524 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



PREMIUMS AT THE MIDDLESEX CO. 

 EXHIBITION. 



Farms. — For reclaiming bog meadows, $12 to 

 James Taylor of Carlisle. Best cnltivated farm 

 — Ist prem. 25. Elijah Wood, Concord ; 2d. 15, 

 Sam'l G. Wheeler, Concord. Best apple orchard 

 — Benj. Wellington, Waltham, 12; Horace II. 

 Bigelow, Marlboro', 10; Asa Clement, Dracut, 10. 



Plowing. — Double teams — 1st prem. $10, Na- 

 than Brooks, Princeton ; 2d 7, Jacob Baker, Lin- 

 coln ; 3d G, n. A. Sheldon, Wilmington ; 4th 5, 

 John W. Rice, Sudbury. Single teams — Ist prem. 

 10, S. G. Sheldom, Wilmington; 2d 7, Horace 

 Heard, Wayland ; 3d 6, Nathan Smith, Waltham ; 

 4th 5, S. G. Wheeler, Concord. Horse teams — 

 Buckley Moore, Framingham, 10; Jude Damon, 

 Wayland, 7 ; Samuel A. Thomas, do, ; Elijah 

 Wood, Concord, 5. 



Spading. — Enoch Garfield, $5 ; Michael Flan- 

 nery, 4 ; H C. Watts, 3; J. Harrington, 2; Pat- 

 rick Murphy, 1. 



Milch Cows. — Alderny — E. M.Reed, of Tewks- 

 bury, $8 ; A. S. Lewis, Framingham, 5. Best 

 Dairy of Cows — Jonas Viles, Waltham, 10. Sin- 

 gle Ayrshires — J. B. Moore, Concord, 8 ; A. S. 

 Sheldon, Willmington, 6; Converse ^mith, Wal- 

 tham, 4. Extra Ayrshires — A. S. Lewis, Fram- 

 ingham, 8 ; John Raynolds, of Concord, 5. Devon 

 — A. G. Hey wood, 8. 



Heifers. — Milch Heifers — 1st premium, $6, 

 Geo. M. Barrett, Concord ; 2d 4, Jonas Viles, 

 Waltham. Two years heifers^-lst premium 5, 

 Geo. F. Wheeler, Concord; 2d, 3, Geo. M. Bar- 

 rett, Concord. Yearling heifers — 1st premium 4, 

 E. G. Reed, Boxboro'; 2d, 2 John Hosmer, Con- 

 cord. Heifer calves — 1st premium 4. John B. 

 Moore, Concord ; 2d. 2 Wm. Spencer Lowell. • 



Fat Cattle. — H. A. & S. A. Coburn, Lowell, 

 $8 ; Nathan Pratt, Sudbury, 6 ; J. B. Moore, 

 Concord, 5. 



Steers. — John Gragg, Bedford, best 3 year 

 old, "$6 ; John Lawrence, 2d, 3 ; Nathan Pratt, 

 Sudbury, 5, best 2 yr old. 



Horses. — Ist premium, $10, Benj. Thurston, 

 of Lowell, for Black Hawk horse ; 2d, 5, Jeremi- 

 ah Gilson, West Cambridge. Mares — 1st premi- 

 um, 5, John Hosmer, Concord ; 2d, 3, John W. 

 Rice, Sudbury. 



Swine. — Best boar, T. W. Wellington, Shirley, 

 $6; breeding sow, II. Sheldon, Wihnington, 6 ; 

 best lot pigs, James P. Brown, 5 ; H. Sheldon, 3. 



Poultry. — Turkeys — 1st premium, $3, William 

 Spencer, Lowell; 2d, 2, K. A. Shaw, of Concord. 

 Geese — 1st premium, 3, George F. Hartwell, Lin- 

 coln. Fowls — 1st premium, 3, James A. Basset, 

 Concord; 2d, 2, S. Mason, Concord. 



Vegetables. — Best lot — 1st premium, $5, J. 

