XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



who count the cost of making a home and of rais- 

 ing a family therein. 



FOOT ROT IN CATTLE. 



For the first time do I take my pen to write for 

 or to the Farmer, and I do not know as I should 

 have done so now, had I not seen an inquiry from 

 H J. Harris, in reference to that terrible disease, 

 the foot rot in cattle. He wishes fur a remedy to 

 prevent and also to cure it. I do not know of a 

 remedv to prevent it. But there is a remedy to 

 cure it after the creature has an attack of it. It is 

 this : when the creature is first lame, take the foot 

 that is lame and tix it in the same way thai an ox 

 is shod, by placing the foot in a block, then take a 

 chisel and cut off the ends of the claws, so that it 

 will bleed freely, and in a day or two it will be well 

 as ever. Otis T. Streeter. 



Westboroughy Mass., Dec. 6, 1870. 



Remarks.— We do not understand why this op- 

 eration should effect a cure, unless the disease is 

 caused by an unnatural growth of the hoof. In 

 the case of sheep, whose hoofs often become de- 

 formed, it is common to ttim them down. It may 

 be equally beneficial in the case of cattle. We 

 hope that those who have had experience with this 

 disease will favor the public with their experience. 

 We fear that the disease is'a more serious matter 

 than is generally supposed, and cannot endorse 

 our correspondent's advice. We hope the State 

 Board of Agriculture will take immediate action 

 in the matter, as we understand it has appeared 

 among cattle at Brighton market. 



or early winter, usually yield to the ameliorating 

 influence of frosts, while "the drenching rains of 

 spring time distribute the elements of fertility 

 evenly through the soil, whence they are readily 

 taken up by the growing crop. w. 



Sunderland, Mass., Dec, 1870. 



Remarks.— We thank our correspondent for 

 his model report. While we have not room for 

 discussions in detail, we might publish the "gist," 

 as the lawyers say, of a great many talks of far- 

 mers' clubs. But did not Mr. Eaton get his story 

 of the Eastern man at the West wrong ? When 

 "out West" ourselves we heard it in this form : 

 A New England man thought he would show 

 Western people how to feed economically; so, for 

 a year or two, he lugged up his corn and fed it 

 out Yankee fashion, at the same time keeping an 

 eye on the working of his neighbors' system, and 

 a few years convinced him that he was wrong and 

 they right, under all the circumstances of the loca- 

 tion. 



ADVANTAGES OF FALL PLOrOHING. 



A social eatheriog of farmers at the residence of 

 Mr. E. M. Eaton, in Sunderland, Mass., Dec. 9:h, 

 briffls' di-cusstd the advantages of fall ploughing 

 as follows :— Mr. Emmons Russell, a practical far- 

 mer of large experience, and a close observer, is 

 fully convinced that his corn and oat crops are 

 very much improved by ploughing the land the 

 previous fall. 



Mr. E. M. Eaton regards the practice of fall 

 plou£;hing as an old traditional custom ; or fashion 

 followed by no beneficial results. By way of il- 

 lustration he related an anecdote concerning a 

 friend, possessing all the traits of a good thrifty 

 New England farmer, who removed to Illinois 

 and soon adopted the practice of fattening pork in 

 the field, without shelter or floor, feeding the 

 unground grain, simply because it was fash- 

 ionable among the Suckers, knowing all the while 

 it was not an economical practice. . 



Mr. Quartns Tower of Granby, is satisfied that 

 ground should not be ploughed when wet, and a 

 field may som- times be in good condition to plough 

 in the fall, when it would not in the spring. 



Mr. Arthur Eaton thinks the additional cost of 

 preparing ground to receive the seed will over- 

 balance "tbe increased value of the crop on fall 

 ploughed fields. 



L. F. Warner was of opinion that while some 

 soils were not benefited and might perhaps be in- 

 jured by fall ploughing, others were very much 

 improved, and the succeeding crops considerably 

 increased thereby. He had noticed in fields, a 

 portion of which was ploughed in the fall, and the 

 remainder in the spring, that the dividing line be- 

 twetn the two sections were traceable by the dif- 

 ferent growth of crops during a whole rotation, 

 extending over a term of four years,— the fall 

 ploughed portion producing the largest crops. 



Hard and stubborn soils if ploughed in autumn 



SHARP STICKS UNDER MUCK — THATCHING PEGS. 



With all due deference to Mr. Josiah D. Can- 

 nings' opinion about "Sharp Sticks under Muck," 

 published in Farmer of Nov. IQoh, I beg to give 

 an opinion, also, on the probability of how the 

 sticks came under the muck and who sharpened 

 them. Perhaps I may be out in my calculation; 

 yet it may not by some be considered out of place 

 if looked at from another point of view. 



The farmers generally of this great go-a-head 

 country may not be aware that all stacks of farm 

 produce in the Old World, (England,) are well 

 thatched with wheat straw, to the thickness of 

 from eight to ten inches. The process of thatching 

 is as follows : — A lot of straw is placed on the rick 

 of wheat, barley or other grain or hay, into which 

 a lot of hazel sticks, called "thatching peg*," 

 sharpened at both ends, are stuck, on which more 

 straw, threshed by hand, is neatly placed length- 

 wise. The sticks being sharpened at both ends 

 allow them to be easier pushed into the stack and 

 the more easily to receive the upper or succeeding 

 coating of straw. These thatching pegs are put ia 

 as the thatcher progresses with his work, to keep 

 the straw from slipping off. When the last cover- 

 ing of straw is put on, other pegs with small 

 hooks on them are used, and put in at regular dis- 

 tances apart, round which a small cord of lightly 

 twisted hay is once wrapped, acd goes the whole 

 length or round of the rick ; when the pegs with 

 thehooks are pushed down into the stack on the 

 lower side of hay-band or cord, with the hook 

 prcjacting over the lines which are placed about 

 eigfiteen inches apart. Ricks cf grain or hay so 

 covered or thatched will and do defy the rains and 

 snows of seven years, or more, though the f.trmers 

 of this Western world may scarcely credit the as- 

 sertion. I have actually known farmers keep their 

 wheat in stack for ten years, and their clips of 

 wool for twenty years, waiting for higher prices ; 

 but that was before "steam ships" navigated the 

 deep waters of the Atlantic, or the plough turned 

 up the sod of the beautiful prairies of riie West. 



My opinion about tiie sharp sticks under muck 

 is, that at some early period, the land where the 

 sticks were lound embedded belonged to an Eng- 

 lish farmer, who pitched off thatch, pegs and all 

 when the wheat was thrashed, which gradually 

 rotted away, and to which year alter year, more 

 thatch, more pegs and more muck were added, 

 never dreaming itiat his land was crying out for 

 want of liie muck he so carelessly suffered to go 

 to waste. The farm, too, may have changed hands 



