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the introduction of which is justly considered among our most 

 decided improvements. In a wet season, like the past, there was 

 less necessity for corn fodder than usual. But in our average 

 summers, with their intense drought and scorching heat, our old 

 pastures, good for little at best, are almost worthless. Examples 

 are not wanting, of great success in renovating old pastures. We 

 will mention one that came to our notice this season : 



A well known farmer, in Stoughton, had a worn-out, mossy 

 pasture, which he broke up and manured two years ago, and from 

 four acres of which he has, this summer, cut eleven tons of good 

 hay. Another farmer, noted for the amount and excellence of his 

 butter, has, within seven or eight years, broken up, manured and 

 cultivated more than twenty acres of good-for-nothing pasture, 

 and laid it down again in so productive a condition, that he main- 

 tains, in excellent order, more than double the amount of stock 

 that was ever kept on that farm before. 



There is a growing conviction among farmers, that they must 

 either expend money in improving pastures, or abandon them, or 

 supply the deficiencies of the pasture by an increased amount of 

 green fodder. There can be little doubt of the indispensableness 

 of the latter course, if the object is to produce milk ; for nothing 

 excels, in milk production, the tender, succulent leaves and stalks 

 of young corn and recently-grown grass. 



We have now in mind a farmer, in this county, who keeps 

 seven or eight cows in the stable through the summer, and feeds 

 them on green fodder, chiefly corn. We asked him the reasons 

 for it. His answer was : 1 . That he gets more milk than he can 

 by any other method. 2. That he gets more manure, especially 

 liquid manure. 3. That he saves it all by keeping a supply of 

 mould or mud under the stable, to be taken out and renewed as 

 often as necessary. 4. That it is less troublesome than to drive 

 his cows to pasture ; that they are less vexed by flies, and have 

 equally good health. 5. That his mowing land is every year 

 growing more productive without the expense of artificial manure.* 



* Aa English farmer says : — " Wliere milch cows are allowed to range 

 abroad for their food, they will never produce that quantity of milk that 

 they will when confined, let their food be ever so plenty ; when they are 

 not hungry, they will be searching after the sweetest spots of herbage, and 

 thereby deprive themselves of rest. There is economy, also, in land. 

 Thirty acres of land would be sufficient to produce food enough for forty 



