keep them loose, and enable them to extract more | want of a proper quantity of nutritious food; but nourishment from their fodder. They should be such is not the case. We have as often seen it in fed regularly each day. From my experience, I thrifty and well-conditioned cows. It can do no think the ruta baga is the best to feed to young harm to mix a little bone-dust, that is, ground cattle. I think they contain something that cattle require that the others do not. Potatoes and carrots are very good. I have had young cattle fed with them gain more in the winter than they did in the summer on grass. 5, Watering and exercise. In watering, care should be taken that every animal drinks all he wants. They will naturally take all the exercise in the yard, they need at the time of drinking. I keep them in their stalls all the time except when out to drink. The more they are kept out in the cold the more hay they will require, and by being kept up all the time the manure is all saved. The farmer cannot be too regular in tending his stock through the winter. Anything that is not worth doing well is not worth doing. West Newfield, Me., 1862. EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. J. T. I am anxious to learn through the Farmer the way of treating a cow which appears to run too much to milk. She calved the 2d of this month, and is quite thin of flesh, although bright and smart; gives a ten-quart pail full of milk in the morning, little less at night. She was poorly fed the first of the winter on straw, corn-fodder and poor hay until some two weeks before calving,when she had two quarts of barley bran, scalded, and good hay. When I raise barley I have it bolted; the flour is used, and well liked in the family. I have raised and used it for six years, and find the value of that grain far beyond what I expected. I like it to raise on account of its being good to seed with, as I get a far better catch than with any other grain. I get about half as many pounds of fine flour as from common wheat, and find the bran to be heavier than that of wheat, therefore I value barley more than corn. I continue giving this bran to my cow, but rather think it is the barley that runs her to milk. We churned the first week's gathering of cream, which made 11 lbs. 3 oz. of butter. Will you, or some of your subscribers, inform me of the cause of my cows' eating boards, &c., last winter, and this winter not attempting to do so? In regard to cows doing well in calving, if people would feed cows extra some two weeks before they drop their calves, as a general thing, there wonld be no trouble; it matters not much what they are fed upon, but I prefer a little meal of some kind; if I should have my choice, I should feed barley. T. S. F. Felchville, Vt., 1862. REMARKS.-We know of no way to reduce the milk but to reduce the feed. Feed on good hay alone, for a time. It is not well settled what it is that causes cows to chew bones, boards, leather, &c. Some say it is occasioned by a want of bone-making material, the phosphate of lime, perhaps. If this habit were confined to cattle that are poorly fed or thin in flesh, we might suppose that it grows out of a bones, with meal, and feed to the animal affected, two or three times a week. Dr. DADD says—“It is well known that phosphate of lime, potass, silica, carbonate of lime, magnesia and soda are discharged in the excrements and urine of the cow. Supposing the cow's bones to be weak, it is possible that the gelatinous elements preponderate over those of lime, soda and magnesia.” BUGGY PEAS. It has been often said that "It is better late than never," to do good. In looking over the monthly Farmer for 1860, I noticed in the July number an article headed "Buggy Peas." I think I can give the writer and many others some information that will solve the mystery as to how the bugs got into his phial. Many years ago, I discovered a small, bright red nit or egg, placed on the outside of the pea-pod, when about halfgrown, opposite each pea, and have seen the same on the pea inside the pod. Also, when the peas were shelled green, a small puncture on one side of the peas; on digging into the pea, I found a small worm which becomes a bug after the peas are fully ripe. The egg is, I have no doubt, deposited by the old bug, as I have seen them flying among the peas in the field. The only way to prevent peas being buggy is to sow early or very late. I have heard it remarked that to prevent peas being buggy, they must be sown in the old of the moon in May. I suppose everybody knows the moon has nothing to do with the bugs. It is evident to me that those sown early get out of the ways before the old bugs thaw out, and that the bugs have had their day, and are gone before the late sown are grown. JAMES PALMER. South Hampton, N. H., 1862. THE SONG OF AN OLD PITCHER. Let the wealthy and great dwell in