1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
131 
all have an insane idea that food is the great 
cureall, and your country cow-doctor will 
pour gruel through a horn into the stomach of 
a cow that is down with milk-fever, when she 
is already bloated with the gases of her undi- 
gested food, and burning up with a fire to which 
Lis food is only additional fuel. "What we 
want to do is to get the food out of the cow — 
not to pour more in. Our fault has been in 
giving too much. Until health is fully restored, 
and the cow raises a natural cud, the less she 
gets to eat the better— she ought to have abso- 
lutely nothing. Have no fear of starvation. No 
cow falls with milk-fever without food enough 
in her stomach and fat enough on her bones to 
carry her safely through any duration of the 
disease, and the great fear is that she has too 
much of both. I believe in high-feeding in 
health and high-starving in all febrile disease. 
There is little or no danger with heifers calv- 
ing for the first time, and the disease is less fre- 
quent in winter than in summer. 
I wish we were a more thorough people 
and did not do things ou so cheap a basis. 
Especially would it be well if we used a little 
more wrought-iron instead of cast-iron. During 
the frosty weather, an important casting of 
my wind-mill was broken. I soon had a new 
one with which to replace it, but the weather 
was, incessantly, too cold or too windy for 
the renewal to be made. During all this time, 
we were suffering immensely for want of water. 
The two wells near the barn were nearly dry, the 
pond frozen nearly to the bottom, and it was 
with difficulty, and at great outlay for labor, that 
we could scrape together barely enough to water 
the slock and to make steam for driving the 
cutting machine and grist-mill. We could not 
get enough clean water for wetting the cut feed, 
and so we could not steam it ; thus an important 
advantage of the machinery was lost. Had the 
piece in question been made of wrought-iron, 
all this bother would have been saved, and we 
would not have lost more than its cost in labor 
and in inability to cook our fodder. The milk 
and butter, too, fell off seriously in the absence 
of the steamed forage to which the cows are 
accustomed — possibly, too, from their not always 
having water at hand. 
There is a great advantage in having a 
tight, warm, well-ventilated barn, and as I went 
about among the cattle in the bitter, winter 
weather, I could not help thinking, that, how- 
ever poor I might be, if I were going to start 
afresh in fanning, I would make a snug, com- 
fortable, airy stable the first object of my ef- 
forts ; for, in cold weather, while badly sheltered 
animals were piling in all the hay they could 
get to keep up the animal heat which was being 
constantly robbed from their coals by the cold 
air moving about them, mine seemed not to 
be eating more than in mild, winter weather. 
They never looked better and never seemed 
more flourishing. 
I commenced last fall a new extravagance, 
and I am satisfied that it pays well. I had 
hitherto wintered my young calves on the same 
food with the yearlings, and always succeeded 
in bringing them through the winter in toler- 
able condition— quite as good as the average. 
This winter I have given to each from half a 
pint to a pint a day of whole oats, and 1 am sat- 
isfied that they have grown as fast as they would 
have done on summer pasture. The growth, 
too, is of the right character — in the bones; they 
are thrifty and lusty without being at all fat, 
and I think have a belter cliance of becom- 
ing copious, bony cows and good milkers than 
if they had received only the usual rations. 
Some of my neighbors feed corn-meal to their 
calves, and I observe that the effect is very dif- 
ferent from that of oats, producing less develop- 
ment of hone and more of fat— the opposite of 
what we want iu milking stock. , 
We have had some reason to apprehend 
trouble from the cattle disease {Epizootic Aph- 
tha), as there have been several cases on the 
Island and much of it in different parts of the 
State. We hope to escape it by applying, in 
addition to the strict measures adopted by the 
State authorities, a rigid system of quarantine 
for our own farm. No horned cattle, sheep or 
swine are allowed to come upon the place under 
any pretext, nor are our own animals allowed 
to go upon the highways — the oxen being used 
for home work only. If this system were 
adopted by all farmers in whose vicinity the 
disease breaks out, its spread would be prevented 
and it would die out in a few weeks. 
After weighing the question of corn-growing 
in all its bearings, I have concluded to make 
the experiment of giving it up. This year I 
shall grow none for grain. Instead of it I shall 
put iu double the quantity (nearly twenty acres) 
of fodder corn, perhaps even more. Iu this I 
am " experimenting," for I have never known 
fodder corn to be largely grown as a substitute 
for hay. It may be a failure, but I think the 
chances are good enough to justify the trial. 
