250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



From ihe Farmer's Cabinet. 



OAT HAY. 

 Mil EniTOR — It has lonp; l)een known that the 

 o»l crop, when thickly sown on a highly manured 



mowinp, making Bnd carrying four acres of oaU, ! our oats when fairly in llie milk, and feed then 

 thirteen dollars! And if to this be added the cost to stock iintlirashed. They a; 



of seed and the labor nf working the land, (the 

 Inst item alone being about nine dollars,) we must 

 he astonished to find that even then there remains 



soil, forms one of the most valuable green crops (or a Profit amounting, manure included, to more than 



soiling all kinds of cattle as well as horses, coining 



ofTin time for the land to he sown with turnips, 



beets or buckwheat, or even to be planted to pota- 

 toes, leaving the soil porfnclly clean and in the 



most suitable order for these crops ; hut it appears 



from a late account, that the same CT'<\> when cut 



green, has been made into hay of the tinost iiuali- 



ty, the quantity also being very great. I here 



the whole expense, valuing the hay at about one 

 half cent per pound. After this, I do not hesitate 

 to put the difference between un American and a 

 Scotch climate to a " whole rent,'' and if eleven 

 days spent in drying a crop of hay, sufficient only 

 for carrying into temporary stacks, be not enough 

 to confirm us of this fact, I know not what more 

 we can expect to receive in the way of evidence, 

 present yoQ with ttie particulars of nn experiment j As is said by your correspondent, here is proof 

 ade by W. Stewart, Esq., Pcebleshire, Scotland, ! Positive that neither the cradle-scythe nor the 



for insertion in your valuable pages. Ho says: 

 " Having a field of 14 acres which had been 



partially t'lirroiv-drained, and from which a crop "nihnicrin I 

 oats had been taken, to prepare for a green crop; 

 finding there were about four acres which required 

 complete draining, and that it would be the better 

 for extra working, I determined to sow it with oats 

 for the purpose of making them into hay ; and this 

 I did on the 11th day of March, sowing iili bushels 

 of seed on the four acres, without manure. So 

 goon as the l!c>wer was a week out of the shot-blade, 

 on the 27th of July, I begun mowing them ; the 

 crop was put into a temporary stack on the 7th of 

 August, and after a few days it was carted to the 

 barn-yard and put into the ricks of three or four 

 cartloads each, for the convenience of leading into 

 the hay loft. The produce of the four acres was 

 1.5,2ti4 pounds of hay. The horses prefer this fod- 

 der to every other kind of hay, and I have now be- 

 fore inc my farmsleward'.n letter, saying, 'The 

 horses getting common oat fodder are m tolerable 

 condition, but those getting oat hay and eating the 

 same quantity of oats and doing the same work, 

 arc as fat as they can be.' Annexed is a state- 

 ment of the expense of the oat hay experiment: 



Cost of 2(> bushels oats for seed, 



Work 00 the land, 



Mowing, four days. 



Making hay from 27th July to 7th Aug. 



Carting and stacking. 



i;4 C 8 



horse-rake are yet known there ; and in a climate 

 so humid as to require eleven days to dry n. crop 

 only partially, and so uncertain as to require that 

 bo put into two separate fixings be- 

 fore it reaches the hay- loft, lest the rain should be 

 down upon it, and spoil all, no hope must ever be 

 entertained of getting off the grain crop in time for 

 a second crop of turnips, beets, or buckwheat, or 

 of raising corn at all ; whilo, judging from Ihe ac- 

 count before us, the diflerencc in the expenses in 

 securing a general crop, and the difficulty and un- 

 certainty arising from so late a period of harvest, 

 must, indeed, warrant " Vir's" statement, that "the 

 forwardness of the seasons here, by which the far- 

 mer is enabled to secure his crops, both hay and 

 grain, so early as July, during long days and fine 

 weather, often performing the labor of two days in 

 one, with the advantage of immediately recropping 

 his land on the removal of his first crops for the 

 use of himself and his oul-door stock in the com- 



I 



FEB. 0. 184iV; 



- r 



and feed thenB 



y are considered 

 about as much per ton as good timothy or h 

 grass. — Ed. M E. F. 



ir 



HOGS. 



We believe that experience has nearly, if 

 absolutely, determined that the Berkshire: are 

 to be the favorite hogs in .Mus-iachusetts. The 

 culiar merits and defects of each noted breed 

 pretty well understood by all our subscribers 

 take much interest in the subject, and we supi 

 there is little occasion to load our columns i 

 long dissertations upon swine. But in the Wf ii 

 crn Farmer, of January, is a letter upon hogs, fl g. 

