484 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



the bones a,s white as ivory. This was probably 

 the remains of some wretched rebel hunted to- 

 wards tlie valley who had taken shelter there, un- 

 conscious of its character." 



CATTLE GNAWING BONES. 



Mr. Editor: — I wish to inquire if you, or any 

 of your numerous subscribers, can tell me why it 

 is that my cows and other cattle have a liking to 

 chew old bones that they find in the fields, that 

 they will stand for hours and chew them; they will 

 even leave their salt many times for this purpose. 

 Please answer through the Cultivator. 



May Flower, April, 1853. Vixen. 



"We can give no other reason than the appetite 

 they acquire for some peculiar flavor possessed by 

 the bones, or by the small remaining portions o^f 

 muscle and gelatine which remains upon them. 

 Animals sometimes show nearly as strong an ap- 

 petite for certain substances, as some men do for 

 tobacco. It has been said that the practice of 

 chewing bones, arises from a natural instinct for 

 phosphate of lime in such animals as do not get a 

 sufficiency of this ingredient in their food, espec- 

 ially in those which are confined to old pastures 

 which have exhausted the soil of its phosphate. 

 This strikes us as exceedingly improbable; for, to 

 say nothing about the extraordinary analytical 

 discrimination which this would evince, throwing 

 in the back-ground the most delicate tests of the 

 longest-headed professors, it so happens that the 

 animal's teeth usually make no impression what- 

 ever upon the hard bone, and only get small por- 

 tions of the more soluble gelatine, &c. To test 

 this matter, observe whether cows will continue 

 their liking for bones, after small portions of bone- 

 dust or dissolved bones have been mixed regularly 

 with their food. We have known some animals, 

 and colts more especially, to have an extraordinary 

 propensity to chew leather, yet we neven could 

 discover that such animals possessed an idiosyn- 

 cracy, but merely a depraved appetite. Some hor- 

 ses have a strange propensity to gnaw wood when- 

 ever they can lay their teeth upon it, without any 

 particular object or reason. — Country Gentleman. 



SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS. 



Hens. — Why do hens scratch about the roots of 

 trees and shrubs 1 Every gardener is exasperated 

 by the obstinate pertinacity with which fowls un- 

 cover the roots of his roses, raspberries, cherry 

 trees, and if there is any thing else which he espe- 

 cially wishes to protect and secure. The truth is 

 that hens know where to look for their food ; and 

 at the roots of shrubs, are the precise places where 

 worms are to bo found ; either because they feed 

 on the sap of the plant, or wish to be ready to 

 climb it in due season, or because a better protec- 

 tion than elsewhere is there afforded them. 



"Shanghai hens will not scratch." Yes, but 

 they will scratch, if not as "bad as others as bad as 

 they know how. 



Hens are great lovers of lettuce. They do not 

 ask for vinegar, or sugar, or oil to eat with it, but 

 will mount into the hot bed and take it by word of 

 mouth just as they find it, more to their own sat- 

 isfaction than that of the gardener whose choice 

 salad heads they spoil. Lettuce might profitably 



be sown for fowls when confined, and would con- 

 duce not simply to their "amusement," but to 

 their comfort and health. Fowls need the food 

 proper to the season. In summer they want grass 

 and green succulent food, with but little grain ; 

 in winter they want grain, straw or hay, and 

 meats. — Prairie Farmer. 



THE SEASON AND. CROPS. 



The pinching drought of June and July has been 

 succeeded by timely and copious rains, so that 

 vegetation took a new start and has gone on vig- 

 orously up to this time, Sept. 19th. The after- 

 math, or second crop of grass, is greater than we 

 have ever known it before ; on many fields larger 

 than was the first crop. Many barns have thus 

 been filled beyond the expectation of their owners 

 in the early season. 



The feach crop is full to repletion — thousands 

 of trees are broken down, and many persons will 

 suppose, are ruined ; but if the mutilated limbs 

 are cut off smoothly in October, we are confident 

 that it will be just such a process as a great many 

 of the long, bare limbs, with a handful of leaves 

 on their extreme ends, required. They have re- 

 sembled the denuded legs of a poor Shanghae 

 chicken, more than peach-bearing branches. 



The. corn crop has not yet been touched by frost, 

 and is filling up for a heavy gathering. A large 

 proportion of the stalks are cut, which gives op- 

 portunity to see that the crop will be more than 

 an average one. 



Potatoes, particularly chenangoes, have rotted 

 badly. The Davis, black chanangoes, long red, 

 Danvers seedling, and some others, have not suf- 

 fered so much. Still, one-half, perhaps, of the 

 whole crop, will be cut off. 



Oats, barky, rye and lointer wheat, where 

 threshed, turn out a full average crop. Fall feed 

 is abundant and sweet; no frosts have yet touched 



it. 



On the whole, no labor has been better reward- 

 ed than that of the Farmer, and his annual tribute 

 of thanksgiving should be hearty and free. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SWALLOWS. 

 Dear Sir : — The Chimney Swallows were seen 

 here, for the last time this year, upon the 29th 

 of August; the Barn Swallows on Sept. 3d, and 

 the Martins, Sept. 1st. 



Dr. Hubbard, the owner of one of our best 

 farms here, lately made a curious calculation as 

 to the number of grasshoppers upon his land. By 

 pretty accurate measurement it was ascertained 

 that there were twelve bushels to the acre. 

 Isn't this a model letter to an editor ? 



Yours truly, Ann E Porter. 



Springfield, Vt., Sept. 14, 1853. 



Remarks. — The above is, truly, a model letter — 

 'nullum in parvo. It contains just such focts as 

 we are happy to place on record. It will lead 



