Newspaper Page Text
22
AGRICULTURAL. =
DANIEL LEE, HI. D M Editor.
BATCEDAT JUNE 11, 1559.
THE BTUDY OF GBASSES-NO. 2.
In the Northern States, Timothy, (which is
the Herds grass of New England) is the most
popular plant grown for the purpose of making
bay. The botanical name of this grass is Phle
uin pratense ; and in general appearance, it bears
a striking resemblance to meadow fox tail. One
hundred parts of dry timothy liay, cut at the
right time, and properly cured, contain 11-36
parts of muscle-forming elements, which make
it equal, pound for pound, to sound com for sup
porting working animals, when fed to horses,
mules and oxen. Careful and trust-worthy anal
yses, however, show that Orchard grass is as
much better than Timothy for both growing
voting stock, and working cattle, as oats are
known to be better than corn. The exact dif
ference is as 13.53 to 11.36, or about 20 per cent,
in favor of Orchard grass. On low, moist, rich
land, Timothy does well at the South; but on
common up-land, it is very liable to be killed in
summer weather when the ground is hot and
dry. The soil should be made rich, which causes
the plants to grow rapidly in the spring, and
shade and cool the earth, so as to avoid that
parching of the surface, and drying of the roots,
so fatal to the crop. Some care and skill are re
quired to get a good stand of grass, with well
developed roots, just as some knowledge of cot
ton or corn,-culture is valuable to obtain the best
results from any given field in which these plants
are cultivated. Timothy is a perennial, and !
grows as well in winter as our winter wheat and |
rye. We cultivate this plant as we do wheat,
sowing a peck of clean seed, not over one year
old. to the acre. Several times seedsmen have
deceived us in regard to the age of Timothy seed,
and not one seed in a bushel germinated. Wheat
will come up at three times the depth of grass
seed; but even wheat is often covered so deeply
by the plow as never to grow. No grass seed
should ever be covered more than an inch deep;
and a half inch is better. Indeed most farmers
at the North sow early in the spriqg in wet
weather, or on a light snow, and leave the seed
on the surface of tlio ground. Clover .seed is
sown id the same manner. The writer uses a
light seed harrow, or a light brush, to cover the
seed lightly. Some of the best farmers in Vir
ginia sow Timothy, Orchard and Blue grass
seed in June, at the last working of their com, !
and leave the seed on the surface to grow after
the first rain, shaded from the sun by the com.
Mr. Oscar Bailey of Clark county, Ga., will try
this plan on fifteen acres this month; the result
pf which will appear in this journal, Having
had large experience in producing excellent hay
from English grasses in Virginia, Mr. B. feels
confident of success in Georgia. Twice since
the Field and Fireside was started, has the edi
tor seen a number of bales of Northern hay at
the Athens depot, which was doubtless raised
on land worth ono hundred dollars an acre; and
then sent two hundred miles to New York mar
ket, shipped thence seven or eight hundred
miles to Charleston or Savannah, and finally
carried two hundred and fifty miles by railroads
to the elevated interior for consumption, where
people live by laboring to kill grass in their corn
and cotton fields, and where grass land may be
bought at five dollars per acre 1 Is not such de
pendence on the North for horse feed perfectly
ridiculous ? If any one wants a good meadow
yielding the very best hay in the world, let him
employ Mr. Oscar Bailey to find the seed and
make it for him. He will make a good roller at
an expense not to exceed five dollars, for rolling
in grass seed and wheat, and for crushing lumps
of hard day, and leave it on the employer’s
farm.
There are a great many little things appertai
ning to the economical production of every great
staple which one can hardly describe on paper,
and yet they are of some importance in practice.
Hence years of actual experience and personal
observation are indispensable to give one a fair
knowledge of any branch of agriculture. As g
case in poiut, some unacquainted with English
grasses, except through books, may fear to sow
their seeds lest the plants prove troublesome,
like Bermuda and nut grass. Rest assured we
shall recommqnd no such grass to our readers.
They want grasses which can be got rid of as
easily as wheat, oats, barley and rye, when a
system of rotation of crops shall demand the
breaking up of a meadow or pasture to raise a
crop of cotton or corn. With grasses of this
character the writter has been familiar from his
childhood. How far they and clover will answer
At the South is yet an open question; but if we
ndW try them, our ignorance will lie perpetual.
AHxes GROWN IN GEORGIA.
