305i 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April la, 18 



NEW ENGLAND FAR MER 



30STON, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1S17. 



FENCES, PASTURES, &c. 



Give your fences a geiicnil review, repair all 

 breaches, and see that all grates, bars, &c. are 

 fegularly shut and fastened. Cattle newly let out 

 from the yard and stables in which they have been 

 wintered, are very apt to wander ; and if they get i 

 a habit of rambling, it is very difficult to confine i 

 them. Send your hoys with bats, mallets, or other 

 proper iinplements, over your mowing grounds and : 

 pastures, to beat to pieces and spread over the , 

 surface of the soil each and every lump of manure, 



which your cattle have dropped the last season 



Do not let your cattle, on any account, lun upon 

 your mowing; ground in the spring ; for the mis- j 

 chief they will do by poaching the ground, and; 

 biting the young grass loo close, will he ten-fold j 

 more than the advantage tliey will derive from the 

 seed. It is likewise injurious to pastures to turn 

 cattle into them too early in the spring ; and most [ 

 iiurlful to those pastures in wliich the grass springs [ 

 earliest, as in those which are low and moist. The • 

 cattle cut up the sward with their feet, so that it! 

 will produce a less quantity of grass. Dr Deane 

 observed that " the 20tli of May is early enough '■ 

 to turn cattle into almost any of our pastures. Out; 

 of some they should be kept later. T!ie driest \ 

 pastures should be used first, though in them the 

 grass is shortest, that the patching of tlie ground 

 in the wettest may be prevented. 



Loudon eays " the time of slocking pastures in 

 spring, must evidently be earlier or later, accord- 

 ing to the climate, and in the same climate ac- 

 cording to the season ; and the state of growth 

 which it is desirable that the grass should attain 

 before being stocked, must, in some degree be de- 

 termined by the condition and description of the 

 animals to be employed in consuming it : whether 

 they are only in a growing state or approaching 

 to fatness ; whether milch cows or sheep, or a 

 mi.xture of animals of different species. It conveys 

 no very precise idea respecting these points, 

 though the remark itself is just, to say that the 

 herbage should not be allowed to rise so high as 

 to permit the coarser plants to ran to seed ; and 

 that it is bad management to suffer store stock to 

 be turned upon a full bite. The great objects to 

 be aimed at are, that the stock, of whatever ani- 

 mals it may consist, should be carried forward 

 faster or slower, according to the purposes of their 

 owner ; and that no part of the herbage should be 

 allowed to run to waste, or be unprofitably consu 

 mrd. Bat nothing but careful inspection of the 

 land and of the stock, from time to time, can ena- 

 ble any gra7ior to judge with certainty what are 

 the best measures for attaining these objects. — 

 '' Fattening cattle," says Marshall, " which are 

 forward in flesh, and'are intended to be finished 

 with grass, may require a full bite at first turning 

 out. But for cows, working oxen, and rearing cat- 

 tle, and lean cattle intended to be fatted on grass, 

 a full bite at fir.st turning out is not requisite. 



With respect to the size of enclosures, small 

 fields are much ;o be preferred to large ones for 

 heavy stock. Resides the advantages of shelter 

 hot!) to the animals and the herbage, small fields 

 enable Iho gra.ier either to separate his stock into 

 sn.all parcels, by which means they feed more at 

 their ease, or to give the best pastures to that por 

 fion of thnin wliich ho wishes to come earliest to 



market, 'i'lie advantages of moderate sized enclo- 

 sures are well known in the best grazing counties : 

 but the subdivisions are in some instances much 

 mors minute than is consistent with the -alue of 

 the ground occupied with fences, or necessary for 

 the improvement of the stock. In all cases, says 

 Marshall, where fatting cattle oi dairy cows make 

 a part of the stock, and where situation, soil and 

 water will permit, every sort of grazing grounds 

 ought, in my idea, to consist of three compart- 

 ments. One fir head stock, (as cows or fatting 

 cattle) one for followers (as rearing and other lean 

 stock,) and the third to be shut up to freshen for 

 the leading stock. 



Large enclosures are in general best adapted 

 for stieep. These animals are not only impatient 

 of heat, and liable to be much injured by flies, in 

 small pastures often surrounded by trees and high 

 hedges, but they are naturally wilh the exception 

 perhaps of the Leicester variety, much more rest 

 less and easily disturbed than the other species of 

 live stock, 'Sheep" says Lord Kaimes, "love a 

 wider range and ought to have it, because Ihey de- 

 light io short grass : give them eighty or ninety 

 acres, and any fence will keep them in : confine 

 them to a field of seven or eight acres, and it must 

 be a very strong fence thot keeps ihem in." — 

 Though fields so large as eighty or ninety acres 

 can be adviseable only in hilly districts, yet the 

 general rule is consistent with experience, with 

 regard to all our least domtsticaled varieties. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



DESTRUCTION OF ELMS. 

 Sir — ;Four years last fall I lost a young clui 

 tree, under circumstances novel to me. Some time 

 in September the highest top branches began to 

 wither, the leaves appearing to dry up and roll. 