 B. Moore, Concord ; 2d, 3, Abiel II. Wheeler, 

 Concord ; gratuities of 1 to Wm. W. Whieldon, 

 Samuel G. Wheeler, A. W. Putman, of Concord ; 

 and Samuel Bird, of Framingham. Best show of 

 Melons — 2 to J. B. Moore, of Concord ; best mel- 

 on, 1 to J. Gammell, Lexington. 



Butter. — John Farwell, Framingham, $3 ; Eli- 

 jah M. Reed, Tewksbury, 2,20 ; Sherebiah Spauld- 

 ing, Chelmford, 2; Wm. F. Banvard, Marlboro, 

 1,50 ; Buckley Moore, Framingham, 1. 



Bread. — To Married Ladies — Ist premium to 



Mrs. C. W. Goodnow ; 2d to Mrs. Cynthia Howe ; 

 3d to Mrs. M. K. Prescott. To Unmarried La- 

 dies — 1st premium to Margaret Lyons ; 2d to 

 Harriet Farrar ; 3d to Margaret Hamburg. 



NEGLECT OF PASTURES. 



No part of the farm in Maine is more useful or 

 profitable than our pastures, and no part of our 

 farms, as a general thing, is more neglected. In 

 the first place, we neglect them when they are 

 first cleared up and ready to sow or seed down, 

 because in nine cases in ten we do not sov? a sufiS 

 cient quantity of seed nor a suSicient quantity of 

 grass seeds. A friend of ours, who has travelled 

 in England, observing the different modes of farm- 

 ing'among them, informs us that their best pastures 

 were originally laid down with a greater variety of 

 grasses than we ever think of using. 



In the next place, we neglect, or rather abuse, 

 our pastures by overstocking them, thus caiTying 

 from them much more than is returned. Again, 

 a large proportion of our pastures are shamefully 

 neglected, by allowing bushes, such as cedars, 

 hardbacks, sweet-ferns, alders, and also brakes, 

 to usurp the place of grass. We know of some, 

 where these intruders take up at least three quar- 

 ters of the territory, so that while the owner 

 claims that his cattle have the range of twenty- 

 five acres of pasture, they cannot graze but about 

 eight acres of grass, for there is not more than 

 that space occupied by grass. A little attention 

 and labor in cutting these bushes, by burning 

 them off and scattering a good supply of grass 

 seed on to these burnt places, would greatly im- 

 prove the premises. 



Some assert that cattle and other animals that 

 run in pastures, leave as much as they take off. 

 This may be partially true in some instances 

 where cattle are not taken out from the time they 

 are put in until housing time, but where they are 

 taken out at night and yarded, as in the case of 

 milch cows, this cannot be true. There is thus 

 a gradual diminution of the fertility — a slow but 

 sure carrying away of the elements necessary to 

 keep up the growth of grass, and nothing returned. 

 Now it will appear evident to every inquiring and 

 reflecting mind, that it will be necessary to refund, 

 in some shape or other, a sufficient quantity of 

 material to supply nourishment to the grass and 

 other herbage made use of by the cattle that eat 

 it. 



Your pasture land is the mill, and your cow the 

 operator to turn grass into milk, butter and cheese. 

 Now when the raw material has become exhaust- 

 ed, your bulter-mill must stop, or run so feebly as 

 to be unprofitable, as sure as your cotton mill 

 must stop or run feebly when the cotton or raw 

 material is all gone. The dictate of wisdom and 

 common sense would be to supply an abundance 

 of material for the operator to convert into the 

 article you desire. 



It would not be very convenient to manure pas- 

 tures with animal manures from the barn -yard, 

 unless they were plowed up and cultivated. . As 

 most of our pastures cannot be very conveniently 

 cultivated, this mode of renovating them cannot 

 be resorted to. But fortunately there are other 

 modes bf dressing land, such as plaster of paris, 

 ashes, lime, salt, guano, super-phosphate of lime 



