THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



47 



a sharp pointed knife scrape and pare off all the 

 loose hoof so as to expose all the infected part; 

 then with a swab apply a decoction of blue vitriol 

 strongly saturated in warm water. The same ap- 

 plication in warm weather will cure ; but the sheep 

 must not he permitted to run in the same pasture, 

 because they will soon be inoculated again by the 

 infection deposited on the ground. To assist in 

 handling and confining the sheep, place them on 

 their backs in a suitable trough, similar to a butch- 

 er's trough, or a couple of boards six feet long fas- 

 tened to the inside of a wood horse, will describe it. 

 This is better than the assistance of one man. — 

 AVhen the sheep are infected in the spring and are 

 obliged to remain in the same pasture through the 

 warm season, the following is the best method to 

 prevent its ravages, and will if thoroughly applied 

 every four or five days eventually cure. When 

 the season is dry, by obliging them to walk through 

 a trougli with vitriol water which is constructed 

 out of plank or a stick of timber grooved out about 

 six feet in length, seven inches wide, and from five 

 to seven inches deep. It should be settled a little 

 in the ground at the entrance of a yard, with boards 

 on each side of the trough abeut twelve feet long 

 to guide the sheep and save the decoction, and an 

 inclined board fastened at each end of the trough, 

 about six feet in length, for the sheep to walk on 

 and to conduct the liquor that will drain from their 

 feet back again to the trough or vat. 'I"he liquor 

 in the vat should be kept warm ai^ about two in- 

 ches deep. Not more than forty or fifty should 

 pass through at any onetime without adding more 

 vitriol water. About two pounds of vitriol to four 

 gallons of water will doctor one hundred, unless 

 the sheep are badly infected : in such case more 

 vitriol should be added, and once paring the hoof 

 would be advisable. When the yards are conven- 

 ient two men can doctor two thousand in a day. 



To accustom the animals to walk through the 

 vat, they should pass through it once or twice 

 before the medicine is poured in. 



Yours, S. W. JEWETT. 



Fitrthe rarmer's Mmillily Visitor. 



Hon. Isaac IIii.j.,— I made an experiment in 

 1836 in reference to the qunnlity of seed and cut- 

 tintr potatoes for planting. The land wa? ricli, be- 

 ing contifruons to a barn yard — area 21 feet l)y 30, 

 or 75G square feet — divided into 7 rows, 13 bills in 

 each row. Tlie potatoes were planted on tho first 

 day of June, and harvested on the 24th of Septem- 

 ber. Each row was planted in a different way, as 

 will appear below. Tiie year in general was. fa- 

 vorable to the growth of potatoes. The .seed was 

 weighed, for in an experiment on so small a scale 

 it would not be accurately measured. I have made 

 an estimate of the ratio per acre of the crop and 

 quantity of seed used, to give a more full idea of 

 the difference in each way of planting. 53 lbs. for 

 one measur^'d bushel is the ratio employed to esti- 

 mate tlic naiiiber of bpshels of seed per acre. Frac- 

 tional parts are omitted. The statement per acre 

 may admit of some error ; but it is sufficiently ac- 

 curate to give a general view of the experiment. 



In the first row were planted twentj'-six of the 

 largest potatoes — tv.'o in each bill, counted about 

 21 or 22 germs or eyes — weight of seed 10 lbs. 

 10 oz. The crop of 13 hills was one-half bushel, 

 and weighed 28 1-2 lbs. ; the potatoes were mostly 

 small — few large— one only very large, weighed 

 1 lb. 3 oz. ; tiiis was the largest potatoo of any of 

 the rows. 



Seeds, 75 bushels ratio per acre. 



Crop, 201 '* '^ " 



In the 2d row and next tlie 1st, the eyes or 

 germs only were planted, 21 and 22 eyes to each 

 hill ; these eyes were cut out of large potatoes and 

 weighed I lb. 3 oz. They produced one bushel and 

 one peck : none so large nor any so small as the 

 first row — they were sizeable potatoes. 



Seed, 8 bu.shels ratio per acie. 



Crop, 504 " "■ " 



The 3d row, the smallest potatoes that could be 

 selected were planted 15 or IG in cacii hill : seed 

 werghed G lbs. 12 oz. They produced one bushel 

 and seven quarts and the potatoes were smaller and 

 some larger than in the preceding row. 



Seed, 47 bushels per acre. 



Crop, 41)1 " •■*■ 



In the 4th ror/, whole potatoes of middling size 

 were planted, 3 or 4 in each hill : seed 2 lbs. 2 oz. 

 Tl^e yield was three pecks and two quarts, and 

 nearer of a fair size than any of the preceding 

 rows. 



Seed, 14 bnshels per acre. 



