1862, 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



75 



Y., in speaking of fattening sheep in winter, says, 

 "I put them in a dry, warm place, and let them 

 have plenty of air ; give them one quart of oats 

 each, morning and evening, with hay and pure 

 water. I fed one in tliis way last winter, for thi'ee 

 months, and it was admitted by competent judges 

 to be as fat a sheep as they ever saw. I sold it 

 to a butcher for $1 1,00." The reader will not fail 

 to observe that the animal had a dry, warm place, 

 and plenty of fresh air. 



Renovating Old Wall Paper. — In these 

 days of The Great Rebellion, when all' patriotic 

 persons feel like economizing their personal ex- 

 penses in order that they may be more able to 

 strengthen the government by sustaining the sol- 

 diers, the prudent housewife who has decided not 

 to re-paper the sitting-room, as desirous, will find 

 the old paper very much improved in appearance 

 by simply rubbing it well with a flannel cloth 

 dipped in corn meal. 



An Unfortunate Cultivator. — One little 

 "garden patch" of ours, says a wag, has been very 

 profitable, very, this season. The snails ate up 

 the cucumbers, the chickens ate up the snails, the 

 neighbors' cats ate up the chickens, and we are 

 now in search of something that will eat the cats. 

 Can any of our agricultural friends aid us ? 



Extra Feed to Cows. — The old plan of feed- 

 ing cows used to be, to see with hoio little food 

 the animals could be carried thi-ough the winter ! 

 We have actually heard two farmers boasting of 

 their skill in this particular ; but they usually lost 

 a creature or two each, every spring. They seemed 

 to consider it quite fortunate if they lost only one 

 or two animals. Among good farmers, the prac- 

 tice now is to make the cow eat as much as she 

 will with good appetite. This we consider the 

 most profitable mode of keeping neat stock. The 

 rule will not apply to horses. 



Some persons feed cows sparingly until within 

 a week or two of their time of calving, and then 

 give them more hay, and frequently add meal to it. 

 This is a bad practice. The cow needed this gen- 

 erous feed in the earlier stages of parturition, 

 which would have given both mother and calf 

 greater growth and strength. The practice of 

 feeding high, either just before or after the calf is 

 dropt, is injurious — but especially afterwards, as 

 it excites fever, the udder is more likely to be 

 pressed with milk and swell, and the whole sys- 

 tem is rather weakened than strengthened by the 

 extra feeding. 



For two weeks before calving the cow should 

 be free in a roomy and dry place, with comforta- 

 ble bedding, — and after calving should be fed spar- 

 ingly for a day or two on sweet, nutritious food, 

 but not in large quantity. During the same time 

 the water given her should be slightly warm. 



Neat Cattle have no Upper Front Teeth. 

 — The man who purchased a cow and drove her 

 back two miles to the house of the man he bought 

 her of, through a driving rain storm, because she 

 had no upper front teeth, probably had not his 

 own "eye teeth cut !" 



Grain Stored on the Lakes. — Navigation 

 closed, leaving about a million bushels of wheat in 

 store in Milwaukie, and 2,480,000 bushels of 

 wheat and corn together, at Chicago. By far the 

 largest amount of grain ever in store on Lake 

 Michigan at the beginning of winter. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HETROSPECTIVE NOTES, 



Calendar for DECEjfBER — Culture of 

 Heart and Mind in Winter. — In the leading 

 article of the December number of the Farmer, it 

 is truly gratifying to one of its readers — as doubt- 

 less, also, he thinks, it must be to many of them — 

 to find that the editor has given the precedence to 

 i\\Q fireside over the farm, or, in other words, has 

 made the suggestions which he has submitted for 

 the consideration of his readers, relate rather to 

 in-door employments and enjoyments — to the 

 culture of the mind and the affections — than to 

 out-door employments and operations, or to the 

 care of stock, or any other department of farm- 

 work. With pleasure and heartfelt satisfaction, 

 we have listened to his familiar "talk" upon the 

 sentiments which farmers should cherish in view 

 of the fact that December is the month of plenty, 

 when the store-house, the granary, the cellar and 

 the larder are all well filled with the good things 

 which a beneficent and care-taking Providence has 

 caused the earth to bring forth in abundance for 

 the sustenance and comfort both of man and beast. 

 He who can take his fill, or satisfy the needs and 

 cravings of his nature, out of the various and 

 abundant supplies of a kind Providence, without 

 gratefully recognizing the goodness of the bounti- 

 ful pro\'ider of them all, is a being y.'hom we must 

 regard as very low in the scale of created intelli- 

 gences, and whom higher beings must look down 

 upon with pity, mingled with disapprobation. 

 Trulj', we are the children of many mercies, and 

 well doth it become us all to partake of these mer- 

 cies with a grateful and filial recognition of the 

 Giver. Farmers, especially, should cherish such 

 sentiments, as they receive the bountiful supplies 

 of good things provided for the wants and com- 

 fort of the human family, at first hand, so to speak, 

 from the ever-mindful Provider, or more directly 

 and immediately from Him, than any other class 

 or portion of the great human family. 



Seeing that we are all so apt to forget our in- 

 debtedness and our obligations to the Giver of all 

 the good things which we enjoy, and that we need 

 line upon line and precept upon precept, to arouse 

 us out of our forgetfulness and unthankfulness, no 

 suggestions could be more appropriate for a Cal- 

 endar for this month of plenty, when all our stores 

 and granaries are full, than such as are adapted 

 and intended to remind us of the sentiments which 

 we should cherish as the children of so many mer- 

 cies, and of the practical demonstrations which we 



