No. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



35 



occupj', I should ikink that 1 obtaincil upon nu aver- 

 age, about tweniy-live tons from on acre. I this year 

 rnised three acres, and harvested one hundred and 

 two large loads of about a ton weight; one fifth of 

 which we calculated for tops. 



I feed the roots to all kinds of farm stock, except 

 horses. For milch cows, fatting cattle, hogs and 

 sheep, I find them of great advantage. Some animals 

 will not eat them freely at first, but they soon learn 

 to eat them readily. I let them first get well hungry, 

 then cut a few roots and sprinkle on them a little bran 

 and salt. My horses alone do not seem to fancy them. 

 They prefer carrots instead, and if worked hard, want 

 a few oats in the bargain. I feed my milch cows half 

 n bushel of mangel wurtzel each per day, with hay. 

 They keep in good condition, and give milk freely all 

 the winter. Fatting cattle require a bushel or over 

 per day. They thrive and fatten finely on them. — 

 For working oxen I think they are superior to any 

 other food, especially when worked hard in the spring, 

 and during hot weather in summer; as they will do 

 more work, and bear heat better than with any other 

 food. (The roots can be kept through the summer if 

 desired.) I keep my store hogs on them almost ex- 

 clusively during the winter, and they thrive admirably. 

 With the addition o( a little corn, hogs fed on these 

 roots will fatten rapidly and make good pork. Sheep 

 also do extremely well on them; and they are superior 

 to all other food for feeding ewes at lambing time in 

 the spring. I keep 1.30 ewes, and find them greatly 

 benefitted by this practice. For sheep and hogs it is 

 .not necessary to cut the roots, but for cattle I cut them 

 to pieces with an axe or spade. A proper machine 

 for the purpose would be some advantage. 



I use very little hay, as my seeep and young cattle 

 arc fed only straw with the roots. They eat the straw 

 readily without cutting, and keep in good condition. — 

 Thus by raising only two or three acres of these roots, 

 lean devote nearly my whole farm to grain, and at the 

 same time keep a large amount of stock, with good 

 profit. 



Wheatland, Monroe co., N. Y. 



1 

 'ni*jl 

 loinlli 

 u]jiW 1 



For the New Genesee Farmer. 



FARM STOCK—NO. 2. 



Messrs. Editors, — JVot having exhausted the sub- 

 ject, I again take my pen. It is a subject fraught with 

 many pleasant reflections, and one that ought to re- 

 quire the attention of every farmer in the country, but 

 has been very much neglected in Western New York, 

 Those who have the management of farm stock, ought 

 to have their minds continually upon them, in the win- 

 ter season, and see that they are well provided with 

 good shelters. Some suppose that milch cows will do 

 better without being stabled ; but they are, in my opin- 

 ion, in a great erfcr, because it is very evident that 

 ■milch cows require more than usual care, if we expect 

 to reap nmch benefit from theui. We cannot expect 

 a cow will give a very great quantity of milk, without 

 we mess her with turnips or sugar beets, at least twice 

 a day, umiU grass comes; and a plenty of good hay. 

 If it were convenient for n farmer, it would be far bel- 

 ter to stable all of his domestic animals (save the sheep) 

