THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



SIDE-HILL BARN WITH SHEDS. 



8P1BIT OF THE AGBICTJLTTTRAL PBESS. 

 Fat Cow.— H. 6. White, of Framingham, sends the 

 Boston Cultivator the weight of a five-year old Short-horn 

 oo'w, Pocahontas 5th, lately slaughtered by Paoli La- 

 throp, of South Hadley, Mass., as follows : Live weight, 

 1730 lbs. Dead weight : four quarters, 1,118 lbs. ; tallow, 

 127 lbs. ; hide, 90 lbs. ; total, 1,135 lbs. It is stated that 

 all the grain she ever consumed was less than 15 bushels. 

 Barn-Yards and Manure.— The Country Gentleman 

 gives the following hints on this subject: 



1. The barn-yard should be as small an enclosure as 

 the amount of stock it is to accommodate will allow. It 

 should be as dry as any place out of doors well can be- 

 neither overflowed from higher ground, nor receivingt.be 

 rain and melted snow from the surrounding barns ana 

 out-houses. It should be sheltered from the wind and 

 open to the sun, that it may be a place of comfort to its 

 occupants. It should contain a convenient supply of pure 

 water for the stock, to save labor and exposure, and the 

 waste of manure always occurring when the stock must 

 »cek water outside the" barn-yard. If small, dry and shel- 

 tered, it will be easily kept littered, and thus better fit it 

 for wintering stock and making and saving manure. 



2. The greatest sources of loss of manure are from 

 washing and over-fermentation or burning. In winter, 

 yard manure suffers but slightly from the latter cause, and 

 from the first there is little loss in a well arranged yard. 

 But some fermentation is required to fit manure for use, 

 »nd this end may be furthered by a little care in mixing 

 and arranging the different materials for the compost 

 heap. The stuble manure should be spread around the 

 yard, and particular care should be taken to mix that 

 from the horse-stalls with that of the cattle, thai the ten- 

 dency to rapid decomposition of the first, may help the 

 colder nature of the latter. In this way, too, the litter 

 used is brought into a better state tor absorbing the liquid 

 parts, and the whole supply of manure is rendered more 

 equable and of higher value. In no case should we ne- 

 glect to provide some absorbent for the liquid manure, as 

 it is of equal, value with the solid excrement. 



3. The sheep sheds should be well littered for the com- 

 Ibrt of the animals, as well as to make more manure, but 



we have found no better method of saving the same from 

 heating on the approach of warm weather, and consequent 

 loss, than to remove the roof of boards (covering our 

 sheds,) and exposing the contents to the weather. If 

 drawn out and piled in heaps, it should be mixed with 

 muck or strawy yard manure, and well moistened, or 

 waste will occur from heating. Where open to the rain, 

 it will usually decompose slowly, and be in a state for 

 use on fall wheat or for top-dressing grass lands in 

 autumn. 



The Prolieicness of Sows. — A correspondent of the 

 Germantown Telegraph writes : "On the 25th of Decem- 

 ber, 1860, I had a Berkshire sow nine months old to give 

 birth, and raise to four weeks old, nine pigs, which I sold 

 at $2 apiece, making $18. She had the company of the 

 male in a few days after the removal of the pigs, and on 

 the 20th of May, 1861, she came with fourteen pigs, rais- 

 ing all but one to four weeks, which I sold at $1.75 each, 

 making $22.75. After the removal of this litter, she had 

 the company of the male again, and on the 24th of Octo- 

 ber, 1861, just ten months from the time of the first litter, 

 she came with ten fine pigs more, bringing them safely 

 along to four weeks old, when I sold them for $1.30 each, 

 making $13— pigs being v.nusally plenty last fall, and 

 consequently low— making an aggregate of thirty-two 

 pigs from one sow, within a period of ten months, and 

 bringing me in round cash $53.75. 



After the lacteals were dry, the mother was ready for 

 the meat tub. I had a Suffolk sow, also, at the same time 

 with the Berkshire alluded to, that did fully as well, 

 having in a period of eleven months had thirty-one pigs, 

 which brought me $45, four of them were reserved tor 

 stock pigs, and not counted ; and after the removal of 

 the last litter I sold her to the butcher for $31. In all the 

 lots I had but two whinocks. 

 The sows ran in good grass during the summer, where 



