92 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
it a practice to take all the calves his neighbors 
would otherwise “ deacon,” put them on to 
nurse cows, and grow them to good veal condi¬ 
tion. He also keeps a few sheep. I was not 
quite correct in my account of the pasture; it 
contains 12 acres instead of 14. I judged of 
the stock it carried from what I had often 
counted in passing it. I asked him the other 
day what was a safe estimate of the average 
number pastured in this field throughout the 
whole season. He answered, a twenty head." I 
replied that this was equal to soiling. He evi¬ 
dently thought that it was better, but lie has 
never tried soiling. After going over the whole 
ground in detail, he gave me the following 
statement of his actual cash sales for the year 
1870. He bought some grain and hired some 
pasture—enough, on a fair calculation, to bal¬ 
ance the cost of keeping his teams at home, so 
that these sales are to be taken as covering the 
whole product of a little more than 26 acres of 
land. 
CASH SALES FOR 1870. 
Eggs.$144.20 
Turkeys. 90.00 
Chickens . 06.25 
Butter.100.00 
Cream. 235.20 
Milk. 795.95 
Potatoes. 687.25 
Tomatoes. 50.00 
Onions. 78.00 
Amount Brought.$2,318.85 
Carrots..$43.00 
Beets (Mangel). 150.00 
Turnips. 100.00 
Round Turnips. 43.00 
Calves. G65.00 
Pork. 234.00 
Lambs. 144.00 
Wool. 48.00 
Squashes. 12.00 
Ain’t Forwarded.$2,318.85 Total.$3,758.45 
A few of these items are estimated in round 
numbers, but the estimate is under, rather than 
over, the truth. 
The only remarkable thing about this show¬ 
ing is the number of cows kept on the place ; 
but any farmer of strong land knows that with 
high manuring this is possible. 
The total produce of the cows iu butter, 
cream, milk, and calves, amounted to $1,862.15, 
which, divided among twenty-five head, gives 
for each less than $75, and the skimmed milk 
that was turned into pork. 
The expense of carrying on the place I did 
not ask, nor is it especially important to my ar¬ 
gument.; for the schedule itself shows that the 
system of farming is such as to furnish steady 
work for the force employed, and to admit of 
economical management. The argument itself 
is, that it pays to make land so rich as to pro¬ 
duce the utmost that it is capable of, for it cer¬ 
tainly is much easier to manage 26 acres, pro¬ 
ducing $3,750, than to get the same income 
with the same investment for labor and manure 
from 260 acres; that is, to get a certain produce 
from one acre instead of from 10 acres; and it 
is my opinion that there are very few farms of 
260 acres in America that produce a cash return 
of $3,750. Every rod of the small farm is work¬ 
ed at a profit; on the larger one there would 
be many a poor acre that would lose money 
the better acres would have to make up, besides 
some land that would not return the amount of 
its interest and taxes. 
Tins illustration has an especial value, as 
showing the value of high farming ; the more 
so because it is high farming iu the “ good old 
way.” What are known as “ modern improve¬ 
ments” find no favor on the place. There is 
nothing done here that is not done on any good 
farm in New England ; but every thing is done 
with a will; and industry, perseverance, and 
thoroughness, characterize every part of the 
work. The cultivation is thorough and cleanly; 
the use of manure excessive; the feeding high ; 
the marketing skillful, and the economy in 
every department complete. 
A correspondent asks for more details as to 
the size ol my steamer, and its distance from 
the feed-chest. He says: “I have a No. 1 
(smallest size) Prindle steamer, situated about 50 
feet from the feed-chest. It does not give satis¬ 
faction.” My steamer is an upright tubular 
boiler, 7 feet high, 3 ! | 2 feet in diameter, with a 
very strong draught. It stands about 15 feet 
from the feed-chest, which holds over 400 cubic 
feet. The boiler is gauged to a pressure of 100 
lbs. to a square inch. J3y vigorous firing, we 
are able to keep the pressure at 70 lbs. while 
steaming, to the full capacity of a 1-inch pipe. 
But the evaporation is so rapid, that the full 
force of the feed-pump is required to keep up 
the water in the boiler. The steam consumed 
would be ample to supply a ten-horse engine. I 
find it, in all respects, perfectly satisfactory, 
being able to raise the temperature of my chest 
full of fodder to 300 degrees Fahrenheit in less 
than an hour, securing its perfect cooking in 
every part before the box is opened the next 
morning. From my experience with the Prin¬ 
dle steamer, I should say that a No. 1 machine, 
standing close to a feed-chest of 40 cubic feet 
capacity, would raise its temperature to about 
230 degrees in the same time, and that it would 
require, proportionately, a much larger amount' 
of fuel. Fifty feet distant, the result would be 
even less satisfactory. I doubt if there can be 
any economical steaming of hay at a low press¬ 
ure, for the reason that we must, in any case, 
depend upon the mass cooking itself after the 
steam is turned off, which makes it important 
to have the temperature as high as possible— 
and a high temperature can be obtained only 
with a higher pressure than the Prindle steamer 
can bear. Of course I use the word economi¬ 
cal in a relative sense. Hay can be efficiently 
steamed by packing it in a covered flour barrel, 
and inserting the nozzle of a tea-kettle into a 
hole at the bottom, but the process would be by 
no means an economical one. It necessarily 
costs a good deal of money to arrange for steam¬ 
ing, and the process requires care, labor, and 
intelligent supervision; so that, although a cer¬ 
tain percentage of forage will be saved, unless 
the arrangements are tolerably complete, the 
saving will cost more than it comes to. On the 
other hand, with a good boiler and a good en¬ 
gine or horse-power for cutting, the economy is 
decided and undoubted, and the results are in 
every way all that could be desired. 