Col. L. D. iSckner has an apple orchard a few
miles from MilKfctooville which contains seven
thousand trees; the “Shockley - ’ forms
six thousand five hundWj The trees are planted
on fifty acres of poor pin<jy n <i ; yet some of the
oldest have already borne bushels of fruit
in a season. The Shockley apple is
remarkable alike for its fine soundness,
and long keeping qualities. Col. B/Ws sold this
fruit as high as from five to seven a bar
rel in Savannah and other cities. TheSvriter
has 450 trees of this winter variety grovnfer •
and they appear to be very hardy. The rabbitv
gnawed the bark on one or two, when wo bad
a servant whitewash them from the ground
three feet up, and since then nothing has dis
turbed them. The whitewash or lime and
water should be made a trifle thicker than that
used to whitewash plastered rooms. It can be
applied to the tree with a rag. Garden palings
and other fences, as well as all out building, not
pointed, last much longer for an annual coat of
good whitewash. All fruit and ornamental
TS£ SOWKXRS VXBLB JMia J?IRKBXJOK.
- trees are much benefited by similar treatment.
Burnt Lime is distasteful to all insect depreda
tors. More than half of the ashes from burnt
, apple trees is lime.
Most of our land in the State of Georgia is too
poor for apple and pear trees to thrive and bear
well without manure. Lime, woed ashes, leaf
: mould, bones, and a little stable manure, all
composted, (sometimes with chip manure) are
the materials we apply to trees. A pear tree
planted by the writer over forty years ago and
treated as above described, bore twenty bushels
of pears last year, worth two dollars a bushel.
'■ An apple orclmrd set out at the same time is
still in health, and in a bearing condition. Some ;
of these trees were set on top of the ground,
and a rich wood’s mould and loam carted to
form a proper soil about each tree. Forty years
observation in tree planting has taught us the
folly of starving a plant in a hard, and barren
mass of earth. For decency sake in the art of
planting, give every tree and vine a fair chance
to become fruitful.
WASTED CAPACITY OF THE SOUTH.
The New Orleans Bulletin has a capital edito- j
rial on the “ wasted capacity of the Soutli,” from
which we clip a paragraph, and add a few sug-J
gestions:
Now, in the South we have no excuse what-.
ever for ignoring this great law of an inherent
variety of talent and taste, in the moral and in
tellectual constitution of man. We have almost
every variety of soil and climate. We have, or
may have, almost all kinds of natural produc
tions, water power, mines, and, in a word, the
elements of nearly every kind of industry. What
do they avail us? Is not our industry confined
chiefly to the culture of two or three agricultu
| ral productions ? For what was all this profu
i sion of elemental riches given us, if not to be
j developed by industry—by the skillful labor of
1 cunning hands wisely and systematically em
j ployed ? Variety of elements indicates clearly j
| enough to him that can read the design the ne
cessity of variety of pursuit in order that there
l may be no waste of capacity. And this, we
hike it, is precisely the point where the shoe
pinches in the South. It is just here that we
need reform, that we need a healthful departure
from the old track which we have been pursu
ing with never n thought, apparently, that it is
not the right one for us travel.
Some children are bom with aptness to leam
; and practice the mechanical arts, and render tlio j
' public important service as artisans, and as such ,
woiild acquire wealth and distinction in a con
genial calling, who will make a dead failure, if
forced by friends, or a mistaken ambition, into a
lawyer’s or doctor’s office to study a profession.
These callings, and nearly all branches of trade
and traffic, are overdono from the popular idea
that it is a little discreditable to be a mechanic,
or to labor at some industrial pursuit. Nothing
( can be more injurious to society than such a no
tion ; fig nothing, in point of fact, is more false.
11 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
all the days of thy life,” was the decree of our
Maker; and whether a man toils as a physician,
a lawyer, merchant, priest, or author, labor he
must, or become something worse, and often
something loss, than nobody. Our great diversi
ty of talent, taste, strength, and energy, meet
the equally diversified wants of every large com
munity. It is absurd to suppose that most of
the people of a State may be cotton planters, and
do notliing but raise this ono staple, without
placing society in an unnatural and false posi
tion in its relations to the soil. Other branches
of agriculture, and all useful manufactures, de
mand a share of the public industry and capital.
