26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



August 13, 1830. 



crops, growing upon the farm, tliat the grass of 

 (hia field was nothing more than a fair sample of 

 the whole farm. 



on RAISIXG CALVES, MANAGEMENT OF BEES, &e. 



Extract of a letter from Gorham PAKioNS, Egn. to Uev. Gard- 

 ner 11. I'tKRV. 



Respecting the projier time and manner of 

 ■weauing calves, 1 have considered if you intend 

 raising the caif at the time it is calved, it is liest 

 to take it from the cow the day after, or not to 

 exceed two days— unlcfs the udder of the cow is 

 swollen or hard, then it may require the proces:*, 

 that nature points out for the calf, the forcible 

 application of the head against the udder, which 

 generally reduces the swelling and hard bunches; 

 while either remain, I should not take away the 

 calf. But supposing no difficulty of that kind, the 

 calf should l)c taken from the cow the first day, 

 or twelve hours after it is calved, then fed from 

 a bucket, or small tub with two quarts of milk 

 from the cow in the morning and evenin", the 

 finger held in the milk will very soon induce the 

 calf to suck, and in a very short time he will 

 drink the milk freely ond readily. I have hail a 

 piece of leather (ui)per leather) sewed together of 

 the size and in the form of a cow's teat, a small 

 ■o|)ening at top, the bottom so cut as when nailed 

 to tlie bottom of a bucket or tub with three pump 

 nails, ilie milk will puss under easily anil flow to 

 the orifice of the teat, the calf will soon press for 

 it with as much earnestness as for that of his dam, 

 and shortly he will be so impatient for his break- 

 fast and supi)er, that the process of suckin" will be 

 too tedious, and he will drink freely — it will not 

 he necessary to increase the quantity of milk be- 

 yond two quarts night and morning, but as he ad- 

 vances in size, add a little water, a pint at first 

 and increase it, of the same warmth as th?. milk, 

 to which adil a gill of Indian meal whicb may 

 be increased to u pint, although I prefer using 

 double tlie quantity of wheat hiau, and thiid< it 



far better for milch cows than Indian meal ofl^er 



him seeond crop hay, (if before the season for 

 grass) he will soon eat it, and may have skimmed 

 milk soon substituted for new milk made warm 

 with water, as milk tlireet from the cow. 



\Yhcn four or five weeks old lie will eat "-rass 

 and drink water, and be quite as large as if he 

 had taken all the milk from the cow. The savin" of 

 milk will arnp'y pay for the trouble, and the calf 

 will not be stinted in size. I think we err in 

 permitting calves to suck too much at first, even 

 when intended for the butcher, they fat better by 

 beginning moderately, and increasing gradually, 

 as gorging is injurious to the brute creation as 

 well as to the human race. 



Let a man purchase an animal as prejiared and 

 presented at our cattle shows for premium, stuff- 

 ed and i)ampered for the occasion, then let him 

 feed fairly as a good farmer would and ought to 

 feed, and before the ne.\t cattle show, the animal 

 would be like the lean kine of Pharaoh. You see 

 I dirt'er from many go(„l men as to the condition 

 in whiidi animals should he exhibited at our cat- 

 tle shows— I do not mean the cattle as fatted for 

 l?eef, although iu that case I should lean to the( 

 farmer who presented well fatted beef at the 

 least expense. 1 have thought it better lo have 

 rather small enclosures of grass for calves, and 

 change them every two or three weeks. If 

 the feed should he short or the flies so trouble- 

 some as to prevent their eating in the day time, 

 feed with a quart of wheat bran or three pints 



per day — if no bran, a pint of Indian meal — some 

 crusts of bread occasionally of which they soon 

 become fond. I am fully of opinion calves 

 should be so fed as to keep them in a growing 

 state,but never gorged, or pampered. It frequent- 

 ly occurs that they require a very small plcee of 

 their tail cut off; the necessity is ascertained by 

 pulling the tail, and if the bones arc loose and 

 the skin spongy, cutting is necessary, they are what 

 farmers term <ai7 siVA:. They should be ))rovided 

 with salt to lick wheiitbey jilease. I use the crude 

 lump salt from Liverpool ; my cattle of every 

 description lick it freely. It is economy to use it, 

 and I think it answers the purpose quite as well 

 as white and granulated salt that is more expen- 

 sive — you can see some of it at my farm in Bye- 

 field. ■ 



The age at which they should have their first 

 calf does not appear to be settled, as I find farm- 

 ers disagree, some preferring two years old past, 

 or the month of Jime succeeding the spring when 

 they were two years old, others three years oil 

 past — I am rather inclined to prefer the latter 

 age, unless the calf grows rapidly and has attain- 

 ed great size, and may be con.sidered a forward 

 animal, never allow a heifer to calve till June, 

 the very last of the month is preferable ; they will 

 then have a flow of nutritious grass feed, which 

 will swell the uilder, give health and strength, and 

 unless a violent and cold rain storm no injury 

 arises from calving in the pastures. — I have 

 thought it best to use bows, straps or stanchions, to 

 tie them up as it is termed ; the first fall they are 

 brought to the barn, I have had practised, (and my 

 father before nie who was remarkably fond of 

 them, and an excellent judge of their qualities) 

 handling the udder almost every morning, when 

 tied up, feeling the teats, anH, if I may use the 

 term, make believe milking, if done gently, it will 

 save trouble, which freipiently happens with Heif- 

 ers with the first calf — 1 think I have known 

 several spoiled for want of this attention, and 

 were of no value as milch cows — requiring their 

 legs tied, and were not inilked well, becoming the 

 terror of female and finally of male milkers. 