splendor and state, I eat my own lamb, my own chickens and ham, I shear my own fleece, and I wear it. I have lawns, I have bowers, I have fruits, I have flowers, As true freemen now, pray God speed the plow, The above I have never seen on paper. I learned it when a child, from an old-fashioned French jug, now called pitcher, in my father's house, more than sixty years ago, in the Emerald Isle. A FEMALE READER. South Groton, 1862. SEEDING TO GRASS. We, the sons of the turf, who get our living by digging in the dirt, need reminding of our duty every month in the year. Where is the farmer, one in a hundred, be the number of his acres more or less, who can say, "I have one half acre doing all it might do." "When we manure in the hole, the seed comes in contact with it, as it should do; but when we plow in manure five or six inches deep, and then sow grain and a little fine grass seed on the very surface, can this fash For the New England Farmer. EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN. I saw a statement by Mr. Henry H. Peters, of Southboro', Mass., in relation to corn, in the Farmer of January 18, I think. I have a kind of corn that is hard to beat, as to the amount of shelled corn that a basket of ears will make. A few days since I shelled some for bread meal, and selected the best ears, as I usually do. I measured and weighed: First I weighed out 70 pounds, which I supposed would make 1 bushel of shelled corn; I shelled it carefully, measured up a bushel, and it weighed 60 pounds; then weighed the rest which 10-16 pounds. The above I took from a bin on was left, it being 6 ounces. The cobs weighed the east side of my corn house. I then took a basket full from the bin on the west side, so I picked out a bushel basket of ears which weighed 50 pounds; I shelled it carefully as I did the other; the corn I measured in sealed measures, and pounds. The cobs weighed 64 pounds, which is at the amount was 234 quarts, which weighed 44 the rate of about 83 pounds of cobs to 60 pounds of shelled corn. One prevalent way of taking cold, is from exposure of the upper portion of the back while in bed. We divest ourselves of the warm clothing we have worn during the day, put on a thin night-9 dress, go to sleep, and perhaps awake in the night feeling as if an iceberg lay between our shoulders. This is particularly the case when two persons occupy the same bed-each one facing outward, the bed clothes are drawn from the backs so as to expose the lower part of the neck and between the shoulders to the cold air of the room, the lungs being so near that part of the body as to be sensibly affected by its exposure. We think a great many severe colds are taken in this way that cannot otherwise be accounted for. OATS FOR SHEEP-TO CURE A CALF THAT SCOURS 2. Will you, or some of your reader, inform me how many oats it will do to feed to ewe sheep at a time, and if they will hurt them? 2. What will cure a calf that scours ? 3. If any subscriber of the Farmer purchased the Dwarf Broom Corn Seed advertised the last spring, will they please give the results of their sowing? 4. Please tell me the size of the "Farmers' Encyclopedia," and the number of pages it contains? Canterbury, N. H., 1862. S. E. REMARKS.-1. A pint of sweet oats per day to a sheep will be excellent for it. 2. "Scours," or diarrhoea, is not always a disease, but an effort of nature to get rid of that which would be injurious, and, therefore, a mild purgative of castor oil, or something else, is good. This may be followed with two or three messes of warm flour gruel, at the same time not allowing the calf to take much milk from the cow. 4. The Farmers' and Planters' Encylopedia contains 1179 pages, royal octavo size. As to the kind of corn, I know of no particular name for it: it is eight-rowed, yellow, rather small in size, but the ears are good and fair length. For years past I have seen much in the Farmer about corn being diminished in weight by being cut up and stooked before it is quite ripe, or hard. I cut and stook my corn as soon as it gets fairly glazed over, and when many of the small ears are in the milk. I think it does not injure the corn, but is a great saving of labor, and there is much in favor in benefiting the fodder, as, if corn is cut and stooked in the right time, and in the right manner, there is a great advantage over the oldfashioned way of cutting the top stalks and letting the corn remain in the field until husking-time. I have shelled a bushel of corn from cobs that weighed less than 8 pounds. A GOOD HEIFER. Mr. Wm. Hooper, of this town, butchered a heifer 21 months and 10 days old, which weighed 622 pounds. H. ALLBE. Walpole, N. H., Feb., 1862. CONTINENTAL MONEY.