182 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER 17, 1834. 



NKW KIVGLANl) FARMEK. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DEC. 17, 1834. 



"■ — 



^i Communication from the Hon. Samuel Lathrop, re- 

 ceived too late for insertion in tUis paper, shall appear in 

 cur next. 



Wk have many highly respected friends who with the 

 good of the Public in view in disseminating knowledge 

 of so much importance to the largest class of our coun- 

 trymen, have aided us in recommending our Farmer to 

 notice, and contributors to whom we are much indebted, 

 for the past, and whose continued kindness in recom- 

 mending it to their friends is asked for the future. 



We have recently improved our typography, and have 

 in view further improvements. We have also recently 

 had an accession of subscribers, and have in view many 

 .laore to commence with the first of January. 



.Members of the Legislature who are subscribers to the 

 N. E. Farmer, will oblige us if they will suggest to their 

 civil brethren this paper as one of their complement dur- 

 ing the session, whereby many advantages would accrue 

 to us, and we hope to the public. 



FARMER'S WORK FOR DECEMBER. 



TuERF. is uo part of farm management, which requires 

 more skill and attention than that of feeding cattle and 

 other domestic animals. Regularity with regard as well 

 to the time in which they receive their meals as to tlie 

 <]wantity given at each meal is of great consequence. If 

 cattle or swine miss their customary allowance they will 

 pine and fiet away their Hesh at a rate which a person, 

 unaccustomed to this branch of economy would not an- 

 ticipate. 



It is important that your store cattle, as well as tliose 

 intended for the butcher should be kept in a thltving 

 slate. Whether their progress in growth or fatness be 

 blow or fast it should never be intermitted. If the ojii- 

 mals remain stationary, you lose your time, and the in- 

 terest of what they are worth. Nor is this all. By ir- 

 regularity and inequality in feeding you injure the health 

 and constitution of your cattle, and in' such a case no 

 manngement can make them profitable stock either for 

 keeping on hand, or preparing for the butcher Feeding 

 cattle may be compared to rowing a boat against a cur- 

 rent ; if you miss a stroke or two, you not only cease to 

 advance but are driven backwards. Three times a day, 

 precisely at a certain hour, according to Mr. Lawrence 

 ouglit to be the regular allowance. 



With regard to feeding cattle the proverb well applies 

 "There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but 

 it lendeth to povert)'." "Cattle," said Dr. Deane, 

 "are more liable to be pinched with cold in December 

 and January than afterwards. And no man knows how 

 favorable the latter part of the season may be. Ad van. 

 tage also, in some cases, maj' be made of browsing in the 

 latter more than in the former part of the winter as the 

 buds then begin to swell, and the twigs have more sap 

 in them than before." 



" Neat cattle and horses (says the same writer), should 

 not have so much laid before them at once as will quite 

 serve to fill them. Tlie hay they have breathed on much 

 they will not eat up clean unless they are very hungry. 

 !'. is beet, therefore, to fodder Iheni twice at night, and 

 twice in the morning. Let neat cattle as well as horses 

 have both light and fresh air let in upon their fochler, and 

 when the weather is not too cold or stormy, allow the 

 windows to be open. What one sort of cattle leave 

 should be thrown to another sort. Those which chow 

 the cud will eat the leavings of those which do not, and 

 vice versa. 



It is also well known to farmers, that what cattle leave 



in the barn they will eat in the open air ; and most freely 

 when it is laid on clean snow. Not only this but the 

 meanest straw sliould be given them in this way. What 

 is left will help increase the manure in the yard." 



Mr. Lawrence says, three times a day, precisely at tlic 

 commencement of a certain hour, ought to be the regu- 

 lar observance, and cattle, particularly if corn fed, re- 

 quire their fill of water. The easy, contented and im- 

 proving disposition of the cattle, and small waste of 

 provender attendant on this regularity, is a source of 

 constant satisfaction to the superintending proprietor. 



" The golden rule respecting quantity is as much as a 

 beast can eat with a vigorous appetite ; all beyond that 

 important criterion is so much lost to the proprietor, and 

 not improbably an impediment to the thrift of the animal. 

 Here is the foundation of a good argument for the re- 

 moval of that which the animal leaves, that it may not 

 be left to disgust him and to pall his appetite. I would 

 advise no feeder to trust to a certain vague notion that 

 fattening cattle may be safely and advantageously reduc- 

 ed from rich to indift'erent or even poor keeping. Fre- 

 quently any change is disadvantageous; but if any, it 

 surely ought to be progressive in the goodness of the 

 food. There is often, perhaps generally, a considerable 

 saving in the provision as the animals advance in fat- 

 ness ; but this relates chiefly to those which load them- 

 selves with internal fat. 



" Cattle licking or rubbing themselves has been for- 

 merly held a bad sign ; on the contrary there can be no 

 doubt of its being an ineontestible proof of their thriving ; 

 the former notion seems to have arisen from the damage 

 they sometimes receive .from the quantity of hair and 

 dirt collected by the tongue from their hides, and which 

 may form hair balls in the stomach of dangerous conse- 

 quence. Hence the use of currying oxen, which are 

 confined from going into the cold air, of keeping them 

 perfectly clean, and their hides open, like those of horses 

 in ffood condition." 



