292 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



bettor than to luutilato and disfigure the animal 

 for life. 



THE SEASOX. 



I have not done the first stroke of farming 

 yet, and may not for a week to come. We are 

 now having the first spring rain. The frost is 

 mostlj_ out, hut the ground has not settled until 

 this rain, which I hope will do the tiling in good 

 earnest. • I have learned to look upon the Farmer 

 as an old and well-tried friend, and to welcome its 

 appearance, laden with stores of the good and the 

 "seful." S. Texney. 



East Rayynond, Mc, May 9, 1854. 



0. S. Bliss, Milton, Vt. — You must write Rev. 

 J. T. Trask, of Fitchburg, Mass., for information 

 about the stump puller. Millet seed is worth two 

 dollars a bushel. For particulars in relation to it 

 as a crop for fodder, see monthly Farmer, for 1853, 

 pages 157 and 203. On good land, well manured, 

 eight quarts of seed is sufficient for an acre. 



H. F. OsL.vjsD, Paxton, Mass. — "Will you 

 please inform me what kind of manure will be the 

 best for potatoes on wet, clayey land, where barn^ 

 yard manure cannot be had?" 



If you must plant such land with potatoes, and 

 havo no coarse manures, try guano on a portion 

 of it — on another try ashes, sawdust, &g. But 

 the best use for such land is to plow, manure and 

 lay down to grass in August. 



Mr. George Carpenter, Orange, Mass., writes 

 that he has a pair of twin lambs which at birth 

 Vi-eighed 19^ lbs., and another which weighed ll.i 

 lbs., from two English "smut sheep." A neigh- 

 bor, Mr. R. E. Carpenter, has a calf whicli 

 weighed at birth 140 pounds ! 



E. Kixslev, Derby, Vt., writes: "you will con- 

 fer a favor by informing me what is the best and 

 most profitable way of raising southern corn for 

 fodder ; also the best way of curing it for winter 

 use, and where I can get good seed ?" 



Plow and manure your land well, and then 

 make a broad, shallow furrow, by going both ways 

 with a small plow, and then sow the corn liberally 

 in the furrow. Five or six rows ten rods long each, 

 we should think, Avould require half a bushel of 

 seed. The common yellow or white flat southern 

 corn, such as may be found at any of the grain 

 stores, is the kind mostly used. It should be sowed 

 quite tliick or it will grow so stout that the cattle 

 will refuse to eat it. It is a very difficult crop to 

 dry sufficiently for winter use, Init with favorable 

 weather may be cured by allowing it to wilt for a 

 day or two after cutting, then tie in small bundles 

 near the top and hang upon the fences or poles 

 laid up fur the purpose. 



much as his were. I had seen bone-dust recom- 

 mended in the Cultivator some time before, and 

 therefore took beef-bones, burnt them and pound- 

 ed them fine, and put two ta))le-spoonruls of the 

 dust, one of flour of sulphur, and a little wood- 

 ashes, in her feed,which completelj' cured my hog, 

 which brought me as fine a litter of pigs as ever I 

 raised, obtaining for them the first premium at the 

 last agricultural Fair held at Providence, R. I. 

 — Boston Cultivator. Warwick. 



Mr. 



For tiie J\'ew England Farmer. 



RANCID BUTTER. 



Editor : — Dear Sir, — I have just been 



reading a long article in the Farmer of April 22, 

 on rancid butter. I am not aljout to write an es- 

 say on butter-making, but I do wish to ask one 

 plain question, and that is this. What possible 

 difficulty is there in tlie way of (at least some) of 

 you Boston folks having good butter ? I do know 

 that there is good butter made in the country, and 

 you might just as well have it right from the dairy 

 as to have it go through the hands of speculators, 

 to be spoiled, and then pay them a heavy fee for 

 their trouble of spoiling it. They come and tell 

 us they can afibrd to pay ns 14 or 15 or at the 

 most 16 cents per lb., for our butter, if it iaveiy 

 nice, and after compounding it with equal parts of 

 other grease, they go to your market and sell it 

 for double what they gave, and the dairy-women 

 are scandalised for making such miserable butter. 

 Now 1 do not believe in tTiis mode of doing busi- 

 ness. If you have my butter, why not have it of 

 mc? not of the third or fourth person, Avhich 

 method takes all the profit from me, and gives it 

 to him who don't deserve it; it also increases your 

 butter bill, and that, too, for a poorer article than 

 I Avould furnish. 



We have some three or four hundred lbs. nice 

 maple sugar we should like to sell — no dead ne^ 

 groes in it. Mrs. S. Pierce. 



Londonderry, Vt., 1854. 



Sick Hogs. — IMessrs. Editors : — I saw in a late 

 Cultivator, an inquiry liy Mr. Snow for a remedy 

 for lanie hogs, and would say to him, I had a 

 breeding-sow last spring,whicli,when she had gone 

 about one-quarter of her time, was taken yeryl izer. 



Remarks. — Though, perhaps, not intended for 

 publication, we give the above excellent letter for 

 the benefit of our butter-eating and maple sugar 

 loving friends. We have not seen a pound of first- 

 rate butter these three months ; nor have we any 

 doubt but that the good butter is mixed, as intima- 

 ted above. There is no eatable so scarce in mar- 

 ket, as that of good butter. 



CORN AND THE WIRE- WORM. 



Mr. JouN Wormley communicates the fact to 

 the Michigan Farmer, that at the time of plant- 

 ing his corn, he put two or three pieces of corn 

 cobs in the hill, and that in a few days if there 

 are any wire-worms in the soil, they will be found 

 in the pith of the cob, and will remain there 

 without interfering with the corn. The editor of 

 the Farmer suggests that at the first hooing it 

 would be well to take out the cobs and burn 

 them, and thus destroy the worms. Tlio remedy 

 may be easily tried, and the cob would undoubt- 

 edly be worth something to the hill as a fertil- 



