44 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



AUGUST 30, I<i34. 



From the Nfin York Farrtwr. 

 VISIT TO THE D.VIRY. FARM OP MU. DA- 

 VID S. SIILLS. 



On the Sill of AImv we ci-o.-sed tlie Willijiinslimgli 

 feri'y, and ai'un- a v\'alk of five iiiili:s on tlie tnj-n- 

 piki; roml to .Inmaifa, rKao'ieil the rt'sidence of Mr. 

 Mills. The aiipcarance of the country along this 

 Voad lias been iin|)roved within three or four years 

 by an inereasexl attention to the cnliivaiion of the 

 land. There is, however, aiu|de room for fiutlier 

 improvements, both in lillaj^e and in all thoise nr- 

 uaments of a rural re.sidence that indicate comfort, 

 taste and enjoyment at sweet home. Among the 

 objt'ots of garden cuknre are seen fields of pens 

 and raspberries, planted in rovv.'<. The former 

 wer.? four to cii,'lit inclies high. ^Ve saw one far- 

 mer harrowing a field of sward ground, the sod of 

 which had been broken by cross ploughing. The 

 ground was very moist, aiul it seemed as though 

 be might harrow until .luly before he could kill 

 the grass. Had he carefully tiu-iied his furrows in 

 the first place, used a roljer and then iiarrowed 

 lengthwise with his furrows, he woidd have saved 

 labor, and added to the fertility of the land. 



P.Ir. Mills' farm consists, including 30 acres of 

 Bait meadow land, of 200 acres. Ho bought it last 

 summer for $8000, and coimnenced operations on 

 it last September. It had been much neglected 

 for years past, and a great part of it allowed to be 

 overgrown with moss, wild grass and cedar brush. 

 In six months from this time, afier spending four 

 or five tbousruid dollars in improvements, twenty 

 thousand dollars would not probably buy it. 

 Since September las!, Mr. Mills has put on up- 

 wiu'ds (d'two thouf«nd loads of manure, ohialned 

 from the city. These loads nearly ecjual those of 

 two horse team among ftrmers. 



The first obji.'ct that struck our attentien on ap- 

 proacliing this farm, is a large stone building for 

 stabling cows. It is 154 feet long, 40 feet, wide, 

 20 high to the eaves of the roof, and ihe wall 2 

 feet thick. . The stone of which it was built was 

 obtained from the fields of the farm. There are 

 two rows of stalls for the cows, l>elvvern which is 

 an open space paved with stone, ten feet wide, 

 itito wliich opens a door of e(|ual wiillh at each 

 emi of the buihrmg. In the centre of ilie sides ol' 

 the building is a similar passage way, for the pur- 

 pose of carrying out the milk. The lojig passage 

 is for the convenience of preparing their food. 

 Each stall is nearly three feet wiile,auil the whole 

 biulding will acc( inmodate 100 cows. There are 

 12 windows on ea<di siile, lor the purpose of light, 

 iiir, and throwing out nianm^!. Along the whole 

 length of each side of the building, four feet high, 

 is to be ;i recepliicle for the manure, made tight 

 with thick plank, and siitliciently vviile, ten feet 

 to back in a cart. The cows sland. on plank and 

 pavement of sione. A s|)Hce of aliout two feet 

 wiile runs the length pf eacth row of stalls, paved 

 wiih small stone, on which the cows place their 

 for<! feet. From this space Ihi; flooring of plardi 

 • has a gradual slope: to carry olVthe m-ine. A ijds- 

 cd walk ofplaid<iirg about three in(dies high and 

 two and a halt'lect wide, along tin; side walls ol 

 ihe building, arrests the urine and causes it to run 

 out at the ends of the building, where we believe, 

 Mr. Mills iuleudsfo havo a cistern for receiving it. 



In the loft over the stalls, will he rooms fin- 

 ished qff for lodging the hands who milk, and 

 have charge of the cows; also, bins for the grain, 

 and feed, and a mow for the hay. 



Mr. Mills has had much e-xperience in the milk 



linsiness — having for many years carried it on in 

 the city. He has acted on the |)rini'i|da that an 

 abundance of the best kind of food was the nios! 

 profitable. Accordingly he rejects distillers' swill, 

 and feeils his cows with Indi.in meal, oil cake, 

 ship-sinff and good hay. He, mixes two quarts of 

 of Indian meal and two of oil cake, with al)ont the 

 Same quantity ol' brewer's .grain, or ship-stuti' for a 

 mess, twice a day ; besides this he feeds with hay 

 twice a day. Instead of hay in sunnner, be uses 

 green fodder — sows four bushels of oals n)i.\ed 

 uith one of corn to the acre — will sow several 

 aiM'es of corn and ten or twelve of rye, at the rate 

 uf three or four bushels per acre. The rye comes 

 in first, then the oats, and after the corn. By sow- 

 ing each of these at ditTerent limes, a constant suc- 

 cession of green fiidder isobiaiued imiil lite iu the 

 fall. Mr. M. will undoulitedly give attention to 

 [lerennial grasses, and to succulent crops. In con- 

 sequence of thus feeding his cows, they are al- 

 ways in a thriving condition. In the fall and win- 

 ter with the same course of feeding, they are in 

 iiue order for the butcher, to whom they are sohl 

 as soon as they begin to decrease in milk. They 

 bring him for beef, from 40 to !i^55, averaging §45 

 per head. Their places are inuuediately supplied 

 at $25 with calf. 



When nulked twice a day, the Imnrs for niilk- 

 ing are, 2 o'clock in the morning, and 12 at noun. 

