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NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



Oct. 



mals that might suddenly dash upon the track 

 in front of the train. But there is one thing 

 of which abutters have a right to complain. 

 We allude to the growth on railroad banks of 

 noxious weeds, such as the ox-eye daisy and 

 Canada thistle. We have watched for some 

 years the gradual increase of a plantation of 

 the latter pest in the town of Somerville on 

 the Boston and Lowell railroad, which we 

 think should be abated. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 rODDEK CORN AND SUGAR BEETS. 

 We are indebted to the Secretary of the 

 Irasburg, Vt., Farmers' Club, Z. E. Jameson, 

 Esq., for the following report of the discussion 

 by the members of this society of the relative 

 profit of fodder corn and sugar beets. By 

 sustaining these weekly meetings the farmers 

 of Irasburg are an example which may be 

 safely commended to every neighborhood in 

 New England. 



N. H. Stiles remarked that when a farmer 

 steps aside from the regular course of farming, 

 to raise a crop that will increase the amount of 

 food for his cattle, he naturally inquires what 

 is most profitable. Fodder corn is well adapt- 

 ed to summer feeding, and if properly cured 

 would be a great addition to the winter stores ; 

 but sugar beets will probably yield a crop of 

 equal or greater value by the acre, require 

 no curing, and can be fed not only in the fall, 

 but all through the winter and spring, when 

 such succulent food proves very beneficial to 

 all kinds of stock. One thousand or fifteen 

 hundred bushels of beets, besides the tops, 

 from an acre, must afford such an amount of 

 food as to give a decided profit. 



G. B. Brewster had had no experience with 

 beets, but did not doubt their excellence for 

 winter feed. He believed fodder corn good for 

 cows at all times. He had now fed fodder corn 

 one week, and his twenty-five cows have gained 

 two pails (six or eight gallons) of milk a day, 

 over the amount they gave before, and his 

 cheese are an inch thicker than those made 

 previously to feeding this corn. Without this 

 fodder, the cows would have diminished in 

 milk. Another thing : this food causes the cat- 

 tle to keep in better condition. He mows a 

 swath about seven feet wide and twenty long, 

 morning and night, — feeding twice a day. As 

 there is a larger increase in the size of his 

 cheese than the extra cjuantity of milk would 

 lead him to expect, he thinks the quality is im- 



S roved in a greater ratio tiian the (juantity. 

 Ir. Brewster sowed two bushels of VVestern 

 dent corn on about half an acre on which he 

 had v'lrded his cows when milking, and the 

 growth was enormous. 



Wm. L. Locke, Jr., said he sowed five 

 pecks of Western corn in drills, and he thought 

 of curing it for winter fodder, as his cows are 

 doing well in their pasture, and he had heard 

 that one-fourth of an acre sowed with Western 

 corn will produce enough to winter a cow. 



S. Yaw observed that he had fed corn stalks 

 to cattle with decided benefit. 



Z. E. Jameson said that he sowed one and 

 a half bushels of Western corn broadcast on 

 about a third of an acre the 28th day of June, 

 and e.xhibited a single stalk which weighed one 

 and a fourth pound. He also showed a sugar 

 beet, planted five weeks earlier, which weighed 

 three and a half pounds. A beet occupies 

 about a foot squre of ground, while several 

 stalks of corn grow on a square foot. He had 

 fed his cows just one week with corn stalks, 

 and they have gained three pints each per day 

 in milk, and a pint each in the quantity of 

 cream saved during the week. He thinks it is 

 more work to sow and hoe beets, br.t less work 

 to harvest and store them safely, than fodder 

 corn. 



J. B. Fasset stated that the field of corn 

 owned by Mr. Brewster suited him. He had 

 never raised any himself. The idea of sowing 

 in drills, and hoeing had heretofore rather de- 

 terred him, but if it can be sowed broadcast, 

 like oats, and yield such a crop, it must be 

 profitable. 



Mr. Brewster feeds out about one square 

 rod a day, and the gain in cheese is perhaps 

 seven pounds, and the gain in condition of the 

 cows must be about a dollar a day, which 

 would be $160 per acre. It is ready for use 

 just at the time when there is usually a scarcity 

 of feed in the pastures. Next year he shall 

 endeavor to have both fodder corn and roots. 



Wm. L. Locke, Jr., said he had several 

 times sent to B. K. Bliss, Springfield, Mass., 

 for seed. This year he ordered one-quarter 

 of a pound of Skirving purple rutabaga seed. 

 He thought every seed was good, as there 

 were plants enough for an acre. It was a job 

 to hoe and thin them out. They are doing 

 well now. The land where he planted them 

 did not yield last year over 500 lbs. of hay 

 per acre. He plowed it in the spring and put 

 on the scrapings of the barn-yard, and har- 

 rowed it in ; then marked the drills with a 

 plow, and scattered in the drills the droppings 

 of the hen roost, of which he had a wagon 

 load. He then covered this manure with a 

 little dirt, and dropped the seed in hills a foot 

 apart. 



For ihe Xew England Farmer. 

 FARMING.— THE TRUE POLICY. 



Having seen and read numerous agricultural 

 papers, I conclude that they are each and all 

 but diirerent versions of the same sul)ject: — 

 Agriculture — being devoted mainly to the de- 

 tails of farming, under various conditions and 

 circumstances. Still, notwithstanding the ben- 



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