82 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
the first, in triangular board troughs, and the last, in 
boxes, such as I have recommended. Do you give it 
up, gentlemen? If not. I’ll try again. I’m an “ old ’un ” 
in feeding oats and oat straw, and will say something 
more about it at the proper season. 
The last month as well as the present one, being the 
season when much manure is, or should be, disposed of 
on fields designed for hoed crops, it reminds me of— 
“Hon. John Doe.” —It was proposed, as heretofore 
stated in the last volume of the Cultivator, by Col. H. S. 
Randall, in his capital address before the Tompkins Ag¬ 
ricultural Society—“ that he who made only 50 loads of 
manure, should be called plain John Doe; if double that 
quantity, Mr. John Doe; that 200 loads should confer the 
title of ’ Squire Doe; and 400 loads, that of Honorable 
John Doe.” Of course, I should not have adverted to 
this again, but for one of my neighbors who heard the 
address being dissatisfied with the proposition in its pre¬ 
sent shape. “For,” said he, “you know, sir, that I am 
a farmer on comparatively a small scale, and when do¬ 
ing my very best, I cannot make over 200 loads, and 
some years not as much; therefore, I can never get 
higher than the title of «’squire,’ as long as grass grows 
and water runs; that, as the matter now stood, it was 
calculated to secure the title c honorable’ only on large 
farmers, and seemed, therefore, too aristocratic.” He 
suggested a modification, with a view to making it 
conform more strictly with republican principles, as 
follows: “that in each and every instance, where it 
could be proved by unimpeachable testimony, that any 
farmer who did make, save, and duly dispose of all his 
manure to the best advantage, without regard to any spe¬ 
cified quantity, should have conferred on him the title 
of “ honorable” by the president of the N. Y. State Ag¬ 
ricultural Society.” This is right. I second the motion, 
and move the previous question. Those in favor will 
please to say aye. Carried, without a count. You will 
please, gentlemen, “ keep it before the people ” in its 
amended form. 
By the way, in the last volume of the Cultivator, an 
Ohio correspondent has recommended that sheep help 
themselves to hay from stacks in winter, instead of being 
foddered in the usual way, or in any other way. This 
has stuck fast in the crop of my nonest neighbor Ben 
Rogers; and he informs me that he shan’t rest easy until 
the plan is duly tested by the “ Agricultural Thermome¬ 
ter.” He says—“ he has a kind of a thinking, that when 
it is brought to the test, instead of any bright sparks, 
there will be an awful stench of laziness .” Just refer it 
at. once to “A. of the North;” for the old fellow will 
not be easy till he knows all about it. That’s all. Your 
friend A.» Morrell. 
Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y., March 8, 1842. 
WINTERING STOCK ON PASTURE. 
Editors of Cultivator —Amidst a pecuniary gloom 
which is nearly overwhelming the interests of the west¬ 
ern agriculturist, it might at least to some seem heartless 
to say anything in his behalf, or anything that could en¬ 
courage him. M/lien pork is not worth more than a cent 
and a "half, beef about the same, corn ten cents a bushel, 
and all things else rating at about the same prorortion, 
and cash scarcely to be had at these prices, and some 
debts to be paid, you will readily admit that we have 
some good cause to feel gloomy. Yet nope, that great 
sustainer of human nature, our only comforter in sea¬ 
sons like the present, whispers, better may come; and 
I will therefore proceed, and give you the result of my 
winter pasturing in this latitude, which lacks but a frac 
tion of 40, north. 
My horses consist of one, two and three years old 
colts, and a few brood mares. My horned cattle con¬ 
sist of one and two years old steers, and cows which had 
suckled calves during the summer, and were all in good 
condition except the cows, which were a little thin in 
consequence of their calves running with them during 
the summer. In the latter part of November I turned 
this stock on a blue grass pasture of about two hundred 
acres that had been kept up during the spring and sum¬ 
mer, and they have run upon it until this time without 
any feed except what they procured from the pasture. 
The horses are in very fair condition for this season of 
the year_the older ones in better condition than the 
younger ones; and they are all in better condition than 
when they have been, as heretofore, wintered on hay 
The horned cattle have done bet er than the hoises 
The cows are in better condition than when taken fiom 
their calves; and some of the two years old steers 
would make good beef; and the yearlings are thrifty and 
fine. Thus have I wintered my stock the past winter; 
but it is proper to state, we have had an unusually mild 
winter- we have had but little snow until the latter part 
of February, when we had a pretty smart fall, which 
lasted some eight or ten days. I am, however, induced 
to believe that horses and horned cattle may be wintered 
in this climate in a great majority of our winters on 
o-ood blue grass pasture. In the fall of 1840, I removed 
my horses from the pasture on which they had been 
kept during the summer a few miles to a meadow, and 
turned them to hay, except two two years old colts, 
which, from accident, were left; and as I was from 
home during the winter, they remained here during the 
winter without salt or feed, and to my astonishment in 
the spring I found them doing about as well as those that 
run to hay; and that winter was a very fair sample of 
the winters usually here. This circumstance confirmed 
me in the beliefj that good pasture was sufficient for 
stock in this latitude. Last season I reserved a pasture 
for winter, and have done well; and the hay that I have 
usually fed during winter I am now selling. 
