170 
SOILING OR STALL-FEEDING COWS.-TETHERING COWS. 
The best mode of washing, is to use a fall of 
three feet or more, turning the sheep in different 
ways under the fall, till the action of water brings 
every part of the fleece to almost a snowy white¬ 
ness. A fall much less will answer as well, if the 
sheet of water is eight or ten inches deep. If the 
water under the fall is not deep enough to remain 
clear while the sheep are in, a plank bottom should 
be provided to prevent any sand or earthy matter 
from getting into the wool, by stirring up the water. 
A clear rock-bottom is quite as good. When a fall 
cannot be had, a clear running stream should be 
found, and the dirt perfectly worked out with the 
hands from all parts of the fleece, after first soaking 
the sheep, as mentioned above. The sheep when 
washed, should be driven to a clear grassy field, 
free from bare spots of earth, avoiding dusty or 
muddy roads on the way after washing. 
The shearing should be done as soon after wash¬ 
ing as the wool is dry,—say in two or three dry 
days. When confined for shearing, the flock should 
be kept well littered, and the floors or stables, or 
whatever place they are sheared upon, should be 
kept thoroughly clean. The fleeces must be kept 
whole, and after they are taken off, they should be 
placed on a smooth clean floor, or table, with the 
outer side upwards, and carefully examined all over 
by patting with the hands in order to find every 
burr, which should be taken out without fail. The 
fleece should then be snugly rolled up, and bound 
together with a small twine. If farmers would not 
suffer a burr-bearing plant to live in their sight, it 
would be vastly better for them. A disregard of 
these little things, the whole cost of which is tri¬ 
fling, is the great hindrance to the sale of American 
wools in England and F ranee, and our farmers have 
generally no idea of the injury they suffer by the 
neglect of these matters ; or by the shameful, disho¬ 
nest practice of tying up their fleeces with ten, and 
even twenty feet of small rope, or with strips of 
bark, two or threee inches wide, instead of a small 
piece of twine. They also often wrap up coarse 
and unwashed wool within some of their finest 
fleeces, putting in dirt-balls, dirty sweepings of 
barn-floors, and rolling up their wool so wet that it 
often moulds. 
SOILING OR STALL-FEEDING COWS. 
The advantages attending the system of soiling 
or stall-feeding in the vicinity of cities and large 
towns, where land is dear, and can be turned to pro¬ 
fitable account in the cultivation of fruit and mar¬ 
ket vegetables, every year becomes more and 
more manifest, as will be seen by the following in¬ 
formation furnished us by Governeur Morris, the 
proprietor of an extensive farm at Morrisania, near 
this city. 
Mr. Morris is the owner of 145 cows, the milk 
of which is all sold and consumed in this city. 
They are fed in winter on hay, Indian meal, oil¬ 
cake, shorts or ship-stuff's, and occasionally with 
green vegetables or roots. They are allowed to 
range at liberty, in an old orchard, where they drink 
from a pond whatever they wish, from six o’clock 
in the morning until one o’clock in the afternoon. 
The rest of the day they are confined to their stalls, 
where they are fed. 
The operation of soiling usually commences in 
the early part of May, and continues until Novem¬ 
ber. The crops employed by Mr. Morris, for this 
purpose, are wheat, rye, purple-flowered lucerne, 
barley, clover, oats, and Indian corn. The latter he 
considers as the best, and the most economical as soon 
as the season will admit of its growth. The corn is 
planted at different periods in drills, eighteen inches 
apart, and is Cut in succession throughout the sea¬ 
son, as it is required for use. Next to Indian corn,, 
lucerne is considered best, as it is six weeks earlier, 
at least, in its growth, and a perennial that will last 
eight or ten years, and will admit of being cut five 
or six times in a season, with an aggregate growth 
of seven or eight feet. At the present time, May 
7th, it is about a foot in height, although the season 
is unusually backward. - * 
During the summer, Mr. Morris lets out his cows 
into his old shady orchard twice a day to be milk¬ 
ed, and suffers them to remain four hours at each 
time, where they are allowed to drink as often as 
they like. They are fed in their stalls three times 
a day, with green food, as soon as it is cut, and 
when clover is much used, they are fed once or 
twice a day with shorts or Indian meal. The ad¬ 
vantage of soiling over pasturing, Mr. Morris esti¬ 
mates at six to one. His cows all appear to be 
healthy and in good order, and yield an abundance of 
milk. 
TETHERING COWS. 
The great difficulty which most dairy-farmers 
meet with in keeping cows, probably, during the 
two months preceding the hay-harvest, is stated in 
an English journal, to have been overcome by a 
Mr Dumbrell, who, by tethering the cows, is ena¬ 
bled to make meadows of comparatively smaller 
dimensions than is customary, yield food in suffi¬ 
cient abundance for his dairy. 
The usual way of tethering is to allow a cow 
the range of a circle to the extent of the chain ; and 
when it has eaten down its food within its area, it 
is removed to another spot. Instead of doing this,, 
Mr. Dumbrell tethers his cows with a chain of 
twelve or fifteen feet; and when it has consumed 
the grass within its reach, the pin is removed on¬ 
ward a foot or a foot and a half; the cow then 
eats this quantity, and is again allowed another 
bite of the same extent. This plan prevents the 
animal from treading on the food which it con¬ 
sumes while quite fresh, and the chain assists in 
distributing the droppings The field is thus fed 
over evenly, and all is consumed and none trodden, 
upon. Mr. Dumbrell professes to realize good pro¬ 
fits from his system, and with a degree of liberality 
highly creditable to his character, reserves no in¬ 
formation from his visitors. 
The tethering of cattle, sheep, and horses, has 
long been practised in this county, to a limited ex¬ 
tent, and we know of no reason why it has not 
been more generally adopted in rich pasture-land, 
and in grass-fields after the hay is cut. Those 
who are disposed to make a trial, we would recom¬ 
mend to take a pair of trace chairs, say ten or 
twelve feet in length each, couple them by means 
of a double swivel, in order to prevent kinking, or 
winding up. Let an eye, or ring, be turned on one 
end of a 1| inch bar of round iron, with the other 
end sharpened, and sufficiently long, when driven 