Many other plants have been created for man’s
comfort and use as well as the gossypium. No
one art, whether practiced in the field, garden,
workshop or mine, can say, “I have no need of
aid from my sister arts.” All callings are mu
tually dependent on each other; and men of
sound minds everywhere acknowledge their in
debtedness to the thoughts of others for nearly
all the wisdom they possess. Truth, industry
and virtue befriend and elevate all alike; as
falsehood, idleness and vice degrade all who do
not shun them.
“Honor and shame from no condition rise!
Act well your part —there all the honor lies."
— ■— i « i mm
THE CAST IRON PLOW.
Although cast iron plows with iron mould
boards were not in use in this country, (and
probably in no other) before the year 1810, and
very little before the close of the war in 1815,
yet cast iron Plow Shares were invented and
used in the State of New York as early as 1794.
In the “Transactions of the society instituted in
the State of New York for the promotion of ag
riculture, Arts and Manufactures” published by
joint resolution of the Senate and Assembly in
1794, may be found at page 5, part 2, the fol
lowing entery:
‘‘Col. Smith produced the model of a plow
share, according to which it was proposed to
have that utensil mode of cast iron ; ahd Mr.
Smith and Judge Hobart were appointed to get
several cast for trial.”
Col. Smith, the inventor of the cast iron plow,
was an extensive farmer of St. George’s Manor,
Suffolk county, and one of the original corpora
tors of the Agricultural Society of the last cen
tury. He lived to represent New York in part,
in the U. S. Senate for many years.
THE ALBANY CULTIVATOR.
We have recently added the six last volumes
of the Albany Cultivator, to our library; and
after reading them, we are free to say that no
books in the English language, sold at the same
, price, contain matter of equal value to the farm
stock grower, gardener and fruit grower. The
suTvription price of the work is fifty cents a
year\lt is admirably printed and illustrated
on and when well bound with
guilt letterufeis sent, postage paid, for a dollar
a volume. A a%jtcr investment of six dollars
1 can not be made He in to send the money to
Luther Tucker, N. Y., and order
the six last volumes of the oldest Cultivator in
the United States.
DEEP CULTIVATION.
A gentleman of Athens informs us that he this
spring sowed oats in a fruit lot where the ground j
had been dug some twenty inches in depth for
a considerable space around each young fruit
tree set out; and that where the earth was thus
deeply stirred, the oats have grown more than
twice as large as elsewhere. No manure of any
kind was. applied near the trees. Cultivation
alone developed the remarkable increase of fer
tility, and suggests the propriety of plowing
, deep, and pulverising finely both soil and sub
soil, to the depth of twenty inches. Good farm
ers everywhere are learning, or have learnt al
j ready, to comminute the under-crust of every
field they plant or sow. They are getting
ashamed of merely scratching the surface of the
ground as a hen scratches it for her chickens.
By deep and thorough tilth, the loosened, pul
verized earth takes in water ike a sponge, and
holds it about the roots of plants, so that the
washing of the soil is impossible.
—
WHEAT TURNING TO CHESS OR CHEAT.
Some persons, on seeing a luxurient growth
j of the grass that belongs to the genus Bromus,
of which there are many species, and several
that infest wheatfields, have hastily concluded
that wheat plants may, and do, by some freak of
Nature transform themselves into this weed.
Chess has a panicle head more like oats than
wheat; and if the latter were liable to change
into another genus or species at all, it would be
into spelt rye or barley, which have a rachis like
wheat, or an ear of tlie same general character,
and not into a plant of a widely different anto
tomieal structure. To affirm that, because a
man found a flock of sheeg in a field where he
had put a drove of hogs, the sheep had turned
! to swine, would be more rational than to infer
that wheat changes into Bromus lteeause the
1 latter is found growing where wheat was sown.
The idea that iron and lead might be turned into
gold and silver held possession of the popular
mind for more than three centuries; but truth is
might}' and conquered at last. If it be impos
sible to transmute one atom of any elementary
substance into another, as it certainly is, by a
much stronger natural force is it alike impos
sible to change both the laws of vitality and of
I dead matter, and thus alter the organization of
j living things and make them infinitely wider
apart than gold and iron. Once in the field,
like the seed of crab-grass, chess will remain for
ages, and grow best in wet places where whent
has been winter killed, or injured in some other
way. Indeed, this very hardy grass will itself
often take the land and its plant-food away from
wheat and ruin it. Bermuda grass might do the
same thing, and wheat will turn to Bermuda
grass, or nut grass, quite as readiiy as to any
species of Bromus. Ono who has a field free
from “Cheat” may keep it so by never sowing
its seed with his wheat or other grain.
