^^^^^^^f^l^o^^^ 



^OL. YIII. 



AGRICULTURE. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER^TTsS 



No. 10. 



For Ilie Sillowins able comiiiunic-alions, signed S. X. we 

 iiuiehled to a Iriend in Essex couiily. 



THE DAIRY. 



fariuei- in Essex county the last year, after 



lying a family of five persons witli what milk 



were disposed to use, from eight cows, he- 



^ n tlic 14th of March and the last of Novem- 



§iia<U'. 1272 lbs. of butter. The cows had no 



_ or of other vegetable food. This is equal to 



1 lbs. to a cow. The cows are of our native 



; ; their pasturing is excellent ; and the result 



I :s as well for the domestic management as 



'i le stock. We have visited the dairy often, 



lave never seen a neater establishment. The 



hills and the luxuriant valleys of Marblehead 



the honor of this produce. 



182.5, Col. Putnam of Danvers, from a dairy 



e co«s, selected from his stock, produced iii 



( onths 103SJ lbs.,or nearly 208 lbs. to a cow, 



t hich he received, as he deserved, the premi- 



:i| rom the Essex Agricultural Society His 



■jI' 'lowever, " from the lOrh of March were 



ith English hay, and received about one 



'f Ijidian corn, on the ears, a day, to each 



J season, in addition to the feed there obtain 

 ceived between four and five quarts of In- 

 fnea! per day for each cow. In September, 

 the feed of the pastures was nearly dried up, 

 were fed with the suckers of about two and 

 "acres of Indian corn ; after this, for a num- 

 f weeks, they received about one bushel of 



3 el wurtzel to a cow per day; one half in the 

 nganJ the other at night." It is his opinion 

 lie increased amount of butter over what he 

 otherwise have expected, was much more 

 in eqitivalent for the cost of the nieal and 

 ibles. The weekly produce was about eight 

 Is to a cow : a great produce with us for a 

 I of twenty-six weeks. It is still however 

 onal)!e whether this produce will warrant 

 L-poMse of feeding in this way. Let us look 

 items. — 



arts of Indian meal to each cow per week, or 

 Hshel after the toll is deducted, say - ' 50 

 hels of mangel wurtzel at 10 cents per 

 .1-1, - - . . J .0 



orn stalks, &c. at 20 cents per 

 iK - - - - - 20 

 -milk for swine and manure, an equiva- 

 for labor of making and marketing. 



L 1.40 



sf butter at 20 cents per lb., 1 co 



ance in favor of'each cow, 20 cts per week. 

 ; balance of 20 cts. per week in favor of 



ow, for six months of the year, cannot, we 

 le deemed a ffc.y eilravaf^ant profit, especial- 

 re have allowed nothing for the interest on 

 it or value of the animals, nothing for risk of 

 the gradual deterioration of this kind of 

 Such results are not among the golden 

 ? of the industrious farmer, but among his 

 Salities. Yet, Mr Editor, it is not long since 



we saw in one of your Boston papers a 



splendid discourse about the extraordinary profits 

 of the farmers and market men, who, with the 

 exception of the butchers, can scarcely keep their 

 heads above water; and when compelled almost 

 to throw their produce away, are complained of 

 because they are not willing absolutely to give it 

 away, and carry it home for their customers into 

 the bargain. We remember very well, sometime 

 ago, when a wagoner from Now York state was 

 ■ feed than hay and grass; not an oUnce of f "'?? ''"^ ''"''*' "*" '""'1' ''""'''" "' Boston market 

 or of other vegetable food. This is equal to ,."■ ""'■'<^'^" '^'='"« P^'" ")., and a man in the dress 



"'^ g<^"tlemanhad the effiontery toask him very 

 gravely )/ he did not think that price high % We 

 thought such a man deserved nothing better than 

 to eat hog's fat upon his toast for the rest of his 

 life. 



These exi)eriments in the dairy concerns, so very 

 important a branch of husbandry, ought to excite 

 a strongei interest in the agricultural community 

 fir the improvement of our neat stock ; and in pro- 

 «!nng a far superior race of cows to what we 

 now possess. In general, little attention is paid to 

 this subject ; the stock owned by most of our com- 



,..>.„. uie xwi.i oi juarcli were '"'"] f="™<=rs is very ordinary ; farmers are ever' 



Lth English hay, and received about one ""^"y '° ^'=" t''«r 'lest calves to the butqher, be- 

 f Indian corn, on the ears, a day, to each '^""^*^ ^^^ '"'"'S ^'"^ '^^st price ; they permit their 

 untif about the middle of May. From this f"^^'^ '" "° ^^ ''^'^ '""*' miserable bulls, which may 

 they fed in the pasture ; and throu-h theP''''^™ '° "^"^ ''°"'''^"''-'"' '° ^''^"^ ! '^"<^ but little 

 ! season, in addition to the feed there obtain- *^""'P''"'""^'e encouragement is given to the best 

 " " attempts to iniprove our stock. 



