£!)e farmer's ittontl)hj Visitor. 



!G9 



From the Patent Olfice Report. 

 Good Cows Described. 



1. The udder. By feeling, ascertain whether 

 the size is owing In superfluous flesh or not. It 

 should be examined hotli before and after milk- 

 ing. Before milking, especially in the morning, 

 because then the most milk id collected, it should 

 be full ; not hanging down between the ii-et, but 

 wide and broad, extending on the belly, and hard 

 and almost shining. After a clean milking out, 

 it should he soft and appear like a large en: ply 

 bag. Flesh udders may be known by the want 

 of this criterion. 



2. The milk veins — that is, those organs which 

 form the blood channels, and run along on both 

 sides of the belly in two main branches, are not 

 less decisive proofs of the value or little worth 

 of a milch cow. If they run on clear, full with- 

 in and strong, or are they crooked, serpentine, 

 knotty and confused ; it; further, there are open- 

 ings, gaps, at which the milk veins on the belly 

 end, (little milk pits) — especially those on the left 

 sides, and they are large and distinct — these are 

 marks of a strongly developed milk system 

 which is favorable for the secretion of milk ; 

 and besides, indicate that the cow may, by good 

 food, afford a milk product in large quantity. 



Here is the place to oppose a delusion which 

 I have often met among cow breeders ; thpy give 

 great value to compactly expressed milk veins, 

 as they believe that these mill; veins conduct the 

 milk to the adder, and accordingly maintain the 

 fluid running in the milk veins (the blood) to be 

 milk. 



But they should know that these so-called 

 milk veins have scarcely any direct relation with 

 the milk and the udder; but they are the canals 

 which conduct the blood from the breast to the 

 veins of the groins. Besides, the two milk veins 

 ore not equally strong; usually the left one is 

 the stronger, which is therefore culled the main 

 milk vein. If these two great milk veins are 

 cranched into smaller milk veins, with little sep- 

 arate pits, before they end on the belly, this is 

 regarded as an admirable sign of capacity for 

 milk. 



3. The stale of the other cover, i. e. the hide and 

 hair, presents also a mark by which to ascertain 

 the capacity. The hide should he thin, light, 

 supple and greasy — the hair short and fine. A 

 thick stiff and coarse hide, ami bristly hair, are 

 poor signs for the milk capacity of a cow, as 

 well as in general to be but little commended. 



4. The bony and bodily structure, finally, must 

 not be too strong, the bones not too thick ; on 

 the other hand, the neck and snout long, the 

 rump broad, the forepart lighter, the tail long 

 and thin. Fine and shining horns many per- 

 sons also consider a property of good milch 

 cows. 



The first and main impression which an ani- 

 mal rich in milk makes on the beholder must be 

 a certain feminine type — a female 1 might say, 

 softer form of body — which expresses itself in 

 all parts of the animal structure of the members. 

 A longer practice of the eye places us in a situ- 

 ation to form this impression at once ; and this 

 it is which will not deceive us, except in a very 

 few cases, anil the less when also the signs here- 

 tofore mentioned give a favorable indication. 



We have no precise data on which to found 

 an extended estimate, for in none of the census 

 returns of the Slates do we find the number of 

 milch cows specified. But in the State of New 

 York, in 1845, the amount of butter reported as 



made was about 80,000,000, and that of cheese 

 30,000,000 pounds. 



Were we to allow for every pound of butter 

 thirty-five pounds of milk, which is probably a 

 low average, and reckon these at about ten or 

 twelve quarts, this would give 800,000,000 or 

 more quarts, or on.0,000,000 gallons of milk. 

 But considering the proportion of milk used for 

 butter as one-half throughout the whole State, 

 and this would give for the single State of New 

 York not less than 400,000,000 gallons of milk 

 used, besides what is applied to butter and 

 cheese; and were this reckoned at only two 

 cents per quart, would be the sum of $32,000,000, 

 while the butter at ten cents per pound, and 

 the cheese at five cents per pound, a low estimate 

 for each, would amount to $8,000,000 for butter, 

 and the cheese to $1,800,000, making the aggre- 

 gate of the milk product of the single State of 

 New York at a very low estimate at least $40,- 

 000,000, equal to two-thirds of the cotton *rop 

 of the United States. 



A writer in the Loudon Gardeners' Chronicle 

 gives the following direction to make the hens 

 lay all winter, which would appear to be worthy 

 of consideration by those who may engage in 

 the business of raising poultry : 



" Keep no roosters: give the hens fresh meat, 

 chopped like sausage meal, once a day, a very 

 small portion, say one half an ounce a day, to 

 each hen during the winter, or from the time in- 

 sects disappear in the fall till they appear again 

 in the spring. Never allow any eggs to remain 

 in the nest for what are called nest eggs. When 

 the roosters do not run with the hens, and no 

 nest eggs are left, the hens will not cease laying 

 after the production of twelve to fifteen eggs as 

 they always do when roosters and nest eggs are 

 allowed — but continue laying permanently. My 

 hens lay all winter, and each from sixty to one 

 hundred eggs in succession. The oidy reason 

 why hens do not lay in winter as freely as in 

 summer, is the want of animal food, which they 

 get in the summer in abundance in the form of 

 insects. I have for several winters reduced my 

 theory to practice, and proved its entire correct- 

 ness." 



Keeping Hens.— Mr. J. M. Mason, of Orwell, 

 Vt., usually keeps two hundred hens. His prac- 

 tice is, to buy pullets in the month of November. 

