246 



NEW E Nil!. LAND FARMER, 



Feb. 16', I&3I. 



on this subject. All I shall say is, that there is 

 much animal matter still adhering to the bones, 

 and animal matter has been found by experience 

 to promote the growth of vegetables. 



The mode of application is to break them up 

 with a sledge, or with the back of an axe, and then 

 to press them below the surface by a rammer or 

 beetle. The only point to which I offer mi/ testi- 

 mony is, that tlie iffeds are much greater than an 

 equal quantity of horse and cow-dung-. This may 

 be relied upon. 



Very respectfully yours, J. Lowell. 



i^n steamin.' food for domestic animals, some of ' milking condition till summer is half spent. A cow 

 " ,. , /• 1 • 1 „...;... ,i„..i„ .io.j well wintpi-fid is h.-ilf summered, and a cow well 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENtNG, FUB. 10, 1831. 



FARMERS' WORK FOR FEBRUARY. 



Neat cattle, pigs, and poultry should be kept 

 in good heart at this season of the year, other- 

 wise they will lose much of their value before 

 warm weatlier, and half the summer will elapse 

 before they will recover from the effects of 

 the winter's short keeping. If you intend 

 that your cattle shall derive much nourishment 

 from their food, you will see that they are well 

 sheltered and lodged, besides being well fed. Cattle 

 which are shivering with cold, drenched vyith 

 rain, or covered with snow, will pine on the richest 

 and most ex|)ensive provender. 



Too much fodder should never he laid before cat- 

 tle at once. It is better to give then) but little at a 

 time, and give that little often. By constantly breath- 

 ing for some time on their food it becomes in a de- 

 gree filled with effluvia and moisture, which causes 

 the cattle to reject it. They will, however, gen- 

 erally eat food of that kind in the open air, 

 which they have refused, svhen offered to them 

 under cover; especially if it is laid on dry straw 

 long enough for the moisture to evaporate. Care, 

 however, should be taken that your cattle slu.nld 

 not be put on short allowance, . and if you give 

 them but little at a time let them ho fed often. 



By experiments which have been repeatedly 

 made in America ami in Great Britain it has been 

 ascertained that grain and roots f u- fattening cat- 

 tle, swine, &c, will go one third farther if steamed 

 or boiled than if used raw. Every farmer, ought, 

 therefore, to have conveniences for steaming food 

 for his stock as well as his swine. A steam boiler 

 may be made by setting a kettle holding about 10 

 or 12 gallons, in a furnace of brick or stone, and 

 over this a hogshead with one head taken out, 

 and the other bored full of holes, which is set so 

 close that the steam of the kettle, when boiling 

 can only rise through the holes and thence ascemi 

 among the articles to be steamed in the hogshead, 

 iind pass off at the top. In this way, a hogshead 

 fall of potatoes will be nearly as soon boiled as a 

 small part of them only would have been if placed 

 in the kettle underneath. As the kettle must be 

 30 closed as to prevent any steam from passing 

 off, but through the bottom of the hogshead or 

 vat, a pipe or tube must be set on one side, through 

 which, with the aid of a funnel, the water may be 

 }>oured into the kettle as often as occasion may 

 require. After the water is poured in, the tube 

 should be stopped with a plug. Grain of all 

 kinds may be advantageously steamed for feeding 

 or fatting swine. Rutin that case, it is necessary 

 that the bottom of the hogshced should be covered 

 with a cloth, to prevent the grain from running 

 down through the holes. 



Several other kinds of apparatus have been used 



the most useful of which are particularly des 

 „..hed in the New England Farmer, vol vi. p. 2 2. 

 When it is wished to cook food for cattle in small 

 quantities, it may, (as has been well observed by 

 Judge Buel) be done at little or no expense over a 

 kitchen fire, on the evenings preceding the days 

 in which the food is made use of 



' On the proper selection of cattle, horses, sheep 

 and swine, and their management, the |)rofits of a 

 farm must at all times materially depend. If we 

 have those of an unproduct've kind; if too many 

 or too few — if fed without judgment, or fattened 

 at too great an expense, they will dejjrive us of 

 that recompense which a farmer ought to obtain.' 



The time cows shoidd become dry before their 

 calving is not agreed on, some contending that 

 they may bo milked almost to the time of their 

 dropping the calf without injury; while others 

 maintain that it is absolutely necessary that they 

 should be dry from one to two months for the ad- 

 vantage of both the cows and their calves. It is 

 probable that much, as regards this question, must 

 depend on the way in which the cows are kept; 

 where they are well fed they may be continued in 

 milk till within a week or two of their calving, 

 without their suffering any inconvenience from 

 the continuance of the milking. But as our cows 

 are usually fed at this time in the year, they had 

 better go dry for a month, six weeks or even two 

 months, to give them a chance to recruit. It is 

 said that the longer cows are milked the more free 

 their udders will be from any soreness or tumors. 

