282 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



June 



day, Jan. 28, with that of Saturday and Sun- 

 day morning weighed seventy pounds, and 

 yielded seventy-seven ounces of pure butter, 

 free from buttermilk or salt. She ate noth- 

 ing but early cut hay ; no grain of any kind or 

 roots. Another week the same cow averaged 

 thirty-three pounds of milk per day ; the in- 

 crease was caused by the addition of a quan- 

 tity of grain. 



We may be sure of a rich and abundant flow 

 of milk both in summer and winter without 

 grain. With plenty of milk we can keep our 

 calves through the first winter in a thrifty con- 

 dition. After that, good pastures in summer 

 and good hay in winter will produce beef with- 

 out grain. 



Col. Clough, the king of corn growers in 

 Merrimac County, remarked at the meeting in 

 Concord that his principal income was from 

 beef sold from his pastures. Grain is not 

 needed for the production of such beef. 



It was said that 1,500,000 bushels of corn 

 were produced in New Hampshire, and that 

 we purchased 1,000,000 bushels more. What 

 is done with the corn purchased ? More than 

 700,000 tons of hay are annually produced in 

 New Hampshire. It will require more than 

 1,000,000 bushels of corn to make up the loss 

 on the hay crop, occasioned by cutting late, 

 and improperly curing it. But at that meet- 

 ing not one word was said of the loss the State 

 sustained in its hay crop, through ignorance 

 and carelessness ; while much eloquence was 

 wasted in urging the production of more corn, 

 to the exhausting of our fields — for it is an 

 exhaustive crop, — to supply the want of hay. 



To me this seemed like an effort to save at 

 the spigot while wasting at the bung. We 

 can buy corn at the West at prices which wi-11 

 pay to make it into beef and pork here, to be 

 sold in competition with beef and pork from 

 that section. What argument, then, can be 

 brought against buying corn ? Well fattened 

 Eastern pork will sell for more money than 

 the same pounds of Western pork. While 

 the Western farmers are pushing their corn and 

 wheat through our ports to find a European 

 market, why should we not stop as much of it 

 as possible upon our State hills to enrich them, 

 so that when the time comes, seen by your 

 correspondent, at no distant day, we may be 

 better able to produce the corn the West will 

 refuse to sell us, or railroads refuse to trans- 

 port at living rates ? 



"Where neat stock is kept, the advantage 

 of having the fodder ought to decide in favor 

 of raising our own corn." We would urge all 

 Eastern farmers to raise corn for fodder. 

 We believe an acre of corn grown for fodder 

 alone, to be worth as much to feed to stock, 

 if cut and cured at the proper time, as the 

 product of the same acre in ripened corn, 

 though produced, as the former may be, with 

 much less labor, and at a season that will not 

 interfere with haying, and with the advantage 

 in the former crop of immediately preceding 



grass, the most profitable of all our crops. 

 We would never sell hay to purchase with the 

 proceeds corn as a substitute. The farmer 

 ■'ihould make and sell flesh, rather than sell the 

 flesh-forming products of his farm. 



At the meeting in Concord corn was valued 

 at $1.50 per bushel, and that by farmers who 

 consumed the corn they raised. It was at 

 these figures that they found their profits to 

 be 100 per cent. At the same time corn could 

 be purchased for $1.25 per bushel. 



If there was a profit of twenty-five cents 

 per bushel in f^^eding, the State might have 

 gained $250,000 by purchasing 1,000,000 

 bushels, as it did last year. The purchasing 

 of (hat corn need not in any way interfere 

 with raising all we otherwise could. F. 



Mast Yard, N. 11. , April, 1870. 



J'Vr the New England Farmer, 

 LETTER FROM VERMONT. 

 Dairying— Cheese, how to Cut and Keep; Price and 

 Scarcity — Oats — Arnautka Wheat — Barl' y — Preserv- 

 ed Fruits— Crab Apples — Apple Orchards — Black Na- 

 ples Currant— Apple Tree Nurseries. 

 While attending a meeting of the Glover, 

 Vt., Farmers' Club, and assisting in the dis- 

 cussion of Dairying, I had the pleasure of 

 tasting a piece of the che«se that drew the 

 first premium at our fair in 1869. The pro- 

 cess of making, as furnished by Mrs. Brew- 

 ster, was published a few weeks ago. I send 

 you a piece. Although it is about twenty-one 

 months' old, it is free from mould. It was 

 cut in October by its owner, Benjamin Han- 

 cock, of Glover. When a slice is taken out, 

 the cut surface of the remainder of the cheese 

 is spread over with butter, and a piece of 

 paper stuck on to keep out the air. The 

 cheese is covered to protect it from air and 

 cold weather. Where a whole cheese, of fifty 

 pounds weight, is bought by a small family, 

 some such device is necessary to prevent 

 mould and drying. Cheese retails here at 23 

 cents per pound. There is little in our mar- 

 ket now, and sometimes there is none. 



Cereal Grains. 



I send you some packages of grain raised 

 from seed received from the Department of 

 Agriculture, and also of the Norway oats — 

 Ramsdell's. 



The Somerset oats are a very early variety 

 of English oats. I sowed them May 5, head- 

 ed out July 15, ripened August 5-; straw, 

 large and stiff; yield fair, but sowed only 

 one quart. 



White Schonen Oats, from Germany ; sowed 

 two quarts; yielded over two bushels; ri- 

 pened August 15 ; grain plump ; several stalks 

 from one seed ; a promising grain. 



Black Swedish Oats, ripened late, — Sep- 

 tember 12 ; good thrifty grain, but too late ; 

 with a beard on most every kernel. They 

 are quite different from Norway oats in style 

 of growth, and other respects. 



