i24 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



LEGISLATIVE AID TO AGRICULTURE. 



In the forthcoming Transactions of the Essex 

 Agricultural Society, a few pages of which we have 

 received by the politeness of the president, John W. 

 Proctor, Esq., are valuable hints by this officer to the 

 trustees, from which we copy his remarks, in rela- 

 tion to legislative bounty, with a view of bringing 

 the subject early to the consideration of the legis- 

 lature. 



If there is one sulijcct of more general interest to 

 the community than another, that subject is agri- 

 culture, as it is at the foundation of all other pur- 

 suits. This state has been one of the first in the 

 Union in the laudable object of encouraging agri- 

 cultural improvement, by enabling societies to offer 

 liberal premiums for superior productions, manage- 

 ment, and inventions. And since the happy results 

 of legislative bounties upon the prosperity of the 

 state are well known to every member of the legis- 

 lature, we trust that the present aid will not only be 

 continued, but liberal additions will be made to the 

 present donations, commensurate with the liberal 

 policy of the state, and the favorable effects from her 

 past munificence. We copy from the Transactions. 



The continued liberality of the state, which has 

 enabled the Society to offer our premiums annually, 

 although to a limited extent, and the adoption of a 

 system of economy that has kept its expenditures 

 within the income, have had a tendency to prevent 

 the enlisting of new members ; especially while 

 those who were not members were permitted to 

 enjoy equal privileges, in competing for premiums, 

 as those who were. If care had been taken to in- 

 crease the funds by the addition oi seven hundred new 

 members, who have come upon the stage since our 

 operations commenced, who would have been ready 

 to join, if properly solicited to do so, this addition 

 could have been advantageously appropriated, in the 

 new modes of improvement, that would have been 

 brought forward. 



In fact, those who have directed the concerns of 

 the society, have always felt themselves constrained, 

 not by the want of objects of premium, but by the 

 want of means to afford them, and by the desire to 

 give permanency to the funds, that should enable 

 the society to continue its operations, if, perchance, 

 any thing should happen to discontinue the legisla- 

 tive bounty. But there is no reason to fear any such 

 discontinuance. Whatever party may be in power 

 will not presume any such thing. Among all the 

 fanciful projects of economy that have been agitated, 

 we have never heard an intimation of the expediency 

 of withholding the bounty to agricultural societies. 

 On the contrary, the appropriation has been very 

 generally approved ; and it remains with the farmers, 

 themselves, to say, when, instead of six hundred 

 dollars annually, there shall be given one thousand 

 dollars annually, to each of the societies. Is this a 

 visionary project ? Could it not be done by a little 

 exertion ? Appoint your agents to solicit subscri- 

 bers. Let a memorial be presented to the legisla- 

 ture, setting forth the benefits to accrue thorefVora ; 

 let the other societies in the commonwealth be 

 solicited to cooperate ; and three chances out of 

 four, another year would crown the enterprise with 

 success. There is nothing like trying. Something 

 has been done for agriculture, but not so much as its 

 relative importance demands. 



Fattening Animals. — A memoir was read to the 

 Academy of Sciences, at Paris, by MM. Dumas, 



Boussingault, and Payan, " of researches on the 

 fattening of animals, and on the formation of milk." 

 These philosophers announce their belief that fatty 

 matters are formed in plants alone ; that they thence 

 pass, ready formed, into the bodies of herbivori, enter- 

 ing the chyle duct by the lactcals, and so passing 

 into the blood ; that the first degree of oxydation 

 forms stearine or oleic acid ; a further degree pro- 

 duces the margaric acid, which characterizes fat ; a 

 stiU further degree, the volatile, fatty acids — in oppo- 

 sition to Liebig, who traces the origin of fat to the 

 sugar or starch of the food. In confirmation of their 

 views, they show that hay contains more per cent, 

 of oleaginous matter than is produced in the butter 

 from a cow fed on this hay ; and that cows fed on 

 potatoes, or other roots poor in fiit, produce much 

 less butter. They advance an influence, which bears 

 much on rural economy, that a cow eliminates twice 

 as much fat from a given quantity of food as does an 

 ox; and hence the commerce of miUi and butter 

 deserves a high degree of attention. Some relative 

 experiments on fattening pigs bear out the same gen- 

 eral principles. — Pol. Revieio. 



MANAGEMENT OF HORSES. 



We have no domestic animal among us, that costs 

 us so much that will do a greater variety of work, or 

 that is so much, abused, as the horse. Like his mas- 

 ter, the horse is complicated in his structure, and 

 liable to a great many diseases ; and as he is capable 

 of being made to exert all his powers of body in the 

 efforts of speed or severe labor, nine tenths of them 

 are cut off in the prime of life. And yet by care and 

 attention, by kind and humane treatment in work- 

 ing and feeding, he can be made to endure a great 

 many years, active and strong. Mr. Pell, of New 

 York, has given some excellent rules for the manage- 

 ment of horses, which were published in the Transac- 

 tions of the New York Agricultural Society. Among 

 the good ideas which he there advanced, he obsei-ves, 

 " Feed them in winter on a variety of food, such as 

 oats, ground and whole, bran, strip stuff, beans, peas, 

 turnips, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips, occasionally 

 steamed separately and together. In summer, keep 

 them always confined in airy stables, and feed them 

 on clover, bruised grains, green cornstalks, cider 

 pomace, oil cake, hay, &c. Be particular to give 

 them three fourths of a pound of salt per week ; oc- 

 casionally two ounces of sulphur, and frequently 

 two ounces of wood ashes. 



"By good keep and judicious management, a pair 

 of horses, perfectly sound when young, will last, and 

 labor constantly, twenty-five years, and to the end 

 will retain their spirits. I have a pair of bay horses," 

 he observes, " on ray farm that are now twenty year.s 

 old, during which time they have never been at 

 pasture, and have worked daily; they have never 

 been incapacitated for work by lameness, or disease 

 of any kind, and have always been perfecth' healthy." 

 He also adds that he has " another pair of sorrels that 

 are eighteen years old, which labor daily, and wdll 

 do as much work as any pair of six years old." 



The above statements of Jilr. Pell are worth lis- 

 tening to, and his advice should be followed. Much 

 loss would be prevented, and much suffering to a 

 faithful and useful animal be warded off, while the 

 long-continued powers for labor would amply reward 

 the extra cai-e and kindness thus bestowed, even if 

 the virtue of mercy to those brutes intrusted to our 

 protection wore not taken into account. — Main* 

 Farmer. 



Bird-lime is prepai'cd from the berries of the mis- 

 tletoe and the middle bark of the holly ; it is boiled 

 till it becomes soft. 



