132 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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tering to keep frost out of a cellar ? 4. Is not 
the white or light color of Jerseys and other 
cattle caused by long-continued delicate keep¬ 
ing and sheltering? 5. Why do you keep a 
farm? To enable you to run your printing 
business? How much have you made by till¬ 
ing the earth ? One of my late neighbors left 
property valued at $75,000, accumulated by 
farming and perhaps by the enhanced value of 
real estate. He would have nothing to do with 
than that of Lombardy, where the cattle are 
uniformly without white. On the other hand, 
the wild Chillingham cattle of England (now 
domesticated) are white, and so are Polar bears. 
5. Perhaps for the fun of the thing; perhaps 
to have something to write about; perhaps 
with a view to money making—and probably 
with an eye to all three. The farm has no con¬ 
nection with the paper, except as a subject. 
The amount of our income from farming has 
llg. 1. —DONNELLY’S ATTACHMENT TO PLOWS. 
agricultural societies or papers. 6. For twenty 
years I have never lost a cow or calf by sick¬ 
ness and death, or had a single hour’s sickness 
among them. Two years ago I followed your 
advice, and milked my best cow up to the time 
of calving. She became so reduced that she 
could not hold her supremacy, and lost her 
calf. I think a cow will give as much milk in 
a year or in a lifetime with two months or more 
rest as with less. 7. I think I could so take 
care of any herd as to prevent abortion or any 
other kind of sickness. If the system becomes 
reduced the animal is sure to suffer from 
disease. We should keep our animals 
“ happy.” 
To which I reply s 1. We have suspended the 
cooking of food only because we had no corn 
fodder to speak of (we did steam so long a3 
that lasted), and because our early cut hay is so 
good steaming would probably not help it 
much. 2. It will suffice probably to clapboard 
the outside of the barn (without paper) and to 
board up on the inside with matched boards 
(without filling with sawdust) unless the stable 
is very large for the stock kept. Bank around 
the base-board and foundation with leaves, or 
else plaster so well about and over the under 
pinning that no wind can blow in. It is very 
desirable to make the stable warm and to allow 
sufficient ventilation without having anything 
of the nature of draughts in the air of the 
stable. Any builder in your neighborhood can 
tell you what it will cost. 8. Plastering might 
cost a little more than paper, but it would be 
much better, and you can better stop the leaks 
about the sill timbers. 4. It is hard to say what 
is the origin of the white in cattle, but there 
seems no reason for attributing it to delicate 
keep. Jerseys are not delicately kept at home. 
They are tethered out nearly all winter, and 
endure much rain and raw wind. The climate 
is much softer than with us, but much colder 
not been publicly stated. Your neighbor’s 
case may be a good example of the value of 
neglecting the usual means for acquiring 
knowledge of one’s business—or it may not. 
How much of his property was due to “ the 
enhanced value of real estate,” and how much 
to interest on money that would have been 
better invested in giving himself and his family 
a better education and a better life, would have 
much to do with the matter. 6. You have 
been careful, skillful, and lucky, and are to be 
congratulated. Few farmers have had such 
success, and those who have are more often 
they who have seven cows than they who have 
more. I do not now remember what I wrote 
two years ago about milking up to the time of 
calving, except that I favored it; but my sub¬ 
sequent experience has led me to think that it 
is best to allow cows to go dry one month when 
possible (with Jerseys it is not always possible). 
But I think this ample, and the harder work it 
is to dry tuem oft the better I like them. 7. I 
think you would find yourself mistaken. Abor¬ 
tion {as an epidemic) is not preventible by any 
means now known. It comes like a thief in 
the night, and attacks 
old and young, strong 
and weak alike, and 
without the least appa¬ 
rent cause. Fortunately, 
it goes as mysterious¬ 
ly as it came, and it has 
gone from Ogden Farm. 
You hit the nail on the 
very head when you say 
that cows should be kept “ happy.” 
a secret of success it lies in that 
attachment which may be fitted to any plow 
whatever, by the use of which a great improve¬ 
ment may be made in plowing either sod or 
stubble land. The attachment, with its method 
of working, is shown in the accompanying en¬ 
gravings. It consists of a blade of steel similar 
to a round-pointed shovel attached by means of 
a shank to a jointed and curved arm. The arm 
is bolted to the plow by the bolts which fasten 
the mold-board to the handle. The attach¬ 
ment is shown in detail at the right 
hand upper corner of figure 1. Beneath, 
it is shown in operation. Being at¬ 
tached to the right hand plow handle, 
it is set into the proper position for 
work by means of the thumb-screw and 
nut, shown at a and b. When so set, 
and the plow is put in motion, the at¬ 
tachment acts as a sort of scraper, which 
scoops out of the newly-turned furrow 
slice, a groove, the earth from which is 
scattered upon the sole of the furrow. 
This is shown at c in figure 2, where 
the earth removed from the furrow 
slice, leaving a groove at the right of 
the letter c, is seen scattered at the left 
in the furrow. The effect of this is 
to make a mellow bed of earth, upon 
which the inverted sod or earth falls, 
leaving no vacant spaces into which 
seed may fall and be lost, and causing 
the sod, by close contact with this loose 
soil, to rot perfectly and not throw up 
a new growth of grass in each furrow, 
as it often does with our ordinary 
plowing. The surface of the plowed 
soil is therefore left in furrows and 
ridges, closely packed with mellow earth in the 
bottom of each furrow. 
The advantages of using this improvement 
are many. In planting potatoes the seed may 
be dropped in the furrow immediately after the 
plow, upon the mellow soil left by the scraper. 
The next furrow falls upon the seed, the sod 
and earth covering it. If the ground is manured 
the manure falls upon the seed in the best pos¬ 
sible position. After the field is plowed and 
planted a stroke with the back of a harrow, 
given after a few days, levels the surface, kill¬ 
ing the weeds which may have germinated, and 
covering the seed to a depth of about three 
inches. If oats are to be sown upon a manured 
stubble, the seed, as the soil is inverted, 
falls uoon the mellowed earth in the furrow 
and remains covered with the manure. If fall 
wheat is to be plowed in the same thing occurs, 
but the surface is left in a succession of ridges 
which offer the greatest protection to the plants 
against winter-killing and heaving out by the 
frost. In both these cases a great saving of 
labor is made, because one plowing finishes the 
whole work and no harrowing is needed. 
Fig. 2.— MANNER OF OPERATION OF PLOW ATTACHMENT. 
If there is 
An Improvement in Plows. 
We have recently had an opportunity ot 
testing an improvement in plows, or rather an 
Fodder corn may be planted in the same man¬ 
ner as potatoes by dropping the seed in the 
furrow. Many other advantages will be ob¬ 
vious to the plowman who realizes the neces¬ 
sity of having the seed and soil come together 
in the best possible manner. The implement is 
known as “ Donnelly’s attachment ” to the plow. 
