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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 Cutting Feed for Horses. 



I notice in the New England Farmer weekly, of Feb. 

 6, 1864. a communication from "J. F. L.," of Lee, N. 

 H., with the above heading. The question upon which 

 he wants information is this: 



Is it of advantage to a horse to cut his feed, and is 

 it a more economical way for his owner to support 

 him than by feeding his hay and grain separately ? 



I will simply give "J. F. L." my experience for the 

 last ten or twelve years : About twelve or fourteen 

 years ago, (I am not now able to state the exact time,) 

 I was very short of hay, and as cutting feed was high- 

 ly recommended as being a great saving in fodder, I 

 made up my mind to give it a fair trial. Accordingly 

 I purchased one of Ruggles, Nourse & Mason's Hay 

 Cutters, and commenced operations. I cut three-quar- 

 ters of all the fodder I fed out that winter, and fed it 

 to horses, oxen, cows and young cattle. My stock came 

 out in the spring all in good heart, and by adding some 

 grain I had hay enough to carry my stock through 

 the winter, without buying hay. I was satisfied that, 

 had I bought fifty dollars' worth of hay, and fed it all 

 without cutting it, that my stock would not have come 

 out in the spring in as good condition as they did ; and 

 I have practiced cutting feed more or less for my stock 

 ever since, especially for my horses, and I think with 

 beneficial results. I think that two tons of hay cut, 

 and their grain ground- and mixed together, is worth 

 as much as three tons fed without cutting with the 

 same quantity of grain fed whole, to a horse team that 

 works daily. I have used several kinds of cutters, 

 but the one that I now have, (Ruggles, Nourse & Ma- 

 son's, No. 4,) is the best I ever used. Price at my 

 door, $9.10, twelve years ago. G. W. Putnam. 



Andover, Vt., Feb. 19, 1864. 



Salting Hay. 



Those who adopt this mode of trying to preserve 

 half cured or dampish hay from mouldiness, or other 

 damage should be careful to avoid over-dosing with 

 salt, as it would appear from a communication by S. 

 E. Todd in the Country Gentleman of Feb. 4, that 

 scours in sheep are often caused by such over-salting. 

 Mr. Todd says that in doctoring for this or any other 

 complaint, the cause should be discovered if possible 

 and removed ; and then remarks, "Some farmers salt 

 their hay in summer very bountifully, so that the en- 

 tire mow or stack of it, when fed out, is as thoroughly 

 impregnated with saline particles, as salt beef or pork. 

 Such fodder would be a sufficient cause of scours." 



Mobe Anon. 



Ashes with Manures. 



Is it good economy to mix ashes with hen manure 

 or any other manure that contains ammonia ? I have 

 used hen manure mixed with sand, or scrapings round 

 the buildings, with good results ; also superphosphate. 

 One of my neighbors used superphosphate and the ef- 

 fect was observable till the corn was full grown, at the 

 distance of a mile. He told me that on either side of 

 those rows left without the superphosphate, the corn 

 was twice as heavy. w. b. w. 



Remabks. — Wood ashes should not be mixed with 

 any manures. A better way is to use the ashes by 

 itself, or compost it with muck. 



There is so little alkali in coal ashes, that they make 

 an excellent divider for the droppings of hens. 



Disease in Apples. 



With regard to the "Disease in Apples" mentioned 

 in the Farmer of Feb 20, 1 would state, that at the 

 time the scarcity of apples commenced the trees, were 

 yielding every other year — and sometimes skipping 

 two years without much yield — only a small quantity 

 and very poor. I think it was about 18.30, I noticed 

 those spots mentioned by Mr. Mclntire, on greenings, 

 accompanied by a very bitter taste in the part of the 

 apple under the spots. At that time apples were 

 brought from New York State here, the yield having 

 been more plentiful there ; and among those we bought 

 were some beautiful sweet ones. I never tasted much 

 better apples ; some were badly affected ; the spots 



were about the size of a pea, singly and in clusters. 

 These were worse than the greenings. In some the 

 bitter taste pervaded the entire apple, although the 

 spots were only in a cluster on one end. Some were 

 so bad we could not use them. The apples were not 

 rotten at all ; it had the appearance of a dry, hard 

 scab. I have not seen any similarly affected this year, 

 but thought I would give the preceding facts, as they 

 may recall similar cases to the recollection of other 

 individuals. Lucy A. Adams. 



East Brookfield, Feb. 20, 1864. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 SEEDING LAND TO GRASS. 



The vast importance of the hay crop to the in- 

 habitants of the United States calls for the practi- 

 cal experience of every intelligent farmer. We 

 are apt to look at facts in an isolated point of 

 view. When we take into consideration the fail- 

 ure of one single piece of land that has been laid 

 down to grass, we regard it as unfortunate ; but 

 if those failures were all put into one great total 

 the aggregate loss to the whole country would 

 probably astonish us. The hay crop of the free 

 States in 1850 was 12,690,982 tons, worth consid- 

 erably more in dollars and cents than all the cot- 

 ton, tobacco, rice, hay, hemp and cane-sugar, an- 

 nually produced in fifteen slave States ; and this 

 at $11.20 per ton,* amounting to $142,138,998. 

 Cotton is no longer king. And, again, "the grass 

 crop of the New England States, fpr the year 

 1862, was nearly one hundred millions of dol- 

 lars."t 



In asserting two extremes which are open to 

 discussion, the medium track is generally the saf- 

 est, and often proves true ; such is the fact we 

 apprehend with regard to the question at issue, as 

 to whether the shading of land is beneficial or not 

 to the germination of grass seed and the growth 

 of the grass. There can be no question but what, 

 as a matter of economy, it is best to sow some 

 kind of grain with grass seed ; at least, no one 

 has ever demonstrated to the contrary, or proved 

 that it is better, or more economical, to sow grass 

 seed alone. I, therefore, must answer in the af- 

 firmative, viz : that it is best to sow some kind of 

 grain with grass seed, that is, so far as my expe- 

 rience teaches me at present, but we do not arrive 

 at this conclusion solely from the fact that we 

 think that grass ought to be "shaded," but would 

 it pay to sow it separately, taking into considera- 

 tion the amount of land expenses ? 



A rotation of crops is recommended. A farmer 

 turns over say ten acres of sward, and plants it 

 to corn and potatoes ; if he plows in the fall, 

 which he ought to do, the sod will become suffi- 

 ciently pulverized and mellow by the following 

 season, so that he can "lay down" his land to 

 grass ; or even if he plows in the spring, on most 

 soils, he can do it. Now what better way is there 

 than to sow a crop of oats, rye, or barley, then his 

 grass seed ; and two very important and some- 

 what expensive results have been accomplished 

 under one operation ? But still, let there be a 

 well-pulverized piece of land thoroughly prepared 

 for grass exclusively, and enriched as it should be 

 for clover, herds-grass and red-top, which usually 

 go together, and why should they not? Let this 

 mixture of seed be sown broad-cast, and evenly on 

 the land, then very lightly harrowed, bushed and 

 rolled, and that that grass would not spring as 

 well, grow as well, come to maturity as well, and 

 yield as much as though it had been shaded, we 



