74 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



goes 



vegetable substanee can properly be called man- of Two nundrcd and Fifty Millions per annum to 

 xire, until it undergoes the putrcdictive process, our annual Agricultural product, is attainable, 

 because it is not Jit?or the food of plants until it wliat an immense addition to our national wealth 

 goes through this process. |would thereby bo insured ! Four-fifths of this 



would probal)ly be permanently added to the 

 wealth of the country — that is, the farmer whose 

 annual product should be swelled from §1,000 to 

 $1,250, or fnrai $2,000 to §2,500, would not 

 eat or drink the surplus, but would invest the 

 greater part of it in new buildings, fences, barns, 

 implements, furniture, &c., &c., giving profita- 

 ble employment to mechanics and laborers, and 

 largely increasing the business of merchants and 

 the income of professional men. Such an addition 

 to the annual product of our Agriculture would 

 increase the consumption of Manufactures, domes- 

 tic and imported, in far greater ratio, since from 

 the annual product of every farm the food of those 

 making a living on it must fii-st be taken for home 

 use, affording no business or profit to any one else, 

 leaving only the surplus to form the staple of trade; 

 and an addition of twenty-five ]x?r cent, to the an- 

 nual product of each farm would proliably double 

 the annual exchanges and general trade of the 

 country. — N. Y. Tribune. 



Some farmers that do not well understand this 

 new system may ask this question ; how can straw 

 benefit land when spread upon its surface? you 

 have said that it cannot act as a manure because 

 it has not been through the putrefactive J)rocess. 1 

 answer by shading it. You may ask farmers that are 

 in tlie liabit of mii^iing flax, and rotting it upon 

 their own land, if the grass is any larger where the 

 flax lay than elsewhere ; they immediately answer 

 yes. Ask them why it is larger, they say the flax 

 has manured the land ? Ask them liow has it man- 

 ured the land 1 And not more than one in twen- 

 ty can tell you. 



Some have advised farmers to draw leaves from 

 their woodlots to convert into manure ; but I thinly 

 this will not answer in all cases. Suppose a maiT 

 has a very small woodlot, scarcely enough for the 

 use of his farm ; if he draws manure from this it 

 will diminish the growth of his timber, which will 

 be a damage to his farm. In other words, it may 

 turn out like this : a certain man had a garden 

 which was vei-y rich , but the rest of his farm was 

 very poor ; he drew fifty loads of the soil of his 

 garden and put it upon his poor land, which had 

 a very good effect on that, but it ruined his gar- 

 den. 



The cheapest and best way that I can think of 

 to shade land, is with clover. Seed your land thick 

 with clover, and let it grow as large as possible 

 without feeding it off; (for the more dense the 

 shade, the sooner the land becomes rich ;) let it 

 remain shaded in this way for three years ; then 

 you may remove all the clover if you wish, and 

 plow up the soil, and you will find it has become 

 rich, although no manure has been drawn into the 

 field. Let this much suffice at this time. lie that 

 rejects this, Avould reject more of the same doc- 

 trine. Eliuu Cross. 



Hoosick, Renss. Co., N. Y. 



NATIONAL AGRICULTURE. 



The total value of the annual products of the soil 

 of the United States is now about One Thousand 

 Millions of Dollars ; and no one who knows what 

 Science has done for Agriculture will doubt that 

 the same amount of labor which is now employed 

 in producing this aggregate, might be so applied 

 a3 to secure a total product thirty per cent, great- 

 er, or One Thousand Three Hundred Millions. But 

 scientific, skilful, thorough Agriculture, always 

 employs more than the shiftless, slouching sort too 

 generally prevalent ; and it is certainly within 

 bounds to estimate that our Agriculture might l)e 

 so improved as, l)y tlic help of additional la1)or 

 now unemployed and unproductive, to give an ad- 

 ditional product of fifty per cent., or Five Hun- 

 dred Millions per annum — an achievement which 

 would double the wealth of the country every eight 

 or ten years. Whosoever will carefully review the 

 Agriculture of a single State, or even an average 

 County, in any part of the L^nion, and estimate 

 how much its product might be enhanced by Irri- 

 gation, Manuring, Deep Rowing, Draining, &c., 

 will perceive that our calculation is far within the 

 truth. 



But suppose that only half of it, or an addition 



For the New\England Farmer. 



TYING UP CATTLE. 



" I also will show miae opinion." — Job 32 : 17. 



Mk. Brown : — Dear Sir, — ^There are remarks 

 from your pen, in the Farmer (Nov. 26tli), in 

 answer to J. Dimon's question, of Wakefield, R. 

 I., as to the " best method of securing cattle in 

 the barn," from which I beg leave to dissent. 



That stancheons may secure cattle more safely, 

 as far as getting loose is concerned, I do not 

 doubt ; but for practical msc, i. e., for tying up 

 oxen and cows, I dislike them very much. 



To tie up oxen that work the live long day, and 

 have them hang by the head all night, with 

 scarce an inch play of room for tui-ning to rest 

 their aching necks, is bordering hard on cruelty, 

 in my humble opinion. If the stancheon is put 

 up exactly perpendicular, it is hard to lie down 

 and get up in, and the position is hard to rest in. 

 If the upper end stands towards the cattle, it is 

 hard to feed in, as they can reach but a short 

 distance for their food, unless they get down on 

 their knees. I have seen cows, before they had 

 got fairly accustomed to them, spring quite a 

 number of times before they could get up. In 

 the act of rising, they first start up on their 

 knees, then sjaring forward to raise their hind 

 parts, and in so doing their shoulders strike the 

 stancheon, and the concussion is so great as to 

 knock them back several times, before thay can 

 balance themselves in that confined position, so as 

 to get up. When cattle are lying down, they 

 hang with tlieir horns against the stancheon, and 

 their necks stretched to the utmost extent, and 

 there they must remain, Avithout the power to 

 raise or lower the head. 



Young cattle miglit be tied in stancheons, and 

 stand with safety nearer together than v/hen tied 

 with ropes or chains, were it not for spoiling the 

 shape of their horns, or at least badly injuring 

 them. This with me is a serious objection ; for 

 wlio does not like to see a handsome pair of horns, 

 on a cow even, and much more so on oxen ? 



As far as I am able to judge, chains fastened 