 The milk when brought from the cows, is carried 

 to the kettles, which are kept standing in large 

 tubs of water fresh from the piyup, and is poured 

 into them through doid)le strainers. Each cow 

 will average about ten quarts per day ; some of 

 course will give as many as t*venty or more. The 

 number of cows is 150. Tlie price which jMr. 

 M. always obtains is 6 1-4 cents per quart. 

 150 cows, 10 quarts per day, 375 galls. 



These give in 365 days, - 136,875 " 



Price per gallon - - 25 cents 



there is that of throwing out the manure, and keep- 

 ing the stables clean. The ground food is put in tulis 

 and the hay iti racks. The practice of cntting the 

 hay is not yet adopted to any extent. 



His- Indian meal cost $1,50 per 112 lbs. anJ 

 his oil cake which is procured from New Jersey 

 and New London, at $1,25 per 100 lbs. 



For fifteen years Mr. M. followed llie usual 

 practice of feeding bis cows with slops and a lit- 

 tle hay. Since 1828 he has luirsiied his present 

 praiuice, and finds it more profitalde. 'I'liis .-irisei* 

 princip:dly from the additional qnantiiy and snperi- ' 

 or quality of the milk, enabling biin to obtain 

 good customers and full prices, and from the in- 

 creased price of bis cows when sold to the Imrcher. 



The value of the nianmo made by ujiwards of 

 150 cows is estimated to be worth on the farm 

 $1,000 per annum. It. is easy to see that nil this 

 regularly applied, will enable Mr. M. to make his 

 fiirni one of the most productive in this section of 

 the country. 



Mr. fllills has a first rate improved sliort horned 

 Durham bull. He intends hereafter to devote 

 more aitention to rearing his own stock. His fa- 

 cilities for selecting breeding cows of the desired 

 |)roperti(?s are very great— having it in his power 

 lo test them [iractic.dly and fully as to their dispo- 

 silion to fatten, the qnnlily and qiiantily of their 

 milk, and to other projierties that make first rale 

 milkers. 



It is our intention to visit this establishment 

 again, when the improvements now in progress 

 will be further advancetl, ami when we hope to 

 have the pleasure of finding iMr. Mills at home, 

 which was not the case on the present visit. This 

 last circiimstiince niust be our ajjology fur the im- 

 perfection of this hasty notice. 



Amount per year, $34,218.75 

 An enterprising and intelligent farmer who sup- 

 plies milk to the inhabitants of one. of the largest 

 towns in Connecticut, recenily called on us to di- 

 rect him where be could find a milk establishment 

 in the vicinity of the city, from which he could 

 learn a few lessons. He said he found by close 

 calculation that his cows averaged the year ronnd 

 only four quarts per day ; and that his feeding was 

 deemed superior to that of furmers generally. He 

 visited several eslablishmenls, but we believe did 

 not obtain lunch satisfiictiou. On reading this ar- 

 ticle, he will we doubt not, take a journey of 100 

 miles to see what Mr. Mills has done. 



Most of the milk used in this city, is sold at 4 

 (■puts per ([iiart, a very considerable portion of 

 which is water ; but Mr. Mills goes on the princi- 

 ple of never allowing a drop of water to be adrlcd 

 111 his milk. Taking into consideration the rich 

 and wholesome food of his cows, their healihyand 

 cleanly condition, and the consequent pure and 

 rich ipialily of the milk, Mr. Mills is not only de- 

 serving of 6 1-4 cents per quart, but of the thanks 

 of the comniunily tiir setting such a worthy exam- 

 ple, ill furnishing this imporlant article of food. 

 We would not imply, however, by these remarks, 

 that there are no other milkmen who furnish pure 

 milk of the first quality. 



It requires eight inen to tend the cows and sell 

 the milk. These men every day in summer, milk 

 twice ami go to the city, ami feed the cftws twice 

 and curry them once. In addition lo this labor 



From the Maine Farmer. 

 CANADA THISTLE. 



Yotn extracts from the correspondents of the 

 " Cultivator," of the Slate of New York respecting 

 Canada Thistle are so di'ecily in opposi;ion to my 

 experience in Maine for fifty years, that I fear 

 some of our farmers may be injured by trying the 

 experiment there named, — They say keep them 

 from vegetating for one whole season by plough- 

 ing weekly or otherwise, and they will be des- 

 troyed ; and ,tliis they pretend is the result of ex- 

 perience. Sir, ploughing land infested with this- 

 tles, only serves to remove the location of their 

 roois, ^)r in other vvorils spreads them largely over 

 all the land ploughed. Killier those correspon- 

 dents are egregionsly mistakeii, or the thistles of 

 New York are not like our Canada Thistles, or 

 the climate must make a difi'erence. As 1 would 

 use all correspondents with due nrbanitv, I have 

 made these remarks excusing them. And now, 

 sir, I am prepared to wholly deny the consequenc- 

 es, as to our thislles iu Maine — premising that 

 Canada Thistles are the same in New York and 

 Maine — that keeping the tops down or off for one 

 year will not kill them. I will state a fact that 

 occurred some nine or ten years since. A new- 

 road was laid out through a |iastnre in \Viiilhrop, 

 in this stale, incumbered with Canada Thistles. 

 Very soon thereafler the road was made and put 

 into the turnpike form, and the thistles in the mid- 

 dle covered deep with earth. The road has ever 

 since been much used as n way for carts and car- 

 riages of all kinds, so that no vegetable has, or 

 could grow, or could make its appearance iu the 

 centre of the passage-way. But this year a slou& 



