180 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Apeil 



shorts, and the consequence was he had more, and 

 better milk, and his 18 cows were worth more 

 than the 25 would have been. He used no roots. 

 Mr. Gardner, of Swansey, was in favor of root 

 feeding, and said he had seen cattle kept in good 

 order on straw, given morning and night, with half 

 a bushel of roots at noon. Corn fodder was good, 

 and he would give as much for the corn-fodder 

 from an acre of ground, as for the English hay, 

 produced on an acre for stock feeding. The ques- 

 tioB, in his opinion, should be, how can a man do 

 the best with what he has ? 



Mr. Asa. SnELDON, of Wilmington, considered 

 English hay and Indian corn the best articles of 

 food, and the relative value of roots as follows : 4 

 lbs. of potatoes or carrots equal to 1 of corn, while 

 8 lbs. of turnips were equal to the same quantity. 

 This latter he considered very i)oor feed for work- 

 ing oxen. The profit on turnips depended on the 

 location where they were raised, as where manure 

 was cheap near large cities, they could be much 

 more profitably raised than where it was worth 

 $8- Hay does not follow so well after turnips or po- 

 tatoes, as they draw hard on the soil. Some far- 

 mers have not much meadow hay, but Mr. Sheldon 

 said that the farmers around him were obliged to 

 tliink it worth something. He said he considered 

 land that produced good meadow haj', requiring 

 no expense year after year but that of cutting the 

 crop, was as profitable land as a farmer could 

 have. He thought sugar was needed to make 

 meadow hay approach the English. He said he 

 chopped his meadow hay and mixed it overnight 

 with Hvarm water sweetened with a little molasses 

 in a tight box, thus steaming it, and he found it 

 did very well. He also gave his cattle many small 

 potatoes, not being able to afford to give them the 

 larger ones, as he had a good market for them, and 

 he considered this was good for them. He consid- 

 ered Indian and rye meal about alike, though he 

 preferred the latter for milk. He also thought one 

 ton' of di-y corn-stalks well cured are worth more 

 than the same green, and as good as a ton of Eng- 

 lish hay, and that working oxen would travel 

 longer on corn huts than on any other food. He 

 convulsed the audience with laughter by relating 

 to them a couple of anecdotes of feeding cattle with 

 roots alone. 



Mr. Wetheeell, of Boston, spoke of the "stock 

 of Mr. Peters, and argued that although his feed 

 was poor, by regularity and system he kept them 

 in excellent condition. 



Col, Heaed, of Waj'land, considered a corn 

 crop was one of the best a farmer could grow, but 

 the great trouble wae, farmers did not cure it 

 properly. He cut corn at the roots, a little later 

 than is commonly done, and cured in the air, as 

 he considered this better than curing in the 

 shade. ^ He alluded to a neighbor of his, Josiah I 



M. Thomas, whom he considered a model farmer, 

 and gave his plan of feeding twenty cows. In the 

 winter he puts them in the barn, and keeps them 

 there until spring, feeding them three times a 

 day on cob meal and oil meal, and watering them 

 twice. His stock is kept for milk, and he thinks 

 his corn crop the best. He buys but little ma- 

 nure. 



Mr. Latheop, of South Hadley, spoke of his 

 experience in feeding stock, and recommended 

 the selection of the best animals, and then the 

 best feed, as he considered cattle improved so 

 much better on the best than a medium quality of 

 food. He would give them all the good hay they 

 will eat, and two quarts of meal per day. He 

 spoke of oil cake and cotton seed cake, and said 

 that among his neighbors the latter had been 

 found, as fed, to be fatal to calves, and that it 

 caused cows to give milk at the expense of the 

 carcase. He related the experiences of several of 

 his neighbors, and said that now, when they feed 

 cotton seed cake, they grind the seed after the 

 fur, which was supposed to be the injurious part, 

 had been separated, and feed it clean. This v,-as 

 thought to be good, and he had heard no com- 

 plaints of any injurious efiects. 



Mr. Eddy, of Oxford, advocated regularity of 

 feeding, and the preparation of the food so that 

 the cattle would have the most time to rest and 

 digest it, as an important element in feeding 

 stock. 



Two or three other gentlemen spoke on the 

 same subject, when the chairman hoped farmers 

 would experiment in steaming food so as to be 

 able to report next year on a matter of so much 

 importance. The meeting then adjourned to Tues- 

 day evening next. 



The subject for discussion will be, "Wliat are 

 the best measures that our agricultural societies 

 can adopt to satisfy the public conclusively which 

 are the most profitable breeds of cattle for the 

 farmers of New England to keep on their farms : 

 1st, for the dairy; 2d, for the yoke; and 3d, for 

 the shambles ?" Hon. JouN S. Eldeidge, of Can- 

 ton, will preside. 



To Correspondents. — The comparative leis- 

 ure of winter, with the farmer, and a new impulse 

 which has awakened thousands to a sense of the 

 pleasures and profits of the profession, lead, as 

 we supposed it would, to a more direct, personal 

 interest in its affairs. This is made evident in the 

 unusual attention paid to the matter of writing 

 fur newspapers. There is no way in which one 

 can gain agricultural information so readily and 

 so rapidly, as by imparting his own knowledge to 

 others. He feels the responsibility of an assertion, 

 and observes and studies for the facts to sustain 