Fanners ought te study botany and physiolo
gy far enough to understand the laws that gov
ern "the growth of agricultural plants, including
the fungals that infest cereals and fruits, like
rust on whoat aud oats, and mildew on grapes.
Ignorance begets carelessness in reference to all
pernicious seeds, genns, and insects, hence their
rapid and often destructive increase. If a man
sows wheat, let it be perfectly free from cockle,
chess, rye, and every other foreign seed includ
ing the spores of smut. The young wheat should
be gone over with the hoe in the spring, to dlfc
up all plants except true wheat. At harvest,
nothing but wheat should be thrashed. All seeds
in manure should be early germinated and the
plants destroyed. It is the extreme of folly to
permit enemies to multiply on one’s estate, from
year to year. If cut and cured early, chess
makes fuir hay. Horses and hogs, cattle and
sheep eat the ripe seed. It is often ground for
hogs and horses.
— '
OUR EXPORTS TO CUBA.
From official tables we learn that our exports
to Cuba were $4,721,433 in the year 1838;
$9,379,582 in 1857 ; and $14,433,191 in 1858.
Os the last named sum, $2,760,024 was foreign
produce sent from the United States.
Os all the articles exported to that fertile
island, perhaps the reader would like to know
wdiich pleases the Cubans best. If so, he is in
formed that hog's lard, to the amount of fourteen
million four hundred aud twenty five thousand
four hundred and seventy eight pounds, valued
at $1,779,323, were exported to Cuba in the last
fiscal year. This exceeds in value the gold and
silver coin and bullion taken of us by $611,545.
Iron manufactures, including nails, exceed one
million and a half of dollars. Manufactures of
wood figure in the tables, at a fraction over one
million of dollars. Wheat flour reaches only
to $105,569. Corn jjjeal aud com $193,743.
Boaods (plank) $87,473. Staves and heading,
$353,929. Tallow $205,649. Butter $117,117.
The above statistics give one a fair view of
the commodities likely to be consumed m much
larger quantities in case Cuba should have free
trade with the United States, as we have now
with British provinces on the North. Our trade
with the West India islands ought to be very
large and profitable, and the time is coming when
it will be. Our imports from Cuba, in 1857,
amounted to the large sum of $45,244,101. Os
this sum sugar and molasses formed $40,048.111.
—«■»* 1«1
sSf“ln working corn and cotton in June, duo
care should be observed not to cut or break the
numerous horizontal roots of theso plants at a
time when dry weather may set in and render
the injury most disastrous to the crops. Culti
vate carefully, the surface of the ground, and
destroy all weeds and grass, but do not permit
the sweep, plow, or cultivator, to enter deep
enough near the corn or eotton to strike its
roote. A crop of peas and one of corn, for for
age, pay better when grown separate than when
an attempt is made to obtain both at the same
time on the same land.
OBSTRUCTIONS AT THE MOUTH OF THE MIS
SISSIPPI-MEDICAL AND AGRICULTURAL
GEOGRAPHY.
Dr. Cartright of New Orleans read an in
structive paper before the Academy of Science,
in that city not long since, in which he points
out with clearness and much force the causes
and nature of the bars of sand and mud that
obstruct the outlets of the Mississippi river |
where it meets the tidal currents of the Gulf, j
Hitherto government engineers and hydrograph- ;
ers have ascribed the formation of tliese sand
bars, so injurious to the trade and commerce of j
New Orleans, to the immense deposits of earthy I
sediment brought down the river from the Mis- j
souri aud other affluents, which fall to the ground
mainly at the points where the natural current
of the mighty stream is arrested by the resist
ance of the ocean. In perfectly still water, free
from any viscous substance, fine particles of
sand and clay fell to the bottom of a vessel,
river, lake or ocean, because these mineral par
ticles are specifically heavier than water; and j
as the velocity of moving water in a stream is |
diminished by any obstruction, its power of
holding weighty bodies in suspension, and of
carrying them along, is lessened, and finally
lost. These facts are too obvious to be misun
derstood or denied; yet Dr. C. is right in main
taining that the momentum of the river, at its
junction with the sea, is such as to transport all
fluvial sediment into the deep water of the Gulf;
so that if there were an island in front of the
mouths of the Mississippi, leaving deep water ]
between it and the main land, to prevent the
wind and waves from driving and heaping up
masses of sand and clay from the sea at the outlets
of the river, its natural current would keep them
open, and, consequently, afford free ingress and
egress to all ships. In a word, it is the force of
waves and tidal currents coming from the sea to
the land, which creates sand-bars at the mouths i
of the Mississippi, and prevents the proper and ■
most desirable draining of many millions of j
acres of the best planting lands in the State of
Louisiana; and not fluvial deposits that cause j
these obstructions, so prolific of stagnant water j
and pestilence, and so injurious to both agrieul- |
ture and commerce.
