NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



211 



PROFIT OF A COW. 



There is no doubt that in many cases a mechanic 

 or other person having small means as to land, and 

 time to attend to the business, can keep a cow with 

 profit, and in this way furnish for his children more 

 ■wholesome food, by having a good supply of milk. 



The following calculation on the profits of a cow 

 is made by Mr. Dana Burbank, of Newton, from facts 

 resulting from his experience in Vermont, with prices 

 intended to correspond with those in this vicinity. 

 We think the price of the cow, for one so produc- 

 tive, is too low, or the sum for her annual deprecia- 

 tion is too small. Ten dollars for the use of the cow, 

 ri>k, and tax, is low enough. Something should be 

 allowed for taking care of the cow, and for selling the 

 milk, even if it is called for, as there is trouble in 

 dealing it out, keeping accounts, &c. Yet some per- 

 sons are so situated that thoy can attend to this 

 bus'ness convenlonth'. If a person uses all the milk 

 in his own family, it may be a question, whether it 

 ia worth four cents a quart. 



Mr. Buuhank's Calculation. 



J J tons of hay at .fKi $24,00 



Pasturage four months, 10,00 



9 bushels meal, 9,00 



Driving 7,00 



Cost of cow 30,00 



Total $80,00 



16 qts. of milk per day, at 4 cents for 120 



days $70,80 



6 qt^. of milk per day at 4 cents for 120 days, 28,80 



Calf, 6,00 



Total $111,60 



Manure, 'I'^ cord, 12,50 



Cow on hand 25.00 



Total $149,10 



Cost deducted $80,00 



Profit, $69,10 



^ 



SAVING CLOVER HAY. 



As it is difficult to cure clover haj' so as to have 

 the large stems well dried, without the leaves and 

 other fine parts becoming so dry as to be wasted, in 

 Bomc measure, we have found it an excellent mode to 

 mix layers of straw, old hay, b«an or pea vines, or 

 other good or refuse dry litter, in laA'ers with clover 

 hay, which saves it in fine condition ; and the straw, 

 &c., becomes sweetened by the clover, and if it con- 

 tains nutriment, it will make good fodder. Mate- 

 rials too coarse and poor for fodder maj' be used to 

 save clover from injury, and then used for bedding, 

 as they can be easily separated in using the hay. 

 .^^ 



SALTING HAY. 



We have often cautioned farmers against salting 

 their hay too profusely. No more salt should be 

 put on hay, than animals would voluntarily consume 

 ■while eating it if the salt was given to them sepa- 

 rately. Wc are astonished to find, in a valuable agri- 

 cultural journal, advice to add ten or twenty quarts 



of salt to a ton of clover hay, which will aid in pre- 

 serving it, if rather green. 



The largest quantity — twenty quarts to the ton — 

 would bo about twice the amount given to a horse in 

 a year, at the usual allowance of an ounce per day, 

 or half a pound per week. Four quarts of salt to a 

 ton of hay, is as much as animals commonly consume 

 when they have their own choice. Hay is greatly 

 injured by the use of large quantities of salt to save 

 it, when put into the mow only partially cured ; and 

 in some cases, diseases and death among stock have 

 been the consequences of a too liberal use of salt as 

 a preservative. 



How would a man like butter with four ounces of 

 salt to the pound, in order to save it without the 

 trouble of working out the buttermilk ? We have 

 been particular on this subject, as dealers inform us 

 that much hay brought to this market is injured by 

 over-salting, for the purjiose of saving it when housed 

 too err e en. 



PRESERVATION OF WOOD. 



Experiments made in England show that soaking 

 wood in lime-water preserves it to a remarkable de- 

 gicc. A house was erected forty years ago, in Avhich 

 Scotch fir was used for timbers. A portion of the 

 timber was soaked in lime-water, and a portion used 

 without such preparation. The former is still sound, 

 while the latter is much eaten by worms, which, as is 

 well known, usually destroy this kind of wood in a 

 few years. The method of saturating the wood is de- 

 scribed as follows : " In preparing wood for the pur- 

 poses of building, saw it into such lengths as the 

 occasion demands ; next, plunge the planks or beams 

 into a pond of lime-water. The pond is made thirty 

 or forty feet long, tive or six feet deep, sixteen or 

 eighteen feet wide ; and the bottom and sides are 

 rendered water-tight. It is then filled with cold 

 water. Before receiving the wood, a quantity of 

 fresh-burned hot lime is thrown into the pond, which 

 is ■well stirred with the water, to dissolve as much as 

 possible of it. Into this strongly impregnated solu- 

 tion of lime-water, the wood, in the various shapes it 

 has been sawn into, is then thrown. As lime-water 

 absorbs carbonic acid from the atmos])here, the lime 

 previously held dissolved in the water becomes insol- 

 uble, and is slowly abstracted from the water, and 

 deposited at the bottom in a solid state, as mild lime 

 or carbonate of lime : hence the necessity of now 

 and then throwing in fresh portions of reeently cal- 

 cined lime, that the water may be resaturated with 

 the strongest solution of this caustic alkaline earth." 



The timber remsdns in the water from two to three 

 weeks. The lime is absorbed by the pores of the 

 wood, and appears to destroy the albumin us and sac- 

 charine princiijies, or so changes them, that the wood 

 no longer affords the food on which worms subsist. 

 The slight petrifaction which the wood thus under- 

 goes, prevents air and moisture from penetrating it, 

 and renders it almost indestructible. It should be 

 thoroughly seasoned before it is used. 



It has been eloquently remarked that in the ob- 

 scurity of the cottage, "far from the seduction of 

 rank and affluence, is nursed the virtue which coun- 

 teracts the decay of human institutions — the 

 courage which defends the national indei;endonco 

 — the" industry which maintains all clasdea of the 

 state. 



