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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



SEPTEMBER 24, JS34, 



From the Genesee Farmer, 

 EVILS IVHICH MAY BE REMEDIED. 



I HAVE long believed that no class of citizens 

 was more exempt from perplexities and difficul- 

 ties than farjncrs, and yet there are evils to which 

 many of them are siiliject. These, however, may 

 be lessened, if not entirely removed. To efl'ect 

 this would have a tendency to increase and pre- 

 serve that good feeling which ought to subsist in 

 neighborhoods. 



INSUFFICIENT LINE FENCES. 



It is said that " good fences make good neigh- 

 bors." Although this is not the only essential, ii 

 is by no means a sinall one. Cattle and horses 

 will soon find a low or a weak place in a fence. 

 That part of the fence belongs to A. yet when 

 his grain is injured he complains that his neigh- 

 bor's cattle are unruly, and admits au unkind 

 feeling. In vain is he told that the fence belongs 

 to him, and ought to be strengthened — he is too 

 busy to attend to it. B. is careful to make his 

 part of the line fence good, and often entreats 

 his neighbor to repair his part also, but in vain. 

 The cattle again trespass, and destroy mnch grain 

 — an open rupture is the consequence. — Have 

 not many of the readers of the Farmer such 

 neighbors as A ! Every Farmer is bound in jus- 

 tice to make his part of the line fence a complete 

 protection against cattle. 



BORROWING AND LENDING FARMING IMPLEMENTS. 



A disposition to be accommodating is charac- 

 teristic of good farmers. Even those who arc 

 best supplied with farming implements, may oc- 

 casionally want an additional article. This des- 

 cription of farmers seldom borrow, are careful to 

 return the article at the time appointed, and in as 

 good order as they received it. My remarks 

 are designed for a different class. Some have 

 hardly an implement in a condition for use, and 

 depend for years on borrowing of their neighbors. 

 The owners when they need them have to send 

 for them, or if reim-ned, find them imfit for use 

 without repairs. I know a farmer of this descrip- 

 tion who has money at interest, but wljo has not 

 had for years some of the most necessary im- 

 plements, nor has he had a small wagon or a 

 whole bag. His family must occasionally ride to 

 the village, they must send to the mill, and he must 

 cultivate his farm ! but if he can efi'ect all these 

 without expense, he may annually add to the 

 amount at interest. This is gross injustice and 

 begets unpleasant feelings in the minds of those 

 who have to endure it. Common justice requires 

 that every firmer who can aflbrd it, should be 

 provided with a com|)lete set of good farming im- 

 pliments, bags, grindstone, &,c. 



COLTS, CATTLE, SHEEP, HOGS, RUNNING AT LARGE. 



When mnch of this country was unenclosed, 

 and the farmers had but little land cleared, it was 

 allowable to permit creatures to run at large, but 

 this is no longer the case. Humanity to animals re- 

 quires that we should keep no more than our 

 farms will well support, and I think that interest 

 requires it also. Justice certainly demands it. 



Many farmers are in the practice of turning a 

 drove of young cattle into the road early in the 

 spring. The scanty picking does not satisfy them, 

 and hunger if it will not break through stone 

 walls, will often induce the poor, half starved ani- 

 mals to break through a rail fence, into a field of 

 luxuriant wheat or grass. Is this justice? or is it 

 calculated to promote harmony in ncigliorhoods ? 

 When a gate or bars communicating with the roud 



is left open for a few minutes, these poor crea- 

 tures or a drove of hogs are sure to enter. — But 

 besides tliis annoyance, our roadsides are much 

 defaced by the rooting of hogs. I consider it the 

 duty of every farmer to keep no more stock than 

 can be subsisted on his farm, and there to confine 

 them. Those who are unwilling to do this should 

 remove to the border of one of the western (irairies. 



DOGS. 



I consider dogs not oidy useless, but a great 

 nuisance. When sent to drive hogs out of a corn- 

 field, they generally cause greater danjage than 

 the hogs would have done. Good fences would 

 prevent the necessity of keeping them for that 

 use. In vain do farmers go to the expense of pro- 

 curing the finest Saxony or Merino sheep, if their 

 neighbors, many of them not worth a cent, are 

 permitted to keep a pack of prowling, sheep-kill- 

 ing dogs. And who possessed of a spark of good 

 feeling, would wish to keep an animal about his 

 [iremises, that is a terror to every female or child 

 approaching the house ? Damage is frequently 

 sustained by travellers, in consequence of dogs 

 running out and springing at their horses. The 

 amount of injury in person and property in one 

 year, is greater than the value of all the dogs in 

 country. These considerations should induce ev- 

 ery good citizen to do all in his power, by exam- 

 ple and precept, to abate this nuisance. 



Ontario. 



MANURE. 



