308 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



July 



are first in hand ; plowing comes first ; let the wet 

 lands be last to be plowed. Get in the early 

 grains upon the dryest, warmest soil, especially 

 spring wheat ; dog-days are dangerous. Remem- 

 ber the winter wheat to be sown on sod land, 

 or otherwise, the first week in September, it being 

 a safer crop than spring wheat, vastly better and 

 more prolific. The question is, Mr. Farmer, when 

 are you going to raise your own bread ? We shall 

 wait for answers by the bushel, confirmed and 

 proved by putting in two acres this spring and two 

 acres more in September. 1 will enter into bonds 

 with every farmer in New England, that by adopting 

 this practice he will have bread and to spare, and 

 that he will no longer find it profitable or necessary 

 to send two thousand miles from home for a barrel 

 of flour. There is an absurdity in the very idea. 



POTATOES 



I must talk about, and not a small quantity of dis- 

 cussion has arisen from my humble suggestions the 

 past year or two ; they have had large and small 

 advocates, but a majority are in favor of large sead 

 for planting. It is to be hoped further tests will 

 be made the coming season. Will your correspon- 

 dent, "W. A.," try the experiment of cutting ofi" 

 the "seed end ?" also plant the next row with the 

 "seed end" on, and see which row brings the largest 

 and heaviest crop of potatoes. The only fair test is 

 weight. Plant 3^ feet by 2 feet apart. Will he 

 also try small and large potatoes, and give us the 

 benefit of his experience ? Three practical farmers 

 in Connecticut toid me last wee ; , they succeed far 

 better with large potatoes. Small ears of corn, or 

 the tips of large ears, are not used for seed. Po- 

 tatoes are too valuable as a crop not to receive spe- 

 cial attention by seeding. 



COLTS AND HOKSES. 



How have they been kept the past winter? 

 Their feet are of more consequence than their stom- 

 achs. Once diseased by foul practice, they are in- 

 curable. Standing upon fermenting bedding and 

 manure, burning and drying the fluids of the hoof, 

 the ancles crack, stiffen and swell. The body burns 

 when lying down ; strong ammoniacal gas is drawn 

 in with e\ery breath. A floor of stones or hard 

 plank would be better, that the feet may be kept 

 cool and clean, in order to encounter hard roads 

 and pavements. Give them a straw bed at night, 

 but a clean, hard standing place by day. H. p. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MEASUREMENT OF MILK. 



Mr. Editor : — Can you tell us, who live away 

 down fiast of Boston, how much milk, as it comes 

 from the cow, it now takes to make a quart in the 

 market ? I have agreed to deliver what milk I had 

 to spare through the year daily, at so much per 

 quart ; and I have heard of wine measure, of beer 

 measure, and of dry measure ; and have been told 

 that each and all these are the true and lawful 

 measure, and that each differs from the other, say 

 from five to twenty per cent. I have watched 

 what our weekly paper says on this subject, and one 

 week I find one thing said, and the next something 

 difl'erent, and if I rightly remember, it is now said 

 the Legislature has undone all that that has ever 

 been done about it. 



I pray you call the attention of Mr. Brooks, Mr. 



Sheldon, or Mr. Stebbins, or some other sensible 

 farmer in the Legislature (if there be any such) to 

 this subject, that it may no longer be said, it can- 

 not be told how many quarts of milk are required 

 to make a pound of butter, or how much a quart 

 is. I know that your neighbor of the Ploughman 

 will still say that four quarts of milk from his se- 

 lect L)evons will make a pound of butter, and who 

 can question this, so long as it shall be entirely un- 

 certain whether one hundred or four hundred cubic 

 inches shall be required to make a gallon ? I can 

 find some apology for hesitation about voting for 

 or against the Kansas donation of $100,000, so 

 long as the fat offices of State are contingent upon 

 such votes. But I cannot imagine any plausible 

 apology for backing and filling so often on the 

 milk question. Essex. 



May, 1857. 



CABBAGES. 



The cultivation of the cabbage for stock feeding, 

 has now become quite common in many sections of 

 our country. That the cabbage is a valuable vege- 

 table for this purpose, there can be little doubt. 

 The specific quantity of its actually alimentary 

 matter, is, however, very inconsiderable ; yet when 

 fed in connection with other vegetables of a more 

 solid and nutritive quality, and which, although 

 they greatly exceed it in this respect, are yet infe- 

 rior to it in volume or bulk, it subserves a very im- 

 portant and valuable purpose in the economy of al- 

 imentation, and aids materially by the stimulous of 

 distention which it produces. 



Animals fed highly upon what may be considered 

 hearty or concentrated aliment — such as corn and 

 the smaller grains, are very certain to be injured in 

 the long run ; and hence it is we find the most ex- 

 perienced stock-growers unanimous in recommend- 

 ing a mixture of hay and grain. 



The cabbage is unquestionably a lucrative crop, 

 when properly managed, and on new and unex- 

 hausted soil, is rarely injured by worms or flies. 

 Old pasture grounds which have recuperated under 

 the process of grazing through a long succession of 

 years, when broken up in July or August, and 

 dressed with lime or house ashes, after being thor- 

 oughly harrowed the subsequent spring, rarely fail 

 to produce an abundant and healthy crop. 



It may be well to remark that the ruta baga, 

 and most other roots of the turnip kind, including 

 that production known to a mateur cultivators as 

 the KoiiL Rabi, or "turnip-rooted cabbage above 

 ground," are all much more certain when cultivat- 

 ed on pasture lands of a suitable quality, than when 

 grown on lands that have been exhausted by culti- 

 vation, or on green sward. In the cultivation of 

 cabbages — so far as the annual part is concerned, 

 we should prefer planting to transplanting, which 

 is a tedious process, and so irksome and fatiguing, 

 indeed, to the operator, as to insure hurry and im- 

 perfection in the performance. 



After the land has been finely pulverized, and 



