THE GENESEE FARMER. 



117 



may not always be the case ; but six inches is the 

 established depth of those who have experimented 

 on potato culture in Europe with the best success. 

 Third, dig in October; no matter what you have 

 heard or read, the great preponderance of testi- 

 mony goes to show that late digging is the best. 

 There are, undoubtedly, cases in which the reverse 

 of this seems to be true, but the practice of grow- 

 ers of this crop, since it became diseased, goes to 

 show that digging in September is bad policy gen- 

 erally. T. B. MINER. 



REMOVING MANURE FROM STABLES. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer: — A correspondent in 

 your paper, not long since, said, "Put plenty of straw 

 in the stables for bedding, and then put extra side- 

 boards on vour wheelbarrow to remove the manure 

 from the stables." Now, I think the first advice 

 very good ; where straw is plenty, put it in the 

 stables to the horse's belly ; but, then, a wheelbar- 

 row, even with sideboards, is of little account 

 where there are three or four large stables to clean 

 aut. We use a sled, made by putting together two 

 boards or planks about ten inches broad and some 

 six feet long. We simply bore about five quarter 

 boles in each plank. The first holes are to put the 

 breast chains through, to haul it by — so that we 

 need no swingle-tree. In the other holes we put 

 ;ross bars, about six inches shorter than the breadth 

 >f our door ; then by putting a short rope or chain 

 ;o the rear of the sled, we draw it backwards into 

 ;he stable, put on a load as much as a horse can 

 ivell draw, drive to where you wish it to lie, throw 

 t off and drive back for another load, putting the 

 nanure from the horse stable where that from the 

 sow stables was last put, so that it may become 

 nixed, which is a very important item in managing 

 ;he manure heap. Or, which is still speedier and 

 easier, get a horse hook, made out of inch square 

 ron prongs, fourteen inches long, handle two feet 

 ong, with a ring in the end to hook your spread 

 n, and having three prongs one foot apart, made 

 )y welding the three prongs together near the end 

 ivhere the ring is. You may have a ring on the 

 ;op of the middle prong, to lift it out when you 

 wish to unload. When you wish to load, drive 

 t in with a wooden maul or mallet; then start 

 four horse, and you will be astonished at the speed 

 with which you can clean a large stable, where 

 pou use straw enough to make the manure adhere 

 together. h. s. kindig. 



Westmoreland Co., Pa. 



w ■ . 



Thoughts on Reading the January No. of 

 rHE Genesee Farmer. — It is pleasant to read the 

 results of scientific experiments, and particularly 

 in regard to growing grass, in which department 

 there have been so few reliable and exact results 

 recorded in this country. Ashes, and even coal 

 ashes, are good fertilizers, and as shown by your 

 figures to be nearly equal to the more costly arti- 

 cles, and brings to my mind that for two years past 

 [ have burned coal, and having thrown the ashes 

 the first winter around a pear tree, during the sum- 

 mer the red-clover came up and grew luxuriantly 

 where for years there was none, or very little, to 

 be seen. I saw no improvement in the pears. 



The article on soluble food struck my fancy as 

 being valuable, and if practiced to considerable ex- 



tent, we should see fewer horses stiffened by 

 founder. 



The subject of tight barns might, with profit, be 

 discussed by our agricultural clubs throughout the 

 country, and I think it an open subject, and as the 

 old barns are rapidly giving place to new, now is 

 the time. 



The subject of churning is well treated, but the 

 cows, which give or make occasion for the use 

 of the churn, and the science of churning at all 

 necessary, are not even mentioned, or how they 

 should be treated. The winter fare of the cow 

 influences the use of the churn to a great extent. 

 — D., Gates. 



CHAFFING HAY AND CORN STALKS ECONOMY. 



A great deal of pro and con has of late been 

 published on the economy of chaffing corn stalks 

 and buy as food for bo vines and horses. The vet- 

 eran JonN Johnston says he has tried it, and the 

 increase did not pay the matting; and for the same 

 reason he never grows a patch of roots for the 

 delectation of his milk cows in winter. But what 

 is fair economy for Mr. Johnston on his large and 

 very productive farm, should not- be practiced by 

 the small farmer who is at less expense for labor, 

 and is necessarily obliged to make the most of 

 every vegetable product. 



In the March Farmer, we read of a Connecticut 

 farmer who has brought up a worn out farm to 

 keep thirty head of bovines, that would keep only 

 six or eight head before. He not only chaffed his 

 well saved stalks, but he steamed them also, with 

 meal, oil cake, bran, etc.; soiling his cattle 'in sum- 

 mer, by which means he was enabled to make 750 

 loads of composted manure yearly. This not only 

 manured his corn, but top-dressed his meadows. 



But there is an advantage gained to the wheat- 

 growing farmer in the fineness of the manure from 

 cut feed. Joseph Wright of Waterloo had a field 

 of 20 acres of the fairest white wheat grown the 

 past season in this country ; while all other crops 

 were short from freezing, his was saved by a lib- 

 eral coat of fine manure from cut stalks, which 

 formed a mulch for the wheat, thus performing the 

 office of the leaves and vegetable humus of a new 

 clearing. 



At almost all the large livery stables. in New 

 England and New York, the hay and stalks fed to 

 horses is chaffed fine and treated with ground com, 

 oats, etc., by which a great saving is made in hay, 

 which in all large towns is much dearer than grain 

 in proportion to its nutriment. It is said to have 

 been fully ascertained by repeated experiments in 

 England, that nineteen pounds of cut hay will take 

 the place of twenty-five pounds in the long state. 



A pains-taking correspondent of the Country 

 Gentleman writes that at all the omnibus and rail- 

 road stables in New York, the hay is cut fine and 

 mixed wet with corn and oats ground, in the pro- 

 portion by measure of three measures of corn to 

 two measures of oats, the proportion varying only 

 with the market price of the grain. The propor- 

 tion fed of cut hay to grain is generally nine 

 pounds of hay to seventeen of grain, averaging ten 

 quarts of meal a day to the largest horses. At the 

 Sixth Avenue stables, where the horses do not av- 

 erage over 1,000 lbs. each, <o\ lbs. of hay and 15f 

 lbs, of meal keeps them in fine order. s. w. 



