NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



or some of your readers, give the desired informa- 

 tion; and if the kind is superior to the old, state 

 where the seed can be obtained in season to sow 

 this fall ? Yours, &c., T.Stearns. 



Mansfield, July 2\st, 1851. 



For the Nvtc England Farmer. 

 THE SUMMER CATERPILLAR OR WEB- 

 WORM. 



Mr. Editor: — This insect has commenced his 

 ravages on fruit and forest trees; and it should 

 be attended to in season. It woiks longer than the 

 common caterpillar, and now that they have become 

 numerous, they make trees look quite as badly as 

 their namesake. They may be easily taken and 

 destroyed by examining the branches where they 

 are at work. They will be found in the cool parts 

 of the day collected upon the under side of a sin- 

 gle leaf, in some cases. Our way is to cut off these 

 leaves with the pruning shears, and then kill the 

 insects. 



GERMAN AGRICULTURE. 



Each German has his house, his orchard, his 

 road-side trees, so laden with fruit, that if he did 

 not carefully prop up and tie together, and in many 

 places hold the boughs together with wooden 

 clamps, they would be torn asunder by their own 

 weight. He has his corn plot, his plot of man- 

 gold wurtzel, or hay, for potatoes, for hemp, &c. 

 He is his own master, and he, therefore, and every 

 branch of his family, have the strongest motive for 

 constant exertion. You see the effect of this in 

 his industry and his economy. 



In Germany nothing is lost. The produce of 

 the trees and the cows is carried to market; much 

 fruit is dried for winter use. You see it lying in 

 the sun to dry. You see strings of them hanging 

 from their chamber windows in the sun. The 

 cows are kept up for the greater part of the year, 

 and every green thing is collected for them. Ev- 

 ery little nook, where the grass grows by road- 

 side and river, and brook, is carefully cut with the 

 sickle, and carried home on the heads of the wo- 

 men and children in baskets, or tied in large cloths. 

 Nothing of any kind that can possibly be made of 

 any use is lost; weeds, nettles, nay, the very goose 

 grass which covers waste places, is cut and taken 

 fi)r the cows. You see the little children stand- 

 ing in the streets of the villages, in the streams 

 which generally run down them, busy washing 

 these weeds before they are given to the cattle. 



They carefully collect the leaves of the marsh 

 grass, carefully cut their potato tops for them, and 

 even if other things fail, gather green leaves from 

 the woodlands. One cannot help thinking contin- 

 ually of the enormous waste of such things in Eng- 

 land — of the vast quantities of grass on banks, by 

 road-sides, in the openings of plantations, in lanes, 

 in church-yards, where grass from year to year 

 springs and dies, but which, if carefully cut, would 

 maintain many thousand cows for the poor. 



To pursue still further this subject of German 

 economy. The very cuttings of the vines are dried 

 and preserved for winter fodder. The tops and re- 

 fuse of hemp serve as bedding for the cows; nay, 

 even the rough stalks of the poppies, after the 

 heads have been gathered for oil, are saved, and all 

 these are converted into manure for the land. ^Vhen 

 these are not sufficient, Xhn children are sent into 



the woods to gather moss, and all our readers fa- 

 miliar with Germany will remember to have seen 

 them coming homeward with large bundles of this 

 on their heads. In autumn, the falling leaves are 

 gathered and stacked for the same purpose. The 

 fir cones, which with us lie and rot in the woods, 

 are carefully collected and sold for lighting fires. 



In short, tlie economy and care of the German 

 peasants are an example to all Europe. They have 

 for years, nay ages, been doing that, as it regards 

 agricultural management, to which the British 

 public is but just now beginning to open its eyes. 

 Time, also, is as carefully economised as every- 

 thing else. They are early risers, as may well be 

 conceived, when the children, many of whom come 

 from a considerable distance, are in school at six 

 in the morning. As they tend their cattle or their 

 swine, the knitting never ceases, and hence the 

 quantities of stockings and other household things 

 which they accumulate are astonishing. — Howilt. 



REMEDY FOR A COW WHO SUCKS 

 HERSELF. 



Mr. Editor: — Hearing recently an effectual 

 cure for this inveterate habit, and at the same time 

 a very simple one, which has been tried in this vi- 

 cinity and found to answer completely, I send it for 

 insertion in the Farm Journal. 



Draw the cow up by a haltei to a fence corner, 

 or stall in the stable, and insert in the same man- 

 ner as a ring is put into a bull's nose, a round 

 stick through the cartilage which divides the nos- 

 tril, (and which is quickly done by a single blow 

 with a mallet,) say about six inches long, and let 

 it remain. It will occasion no inconvenience to 

 the cow, and whenever she attempts to suck her- 

 self, it will cause such a strain on the nose as to 

 make her desist instantly. The proper length for 

 the stick to extend each side of the nose, can bet- 

 ter be told upon trial, as it may be lengthened or 

 shortened, as may be found necessary. To make 

 it still more effectual it might be pointed at each 

 end. 



The habit of sucking herself in the cow, is one 

 almost impossible to break by any contrivance of 

 yokes or muzzles, and it is not dissimilar to intem- 

 perance in the human subject. Total abstinence 

 being the only safety, a taste being once had, self- 

 control is gone. I once had a valuable heifer, (I 

 raised from the celebrated McEloy cow,) who 

 made 16 lbs. of butter in a week, and which I was 

 obliged almost to give away on account of this 

 habit. She promised to be equal to her dam in 

 butter qualities, and many expedients were tried to 

 break her, but ineffectually. A stiff" muzzle was 

 put on her, well supplied with sharp spikes. Her 

 udder, so violent was her fondness for her own 

 milk, would often be scored with deep cuts, and 

 drops of blood, but she would still get it. A 

 stitf yoke on the neck was also tried, which looked 

 as if it would entirely prevent her turning her 

 head round. This also hurt her and was ineffec- 

 tual. 



Had this cow been cured of this habit, she 

 would now have been worth $100. Her mother 

 was a most remarkable animal for deep milking, 

 and her former owner, before I purchased her, 

 was said to have sent to market from her, .17 lbs. 

 of butter per week. She made with me nearly 15 

 lbs. of butter a week, on grass alone. Edge Cope, 

 residing about two miles from this place, :i;i:l whose 



