J58 



ing. Bat if it is designed to be kept through 

 the season, let it be packed in a firkin and 

 set by in a cool place for a few days, when 

 the butter will be found to have shrunk from 

 the sides of the firkin : the head should be 

 put in, and through a hole bored in it, the 

 cavity should be filled with strong brine, the 

 hole stopped, and the firkin reversed— by 

 which the butter will cleave from the head 

 which was at the bottom, and become per- 

 fectly surrounded with a streak of brine; in 

 which situation it may be kept sweet through 



the season. — — 



MILCH COWS. 

 The attention of farmers is invited to the 

 consideration of the character and condition 

 of our milch cows. 



How much milk ought a cow to yield to 

 be worth her keeping ? What is the aver- 

 age time that our cows are in milk ? Is there 

 much, if any, waste of fodder among us by 

 keeping animals that yield little or no return 

 of profit? Questions like these, and there 

 are many such, ought to be put and answer- 

 ed in the New-England Farmer. It may 

 turn out that our dairy stock is extremely 

 low in character and its management waste- 

 ful. 



If something like an average quality of 

 milch cows could be settled — to effect ai 

 standard — and it should be understood that 

 no good farmer would keep an animal for 

 milk that fell below it ; all the cows in the 

 country would soon come up to that stand- 

 ard and go beyond it. 



A milch cow of medium quality in this 

 state will give, it is supposed, twelve quarts 

 of milk per day for two months after calving, 

 and about seven quarts per day on grass 

 feed for the next four months, and four qts. 

 per day for the next following two months, 

 and perhaps two quarts one month longer. 

 Altogether 1500 quarts in a year. 



It takes nine quarts of milk to give a pound 

 of butter, and four quarts to yield a pound 

 of cheese. The skim milk and dairy whey 

 may be valued at three dollars a cow per 

 annum. 



Now a cow that gives 1500 quarts of milk 

 in a year, will produce 166 pounds of butter, 

 worth, at sixteen cents per lb. $26 56 

 Skim milk, say 3 44 



830 00 

 Nothing is said of the worth of the calf, 

 as all the milk the cow gives is credited. 



A milch cow's keeping one year cannot 

 be short of twenty-five dollars in the inte- 

 rior. 



Suppose a farmer to resolve that he would 

 keep no cow that did not hold out as a good 

 milker nine months in the year — and that 

 did not give sixteen quarts of milk per day 

 for two months after calving, and twelve 

 quarts per day the next three months, and 

 two quarts per day the month following. — 

 Such a cow would yield per annum 3000 

 quarts of milk. 



Here it may be remarked, that with the 

 addition of five dollars per annum as esti- 

 mated for a common cow, the neat profit 

 would probably be four fold. 



It it not practicable to have throughout 

 the country, as common dairy stock, animals 

 as good as the last described ? 



This question is submitted to farmers for 

 consideration. The probability is that in 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



May 21, 1831 



taking some pains to get stock as good, they 

 would get even better. 



If the various modes of obtaining this 

 object were resorted to at once and with 

 zeal throughout the country, there would 

 be a prodigious improvement in a very short 

 time. No young animal of promising ap- 

 pearance for milk would go to the butch- 

 er. More care would be taken of young 

 stock. More young stock would be retain- 

 ed to insure a better selection for milch 

 i. Farmers would think more of the 

 advantages of employing bulls of the impro- 

 ved breeds. Heifers should be milked with 

 great care and very thoroughly, to get them 

 in the habit of holding out as long milkers. 

 If they once dry early, no care and keeping 

 afterwards will correct this fault. Heifers 

 with the first calf will be fed well with some 

 additional care the last three months they 

 are in milk, to make them hold out. 



The profit of a milch cow is not generally 

 understood. Milk is not only the most nu- 

 tritious but cheapest article of food. The 

 food necessary for a cow in full milk, does 

 not exeeed in price, one third of what is 

 necessary in feeding for the butcher. 



These few remarks are hastily made, to 

 draw out farmers, and particularly scientific 

 farmers, on this subject. These are a great 

 many facts to the purpose, which should 

 come to light. — Mass. Agri. Rep. 



Potato. The past season has been too wet 

 and cold, even for this hardy vegetable. 

 Yours, kc. P. Williams. 



EXPENSE OF CULTIVATION. 



50 loads manure, the proportion drawn by 



the potato crop probably not more than 



50 per cent, at gl per load, #25 00 



Carting the same and spreading, 5 00 



Plowing in the manure, 4 00 



Labor in planting, 5 00 



25 bushels of seed at 2 shillings, 8 SS 



Two hoeings, 9 00- 



Harvesting the crop, say 20 day's work, 



at 4 shillings, 13 50 



#69 83 



From Reports of the Mass. Agricultural Society.* 



POTATOES. 



