$woes. 
THIRD 
VOL. VI. 
VhN. VFiMk'ES. H. f. 
€n SnijirnDE tjit #nil nnit tljt BM. 
ALBANY, MARCH, 1858. 
SERIES 
No. III. 
Published by Luther Tucker & Son, 
EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. 
Associate Ed., J. J. THOMAS, Union Springs, N. Y. 
PRICE PIETY CENTS A YEAR. 
The Cultivator has been published twenty-four years. 
A New Series was commenced in 1853, and the five vo¬ 
lumes for 185 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, can he furnished, bound and post¬ 
paid, at $1.00 each. 
The same publishers issue “The Country G-enti.eman,’ 
a weekly Agricultural Journal of 16 quarto pages, making 
two vols. yearly of 416 pages, at $2.00 a year. The} 7 also 
publish 
The Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs 
—144 pp. 12 mo. — price 25 cents — $2.00 per dozen. This 
work was commenced in 1855, and the nos. for 1855, ’56 
and ’57, have been issued in a beautiful volume, under the 
title of “ Rural Affairs,”— containing 440 engravings of 
Houses, Barns, Out-Houses, Animals, Implements, Fruits 
&c.—price $1.00—sent by mail post-paid. 
Feeding with. Oil-Calte. 
A subscriber (C. R) having lately inquired for par¬ 
ticular directions in feeding with oil-cake, its cost and 
advantages, our correspondent, John Johnston, who, 
as all our readers know, is a close observer, and has 
had extensive experience, has kindly furnished us the 
following answer:—■ 
I prefer oil-cake meal to corn meal for fattening 
either cattle or sheep, although if I have com of my 
own raising, which I always have, I feed -it. But I 
always feed oil meal once a day, and generally the last 
month of feeding, I feed oil meal only, and generally 
leave over corn for next fall feeding, as new com meal 
wont keep for many days, and when it sours it purges 
the cattle, and then they wont eat for some days; but 
they never get sick with eating oil meal, and for all I 
have fed, or rather fatted, a great many cattle, I have 
never had one die, as all I have fatted have had at 
least half oil meal. 
I began feeding oil meal at $7 per ton, and followed 
it up until I paid $28.33 last year, and this season $27. 
These prices are too high, unless we can get nearly or 
quite $8 per 100 lbs., live weight, for sheep and cattle. 
When I kept a regular flock of store sheep, I always 
fed each sheep during winter and spring, 1£ bushel of 
oil meal. Then I was paying only $10 per ton. So 
late as 1846, I had never paid over that amount, and 
for five years afterwards from $12 to $14 per ton. It 
paid admirably, fed to store sheep, as 1J bushels at $10 
a ton, cost only 38 cents. That, with straw, will win¬ 
ter a sheep much better than any hay (first-rate clover 
hay excepted.) 
The extravagant prices they pay in England, hurt 
us American farmers; else every ton of oil-cake in 
this country ought to be fed in it. I consider there is 
nothing I feed makes as rich manure, and all I want is 
manure. If I have plenty of that, I can have every¬ 
thing I want, money and all; hut it requires the ma¬ 
nure to make money now-a-days, and cattle and sheep 
manure is the only kind that will pay here. I have 
done with the manures of commerce. 
I raise my calves on oil meal, and do it very cheaply. 
Oil meal and skimmed milk, sour milk or butter-milk, 
make fine calves and always healthy. The first winter 
I feed them oil meal enough to keep them growing; 
the second winter give them two quarts per day, and 
by April or May have sold my two-year-olds for beef 
at from $50 to $60 each. I have fed them generally 
about $11 worth of oil meal each in that way. 
It also pays well to fat lambs in winter. I have 
made Merino lambs bring me $5 each before they were 
a year old, by feeding them 70 cents worth of oil meal 
during winter. It don’t take the half to fat lambs it 
does old sheep. I have fed oil meal many years, and 
as long as I do feed, I will continue to do so. I think 
we will get it much lower another year, as I notice 
flax seed has fallen very much. If beef and mutton 
get low, it wont do to pay a high price for oil meal. 
Last spring New-York oil-cake brought £15 sterling 
per ton in England. Now it is from .£10 to £10, 15s., 
and falling; I notice it is much lower in New-York. 
There is 40 bushels of 50 lbs. each in a nett ton of 
oil meal, but 50 lbs. of oil meal is much better to me 
than 60 lbs. corn meal; yet they do well mixed. When 
I feed corn to sheep, I give that one part of the day 
and oil meal the other. When I have fed all corn to 
sheep, I have often'lost some by a rush of blood to the 
head; their necks and heads would be gorged with 
blood, when all behind the neck would be very white, 
more so than any slaughtered sheep—but I never lose 
any in that way when I feed oil meal. 
I sold cattle last year 22 months old, weighing 1,125 
lbs. gross, and I have some this year that I think will 
go about the same when they are the same age. There 
is only a little Durham blood in them. 
It should be urged on the farmers to buy and feed 
oil-cake in preference to buying the manures of com¬ 
merce. It Will be a great deal more to their profit. If 
I was as able to go around the country as I was ten 
years ago, 1 would fat far more stock in winter than 
ever I did. There can be no profitable farming with¬ 
out good rich manure, but my farming days are nearly 
over; but if young men would only do as I have done, 
they would reap the benefit of it by and by. 
