214 



NEW ENGLAM) FARIVIER. 



May 



Please put this in the Nkw England Fahmer 

 and let Eastern men who don't know whether 

 fannii'g pays, see that we have a great country to 

 live in, and come out and learn how to farm it. 

 "We can show them. Nathan S. Chase. 



McKjnolia, lotoa, Jan. 26, 1870. 



Rkmarks.— That's a good hearty letter,— not a 

 streak of the blues or fever and ague any where 

 to be seen. We venerate the first settlers of all 

 new countries. Men who erect buildings for 

 others to live in; dig wells for others to draw 

 cool water from ; subdue fields for others to culti- 

 vate ; make roads and bridges for others to ride 

 over; drain marshes that others may breathe 

 pure air, and generally prepare the way and lay 

 the foundations of a prosperous community, are 

 entitled to more credit and honor than they gen- 

 erally receive. We therefore very cheerfully com- 

 ply with friend Chase's request to copy his letter. 



SEEDING FOR PASTURE. 



As I am about seeding some land into pasture, I 

 would like some information through your paper. 

 Some advise me to sow Redtop, others think it 

 betcer to sow different kinds of seed. Will you 

 inform me which would be the best kind of seed 

 to use ? A Reader. 



Northboro, Mass., Feb., 1870. 



Remarks.— Pastures require grasses that do 

 not come forward at the same time. There should 

 be early, medium and late grasses, so that the 

 stock may always find that which is in a suitable 

 state of growth for them. This cannot be secured 

 by sowing one or two kinds of seed only. The 

 June grass, for instance, would blossom and be- 

 come dry, perhaps, before the Redtop would 

 blossom in July. The Meadow Foxtail and Or- 

 chard grass would flower in May and June ; the 

 Redtop in June and July ; the Timothy in June 

 and July, and White Clover from May to Sep- 

 tember. 



valve of corn cobs. 



Can you inform me whether there is any nutri- 

 tious matter in corn cobs to feed to stock, ground 

 separate, or as is more usual, ground with the 

 corn. -A.. Cotton. 



IVoburn, Mass., Feb. 23, 1870. 



Remarks.— There was quite a spicy controversy 

 on the value of cobs ground separately and with 

 the corn, in the Farmer for 1868. The Monthly 

 edition ought to be in your town library. You 

 will there find different views expressed— some 

 believing the cob valuable, others that it is even 

 worse than useless. One advocate of corn cob 

 meal thought that those who realized no benefit 

 from it did not feed it right. Sufficient hot water 

 should be turned upon the meal to scald it the 

 night before feeding. Thus treated, he considered 

 it valuable. Another said it was too expensive 

 to grind cobs, but that they were valuable when 

 boiled, and that the water in which they were 

 boiled was also very nutritious. But as farmers 

 disagree among themselves, we will copy from 

 Prof. Johnson's book on How Crops Grow the fol- 

 lowing results of analysis of the ash of corn, of 



corn stalks, and of corn cobs, showing the per 

 cent, of several of the constituents, as follows : — 



Corn. Corn Stalks. Corn Coba, 



Ash 1 42 5 49 66 



Potaeh 2r.O 35.3 47 1 



Soda 15 1.2 12 



Magnesia 14.6 5 5 4 1 



Liaie 2.7 10.5 3 4 



PhoBphoric Acid . . . 44 7 8 1 4 4 



Sulphuric Acid ... 1.1 5.2 1 9 



S lica 2.2 38.U 26 4 



Another table gives the water, organic matter, 

 ash, albuminoids, carbohydrates, crude fibre, fat, 

 &c., in the corn and in the cobs. The term or- 

 ganic matter signifies the combustible parts of the 

 plant; carbohydrates, &c., includes fat, starch, 

 sugar, pectin, &c. 



Corn. Cob"*. 



Water 14 4 10 3 



Organic matter 83.5 83 2 



Ash 2.1 2 8 



AlbuminoidB 10.0 1.4 



Carbohyt rates, &c., 6S.0 44 



Crude fibre 5 5 37 8 



Fat, &c , 7.0 1.4 



MANURING "WITH CLOVER. 



Can we get a suitable crop of clover to plough 

 in on worn out land, without manure to start the 

 clover ? How much seed to the acre ? Should it 

 be ploughed under when in the blossom, and how 

 deep ? Is the spring the best time to sow the seed ? 



Craftsbxiry, Vt., Feb. 9, 1870. G. N. 



Remarks. — On land pretty thoroughly impover- 

 ished, it is not probable that much of a crop of 

 clover would be produced at once. If none can 

 be had, however, plough the land twice at least, 

 once in the fall and again in the spriog, and work 

 it over with some lifting implement, such as a 

 horse-hoe, or cultivator, until the mass of the soil 

 has been thoroughly mingled and made fine. Sow 

 in the spring as soon as the soil is mellow, 12 or 

 15 pounds of clover and plough under the crop 

 when the blossoms commence to dry. 



The crop on exhausted soils will be small, of 

 course, but it will be the foundation for another 

 and larger one, and so on until the field will pro- 

 duce a ton or more to the acre. With good treat- 

 ment the land will then be in condition to produce 

 fair crops for a hundred years in succession. If 

 four hundred pounds of the flour of bone, were 

 added to the acre, a pretty fair crop of clover 

 might be expected the first year, on sandy or clay 

 loams. 



CATTLE DISEASE IN SOUTHEASTERN M.\SS. 



By the questions I see asked in the Farmer, I 

 suppose it is thought that editors know almost 

 everything. So 1 want to ask you what ails my 

 cows. 1 bought a heifer that came from the coun- 

 try a year ago last fall. She did well all winter, 

 and dropped her calf April 1st. She gave a good 

 mess of milk, — some days twenty-five pounds. 

 Almg the last of July she began to dry away in 

 milk. I fed her a variety of fodder, such as corn 

 stalks, pumpkins, small potatoes, small corn, 

 some barley and witchgrass, &c., the same as 1 

 did another old cow I was fattening. When 

 I gave her anything new she would eat it as 

 though she liked it for a week or ten days, 

 then would not touch it. She appeared all the 

 time as if she wanted something she could not get. 



