FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
straw, and any other fodder you may have, with the browse they get during the chopping and underbrushing season, will keep them well. The weanling calves should be given skimmed milk or buttermilk, with the leafy boughs of basswood and maple, of which they are extremely fond. A warm shed or fenced yard is very necessary for the cattle during the intense winter frosts: this is too often disregarded, especially in new settlements, which is the cause that many persons have the mortification of losing their stock, either with disease or cold. Naturally the Canadian cattle are very hardy, and when taken moderate care of, endure the severest winters well; but owing to the difficulties that attend a first settlement in the bush, they suffer every privation of cold and hunger, which brings on a complaint generally fatal, called the "_hollow horn_;" this originates in the spine, or extends to it, and is cured or palliated by boring the horn and inserting turpentine, pepper, or other heating substances. When a new comer has not winter food for his cattle, it is wise to sell them in the fall and buy others in the spring: though at a seeming loss, it is perhaps less loss in reality than losing the cattle altogether. This was the plan my husband adopted, and we found it decidedly the better one, besides saving much care, trouble, and vexation. I have seen some good specimens of native cheese, that I thought very respectable, considering that the grass is by no means equal to our British pastures. I purpose trying my skill next summer: who knows but that I may inspire some Canadian bard to celebrate the produce of my dairy as Bloomfield did the Suffolk cheese, yclept "Bang." You remember the passage,--for Bloomfield is your countryman as well as mine,--it begins: "Unrivalled stands thy county cheese, O Giles," &c. I have dwelt on the dairy information; as I know you were desirous of imparting all you could collect to your friends. You wish to know something of the culture of Indian corn, and if it be a useful and profitable crop. The cultivation of Indian corn on newly cleared lands is very easy, and attended with but little labour; on old farms it requires more. The earth is just raised with a broad hoe, and three or four corns dropped in with a pumpkin-seed, in about every third or fourth hole, and in every alternate row; the seed are set several feet apart. The pumpkins and the corn grow very amicably together, th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
cattle
 

cheese

 

winter

 

Bloomfield

 

Indian

 
losing
 
Canadian
 

produce

 
celebrate
 

pumpkins


inspire

 

summer

 
Suffolk
 

passage

 
countryman
 

remember

 
yclept
 
specimens
 

native

 

amicably


trouble

 

vexation

 

thought

 

respectable

 

British

 

pastures

 

purpose

 

begins

 

profitable

 

dropped


pumpkin

 
saving
 

culture

 

cultivation

 

attended

 
labour
 

cleared

 
friends
 

alternate

 
county

Unrivalled
 

stands

 
requires
 
information
 

collect

 

imparting

 
fourth
 

desirous

 
raised
 

settlements