Blue grass that has been kept up during the spring and 
summer, (in this county at least,) forms a very thick and 
heavy coat; and although heavy snows fall upon it, 
horses will remove it very readily with their feet, and 
seem to find little difficulty in filling themselves; and 
the snow upon the grass rather preserves than injures; 
and cows, although they do not use this mode of remov¬ 
ing the snow, very readily thrust their noses into it, and 
with their hard, tendinous lips, press it forward; and 
when they have once made an opening, they will feed 
round a common center for a considerable time. Colts 
and calves, I think, most likely in this manner, would 
not do well; of this, however, I cannot speak from any 
trial made. Their ages probably would render them too 
delicate to make a subsistence in this way. 
Of the benefits of thus wintering, I need say nothing. 
It is thought a great saving in the way of cost and labor; 
two very important items in times like these. The price 
of the article makes it necessary to be raised with the 
least possible cost. 
In relation to my kind of pasture, permit me to say 
that we have almost interminable forests all over the 
state, which are not yielding the owners a farthing, that 
will make such as I have by deadening the timber, rail 
timber excepted, and sowing in blue grass. Remove no 
logs; grub no spice; it costs too much. The bushes 
afford the finest amusement for fat cattle; they apply 
their horns to them and ride them down; and if you are 
scarce of bushes and wish to test what I say, turn a lot 
of them into a young orchard, and you will see what 
sport they will have with your young trees. 
My sheep, a small flock, I have wintered upon a mea¬ 
dow which was mowed about the usual time, and is red 
clover and orchard grass. It was kept up after harvest 
until the latter part of November, when my sheep were 
turned in. My hay stood in the meadow unfenced; and 
until the middle of February, the sheep had not touched 
it. They have since that time eaten a little from one of 
the stacks, and but very little indeed. They have had 
no shelter, and are in exceeding fine health and condi¬ 
tion; and there is not a wether in the flock but would 
make fine mutton now. They are common sheep, ex¬ 
cept one—a merino buck. A. C. Stevenson. 
Green Castle, Ind., March 21, 1842. 
ON REARING CALVES. 
the ventricles; one on the right called the pulmonic, and 
the other on the left called the sytemic. 
Attached to each is a cavity called the auricle, and 
from each proceeds a large tube called an artery—one 
the pulmonic, and the other the aorta; the first conveys 
blood to the lungs, and the other expels it through the 
system. 
Hence my conclusion, that the poorer the calf is kept, 
the more the lacteal and arterial vessels will be con¬ 
tracted and stinted, and the more the stomach and intes¬ 
tines will be distended, which is plain as before; and 
should this course be persevered in, the finer points and 
just proportions never will nor can be fully and fairly 
developed, no matter how well they may be kept there¬ 
after; although some may, by great care, be brought to 
a positive state. But as a general rule, it stints them 
forever. 
Again. Where a calf is fed too bountifully, as is the 
case with many at the present day, all the vessels be¬ 
come extended to such a degree that the reverse cannot 
but be expected; that is, the vessels that carry nutrition 
to the solid parts of the body will be so much more ex¬ 
tended than the intestines, &c., that when they come to 
be fed as all farmers should wish to feed their stock, af¬ 
ter one year of age, on good hay only, the stomach and in¬ 
testines become insufficient to furnish the necessary wants 
of the lacteals, &c. &c.; so that that sympathy of the 
parts will not be preserved, so essential and requisite for 
their future advancement and prosperity. And when 
kept in either of the two extremes for one year, and 
then placed side by side with those fed on the medium 
course, at three years of age, the difference of the three 
different courses will be satisfactory, even to the most 
sceptical. I am, sir, yours with regard, 
Batavia, N. Y., March 13, 1843. Un Fermier. 
Messrs. Editors —As I have for the last several 
years frequently read the inquiries of gentlemen through 
the medium of the Cultivator and Farmer for the best 
modes and manner of rearing calves, and as often have 
I read answers to those inquiries, none of which have 
altogether coincided with my views upon that important 
subject. 