Crop, 327 ■" " 



In the 5th row the fairest and smoothest pota- 

 loee were selected and the seed end cut olT, and 



three pieces of the seed end planted in each hill ; 

 seed weighed 5 lbs. \) oz. They produced one busii- 

 el, one peck and seven q>iarts smooth, large eqtuil 

 sized potatoes, and very few only small, and were 

 superior, quantity and quality, to any of the other 

 rows planted. 



Seed, 58 bushels ratio per acre. 



Crop, 502 " " " 



In tlic 6th row, the butt ends of the potatoes us- 

 ed in tlie 5th row were planted in this row — tliree 

 pieces in each hill ; the seed weighed 3 lbs. 10 oz. 

 The crop was one bushel and four quarts. Tiic po- 

 tatoes were not so large and more smaller ones a- 

 mong them than in the 5th row. 



Seed, 21 bushels per acre. 



Crop, 457 " 



In the 7th and last row, the potatoes cut in the 

 common way into two, three or four pieces, accord- 

 ing to tlie size of the potatoe — three pieces planted 

 in each hill : seed weighed 1 lb. oz. This row 

 produced three pecks and four quarts fair, mid- 

 dling sized potatoes. 



Seed, 11 bushels per acre. 



Crop, 353 '* " 



According to the above experiment, good and 

 fair potatoes are best for seed ; and the seed end 

 best fur planting : and when potatoes arc very 

 scarce, the eyes only may be used for seed. 



ELIAS FROST. 



Plainfield, March 11, 1840. 



Cpticnl Fbeiiomcnon. 



rialnfichJ, .X. //., March &k, 1840. 



rion. Isaac Hii.l, — Dear Sir: — I observed in the 

 Feb. number of the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, page 

 30, that you on the 14tli January la^t saw distinct- 

 ly the tops of the Gnnstock mountains from Con- 

 cord street, and tiiat by the intervention of Oak 

 Hill tliese mountains are shut out of view from 

 that point in Concord street from which you ob- 

 served that singular phenomenon. The article con- 

 cluded with a request for a scientific solution. If 

 you think the following demonstration of the cause 

 of that "optical phenomenon" worthy of insertion 

 in your valuable agricultural paper, you arc at lib- 

 erty to publish this explanation. 



The phenomenon was occasioned by refraction oi^ 

 light from the Gunstock mountains. In order to 

 explain Ibis unusual rrfraction'ii will be necessary 

 to premise a few of the laws connected with rays 

 ofligiit. Rays ofligiit always pass in straight lines 

 if not interrupted ; yet when they pass obliquely 

 from one transparent medium into another of dif- 

 ferent density, as from glass into water or from wa- 

 ter into the atmosphere, 7v/]/5o/ /''^/(^ have tlie line- 

 ar direction and are bent or refracted more or less 

 out of their former course in proportion to the dif- 

 ferent densitiesof the medium through which these 

 rays of light pass. 



If a portion of a stick be immersed obliquely 

 in water, the stick appears bent or brok-^n at the 

 point of immersion. Tlie light reflected from that 

 part under water and that i)art out of the water is 

 not reflected alike, but at dilTerent angles, and the 

 stick appears crooked. Immerse the stick entire- 

 ly, as il by enchantment it becomes straight. The 

 angles of reflection are equal, and the stick is seen 

 straiglit : the refraction of light is equal. 



To shoot at a fish under water the aim must be 

 directed below the fish, or the aim will be in a 

 straight line above it. The depth of water ai>pears 

 less than it really is from refraction*of ligJit. As 

 these illusions can be easily dispelled from exper- 

 iment on the spot, they excite no astonishment, 

 and are regarded merely as curious facts. 



The following simple experiment will illustrate 

 and plainly prove the illusion produced by refrac- 

 tion, of light fron a denser into a rarer viediinn. — 

 Put a piece of silver in a bowl and set it on a table 

 near a window or in a light place; let tiie observer 

 take a position so far from the howl tliat the edge 

 of the bovv^l shuts out of view the piece of silver. 

 Then let another per:?on fill tlie bowl with water 

 without displacing the silver. Wiien the howl is 

 filled. l!ie wliole of the silver piece will be brounht 

 into full view. From the refraction ofligiit from tlie 

 silver piece, tlie rays of light from the more dense 

 medium of water, being reflected from the silver 

 when they enter the atmosphere of a less dense 

 medium, are refracted and bent down so as to meet 

 the eye of the observer; and the piece of pilver 

 appears raised in a straight line above the edge of 

 the bowl. 



It will be readily observed that in the above^ 

 experiment tlie effect produced by refraction of 

 light is to raise the silver or raise the eye in a 

 straight line with the edge of the bowl : in either 

 caselhe silver piece would be seen. If we suppose 

 the silver piece to be the Gunstock mountains, the 



edge of the bowl the hill, and the position of the 

 observer from tiie bowl the position in Concord 

 street, it will account for the appearance of the 

 Gunstock mountains on the 14th of January. 



