232 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



about the right temperature. He believed it 

 would be a gain to keep a fire in a barn in order to 

 bring the temperatui-e up to this point. 



Mr. Brooks attributed the preference shown by 

 cattle for spring warer over well water, to the 

 greater warmth of the spring water. He had 

 ^und by experiment that cattle prefer water from 

 which the "chiU"-has been taken off. If he were 

 going to build a barn according to his ideas of 

 perfection, he would have an apparatus for heat- 

 ing water — he believed it would pay. 



Mr. SuELDON said he had a barn with the cel- 

 lar open on the south side, but the hay will injure 

 on the north side. He coincided with Mr. Clark 

 in regard to plank floors for cattle. He had had 

 more experience with oxen than with horses, and 

 some years since, when he kept a large number, 

 he used to spread meadow hay, which was then 

 very cheap, under them, for them to stand on ; 

 and he would as readily have oxen thus kept, trav- 

 el 18 miles a day, as to allow those kept on a 

 plank floor to travel 15. 



Mr. Emerson, of Boston, thought barns should 

 be placed on the northern or northeastern side of 

 the dwelling, because the unpleasant and noxious 

 vapors arising from manures, which are readily 

 carried off by the dense atmosphere and strong 

 winds of winter, are too heavy to be forced up- 

 wards by the lighter air and currents of summer, 

 and hence, if the barns are located on the north 

 side, will become very annoying during the warm 

 months, as the southerly currents will waft them 

 directly upon the house. The barn-yard, also, 

 should not lie between the house and the barn, 

 but be fixed beyond the barn, in order to avoid 

 passing through the yard in going to the barn. It 

 would also tend to prevent annoyance from nox- 

 ious vapors in summer. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PLASTERED HOUSES. 



Mr. Brown : — I noticed in the last No. of the 

 last Vol. of the Farmer, an article inquiring "if 

 the outside" of a house "could be plastered or fin- 

 ished with concrete or hydraulic cement, and then 

 painted and penciled in imitation of granite, so as 

 to be durable r' 



Mr. Camp can plaster with common lime mor- 

 tar, leaving it rough, or as the leveller leaves it, 

 until well dried, then a coating of plaster paris can 

 be applied, and when dry it can be painted to suit 

 his taste. The plaster paris will cost about twelve 

 and a half cents per square yard, including mate- 

 rial and labor of putting it on, and forms a per- 

 fectly hard, smooth surface. 



I have been looking for an answer which would 

 be of use to me, as well as Mr. Camp. 



As the season for repairing and building is at 

 hand, cannot some one give some useful and prac- 

 tical hints in regard to the subject ? Surely, there 

 is a broad uncultivated field here, which ought to 

 be occupied immediately. Artesan. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 OBSERVATIONS ON SPRING WORK. 



BY F. nOLiJROOK. 



The Spring of the year is a busy and hurrying 

 time with farmers, and yet there are some opera- 

 tions of tillage which they can ill-afford to exe- 

 cute in a slight and superficial manner. It would 

 be impossible in a communication of reasonable 

 length to speak of all the methods of culture per- 

 taining to this season ; and only a portion of the 

 more important of field-operations will be noticed 

 at this time. Observation would rather induce 

 the remark, that the preparation of the ground 

 in the Spring, for the reception of seeds, is not 

 generally as thorough as it should be. A more 

 particular and finished style of plowing, for in- 

 stance, would undoubtedly well reward any extra 

 labor involved, by the extra amount of product of 

 crops it would ensure. The furrows are generally 

 too wide, shallow,imperfectly turned and matched, 

 the crops are lessened by the means, while the la- 

 bor and expense of the after-cultivation is increased. 

 Then, again, it is too common to plow the differ- 

 ent soils in the same style, while they require va- 

 riations as themselves vary. The style of plow- 

 ing a stiff, compact clay, should be different from 

 that of a dry, loose, porous, sandy or gravelly 

 soil. 



The best way of plowing a stiff clay, consists in 

 cutting very narrow furrow-slices in proportion 

 to their depth, and setting them over as nearly as 

 may be, to an inclination of 45^^, thus making 

 high-crested lapped work. To do this the most 

 surely, the depth of the plowing should equal 

 about two-thirds its width, — say as 7 inches deep 

 by 10 inches wide, or 8 by 12, or 9 by 13 to 14 

 inches. When the earth is turned over in slices 

 of these proportions, the plow in the act of turn- 

 ing them, can finely crack and disintegrate them ; 

 then they are set up so lightly, and so lightly rest 

 against each other, that the atmosphere can circu- 

 late among them, the rains pass through them, 

 their projecting angles or exposed faces present 

 the greatest attainable surface to the atmosphere, 

 and the greatest contents of soil to the opera- 

 tions of the harrow, so that it can the better slack- 

 en and break down tbe stiffness of the soil, comb- 

 ing out its too compact constituent parts into fine 

 particles, and raising a deep mellow seed-bed. 



With a view of satisfying myself of the advan- 

 tages or otherwise of lapped over flat plowing of 

 stiff soil, I last year selected an acre of formerly 

 wet, and naturally heavy tenacious pasture-land, 

 that had never been plowed, and plowed half of 

 it in 7 by 10 lapped furrows, and half in 7 by 12 

 flat furrows, — both kinds being done in a particu- 

 lar and finished style. The land was moderately 

 manured, and planted with potatoes. In the oper- 

 ation of harrowing, it was found that the surface 

 of the lapped furrows soonest yielded a fine tilth, 

 and gave the deepest seed-bed. The hoeing upon 

 the lapped work was the mellowest, and the horse, 

 in passing between the rows on this half with the 

 cultivator at hoeing- time, would frequently sink 

 down fetlock deep between the furrows. A great- 

 er luxuriance of vines on the lapped than on the 

 flat furrows, as also a superiority in the size of the 

 potatoes, and in yield of crop, was quite apparent ; 

 and the hand-cultivation was performed with 

 greater case and expedition. 



But dry, sandy and gravelly lands, being already 



