FARM OF MR. STAATS, ETC. 
363 
ments, to be equally nutritious for stock as sweet, 
but it must be remembered, that they soon set the 
teeth on edge, and cannot be continuously fed in con¬ 
siderable quantities, with advantage to the thrift of 
animals. Boiling would remedy this objection, but it 
is more easily obviated by alternating sweet with 
sour ; or if an orchard is to be set out or grafted, ex¬ 
pressly in reference to this object, sweet apples may 
almost entirely predominate. 
Poultry comes into the long list of consumers of 
the apple orchard ; and no less good does it do them, 
than the other tenants of the farm. Of apples, of a 
soft, delicate, delicious pulp, we have had more than 
a peck per day consumed by a small flock of hens 
and chickens. Indeed, they would resort to the tree 
for their breakfast, from its droppings over-night, in 
preference to their grain dishes. Turkeys, ducks, 
and geese, are equally fond of them. We opine, 
that excellent canvass-back ducks may be made from 
the spice apple; and perhaps pheasant and grouse, 
from the barn-yard fowls when their flesh is similarly 
flavored. 
Some prejudice has been created against the use of 
apples for stock, from the fact, that when a hungry 
cow happened to break into an orchard and filled 
herself to repletion, a fever ensued, and her milk 
dried up. The same rule would hold good against 
allowing a horse a ration of grain, because one had 
died from an unstinted feed of corn. The true 
course is, to commence feeding in small quantities, and 
gradually increase the allowance till put on full rations. 
If cider is made, as it ought to be to some extent, 
for vinegar, but not for use as a beverage, in any 
case; the pomace may be advantageously used for 
cattle, or sheep. Mixed with hay, this is nutritious 
and wholesome, and constitutes a most economical 
food. When the apple is fed to the larger animals, 
hay and grass should always accompany it; and 
when fed to hogs, fresh clover or grain should be 
added. When thus judiciously managed, we doubt 
if the production of roots for stock feeding, will com¬ 
pare in economy with that of raising apples for a 
similar purpose. It is true they are sometimes cut off 
by late frosts, and are not vegetables and gra n equally 
liable to injury and disappointment of the husband¬ 
man ? In conclusion, we can offer no better advice 
to our readers, than to urge them to plant as extensive 
orchards as they can manage to advantage, of the 
choicest fruits they can select; and whether intended 
as an investment of their money, as food for their 
families, or domestic animals, or as an inheritance 
for their heirs, they can make no more appropriate 
beslowment of their time and wealth. 
FARM OF MR. STAATS. 
During a brief ramble which we had the pleasure 
of making in Duchess county last summer, among 
others, we called upon Henry Staats, Esq., late 
President of the Duchess Co. Agricultural Society. 
Mr. S. was born to no inheritance, but has suc¬ 
ceeded through his own industry in rearing up a 
large estate of about 2,000 acres. Most of this 
property is in Red Hook, and a good portion of it 
is what is termed “ the flats ; ” a fine, light, alluvial 
soil, free from stone, easily cultivated, and of greater 
or less fertility, stretching from the foot of the 
Highlands at Fishkill up :he river some 60 miles or 
more. Geologists suppose that these flats were 
formed by the deposites of the great lake which un¬ 
questionably formerly covered the Hudson valley, 
till, by some mighty convulsion of nature, the rocky 
barriers were torn asunder, and it found an outlet 
through the Highlands to the sea. 
Our stay was so brief with Mr. S. that we had 
not the opportunity which we could have wished 
to go over his farms and take full note of his ope¬ 
rations. His rotation is to plow up the sod, ma¬ 
nure, and plant corn. Oats succeed, then wheat 
with a top dressing, and with this the land is seed¬ 
ed down with clover and timothy. Plaster was 
formerly beneficially used here to considerable ex¬ 
tent, but does not seem to answer a good purpose 
now. We are of opinion that if the farmers would 
give their lands a good dressing of ashes for a few 
years, plow in green crops occasionally, carefully 
apply all their stable manure, and muck "where it 
is to be had, plaster would then again be found 
of considerable advantage. 
A Sheep Farm .—In the town of Milan, adjoin¬ 
ing Red Hook, Mr. Staats has a farm of 150 acres, 
so broken and rough that it cannot be cultivated to 
any advantage. This he has turned into a sheep 
farm, and we are not sure that it does not thus pay 
him a better profit on its cost than the easily tilled 
flats. He commences by turning on a flock of 100 
to 150 head about the 10th of April. As the feed 
comes forward he increases the flock till June, and 
in October begins to lessen it, and removes the last 
from the 10th to 20th December. In this way the 
hundred and fifty acres support an average of 400 
sheep during four months of the year. Suppose 
that these sheep were yearling wethers of a good 
mutton breed , the growth and improvement on them 
would be. at least one dollar per head (one of our 
friends in Putnam county last year realized over 
two dollars per head), which would be $400. Es¬ 
timating the value of the land at $25 per acre, this 
would be a fraction over ten per cent, interest on the 
same, while it must be recollected that under this 
system of feeding the land is increasing in fertility. 
We mean to repeat at least a thousand times, or 
till what we say has some effect upon our country¬ 
men, that a pound of lean, tender, juicy mutton, 
can be raised for half the cost of the same quantity 
of fat pork ; that it is infinitely healthier food, 
especially in the summer season ; is more agreeable 
to ihe palate when one gets accustomed to it; 
and that those who eat it become more muscular, 
and can do more work with greater ease to them¬ 
selves than those who eat fat pork. We know 
nothing more delicate than smoked mutton hams of 
the Southdown breed of sheep—venison itself is 
not superior. Sheep can be kept in fine growing 
order where other domestic animals will scarcely 
exist, and thousands of acres in this State, like this 
farm of Mr. Staats’, under an enlightened system 
of sheep husbandry, may be made to pay a good 
interest, where now they are nearly dead property 
in the hands of their present owners. 
What the Farmer cannot afford to do 
without. —This is an agricultural journal. The 
moment he drops that, he may expect to fall behind¬ 
hand, at least in the knowledge of the age and all 
good improvements in agriculture. Can the farmei 
afford to do this ? No, he cannot. 
