1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARTHER. 



49 



said that the first wrinkle commences at the third 

 year. I have a i)air of steers, two years old last 

 spring, that have one wrinkle now. 



In luy opinion the grains of wood are the rcsnlt 

 of a siinilar cause. If forest trees grew the year 

 round, there would be no grains in the wood. I 

 have cut off the stock of an oleander tree, seven 

 \-ears of age, which was kejrt in the house and 

 growing the year round, and found the wood to be 

 tirm and witiiout any visible grain. 



John M. Rowell. 



Tunhridge, Vt., Nov. 12, 1866. 



BVTTER FROM COWS KEPT OX THE "SOILING" 



Mr. R. p. Eaton : — You said you would like to 

 see a sample of my fall butter. This is late tall, 

 but I could not get round any earlier. You know 

 I engage custom differently from most others. I 

 agree to supply whatever amoimt they engage, 

 without fail, regardless of short crops or bad 

 weather. And it is on that account, in part, that I 

 am enabled to olitainthe price I do : 60 cents, since 

 last May. I could not make this arrangement if I 

 did not depend almost wholly on soiling, and had 

 iiot learned to make butter every time from a pail 

 of cream. 



Wherever the milk or cream has been kept, the 

 cream is made to indicate the right temperature by 

 the thermometer before I commence churning. 

 The temperature varies according to the tempera- 

 ture of tlie room in which I am at work, and a 

 little regard is had to the sourness of the cream — 

 as sour cream comes quicker than sweet, and may 

 be churned a little cooler. But 63 degi'ces is very 

 near the medium. 



Our hay this year is largely rowen. You remem- 

 ber that handful of grass I sent you last July, 

 grown from seed sown April 15th ? We have 

 mowed that lot twice since then, cutting three very 

 good crops in one year, and all within six nnmths 

 of seeding. The timothy produced much the best 

 Arst crop, the orchard grass the best three crops, 

 all being quite uniform. The Northern clover did 

 not produce as much as either of the others. 



A. W. Cheever. 



Sheldonville, Mass., Nov. 15, 1866. 



Note. — The beautiful balls of butter, neatly 

 stamped and compactly packed, sweet and fragrant, 

 sufficiently explain to our mind the reason why 

 our friend Cheever's customers buy all he can 

 make at a rate above the regular market price. 

 The secret of his success he has made clear in the 

 above Extract, and in the communication which 

 we publish in another column. We hope he will 

 devote a part of his leisure hours during the ap- 

 proaching winter evenings, in transcribing for us 

 the records of other successful farming operations 

 — particularly as regards the daiiy. 



But it appears to me that there is one great canse 

 of sickness and death that people are not sufficiently 

 awai'c of, viz : bad or impure water. Of the bad 

 effects of impure water, I may be i)ermitted to give 

 an illustration from my own experience. Many 

 years ago, when in Montreal a few days on liusi- 

 ness, I was taken very sick. A friend told me it 

 was the water from the River St. Lawrence that 

 made me sick, as it did all Yankees. My symp- 

 toms were very severe, and similar to those of the 

 cholera. I walked out in the open air, took no 

 food, drink or medicine from the evening until 

 about six o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, 

 and then not one-fourth of a meal. The next morn- 

 ing I was fit for business. I went to another hotel 

 which was supplied with water from the main land. 

 Another boarder at the first hotel was taken sick 

 as I was, but he stayed, ate, drank, doctored, and 

 died. The cholera soon after appeared there and 

 swept off many of the inhabitants, of all classes. 



Many healthy people go from these parts to pla- 

 ces at the South and West, and die of what is called 

 dysenteiw ; others come back and say the water is 

 so limy they can't drink it. The trouble may be 

 from lime ; it may be from something worse. Rain 

 water when it first falls is good, but stagnant water 

 soon becomes unwholesome. 



There is an excellent piece in the Farmer of 

 May 3, 1862, which I wish was published through- 

 out the whole country, on charcoal as a purilier of 

 water. In hilly countries good water may be ob- 

 tained by digging wells on high ground from which 

 it may be conveyed to the l^arn, garden, or house. 



Pestilence may arise from diff'ei'ent causes. Its 

 seeds may float on the water or in the air, but is 

 most prevalent in low places by rivers and marshes. 



In my opinion the use of blood is another cause 

 of sickness. The cholera and plague always come 

 from the places wliei'c they save it for food. If 

 fresh, it enters the system, in man or lieast, with- 

 out digestion and becomes a part of the same. 

 Hogs that have the distemper come from slaughter 

 houses, and are worthless to f;xt, if not distempered. 



Among the conclusions which the oliservation 

 and experience of a long life have forced upon me, 

 are the following: That typhus fevers, measles, 

 &c., mostly pi-evail in hog-harvest time ; that beef, 

 though a wholesome food when cooked, often causes 

 the dysentery, when eaten I'aw ; that great sickness 

 and death often prevails near low, stagnant rivers, 

 while health and long life are enjoyed on high 

 ground near by ; that the people who live the long- 

 est are those who live a busj^ life, and whose food 

 is plain ; that the cause of murrain in cattle is an 

 insect taken into the system alive. 



What will be the condition of this country if it 

 advances for the next seventy-five years as it has 

 during the past seventy-five years over which my 

 memory extends ? Are the usual effects of wealth, 

 idleness and luxuiy to be witnessed, or will Jesus 

 Christ take to Himself and rule and reign, whose 

 right it is ? Phineas Pratt. 



Deep River, Conn., 1866. 



CAUSES OF sickness — SUGGESTIONS OF AGE. 



I have taken the Farmer about ten years, much 

 to my satisfaction, and have most of them now on 

 hand. I have been an interested observer of the 

 imi)rovements in agriculture, manufactures, and 

 modes of living in twelve of the States of the 

 Union, and in Canada, and have tried many expe- 

 riments myself, some of which were successful, 

 some far otherwise. And now, in my eighty-third 

 year, as I look back and think of those who started 

 in lif^e with me, it is sad to reflect how many have 

 fallen by the i-avages of war, by pestilence, impris- 

 onment, intemperance, and by living too fast and 

 exercising too little. 



A MUCK BED. 



I have a muck bed in the middle of my farm, 

 containing perhaps, one-eighth of an acre. A few 

 years ago it was covered with large oak trees, with 

 no underbrush at all. It was covered with water 

 perhaps- one-quarter of the year. The trees have 

 been cut, the land drained, or partially so, (it can 

 be completely,) and it is now fine feeding gi-ound. 

 Now, will you and the readers of the Farmer tell 

 me v/hether it wotild be the most profitalile for me 

 to let it remain in pasture, of which I have no 

 more tha.Ti I need, or dig it out to enrich my im- 

 proved land ? 



I have a field of two and a half acres, too wet to 

 plough, except in a dry season, which bears a fine 