-Mr. Lossing, in his Field Book of the Revolution, gives a scale of the depreciation of the Continental money. In January, 1777, the paper currency was at five per cent. discount. In July it was at twenty-five per cent. discount, and before the end of the year three dollars in paper would not command a silver dollar. In 1778 the paper currency continued to depreciate, so that in April four dollars in paper were equal to one in coin. In September the ratio was as five to one, and at the close of the year was six and a half to one. In 1779 the depreciation rapidly continued. In February the ratio was eight dollars and a half of paper to one of silver, in May it was twelve to one, in September eighteen to one, and before the close of the year a paper dollar was only worth four cents. In in May it was worth two cents, and in December March, 1780, a paper dollar was worth three cents, seventy-four dollars in paper was worth one dollar in silver. At this point the historian stops. THE PARSNIP CROP. The keeping qualities of the parsnip are equal to those of any other root we produce. If stored properly in a cool, moist (not wet) cellar, they will remain plump and brittle for seven or eight months. Compared with the turnip, the parsnip contains The carrot crop has justly become quite popu-forming compounds, such as oil and starch. This about double the quantity of heat-giving and fatlar as a feed for stock. It is cultivated all over renders it particularly suitable as a food for fatNew England for this purpose, but in the greatest tening purposes, or for milk-producing animals. quantities in the neighborhood of large towns, or cities, where a good many horses are kept. Stablekeepers are confident that they are an economical food, and purchase them by the ton, at prices varying from eight to twelve dollars. This practice has attracted the attention of many farmers, and they, also, now feed their one, two, or more horses, daily, with a mess of FIGURE 1. Common Long-rooted Parsnip. carrots. The Parsnip,- though found its way to the feeding- ers or of our neat stock. It strikes us as singular that a vegetable so nutritious and delicious to the human palate, and at the same time so highly relished by our domestic animals, should not have long ago come into popular favor. It certainly is not because the carrot can be more easily cultivated than the parsnip, that it possesses higher nutritive properties, or that it is more eagerly sought for by our stock. In all these particulars the parsnip has the precedence with one single exception the seed does not germinate so readily and certainly as that of the carrot. In other respects it has advantages over the carrot. It will grow on a wider range of soil, stand drought longer, and the young plants are so conspicuous as to render the first thinning and weeding altogether easier than that of the carrot. FIGURE 2. Fingers and Toes. In Wilson's Farm Crops it is said that the pars- rot; while FIGURE 3. SOIL AND CULTIVATION FOR THE PARSNIP. Any rich, deep, well-drained soil, whether it be of granite formation, or sandy or clayey loam, will produce good crops of parsnips. A decidedly gravelly soil would not be favorable. The soil should be deep, because the plant loves to penetrate the ground with its long, tapering root, and throw out hair-like feeders into the surrounding soil. When it has this opportunity, and the soil is sufficiently enriched, the parsnip will send down one main root, such as is illustrated in Cut No. 1; but without these advantages, it will be quite likely to assume the form of Cut No. 2, dividing itself off into numerous branches, spoiling it for the table, and depreciating its value even for stock. This is called running into "Fingers and Toes." Cut No. 3 is The Hollow-crowned Parsnip. It is less symmetrical in shape, and has a much greater diameter at the crown, or top, which is slightly concave. The root is of a yellowish-white color, tapering from the top, and not so long as the Long-rooted variety, No. 1. Cut No. 4 illustrates, 1, The common flat body moth that infests the parsnip. births. The married are longer lived than the single. The average duration of life in all civilized countries is greater now than in any anterior period. Macaulay, the distinguished historian, states that in the year 1685-not an unhealthy year-the deaths in England were as one to 20, but in 1850, one to 40. Dupni, a well known French writer, states that the average duration of life in France from 1776 to 1843, increased 52 days annually. The rate of mortality in 1781 was one in 29, but in 1850, one in 40. The rich men live on an average 42 years, but the poor only 30 years.