1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



331 



the propriety of the old adage, "that one story is 

 until another is told." 



Very truly yours, 

 Danvcrs, May 27, 1854. J. v. p. 



SUMMER FEED FOR COWS AND PIGS. 



Messrs. Editors : — I have an extra nice litter 

 of 11 pigs, now nearly four months old. I wish 

 to keep tlicm all through the season, and fatten 

 them. What can I raise most profitably for early 

 and late feeding? I have clover growing finely, 

 which I design partly for them. Is it better to 

 fence a part of it, and turn them in , or keep them 

 in the pen and mow the clover ? 



I have ten co^s, a large portion of the milk of 

 v,-hich is sold. I liave not sufficient pasture unless 

 I use for this purpose a field which for two years 

 has been used as a meadow ; and in this field and 

 in the same enclosure, is an acre ormore on which 

 potatoes were planted last year. This acre I in- 

 tended to have sowed very early to oats and grass, 

 and then pasture the whole. But the season has 

 been too wet to allow of this. Few persons in this 

 region have sowed oats yet. Now can I hope to 

 get any feed from the said acre this year ? The 

 loss of the use of this aci'c would not be great 

 Had I better pasture the remaining ten acres, till 

 August or September and sow the one acre? Or 

 ■would it ]).; better to keep part of my cows in the 

 stable and depend on soiling ? The plan of soil 

 ing, exclusively, I intend to try as soon as I am 

 prepared for it. " 

 season . 



from an acre ; ])ut the best way is to allow pas- 

 tures to grow a foot high or more before turning 

 in, and where portions of sucli pastures can be 

 divided by hurdle fences, it is the best way. 



It is commonly best to sow ashes on grass in 

 autumn or winter, and plaster on clover early in 

 spring. Experiment, oidy, can show where these 

 measures will pn)ve profitalile. We do not per- 

 ceive any advantage in sowing them after guano 

 at this season, yet under particular cir<;umstances, 

 which experiment alone can decide, it may be suc- 

 cessful. — Ex. 



THE EFFECT OF OXYGEN IN ACCEL- 

 ERATING GERMINATION. 

 Mr. Humboldt discovered, in 171i3, that simple 

 metallic suljstances are unfavorable to germination 

 of plants, and that their oxydo favor it in propor- 

 to their clegree of oxydation. This discovery in- 

 duced him to search for a substance with which 

 oxygen might be so weakly coml)ined as to be 

 e^vsilj separated ; and he made choice of oxj-gena- 

 ted muriatic acid gas, mixed with water. Cresses 

 (Leyidium Satirum) seed put into it showed germs 

 in six hours ; in water, thirtj'-two hours. The 

 seeds exhibited an enormous quantity of air bub- 

 bles. These do not appear in the water till thirty 

 or forty min«tes. 



These experiments, announced in Humboldt's 

 Floi-a, and in his aphorisms on the chemical physi- 

 been repeated by others ; 



ology of plants, nave 



they were made at a temperature of from 12 to 14 

 I am only partially ready this|Reaumer (near 64^' Fahrenheit.) In the summer 



of 1799, Humboldt began a new series of cxperi- 



When is the best time for sowing ashes and U^ents, and" found, that by joining the stimulus of 



plaster ? Wliere guano was sowed on grass three 

 weeks since, would it be of any advantage to sow 

 ashes and plaster? w. 



New Brilnin, Ct. 



The cheapest food for pigs through the season, 

 that we know of, is tender young clover, refuse 

 or sour milk, and in autumn, the dropping fruit 

 of an apple orchard. Practical farmers differ as 

 to the propriety of cutting clover and soil. One 

 of the most skilful farmers in Western New York 

 thinks it decidedly best to shut up his pigs, and 

 cut and feed the clover to them, alleging, from his 

 own experience, that running about a pasture 

 wastes more value of flesh than the cost of soiling. 

 Others have given a different opinion, but these 

 may not have fed their pigs regularly, nor pro- 

 vided them with the necessary comforts of a close 

 pen. Certain breeds may also be better adapted 

 to confinement than others. We should like the 

 results of accuratii experiments on this subject. 

 A crop of peas may I)c found advantageous as food 

 for hogs. 



The gr.\at objection to soiling cattle, is the 

 amount of hibor in cutting, and conveying to them 

 their food, watering, cleaning stables, providing, 

 and securing their comfort at all times, a part of 

 which id apt to be neglected in this country of 

 scarce and iiigh priced labor. Although several 

 favorable reports liave been made in favor of soil- 

 ing, the fact that it lias never been adopted for 

 any length of time, successfully, by our best farm 

 ers, is against its utility, and we cannot recom 

 mend it as a general practice. Keeping closely 

 grazed pastures, is very unprofitable, it is true ; 

 cutting higii grass will afford twice as much feed 



caloric to that of oxygen, he was enabled still more 

 to accelerate the progress of vegetation, lie took 

 the seeds of garden cress, peas, French beans, let- 

 tuce, and migonnette, equal quantities of which 

 were thrown into pure w-ater, and the oxygenated 

 muriatic acid aka temperature of SS"' Fahrenheit. 

 Cresses exhibited germs in three hours in the oxy- 

 genated muriatic acid ; while none in the water 

 were seen till twonty-six hours. In the muriatic, 

 nitric, or sulphuric acid, pure, or mixed with wa- 

 ter, there was no germ at all. 



These dfscoveries may one day be of gi'cat bene- 

 fit in growing plants. Several distinguished phil- 

 osophers have repeated them. Professor Phol, of 

 Dresden, caused the seeds of a new kind of Euphor- 

 bia, (India rubber is one of them — Meigs,) 

 taken from Bocconi's collection of dried plants, 

 110 or 120 years old, to germinate. Jacquin and 

 Vandett Schott, at Vienna, tried all the old seeds 

 of the Botanic Garden, twenty or thirty years old, 

 every atteiupt to make them vegetate in the ground 

 having fiiiled, and he made the greater part of 

 them vegetate ; even the hardest seeds j'ielded to 

 this agent, ^'ery valuable plants are now grow- 

 ing in Vienna by this treatment. Humboldt made 

 the seeds of Clusia Rosea, brou^jht from the Ba- 

 hamas by Boose, (and which hatl resisted every ef- 

 fort to make them grow in the ground,) vegetate 

 by a new method of his — that is, by mixing tlie 

 seeds with a paste made of the black oxydc of 

 manganese, and pouring over it diluted muriatic 

 acid. The vessel in wliich the mixture is made 

 must be covered, but not tight ; for if so, an ex- 

 plosion will occur. The temperatur3 of the mix- 

 ture must be about 95"^ of Fahrenheit. — Journal 

 de Physique. 



