338 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



halfway up. Yet they can do well on the Kentucky 

 liliR' urass, and will easily learn to eat the clover 

 aud n'lcal retiuired by Short-lioi-ns. 



I think there is no one breed so well adapted to 

 the three objects — the dairy, beef and draiifjlit — for 

 which neat stock is wanted by the small farmers 

 of New England, as the Ayrshires. 



As to quantity of milk in proportion to the cost 

 of food consumed, there is no other breed that can 

 equal the Ayrshires by "a long shot." And as to 

 quality they have no equals but Jerseys. As to 

 amount of butter, according to cost of food, they 

 are above all others ; and to the quality of butter, 

 all things considered, they are unsurpassed. Jer- 

 sey's butter is moi'c "gilt-edged," and may taste 

 better to the eye, but not to the palate. Possibly 

 the extra oily quality of Jersey's butter is the rea- 

 son of its not keeping well. For the pui-pose of 

 producing milk for sale or for making cheese, the 

 Ayrshires are "head and shoulders" above all 

 others, according to size and cost of keeping. 



The Jerseys are good for cream, but hard to keep 

 in decent order; very difticult to fixtten when it is 

 desired to turn them to beef, and too small and 

 frail for oxen. The Durhams are good for beef, 

 with sufficient quantity of the best quality of feed ; 

 but third-rate for the dairy, according to size, and 

 too large and "logy" for oxen. 



The Ayrshire can be titted for beef of the first 

 quality as quickl}' and chea))ly as anything else on 

 hf>ofs; and for oxen I don't think they can be 

 beaten, .judging from their general characteristics 

 of hardihood, energy, ambition, intelligence, do- 

 cility, similarity of color, vivacity or (}uickness of 

 motion and good size. 



These things being so, it is not difficult to see why 

 there are so few of them advertised for sale com- 

 pared ^vitll Durhams and Jerseys. Those who 

 have with much difficulty obtained this breed for 

 practical use, as I have, like them too well to sell 

 them (unless they sell their farm, get out a score 

 of patents and wish to move to Chicago, like my- 

 self;) and those who make a f)usincss of stock 

 raising on a small scale find ready customers with- 

 out advertising. 



I have found it justabout as easy to sell my pure 

 bred calves for twenty-five to fifty dollars," as to 

 sell "scrubs" of same age for fifty cents, and sup- 

 pose others have the saine experience ; and I feel a 

 good deal better keci)ing a cow that weighs from 

 six to nine hundred pounds, and makes ten to 



twelve pounds of the best butter a week, for five 

 consecutive months, than when keeping one of the 

 same size that makes but half as much of poorer 

 quality. K. Nutting. 



Eandolph, Vt., May, 1871. 



APPLICATIOX OF MANUKE. — FOLLOWING NATURE. 



The subject of manuring or eu- 

 • riching the soil is a very interesting 



one to me, aud I suppose it is to all 

 farmers in New England. Our.field 

 crops seek their nourishment in the 

 ground by roots which hide them- 

 selves in the earth, and hence I 

 think it is reasonable that manure 

 should be ploughed into the soil. 

 Another thing leads me to favor 

 uiilung in histead of applying it 

 to the surface, is the liability of the 

 most valuable portions of the ma- 

 nure being washed away, where 

 land is liable to be washed. In re- 

 sceding land without other crops, I 

 believe that the amount of manure 

 usually applied to the surface would 

 do better and make the grass hold 

 out longer if it were ploughed in. 



The advocates of surface manur- 

 ing often claim that Nature favors 

 their plan, and say that she always 

 deposits her fertilizing materials — 

 leaves, decaying wood, &c., — on the 

 top of the ground. But how much 

 force is there in this illustration, 

 were we to admit its literal correct- 

 ness ? This, however, we can hardly 

 do, when we think of the various ways by which 

 nature mingles the materials of the earth's surface 

 by the washing of water, by the slides and ava- 

 lanches among mountains, the heavings of volca- 

 noes, &c., by which nature does some pretty deep 

 ploughing and thick covering. 



But is not cultivation based rather on artificial 

 than natural i)rineii)les .> Is it not a war against as 

 well as a co-operation with nature? Is not man 

 endowed with capacities and powers M'hich tit him 

 to control and subdue nature ? "VVe fell her trees ; 

 we grub up her roots; we displace her rocks; 

 change her water courses ; hoe up and destroy her 

 favorite plants, and call them weeds. If nature 

 had her course would there be any cleared land, 

 any ploughed ground, any fields of any descrip- 

 tion; aii)^ garments to hide our nakedness; any 

 dwellings or barns for ourselves or our stock ? 



But if we admit that the top-dressing of our 

 fields is in accordance with nature, does this prove 

 it to be the most economical ? See how much of 

 Nature's dressing is lost to the soil to which it is 

 applied, — how much floats off in streams to enrich 

 distant intervales or to be engulphed in the ocean, 

 and how much has been lodged in bogs and swamps 

 for the benefit of other land than that upon which 

 the fertilizing matter was origirially deposited. 

 Nature may afford such a wasteful application of 

 manure as this, but I cannot. My resources are 

 not equal to hers. I cannot afford to fertilize dis- 

 tant fields in which I have no interest, but must 

 provide for my own. Hence I endeavor to keep 

 ray maimre in the soil. 



lamtryhiga number of experiments this year 

 with muck, being encouraged to do so by seeing 

 how complcfely tilled with roots and tine fibres 

 muck is that I have applied to my orchard. I have 

 put some clear muck in the hill for various crops, 

 and have composted some with lime and salt, and 

 if nothing prevents will note the result. 



While reading the various opinions of farmers 

 in your paper, I have often wanted to make some 

 rcjily, but aware of my ignorance of grammar and 

 all the rules of composition, 1 have never attempted 



