339 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1870.] 
make a good growth before the end’ of the sea¬ 
son). If the corn does asw T ell as it should, with 
such liberal manuring, it will supply all that 10 
cows will consume until frost, and a good deal 
beside to be cured for winter use. Late in the 
autumn the turnip tops and mangel leaves tvill 
serve for a month. 
Of course, all the grass, oats, and corn, not 
needed for summer soiling, must be saved for 
winter use; and they, with the roots, should be 
ample for six months’ supply of the stock. 
The next season the programme will be varied 
by the introduction of five acres of good clover 
from the oat field. The rapidity with which 
the amount of stock may be increased, and the 
time when the final arrangement may be reach¬ 
ed, will depend on the quality of the land, and 
the care that is given to the manure. When 
reached, the final arrangement will be as fol¬ 
lows. The 20 acres will be divided into four 
sections of five acres each, producing alternate¬ 
ly, oats sown with clover seed, clover to be cut 
three times, corn fodder, and root crops. Rye 
for early feeding may occupy one-half of the 
corn land, and will be out of the way in time 
for the last two plantings. There will be 
enough after the summer soiling to furnish, 
with the roots, abundant fodder for a long win¬ 
ter, if there are not, indeed, a thousand or two 
thousand bushels of roots for market. 
This is a sort of farming on paper, that will 
necessarily be subject to modifications, accord¬ 
ing to local circumstances and habits, but the 
principle which underlies it; viz., that excessive 
crops are produced by heavy manuring, and 
not by wide areas,—is a perfectly sound one; 
and no one who follows the indications herein 
laid down, will be disappointed by the result. 
Tim Bunker on Old Corn. 
“Any Corn to sell ?” asked Jake Frink of Dea. 
Smith one hot July morning—hot enough to 
scorch cucumbers from the vine. 
“ Perfect ruin to sell old corn at this time of 
year,” answered the Deacon. “If I had a thou¬ 
sand bushels I shouldn’t sell till next winter.— 
It’s bad to sell grain of any kind off of a farm, 
but old corn is ruin.” 
“ I’ve lieerd ’em call the corn ruin 'when they 
worked it intoliklcer, but I never knowed as the 
grain was ruin,” said Jake meditating. 
“Ruin to the man that sells it,” said the Dea¬ 
con with great emphasis. “You see, neighbor 
Frink, you sold new corn last fall, about as soon 
as it was off the cob, at a low price, and you 
now have to buy old at a high price compara¬ 
tively. That is bad. You fatted your hogs and 
beef, and poultry, on new corn, and they were 
not more than half-fatted, and you had to sell 
them a cent a pound under the market. And 
that was worse still. You have been doing this 
straight along ever since you have been farming; 
making poor meats, and selling them under the 
market—making poor grain crops, and selling 
them, when you ought to have bought. You 
see, neighbor Frink, there is considerable phi¬ 
losophy about farming, although it seems to be 
so plain 1 that a wayfaring man, though a fool, 
couldn’t err therein.’ Old corn is better than 
new to make any kind of meat of. I’ve tried it 
40 year, and know. It is solid, and somehow, 
it seems to stick by the ribs better than anything 
else. Green stuff and roots will keep hogs 
thriving, but when you come to laying on fat, 
there’s nothing like old corn.” 
“ It’s revarsin’ the Scripter order, Deacon, 
‘ new wine in new bottles,’ ” said Jake. 
“ Not at all,” the Deacon continued, “ I put 
the old corn into old hogs, and that is Scripture 
and common sense too. Ye see I don’t kill pigs. 
That’s on the new corn plan exactly. If there 
is profit in keeping a pig nine months, gaining 
a pound a day—while he is making his frame, I 
think there must be still more profit in keeping 
him the second nine months, when his frame is 
already made, and you have nothing to do but 
to lay the flesh and fat right on to it. The bone 
and offal are dead loss to producer and consum¬ 
er, and that is nearly all made in the first nine 
months. I think I get more flesh for my feed, 
the second nine months, than the first, a good 
deal. Then there is some satisfaction in turn¬ 
ing out from your pens a hog weighing 600 lbs. 
instead of 250. With a dozen such animals in 
your pen every fall, you have something to sell 
and keep Thanksgiving on.” 
“Jess so,” said Jake, scratching his head as if 
some new ideas were working, “ I never had 
that kind o’ feelin, but I should think it would 
be orful good. Ye see I never had a hog that 
would weigh over 350, and two year old at that. 
I am allers afeerd of gittin out of-corn so that I 
darsent feed high.” 
“And that is one of the strong pints in the 
philosophy of old corn,” said the Deacon.— 
“You see, if you keep the old on hand, you al¬ 
ways know you have got the new crop to fall 
back on, and you don’t think of stinting till the 
old crop has gone—and that never comes with 
me. There isn’t any profit in short feed any wmy. 
It takes just about so much to sustain animal 
life, and keep the machine running. If you only 
feed up to that.pint you get nothing back but 
the manure. All that you feed over that, goes 
to milk, flesh, or fat, which has a market value, 
and can be turned into mone}’.” 
