342 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



six weeks after it is started ? Why not as well 

 feed our corn fields till the middle of June, as to 

 feed our mowings till the middle of May ? If 

 we take off a crop of grass, why not let that suf- 

 fice for the season, and thus keep the meadows in 

 better condition ? Every week's feeding in the 

 spring, will lessen the amount of hay more than 



is just as I think and feel. And I have always 

 thought that those who were tolerably well ofi'in 

 Massachusetts, had better stay there and be con- 

 tented, unless they desire to do more good, by suf- 

 fering and self-denial, than they can do where they 

 are. 



The cost of living here is immense. Prices range 



enough for two weeks in the hay crop, and especial- much higher, on an average, than in the East. — 

 ly so if sheep are allowed to run upon the meadows. Even lard, where hogs, (or what are called hogs,) 

 There is an additional reason which is not often] are so plenty and f,o cheap, was, at our last pur- 



thought of. The fences are not usually in order 

 when the ground is first bare in the spring, and 

 cattle roam at their pleasure from field to pasture, 

 and l)ack at pleasure over the half-down fences 

 and the habit thus formed is very likely to be fol- 

 lowed up through the season. This alone is suffi- 

 cient reason for the confinement of stock until the 

 feed is ample for their support. 



But some will say, I have not hay enough, and I 

 have no water in my yard, &c. If you have not 

 sufficient fodder for your stock, and never mean to 

 have, let your cattle run, and you will be likely to 

 have your wish. But buy hay, or, as may be bet- 

 ter, sell stock, until you have enough, and next 

 year, cut your coat according to your cloth, and 

 keep stock according to your fodder, and ycu will 

 find both are on the increase from year to year. 



If you have no water, now is your time to make 

 plans to get it before another fall. There is scarce 

 ly a barn in the country which cannot have running 

 water, either in the natural way down hill, or the 

 modern way up hill, by a hydraulic ram, and at a 

 reasonable expense. Those few which cannot be 

 thus supplied should have wells or cisterns, or be 

 moved where they can have. 



A good ])ipe of cement may be laid by any ma- 

 son or any Yankee, at a cost not over 50 cents per 

 rod, sufficiently strong to sustain a pressure of for- 

 ty feet. If the pressure is too great, or the ground 

 unfit, logs or lead may be used in its stead. For 

 family use in many cases either is preferable to lead. 



Now if these ideas are worth notice, please give 

 them a corner. If not, match them, and bid peace 

 to their ashes. P. j, 



Barre, Ft, ^pril, 1857. 



For the New England Fanner. 



TEIHGS m IOWA. 



"The stormy March has gone, at last," and we 

 are now having an equally stormy April, — a regu- 

 lar S. E. snow storm to-daj*. On the 5th inst. it 

 was very cold, freezing in our houses, and skim- 

 ming over the wells, six feet below the surface of 

 the ground. Scarce a bud or a blade of grass has 

 made its appearance, and it is dreary enough. One 

 year ago, it was mild and spring-like, and most of 

 our farmers had sown their wheat ; while you were 

 surrounded with snow-banks and underlying frost 

 So the seasons varj". It has been almost incessant 

 winter since November, and many are threatening 

 to go farther South, where the winters will be less 

 severe and protracted. Those who come West, 

 expecting to find every thing to their mind, are, of 

 course, discontented, and not a little inclined to 

 fret. They are not half so contented and happy 

 as the dwellers in Norland, where the sun shines 

 only three or four hours a day, and then at a ter- 

 ribly acute angle. 



This is not a very inviting picture, surely, but it 



chase, Jif teen cents a pound, and rapidly rising. We 

 have since heard of its being nineteen cents a pound. 

 We have little money to pay for any thing with, 

 but the Bank oj JVebraska, — which is no bank at 

 all, but only a private concern in the city of Dav- 

 enport. There is actually more of this paper in 

 circulation here, just now, than of all other kinds to- 

 gether ; yet nobody wants to keep more than five 

 dollars of it by him over night. But we hope to 

 have a bank-law of our own, soon, when we shall 

 be no longer obliged to go to Nebraska for our 

 bills. 



The railroad spirit is still rife in our State, and 

 competition between rival routes runs high. If we 

 may get one out of three or four projected through 

 our place, we shall be thankful; for the roads or 

 the ways where men travel, (when they do not get 

 stuck in the mud,) are perfectly horrible ! 



But we shall see better times, before long, I trust. 

 So let no one that was really intending to emigrate 

 be disheartened by our lugubrious epistle. By 

 another month, we shall probably be able to write 

 a more cheerful and sunny letter. M. K. C. 



Tipton, Iowa, JJpril, 1857. 



FEEDING AND WEANING CALVES. 



It is a practice with some, perhaps many, to feed 

 calves, even at the earliest age, only twice a day. 

 This has always appeared to us not only as cruel, 

 but as unnatural. It seems so utterly at variance 

 with the manifest wants and instincts of the young 

 of other animals, those of the human race included, 

 and so opposed to the mode adopted by Nature in 

 supplying food to lambs, foals, &c., as to convince 

 us that it must be injurious as well as cruel and un- 

 natural. We have no doubt that death and other 

 diseases that may not terminate fatally, are often 

 caused by the overloading of the stomach, which is 

 the natural consequence of fasting too long. The 

 practice of feeding very young calves only twice a 

 day is too manifest an infraction of the instincts im- 

 planted by Nature, which lead the young of all an- 

 imals to partake of the food provided for them, fre- 

 quently and in small quantities, to be indulged in 

 without pernicious and destructive consequences. 



There are considerations of various kinds, there- 

 fore, calculated to influence persons of different dis- 

 positions and characters, and calling upon all for a 

 reform in the feeding of calves. Those who care 

 little or nothing about the discomfort of their 

 calves, may be moved to this needed reform by the 

 obvious danger of loss ot property by disease or 

 death. The very least that should be done in the 

 way of reform is to feed three times a day, morn- 

 ing, noon and night. When a calf is led three 

 times a day, a quart and a half to three quarts of 

 new milk will be sufficient duriug the first two or 

 three weeks at each meal, and the danger of over- 

 loading the stomach will be avoided. 



