428 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



perfect, prominent, the pupil a greyish white en- 

 closed in a circle of black ; could not ascertain how 

 many legs, but that part of the foot upon which 

 it walks is covered with numerous delicate brushes. 

 It is new to us. 



A PUMPKIN STORY. 



Having seen several statements in the Farmer 

 about the product of pumpkin vines, I thought I 

 would make one respecting a vine that grew in 

 Isaiah Warren's garden, in this town. I saw the 

 vine growing and the crop harvested. This plint 

 sent out several vines which bore twenty-five 

 pumpkins that ripened, and two or three small 

 ones that did not get ripe. The weight was as fol- 

 lows: the largest one weighed 28 pounds ; the av- 

 erage weight 2 1^ pounds; whole weight, 531| 

 pounds. Can this be beat in 1857 ? 



Fryeburg, Me., 1857. Henry Walker. 



A FINE FIELD OF GRASS. 



I this day saw a field of grass, twelve acres or 

 more, handsome as a picture. It showered freely 

 at the time, and therefore I could not comfortably 

 go among it. It was situate about three miles 

 easterly of the residence of the farmer of Wilming- 

 ton, on land recently purchased by bim, at $2 per 

 acre — a trifle above the government price of land 

 in the Western States. How it could have been 

 obtained at a price so low, I do not understand ; 

 though I do know, that much of the land in that 

 neighborhood is very shallow indeed. 



There is now growing upon this land a bur- 

 den of several tons of grass to the acre, of a species 

 of meadow-grass resembling red top at a distance, 

 in height as high as my shoulders — (which are no 

 mean height.) The botanical character of the grass, 

 and its value as fodder, I must leave to be settled 

 by others. The appearance of the field was decid- 

 edly fine, just now ready for the mower, if the 

 stumps will admit of its use. p. 



South Danvers, July 31, 1857. 



A HAY MAKER. 



Please inform me of the price of a hay-maker, if 

 you have one ; I mean a machine for turning hay. 

 Will it pay for a turner of small means on forty 

 acres of meadow land, and work where the mower 

 will do a fair thing ? j. a. f. 



iNorih Clarendon, Vt., 1857. 



Remarks. — We have never 'seen a machine for 

 stirring or turning hay. The English people have 

 them, and call them "Tedding Machines." They 

 are represented in the English books, and look as 

 though they would do the work of spreading well. 



Allen's mower. 

 The current is setting strongly in favor of this 

 implement. Many of those who have hitherto used 

 Ketchum's and Manny's, have put them by, and 

 taken Allen's. I have heard several of our best 

 experienced and most candid men say, that they 

 preferred Allen's to any implement they have seen. 

 If I were called upon to advise what implement to 

 purchase, it would be Allen's. The only fault I 

 have heard found with it is, — that it costs near 

 twice as much as it ought to. Experienced me- 



chanics say that it can be made complete in all its 

 parts, of the best of material, for about 860 — if 

 this be so, there is no propriety whatever in its 

 being held at $100, and upwards. Essex. 



July 30, 1857. _ 



LIGHTNING RODS. 



Are lightning rods safe when connected with cast 

 iron, without one rod touching the other at the 

 ends? Pltase answer through your valuable pa- 

 per. J. S. Ross. 



Chaplin, July, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 



A STIE ABOUT THE COWS. 



I^Iii. Editor : — In the Fanner of July 4 is a 

 statement respecting a "a fine cow" four jears old, 

 which has been milked two years, and gives sixteen 

 quarts of milk every day. In another paper is a 

 statement from Hatfield of a cow which makes 21 

 lbs. butter per week. The first gentleman, it ap- 

 pears by the date, is a Vermonter, but has no 

 name, and lives nowhere in particular, and the last, 

 although it seems he resides in Hatfield, has no 

 name — of course, I can learn nothing about those 

 remarkable animals by writing to either of them. 

 Indeed, sir, when I read their statements I was 

 strongly inclined to regard them as "fish stories," 

 and so I let them pass. But in your last comes 

 another that beats all. Mr. Wright, of Hollis, says 

 he has a cow that makes 26 lbs. of butter per 

 week, and I have no reason to suspect that Mr. 

 Wright would tell a lorong story. Xow I should 

 hke to know all about this cow, the age, weight, 

 manner of keeping, &c., and whether the breed, 

 (which is new to me,) is reliable. Will Mr. Wright 

 gratify my curiosity through your paper ? I have 

 a small number of cows of my own raising which I 

 had looked upon with some degree of satisfaction. 

 I have an account of the expense of keeping for the 

 last year, and the account of milk, &c., which I had 

 thought of sending to you ; but these statements 

 put the damper on my ambition ; I must keep still, 

 sell my little runts, and buy some cows that are 

 cows. Yours respectfully, E. B. 



Weslhoro\ July 22, 1857. 



Fattening Properties of Peas and Beans. — 

 These articles have been found by chemical analy- 

 ses rich in nitrogen. The inference has been that 

 they would be specially useful in supporting the 

 waste of the muscles of animals, and it has been 

 suggested that they would be particularly useful in 

 the production of wool. They are evidently valua- 

 ble for these purposes, but not the less valuable for 

 the production of fat. Those persons who have used 

 peas for fattening hogs, consider them worth as 

 much as Indian corn. In districts where that grain 

 is not grown, very fine pork is produced from peas. 

 Dickson, in his work "On the Breeding of Live 

 Stock," states that a sweep-stakes was entered into 

 between five East Lothian farmers, to be claimed 

 by the one who should be pronounced the best 

 feeder of cattle. Forty cattle of the same breed, 

 and in equal condition, were divided between them, 

 as fairly as possible. They were put up together 

 the second week in September, and killed at Christ- 

 mas following. The winner of the stakes fed his ani- 

 mals wholly on boiled beans with hay. — Exchange. 