Dr. Cartwright calls public attention to the !
teachings of Medical geography on this interest
ing subject; aud as it is one in which agricul
ture and health are even more concerned than
commerce, wo shall make no apology for discus
sing it at some length both now and hereafter.
The paper of Dr. C. may be found in the recent
May number of Ik Boiv’s Review.' Ho says:
“ The Mississippi happening to be a large sedi
mentary river, forming bars wherever its current
is obstructed, had led to the almost universal
belief that the bars at its outlets into the Gulf,
are formed by a similar fluvial action as the bars
in any other part of its long course. The bars
at its outlets into the Gulf are supposed to be ■
forme# by the turbid stream dropping its sedi
ment at the points where it meets the salt water.
And I must confess that I partook of this opin
ion until I carried the facts furnished by the to
pography of the Mississippi at its various em
bouchures, into the light of medical geography
and examined them. Medical geography dis
closes the fact that all rivers entering the sea at
open anci exposed situations, have bars across
their mouths.”
Stagnant water having been known as a pro
lific source of miasmatic gases, vapors and pest
iferous organic matters, the cultivators of medi
cal science have had occasion to study all ob
structions to moving water, whether in common
drains and sewers in cities, and the ordinary
ditches of low-lying fields, or the defective out
lets of the largest swamps, lakes and rivers.—
Hence, topographical and geographical investi
gations are truly parts of the medical profession,
as much as skillful draining and irrigation are
parts of the science of agriculture. In the lan
guage of Dr. Cartwktiit, “Medical geography is
the anatomy and physiology of the planet called
the earth. Its end is to make man a cosmopo
lite, to confer on him the power of making any
part of it his dwelling place, and the ruler of
everything arohnd him, under all circumstances
of season and climate, to enjoy health and long
life. Hippocrates, four hundred years before the
Christian era, made it obligatory upon his dis
ciples to study medical geography as an essen
tial part of their education: besides this, for
each one to make himself intimately acquainted
with the topography of his particular locality be
fore he presumed to practice the healing art
and furthermore, he declared that no physician,
however learned in other respects, was qualified
to treat diseases, because they varied with the
locality.”
That these views of one of the fathers of med
ical science are sound and true to nature, will
hardly be questioned; and we ask our medical
fricn4s to consider the suggestion: “If medicine
in America has fallen from its high estate, and
holds doubtful struggle with empiricism, it is
more owing to the neglect of medical geography
and topography than to any other cause.”
That civil engineers should be ignorant of
this department of science is not to be wonder
ed at; yet it has led the United States Govern
ment to expend indefinite millions in misdirect
ed efforts to overcome the physical powers of
moving water, in constructing harbors on the
great northern lakes, removing sandbars from
the mouths of rivers and creeks, and in foster
ing the trade and commerce of all cities on the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans and Gulf of Mexico,
belonging to the Republic. American engineers
are not blamable because they failed to learn
what is well known to the best educated physi
cians. They were not expected to search medi
cal libraries for professional knowledge.
In laying faefs before the public, which are
doemed important, we do not disparage the at
tainments of a class of gentlemen who are every
way entitled to respect.
“In 1839, after Capt. Talcott had expended
large sums in dredging the southwest pass of
the Mississippi, a storm came and put more mud
in the pass than twice that wiiich he had taken
out. Next, the tow boat companies made a
contract with the government to clear out the
passes to a certain depth wiiich they did by
harrowing and dragging the bottoms. They re
ceived their pay just before another heavy gale
came to fill them up again. Next in order
Messrs. Craig and Righter took a contract under
government for keeping open an eighteen feet
channel The contract was taken in 1856. five
years after Charles Ellet, civil engineer, liad
rnada his report to the War Department, “On
• the Bars at the mouth of the Mississippi River,” in
which he clearly demonstrated from actual ob
servations made on the spot, that the current of
of the Mississippi sweeps over the bars at the
mouths of the passes, many miles out into the
Gulf, with a velocity almost undiminished by
its contact with the waters of the Gulf. He
proved that the river water does not mix sud
denly with the sea water but rises upon it, floats
! over it, and rushes far out into the Gulf on the
j top of the denser sea water by which it is bu
oyed up.”
