310 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



bovs to stop on the farm and give them early a 

 few of the superfluous acres that are now idle or 

 half cultivated, which is worse than idle ; induce 

 them to plant this land with fruit and other trees, 

 with a view, one day, of having their home upon 

 it, and they will find it hard to leave such pleasant 

 places. 



But there is another side to this picture. Let 

 us look at' it. Every farmer's son who goes to 

 the city does not turn out an Amos Lawrence ; 

 nine out of every ton fail, and ultimately die in 

 hopeless poverty or in debt, which they don't try 

 to pay, because that would deprive them of the 

 means of living easily. How many of them strug- 

 gle on for years and years on a scanty salary, and 

 die without ever being able to command their 

 own time ; and then look, at that host of young 

 men in cities who spend their evenings in dram- 

 shops and gambling houses, and their nights in 

 places not to be named. Is it not worth some- 

 thing to escape the strong and often too powerful 

 temptations to such things as these ? I think it 

 is within the truth when I say one-fourth of all 

 the young men from the country are drawn in by 

 these terrible vices ; they don't all go down in 

 open sight, but how many tire scarred all over by 

 their sins, and still live along with a decent show 

 of respectability. Let any city man look back 

 forty years and see how his pathway is strewed 

 with the wrecks of his acquaintances. Now I ask 

 country fathers, and especially country mothers, if 

 they wish their sons to run this great risk for the 

 sake of more money than they really need ? If 

 not, then let them make their home so pleasant 

 that they can't be hired to leave it. The tempta- 

 tions to cheat in order to get rich are greater in 

 trade than elsewhere ; then let us pause before we 

 place our sons in the way of such strong tempta- 

 tion to coin their souls into dollars, a risk to me 

 as fearful as the others. Let farmers think more 

 and their labors will be lighter — use their brains 

 more and their hands less. x. 



A VALUABLE PAINT. 



For the information of all who are wishing to 

 obtain a cheap and valuable paint for buildings, I 

 ■would say, take common clay, (the same that our 

 common bricks are made of,) dry, pulverize, and 

 run it through a sieve, and mix with linseed oil. 

 You then have a first rate fire-proof paint, of a 

 delicate drab color. Put on as thick as practica- 

 ble. If any one has doubts with regard to the 

 above, just try it on a small scale — paint a shin- 

 gle and let it dry. Recollect that it must be 

 mixed thicker than common paints. 



The clay, when first dug, will soon drj', spread 

 it in the air under a shelter, or, if wanted imme- 

 diately, it may be dried in a kettle over a fire. 

 When dry, it will be in lumps, and can be pulver- 

 ized by placing an iron kettle a few inches in the 

 ground, containing the clay, and pounding it with 

 the end of a billet of hard wood, three inches in 

 diameter, three feet long, the lower end to be a 

 little rounded. Then sift it. 



Any clay will make paint, but the colors may 

 differ, which can easily be ascertained by try- 

 ing them on a small scale as above indicated. By 

 burning the clay slightly, you will get a light red, 

 and the greater the heat you subject it to, the 

 brighter or deeper red. — Country Qeyitleman. 



For tfie New Englaiid Farmer. 

 FEEDING CATTLE. 



[Read before the Groton Farmers' and Mechanics' Club, Feb. 

 6, 1860, by George S. Boctwell.] 



It is now the fourth winter that I have fed my 

 milcli cows upon cooked food. The food gener- 

 ally consists of the husks and stalks of corn, bar- 

 ley or cut straw, meal, (corn and cobs ground to- 

 gether,) shorts, and rice meal, mixed with boiling 

 water, and allowed to stand from nine to twelve 

 hours before it is given to the cattle. I am now feed- 

 ing together fifteen cows, three yearlings, and one 

 calf ten months old. I consider the nineteen equal 

 to eighteen cows, and their daily allowance of 

 food is as follows : 



168 pounds of husks and barley straw, at $8 per ton 67 



1 bush, shorts, 25c, \ bush, cob meal, 28c 53 



\ bush, rice meal, 25c, 2 bush, mangold wurtzel, 40 65 



100 lbs. hay, at $15 75 



18)$2,60 

 Dally expense per cow 14 4-0 



In this statement no account is made of the fuel 

 used or the labor of tending the cattle, the ma- 

 nure being ample remuneration therefor. The hay 

 is fed dry, and the roots are given at noon. It is 

 to be observed, in forming an opinion of the econ- 

 omy of feeding cattle in the manner above des- 

 cribed, that the fifteen cows are giving milk, many 

 of them feeding liberally, and that they conse- 

 quently consume more food than cows which are 

 not kept for that purpose. It is to be observed, 

 also, that the husks are estimated at a price fur 

 above their saleable value, and far above the re- 

 turn that they yield to farmers who feed them dry 

 and long. The cost per day, 14 4-9 cents, would 

 purchase about 19J pounds of hay at fifteen dol- 

 lars per ton, and this amount will support a cow, 

 but her yield of milk upon hay alone will be very 

 small. According to the foregoing estimate, a cow 

 that gives a trifle more than half a can of milk 

 per day will support herself; and good cows will 

 do more than this. I have a cow that gave from 

 the 16th of April, 1859, to Dec. 20, 1859, 259 

 days, an average of 21§ pounds of milk per day, 

 or 280^ cans in that period of time. Her yield 

 for the year will be at least 300 cans, which, at 

 22h. cents, the average price, will amount to 

 $67,50. The cost of keeping may be estimated as 

 follows : 



For 180 days, at 14 4-9 cents per day $26,00 



p'or 185 days, at 7 cents per day 12,95 



For rent of barn 5,00 — $43,95 



Yield for tlie year 67,50 



Profit $23,05 



I may also mention a heifer, three years old, 

 grade one-half Ayrshire, that* dropped her calf 

 March 30th, 1859, and that, by the 30th of March, 

 1860, will have given 275 cans of milk. These 

 are among the best milkers, but the poorest of 

 my stock will yield 200 cans. I mention these facts 

 to show that the food described is adapted to pro- 

 duce milk. I am quite confident that but few cows 

 will yield two hundred cans per year when fed up- 

 on dry hay in the winter, and I am also confident 

 that farmers generally overestimate the milk-giv- 

 ing properties of their cows. For a few weeks in 

 the summer the daily yield is very large, and the 

 estimate is based in good degree upon that, while 

 in fact there are nine months when the quantity 



