1870. 



KEW ENGLAITO FARMER. 



87 



ished and delighted when the idea burst upon 

 me ttiat. finning was the science of chemistry 

 reduced to practice. To my mind the farmer 

 became a new man. and farming a new busi- 

 ness. The doctor I had always regarded as a 

 man of t-cience, as were prof'essorti, &c. ; but 

 ■ that the awkward, clumsy, ignorant farmer 

 w^a-i al-o a man of scitnce — a chemist — was 

 new and wonderfid indeed to me. This was 

 before I had read Liebig. 



I give these particulars to show how I ac- 

 quired a taste for farming, and how natural it 

 was for me to look to the country for a home, 

 and to 1)U)- land as I stated in a previous arti- 

 cle, I had done. 



My desire from the time of my discovery of 

 the connection of chemistry wiih farming has 

 been to be a farmer ; but destiny -and! be- 

 lieve there is a destiny that shapes our ends, 

 rough hew them as we will, — has thus far pre- 

 vented me from gratifying my desires. 



With this knowledge of chemistry and this 

 love of the country, when but a boy, I often 

 visited farmers with my father, and was able 

 to give scientific reasons for many of the 

 things which were done by them, and for oth- 

 ers which they said should not be done, but 

 for which they were able to give no other rea- 

 son than'that they had been taught so to do, 

 or so not to do, by those who had preceded 

 them on the same land. As I became older I 

 made these excursions alone, as opportunity 

 offered, and I generally spent my holidays 

 • with the farmers, stud)ing chemistry, while 

 others were spending their time in foolery or 

 drunkenness. I also studied anatomy and 

 physiology, with reference to farm stock, — 

 making the study cf .sheep a specialty. I 

 have continued to read whatever 1 could find 

 on agriculture ; and I remember a few years 

 ago of being laughed at by my friends, and 

 scolded by my wife, because I accepted a 

 present from a friend of a wheelbarrow full 

 of the New England Farmer and Country 

 Gentltman. These I read and studied, be- 

 lieving that the many empty shelves in my 

 brain had better be filled by this knowledge 

 than by none. 



Having taid thus much of myself and of 

 caution to others, against rushing thoughtlessly 

 into the country, I mast reserve further details 

 of my farming operations, promised last week, 

 for another occasion. Tiios. Wiutaker. 



JSi'eedhum, Mass., ISGi). 



For the New England Farmer, 



ABB GEESKT COtN STALKS MEAN 

 PODDEK? 



Gextlemex : — In the Sprinofield Eepuhli- 

 caii's report of the meeting of tlu; State Board 

 of Agriculture, Dec. 8, at PiMsfield, Dr. Lor- 

 ing IS rejjorted as .saying that '■'■green corn 

 stalks ore the poorest and meanest fodder 

 ever given to a cow.'''' 



This statement is certainly from very high 



authority ; and, so far as the report shows, 

 was acce^jted by the Board. It may be cor- 

 rect, but is at variance with most of the state- 

 ments which I have seen in the agricultural 

 papers. On the contrary, both green and dry 

 corn stalks have been considered among the 

 best fodder for cows in milk. 



It is the practice of others, and I have been 

 in the habit of sowing a part of an acre with 

 corn by the side of the pasture, so that in 

 August and September, when the pasture 

 grass was getting dry, I could have some- 

 thing green for the cows. I have invarinbiy 

 found an increase of milk, while the quality 

 was in no degree impaired. So in late au- 

 tumn and early winter my cows are fed in 

 part with dry corn fodder, and as I have be- 

 lieved to advantage. 



Let us have the experience and opinion of 

 practical fa; mers in this matter. If we have 

 been wasting our time in raising and feed- 

 ing out the ''poorest and meanest fodder ever 

 given to a cow,'''' let hs know it. 



Then again. Dr. Loring says, "oleaginous 

 matters are bad for milkers.'''' "Corn, cotton 

 seed and oil meal are of this ■nature, and are 

 the ruin of thousands of cows. lie had 

 spoiled 25 to 30 in a herd of 50 on his own 

 farm, in three years by this means.'''' Here- 

 commends "earlfj cut hay, roiven and roots ;'''' 

 so do I ; but I do not agree with him in what 

 he condemns. 



When cotton seed meal first carne into use, 

 and the price was low, I used it freely, and 

 for several winters with no apparent injury. 

 Linseed meal, too, when I had occasion to 

 buy feed, I have found good for cows in milk, 

 both increasing the quantity. 



But I have fed more corn meal than of both. 

 In the early part of the season I grind corn on 

 the cob, and when hard, the corn alone, and 

 have never doubted the benefit of corn meal 

 to the cows. 



Now as to the injury to the udder: "first 

 one teat then another, twenty to thirty cows 

 .■spoiled in three years, and then to the- 

 butcher.''^ Was it all owing to the oleaginous 

 matter ? 



In an experience of some fifteen years with 

 Ayrihire and other cows and heifers, I have 

 never had trouble with but one cow in this 

 way, and she, coming in two or three times in 

 mid summer, with only grass feed, and giving 

 fifty pounds of milk per day, and being of a 

 nervous temperament, I have found some diffi- 

 culty in allaying inflammation ; — yet at twelve 

 years old, she is a good cow, with four sound 

 teats. Another, at fifteen (also Ayrshire) is 

 sound and hale, fed as above. 



A few winters ago a pr.actical farmer, a 

 neighbor of mine, being out of butter, went 

 to the store with a bag of corn to l)uy some at 

 the then high price of twenty-live cents. 

 Upon thinking the matter over, he decided to 

 give his cows some corn meal instead of swap- 

 ping the corn for pale wmter butter, when ha 