There is much more in the paper before us to
the same effect, wiiich we cannot copy for the
want of space. Mr. Ellet did not see all the con
sequences of Ins demonstration,' but concluded
that the sediment forming tho bar was fluvial
matter brought back by an under tow, or reflu
ent current. An auger was driven into the
bank of sediment by the United States engi
neers, and it was found to consist of four or five
different kinds of strata, bearing prima facie
j evidence that they came from different quarters
of the Gulf, and were not dropped by the upper
| current or under tow; yet these instructive
1 facts were disregarded, and a system of piling, by
I patented Meigdams and jetties was adopted by
the contractors, because such a system had sne
! ceeded admirably on the Clyde.
Very pertinently does Dr. Cartwright remark .
: “If medical geograph had been consulted, it
| would have told why the Meigdams succeeded
j on the Clyde, and utterly failed on the Mis sis
| sippi.
i It will extend this article to an undesirable
i length if we now say all that ought to be said
on the subject of removing and evading obstruc
tions in the Mississippi, and other small streams
for the equal benefit of agriculture, health and
commerce. Important facts in addition to those
citod by Dr. C. will be stated in future numbers.
mm m
A CHEAP PAINT.
For Outside Work. —One bushel unslaked
lime. Slake with cold water. When slaked,
add twenty pounds of Spanish whiting, seven
teen* pounds of salt, twelve of sugar. Strain
through a wire sieve, and it is fit for use after
■ reducing with cold water. It may be laid on
with-wash brush.
For Inside Walls. —One bushel unslaked
lime, three pounds of sugar, five pounds of salt,
and prepare as above.
To color these paints straw color, use yellow
ochre, instead of whiting; lemon color, ochre and
chrome yellow; lead and slate, lampblack ; blue,
indigo; green, chrome green.
— i
DISEASES AMONG CATTLE.
Upon the practice of boring the horns, cutting
off the tails, and similar remedies for diseased
animals. Dr. G. 11. Dadd, veterinary surgeon,
Boston, Mass., thus writes to the Valley Farmer:
“I wonder that intelligent men, Christians,
and men w'lio have been, for many years, the
owners of high priced and rare specimens of
what wo are pleased to term the inferior orders
of creation, should so far disregard tho feelings
and claims which the latter have on them, as to
permit tho barbarities of by-gone days to be
enacted over again, for no earthly use than to
harass and torment a sick, and, perhaps, dying
animal. For every intelligent man must be
aware that cattle uro as susceptible to pain as
ourselves, and that the introduction of a spike
gimlet , at the base of the horn low down , must
put the animal to an immense amount of tor
ment; for in the region indicated, the parts are
highly organized and very seusative. It gives
me pleasure to find that you have a heart to feel
for these much abused specimens of creative
power, and also, that you have the manliness to
denouuce the practice of cruelty to animals, al
though it attempts to shield itself under the garb
of science, but you and youi» readers may rest
assured that all educated veterinary surgeons
consider the practice of boring cow’s horns and
cutttng off their tails, both ciuel and unneces
sary. So pie of your readers may ask. How are
we, who have .not studied into the matter, to
know that such operations are cruel and unneces- .
sary t I answer, appeal to your own intelli
gence ; would you suiliy an ignorant pretender
or neighbor, having no more experience in the
treatment of disease than yourselves, to send a
gimlet into the frontal sinuses of your sick friend,
wife, or child, for no other reason than that the
region of the same was hot and feverish ? Where
is the man who would stand by and witness
such an outrageous procedure ? Some persons
may contend that animals recover after such
operations have been performed. Granted, but
that is no proof of the efficacy of tho same; the
recuperative powers of tb« system are often
strong enough to bear tho animal safely through
the disease and the wretched treatment.”
—aa- in
Train Horses to Walk. —The Michigan •
Farmer well observes: “A plow-horse should
above all things be a good walker. The walk
ing gait is not cultivated enough in training
horses. Only consider what a team that could
walk four miles an hour for ten hours per day,
could do towards hurrying foward spring work."
Rust on Oats —Several exchange papers
from Alabama say that the oat crop is badly
damaged in that State.
Cistern Cement. —Two parts ashes, three of
clay, and one of sand, mixed with linseed oiL