656 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec, 



spend bis vacation on a farm in the countrj', 

 during the last of July and the first of August, 

 that he might enjoy the luxury of early fruit 

 and fret.h vegetables ; but he has been greatly 

 disappointed, for he said that with the excep- 

 tion of a few peas and berries, he might as 

 well have boarded with the farmer in January ; 

 for not another early vegetable had he seen or 

 tasted, and he should hs obliged to return to 

 the city without getting what he greatly de- 

 sired, and what he had come into the country 

 to obtun. 



This was a severe criticism upon the farm- 

 er''s system of living and husbandry ; and is, 

 doubtless, true of many intelligent, industrious 

 and successful farmers ; as this very season, 

 after some of the earliest kinds of apples had 

 come and gone, and some of the later kinds 

 were in full maturity, there were those who 

 occupied places that had been owned and kept 

 in the same family for more than fifty years 

 who bid not, as late as the middle of August, 

 seen or tasted any ripe fruit, when, by those 

 who had attended to its culture, it had been a 

 constant luxury for nearly six weeks. 



Where one has but recently occupied or 

 come into possession of a farm, there are good 

 and sufficient reasons why he should not have 

 an abundance of delicious fruit ; but when one 

 has been upon the same place for fifteen or 

 twenty or more years, the la,ck of a supply of 

 fruit, so essential to health and comfoit, dur- 

 ing the extreme heat of our summer season, is 

 hardly excusable. b. 



Massachusetts, 1870. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 CliEABINQ PASrUKES. 



If a man is clearing up a new-land farm for 

 a home, it 'n usually necessary to be expedi- 

 tious, so that a crop may be realized as soon 

 as possible, to pay for the labor and give a 

 living to the laborers. To that end the forest 

 is chopped down when in full leaf in June, 

 and in the sultry days of early autumn, fire is 

 set so it will run through the fallen timber. A 

 good burn clears the land wonderfully and 

 sometimes leaves but little for the pioneer to 

 do beJore grain is sown or corn planted. 



Now while this is a quick way to clear land, 

 it is objectionable from the fact that a large 

 quantity of rich soil of vegetable matter is 

 burned, and the ashes left soon expend their 

 strength. In a dry season, several inches in 

 depth of the surface is consumed in common 

 wooland, while in duffy or scurfy soil, com- 

 posed of the leaves of the spruce, fir, cedar or 

 pine, a foot in depth is burned, and I have 

 seen muck consumed more than two feet deep. 

 Such extreme cases may be rare, but usually 

 such a sweeping fire destroys much vegetable 

 matter, that would be valuable to crops. 



Therefore, after suflicient land has been 

 cleared tor fields, it would be better to clear 

 the land lor pasture, without fire. The branch- 



es of the maple, birch, beech and elm decay 

 in a few years, and if the bodies of the trees 

 can be drawn away for fire- wood or other pur- 

 poses, and grass seed sown upon the land, the 

 cattle will keep down the sprouting wood, and 

 turf will be formed, yielding abundance of 

 feed. There are in all parts of the country 

 small pastures cleared in this way that are 

 estimated to yield from double to six times 

 the feed that is grown upon land near by, that 

 was severely burned. 



The foregoing remarks refer particularly to 

 the first clearing of land, but are equally ap- 

 plicable to the improvement of pastures grown 

 up to cedars, elders, white birth, cherry, 

 shrub oak or pine. Whatever may be the 

 bushes that are growing in the pastures, they 

 should be cut. Do not depend upon cattle or 

 sheep 10 destroy the larger growth, as a man 

 with a sharp axe and bush scythe can improve 

 pastures more economically than grazing ani- 

 mals. Cut down the useless shrubbery, but 

 be not anxious to have a great wide-spreading 

 fire. If fire is used at all, let it be to consume 

 snugly-built piles. Leave as much' vegetable 

 matter as convenient on the soil, as it is diffi- 

 cult to replace it if once removed. The wealth 

 of the land is a rich soil, abounding in organic 

 matter. 



The crop desired in a pasture is grass; 

 therefore sow as much seed upon the land as 

 necessary to give a good tuif, cover the seed 

 by harrowing or by drawing a small evergreen 

 tree over the ground. If there are small 

 branches of trees left to rot, so that it is im- 

 practicable to use harrow or brush, then sow 

 the seed and turn in the cattle. J. 



KEEPING MILCH CO'WS. 



We take the following from the Country 

 Oentleman, and commend it to all keepers of 

 milch cows, and especially butter makers. 

 We believe that the use of grain in feeding 

 milch cows is becoming excessive, causing 

 garget and other prevalent diseases, and that 

 the remedy is to be found in a better quality 

 of hay. It was stated a few days since by a 

 large butter dealer in Boston that not more 

 than one-tenth of the butter in the market 

 this season is a prime No. 1 article, owing to 

 the poor feed caused by the drought. Grain 

 will not supply the defect of poor feed. This 

 was probably unavoidable this season, but an 

 important lesson may be learned from it. 



"Friend Sharpless gives us a nice picture 

 of his cows in the Country Oentteman of Sept. 

 15 ; but the cost, — 40 cents a day, — wi/l that 

 do ? The amount for seven months is $84, 

 fir beyond the average income of cows, and, 

 if we add the summer keeping, the best dairies 

 will fall below it. 



