410 



altogether on the quality of the food with -which the 

 cows are supplied. Give them rich and nourishing 

 food, and the butter you make from their milk will 

 have a yellow colour and a delicate f3:»vour. It is 

 likewise said that the juice of carrots added to cream 

 ■will give it a yellow appearance. Feeding cows with 

 carrots will have a similar effect, and answer a still 

 better purpose. A poor half starved cow will yield but 

 little butter, and what yon do obtain will be inferior 

 in quality, as well as deficient in quantity. 



ENGLISH BREED OF SWINE. 

 To the Editor of the .Vcw England Farmer, 



Sir, — A few weeks ago you published a few 

 remarks of mine respecting a species of s\i'ine 

 (lenominnled the English breed. 



These remarks it would seem have fallen un- 

 der the scrutinizing eye of Dr. Fiske, of this 

 town, a gcntlem.in who is justly deserving the 

 aUenlion and regard of the community, and for 

 whom 1 entertain feelings of high esteem and 

 respect on account of his laudable exertions in 

 promoting the interests of agriculture, &c. 



It appears by a communication of his pub-! 

 lished in your paper of June 10, that he con- 

 siders his stock of hogs unjustly censured and 

 misrepresented by the remarks above alluded to. 

 He undertakes to prove in a very judicious 

 and proper manner the superiority of his over 

 other kinds of hogs, and intimates tliat if " I 

 should chance to have an interview with his 

 fa-miUj of this description he doubts not that I 

 shall leel impelled to give gentlemanly satis- 

 faction for having publicly traduced their char- 

 acter."' 



Now I can assure the Doctor that in making 

 these remarks I had no reference to his family 

 or any of his progeny. As I live more than 

 lour miles distant from him I never visited hi? 

 hcstye, and 1 do not know that ever I saw any 

 of the race. 



I had reference particularly io a kind of hogs 

 brought from Cambridge by a gentleman in a 

 neighboring town contiguous lo this which he 

 v'allcd the English breed. Several of my neigh- 

 bours who reside within the limits of that town, 

 but who may properly be said to belong to this 

 vicinity, as 1 stated in my fonnrr communica- 

 •ion have incautiously ventured lo make trial of 

 them, and I should think if their statements can 

 be relied on to their great disadvantage. 

 As I have heretofore appnired as an anonymous 

 writer, 1 do not think il expedient now to men- 

 tion nan*es, but what I say, I solemnly avor in 

 my apprehension to be the truth and founded on 

 fact'i. Nut only have several farmers who have 

 obliiined this kind of hogs slated to me their dis- 

 approbation of them, but the gentleman who 

 first brought them into this region has in a dei 

 gree lost his conlidence in them. He informed 

 me not long since that ho liked them ou some 

 accounts but the gran<l ilifficnlty was, he could 

 not make them weigh enough. He said they ge- 

 fierally appeared plump and lusty, and fattened 

 «a';y, but they were too small. He stales to me 

 that ho slaughtered half a dozen of them last 

 spring being then about a year old, neither of 

 whicii weighed '200 lbs. and some of them fell 

 far short of it. He has now got rid of the whole 

 race, sav< one, and is -wishing to procure a lar- 

 ger kiixl 11 1 utuierstuod his intimations aright. 



Dr. Fiske's acco»nt respecting bogs is truly 

 ■flattering and the testimony produced iu their 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



favour is from such high and respectable sources, 

 that I think I should not hesitate to make trial 

 of them could I conveniently obtain some of the 

 breed. ! am confident that "I have no predi- 

 lection for any kind but the most profitable," 

 and am as ready to yield to evidence as the 

 Doctor or any other man. A FARMER. 



Worcester, July, 1824. 



The following from the author of " Touches on Agricul- 

 ture,'''' should have been published some weeks since, 

 but want of room, rendered it necessary to postpone 

 the communication till the present period. 



Brunswick, Me. June 14, 1824. 

 To the Editor of the M'ew England Farmer, 



Sir, — Thanks, if I have not before sent them for 

 the kind review of my little " Touches on Ag- 

 riculture." In my ill health 1 have slowly tra- 

 velled among the farmers of Maine — tried some 

 experiments, which 1 hope will be useful ; re- 

 gret I should have made a mathematical mistake 

 as to the number of ap|)le trees suitable for an 

 acre. Dele 2 put by mistake on the left 

 hand, and the theorem is nearer correct. 



May 20, on the banks of the Androscoggin, ice 

 in many places from 1-2 to an inch in thickness, 

 as you ascend from the tide waters at Bruns- 

 wick to Livermore. June 13, do. The apple 

 tree first showed the full expanded blossom here 

 June Isf. The caterpillar is claiming his full 

 share of green I'rom the leaf 1 adhere to my 

 process of burning them off as soon as they ap- 

 pear, rather than build a Babel in miniature, 

 iieavy as a Colossus to bear from tree to tree, 

 to give me the exquisite pleasure of squeezing 

 them lo death with my fingers. But de gnstibus 

 non est disputandiim [there is no di»iputing about 

 tastes.] Your correspondent on squeezing ca- 

 terpillars cannot be a subject of envy, and 1 ask 

 in sincerity, is not my burning plan a safer, 

 quicker and cheaper way ? 



