NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JAN. 35,1813 



ANn HORTICULTCRAI. REGISTER. 



Boston, Wednesday, Januaby 25, 1843. 



WINTER WORK. 



The energetic farmer can always find enough to do 

 His stock cluiins in winter his special attention. The 

 cattle should be well and regularly tended. Go'id tend- 

 ers of the bnrn plnce only a small quantity of hay before 

 the animals at a time ; this they shake up well before 

 putting it into the crib. They also mix up well the hay 

 of different kinds and qualities, and thus work off the 

 coarser and le.ss palatable fodder, while they keep the 

 stock in good heart. 



The same laws of appetite which rcjle in men, ope- 

 rate also to s(.me extent in cattle. They as well as we, 

 like variety. And where one has corn-fodder, salt hay, 

 and good English hay, it is not well to confine the cat- 

 tle to the use of one kind only until that is gone, and 

 then to take another and go through with that. Kut 

 rather give one foddering of each kind daily, and let the 

 ndditional fudderings be of the kind which is the most 

 abundant. 



The catlle should bo kept from all uncomfortable ex- 

 posure to cold — should be kept clean and well carded, 

 and plentifully supplied with gond water. Their com- 

 fort should be promoted as much as possible. 



Carting out Manure. 

 Occasionally, this work may be attended to in winter 

 though it may nut be well as the general rule. If the 

 manure heap is in a cellar, where the frost does not 

 harden it too much, one will often find it well to take 

 oat some of iiis manure, while the ground is firmly 

 frozen, and leave it on those low and soft lands, where 

 it is difficult carting it in the spring. There is some 

 waste to the manure thus taken out and exposed; and 

 yet the cases are not rare in which the loss is more than 

 counterbalanced by the greater ease of carting, and espe- 

 cially by the fact that the winter is a much less hurried 

 time for both men and team, than the spring. Pos.sibly 

 many farmers, especially those whose hands are nearly 

 as numerous in winter as in summer — we mean where 

 the father and boys do most of the work, may find it ad- 

 vantageous to take the manure out, even on to (he firm 

 uplands in winter. The greater convenience of doing 

 it then, may more than outweigh the loss from waste. 

 Where, too, the team is light for the work of the farm, 

 it is well to let as much of the work as possible be done 

 while the wheels move easily and when the work does 

 not drive. 



Cutting Bushes and Bogs, or Hassocks. 



There are times in winter when the smoothing of the 

 surfaces of wet meadows can be accomplished much 

 more expeditiously than in summer. While the sur- 

 face is frozen, the laborer has a firm and dry f„oiing— 

 also, the frost holds the bush firmly in place while it 

 meets the blow of the axe. The hassocks or bogs can 

 be cut much faster when the centre of them is frozen, 

 and the outside free from frost, than at any other time. 



Gravel may be wheeled or ciirted on to meadow lands 

 better in winter than in summer. 



The ff'yorfpi/c must be abundantly replenished before 

 the spring opens. 



LIEBIG'S ANliVIAL CHEMISTRY. 

 Our thanks are due to John Owen, Esq., the publi.sh 

 cr, for a copy of this work. 



MR NEUHALL'S FARM. 



On one of the mild and beautiful days of last week, 

 we liad the pleasure of a ride from the city with Mr 

 Cheever Newhall, to his farm in Dorchester. We 

 know not precisely the size of this farm— it may con- 

 tarn eighty acres or more. lis intelligent owner is 

 spending a pan of the profits of his mercantile labors in 

 enriching and smoolhing his grounds. As far as we can 

 judge, he is one of the wisest in the class of gentlemen 

 farmers. His plans seem judicious, and his expendi- 

 tures prudent. 



The bnrn on his place is the best we have ever seen. 

 It is 110 feet long, 44 wide and with 16 feet poMs. The 

 whrde is shingled or clapboaided. Within are scantlings 

 to keep the hay from pre.ssing so firmly upon the sides, 

 as to prevent a circulation of air, Under the whole is a 

 fine, deep, well-stoned cellar. About one-third of this, 

 running the uhole length, is a vegetable cellar ; one- 

 third of the remainder at one end, is intended for the re- 

 ception of muck or meadow mud, and other matters for 

 compost, which are tipped in through the floor. Here, 

 such part as is wanted, is always to be had for mixing in 

 with the droppings of the cattle in winterer summer; 

 and the remainder is where it is wanted as a bed for 

 salt ley, urine, or any other liquid which may be carted 

 into the barn floor and let down upon the heap below. 

 There the work of composting can go on in all weather, 

 summer or winter. Mr N. has, within a mile of him, 

 and of his own, meadow mud, salt marsh sods and mud, 

 river or creek-mud and sand— and these he diaws U[ion 

 freely. His farm now furnishes many tons of hay for 

 the marker, though his stock is about twenty cows, lour 

 oxen, and four horses. In a few years, apparently, 

 he will want more barn room. 



The soil of this place is prevailingly a strong clayey 

 loam, well suited to grass. But we intended to speak of 

 the farm buildings and stock, rather than of the farm, 

 at this time. 



