198 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



colors, and just as neat and attractive as can well 

 be conceived. Another was printing the designs 

 of lamps, and another samples of drawings for a 

 school book for children. Another was striking 

 off the first color of a picture of the mosses, and 

 another the sixth or seventh color of butterflies 

 and other beautiful insects,— -and so on of birds, 

 checks, labels, and a great variety of other things. 



In some of these, as the moths, for instance, 

 twelve different kinds of ink are used to get the 

 colors of one of these little creatures, and, of 

 course, twelve different impressions must be taken 

 to complete the picture ! 



The stones upon which the sketching is done 

 are brought from Germany. A room in the es- 

 tablishment is occupied by persons smoothing and 

 preparing them for use. Every part of the busi- 

 ness seemed to move mth the regularity of clock 

 work, as though governed by an intelligent and 

 systematic head. The charming little packages 

 of birds end flowers, mosses and moths, issued 

 from the press of this enterprising house, will 

 have a decided influence upon the manners and 

 morals of thousands of our children. We wish 

 them great success in their good work. 



EXTBAGTS AND REPIiIES. 



SOILING OF CATTLE. 



More than fifty years ago, Josiah Quincy, then a 

 farmer of experience, published a book on this sub- 

 ject, and he favored me with a copy. I read it then, 

 and have read it since, and have always thought it 

 worthy of the attention of those who keep cattle. 

 Why his suggestions have not been more regarded by 

 the public, I cannot conceive. It is clear to my mind, 

 that three times the number of cattle can be kept, and 

 three times the amount of profit can be realized by 

 obseiTing Mr. Quincy's mode of feeding, instead of 

 that usually practiced. Proctor. 



J/ay, 18&3. 



books from representatives to constituents. 



I am indebted to the courtesy of our representa- 

 tives, Messrs. Hamson and Robinson, to the one for 

 the valuable Report on Insects, of the late Prof. Har- 

 ris, and to the other for the "Agriculture of Massa- 

 chui-etts." A recipient or not a recipient of their fa- 

 vors, I do heartily endorse the plan of representatives 

 presenting to their constituents works published at 

 the expense of the State, that have a special bearing 

 on the calling or the tastes of the receiver. 



The hoarding of such works by persons not interest- 

 ed in the suljjcct on which they treat, when among 

 their constituents are those to whom they would come 

 as a very welcome friend, I can but view as a sin of 

 some gravity against the interests of such constituents. 



A few years ago the Legislature thought proper to 

 vote itself copies of Prof. Hitchcock's able work on 

 the Ichnology of Massachusetts ; a work which treats 

 learnedly on the " Difurculapes elachistofatus" "Hcxa- 

 podichmis 7nagims" '''Atici/ropus keterocUtus,^' and other 

 species or genera of fossil remains, the detailed histo- 

 ry of which might be supposed to be admirably adapt- 

 ed to satiate the natural cravings of the legislative mind. 

 It is, of course, possible that some of these books 

 found their way to the homes of appreciative constit- 

 uents; but the great bulk, it is to be presumed, were 

 too much thumb- worn by their profoundly interested 

 owners to make the giving of them a decent act. 



Marblcfiead, Mai/, 1863. J. J. H. Gregory. 



^T They have big cedars in the Aroostook dis- 

 trict in Maine. From one of them recently cut, 

 four thousand shingles were made. 



For ttve New England Farmer. 

 BETKOSPECTIVE NOTES, 



"Feeding Meal to Stock." — The communi- 

 cation with this heading in weekly edition of the 

 Farmer of March 28, and on page 143 of the 

 monthly for May, is a very instructive and valua- 

 ble one. The writer has noticed among the farm- 

 ers of his acquaintance, that several of them feed 

 meal in a dr;/ state to their stock, and thinks it 

 highly probable that some of the readers of this 

 journal may be in the habit of pursuing the same 

 wasteful practice, and, like those whose practice 

 he is acquainted with, may feed four to eight 

 quarts of meal a day to one beef creature, till they 

 feed out from seven to ten cvvt. of meal to one 

 beef, and yet never succeed in getting it so fat as 

 to yield any over forty pounds of rough tallow, if 

 as much. To those who adopt such a method of 

 fattening, or follow it from the mere force of habit 

 or custom, "Qui Nunc" very benevolently sug- 

 gests that this method is not a very remunerative 

 one, but, on the contrary, is generally quite a 

 wasteful one. A little reflection and calculation of 

 expenditures and income will satisfy any one of 

 the correctness of these propositions ; and then 

 the inquiry will naturally arise in the minds of all 

 concerned, with the exception, perhaps of a few 

 who always plod on in the old ruts, how this non- 

 paying or wasteful method, so generally practiced, 

 is to be reformed or displaced by the substitution 

 of a better one. The writer, in reply to this natu- 

 ral inquiry, gives a statement of the more profita- 

 ble method of feeding meal which he himself has 

 been led to adopt. "My practice," he says, "in 

 fattening beef and swine, as well as feeding cows 

 for milk, has been to pour boiling water on as 

 much meal as would not make the animal's bowels 

 move too freely, at night and in the morning ; 

 when the mush is cool,, give it to the cow or pig." 

 He does not believe, nor do I, that animals eating 

 dry meal receive more than one-half of the nour- 

 ishment contained in it ; whereas, by steeping it 

 in boiling water, or by a more thorough cooking 

 of it, the latent nutritive properties are extracted, 

 or made more easily digestible. But beside this 

 testimony of theory or, more properly, of what is 

 known as to the laws and processes of digestion, 

 Qui Nunc has the testimony of his own experi- 

 ence, which has taught him, he says, that one cwt. 

 of meal fed in the way he has described is equal 

 to two cwt. fed dry. In proof or illustration of 

 the superiority of his method of feeding meal over 

 that of giving it dry, the writer states that, on hay 

 and meal alone, he has fatted two ordinary sized 

 cows with only three cwt. of meal each, so that 

 they each yielded upwards of 40 lbs. of i-ough 

 tallow. 



Having adopted a very similar method of pre- 

 paring or half-cooking meal of corn and other 

 grain in slopping cows in winter, in fatting pigs, 

 and in finishing oft' the feeding of our beef crea- 

 tures, for upwards of a dozen years, we can most 

 heartily commend and endorse the practice of Qui 

 Nunc as set forth in the very useful article now 

 under notice. The extra trouble is but trifling, 

 and were it much greater it would be abundantly 

 compensated for in any region of our country 

 where corn and other grain can be marketed at 

 or above one cent per pound. In regions where 

 corn will bring only ten cents a bushel, the sug- 

 gestions of Qui Nunc are not at present needed ; 



