1862. 



NEW EXGLAXD FARMEK. 



573 



let us look well to ourselves and our posterity at 

 home. What is worth doing at all is worth doing 

 with energy. I forbear to say more lest my gar- 

 rulity should be too apparent. Essex. 

 Nov. 7, 1862. _ 



SAMPLE OF MEADOW MUCK. 



I have taken the liberty to send you a sample 

 of my peat muck, a part of it green and a part 

 dried, having been dug more than a year. Will 

 you have the goodness to inform me through the 

 Farmer whether this sample is as good for man- 

 ure as the peat muck which you have examined 

 will average. There is a large quantity of it in 

 this neighborhood, and our farmers now make 

 but very little use of it. I have more than a thou- 

 sand cords within one hundred rods of my barn. 

 The meadow is very wet, and cannot be drained 

 without too much expense. I have to cart or 

 sled the muck off" after the ground is frozen. I 

 have a heap that was dug more than a year since, 

 which has been mixed two months with lime 

 slaked with strong brine, at the rate of a cask of 

 lime to a cord of dry muck. How shall I use it, 

 to derive the most benefit from it? Shall I 

 spread it on my grass land this full, or spread it 

 on the ground in the spring, that I intend to seed 

 down with barley, or mix it M'ith my winter man- 

 ure in the spring and apply it to my planting 

 ground ? j. p. 



South Hampton, N. H., 1862. 



RemaPvICS. — We have examined the sample 

 sent, and believe it to be worth two dollars per 

 cord, on what are called light, sandy lands, and 

 quite valuable on heavier uplands of granite for- 

 mation. It appears to be of excellent quality. 

 You cannot, probably, make any better use of 

 that which you have composted, than to spread it 

 on your grass lands immediately. If you cover 

 the droppings of the cattle with it during the win- 

 ter, as often as twice or three times a week, you 

 will, in the spring, have a manure heap that will 

 offer a good example for all your neighbors to imi- 

 tate, and one which will essentially assist in cov- 

 ering your fields with the most productive crops 

 of every kind. 



QUANTITY OF JOLK FOR A POUND OF BUTTER. 

 I notice the retiring of the veteran Editor of 

 the Massachusetts Ploughman to his farm in Fra- 

 mingham, where I wish him many years of peace 

 and contentment. For a long time I was accus- 

 tomed to con his lucubrations with much interest, 

 until I had the misfortune to differ with him in 

 opinion as to the quantity of milk necessary for 

 the production of a pound of butter — he having 

 asserted and maintained that /bw,/' quarts of the 

 milk of his Devon stock was sufificient for this 

 purpose. I thought then, and am of the ojiinion 

 now, that his assertion was not correct. I be- 

 lieve that it requires from six to ten quarts of the 

 milk of the best of cows to produce a pound of 

 butter, and oftentimes nearer three gallons than 

 one is necessary for this purpose. So say those 

 who have the making of my butter, and I believe 

 them as honest and intelligent as any other but- 

 ter-makers, p. 



now TO SAVE GIRDLED TREES. 



While examining some apple trees in the gar- 

 den where I live, I found that the mice had gir- 

 dled several of them, one of wliich was a Porter, 

 it being seven inches through at the but, and I 

 thought I would save it if it could be done. In 

 April I cut some scions from the tree and insert- 

 ed the ends of them in the tree between the bark 

 and the Mood, above and below the girdled space, 

 placing them two inches apart ; tlien covered the 

 space with green cow dung, and wound a cloth 

 around it to keep it from falling oft' or drying up. 

 The tree leaved out and blossomed and has grown 

 finely, besides bearing several bushels of nice ap- 

 ples. On examining it last week, I found that it 

 was healing over nicely. I believe that ninety- 

 nine out of every hundred girdled trees, can be 

 saved. I write this that others may be benefited 

 by it. C. B. Rathbun. 



Berlin, Nov., 1862. 



I'^or the New England Partner. 



THE LATE ESSEX COUNTY CATTLE 

 SHOW. 



Mr. Editor : — I have noticed a communication 

 in the Farmer of the 18th of October last, from 

 your correspondent "P.," giving his "impressions" 

 on various matters connected with the Essex Cat- 

 tle Sliow. 1 think his "impressions" must tend to 

 mislead the pul)lic in some, if not in all the par- 

 ticulars about which he speaks. 



"P." says, in speaking of the plowing-match, 

 "the field was the worst I ever saw plowed." If 

 his impression was correct in this particular, it is 

 much to be regretted that he has not spent some 

 of the time he has devoted "for the last forti/-four 

 years" in attending "every meeting of our socie- 

 ty, and of the Trustees," to the examination of 

 plowing and ])lowed fields. I should suppose a 

 man of "P.'s" observation, or means of observa- 

 tion, would know that of all the land plowed iu 

 Essex county, full one-half is worse to plow than 

 the field then plowed. "With no sod," he says, 

 "and full of cobble-stones, &c." One would think 

 "P." did not see the part of the field that was 

 plowed, at all. There was some sod on the field 

 plowed, but not enough ; if there had been, it 

 would not have needed plowing. There were no 

 "cobble-stones" on more than one or two lands, 

 and on those, but a few on one end. There was a 

 little gravelly knoll at one end of the field, on 

 which the "Trustees" stood, and "P." I su])pose 

 with them. On this knoll was not much sod, and 

 some "cobble-stones." Is it not jn-obable, and en- 

 tirely certain, that "P." got his "impressions" 

 wholly from this knoll, and failed to see the 

 plow-field at all ? The town could ofi'er a l)etter 

 field, but the same one having been plowed at the 

 show in Georgetown twenty-two years ago, it M-ns 

 deemed no insult to offer it again. And it is 

 thought by some good farmers, that fields the 

 smoothest and easiest to be plowed, are not so de- 

 sirable to test the plows, plowmen and teams, as 

 those more difficult. 



As to the quality of the "animals," many would 

 disagree with "P.'s" conclusions. I hope he Mill 

 name the farms where the sui)erior herds can be 

 found. I don't know as the plow-field is in fault, 

 because there were not more horses present. I 