To produce the phenomenon observed on the 

 I-Ith of Januarv, tliere must have been a difference 

 in (he density of the atmosphere between the Gun- 

 stock mountains And the street in Concord. On 

 that day an unusual density of tlie atmosphere oc- 

 curred between the two termini either north or 

 south of Oak Hill, 



The atmogpliere is condensed and rarifiedby some 

 of the following agents : — cold, heat, humidity, c- 

 lectricity, northerly and southerly winds, some- 

 times the upper strata of the atmosphere is con- 

 densed and at other times that portion contiguous 

 to the surface of the earth. A perpetual change is 

 continually taking place in the density and light- 

 ness of the atmosphere. Owing to these causes, 

 there is a difference in heat and cold in the same 

 day in the same parallel of latitude. 



The subject is full of interesting matter; but I 

 trust sufficient has been said to demonstrate some 

 of the causes which produced that singular and cu- 

 rious optical phenomenon. 



ELIAS FROST. 



Error. In tlie last number of tlie Visitor men- 

 tion was made of the flock of fine-wooied sheep 

 kept by Mr. Peter Stost. at West Boscawen, be- 

 ginning with 120 and ending witli a year at 100 

 somewhat improved, that he received for sheep sold 

 $265 in cash. Since our first conference with Mr. 

 Stone he lias made a more accurate calculation, 

 and he finds tlie money and profit received was 

 ijf;375 14. We made the sum less than it actually 

 was $100, and he imderrated it $10 24. 



A portion nf Mr, Stone's farm is alluvion on 

 Blackwater river which had been made sterile as a 

 common pitch pine plain by long cultivation with- 

 out the due quantity of manure. He has commenc- 

 ed the work of reclamation by spreading over a 

 piece of less than two acres 200 loads of black 

 swamp muck, which has been freezing and thawing 

 througli tlie winter. With this he intends to put 

 forty or fifty loads of stable manure as a prepara- 

 tion for a crop of corn. We mueli mistake if the 

 result of his labor and expense shall not be a re- 

 muneration of at least four fold on this ground in 

 as many years. 



Acknowledgments* 



From Messrs. Darid Pmutij and Co. No. 19 and 

 20 North Market street, Boston, tlie editor of the 

 Visitor acknowledges the receipt, free of charge, 

 of two sizes of their elegant Greensward Plouglis : 

 the one calculated to plough deep in sward land 

 with one yoke of oxen or pair of horses, and the 

 other for a double team of oxen or oxen and horse 

 or horses. Of either of these ploughs we believe the 

 Farmers, on their first examination, will express 

 their approbation by saying ''that plough looks 

 well" — and we hope, wlien our workmen shall have 

 given them thoronali trial, they may be able to say 

 that '-tJiey run light and steady" — "hold easy" — 

 "go straight ahead, and shut in tlic furrow com- 

 pletely." 



For the centre draught plough as patented by 

 Pronty and Mears, the Massachusetts and Maine 

 Mechanics Societies have awarded diplomas in 1837 

 and 1838, and the former Society a medal and di- 

 ploma, in 1830 ; and the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural Society in 1838 a premium of 20 dollar?. The 

 American Institute of the city of New York, in 

 Sept. 1830, on a trial of competition of the differ- 

 ent ploughs, awarded to the Greensward|Plough 

 C. of Prouty and Co. for its ease of draught and 

 excellence of work, tlie Gold MedAil of the Insti- 

 tute. This is probably a.s high a compliment as 

 was ever bestowed on any agricultural implement. 



The excellence of the Prouty and Mears Plough 

 is, that it is said to save from 25 to 33 per cent, of 

 the power m. cessary to tlic ordinary plough, pay- 

 ing tor it.self in ploughing a field of ten acres; and 

 that it completely inverts the furrttw, cracking the 

 S')ll without breaking the sod, and shutting it in to 

 the edge of the preceding furrow. We shall soon 

 see how valuable this plough may become. 



From Messrs. Joseph Bred- and Co. publishers of 

 the New England Farmer, whose seed store is kept 

 at Nos. 51 and 52 North Market Street, Boston, the 

 editor has received the following gratuitous present, 

 heintr a portion of the seeds imported from Eng- 

 land by the Hon. Daniel Webster and by him se- 

 lected during his lale visit to that country, to wit : 



One quart each Surry Goulding Drop Wheat, 

 Whittington Wheat and Donna Maria Wheat ; 

 One quart each of Kent Tartary Oats, Dutch Po- 

 land Oats, and Ilopetowp Winter Oats ; one quart 

 Chevalier Barley ; one quart each of Harrowtoii 



