304 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



pense greater. The above copied estimate makes 

 the cost of raking $2.50 a day of ten hours ; and 

 the stacking alone is placed at over $1 a ton, 

 which is more than twice as much as it has cost 

 the writer for several years past, although he could 

 not be with his workmen for constant superinten- 

 dence. He has also found that the whole cost of 

 cutting, raking, drawing the hay half a mile, and 

 pitching it into the barn does not usually exceed 

 80 cents per ton. 



There is no doubt that by the use of the best mow- 

 ers, horse rakes and horse forks, and with all the 

 facilities which good farm roads, convenient build- 

 ings, and constant personal supervision by the 

 owner would furnish, hay from heavy meadows 

 may be cut and secured for 50 cents per ton, ac- 

 cording to the estimate published on page 74, vol. 

 sviii of the Country Gentleman — provided the 

 weather should be favorable and reasonable cau- 

 tion exercised to avoid storms, which the rapid 

 work of this farm machinery would usually enable 

 farmers to do. 



A VISION OF STEAM FAEMINQ. 

 A writer for the Valley Farmer, whose articles 

 are dated Ashland Farm, Ky., is publishing a se- 

 ries of essays on the revolution which steam-pow- 

 er is about to make in the business of cultivating 

 the soil. We copy his remarks upon the change 

 in field arrangements, and in the extent of opera- 

 tions, which must be effected before farming by 

 steam can be made profitable. 



As I have already stated, when we get to farm- 

 ing by steam, it will be done on a large scale. 

 Therefore, in devising our plans for a steam farm, 

 we lose sight of ten and twenty.acre fields, and 

 think only of those that contain from one hun- 

 dred to five hundred acres. 



If you are blessed with an abundance of fencing 

 material, and conclude that you will have no fields 

 smaller than 100 acres, I shall expect you to tear 

 down the fences upon the old farm or plantation, 

 and rebuild them so as to form one-hundred acre 

 fields, or as near that as may be convenient, and 

 at the corners of these fields, where they meet in 

 the centre of each 400 acres, I shall direct you to 

 dig a well, and connect to it a force-pump, that 

 shall be operated from a belt wheel upon the en- 

 gine of the steam plow, and by which means the 

 machine will be enabled to draw up into its tank 

 the water it requires. Over this well I want you 

 to build a rough but substantial house, of suffi- 

 cient capacity to admit of the engine running into 

 it from either one of the four fields, to take on 

 wood arid water while at work, and to have ample 

 room to store away a large quantity of prepared 

 wood or coal for the use of the engine. If it is 

 wood you expect to use for fuel, I shall also want 

 you to be provided with a portable circular saw 

 and frame, set up within said building — which, 

 hereafter, we will call the station house — which 

 likewise shall be operated from a belt-wheel upon 

 the engine, for the purpose of making the machine 

 saw its own wood. 



If the farm' is devoted wholly to the culture of 

 grain, the station should be provided with the nec- 

 essary granneries. It must be the store-house 

 not only for the steam plow and its machinery, 

 but for the threshing machine also. In short, it 



must be made the depository for everything used 

 and produced upon the land allotted to it. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ON SOILINQ CATTLE. 



[Read before the Concord Farmers' Club, by Dea. Daniel Tab- 

 bell.] 



By soiling stock is meant the practice of keep- 

 ing animals in stalls or yards, and feeding them 

 on green food, raised and cut for the purpose, in- 

 stead of following the ordinary custom of pastur- 

 ing in the usual manner. 



There are a number of things to be taken into 

 consideration in this matter. 



First, — The size and location of the farm. A 

 fiirmer in Concord, with a farm of seventy-five or 

 one hundred acres of land, has a portion of that 

 land either too rough for cultivation, or too far 

 from his buildings to be profitable for any pur- 

 pose except pasturage or woodland. On the other 

 hand, a man with a small farm, and all under 

 good cultivation, or near a market, might make 

 it profitable to use no land for pasturing, but put 

 what stock he keeps upon green food and grain 

 in summer. 



Second, — The cost of cultivating green food, 

 say for ten cows. They will require ten aci'es of 

 our best land, with a large proportion of the ma- 

 nure made on the farm, — and it would require 

 the labor of two men to cultivate the crop and 

 tend and feed the cattle in the barn. On the 

 other hand, by following the system of soiling for 

 a number of years, it would, no doubt, enrich the 

 farm, and if it could all be brought under good 

 cultivation, it might, in the end, be profitable to 

 adopt the practice of soiling all our stock in the 

 summer season. 



I am of the opinion that it icould not be profit- 

 able for me to adopt the system of soiling. 



Were the practice of soiling stock to be univer- 

 selly adopted in any given section of the country, 

 it would be a great saving in cost of fencing, 

 which saving might more than balance the extra 

 labor of soiling. 



As the farmers are situated in this town, I do 

 not know of a farmer that could adopt the system 

 of soiling so as to make it profitable ; but a par- 

 tial adoption of the system would be profitable 

 on all our farms. Corn should be planted so as 

 to be ready for use by the first of August. Oats 

 might be sowed to be cut and fed to stock while 

 green. English turnips are a good crop to feed 

 to stock in the fall and fore part of winter. 

 Rowen might be used for soiling after the pas- 

 tures are getting dry and feed short. 



In the winter it is equally important that cows 

 should have something green for a change. Ruta 

 bagas, English turnips, carrots, and small pota- 

 toes are all good for feeding to stock in winter. 

 A farmer should always aim to have a supply of 

 roots of some kind to feed with his dry hay and 

 grain. 



By a practical adoption of a system of soiling 

 in summer and keeping stock in the barn nights, 

 we can more than double the amount of manure, 

 during the summer season. 



The advantages of soiling are — making more 

 manure and keeping stock on less land. The dis- 

 advantages are — the extra labor to carry on the 

 farm and loss of use of land, not suitable for cul- 

 tivation. Daniel Tarbell. 