My reasoning is this : If corn-stalks that have 
produced and ripened their ears, and are only 
cut when fully mature, and containing their full 
measure of woody fibre, are a good forage for 
milch cows — and they are — younger stalks, 
which contain in their sap much of the material 
from which grain is formed, have very little 
woody fibre, and are sugary and tender, ought 
to be much better. The rock on which there is 
the most danger of splitting is the difficulty of 
getting the fodder sufficiently cured to store 
without molding. I think this may be done if 
we treat it as we do ripe corn fodder, save that 
it should be well dried, lying on the ground 
until thoroughly wilted, before being shooked 
up. Then the stacks must be small and they 
must stand for some weeks. When they are 
well dried I think the bundles may be put up 
in small stacks with safety. By the middle of 
November the stalks may be mowed away 
with hay, unthrashed oats, or other well-dried 
forage intermixed in layers. It will be none 
the worse for feeding for the admixture. 
After all, corn is one of the grasses, and I am 
inclined to think that if we can overcome the 
difficulty of curing, it will be the best of all 
from which to make hay for milch cows. As to 
the quantity that may be produced from an 
acre, I can form no just estimate, but I believe 
it will be less than those who have only used 
the crop for soiling would suppose. If the 
amount could be brought up to five tons per 
acre even under the best circumstances, I think 
we may be satisfied. Prom the trial I have had 
of its quality I believe that it will make as much 
milk or butter, ton for ton, as the best quality 
meadow or clover hay. However, this is only 
an opinion, and I hope to know more about it 
next winter and to report satisfactory results. 
It is pleasant to see that the teachings of 
brother Harris, as they have been set forth in 
his invigorating Walks and entertaining Talks 
on the Farm, are taking root and producing so 
good an effect. This is observable in many 
ways, but especially with reference to Essex: 
pigs. Two years ago I was offered animals of 
this stock at quite moderate prices from all 
sources. A short time since, my own litters 
having been sold down to low-water mark, and 
applications constantly coming for more, I 
applied to all the breeders within my knowl- 
edge for young animals to supply the demand. 
Only one among them all could offer sow pigs 
even at $30 each, and when I wrote a few days 
after to say that I would take them, they had 
all been sold to go South. I think that the 
simple fact of his influence in extending a 
knowledge of this breed, is an ample " reason 
to be," as the French say, for all bis writings, 
for there is no direction in which so widely 
valuable an improvement is likely to be effected 
as in the general introduction of these swine. 
The " improved " Berkshires may be as good — I 
have never seen them; it is hardly possible they 
should be better. ( 
Speaking of pigs, I hardly know which 
makes me the more glad, the rise of the Essex 
or the fall of the Chester, for a considerable ex- 
perience and much more extensive observation 
have convinced me, that of all mongrel-bred, 
mix-blooded brutes that ever had a name given 
them, the Chesters are entitled to the palm. I 
have three or four of them now, bred from 
parents (not akin), purchased from the best 
breeders iu Chester Co. and warranted pure 
Chester, among which a skillful zoologist might 
find clear traces of at least a half-dozen distinct 
porcine races. The only quality in whioii they 
are all alike is the size of the ears. If there is 
any difference in them in this regard, it is that 
one has larger ears than the other. There 
seems to have been an effort of nature to prove 
how much ear a given amount of pig can carry, 
and any one of them would supply material 
enough to furnish the ears of my whole family 
of Essexes — father and mother and six children. 
In my reports made last summer of experience 
with Thomas' Smoothing Harrow, I expressed 
the opinion that it was not so good as the invent- 
or believed for the cultivation of corn. I think 
that this was the opinion of many others who 
gave it a fair trial. Mr. Thomas lias, since that 
time, made several important modifications of 
the implement with a view to overcoming the 
difficulties suggested. So far as I can judge 
without a trial, he has probably succeeded, and 
it is especially noteworthy that he offers to sup- 
ply the new implement to those who were dis- 
satisfied with the old one on very fair terms. 
Whether the new tool will be a complete suc- 
cess, of course only a season's trial will show, 
but what it proposes to accomplish — the entire 
work of cultivating field-corn without hand 
hoeing — is so important as to justify a thorough 
trial, and the fullest publicity of the result. 
— . — »♦»■ i » 
Riding on Horseback.— No. 2. 
— » 
The practice prescribed in our last having 
been persevered in until the pupil has made 
himself perfectly at home in the saddle, and so 
suppled his loins that the motion given to the 
upper part of the body has no effect on the seat, 
he may now resume the stirrups and learn their 
use. The}' are very important as a matter of 
convenience and comfort, but they should aid a 
rider to easily regain his seat when he lias lost 
it, rather than to keep it. It is very fatiguing 
to ride, even at a walk, with the legs dangling 
at the horse's sides, and especially so when they 
are kept in the position indicated in the previous 
