:?u 



i> r^ w iL, .N ijr L. ii i\ u r A K ivi r^ jtt , 



JULY 31, 1839. 



The above is exclusive of 25 lbs. made while [calves the same sprinsf; and the whole milk of one 



fattening three calves. He adds: " My metliod of 

 keeping has been grass only, from spring to lall. In 

 the fall i begin with pumpkins and potatoes, and 

 feed moderately during the time slie gives milk. — 

 An account has been kept for only three yetirs ; 

 but it would not vary much from the above, for the 

 twelve seasons I have had her, except the present 

 season she has been farrow." This cow is now 18 

 years old, "and will calve again about the middle 

 of February." 



Two cows owned ^n Pittsfield, produced each 

 50 lbs. of milk per day ; and one other 32 lbs. at a 

 milking. 



A cow owned by Thomas Hodges, in North Ad- 

 ams, produceii last year 425 lbs. of butter ; 400 lbs. 

 of this amount were made in nine months. Her 

 feed consisted of one quart of rye meal and a half 

 peck of potatoes per day, and very good pasturing. 

 To this list I will add the case of another cow 

 in the neighboring county, whose product must be 

 considered as quite extraordinary. She is owned 

 by Joseph F. Upton, of Ashfield, Franklin county. 

 From the 1st of April, 1837, to the middle of 

 February, 1838, her product was 335 lbs. 15 oz. 

 From the 9th of May, 1838, to tlie 28th of Decem- 

 ber, 1838, she had produced .303 lbs. 3 oz. of butter, 

 and was still making at the rate of one pound per 

 day. 



The owner adds "In the year 1837, I killed my 

 calf at three days old, and gave my cow the skim- 

 med milk through the summer. I commenced the 

 first of October to feed on potatoes. I gave her 

 about one peck per day boiled, as long as she gave 

 milk. In the year 1838,1 fattened my calf and 

 killed it at four weeks old. It weighed 75 pounds. 

 She has had nothing but grass this year, until the 

 first of October ; since then I have fed her with 

 one peck of boiled potatoes per day. My cow is 

 seven years old last spring." Her winter-keep at 

 present, while giving milk, is as mucli hay as she 

 will eat, and one peck of boiled potatoes per day. 

 "Hiese cows are all of native stock, without any 

 admixture of foreign blood. The three cases of 

 largest product certainly cannot be considered as 

 examples of high feeding. It is extremely desira- 

 ble that some skilful farmer should, by a judicious 

 selection from such animals as these, endeavor to 

 form an improved race for the dairy. I have al- 

 ready said that this has been attempted by one 

 gentleman in the State. 



Before I proceed to say what he has accomplish 



of them was taken by her calf during six weeks out 

 of the thirteen. Some of the milk of the other was 

 taken for family use, but the quantity not deter- 

 mined. Under these circumstances, these heifers 

 could not be rated as equal to more than one cow 

 of full age and milk. From this stock, however, 

 thus circumstanced and fed, 389 lbs of butter were 

 made in the thirteen weeks. An additional pound 

 would have given an average of thirty pounds a 

 week for the whole time to a stock which must be 

 in fairness, set down as three cows only. This ex- 

 periment was made in 1837. 



CARROTS. 



Jeremiah Valet, late of Stockbridge, but now an 

 emigrant to the fertile west, a true philosopher in 

 a homely garb — a pure diamond, though never in 

 the hands of the lapidary — (I would not say this if 

 he were not out of the reach of my voice) — was 

 much in the habit of raising carrots, and gave a 

 preference to them over every other vegetable for 

 fattening swine and cattle. This was the result of 

 repeated trials and long experience. To fatting 

 swine he gives them boiled — to store hogs, raw. — 

 His crops average 800 bushels to the acre. 



John Merrill, of South Lee, has been a very suc- 

 cessful cultivator of carrots. He states the yield 

 on two acres at GOO bushels to the acre ; and the 

 cost of cultivation, exclusive of manure and rent of 

 land, at 25 dollars per acre, or a little more than 

 four cents per bushel. For feeding horses, he 

 says, he should prefer one hundred bushels of car- 

 rots and one hundred bushels of oats to two hun- 

 dred bushels of oats. He ap|ilied them in a raw 

 state to the feeding of his team horses, and horses 

 in preparation for market; and they were kept by 

 them in high health and spirits. Oats followed his 

 carrot crop on the same ground with great success. 

 The experience of J. C. Curwen, Eng., in the use 

 of carrots for horses, corresponds with that of Mr 

 Merrill. The authority of (?urwen is unquestiona- 

 ble ; and he' was in ihe habit of employing con- 

 stantly as many as eighty horses on his farm and in 

 his extensive coal mines. 



" I cannot omit," he says, "stating the great 

 profit of carrots. I have foimd by the experience 

 of the last two years, that where eight pounds of 

 oat feeding was allowed to draft horses, four pounds 

 might be taken away and supplied by an equal 

 weight of carrots ; and the health, spirit, and abili- 

 ty of the horses to do their work be perfectly as 



ed, I will mention an interesting fact, communicated igooJ "S with the whole quantity of oats. With 

 to me by an observing farmer of Stockbridge the drill-husbandry and proper attention, very good 



Thirtytwo years since, he became the possessor of 

 a very productive cow; and has continued the 

 breed to this day ; she has never produced a bad 

 milker, and some of her descendants, owned by 

 oilier persons in the village, do equal credit to their 

 parentage. The yield of one of them, which came 

 within my knowledge, is twenty quarts per day. 



