72 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



257 beets in the load ; making the average weight 

 per beet, 9} pounds. I have raised various varie- 

 ties of turnips, carrots and beets, but no variety of 

 roots could I raise as cheap as this beet, nor any 

 that would produce so large an amount of healthy 

 nutritious food to the acre. This beet has super- 

 ceded all other roots in this vicinity. 



Cornwall, Vt., Dec 14, 1870. Henry Lane. 



Remarks.— The four beets were duly received, 

 and according to Boston scales they weighed thirty- 

 five pounds, — showing a gain of one pound from 

 our correspondent's weight. They are certainly 

 smooth well formed roots. 



PROPER TIME TO CUT WHEAT. 



A little experiment I made two years ago may 

 possibly be useful to some of your readers. Pre- 

 vious to 1868, I had an idea that wheat was left to 

 go over-ripe, and that it should be cut a few days 

 earlier than it generally is. In order to test this 

 opinion I took a few ears of wheat from part of a 

 field which I considered about an average in soil 

 and grain. These I hung up to dry. In six days 

 I cut the crop and took more ears which grew near 

 the place where the others had been cut. These I 

 marked No. 2, and hung them up also to dry. In 

 the course of a month I got a small pair of scales, 

 nicely balanced, rubbed out the first sample and 

 put it in one side, and then sufficient of No. 2, to 

 balance it. This done I counted the grains, and, 

 to my surprise, found in first sample 848 kernels, 

 while in the 2Qd there were only 737. Not satis- 

 fied with this, and having more wheat left from 

 No. 2 sample, I tried it again with a fresh quantity, 

 but with as nearly as possible similar results. 

 From this it would seem that the loss in weight 

 from cutting wheat a week before it was ripe is as 

 nearly as possible one in seven ; that is, one bushel 

 in seven, or one acre in seven ; or, supposing that 

 the straw and quality of grain is a little better in 

 the early cut, there must still remain a loss of four 

 or five aollars per acre. 



Of course I am as liable to errors as other wri- 

 ters, but I think this plan of experiment so simple 

 that any one may try it for himself. The weight 

 of a given number of grains I think a safer guide 

 than the produce of a measured space. 



John Whatmore. 



Bridgnorth Farm, Dunleith, III, Dec. 10, 1870. 



profitable pigs. 



I killed two pigs eight months old, that weighed 

 687 pouuds when dressed. The following is what 

 I sold theoi for and what they cost me. 

 6S7 pouncs pork BoldatlS cents . . . ^. . . .$103 05 

 Paid lor pigd whuu 4 weeka old . . ." $10 00 



81 bushel meil at $1.13 35 03 



2bufltitlcortiat$1.20 2 40 



4 bushel potatoes at 50 cents 2 00 



10 bushel appxs (wmd falis) at 20 cents . 2 00 



$51 43 



Leaving a profit of $51 ^2 



which I think is doing well for the first time ; but 

 I am in hopes of doing still better next year. 

 Weit Neicfield, Me., Dec. 12, 1870. C. J. Adams. 



DRY, CRACKED AND MISSHAPEN HOOFS IN HORSES. 



I notice an inquiry in your paper what to do for 

 a horse's feet when they become hard and dry. I 

 am no horse doctor, but I can tell what I have 

 done in a similar case. We keep on this farm two 

 horses for farm work and other uses. In the 

 summer of 1869 their feet became dry and hard. 

 One is naturally flat-footed. His feet grew at the 

 toe, and contracted at the heel, and cracked cross- 



wise. The other had a straight hoof. His would 

 split up and down the edges, were brittle, would 

 crumble off' so much that it was difficult to keep 

 him shod. It appeared to me that they needed 

 some grease or oil, or something else, to soften 

 and toughen them. About the first of September, 

 I took oil, which we keep in the barn to oil our 

 wagons, and applied to their hoofs in front, and up 

 into the edge of the hair, also to the bottom of the 

 foot. We did this once a week for a spell ; after 

 that not so often. Their feet became better after 

 the first application, and after a while became all 

 right. This last summer we have used the oil 

 with their feet. The oil seems to be just what was 

 wanted, and brought their feet to the natural shape 

 and condition. R.Davis. 



Troy, Vt., Nov. 30, 1870. 



BEANS FOR GARGET IN COWS. 



Some six or seven years ago, I saw beans re- 

 commended for garget in cows, in the Farmer, by 

 a gentleman who had a cow so badly affected that 

 she was nearly spoiled, but she got to a stack of 

 beans and ate what she wanted. The result was 

 she was cured. Since then I have used nothing 

 else, and it has never failed to cure as yet. Beans, 

 we all know, will do no harm, and it is a medicine 

 that all farmers have on hand, or ought to have. 

 At first I soaked a pint to a feed, and mixed them 

 with meal to make the cow eat them ; but now I 

 keep ground beacs, as I think the meal is the best. 

 This fall I had a very promising two-year-old 

 heifer become so bad in one teat that I could 

 scarcely milk it, and the milk was very chunky 

 and bloody. I gave her one pint of the meal, 

 mixed with other meal, for four days, when she 

 was as well as ever, and has remained so. I think 

 if cows were to be fed with bean meal two or three 

 times a year, they would not be troubled with 

 garget. C. F. Lincoln. 



Woodstock, Vt., Dec, 1870. 



THE COW DIED AND THE CAUSE DISCOVERED. 



In a communication of mine published in the 

 Farmer, of (I think,) the 20th of June, I gave an 

 account of a very singular case of sickness in one 

 of my COWS, and I think it due to the readers of 

 your paper to inform them how it terminated. " 



Three days after I wrote the article alluded to, 

 the cow made an ineffectual attempt to calve. In 

 investigating the case, it was found that the os 

 uterus had not relaxed, so that no help could be 

 rendered without first cutting that part of this or- 

 gan. This would no doubt have resulted in the 

 death of the animal. In less than twenty-four 

 hours the cow was dead. A post-mortem exami- 

 nation brought to light the following facts. The 

 calf was doubled, so that the points of the gam- 

 brel joints were forward and uppermost, as the 

 cow naturally stood. The head was also forward, 

 but under and between the hind legs. Whether 

 the calf died previously to the cow, is a matter of 

 doubt ; certainly from its appearance it could not 

 have been very long previous. T. L. Hart. 



West Cornwall, Co?m., Nov., 1870. 



FOULS IN CATTLE. 



I never saw a case of this disorder as bad as 

 that described by H. J. Harris, of Stowe, Vt., in a 

 late number of the Farmer, but I never knew a 

 few applications of equal parts of soft soap and 

 the pitch of white pine, simmered together, fail to 

 cure any case of ordinary fouls. e. p. o. 



Pelham, Mass , Dec. 5, 1870. 



— ifcwa has planted fifteen million trees within 

 the last three years. 