“I see that plain as a pike-staff,” said Jake, 
“I guess I have been runnin’ the machines most 
of my days. I haint sold much, that’s clear.” 
I guess the Deacon’s philosophy of old corn 
is pretty sound. He practises on it, and nobody 
has any better pork than Deacon Smith, or gets 
any higher price. I’ve known him to get 15 cts. 
when Jake Frink got only 13. The wimmen 
folks on Hookertown street, say that his pork al- 
ways swells in the pot, "whether it’s killed in the 
old or new of the moon. There aint more than 
half of ’em believe the moon has any thing to 
do with pork. Several other old wives’ fables 
have failed since I was a boy. 
Hookertown, Conn., | Tours to command, 
July 15,1870 j Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Steaming Fodder for Cattle. 
The question “ does it pay?”—asked with 
reference to steaming fodder for cows, is one 
which is pressed upon agricultural editors with 
more and more force every year. When a not¬ 
able increase in the price of hay occurs, it is 
all the more important to farmers to economize 
in every possible way. A few facts will guide 
our readers to a decision relative to their partic¬ 
ular cases : 1st. Cooked food goes farther than 
that which is not cooked. It will be within 
bounds to say that it will go a quarter farther. 
If 100 pounds of diy hay will produce six gal¬ 
lons of milk, it will produce seven and a half if 
cooked. 2d. The extra labor required to cook 
the food properly, often costs more than the 
gain in the quality of the food is worth. 3d. 
The manure is worth less, in proportion to the 
amount of food consumed, because the food is 
more thoroughly digested, and less is wasted.— 
4th. Cooking always pays, provided it is well 
done, on a sufficiently large scale, and with eco¬ 
nomical apparatus. 5th. The best application 
of heat is usually by means of steam generated 
close at hand. 6th. Steam may be generated 
economically at a distance, and the cooking be 
done at the barn, provided the steam is either 
used for some other purpose near where the 
boiler stands, or a very large quantity is em¬ 
ployed for steaming feed. 7th. Danger from 
fire is a serious consideration. Actual fires, or 
narrow escapes, have occurred on most farms 
where cooking by steam has been introduced. 
Care in putting up the apparatus, and vigilance 
in its use arc the only security against fire. 
Catching Rats. —In order to trap rats suc¬ 
cessfully, they must not have their suspicions 
aroused. If unmolested for a while, they be¬ 
come vety much at home, and may then be 
caught with ease. Mr. Willis P. Slorrs, Paines- 
ville, O., catches rats as follows: He uses a bar¬ 
rel upon which arc two boards large enough to 
cover it. One board is nailed fast, and the other 
one is hinged to it so as to form a movable half¬ 
cover. A string is attached to the movable part 
of the cover, and reaches to an adjoining apart¬ 
ment or place of concealment. The barrel is 
nearty filled with old wheat screenings, and set 
where the rats will readily run to it to feed ; the 
half of the cover being open, and all other food 
kept out of their reach. The rats will soon be¬ 
come unsuspecting, and when a goodly number 
have gathered within the barrel, the cover is 
closed upon them by pulling the string. 
Lawn Mowers at Homo and Abroad. 
Well kept, closely shaven Lawns are the pride 
of English gardeners; and in order that the green 
carpets may be kept in the best order, various 
machines have been invented, each claiming to 
be better than all others, and enforcing this 
claim by a long list of lords and nobles upon 
whose places it was in use. The strife between 
these rival English Lawn Mowers was lively and 
amusing, but the makers have now something 
else to do; a little American machine has ap¬ 
peared upon the English lawn, and English gar¬ 
deners and machine makers are in a state of 
commotion. The English horticultural journals 
are amusing reading now-a-days, on account of 
the battle of the Law r n Motvers. The “ Archi¬ 
medean,” as the American machine is called, 
has clipped its way into favor, and so high an 
authority as the Gardener’s Chronicle con¬ 
cedes its superiority. There are a number of 
American Lawn Mowers, essentially alike in 
principle, but differing in mechanical details.—* 
They all have a two-edged, spiral knife, which 
revolves rapidly against a straight-edged, station¬ 
ary one. Hill’s Mower was the first made on 
this plan, and is essentially the one now known 
abroad as the Archimedean; not only is the cut¬ 
ting portion of the American machines more 
simple than that of the English ones, but the 
gathering of the grass is dispensed with. The 
taking-up apparatus adds to the weight and ex¬ 
pense of the machine, and much time is con¬ 
sumed in emptying the gathering-box. This 
scattering of the clippings upon the lawn is the 
troublesome point with some of the English 
writers, and much fine writing has been expend¬ 
ed in showing that it will never do. The Gar¬ 
dener’s Chronicle, in summing up the points in 
favor of the American machine, concludes thus: 
“It will cut grass wdiere our ordinary mowers 
would be of no service. To the scattering of 
the grass instead of gathering it up, there is de¬ 
cidedly some objection ; but where, as it is rec- 