 in the winter, as he would save a great deal of fodder, 

 and have all of his cattle in a thri^-ing condition in the 

 spring. But the fact is, many think it too much trouble 

 to go to the expense of building stables, for the protec- 

 tion of their animals; and, therefore, had rather see 

 their cattle exposed, at the north-west corner of their 

 barns, almost frozen, than to lay out a little expense, 

 and have them comfortable. JNIany think to save labor, 

 but it requires as much, if not more, to winter a lot of 

 cattle out in the storms, as to keep them in stables, 

 where they will be comfortable. I soy, for one, and 

 that truly, that it will not cost more than two-thirds 

 the labor and cxpenEe, to winter all domestic animals 



with protection, than it does exposed to the cold and 

 bleak winds of our variable climate. A great ninny 

 farmers, who are in the habit of raising fine horses, are 

 very careful that they are well fed, and have warm and 

 comfortable stiiblcs, but think their cows and sheep 

 can do well enough, without any thing to shield them 

 from the chilling winds of winter; and thus are per- 

 mitted to remain five or six months. In this way< we 

 cannot expect to see good cattle, because it will require 

 all summer to recover. But if domestic animals are 

 kept in good condition through the winter, and in 

 good heart in the spring, it will not require much at- 

 tention through the sunmier, to have them thrive and 

 grow into money very fast; and amply repay the hus- 

 bandman for his kind services. 



In Chnptal's Agricultural Chemistry, page 286, he 

 thus describes the buildings in which domestic animals 

 can be healthy: "That the habitations of domestic 

 animals may be healthful, it is necessary that they be 

 spacious enough, not only to allow free respiration, 

 but to permit the inhabitants to assume all the positions 

 natural to them. It is likewise necessary they should 

 be ventilated ; this may be done by means of windows 

 or doors placed on opposite sides, so as to form a tho- 

 rough draught of air; through these, respirable air 

 will be constantly brought in, and the pernicious e.\- 

 halations as constantly carried off." 



If all farmers would adopt the above method, there 

 would be but little complaint, in our country, about 

 cattle. But rather than do this, the foct is, they want 

 to be sleigh-riding, and leaving the manogement of 

 their stock in the hands of those who care but little 

 about them. 



Cattle ought to be supplied with a plenty of pure 

 water in winter; and if they do not have it, they will 

 run down hill. They need more water in winter than 

 they do in the summer, because their food is very dry, 

 and therefore causes great thirst; and if that cannot 

 be quenched, they will greatly suffer. There are ma- 

 ny farmers in this section, who are not supplied with 

 running brooks; therefore they are under the necessi- 

 ty of digging wells to supply their stock with -water. 

 If a farmer is compelled to dig for water, it is highly 

 important that he should select the most tonvenieni 

 place, which, in my opinion, would be in the barn 

 yards, and ^hus save the cattle from going to and fro 

 through the mud to obtain it. One gieat thing, in my 

 opinion, that causes the hoof ail to be so prevalent 

 among our horned cattle, is their going a half or three 

 quar^prs of a mile to get water, getting their feet into 

 the mud and water, and thereby they are frozen, which, 

 in my opinion, is the only cause of the hoof ail. 



The winter food for domestic animals is an article 

 of importance, both on account of the quantity required 

 and the value. There is scarcely any place where good 

 hay will not, at some season of the year, bring several 

 dollars a ton. Every means, therefore, by which it 

 may be saved, or the nutriment it contains applied to 

 the best elVcct, should claim special attention. It bus 

 been asserted that by cutting all kinds of fodder before 

 feeding to cattle, at least, in my opinion, one half is 

 saved; but suppomng it saves one-third, it is very evi- 

 dent it would, in a few years, amount to no small sum, 

 where tiere are a considerable number of animals win- 

 tered. The labor in cutting fodder for a lot of catde, 

 to be sure, is something, but it is nothing, when we 

 can have a good straw cutting machine for the pur- 

 pose. Among the best now in use, is Green's patent. 

 It does the work exceedingly w'ell, although it is turn- 

 ed by and; how-cver, one man is entirely sufficient to 

 turn It, and cut all the fodder that another can put in, 

 working with activity too, and having the hoy or straw 

 close by. Two bushels of fodder con be cut in a min- 

 ute, though sometimes it requires to be cut over twice 

 to make it fine enough for use. The cxpcne* of cut- 

 ting fodder is very small, and if driven by hor»» p<W»r 



wouldbe p'rless. All ourcoarsel'oddcrmightbc saved, 

 especially our corn stalks, (which very often ore entire- 

 ly wasted,) by cutting them up in a straw-cutter, and 

 mixing a very small quantity of meal with them. Yet, 

 notwithstonding oil this, what a vast majority purstio 

 the old wasteful course of foddering about stacks, 

 and throwing their fodder into the mud, to bo trodden 

 under foot and wasted. If a famer wishes to prosper 

 in his pursuit, he must, of course, have a great deal of 

 caro upon his mind, and see that his cattle and sheep 

 are well taken core of; and a good supply of food, as 

 often as twice or thricp a day, given them. 



