1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



135 



condition for the work before them ; then, -when 

 the seed-time arrives, the seed will be ready for 

 the sower, the sower prepared for his labor, with 

 a fair prospect before liim of realizing in full the 

 important truth, that the work at hand well begun 

 is half done. 



Be not idle, then, because of the cold or the 

 storm without. Let the mind be free and active 

 — continually expanding and enlarging as the re- 

 sult of increased thought and study. Hail the 

 storm-king as he whistles by our dwellings ; bid 

 Boreas go on his way rejoicing, and make lionish 

 February and March laugh right merrily, by tick- 

 ling their ribs with the feather of pleasantry and 

 good humor ; prompt them by an example of in- 

 dustry and humanity, and thus be enabled to wit- 

 ness at least the happy contrast between the rough 

 and frigid without, and a calm, quiet and sunny 

 within. I. W. Sanborn. 



Lyndon, VL, 18G2. 



ST. JOHN'S "WORT FOR THE FARMERS. 

 Every well-directed effort to promote the agri- 

 culture of the country, we hail with sincere pleas- 

 ure. We are willing, even, that some errors 

 should be risked, for the sake of being found on 

 the progressive road. The establishment of an 

 Agricultural Bureau at Washington might be of 

 some advantage, if those who manage it would as- 

 certain what plants are indigenous to our own 

 soils, and which among them are worthy of culti- 

 vation and which are not — as well as to explore 

 all the rest of the world for seeds that, perhaps, 

 may be as much of a blessing as has been the 

 chiccory or the Canada thistle ! If those who man- 

 age affairs at the Patent Office are not familiar 

 ■with our native plants, as well as exotics, it is pos- 

 sible that their labors may prove anything but a 

 blessing to the farmers of the country. AVe have 

 been led to these remarks by noticing in the last 

 Patent Office Report a list of the plants wliich 

 were intended for distribution from that branch of 

 the government. We will give but one of them 

 for the edification of our readers, just to show 

 them that there is room for improvement even in 

 that high department. We quote as follows : — 

 "PLANTS FOR DISTRIBUTION. 



"St John's Wort, (Hypericum corymbosum.) 

 This shrub, though indigenous to the Southern 

 States, is but little known throughout the coun- 

 try ; yet is has proved hardy in the District of 

 Columbia, and will probably succeed still further 

 north. It is an ornamental shrub, blooming ear- 

 ly in the spring. There will be a distribution of 

 3000 plants in the spring." 



Now let us see what Darlington says of it, in 

 his "Weeds and Useful Plants :" "Tliis is a worth- 

 less and rather troublesome weed on our farms ; 

 and oTtglit to he diligently excluded." 



If there is to be no more discrimination than 

 this, betAvcen the useful and the noxious plants, at 

 the Patent Office, its teacliings will not stand as 

 high authority among the farmers of New England. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ABOUT KEEPING GOATS. 



Many persons who cannot conveniently keep a 

 cow would find it profitable to keep one or two 

 common goats. They require but little care, may 

 be supported at small cost, and yield a good Sup- 

 ply of milk of superior quality. A goat, well kept, 

 will yield from three pints to two quarts of milk 

 daily, for a large part of the year, the quantity di- 

 minishing in the cold weather as the time of kid- 

 ding approaches. It is much cheaper to keep a 

 goat in town than to pay a milkman, and families 

 everywhere will find the milk very nutritive and 

 wholesome, and especially good for children in 

 most cases. An English writer estimates that two 

 goats are equal to a small Shetland cow. 



Goats may be very cheaply supported. If pick- 

 etted in a pasture in warm weather, or allowed to 

 be at large, they will pick up their own living, eat- 

 ing readily almost every sort of green thing. Grass, 

 Aveeds, twigs of bushes, vegetables, fruits, nearly 

 everytliing that grows, will suit their taste. They 

 are fond of dry leaves, corn-stallis, horse-chestnuts, 

 and even eat poisonous plants with impunity. If 

 confined in a yard, or in closer quarters, they will 

 take the scraps and waste of the kitchen. Some 

 persons allow them to feed out of the swill-pail, 

 but tliis practice cannot be commended. Cobbett 

 says, in his "Cottage Economy:" 



"When I was in the army, in New Brunswick, 

 where, be it observed, the snow Hes on the ground 

 seven months in the year, there were many goats 

 that belonged to the regiment, and that went 

 about with it on shipboard and everywhere else. 

 Some of them had gone through nearly the whole 

 of the American war. We never fed them. In 

 summer they picked about wherever they could 

 find grass ; and in winter, they lived on cabbage- 

 leaves, potato-peelings, and other things flung out 

 of the soldiers' rooms and huts. One of these 

 goats belonged to me, and on an average through- 

 out the year, she gave me more than three half- 

 pints of milk a day. I used to have the kid killed 

 when a few days old ; and, for some time, the 

 goat would give nearly, or quite, tM'o quarts of 

 milk a day. She was seldom diy more than thi-ee 

 weeks in the year." 



The same writer adds, that "goats will pick 

 peehngs out of the kennel and eat them. They 

 will eat mouldy bread or biscuit; fusty hay and 

 rotten straw ; furze-bushes, heath-thistles and, in- 

 deed, what will they not eat, when they will make 

 a hearty meal on paper, brown or white, printed 

 on or not printed on, and give milk all the while ?" 

 I may add to Cobbett's list of odd delicacies by 

 stating that my own goats have gnawed smooth 

 the rough sides of my pile of hemlock bark, and 

 have cleaned out all the powder-post from the sills 

 of the wood-shed ! 



But goats, like most other animals, prefer clean 

 food, and will not devour all the above-mentioned 

 things if a supply of more desirable edibles is at 

 hand. In the winter, it is wtII to lay in a few 

 hundred pounds of hay — second crop is preferable 

 — a few carrots and some fine feed. Indian meal 

 is sometimes given to them, but it is too drying. 

 They need water occasionally, but do not drink 

 much. 



The goat is one of the most hardy of our do- 

 mestic animals, enduring easily all extremes of 