Few farmers, we believe, are aware of the dif- 

 ference in the richness or the butter properties of 

 tlie milk of different cows. With a view of ascer- 

 taimng this as nearly as I could in my own dairy, 

 I Uied by a lactometer or cream guage the miik 



i el wurtzel to a cow per day; one half in the "' fo'"' of my cows, taken at the same milking, 

 ng and the other at night." It is his ooinion '" '"I""' quantities, and suffered to stand in tlie 



same jilace, and the safne space of time. The 

 difference surprised me. Nine inches in depth of 

 the milk of my poorest cow, for which I had paid 

 a high price, gave, in twenty-four hours, two tenths 

 of an inch of cream. The same quantity of the 

 milk of my best cow at the same time gave thir- 

 teen tenths of an inch of cream. They went in 

 the same pasture, and there was no known differ- 

 ence in their feed. One however had Been lon- 

 ger in milk than the other, though both had had 

 calves that season. 



The accounts of butter made by some of the 

 improved Durham short horned cows in England, 

 are quite extraordinary; as they are not at hand 

 I cannot now quote them. Tlie Ayrshire cows in 

 Scotland, according to Sir John Sinclair, produce 

 about 900 gallons of milk per year; which, allow- 

 ing 3 gallons to one pound of butter, is equal to 

 300 lbs. per annum. He mentions that an emi- 

 nent dairy farmer in Galloway, Scotland, states 

 that every cow on his farm yielded annually her 

 own weight in cheese, and that he would not 

 keep a milch cow that did not yield cheese in the 

 course of the year equal to her own weight. Sur- 

 vey of Scotland, vol. i, p. 114. 



Lawrence in his Treatise on cattle, speaks of an 

 Alderney cow, who during three weeks, made 19 

 pounds of butter each, week. N. Y. Memoirs 

 vol. iii, p. 262_Mr Powel's cow Belina made at 

 the rate of nuire than 20 lbs. per week. The 

 Oakes cow of Danvers made 19^ lbs. one week ; 



abgve sixteen lbs. per week for more than three 

 tnonths; and from the 8th of May, when her 

 I calf was killed, to the 20th of December, 48'lf lbs. 

 I The Nourse cow, which recbived a premium at 

 j'the Essex Show, made more than 14 lbs. per 

 j week for several months. The ■Waltham cow, 

 j which received the Brighton premium in 1820* 

 [ made 13 1-2 ibs. of butter per week on an ave- 

 rage. Above all there is the famous English cow 

 owned by Mr Cramii, which has probably never 

 been equalled, who in 



180.5 in 43 weeks and one day made 540 lbs of 

 butter. 



1807 in 45 weeks 4.50 (]<,_ 



1808 in 51 weeks and four days 675 do. 



1809 in 42 weeks and three days 466 do. 

 1809-10 in 57 weeks 594 do. 

 Memoirs of Massachusetts Agricultural Society 

 vol. iv, p. 331. 



These, it is true, are most extraordinary exam- 

 ples ; but thougli we do not aspire to such splen- 

 did results, yet we have by no means determined 

 how nearly we may approximate them by careful 

 selection, im[)roved breedir-g, good keeping, and 

 better management. Much more depends on 

 these things, than most of us are aware, and no 

 pains ought to be spared in doing what we can to 

 promote the improvement of our dairy stock. A 

 poor cow is not worth the keeping, and a good 

 cow is one of the greatest benefactions which, as 

 far as human subsistence is concerned, a kind pro- 

 vidence has bestowed among its earthly gifts. 

 Scptemher, 1829. s. "x. 



POTATOES. 



The Rogers potato, which is said to be from 

 Connecticut, and the seed of which was pur- 

 chased at the Seed Store of.). B. Russell, proves 

 most excellent: numerous, not large, which is 

 perhaps owing to the drought, but of a very fine 

 quality. The early Gourgas potato from Weston, 

 purchased at the same place, is likewise abundant' 

 and of a very superior kind. The Chenango, or 

 otherwise Richardson potato is productive, early, 

 and fine. Potatoes, we learn in Maine and New 

 Hampshire, have been very much cut ofi' by the 

 severe drougiit. We can expect therefgre, but 

 kw supplies from the eastward. S. X. 



September, 1829". 



EXTRAORDIiVARY YIELD. 



The fact has recently come to our knowledge, 

 that a farmer the last year in West Newbury from 

 one potato, used as seed, gathered four bushels and 

 a half of potatoes. We understood him to say 

 that the potato weighed two and a half pounds, 

 and that in jilanting he cut out all the eyes, and 

 divided the potato into several iiieces, in order to 

 plant as much ground as he could with it. 



September, 1829. S X. 



ON TOPPING THE STALKS OP INDIAN 

 CORN. 



Indian Corn, when all its uses are considered, is 

 the most valuable i)roduct of our cultivation. On 

 this account, the best mode of raising and mana- 

 ;ing it must be an interesting subject of inquiry to 

 ivery farmer. In no crop cultivated among us 



