224 



mSW ENGLAND J'^iKMEK. 



Mst 



the short days oi winter iiro not unyoked at noon. 

 Now if tlie cntranee to the stixhle is by a wide roll- 

 ing door, and no stanchions in the way at the 

 stiill, your team may be eating at once in a com- 

 fortaI)le jilaoe, and they will nut waste the hay by 

 trampling it into tlie snow or mud. 



Stanchions are just the thing for turl)ulcnt 

 young cattle. A little liay soon coaxes them to 

 put their heads through, and if you chose, you 

 may connect the moveable stanchions together, as 

 I have before represented in the Farmer, and fasten 

 • the whole row by a single latch. This is a great 

 saving of time and of very disagreeable labor when 

 the cattle come in di-ipping wet. 



Stanchions save room. The cattle, tied in them, 

 eat from the side of the barn-floor. Then, too, 

 any orts or leavings, are expeditiously gathered 

 with a rake, or the Hoot swept with a broom. 

 Whore cattle are tied in stanchions the labor of 

 feeding is trifling. A forkful of hay may be shak- 

 en along before t'nem as a man walks. The 

 stanchion should be three inches wide and one and 

 d, half inches tliick, of hard wood. The widtli 

 apart of the pieces when set depends a little upon 

 the neck of the animal. The distance usually 

 is about eight inches. It is well to have one 

 or two extra pin-holes in the lower timber. The 

 stanchions may be set a little farther apart at the 

 bottom than at the top. The animal tries to escape 

 when standing. The space between the stanchions 

 of each animal should be filled w^ith a strong 

 'plank. Tliis precaution would have siived one val- 

 uable animal in town this winter, and is necessary 

 to save hay. Now what shall be the plan of the 

 floor? For cows it should have a very gentle in- 

 clination, and be just four feet four inches long. 

 Where the standing floor has varied from this in 

 the best Ixirn in Concord, it has been altered. Mr. 

 Joseph George, of this town, a very careful carpen- 

 ter, tells me the milkmen agree that a floor four 

 feet and fi)ur inches in length is the best. Cows 

 tied upon it keep clean and dry. I saw a few 

 days since some cows in the well arranged and 

 attractive barn of Mr. John Raynolds. as dry and 

 clean as if under an oak upon the green sward. 



The standing floor for steers and oxen should 

 vary a little in length as well as pitch from that 

 for cows, ibr obvious reasons, (a.) 



At the lower end of the standing floor, behind 

 the animal, there should be a trench twelve or four- 

 teen inclus wide, and five inches deep. This 

 trench is indispensable to the animal's cleanliness 

 and comfort. It receives and holds all the drop- 

 pings in a small space, and the labor of "cleaning 

 out" the stable is very much less than by the old 

 arrangement 



The sci.ttles should shut upon the bottom side 

 of the trt:nch in sucli a manner as to allow of 

 a ready es^;apeof all liquids. The scuttles should 

 be upon Bi listantial hingijs, and turn over upon v. 

 platl'orm, or walk, beliind the cattle, of convenient 

 width. 



There is one comfort about modern bams which 

 is worth a gr!at deal more than it costs. I mean 

 light — the introduction of a plenty of good sized 

 BQOvalile windows. Cattle enjoy light. It cer- 

 tainly is desiralile to have it to work by, yet how 

 many liarns now depend upon the frequency of 

 the cracks lor its abundance! or open the "great 

 doors," of a siiarp morning, to see how to feed 

 the cattle. It is important, no doubt, to ventilate a 



stable well, but still, very desirable to have control 

 over the apertures. 



jV good Ijarn is worth more to a farmer than a 

 showy house. The house may impoverish him, 

 but the barn will aid him directly in, securing a 

 competency or fortune ; which lot, I hope, in con- 

 clusion, is to be a part, only, of the pleasant ex- 

 perience of your readers. w. d. b. 



Concord, Mass., March 4, 1854. 



Remarks. — (a.) In order to shorten or lengthen 

 the floor upon which the cattle stand, the planka 

 may be left loose, and under the fore-feet of the 

 cattle a plank inserted of any desired width, so 

 that the floor may be lengthened or decreased to 

 any desired length, with a few minutes' labor. 



The Weather an© the Crofs. — In regard to 

 the condition of growing wheat, there is a good 

 deal of speculation. Accounts from Ohio vary ; 

 some papers say that the prospects are vei-y bad , 

 and that the farmers talk of plowing up their 

 fields ; others, that the wheat throughout Ohio bids 

 fair to be as good as usual. An account from 

 Michigan says that wheat is generally good, and 

 looks promising. At Nashville, 111., the season is 

 said to be unusually early, and the .prospects fa- 

 vorable ; a much larger breadth of spring wheat 

 has been sown than ever before. In Lake county, 

 Iowa, it is said that so favorable a spring was nev- 

 er known. 



At St. Louis, on the 29 ult., there was a severe 

 frost, and a day or two previous a light fall of 

 snow. The same weather had been experienced & 

 Keokuk, Peoria, and other places, and fears were 

 entertained in regard to fruit. The Jackson (O.) 

 Standard, of 30th ult., Siiys that frosts have de- 

 stroyed entirely the fruit in that section. Of 

 peaches, the Middleioion (Conn.) Herald of 31st, 

 has the following : 



Arc the Peaches Killed? This seems to be a ques- 

 tion on the lips of almost every one. The cold 

 March weather for some days past has awakened 

 this solicitude about this excellent and delicious 

 fruit. The general opinion with good judges so 

 far, we believe, is that unless there should be a 

 still harder freeze than we have had of late there 

 will yet l>e a fair crop of peaches. Should so much 

 good fortune as this befal us we may rest assured 

 that there will also be an abundance of other fruit. 

 Plenty of peaches always bring plenty of other 

 fruit. 



South Carolina and Georgia papers, of the last 

 week in March, speak of heavy frosts, and fear 

 that much injury \i\\\ )je done to fruit. — Boston 

 Journal. 



Hampshire Frankun and Hampden AcRictrt- 

 TURAL Society. — Officers for 1854. 

 Paoli Lathrop, President. 

 Wm. 0. GoRHAM, Secretary. 

 Benj. Barrett, Treasurer. 



