THE CULTIVATOR. 
Product of Good Cows. 
Messrs. Editors —I have kept two cows the past 
year, of the common or native breed—one ten years 
old, and the other three years old last April. The 
heifer dropped her calf the first day of April last, and 
the old co>v the 12th day of the same month. The 
cows are of medium size. Their food has been pas¬ 
ture in the summer only. In the fall the refuse of the 
garden, with some apples and pumpkins, and this feed 
is given them once a day during winter, while they are 
milked ; while they go dry, nothing but hay or corn¬ 
stalks is given. About the time they are coming in, 
carrots from half a bushel to three pecks a day are 
added to their hay for each cow, until they are turned 
to pasture. Without thinking them very extraordina¬ 
ry cows, we have kept a correct aceount of all the but¬ 
ter after it was salted and worked ; and I find by foot¬ 
ing up the aceount, it is 526 lbs. 10 oz. 
I made a trial of each cow the first seven days in 
June ; the old cow made 14 lbs. and the heifer 12 lbs. 
5 oz. We have a constant family of six persons. 
I have raised two good calves, and with the aid of 
15 bushels of corn, have fattened two pigs, which were 
killed at 9 months and 20 days old, weighing each 289 
and 297 lbs. 
My advice to farmers is to feed their apples, in pref¬ 
erence to making defer to sell or to drink—to pigs or 
fat cattle all they will eat, and to mileh cows half a 
bushel per day. Yours. A. S. Moss. Fredonia, Jan¬ 
uary 3, 1854. —— 
Winter Food for Milch Cows. 
Messrs. Editors —We are engaged in this vicini¬ 
ty mostly in making milk for the New-York market. 
Anything on the best method of doing this will always 
make us glad to see the Cultivator, and we should be 
glad to have you give us the best plan for feeding milch 
cows in fall and winter. W. B. Richards. 
As a general rule, all succulent food, or such as con¬ 
tains large quantities of water, is best for the produc¬ 
tion of large quantities of milk in winter. Most field- 
roots contain about seven-eighths to nine-tenths wa¬ 
ter; and these are therfore milk-producers. Bran, 
largely mixed with water, operates in a similar man¬ 
ner. Still-fed cows are often learned to drink enor¬ 
mous quantities of “ slop,” and to yield large milkings 
of a poor, washy unhealthy product. Carrots and corn¬ 
stalks (the latter being usually quite a juicy food, when 
the stalks themselves are consumed as when small grown 
by being thickly sown,) increase the quantity, but still 
more the richness of winter milk. 
For the particular purpose of winter marketing, we 
hope some who have had experience will give us more 
particular and accurate details, as but little has been 
ever given to the public on this subject. 
Shelter for Sheep. —The Michigan Farmer says 
that Lewis Cone, (well known as one of the best far¬ 
mers of Michigan,) out of a flock of about one hundred 
and seventy sheep, has lost only one in four years. 
The secret consists in general good management, and 
especially in keeping his sheep in close quarters during 
winter, having the stable well littered and always 
dry. 
Culture of Indian Corn. 
L. Tucker —With your permission I propose to give 
the readers of the Country Gentleman some facts in rela¬ 
tion to the culture of Indian com, as developed in the cul¬ 
tivation of a field of five acres, by myself the present 
The land was a clayey alluvion, subject to overflow 
yearly at the time of spring freshets, and had been 
cropped with grass for a long series of years without in¬ 
terruption, until the previous season, when a part was 
planted to potatoes, part to eom, part to oats, part to 
buckwheat, and one-third remained in grass. Of the 
sward part, about one-half was plowed in the fall and 
the remainder'in the spring; it was all evenly manured 
at the rate of thirty two-horse loads of stable manure 
per acre, and plowed about the 15th of May. The 
ground was all very mellow, and was hoed twice, after 
passing through it with the cultivator. The crop was 
cut up at the root as soon as sufficiently gTazed, and 
housed in October. The season was characterized by 
one of the most severe drouths known for many years, 
and yet, owing to the character of the soil, the corn 
leaves never once rolled ; but the accompanying swarms 
of grasshoppers seemed intent on destroying every green 
thing; like Milton’s sunshine, were on “ herb, tree, 
fruit and flower,” and destroyed equal to one and a 
half acres of this crop. 
Three hundred and fifty bushels of ears were husked 
from the lot, not a large crop by any means, but per¬ 
haps it is as well to have reports of average crops as of 
those uncommon and extraordinary large crops, which, 
“like angel’s visits, are few and far between.” 
The corn on that part planted to potatoes the previ¬ 
ous season, was the best, strongest and most luxuriant 
injppearance, at all stages of its growth. That on the 
sward plowed in the spring, ranked next, and although 
of smaller growth was nearly as heavily eared. That 
part following the com of the previous season was next 
in quantity per acre, but falling considerably short of 
the two plats already mentioned, and nearly equalled 
by the piece sowed to oats the previous year. That 
on the ground plowed in the fall was next in order, 
badly eaten by worms, and in no respect to be com¬ 
pared with that on the sward plowed in the spring. 
Lastly, that on the buckwheat ground, which was so 
situated that the crops of the previous year along side 
it were, on one side grass, on one side potatoes, and the 
third side corn, yet from the time the corn came up 
on this plat to the time of harvest, it was of a pale, 
sickly yellow color, and very small size, while on the 
three sides aforesaid, the corn was dark green, rank and 
luxuriant. The yield from this plat was twenty bushels 
of nubbins per acre. Whence I contend that of all 
common crops , buckwheat is the worst to precede 
corn, although in this case it left the ground in the 
best tilth of*any part of the field. It has been sup¬ 
posed that this crop drew a large portion of its nourish¬ 
ment from the atmosphere, and consequently was not 
nn exhausting crop. From several experiments, I am 
induced to place it among our most exhausting, or most 