 The disease continued rapidly downward, and in 

 about six weeks the tree had completely perished. 

 Some time after I had it cut down, the bark was 

 dead, and I found between it and the sap-wood a 

 vast number of worms about half an inch long, 

 which had committed great depredations there. 



Last fall I had another tree attacked suddenly, 

 under the same circumstances. It was about the 

 lime that you published the interesting investiga- 

 tions of your able correspondents respecting the 

 diseased pear trees. Being fully alive upon the 

 subject, and suspecting that there might be some 

 'similarity of causes, I had the upper branches im- 

 ' mediately cut off. This however did not save the 

 tree ; it perished, and, as in the first instance, I 

 I have found the bark fully stocked witii worms. 

 ' As the investigation of this matter may be of 

 some interest, I beg leave to submit to your inspec- 

 tion a short piece of the upper part of the butt, 

 which you will receive herewith, and find, I expect, 

 some live inhabitants under the bark. I wisli par- 

 ticularly to observe to you, that the butt from the 

 ground, as fnr up as the brush could conveniently 

 , reach, had been dressed with Forsyth's composi- 

 , lion. This I found free from any worms. On one 

 side the bark was partially affected with the mor- 

 tification wliich had proceeded from above, the 

 other side was sound and green as liff. This 

 seems to suhstantiatc the opinion, expressed be 

 ! fore, that said composition, or any other similar to 

 it, will effectually protect trees, so far as it is laid, 

 (against the attacks of the borer and other insects 

 [which feed on wood, the roughness of the conipo- 

 isition preventing the female beetle from inserting 

 her seed into the bark. 



In searching for some information on th^ 

 ject, I have met in the continuation to the ij 

 history of Buffon, by several French natui 

 and compiled by Sonnini, edition of Dufol 

 LXXVII. page I'Jl, with an interesting arti 

 the family of the ScoHiari. It contains fi 

 considerable moment to all interested in sj 

 ture, and an abstract of the same may not b< 

 out some usefulness ; here foUoivs the trans 

 "Of all the insects which have been des 

 until our day, the Scoliti, notwitlistanJing til 

 niinutive size, appears to bo among tho33' 

 devastations are most tobedreaded ; there ai 

 haps few trees that are not attacked by sui 

 culiar species belonging to that family ; a 

 tentimes several species of them are fo 

 work upon the same tree. Who would thiifl 

 this miserable insect is capable of dcHroyM 

 together the finest forest of pines I since tiflj 

 : old he has been known and dreaded in Geaj 

 where in very hot seasons favorable fur la| 

 crease, swarms of them, when perfected ixM 

 beetle state, ate seen flying from one part (■ 

 forest to another, even at the distance otM 

 ! miles ; as many as 8000 of the worms htivM 

 I found under the bark of one of the largest ■ 

 the trees whose lender inner hark is devouiB 

 these worms soon show their diseased situaH 

 J the yellowness of their leaves, and they graj 

 land rapidly perish, beginning by the high* 

 'branches. M 



< There are hut f«w large forests in Gem 

 which have not been attacked by that insea 

 the dread tliereof is so great, that it is consw 

 as a public calamity, and as such we find ii 

 [ancient Lilhurgy prayer.i for preservation aj 

 ihis inroads, as also against those of tlie 1 

 Towards the close of the 18th century a 

 siou of hot, dry, summers favored their ini 

 to such an alarming degree that the inhabi' 

 of the Hartz were threatened with the entire 

 Iruclion of their forests, and the impossib: 

 continue the working of their mines ; in J 

 calculated the number of trees destroyed, 

 million and a half; cold wet seasons check' 

 progress, but it is of t!ic greatest importance 

 ' down and hark carffuHij, or to destroy hy Jii 

 mediately, every tree which is attacked. Sevc. 

 ought also to be laid by law against killing 

 peckers, which Providence seems to have intt. 

 as a check to the ovcrivhelming progresi of 

 plague ; these facts deserve to be known bj 

 our great landhohlers. but more especially bj 

 general surveyorrt of the forests, who xsmild 

 that causes which at first do not appear to i 

 mand attention, may through negligence bee 

 fatal to the national interests." 



So far is the translation. The article is by F 

 Latreville, a distinguished naturalist of tli." Fn 

 school, and part of it is a citation made hv Iiii 

 Wilhehn, a German author, who appears to I 

 been an eye witness to the devastation df t!ic ( 

 man forests. I shall take my leave of y(i:i. sii 

 expressing it, as my belief, that the dpitrnrtio 

 the pear trees is the effect of insect aL-jn ss 

 iti some cases, no doubt, assisted by a i pi 

 state of the sap. For where the flow of l,le I 

 pens to be languiil, there the enemy ai;l fis 

 first choice for the work of destruction. Tins 

 find to be nature's law, both in the aiinrml 

 the veL'Ctable s''stems. 



Wiien I lost the elm trees, both seasons I 

 been extremely hot and dry, and the learesj 



