l^fiS. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



139 



h'i'T tlw Sen- JCnglanU Parmer. 

 KICKING COWS. 



Mr. Editor ; — I have seen some remarks rel- 

 ative to kicking cows, in the Farmer and several 

 other papers, and the various methods adopted by 

 different individuals for i)!-caking them of this 

 pernicious trick, all of which 1 liave tried, only 

 one of them resulting in any l>encfit — which is 

 this: "When the cow kicks., with the right hand 

 hold fast to the teat, slajjping her smartly with 

 tlie left." But this method is not to be relied on 

 only in ordinary cases, although I have seen sev- 

 eral ^cured in this way. In two or thi-ee it has had 

 no effect, as was the case with a cow of my own. 

 The method I have adopted is this : When the 

 cow kicks, catch the foot in the hand and draw it 

 close to the cow's body, holding it there until she 

 settles back on you, then let go of it. After sev- 

 eral vain attempts at kicking, the cow finding her- 

 self caught in her own trap, is very careful how- 

 she takes up her foot while milking, and much 

 more how she puts it down. 



This method I adopted with a cow of my own, 

 and it resulted effectually ; and several of my neigh- 

 bors have since tried it with like results. You 

 must bear in mind that we tried every way with 

 which we were acquainted without any effect. 

 Thinking that some of the readers of the Farmer 

 might be interested as I have been in this matter, 

 I have at last concluded to forward my cxjierience 

 in relation to the matter to the columns of the 

 Farmer, it being a paper I have taken for more 

 than six years. Eleuv. 



^trajbrd, 1% 1863. 



Fur the Ae«r England Fanner. 



ketrospective notes. 

 "Dry Food for Hogs" — Success in- Pork- 

 Making. — Page 10. — In this brief, but suggestive 

 item from the Counini (rcntlriKan, we have a state- 

 ment of some of the hurtful consequences of a 

 rather too common error in the feeding of hogs. 

 The error alluded to consists, not in feeding dry 

 food, as the caption of the article might lead one 

 to suppose, but ia an exactly opposite practice, 

 namely, that of giving hogs their food in a too li- 

 quid or over-diluted condition. Some turn all 

 their dish-washings and other similar slops into 

 their swill-barrel, and neglecting to thicken it suf- 

 ficiently with meal, bran, boiled potatoes or oth- 

 er solid material, their hogs get, during the early 

 part of their life, a too watery substance, the swill 

 being little better than a little milk and a few cold 

 potatoes from the table with a little meal or bran, 

 perhaps, too much c'iluted with dish-washings and 

 such like watery and innutritious Huids. Among 

 the jjernicious consequences flowing from this cru- 

 el and heedless practice of forcing hogs to swal- 

 low an immense quantity of thin, watery swill, in 

 order to get the small quantity of really nourish- 

 ing matter which is intermixed with it, are the fol- 

 lowing : The hogs do not grow and gain in Hesh, 

 as all well fed and well managed pigs do, all the 

 time, from their entrance upon to tlieir exit from 

 the stage; they become stunted and comparativtly 

 poor, so much so tliat no amount of corn or other 

 fattening food, in subsequent months, will ever 

 make them as large or as healthy as they might 

 otherwise have been ; their digestive organs seem 

 to become disordered as subsequent better feed- 

 ing appears to do them, often, but little good ; 



and thev become big-bellied, ill-proportioned, and 

 unseemly creatures, compared with those wliich 

 have less watery and more nutritious food during 

 the period of growth. 



If any of our readers fail to make their spring 

 pigs weigh from two hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred pounds at the age of nine months, or 

 from two hundred and seventy-five to three hun- 

 dred pounds at ten months, or a little over, it may 

 be suspected that there is an error somewhere in 

 their mode of feeding, or of managing otherwise. 

 It may be in their failure to select a good breed, l)ut 

 mucli more frequently, we presume, the error may 

 be found in the mode or materials employed in 

 feeding, and, in many cases, we are quite 'confi- 

 dent, in the very practice upon wliich we have 

 been commenting. Those who fail to raise hw^s 

 to be of the weights above named, at the ages 

 mentioned, may feel assured that there is an error 

 somewhere in their modes of maaagemeut in pork- 

 making, — an error which brings with it, as a pen- 

 alty, the loss of a good many jjounds of pork, 

 which might have been obtained by a better mode 

 of management. And if any such should be wil- 

 ling to be at a little pains to find out where their 

 error is, or by what method they may hereafter 

 succeed better, or secure better luck, we think 

 they would be abundantly repaid for the time and 

 j)ains taken, if they would refer to, read and con- 

 sider well all the articles upon swine and pork- 

 making which are contained in volume Kkh of 

 this journal, which is the volume issued during 

 1801. On pages 10 and 113 of that volume they 

 will find an exposure of the error of feeding with 

 too bulky or too much diluted food; on page 11, 

 a condemnation of the jnactice of keeping hogs 

 in filthy pens ; on page G9 a statement of the 

 proper amount to which hog-feed should be dilut- 

 ed ; on page 114, a reference to the decided suc- 

 cess of Mr. L. Long, of llolyoke, who feeds meal 

 in the dry state, and slops or other drink sepa- 

 rately ; on page 348, "A Model Pork-Maker's 

 Mode of Management," with the result, namely, 

 his making his pigs, at ten months old, dress over 

 400 lbs. ; and on page 'Soo, a similar success by 

 the editor. These and other items may be found 

 in the volume referred to. 



"Vegetable Growth." — Page 14. — Who can 

 read this article without having emotions of rev- 

 erence, gratitude and wonder awakened by the 

 brief glimpses which it gives of the wisdom and 

 goodness of the Infinite Architect, and of the 

 marvellous processes by which He clothes the 

 earth with beauty, and makes it Iiring fortli abun- 

 dance, both for man and beast I If any one has 

 read this article witliout having some such emo- 

 tions stirred up within him, we fear he has road 

 it too hurriedly, or too superficially. He might 

 get different impressions from it, if he should turn 

 to it and read again. 



The writer asks, "Would it not be interesting 

 to all who labor to assist the corn to grow, to 

 study the mysteries of vegetable growth ? Would 

 we not like to know the elements of which the 

 seed is composed, what chemical changes take 

 place in it during germinabion, how the plant 

 draws nourishment from the earth," how the liquid 

 sap is converted into solid substance, how the 

 stalk selects one kind of substance from the sap, 

 the seed another kind, and so on, and how all these 

 selected atoms are arranged so as to enlarge stem, 