What is the best way to store ice ? is a ques¬ 
tion yet to be decided. It is by no means cer¬ 
tain that the elaborate plans frequently set forth 
in agricultural papers are not the worst that 
could be devised. At all events, experience has 
shown that the most costly ice-houses are by no 
means the best. We have just filled a house, 
holding about forty tons of ice, that was built 
on a plan described in a paragraph that floated 
through the country papers last summer. Its 
theory is perfect drainage, perfect ventilation, 
and the free evaporation of all moisture that 
gets into the packing, whether from rain or 
from the melting of the ice-evaporation being 
a cooling process. The house is 13 feet square 
and 13 feet high, with upright joists, all around 
between the sill and the plate. Rough hem¬ 
lock boards, with open joints, are nailed on the 
inside of the joists. The doorway on the north 
side is 3 feet wide, reaching from sill to plate, 
and closed by pieces of board slipping m be¬ 
tween cleats. There is no floor, and the roof, 
which is made of rough pine boards, battened 
at the joints, is entirely open at both gables, so 
that the wind can blow freely through. In fill¬ 
ing, about. 2 feet of marsh hay was put upon 
the bottom of the house. On this a layer of ice 
was closely packed, reaching within 8 inches of 
the outer boarding, all around. This 8-inch 
space was filled with hay and trampled down. 
Then another layer of ice was closely fitted to- 
the first, and hay was packed around this, and' 
so on, layer after layer, until the house was 
filled to within 3 feet of the plate. All the 
chinks between the cakes were filled with 
pounded ice as each layer was put in. The last 
3 feet of filling was with salt hay, well trampled 
down. So we have a cube of ice about 11 feet 
square on the bottom and 9 feet high, sur¬ 
rounded on all six sides by a compact mass of 
salt hay, and inclosed in a wooden shell, from 
which the evaporation of moisture will be as 
complete as possible. We believe that this ice 
will keep well. Whether it does or not we will 
report next fall. If it does, there can be a good 
deal of money saved in the building of ice¬ 
houses. 
Farming, especially such farming as we carry 
on, is not a business in which it is possible to 
take an exact account of stock at the end of the 
year and determine the actual profits, particu¬ 
larly as the elements of appreciation and deteri¬ 
oration of both stock and soil can only be 
guessed at, but there are some items in which 
an approximate estimate can fairly be made. I 
can make such an estimate with reference to 
my Jersey cows. The cost of keeping has been, 
as nearly as I can estimate, something less than 
$50 for each full-grown cow. As I have both 
bought and sold cows during the year, I cannot 
determine the exact average yield of butter, but 
it has been not less than 200 lbs. for each cow of 
full age. This has been sold for an average 
price of 70 cents per pound. This brings the 
produce of each cow to $140—ninety dollars a 
year more than the cost of feeding. After mak¬ 
ing a due allowance for the cost of milking, 
churning, marketing, etc.—not far from $15 per 
cow—there is left a profit that I am willing to 
compare with those of any herd of native cattle 
with which I am acquainted. 
The high value of my animals (from $300 to 
$800 each) cannot be used as an argument 
against me, because it is more than compensated 
for by the value of their progeny. I could well 
afford to pay $1,000 for a really first-class Herd- 
book Jersey, four years old. With good luck I 
would sell from her, by the time she was four¬ 
teen years old (supposing half of her calves to 
be heifers), $2,000 worth of stock iu the first gen¬ 
eration. But this is not farming, and is not to 
be used as a very important argument for con¬ 
vincing ordinary farmers, who are not so situ¬ 
ated that they can make the sale of thorough¬ 
bred stock au important item. I think I may 
say, however, that any butter-making farmer 
can afford to pay fancy prices for his original 
stock—at least for a good cow and bull from, 
which to slock a herd for his own use. By 
changing bulls when necessary, he can, from one 
cow, build up in a few years a fine herd of cat¬ 
tle; for animals that breed when two years old, 
multiply with astonishing rapidity. 
I believe I have before mentioned in these 
papers a cow that 1 bought in February ’68 
(Fancy); she, and two of her daughters, born on 
the place, are to calve this spring; and I have 
one calf from her nearly a year old, and one 
from her oldest daughter, so that I shall have, 
with good luck, eight of the family by the 1st 
of May, all within a little more than three years 
from the time of receiving her. 
