1853. 



NEW ENGLA.ND FA.RMER. 



329 



studied, the closer it is read, the higher it will 

 stand in the estimation of all. 



A Reader. 



Winchester, June, 1853. 



SOILING COWS. 



The superiority of soiling over tlie common 

 method of turning cattle to pasture, or in other 

 words allowing them a free range, is strongly con- 

 tended for by many at this day. The practice, so 

 far as it at present prevails in this country, has 

 been introduced from Europe, where it has ob- 

 tained for a long time, and where certain peculi- 

 arities of soil, climate and population, render it 

 far more necessary than it now is, or very soon 

 can be, with us. Yet if it really possesses the 

 high merits claimed for it by its advocates — many 

 of whom are among the most intelligent and dis- 

 criminating farmers and dairymen our country can 

 boast of, it is certainly by no means to be neglect- 

 ed. We have now before us as we write, the 

 statements of many men of this class, and among 

 the number a gentleman of Waltham, Middlesex" 

 Country, Mass., who had "four cows, and not a 

 rod of ground which could be appropriated to pas- 

 turage. These animals, therefore, were never out 

 of the barn or the bard yard, and were fed with 

 grass mowed for them, with green corn fodder, 

 which had been sown broad cast for them, and 

 with about three pints of meal each, per day. — 

 The amount of their produce was kept for thirteen 

 weeks. Two of these animals were heifers of two 

 years old, which had calves in the spring. The 

 -whole milk of one of them was taken by her calf 

 during six out of the thirteen weeks. Some of the 

 milk of the other was taken for fomily use, but the 

 quantity was not determined. Under these cir- 

 cumstances three heifers could not be rated as more 

 than one cow of full age and milk. From this 

 stock, however, thus circumstanced and fed, three 

 hundred and eighty-nine pounds of butter were 

 made in the thirteen weeks ! An additional 

 pound would iiave given an average of thirty pounds 

 a week, for the whole time, to a stock which must, 

 in fairness, be set down as three cows only." 



Where the soiling system is adopted, as it is on 

 many farming establishments — among which we 

 may mention that of the Shakers of New Leba- 

 non, N. J., the superior quantity and quality of 

 the manure is said to be sufficient to defray all the 

 extra expense of cutting the fodder and feeding 

 It is all saved, the liquid as well as the solid ex 

 creraent, and being preserved under cover, is of 

 great strength and energy. 



In our own practice we have been obliged to re- 

 sort to this mode of feeding in order to keep stock 

 enough to produce any thing like the amount of 

 manure we desire to use. 



By keeping the cows in the barn until about 

 the tenth of June, our eight acres of old worn 



out pasture (though as good eight aeresof land as 

 any fiirmer need desire,) affords eight cows a pret- 

 ty good bite until a crop of "cow corn," put into 

 a warm and rich piece of land as early as it is fit 

 for the seed, gets high and stout enough to cut. 

 After this there is bo difficulty, as a succession of 

 crops of this highly nutritious fodder may then 

 be obtained until October. 



INVESTMENTS IN WEEDS. 



It is some six thousand years since weeds be- 

 came a serious and positive evil ; yet if we should 

 judge ftom the undisputed empire which they ap- 

 pear to have obtained on some men's domains, we 

 should very naturally suppose that tliis long pe- 

 riod had not been sufficient to reveal the fact. El- 

 ders, thistles, mulleins, Johnswort, red root, chess, 

 cockle, fox-tail, pig-weed, mustard, ox-eye, &c., 

 consume as much of the strength of the soil on 

 some single farms, as would furnish grain for the 

 family's yearly supply. We have heard of many 

 bad investments of capital, from the South Sea 

 scheme, a century or more ago, down to the mul- 

 ticaulis speculation of a_^ later day, and railroads 

 whose only dividends were the old iron originally- 

 used in making them. But South-Sea bubbles,mul- 

 ticaulis humbugs and grass-covered railroads have 

 not consumed a tithe of the money lost every year 

 by the mighty legions of foul materials in the 

 shape of weeds, which are secretly and openly de- 

 vouring the strength of the soil in all quarters of 

 this round globe, wherever cultivation has turned 

 up the soil to the sun. 



We do not propose to say anything new on the 

 subject of an evil that existed even "before anti- 

 quity appears to have begun;" but perhaps we 

 may make a few suggestions of some use, at 

 the present juncture, when the weeds are ap- 

 proaching the height of their vigor, and to which 

 the wetness of the season in many parts of the 

 country has imparted unusual strength. 



"How shall we destroy themi" This is an in- 

 teresting question, but there is no "royal road" 

 to their eradication ; it must be accomplished by 

 vigilance and labor. There are, however, differ- 

 ent modes of attack — some laborious and expen- 

 sive, and others comparatively expeditious and eco- 

 nomical. It is our present object to point out 

 some of these. 



When weeds are newly introduced, and when 

 only a few scattered plants have made their ap- 

 pearance, they may be easily and thoroughly root- 

 ed out by the hand or hoe. But when they have 

 multiplied from a few to millions — when the num- 

 bers become swollen like the little rill to the 

 mighty river, such a rett^l attempt would be as 

 futile as trying to dip out the waters of Niagara 

 with a quart cup. In such instances, we are to 

 look for some means of making a wholesale sweep 

 of them. These means will vary with the nature 

 of the weed against which the war is declared. 



We need not go into detail with the modes pf 

 destroying weeds. Those which prevail most in 

 pastures and meadows, are commonly best exter- 

 minated by a rotation of such crops as do not favor 

 tlieir increase; and on the other hand, many 

 others are checked or smothered by a heavy seed- 

 ing with grass. With some, as chess, cockle, &c., 

 especial care must be taken to sow clean seed. 



