NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



blame for poor butter is too often heaped by mas- 

 culine hands. Mr. Bliss says : — 



"This is a very common case, and is generally 

 attributed to nut salting the cows at proper inter- 

 vals. It is liarely jiossible that the salt, or the want 

 of it, may ha\ c some remote connection with the 

 matter; but after thoroughly investigating innu- 

 mcraljle cases of tlie kind, we are led to the con- 

 clusion that the cause is fundamental. 



"We never knew a case during the season of 

 flush feed, when all the little sacs or globules of 

 cream were 'l)ursting with very fatness;' but they 

 invariably occur in seasons of short or very poor 

 feed, or iii the fall when a cart load of the frosted 

 and l)leachcd 'old fog' upon which the cows are 

 forced to live, docs not contain enough fatty matter 

 to make a pound of butter, or in the winter when 

 the cows are conflued to late-cut or poor hay or 

 straw. 



"The only means of 'fetching the butter' under 

 the circumstances, is to scald the cream and cool it 

 do^vn to about 60°, when it may generally be 

 churned without undue labor. The quality of the 

 l)utter is at best but poor, and probaltly none the 

 better for the scalding. It is a fact well understood 

 by experimenters, that the most complete separa- 

 tion of the butter may be eti'ccted by heat ; but 

 that the evaporation of the more desirable flavor 

 follows as a necessary consequence. 



"The great secret of making good butter, and 

 having it ^come' easily, is in an abundance of rich 

 feed." 



TOP DRESSING. — PLOUGHING MANURE UNDER. 



I read with much interest the communication in 

 the Farmer of December 17, signed "C," Wil- 

 mington, Vt. The application of manure is a sub- 

 ject too little discussed in our agiicultural papers. 

 Manure is the basis of all goo.d farming in the New 

 England States. With a good stock of manure 

 managed in the best manner, fanning is rather up 

 hill business at the present time; but without it 

 fiu-ming don't pay at all. I think farmers should 

 study to get the gi-eatest amount of benefit from 

 what they have, and also to make all they can. 



My experience has been very different from that 

 of Mr. C. I have applied it always and in all 

 fomis, and on almost all varieties of soils, and 

 think there is no way by which I can get so much 

 benefit as bv ploughing it in, after having been 

 spread on to gi-ass land. It should be turned under 

 not very deep, say five inches. 



Mr. C. wants to know when manure leaves the 

 soil, and asks does it go up or douii ? I riiink por- 

 tions of it go both ways, until retained by the soil. 

 I am thinking but little of it leaves the soil any 

 way if it is put where it ought to be until it is taken 

 out in some kind of a crop. Docs Mr. C. think the 

 ammonia and the gases which arise in stirring a 

 manure heap tliat has been under cover would not 

 enrich the soil if they could be made to pass through 

 three to hve inches "of earth ? I stir my manure as 

 little as possible until I get it covered up, and I am 

 one of those men that Mr. C. speaks of who keep 

 their teams with the plough pretty close to the men 

 who spread the manure, for I think that all the 

 gases that rise are floated away by the winds until 

 some shower carries it into the soil, perhaps miles 

 awav from mv field. 



I do, however, top dress some on land that is too 

 wet to plough, but I do not think I get near the full 

 value of my manure thus applied. I have top 

 dressed witli twenty-five ox-eart loads to the acre, 

 and got good gi-ass about two years; but by the 

 tlurd year the grass would not be much better than 

 it was" before the top dressing was put on. I have 

 also put the same amount on the same land and 

 ploughed it in, and with a little in the hill, have got 

 125 bushel of ears of corn at husking time ; a crop 



of oats the next year of from fifty to sixty-five 

 bushels, and then with a good catch, I would have 

 four good crops of grass, making in all six crops, 

 or rather eight, as I mow twice a j'car the two first 

 years, — all the crops together probably varying 

 from twelve to fourteen tons fiom one acre. Such 

 is my experience in top dressing and in ploughing 

 in the manure. C. F. Lincoln. 



Woodstock, Vt., Bee., 1870. 



SUPPLY of WATER FOR STOCK. 



The question to be solved by farmers just now is, 

 how shall we provide water for our domestic ani- 

 mals ? Many wells that have furnished an abun- 

 dance of water for family use through the drought 

 of the past summer, now fail to yield a supply for 

 man and beast. Running water was formerly con- 

 sidered a luxury, to be enjoyed only by the favored 

 ones ; but it is now regarded as a necessity on every 

 well regulated farm. Many farmers who could not 

 find springs with sufficient head, have put in hy- 

 draulic rams the past autumn, and others are con- 

 templating similar improvements. Those only who 

 are deprived of the advantages of good watering 

 places on their farms can fully appreciate the priv- 

 ilege they confer, the amount of suffering they pre- 

 vent and the labor they save. After one has dealt 

 out to stock once or twice a day from a well all 

 the water they get during the day, for a few weeks, 

 he will value as never before a flowing stream. It 

 is sui-prising how little attention is given to this 

 subject of water, when so much is depending upon 

 it, and when so little expense as would in most 

 cases be necessary to provide a remedy for the 

 evil. Wells may be resorted to when nothing bet- 

 ter can be provided; but experience proves that, 

 running water, such as is furnished by sprmgs or 

 streams, and which can be conducted to the points 

 where it is most wanted, is not only the best for 

 stock but far the most economical in the end. 

 There are but few farms on which water works of 

 this kind may not be constructed, and the water 

 conve.ved in pipes wherever desired, and nothing 

 but a little energy and skill would be required to 

 Ijring an abundant supply of pure spring water to 

 the farmers' door, to his stock yard and sheep-fold. 



THE TOBACCO CROP. 



A portion of the tobacco crop has been taken 

 from the poles and is being stripped and prepared 

 for l)Oxing. It has cured in good shape, and the 

 quality compares favorably with the best crops of 

 previous years. Sales during the week have been 

 20 and 25 cents for new, and 31 cents per pound for 

 old. The weather has been favorable for stock 

 and the price of fodder is not any higher than it 

 was in November. w. 



Sunderland, Mass., Dec. 23, 1870. 



Sand Instead of Straw. — J. S. Ives, of 

 Salem, Mass., writes as follows to the Coun- 

 try Gentleman : You are correct in the asser- 

 tion, that Massachusetts farmers advocate the 

 use of sand as an absorbent in bedding cattle. 

 I have used it more or less for the past fifteen 

 years, and consider the manure much improv- 

 ed, as the sand retains the urine much better 

 than hay or straw. Fresh sand I think equal- 

 ly as good as that taken from the sea shore. 

 Cattle should be bedded three inches deep. 

 We also consider it very advantageous to the 

 health of cattle. Farmers in our vicinity col- 

 lect it in August and store in a dry shed. By 

 winter it will become dry, and will not freeze 

 in the coldest weather. 