I believe you will think full enough has been 

 wiitten on this subject, and that I may as well 

 proceed to answer your inquiry resjiecting Mrs 

 Grifiith's Hive — I have never used one, but 1 have 

 no doubt the manner of securing the bottom is a 

 great improvement, as the eggs lodged by the Bee 

 moth can be daily cleared off; the suspending 

 the Hive I think an iinprovement, as it will only 

 permit the assailant moth to attempt entrance at 

 the threshold, and Bees know them as an enemy, 

 and will repulse them wlien they do not steal in 

 at the hack door. As to the top, when you are in- 

 formed that I now have all the Hives and glasses 

 as described in Wildman's pamphlet, filled with 

 honey, and can hardly admit IMrs Griffith's an im- 

 provement, you will, I thiidc, readily bear me out 

 in my opinion. GORHAIVl PARSONS, 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



Concluded from page 60. 



The Ant-Lion. — The observations of the conti- 

 nental naturalists have made known to us a pitfall con- 

 structed by an insect the details of whose operations 

 are exceedingly curious — we refer to the grub of j 

 the ant-lion. Its habits require that it should walk ! 

 backwards, and this is the only species of locomo- 

 tion which it can perform. Even this sort of motion 

 It executes very slowly ; and were it not for the 

 ingenuity of their stratagems, it would fare but spar- 

 ingly, since its chief food consists of ants, whose 



activity and swifiness of foot would otherwise render 

 it impossible for it to make a single capture. Nature, 

 however, in this, as in nearly every other case, has 

 a compensating power to the individual animal, to 

 balance its privations. The ant-lion is slow — but 

 it is extremely sagacious; — it cannot follow its 

 prey, but it can entrap it. 



The snare which the grub of the ant-lion employs 

 consists of a funnel-shaped excavation formed in loose 

 sand, at the bottom of which it lies in wait for the 

 ants that chance to stumble over the margin, and 

 cannot, from the loosenets of the walls, gain a suf- 

 ficient footing to eifect their escape. When the 

 pitfall is intended to be small, it only thrusts its 

 body backwards into the sand as it can, throwing out 

 at intervals the particles which fall in upon it, till it 

 is rendered of the requisite depth. 



By shutting up one of these grubs in a box with 

 loose sand, it has been repeatedly observed construct- 

 inor its trap of various dimensions, from one to three 

 inches in diameter, according to circumstances. 

 When it intends to make one of considerable diam- 

 eter, it proceeds as methodically as the most skilful 

 architect or engineer amongst ourselves. It first 

 examines the nature of the soil, whether it be suffi- 

 ciently dry and fine for its purpose, and if so, it 

 begins by tracing out a circle, where the rnouth of 

 its funnel trap is intended to be. Having thus mark- 

 ed tlie limits of its pit, it proceeds to scoop out the 

 interior. Getting within the circle, and using one of 

 its legs as a shovel, it places therewith a load of sand 

 on the flat part of its head, and it throws the whole 

 with a;erk some inches beyond the circle. It is wor- 

 thy of remark that it only uses one leg in this opera- 

 tion — the one, namely, which is nearest the centre 

 of tlie circle. Where it to employ the others in 

 digging away the sand, it would encroach upon the 

 regularity of its plan. Working with great indus- 

 try ami adroitness in the manner we have just descri- 

 bed, il quickly makes the round of its circle, and as 

 it works backwards it soon arrives at the point 

 where it had commenced. Instead, however, of 

 proceeding from this point in the same direction as 

 be/ore, it wheels about and works around in the 

 contrary direction, and in this way it avoids throwing 

 all the fatigue of the labour on one leg, alternating 

 them every round of the circle. 



Were there nothing to scoop out but sand or loose 

 earth the little engineer woidd have only to repeat 

 the operations we have described, till it had com- 

 pleted the whole. But it frequently happens in the 

 course of its labours, sometimes even when they are 

 near a close, that it will meet with a stone of some 

 size which would, if suflcred to remain, injure mate- 

 rially the perfection ot its trap. But such obstacles 

 as this do not prevent the insect from proceeding: 

 on the contrary, it redoubles its assiduity to remove 

 the obstruction, as M. Bonnet repeatedly witnessed. 

 If the stone be small, it can manage to jerk it out in 

 the same manner as the sand ; but when it is two or 

 three times larger and heavier than its own body, 

 it must have recourse to other means of removal. 

 The larger stones it usually leaves till the last, and 

 when it has removed all the sand which it intends, 

 it then proceeds to try what it can do with the less 

 manageable obstacles. For this purpose, it crawls 

 backwards to the place where a stone may be, and 

 thrusting its tail under it, is at great pains to get it 

 properly balanced on its back, by an alternate motion 

 of the rings composing its body. When it has 

 succeeded in adjusting the stone, it crawls up the 

 side of the pit with great care and deposits its burden 

 on the outside of the circle. Sliould the stone happen 

 to be round, the balance can be kept only with the 

 greatest difficulty, as it has to travel with its load 

 upon a slope of loose sand w hich is ready to give way 

 at every step ; and often when the insect has carried 

 it to the very brink it rolls off its back and tumbles 

 down to the bottom of the pit. This accident, so far 

 from discouraging the ant-lion, only stimuates it to, 

 more persevering efforts. Bonnet observed it renewr 

 these attempts to dislodge a stone, five or si.\ times. 

 It is only when it finds it utterly impossible to suc- 

 ceed, that it abandons the design and commences 