We are happy to lend every aid in our power to im- 

 prove the quality of our potatoes, a consummation as de- 

 voutly to be wished as improving our races of domestic 

 animals, or of any vegetable production, which can enter 

 into a course of correct culture. 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



HORTICULTURAIi REGISTER AND GARDEN- 

 ER'S MAGAZINE. 



We would refer our readers to another column of our 

 paper containing ))ioposals for a Magazine of Horticul- 

 ture, &c. which has been called for by those who are 

 exclusively HorticuUiirists, and to their especial benefit 

 it will be devoted. We prefer this course in prefereucp 

 to devoting a greater portion of the Farmer to horticul- 

 ture ; we shall, however, continue the present or nearly 

 the same proportion of Agriculture and Gardening, Flor- 

 iculture, &c. so that all the branches of culture shall 

 continue to be aided by the New England Farmer, and 

 its worth will be increased rather than diminislied. 



The Monthly work proposed is recommended to Fam- 

 ilies as well as cultivators, as the study of Botany which 

 will be assisted by the work will be very soon an im- 

 portant one, and we will venture to predict that tlie time 

 will soon arrive when no young lady will be considered 

 accomplished without proficiency in the study. 



NEW VARIETIES OF POTATOES. 



We have received from Mr. George P. Thomas, Com- 

 mission Mirchant, Boston, two samples of very excellent 

 potatoes, of a quality we have never known exceeded 

 One of the varieties -of these potatoes is called the But- 

 man Potato^ and the other the Nonpareil Potato. The 

 latter is said to be a new variety, and the former we are 

 told, has been known lor a number of yeaj-s in the State 

 of Maine, from whence both samples were transmitted 

 to Mr. Thomas. They are both fine, but the Butman, 

 in particular, requires much care in. cooking to prevent 

 it from fallmg to pieces, and on that account it is said to 

 be better to cook them by steam than to boil them in 

 water. 



Horticultural Rooms, Dec. 12, 1834. 

 Specimens of a very large and most beautiful apple, 

 by Thomas Whitmarsh, Esq. of Brookline, received by 

 him from the garden of Mr. Andrews of Salem. — The 

 form was round, inclining to oblong — the eye in a deep, 

 broad basin. — The form and size much resembling the 

 Reinette Blanche D'Espagne, — the color delicate yellow 

 or straw, throughout — without a particle of red. The 

 flavor good. These were the only specimens exhibited 

 to-day,— the season being far advanced. 



For the Committee, William Kenrick. 



ITEMS OP INTEI.L.IGENCE. 



Mr. B. Otis, of this city, an artist favorably known, 

 has made two large paintings, representing the tempta- 

 tion of Adam, and the situation of our first parents after 

 tlieir expulsion from Paradise. He has managed the 

 subject with exceeding caution and skill, and presents 

 different times from those chosen by Dubufix-, and has 

 avoided \^'hat was especially exceptionable in the pic- 

 tures of the great foreign artist. The paintings have 

 been justly admired by those who are capable of judging 

 of the various circumsta.ices which go to make up good 

 pictures. They are now at the Masonic Hall, and will 

 for a short time be exhibited in this city. We would 

 enter a caveat against the supposition that these are cop- 

 ies of Dubuffe's ; they are not. The subject has been 

 under the pencil of various artists — none of them, we 

 believe, hM treated it exactly as Mr. Otis has done. 



Swedish and Danish Watchmen. The watchmen of 

 Stockholm, like their brethren of Copenhagen, cry the 

 hours most lustily, and sing anthems almost all night, to 

 the no little annoyance of foreigners, who have been ac- 

 customed to confine their devotions to the day. These 

 important personages of the night, perambulate the town 

 with a curious weapon like a pitchfork, each side of the 

 fork having a spring barb, used in securing a running 

 thief by the leg. The use of it requires some skill and 

 practice, and constitutes no inconsiderable part of the 

 valuable art and mystery of thief-catching. 



Going the entire "Fish." Last Monday, Mr. Ansel 

 Wright and two others of this town caught at the mouth 

 of Danks' Pond, at one haul, with a twenty-five foot net, 

 scrcii thousand two hundred Perch, or at five hauls, thirty 

 three btifliels, the three first hauls weighing one thousand 

 nine hundred nnd tirenty-fivc pounds! This beats old 

 Hadley folks all hollow. They must try again. — JVorth- 

 ampton Courier. 



The New York Star says that there are in the New 

 York jail about twenty unfortunate prisoners, confined 

 for small debts, and have nothing but water allowed 

 them, and that too Manhattan water, — no wood, no bed, 

 no bread, and they subsist upon what tliey can beg from 

 day to day from their more fortunate brethren in adver- 

 sity. 



jj Syren. Le Chameleon, a new French weekly pa- 

 per, states that a fisherman, at St. Vale'rysur Somrae has 

 caught one of the fish anciently called syrens. It is a 

 kind of seal, with the head and breast of a human form, 

 so tliat when half out of the water it exactly resembled a 

 woman. 



Among the Almanacs for 1835, is the ' Comic Alma- 

 nac' with illustrations by Cruikshank ; also among the 

 Pennys is the ' Hat Almanac,' ' Paragon Almanac,' &c. 



