174 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Apkil 



keep them loose, and enable them to extract more 

 nourishment from their fodder. They should be 

 fed regularly each day. From my experience, I 

 think the ruta baga is the best to feed to young 

 cattle. I think they contain something that cat- 

 tle require that the others do not. Potatoes and 

 carrots are very good. I have had young cattle 

 fed with them gain more in the winter than they 

 did in the summer on grass. 



5, Watering and exercise. In watering, care 

 should be taken that every animal drinks all he 

 wants. They will naturally take all the exercise 

 in the yard, they need at the time of drinking. I 

 keep them in their stalls all the time except when 

 out to drink. The more they are kept out in the 

 cold the more hay they will require, and by being 

 kept up all the time the manure is all saved. 



The farmer cannot be too regular in tending 

 his stock through the winter. Anything that is 

 not worth doing well is not worth doing. 



West Newjield, Me., 1862. J. t. 



EXTRACTS AND KEPLIES, 



I am anxious to learn through the Farmer the 

 ■way of treating a cow which appears to run too 

 much to milk. She calved the 2d of this month, 

 and is quite thin of flesh, although bright and 

 smart ; gives a ten-quart pail full of milk in the 

 morning, little less at night. She was poorly fed 

 the first of the winter on straw, corn-fodder and 

 poor hay until some two weeks before calving,when 

 she had two quarts of barley bran, scalded, and 

 good hay. When I raise barley I have it bolted ; 

 the flour is used, and well liked in the family. I 

 have raised and used it for six years, and find the 

 value of that grain far beyond what I expected. 

 I like it to raise on account of its being good to 

 seed with, as I get a far better catch than with any 

 other grain. I get about half as many pounds of 

 fine flour as from common wheat, and find the 

 bran to be heavier than that of wheat, therefore I 

 value barley more than corn. I continue giving 

 this bran to my cow, but rather think it is the 

 barley that runs her to milk. We churned the 

 first week's gathering of cream, which made 11 

 lbs. 3 oz. of butter. 



Will you, or some of your subscribers, inform 

 me of the cause of my cows' eating boards, &c., 

 last winter, and this winter not attempting to do 



80? 



In regard to cows doing well in calving, if peo- 

 ple would feed cows extra some two weeks before 

 they drop their calves, as a general thing, there 

 wonld be no trouble ; it matters not much what 

 they are fed upon, but I prefer a little meal of 

 some kind ; if I should have my choice, I should 

 feed barley. T. s. F. 



Felchville, Vt, 1862. 



Remarks. — We know of no way to reduce the 

 milk but to reduce the feed. Feed on good hay 

 alone, for a time. 



It is not well settled what it is that causes cows 

 to chew bones, boards, leather, &c. Some say it 

 is occasioned by a want of bone-making material, 

 the phosphate of lime, perhaps. If this habit 

 were confined to cattle that are poorly fed or thin 

 in flesh, we might suppose that it grows out of a 



want of a proper quantity of nutritious food ; but 

 such is not the case. We have as often seen it in 

 thrifty and ■well-conditioned cows. It can do no 

 harm to mix a little bone-dust, that is, ground 

 bones, with meal, and feed to the animal aSected, 

 two or three times a week. Dr. Dadd says — "It 

 is well known that phosphate of lime, potass, sil- 

 ica, carbonate of lime, magnesiu and soda are dis- 

 charged in the excrements and urine of the cow. 

 Supposing the cow's bones to be weak, it is pos- 

 sible that the gelatinous elements preponderate 

 over those of lime, soda and magnesia." 



BUGGY PEAS. 



It has been often said that "It is better late 

 than never," to do good. In looking over the 

 monthly Farmer for 1860, I noticed in the July- 

 number an article headed "Buggy Peas." I think 

 I can give the writer and many others some infor- 

 mation that will solve the mystery as to how the 

 bugs got into his phial. Many years ago, I dis- 

 covered a small, bright red nit or egg, placed on 

 the outside of the pea-pod, when about half- 

 gro^vn, opposite each pea, and have seen the same 

 on the pea inside the pod. Also, when the peas 

 were shelled green, a small puncture on one side 

 of the peas ; on digging into the pea, I found a 

 small worm which becomes a bug after the peas 

 are fully ripe. The egg is, I have no doubt, de- 

 posited by the old bug, as I have seen them flying 

 among the peas in the field. The only way to 

 prevent peas being buggy is to sow early or very 

 late. I have heard it remarked that to prevent 

 peas being buggy, they must be sown in the old 

 of the moon in May. I suppose everybody knoAvs 

 the moon has nothing to do with the bugs. It is 

 evident to me that those sown early get out of the 

 ways before the old bugs thaw out, and that the 

 bugs have had their day, and are gone before the 

 late sown are grown. James Palmer. 



South Hampton, N. H., 1862. 



THE SONG OF AN OLD PITCHER. 



Ijct the wealthy and great dwell in splendor and state, 



I envy them not, I declare it ; 

 I eat my own lamb, my own chickens and ham, 



I shear my own fleece, and I wear it. 

 I have lawns, I have bowers, I ha\e fruits, I have flowers, 



The lark is my morning alarmer ; 

 As true freemen now, pray God speed the plow. 



Long life and success to the farmer. 



The above I have never seen on paper. I 

 learned it when a child, from an old-fashioned 

 French jug, now called pitcher, in my father's 

 house, more than sixty years ago, in the Emerald 

 Isle. A Female Reader. 



South Oroton, 1862. 



SEEDING TO GRASS. 



We, the sons of the turf, who get our living by 

 digging in the dirt, need reminding of our duty 

 every month in the year. Where is the farmer, 

 one in a hundred, be the number of his acres 

 more or less, Avho can say, "I have one half acre 

 doing all it might do." When we manure in the 

 hole, the seed comes in contact with it, as it 

 should do ; but when we plow in manure five or 

 six inches deep, and then sow grain and a little 

 fine grass seed on the very surface, can this fash- 



