TPIE GENTiSEE FAR:MER. 



345 



INDIAN COEN IN NEW ENGLAHD. 



" Coombs," said I, " wlint shall we plant upon 

 the flat? " not thar, I had no opinion on the suh- 

 ject, but because in forming, there is a value in the 

 suit'Seslions of every practical worker. 



The Somersetshire man leans Ins iiead a little, as 

 if considering: ''We must have some artificial., 

 sir, for the cows— mangel or i)ale Belgians— both 

 gooil, sir: some oats for the 'osses, sir; potatoes, 

 sir, is a tidy crop." 



I observe that Englishmen and Scotchmen are 

 disponed to slight our standard crop of maize. 

 They do not understand it. They fail of making a 

 creditalde siiow in comparison with tlie old school 

 native farmers, who, by dint of long experience, 

 have acquired the habit (rather habit than capacity) 

 of making a moderate crop of corn with the least 

 possible amount of tillage and of skill. To turn 

 over a firm grass sward, and plant directly upon 

 the inverted "turf, without harrowing, or ridging, 

 or drilling, is contrary to all the old country tra- 

 ditions. 



And yet the fact is notorious, that some of the 

 best corn crops (I do not speak now of exceptional 

 and premium crops,) are grown in precisely this 

 primitive way; given a good sod, and a good top- 

 dressing turned under— with, perliaps, a little dasii 

 of superphosphate upon the bills to quicken ger- 

 mination, and give vigorous start, and the New 

 England farmer, if he lend clean and tliorough 

 culture— which, under such circumstances, involves 

 little labor— can count upon his forty or titty bush- 

 els of sound corn to the acre. And the ycotcli- 

 man or Englishman may tear the sod, or ridge the 

 field, or drill it, or torment it as lie will, before 

 planting, and tlie chances are, he will reap, with 

 the same amount of fertilizers, a smaller harvest. 

 It is pn-ciselv this undervaluation of his traditional 

 mode of labor, that makes him show a distaste for 

 the crop 



Corn is a rank grower, and, very largely, a sur- 

 face feeder; for these reasons, it accommodates it- 

 self i^etter than most farm crops, to an awkward 

 and careless husbaudry — provided only, abundance 

 of gross fertilizers are present, and comprative 

 cleanliness secured. Iris not a crop which I should 

 count a valuable assistant in bringing tlie sandy 

 loam of a neglected farm into a condition of prime 

 fertility. It has so rank an appetite for the inor- 

 ganic riches of a soil, as to forbid any accumula- 

 tion of that valuable capital. Nor do [ clearly 

 perceive how, in the neiglibwhood of large towns, 

 and upon light soils, it can be made ,ft profitable 

 crop at the East. It has a traditional sanctity, to 

 be sure ; and a great many pleasant old gentlemen 

 of New England, who count themselves shrewd 

 farmers, would as soon think of abandoning their 

 heavy ox carts, or of adopting a long handled 

 shovel, as of abandoning their yearly growth of 

 corn. 



I tlii;^k I have given the matter a fair test, not- 

 withstanding the objections of my Somerset.shire 

 friend, and have added to my o\vn experience very 

 mucli observation of my neighbors' practice. And 

 I am very confident, if only a fair valuation be 

 placed up<m the labor and manures required, 

 that q,i-v' average corn crop grown upon light soils 

 at the East, will cost the producer four years (>ut 

 of five, ten per cent, more than the market price 



of the Western grain. In this estimate, T make 

 due allowance for the v.alueof the stalks and blades 

 for forage. — D. G. Mitchell, in '■^My Farm of 

 Edgeiooody 



GRINDING AND COOKING FOOD FOR PIGS, &C. 



In a communication from the Society of Sha- 

 kers, at Lebanon, N. Y., in the Patent Office Re- 

 port, is the following statement as to the relative 

 value of ground and unground, cooked and un- 

 cooked corn, for feeding and fattening hogs, cat- 

 tle, &c.: 



" The experience of more than thirty years leads 

 us to estimate ground cm-n at one-third higher than 

 unground, as food for cattle, and especially for fat- 

 tening pork; hence it has been the practice of our 

 society for more than a quarter of a century to 

 grind all our provinder. The same experience in- 

 duces us to put a higher value upon cooked than 

 upon raw meal ; and f()r fattening animals, swine, 

 particularly, we consider three of cooked equal to 

 four bushels of raw meal. Until within the last 

 three or four years our society fattened, annually, 

 for thirty years, from forty to fifty thousand pounds 

 of pork, exclusive of lard and off"al fat; and it is 

 the constant practice to cook the meal, for which 

 purposes six or seven potash kettles are used." 



Notwithstanding tiiat there is abundance of tes- 

 timony to the same effect, there are a great many 

 farmers who are in the habit of practicing the 

 wasteful method of feeding com in the ear to hogs, 

 horses, &c., or of feeding raw meal in fattening 

 stock. The testimony above given, with _ much 

 other like it, would certainly, if duly considered, 

 put an end to such wasteful methods of feeding. 

 Many would probably give up feeding meal raw, 

 were it not that tliey"^find the cooking of it qutie a 

 troublesome process. To such we would suggest 

 that there is an easy method, which is nearly as 

 good as thorough cooking, and which consists in 

 pouring boiling water on the meal that is to be fed 

 twelve or twenty-four hours afterwards. This plan we 

 have adopted for years in feeding swine and milch 

 cows, and to fini;5liing off" the fattening of beeves, 

 and are sure that meal thus prepared is worth 

 twice as much as raw meal. — Exchange. 



Turnips fok Hogs.— A correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman says : 



" In feeding dry corn to fattening hog.s, I have 

 found the most beneficial results from giving one or 

 two feeds a day of roots— turnips or sugar beets.. 

 It serves them in the place of water, renders the 

 corn less heating, and fed in this way a bushel of 

 roots are fully equivalent for fattening to a bushel 

 of corn fed alone. 



We have fed a great many Swede turnips (Ruta- 

 baga) to hogs, and when steamed and mashed np 

 with meal, consider them cheap and excellent food; 

 but we question very much if a bushel of roots of 

 any kind were ever equal to a bushel of corn for 

 fattening hogs, cattle, or slieep. 



Now is the time to top-dress old meadows with 

 well-rotted manure. You can not apply manuie 

 anywhere to greater advantage. 



