1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



137 



A WINTER AQRICUIiTUBAL VISIT. 



A Good Company — Deep Snows 

 — A Siitn Out — Apple Crop — 

 Large Stock of Ca,ttle— Fine 

 Ayrshire Cows anfi Hoif-rs — 

 Cut p'orider — Steaming Food — 

 MilU Dusiness — Chat at the 

 Dinner-Table, and a new pow- 

 er in agricultural pursuits. 



AST WEEK we had the 

 pleasure of making a 

 winter agricultural visit 

 to the farm of H. H. Pe- 

 TEKS, Esq., in Southboro'. 

 Mr. P. had a thorough 

 training on the farm in 

 his youth, and a love for 

 the calling, which no 

 blandishments of the 

 counting-house or com- 

 mercial enterprise could 

 ever eradicate. Influenced, however, by a desire 

 to see a little more of the world, and to indulge 

 the feelings of romance so common to our young 

 men, he Avent to California, and amid the varied 

 turnings of fortune's wheel, came out at the "top 

 of the heap," with his "pockets full of rocks;" 

 and then, like a sensible man, came back to his 

 native New England, and to the cultivation of 

 the soil. His farm consists of about three hun- 

 dred acres, of moist, granitic soil, made up of hill 

 and vale, giving him such a variety in texture 

 and position, as to enable him to cultivate suc- 

 cessfully most of the crops common in Massachu- 

 setts. 



We were accompanied by Mr. George M. 

 Barrett, who usually winters from fifty to sev- 

 enty-five head of cattle, and who is well known 

 by cattle dealers as a breeder of fine AjTshire 

 stock ; by Elijah Wood, Jr., a gentleman who 

 is managing, with a decided profit, some six 

 hundred acres of land, and who had at one time 

 last winter ninety-nine head of cattle in the lean- 

 tos. Our third companion was Dr. Joseph Rey- 

 nolds, a physician and chemist, a gentleman im- 

 bued with a deep love for farming, and who tills 

 his few acres skillfully and profitably. The writer 

 finished out the quartette, and it may not be vani- 

 ty to say, that, with this aggregation of a practi- 

 cal knowledge of farming, scientific attainment 

 and long and scrutinizing observation, it was a 

 company abundantly capable of examining and 

 criticising what our host had to present. 



Snow drifts impeded our progress somewhat, 

 as we were obliged to travel occasionally on a 

 level with the tops of the stone walls. Approach- 

 ing within a mile of the pleasant village of South- 

 boro', we saw a sign of the farm we were looking 

 for ; not a sign which indicated that a tavern was 

 near, as in the halcyon days of stages and six 

 miles an hour, but a sign set in the ground, a 



sign of thrift and progress, in the shape of six 

 acres set to dwarf and standard pears. The crop 

 for the last season we did not think to inquire 

 for. We observed two or three fine young or- 

 chards, and many old trees that had been worked 

 over. His crop of apples last fall was but a little 

 less than a thousand barrels. 



In his stalls we found about seventy-five head 

 of cattle and three or four horses. Twenty-five 

 head of the cattle <vere mixed bloods, and pre- 

 sented nothing of special importance. In anoth- 

 er portion of the barn were some twenty-five or 

 thirty full blood Ayrshire cows and heifers that 

 were worth a much longer journey than we had 

 made to see. Several of them were very beauti- 

 ful, and one, a seven year old cow, a model. We 

 have seen nothing more beautiful in color, coun- 

 tenance or symmetry, — and we were informed 

 that she was excellent in her productive qualities, 

 though equalled in this respect by some others 

 of the herd. In another barn we saw some 

 twenty or thirty calves — yearlings next spring — 

 all full blood, and most of them promising great 

 excellence. They were of good size, their coun- 

 tenances M'ere bright, appetites keen, their skim 

 loose and soft to the touch, and their hair silky 

 and glossy. They promise well for the future- 

 dairies of New England. Near them were twa: 

 Ayrshire bulls, one a three and the other a two* 

 year old. The former was, especially, of extraor- 

 dinary beauty. Many of these Ayrshire cattle 

 were imported by Mr. Peters, and the others 

 are their progeny. 



All these cattle are kept upon cut fodder, 

 steamed, a little meal of some kind being mixed 

 with it. The fodder used includes hay, corn 

 stover, oat, barley and wheat straw and chaff. 

 This is placed in a large, tight box, made of 

 chestnut plank ; the cut feed is thrown into it in 

 layers — the meal sprinkled upon it and steam ad- 

 mitted. This is done, if we understood him cor- 

 rectly, twice each day, so that the food remains 

 in the cooking process about twelve hours. It 

 comes out of the boxes thoroughly moistened, 

 soft, a little pasty, and with the odor of a batch 

 of newly-drawn brown bread ; this is fed to the 

 cattle three times each day, and in addition, 

 small supplies of roots, at an expense, Mr. Pe- 

 ters says, of fifteen cents per day. It was the 

 opinion of two of the party, at least, that, under a 

 perfected system of steaming, the cost may be 

 considerably less than this sum. Under this 

 treatment, the cattle were in excellent condition, 

 and the cows were yielding a large amount of 

 milk. Something of this, however, must be ow- 

 ing to the neatness and regularity which pervad- 

 ed everything — as the more comfortable and con- 

 tented cattle are made, the more will they pro- 

 duce upon a given quantity of food. 



