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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



apparatus, exactly as food is needed ; and they 

 ■will fatten more rapidly, or lay more eggs, and 

 consume much less food than they will if they 

 are fed as much as they will eat twice a day. 



My practice now is, and always has been, to 

 allow my fowls to have free access to corn in 

 the ear all the time, both summer and winter. 

 Of course they are obliged to shell it for them- 

 selves. Occasionally we feed them screenings, 

 and when we have no screenings we take a 

 peck or so of wheat, and as much buckwheat, 

 oats, barley or rye, and mingle them all to- 

 gether, and mix the grain with some chalf, so 

 that they will not be as liable to consume as 

 much of it at once as if it were clear grain. 

 When we have an abundance of milk, we 

 place a vessel containing it where they can find 

 it at any time. In warm weather, after it has 

 become loppered, they will consume, during 

 the day, much more of it than one would sup- 

 pose ; and milk is as good to fatten poultry 

 and make chickens grow, as it is for pigs ; and 

 it is one of the very best kinds of food for any 

 kind of poultry, when they are laying. — S. 

 Edwards Todd, in Country Gentleman. 



•WOKKING OXEN BY THE HEAD. 



Some time since we published a statement 

 of a teamster who said that oxen yoked by 

 the head would do more work and do it easier 

 than those yoked in our ordinary way. We 

 find a very different opinion expressed in a 

 communication to the Western Euralist. The 

 writer says : — 



I have had a good deal of practice in work- 

 ing oxen. In 1853 I was lumbering on the 

 Pacific coast, 150 miles from the entrance to 

 the harbor of San Francisco. We had eighty 

 yoke of Spanish and American cattle, drawing 

 logs to the mill and lumber to the landing. 

 We had several men who claimed that the 

 Spanish way of yoking was the best. To test 

 the matter, I had a yoke, Spanish fashion, 

 hitched to a log, which, after repeated trials, 

 they could not draw. I then had them un- 

 yoked and yoked Yankee fashion. At the first 

 pull the chain gave way, but at the second 

 trial they drew the log several rods. I put 

 them on the road, where the fact was demon- 

 strated that one pair, with the yoke and bows, 

 was ecjual to two yoke with the timber strapped 

 to their heads. 



In no case would the people use the stick, 

 after we had In'oken their cattle to our yoke. 

 Ask one of them the reason, and the reply 

 would be that the stick was no good. I broke 

 sixteen yoke in the winter of 1853, and could 

 have had thrice as many, if I could have at- 

 tended to them. 



This j)hin of working cattle with the stick 

 fastened to the head is a cruel way. They 

 cannot take advantage of a heavy load ; they 

 cannot turn their heads in either way ; they 



cannot fight their cruel tormentors, the flies, 

 and there are many other disadvantages. I 

 am satisfied the yoke and bows are far supe- 

 rior to the Spanish way, and how any sane 

 man can recommend such an outlandish mode 

 of working oxen is more than I can compre- 

 hend. E. R. M. 



Philosophy of Hay-Making. — The fol- 

 lowing inquiries and suggestions by the agri- 

 cultural editor of the New York Tribune, af- 

 ford suitable topics for the discussion of far- 

 mers' clubs, and for the investigation of the 

 chemists of our agricultural colleges : — 



We want to know something of the changes 

 produced in the nutritive properties of grass 

 by the vicissitudes incident to hay-making. 

 Grass partially dried and then moistened with 

 dew, parts with its coloring matter — becomes 

 bleached. Do any of the nutritive cjualities 

 also evaporate with the dew? If so, what 

 changes have the gum, sugar, starch, &c., 

 undergone, that make them more volatile than 

 before the grass was dried ? What change in 

 the nutritive qualities of grass does heat pro- 

 duce that is generated in the mow or cock, by 

 moisture ? If, as in the case of the cock, a lit- 

 tle heat is supposed to do no harm — why may 

 not hay which in a stress of weather is put into 

 the barn a little too damp, have the decompo- 

 sition arrested by salt or lime, or the injuri- 

 ous gases absorbed by charcoal ? 



— At a convention held in Iowa City, Aug. 9th, 

 the Concord grape was almost unanimously en- 

 dorsed for general cultivation. 



THE FARMER FEEDETH ALL. 



BY CHARIjES GODFREY LELAND. 



My lord rides through his palace gate, 

 My lady sweeps along in state, 

 Ttie sage thinks long on many a thing, 

 And tile maiden muses on marrying; 

 The minstrel harpeih merrily, 

 The sailor plows the foaming sea, 

 The huntsman kills the good red deer; 

 And the soldii r wars wilhouten fear, 



But fall to each whatever befall, 

 The farmer, he must feed them all. 



Smith hammereth cherry red the sword, 

 Priest preacheth pure the Holy Word, 

 Dame Alice workvth broidery well, 

 Clerk Richard tales of love can tell, 

 The tap- wife sells her foaming beer, 

 Dan Fisher iisheth in the mere, 

 And courtiers riillU', ntriit and shine. 

 While pages brini; llir GafCdii vine; 



Brit fall to each whatever befall. 

 The farmer, he must feed t)iem all. 



Man builds his castle fair and high, 

 Wherever river runneth by, 

 Great cities rise in every land, 

 Great churches show the builder's hand, 

 Great arches, monuments and towers, 

 Fair palaces and pleasing bowers; 

 Great work is done, be 't lierc or there. 

 And well man worketh everywhere ; 



But work or rest, ivhate'er befall. 

 The farmer, he must feed them aU. 



