104 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



Feb. 



cold water. 4. When the closed fist is punched 

 into the right flank suddenly, and held for a few 

 seconds, the calf is at first repelled, and as it floats 

 back in the surrounding liquid, it is felt to strike 

 against the knuckles. 5. Application of the car 

 over the right flank, will often detect the beating of 

 the calf's heai"t. 6. A careful cxamuiation with 

 the hand in the rectum, made by some one ac- 

 quainted with the parts, will give positive indica- 

 tions. 



Has the cow sufifered abortion ? This question 

 can best be answered by yourself, or by those who 

 have had the care of her. Is the cow farrow ? She 

 certainly is, if all or nearly all of the signs of preg- 

 nancy arc absent, and she has not aborted. Have 

 any of our readers kno^vn a similar case ? 



SELLING MILK. 



I feel a deep interest in farming, and believe that 

 there is no need of the farm products being con- 

 trolled by speculators. If the farmer will awake 

 to his true situation he will find the matter rests 

 wholly with him. In my vicinity the chief product 

 of the farm is milk. We depend more on that 

 article than all the rest ; but it is the only article 

 we sell, of the price of which we have nothing to 

 say. And why is it ? Because we neglect to use 

 the power that lays in our own hands. If we do 

 not wallv with the staff we hold, no one is to blame 

 but ourselves. The speculator has gi'own rich out 

 of us. And Napoleon like, has learned to be 

 obeyed, while we, "meek as Moses," have learned 

 to obey him. Let us open our eyes and see what 

 is before us. Let us join together, all of us, and 

 show a bold and honest front, and give the specu- 

 lator to understand that we ivill have our rights ; 

 that the time has come for the farmer to malvc the 

 price for his milk. I say to you, brother fanner, 

 we can and must break up this ring of monopolists. 

 I know no better way than to follow the example 

 the speculator has set for us, that is, to put our- 

 selves under bonds not to sell one drop of milk to 

 him, after the first day of next April, unless we 

 get a fair price, and fair treatment about the return 

 of millc after it has been trucked to market. If we 

 take this course you can plainly see he cannot do 

 business one day without our milk. In my opinion 

 this is the only sure and safe move to make. Idle 

 talks will not do; we need prompt action. We 

 must talk the subject over in our club meetings, 

 and call a convention of milk producers ; draw up 

 our lionds, and every man come promptly, up and 

 sign tJicm. I can see no reason why such a course 

 as this should not be adopted. One thing is cer- 

 tain, if we allow the speculator to handle us for ten 

 years to come, as he has for ten years past, our 

 farms will not sell for half they cost us. c. av. 



Weston, Mass., Jan., 1811. 



Remauks. — If the carriers of newspapers . had 

 obtained such control of their circulation that they 

 could come into the offlecs of the publishers and 

 gravely inform them what would be the price of 

 their respective publications for the next six 

 months, we should suppose that the proper course 

 for those publishers to pursue would be to adopt 

 some other plan for the circulation of their papers, 

 and to discharge their old agents at once and en- 

 tirely. Consecjuently we cannot endorse our cor- 

 respondent's recommendation. Farmers raise the 

 milk, and they should control the product till it 

 reaches the consumer. And until they make up 



their minds to do this, all "bonds" and Fourth-of- 

 July speeches, will not do good enough to pay for 

 the paper they are spread on. Some such course 

 as that suggested by Judge French at the late 

 meeting of the Milk Producers' Association, must 

 be adopted. Both fire and agents are "good ser- 

 vants, but hard masters." 



farmers' clubs in ENGLAND. 



At a recent meeting of the Much-Wenlock (Eng- 

 land,) Wapentake Fanners' Chib, tlie third in order 

 of its kind in the Kingdom, established twenty- 

 seven years ago, the New American Revolving 

 Mould Board Plough attracted much attention and 

 elicited remarks of high commendation, not only 

 from the judges, but from a large numl)cr of prac- 

 tical agriculturists, for its novelty, suuplicity and 

 perfection of the ploughing. 



The following prizes -were embodied in the re- 

 port: — "Essays," a prize of £10, the gift of the 

 Right Honorable Lord Wenlock, for the best essay 

 on the advantages of steam cultivation, and the 

 best means of introducing it into the Club District. 



Some of the other prizes ranged as follows : — 

 for the best cultivated farm ; for the best cultivated 

 root crop; for the best cultivated root crops, on 

 farms not exceeding 100 acres ; for the best man- 

 aged fanns ; for the neatest cottage and garden. 



Shepherd prize — first class, 232 lambs from 150 

 ewes ; second class, 82 lambs from 50 ewes. Plough- 

 ing, eleven competitors. Hedging, nine competi- 

 tors. 



Agricultural clubs have of late years been the 

 means of sthring up and rooting out the old come- 

 day, go-day, pray-send-Sunday system of farming, 

 in the Old World, and have done a vast amount of 

 good. They have given new life and energy to the 

 young and rising generation. 



Those British Agricultural Clubs and Societies 

 don't give prizes for the best "trotting horse." By 

 the owner of such no praise is actually merited. 

 No, they subscribe their money to farmers and 

 their servants — the real tillers of the soil — for their 

 zeal, mdustryand good management in agriculture. 

 That man \vho can produce tfie finest wagon horse 

 for agricultural purposes gains a prize ; but they 

 don't want, and don't have "trotting" horses on the 

 jjlough or on the thrashing machine. They are 

 purely agcicultural, and not jockeying clubs. 



TO MAKE A sow OWN PIGS NOT HER OWN. 



Having a Chester white sow that brought more 

 pigs than she could raise, but not lildng to knock 

 them on the head, I took some away and put them 

 in a four-bushel wheat sa«k together with four 

 other pigs, of the same age, belonging to another 

 sow ; tied up the bag, and put them away in the 

 bush to tumble and roll together, out of hearing of 

 the sow which owned the four pigs. She was very 

 uneasy at losing her family. In the course of an 

 hour, I cm])tied the whole lot out before her. She 

 looked at them very closely, turned them over with 

 her nose, smelled first one and then another, but 

 ^v^as quite unable to distinguish her own from the 

 new addition. So down she lay for them all to 

 suck, and took to them right awa.y, with motherly 

 care. John Whatmore. 



Bridgenorth Farm, Dunleith, III., 1871. 



SALTPETRE IN BUTTER. 



Your correspondent, S. O. J., exercising her wo- 

 manly prerogative is bound to have the last word 

 about saltpetre and washing butter. To this I will 

 most graciouply assent after one word more. 



Of more than twenty clicmists and jn-ofossors in 

 agricultural and medical institutions, and a host of 

 medical practitioners, with whom we have con- 



