174 



NEW ENGLAND FARjVIER. 



Apeil 



nsual. This was the case in every field we ex- 

 amined. 



The impression left upon the mind was that a 

 new cereal had been introduced which would 

 prove valuable to the farmers of New England. 



Under these impressions our interest has con- 

 tinued, and has led us to examine every parcel of 

 them which has come to our observation in the 

 agricultural exhibitions and other places, where 

 we have been. What we want, is a heavy, well- 

 formed, prolific grain or berry — not a stout over- 

 luxuriant straw. This we have not yet found in 

 a single parcel of the Norway oats. They bear 

 no fair comparison with the "Surprise" oats, so 

 called, in color, form or weight, as they stand side 

 by side in the half bushel. The berry of the Nor- 

 way is long, thin and light, and the centre small 

 and covered by a large husk. What the compar- 

 ative value of an acre of each would be we are 

 not able to say. These tests will be made an- 

 other season, perhaps, and then we shall know 

 more about them. In the present spring sowing, 

 then, we advise a careful comparison of the grain 

 of several varieties, before sweeping away all 

 others for one which as yet is but imperfectly un- 

 derstood. 



When several experiments have been made on 

 soil of the same quality, location, and manured 

 and worked alike, and sowed with different varie- 

 ties of oats, harvested equally well, cleaned up 

 alike, measured and weighed, and their compo- 

 nent parts carefully observed, then we shall have 

 data upon which to decide of the merits of each. 



We shall be thankful for samples of a gill each 

 of any varieties of oats that were grown last sum- 

 mer, together with the names they bear. 



TEEDING STRAW TO STOCK. 



That there is a right and a wrong way to do 

 everything is certain ; and that there is a good 

 and a poor way to feed straw to stock I have be- 

 come fully convinced. When my stock came to 

 the barn in the fall, I concluded that I was short 

 of fodder for the winter, unless I fed a large lot of 

 straw that I had, which by the way was rather 

 poor, having laid out in the rain a number of 

 days while harvesting, and become badly washed 

 and colored. When my stock came to the barn, 

 I commenced to feed good early cut hay, which 

 kept them gaining in flesh. After they were well 

 into the winter I commenced to feed corn and 

 poorer fodder, with some straw. But to make them 

 eat the straw, or even half of it, was more than I 

 could do without starving them to it, which I did 

 not like to do. What I should do was a question 

 to be considered. To get a straw cutter and cut 

 all the feed by hand for twelve head of cattle was 

 something like work. And to get a cutter to go 

 by horse power was more than I felt able to do, 

 so I commenced to mix hay and straw together. 

 To do this 1 commenced by cleaning my barn 

 floor and removing everything out of the way, so 

 as to give me the full swing of the floor which was 

 12x40 feet. Then I shook over the whole floor a 

 layer of good hay, then some wheat straw, which 

 I sprinkled with water to which a little salt had 

 been added ; then strewed one peck of meal, then 

 some poorer hay, then oat straw, then good hay, 

 then wheat straw again, to which I added the wa- 



ter and meal as before. This being done I took a 

 fork and commenced at one end of the floor and 

 shook the whole mass together, being sure to put 

 the fork down to the floor so as to get it thoroughly 

 mixed. After I had it well shook together I packed 

 it back on the bay side of the floor, leaving a place 

 in front next to the stable, to feed. This done I 

 walked the length of the whole pile two or three 

 times so as to prevent it from drying up. This 

 pile fed ten head of cattle one week, with but very 

 little waste. The time to do this work did not ex- 

 ceed thirty minutes. Does it pay to cut fodder for 

 stock ? S. B. Blodoett. 



Cabot, Vf., Feb. 14, 1870. 



hide-bound cow. 

 I have a nice cow with very poor appetite — her 

 hide seems to be hard and cracked — hide-bound. 

 Please inform me what to do for her. 



A Subscriber. 

 Holmes Hole, Mass., Feb. 7, 1870. 



Remarks. — 1st. Card your cow thoroughly 

 twice a day. 



2d. Every morning, after carding her, wash her 

 all over with warm water, and rub her with a coarse 

 cloth until the hair is dry. Perhaps a little sale- 

 ratus in the water will improve it. 



3d. Feed cut hay, roots, meal, &c. 



4th. Every alternate day give her a table-spoon- 

 ful of the following powder in her meal :— 



Nitrate of potash (salt-petre) one part 



Sulphur , two parts 



Bi-tartrate of potash (cream of tartar) . . . three parts 



Pulverize and mix. 



bursal swelling on a horse. 



What will cure a slight soft swelling just at the up- 

 per side of the knee of a horse, caused by a bruise 

 by breaking through ice. The horse was lame for a 

 week, but i^e ntitely well now, except the swelling, 

 which has remained now over a month, g. r. h. 



Champlain, N. F., Feb. 7, 1870. 



Remarks. — The soft swelling to which our cor- 

 respondent refers, is a ganglion, or enlargement 

 of one of the bursaee mucosa (mucous bags) which 

 are found in the neighborhood of joints, being 

 parts of the sheaths of tendons or sinews. It 

 was, doubtless, caused by mechanical injury, as 

 suggested. 



The best remedy is to paint the swelling twice a 

 day with tincture of iodine or a strong solution of 

 iodide of potassium, and keep a firm and constant 

 pressure upon the swelling, by means of a plate of 

 lead or pewter quilted into a properly constructed 

 bandage. 



BLOODY MILK. 



Can you or some of your correspondents inform 

 me what I can do to help a three-year-old heifer 

 which has given bloody milk from one teat all the 

 season since she calved last June. She is farrow, 

 and gives milk now. Garget and saltpetre seem 

 to do no good. Charles Woodman. 



NoHh Leeds, Me., Feb., 1870. 



Remarks. — The trouble in the case of this 

 heifer consists in either inflammation or conges- 

 tion of a portion of the udder. If there is inflam- 

 mation there will be more or less unnatural heat 

 in the part affected ; and in that case we advise 