 Where oidy one or two cows are kept for the sup- 

 ply of a family it may be well, by extra feeding 

 with roots and oilier juicy food, to prolong the 

 period of milking to a week or ten days before the 

 time thev are expected to produce their young. 



In order that you may know the proper time to 

 have your cows go dry, an account should be kept 

 of the time when each cow takes the bull, that she 

 may be dried off at a reasonable i)erio(l. The fol- 

 lowing prescri|)tion for drying off cows is given 

 in Monk's ^Agricultural Dictionary. 



'Take an ounce of powdered alum; boil it in 

 two quarts of milk till it turns to whey ; then take 

 a large handful of sage, and boil it in the whey 

 till you reduce it to one ipiart ; rub her udder with 

 a little of it, and give her the rest by way of drink ; 

 milk her clean before you give it to her; and as 

 you see need requires repeat it. Draw a little milk 

 from her every second or third day ; lest her udder 

 be over charged.' 



Cows become dry too soon if they are not kept 

 well, or not milked clean. It is said in Baih Pa- 

 pers, vol. ii. p. 294, if at any time a good milch 

 cow should go dry before her milk is gone, get a 

 young calf and put it to her, in order to preserve 

 milk another year; for it is well known if a 

 cow goes dry one year nature will lose its power 

 of acting in fiiture 



Cows which are shortly expected to calve ought 

 to be lodged at night in some convenient place 

 under ccver for a week or two before calving, as 

 it may be the means of saving the life of the 

 calf, and perhaps of its dam likewise. The day 

 and night after a cow has calved, she should be 

 kept under cover, and her drink should be hike 

 warm. Let her not be exposed for some time to 

 the dampness of the night ; cows should at all 

 times be kcjit in high health and good condition : 

 for if they are suffered to become lean in winter, 



well wintered is half summered, and a cow well 

 ept through the summer is half wintered. 

 The cow is commonly in her prime at five years 

 old, and will continue in a good mflking state till 

 she is ten years old or upwards. The times of 

 milking should be as regular and equi-distant as 

 possible. Dr Deane observed that 'six in the 

 morning and six at night is a gooil general rule. 

 But if tliey are milked three times a day as a mod- 

 ern writer on husbandry recommends, it may be 

 dona at five, one, and eight. He believes that if they 

 are well fid they will give half as much again' 

 milk by milking thrice as if only twice; at the same 

 time it would prevent too .great a distention of 

 their bags to which our best cows are liable. 



The keeping of cows in such manner as to make 

 them give the greatest quantity of milk and with 

 the greatest clear profit is an essential point of 

 economy. Give a cow half a bushel of turnips, 

 carrots, or other good roots a day during the winter 

 months hesides her hay, and if her summer food 

 he such as it should be, she will give nearly dou- 

 ble the quantity of milk she would aflbrd if kept 

 through the winter in the usual manner and the 

 milk will be richer and of better quality. 



On the means of improving both the quality and 

 the quantity of wool. — A memoir on this subject 

 has been presented to the Academy of Sciences, 

 and reported upon by M. Coquebert Montbret. ], 

 In the sheep, says M. Petri, the nourishing fluids | 

 are natuallv distributed between the flesh, the fat, j 

 and the wool. By frequent shearings, made when , 

 the animal is young these fluids may be deter- , 

 mined in great abundance towards the skin and will j 

 then nourish the woollen fibre. This theory he 

 says he has applied with great success, and he , 

 finds that hesides increasing the quantity of wool, , 

 its quality is very much improved and the staple | 

 rendered finer. This imin-ovement may be trans- 

 mitted from one generation to another so thai j 



whole flocks may in this way be converted into | 

 fine wool animals, only by taking care to reserve j 

 those animals for reproduction which yield the raosi ] 

 improved produce and paying attention at the same 

 time, to the choice of food and to the other cir- 

 cumstances and cares which are necessary. Il 

 appears that M. Petri has not yet had time to 



prove the result of pndonged trials conducted 



upon these principals. — Revue Encyclopediqut,xWi. 



499. ^ 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL RE- 

 POSITORY. 



A number of that valuable work, (which had 

 been for some time suspended) has just issued 

 from the press, in a very handsome style. 



It is published by John B. Russell, Proprietor 

 of the New England Farmer, from the Press of 

 I. R. Butts. It contains the Address by John 

 C. Gray Esq. delivered before the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Society, Reports of the Counuittees 

 ff the last Brighton Cattle Show, and a number of 

 ether valuable articles, most or all of which we 

 liave or intend to transfer to our columns. W* 

 tlink this an excellent number, and one which 

 csnnot fail to greatly enhance the agricultural ii>- 

 ta-ests of those Farmers who will give it a care- 

 ful perusal, and apply to use the information with 

 which it abounds. 



It apiiears by a notice which precedes and in- 



lor It tliey are sunerea to uecome leun m wimci, tioduces the 'Premium List of the Massachusetts 

 they will not recover their flesh, nor be in good SDciety for promoting Agriculture, for 1831' that 