-Free Nation. FIGURE 4. Common Flat Body Moth. For the New England Farmer. WHEN SHALL WE PLOW? MR. EDITOR:-I find this question propounded, and partly answered, in your issue of November 9, by Mr. George Campbell, of West Westminster, Vt., who seems to favor fall plowing on account of its forwarding the spring work when farmers are hurried, and probably killing many worms and insects by exposing them to the frost, &c. He notes, Figs. 2 and 3, the moth at rest, and of the nat- also, that the soil will be pulverized by the action ural size. Fig. 4, caterpillar of the moth. effectual an exterminator as a good plowing. Then, again, lands lying several months after being plowed, become packed by repeated rains, and are almost as hard in the spring as if they had remained unplowed in the fall. of frost and the atmosphere. Most will readily admit his views as true, and yet not be fully perFigs. 5 and 6, the pupa of natural length. suaded that it is good economy to seed this fall Fig. 7, the pupa rolled up in a leaf of the plant. plowed land in the spring, without again plowing most thoroughly. Weeds and foul stuff will be In cultivating a field crop of the parsnip, the sure to vegetate as soon as the frost is out in the rows should be far enough apart to use a horse-spring, and no process for putting in grain is so hoe or cultivator, say two and a half feet, which will secure a crop for about one-half the cost required to work them by hand. The plants in the rows ought not to be nearer than six or eight inches of each other. The ground should be fre- The plow I regard as the farmer's great fertiliquently stirred, especially if the season be a dry zer. It is impossible to use it too often on our one,—and if a subsoil plow were passed through fields where the sod has decayed. Speed the plow, between the rows once or twice during the sum-like it to counteract the effects of drought. Nothshould be the motto of every farmer. Nothing mer it would considerably aid the crop. By this process we have raised parsnips at the rate of a thousand bushels to the acre, nearly every one of which was long, smooth, and almost as white as snow. The only difficulty in securing the crop was in digging; the man doing that work saying that he "could dig post holes about as fast." We hope many of our farmers will commence in a small way to cultivate this valuable crop. If they do, we suggest that twenty-four hours before sowing the seed, they wring out a piece of cotton cloth in warm water, and wrap the seed in it, which will very much facilitate its germination. SINGULAR FACTS IN HUMAN LIFE.-The average length of human life is about 28 years. One-quarter die previous to the age of 7; onehalf before reaching 17. Only one of every 1000 persons reaches 100 years. Only six of every 100 reaches the age of 65, and not more than one in 500 lives to 80 years of age. Of the whole population on the globe, it is estimated that 90,000 die every day; about 3700 every hour and 60 every minute, or one every second. These losses are more than counterbalanced by the number of ing like its free use in securing a bountiful harvest. I say plow! Plow in the fall-plow in the spring-plow at all times when you can. Can't plow too often. As to fall plowing of sod land, very much depends upon the character of the soil. A stiff clay would undoubtedly be better for fall plowing, as the winter's frost would greatly subdue it. But a sandy, or vegetable loam, I think, had best be plowed in the spring, as near the time of planting as possible. My reasons for this are, that they do not receive but little advantage from winter frosts when plowed, and do not admit of replowing in the spring, as by so doing we would be liable to disturb the sod and waste much of its value. If not plowed in the spring, much more labor is required to keep the weeds down through the summer. I will here refer to a piece of meadow, of four acres of vegetable loam, my father commenced plowing in the fall, for the purpose of destroying worms he knew infested it. It so happened that frost set in when he had about half plowed the piece, and the remainder was plowed in the spring; the part plowed in the fall was, as to quality, esteemed a little the best of the field. The spring plowing was done just before planting; the whole field was thoroughly harrowed, the fall plowed part requiring much more labor to prepare | phosphate into soil that has not been fertilized it, and all through the season double the time was by it. required to keep it clean of grass and weeds. At harvest it was judged by competent men that the fall-plowed piece would yield forty bushels to the acre, and the spring-plowed fifty-or ten bushels more. One of my neighbors commenced plowing early in March on a piece of dry land, for the purpose of testing the question as to the advantage of plowing just before planting. He left alternate lands or strips unplowed through the piece, until he was ready to plant, the first of May. The result was decidedly in favor of the last plowed pieces in the crop, as well as in the care of it. The above facts have been repeatedly verified in my own experience, so that I have come to consider them incontrovertible. I hope this subject will not be passed by in silence by