A few days since, a Cuckoo struck on a tree, 

 where I had burned oft" a caterpillars' nest, when 

 the inhabitants were not all at home. These 

 industrious Muscovites soon began to repair 

 their ruined castle. They worked four days 

 and I could hardly find a heart to disturb their 

 labours. The bird sought the nest, perforated 

 it in three places and in a moment took every 

 lodger for her dinner. I should advise thumb 

 and finger caterpillar squeezers, to purchase a 

 few ol these valuable birds for domestic use ; 

 but as it is late in the season for the ilestruction 

 of these unwelcome intruders, my advice may 

 be no better than an old .Mmaiuic. 



The lil;ic opened in warm places June 1st. 

 1 have noticed lately, apple trees entirely kil- 

 led by the roosting of turkeys on them. This 

 seems to corroborate the assertion of the Rev. 

 T. M. Harris of the destruction of large forests 

 in Ohio. 



June 18. I have heard from a number of 

 towns Ibis morning, that there was considera- 

 ble frost in low lands. Contrary to my expec- 

 tations grass promises but an ordinary crop in 

 sectioDJ of Maine, which have been considera- 

 ble exporters of hay to Boston. Clover 1 find 

 on lands in good case in blossom at three or 

 lour inches in height. 



Ice lay on most lands from the last of Janua- 

 ry to the last of March, in Maine and the croj)s 

 are much winter killed. 



An intelligent young man from the lakes at 

 the head of lumbering on the Kennebec, says 

 that on the 5th of May, snow was four feet deep 

 in the woods. The accounts from Quebec to 

 the 10th corroborate it. The red top grass has 

 not to my knowledge been fairly tested in the 

 low lands of Maine. 1 believe it to be most 

 certain, especially in cold seasons on deep, 

 springy lands, and holds out the longest. It 

 would much please an earnest advocate for 

 your paper to know how it is now estimated in 

 Massachusetts. I have given my opinion in my 

 " Touches on Agriculture." 



I have just received a communication from 

 Mr. James Jordan, of Lewisfown, Me. an inquir- 

 ing farmer. He says, in 1823, he raised 24 bu- 

 shels of tine wheat per acre. Cora grew on 

 the l.md the preceding year. As he ploughed 

 the corn hills, he collected all the corn stumps 

 carried them from the field to bur7i into manure. 

 On a neighbouring piece they were knocked 

 to pieces on the surface. The wheat was cut 

 by the fly on the latter. On a strict examina- 

 tion of corn buts, he says, he finds a very small 

 maggot between the two first joints of corn 

 above the_ surface, and inquires may they not be 

 the origin of the Hessian fly. That takes wheat 

 between th'e same joints, and whether wheat 

 in the Rtiddle states is not often the immediate 

 successor of corn? Perhaps his suggestions 

 maj he worth a little inquiry. 



Many men of literary acquirement, deem it 

 beneath the dignity of soaring minds to descend 

 to the examination of the minutice of nature: 

 and many farmers as well as unfeeling sportsmen, 

 seera totally ignorant of the value of small birds* 

 that sweetly carol around them. 1 am led to 

 these reflections from the recollection of an ex- 

 cellent dissertation on wanton bird shooting Id 

 the New England Farmer, vol. ii. page 317. 



I have had a wren, (the smallest of birds, I 

 know, except the humming bird) that has been 

 imprisoned 30 hours, denounced as a nuisance 

 to society by all the neighborhood. I gave her 

 latitude ami departure, so that she might tra- 

 verse two windows in the room. After the agi- 

 tation arising from the confinement was over, 

 I drove the flies in the room to the windows 

 within her reach. She soon made a conquest 

 of them all. A neighboring farmer has just in- 

 l"orraed me that four young robins lay dead ia 

 their nest, and charges wrens with the mur- 

 der. Doubts whether the I'avourite robin falls 

 a victim to such a little bird, induce me to pro- 

 long confinement for further inlormalion. It ig 

 thought by many in Maine, that many large 

 birds fall victims to the a|iparentlv insiginJicaiU 

 wren. The nest of a wren has just been found 

 containing five feathered young. Bv an unani- 

 mous family vote of the robin losers, they have 

 been ordered to execution, my arguments con- 

 tra not prevailing. As 



" All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace,'T 

 I have doubted, whether we ought to attei 

 lo break any of the smaller links in the cham 

 creation. c, 



The martin is truly a domestic bird, build u 

 an habitation near your own, it is soon filled 

 with inhabitants. The swallow seeks your 

 barn. Some years since I was usually situated, 

 where musquetoes were abundant; many stag- 

 nant pools around. From a close examination 

 of the movements of the swallow, 1 conclude 

 one will take at least two thousand of these m» 



:e,'T 

 imM 



