1866 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
137 
the Remington Horse Hoe, it is not easy to see 
how close you can run to the hill without 
disturbing it. 
A gentleman called here to-day from Cortland 
County, inquiring for a firm. He had sold his 
and wanted another in the “ fruit region.” He 
had been to look at one in this neighborhood, 
but the buildings and fences were too much out 
of repair to suit him. It costs so much to build 
now that farmers appreciate, as never before, 
improvements of this kind. I have never known 
so many inquiries for farms as the present spring. 
I do not think land has advanced so very much, 
but it is certainly easier to sell flirms than before 
the war. This man sold his farm for ,$80 per 
acre. He had a dozen cows which he sold at 
auction, and they averaged $78 a head! 
Milch cows are higher than beef cattle—that 
is, a cow with a calf will sell for more than the 
same cow would if well fattened. They are 
fully 20 per cent, higher than at this time last 
year. Ho other branch of farming has paid so 
well during the last two years as dairying. In¬ 
stead of buying cows at these extreme rates, 
however, it will be better to feed those we have 
more liberally, and see if we cannot get as much 
butter from six cows as Ave ordinarily do from 
ten. If the six cows Avere fed Avith extra food 
costing less than half what Ave should have to 
pay for four iiCAV coavs, I feel sure that they 
Avould produce more butter than ten cows kept 
in the usual Avay.— I can see no reason Avhy it 
Avill not pay to feed coavs meal, even when they 
have good pasture. We may not get more milk, 
but if the coAV is a good one, it will certainly be 
richer. I am feeding my cows, and have been 
all Avinter, three quarts of corn and pea meal a 
day, and propose to continue it after they are 
turned to grass. 
I know there are those Avho think corn meal 
is too heating for milch cows—that it Avill dry 
them up, or that the cream Avill be ropy. If the 
cow has plenty of succulent grass, hoAvever, I 
do not see Avhy such should be the case. It is 
only adding the nutritious matter Avhich is ordi¬ 
narily deficient in poor grass. You say corn 
contains a large quantity of oil and starch, and 
but little nitrogen and mineral matter. This is 
true, but let me tell you a fact Avhich I cannot 
now stop to explain : Poor, rank grass contains 
more nitrogen and more mineral matter than 
rich sweet grass. I mean it contains a higher 
percentage. It does not really contain more, but 
having less of starch, oil, etc., the percentage of 
nitrogen and ash is higher. It does not contain 
too much nitrogen, but too little starch and oil. 
Corn meal Avill supply these. 
You don’t understand this? You can’t see 
why poor grass should contain more nitrogen 
then good grass? Perhaps not. Such, however, 
is the fact. The same is true of poor Avheat. It 
contains more gluten (nitrogen) than good Avheat 
—that is, a higher percentage. It is deficient in 
starch. If you should take two sheep, exactly 
the same Aveight, and kill one Avhile it Avas thin, 
you Avould find it contained a higher percentage 
of nitrogen and mineral matter (bones) than the 
other sheep kept till it Avas quite fat. Of course 
tliere Avould be just as much nitrogen and bones 
in the latter, but the percentage would be less— 
simply because there is much more fat. It is so 
of lean grass, and lean wheat. You have the 
bones and the skin, (the ash and the nitrogen), 
but you lack the fat. 
It would undoubtedly be better to make the 
grass fat than to fry to furnish the fat by giving 
the cows grain; but you cannot make rich, fat 
grass in a month, and unless you have the very 
best of meadoAvs, you had better feed a little 
grain till you can improve your grass land. 
The Doctor feeds his cows meal, shorts, etc., all 
summer, and gets large returns. I suppose he 
“ slops ” them; at least he makes the meal into 
“ pudding ” with hot water. This is undoubted¬ 
ly the better way, but merely steeping the meal 
in cold water for 24 hours is a great improve¬ 
ment over feeding it dry, or of wetting it just 
at the time. 
If it turns out, hoAvever, that corn meal is too 
heating, I will substitute crushed oats. But I 
have great faith in corn meal. Many object to 
feeding horses corn meal in summer on account 
of its “ heating ” properties, and yet at the West 
horses are fed almost exclusively on this grain, 
and the Third Avenue R. R. Horses in New 
York are fed more corn meal than hay—if I re¬ 
collect right, about 17 lbs. of corn meal and 
15 lbs. of ripe timothy hay, chaffed. After re¬ 
peated experiments, it is said this proves to be 
the best daily diet for a hard working horse. 
Such may be the case with cows; corn may be 
heating simply because it is very nutritious. 
It is said, you know, that the celebrated Oaks 
cow, the first year after she Avas purchased, 
gave on ordinary food 180 lbs. of butter in the 
season. The next year she had 12 bushels of 
corn meal and then gave 300 lbs. of butter. The 
next j^ear she Avas alloAved 35 bushels, and gave 
over 400 lbs. of butter! According to this, a 
bushel of corn meal gaAm 6 to 10 lbs. of butter. 
This, at present prices, will give a handsome 
profit, as butter is high and corn meal very Ioav. 
According to the last Census, the yield of but¬ 
ter per COAV in the Middle States was only 87 
lbs. a year, and in the New England States 75 
lbs., and in the Western States only 58 lbs.! 