observing farmers, but that we shall have their views and experience to enable us wisely to answer this all important question to many-when shall we plow? Rochester, Mass., Nov., 1861. O. K. COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. During the last four or five weeks, we have been favored with several articles upon this subject, from correspondents in various portions of the State, giving their experience in the use of this phosphate as a fertilizer. We have also been requested to state what the results of its use have been on our own farm. Last spring we procured several bags of this lime of PARKER, GANNETT & OSGOOD, and used it upon various crops, and with such results as to decide us to try it again, which we mean to do the coming season. It was used, side by side, with various other agents, such as beef scraps, corn-meal, woolen rags, cobs soaked in urine, guano, and a compost of night soil, and it was not excelled by any of them, excepting the latter. The whole field was moderately dressed with hen manure. Where the night soil compost was used, the corn was heavier than on any other portion of the field. We used the superphosphate on peas, beans, turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, cabbages, and other plants, and found it answering an admirable purpose with them all. But we gained, especially, what is most desired, an early start in the corn crop, which is often the turning point of profit or loss in that staple article. Where it was properly applied to this crop it stimulated germination, brought the corn out of the ground with stocky and vigorous stems, and gave it an unusual vitality for several succeeding weeks. Any fertilizer that will do this, is of decided importance to the farmer. But a serious mistake is often made in its application. Instead of spreading it over a surface of 12 to 20 inches, and thoroughly mingling it with the soil, it is thrown down in a mass, and the seed cast upon it, so that if the tender germ is not checked, it grows away from the During a journey into New Hampshire in the month of June last, a good farmer invited us to look at some experiments he was making with this fertilizer. Side by side, on good land, he had manured the rows, one with a common shovel full of excellent barn manure, and the other with a gill of Coe's superphosphate, and where the latter was applied, the corn had made an average growth of a foot more than the other. In another town, in a field of corn which we were called to look at, the difference was nearly as striking. We do not suppose that this difference would continue through all stages of the crop, but it ensures that early growth which will generally secure the plants from unseasonable frosts, and thus give us a crop. These results so much increased our interest in the article, that we made investigations sufficient to satisfy us that the article is really what it purports to be,—that is, bones dissolved by sulphuric acid, by a process so perfect as to preserve all the animal matter contained in the bones as well as the bone itself,-and that no other matter is introduced to increase the bulk and lessen the fertilizing power of the principal agents. In November last, we applied 200 pounds to an acre of exhausted pasture, upon which we intend to sow clover seed as soon as the snow is off, and harrow the ground. We have, also, applied two quarts of the superphosphate to each of 75 young apple trees that stand in grass land, scattering it over a diameter of 12 feet immediately under the tree. The results of these experiments will be carefully watched and reported to the reader. NEW METHOD OF SMELTING IRON.-A Belgian is reported to have discovered a new method of smelting iron, which promises great results. The essential principal consists in a process of exthat less time is required to liquefy the metal than The result is haustion in preference to a blast. in the ordinary process; that when cast it is surprisingly superior in quality to ordinary iron; that, bulk for bulk, it weighs much heavier; and that excellent cutlery can be forged at once from it, into steel. A leading English iron master is without the intermediate process of conversion building a furnace for smelting on this new plan, and specimens will ere long be in the market. WEIGHT OF MANURE.-A solid foot of halfrotted manure will weigh, upon an average, 56 pounds. If it is coarse or dry, it will average 48 bic feet, of first quality, will weigh 2,016 pounds; pounds to the foot. A load of manure, or 36 cusecond quality, 1,728 pounds. Weight to the acre -eight loads of first kind, weighing 16,128 pounds, will give 108 pounds to each square rod, and less will give 63 pounds to the rod. An acre containthan 24 pounds to each square foot. Five loads ing 43,560 square feet, the calculation of pounds per foot, of any quantity per acre, is easily made. |