 Solon Robinson, Esq., so pleasantly written 

 we are unwilling to deny our readers the eighth 

 few extracts : 



'In the first place, I will premise, that afli 

 very careful examination of a great number of 

 ferent breeds of Irish Graziers, Liecestersl 

 Wobiirns, Westchester, IMackay, "Hospital," 

 apolitan, "China Improved,'" and unimproved 

 a still greater number of the Land shark varit 

 that the more they are improved, the worse ||, 

 become, unless their cross-grained nature is ci 

 ed out of them by a cross upon some stock 

 partakes less of the nature and quality-of a ciil 

 cut s.iw, than a great portion of ilie swine of f 

 U. States now do. I have come to the conclusi I 

 and as I think, without fear, favor or nfiection. f 

 or for any of the homogenous genus homo, tliatll< 

 genuine Berkshire hog is as decent a hog as ' |i 

 naturi; of the subject will admit of 



The M.ackay breed is peculiar to the 



■1 



ng winter, with a moral certainty of obtaining a i "f^ Boston. It is an improvement upon tha 



C92 stones hay— 22 lbs. — at fill 



season of sufficient length to bring them to full 

 maturity ; and after that to enjoy sufficient space 

 to winter-fallow every acre of unemployed land 

 during the fine weather of autumn — all this is cheap 

 at an extra rent." To bo sure the Scotch are ex- 

 empt from tythe and established-church rates, noin- 

 1 Ifi linally so called, but the English calculate that 

 1 1 j they are paid in the shape of extra rent, and it is 

 18 (5 I a fact that lands in Scotland are charged with very 

 13 6 J high rents. 



~~~~~l With regard to the nutritive quality of oat hay, 

 17 r i ' P'"''^'""^ "'^'■^ '^ "" T'cslion that it is great, the 



[saccharine properties being enhanced by sncrific- 



ing the crop of grain ; but I should be inclined to 

 allow it to stand a little longer, so as to give time 

 for the grain to form, but not to ripen; it might 



£8 12 4 



Leaving a clear profit of 

 independent of the manure." 



Now, sir, I think yaor readers will agree with I require judgment to fix the exact period, but there 



me in considering this one of the most curious and { would be no difficulty about it. To cut such hay 

 interesting statements that have ever found their into chatT, must be by far the best mode of cxpciul- 

 way to this country ; and if it does not go far to in^, j,, mul i, jg reasonable to suppose that such 

 bear out the reasoning of your correspondent /ir, i fodder would be particularly sweet and suitable for 

 in your last number on "American farming," I : milk cows in winter, especially when given with 



^'^' 



must have read that article to little purpose to be 



sugar beet, which also might be raised in this 



80 mistaken. But what must wo think of sowing | country as ,i second crop of the greatest luxuriance 



six bushels and a half of seed oats pr-r acre? It 

 would not he easy to persuade many, that any re- 

 turn can repay such an outlay, mi;/ how ! .^nd 

 then the mowers, being four days cutting four acres 

 of preen oats, at an expense, for this work alone, 

 of five dollars, and n farther expense of nearly ns 

 much for eUvni days drying and preparing and 

 putting into temporary stacks, to be pulled to pieces 

 in a lew days and taken to the barn yard, there to 

 be re-erected in larger stacks, preparatory and con- 

 venient for a final removal to thchay-lofk, at an ex- 

 pense of three dollars more. Say, therefore, for 



I toll you, Mr Editor, 710 one knows the blessings 

 of such a climate — in other countries it is, of course 

 unknown, while here, we are so accustomed to it 

 as to be unable, properly to appreciate its ailvnnta- 

 Res. A. RA.\KI.\. 



Perhaps our correspondent is not aware that the 

 Scotch acre is one fifth larger than the English 

 acre — say, ihcrefiire, four Scotch acres arc eipial 

 to five acres English. — Ed. Cabinet. 



KIT'What ia here called oat hay, is common in 

 Ihe eastern part of Massachusetts. We often cut 



China breed, giving greater size, and is well Cf 

 lated for that region of country, where it reqo 

 hard digging to dig feed enough together to fe\ 

 large breed of large feeders. Besides, in Ma 

 chusetts, the art and mystery of making " wh. 

 hog bacon," is among the things often hcmd ■ 

 but never seen. A farmer there without [nckl 

 pork, would feel in as great a pickle as one ui t 

 west would if his smoke house should happen 

 lose its wonted fullness before the full time to 1 

 fill iL So that the round and handsome barrel 

 the Mackay hog, when well fatted, being well ci 

 culatod to make u fat barrel of barrel pork, is Ihe , 

 held in high esteem. 



The " Hospital" breed of hogs is one that 

 been made up of Brrksliires, Mackay, and perl 

 some other, at the Massachusetts Ho.-:pital at W 

 cester ; and certainly if tho credit of a hog mu at , 

 credit to an establishment, that does credit to th 

 State, the beautiful specimens of this breed 1 

 saw at the last fair at Worcester, are well cole 

 tod to do it. I hope none of your beautiful rea 

 will object to the term " beautiful hog," for 

 must po.>-sess less of & hoggish disposition thi 

 have, if they have no disposition to call 

 well disposed hog beautiful. The inmates ofl 

 Hospital certainly have no reason to complail 

 their ho.-;pitnble fare or spare diet, if they are 1 

 allowed to dine off the spare ribs nfsuch fair] 

 j?rs as tlie.<c. 



The Neapolitan has sometimes been called ' 

 gentleman's hog," which may be all right, for] 

 sure he should not be called the lady's ha 

 especially one of " those ladies" that put 

 taints upon the legs of the piano, because '^ 

 could not bear to sec naked legs in the room f 



