1871. 



NEW ENGLAOT) FARMER. 



323 



ables him to save all the liquid manure from 

 his stock, and at the same time keep the 

 stables in a decent and presentable condition 

 at all times. There can be few sights more 

 disgusting to those who buy their milk, than 

 that of seeing a filthily dressed man sitting 

 down in a wet dirty, slippery stable to milk a 

 cow that is soaked in her own filth. It puts 

 me out of all patience with farmers who allow 

 themselves or their men to be so slovenly as 

 to milk a cow in the stable till after it has 

 been cleaned and purified by the use of some 

 kind of absorbent. Then to promote pei^sonal 

 cleanliness, an extra suit of loose clothes 

 should be kept in the barn that can easily and 

 quickly be drawn over those usually worn. 

 Various accidents are liable to happen during 

 the operation of milking, which endanger 

 clean clothes. One should have a loose blouse 

 to protect the arms and waist, and a pair of 

 pants or overalls for the body and legs. If 

 these, instead of being sewed on the outside of 

 the seams of the legs are left open and sup- 

 plied with buttons, they can be drawn on or 

 off over the boots much more easily. House 

 painters and nearly all mechanics have suit- 

 able outside garments that they wear wliile 

 engaged in work, that are laid off before 

 coming to the table. If farmers would take 

 as much pains to keep themselves clean, they 

 would really respect themselves and would be 

 more -respected by those who now call them 

 the "bone and sinew" of the country when- 

 ever their votes are wanted. 



A. W. ClIEEVER. 



Sheldonville, Mass., Jem. 24, 1871. 



For the 2feio England Farmer. 

 OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 

 The Past Winter — Decline in Prices — Experiments 

 with Muck, Lime, Phosphate, Ashes and Salt, com- 

 posted — Agricultural Colleges should teach Far- 

 mers to make Manure — Instability of Prices of Farm 

 Products. 



It being the season of the year for frogs to 

 peep and for other signs of spring to show 

 themselves, this comminiication of mine may 

 be an additional evidence that spring is in 

 fact on hand, even up here in old New Hamp- 

 shire. 



Well, among other things, we have had a 

 mild winter ; not a week of good sledding. 

 People have run sleds and sleighs a good deal, 

 but principally on frozen ground. So you 

 see that, as usual, it has been hard sledding 

 with farmers. Hay and potatoes were sold 

 for fair prices in the fall, soon after harvest- 

 ing ; but the weather being moderate, and 

 with the help of wise men, of whom we always 

 have a large crop in the city and village, soon 

 knocked them all flat. Hay, which has been 

 asleep all winter, is wakening up a little ; and, 

 as the new crop now looks, we suould not 

 wonder if buyers waked up before long. 

 In regard to our experiments last season 



with phosphate, lime, muck, ashes, &c., I 

 must report that it proved nearly a failure. 

 It was not the fault of the land, for it was as 

 good corn land as there is in Marlow, and it 

 yielded about one ton of hay to the acre the 

 year before planting. It was broken up in 

 the fall, and was well rotted, and in fine or- 

 der last spring when we planted. The corn 

 came up evenly and nice, and looked well 

 until the last of June. We gave it #ne good 

 hoeing, but it did not grow. At hoeing we 

 put ashes on some rows, phosphate on some, 

 good rich vegetable mould that was dug up 

 from under the hog yard, that had a rotten 

 plank floor ; but none of it, with the excep- 

 tion of a few hills, or a few stalks in the hill, 

 occasionally, answered our expectations. 



We made a compost manure of twenty 

 loads of muck, one cask of lime, two casks of 

 phosphate, three barrels of ashes, with about 

 one and a half bushels of salt, all well mixed 

 togethei-, of which we applied one-third of a 

 shovelful to the hill. 



We spread no manure on the ground. On 

 about one acre of the piece we put in a light 

 shovelful of manure from the cow and ox 

 stable, and put in each hill one large spoon- 

 ful of phosphate, covering it with dirt, and 

 dropped the corn. No other manure was 

 used on this piece, and we had fair corn. It 

 was hoed but once, 



In some rows I did not put in anything ; 

 others phosphate only ; others, salt only ; 

 others, only the composted muck. At har- 

 vesting I could not see much difference in the 

 rows thus differently treated. The rows with 

 nothing in them were a little the lightest. 

 The fact was, it all wanted hoeing again ; but 

 haying came on, and it was impossible to raise 

 help to do it. 



One thing I noticed, some hills would have 

 four good large ears of corn and some only 

 one ; but all had some sound but small ears. 

 The field contained nearly three acres, and it 

 gave me 100 bushels of good sound ears of 

 corn, more than one-half of which grew on 

 the piece manured, as stated above, with stable 

 manure. 



Around the whole piece two rows of pota- 

 toes of different kinds were planted in the 

 compost manure. Some kinds did well, but 

 the Davis Seedling filled the hills with strong 

 roots and runners in every direction, and it 

 required a man's strength to pull up a hill, 

 raising dirt and all, but there were few good 

 potatoes. 



Thus I have endeavored to give you my 

 expei'ience. You see the result. I think the 

 failure was owing partly to the dry season, 

 but I do not think if the season had been 

 good that I should have been entitled to a 

 monument quite as large as some piles of 

 potatoes or corn that I have seen. But farmers 

 do not expect to get monuments . With them 

 it is out of the question. Such things are for 



