542 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



daiksome nights, •while they circumscribe our 

 wanderings, shut in our feelings, also, from 

 rambling abroad, and make us more keenly 

 disposed for the pleasures of the social circle." 



To a rightly constituted mind, there is truth 

 in this view. We have all experienced that 

 truth In many instances. But on the temper 

 and feelings of the selfish and querulous, a 

 very different effect would be produced. 

 Such a person is too prone to exaggerate the 

 inconvenience of the season ; the storm is 

 gloomy to him, and he invests it with his own 

 deeper gloominess. 



What all more or less need is a fixed liabit 

 of cheerfulness, which would constitute no 

 small portion of the philosophy of daily life. 

 Cheerfulness, when once it becomes a habitual 

 feeling, finds food and nourishment in all 

 scenes and seasons. Nothing will promote 

 this state of feeling in the farmer, so much as 

 the contemplation of the operations of nature 

 in his 'animals and fields and fruits. "The 

 man who is keenly alive to the sublime and 

 the beautiful in Nature, frequently finds the 

 cherished feeling of his soul ministered to by 

 ol jects that to other minds have in them noth- 

 ing to attract or enliven, — so the cheerful 

 mind derives enjoyment from scenery the 

 most unpromising, and perceives, even in the 

 desolation of winter, a beauty and an expres- 

 sion of its own." 



The bee extracts honey, and the spider 

 poison, it is said, from the same flower. So 

 may man extract joy or gloom from the 

 landscape upon which he is looking, or from 

 the circumstances by which he is surrounded. 

 It is greatly a matter of liabit. Let us see 

 that our habit does not tend to extract the 

 poison. 



FAHM "WOKK IN DECEMBER. 



Mere suggestions are sometimes better than 

 long sermons. In the midst of numerous 

 cares, the farmer is apt to forget the impor- 

 tance of attention to certain things. 



In the winter care of stock, for instance, 

 there should be no guess-work as to feeding 

 and tending them. The farmer should em- 

 ploy some portion of the winter evenings in 

 learning their nature and habits, and the 

 adaptation of certain kinds of iood to their 

 wants. How many times in twenty- four hours 

 to feed them, is not an unimportant inquiry ; 

 nor. is f "at as to the form in which it shaii be 



applied. The better he understands all de- 

 tails in relati<fti to stock, the more profitable 

 will it become to him. 



We are inclined to think there is still great 

 loss in our mode of feeding domestic animals. 

 The food is in too crude and bulky a form ; it 

 is too coarse, dry and harsh. The natural 

 food of the bovine race is grass, — rich, tender, 

 succulent grass ; but in a domesticated state 

 we give them dry, harsh, and in many cases, 

 musty hay. As we cannot supply them 

 through our long winters with what they feed 

 upon in a free state, in more temperate zones, 

 it is our duty and interest to make such feed 

 as we have, more palatable and nutritious. 

 Let us suggest, then, that farmers give the 

 matter more attention by study and experi- 

 ment during the present winter. 



Late roaming in the fields, exposed to high 

 winds, and storms, is injurious to cattle, — 

 especially to cows in milk. The feed they 

 get has little or no nutrition, and the cattle 

 are apt to get into wandering and unruly 

 habits. 



Bring them at once to winter quarters. 

 Feed regularly and plentifully. Keep them 

 clean, their skins soft and hair glossy, and 

 with kind treatment otherwise, half a dozen 

 head will jield more profit than twice that 

 number under a loose and shiftless practice. 



Permanent Improvements. — On every 

 farm annual permanent improvements of some 

 kind should be made, to the amount of 

 from one to four per cent, of its value. 

 Trenches may be dug and walls laid in them 

 sometimes in December, and where wooden 

 fences must be employed, nearly every thing 

 may be done in relation to them excepting 

 setting them up. Balks may be levelled, 

 bushes cut and rooted up, when frosts have 

 not been too severe. Drains may also be 

 laid, trees pruned in pleasant days, and many 

 other things done which will save time at 

 more pressing seasons, and tend to give the 

 farm an air of neatness and thrift, as well as 

 actually to increase its profits. 



Peat. — A bank of good peat, hauled in and 

 stowed away when dry, and used in the barn- 

 yard, under the cattle, in the pigsty and 

 vaults, will jield a better dividend in cash, 

 than a majority of stocks will in the market. 

 Do not neglect this. These deposits have 

 been stored up by a kind Providence, by which 



