THE GENESEE FARMER. 



179 



LETTER FROM SAMUEL WILLIAMS. 



Our old friend and correspondent, Samuel Wil- 

 liams, of Waterloo, K Y., writes us a pleasant 

 gossipping letter, which, though not designed for 

 publication, will be read with interest. 



Yon now begin to have your reward for being 

 the first to expose Mapes' frauds on the fanners, 

 but it will be some time yet before the majority of 

 them will know much about it. Methinks Joseph 

 Harris, with his plot experiments, and Johnson 

 and Pugh, with their manure estimates, must do 

 the "state some service." 



Your remarks on the seed of the potato are 

 very interesting. You may get earlier potatoes 

 from the seed ends, but I always get larger and 

 better ones when I throw away the seed ends. 

 Cut a good sized potato, two seed eyes to a piece, 

 and plant ten inches apart in the drill; but my 

 rich clay garden soil gives more weight of stalks 

 than potatoes, hence I plant only a few early ones. 



I grow pole beans only. I have an improved 

 kidney (find four enclosed for one pole). They 

 hang in clusters, eight and nine in a pod, yielding 

 twice the quantity of the pole cranberry, or the 

 large flowering bean. 



Joseph Wright has just received his seed corn 

 from Illinois. There is positive proof that he gets 

 one-third more grain from this corn, on the same 

 soil. Cutting those large stalks by horse power to 

 feed will only pay when hay is dear, and you have, 

 as he has, plenty of help. 



My wife says, after reading your Bement egg- 

 preserving essay, that she has tried both lime-wa- 

 ter and grease, but that her best success is to pack 

 them fresh in good dry salt, in stone crocks, and 

 keep them in a cool, dry basement cellar. They 

 kept well over six months. 



A small ration of beets and carrots is relished 

 by a cow, and it undoubtedly contributes to the 

 digestion of the hay ; but my still-fed cow soon 

 cloys of them, and is greedy only for fine, early cut 

 hay and bad potatoes. 



If I should tell a farmer how many mangel wur- 

 zel beets I got from three square rods, he would 

 call it a fish story. 



I have been trying to grow tomato plants in pots 

 in the house — a bootless task, unless you use 

 swamp muck, and harden them by exposure to 

 outside air. 



But no man knows, who has not tried it, what a 

 treasure this muck is to both a clay and. sand soil. 

 Taylor, our new nurseryman, at my instance paid 

 $40 an acre for four acres, l-£ miles north. The 

 muck is seven feet deep, is dug late in the season in 

 dry weather, and hauled in in winter. It is chiefly 

 a deciduous leaf mould, and not a poor, sandy, 

 hemlock swamp mould. 



I like your " Walks and Talks in the Garden." 

 Those only who use swamp muck freely on their 

 borders have fine verbenas, etc.; even a daffodil 

 puts on a more joyful bloom in such a border. 



Lima beans grown here are small, and no richer 

 than other beans. I plant no more of them. 



Growing sweet potatoes is about -as bootless; 

 yet Mr. Cock has sent to Ohio for one thousand 

 plants, to plant himself and give away, but I'll not 

 bother with such a gift. 



I plant sweet corn to-morrow (May 2). Peas 

 and onions ready to hoe. I have hardly time to 

 read the sensation news now, but to-day the soil is 

 too wet for the spade or hoe. 



MILKING STOOL FOR KICKING COWS. 



A short time since we gave our method of milk- 

 ing, advising to sit close up to the cow, holding the 

 pail firmly between the knees, and not to put the 

 head into the flank, as it commonly done. In this 

 way we have seldom had the pail upset by a kick- 

 ing cow. A correspondent of the Iowa Home- 

 stead gives the following description of a stool to 

 use in milking kicking cows, and says : 



Most people use the old fashioned milking stool, 

 with three or four legs, which just answers the 

 purpose for the milker to sit upon, and affords no 

 security to the milk or pail, except to set the latter 

 upon the ground in front of the milker, where it is 

 liable to be upset by a kicking cow; or to hold it 

 between the milker's knees. There is a much 

 more convenient form for a stool than that, which 

 may be made out of inch boards, as represented in 

 the cut. Upon this stool the milker has room to 



l-t.ACl*<-* 



MILKING STOOL. 



sit, and at the same time to have sufficient room 

 upon the point end for the milk pail to stand upon, 

 making altogether a kind of two-story stool. 

 Bring the pail between the knees of the milker, 

 where it can be held securely without much effort. 

 The milker should, if the cow is a kicking one, set 

 the front part of the stool, with the pail upon it, 

 directly under the udder, as if milking a gentle 

 cow, and at the same time press his left knee gent- 

 ly and constantly against the cow's right, hind leg, 

 holding the pail firmly between his knees; and if 

 the cow should kick with the right foot, let him 

 keep his position, and grasp the leg of the cow, as 

 she raises it, and prevent her from throwing it for- 

 ward ; or at least compel her to throw it so far to- 

 ward the other hind leg, and away from the pail, 

 as to cause no injury or loss of milk. A firm 

 grasp in that way, for a few times, -will certainly 

 cure a kicking cow, as it gives the milker complete 

 control over her, and she soon becomes convinced 

 that you are her master. We have had a little 

 practice in the matter, and speak advisedly. The 

 stool can be made in twenty minutes ; and besides 

 being a convenient one for kicking cows, it is a 

 very useful affair for a gentle cow, as the pail is 

 kept free from the mud, and close to the udder, 

 thus preventing any waste of milk, by milking 

 over, etc. 



