38 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



beautifully illustrated on our dinner tables when 

 the pitcher is filled with cold water from the well. 

 For a few moments its outside appears to be quite 

 dry, but is soon covered with large, crystal drops, 

 which are condensed from the vapor held in solu- 

 tion by the air. The air comes in contact with 

 the pitcher, hy which, being colder than itself, its 

 vapor is rapidly condensed and is seen in accumu- 

 lated drops. This is precisely the process contin- 

 ually carried on in the soil during a hot day by the 

 atmosphere, and this is supposed to be what is 

 meant by the decomposition of the air by the soil. 

 The final purpose of the shower, then, may be, 

 not merely to afford drink to the living plant, but 

 to displace stagnant water in the soil and renew 

 it by percolation. 



TWO FINE COWS. 



A writer in the Valley Farmer states that his 

 brother, in Danube, N. Y., has two cows, native 

 breed, which he kept on a five acre pasture, to- 

 gether with "several calves, a heifer or two, and 

 a horse." The family of the owner of the cows 

 consisted of three persons ; he had a common 

 share of company, and yet he sold, for several 

 years in succession, $200 worth of butter a year, 

 at an average of 21 cents a pound. Besides this, 

 all the butter and milk that the family needed was 

 used, and .400 pounds of pork made ! He lays this 

 success mainly to the treatment which the cows 

 received. In the winter their stables were kept 

 warm and clean. Running water and salt they 

 could constantly get, but had no grain. Their 

 pasture was rendered sufficiently dry by ditching, 

 and produced abundantly of timothy red top and 

 clover, so that some of each kind seeded. It was 

 lightly top-dressed with plaster and ashes. Did 

 not feed short in the fall. 



There is scarcely any product of the farm in 

 which there is such diversity of result as in the 

 product of milch cows. In this case, with only 

 "good cows, not much more," the writer says they 

 produced more than a hundred dollars each, while 

 the average, we believe, is but a trifle, if any, be- 

 yond thirty dollars to a cow ! From the tenor of 

 the whole article — which we have read with inter- 

 est — we have no doubt that this unusual success 

 was secured, mainly, by the treatment which the 

 cows and the land upon which they were fed re- 

 ceived, and not through any superior excellence 

 of the cows. 



Since the introduction of pure blood animals 

 from abroad, what are called native cows have 

 gradually fallen into disrepute, and yet we believe 

 a hundred natives, or grades, — as probably most 

 of them are now, — may be found to-day, that will 

 produce as much as a hundred pure blood cows 

 of any breed. 



Since preparing the above, we have found the 

 following in the Country Gentleman : 

 Two "Extra Milkers. 



Messrs. Editors : — The cows noticed in the 

 Country Gentleman of the 2Gth November, as hav- 

 ing produced large quantities of milk, must "clear 

 the track," in order that I may "trot out" two 

 Dutch heifers imported and now owned by myself. 



These heifers were imported in the autumn of 

 18(51, and were four years old last spring. One 

 of them dropped a heifer calf on the 2d day of 

 last April, that weighed at birth 92 pounds, and 

 during the month of June following, a record of 

 the cow's milk was carefully kept, showing a re- 

 sult of 1704.J pounds for the month, or an aver- 

 age of 56.81 pounds per day. The first six days 

 in June she gave an average of 59.04 pounds per 

 day, and on four respective days during the month 

 she gave 60.50 pounds per day. 



The other heifer dropped a bull calf on the 26th 

 day of last August, that weighed at birth 110 

 pounds, and a record of this cow's milk was kept 

 from the 3d to<the 9th day of September inclusive, 

 showing a yield of 338| pounds, or an average of 

 48.39 pounds per day. The calf of this cow was 

 weaned when two days old, and fed upon a por- 

 tion of the mother's milk until he was eighty days 

 old, when his weight was found to be 350 pounds, 

 a gain of 240 pounds in eighty days, or just three 

 pounds per day. And this without an ounce of 

 grain of any kind. W. W. Chenery. 



Highland Stock Farm, Belmont, Mass. 



For the Netv England Farmer. 

 FRUITS IN THE NORTHWEST. 



Farmer C, a dozen years ago, planted out about 

 cue hundred apple trees. He kept the ground 

 cultivated five or six years, then seeded down to 

 grass. Before seeding it had commenced to come 

 into bearing. Soon after seeding down his yield 

 of fruit showed signs of growing less instead of 

 more. Farmer C. could not understand why his 

 ortfhard refused to yield him fruit. In conversa- 

 tion with a neighbor, he got an inkling of what 

 was the matter. He was told the mischief lay in 

 seeding down his young orchard, If that is the 

 case, I will straightway break it up. He did so. 

 The second year after cultivation he picked a 

 heavy crop for so young an orchard. This year 

 he has raised about three hundred bushels of 

 fruit, the most of which he has sold for one dol- 

 lar per bushel. 



Farmer L., likewise, seeded down his young 

 orchard, but the result was such that he soon 

 plowed again. Now the trees are loaded with 

 good crops yearly. Not fully convinced, he left 

 an isolated patch of trees growing in grass — or 

 trying to grow. They bear no fruit to speak of, 

 and are not half the size of others growing in his 

 garden, located side by side. 



Farmer B. has had his young o'chard down to 

 grass for the last three or four years. His trees 

 look forsaken and have been dying out the last 

 year, and yield him no fruit of consequence. His 

 garden lays along side of his orchard, and trees in 

 that are growing and yielding finely. Another 

 orchard, not three miles from the above, on a sim- 

 ilar soil, yields now five hundred bushels per an- 

 num. The trees have been kept cultivated, but 

 bear marks of having been badly used, being bad- 



