A Hard Winter. 



Observers inform us that within the last 

 few centuries there have been a series of hard 

 winters, continued for several years, and 

 which have been followed by as many warm 

 winters. They also state that we are now 

 going into the series of hard winters, which 

 may, as before, continue for several years. 



Judging from the commencement of the 

 present winter, and its continuance thus far, 

 these weather-observers seem likely to be 

 right; and our farmers, if they have not al- 

 ready, should do what they now can to pro- 

 vide for a winter of unusual severity. If it 

 should prove warm nothing will be lost; and 

 if it should be equal in cold and in length to 

 the last winter, much will be gained. 



The last season, in consequence of great 

 drought, furnished a limited supply of food 

 for stock. Many farmers, with a long win- 

 ter, unless they use mucli economy and good 

 management, will be short of food for cattle 

 ia the coming spring. If they shall be com- 

 pelled to purchase fodder, they will find it 

 very seriously to afi'ect their pockts; and if 

 they stint their stock in the last part of win- 

 ter, such stock will make a poor show in 

 the spring and a good part of summer. 



Cattle properly protected from the weath- 

 er, do not require as much food as those ex- 

 posed to all its inclemencies. Cold rains and 

 snows, and heavy winds, always render cat- 

 tle uncomfortable. Look at them under 

 such circumstances I If they could speaki 

 they would remind you of their suflferings in 

 a way more sensibly than by their shrinking 

 and shivering, as they stand exposed to the 

 peltings of the pitiless storm . 

 , But farmers who cannot provide shelter 

 for their cattle, must do the best they can 

 for them. They must feed them in a way to 

 give all due nourishment, and, at the same 

 time, to make their food go as far as 

 possible. A farmer would be justly censur- 

 able for wasting fodder the present winter. 

 All straw can be made useful as fodder by 

 using the cutting box, and even hay will go 

 much further by being cut up in that instru- 

 ment. Our horses are injured by the large 

 quantities of corn given them; and it is con- 



ceded that horses fed with oats and rye, with 

 the straw properly cut up and prepared, are 

 much better fitted for labor and made soun- 

 der and better animals than if they were ful- 

 ly fed with corn. Eastern horses are pre- 

 ferred to western horses; not on account of 

 superior blood, but because of the manner 

 in which they are fed and reared when 

 young. ■ V - vu^,,: ..v 



We need not prepare a long article on the 

 subject under notice. Our object is to give 

 a word of caution to our farmers —to induce 

 them to practice economy in the feeding of 

 their stock the present winter; and to re- 

 commend to them to employ the best means 

 suggested by experience to make their fod- 

 der go the farthest and do their stock the 

 most good. The straw cutter will save the 

 farmer twice the cost of the instrument in a 

 single winter. The time for feeding hogs is 

 nearly past, but experiments within a few 

 months, made in the most careful manner, 

 by distinguished and reliable men, prove 

 that when corn is fifty cents a bushel, fed 

 raw to hogs, will make pork costing ten cents 

 a pound, while ground and in a cooked state 

 it will not cost more than two cents a pound. 

 Such facts ought to open the eyes of farmers 

 to the necessity of economizing food for 

 stock, and to the great advantages which 

 they may derive from a careful and practical 



management of their farming operations. 

 . — .«•» 



Chinese Sugar Cane. ;- ' 



We have been favored with the Patent 

 Office Report — Agricultural Department — 

 for 1855, just published. It contains much 

 valuable information. We suppose this vol- 

 ume has not, as yet, been generally distrib- 

 uted. We shall make a short summary of 

 some of the communications contained in the 

 work on the Chinese Sugar Cane, - 



Mr. Joseph C. Orth, of Wabash county, 

 Illinois, states that he found the fodder val- 

 uable for cattle, and that in making an ex- 

 periment with the juice, he was fully con- 

 vinced that fifteen per cent of good sugar 

 could be made out of it. His experiment 

 produced about twenty-five per cent of mo- 

 lasses. 



Dr. Ray, of Tennessee, foond the plant an 



