1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



297 



or some of your correspondents by actual experi- 

 ment can tell me through your valuable paper. 

 From week to week, I long for the day to come 

 that I may read the Extracts and Replies, &c., 

 contained in those columns. My method has been 

 to put two small ones or one large one in a hill ; 

 or when they are very large, I cut them and make 

 two hills of one potato. I get a good yield by so 

 doing. 



BUTTER MAKING. 



I would say in reply to Mr. Goodall that I don't 

 quite agree with him in some respects. 1st. I 

 think the better way would be after drawing the 

 milk to strain it into a tin can and stir it once in 

 five or ten minutes, until the animal heat is thor- 

 oughly out of it ; then put it into pans and let the 

 cream rise. If it is set immediately after being 

 drawn from the cow the cream will rise, and the 

 gases contained in the milk cannot escape through 

 the cream, — hence poorer butter. 2d. If he heats 

 his ci'eam to sixty at this time of year he will 

 need ice to cool it. 3d. By putting water into 

 butter it cannot be worked out so as to keep the 

 butter sweet. l. j. n. 



Cheshire, Mass., April 19, 1870. 



DISPOSING OF THE STONES. 



Though in some sections the question, how 

 shall we get rid of the stones ? may be one of li:tle 

 importance, there are many farms, in New Hamp- 

 shire, at least, where large unsightly stone heaps, 

 accumulating from year to year, sufficiently testify 

 that the proprietors need a friendly jog. While 

 the use of small stones for underdrains is recom- 

 mended by some farmers, and is doubtless advis- 

 able under certain circumstances, it is generally 

 conceded that tile drain is much better. 



What then shall we do with the stones ? I 

 should say put them where they will do good. 

 Does your sled-path cross wet places which do 

 not freeze up in good shape until winter is so far 

 advanced that the best time for sledding is over ? 

 A few loads of small stones in those wet places 

 would be very beneficial. Or does the road cross 

 a ledgy district where it is difficult to get a road 

 that is not sideling ? If small stones are at hand 

 they may be made to do good service in squaring 

 up the path. Does your main farm-road lie across 

 a gulf or a narrow valley ? You may build of 

 large or small stones a path as wide and high as 

 circumstances require, covering it of course with 

 gravel, and it will benefit you in three ways : — 1st, 

 by getting rid of the stones ; 2d, by bringing 

 your road nearer to a level ; 3d, by giving you a 

 road bed always hard and dry. On many farms 

 there might be hundreds of loads of stones used to 

 great advantage in this way. 



But if a farm has such a surface that these sug- 

 gestions do not apply, surely there will be farm 

 roads, and in the spring of the year these will 

 often be uncomfortably muddy to team over. In 

 this case, if one has stones to get rid of, he may 

 take off the surface soil of such a section of his 

 road as is convenient to the stones and most needs 

 repairing, to the depth of two or three feet, till up 

 the trench with stones, cover with brush, weeds 

 or shavings, and give it a good coat of gravel. 

 Thus year by year, he will be building a first-rate 

 farm road. L. h. o. 



New Hampshire, April, 1870. 



PAINTING FLOORS THAT ARE IV CONSTANT tSE. 



Heretofore I have been bothered a good deal 

 about my floor drying when I painted it. But this 

 year I tried a plan that I can recommend to the 

 readers of the Farmer. Take three-fourths of a 

 pound of common glue, dissolve it in one gallon of 

 warm water. When cool take part of the water 



and add enough French yellow to make it the 

 right thickness to spread. After using it awhile 

 you will have to thin it by adding some of tbe 

 glue water. In an hour after painting my floor it 

 was sufHciently hard to walk on with slippers, but 

 rather pale and would wash off". The next day I 

 took two quarts of boiled oil and one pint of Japan 

 varnish mixed, and oiled the floor all over, which 

 gave it a good color, and so firm that washing does 

 not affect it at all. It could be used almost imme- 

 diately to walk on, and to all appearance it will 

 wear equal to any paint. We put on one coat only. 

 It did not dry as quickly over old paint, as where 

 it was all worn off. " n. 



Fairfax, Vt., April, 1870. 



CULTIVATION OF RAPE OR COLESEED. 



On looking over some old numbers of the Far- 

 mer, I notice an inquiry by Mr. Judson Thomp- 

 son of Morrisville, Vt., about the use of rape for 

 soiling cows. I find that the paper containing 

 this inquiry was printed while I was confined to 

 my bed by typhoid fever during the spring of last 

 year, and I do not remember of seeing the in- 

 quiry before. Perhaps the inquiry was suggested 

 by a short commendatory notice of this plant that 

 I wrote in 1868, ^ Monthly Farmer for that year, 

 page 367 ) As I have received letters of inquiry 

 from others, I will answer both Mr. Thompson 

 and others through your columns. 



The rape or coleseed that I raise is a forage 

 plant, with numerous roots, which run deep, and 

 are so firm as to try the strength of a smart man 

 to pull up a plant. Its stalk will run up four feet 

 high in good well manured soil, with leaves 

 shaped like those of the ruta baga, branching off 

 in all directions the whole length of the stalk. I 

 never fed cows anything they seemed to like so 

 well, or that makes so good butter. It stands 

 frost as well as a cabbage. It fills the gap from 

 frost to hay first rate. Cows will go on to the field 

 after harvest and gnaw stumps of it one and a 

 half inches in diameter as long as they can get 

 hold of them. I think I shall plant cabbage this 

 season, and see which I like best. Rape must 

 have rich land. The right kind of seed is a little 

 larger than ruta baga, and black, — the same that 

 is fed to birds. I saw it first recommended in the 

 Boston Cultivator by Hon. Levi Bartlett, some 

 ten or twelve years since. He said at that time 

 no man need let his cows go hungry if he would 

 plant rape. I repeat, it must have rich laud. 



Westboro', Mass., April, 1870. W. S. Grow. 



BOOKS ON FLOWERS AND SMALL FRUIT CULTURE. 



Will you please inform me through your paper 

 the best work on small fruit and flower culture, 

 or where I can get the best and most information, 

 and oblige one who wishes to learn ? Naomi. 



West Dedham, Mass., April 23, 1870. 



Remarks. — Breck's Book of Flowers, price 

 $1.75, Fuller's Small Fruit Culturist, $1.50, and 

 Henderson's Practical Floriculture are the best that 

 occur to our minds. The catalogues of the seed 

 sellers furnish much information in cheap form. 

 Perhaps you will be interested in the proposed 

 Horticultural School for women, noticed in the 

 Farmer of April 30. If so, correspond with any 

 one whose name appears in the advertisement. 



TRANSPLANTING STRAWBERRIES. 



Last fall I wrote an article, in which I disagreed 

 with those who say that the latter part of summer 

 or early fall is as good a season as any to trans- 

 plant strawberries. I very much prefer the spring, 



