308 THE CULTIVATOR. Oct 
THE FABMEE’S NOTE BOOK. 
Experiments in Farming. —I have been engaged 
eight years farming on the farm* I now occupy, and in 
consequence of the feeble state of my wife’s health am 
compelled to abandon the business. I thought a few 
brief remarks upon my experience would perhaps be 
acceptable to you and the readers of the Cultivator. 
I have been an attentive reader of its columns for the 
last ten years, and a close observer of such things as 
would profit me in my business. I can assure any per¬ 
son who wishes to make farming profitable, that he 
will find the Cultivator to be a publication that he 
should by all means have as a book of reference. He 
can have it bound, or if he pleases stitch it in paste¬ 
board, as I have done, and he will not only find it 
pleasant but profitable to read the different opinions 
upon any one point, and then apply common sense, and 
he will most invariably come to the right conclusion. 
I have a farm so situated in point of location, conveni¬ 
ence and soil, as to make it just the desideratum for 
what is termed mixed husbandry, and this I find the 
most profitable way of farming. 
I believe the way to use manure the most profitably 
is to spread it broadcast from the cart in a rotten state, 
and harrow it in, in the fall of the year. Sow timothy 
seed after the last harrowing, and clover seed on the 
same ground about the first of March following. The 
manure, if it is but lightly dressed, insures not only 
the grain but also the grass seed, and by well covering 
the ground, gives noxious weeds no chance to spring 
up. As my barnyard is near a tannery, where I can 
have any quantity of spent bark for the drawing, (and 
three men will draw fifty loads a day,) I have for the 
last three years drawn from fifty to eighty loads, and 
Dedded my yards from four to eight inches thick, directly 
after drawing out the manure in the fall. I am then 
sure to have some straw to throw over ; on this I yard 
my cows and winter my stock. The surface of the 
yard descends to one corner, where I haVe a concave 
that will hold a number of hogsheads, and here I put 
the bark the thickest ; here also stands my hog-pen, 
the manure of which is shoved intd the concave. After 
I pen my hogs to fatten in the fall, I wheel about a 
barrow load of spent bark to each hog every week, as 
dry as I can get it from the heap that I have laying 
near by, and throw it in the pen. The hogs work this 
out nearly sufficient, and at the same time mix it with 
the manure. The tan bark in both cases acts as an 
absorbent, and the liquids destroy or neutralize the 
acid that make the bark deleterious to vegetation. I 
draw it out only in the fall upon the ground I intend 
for winter grain, and put it in heaps of six' or seven to 
the load. It then smells and looks much as it did 
when it was first drawn ; but after laying a few days 
exposed to the atmosphere, it turns black and smells 
like stable manure, and is equal to it in value. This 
experience has proved to a demonstration. 
I have about two acres of extra quality of muck— 
from this I drew a quantity on a heap about two years 
ago. About the 15th of last May I dropped my corn, 
and with a cart and oxen drew fifty loads from this 
heap, covering each hill with a middle-sized shovel 
full of muck—three men taking ten rows at a time. 
I left two rows in the middle of the field without muck, 
the soil being the same. The ground was quite dry, 
and in want of rain at the time, and in thirty-six hours 
* This farm is for sale—see advertisement in Cultivator for last 
month, page 294. 
after it was planted the chit began to appear, and the 
difference in the corn throughout the season was so per¬ 
ceptible, that any stranger could pick out the rows by 
walking over the field. This last experiment was 
suggested by another person ; but the former, if I am 
not the first person that has proved its value, I have at 
least done so without any knowledge of the fact. 
I find that keeping cows for the purpose of making 
butter (especially on a farm so well calculated as min© 
to afford pasture, and where churning is done by water 
power) is of the most profitable, and at the same time 
it enables me to feed up all the coarse fodder that 
would have been of little value to me otherwise, and to 
make manure. I was able every year by keeping three 
sows and one boar over winter, to sell from $llO to 
$120 worth of pork, or pigs, which were weaned when 
six weeks old, and the sows had another litter by the 
last week in August, which were weaned as before ; 
and by good management I could fatten the sows be¬ 
fore winter. Without milk this could not be done, and 
with the addition of boiled apples and some pumpkins 
or potatoes, it can be done without feeding much grain. 
In fact, I am fully persuaded that apples are of more 
value to make pork ol than they are to make cider, as 
far as dollars are concerned ; and when we take into 
consideration the infinite mischief that is produced by 
cider drinking, the difference is enormous. 
The average produce of my cows has been about $30 
each per annum, for eight years past. Up to this time 
this year, I have sold $110 worth of butter from eight 
cows and two yearling heifers, besides the amount con¬ 
sumed in my family of seven persons. 
Having the whole charge of my dairy in the month 
of June last, (my wife was confined to her bed,) I 
kept the milk of six cows and |he two heifers separate 
for two milkings, and churned' the whole of the milk 
of each one separate, and the following was the re¬ 
sult :— 
Cows. Weight of milk. Pounds of butter. 
No. 1.41 5 oz. gave.1 6 oz. 
u 2.43 8 “ 1 8 “ 
“ 3.35 6 “ “ .1 6 “ 
“ 4. 35 8 “ . “ .1 6 “ 
“ 5.1.33 14 “ “ .1 5 “ 
“ 6.34 2 “ “ .1 4 « 
Heifer 1.27 6 “ .0 15 “ 
“ 2.19 7' “ “ .0 14 “ 
It has shown quite a difference in the quality of the 
milk, and it further shows that it is not in the size or 
beauty of the cow as to the quantity or quality. No 
1 is the poorest and most ill-looking cow I own. She 
was an ill-looking calf, and she always remained so as 
she grew up, and after I commenced milking her, I 
supposed her to be the best cow I had, which this ex¬ 
periment has proved to be a fact f although she gave 
a little less milk and butter than number 2, I have 
every reason to believe that the accident that happened 
to her a few weeks previous, (having badly sprained 
her knee joint,) which compelled me to keep her up, 
has caused all that or more difference, for she was verv 
discontented in her confinement. As to her continuing 
[* It should not be supposed from this, that ill looks in a cow are 
indicative of good dairy qualities. It is not denied that a cow re¬ 
markable for her ugliness may be a good milker, but this is rather 
an exception than the rule. Most persons who have had experience 
with cows, will admit that their value is generally denoted by cer¬ 
tain points, and these are the points, or “ lines of beauty,” for a 
milch coW. Those of our readers who are desirous of knowing 
what we consider these points, are referred to the Cultivator for 
1846, pages 9 and 10.—Ens.j 