Every part of the barn is convenient and substantial. 

 A small watering trough runs along before his cows, at 

 the foot of the stanchions, at one end of which stands a 

 pump, and here water is always put wiihin their reach 

 while they are in the barn. Mr N. has about twenty 

 cows, mostly of native or the common breed, and 

 we have never heard that he has paid great prices for 

 any of them. They are in good condition, and look 

 every way well. The milk from them is sold at the 

 barn, and an exact account of the yield is kept. 



We think this gentleman informed us, about a year 

 since, ihal his cows for the twelve months of 1641, ave- 

 raged about four qls. of milk per day; including of 

 course all the time that they went dry. The calves 

 were killed at two days old. 



We have never known another instance, in this vi. 

 inily, in which the produce in milk, of a definite num- 

 ber of native or mostly native cows, has been so accurate- 

 ly ascertained. These were good cows, and well kept, 

 and yet the produce was only one gallon from a cow per 

 day. We say only one gallon, but we do not mean by 

 that to hint that we deem the quantity small, fur we do 

 not. Take any considerable number of cows that will 

 give their 12 or 13 quarts per day, in the height of June 

 fceil, and within a month or two after calving, and they 

 wi'l generally fail to come up to lour quarts per day for 

 the whole 365. We doubt whether the cows of Massa- 

 husctts will average 2 1-2 (]ts. per day from the time 

 they are three years old, until they are dried olf to be 

 fatted. 



I'here is a difference between a debt of revenne and 

 pry other debt. I!y paying our other debts, vve are 

 equal with all mankind ; but in refusing to pay a debt of 

 enge, we nre superior to him — Lacon. 



I CAN'T AFFORD IT. 



Many common farmers when askeil to adopt new pro. 

 cesses, and try ejperimants, answer, "It will do well 

 enough for rich men and book farmers, Lut I ca7l.^t afford 

 it." When Mr Coke, the great Norfolk farmer of E ng. 

 land, had learned that two horses abreast would do near- 

 ly as much work at plowing as three when harnessed 

 one before the other, he not only changed his own 

 course, and harnessed abreast, but induced many others 

 to do the same. In one instance, when riding, he saw a 

 poor man at work in the old way. Stopping his car- 

 riage, he went into the field, induced the man to change 

 his mode of harnessing for a few rounds, and foiced him 

 to confess that his two horses abreast seemeil to work as 

 easy as the three had done. " Well now, good sir, said 

 Coke, " get your harnesses properly fixed for working 

 abreast hereafter." " I think not," said the other. 

 "Why not.'" " Ah, this working with two horses 

 will do well enough for you rich men, but leant afford 

 it." He is not the only man who has thought himself 

 too poor to afford to save labor in the cultivation of his 

 land. 



AGRICULTURAL MEETING AT THE STATE 

 HOUSE. 



On Monday evening, the friends of agriculture met at 

 the State House. Hon. Jonathan Gardiner, of Pekonk, 

 was chosen Chairman pro tern. ; S. W. Cole, Ed. of the' 

 Farmers' Journal, Secretary. 



H. C. Metriam, Esq , Hon. Dr. Brown, of Meilwny, 

 Hon. B. V. French, of Braintree, were appointed a com- 

 mittee to nominate officers for the meetings of the win- 

 ter. 



This committee reported for 



President— Hon. Dakiel P. King, of Danvers. 



Vice Presidents—Hon. Jonathan Gardiner, of Sekonk, 

 Hon. B. V. French, of Braintree, and Edmund Badger] 

 Esq., of North Adams. 



Secretaries, Reporters and Business Committee— AUen 

 Putnam, Ed. N. E. Farmer ; H. C. Merriam, Esq., ex-Ed. 

 Bost. Cultivator ; S. W. Cole, Esq., Ed. Farmers' Jour- 

 nal ; Wm. Buckminster, Esq., Ed. Ma.ss. Plowman. 



There was much discussion, or rather there were many 

 remarks upon agricultural education, a report of which 

 we are obliged to defer until next week. 



Subject for discussion at nest meeting— The Breed- 

 ing of Stock. 



THE WEATHER. 



Last Wednesday vve spoke of remarkable warmth, 

 with fogs and rains, for several days preceding that 

 time. The week since then has been still more re- 

 markable. The weather has been prevailingly fair, and 

 yei so mild that on several nighls there has been little if 

 any frost. The sun has taken out early in the day aM 

 the frost of the coldest of the nights. There can be no 

 frost, vve should judge, in the ground generally, and the 

 plow would probably run very well this day (Jan. 23.) 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



EXHIBITION or FRUITS. 



Saturday, Jan. 21, 1843. 

 Pears— var. Ambrette, by Cheever Newhall, Esq., of 

 Dorchester. Easter Beurie, Monsieur le Cure, and a 

 new pear from Van Mens, from the Pomological Gar- 

 den of the late Robert Alanning, Esq., Salem. 



Apples— var. Yellow Bellflower, and Danvers Winter 

 Sweet — from the Pomological Garden, Salom. 

 For the Committee, 



S. WALKER. 



