332 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



perience has taught us that there is a right time to 

 cut hay. but it has not told us just when that time 

 is. That experience has taught us that the quan- 

 tity and quality of the butter is much changed 

 by the curing process, but has not told us how to 

 cure grass to obtain the most desirable results. 

 Fearing we may never learn it on our own farm, 

 we ask for intormation. F. 



Mast Yard, N. H., May 17, 1870. 



GARGET. 



I have an extra ten-year old cow which I value 

 very highly both as a stock cow and milker. She 

 is farrow this year, and is gargety, frequently giv- 

 ing stringy milk, accompanied with swelling of 

 the udder. I can keep it down by giving a spoon- 

 ful of saltpetre every day. But as soon as I omit 

 giving it for two or three days, the disease will re- 

 turn. Can the cow be cured, and if so, how ? 



West Concord, Vt., May 16, 1870. h. c. w. 



Remarks. — Twenty grains of Iodide of Potash, 

 given three times a day in drink, often prove 

 beneficial, as well as saltpetre. Mr. W. B. Brig- 

 ham, of Roxbury, Vt., stated in the Farmer over 

 a year ago that a mess of about half a pint of 

 beans given twice a day was the best remedy he 

 ever used for the garget. He said they might be 

 given either dry or green. If green, a few hills of 

 the vines and beans may be given. The cow will 

 eat them greedily. To be sure, this is no "great 

 thing," and its simplicity may lead to doubts of 

 its ethcacy. But Mr. Brigham stated that he had 

 used it for several years, and that it had never 

 failed with him. Others had tried it with the same 

 result. 



EARLY CUT HAT. 



As the time will soon arrive for cutting hay, — if 

 we cut it when it should be cut, which with many 

 of us is a little too soon for the completion of all 

 such work as shearing sheep, hoeing and many 

 other things, which keep us too long from the hay 

 field, — 1 thought I would write a few lines of my 

 experience with early and late cut hay ; hoping 

 thereby to do some good by inducing some oiti; to 

 cut his hay earlier. I have commenced for the 

 last few years from the 20th to 2oth of June, and 

 finish bv the middle of July, if I can ; when for- 

 merly I commenced after the 4th of July and 

 finished in August. 



I can keep more stock from one acre of early 

 cut hay than I can from an acre of late cut, and 

 Keep it better, and I think it does not injure the 

 ground as much ; and then I have a crop of rowcn 

 or good fall feed. I feed my sheep nothing but 

 good early cut hay, and they usually look better 

 in the spring than when they come to the barn in 

 the fall, and eat their hay all up clean. When I 

 fed late cut hay I could not make them eat it 

 clean, and they came out in the spring poor. 



When I first began to cut my hay so early, peo- 

 ple would come along and ask me if my grass was 

 fully grjwn, in a tone and manner that indicated 

 that they thought that I had commenced haying 

 quite too early. But after careful observation I 

 am satisfied thut few farmers in this section lose 

 much by cutting hay too early. On nearly al 1 farms 

 iher^i are some piecis uewly seeded to clover or 

 which have run mto June grass, that are almost 

 worthless, if allowed to get ripe, but which make 

 good hay if cut at the right time. Such pieces 

 will do to commence on, while the later portions 

 are growing. But even allowing that there is some 

 loss in that first cut, I tnink we had better begin 



before it is all grown, than to wait till the last 

 spear gets grown before we begin, and then have 

 the last get so ripe that we lose more at the last 

 end than we do at the first. I may say something 

 about feeding at some future time. 



C. F. Lincoln. 

 Woodstock, Vt., May 16, 1870. 



FATTENING TURKEYS. 



To A Farmer's Wife ■.—Madam, — Having read 

 with pleasure in the New England Farmer of 

 May 7th, your article upon raising turkeys, I con- 

 cluded you could give valuable information to me 

 and the public about fattening them. Last year I 

 raised a few for the amusement of my children, 

 for the first time in my lile, but I did not succeed 

 in getting them fat for the table. Whether they 

 were too young to fatten, or what the difficulty 

 was, I know not. Will you either write me or 

 publish an article in the Farmer, and let me know 

 when it will appear in the paper, as I do not take 

 that paper regularly, giving the best mode of fat- 

 tening turkeys and the age at which it can be done 

 most successfully. With the anticipation of again 

 deriving pleasure from your plain, direct, sensi- 

 ble style, I am with much raspect, your obedient 

 servant, Theodore Otis. 



Wellesley, Mass., May 14, 1870. 



BEST fertilizers AND IMPLEMENTS. — SICK COWS. 



Will the editor of the Farmer, or some experi- 

 enced farmers, please answer two or three ques- 

 tions for one who has just commenced farming 

 and oblige him, and perhaps others ? 



Let me quote a few lines from a late number of 

 the New England Farmer, which will serve to 

 introduce one subject : — "The compounds put off 

 upon the farmers as fertilizers have proved of so 

 little value that hundreds are discouraged from 

 using anything in the form of compact manures." 



How, then, shall we who hive little money to 

 risk in experimenting, determine what manures 

 to purchase? Shall we buy Bone Meal, Coe's, 

 Bradley's or Fales' fertilizer 1 Who can tell us of 

 the operation of the last ? We read of failures 

 because the right kind of manure, the kind needed 

 in the soil, was not used. Why not have a "Prof, 

 of Soils" in our Agricultural College, to whom we 

 may send samples from our different fields to as- 

 certain what is needed ? Will not others give us 

 results of experiments with different fertilizers ? 



Two or three years since, much was said about 

 Horse-hoes, warranted to do the work of six or 

 eight men. Does the invention prove to be valua- 

 ble ? Does Ilolbrook's do the work of the common 

 hoe ? 



A new, more simple and less costly Horserake 

 was mentioned some weeks ago, with the promise 

 that we should hear more of it. I think it was 

 made in Maine. Is there really much diflcreace 

 in horse-rakes ? 



Is there danger of feeding cows too plentifully 

 for a few weeks before coming in ? I have heard 

 of several cows in good condition, and so far as 

 known, in perfect health at the time of calving, 

 that soon became too weak to stand, and finally 

 died. Can any one explain the difficulty or give a 

 remedy ? No Signature. 



Townsend, Mass., May 10, 1870. 



Remarks. — "Ask of the learned the way ? The 

 learned are blind ; one bids us seek, the other 

 shun mankind," is as near as we can remember 

 one of Mr. Popes rhymes. And there appears to 

 be just about the same diversity of opinion among 

 farmers as to fertilizers, implements, &c. After 

 all, each individual must act on his own judgment. 