I accordingly venture forth to offer my views relative 
to that subject; knowing also that there are many among 
your numerous correspondents possessing the ability and 
frankness to suggest their opinion when I am right and 
when wrong, if I should be so fortunate as to advance 
even one principle right; so that the more the exposi¬ 
tion upon the subject the more capable shall we be of 
arriving at some safe and final conclusion upon a sub¬ 
ject of some importance to the rearer of fine stock. 
When the calf first comes, I do not allow it to suck 
more than one-third of the milk, if the cow is a good 
one, continually increasing until when three or four 
weeks old, at which time I allow him to take all the 
milk, and in all cases to suck it from the cow. After 
four weeks, if there is pasture sufficient for feed, I turn 
the calf out to run with the cow to suck when he 
chooses, until when about nine months old, at which 
time the cow will generally wean her calf off; which, 
if in winter or setting of winter, I give the calf a warm 
stable and plenty of sweet hay, with perhaps two quarts 
of roots of some kind sliced up, also always remember¬ 
ing to have a trough of salt for all my cattle to go to 
when they choose; and when spring arrives, turn my 
calf out to pasture, letting him fare thereafter with my 
other older stock. 
My reasons for this management and course of treat¬ 
ment will be readily understood from the following data: 
By giving good and nutritious food as first, such as 
nature "directed, all parts of the system are kept growing 
according to nature’s laws in exact proportion. 
But on the contrary, should a calf be brought up upon 
skimmed milk “by hand,” as the saying is, it is some¬ 
times fed on milk at one certain degree of temperature, 
and at another time, at another certain degree of tempe¬ 
rature, varying in degrees of heat as often as fed; and as 
often fed irregularly, and I might in some cases say ra¬ 
ther sparingly for some three or four months, and then 
turned into the pasture to shirk for itself. In this way, at 
best, the food is poor, and requires a greater quantity to 
support the solid parts of the body, thereby distending 
the capacity of the stomach and intestines; as the poorer 
the food, the less the chyle to support the animal system 
_the remainder passing off in the excrements, at the 
same time contracting and stinting the lacteal vessels 
which convey the chyle from the mesentery to the tho¬ 
racic duct. 
The chyle is a white juice in the stomach, consisting 
of the finer and more nutritious parts of the food, which 
is received into the lacteal vessels, and serves to form the 
blood. The heart is the center of circulation in the 
animal system, and is called the seal of life. It is di¬ 
vided in the middle by a partition, if I may be allowed 
the expression, and on each side are two cavities called 
A CORN-STALK CUTTER. 
Editors of the Cultivator —I noticed in the last 
number of the Cultivator an instrument recommended by 
Janies M. Garnett, Esq., of Va., for cutting corn stalks. 
The article is no doubt good; but I think I can describe 
one much better adapted to the purpose. It is more 
economical, efficient, and much more agreeable to work 
with than his. No stooping is required at the work, and 
it is much more expeditiously performed; it never “jars 
off the ears of corn.” 
It is simply a handle, nearly similar in form and size 
to an axe helve, to which is attached by three or four 
rivets a thin plate of steel, about four inches broad and 
nine inches long. Nothing better can be had for the 
purpose than a piece of broken hand saw blade. No 
blow is given; but owing to the construction of the in¬ 
strument, and slightly bending the stalks, the cutting is 
effected almost without effort. The bevil must be alto¬ 
gether on the upper side of the cutter; and the cutter 
should not stand at right angles with the handle. A slid¬ 
ing cut is the easiest with all edge tools. 
When the cutter is riveted to the handle, the latter 
should be crooked; or which answers the same purpose, 
sink the cutting edge deeper into the handle; this in¬ 
clines the edge inwards, which, together with having 
the bevel, and grinding, always on the upper side, ef¬ 
fectually prevents the edge from slipping up the stalk. 
I unqualifiedly venture the assertion, that no person 
who desires to work with expedition and ease to him¬ 
self, will voluntarily return to the old fashioned cutter, 
after using the improved one half an hour. 
I have often felt indebted to J. M. G. for his valuable 
communications in the Cultivator and other agricultural 
works; and with many others have profited by his long 
experience. Should he perchance realize any benefit 
from mine, my object is fully attained. 
The annexed diagram fully explains the implement. 
Montgomery Co., Md., January 14, 1842. 
Distress in England.— The following is the classi¬ 
fication of the incomes of a large portion of the poor in 
the large manufacturing town of Rochdale. It is the 
result of a personal investigation by a committee. 
131 living upon 0s. 6d. per head per week. 
5291 do. 0s. 10 d. do. do. 
608 do. Is. 0 d. do. do. 
1855 do. Is. 6 d. do. do. 
1500 do. Is 9 d. do. do. 
S12 do. 2s. 2 d. do. do. 
