1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



57 



befoi-e planting, and harrowed well, using new or 

 green sheep manure. He thinks this the" best va- 

 riety of turnips which he has tried, and slieep ma- 

 nure the best manure a farmer has for turnips, 

 because it makes the turnips grow well, and is ob- 

 jectionable to the "bugs," or, at least, it has so 

 proved with him. He estimated the cost about 

 eight or nine cents per bushel, reckoning tlie la- 

 bor by day wages, which was in part work by the 

 month at a lower rate, actually. The piece was 

 sod land, sowed to wheat the previous year, 

 dressed lightly, and then for the turnips at the 

 rate of 40 ox-cart loads per acre. Plant June 10 

 to \o, and let grow till there is danger of their 

 freezing up in the ground. 



There has been a much larger importation of 

 Spanish Merino bucks and sheep this year, than 

 ever before in one year, and still the inquiry is for 

 more. The supply was not equal to the demand. 

 There has been a more general inquiry for the 

 Spanish merino than for the coarse or middle 

 wooled, and more so than for a few years past, 

 yet the Southdowners, Cotswolders and Oxford- 

 shirers have not been asleep by any means. 



Elm Tree Farm, Dec, 1862. 0. W. True. 



Remarks. — A few copies, only, of Emerson's 

 Trees and Shrubs are to be found. Mr. John 

 Raynolds, of Concord, Mass., has a few copies for 

 sale at $3 each. 



We do not know the exact magnifying power of 

 the Craig Microscope. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 HUNGARIAN GRASS. 



I have heard considerable about the Hungarian 

 grass, and would like to ask a few questions about 

 it. 1. Will it do well on new land? 2. Will 

 other grasses catch well sown with it ? 3. What 

 time should it be sown, how much seed to the 

 acre, and what is the cost per bushel ? 



A Young Farmer. 



East Wallingford, Dec, 1862. 



Remarks. — 1. Hungarian grass does well on 

 new land, if the land is thoroughly pulverized 

 and a little fine compost manure is scattered over 

 the field and harrowed in with the seed. 



2. We have never known other grasses sown 

 with Hungarian grass seed, but from the rank 

 growth of the latter, should doubt whether it 

 would be advisable to mix them. 



3. Sow about the first of June, from twelve to 

 sixteen quarts per acre. The usual price is about 

 four dollars per bushel. 



TEACHING AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Goldsbury holds on upon his notion, 

 that agriculture cannot be taught in common 

 schools, like "a dog to a root." He first says that 

 our teachers are not qualified to teach it, and next 

 that our children are not competent to learn it. 

 Both of these reasons are valid and strong, if 

 true. What evidence have we that they are true ? 

 Nothing at all, except the "ipse dixit" of Mr. G 



schools as teachers only such as are qualified to 

 teach, and put upon the studv only such children 

 as are competent to learn. We do not expect all 

 boys and girls in our schools to be instructed in 

 the mysteries of farming, any more than that of 

 blacksmithing ; but all we would say is, those there 

 is nothing in the nature of common school in- 

 struction that forbids the science of culture of the 

 soil being taught there ; and we believe it would 

 be more profitable than three-foorths of what is 

 taught there. p, 



December 13, 1862. 



HARVESTING IN WINTER. 



As I was passing the celebrated Pickman farm, 

 in Salem, to which was lately awarded the first 

 premium of the Essex County Society, I?:J0, "for 

 best farm management," I noticed the" laborers of 

 the farm engaged in gathering a field of Indian 

 corn, upon ox-sleds. I hope the learned Secreta- 

 ry of the Board of Agriculture will inform the 

 public, in his next volume, the peculiar advanta- 

 ges of delaying the gathering in of this crop un- 

 til after the fall of our winter snows. I have 

 heard of such things on some of the prairies of 

 the West, where corn is rot worth one-eighth 

 part of what it is here, but never before in New 

 England. • 



December 15, 1862. 



PURE BLOOD, BLACK SPANISH FOWLS. 



Can you inform me where to purchase pure 

 blood, Black Spanish fowls — also the Gray Dor- 

 kings ? I have bought what w^ere called nearly 

 full blooded Spanish, and they were the meanest 

 poultry I ever owned. An answer will greatly 

 oblige A New Subscriber. 



December 9, 1862, 



Rejiarks. — We cannot tell. Will some one 

 inform "A New Subscriber P" 



For the Neto England Farmer, 

 EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING STOCK. 



Mr. Editor :— I think a Mr. Johnston, of New 

 York State, has made a statement to the effect 

 that it costs no more to keep a large steer, say 

 three years old, than it does a smaller one of the 

 same age. I have mentioned this to a number, 

 and they seem to think that either I was mistaken 

 as to the statement, or he as to the fact of the 

 case. That this is so, and that I am not mistaken 

 as to the statement of Mr. Jolinston, I am more 

 confident, from reading Boussiugault, who says : 

 "A very large ox or cow, relatively to its weiglit, 

 requires less food than an animal of smaller di- 

 mensions." Actual experiments in this case, as in 

 all others, are the most satisfactory, though I had 

 often heard the statement of John L. Lamjjrcy, of 

 this town, "that it is better to feed swine with 

 uncooked meal, than to cook it by cither boiling 

 or scalding." I was much interested in the ex- 

 periments of Albert Montagurc, of Sunderland, 

 Mass., who says he fed two pigs, four weeks, with 

 four bushels of cooked meal, and they fell oflf 

 eleven pounds. Two others in the same time eat 

 eight and one-fourth bushels uncooked meal, and 

 ained eighty-two pounds. He fed the last two, 



The remedy for the first objection is, to put into i three weeks, on three and one-half bushels cooked 



