576 



SCIENJ 



\LMANAC. 



[Vol. IV., No. 99. 



eat. 



A FEW PERTINENT HINTS TO 

 FARMERS. 



Fences and fawn-buildings. 

 Season fence-posts one year before using. Cut 

 oak and cedar in February, chestnut and most other 

 woods in August. To insure durability, soak the 

 lower ends of posts in brine before setting. In 

 the east the cost of fencing is equal to the value of 

 the live-stock. To tear down a fence without split- 

 ting the boards, strike the side of the post near the 

 top a sharp blow, in line with the fence, with a heavy 

 sledge-hammer. To drive nails into very hard 

 wood, dip their points in oil. Use steel nails for 

 fencing. Paint in cool, cloudy weather. Use little 

 lead and much oil for first coat. It does not pay 

 to paint barns which are boarded vertically. Lime 

 will remove moss from roofs. 



Care of cattle. 

 Try standing and lying on a hard plank floor 

 twenty-three consecutive hours, and you will use 

 the stanchions for kindlings, and build a covered 

 barnyard. Feed cattle but twice daily, always 

 before milking : give water as often, at a tempera- 

 ture of 55 ; it is safer to scrimp food than water. 

 Meal, if fed alone, especially to young calves, should 

 be spread thinly on the bottom of troughs, so that 

 it will be eaten slowly, and be insalivated. Allow 

 one cubic foot of air-space for each pound of live 

 weight. Temperature of cow-stables should range 

 from 45 to 55 . 



Hints on breeding. 

 Keep a mature thoroughbred bull at the head of 

 the herd. Use selected common cows. Raise all 

 female calves, and as many males as circumstances 

 will admit, except badly marked or weak ones and 

 those from two-year-old heifers. Uniformity in 

 color, shape, and general characteristics, adds much 

 to beauty and value. Heifers tried two years, if not 

 satisfactory, should be fattened and sent to the sham- 

 bles. Weigh the milk of each cow at least one day 

 in each week. Stop guessing, and get facts. Selec- 

 tion, food, and care are the three great elements of 

 success and improvement. Boys and cattle should 

 be raised on the farm, not in the city. 



Suggestions about dairying. 



Procure a number of glass tubes, sixteen inches 



long, one inch in diameter, and closed at one end. 



With two strips of leather and tacks, fasten them 



upon a board two feet long and sixteen inches wide. 



Place under them a paper ten inches wide, ruled with 

 lines a tenth of an inch apart. Fill each tube to the 

 depth of ten inches with one cow's milk. The lines 

 will designate the per cent of cream. Provide a 

 metal dasher for each tube, and attach the handles of 

 them to a common horizontal handle. Churn all the 

 milk in the tubes at one operation, and note the per 

 cent of butter in each tube. By this method it was 

 proved, that, while one cow produced a hundred and 

 eighty dollars' worth of milk in a year, another pro- 

 duced only forty dollars' worth. Nitrogenous foods, 



A CKKAM-TESTER. 



such as cottonseed-meal and clover-hay, tend to pro- 

 duce large quantities of milk, the butter from which 

 is inclined to be oily. Heat-producing foods, such as 

 corn-meal, do not tend to largely increase the flow 

 of milk, but to improve the quality and quantity of 

 the butter. Animals part with the fat of the body 

 more easily than they extract fat from their food: 

 hence it is economy to moderately fatten the cow 

 when dry. Sweet skimmed milk is worth, to feed in 

 connection with other food to a good breed of pigs, 

 one cent per quart. Two quarts of milk drawn 

 from the cow by the calf is worth three quarts fed 

 to it from a pail. Calves are more cheaply raised 

 in winter than in summer. 



A few facts about manures. 

 The value of the manure of a thousand-pound 

 cow, liberally fed, ranges from five to ten cents 

 per day, exclusive of bedding. Milch-cows take 

 from their food about twenty per cent of its raa- 

 nurial value ; fattening stock, about five per cent ; 

 young animals and dry cows, ten per cent. 



