102 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



hay always before them did not do so well as 

 those to which the quantity was limited. He fed 

 his horses with straw and dry oats, and found 

 them better in every way for it. The trade of a 

 farmer he considered harder to learn than any 

 other, but he thought that, without the aid of sci- 

 ence, a man might make an excellent farmer from 

 observation alone. 



He spoke of farms in the Hoosac Valley, some 

 of which were formed on lime rock, while others 

 were entirely without it, and where this lime did 

 not exist, it was found that the cattle would eat 

 all the bones they could find, and in lieu of this, 

 the farmers on these lands were in the habit of 

 putting lime in their food. Dr. Cole considered 

 the shelter of cattle in the winter as a very impor- 

 tant matter, as also their water. Farmers who 

 had pure springs running through their cattle 

 yards, and who had not to drive their animals a 

 mile or two in the frost and cold daily to water 

 them, other things being equal, would always find 

 them come out better in the spring ; cattle sub- 

 jected to cold winds always requiring more food 

 than those better sheltered. The speaker referred 

 also to the ventilation of barns as a matter of 

 great importance. He said that a neighbor of 

 his owned a large quantity of land on which grew 

 what was termed fresh meadow hay, and this he 

 mixed with a portion of upland hay, and found an 

 excellent feed for young cattle. 



Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, was the next speaker. He agreed with Dr. 

 Cole, that one of the most important points in 

 keeping stock in the winter is in sheltering it. 

 Around Boston the barns were too well built, if 

 that could be said, but they have not such good 

 ventilation as they should have, while, throughout 

 other parts of the State, this was the reverse. In 

 North Brookfield, said the speaker, on those 

 farms where the ravages of the pleuro-pneumonia 

 were the greatest, the barns were so wretchedly 

 built that you could poke your fist through al- 

 most any part. There was no question in his 

 mind that milk was lost by driving cows out to 

 water on a cold day, and where it was practicable 

 he should prefer to give it them in the barn, with 

 the chill taken off. Although exercise was of de- 

 cided benefit to cattle he should only let them 

 have it during the warm days of winter. 



The fresh meadow hay spoken of by Dr. Cole 

 was of the same character as much in Essex and 

 Middlesex counties, and he thought that swale 

 grasses mixed with hay was sometimes good feed, 

 but he considered oat straw more valuable. For 

 feeding to cows in milk, and sheep, he thought 

 clover well made was the best food. The farmers 

 in Scotland, said he, cut their oat straw before 

 it is dead ripe, and one fault we commit is in let- 

 ting our grains grow too ripe, and thus lose the 



nutriment in the straw. Oats should be cut 

 when the straw begins to be yellow just below the 

 grain, and then the grain is better and the feed is 

 excellent. For feeding milch cows, grasses 

 should be cut just before coming into blossom, 

 and for store cattle when in full flower ; the ob- 

 ject in curing grasses being to preserve the most 

 of the juicy and nutritious qualities. 



Mr. Washburn, of Worcester, said he was 

 present as a mechanic, but he wished to call the 

 attention of the Society to a fact in relation to a 

 horse belonging to a baker in Worcester, which 

 was noted for its endurance, appearance and 

 speed, and which was fed entirely on brown 

 bread, and said that during his travels in Switzer- 

 land he found they there fed their horses on the 

 same substance. His baker told him that the 

 expense of feeding was much less than on ordina- 

 ry feed, and he wished at some future meeting to 

 hear the subject of the cooking of food for horses 

 discussed. 



Mr. WlTHERELL, of Boston, spoke of an ex- 

 periment made by a farmer in Sunderland, in 

 feeding hogs on cooked and uncooked food, and 

 he found the advantage, if any, to be in favor of 

 the uncooked. He gave lengthy statistics of the 

 relative nutritive and flesh- forming qualities of 

 the different kinds of feed from experiments made 

 by Mr. Fletcher, an English chemist. 



Mr. Andrews, of Roxbury, said he was in the 

 habit of feeding many cattle for milk, and last 

 year he fed not over two quarts of cotton seed 

 meal to each cow per day, with the best effects, 

 and thought it was the best feed he had found 

 yet, as he got better milk and more of it. In 

 feeding horses he thought too much hay was giv- 

 en. His experience in cooking food had been 

 confined to hogs, and the food so cooked was 

 meal, but he found that his pork cost him 12^ 

 cts. per pound, when he could have bought for 8 

 or 9 cts. He had been feeding half a bushel of 

 mangolds per cow since the middle of December, 

 and had found no ill effects from it. He gave 

 the cotton seed meal in cut feed, with poor hay, 

 corn stalks, &c. 



Mr. Ward, of Fairhaven, said it had been 

 stated that cooking food had not been found pro- 

 fitable, but he questioned whether the manner of 

 cooking it did not make some difference. He 

 spoke of the brown bread experiment, and 

 tliought somctlung Viiigiit be leatneu fiOiu that. 



Mr. FiSKE, of Shelburne, thought the experi- 

 ments in England and Scotland would not apply 

 here, where labor could not be had for twenty cents 

 per day ; it was as much as farmers could do to 

 cook for themselves, and we were glad to find 

 English hay, carrots, turnips, &c., in the ground 

 for our cattle. We have little knowledge, said 

 he, of chemistry, but Ave know that there is water 