The 4th premium of #20 was awarded to 

 Mr. Payson Willians, of Fitchburgh, an old 

 customer from the county of Worcester, for 

 his crop of Potatoes — about 570 bushels to 

 an acre. 



To the Committee on Agricultural Products. 



Gentlemen — As a claimant for the premi- 

 um offered by the Trustees of the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Society for the largest 

 crop of Potatoes grown on the acre the pres- 

 ent season, I will state, that the ground on 

 which my crop was grown, inclines to the 

 morning sun, is of a deep reddish loam, 

 somewhat rocky. In 182 9 an abundant 

 crop of winter rye was taken from it, prece- 

 ded by turnips, for the successful culture of 

 which, the sheep (100) were nightly folded, 

 for two previous years, after the hay crop 

 was taken off. The rye stubble was turned 

 under immediately after reaping that crop, 

 The process of preparing the ground for the 

 potato crop was as follows, viz. In May 

 1830, fifty cart loads, thirty-three bushels 

 each, of unfermented sheep and other man- 

 ure, was evenly spread on and immediately 

 plowed in ten inches deep, furrows struck 

 three feet each way at right angles. Twen- 

 ty-five bushels of the River of Plate Reds 

 and Philadelphia Blues, were used for seed ; 

 the reds planted whole, one in a hill ; the 

 planting finished the last of May. The 

 plants had two good hoeings; the last when 

 I in the bud, the plant or stalks being ten inch- 

 I es in height. The harvesting finished the 

 last of October. The amount of the potato 

 crop was by careful measurement, six hun- 

 dred and eighteen bushels on an acre and 

 a half one hundred and sixtieth parts of an 

 acre. Also had on a part of the field about 

 1000 pounds crook-necked and West India 

 squashes, planted in every other hill and ev- 

 ery other row, where the potato seed was 

 wholly left out. The land is probably good 

 enough to produce a much larger crop when 

 the season is congenial to the culture of the 



In reading Mr. Williams' account of his 

 fine crop of potatoes.our farmers are request- 

 ed to notice that the manure was spread over 

 the ground, instead of being put in the hill 

 in the common way. If using manure at. 

 broad cast will give as good a crop of pota- 

 toes or corn as putting it in the hill, will it 

 not be a great saving of labor, and at the 

 same time, place the manure more equally 

 on the ground 1 No process in farming 

 seems more slow and tedious than dunging 

 out in the hill. It is hoped that this state- 

 ment of Mr. Williams, who has always ap- 

 peared before this society as a very intelli- 

 gent and successful farmer, will bring out 

 some remarks from practical men on this 

 subject. It will be seen that Mr. Ware, of 

 Salem, planted this year, in the same way, 

 both corn and potatoes, and if a more eco- 

 nomical mode of raising them, as regards 

 labor, can be found out, it will be a great 

 public benefit. Mr. Williams used a great 

 quantity of manure, it is true, perhaps twice 

 or three times as much as is usual among 

 farmers, and his land was in good condition 

 before ; but then he intimates, and seeming- 

 ly with reason, that, owing to its being spread 

 and plowed in, not more than half its strength 

 was drawn out by the potato crop. All ex- 

 periments of this kind deserve regard, and 

 one great object of the Society is to elicit 

 the opinions of observing farmers for the 

 public good. Perhaps some one will attempt 

 to show the difference in labor, as to plant- 

 ing corn and potatoes, by dunging in the hill 

 or otherwise. It is a question which needs 

 to be settled. — — — 



NOTES ON MICHIGAN. 



From reading- a Lecture delivered before 

 the Lyceum of Michigan, by Hie Hon Henry 

 R. Schoolcraft, of the Sault de Ste. Marie., 

 we glean the following facts respecting that 

 interesting district of tho West, embraced 

 within the present limits of the territory of 

 Michigan. 



The scientific lecturer is of opioion, from 

 thedevelopement of fads, that the whole pen- 

 insula between Lakes Michigan. Huron, and 

 Erie, is of secondary formation ; that boring 

 at Detroit for water, 260 feet, the auger pass- 

 ed 115 feet through various earths, to a stra- 

 tum of two feet of beacli sand and pebbles, 

 then a strata of geodiferous Ijme rock, which 

 continued 60 feet, then succeeded 65 feet of 

 lias; after which a stratum of carbonate of 

 lime impregnated with salt, occupied the 

 auger for 8 feet, when the project was aban- 

 doned. From the evident dip of the strata of 

 lime-rock, a9 indicated by its appearance In 

 various poinl9 of the territory between the 

 Lakes, the opinion is rationally entertained, 

 that the flooring of the country Is of lime* 