Loav as are these figures, the returns in 1850 
Avere lower still, slioAving an improvement. 
During the last tAVO or three years the high 
prices of butter and cheese have unquestionably 
stimulated production. We are feeding higher 
than ever before, and I never knew so much 
butter produced as during last firll and early 
Avinter. Tn my OAvn case, we made three times 
as much butter after October as during the same 
period the year before. 
It is a little risky buying coavs at present 
prices. I am aware that a good coav is worth 
$100 at the present price of butter and cheese, 
and it Avould pay to purchase frcalY, provided 
the same coav be Avorth $100 next spring. If, 
however, Ave should lose $25 or $50 on the coav, 
it Avill take out a large slice from the profits. In 
this, as in many other operations, avc get a big 
interest, but lose half our capital. Our safest 
policy is, to feed the cows we have liberally 
rather than to buy more. 
“But supposing you have more grass than 
your COAVS will consume?” Reserve a portion 
of it for hay. Probably cows will be cheaper 
next fall and you will be then in a condition to 
purchase to advantage. If you cannot inoAV your 
meadows, keep more sheep. If I mistake not, 
sheep Avill be bought reasonably after next shear¬ 
ing. The “gas-tar” Merino fever is abating. 
The rage is noAV for dairy cows. But do not be 
carried away with it. Wc live in uncertain 
times. Prices are inflated; they wilt subside till 
they find their level and probably go beloAV it. 
Think of it. In the fivll of 1861, in the dairy 
districts of this State, old cows were bought by 
the hundred at from $8 to $15 a head, and 
slaughtered for heef! It was at this very time 
that I urged farmers in the wheat districts to 
buy cows and pay more attention to the dairy. 
We need more stock to make manure, and I 
thought, and still think, Ave can make more 
money from dairy coavs than from sheep. But, 
as I said before, just for the time being it may 
pay better to buy sheep than to buy coavs. 
For one, I shaft be very thankful Avhen things 
find their natural level, and we liaAm done with 
these violent fluctuations. A farmer now-a- 
days has to study financial questions as much as 
a stock jobber—in fact more, as he must look 
farther ahead. I am tired of it, and long for a 
settled condition of affairs. Then I Avill keep a 
good dairy of cows. I believe, on most farms, 
we can raise as much grain (not as many acres) 
as we now do and keep ten head of cows on the 
hundred acres. We shall also raise our OAvn 
cows and keep a few mutton sheep and some 
nice “porker” pigs into the bargain. 
I have learned one thing the past winter. It 
is not a difficult matter to fatten cattle if you 
have plenty of hay and grain. But without hay 
or roots, no matter hoAV much straw and corn 
stalks you have, a liberal alloAvance of grain will 
not, to state it mildly, fat an ill-bred ox rapidly. 
In this section hay, in proportion to nutriment, 
is an expensive food. Corn is usually much the 
cheaper article. I do not mean cheaper to raise, 
for such is not the case, but cheaper at the price 
at Avhich the tAvo articles are usually sold. In 
other AA’ords, AAm can sell our hay for more than 
it is Avorth—or rather Ave can use cheaper food. 
But doing so, however, we should soon im¬ 
poverish our fiirms. 
If we had plenty of turnips, rutabagas, or 
mangold wurzel, we could turn out lots of good 
cattle Avithout hay, and I am satisfied Ave must 
raise more roots before avc can fat cattle in win¬ 
ter to the best advantage. Strap-leaf, or some 
other late sown and easily raised variety for use 
till Christmas; then rutabagas; and in spring 
mangolds or beets. But we need good cellars 
and convenient arrangements for gathering, 
storing and feeding them. They are a heavy 
crop in proportion to nutriment, and unless the 
arrangements for handling them are convenient, 
the labor will soon eat up their value. 
I am inclined to think that beets, mangold 
wurzel and cabbage, are the best “roots” for us 
to raise in this climate. I raised tAvo thousand 
head or more of cabbage last year, and propose 
to raise more this. Thej^ are admirable for 
milch cows in the fall and in the spring. They 
are about as nutritious as rutabagas, but do not 
taint the milk, and jmu can grow, proAuded the 
land is rich enough, a far greater Aveight per acre. 
Four or five ounces of seed, sown early in a 
bed of tAVO or three square rods, aauII give plants 
enough for an acre. They need not be set out till 
all other planting is over. Bet the ground be 
made rich with well rotted manure, and Avhen the 
plants are set out, put a teaspoonful or so of 
superphosphate or plaster in or about the hole 
to give the plants a good start. Nothing so 
good as superphosphate for cabbage, especially 
in the seed bed. All the cultivation that is re¬ 
quired after the plants are set out is a free use 
of the horse hoe. This is the main point. You 
cannot cultivate them too frequentlj''. A horse 
hoe Avill stir the ground deeper and more thor¬ 
oughly than it can be done by hand, and con¬ 
sequently cabbage can be groAvn as a field crop 
far cheaper than in a garden. Fresh soil is best, 
as there is less danger from insects, club-foot, 
etc. It is said that a rather heavy loam is de¬ 
sirable ; but I am going to try them on some re¬ 
cently drained mucky land, and expect a good 
crop, as the soil is certainly rich. A good dres¬ 
sing of wood ashes would help. It is said to be 
the best preventative for club-foot. 
