THE GENESEE FARMER. 



183 



FEEDING CALVES, 



Editoes Gexesee Fakmeb: — I propose to give 

 you my plan for feeding calves. Now the usual 

 X)ractice among farmers is to put them in a lot 

 together, say from six to twelve, or more, if he 

 raises more, and when the feeding time comes, to 

 take all the boys he can muster, each with a beach 

 gad and himself with an old pail for the calves to 

 drink from. And now commences tlie war with 

 rods, and the poor calves are severely chastised for 

 acting from mstinct to obtain their share of mUk, 

 which, under such circumstances, must be une- 

 qually divided, as, many times, tvro or more calves 

 will have their heads in the pail at the same time ; 

 and at length the farmer and the boys escape from 

 the lot, after receiving many a friendly bunt, with 

 their pants sadly besmeared with the calves' saliva. 



Now my object is to propose a better plan, which 

 is this : In the first place, set three posts or stakes 

 in the ground in a straight line, then nail a board, 

 eighteen inches wide and fourteen feet long, to the 

 bottom of the stakes ; then nail another board to 

 the stakes, six inches wide, raising the top board 

 so as to leave one foot space between the two 

 boards. This space I divide into six equal parts 

 by nailing short pieces xip and down from the top 

 to the bottom, leaving six openings ten inches \'i'ide, 

 through which the calves will put their heads to 

 drink. I then slip a rod or stanchion down through 

 the centre of this opening. By having the space 

 thus large, the calf will more readily put his head 

 through. The rod may then be slipped down, 

 securing his head on either side of the rod. My 

 troughs I make from a stick of soft timber, four- 

 teen feet long, G by 7, in which I make 6 troughs 

 to correspond with the openings as above. This 

 fixture may be placed in the corner of the lot where 

 the calves run, or, if more convenient, may be 

 boarded on three other sides, making an enclosure 

 fourteen feet square, into which I take my milk to 

 feed them, the trough of course being on the inside. 

 The calves will learn, by managing them carefully 

 a few times, to come each to his place readily. — 

 One lad will feed a lot of calves in this way 

 quicker and easier than four will in the way first 

 described. 



Calves should have plenty of new milk the first 

 month, after which I commence adding a little sour, 

 and increase the proportion gradually, so that by 

 the time they are two months old, they will drink 

 sour and even lobbered milk like pigs. Calves 

 should be kept in the l^arn, and fed on a little early 

 cut hay or rowen until the grass starts ; for if they 

 are stunted the first month, they will never out- 

 grow it. I have in the above, described a fixture 

 for feeding six calves ; the troughs may be increased 

 according to the number to be fed. 



Jackson, Pa. REUBEN HARRIS. 



Corn Travel. — Emery's Journal of Agriculture 

 says : A knight of the pencil — a farmer — estimates 

 that it requires sixteen hundred miles travel in the 

 culture of a hundred acres of corn, as ordinarily 

 cultivated in the west. He claims that machinery 

 ought to be invented, tools manufactured, by which 

 this travel may be reduced to four hundred miles ; 

 says it can be done with the same power now used. 

 "We may cultivate two rows instead of one, and do 

 it as well, at once crossing the field. 



e acres / 

 a it did y 

 arn be- f\ 



A BOY ON THE MOWING MACHINE QUESTION. 



Editors Genesee Farmer : — I am but a boy of 

 fifteen, and take the liberty to write my views of a 

 subject which is, or seems to be, in the minds of 

 many fiirmers, veiled in uncertainty. 



In the April number of your paper is an article, 

 written by Mr. E. A. Bundy, on " Cutting Grass or 

 Grain by Machinery." The gentleman seems to 

 think that the mowing and reaping machines ought 

 to be entirely discarded for the old-fashioned scythe 

 and sickle ; and to prove this, he gives as an exam- 

 ple the essay of Mr. David Street in the January 

 number. He says Mr. Street pretends to cut only 

 six acres in two days. If so, Mr. Street is entirely 

 behind the times. My father has cut twelve acres 

 in one day, with his Ketchum's Mowei-, and 

 not get wet either, being drawn into the ban 

 fore such a catastrophe could happen. 



My lather says that but very few laborers can be 

 hired that will cut more than an acre of grass in a 

 day, and that the machine wUl do the work of ten 

 men. Many of the men hired for haying and har- 

 vesting take advantage of the farmer, by "the 

 scarcity of hands," to charge exhorbitautly ; and 

 this is in a great measure obviated by the mower. 



If Mr. Bundy's calculations beat "our Ohio' 

 friend's, I rather thmk that mine beat his. AYe 

 had seventy acres of wheat to cut, which was done 

 in one week (minus one day and a half) by Ivetcl:- 

 um's Mower and Reaper combined. When a rain 

 comes up, it generally finds us prepared — the hay 

 all in and the "mower undercover." My father y 

 says tliat the machine saved its cost in one year. *■ \ 



Last year, we cut seventy acres of wheat and <■ 

 fifty-five acres of hay. Of these, twenty acres were 

 cut with a scythe, and it cost as much to cut the 

 twenty acres as all the rest of the Avheat and hay j 

 put together ; and I would say to Mr. Btjndy, that I 

 if he wishes to see a mowing machine work, let 

 him come out here, to old Lenawee county, in the 

 old Peninsular State, and see the hay cut by a ma- 

 chine as fast as ten men could cut it with scythe?^, 

 even in New York. "When the machine is in opera- 

 tion, all that is to be seen of it is a big wheel and 

 the driver's seat. wjr. Alexander. 



Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Mich., April, 1S5S. 



Cultivation of Sweet Potatoes. — Our esteemed 

 friend, Frank G. Ruffin, editor of the Southern 

 Planter., published at Richmond, Va., in a private 

 letter says: 



"You are altogether wrong, (excuse me,) as to 

 the mode of getting the shoots — 'draws' we call 

 them or slips — of the sweet potato. Never ' take 

 up the tubers,' but press your hand on the ground 

 that covers them, so as not to unsettle them too 

 much in the bed, and draw the slip from the ground 

 between the fingers spread open for that purpose. 

 Never mind saving ' the side roots.' The slip will 

 grow off as a cutting would. Indeed, in South 

 Carolina the best crop is made from cuttings of 

 cuttings of 'draws,' being in the third generation 

 from the 'mother potato,' as we call it. By leav- 

 ing the potato in the ground, you may get several 

 drawings from the tuber. But you will never raise 

 a sweet potato in New York that will be better fla- 

 vored than a good pumpkin. A southern sand, 

 not less than a southern sun, is what it wants. 



