272 



NEW ENGLAND FARJ^IER. 



June 



the skeletons of leaves shrouded with long ropes 

 of the voracious gonnandizer — the canker worm. 

 It looked as if the messenger of death had wended 

 his path along the stream and wreaked his ven- 

 geance upon that lovely valle.y." 



— The Legislature of Indiana have adjourned 

 without locating the Agricultural College, although 

 the county of Hancock offered $300,000 to have it 

 fixed at Greenfield, their county seat. The five 

 years specified by Congress expires before the 

 Legislature meets again, and it is said the State 

 forfeits her $000,000 of the college fund. 



— Tlie Monthly Report of the Agiicultural De- 

 partment for Februarj', gives a statement by which 

 it appears that the annual yield of milk in the fa- 

 mous dairies of Ayrshii'C, Scotland, is 425 gallons 

 per COW. The Hon. Zadock Pi-att, of New 

 York, in a dairy of 80 cows, reports the yield at 

 584 gallons. 



— Ephraira Hannon, Saco, Yoi'k County, Maine, 

 writes to the New York Farmers' Club that twenty 

 years ago, he cut fence posts from the tops of hack- 

 matack trees in August, and they are still sound, 

 though set in sand where naturally posts soon rot. 

 Since then he has cut posts from the same kind of 

 trees in winter, and they did not last five years. 



— After the horse is nine years old, a wrinkle 

 comes on the eyelid at the upper corner of the 

 lower lid, and every year thereafter he has one 

 ■well-defined wrinkle for each year over nine. If, 

 for instance, a horse has three wrinkles, he is 

 twelve ; if four, he is thirteen, &c. So says an in- 

 formant of the Field and Fireside. 



— An English correspondent of the Country 

 Gentleman says, "All our fatting cattle get four 

 pounds per head dailj"^ of linseed cake, when first 

 put up, incieasing the quantity to eight or ten 

 pounds to finish off"; this in addition to plenty of 

 roots. The very best linseed cake we get comes 

 from New York, Boston, and Philadeljihia, and 

 costs here now $60 per ton. 



— In some remarks on the spring care of ewes, 

 Dr. Boynton of the Mirror and Farmer, "goes in" 

 for feeding roots, and says, "If you haven't tur- 

 nips, feed potatoes, and if you haven't these, buy 

 some. If j'ou haven't the money with which to 

 buy, sell half your sheep for what you can get, and 

 then get something on which to feed the other half, 

 and you will make money by the operation." 



— It is suggested by W. C. Strong and D. S. 

 Dewey in the New York Horticulturist, that red 

 cedar posts may protect grape vines trained around 

 them from mildew. Col. Dewey says his vines 

 trained on these posts, have been exempt from 

 mildew and insects ; and those growing nearest to 

 the post have surpassed others in general hcalth- 

 fulncss of appearance and productiveness. 



— ^To save his face from the whisking of his 

 cows' tails, while milking, a Herkimer county, 

 N. Y., dairyman stretches a stout wire across the 



stable, immediately back of the cows. In the 

 brush of each cow's tail he fastens a small iron 

 ring. A hook upon the wire secures the offensive 

 member out of the way of the milker. As soon 

 as the cow is milked, the hook is removed from 

 the ring, and the animal turned out of the stable. 



— A dish-washing machine, of the size of a large 

 tub, containing wire racks, &c., costing from $8.00 

 to $15.00, on castors, Mdiich will Avash four dozen 

 plates, or two or three dozen milk pans, in ten 

 minutes, and requiring no wiping, and never break- 

 ing any, has excited the admiration of the mem- 

 bers of the New York Farmers' Club. Now, girls, 

 for white fingers and delicate hands while doing 

 your own house work. 



—The Farmers' Club, at Little Falls, N. Y., in a 

 late discussion were nearly unanimous in the opin- 

 ion that it does not pay to raise roots on a large 

 scale for cattle feeding, at present prices of labor. 

 Mr. Lewis M'hose opinion was not controverted, 

 thought that early cut hay — grass, cut just as it 

 was coming into flower and nicely cured, — was the 

 best, as well as the cheapest, food for milch cows 

 in winter. 



— An experienced grape grower of Hartford, Ct., 

 Col. Dewey, saj's in the Horticulturist, that he 

 thinks many of the ills of vine growing are di- 

 rectly traceable to the restraint placed upon our 

 free-growing native varieties. He asks, are not 

 our trellises too procustean, and our methods of 

 confinement too rigid ? Do limb and spray have a 

 fair chance at full natural development ? He looks 

 upon motion as a necessary element in healthy 

 vegetation of all kinds. 



EXTRACTS AWD KEPLIES. 



RAISING CALVES AND COLTS. 



Calves may be raised on skimmed milk cheaper 

 and Ijetter than if fed with new milk — One good 

 calf in the fall is worth more than two poor ones — 

 No stock can be soiled so profitably as calves. 



Do these propositions need argument or proof ? 

 Calves raised with new milk are fed from eight to 

 twelve weeks or longer, and then entirely deprived 

 of it. In the country, away from any market, 

 skimmed milk is of far less value than the cream ; 

 consequently a calf can be fed on skimmed milk 

 longer and in greater quantity, without increasing 

 the expense, and thus he becomes larger and bet- 

 ter. Feed regularly as to quantity, quality and 

 time. Feed liberally, remembering that by skim- 

 ming the milk it has been deprived of its greatest 

 cash value, and some of its nutritive qualities. 

 But don't skim the milk too closely ; in the morn- 

 ing skim a small pan of milk that was drawn the 

 night previous ; at noon another small pan of the 

 same milk, and at night take a pan of morning's 

 milk. Three meals a day are better than two. The 

 milk skimmed as aljove directed will be sweet, and 

 though the greater part of the cream, and that 

 which will make superior butter will be taken, it 

 will not be deprived of all. As soon as the calf is 

 old enough to eat, a little shorts, fine feed, or 

 something of that kind, may be given dry, feeding 

 as regularly with that as with the milk. Com 

 meal is not good in any form. 



Keep the calf in the bam, out of the sun, on a 

 floor well covered with sand or other absorbents, 



