1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



149 



dition, and the team is stronger, than in the 

 Spring. By plowing late in the Autumn, all the 

 insects in the soil will be dislodged from their 

 hiding places, and thrown up to the surface, and 

 destroyed by the frosts of Winter. Besides, Fall 

 plowing causes all the vegetable matter in the soil 

 to decompose, and prepare food for future crop, 



2. When is the best time for cutting and curing 

 hay ? 



On this subject there is a great discrepancy of 

 opinion and practice. Most farmers have been in 

 the habit of letting their grass stand till it Avas 

 fully ripe — till the heads were plump and full of 

 seed, the stems dry, hard and wiry, the leaves 

 changed to a brownish color, and the sap depart- 

 ed — before beginning the operation of haying. And 

 as they had much grass to cut, and were a long 

 time in cutting and curing it, a great deal of 

 it became dead ripe, as wiry and tough as sole 

 leather, and of little or no value. The loss which 

 farmers have sustained by letting their grass get 

 too ripe before cutting it is immense. And yet 

 many still neglect to cut their grass till it has 

 gone to seed, because it is more easily cured — not 

 considering that, in perfecting the seed, the stems 

 and leaves are exhausted of all their starchy and 

 saccharine substance, it being consumed in form- 

 ing the seed, so that there is little or no nutri- 

 ment or fattening quality left. 



The best time for cutting and curing all kinds 

 of grass, is, perhaps, the period of inflorescence, 

 when the grass is in full bloom, or just beginning 

 to blossom. The grass has now attained its chief 

 development ; and there is the greatest flow of 

 juice in the stems and leaves. If cut at this pe- 

 riod and cured well, it will contain a quantity of 

 rich and nourishing matter nearly double to what 

 it docs when allowed to get dead ripe. Horses 

 and cattle like early cut hay better than late cut 

 hay. They will fatten on it, too ; Avhile they will 

 barely subsist on that which is cut late. The 

 same is the eff"ect upon cows in milk. They will 

 make more and better butter and cheese, when 

 fed on early cut hay, than on that which has stood 

 till it has lost its rich and nourishing qualities. 

 The best time to cut and cure hay, then, is that 

 which will secui-e the most of the natural juices in 

 the hay. JouN Goldsbury. 



Warwick, Mass., 1860. 



THE ARCTIC SHAKK. 



I much wish to capture one of these monsters 

 (sharks,) as wonderful stories are told us of then' 

 doings in Greenland ; whether they are the Avhite 

 shark or the basking shark of natural history, I 

 cannot find out. It is only of late years that the 

 shark fishery has been carried on to any extent in 

 Greenland ; they are captured for the sake of theii- 

 livers, which yield a considerable quantity of oil. 

 It has very recently been ascertained that a valu- 

 able substance resembling spermaceti may be ex- 

 pressed from the carcase, and for this purpose 

 powerful screw presses are now employed. In ear- 

 ly winter the sharks are caught with hook and 

 lines through holes in the ice. 



The Esquimaux assert that they are insensible 

 to pain ; and Petersen assures me he has plunged 

 a long knife several times into the head of one 

 whilst it continued to feed upon a white whale 

 entangled in his net ! It is not sufficient to di-ive 



them away with sundry thrusts of spears or 

 knives, but they must be towed away to some dis- 

 tance from the nets, otherwise they will ixturn to 

 feed. It must be remembered that the brain of a 

 shark is extremely small in proportion to the size 

 of its huge head. I have seen bulleta fir^d through 

 them with very little apparent effect ; but if these 

 creatures can feel, the devices practiced upon 

 them by the Esquimaux must be cruel indeed. 



It is only in certain localities that sharks are 

 found, and in these places they are often attract- 

 ed to the nets by the animals entangled in them. 

 The dogs are not suffered to eat either the skin or 

 the head, the former in consequence of its ex- 

 treme roughness, and the the latter because it 

 causes giddiness and makes them sick. — McOlin- 

 tock's Narrative. 



For trie New England Fanner. 



FAKMITsTG AS A BUSLNESS. 



Messrs. Editors : — "Is forming profitable ?" 

 must, ere this, have become quite familiar to your 

 eyes. Mr. Pinkham's article has provoked so 

 much discussion upon the above topic, that one 

 Avould reasonably suppose the matter ought already 

 to be settled beyond the possibility of a doubt : 

 but it seems people do not all think alike yet, for 

 your paper of Jan. 14th shows us that "Newbury, 

 Vt.," has its Pinkham — perhaps, however, only 

 in the comparative degree — who claims to have 

 shown that stock-raising as a ])art of farming is 

 not profitable. I think it is evident that "T. A. 

 Bailey" shows stock-raising to be jn-ofitable ; not 

 in the abstract, but as an inseparable part of whole- 

 some farming. Allowing his figures to be strictly 

 correct, we have the following result, viz. : A 

 four-years old colt, a veal of one month, a sheep, 

 with her four years' progeny, and a calf raised to 

 two and one-half years, have extracted $3.71 from 

 his pocket, and so he thinks he is so much poorer ; 

 but has his farm not gained, much more than his 

 "port-monnaie" has lost ? If I wished to arrive 

 at the true results of farming, I should as soon 

 think of figuring up the profits of pulling chick- 

 weed as of raising calves, or corn, or grass, alone. 

 These, with many other matters, go to make up 

 the aggregate of farming, and must all be taken 

 into account ; not on one farm, not for one year, 

 but the whole farming interest, for a series of 

 years. Mr. Pinkham can calculate and Mr. Bailey 

 figure, and yet people will not be convinced that 

 farming is a losing business, when facts show to 

 the contrary. How does it happen that an intel- 

 ligent and industrious young man buys a farm, 

 and only half pays for it, but eventually leaves it 

 unencumbered and much improved, to a family 

 of children, whom he has well-fed, clothed and 

 educated from the proceeds of said farm, if farm- 

 ing is not profitable ? 



Such instances are by no means rare. I will 

 ask, are not farmers, as a whole, much more 

 wealthy and independent now than they were a 

 few years ago ? And how is this, if farming is 

 not profitable? for they have "lived Avell," and 

 their sons and daughters have not been "brought 

 up" for a trifling amount. All comes from the 

 farm, and yet farming is a losing business ! 'Tis 

 well that farmers do not all think alike, for then we 

 might be flooded with "short horns," to the exclu- 



