1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



545 



fodder, because cattle and horses -will eat much 

 less, when they are kept warm and dry. 



Now is the time for farmers to gather in their 

 last harvest, a harvest of leaves. No work done 

 at this season of the year will make a better re- 

 turn than this. Those in the country who live 

 near a forest, or whose streets are adorned with 

 ancient shade trees, have no excuse for neglecting 

 this business. In a single day, a farmer and his 

 boys will be able to gather together a large pile 

 of these fallen leaves ; and if stowed away in a 

 dry place, he Avill experience the. good effects of 

 them in the improved condition of his stock, com- 

 pared Avith those which are suffered to lie down 

 in their own filth. Besides, the fertilizing prop- 

 erty of the leaves adds essentially to the enrich- 

 ing qualities of the manure heap. 



John Goldsbury. 



Warwick, Nov. 11, 1861. 



WHITTEMORE'S PATENT VEGETABLE 

 CUTTER. 



The opinion that the culture of roots for feeding 

 stock is profitable, is not generally embraced by 

 our farmers, — but it is gradually gaining ground. 

 Careful and systematic cultivators ai-e here and 

 there disseminating their experiments and results, 

 and thereby inducing many to enter the field of 

 experiment for themselves. 



To cultivate roots, as fodder, in the old way, 

 by the hand and hand hoe, would settle the ques- 

 tion of profit at once, — it could not be done. To 

 make the practice profitable the farmer must call 

 to his aid the genius of the mechanic, and avail 

 himself of the labor-saving machines which he 

 has placed before him. He must do most of the 

 cultivation with the subsoil plow, horse hoe or 

 cultivator and the hand wheel hoe, which he can 

 now command. 



When his crop has been secured, he must not 

 content himself with covering his barn floor with 



mangolds, beets or bagas, and cut them with a 

 shovel, or in a box, at the rate of five bushels per 

 hour, and hard work at that, but bring to his aid 

 some machine which will enable him to do what 

 our friends say their Cutter will accomplish, — cut 

 sixty bushels per hour ! 



We have not seen the machine which they de- 

 scribe below, in motion, but from our knowledge 

 of the men, and their ability to devise and make 

 a good machine, we have no doubt they are able 

 to make their assertion good. They say : 



This machine we consider the best in the mar- 

 ket for cutting all kinds of vegetables. It is 

 made with a wrought shaft, with sections of knives 

 attached, and arranged so that a rotation of knives 

 are continually passing a bed knife, with cross 

 knives passing between the sections of knives, 

 cutting always near the centre or shaft, making 

 it cut easy and fine enough for cattle or sheep, — 

 also making a very regular cut. It will cut sixty 

 bushels per hour. 



Manufactured and sold by Whittemore, Belclier 

 & Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass., and for sale by im- 

 plement dealers generally. 



USE OF SWEET APPLES. 



A sweet apple, sound and fair, has a deal of 

 sugar or saccharine in its composition. It is, 

 therefore, nutritious ; for sweet apples, raw, will 

 fat cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and poultry. Cooked 

 sweet apples will "fat" children, and make grown 

 people fieshij — "fat" not being a polite word as 

 applied to grown persons. Children being ftiore 

 of the animal than "grown folks," we are not so 

 fastidious in their classification. But to the mat- 

 ter in question. In every good farmer's house 

 who has an orchard, baked sweet apples are an 

 "institution" in their season. Everybody, from 

 the toddling baby holding up by its father's knee 

 — children are decidedly a household commodity 

 — away back to "our revered grandmother" in her 

 rocking-chair, loves them. No sweetmeat smoth- 

 ered in sugar is half so good ; no aroma of dis- 

 solved confectionary is half so simple as the soft, 

 pulpy flesh of a well-baked apple, of the right 

 kind. It is good in milk, Avith bread. It is good 

 on your plate, wiih breakfast, dinner or supper — 

 we don't "take tea" at our house. It is good 

 every way — "vehemently good" — as an enthusias- 

 tic friend of oui's once said of tomatoes. — New 

 York World. 



Buckskin Mittens and Gloves. — These mit- 

 tens when long worn become hard and good con- 

 ductors of cold. Frequent wetting while at work, 

 together with the sweat and salts issuing from the 

 hand, destroy the oil of the leather, and it hardens 

 as a natural consequence. To remedy this, wash 

 your mittens in warm soapsuds, being careful 

 not to wring or pull them — simply squeezing in 

 the hand as a silk handkerchief, is sufficient to 

 remove the water. Then dry carefully, and if it 

 is wettish weather, oil them with some kind of 

 fish or animal oil. They will keep out the water 

 then, completely, but the cold not so well- - 

 Frairie Farmer. 



