36 



JSEW- ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



covered with young trees, which were suffered to 

 grow unmolested, and there are now on this small 

 spot, white oak, black oak, butternut, white pop- 

 lar, common willow, walnut, hickory and black 

 cherry, of all varieties, of which not one was grow- 

 ing near at the time it Avas cleared, and most of 

 them not within three-fourths of a mile. An ex 

 planation we leave to others. — Warren Journal. 



HARVEST HYMN. 



DV ALONZO LEWIS. 



We thank thee, God of Harvest Home ! for what thy love be- 

 stows, 



For all the varied Providence that from thy bounty flows; 



We thank thee for the vernal showers that fertilized the 

 ground; 



We praise thee for the genial suns that all man's labor 

 crowned; 



We thank thee, God of Harvest Home ; for all our wealth of 

 grain; , 



For the tall wheat whose waving mass like ocean filled the 

 plain. 



We thank thee for the fruitful yield of bright and yellow corn; 



Whose golden heaps luxuriously our fertile fields adorn. 



We thank thee, God of Harvest Home ! for all thy fruit so fair, 

 The apple, with its yellow cheek, the ripe and mellow pear; 

 The downy peach, the luscious plum, the purple clustered 



vine. 

 And the bright show of radiant flowers that in our garden 



shine. 

 We thank thee, God of Harvest Home ! for more than we may 



tell; 

 We thank thee for the fragrant hay that fills our barns so well ; 

 We praise thee for the varied gifts that form our harvest 



feast, 

 And the choice store of healthful roots, sweet food for man 



and beast. 



We thank thee, God of Harvest Home ! that while in other 

 lands 



Pale famine stalks and sweeps away their fever stricken 

 bands, 



Our homes are blessed with health and love, with plenty and 

 with joy. 



While social and domestic peace yield bliss without alloy. 



We thank thee, God of Harvest Home ! for all that we par- 

 take; 



Then let our hearts with gratitude, their hymn of praise 

 awake; 



And when our day of labor past, death's harvest hour shall 

 come. 



May all our souls, like ripened fruit, be safely garnered home 



fed for the next week on potatoes. This course 

 was continued through several weeks — the food of 

 each pig being changed every week. The result 

 was, that the apples proved to be fully equal, or 

 somewhat superior to the potatoes. In this in- 

 stance the apples were mostly sweet, and they, as 

 well as the potatoes, were nearly in a ripe state. 



On another occasion Mr. W. experimented with 

 sweet, compared with sour apples, in various ways. 

 He found that when they were fed raw to swine, 

 the sweet apples were preferable — the animals ate 

 them better, as the sour apples seemed to make 

 their teeth sore ; but when both were cooked and 

 mixed with meal in the way above described, there 

 was no difference in tlie gain produced by an equal 

 quantity of each. It should be stated, however, 

 that all the apples used were of palatable kinds, 

 nearly ripe ; and that unripe and ill-flavored ap- 

 ples are known to be less relished by stock, as well 

 as less nutritive. It is probable, also, that when 

 sour apples are eaten raw, and in considerable 

 quantities, the animal may take into the stomach 

 too large an amount of acid, which may tend to 

 derange the digestive organs. This objection would 

 be chiefly obviated by cooking, and the saccharine 

 fermentation, by which the pulp loses much of its 

 acid, and becomes nearly sweet. It does nut ap- 

 pear from analysis, that the amount of actual nour- 

 ishment is much greater in sweet than in sour ap- 

 ples. 



Mr. Wingate practiced fattening swine for sev- 

 eral years, on food composed principally of apples. 

 The animals attained good weights, and the pork 

 was solid and of excellent quality. In other in- 

 stances, we have known apples fed raw to horses, 

 cows and other stock through the winter, with 

 much advantage. For using in this way sweet 

 apples would probably be best, and they should be 

 such as will keep till spring. They may be stored 

 in a cellar under the barn, or in the bottom of the 

 hay mow — a proper place having been left for that 

 purpose when the hay was put in. They will be 

 more likely to be injured by heating than by freez- 

 ing. They will seldom freeze in such a situation 

 as is mentioned ; and if they should be touched by 

 frost, their nutritive properties will not be much 

 lessened, if they remain in a dark place, and where 

 they will thaw slowly. 



A peck of apples a day, fed to a cow, has been 

 found to add more than a quart to the daily quan- 

 tity of milk, beside greatly increasing its richness, 

 as well as improving the condition of the cow. 

 The effect of apples is equally favorable to other 

 stock. Horses fatten on them, and their coats as- 

 sume the brilliancy which hardly any other food 

 will give them. For all stock they answer a sim- 

 ilar purpose as vegetables, in preventing costive- 

 ness, which is likely to ensue from the exclusive 

 use of dry food ; and in this way, and by the nu- 

 triment they contain, they contribute much to the 

 animal's thrift. 



An impression prevails that apples will dry up 

 the milk of a cow. This idea has been imbibed 

 either from the effect produced on a cow by eating 

 a very large quantity of apples at once, by which 

 surfeit and fever were brought on, or from the trial 

 not being properly conducted till the animal had 

 become habituated to the food. The ill effects at- 

 tributed to apples would have occurred with any 



APPLES AS FOOD FOR STOCK. 



The late Payne Wingate, of Hallowell, Maine, 

 made some experiments in feeding pigs with apples 

 compared with potatoes. Both the apples and 

 potatoes were boiled, or rather stewed, separately, 

 and about four quarts of oat and pea meal mixed 

 with eacli bushel, at the time the cooking was fin 

 ished — the meal being intimately incorporated with 

 the potatoes and apples while they were hot, and 

 the mass left to ferment, slightly, before it was fed 

 to the pigs. 



Two pigs of the same litter, and as near as prac- 

 tica))le, of the same weight, were taken ; one was 

 fed for a week on a given quantity of the cooked 

 potatoes per day, and the other on the same quan- 

 tity of apples. At the end of each week the pigs 

 were weighed, and the food was reversed — the pig 



to which potatoes had been given, was fed with other rich food, as any kind of grain, potatoes, or 

 apples, and the one which had received apples, was] other vegetables. 



