366 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



tions where you can easily obtain them in winter to use as 

 litter to your stables, &c. They do not rot easily, but they 

 serve the purpose of little sponges to imbibe and retain liquid 

 manure, and by their use you^may supply your crops with 

 much food for plants which would otherwise be lost. Attend 

 with diligence and punctuality to the wants of the four-footed 

 tenants of your barn, hog-sty, &c. Do not undertake to winter 

 more stock than you have abundant means of providing for. 

 When young animals are pinched for food at an early period 

 of their growth, they never thrive so well afterwards, nor 

 make so good stock. See that you have gocd stalls, stables, 

 &c., page" 248; cow-houses, page 45; a proper implement for 

 cutting'hay and straw, page 51 ; an apparatus for cooking 

 food for cattle and swine, page 53. You may also carry out 

 and spread compost, soot, ashes, &c., on such of your mowing 

 grounds- as stand in great need of manure. Though some say 

 that the best time for top-dressing grass land is immediately 

 after haying, any time will do when the ground is free from 

 snow, and the grass not so high as to be injured by cattle's 

 treading on it. 



DECEMBER. 



Woodland. We think that cultivators may derive advantage 

 from attending to the observations by the Hon. John Welles, 

 relative to wood-lots, the manner of cutting them over, &c. 

 Page 316. We advise every farmer, and his help, &c. so to 

 treat domestic animals that they may be tame and familiar. 

 It is said of Bakewell, a famous Enghsh breeder of cattle, that 

 by proper management he caused his stock to be very gentle. 

 His bulls would sland still to be handled, and were driven from 

 field to field with a small switch. His cattle were always fat, 

 which he said was owing to the breed as well as keep. Coltf" 

 should also always be kept tame and familiar, and you may 

 then train them to saddle or harness without danger or diffi- 

 culty. Page 66. The farmer should obtain his year's stock of 

 fuel as early in the season as possible, and before the depth of 

 snow in the wood-lands renders it difficult to traverse them by 

 a team. You may, when the ground is frozen, cut and draw 

 wood from swamps, which are inaccessible for cattle in warm 

 weather. If you cut wood with a wish that the stumps should 

 sprout, let it be after the fall of the leaf, and before the buds 

 swell in the spring. [See Gen. Newhall's statement, New 

 England Farmer vol. x. p. 230.] The Rev. Mr. Elliot wisely 

 recommended, when bushy ground, full of strong roots, is to 

 be ditched, beginning the ditch in the winter, when the ground 

 is frozen two or three inches deep. The surface may be chop- 

 ped into pieces by a broad axe, with a long helve, and the ditch 

 completed in warm weather. The farmer may, probably, hit 

 on a good time for this work in December, when there happens 

 to be no snow, and when it will not interfere with other farm- 