Arthur Young took five equal portions of a 

 field, one portion of which he manured with dry 

 cut straw ; a second with straw soaked five hours 

 with fresh urine ; a third with straw soaked in 

 like manner fifteen hours; a fourth with straw 

 soaked three days ; and to the fifth portion he ap- 

 plied nothing. The whole was tilled alike and 

 sowed witi) grain. The product in grain of the 

 first was thirty-nine, of the second fifty, of the 

 third sixty-three, of the fourth one hundred and 

 twenty-six, and of the undunged portion nine. 

 In weight of grain and straw, the ju-odnct of the 

 several portions, in the order above named, were 

 found to be 100, 120, 130, 300, and 48. This 

 experiment afl^ords a pretty conclusive demonstra- 

 tion of the value of vegetable matter as food for 

 plants, and particularly of the fertility imparted 

 by the urine of animals, which latter to us is gener- 

 erally lost to all useful purposes. It indicates the 

 propriety of so constructing our cattle yards and 

 stable floorings as to concentrate this liquid, and 

 where there is no cistern to retain it, of applying 

 straw and other litter to absorb it ere it is wasted. 

 Another fact is worth noting — the rotting process 

 took pla{;e wholly in the soil — the fertilily was in- 

 duced by long manure, and the liquids which it 

 held — and not by muck. — Genesee Recorder. 



From the Baltimore Farmer Sf Gardener. 

 CORNSTALK FODDER. 



The subject of cornstalk fodder must this year 

 be one of great interest to the farmer. In our last 

 [)aper we gave the account of an experiment insti- 

 tuted for the purpose of testing the efl'ects of cut- 

 ting off the top of the stalk before the grain has 

 arrived at a state of maturity ; and the result prov- 

 ed that an entire loss of twenty per cent, was sus- 

 tained in consequence of the practice. We ac- 

 companied this calculation with some observations 

 tending to show from reasoning on the |)hysiologi- 

 cal and known laws of vegetation, that this calcu- 



lation was correct. Had the stalks at the same 

 time been taken off at the ground, instead of be- 

 ing cut above the ear, we have no doulit but the 

 loss in the crop would have been less. We know 

 that buckwheat when cut has many grains which 

 are but barely formed, yet the sap contained in the 

 stalk proceeds on its course, and nourishes the 

 grain, and we find that young grains are brought 

 to perfection after being cut. The same thing 

 would take place in corn if cut at (he root instead 

 of being taken off above the ear. 



Any one may satisfy himself, niciely. by his 

 own taste, that the portion of stalk belovi' the ear 

 contains much more saccharine matter than the 

 upper part, which is saved by topping, .nnd this 

 faci is corroborated by the experience of the wri- 

 ter of this article. He kept three horses and 

 twelve cows in this w.ay. Tlie 12 milch cows 

 were kept in stalls — 18 bushels of the stalks, cut 

 in a horse power cutting box, were every morn- 

 ing put into a trmdi having a false bottom six inch- 

 es from the true bottom — half a bushel of Indian 

 meal was mixed as equally as possible through 

 the stalks. The 6 inch space between the true 

 bottom of the trunk, which was perforated with 

 holes to admit the steam through, was divided in- 

 to two apartments by a transverse partition, and 

 contained a small portion of water, lilto the up- 

 per apartment, for one end was a little elevated, 

 was put 4 qts. of flaxseed every morning, and in- 

 to this water was admitted steam from a steam 

 engine. The stalks, meal and flaxseed were all 

 cooked in this way, in about one hour and a half I 

 after the sleani had conmienced passing over. 1 

 The water in which the flaxseed was steeped, was 

 formed into a jelly, was drawn off and poured 

 over the stalks before feeding away to the cattle. 

 The second morning the portion of seed that had 

 been stee|)ed the day before was drawn down to 

 the lower apartment, and replaced with 4 qts. 

 more of seed, and the first portion of seed after 

 the second steeping, was taken with the jelly, and 

 poured over the stalks to be given to the cows. 

 We have before -shown the tendency of steaming 

 food, to convert the nmcilage, slarch and gummy 

 matter into sugar. 



Thus each cow had daily of meal 1 qt. Ij^ gill ; 

 of flaxseed IJ gill ; of stalks one bushel and a 

 half With this feed the cows were kept in full 

 flow of milk, and when dry were in good con- 

 dition for the butcher. 



The cream from their milk made as good and 

 as yellow butter as was made in the sunmier from i 

 white clover and orchard grass pasture. I 



INOCULATING CHEESE. 



What will the ingenuity of man not contrive .- 

 A method has been discovered of inoculating 

 cheese: or, in other words, of transplanting the 

 character of an old cheese into a new one. This 

 rather curious scheme is brought forward as a 

 connnunication to the Agricultural Journal for 

 March, by John Robinson, Esq. tiecretary of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh. " If it be required," 

 says he, "to communicate to a new cheese the 

 flavor and api)earanco of an old one, it may be 

 done by the iuscrlion in the new cheese of por- 

 tions of the old one containing blue mould, The 

 little scoop which is used in taking sauiides of 

 cheese is a ready made means of performing the 

 operation, by interchanging ten or a dozen of the 

 rolls which it extracts, and placing them so as to 

 disseminate the germ of the blue njould all over 



