264 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JuXE 



For the iVeto England Partner. 



MONTHLY FARMER FOR APRIL. 



Without in tlie least disparaging the abundant 

 labors of tlie editor, which certainly indicate no 

 ordinary degree of ability, experience and indus- 

 try, the careful reader will perceive that for much 

 of its attraction and interest, the Farmer is in- 

 debted to correspondents. Including brief inquir- 

 ies and suggestions, ■we find that the Number for 

 April contains forty distinct contributions, from 

 probably about as many diflerent individuals. If 

 it be true that, "In the multitude of counsellors 

 there is -wisdom," the readers of the Fanner cer- 

 tainly have a good prospect of becoming wise. 

 But liow long would this continue to be the case, 

 did not the correspondents of the Farmer, like 

 guests at the mansion of a true gentleman, feel 

 that they are at home, — free to speak, and act 

 and be, themselves, — with no sense of intrusion, 

 no fear of some "iron-bedstead" that is to test 

 their dimensions? We annex lists, of correspond- 

 ence. Editorials, Selections, and Illustrations, for 

 the April Number, in the order of paging. 



CORRESPONDENTS. 



Amasa Walker, fMass.) Potato Rot. 



F. IIolbrook,(Vt.) Raisiug Pork. 



C. Goodrich, (Vt.) Pruning Orchards. 



, (Mass.) Bee Culture. 



Henry Holmes, (Vt.) Churns. 



*, (Mass.) Manures. 



J. II. 8., (Conn.) Supei'-phosphate of Lime. 



D. C, (Mass.) Farming in New England. 



J. S. Gregg, (Vt.) Churning. 



Klsie, (Wis.) Country Home. 



B. F. Butler, (N. H.) Peaches killed by Cold. 



A., (Mass.) Implement Fair. 



N. P. Morrison, (Mass.) Fruit liaising. 



C, (\t.) Home Guano. 



P., (-Mass.) Agriculture in Massachusetts. 



P., (Mass.) E.\perimental Farms. 



, (Mass.)'. Feed of Stock. 



A city Mechanic, (Mass.) City and Country Life. 



J. Richardson, (Mass.)..., Decomposing Bones. 



Jane A. Morrison, (Me) Profits of Sheep. 



Joseph Ilowe, (Mass.) Cooked Meal. 



G. F. Nutting, (Vt.) Dr. Greene's Fence. 



K. M. Copeland, (.Mass.) Ornamental Grounds. 



H. F. French, (N. H.) N. Y. city B. R. and Stables. 



New Subscriber, (Vt.) Ashes— Holdfast. 



H. B. Mincli, (Ohio.) Prices of Produce. 



And Fourteen others Make Inquiries and Suggestions. 



EDITORIALS. 



Calendar for April. 



First Aunual Reports of the Sec. State Board. 



Where docs all the Corn go to ? 



Seed Sower. 



Reports (14 cols.) of Tth, 8th and 9th Legislative Agricultural 

 Meetings. 



Solid and Liquid Excrements of Animals. 



Improvement of the Dairy. 



Milk and Butter Cows. 



Spirit of the Agricultural Press. 



Steel Double Plow. 



House Afhes. 



Report Concord Farmers' Club. 



Extracts and Replies. 



SELECTIONS. 



Concord Grape — State Premiums on Dairy — Remedy for Oar- 

 get — How I saved my Currants — Carrots — Sheep — United Slates 

 Agricultural Society — Soaked corn for Horses — Asthma cured by 

 Plaster of Paris — Ancient Spinning Wheel — Onious, Breadmak- 

 ing, &c. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Seed Sower — Concord Grape — Steel Double Plow — Unimproved 

 nomcstc.id. 



Notwithstanding the condensed form of state- 

 ment adopted and the small type used in the fore- 

 going table of contents, does it not present a for- 

 midable-looking text for the poor reviewer? To 

 give every topic un appropriate notice, and every 

 writer "liis moat in due season," would reqliire 

 iLore "heads" in his discourse, than parson Prosy 



ever allowed in a sermon. He has not the courage 

 to make the attempt, this month. Nor dot's there 

 seem to be need of it. The April number is a cap- 

 ital one — it speaks for itself. Who thivt has read 

 it will spare it from his files, for the cost of a year's 

 subscription ? A single number of the Monthly 

 Farmer, in which a IIolbkook shows how farmers 

 can make both money and manure by raising pork 

 in New England ; a Goodrich and a Morrison, 

 discourse on Fruit and fruit-trees ; a French des- 

 cribes a stable two hundred feet square, and two 

 stories high, where four hundred city horses are 

 kept and fed under a discipline as strict as a Na- 

 poleon could desire ; and a Copeland shows what 

 a garden should be ; in which a city girl, now the 

 wife of a Wisconsin farmef, tells us how she en- 

 joys "a cow, a pig, and some chickens," and a 

 farmer's boy relates his experience as a city me- 

 chanic ; in which the proceedings of three Legis- 

 lative Agricultural Meetings are recorded ; in 

 which a native grape, worth five dollars a vine, is 

 pictured and described, — I submit, that a single 

 monthly of whose contents all these articles are 

 but specimens, is as much beyond the criticism as 

 it is above the commendation of A Reader. 

 Winchester, April, 1854. 



For the New E)\i;lan(l Farmer. 



A GOOD YIELD OF BUTTER. 



Mr. Editor : — I ov\7i a cow, who is 5 years old ; 

 she calved the 22a of January, 1854 ; weight of 

 the calf at 4 weeks old, was 78 lbs., sold for 10 

 cts. per pound : The cow now gives 10 quarts of 

 milk per day ; so 7iiuch for the calf and milk. Now 

 for the butter, which is as follows : Last Wed- 

 nesday night I measured 2A quarts of milk from a 

 pail which contained all the milk my cow gave 

 at that time, w^hich was 5.^ qts. I strained it into 

 one pan, set it into my pantry, which opens into a 

 warm room ; the next night I measured the same 

 amount iTito another pan, which made 5 quarts, 

 and set it into the same room. Last Saturday my 

 wife skimmed both pans of the milk, and put the 

 cream all into one pot, and liy stirring it from 5 to 

 10 minutes it produced a nieelump of butter which 

 weighed 15 ounces. So much in the month of 

 March. You shall heaa; from this cow again in the 

 month of June. A. Brown. 



East Abington, Mass., March 6, 1854. 



Laroe Pumpkins. — Having had good success 

 the past season in raising fine large pumpkins, I 

 will give you my plan and experiment. The 

 ground planted was a warm , clayey loam , descend- 

 ing to the south. I planted the 20th of May, with 

 corn and one and two pumpkin seeds in a hill , 

 used about one table spoonful of plaster, or gypsum 

 to the hill. The field was a clover sod, plowed 

 once and harrowed three times. When the vines 

 commenced to run, say one foot in length, I gave 

 them a careful hoeing. After tlie fruit was well 

 set, or some was six to eight inches in diameter, I 

 covered the stem, and a small portion of the vine 

 joining tlie stem, with moist, loose soil ; the result 

 was, that roots directly from the stem of the pump- 

 kin were formed, and the fruit derived sustenance, 

 and plenty of it, judging from the size and weight, 

 which was from eighty to ninety pounds. — Ploiio- 

 boy. 