 He buys those which are hatched early, as such 

 are the best to lay in the winter. They cost 

 about twelve and a half cents each. They are 

 fed in a great degree on mutton. Mr. M. buys 

 sheep in the fall, at low prices, about what the 

 pells and tallow are worth. The carcases are 

 boiled, the tallow saved, and the flesh and hones, 

 after being allowed to freeze, are kept until 

 spring— a suitable portion being led lo the hens 

 daily. They are allowed in addition to meat, a 

 little corn, oats or buckwheat. They lay well 

 through the winter— comfortable quarters being 

 provided for them— and continue to produce 

 eggs in abundance till June. It is found most 

 profitable to sell (he whole stock at this period, 

 as they are generally (at, and will bring from' 

 twenty to twenty-live cents apiece. If kept 

 through the summer, they lay but little in the 

 warm monihs, the eggs keep but a short time, 

 llie fowls yrow poor in moulting, and if kept an- 

 other year will not lay as well as young ones 

 Mr. M. keeps hens only, (no cocks.) and is inclin- 

 ed to think he obtains as many eggs, and that 

 they keep better when not impregnated. As to 

 varieties, he has tried several, and thinks the " to], 

 knots" will generally lay the most eggs the fi'rsi 

 season, hut their carcases are less valuable than 

 most other kinds. 



Some writer says, " I once had a constant and 

 troublesome visitor, whom I tried to get rid of 

 First, I essayed smoke, which he bore like a 

 badger; then I tried fire, which he stood like n 

 salamander. At last I lent him five dollars, and 

 I have not seen him since." 



Cultivation and Preservation of "Wood Lots." 



Editors . of, the Cultivator: 1 can stand it no 

 longer. The inconsiderate clearing of the wood 

 lauds of New England by our lathers* without 

 regard to the selection of those lands suitable for 

 arable ami grazing purposes, funis an apologj Iii 

 I be laei that forests, generally, were an encum- 

 brance to them. The greater thoughtlessness 

 and improvidence of their sons, however, in still 

 persisting in the practice, while we have more 

 lands already cleared than a proper and profita- 

 ble husbandry is bestowed upon, is, to me, a 

 painful and surprising mailer. Besides being 

 ruinous lo the present owi er, it is a perfect 

 "devil take the hindmost " policy for the sons. 

 Go where we will, we are compelled to look up- 

 on rough, inaccessible lands, and tops and ac- 

 clivities of hills, which have been swept of their 

 natural covering and fertility, and turned into 

 pastures affording but scanty returns for the hard 

 labor of the animals attempting a subsistence 

 thereon, and still smaller returns lo the proprie- 

 tor. There is scarcely a farm in this section hut 

 has acres of this kind of land that would have 

 been worth five times, yes, in many cases, ten 

 times as much as they now are, had a second 

 growth of wood been permitted to run up on 

 them. 



The operation of clearing and burning a laige 

 tract of hill-side woodland, has been going on 

 within my observation for a few years past. It 

 has been of the genuine, old-fashioned sort. A 

 large piece is chopped over, each winter, and 

 the wood ami timber marketed. The next Au- 

 gust, a heavy fire burns up the vegetable mould 

 on or near the surface, ami the ashes left, operat- 

 ing as a powerful and unnatural stimulus on so 

 light a soil, only cause it to give up its organic 

 matter, its fertility, the more speedily. Rye is 

 sown, and yields so fine a crop that another of 

 the same kind is put in the next fall, and possi- 

 bly a light sprinkling of grass-seed with it. At 

 the end of five years, the find is so far exhaust- 

 ed, that five acres will not keep an old sheep 

 alive through the summer. Then, again, a valu- 

 able tillage-field, which has had the protection of 

 this wood from bleak winds, is now exposed to 

 every northern blast, which, in this climate, is a 

 serums consideration. Had the inconsiderate 

 owner just taken off his wood, and " therewith 

 been content," leaving his hill-side to be covered 

 with another growth of trees, he could have 

 sold it to-day, if he wished, for twice what it 

 will now bring. 



Ten years ago, 1 cut the wood off a long 

 Stretch of side-htll, and, in my inexperience, 

 burnt over a portion of it for pasturage. The 

 remainder was left to glow dp again to wood. 

 Many ol the young trees are six to eight inches 

 through; they are all very straight and tin illy, 

 and I value one acre of this land more than , ve 

 acres of that which is in posture. I shall not 

 again permanently clear up my steep hill-sides. 



At the solicitation of a railroad friend, a short 

 lime since, I accompanied him into the country 

 directly south of this, to examine and estimate 

 the value of some ,; wood-lots." 1 was forcibly 

 struck with the amount of rugged, barren land, 

 inaccessible \\>r agricultural purposes, which had' 

 been thrown into open country, even by the pre- 

 sent owners. Had a second grow ill of wood 

 been permitted lo run up on the land, instead of 

 subjecting il lo the burning and cropping process, 

 it would have been now worth far more to the' 

 owners; for a railroad is lapping that country, 

 with its large and clamorous demands for wood 

 and limber. Hiding along with an old inhabitant 

 of one of the towns visiied, he pointed out a 

 wood-lot which was cm over twenty years since 

 and suffered to grow up again to wood, contrary 

 to the usual custom. It was sold at auction, a 

 short time since, for thirty-four hundred dollars. 

 It woidd not have brought over eight hundred 

 dollars, had it been in pasture from llie lime it 

 was cleared. 



Warm lull-sides, having an eastern or southern 

 slope, send up a second growth of wood with 

 great rapidity. Although they may not eventual- 

 ly suppoi I so heavy a growth as strong, level 

 lam), they will yet produce all the wood thpy are 

 ca|ial.le ol' sustaining, much sooner. A friend 

 directed my attention, the other day, to a tract of 

 land, with an eastern slope, in a neighboring 

 town, which was cleared of an original growth 