Some suppose that swine can provide for themselves 

 in winter, only let them have free access to an orchard, 

 where, perhaps, a very few apples were left at the time 

 of fathering, in autumn. But it would be altogether 

 impossible for farmers to winter swine so in this coun- 

 try, (where the snows fall so very deep,) if they did 

 have a free access to an orchard — I care not how plen- 

 tifully the apples are, or bow ample the orchard — they 

 would, in mylestimation, come out, as the olil saying is, 

 at the little end of the horn in the spring. Swine need 

 a warm and comfortable place in winter, and then a 

 very small amount of food will keep them in a good 

 condition through the winter; and when spring arrives 

 they will look fine, and therefore thrive much faster 

 than those that are wintered out in the cold and stormy 

 weather, with twice the quantity of food given them. 

 Therefore a neat is gained by having warm and com- 

 fortable places for the protection of swine, through the 

 inclemencies of our winter seasons. 



Enough has already been said to convince the farm- 

 ing commxmitj# that the protection ot their domestic 

 animals, in the winter, is one great thing that will, in 

 the end, c^jduce to their prosperity in future years. 

 Respectfully yours, W, S, T. 



South Venice, January 16, 1840. 



AGRICirtTURAX IMPROVEilIElVTS. 



In the retrospect of the past, we find that agricul- 

 ture has received a greater impulse during the last 

 twenty years than in double or treble that period pre- 

 viously, — that during this space of time, sciemific 

 knowledge and enlightened education have been bro't 

 to bear upon the subject, and in putting theory into 

 practice, the narrow prejudices contracted by the 

 world at large, have been thrown aside. Science has 

 clearly demonstrated that in this pursuit there is an 

 ample field for the exercise of the clearest faculties, and 

 the deepest scientific researches, calculated to afford 

 enjoyment to those engaged in it, and fully reimburse 

 their expenditures. 



This march of improvement is not stayed, — happily 

 we may safely ossert, that at no point of time was it 

 more in the full tide of progress than at the present, 

 and no limits can be set to its advancement. To 

 quicken it, our farmers-theniselves must lay hold of 

 the matter; they should individually feel that a por- 

 tion of this work is assigned them — that they are cal- 

 led upon as integrant ports of a great comnmnity, to 

 further its interests, by the means which they several- 

 ly have at command; — they should be willing, impar- 

 tiolly, and unbiossed by old prejudices, to canvoss all 

 their actions, and bring them to the test of reason. — * 

 They should not suppose that in any one particular 

 they have reached to ultimate perfection, but keep this 

 always in view as the point to arrive at, — Farmers' 

 Cahiact. 



Bee DIoth. 



Mr, James Thatcher, author of the "American Or- 

 cbardist," &c. cfcc, in a communication to the New 

 England Farmer, says, "I will embrace this opportu- 

 nity to communicate, for the benefit of the cultivator, 

 what I believe to be on infallible remedy agoinst the 

 bee moth, which bos proved so destructive to bees 

 throughout our country of late years. The remedy is 

 simple and easily applied. It consists merely in cover- 

 ing the floor board on which the hive eionds, with 

 common earth, about on inch thick, A hive set on 

 earth will never be infested with worms, for the bee 

 moth will not deposite her eggs where the earth will 

 come in contact. She naturally resorts to a dry 

 board as her element. The remedy hos been em- 

 ployed by a number of persons in this vicinity for sev 

 6al years, with the most complete succees," 



