120 



NEW ENGLAND FARlVrER. 



March 



when by becoming a scientific and skilful veterin- 

 ary physician and surgeon, you will find your- 

 selves in a field of ample dimensions, almost with- 

 out competition, and where your labor will be ap- 

 preciated and rewarded ? Medicus. 

 West Bratlleboro' , Vt., Jan., 1870. 



GREEN AND DRY CORN FODDER. 



Though old age has so far dimmed my eye-sight 

 that I am unable to read, I was very glad to learn 

 that Dr. Loring had publicly expressed his opin- 

 ion about green corn fodder for milch cows. I 

 was also glad to hear the opinions of others on the 

 same subject. I consider Mr. Whitaker's state- 

 ments valuable to the public, but I must doubt 

 whether he has had the experience with green 

 corn fodder for milch cows that Dr. Loring or 

 myself have had. I have known cows reduced in 

 flesh, strength and milk, by feeding them green 

 corn stalks, and from my own experience I am 

 firm in the belief that, if any farmer were to tie 

 up thirty cows in the barn on the 10th of August, 

 and feed them all the green fodder corn they 

 would eat, and no other kind of food, for thirty 

 days, not one-half of them would be able to rise 

 in their stalls at the end of that time. I would 

 beg, however, that no farmer will try this experi- 

 ment on good cows ; but if any one doubts it, let 

 him try it on one or two that are of little value. 



Still I believe that sweet corn is the best thing 

 that can be raised for fodder for milch cows, when 

 our pastures fail in August or September. The 

 next best crop that I know of is oats. But neither 

 of them should be fed to cows green. The corn 

 should have two days of good sunshine, after it 

 is cut up, before it is fed to the cows, and the oats 

 at least one day's drying in good weather, and two 

 if convenient. If the weather is unfavorable, 

 take them into the barn and chop them up with 

 an equal quantity of meadow hay. The water in 

 both corn and oats will be sufficient to moisten the 

 hay, and it is well to mix with the mess a little 

 Indian meal or shorts. Asa G. Sheldon. 



Wilminqton, Mass., Jan. 8, 1870. 



Remarks.— As dried-up as our pastures gen- 

 erally are in the latter part of summer, it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to furnish milch cows with some 

 kind of additional feed. And the question, What 

 shall be raised ? is one of much importance. 

 Hence it is desirable that the views and experi- 

 ences of different farmers on this point should be 

 known, and that the conclusions of each individ- 

 ual should be treated with the deference which is 

 due from one man to the honest opinions of an- 

 other. 



Since the present discussion commenced in our 

 columns, we have seen the following suggestions 

 upon the subject of cow fodder in some extracts 

 from the address by Dr. James R. Nichols, at the 

 Fair of the Franklin county, Mass., Agricultural 

 Society, last fall, which we copy, remembering 

 that in the multitude of counsellors there is wis- 

 dom. The Doctor says : — 



It is a common practice in Eastern Massachu- 

 setts, and perhaps in this section, to grow the corn 

 plant in drills, or in a mass from broadcast sow- 

 ing, to feed to milch Cows late in summer when 

 the pasture grasses fail. This is a kind of food for 

 animals not profitable to raise. It is not so be- 

 cause the maize plant is not rich and succulent, 

 but because the conditions under which it is grown 

 are unfavorable to its perfect and healthy devel- 

 opment. The natural juices of the plant are 



richly saccharine at maturity, when grown in hills 

 in open space, with plenty of air and light; but 

 grown in mass, in close contiguity, this principle 

 is almost wholly wanting. 



To test its comparative value with the green 

 stalks taken from the cornfield, I fed to my herd 

 of cows in August a weighed quantity of the 

 "corn fodder," so-called, night and morning for 

 one week ; they were then changed to the field 

 cornstalks, and the gain in the milk product at 

 the end of the week was a little more than eight 

 per cent., and there was also a manifest improve- 

 ment in quality. 



As a rule, all vegetable productions, grown 

 under conditions where the chlorophyl, — the green 

 coloring principle of plants, — cannot be produced 

 in all its richness of tint, are abnormal, immature, 

 worthless. The absence of this principle in the 

 whole of the lower portion of the corn plant grown 

 in drills, or from broadcast sowing, indicates its 

 watery, half developed character. 



As fodder for milch cows in summ'er, the sweet 

 millet, green oats, and clover are much to be pre- 

 ferred to corn, and one or more of them should 

 take its place upon all daii-y farms. 



BUTTER making IN WINTER. 



Having had considerable difficulty in making 

 the butter come, I wish to ask what is the proper 

 temperature of cream for churning, and also what 

 kind of thermometer is best for the dairy ? A. 



Bradford, N. H., Dec, 1869. 



Remarks. — Sixty degrees is generally consid 

 ered about the right temperature. Our correspon- 

 dent, A. W. Checver, of Sheldonville, Mass., one 

 of the most careful dairymen in the State, said in 

 a statement made of the mode of manufacturing 

 a lot of butter that took first premiums at the 

 Norfolk County Fair, in 1868, that "churning is 

 always done with the cream at a known tempera- 

 ture, varying from 60° to 64°, according to the out- 

 side temperature." But temperature of the cream 

 is only one of the conditions of good butter. The 

 trouble may be in the hay rather than in the 

 cream. The ordinary cheap thermometers, cost- 

 ing from 25 to 75 cents, answer a very good pur- 

 pose. We believe there is a patented article de- 

 signed for the dairy, which it is claimed is more 

 easily cleaned, but we have never found any great 

 difficulty with ordinary ones in this or any other 

 respect. 



CLAY AS A FERTILIZER. 



At the meeting of the Farmers' and Gardeners' 

 Association of Irasburg, Dec. 20, Mr. M. C. said he 

 had noticed that where clear blue clay from a well 

 fifteen feet deep got washed away from the pile 

 about the mouth of the well, it caused a very rank 

 growth of grass. In a piece of grass land that had 

 been mown eight years the meadow star-moles 

 worked last year to such an extent that he thought 

 it was ruined by the piles of dirt all over it, but 

 this year it cut the stoutest grass he ever hud,— 

 three tons per acre. 



Mr. L. had seen a case where seventy-five loads 

 of blue clay from a bank had been put on an acre 

 of sand, which was then sowed to grain and grass, 

 and it did well during the three years he lived 

 where he could notice it. When he lived near La- 

 moile river he had half an acre from which high 

 water had washed the soil all otf, leaving a loose 

 white sand. On this he put a light coat of manure 

 and sowed it to grass, but it would not turf over, 



