No. 11. 



Feed the Cut Worm — Cattle Sheds. 



353 



" Ne'er till to-morrow's lijiht delay, 

 " What might as well be done to-day; 

 "Neat be your barns — yijur houses neat; 

 " Your doora be clean, you court yards sweet; 

 " Neat be your farms — 'tia lonjj confessetl 

 " The neatest farmers are the best." B. 

 York, York county, Penn., May 12, 1839. 



Feed tlic €iit ^Voriii. 



I say, sir, feed— What shall I foeil?— The Grub. 



Last January, a year, at the sugsfestion of 

 my friend, Mr. Livzey, of Solebiiry, I was 

 induced to become a subscriber for the Farm- 

 ers' Cabinet, and was so well pleased with it 

 on the whole, (thous^h there is in it a good 

 deal I do not understand or comprehend,) that 

 I sent by one of my neisrhlxjrs and purchased 

 the first volume. I consider the price as mo- 

 ney well laid out; for several little matters 

 noticed in the Cabinet I have tried with suc- 

 cess ; and have been put on my guard against 

 some that would have involved me in unne- 

 cessary expenditures of both time and money. 

 As soon as I receive my number from the 

 post-office, I see that the pages match each 

 other ; my wife, who is always glad to aee 

 it, stitches it through the back. I then neat- 

 ly cut the leaves apart, (open,) and have 

 my pamphlet ready for perusal, and when 

 read it is laid aside carefully. Pardon these 

 remarks; they are designed only as hints to 

 some of my friends v.'ho take the Cabinet, 

 but who read it open like an ordinary paper, 

 and have not a little difficulty in finding the 

 connexion of the articles. Now, what I in- 

 tended to say, and that very briefly, is this. 



In one of the numbers of the second volume 

 I found an article giving an account of a cost- 

 less and efficient plan of preventing the ra- 

 vages of that pest of the farmer, the cut 

 worm.* My land, then in corn, had been 

 previously well ploughed, and measured 

 about six acres. 1 tried the remedy on about 

 half an acre, by placing grass, clover, and 

 other green vegetable matter, as could be 

 obtained, by the handful, in every third, instead 

 of every fifth row, between every seventh 

 and eighth hill, pressing the same down by 

 the foot as dropped, according to the direc- 

 tions. This I found should be done liirhtly. 

 The result was that the grubs on the part of 

 the field thus treated, collected in large \ 

 numbers under the leaves and other vege- j 

 table matter, and were of course very easily I 

 destroyed. Now the corn on this portion of | 

 the field, flourished uninjured by the cutj 

 worm, while the remainder suffered consi- 

 derably, as much so as any in the neighbor- 



* The article mav be founJ at lenjih in the Farmers' 

 Cabinet, vol. 2, pa<re 343. It is deserving tlic attention 

 of every farmer.— Ed. 



hood. Now, I am so well convinced of this, 

 that all my corn this season shall be treated 

 like the half acre of last year. My friends 

 will smile, and say it is too much trouble — 

 but I think diflferently. J. B. 



Biickin-jham, Bucks Co., May 1. 



Cattle Sheds. 



The opinions entertained upon the subject 

 of the management of stock are very various. 

 However much extreme warmth may be re- 

 commended by some graziers for the improve- 

 ment of fatting beasts, working stock should 

 never be deprived of the free circulation of 

 pure air; and viewinir that as a preliminary 

 ob.servation on the buildings applied to their 

 use, they should be lofty and roomy, yet not 

 so wide, when stalled, as to allow them to turn 

 round towards the manger, as they would thus 

 dung in improper places and annoy each other. 

 When large beasts arc kept in single stalls, 

 perhaps 6 feet would not be found too spa- 

 cious ; but it must be admitted that they are 

 much more frequently placed in double stand- 

 ings, and from 9 to 10 feet, and, in some stalls, 

 even less is considered sufficient. The stand- 

 ing should extend about nine feet from the 

 wall, and the manger should be fixed so low 

 as that when the ox lies down his head may 

 be above it ; for if placed so high as to force 

 him to draw back, he will be compelled tolie 

 in his dirt, because, when he stands to feed, 

 he drops his dung in tlie very part to which 

 liis hind quarters will then extend. There 

 should also be a groove and channel of about 

 14 mchcs wide and 9 inches deep behind the 

 stall, as a receptacle for the duns", in which 

 cattle will seldom stand, as the depth of the 

 groove would place them in an inconvenient 

 position ; but thus standing unavoidably upon 

 the edge, the dung will be voided within the 

 channel, which is a point that should be at- 

 tended to, as cattle that lie in the dirt will 

 never thrive so well as those that are kept 

 out of it. It should, however, be observed, 

 that these channels should never exceed nine 

 inches at the mo.st, in depth, as serious acci- 

 dents have happened to cows, when heavy in 

 calf, by slipping into them and straining them- 

 .selves. In some, the channels communicate 

 with an iron grate under the cattle-shed, 

 and the urine is thence conveyed by a pipe into 

 the common drain of the yard ; a practice well 

 worthy the consideration of those who are 

 not blind to the advantages to be gained by 

 this economy of manure. It is a more natural 

 po.^ition for the animal to stand or lie, rather 

 lower before than behind: if the stalls arc 

 made with an inclination to the channel at 

 the foot, their quarters should, therefore, al- 

 ways be raised with a small quantity of dry 

 straw ; and the partition should neither be so 



