86 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



feeding it to horses or cows ; but from reading all, 

 or nearly all, the statements that have appeared in 

 the agricultural papers, during the past few years, 

 in regard to this grass, I am led to consider that in 

 some instances it has proved injurious to horses, 

 but never to any other kind of live stock. This 

 injury appears to have arisen from the very oily 

 nature of the seed of this grass; and it being fed 

 out generally without thrashing, horses eat abun- 

 dantly of the seed ends, leaving the butts, and at 

 the same time being fed freely on grain, they be- 

 oome weak and stiff in the joints ; but exactly how 

 this is effected, has not yet appeared. It has been 

 recommended, therefore, not to feed grain very 

 freely in connection with this grass, and I think the 

 ■uggestion a good one. 



For cows, and all stock to which hay is fed, the 

 Hungarian grass is excellent. But the injurious 

 effects arising from feeding it to horses are so rare, 

 that it is not yet a settled point whether the injury 

 complained of is really caused by this hay or some- 

 thing else; but time will soon decide the question. 



I notice that Hungarian grass seed is selling at 

 the West at about the price of oats, 25 or 30 cents 

 • bushel, while it sells at the East much higher. 



Clinton, y; 1. T. B. MINEB. 



Why Does Sue Kick the Milk Over? — "Like 

 a cow that gives a good mess of milk, and then 

 kicks it all over," is the proverb that is applied to 

 the man that does a kind act and follows it with a 

 foolish or damaging misdeed. Proverbs are founded 

 on practical truths. It is a truth, then, and a 

 common one, that "a cow gives a good mess of 

 milk, and then kicks it all over." If a fact, the 

 proverb must be not merely a truth, but one 

 founded in reason. So, if the cow stands quiet till 

 "a good mess of milk" has been drawn, there 

 must be a reason for her kicking it over after- 

 wards. And, the reason for her kicking being 

 •withdrawn, the probability is that the kicking will 

 either cease or not come in just after milking. 

 Should any reader chance to own one of these 

 proverbial cows, he may observe that the signal for 

 that kick is the milker's allowing his fingers to slip 

 from her teats with a jerk in stripping. If so, just 

 oheat the old cow out of the signal, till the "good 

 mess of milk " is beyond the reach of her kickers! 

 — f|L. s. {J, Attica, N. Y. 



MECHANICAL TOOLS FOR FARMERS. 



No good farmer should be without a set of me- 

 ohanical tools sufficient to enable him to do such 

 repairing of his agricultural implements as any 

 man can, and ought to do, rather than employ a 

 professional mechanic. 



In the first place, you require a room in some 

 out-buikling in which to keep your tools, and to do 

 your mechanical work. A work-bench, which any 

 man can make in a few hours, is first to be erected, 

 near a window. Over this bench, against the wall, 

 place a shelf about a foot wide and 12 feet long, 

 and under it put up a rack for your small tools, 

 ■uch as chisels, gimblets, brad awls, etc. 



The following are among the principal tools 

 seeded: a handsaw, broadax, hatchet, two or three 



S lanes, hammers, chisels of various sizes, a half a 

 oten gimlets, an iron square, a carpenter's two- 



feet, rule, etc. Let all the tools be of the best 

 make, and have a sufficient variety to enable you 

 to do any small job that it is possible for any one 

 to do, who is not a mechanic by trade. 



Procure a large and various supply of nails and 

 screws — wrought nails of different sizes, clout nails, 

 brads, tacks of the larger sizes — and have them so 

 arranged that you can lay your hand upon any 

 kind in an instant. You will be surprised with 

 what ease and skill, after a little practice, you will 

 be able to " tinker " up your tools out of repair, 

 and even to make new ones, during the winter 

 season. 



With a good set of tools, and all in complete 

 order, when a door, lock, or anything else gets out 

 of order on your premises, you will be able to re- 

 pair it, in most cases, as well as any carpenter. In 

 a few years one becomes so expert in the use of 

 tools, that he feels able to go out to work to help 

 his neighbors erect their houses or out-buildings, or 

 to put up his own where no very nice work is re- 

 quired. 



Next to an education at school, every farmer 

 should instruct his sons in the use of tools ; and no 

 one will ever say that it was time spent in vain. 



Clinton, N. Y. T. B. MINER. 



Test of the Value of Manure. — Hon. Josiah 

 Quinot, Jr., at the first Legislative Agricultural 

 Meeting in Boston, remarking on cow manure, said 

 the test of the value of her products, as well with 

 manure as with milk, was the quality of the food 

 given her. This is what we have always contend- 

 ed. "You can get nothing out of her," he well 

 remarked, " which you do not put in. An Eng- 

 lishman will buy a bullock, keep him for a time for 

 his manure, and then sell him for what he gave, or 

 less. Mr. Lawes, of England, had made experi- 

 ments in feeding cattle on cotton seed meal, and 

 found that while a given quantity of voidings from 

 the food was worth $27,86, the same quantity pro- 

 duced from carrots and turnips was worth only 86 

 cents." 



Neither of the above statements are strictly 

 true. An Euglish farmer does not buy a bullock 

 and sell him, after feeding him for several months, 

 at the price he gave for him or less. Such a state- 

 ment is obviously erroneous. Again, a given 

 quantity of manure made from the foods men- 

 tioned does not differ so much in value. What 

 Mr. Quinot means — and probably said — is that the 

 manure from a ton of cotton-seed meal is worth 

 $27,86, while that from a ton of turnips is worth 

 only 86 cents. 



From all portions of the great West, intelligence 

 brings favorable accounts of the growing wheat 

 crop ; and it is stated as a general fact that, at this 

 season of the year, appearances for an abundant 

 harvest were never more promising. 



