1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



325 



of your correspondent's assertions, I suppose 

 I felt some as the boy did whose father, for 

 some misdemeanor or other, was giving bim a 

 flogging, and who cried out, "Stop dad, let's 

 argue," for, really, I think I had rather argue 

 a little by the "fireside" than take my drain- 

 ing tools and go to work on such a dry field. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I will turn back to that 

 piece of swamp land or to the wet upland field, 

 or to both, for an example. I will suppose, 

 that instead of he numerous drains I was 

 obliged to construct to drain off the surjdus 

 water, in either case, I could have gone down 

 to the lowest point in the bottom of that old 

 swamp, or the wet upland mowing, and by 

 some Yankee device have cut a channel for 

 the water to drain off, direct to China, or into 

 some lower strata of the earth, so as to have 

 lowered the water to the same level that was 

 done b}' the horizontal drains, would not the 

 same object have been attained and the same 

 benefit secured by such perpendicular drain- 

 age P I believe this cannot be doubted, nor 

 that the air, the light, the rains and the frost, 

 would act as favorably on the soil in one case 

 as m the other ; and drained by the last 

 method those fields would be in precisely the 

 same condition in regard to drainage as those 

 other tillage lands I have referred to, where 

 the water never comes near the surface, and 

 consequently cannot be improved by drainage. 

 This makes out my case, I think. 



But both might be greatly improved, accord- 

 ing to the texture of the soil, either by deep or 

 shallow ploughing, to{) dressing, or ploughing 

 in manure. These topics would form, in my 

 opinion, very proper subjects to discuss in the 

 papers and at farmer's gatherings. 



But of course the perpendicidar drainage I 

 have alluded to above, is all visionary. 

 That Yankee is not born and probably never 

 will be, who will be able to invent a way 

 whereby the bottom of many of our old wet 

 and barj-en swamps and uplands in New Eng- 

 land, may be tapped and the surplus water 

 easily and cheaply drawn off, in a perpendicu- 

 lar direction downward. But, fortunately, 

 nature has done for most of our lands just 

 what is needed to be done to the small por- 

 tion of them in which water stands too near the 

 surface. Royal Smitu. 



Milllngton, Mass., May 5, 1871. 



COOKING FOOD FOR STOCK. 



Most farmers cook the food for their fatten- 

 ing swine, and many agricultural writers have 

 advised us to steam our fodder for all farm 

 stock. But so far as we are informed there 

 are but few either in this country or England 

 who have adopted this plan. In an essay on 

 this subject by George Geddes, published in 

 the Nciv York Tribune, the following state- 

 ment is made of what he saw and learned by 



a visit to the farm of Mr. B. A. Avery, near 

 the city of Syracuse, N. Y., who has for four 

 years cooked the food for a stock averaging 

 115 animals, 60 of them being cows, 15 horses 

 and 40 young cattle. The statement embraces 

 facts in relation to average yield of milk per 

 cow, &c., which we think will prove interest- 

 ing, aside from those which bear on the sub- 

 ject of cooking the food. 



General Appearance and Healtli. 



The stock is in very high condition ; Mr. 

 Avery says some of the cows have too much 

 riesh to give the most milk. Many of the cat- 

 tle are better beef than much of that killed 

 as such for city use. 



To these important points I gave much atten- 

 tion, and learned that there had been but two 

 deaths on the farm in the last four years — two 

 very old cows having died — as Mr. Avery 

 says, "they were milked to death." They 

 would not fat, but turned their food into milk, 

 became poor, feeble and died. He says that 

 for the four years during which he has fed 

 cooked food all the winters, he has had no 

 milk-fever, which was quite common before he 

 cooked the food, and no young cattle or horses 

 have died within the four years. This shows 

 that cooked food does not destroy the health 

 of stock. 



Yield of MUk. 



As Mr. Avery sells his milk by measure, 

 this is to him a point of great importance. 

 He gave me exact figures. His cows are not 

 large ; the young ones are from Ayrshire bulls, 

 and some of them show quite high breeding. 

 He disposes of the older cows at the rate of 

 about ten a year, putting in their places two- 

 year-old heifers of his own raising ; thus one- 

 third of his cows are two and three-year-old, 

 and not yet up to their best age for milk. 

 The average yield per day of each of these 

 sixty cows, is for the whole 365 days in the 

 year, six and a quarter quarts, which is 2281:i 

 quarts for each cow for the year — or 136,875 

 quarts for the whole 60 cows. Before he 

 cooked the winter food the average was nearly 

 one quart less than it is now to the cow for 

 each day. This gain is principally in the win- 

 ter, when milk brings its best price. It is not 

 all in the winter, for the condition of the cows 

 in the spring is so good that the summer yield 

 is somewhat increased. But giving the cook- 

 ing the credit of producing an increase in the 

 year, for each cow, of 300 quarts, whatever 

 that amount of milk is worth, it is so much 

 gain. 



The yield of milk of Mr. Avery's cows will 

 doubtless be considered small by persons who 

 do not take into consideration all the facts in 

 the case. As has been stated, ten two-year- 

 old heifers are every year put in place of ten 

 cows rejected for various causes from the 

 herd. So the stock is kept entire without 



