152 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:\rER. 



Marcti 



as yellow as half the June butter one sees, 

 and as sweet. It has no stable flavor (and 

 though a boy of sixteen takes all the eare of 

 Ler and is proud of her too,) no bitter twang, 

 no uncanny taste of cellar or any other thiny; 

 than good, ])ure sweet butter ".salted to suit 

 the taste,'' and not very salt at tliat. 



I wisli I had weighetl her butter the past 

 season, but I have not. I only know it is now 

 almost February, and we have used l)utter as 

 freely as we ])leased upon the table, and for cook- 

 ing, have sold seventeen pounds, and 1 should 

 judge there was enough stored away to last 

 until next Fall. We feed her meal and fine 

 feed twice a day, about a pint of meal and a 

 quart of fine feed at a time. I scald my milk 

 by putting a wire bread-toaster upon the top 

 of the stove and setting the pan of milk on it. 

 Do not scald too much, as it makes the butter 

 greasy. I have churned this winter, about 

 once in eight or nine days. Keep my butter 

 in large stone pots, up stairs now — my June 

 butter is in brine. 1 use no sugar or salt- 

 petre. Mks. S. B. S . 



West Ameshury, Mass., Jan., 1871. 



For the Xew England Farmer, 

 CROPS FOK 1871. 



The question of Farm Crops for 1871, was 

 discussed at a meeting of the Sunderland, 

 Mass., Farmers' Club, Feb. 2. 



L. P. ^^'arner, who opened the discussion, 

 said our crops should be such as to enable us 

 to make the most of everything, — the most of 

 the farm, the most of our labor and the most 

 of our knowledge and talents. I'hose crops 

 that re(][uire the most labcjr compared with 

 amount of capital employed will be most 

 likely to be most profitable so long as man 

 earns his bread by the sweat of his brow. 

 He mentioned tobacco, onions, garden vege- 

 tables and tlie small fruits. Hay and forage 

 crops ought not to be neglected, for these are 

 the basis of fertility of the farm. He had 

 grown corn for winter fodder with satisfactory 

 results. Jt was planted early in July, in rows 

 about three feet apart and the hills eighteen 

 inches. He cut it after the kernel was formed 

 and before it was full in the milk. 



Stocking Fodder Corn. 



Three hills, two on one row and one on an- 

 other, without cutting, were bound together, 

 above the ears for the conunencement of each 

 stook. Around these, the corn as it was cut 

 was placed. These three uncut centre hills 

 operated rather as guys than braces. After 

 ihe stook was firndy bound at the top, it was 

 almost impossible to push one over. Of one 

 hundrecl and forty stooks thus put up not one 

 fell. The fodder cured well and was eaten 

 with good relish by stock in winter. 



Mr. E. E. Robinson was o^he opinion that 

 his crop of grass had been improved by the 



a rotation. Thought tobacco, onions and 

 grass should be the crops grown in 1871. 



]Mr. J. R. Smith believed that broom corn 

 ought to be one of the crops for 1871. He 

 thought the seed of a well ripened crop of 

 broom corn worth more for feelings purposes 

 than the Indian corn that would grow on the 

 same field. 



i\Ir. II. G. Sanderson agreed with Mr. Smith 

 as to the value of broom corn seed, but said 

 every farmer should raise more or less Indian 

 corn, both for green and winter fodder as well 

 as the grain. 



Mr. T. H. Williams wanted to grow some- 

 thing he could both chew and swallow, and 

 thought potatoes should not be neglected, be- 

 cause every farmer had some land better 

 adapted to this than the tobacco crop. 



j\Ir. E. G. Smith remarked it might answer 

 for a farmer that had a good farm clear of 

 debt to raise corn, broom corn and potatoes ; 

 but a young farmer just starting in business 

 must grow such crops as will leave a margin 

 for profit, or his pile will increase slowly. He 

 would grow tobacco, onions and all the forage 

 possible, but would let the Western farmer 

 raise corn for him. 



"WixNiNGs OF 1870." — The Tutf, Field and 

 Farm, printed in New York city, gives a table of 

 the "Principal Winning O^Tiers of 1S69 and 1870," 

 from whicli it appears that "Hon. A. Behnont," 

 President of the "American Jockey Chib," owns 

 horses that won §"25,87J in 1869 and $'3-l,7oo in 

 1870. No statement is made of his losses, nor do 

 we care to know anytliing about the balance of his 

 account, or of the influences which were brought 

 to bear on the results, as we regard the whole busi- 

 ness as one of the most objectionable forms of 

 gambling known in the country. But the ques- 

 tion whether the "Rules" and practices of these 

 men ai'c to govern the trials of speed or any other 

 part of the proceedings at the fairs of our agricul- 

 tural societies, is one in which we are intei'csted, 

 and it is one that must soon be decided. To say 

 nothing of the effect of being judged "by the com 

 pany we keep," some of our societies have been 

 driven to the mortifying necessity of notifying 

 those to w horn premiums were awarded for fann 

 produce and agricultural implements that, after 

 making up the purses for horses, the funds were 

 left so low that only a per cent, dividend could be 

 paid to fanners and mechanics. 



cultivation of tobacco, as one of the crops in ' twenty-five to each pair. 



— Rabbit-breeding is carried on upon a large 

 scale in Loudon, Can., where there is a warren of 

 tive acres, surrounded by a board fence ten feet 

 high, and containing at jn-escnt two thousand rab- 

 bits. The cost of feeding and caring for these is 

 twenty-five cents apiece annually, and the net pro- 

 fits from the whole warren five thousand dollars a 

 vcar. The annual increase is an average brood of 



