1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



543 



of these is thus described by Mr. St. John : "The 

 morning, while the men were cooking tlieir rice, 

 as we sat before the tent enjoying our chocolate, 

 observing one of our followers carrying water in a 

 splendid specimen of Nepenthes Ilnjah, we desired 

 him to bring it to us, and found that it held ex- 

 actly four pint bottles. It was nineteen inches in 

 circumference. We afterwards saw others appar- 

 ently much larger ; and Mr. Low, M'hile wander- 

 ing in search of flowers, came u])on one in which 

 was a drowned rat." — Scottish Farmer. 



CARE OF ANIMALS IN NOVEMBER. 



One of the most dreary aspects of life in the 

 country is that of animals roaming over barren 

 pastures and exhausted fields, in the month of 

 November. They are turned out from the shel- 

 ter of the barn-yard, after a stinted breakfast of 

 dry husks, to ^vander through the gusty day where 

 there is nothing to eat, and Avhere the sharp north 

 wind is blowing away the very heat and moisture 

 which animate their empty bodies ! Under such 

 treatment their hair soon looks long and frowzy, 

 their ears flop about as though hung on a single 

 pinion, their eyes lose lustre, and the countenance 

 is dejected, while they stand in the blast with all 

 their feet so close as almost to touch each other. 



This is the poorest possible beginning for a 

 stock of cattle as cold weather approaches, and it 

 ^vili cost the farmer twice as much money to re- 

 store the fat and flesh which they lose under this 

 treatment, as it would to add an equal amount if 

 the cattle were properly cared for. Between the 

 time of a plentiful supply of grass, and that of 

 feeding upon dry fodder, is a trying period for 

 stock,^ — one in which they require unusual care 

 rather than neglect. They are deprived of their 

 accustomed supply of green and succulent food, 

 at a time when the cold weather is making unusual 

 demands upon the animal heat of the system, and 

 for this reason alone they should be fed with good 

 ha}^ a little corn, pumpkins, and other heat and 

 fat-making food. If to these are added the leaves 

 of cabbage, mangolds, beets, carrots, or turnips, 

 a small foddering at a time, two or three times in 

 the day, they will lay on fat and flesh rapidly, and 

 enter upon their winter course in excellent con- 

 dition to grow or yield milk in abundance. On 

 the other hand, cattle that go to their winter- 

 quarters in a thin and shabby manner, cannot be 

 brought up to a sleek and healthy condition short 

 of extraordinary eff'ort and cost. It is poor econo- 

 my to neglect cattle in the month of November. 



Varnish and Whitewash. — A very free flow- 

 ing black varnish is made with 1 pint of Canada 

 balsam, 4 of bitumen (Judea,) and 4 of chloroform. 



A thick wash composed of lime, some salt, a 

 little molasses and some fine sand, applied to 

 shingle roofs render them nearly fire-proof and far 

 more durable. 



SPREADING MANURE IN AUTUMN. 



In your issue of Nov. 7, under the above head- 

 ing, II. Goodman says "you startle New England 

 farmers by the advice of Mr. Thomas to Cayuga 

 county farmers, to spread their manure for s])ring 

 ])lanting, in the fall. It is the general fjupposition 

 with us, and practiced upon, that by no doing, the 

 best part of the manure will be washed away, but 

 if put on just before planting, and then plowed and 

 harrowed in, all the good of the manure will be 

 retained ; * * * andj I do not know a farmer of 

 my acquaintance in Massachusetts or Connecticut, 

 who would not think it wasteful farming to spread 

 manure in the fall on land to be plowed in the 

 spring." . . , • 



Mr. Goodman's article is followed by editorial 

 remarks, which go to show very clearly that the 

 loss, if any, can be but trifling, and gives two rea- 

 sons why autumn manuring is better than s])ring 

 "1st, It accords with experience, and 2d, It agrees 

 with theory." 



It is to be pi'esumed that a great majority of 

 our farmers entertain the same ojjinlon in this 

 matter that Mr. G. has expressed. Whether this 

 opinion is correct or not, is practically a matter of 

 great consequence in the aggregate to the farm- 

 ing community. I believe Mr. Thomas is correct 

 in his "advice to Cayuga county farmers," and 

 whatever course in this method of a])plying ma- 

 nure is profitable to the farmers of that county, 

 will also be found equally so to the farmers of oth- 

 er counties and States. 



It is but about a dozen years since the quality 

 of clayey and loamy soils for combining with, and 

 retaining the fertilizing ingredients of manures, 

 has been thoroughly investigated and rightly un- 

 derstood, even by the scientific. 



Prof. Liebig, in his "Modern Agriculture," says 

 "There is not to be found in chemistry a more 

 wonderful phenomenon, one which more confounds 

 all human wisdom, than is presented by the soil 

 of a garden or field. 



"By the simplest experiment, any one may sat- 

 isfy himself that rain water filtered through field 

 or garden soil, does not dissolve out a trace of 

 potash, silicic acid, ammonia, or phosphoric acid. 

 The soil does not give up to the water one parti- 

 cle of the food of plants which it contains. The 

 most continuous rains cannot remove from the 

 field, except mechanically, any of the essential con- 

 stituents of its fertility. 



"The soil not only retains firmly all the food of 

 plants which is actually in it, but its power to pre- 

 serve all that may be useful to them extends much 

 further. If rain, or other water holding in solu- 

 tion ammonia, potash, phosphoric and silicic 

 acids, be brought in contact with soil, these sub- 

 stances disappear almost immediately from the so- 

 lution ; the soil withdraws them from the water. 

 Only such substances are complcfcb/ withdrawn by 

 the soil as are indispensable articles of food for 

 plants ; all others remain wholly or in part in so- 

 lution." 



"It must be so," Liebig, "thou reasonest well," 

 else the millions of acres of fertile prairie land 

 would have been as barren as the sands of Cape 

 Cod. And the fertility of the alluvial soil border- 

 ing on the Nile, would have had its fertility 

 leached out by the annual overflowing of that riv- 

 er, thousands of years before the sons of Jacob 

 went to Egypt to purchase corn, and that, accord- 



