486 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



crops of grass, and the higher lands had not been 

 reclaimed at all, — so that very little fodder could 

 be cut to sustain the stock. Eighty tons of hay 

 ■were, therefore, purchased last year, at a cost of 

 $16 per ton, amounting to $1280 ; and yet, un- 

 der this disadvantage, the Superintendent finds 

 he can make the milk cheaper than it had been 

 purchased. He is also able to use a larger quan- 

 tity, and of better quality of milk than when it 

 v/as brought to them from considerable distances. 

 Beside the thirty-tivo cows, we found six pairs of 

 noble oxen that are constantly kept at work in 

 pulling stumps, stones, carting manure and the 

 materials for making it, plowing and getting the 

 land into grass, and doiug the ordinary team 

 work, such as hauling coal, &c. 



By sowing oats, millet, fodder corn, &c., and by 

 careful and systematic attention in feeding, the 

 Superintendent is enabled to furnish food for this 

 large stock through the summer, and keep them 

 all in excellent condition. The oxen and cows 

 were in good flesh, and some of them in each 

 class were good beef, although giving milk, or 

 daily in the yoke. Much of the sandy land is 

 covered with roots for winter feed, or will pro- 

 duce its two crops this season, while the teams, 

 with all the other force he can spare, are subdu- 

 ing the hard land, so that in less than five years, 

 with the manure from this large stock and the 

 well-directed labor in preparing the land for it, 

 hay enough will be cut to supply the place of all 

 that he is now purchasing ! Beside the neat 

 stock on the farm, there are three horses kept 

 and some tlirec hundred sivine. The manure from 

 this large stock, and the sewerage from the build- 

 ings, properly managed, may soon bring the 

 whole farm into the condition of a highly cultivat- 

 ed garden. 



The feed of the cattle is varied both in summer 

 and winter, by giving them various green crops 

 in the summer, with a little grain, and in winter 

 by cutting the hay and mixing with grain or 

 roots and feeding occasionally upon long hay. 

 About two thousand bushels of potatoes will be 

 raised this year, and some three thousand bushels 

 of c;\rrots and other roots. 



Mr. Marsh had just finished a new bai'n, 40 by 

 60 feet, with 20 foot posts, with a cellar under 

 the whole 9^ feet in the clear, with a cement bot- 

 tom. Every part of this barn was built, we un- 

 derstood him to say, by the labor of the Institu- 

 tion, with the exception of the slating. This barn 

 is intended for storing purposes, and not for stock, 

 and for such use is a model building. 



The farm greatly needs pasture lands, so that a 

 portion of those now devoted to green fodder may 

 be set in permanent mowing fields, and as there 

 is such lanl within a hundred rods of the build- 

 ings, and adjoining the farm, wo hope the State 



will supply the deficiency. A farm with only 130 

 acres is not sufficient for a family numbering 700 

 persons, many of them able and willing laborers. 



What struck us pleasantly on the premises were 

 the quietness and order that everywhere pre- 

 vailed ; every person knew his duty, and certain- 

 ly seemed to be interested in its faithful dis- 

 charge. The Inspectors are, Messrs. George 

 Foster, ofAndover, Dana Holden, of Billerica, 

 Stephen Manson, of Lowell, and Thomas J. 

 Marsh, Superintendent. 



We congratulate His Excellency on these judi- 

 cious and happy appointments, and the State in 

 the possession of such skilful and faithful officers. 



EXTRACTS AWD REPLIES. 



BARRELS AND BUSHELS. 



In examining your valuable table in the monthly 

 Farmer, page 400, I find some very important mis- 

 takes, or else I make some in casting. 



24x16x28=10,752 the dimensions for a barrel of 5 

 bushels, (your figures say) hut I suppose j'ou mean 3. 



10,752 -=-3=3584, the number of inches in a bushel. 



24x16x12=4608, number of inches in a half barrel. 

 4608x2=9216-^3=3072 inches in a bushel. 



26 x 15.8x8=3286 inches in a bushel. 



12x11.2x8=1075x4=4300 inches in a bushel, so 

 that you see that it makes quite a difference in the 

 number of inches in a bushel. The figures stand thus : 



Dimensions for a barrel 3584 to the bushel. 



Dimensions for one-half a barrel 3072 " " 



piraensioiis for a bushel 3286 " " 



Dimensions for a peck 4300 " " 



Now the question is, which of the dimensions is 

 right, if any ? You do not tell us whether your boxes 

 will hold so much gi-ain or apples and potatoes. I 

 suppose you must mean heaped measure. 



Methuen. 



N. B. Will not a box 18)2 inches square and 8 inches 

 deep contain a bushel ? 



Remarks. — We found the table referred to in one 

 of our exchanges, and supposing it correct did not test 

 its figures, as we otherwise should. The English bush- 

 el contains 2150.42 cu])ic Inches, — this is the Ijushel re- 

 ferred to in the table, and our correspondent will see 

 that the figures for the barrel are right, allowing it to 

 hold 5 bushels. A tierce would be the proper name 

 for it. The box for the half-barrel, (or tierce,) should 

 have been 14 inches deep instead of 12. The box you 

 suppose, will contain 2738 cubic inches. 



THE WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



Mr. Editor : — In* your terse "Talk about Septem- 

 ber," in speaking of the changes of the season and the 

 ceasing songs of Nature's minstrels, you say, "The 

 whip-poor-will is not heard much after July comes in." 

 Do they usually cease their nightly carol on or .about 

 July in Masssacluu;etts ? Here in Maine, this year 

 being the first time observed, in 44° 90', their song was 

 kept up till September as men'ily as ever, with short 

 inteiTuptions in the last part of August. Where 

 they go to, and when they leave different places, 

 would be information thankfully received from you 

 and your correspondents by many lovers of birds. Let 

 us all l)c more observing of birds and commTinicate 

 what wc learn. 0. W. True. 



Elm Tree Farm, Me. 



Remarks. — Nuttall, m his admirable "Manual of 

 the Ornithology of the United States," in speaking of 

 the Whip-poor-will, says : "After the period of incu- 

 bation, or about the middle of June, the vociferations of 

 the male cease, or are but rarely given. Towards the 