DAIRY AND SOILIKO. 



crops of carrots iiiay be obtained upon soils not 

 generally supposed suitable to their growth." 



He adds in another place — "The profits and ad- 

 vantages of carrots are, in my opinicn, greater than 

 any other crop. This admirable root has, upon re- 

 peated and very extensive trials for the last three 

 years, been found to answer most perfectly as a 

 ' part substitute for oats. Where ten pounds of oats 



- „, , , ,,. , „ ! are given per day, four pounds may be taken away 



In VValtliam, Middlesex county, a jrentleman i Ti • i r j u c i c . 



, . . ', , / ^ I and their place supplied by five pounds oi carrots. 



had tour cows ; but not a rod of eround which I rn. • i i, .■ j ■ »u r j- c ■ u. 



, , , . , = " This has been practised in the feeding of eighty 



poll H no nnnrnn-mtprl tn n-ofrnr-irva T^hoaii QTii _ _ _ ... => ^ 



My own experience of the value of carrots, 

 which has not been small, fully confirms these 

 statements. I have obtained at the rate of more 

 than a thousand bushels to the acre on three-quar- 

 ters of an acre; but on several acres my crop has 

 usually averaged COO bushels to the acre. 



Smith, of Middlefield, Hampshire coun- 

 ty, from throe-fourths of an acre obtained 900 bush- 

 els. 



Charles Knowlton, of Ashfield, Franklin county, 

 this year obtained 90 bushels on twelve rods of 

 ground. This was at the rate of 1200 bushels to 

 the acre. 



D. Moore, of Concord, Middlesex county, from 

 six rods of land, obtained this year 56 bushels, or 

 at the rate ol 1493 bushels to the acre. 



According to Josiah Quincy's experience, in 

 Quincy, Plymouth county, charging labor at one 

 dollar per day, his carrots cost him eleven cents 

 per bushel. David' and Stephen Little, in New- 

 bury, Essex county, in 1813, obtained 961 bushels 

 to the acre, at an expense of $79 50, every expense 

 included, excepting rent of land. This was at a 

 rate less than nine cents to a bushel. 



I shall subjoin in the Appendix an account of 

 an experiment made in feeding swine, illustrating 

 the value of this vegetable, from Arthur Young. 



The great objection to the cultivation of carrots 

 lies in the difficulty of keeping them, while grow- 

 ing, free from weeds. If solved without any prep- 

 aration, the seed is a long time in germinating, and 

 a plentiful crop of weeds is liable to get possession 

 of the land before the carrots make their appearance. 

 There is another difficulty. The carrot seed, from 

 its minuteness, is liable to be sowed too thickly. 

 To obviate, in a degree, these objections, let the 

 ground be ploughed deeply, well manured, and put 

 in fine tilth ; and let the first and perhaps the sec- 

 ond crop of weeds be ploughed in. After this, let 

 the land be thrown into ridges two feet apart, and 

 the seetJsown on top of the ridges, either in a sin- 

 gle lire, or the ridges be made so wide as to re- 

 ceive two rows of carrots, eight inches or one foot 

 apart. In the mean time, the seed should be free- 

 ly mixed with fine sand ; and this sand kept so 

 moist that the seed shall germinate. As soon as it 

 is sprouted it should be sown. This may be so 

 arranged that the sowing shall take place about the 

 first of June. They will then have the start of the 

 weeds. The mixture with sand will prevent their 

 being sown too thickly. After the first thinning 

 and weeding is over, if done with care, the battle 

 may be considered as won. Afterwards let them 

 be cultivated with a plough or a cultivator, and 

 kept clean. When the time of digging arrives, the 

 work will be greatly facilitated by passing a plough 

 directly along the side of the carrots ; and they 

 are easily thrown out by the hand. 



could be appropriated to p-sturage. These ani- 

 mals were, therefore, never out of the barn or the 

 barn-yard, and were fed with grass mown for them; 

 with green corn fodder, which had been sown 

 broadcast for this purpose ; and with about three 

 pints of meal each per day. The amount of their 

 produce was kept for thirteen weeks. Two of these 

 animals were heifers of two years old, who had 



horses for the last three years, with the most com- 

 plete success, and the health and condition of the 

 horses allowed to be improved by the exchange. 

 An acre of carrots supplies an equal quantity of 

 food for working horses, as sixteen to twenty acres 

 of oats."* 



*Curwen's Hints on Agriculiural Subjects. 



Millet. — It is stated in a work on agriculture, 

 that a gentleman in Pennsylvania sowed a peck to 

 the acre the last of May — sowed four acres — cut 

 middle of August, and suffered to dry in the sun for 

 two or three days — produce 75 bushels of seed and 

 one and a half tons of fodder to the acre. Cattle 

 relish it The produce per acre is frequently much 

 greater than stated above. It is often cut in the 

 milk. It is first sown in drills about three feet 

 apart, and the plants should stand six inches from 

 each other in the rows after hoeing. In this lati- 

 tude (New Jersey) it may be sown from the middle 

 of .May to the 20th of June. — Corr. Farmer's Cabinet. 



