1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



657 



are at once aware of it, since they look about them, 

 snuff their noses, and make the fondling noise 

 usuallv uttered towards their young. When in a 

 herd of cows, one or two cases of abortion occur, 

 or delivery takes place, from whatever cause, other 

 pregnant cows will cast their calves, and that 

 timely separation of those aborting from the yet 

 pregnant cows, saves these latter from abortion." 



It is said that cows in the wheat raising districts 

 of New York, where they feed largely at straw 

 stacks, are nearly exempt from this trouble ; hence 

 a feed of wheat shorts, or oats, has been recom- 

 mended, in connection with good care generally. 



The New York commission have been prose- 

 cuting their inquiries and investigations during 

 the present season, and it is to be hoped that they 

 will be able to make a report this winter which 

 will throw some light upon this subject. 



We might give our correspondent any amount 

 of theory upon this subject, but our stock of prac- 

 tical information, we are sorry to say, is exceed- 

 ingly meagre. The Little Falls, N. Y., Farmers' 

 Club have debated and investigated this subject 

 extensively during the past five years or more, 

 without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as 

 to the cause or cure of this disease ; but we be- 

 lieve that it is generally agreed that an animal that 

 aborts, or shows any signs of doing so, should at 

 once be separated from other cows, with the most 

 careful removal of all evidences of the disorder. 

 Many advise that such animals should not be suf- 

 fered to remain upon the farm. 



HEADS OF A DISCOURSE ON BUTTER-MAKING. 



I have been thinking, Mr. Ed'itor, of the request 

 that you made last week, while examining the 

 three tubs of 165J pounds of butter that we have 

 mude from our two cows since last spring, besides 

 what riiilk, cream and butter a family of seven 

 have used, to write out a statement of our process 

 for the Farmer. But as I am not great at sermon- 

 izing, at the best, and am particularly busy just 

 now with my fall work, which, in consequence of 

 dull weather, has got rather behind hand, I will 

 not attempt to elaborate the following points, or 

 heads, which have been suggested to my mind 

 while thinking over your request. 



1. Healthy and well fed cows. Mine, you know, 

 have a little cob meal. 



2. A sveet airy place for the milk and cream. 



3. Thoroughly washed and scalded pans. 



4. Milk to be skimmed before too sour. 



5. Cream in the pot to be stirred often in hot 

 weather. 



6. Cream to be churned twice a week. 



7. The buttermilk to be thoroughly worked 

 from thf butter. 



8. Ttie butter, if to be kept, must be well salted. 



9. One week previous to puttimj th3 butter into 

 the firkin it is tilled with sour milk, which should 

 be stirred every day and changed every three days ; 

 then washed, scalded, cooled with cold water and 

 rubbed over with salt. 



The importance of my "secondly" — a sweet, airy 

 place for the milk and cream — is not, I think suffi- 

 ciently appreciated. Few would think of stirring 

 into their milk or cream, portions of their boiled 

 victuiils, pickles, bacon, lard, baked beans, pot 

 skimmings, &c., but many do permit the essence 

 or bmell of these and many other things, both 



good and bad, to mingle themselves with the 

 milk, cream and butter. But as I do not propose 

 to argue any of these points, I will close with the 

 remark that the merchant who had my butter, gave 

 me quite a puff for its appearance and good quality. 

 Felchville, Vt., Sept. 30, 1868. t. s. f. 



Remarks. — At the time these three tubs were 

 sent to market, we understood that the fourth had 

 been commenced upon ; showing an amount of pro- 

 duce creditable alike to the little dairy of two cows, 

 and to the five motherless girls, the oldest of whom 

 is only sixteen, who have had the charge of the 

 milk and the other household work, and who with a 

 younger brother and their father make up the 

 family of seven persons before alluded to. 



POULTRY and poultry BOOKS. 



In reply to "An Old Subscriber's" inquiry I 

 would say : — First, I think he cannot better his 

 stock of hen literature unless he procures a late 

 English work by Tegetmeiir, which costs nine 

 dollars and is a valuable treatise. 



Second, there are no pure Creepers in this sec- 

 tion, still they are to be seen, one or two in a place, 

 hereabouts. In color, the gray seems to predomi- 

 nate, while some are of a reddish brown and oth- 

 ers of a cinnamon color, and occasionally a few 

 white ones are to be met with. They all seem to 

 be highly prized as good layers, setters and nurses, 

 and for their heavy plumage and short legs. 

 From my own experience, however, I find that 

 their short legs are both hardy and strong for 

 scratching, and that they do twice the amount of 

 it that the Brahmas do. If "Old Subscriber" is 

 not satisfied with Brahmas, Leghorns and Black 

 Spanish, I should advise him to try the Golden 

 Pencilled Hamburgh, as the handsomest, best lay- 

 ers, and in my experience, the most profitable 

 fowls ever kept, and they seem to sustain the same 

 good name with all who are acquainted with them. 

 My neighbor, irom whom I got mine, calls them 

 superior to any of the many breeds which he has 

 ever raised. His first trio he told me cost him 

 $18, but he realized $9 from eggs sold, and also 

 some twenty chickens from them the first season. 

 He received them June 2, and from that time till 

 September 8, there were but eleven days in which 

 he did not get two eggs per day, and only three in 

 which he got none. I see that Tegetmeier recom- 

 mends them very highly. He calls them truly the 

 cottager's fowl, and they are known in some parts 

 of England as the "Dutch Every-day Layers," 

 and are very minutely described in his work. I 

 do not know where this variety of fowls can be 

 obtained, but I understand their eggs are to be ad- 

 vertised the coming season. An Old Reader. 



Worcester, Mass., Oct. 21, 186S. 



experiments "WITH hayward's fertilizer. 



Last spi'ing I planted some cucumbers, alternat- 

 ing the hills with manure and the mineral fertili- 

 zer of Dodge Hay ward, by using half a bushel of 

 fine manure in one hill, and one quart of the fer- 

 tilizer in the next. Both were forked in, to the 

 depth of a foot. The plants came up and grew 

 about alike, until two inches high, when the 

 weather continuing dry, the manured hills got the 

 start and outstripped the others. Coming on rainy, 

 the fertilized took a new start, kept it, and gave 

 the first and last cucumbers, as well as two-thirds 

 of the whole crop, as the manured hills dri.d up 

 three weeks in advance of the others. 



On one rod of ground I forked in fourteen 

 pounds of the Hayward fertilizer and sowed to 

 onions. None came up. I then forked the t)e4. 

 over and sowed again to onions, at'icr testing the 



