor, to look upon 

 it as degrading, and turn from the young men who 

 aie employed in industrial pursuits, with fselings 

 of pity, if not of aversion, as though a life devoted 

 to honest labor was a misfortune to the young man 

 wTiose choiue or necessity had led him to adopt it. 

 Again we hold, that we as Trustees, have no right 

 to exclude girls from the benefits of our State Ag- 

 ricultural College. The funds for the purchase of 

 the farm and the erection of the buildings, are de- 

 rived from the tax payers of the State, and upon 

 what principles of justice can we declare that only 

 those who have sons shall enjoy its benefits ? 



The committee further says that all the 

 other colleges in the State, including the Uni- 

 versity, admit girls upon equal terms with 

 boys, as does also the Kansas Agricultural 

 College. 



It was recommended that the number of 

 students to be admitted for the first term should 

 not exceed one for each member of the State 

 House of Representatives, making the whole 

 number ninety-nine. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 EABLT CUT AND POOKLY CUBED HAY. 



Believing that the neat cattle and sheep of 

 the New England States are worth a great 

 many dollars less, — that their health has been 

 injured and their condition reduced, by the use 

 of partly grown and imperfectly cured hay, 

 which has been much encouraged of late by 

 agricultural papers, I feel it to be a duty to 

 my brother farmers to enter my protest and 

 caution against the practice ; though by so do- 

 ing I should find my own convictions in oppo- 

 sition to that of all mankind. 



The experience of observing farmers gen- 

 erally, in New England, for a long series of 

 years had established the rule that the right 

 time to cut English grass is when it is in blos- 

 som ; but as it cannot all be cut exactly at the 

 right moment, it has been necessary to mow a 

 part a little ealier, while another part stands a 

 little later. I do not advocate the principle of 

 letting grass stand until the stalk becomes 

 woody and wiry, but when I see a farmer cut- 

 ting his grass before one spear in ten shows its 

 head, I feel that he is suffering a great waste. 



I also most earnestly object to the modern 

 doctrine of slack drying of hay, believing that 

 it is at best a saving "that tends to poverty." 



Hay put into a bay poorly dried will sweat 

 out more weight than the sun and air would 

 have dissipated in proper curing. An amount 

 sweetness, goodness and nourishment for the 

 beast, is thus destroyed that never can be re- 

 turned to it. If you wished to keep your 

 family in good health, would you think of feed- 

 ing them with bread made from any kind of 

 grain that had been closely packed in a large 

 body in such condition that it would heat, 

 swell and perhaps some of it sprout ? How 

 then can we expect our cattle to be in a healthy 

 condition that are fed on slack-dried, musty 

 hay ? I do believe that cattle and horses will 

 be in better condition fed on Massachusetts 

 ivild meadow hay, well cured, than on Maine, 

 New Hampshire and Vermont early cut, up- 

 land hay, poorly cured. If this is not the 

 case, why are the store cattle in Massachusetts, 

 where so much of this meadow hay is used, 

 in better condition in the spring of the year 

 than Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont 

 cattle are, where they have such an abundance 

 of English hay ? 



What experienced horseman who has a 

 beautiful mare from which he hopes to raise a 

 colt worth one thousand dollars, would send 

 her into the country to be fed on early cut and 

 musty hay ? 



