1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



197 



right form, and have Buch large and clear type. 

 It is also handsomely illustrated,, and has a good 

 index ! 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CONCORD FARMERS' CLUB. 



At the meeting on the evening of Feb. 24tli, 

 the subject for discussion was farming implements. 

 Simon Brown, Esq., gave a very interesting his- 

 torical sketch of the origin. of the plow, and of the 

 gradual improvement in the mechanism and con- 

 struction, from the earliest plow used on the banks 

 of the Nile, down to the beautiful and polished in- 

 struments in use at the present d:iy. This sketch 

 was illustrated by 10 plates, drawn for the purpose, 

 exhibiting the forms of various Egyptian, Grecian, 

 Roman, Italian, Saxon and American plows. The 

 first was a simple crotched stick bound by wil- 

 low thongs to a rough beam. There were plows 

 with coulters and without them — with mould- 

 boards and without them, with wheels and with- 

 out them. His remarks upon the progress of me- 

 chanical skill manifested in their structure, and 

 upon their capacity to answer the purpose for 

 which the plow is designed, were instructive as 

 well as entertaining, and indicated a thorough 

 knowledge of the whole subject. There was mat- 

 ter enough in a condensed form, in the remarks 

 which he made, to make a most interesting lec- 

 ture of an hour long. And the wish has been ex- 

 pressed by more than one meml)er of the club, 

 that he would expand his material into a lecture 

 for the benefit not only of the Concord Farmers' 

 Club, but of all other agricultural associations, 

 that may be so fortunate as to secure his services. 

 J. Reynolds, M. D., Sec. 



For the Neir England Farmer. 

 BONE WENS. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to inquire through your 

 paper if there is any cure for the bone wen, so 

 called, that grows on the under jaw of cattle. I 

 had to nearly sacrifice a valuable heifer last fall 

 in consequence of one of them, and one of my 

 neighbors now has a cow which he will probably 

 have to lose. If any of the readers of the Farmer 

 know of a remedy that they have tried and found 

 to be effectual, they will confer a great favor by 

 making it known, as it may be the means of 

 saving many a valuable animal. j. a. s. 



Colebrook, Ct., 1853. 



Cooked Food for Cows.— Mr. James S. Hubert 

 lately stated before the Philadelphia County Far- 

 mer's Club that he had proved by actual experi- 

 ment in feeding 12 cows 180 days upon cooked food, 

 that he made a net gain of $32. In place of 20 

 lbs. of hay per day, formerly fed raw, he now 

 feeds 12 lbs. cut and steamed. With this he mix- 

 es 4 1-2 quarts of shipstuff, Indian corn meal and 

 oil cake meal, in about equal portions. This with 

 the hay, weighs about 46 lbs. when cooked, hav- 

 ing gained 21 lbs. by that process. He says it is 

 not only more economical, but more palatable to 

 the cattle ; they eat without waste and keep in 

 better condition. His steaming apparatus cost 

 $25, which he more than saved in six months 

 feeding. He considers however, the greatest gain 

 is in the health of the animals. — N. Y. AgricuUor. 



Cables' ^Department. 



HOW TO TOAST BREAD. 



Chesnut brown will be far too deep a color for 

 good toast ; the nearer you can k^p it to a straw- 

 color, the more wholesome it will be. If you would 

 have a slice of bread so toasted as to be pleasant 

 to the palate and wholesome to the stomach, nev- 

 er let one particle of the surface be charred. To 

 effect this is very obvious. It consists in keeping 

 the bread at the proper distance from the fire, and 

 exposing it to a proper heat for a due length of time. 

 By this means the whole of the water may be evap- 

 orated out of it, and it may be changed from dough, 

 which has always a tendency to undergo acetous 

 fermentation, whether in the stomach or out of it, 

 to the pure farina wheat, which is in itself one of 

 the most wholesome species of food, not only for 

 the strong and healthy, but for the delicate and 

 diseased. As it is turned to farina, it is disinteg- 

 rated, the tough and gluey nature is gone, every 

 part can be penetrated, it is equally warm all over, 

 and not so hot as turn the butter into oil, which, 

 even in the case of the best butter, is invariably 

 turning a wholesome substance into a poison. 

 The properly toasted slice of bread absorbs the but- 

 ter and farina are in a state of very minute divis- 

 ion, the one serving to expose the other to the free 

 action of the gastric fluid in the stomach ; so that 

 when a slice of toast is rightly prepared, there is 

 not a lighter article in the whole vocabulary of 

 cookery. — Household Almanac for 1853. 



Female Women. — We respect, admire and love 

 a female woman. We admire her in the beauty 

 of her person, her moral presence and position ; 

 we respect her simple truthfulness and innocence, 

 and we love her as the embodiment of the highest 

 charms and sweetest attributes of humanity. But 

 a male woman, who can bear ! We cannot read 

 of monster meetings, in which women perform the 

 leading parts ; of lectures on the subject of mar- 

 riage, to promiscuous audiences by female tongues, 

 and of the perambulating female spouters who go 

 about the country, without an involuntary emotion 

 of disgust. Many of these women are mothers, 

 who have families of tender age at home, and hus- 

 bands who should have tender heads. Home du- 

 ties forsaken, and the misguided mistresses go 

 about teaching other people iheir duties ! What 

 comfortable wives they must be ! What kind and 

 assiduous mothers ! How thoy must hallow a 

 home that is too small to hold them ! Gods of 

 War ! W^e would as soon live witli a hyena or a 

 steam engine. Don't come this way, we beg of 

 you. — Springfield Republican. 



Bog's Department. 



HOW TO MAKE CRAYONS. 



Every school-room has, or should have, black- 

 boards. On these, chalk is almost universally em- 

 ployed. There are many objections to the use 

 of chalk, not the least of which is, that after a 

 problem is performed, the finger and clothing pre- 

 sene a dirli/ white appearance. Crayons are far 

 preferable. Could they be generally emploj-ed, 

 it would be a favor done to some dehcate hands. 



